oil-lighting?

i drive a car with an internal combustion engine. i plan for my next car to be a hybrid or an electric vehicle, but for now, i am beholden to the gas companies who employ the "rockets and feathers" theory to gasoline prices. meaning, prices climb quickly (like a rocket) when the cost of crude oil (the primary ingredient to gasoline) rises, but then fall slowly (like a feather) when the cost of crude oil drops.  i understand the need for a bit of a lag, but last month it seemed like the feathers were still attached to the birds flying in the sky.

here's a card from 2009 upper deck 20th anniversary

that notes gas prices were high in the summer of 2008. the back explains things a bit more

even though upper deck can't spell "barrel" correctly twice on the same card.

so, with a barrel of crude oil hitting $147 a barrel in 2008, the average price for a gallon of gas peaked in the united states at $4.14 a gallon, according to the american automobile association. we passed that mark earlier this year, although not if you consider inflation.

this year, the cost of a barrel of crude oil again passed the $100 mark around the first of march, and gas prices rose as well. both peaked in mid-march at around $125 a barrel and $4.30 per gallon. when i wrote this post last saturday, the cost of an opec barrel of crude oil was about $100 according to statista, but the average cost of a gallon of gas was still $4.08 (again, according to the american automobile association). that's about 20 cents per gallon more than it cost when that barrel was last trading at $100 in early march. still, it would seem that the feathers are finally falling back to earth.

thanks upper deck, for making a card about oil and gas prices.

welcome to the collection

arriving the day after jackie robinson day, a nice pwe from madding at cards on cards brought this card in to my collection

that's a 2022 topps welcome to the show jackie robinson insert. i continue to struggle with the execution of this insert set, as the text on the back is all about jackie's 1945 season in the negro leagues and his 1946 campaign in montreal.

i am one card closer (and now one card away) from completing the 2022 topps series 1 team set, thanks to this league leader card

julio urias and walker buehler form an adam wainwright sandwich. i am hoping for many wins from all three of these guys again in 2022 - i have urias and waino on my fantasy team.

here are a couple of 2022 topps opening day needs - corey seager and max scherzer

so far, i think scherzer's flagship card is my favorite dodger card of the year, but i expect to find a new favorite once archives comes out, assuming there is at least one dodger included in the 1978 subset.

finally, a throwback all the way to 2021 with this panini mosaic victor gonzalez card

this is actually the rookie variation card as opposed to just a regular old card. thanks for confusing me there for a moment, panini.

and thank you kerry! i've got more cards on cards stacked and ready to ship out.

let's have another almost free stuff friday

it's friday! i am going to post a bunch of cards that don't fit in my collection. you can select up to six (to keep mailing easy) - you just have to send me at least one card from my want list in return. bonus points if you send one of my most wanted cards. i think you know the reason behind the "almost free" part, so i am not going to explain like i have in the past.

most of what i will offer are inserts, including parallels, with some short prints and a variation or two, plus a few regular old base cards. they are all regular sized cards. nothing too fancy, but hopefully some of these will find a new home in a mutually beneficial transaction. the cards are pretty much in chronological order, except for the jeff kent hit parade there in group 4. sorry about that.

here are the cards:

group 1

group 2

the 1986 world series card is the glossy version

group 3

group 4

group 5

group 6

group 7

group 8

group 9

group 10

group 11

group 12

stake your claim in the comments and send me an email with your mailing address. thanks for helping me streamline my collection a bit!

where is my line?

being a player collector can be as difficult as you want it to be. conversely, it can be very simple. i am definitely in the middle; probably skewed more towards difficult, at least when it comes to steve garvey cards.

including "named" cards in a player collection is the very basic building block.

these are easy - it's their card!

i would say the next tier are cards which feature the player as a prominent subject in the photo, but they are not named. an example of this would be a postseason summary card or a card

like so.

from there, i would go to team cards

i discussed their place in player collecting in this post.

and then there are the cards wherein a player appears on another player's card as a "lurker" or "cameo", if you prefer.

it's not their card, but they are happy to be there.

i would say that this is pretty much where my line is drawn. i have a pretty sketchy lurker card

in my garvey collection, i admit, so maybe some of these other types of cards should be added as well.

i'm talking about "name" cameos - as in checklists 

or card back text. collecting cutch covered this topic in this post and i've come across some decent candidates for my garvey collection, like the 1986 fleer star sticker box card checklist above, and this 2005 topps rookie cup davey lopes blue parallel card back

other strong examples are the cards i wrote about in this post and this post, too. 

