quick stop at the card shop

i was hoping to find some 2024 topps inserts and parallels when i stopped at one of the local card shops earlier this month. i missed the february card show, and at last year's first show following the release of series 1, i cleaned up on inserts and parallels. it looks like i was late to the party as 2024 singles were few and far between in the team and nickel boxes.

i came away with six new to me dodger cards from the boxes

2021 panini select dustin may, 2021 topps mitch white royal blue parallel, 2021 topps chrome update keibert ruiz purple refractor, 2022 panini father's day mookie betts, 2022 panini mosaic max muncy, and 2023 topps austin barnes rainbow foil.  the betts and muncy cards were in the nickel boxes, and the other four were a quarter apiece.

i also added a 2024 topps superstar blueprint card of freddie freeman

but that came from a blaster i bought.

i did look through some of the other team quarter boxes and extracted a 2019 topps chance sisco gold parallel

for the tatooine collection, and a 2020 topps opening day orlando arcia red foil parallel

for the double play collection.

some teams, like the dodgers and braves, are underrepresented in the team boxes. others, like the rays and a's, have a ton of cards. it looked like someone took a handful of cards from the a's selection and downgraded them to the nickel boxes. i took a 2020 topps fire matt chapman arms ablaze insert

just because i had not seen one of them before.

also surprisingly in the nickel boxes were some other cards from the 2022 panini father's day set, including shohei ohtani

and a trio of bobby witt jr rookies

i was pleased to find a 2023 panini chronicles tim wakefield titan card

for a nickel because it's good to see new cards of his being made. i saw an announcement late last month that the red sox will be wearing a memorial patch for wakefield this season, which is a nice tribute for a fan favorite.

there were a few blue jays cards from 2023 topps finest flashbacks and i chose a vladimir guerrero jr card

for some reason. i don't really collect vladdy jr but for a nickel i am going to take his cards.

finally, there were some 2024 topps mixed about, including my first look at the fanatics pack (whatever those are) exclusive aqua parallels

the aqua borders really work with the neon design, and i bet they are the only border variant that makes the padres city connect uniforms not look out of place. 

until next time, local card shop!

i hope it's a classic

looks like the world baseball classic kicks off next week. a couple of months ago, i thought it would be interesting to see how many of the 20 participating countries are represented within my dodger collection. i am not referring to players who hail from those countries, but rather those countries being represented on a dodger card. make sense? let's see how my collection fares!

the teams are divided in to four pools of five teams each. advancing teams in pools a and b will eventually face off (those teams are playing in taiwan and japan), and the advancing teams from pools c and d will square off in the united states. the final is scheduled to be held in miami on march 21. i'll link to the current team rosters in the text below.

pool a 

chinese taipei is represented by this 2008 topps update card of chin-lung hu

hu received a ton of cards in 2008 but never panned out at the big league level.

cuba is represented by this 2014 bowman yasiel puig international parallel

puig famously (and perhaps nefariously) defected from cuba to mexico before signing with the dodgers. puig is not on cuba's roster, but former dodgers onelki garcia and erisbel arruebarrena are. i hope the other players protect their ears!

the kingdom of the netherlands is represented by this 2009 topps chrome kenley jansen wbc insert

jansen, a native of curacao who joined the dodger organization in 2004, was a catcher back then. jansen is on the current roster, too, and bert blyleven is back as a coach. i know bert wasn't a dodger ever, but he's a bit of a favorite of mine so is worth a mention.

italy is not represented in my collection. i don't know of any dodger players who played for italy in the past, and there are no dodgers on their current roster.

panama is represented by this 1996 upper deck collector's choice roberto kelly silver signature parallel

when i think of baseball and panama, rod carew is the guy who comes to mind. panama is one of the teams that was not automatically included in the field - they had to qualify through a separate round of games. old friend javy guerra is on panama's squad this year.

pool b 

japan is represented by this 1997 bowman's best hideo nomo international inssert

the dodgers have had a fair number of players from japan suit up for them, but nomo is the one i think of first. i didn't see any dodgers - former or present - on the roster for japan.

korea is represented by another 2014 bowman international parallel - this one featuring hyun-jin ryu

ryu is injured and so is not on the roster. i didn't recognize any of the names on the roster from a dodger perspective. of course, chan ho park has several cards that i could have used here as well.

australia is featured in my collection thanks to this 1999 bowman chrome luke prokopec international refractor parallel

that is, of course, the sydney opera house behind him. no dodgers on the aussie squad, i am afraid, however there are a few recognizable major league names on the roster/staff.

