eBay Wins #119

Today I've got 9 more penny cards, this time from 1985.

1985 Fleer
#235 Tom Nieto
#367 Bob Bailor
#352 Bob Knepper
#446 Steve Farr
#514 Scott Fletcher
1985 Topps
#88 Bryn Smith
#164 Jorge Orta
#416 Wayne Gross
#652 Joe Nolan

My scanner's dimensions allow me to scan 3 cards wide and 3 cards high, or 4 cards wide and 2 cards high, so groups of 5 or 7 always give me trouble. Thus, your 1985 frankenset above, with 5 Fleer and 4 Topps. Aside from Tom Nieto, who is wearing the birds on the bat on his card, Bryn Smith was also a Cardinal, from 1990-1992. I started watching baseball in 1992, and didn't really learn all the players until 1993, so I have no direct memory of him. I didn't even know he left us for the Rockies along with Andres Galarraga in 1993 until I looked him up on baseball-reference, though I vividly remember being upset at Galarraga's departure.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2883
Total Spent	$47.36
Per Card	1.643 cents

2014 College World Series Contest

It's that time of year again, when Autographed Cards starts the annual College World Series contest. In fact, it's exactly that time of year, as my promotion posts from 2012 and 2013 both went up on May 28 as well.

Sadly, there are no Billikens this year, as they lost in the semifinal of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, despite it taking place on their home turf. But that means I won't be tempted to make any sentimental picks this year.

Go pick the 8 College World Series participants from the field of 64 for now, and don't forget to come back once the final 8 are set for the next phase. You've only got until high noon Eastern Time on Friday, so don't wait, enter now!

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #1

I've decided to jump right into my Series 2 Jumbo box, and show another 10 packs of year-old Topps. I got in ahead a little ahead of the 2014 Series 2 release. Now I just need to finish this one before Update hits the shelves.

2013 Topps
#527 Carlos Beltran
Gold Parallel #588 Jordan Zimmerman #1002/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-12 Zack Cozart
The Elite #TE-5 Sandy Koufax
World Baseball Classic #WBC-2 Anthony Rizzo
1972 Topps Mini #TM-78 R.A. Dickey

The first pack only had one Cardinal in it; the Carlos Beltran base card. The Gold Parallels and Minis are the same as Series 1, and "The Elite" is just about the same as "The Greats", but more greater? And still thick enough to make you think you've got a relic on your hands. And, maybe I'm a sucker for a good marketing ploy, but I like the World Baseball Classic. But, looking over the set checklist, I think Anthony Rizzo is probably the lowest on the totem pole among the 15 stars featured, and that's not just my anti-Cubs bias.

2013 Topps
Chasing History #CH-55 Ken Griffey, Jr.
Chasing the Dream #CD-3 Ryan Zimmerman
Emerald Parallel #523 Wandy Rodriguez

Ken Griffey always reminds me of all the Wheaties and Frosted Wheaties boxes I had saved from the late 90s. Sadly, at one point I felt bad taking up the bottom of my parents utility closet with my boxes full of cereal boxes, and recycled them.

Unlike Series 1, I began this journey fresh, owning no cards from Series 2. That does, however, mean all 37 base cards contributed to set completion, keeping me ahead of the 10% per pack pace.

Series 2 Completion: 37/330 (11.2%)

eBay Wins #118

Today's pseudo-lot contains 17 cards from 1984 Fleer.

1984 Fleer
#23 Tim Stoddard
#52 Floyd Bannister
#66 Dennis Lamp
#71 Mike Squires
#81 John Grubb
#114 Derrel Thomas
#178 Terry Forster
#195 Mark Brouhard
#223 Bill Dawley

In this bunch, only Bill Dawley played for the Cardinals, in 1987. But he didn't make the postseason roster after struggling during the season.

1984 Fleer
#257 Jim Morrison
#279 Bryan Little
#373 Atlee Hammaker
#379 Jeff Leonard
#457 Mike Norris
#541 Mike Fischlin
#555 George Vukovich
#557 Tom Brunansky

In the top row we have Jim Morrison, which is probably not the deceased singer, but you never really know for sure. Fun Fact: an anagram of Jim Morrison is Mr. Mojo Risin, which the singer sometimes used as a pseudonym and was in the lyrics of L.A. Woman. There's also Mr. One Flap Down himself, Jeffrey Leonard, who I guess went by Jeff at that time.

