eBay Wins #245

To finish off my big cheap pile of 1989 Donruss, I have the most primitive of inserts, Donruss's MVP cards.

1989 Donruss - Bonus MVPs
#BC-2 Mike Scott
#BC-10 Andy Van Slyke
#BC-12 Kevin Gross
#BC-17 Alan Trammell
#BC-21 Wally Joyner
#BC-22 Will Clark
#BC-24 Gerald Perry
#BC-25 Alvin Davis (x3)

I had 8 unique cards, 3 of which were Cardinals. I didn't even have the Cardinal representative in this one-per-team set, Ozzie Smith, nor Andres Galarraga.

Like the other 1989 Donruss cards these came out of the half-cent box, so all ten set me back a nickel. In total I had 318 cards from the set.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4645
Total Spent	$59.85
Per Card	1.288 cents
Change	-0.002 cents

More Contest Thanks

This time I'm showing some cards I won from All Cardinals All the Time, a blog that obviously caters to my interests. The contest to celebrate 2 years was a simple game guessing the serial number of one of two Alex Reyes cards, and I won with lucky #13.

2014 Bowman Draft - Top Prospects #TP-62 Kris Bryant
2014 Bowman - Chrome Prospects #BCP47 Alex Reyes - Autographed
2015 Topps Tier One - Dual Swatch Relics #DSR-VG Vladimir Guerrero

The first part of the prize were these Bryant and Vlad cards. The autographed Reyes was a nice throw-in, if you can call an autograph of a team's #1 prospect a throw-in. We'll have to wait another year to see if he lives up to his hype, since he just completed Tommy John surgery after feeling some arm problems in the first days of spring training.


The rest of the prize was a Jumbo pack of 2017 Topps. Since I'm not terribly proactive when it comes to baseball cards, these are my first 2017s.

2017 Topps
#99 Michael Wacha
#302 David Freese
First Pitch #FP-21 Jon Lovitz
Gold Parallel #159 Justin Verlander #1690/2017
MLB Awards #MOY-2 Dave Roberts
Silver Slugger #SS-11 Mike Trout
Topps Salute #S-47 Trevor Story
Rediscover Topps Promo Mark McGwire

With 6 inserts and 30 base cards, one in-uniform and one former Cardinal seems like a pretty fair rate. Even though it pictures him in a Cubs jersey, I really like the Jon Lovitz first pitch card.
At first I thought that McGwire card was one of the 1987 style inserts, then I thought it was just kind of a throwaway advertising card after seeing the back, but upon looking at the checklist, it appears this is an actual insert set called Rediscover Topps.

eBay Wins #244

I've still got more 1989 Donruss to show. I had a comment on my last eBay post to the effect that he was glad I didn't pay much for these. I definitely am glad about that too. To be clear, I didn't actually go buy a whole bunch of 1989 Donruss from someone, but rather I buy a lot of cards listed as "Random" which I fully understand will be cheap junk wax, which often includes some of these types of cards. Generally there are a few from other sets worth a little more to me, so it all balances out.

1989 Donruss
#452 Rex Hudler
#453 Bob Brenly
#455 Daryl Boston
#456 Mike Fitzgerald
#458 Bruce Sutter
#460 Joe Hesketh
#461 Bobby Witt
#463 Scott Bankhead
#466 Luis Alicea

This post is a lot more dense with Cardinals than the last two. This first scan alone has Rex Hudler, Bruce Sutter, Bobby Witt, and Luis Alicea.

1989 Donruss
#467 John Cerutti
#471 Sid Fernandez
#472 Terry Puhl
#477 Craig Reynolds (x2)
#478 Frank Williams
#482 Eric Show (x2)
#483 Garry Templeton
#486 Tim Crews
#487 Mike Maddux

Garry Templeton was obviously another Cardinal.

1989 Donruss
#493 Jack Armstrong
#499 Zane Smith
#500 Checklist
#505 Doug Jennings
#506 Ken Oberkfell
#512 Mike Bielecki
#516 Larry McWilliams
#520 Craig McMurtry
#521 Ray Hayward

Ken Oberkfell, Larry McWilliams...

