a team set 30 years in the waiting

about three years ago, i came across this 1996 topps mike piazza card

here's the back:

if you are familiar with the 1996 topps set, you know that the card front and back are a mismatch. the "star power" subsets had a monthly breakdown of stats. here are the two piazza card backs from the 1996 topps set for your reference:

however, i didn't buy the card because of the back situation - i bought it because it has this addition under the topps logo

that graphic (which matches a jersey patch the dodgers wore) denotes the 35th season of dodger stadium which occurred in 1996 (note to topps - this is how heritage buybacks should be named, as this wasn't the 35th anniversary but rather the 35th year that the dodgers played in the stadium. saying a 1977 card has a 50th anniversary in 2026 is just wrong).

sorry for the rant. 

a little bit of research told me that this was a 1996 topps team topps dodgers card, from a factory sealed set! now, this predates the team sets that are sequentially numbered with a team related prefix by ten years, and i was very unaware that this set even existed.

since finding the piazza card, i've had a couple of ebay searches running with no luck until late last year when someone in alaska of all places listed this 

for sale. still sealed! i placed a bid and wound up being the only bidder, winning the set for less than the current blister team sets sell for.

i did consider keeping it sealed, but ultimately opened it to reveal the full set within:

the backs are identical to the flagship backs - here's nomo's card back

with just those two piazza backs being swapped. 

i took a photo of the back of the packaging, because it held more information

the package contained a 16 card team set, plus a bonus 15 card pack and a bonus "big" topps card. here are the team set and the bonus card pack - front:

and back:

even though there are rockies on both sides of the bonus pack, it's not a rockies team set. there are just 13 random cards from 1996 topps in between with no additional logos. in fact, only a few teams were given these team sets - braves, orioles, cubs, white sox, indians, dodgers, yankees, mariners, and rangers - according to tcdb. each set had a special logo (some have a team specific logo like the dodgers and some have a "team topps" logo). to make things stranger, these were sold only at walmart (again, according to tcdb).

here's a scan of the cardboard insert

with a checklist of sorts on the back

so where is this big topps card? i was thinking it would be nestled in there somewhere, but no - it was the back of the package

so it's just a normal nomo card printed on a bigger piece of cardboard. weird. here's the back:

what an oddball thing.

assuming there is a 2026 topps factory dodger team set, i think i will add this to the running list of team set posts i've made. now if only i could find a complete set of the 2004 fleer dodger team set - the one with the blue design....

fifty cent frenzy at the card show

after missing the last few cards shows of 2024, i made it to the monthly twin cities club show in january. i usually get there a few minutes early and am in the lobby when they open the doors. this time, i got there about five minutes after the doors opened. that made a difference.

one of the regular sellers who has some pretty good bargain boxes was there for the first time in a while, at least the first time he and i were at a show at the same time. by the time i walked to his table, there were already half a dozen guys digging through his fifty cent boxes. one of the guys had abandoned his own tables to dig, and didn't seem to mind missing out on sales while he tore through a box.

i was able to get in at a corner of the table and made sure to ask who was where in the box closest to me and i started going through. i wound up only being able to get to about half of the boxes but still came away with a lot of cards for my collection and the collections of others. the only bad thing about my approach was that once i had an unwieldy stack going, i asked the seller to stack them behind the table and told him to go ahead and start counting. this lack of forethought kept me from double checking some of the cards i had pulled, and so i wound up with a short stack of dodger cards that i really didn't need.

anyway, here's a taste of what i found from these boxes:

i had never seen the 1992 ud minors todd hollandsworth card before - it's an insert - but i was pretty sure i had the jeff shaw own the game card from 2002 and the 2017 topps chrome bellinger rookie, but i set them aside anyway. i was positive that i had the 2022 topps uk clayton kershaw insert but figured someone out there might want it. the others were all cards i needed. 

i was able to feed my vladimir guerrero collection with a couple of cards, including a 1999 upper deck retro and 2004 fleer ultra insert

the retro card is numbered to 1000.

