Heritage from 2020 but not 2020 Heritage (well, one)

This week I received a few trade packages from fellow friends and bloggers, my first of 2021. Considering it's been nearly six months since I last saw cards in the wild, finding bubble mailers and card-filled envelopes in the mail is quite exciting. I'm still looking to get my hands on my first 2021 cards of the year, but an incoming package from a recent Nachos Grande box break should scratch that itch.

I'll get to the contents of those packages soon enough, but I still have plenty of trades and purchases from 2020 I need to get posted. So that's where we'll start. 

Topps Flagship and my PCs have been the central focal points of my collection since I started collecting nearly a decade ago. I'm steadily working my way through Flagship--I have about 55% of all Dodgers at the moment--and I'm always adding new cards of my favorite dudes. Last year I decided to throw Topps Heritage in the mix, and a large portion of the new cards I picked up in 2020 helped kick off that chase. 

Shortly after posting about my decision to chase Heritage, a few trades formed and lots of new Heritage cards quickly made their way to me in New Jersey. In fact, all of the cards you see in this post come from the wonderful Mr. Haverkamp, a blogging staple. 

Mr. Haverkamp found cards I needed from 11 different years of Heritage, though considering I had next to no Heritage cards in my possession upon this announcement, I suppose it's not that surprising. Let's take a look at some of the fun stuff that came my way (in random order since Blogger is apparently dreadful to work with when it comes to formatting images). 

Lots of fun stuff here. I don't miss the old team photo cards at all. It's tough to actally make anybody out and they're not particularly fun to look at. I prefer the team card treatment we've seen in recent Topps sets. 

Card backs don't get as much play as they deserve, so let's take a look at a smattering of those as well. 

I think the Darvish back is the easiest to read, but I do enjoy the few cards with middle names on the backs. What are your favorites? 

Thanks for the cards, Mr. Haverkamp!

Trade Pile 6: Take These Dusty Cards

Well it's been a while since I last added to the trade pile--about six months--so you'll have to excuse the dust these cards gathered in between posts. For the first time in several years, my blog will feature a non-baseball card, this time of former Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck. 

Remember, if you want to claim the Trade Pile, comment on this post (and email me your address) and let me know what you plan to send my way from my want lists. I'm also always on the lookout for cards I don't own of my player collections. All you need to send is a single card I need and the entire stack is yours. 

2013 Panini Select Hot Stars Andrew Luck #9

2004 Topps Total Juan Uribe #594

1996 Topps Chrome Alex Rodriguez #3

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #188 Rodriguez/Jeter/Cano 

RIP Tommy Lasorda

The Dodgers announced the unfortunate passing of Hall-of-Fame manager Tommy Lasorda this morning. My Dodger fandom began long after Lasorda had retired from managing, but he still played a large role with the organization and had Dodger blue running through his veins. I'm glad Tommy was able to see the Dodgers win one final championship in 2020. 

pic.twitter.com/E1qyeKtfjl

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) January 8, 2021

 

Catching Up on Some 2020 Things

It's been nearly six months since my last post, and quite a lot has happened since then. COVID continued to rage on (and still does), Alex Trebek passed away, and Blogger pushed a terrible new interface onto us. What a sad, strange, weird year. Emphasis on the sad. 

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2020 World Series, their first in 32 years and their first championship during my lifetime. Some good things did happen in 2020. 

I don't have much of an excuse for my absence over the last several months. Work got super busy when August rolled around, cards were hard to find, and I simply didn't feel up to scanning, updating my checklists, and blogging. I suppose I can blame it on 2020 or just on a bunch of little things. As Hank Scorpio says, "Can't argue with the little things, it's the little things that make up life." 

With the exception of a small purchase at a card shop in Ohio and a fun Christmas gift from my dad, I haven't added any new cards since the summer. So I figured it's a good time to catch up on a few trades from 2020 I never got around to posting about. 

Before I do so, I'd encourage anyone I owe cards to to reach out either in the comments, email, or Twitter. I don't think I'm in debt to anyone, and I'll be going back through old emails etc. to double check, but I just want to be sure. Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

We'll start first with a pair of cards sent my way from Nate (The Bucs Stop Here). I believe Nate managed to get his hands on some Bowman last Summer and was kind enough to send some of the Dodgers my way, including a super shiny Dustin May rookie card. May didn't wind up winning Rookie of the Year in 2020, but he was a solid piece for the eventual champions. Plus he did this to Manny Machado. Nasty!

A shiny Tony Gonslin was also included in this package, and like Dustin May, Gonsolin played a pivotol role in the Dodgers rotation in 2020. He narrowly missed out on Rookie of the Year honors himself. 

Next up, some "old" cards from GCRL. A handful of Dodgers from 1990 Flagship has pushed me closer to completing the team set. Just five more cards will close the door on 1990, and I'm getting closer to completing the entire decade. 

I'm also inching closer to completing the team sets of the 1980s, and this deal officially completes the 1987 Flagship set--my first completed team set in the 1980s. All seven cards below hail from the Traded series, an area that has prevented me from finishing out many of my sets from the decade. In fact, I have 74% of all 1980s Flagship Dodgers, but these pesky Traded cards stand in my way of completing most of the sets. I suppose one of my goals for 2021 will be to finally finish these off. 

Thanks for the cards, guys!

I'm hoping to get back into the rhythm of things and post regularly in 2021, so stay tuned. I've still got a few trades to cover after all. 

