that's the holiday spirit!

we are currently six months out from christmas, and i am finally getting around to posting some cards that came my way shortly after santa wrapped up his 2024 tour and baby new year ushered in 2025. this is an oversized shohei ohtani ornament

from 2024 topps holiday, and this is a yoshinobu yamamoto christmas light necklace short print variation

from the same set.

the yamamoto came from brian at highly subjective and completely arbitrary at the january club show. he handed over some other yamamoto rookies, including a 2024 topps update duo of foil parallels

plus a "let him cook" insert

which is actually a blue parallel of the insert. i am not familiar with the turn of phrase, but i can guess as to what it means. i also didn't know what "drip" was until big league included some inserts a few years ago. i am old and not hip to these terms.

here's a gold foil parallel of landon knack

and a purple holo foil kyle hurt parallel

which are also from topps update last year.

i was happy to see this 2024 topps rip night mookie betts card

in the stack as i didn't have any of these and really didn't know of any local rip nights. not that i would have participated, but i do like to get oddballs like these. 

to top things off, brian exorcised some of my 2024 topps stadium club demons by giving me six pink parallels!

some big names there, too.

a week or so later, i was inspired by brian's luck to try my hand again at a hanger pack of stadium club, now located on an endcap in the toy section of my target. finally, i found a dodger pack with three needed pink foils!

yay for my collection.

as for the ohtani up top, that was sent by madding of cards on cards around the same time as i was meeting brian at the card show. kerry also sent some 2024 topps archives needs

they were needs and new back then, but old hat now.

here's a 2021 panini contenders zack mckinstry rookie of the year contenders insert

and a 2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary bobby miller refractor

that were needs as well.

i generally steer away from buying bowman product, and i didn't buy any in 2023, so this mairoshendrick martinus green pattern border parallel

was new to me. hailing from curacao, martinus is currently playing third base for the dodgers in a-ball. i suppose his name may bring to mind key & peele college football bits, but in baseball players don't introduce themselves that way.

to bring this post full circle, i ran into brian at the june club show last weekend. rather, he found me at what has become my traditional first stop, the bargain boxes set out by one of the regular sellers at these shows. this time, we had the presence of mind to document the meetup with a photo of our wallet cards

that's twins world champion junior ortiz for brian, and one-time twins draft pick steve garvey for me (he didn't sign). brian told me that he's been running an instagram account in lieu of blogging - check out tradingcardoftheday on insta if you are so inclined - and that his dodger luck in opening packs is still strong. to prove his point, he handed over more cards, including a host of 2025 topps dodger parallels.

austin barnes rainbow foil

will smith confetti

chris taylor holofoil

yoshinobu yamamoto fanatics topps logo foil

teoscar hernandez diamante foil

james outman holiday (sun)

not to mention a freddie freeman ops leaders insert

and a clayton kershaw 1990 35th anniversary insert

that is some good dodger luck, indeed.

brian also gave me a 1997 leaf todd hollandsworth banner seasons insert

a 2023 topps trea turner major league material relic card

a 2024 topps brusdar graterol blue holofoil parallel

and my first look at 2024 topps japan edition with a freddie freeman base

and a yoshinobu yamamoto strikezone heroes insert

brian even hit my tatooine minicollection with a 2019 bowman draft conner capel

and a brand spanking new 2025 topps barry larkin 1990 35th anniversary insert

i gave brian a small team bag of twins that i had been stockpiling and we went about our card show business. i stayed at those bargain boxes for a while but ran into brian again near the exit. i gave him a couple of cards i had found in a dime box and pulled for him, and he handed over another card that he found for me at the show (a 2004 topps brady clark gold parallel)

and then mentioned that he had an oversized card that he had forgotten to give me earlier - it was a 2024 topps holiday mookie betts ornament!

i love it when a post comes together!

thanks brian and kerry! and, only about 182 shopping days until christmas!

smaller fish from the rivercentre card show

growing up in the 1970's and 80's, video games were a huge part of my youth. we didn't have pong, which got its own card from 2021 topps heritage

but we did have a single console game centered around tanks that worked through a sort of maze firing at each other. we later skipped the atari 2600 and went for the atari 800 computer and then spent an ungodly amount of time playing centipede and frogger in our family room. when i wasn't sorting my baseball cards, of course.

the heritage card was one of many i picked up at the semi-annual card show in st. paul last month, in addition to the dollar box cards i shared previously in this post.

