my mind is tiffany twisted

over the last few months, i've tried to fill out my sportlots orders with topps tiffany cards. it's tricky as there aren't a lot of sellers with these cards, but i've found a few that had other wares i was more interested in. as a result, i've added these cards to my collection:

1987 fernando valenzuela all-star

1987 steve sax

1989 dodgers team leaders

and 1985 terry whitfield

i remember whitfield's time with the dodgers as fleeting, but he actually was with them for 2+ seasons.

i flipped the script with these next cards - searching for a seller with all of them first before looking to fill out the order with something else. this is the complete dodger team set from the 1984 topps traded tiffany set

i was disappointed that orel hershiser wasn't featured in the set.

the backs are bright, of course, looking somewhat like the backs of traded sets in general. with the flagship "parallels"

that's ok because the card number is a differentiator. those 1984 traded backs are bright, too

but you will recall, however, that the 1984 traded set's normal backs were sort of gray.

so, what did i add to maximize my deal from this seller? this card

a 2025 topps sandy koufax call to the hall insert.

my sportlots purchasing has cooled a bit, but it's always a good spot to find those pesky base cards to fill out team sets. i will continue to try to add some tiffany cards when the opportunity presents itself. at least i don't have the mercedes "bends".

because the greatest glove of all

it's almost valentine's day and love, or in this case, glove, is on my mind.  i am really trying to give leaf a wide berth - certainly wider than i gave it in recent years - but i have not been able to completely ignore their baseball and multi-sport releases. part of my problem is that they issue cards like this one

when coupled with a very reasonable buy it now price, makes it difficult for me to ignore. that's a steve garvey "great gloves" die-cut sticker auto from 2024 leaf press pass, by the way. it's numbered to 10, and i happened to get the jersey number match

sure, it's a ripoff of sorts of topps' hands of gold inserts from 2000 but i don't mind. garvey won four gold gloves in a row in the mid-1970's, thanks in large part to his ability to scoop balls in the dirt and having an official scorer that was more inclined to assign errors to bill russell than mr. clean. i recognize that garvey didn't have great range, and he was fairly reluctant to throw the ball most of the time. still, he won the hardware and i assume that is the basis for his inclusion in this set.

there are a couple more leaf cards i couldn't pass up. these had more to do with the low prices put on them by the sellers - 2024 leaf metal monumetal pre-production proof 1/1

this is some sort of gold crystal version. there are a lot of these out there with different background treatments and so aren't really scarce. the back is really weird.

you can tell that leaf doesn't think too much of these as they are sealed in top loaders instead of one touch holders.

here's another one - this time it's garvey and steve sax with a dual auto pre-production proof 1/1

the seller didn't even take a shot at trying to define what this background was. the back is different, too

interestingly, this dual auto is from a different set than the garvey/sax dual auto i showed off last year. i guess with stickers you can do a lot more. 

things have continued into 2025 with leaf issuing their metal sports heroes set (which seems to be an autograph set) with more of these pre-production proofs. i bit on a couple, including this red flood all decade teams 1970s steve garvey thing

i say thing because leaf either didn't bother with a sealed toploader or the seller took it upon themselves to break it and so i can see that these are really flimsy pieces of film. this one is thin acetate - here's the back

i originally swooned over seeing a bunch of the "we are the champions 1981" proofs, but limited myself to buying just one of the 22 (!) versions this seller somehow obtained. i chose the one that was listed as the "superfractor" proof

put steve garvey, ron cey, and bill russell on a card on i am there for it every time. this one is maybe double the thickness of the other, but still flimsier than a regular card. here's the back

which fits with the others i showed earlier. the actual cards are encased in a one-touch and look like this

with actual backs

that is the pink crystal version of the card, and it's numbered to 5. oddly enough, this card does not show up on the checklist - instead there is a four player version that also features (not davey lopes, unfortunately) steve yeager. i haven't seen the yeager version yet, but he's on another card so i know he has stickers in the set. anyway, assuming the parallels of this one are consistent with the rest of the checklist, there are 20 different versions of this card, and i went out of my comfort zone to grab this one.  maybe the prices will come down but it is nuts out there for these multi-player autos right now.