china isn't represented in my collection, although former dodger jim lefebvre managed their team in the olympics one year as i recall. 

the czech republic is making their first appearance in the wbc, and there are no dodgers on their roster. tough to have a card in my collection to show when that is the case.

pool c 

the usa is represented by this 2022 topps pristine clayton kershaw pristine borders insert

i have plenty of other dodger cards that could have been used here, but the kershaw is the newest. kershaw is no longer on the team usa roster, but fellow dodgers mookie betts and will smith remain. dino ebel is the third base coach as well.

colombia has former dodger jolbert cabrera at the helm, but i don't have any cards in my dodger collection that reflect his nationality.

mexico is represented by this 1998 upper deck karim garcia national pride insert

i guess it's no surprise that i don't have a fernando valenzuela dodger card to show here, as the country-focused subsets and inserts didn't start showing up until after his dodger career came to an end. i will note that i filled out a sportlots order last year with a 2002 donruss super estrellas ismael valdes nacion de origen insert

not remembering that he was a ranger by then. oh well. there are a couple of dodgers on mexico's roster this year - austin barnes and julio urias - as well as former dodger alex verdugo. former dodger pitcher elmer dessens is the pitching coach, too.

canada is represented here by this 2009 bowman draft picks & prospects russell martin wbc xfractor parallel

martin is a coach for team canada in the tournament this year, as is fellow former dodger paul quantrill. freddie freeman is the only dodger player on the squad.

great britain is making their wbc debut, so my collection comes up short for them, although maybe trayce thompson will be featured on a wbc insert later this year? note that i am not counting the topps uk edition cards i own that feature the union jack on the front for this exercise.

pool d 

puerto rico features a roster that includes former dodgers jose de leon and kiké hernandez. i was surprised to not find any dodger cards representing puerto rico in my collection.

venezuela is represented in my collection by this 2021 panini national treasures keibert ruiz international treasures autograph card

ruiz is not on the roster, but old/new dodger miguel rojas is.

israel isn't represented in my dodger collection, although i did recognize a couple of names on the roster. joc pederson, of course, and also fellow 2020 world champion adam kolarek. neither are with the dodgers anymore as i am sure you well know.

the dominican republic is represented in my dodger collection many times, including by this 2001 upper deck sp game bat milestone edition adrian beltre card.

the country's flag is burned in to the bat chip. keep their flag in mind for later, by the way. this year's dominican team is stacked, and includes one former dodger in manny machado.

nicaragua is the last of the three newcomers to the tournament, and i don't have any dodger cards to represent that country.

so, 12 of 20 countries are represented by cards in my dodger collection. that's not too bad, and i am hoping for some others to be produced as a result of this year's contest.

i do want to give an honorable mention to yasiel puig's 2018 topps update international affair black parallel card

that i pulled from a dime or quarter box a few months ago. his bowman international card up above is a better representation of his home country of cuba, however.

finally, let's never forget the time when upper deck messed up royally in terms of international flavor

and issued a couple of cards of raul mondesi, including the 1996 collector's choice card above, referencing the country of dominica, not mondesi's home country of the dominican republic, and i don't think they have the right coloring on the bird featured on dominica's flag, either.

on with the tournament!

three cards from three stars and more from the card shows

back in august, i visited some of the local card shops with great success. a few weeks ago, i made it to another lcs. this one, three stars sportscards, was one that i hadn't visited for years - and i had never been to their current location in bloomington. they have two locations - the other was closed for a bit but reopened in the same space in a northern twin cities suburb. this location, however, is their flagship.

the reason i have avoided this shop for so long is that you can't dig through boxes of cards. their loose inventory is on beckett marketplace and you have to find the card you want online. it doesn't enhance the lcs experience, that's for sure. however, i was in the immediate vicinity and i actually needed a few ultra pro sheets, so i popped in.  

i found one box of cards on a table with prices marked and dug through. i found a couple of cards that i figured were worth the price they were asking.  then i found bargain table with a bunch of random collectibles on it. included were oversized cards such as this one, which incidentally includes three stars as part of its design:

that's a 2022 topps series 2 box topper card of clayton kershaw. these oversized cards were $5 each or 3 for $10. i grabbed a couple of the other different box toppers and that was it for me.  a couple of the cards i pulled from the loose card box were a 2017 topps high tek cody bellinger rookie card

and a 2018 topps bellinger/yasiel puig black parallel

it's a checklist, of course

but numbered to 67. 

