When I got Whitey Herzog's autograph, I had some time to shop while waiting for my number to get called into line. Here's what I found that I felt was worth buying:
4 base cards? Of course not, that'd be quite the waste of space for the sellers paying for table space. I bought 4 complete sets, but I decided to just post a representative card from each here. The 1987 and 1990 Topps came from a seller who said he just bought a large collection of hand-collated sets. In fact, he had so many junk era sets, he didn't have time to go through each one and verify they were complete, so he instead put them on his 2 for $5 table with a sign disclosing they may or may not be complete. He told me he trusted the guy personally, but he didn't want to upset anyone if they had missing cards. I flipped through them pretty fast, but mine did appear to be complete.
From the same seller, I also bought the 2013 Gypsy Queen base set, after looking up in Zistle and seeing not only was I nowhere close to completing it, I only owned one card from the set. I was kind of surprised by that, but that's just one of the sets that I never got around to buying in 2013. I'm really glad I have Zistle as a resource to look up my collection in cases like that; I would have guessed I already had most of the base set.
Finally, I purchased the 2016 Heritage base set (without short prints), saving myself the cost and time that go with opening retail blasters, which is how I usually buy Heritage. I think I did OK on the price of $35, based on what they're going for on eBay. I certainly saved myself $5 off the cost of the first two blasters I would have bought, and I probably would have bought a few more. I won't get any insert cards, but I rarely chase those anyway. They're just nice bonuses that come with my set building.
I've started to feel like buying full sets is the better way for me to go. I'm not making some huge change to my collecting, except I'll probably purchase full sets a little more often, and slightly fewer packs. I'll still buy packs and boxes for some sets, like the relatively cheap Opening Day, or ones where I really like the inserts.
Back in March, Junior Junkie sent out packages to over 60 bloggers, and I was one of them. I'm notoriously slow to want to sit down and sort out large packages for posting, so here's a very late thanks. Also, I'm notoriously insistent upon posting every card I get in a trade or prize package, including tagging the set and players among those I collect, so strap in, you're in for at least a week of posts.
First up is the first half of the Bo Jackson cards. Which wasn't even the largest stack.
1988 Donruss #220 Bo Jackson
1988 Score #180 Bo Jackson
1990 Bowman - Art Inserts #4 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss #1 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss #61 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-1 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss - Grand Slammers #12 Bo Jackson
1990 Fleer #110 Bo Jackson
1990 Score #687 Bo Jackson
Somehow, I was relatively unaware of the Grand Slammers inserts from 1990 Donruss. A quick internet search told me they were in the factory sets and cello packs. As 1990 Donruss has been a longtime project of mine, including all the error variations, I'll probably be adding those to my want list.
1990 Topps #300 Bo Jackson
1990 Upper Deck #75 Bo Jackson
1991 Fleer - Pro-Visions #5 Bo Jackson
1991 Fleer #561 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #5 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #412 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #420 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #692 Bo Jackson
1991 Score 100 Superstars #2 Bo Jackson
I was kind of stunned to see Bo got 4 cards in 1991 Score's base set, until I looked it up and saw he actually had 5. He only had 2 cards total in 1991 Fleer, and I got both of those.
1990 Score #566 Bo Jackson
1990 Topps Stickers #24 Lonnie Smith
Why'd I throw in a random Lonnie Smith sticker to this bunch?
1990 Topps Stickers
Sticker Backs #51 Bo Jackson
Apparently in 1990 Topps Stickers, there were stickers on one side, and the backs had a different player. Thus, this card is doubly collectible for me, with Bo Jackson one one side and former Cardinal Lonnie Smith on the other.
Zistle has allowed me to whittle down my want list bit by bit, while helping others do the same with my doubles. I've got a lot of overproduction-era Cardinals still missing from my collection, so every now and then someone finds me and can knock off quite a few of them. This particular trader just wanted a Joe Carter card in return, and as a Blue Jays fan, had a few Todd Stottlemyre cards for me, too.