there are other cards from this release that have intrigued me. jerry reuss is included on some multi-player cards, as is dodger double dipper joe ferguson! a certified joe ferguson auto is pretty tempting, but i will continue to try to ignore leaf releases until i can't. such is the curse of collecting.

with a name like that, there better be three

with trey treutel leaving cardboard connection several months ago, i haven't found it as easy to keep up with new card releases. i know ryan cracknell has the same sort of calendar going at beckett that trey had at cardboard connection, but for whatever reason i find it harder to review routinely.

what i am getting at is that i didn't know there was such a set as 2023 leaf trinity until i started seeing cards show up in my saved steve garvey searches on ebay. this was in the latter half of 2024, mind you, and it seems like the release of the set has been staggered in terms of card packaging because a couple of months after picking up my first card from the set, i started to see other types of cards (unique to certain box types) show up. really weird.

anyway, i wound up with three cards from the set. the first one i picked up was this "divinity" autograph card of steve garvey

the divinity cards are sticker autos and it looks like they have a max print run of 10, so i was glad to find this at a nice price.

when the other cards started showing up, i decided to buy this "steel" insert

which is actually a "stars and dots" parallel. or at least that is what the seller said. kudos to leaf for using two different garvey photos, even if they are pretty similar.  here's the back

which mentions garvey's unsuccessful senate run and shows that the print run is 49 for this particular parallel.

the third card i added was this one

dual steves! a steve sax and steve garvey "duos" dual autograph card! this is the platinum parallel, and features a third different image of the garv! these cards were some of the first i saw from the set, but i waited quite a while before one popped up with a favorable buy it now price.

ok, so i decided not to limit myself to three cards from the trinity set, as i figured i should probably own garvey's base card

even though it features the same photo as the divinity card. the back has the same writeup as the steel card above

but the steel card is not a parallel of the base card. speaking of the steel parallels, i've seen a bunch more pop up recently but i am holding my ground and not even thinking about adding more. yet.

if the glass slipper fits...

35 years ago tonight, i was sitting and standing in the right field pavilion at dodger stadium with my dad. you know the story - the "impossible" happened - and we made the pavilion bounce.

leaf included the 1988 dodgers in their "cinderella story" subset as part of the 2022 in the game used sports release, and i was finally able to snag one at a price i was comfortable paying

the dodgers chosen to represent the 1988 world champs are spot on:

kirk gibson, who hit the home run to end game 1 of the world series.

tommy lasorda, whose run out to the field after the home run was a wobbling sprint of pure joy.

orel hershiser, who met gibson halfway up the third base line on his way home and then won both of his starts in the series, including the clincher.

steve sax, who escorted gibson to the plate, making sure nobody jumped on him before he touched home.

this is a card i am happy to have in my collection, and i daresay that the lack of logos makes it mostly affordable. 

i can't believe it's been 35 years since i spent that evening in chavez ravine, but i do believe what i saw that night. 

frankly i wasn't sure this was going to happen

even though it's not perfect, i am a big fan of the 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams release. heck, i even dedicated a blog to it - my only set blog (so far). i completed the base set and a separate dodger team set long ago, and i have no real inclination to complete any of the parallel sets. however, i keep picking at them when the opportunity arises.

i am hoping to complete the dodger autograph team set someday - i am currently needing these five:

#97 ron cey (print run of 25)
#98 steve garvey (print run of 25)

#99 tommy john
#143 steve garvey (print run of 35)

#183 steve garvey (print run of 50)

the first three are all from the dodgers' 1974 subset, and the last two are from 1977 and 1980, respectively. of course, i need two of that #98 garvey as his is the only pc of mine that gets fed before the team collection. i already have one each of #143 and #183 in the garvey collection, but those don't count towards the team collection. more on the dodger needs in a bit.

even though i don't plan on pursuing a full autographed set, i did set a goal of having at least one autograph from each year/team subset, and for a long time, i was missing only the 1966 orioles. there are only four subjects included in that subset - boog powell, brooks robinson, frank robinson, and jim palmer. of those four, only frank robinson and jim palmer are short prints (print runs of 35 and 50, respectively) but i did not see any of them offered for sale on ebay, beckett marketplace, or sportlots over the course of the last few years that i have been actively looking. i have autographs from other subsets from brooks and boog, and i had the gold version of palmer's 1966 auto already, but none of the 1966 base. i set up a number of ebay alerts and waited, as i said, for years. finally, someone listed one of frank robinson's cards for sale

at first, i thought that this was likely a card signed after market because of the psa/dna certification. there's been a version of boog powell's card on ebay for awhile that tricked me for a minute before i realized it was signed at a show. however, i diligently investigated and found that the frank was, in fact, pack pulled.

