more tales from the trade super collider

here are some more cards i received from arpsmith recently

2009 topps walmart black casey blake

and chad billingsley

plus a 2012 topps heritage aaron harang

there were more cards, too, but one can only scan so many.  i picked the harang because who knows why.

brian at play at the plate included some chrome stuff from 2011 - andre ethier orange refractor

and jerry sands regular refractor.

i think the sands is a refractor, anyway.  sands is really struggling in aaa this year.  with mccutcheon, marte, and travis snider in the bigs, there isn't much room for sands.  add jose tabata to the mix, and it looks like it will be tough for sands to break through in pittsburgh.

here's a matt kemp 2012 bowman gold parallel

and a purple parallel(ogram) from 2012 bowman prospects of jt wise

wise is in aa this year, hitting .265 and playing first base.  his way also seems blocked.

a few more from brian - 2012 topps gypsy queen sandy koufax gold frame parallel

and some 2012 bowman platinum - andre ethier

and clatyon kershaw

if i recall correctly, those are just the base versions, not blue parallels.  they scan up real nice.  there are a few colored parallels, though - gold, emerald, and ruby

speaking of which, doc holoday sent me one of those

it's nice even in it's miscut glory.  i have to remember to stop putting shiny cards on the left part of my scanner.

finally (for this post) here is a 2012 topps jerry sands gold sparkle

thanks again guys!

when trades collide

i have had the pleasure recently of completing a number of great trades.  sometimes, when the trades are happening quickly and concurrently, overlap happens.  i probably should work harder to get my want lists under control (and updated), but i am in no way complaining.

here's a 2013 topps johnny podres auto from the chasing history insert set

i wish that there were base versions of all of the auto cards in this insert set.  there is a steve garvey auto in series 2, but no regular base.  i am guessing that the auto is short printed, too, based on the fact that only two have been up on ebay in the last week.

here are some true parallels from 2013 topps - brandon league

and his replacement at closer, kenley jansen

thanks arpsmith!

doc holoday got into the trade action, too, with some walmart blue borders of his own.  here's a 2012 topps aaron harang parallel

 and a 2012 topps kenley jansen as well

doc went to target for some 2012 topps update - here are the jerry hairston

 and aj ellis target parallels

hard to believe i haven't shown that card on here before.  i think there were a number of blogs that showcased that card, so that's probably why i didn't bother.  yup - i just checked my scanned folder and pretty much all of my 2012 update cards are still sitting there.  except for adam kennedy, of course.

moving on to 2013, here is aj ellis' walmart blue parallel from the flagship

again with a lurker

and here's chad billingsley, too

thanks doc!

here's bills

and aj again

courtesy of brian at play at the plate

he also sent the dee gordon walmart blue parallel

in all of its double play glory

plus paco rodriguez

jerry hairston

and a target red parallel of andre ethier

so, certainly some overlap there with the cards and players received in each package.  the big overlap, however, was that brian also sent this card

dos podres-es!

owning two sticker autos of a deceased world series mvp is not a bad problem to have.

thanks guys for the trades - i will be showing more of the loot from these deals later!

nothing compares 2 u

well, it's time for the annual 'topps flagship/topps dodger factory team set' card comparison.  in 2012, topps issued a 17-card set chock full of dodger variants.  let's take a look.  as always, it's flagship on the left, factory set on the right.

i'll start with the factory set card that has no equivalent in the flagship set - the dodger stadium card - which also happens to be card number lad17, the last card in the set.

it's real purty.

now we'll go in number order - from lad1 to lad16.  here's number 1, matt kemp.

it's the same.

lad2, jerry sands

a photo variation!  can't wait until 2013 topps comes out, and we can see one of these images photoshopped into red sox stuff.

lad3 - mark ellis

photo/cropping variation.  also photoshopped.  it's hard to believe that topps couldn't get an actual photo of ellis in a dodger uniform for series 2.

lad4 - juan uribe

i'm not sure that we want to get a closer look at juan uribe, but the factory set takes us there just in case.

lad5 - juan rivera

back to the same ol', same ol'

lad6 - ted lilly

more of the same.  will he even be in the factory team set next year?

lad7 - andre ethier

mild - not extreme - closeup.

lad8 - clayton kershaw

it's the same.  still a nice card.

lad9 - james loney

same goes for loney.  still a nice card

lad10 - kenley jansen

more adventures in tighter crops

lad11 - aaron harang

ditto.  makes me wonder why they left ted lilly alone.

lad12 - tony gwynn, jr

finally, another true photo variation!  although i prefer the photo from the flagship set.

lad13 - dee gordon

it's the same, but it's a good card.  i am glad the factory team set used this photo and not the one from gordon's rookie cup card.

lad14 - chad billingsley

this one was best left alone.  nice bullpen shot in the background.

lad15 - javy guerra

there's no use even trying to improve upon the handshake card.  thanks topps, for not even trying.

lad16 - nathan eovaldi

and, we finish with 4 cards in a row that are the same between the two sets.  still, there were 8 cards that were different.  i'm hoping 2013 brings even more.