things done to card boxes (and, as a result, cards) plus archives is coming!

i have a good trading thing going on with a braves collector, but the usps must not be a fan of the packages we ship back and forth. back in july, i received a box from kevin that looked like this:

i don't even know how something like that happens. here's another view:

a full corner of the box had been ripped open. but what of the cards? here's how things looked when i opened the box:

so of course the damage occurred on the side of the box with the cards. you can see a good 10 or so cards there with corner and edge damage. there is one card with a curled corner on the opposite side of the box from the tear, which leads me to believe that the contents were spilled and put back in the box. i am hopeful that all of the cards kevin sent made their way to me, but i don't know for sure.

despite the damage, this was another fantastic group of dodger cards.

gavin lux took quite a bit of the hit from the damage, with four of his rookie cards getting some sort of punishment

the topps chrome xfractor came away with minimal impact, but the topps gallery card was pretty mangled.

same goes for a couple of cody bellinger cards

his 2017 topps update card was one of the worst conditioned cards, although the 2018 topps heritage high numbers action image variation was also beat up a bit.

perhaps the most damage was done to this 2020 topps chrome kyle garlick autographed card

it had/has a pretty strong crease running across the top right part of the card.

let's cleanse the palette with this 2022 bowman luis rodriguez chrome prospects purple wave refractor card

that made it through with just some minor damage. i say cleanse the palette because this next card was the biggest disappointment...

just a 2009 numbered clayton kershaw parallel - this one from upper deck spectrum. it got knocked about pretty good as you can see.

now, in no way shape or form am i disappointed with the trade. this is all on the usps and accidents happen.

here are most of the rest of the cards that seemed to come out of the box unscathed.

i've been on a heritage chrome kick lately, so the muncy was great to see.

the topps magazine card seemed out of place among all the modern and shiny cards, but it is no less welcome - another need crossed off the list!

a mike piazza sighting amidst some current and recent dodger studs!

lots of mosaic and prizm stuff, some of which looks great or is at least interesting. and some not so much.

a couple of justin turner cards there at the bottom showing him in full leprechaun mode.

those three 2021 topps gallery cards at the top were the first ones from that set i obtained. all parallels, too.

and there we have three inserts from 2022 topps, plus some jackie robinson and sandy koufax inserts.

i am always up for inserts, and dodger parallels, too. thankfully there were some numbered gold parallels from 2020 and 2021 provided:

while numbered higher than ever due to the increasing year, gold parallels seem to be harder to come by thanks to increased print runs.

those gold cards may be more scarce these days than relic cards, but i am still happy to find some of those, too

there we have some very standard jersey cards from 2021 panini donruss and 2022 topps. but those weren't the only relics in the box...

this is a 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts debut bat card of eddie stanky

even though stanky is clearly shown as a new york giant in the photo (his team after he left the dodgers), this is a dodger card due to the team logo. and, as luck would have it, it was the last bat relic card i needed to complete the dodger team set from the debut bat cards subset.

the most interesting and unique card in the box was this 2016 panini national treasures pee wee reese card:

that's the front of it, as it's a booklet. open it up and this is what's inside:

a big swatch of some sort of fuzzy dodger item that pee wee supposedly wore. it sort of looks like troll doll hair. i know pee wee played with marbles as a kid, but not sure if trolls were around back then.

regardless, another great box of cards from kevin, and i am hoping we roll the dice with the usps again soon!

---------------

today is also the day that 2022 topps archives is set to be released. i have a box on the way, and i already have my want lists up. not just the dodgers, but the full 1978 topps subset that i aim to complete in quick fashion. perhaps the highlight of the checklist is brooks robinson being included in the 1978 design, which will give us a proper final tribute (from a card design standpoint, anyway) and fill one of my most wanted "cards that should have been" desires. i just hope they use an age appropriate photo of brooks, unlike what they did with al kaline's 1975 topps design card a few years back.

anyway, send me all your 1978 design archives dupes - you will be rewarded!

a different project: 2020

seven months to the day after mailing it out, i received a card in the mail.

that is a 2020 topps kyle garlick card, signed by garlick himself (or so i choose to believe). it is the most recent ttm request that i have mailed, and it was done in the hopes that i could keep my topps dodger autograph project alive.

it's an idea i took from the lost collector, and entails obtaining an autograph of a different player from each topps flagship set, ideally for free. i was not able to meet that last requirement, but i do now have cards signed from 1951 through 2020, including most of the update sets.

here's the updated tally of the project:

1951 topps - preacher roe (purchased)