1989 Donruss
#523 Mark Lemke
#525 Bryan Harvey
#534 Luis Aquino
#537 Randy Bush
#540 Gene Nelson (x8)
#542 Ken Caminiti
#543 Duane Ward (x2)
#554 Steve Lombardozzi
#559 Dennis Rasmussen

Those 8 Gene Nelson's came in that huge lot of A's I'll be showing forever.

1989 Donruss
#560 Pat Borders
#564 Todd Burns (x9)
#566 Darnell Coles
#570 Johnny Paredes
#572 Barry Lyons
#576 Andres Thomas
#579 Chad Kreuter
#583 Andy Hawkins
#586 Van Snider

Pat Borders bounced around a few teams after Toronto, including the Cardinals, before returning to Toronto to finish his career. And I got enough Todd Burns cards to fill a whole binder page.

1989 Donruss
#587 Todd Frohwirth (x2)
#591 Ernie Whitt
#593 Spike Owen
#598 Hipolito Pena
#600 Checklist
#601 Carmelo Martinez
#602 Mike LaCoss
#603 Mike Devereaux
#604 Alex Madrid

1989 Donruss
#607 Terry Clark
#610 Jay Howell
#613 Kevin Brown
#614 Dave Valle
#616 Andy Nezelek
#619 Adam Peterson
#620 Todd Stottlemyre
#625 Ernest Riles
#629 Scott Sanderson

I'll always take another cheap Todd Stottlemyre card, even if I already have several copies.

1989 Donruss
#631 Marvin Freeman (x2)
#632 Mike Young
#636 Scott May

I've got 66 cards shown here, 5 of them had doubles, and one each had 8 and 9 copies! By my reckoning that's 86 total cards, for 43 cents out of my half cent box.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4635
Total Spent	$59.80
Per Card	1.29 cents
Change	-0.015 cents

Pull Tab Awareness Week Win Part 2

Here's the rest of my win for Pull Tab Awareness Week, 2016.
Part 1

2014 Panini Donruss #339 Michael Wacha
2014 Bowman Platinum - Prospects #BPP78 Stephen Piscotty
2015 Topps #522 Sam Tuivailala
2015 Topps Allen & Ginter #47 Lance Lynn
2016 Baseball Card Breakdown - Jose Canseco (91 Donruss)
2016 Baseball Card Breakdown - Aledmys Diaz (75 Hostess)

The 2014 Donruss and Bowman Platinum cards are from sets I never bought, so those are great additions to my collection, but I think my favorite card in this bunch is the Jose Canseco. I remember watching Homer at the Bat as a kid. It actually first aired just a bit before I started watching baseball, so maybe my fond memories are all from reruns. Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire were my favorite non-Cardinals at that time, so I was happy to see Jose in the episode, along with Ozzie Smith. These aren't officially licensed cards, but customs made by defgav himself. The back mimics the 1991 Donruss set as well, but makes clear these are from the 2016 Baseball Card Breakdown set. The Aledmys Diaz card is also a custom, styled after the Hostess cards from 1975. It's so well done I actually didn't realize it was a custom and tried to find it in Zistle by its card number, before noticing it also carried the Baseball Card Breakdown name.

A belated thanks to Baseball Card Breakdown for the contest, and the excellent customs.

eBay Wins #243

Let's see some more of the thinnest major-brand cards in history (probably), 1989 Donruss, until I run out of space to tag all the Cardinals.

1989 Donruss
#236 Glenn Davis
#237 Frank Viola
#238 Kevin Seitzer
#239 Gerald Perry
#240 Dwight Evans
#241 Jim Deshaies
#242 Bo Diaz
#243 Carney Lansford
#244 Mike LaValliere

Gerald Perry and Mike LaValliere were both Cardinals, and Carney Lansford coached on Tony La Russa's staff for awhile.

1989 Donruss
#246 Roberto Alomar
#247 Jimmy Jones
#253 Steve Lyons (x2)
#258 Mike Krukow
#261 Scott Bradley
#263 Pete Smith
#265 Roger McDowell
#266 Bobby Thigpen
#267 Jim Clancy

To me, part of the fun of older cards like this is seeing players who later became better known in other areas. Steve Lyons was a broadcaster by the time I started watching baseball. It still works if I knew the player as a player first, but I tend to feel a little more critical of them in the booth for some reason.

