what difference does seven years make?

i decided to try to fill in the blanks of my annual comparison posts between the topps flagship dodgers and their cards that are in the factory team set releases. those are the cards that are sold in blister packs and are numbered differently from the flagship sets. sometimes, there are photo (or other) variations, too.

as noted in the 2024 post, for some reason i did not purchase the 2017 team set back when it was released, but i have it now so here we go. remember, it's flagship on the left, team set on the right

lad-1 clayton kershaw

the only difference is the placement of the topps logo. as you will see, the factory set has the logo placed with equal side and top margins. flagship has the logo situated such that it is further from the top of the card than the side. i prefer the factory set format.

and here are the backs - flagship:

and team set:

topps eliminated the personalized twitter handles in favor of their hashtag on the factory set cards.

lad-2 andre ethier

same

lad-3 alex wood

same

lad-4 joc pederson

same

lad-5 scott van slyke

same. it's odd to me that scott van slyke was featured in the set but yasiel puig was not.

lad-6 yasmani grandal

same

lad-7 enrique hernandez

i could have rotated the landscape cards, but why bother? there's no difference between flagship and the factory set here.

lad-8 kenta maeda

same

lad-9 chase utley

same

lad-10 julio urias

same

lad-11 kenley jansen

same

lad-12 trayce thompson

same

lad-13 corey seager

no more rookie cup for seager, who was the 2016 national league rookie of the year. this is going to wind up being the only real difference in the whole set.

lad-14 justin turner

same

lad-15 andrew toles

same

lad-16 rich hill

same

lad-17 adrian gonzalez

same

i think i remember why i didn't bother with this set in 2017.

if you are interested, here's the running list of these posts. 2016 and 2018 are still partial set posts, and i have yet to find the team set from 2019. remember that 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

2024

a good time to update the frankenset

it's been about seven years since i last updated my dodger frankenset. you may recall that i dedicated a blog to the page by page construction of this 726 card set featuring an assortment of dodger cards, and that i used the 1990 target dodger set to fill some holes when no other card would fit.  shortly after i completed the set, 2016 topps heritage high numbers was released, and ross stripling's rookie card showed up as card number 720 on the checklist, bumping mike sharperson's target card from the set.

last year, clayton kershaw's heritage card 

was held until the high numbers release, and it turned out to be card number 725

in the set.

that spot had been held by john shelby's target card since the inception of the set, and now it makes way for kershaw. as a reminder, it was never my intention to update the frankenset with newer cards, except where the target set placeholders could be replaced. 

after updating the last sheet in the set with kershaw's card, the only target cards remaining in the set are: 

572 don newcombe

659 jerry reuss

663 paul richards

well, in 2022 topps put max muncy 

at number 572 

in the flagship set. 

and way back in 2020 (when i wasn't paying much attention i guess) alex wood 

was number 663

in heritage high numbers.

and so, with those three cards now in the frankenset, and those other two pages updated, i will wait with baited breath for the high numbers checklist this year. will a dodger - kershaw, perhaps? - show up at 659? here's hoping!

have a happy halloween!

factoring in refractors but not at that price

last year i placed a bunch of orders on sportlots. 61 orders to be exact, which has me wondering why i wasn't a bit more organized. sure, some of those orders were placed separately to take advantage of optimizing shipping costs (sometimes it's cheaper to order cards from sellers in separate orders rather than pay a higher shipping cost in a single order) and i did use the box order option a couple of times, but i probably could have done a better job to consolidate some orders.

when it comes to sportlots, i am a proponent of adding cards to max out the shipping cost per card value. for example, if i have 3 cards in my order from a seller, i will add a fourth to get one more card without increasing shipping costs. one way i do this is to search for refractors within sellers' inventory. they are easy to find and easy to confirm a need on my part. as a result, i added quite a few refractors to my dodger collection this way.  here are some of them in no particular order:

