topps overcorrected a bit

after missing out on a team break for the inaugural release of topps chrome platinum anniversary in 2021, i joined a team break of the 2022 release, and was able to complete the dodger team set a couple times over while also finding a couple of parallels for my collection. in 2024, i joined a smaller break of the 2023 product, and came away with some decent cards to kickstart my team set building effort. there was no chrome platinum anniversary set released for 2024, allowing topps to actually align the card design with the platinum anniversary of the year that it was released. 

this has always been my biggest beef with topps heritage. starting in 2001 with the 1952 design seemed misaligned to me at the beginning, and soon thereafter led to an annual annoyance around 50th anniversary buybacks that aren't really 50th anniversary buybacks. anyway, the 2025 release of chrome platinum anniversary would feature the 1955 design in a satisfying act of synchronicity, and that pleased me. however, it wasn't until the middle of 2026 that the product was released.

regardless, i was looking forward to the product, but unfortunately my team break success was pre-ohtani, and with the 2025 release, the prices for dodger slots in breaks has been way more than i was willing to pay. instead, i've been building the base team set through a steady stream of sportlots orders.

the first card to arrive was tyler glasnow's

and it was sooned joined by nine others

chan ho park's baseball card resurgence was a big part of 2025, and it's nice to see kirk gibson get some dodger cardboard time.

here are a trio of rookies from 2025

with river ryan being the odd man out as he is no longer a dodger due to the tarik skubal trade.

roki sasaki

was part of a single card order from a seller who is losing money on shipping.

most of the cards came as part of larger orders where i found a couple of dodger cards from other sets in order to maximize my shipping cost investment. these two cards - hideo nomo and blake snell

were from one such order. as was hyeseong kim's card

topps has brought orel hershiser

back to us collectors, and i appreciate that. i do wish he had more cards like this and fewer autograph only releases though. it seems he has been given the steve garvey treatment in that regard.

here's a trio of dodger legends that arrived together - jackie robinson, sandy koufax, and clayton kershaw

and here's a couple more - duke snider and mookie betts

jackie, sandy, and the duke were all in the original 1955 set, so it's nice to see them again 70 (71) years later.

i did not have adrian gonzalez

dodger cards on my 2025 or 2026 bingo card but i will accept it.

the last card i needed was ohtani's

and it was easily the most expensive with an all-in cost of just under nine bucks.

the card that i was most excited about was dusty baker's

now that he has retired from managing, i hope we see more cards of him in dodger blue. i even scanned the back

baker is my go-to on baseball reference's immaculate grid for dodger silver slugger, and i've used him for gold glover as well when garvey was already used in a different category.

that baker card, as well as this betts/robinson 1955 double header insert

would both be candidates for my favorite dodger card of the year except for the facts that this is a 2025 release (officially) and that there was a 2026 topps card of clayton kershaw to wrap up his hall of fame career.

i used ebay to add that insert above as well as the full six card 1955 world series dodger team set

the cards above, and the backs below, are shown in numerical order even though that means they are not in chronological order. you will see what i mean, as roy campanella's card starts with game 3 

no johnny podres card for game 7 which is a surprise, but pee wee reese is an acceptable substitute.

back to game 1 with jackie

duke's exploits in game 4 lead into gil hodges' in game 7

and to round out the team set, topps fit in another koufax card even though he wasn't part of the world series. again, it's something that i am a-ok with.

there are a multitude of parallels for these cards, as well as the autograph subsets. i've held myself to only picking up a couple of those. steve garvey is always a target, and so i added his base auto

with a very basic back

as well as his aqua refractor 

numbered to 150.

i've noted that a number of resellers don't understand the concept of a facsimile autograph that is part of the 1955 card design. there are so many listings for "auto" cards that are just base cards or base parallels. 

to date, the only base parallel that i have purchased is this platinum toile gold parallel of hideo nomo

it's numbered to 50 and is a nice example of the excess that has defined parallels of chrome platinum anniversary to date.

last minute update! earlier today i received these three blue prism refractor parallels

after purchasing them as a lot for about a buck apiece.

it's probably too much to ask for 2026 topps chrome platinum anniversary featuring the fantastic 1956 topps design to actually be released in 2026. hopefully topps gets things on track at some point.

more days of archives

here's another late to market post, sharing my second wind roundup of cards i've added from 2025 topps archives to advance my dodger collection, mostly. 

to finish up the 1964 dodger cards, i added dalton rushing

and chan ho park

both are spring training shots typical of the eras in which these players played. 

