A Sports Card Info Soccer Win

If you've been following card blogs for long, you probably already know about the weekly contests at Sports Card Info. If not, start following along and take a shot a winning a relic or autograph pretty much every week. This time the prize was a nice MLS Relic.

2015 Topps MLS - Kits of the Game #KIT-DP Dillon Powers

It's hard to discern the texture in the scan, but I'd say this is probably from one of the 3 Adidas stripes, either on the shoulders or shorts. Dillon was the Rookie of the Year for 2013, so in my opinion, that's a pretty nice prize.

With no MLS team in St. Louis, I don't follow the league closely, though I do enjoy watching the games when I can catch them, especially every 4 years when my soccer interest is renewed by the World Cup. My Soccer collection has now pulled ahead of my Hockey collection for the percentage of it that is made up of hits. That percentage is 100%, with this as my first soccer card I'm aware of.

Anyway, thanks again to the very generous Sports Card Info for the many contests, especially those I win.

eBay Wins #165

1994 Upper Deck Fun Pack #168 Carlos Garcia

This is only my second card of this 240 card set, and the other is Mr. Upper Deck, Ken Griffey, Jr. I'm not sure what the deal is with Garcia's photo here. The helmet appears blue and blank, and it might say Pirates on his jersey, but that's not a normal Pittsburgh font. He was already in the major leagues for a few years by this point, so I wouldn't expect them to get stuck showing him in a minor league uniform. Was this some special promotional uniform and/or day?

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3267
Total Spent	$51.17
Per Card	1.566 cents
Change	0 cents

Journey to the Center of the Pack Stash

Let's be honest, I'm nowhere near the center of my stash. But I'm on the journey, I suppose. Today I've got a pack of 2012 Topps Opening Day, which is yet another $1 pack from my 10 for $20ish repack.

2012 Topps Opening Day
#17 Pedro Alvarez
#90 Derek Jeter
#102 Jesus Montero
#126 Danny Valencia
#181 Clayton Kershaw
#201 Jose Reyes
Fantasy Squad #FS-17 Billy Butler

I purchased a bunch of 24-card packs of this set back when it came out, but didn't quite finish it off. I still have 49 cards missing, actually, which is a lot out of just 220 base cards. My scatter-shot approach to set building is starting to catch up with me, but I've got an idea about how to focus in and finish some sets. If it comes together, you who read my blog will certainly see it here. Unfortunately, all 7 of these were duplicates, including the Billy Butler insert card.

eBay Wins #164

1994 Leaf #31 Bobby Bonilla

I only have 10 cards from this set. 8 of them feature Cardinals, one has Chuck Carr, who played for the Cardinals in 1992, and one has Deion Sanders. Here's another one who later became a Cardinal. So, now I'm up to 11/440. Bobby Bonilla is probably most famous for his giant deferred-money contract for his last Mets season, which will ultimately pay him nearly $30 million over 25 years.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3266
Total Spent	$51.16
Per Card	1.566 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

2014 Topps From The Pack Stash

2014 Topps
#50 Buster Posey
#69 Jhoulys Chacin
#167 Jeremy Guthrie
#176 Alex Cobb
#317 Lonnie Chisenhall

This pack illustrated the downside to the apparent bargains of repacks. I think my box was 10 packs for either $20 or $15, but these 5 card packs of Topps can be had for $1 at Dollar Tree last time I checked. But, they weren't all $1 packs, so overall the repack was still an OK deal. These are my first 2014 Topps cards, for some reason. I guess I just never jumped in last year when they came out, probably because I was still digging through my 3 hobby boxes of 2013 flagship and Update. I did win a contest for a 2014 insert, but that's the only card I have from the set, so here we are, with my first 2014 base cards showing up after my first 2015s.

eBay Wins #163

Another day, another eBay penny card. Today it's a play who retired as a Cardinal, Larry Walker.

1994 Upper Deck #370 Larry Walker

For some reason, the Cardinals fan base loves when we bring in once-great players in their career twilights. Will Clark, Bobby Bonilla, Lance Berkman (though he eventually played elsewhere), and Larry Walker all received warm welcomes and huge cheers, despite production that wasn't quite at the levels they reached at their career peaks. Since it was a salary dump by Colorado, the biggest player the Cardinals gave up for Walker was Chris Narveson, who would subsequently be traded to Boston, waived, and ultimately reclaimed by St. Louis, where he made his major league debut in 2006, the year after Walker last played.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3265
Total Spent	$51.15
Per Card	1.567 cents
Change	0 cents

Pack Stash, 2008 Upper Deck Documentary Edition

Just for fun, let's go back to the pack stash. I currently have two cards from this set, which consists of over 4000 base cards, so the odds are I will at least not get any duplicates.

