rank and filing on tcdb

i recently spent some time entering my player collections on tcdb, and have since begun entering my dodger collection. i am up to 2002 in that regard, so still have two decades worth of cards to add!  anyway, i figured i would share where things stood with my player collections before i added any cards from the dodger collection.

steve garvey:

according to the database, i own 1,195 of the 2,513 listed garvey cards available. there are many cards in my collection that aren't in the database - some that surprise me and some that don't. my collection spans from the 1971 dell's today stamp to the 2022 topps tribute autographs seen below.  

those are the base, blue, and green parallels.

this total has me at #2 among collectors in the database - just 2 behind the leader. clearly, mrmopar doesn't have his collection entered on tcdb.

don sutton:

after entering my non-dodger sutton cards, including my newly acquired 1981 topps squirt card above, i ranked #7 with 115 cards.

steve yeager:

i was #211 after only entering my non-dodger yeager cards

davey lopes:

using only my non-dodger lopes cards, i was already #1 on the site. to celebrate, i added this 2001 topps gold parallel:

ron cey:

i have 84 ron cey cards (that are in the database) from his time with the cubs and a's. that was good enough for #5

bill russell:

29 non-dodger cards of the shortstop of the team of my youth was enough for #100 among collectors on tcdb. these are his minor league managerial cards, most of which feature him in the dodger organization, but i split them out in to the pc instead.

dusty baker:

i was #6 using just my post-dodger baker cards (no braves). that surprised me, but he does have quite a few managerial cards - the newest of which is this 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary card:

my post-dodger baker collection stands at 79 cards in the database.

rick monday:

i only have one post-dodger rick monday card - it comes from his time as a padres announcer - and it's not in the database.

reggie smith:

using only giant (san francisco and yomimuri) and team usa cards, i ranked #187 among smith collections.

tom lasorda:

my non-dodger lasorda cards only got me to #639. these are only team usa cards, since lasorda has no cards featuring him as a member of any mlb team other than the dodgers.

jimmie hall:

i have 20 jimmie hall cards (not counting those in my 1965 and 1970 complete sets). that's good for #1 on the site.

vladimir guerrero:

this 2005 donruss studio portraits diamond kings red (numbered to 55)

is my latest addition to the pc, and my 586 vladdy cards put me at #6 on the database. 

i haven't catalogued my other player collections - bill simas, mark brunell, wayne gretzky, and luc robitaille, but other than the brunell collection, they are small potatoes.

now that i have begun entering my dodger collection, my database rankings for most of these players have skyrocketed. for example, i am now number 1 for dusty baker cards, and there are a lot more yet to be entered. once i finish with the dodger collection, i'll share some updates. then i will have the mini-collections and sets to add.

well, here's another sad postscript. as i am sure you know, maury wills passed away yesterday.  i was too young to know maury as an active player, but i sure appreciated his career once i began to learn about him in the late 1970's. i was happy to see him appear in a couple of card sets as the mariners' manager in 1981 and even more excited to see his card in the 1982 kmart set.  i had this card

in my blog banner over at garveyceyrusselllopes, even though it was mostly obscured.

i have long hoped that will would be elected to the national baseball hall of fame (and subsequently have his number retired by the dodgers), but have resigned myself to the fact that it will likely not happen. he was a trailblazer who brought the stolen base back into the limelight rather than a longterm, dominant player which counts against his candidacy. he is, however, one of five current "legends of dodger baseball" which is the dodgers' way of recognizing important players in their history who won't get their numbers retired.  rest in peace, maury wills!

topps dusts off the 1978 design! sort of.

i was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon one of the recent topps on demand releases a couple of weeks ago.  these are the sets that are offered for sale online only 'while supplies last'. they are different in that regard from topps now sets, and even topps throwback thursday sets, as i understand it.  this particular set is called "inspired by '78", and features a modified 1978 topps design.

i didn't know about this in time to order a set from topps, so i went to ebay and picked up the two dodgers in the base set - clayton kershaw

and walker buehler

you can see that the big difference here is the full bleed photo.  other modifications include the elimination of the position ball and the smaller type for the player names.  the full bleed effect on the borders makes me think of natgeo.

the backs of these on demand sets are known for their uselessness

the text here seems disingenuous.  if the 1978 topps is such a classic design in topps' eyes, why has it been so sparingly used in fan favorite and archives sets? if the 40th anniversary is worth celebrating, why has the 35th anniversary of 1983 topps dominated the flagship sets?

while the '78 design has been largely absent this decade, it wasn't always this way.  one of the most famous basketball cards used the same design. yes, i'm talking about the 1980 topps larry bird/dr. j/magic johnson card

 in 1981, topps used the team name font on their squirt issue

and on the backs of their super home team cards

 and then there was 1982 cracker jack, which was a sort of mash-up of 1978 and 1979 topps

topps later resurrected the design for some of the early 2000's fan favorite sets. i think the most recent occurrence of the design being used was the reimagining of eddie murray's rookie card as a future stars that never were in 2014, which i featured in a post related to my quest for a 1978 topps master set.

i wound up purchasing a "full" 35-card issue on ebay.  this includes the complete 30-card base set, plus two numbered parallel cards, one 4-in-1 rookie card, one "then and now" card, and one "tfamous flashback" card.  those last three cards are from "insert" sets of varying sizes, so it would take quite a few set purchases to put together a truly full set.  autographs were seeded 1:2 sets, but i got shut out.

i did do ok with one of my numbered parallels - it was the blue (#/50) version of buehler's card

but the other was a purple (#/75) paul goldschmidt.

i did ok with my 4-in-1 rookie card - devers and torres, plus 2

but obviously would have preferred the one with buehler (and ohtani), or the one with alex verdugo (and soto and acuna).

my then & now card, modeled after the manager cards in the 1978 set, features dale murphy and ozzie albies

(shout out to giovanni who has been making some 1978 topps then & now cards for quite some time) there are no dodgers in this insert set, but a don sutton/walker buehler card would have made sense.

the last card in my purchase was the "famous flashback".  these are cards featuring players from the past, most of whom were in the 1978 set.  no steve garvey, or any other dodger in this set, but some nice players like rod carew, carl yastrzemski, eddie murray, jim rice, etc.  my card was joe morgan

it's not everyday that a card features someone wearing a skirt.  getty says that this is a photo of little joe taking bp at shea stadium, but that doesn't help me id the woman watching the reds pregame prep.

maybe the 2,040 sets issued with this 1978 inspired design will spark some ideas at topps, and we'll see more of the original design in next year's archives.  it would be a shame to have to wait until 2027 heritage.