how about the foldouts from the steve garvey binders?

foldout cards kind of ticked me off when they first started showing up.  what good are they if they are to remain folded up?  i remember seeing some hard cases that would display the cards, but i'm a binder guy, not a hard case sort.  it's a good thing, then, that i found some 3-pocket pages (not the postcard kind) that work well with these things.

have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams team terrific game used hat logo relic (with bill russell, davey lopes, dusty baker, ron cey, and steve yeager) /50
2. 2004 upper deck legends timeless teams team terrific game used team logo relic (with bill russell, davey lopes, dusty baker, ron cey, and steve yeager) /85
3. 2009 topps sterling sterling season relic autographs /10

three cards that celebrate the teams of my youth - mainly the 1977 and 1978 pennant winning years.  you know that i am a big fan of the timeless teams set, and i sure would like to find the other versions of that foldout relic card.  there's a version with the timeless teams brand (/35) seared into the bat pieces as well as one with the national league logo (/15), and one with stats (/5) - although i'm not sure what the stats one looks like.  i was a bit disappointed to find that the sterling card wasn't a patch card, but rather just material from the team's away jerseys during the time that they had color at the base of the sleeves.

here are the backs:

this is the last sheet in the main card part of my steve garvey binders:

those cards are:

1. 2011 topps triple threads relic combos double (with duke snider, sandy koufax, clayton kershaw, andre ethier, and matt kemp) /36
2. 2013 panini america's pastime hitter's ink booklet (with tony gwynn) auto /25

i really should move that hitter's ink booklet to a 2-pocket page.  i find it interesting that over steve garvey's career, he only had two teammates (for any substantial amount of time - i'm not counting the likes of jim bunning, hoyt wilhelm and frank robinson) who made the hall of fame - don sutton and tony gwynn.  and with this gwynn card, i have dual auto cards for garvey and both of those teammates.

here are the backs:

i mentioned before that i'll have a living post for my garvey collection that i'll update as i add cards. it will be more for my use than anyone else's, i imagine, but it will be cool to have it all in one place.

it's time for the encased cards from the steve garvey binders

you've seen the 9-pocket pages and the 8-pocket pages, so now let's see the 4-pocket pages from the steve garvey binders.  to be clear, these are not the pages with graded cards that are part of the oddball binders, but rather regular issue cards that were actually distributed in sealed cases.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2003 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2003 topps retired signature autographs (with "6" inscription)
3. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons material prime relic /6
4. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material number relic/auto /6

those are some pretty sorry relics for cards numbered to 6.

here are the backs:

and here's the second sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2004 playoff prime cuts ii mlb icons signature material combo auto/relic /6
2. 2004 topps originals signature 1979 buyback auto /26
3. 2004 topps originals signature 1983 buyback auto /19
4. 2005 topps pristine legends refractors /549

1979 topps cards are pretty popular as far as buybacks go.  there are plenty of others from this set, however, including 1 1971 card, 1 1975 card, 4 1976 cards, 5 1980 cards, 10 1981 cards, a whopping 122 1982 cards, 32 1984 cards, and 129 1985 cards.  no 1978 cards, unfortunately.

here are the backs:

here's the third sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2005 topps retired signature autographs
2. 2008 tristar signa cuts 1984 donruss auto /25
3. 2013 panini hall heroes private signings auto /10

here are the backs:

looks like i have room for one more.

there are a few more cards to show before i'm done with the steve garvey binders, so stay tuned...

i'd really like to find one more auto card from 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic for the steve garvey binder

here are the other two 8-pocket pages from my steve garvey binders. they contain the thicker cards that just don't fit in the standard 9-pocket sheets.  you'll see what i meant in the title of this post when you see these sheets.  here's the first one:

those cards are:

1. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic signatures gold stitch black ink autograph /99
2. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic signatures gold stitch blue ink autograph /50
3. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic signatures barrel blue ink autograph /75
4. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic signatures barrel black ink autograph /50
5. 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic dual signatures gold stitch black ink autograph (with reggie smith) /15
6. 2008 topps sterling jumbo patch relic (dodgers - 36) 1/1
7. 2008 topps sterling jumbo patch relic (dodgers - 13) 1/1
8. 2010 topps update manufactured bat barrel /99

there are plenty more sweet spot classic auto cards to be had, too, as there are red stitch and black stitch and leather cards in various quantities out there, including a red stitch version of the former most wanted dual auto with reggie smith card.  i recently missed out on a leather version of the garvey auto, which is too bad becasuse i don't have one of those, and also because it would have greatly improved the feng shui of the sheet.  those two sterling cards are serial numbered 1/1, but there are a number of them.  there are both dodger and padre versions, and there are at least 36 of the dodger version, since i have one numbered on the back as "sgd36" and the other is "sgd10".

here are the backs:

yes, the gold stitch/black ink card was a graded card when i obtained it. i've kept the grading info for posterity, but the card itself has long been free from its plastic cage.

here's the next sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2010 topps update manufactured bat barrel /25
2. 2011 topps marquee acclaimed impressions dual relic autographs (with '6' inscription; red patch and gray jersey) /126
3. 2011 topps marquee acclaimed impressions dual relic autographs (blue patch and gray jersey) /126
4. 2011 topps update commemorative patch
5. 2012 topps gold world series champions pin
6. 2013 topps museum collection primary pieces four player quad relics (with andre ethier, matt kemp, and sandy koufax) /99
7. 2013 topps museum collection primary pieces four player quad relics copper (with andre ethier, matt kemp, and sandy koufax) /75

once again, i have two versions of the marquee dual relic auto card because of the nice red patch.  speaking of patches, even though i only have the /99 and /75 versions of the museum collection card, i have seen versions from those print runs with patches on the ethier and/or kemp relics.  the /25 gold version definitely features patches from those two.

here are the backs:

so, one more card would fill out the 8-pocket sheets nicely, not that they are too bad to begin with, i suppose.

eight-pocket pages in the steve garvey binders hold some sweet cards from sweet spot

there are quite a few cards that are a bit too thick to fit into the standard 9-pocket pages in my steve garvey binders.  so, i've got them in 8-pocket pages where they fit pretty well.  here are the first two such pages:

those cards are:

1. 2002 upper deck sweet spot legendary signatures autograph - print run of 871
2. 2002 upper deck sweet spot legendary signatures autograph (with '6' inscription) - print run of 871
3. 2002 upper deck sweet spot classics signatures autograph
4. 2002 upper deck sweet spot classics signatures autograph (with '6' inscription)
5. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic classic greats autograph black ink /174
6. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch (los angeles dodgers)
7. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch (san diego padres) /350
8. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch relic /150 (red patch with white jersey)

sweet spot autos were pretty cool when they were first introduced.  heck, they are still cool today.  i'm glad that garvey or someone at upper deck had the good sense to use ballpoint pen on these cards back then instead of the disappearing ink that was used in 2007.  in 2003, upper deck brought us inserts that included manufactured patches along with game used patches.  you know i am a sucker for those red number patch cards!  so much so, we'll see another one in a bit.

here are the backs:

here's the next sheet:

those cards are:

1. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch relic /150 (red patch)
2. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch relic /150 (blue patch with white jersey)
3. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch relic /150 (blue and white patch with gray jersey)
4. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch 1977 world series /50
5. 2003 upper deck sweet spot classic patch 1981 world series /50
6. 2004 upper deck sp game used patch legendary fabrics autograph dual relic/auto (blue patches) /25
7. 2004 upper deck sp game uesd patch legendary fabrics autograph dual relic/auto (blue patch with white jersey)
8. 2005 leaf century collection pennant patches signature relic/auto /25

more game worn patches (including a nothing-but-the-red-number patch) and manupatches.  and then there are sticker autos.  on the bright side, that leaf century collection card is great, but would be better if it celebrated the 1974, 1977, 1978, or 1981 pennants that garvey helped win instead of the 1984 pennant.

here are the backs:

still more to come...

