is it possible to complete a 1996 fleer dodger team set from just two packs? and for just 50 cents?

while wallet card and i were at the local card shop, i found some loose packs marked at a quarter apiece. among them were some packs of 1996 fleer dodgers cards.

with 10 cards per pack, and 20 cards in the team set, i wondered - could i complete a team set with just two packs?

here's the checklist of the then defending nl west champions

and here's the back of that card

which is pretty much the same as the front of the logo card

whose back looks like this

the background on those cards kind of reminds me of 1995 fleer in a way.

as for the 18 players in the set, here is what their cards look like

a complete team set, although it took 5 packs to get there.  i think there was a mike blowers card in four of the five packs, and only one hideo nomo card.  for some reason, todd worrell was also tough to come by in my small sample size.  still, a team set for $1.25 is not too shabby.

ultra shenanigans

greg gagne welcomes you to this post with his 1997 fleer ultra card.

but wait, i thought that this was his 1997 fleer ultra card

shows what i know.  or used to know.  i was not aware that the ultra gold medallion parallels in 1997 featured different photography until a couple of years ago.  i had previously largely dismissed the gold parallels, but this means that i missed out on this todd zeile card 

because i only had this one

so, i went out and picked up a few other gold medallion cards of dodgers from 1997 fleer ultra.  ismael valdes

and mike piazza

and hideo nomo

and raul mondesi

and ramon martinez

and todd hollandsworth

and wilton guerrero

and karim garcia

plus an insert or two, like this nomo/piazza double trouble card

i do not believe that this gme variation extends itself to other ultra releases.

unfortunately, i only have the base versions from 1998 fleer ultra of dennis reyes

and todd hollandsworth

in my scanned folder

i also had a 1995 fleer ultra garey ingram

plus gme cards of billy ashley

darren dreifort

and todd worrell

but those don't prove anything.

just for fun, and to clear out space in the scanned folder, here are a couple of mondesi insert from 1995 fleer ultra

he's got raw power!

well, at least i know that 2005 fleer ultra didn't have different photos for their gold medallion editions - here's hideo nomo's base card

and his gme

i need to go check my binders...

first, there was a turn of two

i recently completed a trade with brad's blog that i initiated after seeing not a piece of dodger trade bait, but rather a 2012 topps chrome sepia parallel of jason kipnis turning two

i didn't have a dp sepia parallel in the dp collection (it's numbered to 75) and i don't think i had previously traded with brad.    those are two good reasons to trade right there.  and, after looking around, i saw that he had a few nice dodger items on his trade bait page.  before we get to those cards, here are a few other dodgers that brad added to the pot.

1999 topps mark grudzielanek mvp promotion

i had never seen or heard of these cards prior to opening the package.  they were randomly inserted into series 1 and 2 packs - 100 of each card.  if the card you pulled matched the player determined by topps to be the 'mvp of the week', you could redeem the card for a complete set of mvp of the week cards.  sounds like upper deck predictor or crash the game stuff to me.  to find out who the mvp's were for any given week, you had to check topps' website. since this was 1999, topps also gave you the option to call a toll-free number.  i am guessing that grudz was not named a mvp of the week by topps.

here's the back of a 1996 fleer ultra todd worrell card

because the front only had one photo of worrell, and who doesn't think that three images are better than one?

well, then, how about 5 and a half photos of kevin brown on this 2000 upper deck ionix card?

granted, 4 and a half of those are the same.

on to the trade bait.  first, here's a 2004 donruss world series orel hershiser jersey card

something i have noticed over the years is that bulldog autos and (most of the time) relics have held their relative value.  i haven't come across any in the bargain 'hit' bins to be sure.

2011 topps chrome ivan dejesus jr auto

i appreciate the fact that he embellishes his autograph, not with his uniform number, but with 'pr' for puerto rico, his birthplace.  i wonder if anyone ever told dejesus jr that history repeats.  his dad signed his first professional contract with the dodgers and was later traded away as part of a deal for mike garman and rick monday.  not quite 40 years later, dejesus jr is drafted by the dodgers and later traded away in a deal for josh beckett, carl crawford, adrian gonzalez, and nick punto.  hopefully history repeats again, and dejesus jr is able to land somewhere (he's currently a free agent) and have a productive career like his old man.

the last bit of cardboard to showcase is this 2007 upper deck legendary cuts bill madlock relic

we don't see too many dodger cards of the mad dog, so it was nice of upper deck to make a couple back in 2007.

thanks for the trade, brad! let me know when you get the dodger trade bait replenished!

bo goes lurking for catchers

more cards from my most recent trade with bo of baseball cards come to life fame.  he offered up some dodger and non-dodger cards that featured lurking catchers.  like this 1990 upper deck jay howell card with mike scioscia by his side

the back of the howell card features a nice shot of the dodger stadium field level scoreboard in the background

scioscia makes another guest appearance on robby thompson's 1991 donruss card

as well as on tom candiotti's 1993 upper deck card

and the back of todd hundley's 1991 upper deck card

i will address the black armband on the umpire's sleeve in a different post.

we've seen this card before, but scioscia is also breaking up two on tom foley's 1989 upper deck card

the back of which earns it a spot in a third collection of mine, cards that feature dodger stadium

not to be ignored, dodger catcher mike piazza makes a cameo on todd worrell's 1995 donruss card

and it looks like carlos hernandez is doing the same on ray lankford's 1996 leaf card

thanks again bo!  more cards to come...

cash in the mail

yes, norm cash came to me by mail with his hand out.

it actually helped me out, as this was one of the cards i needed for my 1974 topps set.  it came from scott at sport cards ate my brain, and it didn't arrive alone.

i also received this all-star card of amos otis and cesar cedeno

the equivalent of which today would be, what? adam jones and andrew mccutcheon?  the cool thing about this card is that when their careers were all over, otis and cedeno sat atop of each others similarity scores on baseball reference.  how serendipitous.

did you know that todd worrell was a competitor?  well, 1997 topps finest wants you to know

i consider worrell to have been the dodgers' first real 'modern' closer - no offense meant towards the likes of jim gott or jay howell or roger mcdowell or any of the other guys that did the job in the late 1980's and early 1990's.  worrell was the first dodger to record over 30 saves (he recorded 32 in 1995), and his 44 saves in 1996 stood as the team record until this guy came along

that would be eric gagne on his 2000 pacific private stock card.  gagne saved 52 games in 2002 to pass worrell on the team's season high list, and then he saved 55 games in 2003 for good measure.  his 45 saves in 2004 also gets him the third spot on the list.

andy pafko doesn't show up on any team leader lists, but his iconic first card of the 1952 topps set gets a lot of replay.  this is from 2001 topps archives

and may well be as close as i get to owning the real thing.

gil hodges' 1952 topps card was also reprinted by topps, although this one is from 2002 topps chrome

and isn't necessarily enhanced by the shiny.

here's a 2004 playoff honors parallel card of hideo nomo

and a short print of his fellow countryman kaz ishii from 2004 topps heritage

i wonder if ryu hyun-jin will get the sp treatment like ishii did.  i will guess that there will be some interest in his cards, so i expect he will.  speculators will speculate, i guess.

finally, here is a 2009 topps finest james mcdonald blue refractor

that's a good bunch of cards, and there were more in the trade package.  thanks for the trade scott!