mall rats and giveaway winners

yesterday morning i took some time to check out the near-to-me mall show that sets up a few times a year. they always include the weekend before christmas in their schedule and i wanted to only show up at the very start of the show for a couple of reasons. one, there was a club show on saturday which is more predictable in terms of product, and two, i want to avoid malls this time of year during later hours and actual weekends. however, i wasn't able to get there until the early afternoon.

to my surprise, the mall wasn't that busy and there were a lot more tables set up than the last mall show i attended in october. unfortunately, there were very few diggable boxes of any interest to me. hence, the "rats" in the title post.

i made a couple of laps and did manage to find some cards to bring home, and in hindsight i am not too disappointed! while i purchased cards from four sellers, i am only going to share cards from one of them.

this 2023 topps chrome james outman card

is a "radiating rookies" insert

and i was told it was a case hit. same for this 2025 topps chrome mookie betts lightning leaders card

i pulled these from a monster box of toploaded cards with no pricing. the guy behind the table said that he would price cards from the box at one or two bucks, typically. i built a short stack that included this 2025 topps heritage alcs/nlcs yellow parallel

and a couple of parallels from 2024 topps stadium club - sepia jackie robinson and gold foil roy campanella

the campanella isn't numbered, but the gold foils look like they should be. this 2023 topps gilded collection rookies cast in gold card of james outman

is numbered - /199.

as for non-dodgers, i did grab some of those, too. here's a gold parallel from 2025 topps update of the brent rooker/lawrence butler combo card

it's a nice looking card, and the back

namechecks big mac and golden gopher great terry steinbach, along with jimmie foxx and the immortal bob johnson.

here's a 2025 topps vintage stock parallel of marco gonzales

with the back

all dressed up for christmas.

i had no reason to choose this 2025 topps josh rojas card

which is a memorial day camo parallel, numbered to 25

but it didn't rocket up the cost of the rest of the cards, so i left it in my purchase.

last card i will show is this 2025 topps lucas erceg team color border parallel

and speaking of teams and parallels...

earlier on friday, i randomized the list of names/teams from my giveaway post earlier in the week. i was a bit surprised to see so many entries and decided to bump things up to four winners as a result. here are the standard three randomizations:

with the winners being tony, tom, mark, and crh614. be sure to email me your addresses at gcrl at comcast dot net  (even you, tom, just so i can be sure i have the current one). 

keep in mind that these are "above and beyond my normal number of mailings" mailings, meaning that there will be other mailings sent, too. if anyone else in the list above wants to send me their address, i'll pull a couple of cards for them as well.  

all told, the stack of cards i pulled from the seller were priced at $30 which was just above $2/card and i thought a pretty good deal given the scarcity of some of the cards i pulled. he didn't have any change, so i added a couple of scrub autos from his box to get to $40. one of the autos i grabbed was this 2025 topps edgardo henriquez card

the other one is going out to one of the randomized winners.

now that was a deadline

my goodness, that was a lot of activity at the trading deadline last week. it looks as though the padres will again pose a significant threat to the dodgers (and others) in the postseason this year with all of their additions, but the dodgers are counting on blake snell to essentially be a top of the line starter acquisition when he returns to the mound. 

anyway, the dodgers said so long to:

dustin may, seen here on his 2022 topps update gold parallel

may's stuff can be electric but he's not been able to put together a consistent run. i'm not quite sure why the dodgers didn't think about moving him to the bullpen with his stuff and their relief corps woes. in return for may, the dodgers acquired a couple of outfield prospects from the red sox.

james outman, 2024 topps 2023 greatest hits insert

and 2024 topps chrome ray wave refractor parallel

outman's offensive struggles have continued this season after a promising 2023 campaign was tempered by a lack of production in 2024. he could be a classic "change of scenery" guy, or he could be another dodger 4a player like billy ashley. outman was dealt to the twins for reliever brock stewart. stewart will officially become a dodger double dipper once he takes the mound for the blue, as he pitched for them back in 2016 and 2017. i will have to track down one of his (very elusive) cards from his initial dodger tenure.

hunter feduccia, seen here on a 2025 topps holo foil parallel

feduccia had only three plate appearances for the dodgers this season, as they went all-in on dalton rushing as their backup backstop. feduccia was sent to the rays in a trade that also involved the reds. the dodgers' return was reliever paul gervase and minor leaguers ben rortvedt and adam serwinoski.

the dodgers also acquired alex call from the nationals for a couple of minor league pitchers. here's call on a 2024 topps statue of liberty holiday foil card

statistically, call is an upgrade from outman, but i wish the dodgers had done more to upgrade the outfield. reagardless, it's time to say thank you and good luck to may, outman, and feduccia, but better luck to the new dodgers!

it's time to spot the difference!

with series 2 out, we are at the point in the year where i can post the annual "spot the difference" writeup comparing the topps factory team set to the flagship releases. i suppose there was a chance that i would have to wait for update again this year, but topps was not averse to getting a shohei ohtani card on to the mainstream series 2 checklist and so here we are.

