calm before the next round

the dodgers passed the first test of the 2025 postseason, as did the tigers, cubs, and yankees. they did so in not quite as exciting a fashion as the 2021 club who used a chris taylor walk-off home run to advance from the wild card (game, not round, back then). here's a 2022 topps green foil parallel that celebrates that moment

interestingly enough, taylor did not get a card of his own in flagship in 2022 - just this one which is actually a checklist. he did get a relic card though

and was featured in some of the other topps sets so he wasn't totally forgotten about. no chris taylor card in update this year, at least not that i saw when i perused the checklist.

the dodgers dispatched the reds in the first round, saying hello and goodbye to old friend gavin lux in the process. here's a 2021 topps big league rainbow foil parallel of lux

that i meant to post prior to the series.

now the dodgers go on to face a somewhat familiar postseason foe - the phillies. it's a matchup straight out of my childhood (as well as 2008 and 2009), although not in the nlcs this year. there are a couple of familiar faces on the other side of the matchup that we will see - trea turner

featured there on a 2022 topps significant statistics insert. today i learned what "bolts" are. i've had this card in my collection and my scanned folder (as well as the uk edition version) for a couple of years and never bothered to look at the stat that topps deemed significant. bottom line is that turner is fast and scores runs.

walker buehler is another phillie. here are his 2022 topps chrome refractor parallel

and his 2021 topps 1986 chrome silver pack 

cards. i wonder if he will get a playoff share from the red sox, too. i'll be honest; when the red sox released him i hoped that the dodgers would bring him back.

i mentioned that the tigers are moving on, and here's a 2024 topps heritage high number card of andre lipcius

i show it because lipcius' only major league experience came with the tigers in 2023. topps was highly speculative when they included him in the checklist for 2024 heritage high numbers, and it didn't match up with the dodgers' roster decisions. these days it looks like he is in the white sox organization. 

now i figure i should show some actual dodgers who will participate in the series against the phillies. here's mookie betts on a 2020 topps of the class card

freddie freeman on a 2022 topps 582 montgomery card, 

and shohei ohtani on a 2025 topps 2024 all topps team insert

ohtani will pitch in the series, and i am looking forward to seeing him match up against kyle schwarber among others. no baseball tonight but plenty of action starting tomorrow!

one down, still nine to go

you might recognize the title of this post as i've used it before. it means that i have added one of my "nefarious 9" - my most wanted cards. of course, that also means that a new card has been added to the list. the list is dead, long live the list.

this time, the card obtained was....

2022 topps chrome #84 albert pujols refractor parallel

unfortunately i forgot to scan the back and i didn't bother to dig the card out of the binder for this post.

here are the facts about this card:

position on the nefarious 9 list: 8

how long was it on the list? it lasted four months on the list (added on march 1, 2025)

why was it on the list? this refractor was the last one i needed to complete my dodger team set of the basic refractor parallels

how was it obtained? this card came to me as part of a sportlots order in july of 2025

what replaced it on the list?  2021 topps stadium club chrome #283 tony gonsolin

one question i don't typically include in these posts is what prompted me to purchase the card (aside from the fact that it was one of the nefarious 9)? in this case, kevin the diamond king reached out and asked if i also needed the pujols prism refractor. i did, and he sent it

along with a bunch of other dodger cards. i figured if he was going to send me the prism refractor, i might as well get the regular refractor. and so i did.

the other cards kevin sent were just fantastic. here is a colorful trio of 2020 panini donruss tony gonsolin parallels

plus a holo prizm of the same card from the donruss optic line

i think i will start calling him "gonso-long" since he is on the 60-day il so often.

how about a 2020 panini chronicles dustin may phoenix pink parallel?

it's numbered to 25

so thank you very much!

i found out that topps did a collaboration with derek jeter in 2022 because kevin included this 2022 topps x derek jeter call of the captain clayton kershaw card

it's actually a blue parallel, and is numbered to 175

and then there was a 2017 panini black friday kershaw manupatch

but none of those cards were the biggest surprise in the bunch.

