how does this happen?

yes, i know that in 1957, topps did it to hank aaron, and in 1969 they did it to larry haney.  plus, 1979 saw topps do it to willie horton, and 20 years later, topps did it to aj hinch.  but how, in the year two thousand eleven, does topps reverse the negative on a duke snider card?

that's a card from 2011 topps tribute that i picked up recently.

it's not like the 'b' on the hat or the '4' on the back of the jersey are giveaways - this is duke snider, hall of famer.

still, the card is nice and shiny, so i am willing to overlook the reversed negative.  but if topps puts out a card of sandy koufax throwing with his right hand…

…it will have to be reaaaaaally shiny.

tribute-iful cards that i hope to have received for free

i have been very good lately about buying cards using only funds that come from selling stuff on ebay or sportlots.   i've always been good about not using the plastic fantastic to fund my collecting, but these days i prefer to not raid the checking account, either.  my paypal balance is dwindling, however, so i need to get some more things sold.

one thing i have done to reduce the paypal account is purchase a couple of lots of topps tribute cards.  a total of 137 cards, to be exact, for a total cost (including shipping) of about $74.  these lots have included a fair number of dodgers (19 if we are really counting), a haloed don sutton and 3 steve garvey (as a freakin' friar) cards.  the other 114 cards are not of much use to me (actually, make that 113 as i sent a greg maddux card to the junior junkie in a trade).  those cards include many numbered parallels, and i will eventually re-sell most of them.  i'm wondering if i will be able to get all of my money back.

before i get into all of that, here are most of the cards that i am keeping.

from 2009 topps tribute, i have a steve garvey black (#/99) parallel

as well as a duke snider black parallel

and a pee wee reese black parallel

one of the lots also had the blue parallels (#/219) of garvey

and pee wee

this whole thing was borne out of a search for the two garvey parallels.  after watching a few auctions that featured the cards individually, i decided that it might pay off in the long run to buy them as part of lots.  and so i did.

there were regular ol' base versions of the duke

 pee wee

 roy campanella

 jackie robinson

johnny podres

 mike piazza

 manny ramirez

 clayton kershaw

 and don zimmer

in the lots as well.  look at that water cooler zimmer is using - it looks like a wine barrel.  the majority of the cards that i picked up were from 2009, which is probably my favorite tribute set this side of the initial 2001 release.  still, i picked up a couple of cards from the 2002 set, like gil hodges

 and don sutton

plus a bunch from the 2010 set.  here's campy

 manny

 pee wee

and jackie

and here's the lone 2011 topps tribute card in the bunch, a blue parallel of duke snider.

that's a really pretty card.  all of the tribute cards look nice to be honest, although the 2010 design is a bit busy for my taste.  it's too bad my scanner is so inconsistent with these cards.

some of those dodger cards might be doubles, so they may go back into the 'to sell' box. once i figure that out, my plan is to try to do a better job with the auction listing(s) and maybe make back all or at least the majority of my $74 investment.  it might sound like a longshot, but i have already got about $9 of it back thanks to just this one card

that would be a rogers hornsby 'no name on front' variation (or were they errors?).  i cleared about $9 after shipping and fees, so now i'm looking at around $65 to get into the black.  the seller of the lot that included this card did not mention the variation, so i was surprised to see it when the box arrived.

this is not the first time that i have tried flipping cards - i've done it several times, and i actually had a really nice (and somewhat heartbreaking) success about 12 years ago, but i'll save that for a different post.  most recently i wound up with a 1951 bowman carl furillo card for about $4 after re-selling the other 5 cards he came with when i bought him.

in the meantime, if anyone is looking for any 2009 topps tribute cards, let me know.  i am open to working out a trade before they hit the selling block.

i love you guys, but enough!

so, next month 2012 topps is released.  my new year's wish is that we see some new blood with the short prints and the vintage legend type inserts.  i really wish gil hodges had been elected to the hall of fame so that topps might have been motivated to use him to represent the dodgers instead of roy campanella, duke snider, jackie robinson, and pee wee reese.

nothing against those four hall of famers, but enough is enough.  there are other players, topps. i know that we have seen sandy koufax get a bunch of cards in 2011, which is great, and steve garvey and don sutton were used as well in some of the insert sets, but there is no denying that topps seems beholden to the four brooklyn hall of famers.  here's a sampling of what we've seen in the last couple of years, in addition to the four kimball champion mini inserts from 2011 topps shown above.

roy campanella was part of the topps '60' insert set this past year

as well as the 'lost years' insert set.

as a fan of 'cards that should have been', this was by far my favorite insert set.  i hope topps expands it to a bigger insert set in 2012.  here's the 'original' back to what should have been campy's 1954 card

then there was topps marquee

and back in 2010, we saw him on a million card giveaway

and a turkey red insert in the update set

he also got a vintage legends card, 2001 style

that's three inserts in the update series.  that's a lot.

the duke was similarly featured in recent sets.  here's his 2011 topps marquee card

and then there is this 2011 topps tribute card

like campy, snider was part of the 2011 topps '60' insert set

that's enough of the duke - let's move on to jackie

not sure why, but topps added the jackie robinson special inserts/parallels/whatever to 2011 topps heritage, as well as a 'news flashback' card recounting his election to the hall of fame

he also was featured in the '60 years of topps' insert set from 2011 topps

back in 2010, he was part of the topps 'tales of the game' insert set

and had a cool redemption card in 2010 chrome

here's his triple threads card

and his vintage legends insert card from topps update

you get the idea.  that's why i'll just show one pee wee reese card - his 60 years of topps card from 2011 topps update

it's even got jackie lurking in the background.

let's see some new (dodger blue) blood in 2012!