so far, i haven't added these cards to my garvey collection, although i do have a signed 1978 checklist in the pc and my partial signed set binder.

i have a lot of non-card items in my garvey collection which is a relatively new (last 10 years or so) phenomenon. this includes ticket stubs that bear garvey's photo. greg at plaschke, thy sweater is argyle is collecting ticket stubs for games in which mike trout did cool stuff which is a heck of a endeavor, but i don't plan to do that for garvey's 272 dingers or his 1,207 consecutive games. what an undertaking that would be!

still, if you merge a garvey ticket stub with a card, i don't care whose card it is - i am adding it to the pc! so that's why i have an alfonso soriano card

an aaron rowand card

and a ryan braun card

in my steve garvey collection. those three cards are from 2009 topps a ticket to stardom, and they are great. the card set just happened to coincide with the fantastic tickets the dodgers issued in 2008 for their 50th year in los angeles. 

i don't see any garvey stubs in cards over at comc right now, but maybe some other player collectors will find something to add. where's your line?

don't you know that you are a superstar

so not quite the correct lyric from the song by bad company, but it fits this quick post to note that i really don't know what to call the set from with this roy campanella card 

and its back

comes from. i received as a filler in a sportlots order. it's a 1982 seckeli (per sportlots) superstar card, although i have it listed as a tcma superstars card which matches comc. my standard catalog of baseball cards just calls it the 1982 superstar set. who knows for sure.

whatever, it joins duke snider in my collection and leaves just jackie robinson, sandy koufax, and the koufax/hank aaron combo card to obtain for the team set.

easier to catalog is this card

which comes from 2021 topps update and was part of a small dodger lot i purchased recently. while it is easier to identify, it lacks the personality of the more ambiguous card above.

bonus trivia - today marks the 74th anniversary of roy campanella's major league (non-negro league) debut on april 20, 1948. 

always fun to add a new campy (or two) to the collection!

bonus content: one of my boxes of 2021 topps big league arrived at the seller's store today. should be arriving on my doorstep soon! can't wait!

back on top?

i got to see cody bellinger hit a home run in person for the second time in my life when i attended the dodger/twin games last week. the first time was in 2017 in washington dc, and that dinger came in the midst of a rookie of the year campaign.

this year, the home run was a surprise given the struggles bellinger had displayed at the plate this season to date. still, it was a rocket, and in the games i've watched on tv since, he has hit the ball hard. in fact, last night he matched his effort from last thursday's game with a double and a home run.

will he get back to his 2019 mvp ways? i hope so. probably not though.

i recently bought a small lot of dodger cards that included this 2021 topps 1951 all-stars box topper

i hadn't seen one of these before, and i thought it was unique enough to warrant my time and money. i would expect at some point bellinger would fall out of favor with topps in terms of these sorts of inserts, and instead we see someone like trea turner more often. it is the way.

get back

if you are looking for beatles content, this is not the post for you, although i did start watching the beatles documentary on disney+ a while back but haven't got back to it, no pun intended. no, today is the day that i share most of the cards that are in my often mentioned "name/number on the back" mini-collection.

i'll start by showing a card that would fit in to the collection, but it's not there (yet).

that's a 2013 panini hometown heroes yasiel puig short printed card. it's a fairly recent addition to my collection, and sits in my dodger collection. i don't really plan to track down another one for the mini-collection, but who knows.

the idea for this mini-collection was spurred by the existence of some cards that i liked aesthetically, but didn't necessarily "fit" anywhere in my collection. i have always liked photographs that show a subject from behind, giving viewers a glance at what they are looking at. another reason for this mini-collection is that when one goes to a baseball game in person, players have their backs to you much of the time, especially if you sit in the outfield seats or behind home plate. as a result, these cards often mimic the views that i enjoy at the ballpark. 

the first card that struck me in this way was paul molitor's 1998 topps card

molly was my favorite non-dodger for awhile, but what drew me to this card was the vantage point of the photographer. i was playing baseball in an adult league when the card was issued, and i saw similar scenes every time i was in the on deck circle. i really really like this card.

the second card that made me consider starting this mini-collection was vladimir guerrero's 1999 topps gallery card

i had a vladdy pc going at the time this card came out, so it fit in my collection, but again, the point of view of the photographer put me on the field or in the dugout. two years later, i found this 2001 topps stadium club mo vaughn card

and i knew i had to start a specific mini-collection. i even referred to this card as "perfect" in this post. still, it took me a long time to commit, and in the meantime, more cards were produced that fit the bill. i also found some older cards that i added to the collection. 