october was a busy month for card shows here in the twin cities and greater minnesota. there was the regular monthly show on the 8th, a mall show from the 14th to the 16th, and another semi-regular show on the 15th in the metro suburbs. plus, there was another show on the 15th not too far from the cities, another mall show from the 21st to the 23rd up in duluth, and one a week later if you dared cross in to wisconsin and get to eau claire. an embarrassment of riches, really.

i made it to the mall show on the 14th and found 169 cards from a combination of quarter, fifty cent, and dollar boxes. in all, i spent $55 on cards and $1 on another collectible. it was a good time digging through these boxes, and i found some decent stuff.

the first table i stopped at had a quarter box organized by teams, which is helpful to a team collector such as myself. lo and behold, i found some needs pretty quickly, like this blast from the past billy ashley insert from 1995 sportflics uc3

more modern cards included this 2017 topps fire kenta maeda flame parallel

and this 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary clayton kershaw card

i knew that i did not need this card as i already owned it, but it was hard for me to leave it behind.

i got one step closer to finishing my 2021 topps fire team set with this keibert ruiz card

and this ruiz card from 2021 topps gypsy queen

actually did complete the team set.

i found a card for my vladdy pc - a 2021 panini donruss retro 87 card, to be exact

plus one for the names/numbers on the back collection from 2018 topps

it's a dumb card as far as the "who's on first?" question goes. where was this card back in 2008 when chin-lung hu was around? this effort reminds me of topps putting out a card in 2019 of max muncy and cody bellinger and calling it "sweet life". if only they knew that zach mckinstry was in the wings, they could have waited and at least got the names right.

just like with the kershaw above, i couldn't leave 2022 topps pristine cards behind. i picked up some brew crew legends and a couple of all-stars

i think the all-star uni cards are short printed, but am not 100% certain.

this guy also had some good stuff in his dollar boxes that wound up being slightly less than a dollar when all was said and done. here are some inserts and parallels, starting with one insert and one insert parallel from 2022 topps of jackie robinson

and moving on to 2022 topps fire parallels of inserts

i was excited to find an eddie murray dodger card that i needed, too!

more parallels from 2022 topps

and more inserts, too

i found a legends variation from 2022 topps as well

plus a decent looking 1975 topps card with the wrong city represented on roy campanella's cap

a nice find for sure. however, the card that made me do a cartoon double take was this next one:

um ok. for a buck! 1975 topps george brett rookie?! it has some issues but i could not leave it behind. just wow.

next up was a guy with a bunch of monster boxes, but only one that had baseball priced lower than a dollar each. i dug through and found some various inserts and parallels that piqued my interest, including this 1995 score summit tim salmon nth degree parallel

the back is interesting to me

with salmon making a catch under the halos' tribute to rod carew and his retired number while sporting the black armband worn in memory of jimmie reese.

did lightning strike twice?

no, it's just a 2010 topps cards your mom threw out insert

of yount's 1975 topps rookie card

the last guy said his lowest priced boxes were 2 for a dollar, but let me know that he was flexible. i wound up with a 3 for a dollar deal. here are some of my favorites i found from this seller.

2021 topps archives mini poster card of the boys of summer

in the words of mookie in a spike lee joint, "i got it, i'm gone".

here's a 2020 topps factory set photo variation of gavin lux's rookie card

and a blue parallel of that 2022 topps max scherzer insert of which i found the base earlier

finally, i like this instant walker buehler rainbow from 2019 panini prizm

this was the first time i had been inside a shopping mall for a couple of years, but it was well worth it. i may be back for the next one in december!

finally, towards the end of october, i made another stop at twin cities sports cards to peruse their nickel boxes. i was in the area killing some time and so took advantage. i put together a pretty good stack, but will only show a couple of cards from the haul.

i added a 2022 topps chrome buster posey card

to my final tribute mini-collection, and a 2018 panini donruss andrew benintendi photo variation card

to my name/number on the back mini-collection.

as for a couple of notable dodger additions, here's the aforementioned zach mckinstry!

i had not seen the target red parallels from this year's heritage before. it doesn't make me want to find more of them.

lastly, here's a gold parallel of  my favorite dodger card from 2006:

i was very happy to find a new nomar parallel for my collection.  i suppose i need to start thinking about my favorite cards from 2022...

there really are a lot of card buying opportunities around these parts at the moment. just another thing for a collector to be thankful for. speaking of being thankful tomorrow is thanksgiving, so here's a 2014 topps turkey red zack greinke card 

it's my first from that set which was only available online as i recall.

happy thanksgiving everyone!