2008 Upper Deck Documentary
#1257 CHC47 May 21st
#1493 WAS43 May 16th
#1454 STL44 May 16th
#1572 CIN52 May 27th
#1883 CLE63 June 8th
#2560 MIL90 July 8th
#2570 MIN90 July 8th
#2599 OAK89 July 7th
#2830 HOU100 July 22nd

That Chris Duncan card is exactly the same image as the only other base card I have from this set, #854, which I showed in this post. A checklist review reveals that's pretty common for this set, but I have to ask, was Chris Duncan really one of the top guys on the team in 2007/2008, worthy of appearing on multiple cards in a set?

2008 Upper Deck Documentary
#3813 LAA130 August 25th
#3816 AZD130 August 24th
#3819 ATL130 August 23rd
#3822 BAL130 August 24th
#3854 LAD129 August 23rd
All Star Game #ASG-DW David Wright

I could see tracking down all 162 of the Cardinals cards from this set, or even theirs along with the opponents for the given games, for a total of 324, but finding 4000+ cards seems more like a part time job than a hobby. Still, it'd make a heck of a bindered or boxed set.

eBay Wins #162

Today I've got one penny card, just like I said I wouldn't do a few days ago.

1994 Donruss #615 Doug Brocail

I don't know much about Doug Brocail, so instead of making something up, here's Dana Carvey singing Choppin Broccoli

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3264
Total Spent	$51.14
Per Card	1.567 cents
Change	0 cents

Pack Stash, 2012 Triple Play Edition

Today I reach into my box of unopened cards which is currently gaining packs faster that it is losing them, to try to reverse that trend. Inside I found a pack of 2012 Panini Triple Play. I don't think I've opened any of this product before, nor do I have any of the singles in my collection. So, this pack will be my first impression, and probably determine if I attempt to track down any more of it.

2012 Panini Triple Play
#18 Paul Konerko
#86 Jose Bautista
#180 Orlando Hudson Puzzle 9 of 9
#228 Jose Bautista Puzzle 3 of 9
#266 Diamond
#60 Yoenis Cespedes
Stickers #14 Albert Pujols

I like to be pretty organized, so my first thought upon reviewing the cards in this pack was that I was surprised that all but one of these are base cards. At the very least, those two Jose Bautista cards scream "parallel". But, the second one is part of the puzzle-back (or is it puzzle-front?) cards that are part of the base set. The Baseball 101 card is another subset, rather than an insert set, which looks a little out of place. The subsets are in continuous runs, and are treated like inserts on the packaging, but due to the numbering, I'm going to have to call them all base cards.

The only non-base card is the Albert Pujols sticker, which doesn't say "Albert Pujols" anywhere on it. It clearly looks like him, and every online checklist lists it as Pujols, but the other stickers in the set say things like Home Run, Beanball, and - I'm not kidding - Manager Arguing. Later in the set there are headshots with actual names on the cards.

For me, because of the Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols puzzles, this might be a set I'd be interested in collecting. But, if none of the 12 were current or former Cardinals, I think I might tire of the puzzle repetition. I might pick up a few more packs and see if I then feel like completing the 90-card "base" set, the whole set 1-300, or just putting them up for trade.

eBay Wins #161

1994 wasn't the strongest Fleer Ultra set. They went a little overboard on the gold foil in the bottom 20% of the card. But, for a penny each, I'll take 2 more cards toward the set.

1994 Fleer Ultra
#321 Brian Anderson
#562 Luis Alicea

These two cards make 23 unique cards out of the 600 card set in my collection. I already had a copy of Luis Alicea's card.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3263
Total Spent	$51.13
Per Card	1.567 cents
Change	0 cents

Turkey For Me, Turkey For You III: Turkeys in Time

If you get that sequel reference, you're probably just about my age, and, like me, you felt that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could do no wrong in 1993. Anyway, let's see the last of the Turkey Red trade from 2 by 3 Heroes.

2008 Upper Deck - Star Quest #SQ-16 Albert Pujols
2008 Upper Deck - Star Quest #SQ-32 Albert Pujols
2006 Fleer Ultra #38 Jim Edmonds
2007 Fleer Ultra #149 Jim Edmonds
2013 Gypsy Queen #80 Bob Gibson
2007 Topps #660 Yadier Molina
2003 Upper Deck Victory #88 Mark McGwire
1993 Topps #191 Sean Lowe

That's a nice pile of Cardinals to finish off the trade. With all the Cardinals cards I have stockpiled, I'm always kind of impressed to see just how many simple base cards are out there that I don't have, even though I know that shouldn't surprise me.

