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!

the almost daily dodger - miguel vargas

back in 1985, i remember my lcs charging more than common prices for german rivera's topps rookie card. it was solely because rivera was a dodger rookie, and the dodgers had been pretty good at churning out young players over the previous few seasons.

i sort of feel that way about miguel vargas. there seemed to be a lot of hype around his cards last year (here's his 2023 topps stadium club card that has sat in my scanned folder for a few months)

he had a cup of coffee with the dodgers in 2022, but didn't do a lot. still, he was a dodger rookie in 2023 and i found some of his cards harder to come by. maybe i am off base and there wasn't a premium on his cards last year, or maybe it was all cards with the "rc" logo.

at any rate, vargas is now with the white sox after being included in the trade for michael kopech. i really like the trade as the dodger bullpen hasn't been very good and neither has vargas. he's still only 24, but through his first few games with the chisox he's well below replacement player levels, and had only 3 hits in his first 36 at bats for his new team. kopech, meanwhile, has struck out ten of the first 21 batters he’s faced as a dodger and could be the arm that the bullpen was missing, and i do believe the dodgers intend to keep him in a reliever role.

i do hope vargas does well and perhaps, like michael busch, the dodgers did him a favor by trading him somewhere where he can play consistently. only time will tell.

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, but look at how large the plastic blister is! plenty of room to shake things up if you like!

they also stopped printing the checklist on the back, but i think it's been like that for at least a couple of years.

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

and away we go, with flagship on the left and the team set on the right!

lad-1 freddie freeman

same. i don't consider the non-foil logo on the team set cards to be a difference. the team set cards also lack the foil that makes the neon look great on the flagship cards in hand, but they do scan more neon-y if you catch my drift.

lad-2 mookie betts

same

lad-3 shohei ohtani

same. when these sets were first released i saw these cards going for more than the price of the set itself.

lad-4 walker buehler

same

lad-5 tony gonsolin

same

lad-6 chris taylor

same [edit - night owl noticed the difference in positions on taylor's cards. this is a truly bizarre variation, as you would think topps would be set on positions from day one. in 2023, taylor played more games and innings in left field than anywhere else. next in both categories was shortstop, and third base followed. he also played a handful of games at second base]

lad-7 max muncy

same

lad-8 austin barnes

same. i thought that barnes was an interesting choice for the team set checklist, especially since that meant that will smith was not included. i am happy, however, that the dodgers have two catchers in flagship. they don't currently have a third catcher on their roster, but my early collecting days brought me to expect cards for three dodger catchers (steve yeager, johnny oates, and jerry grote each got cards in 1978 and 1979 topps).

lad-9 brusdar graterol

same

lad-10 bobby miller

so here the team set does not to with the "future stars" moniker which makes sense because the focus is on the team. not sure i consider this to be a real difference, but i suppose it is.

lad-11 emmet sheehan

same

lad-12 jonny deluca

same. i am sure we will see deluca in update as a ray.

lad-13 james outman

same

lad-14 clayton kershaw

ah! a true difference here with the team set kershaw changing it's orientation and using a photo from a completely different game! i wish the team set would have done something similar with the buehler card

lad-15 miguel vargas

here we have the same "future stars" difference as bobby miller's card

lad-16 michael busch

the team set gives us one last michael busch dodger card to enjoy. unlike deluca, topps left busch off the series 1 checklist, and 'shopped him into cubs gear for series 2. i appreciate that they used a different photo - i assume because it's easier to go from a dodger to a cub when you are wearing the away grays.

lad-17 gavin lux

same

so, really just one significant difference in terms of dodger cards (kershaw) plus what turned out to be a bonus dodger card (busch). 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 - especially with kershaw involved.

i remembered that i put together a running list of these posts a couple of years ago, and have now updated the list below. 2016 and 2018 are partial set posts, and i realize now i don't even own the team sets from 2017 or 2019. there was no team set issued in 2021. otherwise, click and enjoy!