i've listed out all of the cards that currently sit in this collection here (there are over 90), and i'll show about half of them below:

there are some historic baseball moments that resulted in cards that fit this collection. like this 2007 upper deck masterpieces babe ruth card

and from the same set, a carlton fisk card

fisk's home run "trot" was also featured on a 1999 upper deck century legends memorable shots card

and a year later, upper deck included a card of "the catch" 

in the defining moments insert set to their 2000 legends release. "the catch" may have been the first baseball highlight that i took a strong liking to. i remember coming home from little league practice after catching a fly ball in the outfield with my back to the infield and telling my parents that my catch was just like willie mays'. so, i am always looking for cards that feature the play for this collection, and nick sent me one awhile back - this one is from 2016 topps

the vladdy up above is one of the rare baserunner cards in this collection, but there are a few others, like this 2015 topps evan longoria 'til it's over insert

and rickey henderson's 1999 upper deck century legends card

sometimes the baserunner makes it to home plate, as on this 1999 topps gallery mark mcgwire card

sometimes fielders make the cut as is the case with andy van slyke's simply fantastic 1992 topps stadium club card

this is one of my favorite cards thanks in a large part to the third base coach cameo.

matt williams' 2001 topps stadium club card 

is another "fielder" example.

on denard span's 2014 topps card (target red parallel)

we get the rare on-field camera man view as opposed to the specator view, but i like it! this card shows span tipping his hat to the crowd after making a game saving and game ending catch against the giants in 2013.

sometimes, there are pitchers that make the cut for the collection, such as jeff lahti's 1984 donruss card

david cone's 1993 upper deck card

and hideo nomo's 2001 topps card

pregame lineups also provide an opportunity for images to be used for cards that fit in this collection. such is the case with this 2002 topps card

and this 2018 topps update card

this 2017 topps stadium club willie mccovey card

features a photo i absolutely would have taken had i been there at the giants' spring training venue to do so.

there are a couple of "on deck" cards in the collection, including this one of david dahl

from 2019 topps stadium club. by far, however, the greatest number of cards in this collection feature players at bat.

2021 topps heritage dick allen baseball flashbacks

2007 topps moments & milestones joe mauer black parallel

2001 upper deck rickey henderson

sometimes, the vantage point shifts closer to the seats behind home plate, which is great. here are a few of those types of cards

1985 topps stickers steve garvey

1994 topps george brett gold parallel

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee chone figgins

2017 topps stadium club nolan arenado

2007 upper deck first edition vladimir guerrero

2002 upper deck vintage sammy sosa/cubs checklist

1992 topps stadium club tom pagnozzi

here's one that features the scene as it appears from behind the batting cage

that's a 2003 topps stadium club j.d. drew card and darn if it doesn't make me feel like a batting coach.

most of these batter cards use photos from the camera wells near the dugouts. here are some more:

1995 select mark mcgwire

mcgwire's 1993 select card features a centerfield camera shot of him at the plate - i've thought about creating a mini-collection of those cards, too, but so far i've resisted.

2000 upper deck gary sheffield

love this card!

1982 donruss duane kuiper

1999 upper deck ultimate victory shawn green

1999 upper deck victory ken griffey jr sweepstakes

2000 upper deck and upper deck gold reserve magglio ordonez

2002 topps total jeff bagwell

2012 topps frank robinson 1987 mini

sometimes it's a nickname on the back

but the card still fits, like this 2019 topps big league juan soto card

the camera well next to the visitor's dugout at target field is a great place for photographers to capture aesthetically pleasing images. joe mauer's 2011 topps chrome (and refractor parallel) cards

are a great example of this, however, the wider shot used for his factory team card

is all kinds of fantastic.  from the same set, we get denard span's card

with a similar image used.

and then there is the 2008 upper deck manny ramirez card

which tells the story from behind the subject. great card!

this 2010 topps allen & ginter nick markakis card

features a shot from a higher vantage point in the stands, which is fairly uncommon i would say.

the most recent card to enter this collection actually hasn't arrived yet. i ordered three of this 2022 topps now freddie freeman card

one for the dodger collection, one for the dodger stadium collection, and one for this one.

i'll finish with this 2016 topps gypsy queen jackie robinson walk-off winners insert

i love seeing number 42 on cardboard.

it is a bit subjective as far as what card makes it in to the collection, but if it makes me feel present i am all too happy to add it. this is for sure one of the odder mini-collections i have, but i really do like seeing all the cards together.