through with blue

in my last post, i mentioned some cards were included in my comc order that would show up in other posts. this is one of those posts.

i decided at some point while building my shopping cart grab parallels from 2013 topps update. the post yesterday showed the target red parallels i bought, and here are the four walmart blue parallels that were in the order

scott van slyke, juan uribe, brian wilson, and one of three yasiel puig cards from the set. these four cards left me five from completing the team set, and i was able to find the others pretty easily.

ronald belisario

yasiel puig

yasiel puig

hyun-jin ryu

and jose dominguez

completing the update parallel set means that i now have all of the 2013 dodgers' walmart blue parallels, as i had completed the flagship series 1 and 2 team sets a while ago. this feat goes well with my full run of the dodger emerald parallels from 2013. the 2013 flagship design offers up ample border space to fill with color, and i suppose that is one of the main reasons that i've been interested in picking up these parallels over the last 13 years.

i will probably turn a focus to the six remaining target red parallels i need from update so that i can match the target parallels to the emerald and walmart ones, as i have already completed the series 1 and 2 team set in red border form. after that, it's likely that i take a run at the gold parallels (it certainly won't be the seemingly scarce toys 'r us purple borders). 

i am 15 cards away when it comes to the gold borders, with this series 2 hanley ramirez

and this update yasiel puig

being my most recent pickups. will i get it done? probably? it helps to focus, and i am trying to do that more and more when it comes to team collecting. stay tuned!

bringing team sets into focus

long gone are the days where it was possible to collect all of the cards of any given player, let alone team. and, while i've tried to finish off a dodger junk wax year (1989) there are still a few oddballs that i haven't tracked down yet - partially due to a lack of focus - and there are probably other dodger cards from that year that i don't know about.

over the last year, i've tried to be a bit more focused when looking back and picking up dodger cards from past years and i've had some success doing so. whether it's targeting a specific team set, insert set, parallel, or something that spans both of the latter, i've been able to fill some holes in my collection that are more meaningful to me than random cards here and there. 

to illustrate that point, here is the first 1952 topps card i have purchased in a long time.

phil haugstad's card gets me one closer to that dodger team set, although i know i will never complete it. i only have one of the high numbers (at least it's jackie robinson) and i still need seven from the lower series. by the way, when it comes to topps flagship sets, only the 1952 and 1953 dodger team sets are incomplete in my collection, but the remaining 1953 cards (jim gilliam, johnny podres, and even dixie howell and bill antonello) are daunting.

as for my full set builds, i only have high numbers to go when it comes to the 1952 homage that is 2001 topps heritage. i finished the low numbers a couple of years ago or so, and the only card i've added since is old friend ramon martinez's

with 85 high numbers still missing, i doubt i will ever finish this set, either.

insert team sets are far easier to complete, and this 2024 topps update sandy koufax autumn tales card

finished off my 4-card dodger team set.

there were only three cards in the 2024 topps around the horn insert team sets, and mookie betts'

was the last one i needed.

as for actual team set base cards, one of the more recent ones i completed was 2001 topps fusion

those two cards were the last ones i needed and i don't know what took me so long to pick them up. it helps to focus, i suppose.

i even went and tracked down the last three cards i needed to complete the 2013 topps target red border parallel dodger team set. the zack greinke and carl crawford cards

came quickly, but the luis cruz card

had me at the mercy of a saved ebay search for several months. finally someone posted a bunch of these parallels for all sorts of players and i was able to finish the set. i still have several missing from the 2013 topps update release, but having this (and the walmart blue border) team sets for the flagship cards is still something.

even better, this 2013 topps update yasiel puig card

was the final emerald parallel i needed to complete my full run - flagship and update - of dodger cards of that particular parallel. puig is as excited as i am to have this completed.

first home runs hit differently

alex freeland hit his first big league home run yesterday in the dodgers' loss to the padres. it came off of old friend yu darvish which is pretty cool. this is the only alex freeland card i have in my collection currently - his 2022 bowman draft chrome card

i am sure there will be more to come. i don't think topps will commemorate his first big league dinger, though.