1985 Topps #683 Whitey Herzog
1990 Fleer #243 Cris Carpenter
1990 Fleer #251 Ken Hill
1990 Fleer #252 Joe Magrane
1990 Fleer #253 Willie McGee
1990 Fleer #261 Scott Terry
1990 Fleer #263 Denny Walling
1990 Fleer #264 Todd Worrell
1990 Topps #6 Vince Coleman RB
These were the last of the 1990 Fleer Cardinals I needed, so that's one more team set off my list.
As I've mentioned before, Todd Stottlemyre and his father, Mel, are distant cousins of mine, which is why I started collecting his cards in earnest. Now since I've widened my collecting net to anyone who has suited up for the Cardinals, I've got two reasons to collect his cards, so I'm glad to have 3 more off my list. The sender wrote a note saying he figured he'd have more Stottlemyre cards I needed, which caused me to check my list and see my want list was far from containing every card of his I don't have, so I've rectified that now. Thus, the net result of this trade for me was my want list increased by several dozen cards. Hooray progress?
My Zistle trading binge continues, and this time I got enough Cardinals that I had to split into two posts just to tag them all. In return, I sent off some 2011 Topps Lineage cards, several of which were triples and quadruples, because I bought several discounted packs and blasters of that set.
1989 Bowman
#242 Todd Stottlemyre
#429 Todd Worrell
#437 Terry Pendleton
#440 Pedro Guerrero
#444 Tom Brunansky
Ah 1989 Bowman, the cards that don't quite fit in standard sleeves and boxes, and often get bent up when mailed in a stack of standard cards. Luckily with 5 of them they stayed pretty safe in the envelope. I didn't have very many of these, so I've still got 12 Cardinals on my want list.
1990 Fleer
#250 Pedro Guerrero
#262 Milt Thompson
1990 Topps
#82 Scott Terry
#688 Milt Thompson
#788 Frank DiPino
I still need 7 more Fleer cards, and 17 more Topps cards (including some Tony La Russa and a Derek Lilliquist) to complete my current Cardinals wantlists for these two sets. If I ever get ridiculously flush with free time, a PC I would start would be guys wearing #37, so that Scott Terry card has great things ahead of it in my theoretical future.
Several weeks ago, I read a post at Johnny's Trading Spot titled Instant mini collections up for grabs. "Up for Grabs" always gets my attention, so I threw my name into the mix. They were supposed to be randomly assigned, but through a lucky draw and one trade, each of the winners wound up with exactly what they originally wanted most. For me, that was cards with batting donuts.
1990 Fleer #292 Steve Buechele #301 Pete Incaviglia #559 Von Hayes #560 Tom Herr 1990 Topps #143 Rafael Belliard #325 Robby Thompson 1990 Topps Traded #65T Candy Maldonado #85T Junior Ortiz
I've never heard whether there's any sort of interesting story behind it, but for some reason 1990's Tom Herr was 1987's Tommy Herr.
1987 Donruss #140 Tommy Herr #169 Keith Moreland #183 Terry Pendleton #485 Bob Brenly #622 Dave Henderson 1989 Donruss #309 Rafael Santana #346 Mickey Hatcher #355 Gene Larkin #484 Wallace Johnson
It still fills me with cognitive dissonance that Terry Pendleton was a Cardinal longer than a member of the Atlanta Braves. I started watching baseball in 1992, so I never saw him play for us firsthand, and I didn't find out that he did until years later.
1990 Upper Deck #86 Neal Heaton #148 Ernie Whitt #232 Ron Gant #240 John Moses #289 Eddie Williams #298 Mike Scioscia #306 Mike Heath #419 Tim Laudner
1990 Upper Deck was clearly big on the donut photo on the back of the card, favoring action shots for the most part on the front.
1990 Bowman #332 Jerry Browne 1989 Fleer #219 R.J. Reynolds 1989 Fleer #573 Steve Jeltz 1990 Donruss #456 Glenn Braggs 1990 Donruss #798 Chris James 1991 Leaf #36 Spike Owen.