1989 Donruss
#269 Mike Dunne
#270 Dwight Gooden
#271 Mike Heath
#278 Lance Parrish
#282 Tom Niedenfuer
#284 Jose Guzman (x2)
#286 Charlie Puleo
#287 Joe Orsulak
#288 Jack Howell (x2)

Tom Niedenfuer finished his career with the Cardinals in 1990, and Mike Heath was one of 3 different players to wear #5 for them in 1986.

1989 Donruss
#290 Jose Lind
#292 Cecil Espy
#293 Bill Wegman
#294 Dan Pasqua
#295 Scott Garrelts
#297 Ed Hearn
#298 Lou Whitaker
#302 Mike Brumley
#304 Curt Young (x2)

Would the ESPY awards still be called that if Cecil Espy was still playing?

1989 Donruss
#305 Jody Reed
#306 Bill Doran
#308 Ron Robinson
#310 Julio Franco
#311 Jack Clark
#316 Mike Davis (x2)
#320 John Farrell
#321 Franklin Stubbs
#322 Kurt Stillwell (x2)

It's interesting to me that Jack Clark became primarily a DH the year after leaving the Cardinals for the Yankees, but then returned to the NL for 2 seasons in San Diego. It seems like DH is primarily a last stop these days. John Farrell is another future manager card in this post.

1989 Donruss
#323 Shawn Abner
#324 Mike Flanagan
#326 Pat Tabler
#328 Rick Honeycutt (x2)
#330 Rey Quinones
#331 Johnny Ray
#332 Bob Welch
#334 Jeff Parrett (x2)
#337 Ken Williams

Rick Honeycutt and Jeff Parrett both played for the Cardinals in their final season, though Jeff Parrett was released and finished up in Philadelphia.

1989 Donruss
#364 Tim Flannery
#370 Jeff Robinson
#372 Mike Witt
#376 Joe Price
#400 Checklist (x2)
#403 Jeff Russell (x2)
#404 Pat Perry
#405 Jose Alvarez
#406 Rick Schu

Pat Perry's the only Cardinal in this scan. More interesting to me is Jeff Robinson, which is the second guy named Jeff Robinson in this set. The first was actually in my last eBay post.

1989 Donruss
#407 Sherman Corbett (x2)
#408 Dave Magadan (x2)
#411 Bob Brower
#412 Chris Bosio
#413 Jerry Reuss (x2)
#414 Atlee Hammaker (x2)
#416 Mike Macfarlane
#417 Pat Sheridan
#418 Pedro Guerrero

It's always good to get a Jerry Reuss card. And an in-uniform Cardinal finally shows up with Pedro Guerrero.

1989 Donruss
#419 Allan Anderson
#420 Mark Parent
#422 Mike Gallego (x3)
#423 Bruce Hurst
#424 Dave Meads
#425 Jesse Barfield (x2)
#426 Rob Dibble
#427 Joel Skinner
#428 Ron Kittle (x2)

I now have so many Mike Gallego cards from the big lot of A's I bought. including 3 of his card in this set.

1989 Donruss
#429 Rick Rhoden
#430 Bob Dernier (x3)
#431 Steve Jeltz (x2)
#432 Rick Dempsey
#433 Roberto Kelly
#434 Dave Anderson (x2)
#435 Herm Winningham
#437 Jose DeLeon
#438 Doug Jones (x2)

Jose DeLeon is my second uniformed Cardinal.

1989 Donruss
#440 Jeff Montgomery
#441 Dickie Thon
#443 John Fishel (x2)
#444 Jerry Don Gleaton
#445 Paul Gibson
#446 Walt Weiss (x2)
#447 Glenn Wilson
#448 Mike Moore
#450 Dave Henderson

Finally, there's another pre-manager card, Walt Weiss.