the biggest surprise of the lot was this 2022 leaf in the game used sports triple relic rainbow cracked ice card

that features hall of famers duke snider, gil hodges, and walter alston. just a tremendous card to see in the package. all three of those numbers are retired by the dodgers, as is number 34. so, not too many "4s" left. i wonder if kenley jansen will make the hall of fame and have his number 74 retired by the club.

thanks kevin - i have some cards on their way to you! and please let me know if you can help a blogger out with any of the cards on my nefarious 9 - you will be rewarded!

worth the price of admission

i went to the semi-annual big old card show in st. paul a couple of weeks ago. this was a hotel show last fall, but has been held in the st. paul rivercentre for the last two occurrences, which is a big improvement in terms of space.

i went on the friday - it was open on thursday to vendors and vip types - and so i am sure i missed some of the larger crowds who were likely there on saturday and sunday. still, most tables were full and some patrons were in full body odor mode.

as you might imagine, most tables seemed focused on slabbed stuff, and there were more than a couple tables that were solely pokemon, but i still found some bargain boxes to dig through, which is my card show jam. i wound up with about 200 cards in total, and i didn't pay more than $2 for any of them. in fact, the average price turned out to be around 70 cents - a bit more if you factor in the cost of admission which was $15.

for that price, i was given a paper ticket, and not a qr code

that was unexpected as i didn't know paper tickets were still a thing at any venue.

as we move to the cards, i will go straight to what was worth the price of admission. this 2024 topps chrome shohei ohtani card

is presumably worth $20 due to the anticipated mvp buyback program and ohtani's status as the national league frontrunner. the dealer i bought it from had it in a 50 cent box. that same dealer had this 2024 topps trading card day ohtani

for the same price. i wound up buying some other cards from his box just to spend a little bit more for him.

another dealer had this 2024 topps chrome black ohtani

in a dollar box. here's yoshinobu yamamoto's 2024 topps chrome card

that was in the same 50 cent box as the ohtani chrome card.

some other dodger favorites that i picked up at the show include this 2023 topps heritage bill buckner 50th (really 49th) anniversary card

and a 2015 topps heritage adrian gonzalez action variation card

from a quarter box of 70s and 80s cards came this 1984 sports design products duke snider card

and the lone card that i paid $2 for was this 2020 topps corey seager photo variation

i am always going to pull albert pujols dodger cards from these bargain boxes, and some of the ones i found were these three chrome parallels/ben baller edition cards

i also found a sheldon neuse dodger card - it's a 2022 panini donruss pink fireworks parallel autograph

of a guy who played in 33 games for the dodgers in 2021. i don't think he has a non-autograph card showing him as a dodger.

i am not going to add panini sets to my dodger want lists anymore, but i did still spend a few minutes looking through a big monster box of 2024 donruss. i was mostly looking for parallels for others but did grab a jackie robinson foil parallel

plus a couple of vladimir guerrero inserts

that first one is an homage to the 1984 action all-stars oddball release. another seller had this 1999 pacific revolution tripleheader

which was a no-brainer for me to pick up for some loose change.

i did not know that 2024 topps dynamic duals was a thing, nor that it was out, but someone was selling a few singles and i grabbed a dusty baker and lou piniella mashup

i figure we will continue to see johnnie b baker show up in future card releases which is fine by me.

speaking of mash ups, here is a 2022 topps stadium chrome bo jackson card showing him shaking hands with ronald reagan

i thought that someone might want the card, but there is a scratch on it above ronnie's head, so i put this one in my lurkers collection.

my double play collection benefitted from the show with this 2023 topps chrome josh smith sepia refractor parallel

and this 2006 topps chrome felipe lopez red refractor parallel

the lopez parallel is numbered to 90, but that's not the lowest numbered card i picked up at the show. i will probably show more of those cards in a different post, but here is a sample of the variety of parallels and serial numbered cards that i added to my stacks

i was also somewhat surprised to be able to buy a fernando tatis jr rookie card for less than a buck

even if it is from a set like 2019 topps holiday.

there was so much more to my haul, but i will stop there for now. maybe there will be another post with cards from this show, but i have another show's worth of stuff to show off so who knows.

the k is for kershaw kountdown continues

clayton kershaw was on the mound to kick off the dodgers’ road trip in milwaukee on monday night, and so the k is for kershaw kountdown is back.

kershaw pitched into the fifth inning and beyond for the first time this year, striking out 6 batters to give him 17 strikeouts for the 2024 season. those 6 brewers that he k'd increased his career total to 2,961.

in honor of his performance, here are 6 not seen on this blog before cards from my collection to represent strikeouts 2,956 through 2,961.