I'm surprised I haven't had any Tom Brunansky cards on my blog yet. He was a Cardinal from mid-1988 to mid-1990, and was involved in 2 somewhat big trades. His arrival was in exchange for sending Tom Herr to the Twins, and he left when the Cardinals acquired Lee Smith from the Red Sox.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2874
Total Spent	$47.27
Per Card	1.645 cents

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #10

It's the end of the road for my Jumbo Box; one last shot to get the final 36 out of 330 cards. Do I have faith in Topps' collation?

2013 Topps
#50 Adam Wainwright
#182 Randy Choate
#220 Octavio Dotel

First we have a few Cardinals base cards. The Randy Choate and Octavio Dotel were new to me in this pack, so that's 2 towards completing the set.

2013 Topps
#4 Yadier Molina
#125 Matt Holliday

And here are some horizontal Cardinals base cards, with Matt Holliday also filling a gap in the set.

2013 Topps
Calling Cards #CC-14 Pablo Sandoval
Chasing History #CH-2 Roberto Clemente
Chasing the Dream #CD-23 Jose Altuve
Emerald Parallel #224 Jon Jay
The Greats #TG-14 Stan Musial
1972 Topps Mini #TM-8 Dan Uggla

Finally there's a nice collection of inserts, except the Altuve I already got in Pack #2. I actually wound up with 3 duplicates from the Chasing the Dream set. The Jon Jay card is particularly green, I think because he takes up less space on the card in this far-away shot than the average close up you see in the base cards above. So the greening of the background got almost the whole card. The Musial card is the second one from the "The Greats" set that I got, but the other was Albert Pujols (though as an Angel). Since I'm 2 for 2 on Cardinals, I thought I'd check the checklist, and so I added 2 more to my want list: Bob Gibson, and John Smoltz just for completeness (yes, he was a Cardinal for a bit).

But the grand drama that has been building is whether or not I could complete the base set. I'm happy to say, I did, though when I first checked, my list showed I was missing Jason Isringhausen, which I knew I pulled in a previous pack. Once that was rectified, I've got all cards 1-331 (minus 7) checked off.

Series 1 Completion: 330/330 (100.0%)

eBay Wins #117

Today I've got another pseudo-lot from eBay, consisting of 1982-83 cards. As with all of these lots, they were a penny per card.

1982 Topps #412 Dan Meyer

I don't really know much about Dan Meyer, but I do love that old triton Mariners logo.

1983 Donruss #512 Mike Torrez

Mike Torrez was a Cardinal at the beginning of his career, something the 1978-1982 stats on the back didn't reveal to me. He played here until mid-1971 before being traded to the Expos.

1983 Fleer
#1 Joaquin Andujar
#11 Jim Kaat
#64 Dennis Martinez
#265 Gary Lavelle
#310 Larry McWilliams
#408 Ed Glynn
#418 Lary Sorensen
#517 Wayne Gross
#569 Dave Hostetler

I always forget how long and how late in his life Dennis Martinez pitched until I see old pictures of him like this 1983 card. 23 seasons is just amazing. Other than the uniformed Joaquin Andujar and Jim Kaat, other Cardinals in this bunch include Larry McWilliams and Lary Sorensen, for a season each.


On another note, my per card average dropped below 1.65 cents with these 11 penny cards. I'm not really sure what number I'm trying for, but stats are interesting to me.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2857
Total Spent	$47.10
Per Card	1.649 cents

Zistle Trade #8 Part B

Here's the second part of my trade from yesterday. As I said there, Blogger's label limitations have forced me to split up the relatively small number of cards into two posts. I had just barely too many characters for one post, so I didn't have to split them very carefully, so I went with vertical cards in the previous post, and horizontal in this one, mostly for ease of scanning.

1999 Topps #452 Alex Rodriguez/Nomar Garciaparra/Derek Jeter
2007 Topps Opening Day #69 Albert Pujols
2010 Upper Deck #463 Albert Pujols
2011 Allen and Ginter - Hometown Heroes #HH9 Adam Wainwright

I've been a fan of Nomar since his rookie year, and I still don't really remember why. I do know I spent many hours on a high school art project featuring him that year.

The Pujols cards are Pujols cards, and that's the only reason I need for those. I don't see much of 2007 Opening Day, but hopefully my quest for a Cardinals team set isn't in vain. I actually just purchased the full 2010 Upper Deck set from Matt's case break at Once A Cub, but Cardinal duplicates are often what I wind up trading away on Zistle to fellow Cardinal fans with different Cardinal duplicates, so this one may still serve a purpose.

Finally, there's an Adam Wainwright card from 2011 Allen and Ginter. I generally convince myself not to spend the money necessary to get much Ginter, but I like the set, so these inserts always wind up on my list. This year I'm jumping on the bandwagon, though, and at least picking up a few packs of it when it hits the shelves.