1952 topps - rocky bridges

1953 topps - bobby morgan

1954 topps - charlie thompson

1955 topps - ed roebuck

1956 topps - randy jackson

1957 topps - carl erskine

1958 topps - joe pignatano

1959 topps - fred kipp

1960 topps - chuck essegian

1961 topps - bob aspromonte

1962 topps - norm sherry

1963 topps - don zimmer

1964 topps - ken mcmullen

1965 topps - dick tracewski

1966 topps - john kennedy

1967 topps - phil regan

1968 topps - jim campanis

1969 topps - jeff torborg

1970 topps - al mcbean

1971 topps - sandy vance

1972 topps - manny mota

1973 topps - wes parker

1974 topps - claude osteen

1974 topps traded - jim wynn

1975 topps - ron cey

1975 topps mini - joe ferguson

1976 topps - bill russell
1976 topps traded - dusty baker
1977 topps - steve garvey
1978 topps - dave lopes
1979 topps - charlie hough
1980 topps - jerry reuss
1981 topps - doug rau
1981 topps traded - ken landreaux
1982 topps - dave goltz
1982 topps traded - jose morales
1983 topps - ron roenicke
1983 topps traded - rafael landestoy
1984 topps - fernando valenzuela
1984 topps traded - mike vail
1985 topps - burt hooton
1985 topps traded - mariano duncan
1986 topps - enos cabell
1986 topps traded - franklin stubbs
1987 topps - steve sax
1987 topps traded - matt young
1988 topps - len matuszek
1988 topps traded - jay howell
1989 topps - mickey hatcher
1989 topps traded - mike morgan
1990 topps - kal daniels
1990 topps traded - juan samuel
1991 topps - tim belcher
1992 topps - roger mcdowell
1993 topps - dave hansen
1993 topps traded - tim wallach
1994 topps - jody reed
1995 topps - chris gwynn
1996 topps - todd hollandsworth
1997 topps - brett butler
1998 topps - greg gagne
1999 topps - jose vizcaino
2000 topps - jeff shaw
2001 topps - chan ho park
2002 topps - andy ashby
2002 topps traded - joel hanrahan
2003 topps - jim tracy
2003 topps traded - ron coomer
2004 topps - edwin jackson
2004 topps traded - milton bradley
2005 topps - chad billingsley
2005 topps update & highlights - jason phillips
2006 topps - bill mueller
2006 topps update & highlights - mark hendrickson
2007 topps - james loney
2007 topps update & highlights - andy laroche
2008 topps - delwyn young
2008 topps update & highlights - casey blake
2009 topps - matt kemp
2009 topps update & highlights - brad ausmus
2010 topps - juan pierre
2010 topps update & highlights - ronnie belliard
2011 topps - hong-chih kuo
2011 topps update & highlights - matt guerrier
2012 topps - nathan eovaldi
2012 topps update & highlights - matt treanor
2013 topps - randy choate
2013 topps update - clayton kershaw
2014 topps - ricky nolasco
2014 topps update - scott van slyke
2015 topps - juan uribe
2015 topps update - brett anderson
2016 topps - zach lee
2016 topps update - mike bolsinger
2017 topps - chris hatcher
2018 topps - kyle farmer
2019 topps - ross stripling

2020 topps - kyle garlick

as i mentioned up top, i've not sent any ttm requests since this one went out in february of 2021. i have no plans to mail out any 2021 cards, either - i think 70 years of cards is probably fine.

not so serious about series 2

with little confidence in the local box store shelves, i went ahead and ordered a box of 2020 topps series 2 a couple of weeks ago. it arrived last week, and, fresh off of my 2020 topps big league pack ripping experience, went to work on discovering the cardboard that lay within.  here's the first pack that greeted me:

14 cards per pack, so it took two scans. first dodger of series 2 for me is edwin rios. i scanned the back of the salvador perez card, and here's a better look at it:

reminds me of when i first saw the back of tommy john's 1978 topps card, although that one said "on disabled list" on the 1975 season's row.

here's a better look at the josh naylor card from that pack

it features naylor in dodger stadium in an actual padres uniform (more on that to come).

here's pack 2:

two packs, two dodgers. not bad. unfortunately, the box did not maintain that pace. here are the other dodgers i found in my box - ross stripling:

the dodgers tried to trade stripling to the angels in the offseason, but that deal fell through so he remains a dodger. with the shortened season and david price's opt-out, he should get a fair amount of work.

kyle garlick:

strange to see garlick as a dodger in this release, since he was traded to the phillies in february and topps has photoshopped a whole host of other players in to their new team's uniforms.

matt beaty:

that's a nice application of the horizontal 2020 design.

brusdar graterol:

topps resorted to photoshopping graterol in to a dodger uniform, even though there was plenty of time to use an actual photo of graterol as a dodger from spring training. how do i know, well, i found one variation in my box, and it was this one:

because the season hasn't started yet, there is way more photoshop in series 2 than there otherwise might have been.  here's a jonathan schoop card

that shows him as a tiger, but that's a twins uniform underneath the photoshop. side note - schoop's 2020 topps big league card features him wearing an actual tigers uniform. oh well, at least topps did well to select this photo, as schoop's glove covers up what would be the tell-tale nike logo. topps did the same for the luis urias card and they dropped him in to one of the brewers' new uniforms to boot.