2,956 - 2020 topps chrome refractor

2,957 - 2020 topps chrome prism refractor

2,958 - 2020 topps chrome ben baller

2,959 - 2022 topps gold foil

2,960 - 2022 topps chrome prism refractor

2,961 - 2022 topps uk edition

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there until he passes zack greinke. greinke, who hasn't formally retired but hasn't joined a team so far in 2024, has a career strikeout total of 2,979. kershaw is now 18 k's behind greinke and 39 away from the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw wound up pitching 5.2 innings, allowing one run on three hits and two walks. the run he gave up scored on a home run allowed by joe kelly, but kelly and the rest of the dodger relievers held on to give kershaw his first win of the year.

kershaw should be back on the mound this weekend in saint louis. know that when kershaw makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

hey jesse! now chrome!

there is no jessie, but as far as chrome goes, every "time" it is released, i am resigned to purchasing a box or some packs because "i think i want to know ya".  that was the case this year, although i was once again reminded that there is not much new there. i like the refractors fine, but it gets repetitive. anyway, before i show some 2023 stuff i realized that i didn't say much about 2022 topps chrome last year (which probably says all you need to know), but i scanned a bunch of the cards and "i need to show ya" so "check it out".

i'll start off with some of the non-parallel inserts, like this mookie betts "pinstriped" card

i have no idea why this insert set is call "pinstriped". the dodgers, of course, do not have a pinstriped uniform.

max muncy "heart of the city"

i am a bit turned around with the photo of downtown los angeles, but it looks like the photo was taken from the east looking west, perhaps somewhere between the 1st street viaduct and the 101. this would put giant max muncy in westlake, a bit north of macarthur park.

trea turner "new classics"

the back of the card compares turner to hall of famer tim raines, who i guess would then be considered an "old classic", or i suppose just "classic"

here's turner's base card

which is his base and not the chrome sonic base, even thought the topps chrome logo is on the left.

as i mentioned, i still go for refractors, so here are some base refractors - andre jackson

and justin turner

plus muncy paired with his sepia refractor

i have sepia refractors of clayton kershaw

and julio urias

as well.

pink refractors are still provided in retail stuff (blasters, i think), and here's justin turner's

and kershaw's

here's a prism refractor of mookie betts

and the xfractor of kershaw

there are, of course, way more refractor parallels out there, including a large number of numbered parallels.

chrome update is also still a thing, with their exclusive purple refractors like freddie freeman's here

and this nice josh rojas double play turn here

and then there are the extra chrome sets, like chrome sapphire edition

which is a true parallel set to flagship - series 1, 2, and update. i only have a few, including will smith's card, which features a whole lot of blue!

another chrome set issued the last couple of years has been chrome black. i have a couple base cards that i've picked up, but mostly what i've added from these releases are more steve garvey autograph cards. here are the ones from 2022 that i've picked up

"base"

refractor /199

green refractor /99

gold refractor /50

the "wormhole" background shows up pretty well on the refractors. i always wonder about chrome cards that don't look very appealing in their non-refractor format - like what is the point?

aside from chome sonic (and, i suppose, chrome ben baller) perhaps the most useless chrome release in 2022 was "logofractor". i found a kershaw card cheap 

i think the seller got it confused with an xfractor. topps is just a step away from the panini-esque emoji parallels. in fact, i wonder if this is them flaunting their license in panini's face.

as for 2023 topps chrome, here's kershaw's base card

which is just the chrome-ified version of his base card. i picked up a base dodger team set, and didn't see any differences between the other cards and their flagship versions, either. however, i also picked up a couple of packs and did notice that michael harris ii got a different photo in chrome

so at least that is different.  i really do hope fanatics is going to pull back on some of the chrome releases in 2023 - only (the) "time" will tell.