Turkey For Me, Turkey For You II: Electric Boogaloo

There are no turkeys today, but these came in the package with the Turkey Red cards, so I'm completely justified in ripping off the greatest sequel subtitle of all time.

Part I

1994 Stadium Club #63 Brian Jordan
1997 Donruss #67 Ray Lankford
2001 SP Authentic #53 Rick Ankiel

I still sometimes think I must have dreamed the game where Ankiel threw 5 wild pitches - and another that would have been called, but the catcher saved it - in an inning, but then I go look it up on YouTube, and sure enough, it happened. Then he came back and hit home runs for a while. What an odd career path for a modern player.

1996 Topps #431 Jaime Bluma, David Coggin, Steve Montgomery, Brandon Reed
2013 Topps Chrome - Refractor #119 Michael Wacha

That's a nice shiny Wacha Refractor. It looks so nice I was ready to go buy some 2013 Chrome, until I realized it wasn't a base card. Still, I may do so, just for the few refractors I'll get.

Steve Montgomery raises an interesting question for my collection, and my blog. He was drafted by the Cardinals, thus his image above wearing the STL cap. However, he stayed in the minor leagues until he was traded to Oakland for Dennis Eckersley. So, do I officially collect his cards? That would mean I would tag him in my blog posts. And if I do, do I also consider Coco Crisp a Cardinal? Since he's actually wearing the hat on this card, I think he gets a tag, as would any future card of his I get. By extension of that logic, Coco Crisp will also, from now on.

Tenet of Wilson #3: Once a Cardinal, always a Cardinal, for collecting purposes.

Turkey For Me, Turkey For You

Here it is, nearly Easter, and I've got Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving Song stuck in my head. No, my family doesn't have some weird holiday-swapping tradition; I traded some Turkey Red cards with a fellow fan of the set, JediJeff of 2x3 Heroes.

2010 Topps - Turkey Red
#TR2 Miguel Tejada
#TR15 Hank Greenberg
#TR19 Cal Ripken, Jr.
#TR21 Johnny Bench
#TR25 Ernie Banks
#TR31 Mel Ott
#TR51 Torii Hunter
#TR66 Nelson Cruz
#TR69 Brooks Robinson

I bought a lot of 2010 Update, but not much of Series 1 and 2, so I'm still rather far from completing the 100 cards from those series. After these are added into my collection, I believe I will still need 74 more. However, for the 50 from Update, numbered 101-150, I only need 17 more.

2010 Topps - Turkey Red
#TR73 Chad Billingsley
#TR75 B.J. Upton
#TR79 Raul Ibanez
#TR86 Billy Butler
#TR88 Eddie Mathews
#TR95 Ty Cobb
#TR135 Orlando Cepeda
#TR144 Cy Young
2009 Topps - Turkey Red
#TR6 Ian Kinsler

Jeff threw in a few extras for me, including the 2009 Turkey Red card. I was surprised to find I didn't actually have any of those yet. Maybe that'll spur me on to collect that year's set too.

1992 Fleer Ultra #570 Donovan Osbourne
1992 Triple Play #118 Jose Oquendo
1993 Pinnacle #174 Geronimo Pena
2009 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH327 Julio Lugo

Speaking of extras, here are some Cardinals Jeff was nice enough to add into the package. And, I've still got a few more of these to scan and post for next time.

eBay Wins #160

Today's eBay win is one lonely penny card from 1993 Upper Deck. I've got a pile with a bunch of cards with only 1 or 2 from any given set in my eBay pile, so maybe I'll start combining more than one set at a time soon.

1993 Upper Deck #724 Greg W. Harris

There were two Greg Harris's in baseball, and both were playing in 1993. Greg W. played for the Padres, and Greg A. played for the Red Sox. Both of them finished playing after 1995, though Greg W. is over 8 years younger. I can sympathize with these guys, as my high school class of only about 150 people had another person who shared my first and last name. Worse still, our middle initials rhymed, so when one of us was called over the ancient fuzzy PA system to come to the office, we'd both have to go and sort out which one was needed when we got there. Thanks to that experience, I picked up a habit of putting my middle initial on everything, which I still do to this day

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3261
Total Spent	$51.11
Per Card	1.567 cents
Change	0 cents