10 years ago, however, they dedicated a full cross-release insert set to different players' first taters. it has taken me this long to complete the dodger team set, as i finally focused on getting each version from series 1, 2, and update.

series 1 base versions had a dark center background with silver foil (as modeled by mike piazza and paul konerko)

while series 2 and update base had a white center background with silver foil

jackie robinson's card was featured in the update set.

all three releases had silver background versions

(with yasiel puig being a series 1 example), and all three releases also had gold background parallels. 

you can't tell, but the series 2 (matt kemp and clayton kershaw) gold cards have silver foil, while the series 1 (piazza) and update (adrian beltre) gold cards have gold foil. 

in all, the dodger team set includes 21 cards featuring those seven subjects. there are also manufactured medallion cards but i'm in no rush to chase those.

the other dodger rookies to hit thier first big league bombs this year are dalton rushing, seen here on a 2023 panini chronicles luminance card

and hyeseong kim (not pictured). 

the first big knock is a major achievement and it's nice to recognize it on cardboard or otherwise. congrats to alex freeland!

something in the air

generosity has been prevalent in the blogosphere for a long time, and recently there were some giveaways and surprise envelopes from multiple sources. i figured it was time to highlight some of these instances that have furthered my collection.

first, the diamond king had a giveaway featuring shohei ohtani cards. i requested a 2018 panini diamond kings card

and true to form, kevin included a couple of extras. this is a 2017 panini black friday cody bellinger card

comc calls it rainbow spokes, tcdb calls it wedges. whatever it is, it's great!  and this is a 2022 topps chrome platinum anniversary max muncy card

platinum cream toile & rose gold refractor, and it's numbered on the back to 75.

kevin wasn't done there, as a while later, he offered up some paul skenes cards. i requested a 2024 bowman insert chrome prospect card

and once again, kevin included some bonus dodgers.

that's a 2020 panini chronicles phoenix ruby wave cody bellinger card numbered to 199, and this is a 2018 topps fire duke snider orange parallel card

numbered to 299.

thanks kevin - i hope the cards i sent your way made it there ok!

next up, rod from padrographs had posted that there were some mailings sent out from padrographs hq, and that one of them was a poster in a tube mailer. well, guess who got the poster?!

rod sent me the steve garvey "out of the blue" poster that looks like this:

mine isn't signed, but it was easier to find a photo online than to try to roll it out and take one myself. i have a couple other garvey posters that i need to get set up somewhere.

rod also sent some cards, including one of the garv

along with a 1982 fleer roger erickson signed card

there were also some unopened packs, including 2002 upper deck world series heroes. nice to see don drysdale on the wrapper!

i don't really believe in unopened product, so here we go. my pack included a duke snider card

plus some other folks who played in the world series at some point

other packs included two 1992 upper deck minors which yielded some fun content, including chad ogea in tailored shorts

these days a few players are wearing these "above the knees" pants for real. here's the immortal skeets thomas

with one of the better broken bat cards out there.

there was one dodger card in the packs - greg hansell

i already had this card in my collection, but i found someone who needed one for theirs...

that would be tom, from angels in order. the hansell came in handy because i was preparing a return envelope for tom thanks to him sending me some cards a couple of weeks earlier. he sent these three cards from 1992 classic update white travel edition

along with a 1993-94 fleer excel roger cedeno minor league card

and a 1995 upper deck minor league top prospects karim garcia future stock card

i don't typically seek out minor league cards so it's great to have someone sending them my way!

not to be outdone, tom later had a giveaway in which i was able to procure this card:

2013 bowman platinum yasiel puig prospects chrome green refractor /399. it's really shiny and a great lead-in to st. patrick's day.

thanks kevin, rod, tom, and everyone else out there for bringing the generosity to the blogs. i am feeling inspired to do another "almost free stuff friday" in the near future. stay tuned!

happy holidays

it's christmas eve already which is hard to believe. i don't know whether or not santa will bring me any cards, but i am happy to report that i have found some dodger holiday variations in bargain boxes this year, including a 2020 dustin may

and a 2019 walker buehler

with 2024 topps holiday being such a departure from the first few years of the product, i thought about ranking the various designs. instead, i figured i would just show the progression through the years

2016

this set came on the scene as more of a weather variation than anything else.

2017

the weather continued to be the only thing differentiating these cards in the second year. the yasiel puig above is the "metallic snowflake" parallel which may make it a bit more difficult to see all the snow.

2018

just brought on more snow. i think most were pretty tired of this set by this point.

2019

the snow is gone in favor of some seasonal foliage and a tablecloth approach.

2020

back to snow, but with the addition of a pine garland. that gavin lux is also a metallic snowflake parallel.

2021

a departure this year with a beaded curtain made of ornaments and snowflakes, plus some candy cane treatment of the borders

2022

still sticking with the snowflakes. that clayton kershaw card is the metallic parallel, so the border is all treated up. the base cards just have the regular white border with the bows and garland.

2023

more snow, but topps switched to "charlie brown christmas" snow instead of elaborately designed snowflakes.

2024

topps finally fully embraced the christmas holiday theme, and continued to build on their flagship neon design. this is really a dramatic departure from previous years and it seems to have been embraced by a large part of the collecting community.

merry christmas everybody!