Sometimes, I procrastinate posting and sorting some cards. Normally I don't pay too much attention to how long a particular item has been sitting on my desk, but given that this one was the Tis the Season contest from 2013, I've probably had it in my possession for a little over a year now. But, even with the long delay, I still want to throw Jeff at 2 by 3 Heroes some referral traffic while I show off my prize.
Part IIIIII
Today I've got some more of the miscellaneous Cardinals, Red Sox, and Yankees from the prize package.
1990 Donruss #82 Milt Thompson
1990 Leaf #499 Greg Harris
1991 Topps - All Stars #16 Ozzie Smith
1992 Fleer #44 Phil Plantier
1992 Donruss #628 Greg Cadaret
1992 Donruss Rookies #34 Mike Draper
The Topps Glossy All Stars are definitely cards I should have in my collection, so this Ozzie along with yesterday's Vince Coleman were good additions. Guys like Phil Plantier are the reason I always look up players before assuming they weren't Cardinals. He apparently played for the Cardinals in the second half of 1997, coming over in the trade for Fernando Valenzuela. He played in the outfield in 32 games, and yet I had no memory of him.
1990 Topps #206 Nick Esasky
1990 Topps #409 Tom Brunansky
1990 Upper Deck #191 Don Mattingly
1990 Upper Deck #782 Billy Jo Robidoux
1992 Fleer Ultra #12 Tom Brunansky
1992 Fleer Ultra #15 Roger Clemens
Not only did I get two different Tom Brunansky cards, but as Red Sox and Yankees go, Clemens and Mattingly are two all time greats. A few years ago, I figured Mattingly would continue climbing up the Hall of Fame balloting and eventually make it in, but he's finally officially off the ballot. I suspect Clemens will eventually make it, once the fervor over PEDs dies down a bit, which may already be starting to happen now that Andy Pettitte is getting his number retired with the Yankees.
Yesterday I showed some cards from a recent Zistle trade, all from the junk wax year of 1990. As you can see, the rest were from about the same era.
I'm not sure why I put the Bill Buckner card on my want list, unless his name just stood out due to the famous play he didn't quite make for the Red Sox, while I was adding some other 1989 Fleer to my want list. Ultimately I hope to complete most of the easy-to-find sets like Donruss, Fleer, and Topps from these years, so I'm glad to have it. The rest of the players were all Cardinals at one time or another. I was sort of surprised I didn't have the 1987 McGwire, but I double checked my sorted cards and sure enough, I didn't.
1987 Topps #366 Mark McGwire 1989 Fleer #278 Bill Buckner 1990 Topps #261 Whitey Herzog 1991 Donruss #155 Todd Stottlemyre 1991 Fleer #635 Ken Hill 1993 Score #241 Ozzie Canseco
When I first started watching baseball, two of my favorite players besides Cardinals were the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. Imagine my surprise in September 1992 when I found out Jose's twin brother was in the minor league system, and came up to the big leagues when rosters expanded. He actually played 9 games in a row that year, from September 2-12 with a few off days, then disappeared for the rest of the year. Then in 1993, he played 6 consecutive games, May 7-13. That was the end of his major league career, though, after 15 games in St. Louis and 9 in Oakland.
Ah, 1990. In the fall, I started 3rd grade, and still had no interest in - or knowledge of - baseball or baseball cards. Yet, 1990 is one of the biggest years by quantity in my collection, since they've been cheap and plentiful from the time I started collecting in 1992 all the way until now. Here are 40 more for 40 cents.
1990 Donruss
#163 Joe Magrane
#555 John Costello
There were 2 uniformed Cardinals out of the 26, which I guess is twice the expected value of a random assortment in 1990, when there were 26 teams. I'll call that a win.
1990 Donruss
#11 Kevin Mitchell
#47 Julio Machado
#116 Greg Minton
#122 Dwight Evans
#170 Kirk McCaskill
#189 Rob Dibble
I'm a Diamond King fan, and Rob Dibble's still around baseball, so those are good ones.