not so much for jurickson profar's card 

profar played for the a's when the 2019 season ended, but now he is with the padres, who are bringing back the brown in 2020. profar got the photoshop treatment, which is made even more obvious with the lack of the 'swoosh'.  same goes for corey dickerson

he's actually a phillie in this photo, not a marlin.  one of the worst is gerritt cole's card

this is the same image that was used on his opening day card. topps has issued cards of cole featuring him in a real yankee jersey, but went the photoshop route for his base card here. it also looks like they gave him a haircut. he had a photoshopped variation card in series 1, but of course, his variation card in series 2 features an untouched photo. more on variations in a bit.

i was happy to see a chad wallach card in one of the packs i opened.

he's played in the majors in each of the last 3 seasons without any cardboard to show for it, but topps continues to "bowman-ize" the backs of rookie cards

so you wouldn't know that by flipping the card over. it would be nice to see his major league stats, meager as they may be.

some other cards that i took notice of include former dodger farmhand willie calhoun's

i had read somewhere that one of the reasons there was only one ranger in series 1 was that topps was waiting for a new logo to use. i didn't think they meant the logo of the rangers' new stadium! you can see that calhoun is wearing a commemorative patch bidding adieu to their old stadium last year, but 2019 topps didn't feature that logo on ranger cards. i would be interested to know why the new stadium logo was added to cards this year.

i found four more double play cards to add to my collection - here's domingo leyba

according to getty images, that photo used on leyba's card comes from the marathon game between the diamondbacks and cardinals that was played on 9/24/19. while it doesn't look like leyba is in a position to throw to first, baseball reference does score this play as a 6-3 double play. i am guessing that goldschmidt was running with the pitch (it was a 3-2 count), leyba was covering the bag, and marcell ozuna hit a grounder right to leyba who touched the bag, jumped, set, and threw to first. or maybe ozuna fell down on the way to first. either way, it's in the binder even if it is not a conventional dp turn.

kevin newman

jon berti

and a gleyber torres/francisco lindor checklist

yoenis cespedes got one of the most interesting cards in series 2, in my opinion

it reminds me a bit of the 2017 topps joc pederson card that, at first, looks oddly cropped, but then you see the ball and it makes sense.  topps missed an opportunity to do the same thing with teoscar hernandez's card

a different cropping would have, i think, made this card a bit more interesting.

one of the best things about the 2019 season was the number of different uniforms that the reds wore to mark their 150th anniversary as a club. i was a bit disappointed when i attended a game in cincinnati and they were wearing their regular home unis. however, there have been plenty of the throwbacks featured on cards this year, including trevor mahle's series 2 card

the 1950's mr. redlegs jerseys are not seen as much as some of the other ones, so i appreciate this card.

for the most part, i felt like there was a lot of monotony with the series 2 cards as i opened all of the packs. it seems that topps saved most of the personality for photo variations. why photoshop when you can use real photos from spring training? i get why there are variations, but it would be nice if they didn't come at the expense of a decent regular base card.

one of the most highly publicized variation is andrew mccutchen's (and it is really great), but his base card is not bad, either

still, i would prefer flagship to be variant free.

i thought that i might find more than one photo variation, but as far as i can tell, the graterol was the only one in the box. the insert ratio did play out as planned for me, and i had decent success with the player selection.  i was happy to see that the 2030 insert set was not a rehash of the 2010 topps 2020 inserts (as cardboardconnection had initially shown)

the design borrows some shimmer from 2019 topps and also 1994 pacific. i found more mike trout, thanks to the 'player of the decade' insert set

in a similar vein, i found a few 'decades best' cards and 1985 design cards. one of the latter was of carl yastrzemski

now, yaz's card is in the all-star format, but there were some 1985 base styled cards in these packs. i was really hoping for a jim palmer card, as he last played in 1984 but was not featured in any 1985 product. no dice there (in update hopefully?), and seeing yaz reminded me of how disappointed i was last year when topps included him in the 1984 design, but as an all-star instead of on a regular 1984 design card. i really had hoped to see his full career stats on the back of a 1984 topps card, but all we got back then was a highlight card (a la al kaline and brooks robinson). another miss for topps. seriously, how tough is it to give some thought to this sort of thing when putting together a checklist, especially when the player is already featured in the set! speaking of which, topps is using the 1974 design in this year's archives release. do you think there will be a willie mays card showing him as a met? i certainly hope that there will be, but am not holding my breath. 

ok, rant over. here is the guaranteed auto or relic from the box:

i know relics aren't what they used to be, but i was pretty pleased to see the player of the decade here, even if he plays for the other los angeles team (that isn't really in los angeles).

with that, i am done with series 2 outside of a couple of specific cards that i've purchased online. i'll be interested to see what comes of update this year without an all-star game (more on that in a couple of days).