the 17 year itch

after completing the 1992, 1993, and 1994 topps dodgers gold parallel team sets (and seeing night owl's complete 2008 topps series 1 and 2 dodgers gold parallel team set), i figured that it was time to complete a numbered gold parallel team set, and i decided that it would be 2007 topps. i chose that set mainly because it has big, chunky borders that allow for a lot of color, but also it does not include any rookie or early career clayton kershaw cards that i missed out on in real time!

i had maybe a third of the team set when i started, and it took me a few months to pull it all together, but i managed.  so, here is the complete 2007 topps gold parallel dodger team set

j.d. drew, andre ethier, rafael furcal

jeff kent, james loney, jonathan broxton

brad penny, grady little, delwyn young

greg maddux, juan pierre, jason schmidt

matt kemp, randy wolf, luis gonzalez

takashi saito, russell martin, wilson betemit

derek lowe, chad billingsley, ramon martinez

dodger team card

 

but that's not all - i also completed the update team set

brady clark, david wells, mark hendrickson

olmaedo saenz, hong-chih kuo, tony abreu

andy laroche, russell martin, brad penny

takashi saito, russell martin (alex rodriguez) combo, russell martin (cole hamels) combo

scott proctor

the proctor card was the last of these that i acquired. there weren't too many options when it came to purchasing the vagabond reliever's card, but thankfully one of the two sellers who had high hopes with their buy-it-now prices sent an offer that was pretty reasonable and i was able to complete the set.

there are a lot of "let's remember some guys" up there, but i remember being pretty happy with kemp and martin and ethier showing up. luis gonzalez not so much. and, as you can see, there are definitely some differences in the pigmentation of the gold across the collection.

another difference is the numbering on the back. topps switched the orientation of the serial numbering between flagship series 1 and 2 and update. ramon martinez is from series 2 and olmedo saenz is from update

ok, so it's hard to see, but on the flagship card, the 2007 is closest to the topps logo, and in update it's closest to the player inset photo. and, how great is it that topps noted each of these as "gold parallel" on the back?!

with the black borders, topps was in need of a different treatment for the other-colored border parallels (this was before camo /25 and all that). they went with copper

which was numbered to 56

the low print run black border parallels debuted in 2003 and were numbered to 52 copies. since then they have increased in production by one to match the "years of collecting" on the front. as far as i can tell, 2007 is the only year that the border for these cards hasn't been black.

i have no plans to chase the copper parallel set, but i do have more 17 year itch to scratch. stay tuned!

color me back

when i posted the 2023 panini donruss duke snider cards the other day, i was reminded about another recent case where i had a parallel in hand well before i landed the base card. the card i am referring to is eric gagne's 2006 topps bazooka card, which i had in gold chunk parallel form

months before i picked up the base version. i actually added the base to my most wanted list, and wound up with two copies so i could put one in my names/numbers on the back collection. i was a fan of the no names on the backs of jerseys in the early 2000's, by the way.

putting this card away with the others, i noticed that topps took the time to color match the backs. here's derek lowe's gold chunk card

and the back

definitely a gold parallel all around.

here's hong-chih kuo's blue parallel

which is also blue all over the back

now here's gagne's base card with white borders

but a gray back

so close!

it got dusty in here, and then some

i recently received a couple of plain white envelopes from fellow collectors, which was a nice surprise. as many have noted, trading as of late is not what it had been in headier days, and i am as much to blame as anyone else. i do have some stacks of cards building for a few folks that i hope to send out in the near future.  at any rate, i have already returned a few cards to mr. haverkamp who sent me a 1995 mother's cookies giants dusty baker card

as well as a 2006 topps allen & ginter baker black-bordered mini

for my collection of the left fielder of the team of my youth.

mr. haverkamp reports that the mini came from the national, which made me appreciative that my collection was being thought of as cards were being pulled from dealers' wares, but also made me wonder if there was cubbies markup on the card given the convention was in illinois.  

there was probably no markup on dodger cards out in the pacific northwest, as the team has long since left affiliations in ogden and spokane.  still, kerry from cards on cards was able to find a few cards that i was happily able to delete from my want lists.

here are a couple from 2004 donruss classics - hong-chih kuo and shawn green

and two from 2004 donruss team heroes - paul loduca and another shawn green 

loduca was definitely a hero to manager jim tracy, but i was not a big fan.  green has been in the dodger conversation lately given that cody bellinger has a chance to eclipse his franchise record of 49 home runs this year.

stepping back a year, kerry also sent this 2003 fleer platinum eric gagne card

that was also a need.  gagne may have been considered by fleer as an unsung hero heading in to 2003, but he won the cy young award that year and so received the highest of sung praises a pitcher could receive.

one more card from kerry, and it was a need even though i don't have a want list for 2019 cards.  it's a 2019 panini diamond kings alex verdugo squires insert

verdugo was playing well this season until he got sidelined by injury. his status kind of reminds me of  when matt kemp was trying to break in to the lineup while the dodger brain trust was signing guys like kenny lofton and luis gonzalez to block his path.  the dodgers signed a.j. pollock prior to the season despite already having joc pederson, cody bellinger, chris taylor, kiké hernandez, and verdugo who all play in the outfield. maybe they should have picked up an actual second baseman instead, so that max muncy could be a full-time first baseman?

regardless, i am thankful for the cards!

hong-chih kuo the distance

not all team collectors are blessed with an icon with a name so amenable to puns, and so i have tried and failed to live up to the high standard set by matt at bob walk the plank.  i'll try to do better with some cards he sent me last year to wrap up one of our many blind trades.

here's hong-chih kuo himself, 

on a 2006 upper deck sp authentic card.  it's an auto, but it's also kuo's base card.  i'm glad i'm no longer a set collector.  i had a hard enough time as a kid trying to figure out if the bump wills error was needed for my 1979 topps set to be complete (i decided that it was needed), so these short print 'base' cards would really chap my hide.  topps even killed me a bit as a team collector in 2012 with the super short print dodger variations in update that year.  that was the last year that i separated out my flagship and traded dodger team sets from the rest of my dodger cards.

moving right along, here's a 2008 upper deck spectrum rafael furcal and jeff kent dual swatch card

which reminds me that i figured by now i would be typing 'hall of famer jeff kent', but he's not getting the votes that i thought he would.  if i were to vote next year, he'd be in my top ten, but just barely, so that may explain why he's only at around 16% with other players also vying for a limited number of votes.

this next card features a hall of famer - it's a 2008 upper deck sp legendary cuts mike piazza/russell martin relic

that would be better for this dodger collector if piazza were featured as a dodger.  kind of a passing of the torch thing.  however, the point of the card is not to be team specific so i shouldn't nitpick.

last card is this 2008 upper deck premier trio relic card featuring james loney, russell martin, and takashi saito

james loney will always be remembered fondly by me for his grand slam in game 1 of the 2008 nlds against the cubs. the cubs were up 2-0, and were cruising to some degree, but then ryan dempster walked the bases loaded in the fifth and loney went deep.  i don't think the cubs recovered from that unlikely home run, and the dodgers swept them to reach the nlcs for the first time since 1988.  now they just need to get over the nlcs hump.

thanks for the cards matt - i'm sorry it took so long to post (so long, in fact, that matt has already posted the cards i sent him after i received these).  i'm eagerly awaiting the next round of trading!