1990 Donruss
#194 Darren Daulton
#214 Mike Moore
#239 Tommy Gregg
#282 Mike Devereaux
#294 Ivan Calderon
#333 Bob Milacki
I was a bit of a bandwagoner as a kid, so when the Phillies were back to back champions I took an interest in them, making that Darren Daulton card stand out to me. [Edit: The Blue Jays beat the Phillies in 1993, but the Braves in 1992. Thanks to Mark for pointing that out.]
1990 Donruss
#345 Erik Hanson
#383 Dave Magadan
#389 Jose Alvarez
#430 Ken Howell
#538 Joey Cora
#541 Wes Gardner
It felt like Joey Cora would be such a huge star at one point, but he seemed to level off. Now, he needs to run far away from Ozzie Guillen if he wants another MLB coaching gig.
1990 Donruss
#557 Rick Dempsey
#629 Vance Law
#631 Todd Frohwirth
#651 Steve Lyons
#698 Steve Cummings
#709 Larry McWilliams
Psycho! I like cards of guys with other ties to the game, whether it's coaching or broadcasting, so maybe I should start a side collection. That would cover a big percentage of players though. Also in this bunch, Larry McWilliams is a former Cardinal too, but a group of 24 cards scans much more nicely than 23.
Alright, enough with the red borders, let's see what's next.
1990 Topps
#224 Delino DeShields
#725 Terry Pendleton
This is Delino in his pre-Cardinal days. Also, I associate Terry Pendleton so strongly with the Atlanta Braves that it always seems weird to see footage or cards of him as a Cardinal.
1990 Topps
#143 Rafael Belliard
#195 Tim Burke
#243 Barry Jones
#349 Steve Finley
#401 Kevin Mitchell
#402 Eric Davis
2 All-Stars isn't bad.
1990 Topps
#425 Bill Landrum
#524 Daryl Boston
#537 Mark Grant
#554 Jay Buhner
#593 Scott Bradley
#658 Donell Nixon
As a guy who had normally kept a shaved head (except for a brief time in college), I appreciate Jay Buhner. Also, there's this:
Of course, Frank shortchanged Jay here. He had 40 HR in 1995, the "last year" to which he was referring in this clip.
On a statistical note, I shattered the 1.8 cents/card mark with this purchase, coming down from 1.802 to 1.789.
Way back in July 2012, I won a contest at Cards On Cards. The premise was to pick the Cardinals player who would have the biggest impact on the game, determined Sabermetrically. I picked the right player, and got a pile of Cardinals for my trouble. They've been sitting in that same pile, haunting me, for quite some time, so now is the time to show them to you.
Part [ I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII ]
1976 Topps #478 Lynn McGlothen
1987 Donruss #604 Steve Lake
1988 Donruss #31 Lance Johnson
1990 Topps #533 Tim Jones
You can tell I'm nearing the end, with this random assortment of 1970s to 1990s cards. I admit I don't know who Lynn McGlothen is, but a 1970s card is always a welcome addition. Also, that's right White Sox and Mets fans (and Cubs and Yankees near the end), Lance Johnson was a Cardinal for a bit in 1987. We traded him and Ricky Horton for Jose DeLeon prior to 1988, though.
2001 Topps #50 Mark McGwire
2002 Upper Deck Ovation #119 Mark McGwire
2003 Upper Deck Victory #88 Mark McGwire
2003 Upper Deck Victory - Tier 1 Green #88 Mark McGwire
Here I have more McGwires that didn't fit in the last post. These are all my sole representatives in their sets, like many of the previous McGwires. My collecting really dropped off in 1999 and was almost non-existent in 2000, through late 2010, so cards from that era always feel like they're helping to bridge the gap.
I bid on these two 1990 Topps cards about the same time, for a penny each. I bid on several others around the time too, so I didn't notice that they seem to be looking at something off in the distance..
1990 Topps
#523 Jay Bell
#625 Roger McDowell
Jay: Hey Roger, what is that?
Roger: Huh? What? Oh, yeah that's weird.
J: Looks like some kind of...
