that's really super, super teams

2002 topps super teams can perhaps be considered a precursor to upper deck's 2004 legends timeless teams release in that it focused on specific team subsets without including every franchise on the checklist. however, super teams was even more focused, and with more player representation, than timeless teams.

in my most recent trade with sluggo, i received nearly the entire dodger team set in retrofractor form. these cards are numbered to the season represented, so in the dodgers' case that means 1955

the only card not included was jackie robinson's, but a quick online purchase later, and that was remedied

in addition to the 1955 dodgers, the teams in the set are the 1954 giants, the 1957 braves, the 1960 pirates, the 1961 yankees, the 1967 cardinals, the 1969 mets, the 1970 orioles. the 1974 a's, and the 1986 mets. the mets are the only team to show up twice, and i think roger maris and gil hodges are the only two to appear for more than one team in the set.

i had a couple of these retrofractors in my collection already, but was excited to complete the set so easily. they look pretty sharp in person, and are similar to some of the bowman heritage parallels from around the same timeframe. i had hoped that there would be a sequel to this set to include other super teams, but so far it's been a one and done.

still hunting heritage

many of the sentiments that i saw after the announcement of topps losing its licensing from mlb and the players association centered on the future of topps heritage. we should have a couple more years of the brand, but for folks like me who were looking forward to seeing late 1970's design (especially the too often ignored 1978 topps design) the ramifications are potentially disappointing. we will see if fanatics buys old topps designs as many have surmised.

in the meantime, i am still slowly pecking away at my 2001 topps heritage set build. i usually buy these to fill out sportlots orders, although i have had some good luck at recent card shows digging through 5/$1 boxes. and then, of course, there are the other sets from which i still have team needs.

here are some recent 2001 topps heritage additions, starting with adam kennedy and the disney angel uniforms:

kennedy's card is not a low number short print, but it is one of the mid-series cards that was for whatever reason only printed as a black back. i believe most of the mid-series cards are red back only. whatever. shenanigans abound with this set, with the first 80 cards shortprinted and printed in both red and black backs, and the last 97 cards also shortprinted. here are some more, some of which are short prints and some are not.

adrian gonzalez was three years and one team away from making his debut as a padre in 2004.

i also took steps to get closer to a team set from 2021 topps heritage

the hernandez card is a short print. i still have some work to do to finish this team set, however.

hands down, my favorite insert set from heritage is then and now. probably due to the fact that dodger players feature regularly. here are a couple new additions for my team set:

those are from 2006 heritage. cool that clem labine and johnny podres were featured - labine for the second year in a row!

i still have some other dodger team sets in progress, and this 2007 heritage andre ethier

means that i am down to needing just three (all sp) cards.

of course, topps also issued bowman heritage cards in the early to mid 2000's. here's a 2002 bowman heritage kazuhisa ishii card

i like the printed name - there were some cards like that in 1954 bowman.

here's a 2005 bowman heritage russell martin mahogany parallel

and a 2006 chrome parallel of martin's bowman heritage card

as well

remember wilson betemit? well, here's his base 2006 bowman heritage card

the last card in this post did not come from sportlots, but rather a dodger lot i purchased on ebay

that's a chuck essegian real one autograph card from 2008 topps heritage. i purchased that lot on a whim based on a couple of cards shown in the images - this was one of them. i'll have a separate post about some other cards i found as a result. stay tuned!