the hits keep coming in the steve garvey binders

we're up to sheet 55 in the steve garvey binders, and we're firmly entrenched in 2005.  have a look:

those cards are:

1. 2005 donruss greats (i think)
2. 2005 donruss greats platinum holofoil /50
3. 2005 donruss greats gold holofoil auto (print run 250)
4. 2005 donruss greats souvenirs
5. 2005 donruss greats souvenirs material bat relic
6. 2005 donruss greats souvenirs signature material bat relic/auto
7. 2005 donruss greats souvenirs signature material jersey relic/auto
8. 2005 donruss leather & lumber hitters inc. silver /200
9. 2005 donruss leather & lumber hitters inc. /2000

the reason that i am not sure about the donruss greats base card is that there is also a non-serial numbered holofoil parallel, and the scan of what i thought was the base seems to look like holofoil. i've ordered a base card from sportlots, and if they've cataloged that card correctly, i'll be able to compare the two in the next few days.

here are the backs:

donruss really went crazy with garvey cards in 2005, and the fun continues on sheet 56:

those cards are:

1. 2005 donruss leather & lumber hitters inc. bat relic /100
2. 2005 donruss leather & lumber hitters inc. jersey relic /100
3. 2005 donruss signature series signature club auto bat relic
4. 2005 donruss signature series inkredible combos (with don sutton)
5. 2005 donruss studio heritage /1000
6. 2005 donruss studio heritage die-cut /200
7. 2005 donruss studio heritage die-cut gold /50
8. 2005 donruss studio heritage jersey /250
9. 2005 donruss studio heritage bat relic /150

another combo auto with garvey's clubhouse scrapping partner, don sutton.  one studio die-cut is ok, but was there really a need for a gold die-cut parallel?  the answer is no, but i made room for it in the collection because it's got garvey's name and photo on it.

here are the backs:

sheet 57 features even more donruss parallel madness:

those cards are:

1. 2005 donruss studio portraits zenith white /70
2. 2005 donruss studio portraits red /50
3. 2005 donruss studio portraits blue black & white /40
4. 2005 donruss team heroes
5. 2005 donruss team heroes showdown blue parallel
6. 2005 donruss team heroes showdown red parallel
7. 2005 donruss team heroes showdown silver parallel /50
8. 2005 donruss throwback threads
9. 2005 donruss throwback threads century stars spectrum /100

so, there are 56 different versions of garvey cards in the studio portraits release, ranging in print runs from 5 to 70. i've got three. i'm also missing the bronze and gold showdown parallels from the team heroes set, and all four of the memorabilia cards from the throwback threads set.

here are the backs:

sheet 58 has some pretty decent jersey/patch relics: 

those cards are:

1. 2005 donruss timeless treasures milestone materials jersey relic (yellow) /10
2. 2005 donruss timeless treasures milestone materials jersey relic (brown) /10
3. 2005 donruss timeless treasures rookie year materials prime jersey relic /5
4. 2005 leaf certified materials fabric of the game stats jersey relic /25
5. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia
6. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia heroes /250
7. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia heroes swatch double spectrum prime relic /25
8. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia heroes swatch triple spectrum prime relic /15
9. 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia heroes team quads swatch single padres relic (with willie mccovey, tony gwynn, and rickey henderson) /100

the first two cards represent 20% of the milestone materials print run - i just wanted one of each color - and one of the cards happens to be the 6/10 card. yay.

here are the backs:

what i show as the back for the team quad is really the front, but garvey's side gets to be the front in the binder.  lots more cool stuff to come as 2005 continues - stay tuned...

i don't always shop at the beckett marketplace, but when i do, i shop for obscure steve garvey cards

there are many options for obtaining cards these days that obviously weren't available to me as a budding collector in 1978. aside from buying packs, trading was the first way i was able to obtain specific cards that i wanted for my collection back then. once i had made a few trades with the neighborhood kids, i was introduced to the local card shop and immediately had access to a greater number of cards. after that, my dad took me to a few card shows in the greater los angeles area, which i am nearly positive included the first national convention in 1980.

the conventions, along with the card shops and even retail outlets like target and sam's club, continued to feed my collection until i found out about ebay in 1999. since then, most of my purchases have come from the auction site, although recently i've been doing more sportlots. i have also made purchases from comc and justcommons, but not as frequently.

maybe once a year, i will also buy cards from the beckett marketplace. the downside to the beckett marketplace is similar to that of sportlots - cards are shipped from individual owners rather than a central location so costs add up quickly, especially since there is not the budget shipping option that sportlots offers. so, unless i can't find what i am looking for elsewhere, i usually steer clear of beckett.
well, i had been on the lookout for a reasonably priced 1987 bohemian hearth steve garvey card for quite a while. ebay search results would alert me to one every so often, but there was always a highly set minimum bid, so i passed. when i searched beckett sometime in the latter half of last year, there were a couple hits, including one for a pretty reasonable price, so i jumped.

i'm glad i did. these were inserted in to loaves of bread in the san diego area in 1987. here's the back

that's a lot of bread to buy if you're looking for the complete 22 card set.  i wonder (no pun intended) if you could tell which card was in a loaf, and if so, were shelves left full of storm davis loaves?

another garvey item i figured i wouldn't ever find was listed in the official beckett steve garvey checklist as '1989 padres magazine #20 steve garvey/home run ties nlcs'. i had no idea what this was. was it a card? a magazine cover? besides, who keeps old padres magazines? i had poked around a few card shops in the san diego area in the early 90's looking for garvey stuff, but never had any luck with either the bohemian bread or the magazine thing, mostly because i didn't know that they even existed at that time. anyway, i saw one for sale for the first time during that same visit to beckett.