R: It's a UFO!
J: It is not. Why do you always say that? Every time a plane, a bird, a copter, or a blimp flies over, you think it's a UFO.
R: I'm sorry. So what were you going to say?
J: It's like some kind of machine-man hybrid, like Robocop, or Terminator.
R: He should be Governor.
J: What?
R: Terminator. Make him Governor. Call him Governator. It'll be hilarious.
J: No state is going to elect him Governor. And that movie was 5 years ago.
R: Whatever, I'm going back to the bullpen.
J: Wait, I see it now. It's the Topps photographer!
R: Sweet! I hope I get in the game today so he'll get some action shots.
This round of eBay wins featured 1990 and 1991 Topps. What a difference a few years can make.
1990 Topps
#12 Joe Girardi
#120 John Franco
#222 Kurt Stillwell
#233 Ken Hill
#260 Eric Davis
#350 Bret Saberhagen
I remember Girardi finishing as a Cardinal, but I didn't realize just how little he actually played until I looked it up on baseball-reference.com. Apparently it was a mere 16 games for 26 plate appearances, meaning he likely entered as a double-switch replacement a few times.Even so, he was with the team for the whole year, and provided a veteran presence for the Cardinals. I only remember Ken Hill's second stint with the Cardinals, and not much about it.
1990 Topps
#433 Steve Olin
#493 Jason Grimsley
#608 Eric Anthony
#714 Marquis Grissom
When the Expos left Montreal, I went out and got the hat colored like Marquis Grissom's helmet here. I figured they would be hard to find once the team was gone. Little did I know how big the throwback trend would become. Even so, I'm glad I've got the hat.
1991 Topps
#271 Omar Olivares
#279 Jose Gonzalez
#596 Ronnie Walden
These are the first 1991 Topps cards I've shown on my blog. My most vivid memory of Omar Olivares was opening day, when he showed up wearing 00, and the announcers said it was because they were his initials.
Just like #56, this one is an ugly 1990 set and a relative unknown, at least to me. I give you: Alvaro Espinoza. I guess you can't really be considered unknown if you start for the Yankees for 3 years, but I'd never heard of him.
1990 Topps #791 Álvaro Espinoza
You don't see a lot of guys wearing eyeglasses in the batter's box anymore. I guess guys these days either wear contacts or get laser surgery.
I picked up these half-dozen cards on eBay for a penny each. Neither my record-keeping nor memory is good enough to tell you whether that was one rather random auction, or 6 different ones, though.
1986 Topps #209 Randy Ready
1986 Topps #314 Frank Pastore
1986 Topps #388 Dickie Noles
1986 Topps #433 Chris Codiroli
1990 Topps #638 Jeff Montgomery
1992 Score #626 Mark Leiter
I hope to put together the full 1986 Topps set one day, though it's not at the top of my list. Over the years it's gone from ugly to classic or even iconic in my eyes. I'm definitely no graphic design expert, of course.
I bought some more penny cards, though this time in a lot of 7. I really just wanted the Felix Jose, but everyone else is a nice bonus.
1990 Fleer
#389 Tim Belcher
1990 Topps
#238 Felix Jose
#382 Jeff Musselman
#507 Gary Redus
#624 Darrin Jackson
MLB should bring back pullover jerseys.
1992 Leaf
#80 Doug Henry
#85 Alex Fernandez
It still feels weird to see old Brewers cards from when they were in the AL, even though nothing about the card itself screams "AL". I guess that's how Houston will feel in a few years too. Worst of all would be a Houston-Milwaukee World Series.
Another seller put some 90s commons up for sale, and I just couldn't refuse. I picked these 9 cards up for a total of 9 cents. And 3 of them go in my vast PC of "Anyone who was a Cardinal, ever".
1990 Topps #567 Ron Gant
I remember when Gant, Jordan, and Lankford formed one of the most power-hitting outfields in MLB, at least that's how I remember it.
1990 Topps #35 Benny Santiago
It's rare to see a catcher neither batting nor in his gear, so that gives this card a little quirk.
