Trade with The Bucs Stop Here: A Legend, A Phenom, and Some Rookies

This week's second installment of very belated trade posts features some cardboard sent from my buddy Nate over at The Bucs Stop Here. This was another trade that happened last Fall, and it's unfortunate it's taken me this long to writer about it here on the blog--it was a doozy. 

Nate reached out to me when he returned to blogging last year and we quickly decided on a swap. back when i was pumping out blog posts daily in 2014-15, Nate and I were frequent traders, so I was glad to hear he was coming back to the blogosphere. I have no recollection of what I sent his way, so please let me know if you're waitng on cards from me, Nate, and I will hook you up.

When I first seriously started collecting six or seven years ago, my focus was largely on modern cards, modern players, and big hits. I had a good sense of the Dodgers' history, but I wasn't actively chasing down the organization's legends. Guys like Pee Wee Reese, Don Drysdale, Roy Campanella, and Don Newcombe were important but they never really had a designated spot in my collection. 

Flash forward to 2020, those legends are slowly becoming a bigger part of my PC, especially as I begin to pick up cards from their playing days. Sandy Koufax, Jackie Robinson, and Duke Snider are now "official" player collections for me. Adding to those binders has been a slow process, so I was happy to see the Duke Snider mini above fall out of the pakage Nate sent my way. I'm up to a whopping 7 cards in my Duke Snider PC. 

While Duke is already cemented in Dodgers' history, another center fielder is on his way to doing the same. Cody Bellinger has quickly become one of the best players in the game, and I've made it a point to add as many of his cards to the collection as I can. If he continues to mash like he did in 2019, I might be priced out pretty soon. 

Speaking of expensive cards, it wasn't that long ago that Yasiel Puig's RCs demanded an absurd amount of money. I managed to pick up most of Yasiel's base cards from 2013, but this one from Update Series managed to evade capture for far too long. It was a delight to cross this one of my 2013 Flagship needs. Now, does anyone have an extra Hyun-Jin Ryu (US-192) hanging around? 

Ryu's rookie from 2013 Update Series might be missing from my binder, but his rookie from Topps Archive based on the 1990 set is not. Ryu has been one of my favorite players since he came to the Majors from the KBO, so it was a bummer to see him ditch Dodger blue for Blue Jay blue this offseason. 

Nate also included a number of new cards for some of my PCs, including the following Chrome cards for Corey Seager and Clayton Kershaw. I'm not big on the 2017 design, but I'm a sucker for chrome. 

Nate and I may have gone 5 years between trades, but now that we're both back and blogging, I feel our next swap won't take so long. 

Trade Pile #1: Nick Swisher Joins the Stack

File this under something I completey missed, but apparently I made my 500th post on this blog over the weeked. More impressive, I've posted on the blog for four consecutive days for the first time since December/January 2014-2015. 

Annyway, I'm tossing another card onto the Trade Pile today. Welcome to the club, Nick Swisher. Remember, if you want to claim the Trade Pile, comment on this post (or email me) and let me know what you plan to send my way from my want lists. All you need to send is a single card I need and the entire stack is yours. 

2. 2009 Upper Deck Siganture Stars Nick Swisher

1. 2017 Topps Bowman's Best Trey Mancini 

Trade with Nachos Grande: A Very Belated Post

This week will feature a pair of belated posts recounting trades from 2019. The first is a swap I made with Nachos Grande way back in August of last year. 

My memory of the trade is a bit hazy to be perfectly honest, and I don't quite remember everything that was sent my way. That said, I do know I was able to mark off a number of my 2011 Flagship needs, including the fantastic Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier card above. I'm not sure how I managed to go this long without ever seeing it before this trade. 

The centerpiece of this deal, however, is the fantastic collection of horse cards you see above. I've been chasing the Mares & Stallions subset for 2019 A&G, and this trade put me close to completing it. I'm just two cards away from completing this set (still looking for #s 1 and 12); I'm much further behind in the 2017 Horses the Race subset. 

Thanks for the trade!