Trade Pile 6: #content

Work has been a bear the last week or so, so I'm a bit behind on posting. Seems like an appropriate time to add to the Trade Pile. #content 

Remember, if you want to claim the Trade Pile, comment on this post (and email me your address) and let me know what you plan to send my way from my want lists. I'm also always on the lookout for cards I don't own of my player collections. All you need to send is a single card I need and the entire stack is yours. 

2004 Topps Total Juan Uribe #594

1996 Topps Chrome Alex Rodriguez #3

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #188 Rodriguez/Jeter/Cano 

More of the Same

Earlier this month I walked away from a Target grocery run with several boxes of cards. I wrote about the first two boxes here and here, and today I'll recap the final one. This time we're talking Series Two.

I'll give it to you right at the top--none of the Series Two I opened held any hits, variations, or Luis Robert cards. If you're looking for those, you'd best stop reading now.

No, these boxes were pretty par from the course and included a steady diet of base cards and the occasional insert.

I'm not typically a big fan of insert sets that focus on a single player (the Gleyber Torres set from a year or two ago was annoying), though I'm okay with this Players of the Decade set featuring Mike Trout. Trout will go down as one of the greatest players of all-time, so that's more excusable than a rookie from New York.

I attempted to purchase the Dodgers team set on eBay when the set was released, but didn't find any listings with a low enough price. So I'll be chasing these the old-fashioned way. These boxes held four of the twelve Dodgers from S2.

A Turkey Red Joc Pederson dropped out of a pack, and I'll happily take it. Joc was nearly traded to the Angels in the offseason, but he's still a Dodger for now. Not so sure that'll be the case after this season.

Rounding out these cards with another Turkey Red, this time of an absolutely jacked Rickey Henderson. I'm not sure which stint with Oakland this photo is from, though I wonder if it coincided with Canseco and McGwire's--looks like he could be a third Bash Brother.

Something Cool and Yellow

Night Owl said it best in his blog post yesterday: "Just about anything good that happens this month I consider a birthday gift."

Like Night Owl, my birthday was earlier this month, and I'm lumping together all of the good things that happen in July as a gift from the cosmos. I've received several card packages over the last few weeks from fellow bloggers and readers, and though I doubt many (if any) had my birthday in mind, I've decided to consider them all birthday gifts anyway.

Earlier this week a bubble mailer arrived, and I knew it to be an intentional birthday gift. After all, my dad is the one who sent it.

Whoooooooooooooo!

A 1959 Topps Sandy Koufax. It's the first Sandy Koufax card from his playing days in my collection (though he is featured on the 1966 NL K Leaders card #226 with Cloninger and Drysdale which I also have). Still, this is the first proper Koufax card I get to call my own. 

My dad and I had a conversation about possible birthday gifts a couple of weeks ago, and this card happened to make its way into our talk. Little did I know it'd be in my hands just a few days later.

The card is in pretty good shape, with the borders being the big knock against it. I'm not a condition snob, so it does not bug me at all. 

And the last thing I'll do is complain about owning a Sandy Koufax card. 

I'm not sure why the back scanned so dark, but here it is. 

It's strange to see Koufax's numbers so mediocre. This is still early in his career, but a 4.20 career ERA certainly doesn't seem right. Koufax was still a couple of years away from his first otherworldy season, and ended his career with a stellar 2.76 ERA. 

I absolutely love the cartoon here, though there are at least a few hitting coaches that might take exception with this guy's approach at the plate. Most glaring is his hand position--now I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure holding them together on the bat doesn't lead to much success. FWOOOSH. 

2020 has been a terrible year so far, though July has had it's moments. 

Baseball is back. I took some vacation. And now I added a Koufax to the collection. 

Not bad birthday gifts at all. 

Thanks, Dad!

I Bought into the Hype

Before we get to my recent t206 purchase, be sure to head over to my buddy Nate's blog at The Bucs Stop Here to enter his latest contest. Just make your MLB predictions for the year, and you might win some free cards. And give him a follow if you don't already.

Now back to our regular programming....

A few months back Topps announced the return of the popular 206 line of cards. They were to be sold exclusively on the Topps website with card counts limited to the number of packs purchased. This isn't something I'd typically go for, but in a COVIDworld where picking up new packs of cards was few and far between, I bought into the hype.

The cards are released in ten different waves, so the two boxes I purchased were part of the first release, or Series One I suppose. The first release contains two different Dodgers (Corey Seager and Gavin Lux) though they didn't make an appearance in the boxes I opened.

First impressions: these cards are a bit too over-filtered. (A complaint I have with many current day Topps' products.) 

Now that's not to say I didn't add some cool new cardboard to my collection. You can't go wrong with a pack of cards containing Mike Trout, Mr. October, and Johnny Bench. 

Some current baseball players were also represented, including the Yankees newest and most expesive starter. The collation between the two boxes wasn't great. Of the twenty cards between the two boxes, I received dupes of Gerrit Cole and Scott Kingery. It doesn't seem like much, but that's 10% of the cards. Not insignificant.

Though these boxes can contain "surprise autographs" and rare back variations, mine didn't have 'em. Each box does promise two "Piedmont" back cards, which you can see above next to the standard back. Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't appear that these cards are numbered. I'm not sure if this is normal for a Topps online exclusive product or not.

These are enjoyable cards, but it's unlikely I'd buy packs of these again. At fifteen bucks a pack, the value just isn't there for me. I'm sure I could find the Dodgers for a fraction of what I spent on these two boxes alone. 

But hype can be hard to ignore sometimes. 

And I suppose that's how I wind up with trade bait.