Sorting things out

 

I'm finally getting around to the latest big box from Johnny's Trading Spot, which arrived two weeks ago.

 

Boxes that size are a lot to deal with amid a busy life. I had to approach it in shifts. The first thing to deal with is why Johnny sent a big box, which contained a few smaller empty boxes, plus the boxes with cards. I'm sure there was a reason but I was baffled.

 

The other moment of reflection is something that always happens now with a send like this -- do I really want to collect all this stuff? For example, Johnny sent a bunch of minor league Dodgers sets -- low-level minors with many unfamiliar names. He checked with me first and I said, go ahead, because I knew there would be 3 or 4 names in each I recognized and wanted in my collection. But what do I do with the rest? Another example: the sapphire version of the 2024 Chrome Tennis set --but just the dudes? Why would I want those?

 

But that's the world of Johnny's shipments. There is a little of that with a lot of what I want. There is so many needs met that I can't possibly show it all without someone filing a complaint to close this blog down. So I'll show a top 10 greatest. I'll be showing more than 10 cards, but I'm sure you don't care. Heck, you didn't care about Topps botching one of the biggest names in baseball history (it was one of my lowest-viewed posts in months). 

So here are 10 (plus) items that I didn't previously have:

 

 

10. 2024 Allen & Ginter Mookie Betts box-topper

 

We all know the deal with box-toppers: how am I going to store that? Well, I've got the pages, in fact there was an empty spot next to the Shohei Ohtani box-topper I have just waiting for Mookie.

 

 

 9. A whole mess of Justin Turners

 

It was rather revealing that I could get this many Justin Turner cards that were new to my collection. It was also revealing that I wasn't all that thrilled about it.

 

 

 8. Almost the whole 2024 Chrome Update team set

 

Before this box arrival I think I had one of the Dodgers from this set. Now I have all but two.

 

 

 Look, there's more. Chrome Update doesn't really need to exist -- most of us have jobs -- but it does give you cards of players like Jack Flaherty, Kevin Kiermaier, etc., that played for the Dodgers but didn't make Update and may not appear as a Dodger on a card ever again. So I guess it can stay.

 

 

7. 2024 Topps Archives trio

 

I'm showing all the Dodgers Archives arrivals out of order. These three arrived before the ones that I showed yesterday and the Archives cards I showed last week. But they all go toward the team set pursuit and speaking of which, someone can send me the Ohtani card any time now!

 

 

 6. 2024 Topps Hobby Rip Night Yoshinobu Yamamoto

 

I just found out about this promo set maybe a month ago, and thought the same thing I always do -- "how am I going to get those?" -- but here's one of the four Dodgers in the set now!

 

 

 5. 2001 Pacific Gold Crown Die Cuts Shawn Green

 

I'm not a big Pacific fan, but I've been collecting on the blogs long enough to know that many of the inserts can be elusive. I don't know if this one is really rare, I just know it took long enough to show up with me.

 

 

4. A couple of Campys

 

I am always happy to invite some new-to-me Roy Campanella cards into the collection. The Archives Reserve Campy was a long-time hole filled.

 

 

3. Wooooo, minis!

 

 All the right size, too. I have slacked quite a bit in adding A&G Dodgers minis, I used to be right on top of that stuff. So this is cool. The more colorful Mookie Betts is from the Topps 206 online series, called a 1910 T210, I think it's an insert? There is no card number. Good luck figure out what this, whoever inherits my collection in 2095!

 

 

 2. 1985 TCMA Cy Young Winners Don Drysdale

 

I struggle to add these to my collection. I still need the Snider from the Home Run series. I've said before that some of the '80s TCMA cards seem flimsier to me than the earlier '70s/early '80s sets. This is one of those series. Maybe when TCMA went to full color it had to sacrifice cardboard.

 

 

 1. 2004 Heritage Then & Now Don Newcombe/Johan Santana

 

Maybe this seems like a weird No. 1, but cards from the early Heritage sets don't come around a lot and that goes double for the inserts.

 

I don't think I need to say that there was a lot more than that in the box.

 

 Other Dodgers highlights that didn't make the countdown.

 

 

The 1988 Donruss factory set Dodgers with the border variations, woo, I'll have to take some caffeine when I'm adding those to TCDB/the binder.

 

 

 I should've gotten this into the final 10. It's the last Dodger I needed to finish the 2024 Holiday set! Thanks John!

 

 

 And here's the box filled with all assorted things that I supposedly can use. Night cards, a couple cards of your NFL MVP, some Montgomery Club parallel weirdness that doesn't need to be, and all those minor league sets.

 

There is still a lot of sorting to do and quite honestly some of it will not end up in the collection (Not Seen: a whole bunch of dupes). But I welcome it all for the chance that just a few will enter my collection.