i found a new double play card, too.

that's a 2020 topps robinson cano 1985 35th anniversary insert, blue parallel.

as you can likely infer from those scans, there were inserts, parallels, oddballs, and some base in the boxes. tons of 35th anniversary cards 

and silver pack cards 

and parallels for sure.

his boxes are usually good for at least one variation card, and this was no exception

that's a photo variation from 2016 topps update jameson taillon card.

i will bite every time i see an all aces insert - this one is from 2023 topps update

and features zack greinke, who i have a soft spot for. that is a nice looking insert set, but i am still not officially chasing it.

there were some old school inserts that i grabbed, too, like this barry bonds insert from 1996 topps chrome

a tony gwynn insert

from 1999 fleer tradition and a textured greg maddux insert

from 2000 fleer ultra

the biggest surprise i had when i was going through the cards - this was after i had purchased the stack - was this one from 2024 topps series 1

that's an umbrella parallel, or maybe a rain umbrella parallel, as there were different umbrella parallels in series 2. anyway, the card is numbered to only 10

it's a lame parallel, but still.

the next stop i made was at the seller who has dime boxes under his table. this time, there was a quarter box as well as a dime box, but there were two other people trying to get at them. i was able to join in once they were clear of the quarter box, and then i made my way to the dimes. here are most of the quarter box cards i pulled:

the only dodgers i took from that box were these jackie robinson and mookie betts cards

from 2024 topps allen & ginter.

here's some of the 190 cards i took from his dime box:

this was the first time i saw these 2024 ginter oregon zoo inserts in person. i was enthralled.

2022 topps 206 pairing of gary sheffield and gil hodges

i might have passed on these, but i just picked up a few mini ultra pro sheets so i knew these guys would have a good home in my 2022 dodger binder.

2023 topps chrome update will smith all-star game insert

after making the 2022 cards like this a priority, i slacked off last year.

2024 topps update blake treinen royal blue parallel

i will take any dodger parallel for a dime.

2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary pee wee reese

this is a base card, but it's one of the few i still need(ed) for the team set. not sure if and when the 2024 version of this set will be released.

here's a smattering of some other dime box cards

that 1995 bowman calvin "pokey" reese does look like it was signed by pokey himself, and i will help myself to a 1979 topps bump wills error card for a dime all day long thank you very much.

here's another vladdy i was able to add - 2023 topps black & white

plus a dodger stadium card from 2023 topps stadium club

this is giancarlo stanton hitting a home run in the 2022 all-star game. i get a kick out of this big moment happening while the marlins guy is looking at his phone.

two more dime box cards to show and then i will move on. this is a 2012 topps chrome orange refractor troy tulowitzki parallel

and a 2017 topps chrome dee gordon prism refractor parallel

that fit into my double play collection. bonus for ichiro running around in the background of gordon's card.

next up i stopped at a table that was packed with cards separated out by sport and many by player. i mean, when's the last time you saw raul mondesi cards tabbed out specifically? i didn't spend a lot of time but did grab four cards from this seller for a grand total of $11.50. two were keepers for me - a 2002 fleer authentix paul loduca ripped jersey insert/parallel

and a 2001 topps archives ron cey autograph

the cards were heavily discounted, so the loduca was $0.75 and the cey was five bucks. the other two cards i bought were from the same two sets just of different players/teams and i hope to hand them off to my intended recipient in person later this year.

i wasn't 100% sure whether or not i had the cey card already, but it turned out i did not. i was aware of the large number of dodger autographs that were available in this set back in 2001 when i was chasing after the base set (the box i bought included a bob feller autograph that i now have in my hall of famer collection), but i guess i didn't seek any out on ebay which was really the only source available to me back then. i may prioritize these autos now.