i have most of the 1996 cards added as well - here's teoscar hernandez

clayton kershaw

and will smith

all at dodger stadium. not sure if i mentioned it before, but it annoys me slightly that the inset "phantom zone" (as i call it) photo is not skewed the way it was on the original '96 cards.

here's more of the dodger team set using the 2005 design - hyeseong kim, river ryan, mookie betts

and yoshinobu yamamoto

i like the betts card very much because of the world champion gold-lettered jersey he is wearing. i appreciate topps creating a few cards featuring dodgers in these duds in 2025 and i hope they make some in 2026 and beyond! here's the back of yamamoto's card

i found it interesting that they went with a straight "3" for his era below the photo of him on the back. era is always shown to two decimal places except here when the tenth and hundredth places are zeroes.

one of the other 2005 design cards belongs to orel hershiser

his card back is even more interesting

because i really don't know what's going on with the stat that shows up under his photo. i think it is supposed to be 204 to match his wins total (and the "w" above the .304). they just forgot to edit the number from a batting average and change the first digit. that's the best i can do in trying to figure it out.

those cards above all came from sportlots. i was able to find two of the three dodgers i was still missing at the february card show in those dig boxes i posted about previously. jackie robinson and sandy koufax

don't look too bad on these modern card designs.

i like the black foil parallels again this year, and picked up sandy's from an online seller

just like i did to obtain kershaw's 2007 all-star design insert

the other archives card i tracked down this year was barry larkin's

and that's because he is shown (finally) on the 2005 design, making this a final tribute. here are his complete career stats as they should have been presented 20 years ago

i don't have larkin in my hall of famer collection, but my final tribute collection is less restrictive.

all of this left me one card short of the dodger team set, and i should have that last card in hand soon. not that it's a big deal card (it's not) but it does provide fodder for a separate post. stay tuned!

flip a card

i have a few care packages to acknowledge - some from months back - and i am trying to get back on track!

to start, bo at baseball cards come to life sent me some cards that hit my mini-collections, including this first card that hits two of them. this 1995 upper deck sp john valentin card is very obviously at tatooine card 

but flip it over, and it's a double play card!

perhaps i should flip it in the air and see which side lands face up to determine where to house it in my collection. my friends and i never flipped cards the way i know some of you and many other collectors did. we just played the game on the back of the 1978 topps cards and traded.

anyway, that card lives as a tatooine card but this card from the same set of tim naehring

is a full on double play card for the collection.

i believe i may have claimed this 1999 topps stadium club card of dmitri young

and i did so because it fits in my "names/numbers on the back" mini-collection.

bo found a couple of obscure items for my dodger stadium collection - a 1982 fleer stamp of dave collins and a 1986 fleer miniature card of jose cruz

i appreciate bo's eagle eye!

easier to spot is the dodger stadium background on this 1987 fleer limited edition lenny dykstra card

and this 1989 fleer limited edition orel hershiser card

i miss those old field level scoreboards.

greg maddux's 1997 fleer card

also features a dodger stadium background, with a couple of dodger personnel people in the background.

bo didn't neglect my team collection, adding a couple of cards from 1997 fleer flair

those are showcase row 2 cards of brett butler and chan ho park, the latter of whom has made a hobby resurgence in 2025.

thanks for the cards, bo!

in other news, i skipped the monthly card show earlier today. while collecting is a way for me to de-stress, being out and about today for a card show didn't rise to the level of necessity. many of you have expressed concern over what is happening here in minnesota and it is concern well placed.

out of the park with these prices

it's been almost 15 years since chan ho park pitched in his final major league game. he was with the pirates then, following in the footsteps of another dodger pitcher of the 90's who ended their career in pittsburgh - ramon martinez. unlike martinez, however, park has made a return to baseball card releases in 2025 with topps hyping his first autograph cards in quite some time.

i was interested in adding one to  my collection, but then i saw the prices. here's a sampling:

good golly miss molly. those are sandy koufax prices.

instead, i will show off a few new to me park cards that came via a sportlots order a while back. here's a trio of cards from 1998 topps stars

and here's one from 1999 fleer flair showcase

those will have to do for my collection unless the prices of the 2025 autographed product takes a dramatic downturn. 

so, instead of a chan ho park autograph, here's a 2021 topps clearly authentic zach mckinstry auto

that i picked up for just a couple of bucks. it's not in the one touch it was originally distributed in, but that's ok by me. maybe park continues to sign and gets a fan favorites autograph later this year that helps to dilute the market. i sure hope so.