2018 topps chrome sapphire logan forsythe

2004 topps chrome refractor shawn green

2006 topps chrome refractor jayson werth

2004 topps chrome refractor todd hundley

2011 topps chrome xfractor matt kemp

2011 topps chrome xfractor andre ethier

2018 topps chrome prism refractor corey seager

2018 topps chrome sapphire dodgers team card

2018 topps chrome sapphire tom koehler

2018 topps chrome pink refractor alex wood

2018 topps chrome pink refractor kenley jansen

2018 topps chrome pink refractor kenta maeda

2018 topps chrome xfractor kenta maeda

2018 topps chrome pink refractor corey seager

2018 topps chrome sapphire chris taylor

2018 topps chrome xfractor justin turner

2018 topps chrome prism refractor alex wood

2018 topps chrome update refractor kenley jansen

2019 topps chrome refractor clayton kershaw

2018 bowman's best refractor clayton kershaw

2018 bowman's best refractor brian dozier

my attempts to maximize shipping backfired a bit, unfortunately. one of the orders i placed that included a couple of these refractors added to get to the seller's shipping limit resulted in the worst sportlots experience i've had in the 9-plus years i've been using the site. i ordered 4 cards in may of 2020 from a seller named jordan25 using the budget shipping method. a week or so later, i received this from my mail carrier:

yes, there was $7.50 due in postage because this seller slapped a tracking number on a pwe.  there was a letter explaining the charge attached to the envelope:

a couple of things there. the letter says the item was being returned, which in hindsight would have been the best thing. however, someone decided to go ahead and deliver it to me postage due. i have a great postal carrier, and i am not blaming him if in fact it was his decision to bring this to me rather than return to sender. i figured that i wanted the cards and that this was clearly a mistake on the part of the seller, so i had no problem accepting the envelope and heading off to sportlots to be reimbursed.

i am not completely sure how the $7.50 amount was arrived at, but i filed an issue with the seller to let him know that the cards had arrived with this postage due. long story short, after a bit of back and forth, he denied my request which, by that time, had been reduced to just the value of the cards (about a buck) since the issue resolution within the sportlots site does not allow for more than that. even the sportlots site moderator pushed back on me, asking if i could have rejected the delivery of the envelope. well, yes, but i assumed that since it was not my mistake i would be reimbursed. anyway, i wound up with no reimbursement and no relief. very frustrating as i was not the dumbass who put a tracking sticker on a pwe. the seller even told me that if i had given him the receipt, he would have reimbursed me (this is after he denied my request). i informed him that the fact that i have the cards is the receipt, but he never responded. 

anyway, i've placed a few orders on the site in 2021 but i think i will try to sell my inventory that is currently listed there (about 50,000 cards) locally on marketplace and be done with it.  no amount of shiny refractor goodness will fully remove the stain of this experience.

alex wood double dipped and got that ring

the last three seasons have seen the return of three different dodger players for a second go-round with the club - a phenomenon i refer to as double dipping: they played for the dodgers, they left to play for a different team, and then they returned to play for the dodgers again. i had a whole running series of posts highlighting all of the dodger double dippers in their history over at my old blog. in 2018, it was matt kemp. in 2019, russell martin took a second tour. and, in 2020, alex wood returned to the fold.

wood's first tenure with the dodgers lasted from the trading deadline in 2015 through the 2018 season. he is probably best remembered by dodger fans for his 2017 season in which he went 16-3 with a 2.72 era and made the all-star team. he also started game 4 of the world series that year, and had thrown 5 and two-thirds innings of no-hit ball before george springer took him deep on his last pitch of the night. the day after that game, i ordered an autograph parallel of the topps now card highlighting the occasion:

the dodgers wound up winning that game (as they did every even game of the series), but wood got a no-decision for his efforts. of course, he also received no ring that year.

after the 2018 season, a year in which wood was 9-7 with a 3.68 era, he was dealt to the reds along with the aforementioned kemp and yasiel puig (plus kyle farmer). the first card i saw of him in cincinnati duds came from 2019 topps heritage high numbers:

injuries kept wood out of the lineup for most of the 2019 season, and he wound up making only seven starts. he signed with the dodgers as a free agent prior to the 2020 season, and wound up with one of the few legitimate update cards in 2020 topps update:

he was injured after one start early in the shortened season, but was back in the bullpen for the month of september. although he didn't pitch particularly well in the regular season, he made the postseason roster for the nlcs and world series, and finished his season with two scoreless innings in game 6 of the fall classic against the rays. at the end of that game, wood was one of the first players out of the dugout to celebrate near the mound, and one of many dodgers who missed out on rings in 2017 and 2018 only to be rewarded in 2020.  i'm glad he was able to be a part of it as i hope he fails to win another ring since he will be pitching for the giants in 2021.

as for the next dodger double dipper, it looks like brandon morrow has a shot. if so, i hope his 2021 season turns out slightly better than his 2017 season with the dodgers. we will see!