first, i want to show you how the sets are packaged this year

same sort of hanger/blister packaging as always, but they (thankfully) reduced the size of the plastic blister. last year it was ridiculous. they also resumed printing the checklist on the back

which is much appreciated. however, i bought this set online and didn't really need to see the checklist to make up my mind and i haven't been in any retail settings where these are on display to peruse the checklists of other teams. still, i like that it is there.

speaking of backs, the guaranteed difference between these cards and their flagship counterparts is the numbering on the back

man, i really like the backs of clayton kershaw's flagship cards.

ok - here we go, with flagship on the left and the team set on the right!

lad-1 mookie betts

it's the same, but the factory set is easier to read when scanned (as usual) due to the lack of foil. 

lad-2 andy pages

just like last year, the team set does away with the future stars designation. otherwise, the card is the same.

lad-3 kiké hernandez

same.

lad-4 james outman

same

lad-5 yoshinobu yamamoto

no more future star, but otherwise the same.

lad-6 tommy edman

at first glance, it sure seems like they are the same. however, after last year, i know to check the positions and sure enough, edman gets a position variation on his team set card. he went from being a ss-of to a 2b.

lad-7 freddie freeman

no reason to change freeman's position, so we are back to the same.

lad-8 tyler glasnow

same.

lad-9 teoscar hernandez

here we go! i am pleased that topps changed up the photo on teoscar's card only because the photo used on flagship cost some collectors some money early on. you can't have a ssp parallel of some dodger cards showing them "dancing" (although teo is not dancing) and then use a similar photo on one of the base cards. buyer beware, of course, but not the best move by topps. that said, i like the photo on the flagship card and my only issue with it is that it would have been suitable for one of the ssp versions. at any rate, i am happy to have one photo variation in the team set.

lad-10 clayton kershaw

back to same.

lad-11 shohei ohtani

same, although i could have used ohtani's series 2 pitcher base card. in fact, here it is

i like that topps is giving him two cards so we get the different stats on the back, but there wasn't much point this year since he didn't pitch at all last season. for the record, i am not considering this any sort of variation.

lad-12 will smith

same.

lad-13 chris taylor

same.

lad-14 miguel rojas

well, i may be jumping the gun. maybe miguel rojas shows up in update, but for now, this is a bonus dodger card and i love it.

lad-15 river ryan

same.

lad-16 justin wrobleski

same.

lad-17 michael kopech

same.

for what it's worth, this checklist features an almost complete reset from last year's, with 11 new players featured. gone are walker buehler, tony gonsolin, max muncy, austin barnes, brusdar graterol, bobby miller, emmet sheehan, jonny deluca, miguel vargas, michael busch, and gavin lux. some of those were omitted for obvious reasons, and some just gave way i suppose. muncy is the biggest question mark for me; seems like he should have been included this year.

there was only one dodger in series 1 omitted from the team set (hunter feduccia), but there were 11 dodgers featured in series 2 who didn't make the cut for the team set. i've shown the cards of feduccia, along with series 2 dodgers austin barnes, max muncy, ben casparius, kirby yates, landon knack, roki sasaki, hyeseong kim, bobby miller, and blake snell previously, but here are the flagship cards for the others - michael conforto

edgardo henriquez

and joe kelly

the other dodger card i needed to complete my series 2 team set was a checklist featuring teoscar hernandez

not only does the card feature hernandez and the field for the 2024 home run derby, it featues a ton of fans. that's a lot of people on one card. i wonder why nobody told pete alonso that his pose was inconsistent with the others (as are teo's and jose ramirez's for that matter).

as for the differences between flagship and the team set, there is really just one significant change in terms of dodger cards (teoscar hernandez) plus what is as of now a bonus dodger card (rojas). not sure if two cards make the set worth it for the casual collector, but for a team collector like me, you bet it does!

i have been keeping a running list of these posts, and have now updated the list below. 2016 and 2018 are partial set posts, and there was no team set issued in 2021. otherwise, click and enjoy!

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016

2017
2018

2019

2020

2022

2023

2024

maybe i will see you next year with another edition of spot the difference!

the oren express delivers again!

i, like some others here in the blogosphere, have developed a good trading relationship with reader oren, and he recently sent me some fantastic dodger cards. have a look:

no use waiting to show this one - it's a 2015 panini national treasures rookie auto-relic of frankie montas

it's actually a base card in the set, which is shenanigans but then again i am not worried about completing that set at all.

from 2022 topps, here is a corey seager major league materials relic card

in black parallel fashion.

another parallel provided was this 2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary roy campanella refractor

which is a green wave parallel i believe.

the other cards to show aren't refractors, but they are autographed! former dodger miguel vargas added his last name only to this 2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary card

and james outman signed this 2024 topps finest card

with what looks like "jet". i am not knocking these guys - they have a lot of cards to sign - i am just thankful for folks like harmon killebrew.

finally, oren included this 2024 topps archives signature series tony gonsolin card

i wouldn't mind having more 2021 topps opening day cards in my collection if they were signed by dodgers!

thanks oren!