1990 Topps #34 Tony Fossas
Here's another former Cardinal a few years before he got to us. I can't tell if that's a scowl or he's trying to hold back a smile.
1990 Topps #754 Bob Walk
1990 Topps #658 Donell Nixon
1990 Topps #228 Dave Martinez
1994 Stadium Club #26 Tony Fossas
Hey look, it's Tony Fossas again. It's still pre-Cardinals though, as he came to the team for 1995-1997.
1994 Stadium Club #154 Chris Haney
1994 Stadium Club #270 Checklist
Normally I wouldn't include the checklist, but this one just screams "90s" even more than the base cards.
It's been over a week and a half since I posted an eBay win thanks to various contests, so here's another one. This time I won 4 1990 Topps cards, 2 I'd consider common and 2 that are at least notable. best of all, they were a penny each! I figure for that price, any card is worth the chance that I'll eventually trade it to someone who is trying to complete the set.
1990 Topps #50 Glenn Davis
Paul Lukas doesn't like them, but I really like these Astros uniforms. And this from a guy who has hate a statutory dislike for the Astros since they and the Cardinals moved to form the NL Central.
1990 Topps #342 Alex Trevino
Now I hope this was a BP jersey, because I'm adamantly against anything but white, gray, or pinstripe jerseys for real games. It even kinda bugged me in Spring Training this year that some teams wear BP jerseys for games.
1990 Topps #365 Ozzie Guillen
Is Ozzie even still managing in Florida Miami? I haven't heard his name since he made some remarks to upset local Cubans and Cuban-Americans. Maybe management wisely told him to dummy up for awhile. Also, I dig the uniform number on the pants.
1990 Topps #412 Jamie Moyer
This card is 22 years old. Seeing some of the stats on the back and knowing he still had another 22+ years left in him is kind of amazing. Here are some of his career stats after the 1989 season.
After searching 3 Targets in the St. Louis area to only find 1 pack before, would you believe I went all the way to Kansas City for this one? No? OK, so I happened to be in the KC area last weekend, with about 4 hours to kill, and a Target near my hotel. I figured I'd give it a look since bloggers all across the country had posted about the packs. Sure enough, I found just 1 again. Since I can't resist the mystery vintage, I bought it (along with some cookies, and the cookies were delicious).
As I like to do, first I'll show you the past/current/future Cardinals:
2006 Topps #461 Placido Polanco
I think a big reason I like baseball cards is the history they provide on the back. I can look right there and see that we traded Polanco to the Phillies in 2002. As I recall it was part of the deal for Scott Rolen.
2006 Topps #452 Jake Westbrook
Here's Jake Westbrook pre-Cardinals. The stats history doesn't help me too much here, but luckily there is always baseball-reference.com to tell me he showed up at the 2010 trade deadline.
2006 Topps - Trading Places #TP-JP Juan Pierre
This is a good idea for a subset, because if I had all of them I could look at it as a retrospective of the 2005-2006 off-season activity.
1990 Topps #363 Dan Petry
Doesn't ring a bell to me.
1989 Topps #345 Charlie Hough
I have this factory set as I previously posted, so here's one more on the trade pile.
1985 Topps #82 Joe Price
I can't say I've heard of him off the top of my head, but at least 1985's just a bit before the overproduction era; my earliest "vintage" in the last pack was a 1988. All in all the Vintage weren't overwhelming, but it's still a cool little bonus in the pack.
And here's the 2006 base card listing:
344 Doug Davis
354 Grady Sizemore
363 Jermaine Dye
381 Odalis Perez
405 Miguel Tejada
418 Johnny Estrada
422 Aaron Cook
431 Julio Franco
439 Ben Broussard
452 Jake Westbrook
461 Placido Polanco
471 Runelvys Hernandez
557 Chris Burke
579 Javier Vazquez
600 Ned Yost
615 Arizona Diamondbacks
648 "Brothers Orlando" - Orlando Hernandez/Orlando Hudson
Series 2 Checklist 1 of 3