here's the back:

now, it is one of life's great mysteries as to why someone would send this in to psa for autograph certification when it is already certified on the back. especially since they didn't ask for the card itself to be graded. the mind boggles.  

i couldn't get the card out of the slab quick enough. it looks great in its natural state, i think

so, with this card in hand, i crossed off the goal of having representation in my collection from every year and team subset. this includes complete team sets of the 1972 tigers (al kaline, bill freehan, dick mcauliffe, jim northrup, john hiller, mickey lolich, mickey stanley, and willie horton), 1979 pirates (bert blyleven, bill madlock, dave parker, and phil garner) and the 1986 angels (bob boone, bobby grich, brian downing, don sutton, terry forster, rick burleson, and wally joyner). i also have complete dodger sets in my dodger collection of the 1981 and 1988 dodgers, and my 1977 and 1980 dodger team sets are technically complete although the garveys from those two are housed in the pc.

anyway, you would think that would be enough and i would stop with the autograph pursuit, right? well, accomplishing that goal did get me to delete a few saved searches, but i kept the more generic ones. and i am glad that i did because i have added some nice cards to the collection since picking up the frank robinson auto.

exhibit a:

my second al kaline auto in the set which means i have both of his solo autos from the set. awesome!

exhibit b:

this hall of famer autograph was way cheaper than it should have been. this is my second hard signed carlton fisk card and first (his only solo) card from this set.

i also added a card of fisk's red sox teammate cecil cooper

i first knew of cooper as a brewer thanks to his 1978 topps card. that card, incidentally, was the very first card i ever found out in the wild. it was water damaged and sitting by a chair near a motel pool that we went to that summer for swimming lessons. i wish i still had that thing. i don't still have it, unfortunately, but i did add another cooper auto from the set

featuring him as a brewer. he has another auto in the set as part of the 1981 brew crew, but that one is a short print.

the first post-frank robinson autograph that i purchased was this one

it is awesome to have a certified chet lemon autograph. i've since added his 1984 subset auto, too. now if only i had a larry herndon auto (unfortunately he was not included in this set).

i alluded to the fact that i have 3 of the 4 garvey autos from the set, and here is the most recent one i obtained:

lots of red, white, and dodger blue there. as there is on the back:

i am down to needing just one ron cey auto - he also has four in the set - as i picked up this card just before new year's

this one is limited to 50, but the seller didn't note it as a short print. i got it for a decent price as a result, or maybe nobody else is looking for the card. who knows.

i still need a non-sp tommy john auto, but snapped up one of his two yankee autos from the set

this one is a short print, limited to 50.

finally, the card that completed my 1988 dodgers team auto set was this one:

steve sax has two autographs in the set, neither of which is short printed. however, i saw one of these go for over $80 a year or two ago. i got this one as part of a lot which kept the cost way, way, way down. i love it when sellers hide the goods.

so that's it for autos. i currently have 143 of the 300 in the set, and that doesn't include the ones that are in my dodger collection. 143 means i need one more to get to 16 full sheets of autos in the set binder, so i will add at least one more for that reason alone. it might be nice to shoot for half of the set, though. we will see.

one decision i have made is to try to obtain at least one bronze parallel from each year and team subset. this dan ford card

fills the gap for the 1979 halos.

i have a long way to go with this endeavor, as i need representatives from the 1965 twins, 1967 red sox, 1968 cardinals, 1974 dodgers, 1975 a's, 1979 reds, 1980 phillies, 1981 brewers, 1981 yankees, 1983 orioles, 1987 twins, 1988 dodgers, and 1991 twins. some of those may be tough. i am one bronze card short of having 7 full pages of the parallels (outside of my dodger collection), so adding one more will be a start.

