i purchased a hobby jumbo box of update to be exact. i did so before i saw the checklist which was underwhelming due to the fact that the deadline for going to print with update was much earlier than usual. that means no max scherzer or trea turner dodger cards. on the other hand, it does mean a couple of other dodger cards that might not have made it had the schedule not been constrained.
here's the box
it opens up somewhat cleverly
on top were my pack of topps tek and one of the silver packs
the other one was under the tek pack
and then we have the 10 jumbo packs
each with 46 cards per pack (or perhaps fewer if there is a thick insert)
here are the odds:
i pretty much hit the odds, with a couple of exceptions in my favor. i'll point those out as we go.
and away we go! get ready for some cards!
first card, first pack was joe kelly
kelly has become the current scott van slyke of update, as this is the third straight year he has appeared as a dodger in the series. here are the other dodger cards i found:
matt beaty
he was also in 2020 update as a dodger
victor gonzalez
corey knebel
dj peters
he should have been a ranger in this set, had the schedule allowed for transactions made in early august
albert pujols
this is why there is update! awesome!
luke raley
the dodgers traded him away at the deadline in 2018 but traded for him prior to the 2020 season.
keibert ruiz
shoulda been a nat as he was traded at the deadline
yoshi tsutsugo
this is why i am sorta ok with the early deadline. yoshi would have been a pirate had update been a normal release, and we would have been deprived of a dodger card for this short-timer.
edwin uceta
and alex vesia
offered without comment
one thing topps didn't fix are the mismatched back orientations that plagued 2020 update. here are the backs of victor gonzalez' and yoshi tsutsugo's cards
i assure you the fronts are oriented the same way, but the backs are opposite. sigh.
i hit the odds on gold parallels (1:5 packs), and one was of a dodger - luke raley
the all-star game cards are inserts this year, and as i am sure you know by now, they don't feature images from the all-star game. they fell one per pack, and one of mine was walker buehler
70 years of topps were inserted at 1:2 packs, and one of the five i found was this clayton kershaw
repping the 1957 design. topps missed on the width of the borders here - very narrow - and kershaw is also in this year's archives on the 1957 design (with wider borders). a missed opportunity to see kersh on a new design for sure.
the odds on the platinum player die-cuts are at 1:7, and i found two, so that's nice. one was this roy campanella
on which topps has gone the panini route and colored the number on the front of the jersey blue. that's not nice.
cards that never were are seeded at 1:9, and i got one. it's mike piazza's 1992 card that never was!
here's the back:
awesome job by topps here with the dodger stadium image! they used a photo from (probably) 1992 given that eric davis is there in the foreground. i have to admit i got impatient to see if my box would yield this card and had already ordered one for my team set and my dodger stadium collection.
likewise, i ordered two copies of the mookie betts 1992 redux card
which features a different and more recent view of dodger stadium on the back:
it's awesome that topps used this image that catches a palm tree, sunset, and the retired numbers (and microphones) of dodger legends. the photo they used on the back of the yankee cards is a disservice to yankee fans in comparison of this gem. by the way, these cards must be retail only because there were none in my box.
back to the box...
i found three double play cards for the mini collection - jon berti
dylan moore
and old friend kyle farmer
i choose to believe farmer is making the pivot based on his proximity to the bag
how about the inserts?
the silver packs promised four cards each, and they were spot on. here are eight of them:
one was of a dodger pitcher that i don't care to post about, and the tenth card was an auto:
i would have bet it would be a diamondback with my luck.
the tek pack had these two cards:
a lot of red there.
my one guaranteed autograph was of a rule v draftee
but not too bad there. i see don sutton has one of these cards - i might try to track one of those down.
my two relics included one of the manufactured variety
and one of the event-worn variety
at least these cards have the (terrible) all-star game jerseys on them.
speaking of the all-star game, those inserts fell one per pack as i mentioned above, and here are the other nine i pulled:
the 1986 35th anniversary cards were also one per pack, and here are nine of the ten i found
the tenth was that same dodger pitcher.
here's the other platinum player die-cut i pulled
gold foil (or gold rainbow foil) inserts were 1:2 packs, which makes them less scarce than the regular rainbow foil inserts. weird. here are four of the five i found:
and here's the fifth
which was also one of the silver versions in my box
this was the other silver rainbow foil card
the gold (numbered) parallels were 1:5, and in addition to the raley above, i found a card of twin cities native sam hentges
i beat the odds with the green foilboard parallel (seeded 1:18) of jonathan india
and the orange foilboard (1:30) of tyler wells
and i also found a black parallel that was seeded at 1:40 packs. i'll show that card in a different post.
the 70 years of topps inserts in my box in addition to the kershaw above were these guys:
somehow, that machado card makes the 1993 design even more boring.
black gold inserts are seeded at 1:6, and i found two
not a bad duo!
that does it for the inserts - i think. i didn't see any photo variations or stat backs or anything like that, but i will check again to be sure.
here are some base cards that i found interesting.
there are six checklists, and topps did well in my opinion to use 2021 no-hitters as the subject on the card fronts.
it's too bad they didn't expand to eight checklists so the other two could be included. rodon's no-hitter was also celebrated on one of the combo cards
that is probably the last adam eaton card we will see, too.
here's another combo card that i liked. it features old friends alex verdugo and enrique hernandez
in their "city" uniforms. i like that this wasn't a short print or variation. i hope to see more of the different uniforms in 2022 topps - as base cards!
this cristian pache card
is not a variation, but the photo is pretty different from all the others in the set, so i thought it might be at first.
same for this deivi garcia card
it's a rookie debut card but shows him wearing the jackie robinson day patch (too bad the back of his jersey is not visible so that i could put this in my "42" collection). i quickly remembered that jackie robinson day was celebrated over a few days later in the 2020 season because of the pandemic.
here's a rarely seen catcher sno-cone
yan gomes began the year with the nationals, and would have been shown as an oakland athletic in a normal update set.
similarly, joc pederson is a cub
instead of a brave.
last card i will show is a legitimate update card - it's andrew benintendi
as a royal. it's nice to see the original purpose of the set upheld with at least a few cards.
that was a lot! thanks for making it through the post!
mojo box edition! verdugo did not rate in the roy voting in 2018 as he saw only limited playing time. in fact, he was still a rookie in 2019 when he hit .294 for the dodgers in just over 100 games, but didn't place in the roy voting that year either.
raley is playing in seattle now after two seasons in tampa following his 2021 season spent with the dodgers.
and will smith
with these two cards in hand, my 2023 stadium club team set is missing only miguel vargas and jd martinez. 
this might be the first ohtani dodger card i've received in trade. pretty sure it is, in fact, yes, it is.
and emmet sheehan electric orange parallel
the borders of big league make the parallels look dirty and less electric, but i am happy to have an example of the orange parallels.
it sounds like he threw off a mound the other day, and hopefully will be back in time to make a run at his 3,000th strikeout. the "k is for kershaw kountdown" will return!