i began that show by picking out sixty cards from a dime box plus eight from a quarter box for 8 bucks. these boxes were sorted by team which was great. i found a number of dodgers for my collection, including 2022 panini capstone summit inserts of mookie betts and freddie freeman

and a pair of 2023 topps chrome sapphire edition cards of walker buehler and tony gonsolin

along with a 2023 bowman insert of andy pages

i learned recently that his last name is not pronounced as "pages" like a book.

there were a number of numbered cards that i grabbed, including a couple of dodgers

and some others that i can use in trades.

i grabbed a couple of insert cards that would fit in rex ryan's collection from 2022 topps

including a rare dime box appearance by mike trout.

the higher priced cards included parallels such as these

all former dodgers at this point, but still dodgers in my collection.

this seller and i bonded over the simple joy of sorting cards. he got a wistful look on his face while talking about it, in fact.

i also took 20 cards from a 50 cent box that i got for seven bucks. these included run of the mill parallels like a 2021 topps gypsy queen mookie betts green

and the chrome version of the 2021 topps update 1992 redux clayton kershaw card

i also found a fair amount of heritage in this box, including a 2024 emmet sheehan card

for the team set. in all, i didn't see a whole lot of 2024 heritage at the show which was somewhat surprising as it was the newest release at the time.

other heritage sets were represented, including the atari card above and 2021 high numbers with roberto clemente

and 1972 world series

inserts. i am sort of annoyed that these sorts of cards didn't happen with last year's heritage, because joe ferguson deserved a card for his throw from the outfield in game 1 of the 1974 world series to nail sal bando at the plate.

i also grabbed a couple of (very) base relic cards from 2021 panini donruss

the pache goes into my trade pile with sluggo, and i have a soft spot for keston hiura and hope he turns his career around. zot!

this seller told me that he spent thursday (i was there on friday) going through the bargain boxes of other dealers to populate his box, so i am guessing that these were all dime or quarter cards at the time he bought them.

speaking of dimes, i had two quarters in my pocket and so picked five cards from a true dime box that another seller had off to the side of their setup. this was a classic dime box with stuff that had probably been in there for 20 years or more. here's what i took:

1995 topps stadium club clearcut greg vaughn

1995 topps stadium club ring leaders will clark

1999 upper deck century legends memorable shots carlton fisk

and kirk gibson

and 2017 topps gallery canvas sean newcomb

the two century legends cards go in the name/number on the back mini-collection. the others include an acetate card and the most pacific looking insert topps has ever produced, and a card for sluggo. after i put down my fifty cents, the seller somewhat jokingly told me to "take some more" cards. i wasn't sure if they were serious, so i didn't follow through.

i found a fifty cent box from another seller that netted a couple of dodger needs, including a 2020 topps gallery jackie robinson short print

and a 2020 topps update mike piazza turkey red chrome parallel

along with a couple of other hall of famer cards:

 2020 topps gallery rickey henderson hall of fame gallery

and 2022 topps heritage hank aaron 1973 comics

which includes an eddie mathews appearance. i paid the full price of $2 for these! 

last, but not least, i took 3 cards from the 3 for $10 box that another seller had laid out. with this box, i limited myself to three cards and didn't pick any dodger cards. or any cards that i think will ultimately stay in my collection to be honest. they were more cards that intrigued me. like....

2012 leaf history of baseball jim colborn cut autograph

here's the back

this card amused me because colborn added the notation of "major league pitcher". i would love to know the background behind the source for this autograph. was he at a mixer? a celebrity golf tournament after party? did this come from a nametag? so many questions. as for colborn himself, he is a former dodger pitching coach with whom i've had a short interaction so the card spoke to me beyond just the interesting inscription.

2018 topps gold label lucas sims gold framed autograph red #/25

another one that will likely be added to the sluggo pile. wish i could find a similar card of a dodger in these boxes!

last but not least, here's a 2016 leaf perfect game yellow printing plate auto 1/1 of jo adell

and the back

adell is still only 25 years old, and is set as the angels' primary right fielder this year. he's on pace for just about 30 home runs, and i am rooting for him and prospectors everywhere that he breaks out! at any rate, a signed printing plate for $3.33 is not a bad deal as far as i am concerned.

i have some cards from one more seller at this show to share and then i'll move on to my visit to a houston card show and what came out of that. stay tuned!