My First Completed Set from the 70s

Over the last several years, my collecting goals have been adjusted, readjusted, forgotten about, then readjusted again. A large part of that has been due to my nomad-like 20s. I've moved 7 times since the fall of 2017, and it's hard to have any kind of consistency in collecting or blogging when I'm packing up all of my stuff every 4.5 months (on average). 

For awhile, I was having a soft-restart with each new move. I announced new mini-collections, dropped PCs (bye, Matt Kemp), added new PCs (hello, Walker Buehler), and even moved the blog ot a new domain (then back again) over the last year-and-a-half. Frankly, it's been difficult maintaining these new collections considering I haven't made any time to actually go and add new cards to them. But I'm finally at a point where I feel confident in my ability to devote time to collecting and blogging, and that's a great feeling. 

Despite all of the ups-and-downs over the last few years, I've been steadfast in my chase to complete every Dodgers' team set from Topps Flagship dating back to 1951. Considering there are 2,117 cards to chase as of this post, this has been and will continue to be a long-term (and everlasting) project. But I've made a ton of progress over the last two weeks alone, and I'm happy to begin showing off some of my spoils. 

What better place to begin than with some sweet vintage cardboard. In one quick (and inexpensive) eBay purchase, I managed to complete the colorful 1975 set. I had seven cards from the set heading into the purchase, but happened upon this lot of 26 cards--the exact 26 I needed to complete the 33-card set. After shipping costs and tax were accounted for, these checked in at just 47 cents a pop. Not too bad. 

By my count, there are 7 different color combinations for the 1975 set (please chime in if I'm incorrect), some better than others. I absolutely love the blue/green combo as seen in the Manny Mota card in the scan above, as well as the red/blue combo seen on the Geoff Zahn. I'm a sucker for blue Dodgers' cards, so that's not surprising. The yellow/red and yellow/green combos are also pretty sweet, and that Ron Cey card is a thing of beauty. 

One of the most interesting features of this set--and probably most sets from the 70s--is the sheer amount of sideburns. I counted 17 dudes with sideburns in the Dodgers cards alone, ranging from Rick Auerbachs' modest sidesburns to Jim Wynn's...well, I don't know what to call them. One thing's for sure, someone needs to create a bracket for best sideburns on a baseball card. 

There are a lot of standout cards in the set, but Steve Garvey's takes the cake for me. In fact, when I think of Garvey cards, this is the first one that comes to mind. It's honestly a little surprising considering the popularity/notoriety of his 1973 card--that 1973 being one of my favorite cards in existence. 

The 1975 set marks my first completed set from the 1970s and the earliest set I'm completed to date. Even with this set completed, I still only have 35% of the decade collected, so I'll need to continue filling the gaps. For those interested, here's a snapshot of my progress from 1951-2020. You can view the full spreadsheet which includes year-by-year breakdowns of my needs here.

Trade Pile #1: Mancini Leading Things Off

While I slowly get back to blogging on the regular, I thought I'd start up a new feature that I've been meaning to for years--the Trade Pile. The concept isn't new, as several other bloggers have been doing this (or something similar) for years. Essentially, I'll occasionally add a card or two to my trade pile and anyone can claim it by sending me a card from one of my want lists. Simple as that. 

If you want to claim the Trade Pile, comment on this post (or email me) and let me know what you plan to send my way from my want lists. I'm always happy to make a bigger swap at the same time. 

2017 Topps Bowman's Best Trey Mancini 

Building a Best of the Decade Team from Flagship

It's admittedly been pretty quiet here on the blog for most of the year. Typical life stuff like work and moving (again!!!) have gotten in the way of blogging and collecting, but with COVID-19 forcing me to work from home and stay inside, I've once again found some time to devote to the blog. (For those wondering, I'm holed up in my apartment in Jersey City, NJ, and staying heathy. I hope you all are as well.) Let's hope I get back on a more regular schedule moving forward. 

2020 has been pretty light in terms of new cards for the collection, so I thought I'd revisit my binders and put together a different kind of post today--a best of the decades post. But rather than simply give a list of the best Dodgers cards of the decade, I decided to make things difficult and give myself a few rules:

1. Select one player for each position (just one starting pitcher and one reliever);
2. Each player has to represent a different year between 2010-2019; and
3. I have to have each player's flagship card in my collection. 