bringing the steve garvey binders up to the present

steve garvey has maintained a presence in card sets since he last played in a big league game in 1987, and i am happy for it.  i don't have a lot of his recent cards - mostly due to the vast number of parallels - but i have some.

here is sheet 71 from my steve garvey binders:

those cards are:

1. 2013 topps museum collection jumbo lumber relic /30
2. 2013 topps tribute tribute to the stars autograph /24
3. 2014 panini classics significant signatures silver autograph /199
4. 2014  panini immaculate collection immaculate ink /49
5. 2014 topps 75th anniversary stamped 1975 topps mvp buyback
6. 2014 topps 75th anniversary stamped 1979 topps buyback
7. 2014 topps museum collection jumbo lumber relic /25
8. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions
9. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions mini

not much difference between the 2013 and 2014 museum collection relics, is there?  getting back to the parallels, there are three different versions of the 2013 topps tribute tribute to the stars, each numbered to 24, plus purple parallels of each numbered to 1.  lots more parallels of most of the other cards on the sheet, too.  i can't find any information on the 75th anniversary buybacks as far as which garvey cards were part of the buyback, but i am happy to have two of them.

here are the backs:

only three cards on this last sheet as of now, although cards will get pushed as i add some 2005 donruss studio parallels and other cards that i've picked up in the last couple of weeks, and find that 2013 panini hometown heroes card that went awol.

here's sheet 72:

those cards are:

1. 2014 upper deck goodwin champions autograph
2. 2015 donruss signature series blue autograph /49
3. 2015 topps original stamped 1979 topps buyback

looks like topps bought a few of the 1979 topps card - it was a double print, after all.

here are the backs:

so that brings an end to the 9-pocket pages, but don't worry, there are still a few more sheets to be shown.  stay tuned...

more cards from night owl, plus a contest

there were too many good cards sent my way by night owl to be contained to a single post, so here are some more.

this 1996 select certified wilton guerrero card

actually shows roger cedeno

1994 topps traded chan ho park

this is park, obviously, and it looks like he's pitching in a high school stadium

speaking of high school, here's a 2012 panini triple play matt kemp when i was a kid card

the back is all about how basketball was kemp's primary sport until late in his high school years.  now, is this card better than the early 70's topps boyhood photos of the stars subsets?  maybe.  but then again, maybe a black and white picture of kemp posterizing some kid under the basket would have been ok, too.

2003 topps bazooka paul loduca relic

2004 topps clubhouse collection chin-feng chen relic

2004 topps traded edwin jackson relic

2007 bowman heritage jeff kent relic

and 2008 topps brad penny relic

night owl was purging his relics, and i was one of the beneficiaries.

like i said, a lot of good cards there.  speaking of good cards, i've been meaning to have another contest of sorts.  i have a lot of good cards to trade.  you may have some dodgers you want to get rid of.  and, there are a lot of good cards up in my header.  just in case you aren't looking at the web version of the blog, here's my header, or at least the cards:

and here's the contest.

i count 31 cards in my header.  all you have to do is identify them.  get it right, and i'll send you up to 9 pre-1980 cards from the team of your choice in a pwe.  you can send one or two dodger cards back, if you like, but it's not required. heck, i'll probably send cards just for trying since there are a couple of obscured cards, plus a tricky one in there.  to make things easier, i've set up a key for the header:

you should be able to click that to get a larger version, but let me know if you need me to email it to you.  speaking of email, you can send your list (and mailing address) to me at gcrlatcomcastdotnet, and please do so by noon pacific on saturday the 25th.  good luck.  and thanks for the cards, night owl!

night owl sent a lot of lefties

i am glad that night owl is a dodger fan.  the well deserved popularity of his blog brings with it an expanded trading pool, and other dodger collectors like myself benefit from the hand me downs.

it's been quite a while since i received my most recent package of dodgers from new york state, yet i haven't finished putting together the return package.  what do you get the card collector that has too few holes in his collection?  i'm working on it.