Zistle Trade #8 Part A

I recently completed a trade on Zistle. I like getting random Cardinals from fellow bloggers contest prizes or throw-ins for trades, but there's something immensely satisfying about checking off something from my want list on every single card in a package.

1989 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-24 Gerald Perry
1992 Topps - Gold #645 Deion Sanders
1992 Topps Kids #28 Lee Smith
1992 Donruss - Diamond Kings #DK-9 Andy Van Slyke
1993 Topps - Gold #700 Nolan Ryan
2011 Topps Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF-7 Mariner 2

Gerald Perry, Andy Van Slyke, and (obviously) Lee Smith were on my want list because they were all Cardinals. I'd like to complete the 1992 and 1993 Topps Gold sets, so all the remaining cards from those sets are on my list as well. These were no commons, though. In fact, both are Hall-of-Famers...though Deion's in the football hall of fame. Finally, much lower on my priority list, but still there, is an insert from 2011 Heritage.

There are actually slightly more cards to this trade, but I like to be able to search out my cards using blogger's tags, and I'm out of space for this post. So instead, I'll share a mildly amusing anecdote.

A family member of mine who was a bit older was, for some reason, trying to come up with Deion Sanders' name. I don't recall why exactly, probably because he had made a play in a recent game against the Cardinals and we were talking baseball. He kept saying "you know" and "uh" and was getting increasingly frustrated and the name that was on the tip of his tongue. He finally blurted out "you know, Fancy Pants!", referring to Neon Deion's flashy ways. We were in the middle of a restaurant at the time, and everyone had only heard him say "Fancy Pants" rather loudly. We got a few weird looks, but we all laughed it off. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who figured out who he meant, too. So from then until today, Deion Sanders is always "Fancy Pants" in my mind.

eBay Wins #116

Today I've got 9 1982 Fleer cards to show off. The corners are a little fuzzy, and what gloss was on the card is a little dulled, but I've learned I can't be too picky on condition on 30-year-old cards, especially those I get for a penny.

1982 Fleer
#58 Bruce Berenyi
#117 Jim Kaat
#172 Scott McGregor
#225 Craig Reynolds
#230 Joe Sambito
#425 John Wathan
#465 Butch Hobson
#558 Hosken Powell
#567 Juan Bonilla

There was just one Cardinal in the bunch, one of the longest-tenured pitchers ever, Jim Kaat.

Since this is my blog, I set the rules around here, and I've decided to change one. In the past I've generally shown my eBay lots as they arrived, resulting in some individual card postings, or sometimes a few that arrived the same day being shown together, and sometimes lots of 50 cards in a post. I wound up with quite a backlog of cards to show, with many different sets all intermixed in each lot. They were all a penny per card, so, under the principle of fungibility, I finally broke down and broke the lots apart, sorting the cards by set.

My plan is to go through the piles one (or maybe more for small piles) set at a time for efficiency's sake, until my eBay posting backlog is back to a manageable size. An advantage of this, too, is that I've been avoiding entering some semi-old cards in my want list, because I knew I had some cards from the early 1980s to present in my "to blog" pile, but I didn't really know which ones. Now I can peruse the 1982 Fleer list and add all of the Cardinals to my want list, for example, and continue to do so with other sets as I organize them.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2846
Total Spent	$46.99
Per Card	1.651 cents

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #9

Pack 9 is here. Will I get within striking distance of finishing the set?

2013 Topps
#146 Kyle McClellan
#193 Matt Carpenter
#224 Jon Jay
#233 Edwin Jackson

This pack had 4 Cardinals in it, including my first Jon Jay and Edwin Jackson cards from this set.

2013 Topps
Chasing the Dream #CD-10 Giancarlo Stanton
Chasing History #CH-18 Ken Griffey, Jr.
Emerald Parallel #278 Christian Garcia
Gold Parallel #253 Adam Greenberg #0077/2013

Some more of the standard inserts, but with a nonstandard subject on the upper right, Ken Griffey, Jr. This card celebrates his tying of the record for most consecutive games with a Home Run, at 8. There's also a Gold Parallel of Adam Greenberg, the guy who had a 1-day contract with the Marlins after getting severely injured in his first ever at-bat, on the first pitch, with the Cubs many years ago.

2013 Topps
Cut to the Chase #CTC-4 Babe Ruth
1972 Topps Mini #TM-47 Roberto Clemente

If I got to pick 2 Hall of Famer cards (and wasn't allowed any Cardinals), these two would definitely be near the top of my list.