There were a few easy choices here, including a pair of MVP seasons and a Rookie of the Year. Other choices were a bit more difficult. Second base was a revolving door of incompetence for the Dodgers, especially earlier in the decade, which made it difficult to fit into the rest of the puzzle. Without further ado, here's the squad I constructed. 

Catcher - Yasmani Grandal (2017)
Key Stats: 22 HR, .459 SLG%, 2.4 WAR

Grandal was the Dodgers' best catcher of the decade and one of their best players since he joined the team in 2015. His 2017 season was actually his worst for the Dodgers, but I had to get him into this list somehow. 2017 didn't have the best Flagship design, but this is a great photo of Yaz in his catcher's gear. 

1st Base - Adrian Gonzalez (2015)
Key Stats: 28 HR, .275/.350/.480, 4.6 WAR

Vin Scully provided A-Gon with one of my favorite monikers of the decade, often calling him the "butter-and-egg man". Gonzalez drove in 448 runners in his 5+ years with the Dodgers, including 90 RBIs in the 2015 season. I assume he's watching a ball go over the fence in this card from 2015. 

2nd Base - Mark Ellis (2012)
Key Stats: 2.6 WAR

The Dodgers have had a number of guys man second over the years, but there wasn't a constant guy manning the position. Mark Ellis had a fairly productive tenure with the team for a couple of seasons, his value largely provided by his glove. 

3rd Base - Justin Turner (2018)
Key Stats: .312/.406/.518, 4.9 WAR

Turner came to the Dodgers as a non-roster invitee back in 2014 and has since cemented his place as one of the best third baseman in Dodgers' history. 2017 was his best season with the club. If there is no season in 2020, there's a chance he's already played his last game for the Dodgers. 

Shortstop - Corey Seager (2016)
Key Stats: 26 HR, .308/.365/.512, 5.2 WAR, NL Rookie of the Year, Silver Slugger

Seager hit the scene in an impressive fashion, smashing 26 homers in route to the Rookie of the Year award. He's been consistently productive since his debut, though a lost 2018 season due to Tommy John surgery has led many to overlook Seager. Should the 2020 season ever be played, he'll play an integral role in the club's success. 

Left Field - Yasiel Puig (2013)
Key Stats: 19 HR, .319/.391/.534, 4.7 WAR

The decade was one of the most succcessful in team history, and Puig's arrival is a big reason why. His first week in the majors is probably my favorite event of the decade, and his 2013 rookie card is still one of my favorite pieces of cardboard ever. 

Center Field - Matt Kemp (2011)
Key Stats: .324/.399/.586, 39 HR, 40 SB, 8.0 WAR, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger

My pursuit of Matt Kemp carboard was the reason I started this blog in the first place back in 2013. His 2011 season was the best of his career, and he just missed garnering MVP honors, losing to Ryan Bruan. I didn't start collecting on a regular basis unti 2012, so I missed the boat on the great 2011 set, but I managed to get this card into my collection pretty quickly. I'm just 4 cards away from completing the 2011 set, including Kemp's card from Update Series. 

Right Field - Cody Bellinger (2019)
Key Stats: 47 HR, 115 RBI, .305/.406/.629, 9.1 WAR, NL MVP, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger

Bellinger's 2019 was absolutely bonkers, though there's a chance he wouldn't have been the MVP if Christian Yelich didn't go down to injury in the last month of the season. Also of note, the 2019 Flagship design is one of my favorite designs from the decade (and perhaps one of my favorite sets ever).  

Starting Pitcher - Clayton Kershaw (2014)
Key Stats: 1.77 ERA, 10.8 K/9, 7.7 WAR, NL MVP, NL Cy Young

Honestly, any of Kershaw's seasons over the last decade would have been appropriate to include in this position. His production has certainly dropped off over the last few seasons, but he's still an incredible talent and one of the best pitchers in the game. His run of dominance--topped with an MVP award in 2014--from 2010-2015 is one of the best peaks for a pitcher in history, and I'm glad I've been able to see him pitch in person nearly a half-dozen times (including a 2008 game where he faced Max Scherzer of the D-Backs. It was Kershaw's 17th career start and Scherzer's 13th. The game was initially supposed to be a matchup between Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson, but both eventual Hall of Famers were scratched prior to the game.). 