one of my goals for the show was to find some 2024 topps archives singles and parallels, and i did just that when i stopped at a regular seller's table. he always has newer releases broken out for set collectors and he had archives. he listed them for sale as a quarter for loose and fifty cents for sleeved cards. i found two of each and went to give him $1.50. at that point the guy said that archives hadn't been priced yet. i showed him his sign and he said that he shouldn't have put the cards out. now, i could probably find the four cards i chose on ebay/sportlots for not much more than $1.50 but he was determined to get more from me than he had listed the cards for so i told him to pound sand. this is the same guy i ran into once a few years ago at a local target where he was pack searching. i've bought singles from him before but will probably shy away from now on.

my last stop was at one of the vintage bargain box sellers, and i wound up achieving one of my other goals for the show by adding to my 1955 bowman set build. those cards will show up in later posts as i continue to show off my progress on the set.

in all, it was a decent show and i spent almost 200 bucks which might be the most i've ever spent at one of these shows. plus, i was able to talk with brian from highly subjective, completely arbitrary at a couple of the tables, and we exchanged some cards although we didn't snap a photo of our wallet cards. i will share the fantastic stuff he handed over to me in another post.

ps - i didn't pick this card up at the show, but i've had it in my scanned folder for a long while now.

that's jeff torborg's 1978 topps card, and i made the decision a few months back to go ahead and put it in my dodgers binder since he is shown as a dodger in his playing days photo. torborg passed away a couple of weeks ago, and as one of the first former dodgers i was ever aware of, i felt an impact from the news and wanted to be sure to acknowledge his passing here.

the almost daily dodger - todd hollandsworth

i recently added a 1995 select certified todd hollandsworth card to a sportlots order. it was the last card i needed to complete my dodger team set, and it looks like this:

that is actually the second 1995 select certified todd hollandsworth that the seller sent to me, because the first one looked like this:

i am not sure how you even put that one in the envelope. for 20 cents maybe i didn't need to ask for a refund (i didn't realize that the guy had another card, which makes me wonder even more why he pulled and sent the messed up card instead of the good one in the first place), but what i got at first wasn't close to acceptable filler material, even for a mid 1990's throwaway team set.

to the seller's credit, he spent more making it right than he needed to, as he could have just refunded me rather than slap another stamp on an envelope and send a second card out. 

these cards maeda my day

he may not pitch for the dodgers any longer, but i can still get excited about adding kenta maeda cards to my collection. i recently added two numbered parallels, in fact, including this very nice 2016 topps finest gold card

and this red parallel 2016 donruss optic card

from kevin aka the diamond king. he also threw in a pink wave refractor of craig kimbrel

from 2022 topps chrome update, which i was also happy to accept. these cards were in return for me sending a couple of 2016 topps julio urias cards kevin's way, and i think he may have overcompensated me!

earlier in the spring, i received a text from mr. haverkamp letting me know that there would be something showing up in my mailbox around opening day. here is what he sent:

you have likely seen these cards if you do any player searches on ebay. it's an aceo card by edward vela, and there are a few garveys out there. here's the back:

i've never pulled the trigger on any of these, but i am happy to have one. jim reported that he came across a seller at a show that had quite a few for sale. thanks for thinking of me, jim!

before that even, i received some cards from nachos grande as part of his "not so secret santa" project. i was happy to find a couple of 1995 score summit dodgers that i needed

among the stack of cards that were sent. so happy, in fact, that i went out and picked up billy ashley's card

to complete the team set

chris also sent a trio of vlads that i needed

hailing from 1999 pacific, 1999 topps opening day, and 2000 topps stars. merry belated christmas!

bo at baseball cards come to life reached out to me earlier this year to see if i wanted some 2006 bowman chrome dodgers that he had found. i sure did!

there was also one from 2007

and all were needs that i was able to check off the want list. thanks bo!

more recently, jon at penny sleeves held a ridiculous giveaway that many of us benefitted from. i claimed a few cards, including this 2012 panini cooperstown

insert that extolls the virtues of don drysdale's career.  jon also sent me a 2017 topps silver pack jackie robinson card

so much generosity out there in the blogosphere - thanks to all for contributing to my collection!