one thing i noticed was that there were a lot of left-handed dodgers in the package he sent.  like johnny podres, of whom there was a 1961 post card

fast forward about 40 years, and we find kaz ishii on a 2002 fleer tradition update this day in history relic card

and a 2005 topps heritage chrome refractor

the relic card references may 4 (may the fourth be with you, by the way), as that was the day in 2002 that ishii made his sixth major league start, and earned his sixth major league win.  he was 8-10 over the course of the remainder of the season.  i saw his 9th start of the season in milwaukee, and he did not look very good.  he walked 6 in 5+ innings of work, but still got the win since that was the game that shawn green hit four home runs and drove in seven.

here's a 2010 topps update hong-chih kuo relic card

2010 was a good year for kuo. he was an all-star, and his era during the regular season was 1.20.  unfortunately, things seemed to fall apart after that.

2014 bowman chrome prospects julio urias

urias is 18 years old this season, and his k/9 ratio is still well above 11.  his win-loss record at the moment is 1-2 in double-a, but i don't think anyone is worried.

folks shouldn't be worried about clayton kershaw, either, as he shut out the nationals over 8 innings yesterday while striking out 14.  here's his 2014 panini prizm diamond dominance card

receiving that card in the package was a surprise, as it means that at least a couple of people bought packs of prizm and sent that card to night owl.

here's a 2015 topps fernando valenzuela highlight of the year insert

that was nice to receive.  fernando was never my favorite pitcher on the dodgers - i would say bob welch and then orel hershiser held that title during fernando's run - but his start to the 1981 season was undeniably awesome.

enough with the pitchers, here are some lefty batters that also showed up in the package.  this is a 2005 donruss champions jd drew impressions relic card

and this is a 2011 topps lineage andre ethier 1975 mini relic card

like i said, i'm glad night owl is a dodger fan.

there is a lot going on on this sheet from the steve garvey binders, but something is missing

i'm only posting about one sheet in the steve garvey binders today, and it's sheet 70:

those cards are:

1. 2012 topps triple threads unity relics emerald /18
2. 2012 topps triple threads relic autographs 'dodgers great' /18
3. 2012 upper deck sp signature edition autograph
4. 2012 upper deck sp signature edition season signatures quad 1981 world series champions (with davey lopes, dusty baker, and ron cey) /15
5. 2013 panini elite extra edition bloodlines (with ryan garvey)
6. 2013 panini america's pastime pastime signatures auto /99
7. 2013 topps chasing history autograph
8. 2013 topps million dollar chase autograph /268
9. 2013 topps allen & ginter framed mini relic

i think there are five different versions of the relic autographs from triple threads - different in that the cut outs for the relics spell different things. i'm glad i have the 'dodgers great' version, even if it comes with padre uniform material.

i am again somewhat disappointed with topps for not giving garvey base cards in the chasing history set, as well as the allen & ginter set, but i'll take the autos and relics anyway.

i noticed after scanning this page that the garvey card from 2013 panini hometown heroes is missing.  i know i have it, i guess i've misplaced it in one of my boxes.  i'll have to dig it out and get it in its rightful spot.  when i do, i'll update this (or another post).

here are the backs:

here we see garvey's son ryan (which is actually the front of the elite extra edition card).  the younger garvey was drafted by the phillies in 15th round of the 2011 draft, but didn't sign and wound up being selected by the rockies in the 33rd round the following year.  he spent three years in the minors, but was released by the rockies in march of this year.

60 years of topps in the garvey binders

the next sheet of cards from the steve garvey binders features some familiar images, along with some decent sized relic swatches.  here is sheet 68:

those cards are:

1. 2011 in the game heroes and prospects dual jerseys silver relics (with trayvon robinson) (print run of 49)
2. 2011 in the game heroes and prospects jersey autographs silver (print run of 9)
3. 2011 topps 60 relics
4. 2011 topps 60 years of topps 1982 in action reprint
5. 2011 topps 60 years of topps 1982 in action reprint original back
6. 2011 topps 60 years of topps 1985 reprint
7. 2011 topps 60 years of topps 1985 reprint original back
8. 2011 topps 60
9. 2011 topps marquee titanic threads relic /99

i've mentioned before that i think in the game should have serial numbered their cards, rather than just issue print run data, especially when there are only 9 of the auto/relic card.  the majority of the sheet belongs to topps, however, and i must say that i appreciated garvey being included in the 2011 topps flagship insert sets.  after using garvey's 1971 rookie card in the 2010 cards your mom threw out subset, topps came back with his 1982 in action card and his 1985 card.  the backs of those cards (the non-original backs, to be clear) have more to do with the topps set than the individual garvey card, although there is some garvey specific text.