Relief Pitcher - Hong-Chih Kuo (2010)
Key Stats: 1.20 ERA, 12 SV, 3.2 WAR

Kuo had a pair of successful seasons with the Dodgers but was otherwise ineffective during his time in the Majors. His 2010 seasons stands out as one of the best years for a reliever this decade. 

Just for fun, here's what a potential lineup might look like.  
Yasiel Puig - LF
Corey Seager - SS
Cody Bellinger - RF
Matt Kemp - CF
Adrian Gonzalez - 1B
Justin Turner - 3B
Yasmani Grandal - C
Mark Ellis - 2B
Clayton Kershaw - P

Fashionably Late to 2020 Flagship

I'm way behind on posting, so much so that this is my first post of 2020--Happy New Year? 

Last July we got a sneak peek at the 2020 design, and I wasn't a fan. I still don't think it's a great design overall, but my stance has seemingly softened with repeated exposure. Great photos can salvage a bad set design. See Exhibit A above. Gotta love celebration photos. This pic comes from one of the Dodgers eleventy-hundred walkoffs in 2020. 

Series One primarily features the core of the Dodgers. Sluggers like Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy... 

...along with long-time hurlers like Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen get their dues in the set. 

And then there's Tyler White. Dude hit .045 last year for the Dodgers and was not destined for the team in 2020. Not sure why he was in the set over someone like Will Smith, but someone like this always finds their way into the set. 

Justin Turner has been one of my favorite players since he broke into the league back in 2009. I've always rooted for my fellow redheads, and Turner has been the face of gingers for last several years--not to mention one of the best players in Los Angeles.

But Turner has some stiff competition in the hair department this season (if there is a season) with the arrival of the Dodgers' most recent uber-prospect--Dustin May. Just look at those locks. He may also have the best nickname on the team: Gingergaard. 

Over on the hitting side, the Dodgers' other top prospect also gets his first card in Flagship. I've got a feeling this will be one of the more valuable cards from this set in a few years. 

Despite the set including cards of the 2019 NL MVP, a future Hall-of-Famer, and a pair of top prospects, my favorite card has got to be of super-utlity man Enrique Hernandez. I mean, look at that extension.

I've been slowly chugging away at picking up Dodgers from flagship sets, but this is actually the first time I've just purchased the team set on eBay. With a $5 dollar coupon, I managed to snag all 17 cards from S1 for just a couple of bucks. I already have more cards from the 2020 set than I do for all of 2019, but I really need to get a move on finishing up some of these sets. 2012 is the only year I've completely finished to this point.

(P.S. I've moved...again. If you're planning on sending me anything or just want to have my new address on hand, let me know. ) 

Return to Card Land

Things have been busy. The blog has been quiet since late-August and, until last weekend, I hadn't purchased, looked at, or even thought about cards all that much since that last post. It's just been that busy. 

Work got crazy as fall began and then I found myself interviewing for a new job (a process that lasted a few months). I got the job in late-October and it's been even busier since. But the job came with a company car and a sizeable pay raise, so it's not all bad. 

Anyway, I was back in California visiting family last week for Thanksgiving and made a stop at my former LCS. Perhaps it was the lack of cardboard in my life over the last few months, but I quickly found myself opening up several hobby boxes, including a box of 2019 Stadium Club, two mini boxes of 2019 High Tek, and a box of 2019 Allen & Ginter. 

I'm still trying to go through all of the cards, but I wanted to get back into blogging and thought I'd show off some of the hits, including a few big ones. 

High Tek

 

A decent pair of autos in Corbin and McCullers. Really great looking cards. 

A couple of Springers. Green and Purple parallels numbered to 150 and 99, respectively. 

Stadium Club

The Poncedeleon and Santana are meh hits, but the box also included a pretty sweet Big Mac boxloader. The bottom bent a bit during my travels back to NY, so that's a bummer. 