With only 23 new base cards in this pack, I'll now need 36 in the final pack. It won't be impossible, but it'll mean Topps needs to have very good collation, something I've heard isn't really the case these days. With 1 pack left in the box, I'll find out soon enough if I'm going to have to beg for some trades.

Series 1 Completion: 294/330 (89.1%)

eBay Wins #115

Today I've got cards from 2 of Donruss's more garish 90s sets, which look even worse next to each other. But, these are the cards I grew up with, so they make me happy. It also doesn't hurt that they only cost me a penny each.

1990 Donruss
#82 Milt Thompson
#359 Larry Andersen
1991 Donruss
#461 Ernest Riles
#511 Wally Whitehurst
#525 Kent Anderson
#563 John Shelby
#678 Danny Jackson
#670 Ken Hill
#735 Ken Dayley

That makes 3 Danny Jackson cards in my last 10 eBay posts. That stat sounded like much more of an outlier before I typed it. Nonetheless, he counts as a Cardinal in my book, due to his 2 and a half seasons in St. Louis, so the lot netted 4 Cardinals out of 9 cards.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2837
Total Spent	$46.90
Per Card	1.653 cents

Pick a Number at Nachos Grande

Once again, my post for the day is a contest promotion. I'll be back to showing actual cards one of these days.

Today's contest is at Nachos Grande. He's about to do another of his usually-interesting Theme Weeks, and this week will be PWEs. That's Plain White Envelopes if you're not in the know. Anyway, this one's a bit of a math puzzle, where the winner will be whoever can guess the sum of the 7 Zip Codes from PWE week, without going over. He's even provided the 35 digits, so you can go into some deep analysis and try to figure out what zip codes are most likely to house baseball card bloggers. Or you can take a shot in the dark.

Go enter your guess before 6pm Eastern Time Monday, and all week you can obsess over who's winning as the zip codes are revealed.

Wake Up, Sheeple!

Baseball Sheeple, that is.

Go Rams?

Josh at Royals and Randoms is running an innovative contest called Baseball Sheep. Basically, you score points based on your answers to a list of questions, with more popular answers scoring more points. That is, you get points for being sheep - following the crowd - as best you can. Visit Josh's blog for a slightly better explanation of the scoring system, and fill out the questionnaire before midnight Sunday night to be eligible to win.

Play at the Plate's 2000th Post Contest

It seems like I've already seen a dozen posts or more promoting Play at the Plate's 2000th post contest, and with good reason. You can leave a comment Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for 1 entry each, and double your entries by promoting it. What can you win?

2014 Bowman
Hobby Box

A Hobby box of Bowman, which was kindly provided by Topps for the contest. There are already a huge number of entries for this great prize, but give it a shot and go throw in your name, too.

Dodger Penguin Contest

Want to win this 2014 Bowman Dodger team set, and maybe more?

2014 Bowman
Dodgers that are too blurry for me to decipher

Go to the contest post at Dodger Penguin and leave him comments all month long. You can also retweet his contest tweets or promote it on your blog for more entries.

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #8

I've had quite a few Cardinals in the box so far, but this one has just one base card, and it's of a guy who only played here for a month of last season, John Axford.

2013 Topps
#59 John Axford
Chasing History #CH-26 Chipper Jones
Chasing the Dream #CD-17 Addison Reed
Emerald Parallel #65 J.P. Howell

 A few other standard inserts were in the pack as well, but nothing earth-shaking.

2013 Topps
1972 Topps Mini #TM-42 Willie Mays
Gold Parallel #298 Pablo Sandoval #1040/2013

This is the second Mays mini from this box; I also got one in Pack #2. But that's ok, because what I'm really after is the base cards, and there were 43 in this pack. 32 of them were new, meaning I'll need 29 and 30 out of the last two packs to complete the set.

Series 1 Completion: 271/330 (82.1%)

eBay Wins #114

For today's eBay penny cards, we'll go allll the way back to 1989, the year Pete Rose was banned, Kevin Siegrist was born, and Donruss released an All-Star set which could be mistaken for the regular set from the front.

1989 Donruss All-Stars
#58 Bob Walk

Here's one of the All-Star cards I got.

1989 Donruss
#236 Glenn Davis
#346 Mickey Hatcher
#438 Doug Jones
#515 Bruce Ruffin
#553 Ron Oester
#631 Marvin Freeman

And here are some base cards from the regular set. While the All-Stars cards have side panels that are blue instead of black, I still didn't realize what I had until I flipped them all over on the scanner.

I now have 189 cards from the 1989 set, so who knows, maybe I'll try to complete it one of these days. I don't think it'd cost me too much.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2828
Total Spent	$46.81
Per Card	1.655 cents