speaking of which, here are the backs:

a few notes about those backs.  first, the topps 60 cards.  the relic card back notes that only ichiro, wade boggs, and derek jeter had more 200-hit seasons than garvey in the past 40 years.  garvey had more than tony gwynn! later, we see that garvey's highest hit total was 210, which places in a tie for 8th highest in dodger franchise history.  next, it is worth noting that the back of the 1982 in action reprint (non-original back) states that garvey had played in 8 straight all-star games heading into the 1982 season "a fact emphasized on the back".  however, thanks to the existence of the original back version of the insert right next to it, we see that there is no mention of his all-star streak.

here is sheet 69:

those cards are:

1. 2011 topps marquee titanic threads red relic /75
2. 2012 panini golden age
3. 2012 panini golden age mini broadleaf brown ink
4. 2012 panini national treasures treasure signature materials /25
5. 2012 topps golden moments
6. 2012 topps golden moments autograph
7. 2012 topps gypsy queen relic
8. 2012 topps gypsy queen framed mini relic
9. 2012 topps triple threads unity relic autograph /99

there are several other mini variations from the panini golden age set that i have avoided for some reason - the reason being i am no longer so enthusiastic about chasing all of the variations of garvey cards.  i am not entirely sure why there were two relics in the gypsy queen set and no regular base card, but again, i appreciate topps keeping garvey in mind when creating their checklists.

here are the backs:

you can see by the upside down panini treasures back that panini and i disagree on the proper orientation of the front of the card.  i learned from 1978 topps, thank you very much.

still more to come - stay tuned...

moving into the '10s in the steve garvey binders

sheet 66 of my steve garvey binders starts where sheet 65 left off, with cards from 2008 donruss threads, but we'll soon get to cards from the current decade.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2008 donruss threads jersey relic (white swatch) /150
2. 2008 donruss threads college greats insert
3. 2008 donruss threads century collection materials relic /100
4. 2008 donruss playoff prime cuts
5. 2008 topps triple threads
6. 2008 topps triple threads sepia parallel /525
7. 2008 topps triple threads emerald parallel /240
8. 2008 topps triple threads relics combos (with duke snider and russell martin) /36
9. 2008 topps triple threads relics combos (with reggie jackson and willie randolph) /36

the first donruss threads relic is from the same serial numbered run as the one i showed last time (with a yellow swatch), meaning there aren't two distinct 150-card runs for each color.  the century collection relic is a nice dodger card marred by the padres' yellow swatch.  i'm missing a few of the triple threads parallels - well, more than a few - but they are hard to come by especially now.

here are the backs:

i don't believe there were any non-topps garvey cards in 2009.  i don't have any, anyway, as we'll see on sheet 67:

those cards are:

1. 2009 topps ring of honor insert
2. 2009 topps sterling /250
3. 2009 topps sterling framed white parallel /50
4. 2009 topps tribute
5. 2009 topps tribute blue parallel /219
6. 2009 topps tribute black parallel /99
7. 2010 topps cards your mom threw out insert
8. 2010 topps cards your mom threw out (original back) insert
9. 2011 in the game heroes and prospects heroes memorabilia jersey silver (print run 160)

there's a gold parallel numbered to 50 from 2009 topps tribute that i would like to find.  i don't really need any of the other sterling parallels, though.  there are 18 garvey cards from the 2011 in the game heroes and prospects release, and i have a couple more that will show up on the next sheet.  there are quite a few 1/1's that i will never see, let alone own, and that's ok.

here are the backs:

the 'original back' of the cymto is much brighter than the actual 1971 topps backs.  easier to read now, i suppose, but more likely a function of the cardstock used these days.

stay tuned for more goodness from the steve garvey binders!