Allen and Ginter

This box alone was worth the price of the rest of the cards. Upon cracking the box open, this Goldschmidt was sitting at the top as the box topper. It's an N43 auto, so it's a bit oversized, but it's certainly one of the coolest cards I've ever pulled. 

As if the Goldschmidt wasn't enough, this Darryl Strawberry 1/1 mini black printing plate fell out of the very first pack I opened. The cards in that pack were all gold-bordered (sorry I don't have any images), so we quickly figured out that this was a hot box. Hot damn. 

Next up was another mini, this time a framed relic of the Hall-of-Famer, Roberto Alomar. 

Though I already hit the three hits each box contains, two more relics found their way into my hands. Not bad. 

All in all, it was a pretty successful day and a welcome return back to card land. Hopefully, I'll be back soon with the rest of the cool stuff I pulled from these boxes. 

Trade with Dion's Autograph Collection: Swapping Ink and Dodgers

I recently (well, it's been a couple of months) swapped some cards with Dion over at Dion's Autograph Collection, my second trade with him in the last few months. I sent over a handful of autographs and he offered up several Dodgers team set needs and a ton of new Shawn Green cards. 

The Big League Challenge card above was new to me, and the concept of the Big League Challenge--and not the Home Run Derby--was something unfamiliar. From what I can find online, the Big League Challenge took place in the early-2000s and was essentially a Home Run Derby played over the course of a mock 9-inning game. The card above shows a date of February 9th, 2002, but the logo is of the 2003 BLC. I can't find any info on the 2003 event, but Green participated in 2002 and did not make it very far. Troy Glaus ultimately won the entire event. 

I was born in the 90s but didn't start collecting until the early-2000s, around 2002 I believe. For whatever reason, I've always considered this the cutoff between "old" cards and "new" cards. I was never really aware of this distinction, but as I've looked back at my collecting habits and my taste in cards, it becomes pretty obvious to me. I won't get into my own distinction between old, vintage, new, or modern cards here (that's a whole post on its own), but I will say I never had much affection for cards from the 90s. Maybe it has to do with the whole junk wax era and the saturation of products during the decade. I don't know. Whatever it is, I'm never been particularly attracted to cards from the 90s. 

That said, I've started to grow a fondness for some select sets over the past couple of years, especially 1995 Topps Flagship. Take a look at the card above. The photo is great; how often do you see "player signing autograph" cards nowadays without it being an SP or in Stadium Club? I also dig the sort of watercolor-y border and drop shadow of the photo. It definitely gives the set its own identity and sets it apart from the rest of the sets from the 90s. 

Green spent most of his career with the Dodgers, but, as I am now noticing, the cards I chose to scan don't show him in Dodger blue. (Is Blue Jay blue a thing?!?) I think this may be the first I've seen of 1992 Classic Best set, and it ain't too shabby. It shows Green as a member of the Dunedin Blue Jays, Toronto's single-A affiliate. Green made his major-league debut in 1993, the same year I was born, and went hitless in 6 at-bats. He appeared in 14 games with the big-league club in 1994, but he didn't manage to hang around until the 1995 season. 

But enough of Green. Dion sent over several other Dodgers, including a new Corey Seager for me to add to the binder. If Corey Seager can hit like Tulo in his prime, I'd be very happy. Let's just hope he can avoid the injury bug. Injuries derailed Tulo's career and forced him into retirement this season. 

Finally, here's a hodgepodge of Flagship needs Dion sent my way. A handful of cards from 2016-18 sets are helpful as I'm still tracking down the cards from those sets. I initially thought the Maddux was just a normal base card from 2009, but quickly realized that it's actually the Wal-Mart black border version. Alas, I still lack any base Dodgers from 2009 Flagship. In fact, it's one of only a handful of sets of which I have no Dodgers, along with 1953, 1954, 1955, and 1968. Lump in 2009, and we quickly see one of those things is not like the others. 

It was another successful swap with Dion who is quickly becoming my go-to blogger for low-end autos I have no interest in and won't fetch much on eBay. Thanks for the trade!