the other parallels are gold, and i added a couple of those lately, including the gold parallel of the frank robinson card that kicked off the post

these are numbered to 5, so i have no goals in mind when it comes to adding them. either the price or the subject (preferably both) have to be right for me to take a shot at them. that was the case with robinson and with this one

i will look past the fact that this is not kirk gibson's 1988 card and celebrate it anyway. i now have 9 of these parallels outside of my dodger collection and the full page looks nice.

lastly, i've added a gold parallel autograph in the last few weeks:

this had an insanely low buy it now price that i would suspect the seller had meant to have as the opening bid. they honored my purchase either way and i am very happy to have this card in the collection. i am probably happier to have this bill buckner gold auto parallel than i would be to have his 1974 subset dodger autograph gold parallel. that's how much i like this card.

i have 7 gold autographs outside of my dodger collection and would love to complete a sheet, so i will be keeping my eye out. after that, there are probably more milestones i will aim for even though they will likely never be reached.

completely stuck

for almost 15 years i have had published want lists, and before that i had my binder cards checklist in excel format. at no time did either of those lists include this item as a want or need:

that is a 1982 topps sticker, whose subject is the 1981 national league championship series. it says so on the back:

it is not traditionally included in the dodger team set lists that i was aware of - it is most often categorized as a gary carter item instead. however, when i was entering my dodger haves in to tcdb, i saw that this sticker was tagged as a dodger card, too.  what i thought was a complete team set in my collection was no longer such, and so i decided to buy the sticker to add it to my dodger collection.

and why not? there are more dodgers in the image than expos - that's bill russell sliding in to home plate and i can make out ron cey as one of the dodgers in the olympic stadium dugout in the background. since the dodgers won the series, it was easy for me to add the sticker to my dodger collection - in my binder, spreadsheet, and on tcdb. i will mention, however, that i only have one of the 1975 topps world series cards in my dodger collection since they won only one game that series. i recognize my inconsistency but it's my collection.

in 1985, the dodgers horrifically lost the nlcs to the cardinals after being up 2 games to none, and i was happy that there was no card in the 1986 topps set that would make me relive the cardinal fans being urged to "go crazy". i didn't really pay attention to the stickers that were released that year, either, and so just recently added a dodger sticker that commemmorates the playoff series

it's a pretty benign representation of the series, with bill madlock getting the honors. it makes sense, as he hit 3 home runs in the six games played, although the dodgers lost each of the 3 in which he homered.

that was the only sticker i was going to add to my collection from the nlcs, but then i found this one in a monster box at a card shop last month

i am 99% sure that this is not ozzie smith's walk-off home run from game 5, and with mike scioscia there behind the plate, i figure it is not too dissimilar from the sticker at the top of this post.  there is a third sticker from the set that celebrates the series, but it shows the aftermath of jack clark's home run (first base was open) and only features cardinals, so i passed on it.

i did grab some other dodger stickers from the set

most of the dodgers are matched up with orioles, with the exception being jerry reuss. mike marshall gets paired up with future friend rick dempsey.

it's been a long time since i've added a greg brock item to the collection, but here he is with one of my almost favorite non-dodgers fred lynn

mike scioscia is there with old friend lee lacy, and we get another madlock sticker to round things out. i believe i am only missing the ken howell and orel hershiser stickers now from my team set.  for what it's worth, the guy at the lcs gave me these 1986 stickers for free. huzzah.

back to 1982, i also decided to add a couple of the stickers from that year to my steve garvey collection.  the dodger team received a two-sticker layout celebrating their 1981 world series championship, and the garv is featured on this half

he's there in the second row next to longtime trainer bill buhler.  of course i also added the o-pee-chee version:

it was very strange to me back in '82 when there were no postseason cards in the flagship set. i though 1979 was just an anomaly when topps brought the subset back in 1980 and 1981. i guess maybe they wanted to create a draw to the sticker set by making those items exclusive starting in 1982? if that were the case, it didn't work on me as it took me 40 years to add a couple of these to my collection.

in closing, let's move on to more modern stickers

that is a 2013 topps mlb album sticker (i will just call it a 2013 topps sticker) of andre ethier. it was the last of the 2013 dodgers i needed to complete the team set. a great way to bookend this post. huzzah!