it made sense once i saw the thing in person that it was a card from a perforated panel, and not a magazine cover.

i guess these cards were inserted as an incentive for you to buy the magazine, as the back of garvey's card

notes that it comes from series no. 5.

some rarer garvey cards still show up on ebay from time to time, and i recently added a couple to my collection. this is a 1986 cunningham card

that doesn't even show up on the beckett checklist. it's a broder type card that served, as far as i can tell, as an advertisement for scott cunningham photography. the photos used for these cards could also be purchased from the photographer in 8x10 format. 

another recent ebay acquisition was this 2008 donruss threads garvey century collection relic card. 

the photo says 'dodgers' but the jersey piece says 'padres'. at least it's from one of his fantastically nasty padre jerseys that featured yellow (i don't think it's from one of the primarily yellow bp jerseys based on the material) and not one that had the boring brown pinstripes. 

further exploring my avenues for obtaining steve garvey cards, this is a 1986 meadow gold blank back card that i purchased from checkoutmycards. 

i had not seen one before i ran across it on comc. there is another 1986 meadow gold garvey card that has stats on the back, but this one looks like it was cut from a box. in fact, the ones with the stats on the back were issued in panels inside specially marked boxes of meadow gold popsicles and fudgesicles, while the blank backs were indeed cut from ice cream cartons. 

as i mentioned earlier, sportlots has been my primary source lately for cards - mostly double plays and parallels - and once in a while i'll find a garvey or two that i didn't already have. case in point, this 2005 donruss team heroes showdown silver parallel 

and this 2005 donruss greats silver parallel 

were somehow previously missing from my collection, which is odd because i was hitting ebay pretty hard for garvey stuff in 2004 and 2005. both cards use the same photo, and both are one of many parallels donruss put out that year. in addition to silver, there are red, blue, gold, and bronze versions of the team heroes card, and gold and platinum version of the greats card. i have most of the other parallels, but not all, so if you see a gold version of the greats card (numbered to 10), please let me know. 

last, but certainly not least, is a card that i'd been thinking about for a while. i have a complete dodger set of the 2005 baseball hero deck playing cards, but wanted a garvey single for my garvey binders. thanks to a seller on beckett, i found one pretty cheaply. 

3 of hearts? makes sense for the garv. 

sometimes i wish there were a card website aggregator that would let me know what's for sale where, but that's just lazy talk. i'm afraid i just need to keep a closer eye on the beckett marketplace if i'm ever to find a 1989 michigan state pepsi garvey card...

a red number day for me and for steve garvey

so not only is today steve garvey's 65th birthday, this post just so happens to be my 2000th post here on this blog.  i had made this milestone an unspoken stretch goal for 2014, and i have been able to post more than i had in any of my previous 4+ years.  i'm not completely sure what 2014 will bring, but i've enjoyed my time with the blog this year for certain.

i now the term is 'red letter day', but 'red number' fits better when you consider the dodger uniform and this 2011 topps marquee auto/dual relic 'acclaimed impressions' card

i really am a sucker for the red uniform number.  i have another card from this same set/print run, but it's got the blue jersey text patch

one of the things i am planning to do in 2014 is post my entire garvey card collection.  not all at once of course, but page by page perhaps.  when i do, you will see that for many releases, i have a number of the same card with different jersey/patch configurations.  it's a bit much i suppose, but this is pretty much my only vice.  so i justify it.

back to red stuff, here's a red parallel, also from 2011 topps marquee, of a garvey 'titanic threads' card

i like the big swatch, but not at the expense of a tiny photo.  i'm sure that there is a happy medium that could be achieved.

more red - this is a 2005 donruss team heroes showdown parallel

while this is a 2005 playoff prestige xtra bases parallel

unfortunately, the only red on this next card is in the background - no jersey number relics.  it's from 2005 playoff absolute memorabilia, and it features garvey along with darryl strawberry and rickey henderson

as well as kaz ishii, paul loduca, and kevin brown

not sure where loduca's jersey piece is coming from - florida or new york - but it sure isn't la.

post 2001 will be up shortly as i continue to celebrate garvey's birthday.  before then, a quick thank you to those of you who have bothered to read this stuff over the last 5+ years, and to those with whom i've successfully traded - it's appreciated.

dinged corners sent me some cards!

i am not too creative with the post titles right now...

the ladies at dinged corners were nice enough to send me some fantastic cards of the big blue wrecking crew and other, lesser teams. they are much appreciated. here is a sampling:

2005 donruss team heroes steve garvey.

well, certainly my dodger team hero. mvp, 4 world series in 8 years, etc. in fact, the back of the card tells me that, had he had 8 more hits in 1977, he would have been the first modern day major leaguer with 7 straight seasons of 200 hits. i suspect ichiro has done it, but popeye could have been the first! too bad 1977 was the year he was swinging for the fences.

2008 bowman gold russell martin.

dumb topps/bowman with their 'russ' martin cards. if vin scully doesn't call him russ, why the heck does topps?

2008 upper deck timeline matt kemp.

in my last post, i indicated that matt kemp is my current favorite player. true, but he is more like my baseball salvation. i really hope ned doesn't sign 3 more outfielders to cut into the bison's playing time.

some twins were also provided, including this 1993 o-pee-chee.

even though i follow post-2000 twins, it's always nice to get a hall of famer like kirby, molly, or, in this case, dave winfield. 1993 was the first year o-pee-chee had it's own design - no longer using the topps base design. which makes sense, but i was a fan of the old o-pee-chee, so i don't like it. anyway, we see dave here sporting the rare full pant leg with stirrup look.

last(ings) but not least, they sent a few cards to go towards my quest to finish the allen & ginter set. i feel like i am the last guy chasing this thing.thank you ladies! like it or not, i have a few cards that will be heading out your way soon.