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2018

2020

2022

2023

i will probably seek out those last two sets and get a proper 2018 post at some point. stay tuned!

that was a good team break

here's "where it's at" with the 2024 topps series 2 team break i joined. i chose the dodgers, of course, and wound up with a couple of team sets - all 20 cards:

i'll come back to the jason heyward card in a bit.

kiké continues to get decent cards. i like that he and rojas got cards showing them as fielders. we don't need more at bats on cards

see what i mean? i feel like i am missing some candids these days.

especially with pitchers, who do nothing but pitch in today's game. 

we could also use more bat flip cards like teoscar there. 

back to heyward's card

it was obvious to me as soon as i saw the card that his number was photoshopped. it was also obvious that the background is dodger stadium. i was confused and couldn't believe that topps didn't use a photo of heyward as a dodger. it turns out that they used a photo from jackie robinson day when the dodgers were wearing a pre-1952 jersey style that didn't have the red numbers on the front. here's the original photo. i am not sure why topps felt they needed to add the red number at all, but they did. just add that to the list of headscratching decisions they make with seemingly every release.

unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the 42 on heyward's back, so even though i know it is a card from an april 15 game, it doesn't go in the 42 mini-collection. i did get the gold foil parallel

in the break, however, so that's nice.

one more note on one of the base cards (at least in this post). kyle hurt got a card! i mentioned this possibility in an earlier post about dodgers who got cards despite appearing in only one game with the team. hurt only appeared in one game for the dodgers in 2023 as the back of his card attests

so kudos to topps for using a photo from his big league debut and not photoshopping a minor league image. this season, hurt has pitched in three games for the dodgers, and was just activated from the 60-day il yesterday so will likely add to that total, leaving guys from that earlier post in the dust.

i netted two gold parallels - clayton kershaw

and dustin may

but no other parallels. i appreciate the photo topps used for may's card. it's one of the few pitcher cards that doesn't show a windup or delivery.

i did ok for inserts though, picking up both the shohei ohtani

and freddie freeman

1989 all-star inserts. freeman was the player my break landed the most as it turned out with both his covering the field

and fantasy favorites

inserts being pulled.

as for the silver packs, i got a bobby miller card

which was a bonus, really.

i did notice that the price for the dodgers in these breaks has increased with ohtani on the team, but it's still a good way to get a good number of cards to kickstart the team collection. i'll probably hold off on any more team breaks until update, however.

the new adventures of old pristine

well, topps gave us a second year of the "new" pristine in 2023, so i guess i may as well show what i added to my collection as a result. i entered a team break and was able to pick up this mookie betts "oh snap" insert

i'm not sure that anything that says "oh snap" belongs in a 2023 release.

before i get to more from last year, let's go back and review previous pristine releases, shall we?

2002 topps pristine - here's shawn green's card

i didn't pay a lot of attention to this release as it reminded me of a finest set which typically wasn't on my radar at all. i did pull some singles from a box at the local card and comic shop, however.

2003 topps pristine - hideo nomo, kevin brown, paul loduca, shawn green

i did not have any 2003 pristine cards in my collection until late last year as it was way off of my radar. also, i have no idea what happened to paul loduca's uniform in that photo. at no point did the dodgers wear black uniforms, and he is still wearing a dodger uniform in the picture. 

2004 topps pristine - shawn green again

same deal here - i had to buy this card to have one to represent the release in my collection. of course, there are only two dodger cards in the team set (anyone have an extra eric gagne card?)

2005 topps pristine - jeff kent

i didn't pick up any of this set, either, but i was acutely aware of pristine in 2005 because of....

2005 topps pristine legends - including maury wills

don newcombe

and others. i was aware of this set because of the 1965 design and the fact that it featured a lot of retired guys that i favored, like three-fourths of the dodger infield. topps also issued uncirculated cards encased in what i assume at the time were screw holders. i've never bothered to check, but maybe i'll see if my ron cey card

reveals anything. these uncirculated refractors are numbered to 549

the dodger infielder who was left out was bill russell, so that means that davey lopes (not pictured) and steve garvey got cards.

garvey got a relic card, too, and i added the refractor version to my collection about a year ago

it featured a new to me photo of the garv and this version is numbered to 25

truth be told, it was primarily the fact that garvey was on the checklist that i paid close attention to the set. as it stands, i am missing don zimmer's base card although i have his uncirculated card.

i was surprised in 2022 when topps brought pristine back, and have only picked up a handful of non-garvey dodgers. one card i did add sometime in the last few months is this mookie betts refractor parallel

when i saw that the 2023 set was coming out, i noticed that the design wasn't too different from the 2022 version. i figured i would join the group break and that would be it. 

in addition to the mookie insert above, the break netted me a miguel vargas pair of refractors - base and purple

a steve garvey refractor (!)

plus all-star cards of freddie freeman

and tony gonsolin

with garvey on the checklist again, i of course went looking for more. i showed some of the cards i picked up in this post but have added a couple more since then. these are the encased orange /25

and encased pink /15

parallels.

i will be just fine if topps/fanatics gives pristine a rest in 2024, although if they are following their playbook 20 years into the future, i will be on the eye for a 2025 legends release!