This time I fit in 11 scans for 99 cards. 23 had doubles or more, and 2 had triples, for a grand total of 124 cards. Again, these were out of the half-cent box, costing 62 cents. I should cross below the 1.3 cent mark with the next post.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4549
Total Spent	$59.37
Per Card	1.305 cents
Change	-0.023 cents

Pull Tab Awareness Week Win Part 1

I'm still digging through my pile of packages, unfortunately not in order, so here's one from July 2016 or so. You can read about the reason for the season at Baseball Card Breakdown, and I won a prize by spreading the word. Let's see what I've been letting languish on my desk.

1996 Leaf Signature - Extended Autographs Tom Urbani
2001 Topps Archives #16 Enos Slaughter
2003 Bowman #207 Chris Duncan
2005 Upper Deck Classics #32 Enos Slaughter
2012 Panini Prizm #73 Yadier Molina
2013 Topps Archives #139 Matt Holliday
2015 Topps Archives #71 Matt Holliday

Based on the other images I see online, Tom Urbani didn't quite sign that card where he was supposed to. All of the other signatures are in that big blank space at the bottom. Perhaps he's to blame for the scourge of sticker autographs.

The two Hollidays were both Archives cards I didn't have. Of all the years of Archives, I only had his 2012 card before. In fact, all of these were new to my collection, and I've now doubled my count of Enos Slaughter cards.

There's even better stuff in part 2 of this package. And don't worry, this one's only a two-parter.

eBay Wins #242

If you buy a bunch of random cheap cards, you're going to get a fair bit of 1989 Donruss. I've got enough that I'll have to split it across at least 2 posts.

1989 Donruss
#3 Pete Incaviglia
#8 Cory Snyder
#10 Kevin Seitzer
#11 Rick Reuschel
#12 Johnny Ray (x2)
#14 Andres Galarraga
#15 Kirk Gibson
#16 Fred McGriff
#18 Jeff Robinson (x2)

I've always liked Diamond Kings.

1989 Donruss
#19 Vince Coleman
#20 Dave Henderson
#21 Harold Reynolds
#23 Frank Viola
#26 Don Mattingly
#27 Checklist
#30 Cameron Drew
#32 Erik Hanson
#34 Greg Harris

1989 Donruss
#37 Carlos Quintana
#39 Cris Carpenter
#41 Dave West
#42 Randy Johnson
#43 Mike Harkey
#44 Pete Harnisch
#45 Tom Gordon
#47 Alex Sanchez
#57 Greg Brock

There aren't a ton of huge stars past the Diamond Kings, but here's a Randy Johnson card I've wanted for awhile.

1989 Donruss
#59 Craig Lefferts
#61 Danny Tartabull
#65 Mark Davis
#67 Dennis Eckersley
#69 Mike Scott
#71 Tom Browning
#73 Mel Hall
#76 Juan Samuel
#89 Charlie Leibrandt

1989 Donruss
#90 Frank Tanana
#94 Mark McLemore
#99 Kevin McReynolds
#100 Checklist
#102 Dave Martinez
#107 Pete O'Brien
#111 Keith Moreland
#114 Brook Jacoby
#115 Keith Brown

1989 Donruss
#118 Bob Forsch
#120 Willie Wilson (x2)
#121 Tommy Gregg
#122 Jim Rice
#123 Bob Knepper (x2)
#124 Danny Jackson
#125 Eric Plunk (x2)
#126 Brian Fisher (x2)
#127 Mike Pagliarulo

1989 Donruss
#129 Lance McCullers
#133 David Palmer
#135 Greg Walker
#136 Kirk McCaskill (x2)
#138 Andy Allanson
#139 Rob Murphy
#142 Scott Fletcher
#143 Steve Balboni
#145 Ozzie Virgil

This is the first time I've tagged a Rob Murphy card. I don't remember him playing for the Cardinals at all, but apparently he did in 1993 and most of 1994, making 123 appearances in relief. Those weren't the greatest years for the team, including the strike season, so maybe that's why he doesn't stand out in my mind.

1989 Donruss
#149 George Bell
#156 Tim Wallach
#160 Von Hayes
#175 Ted Higuera
#180 Alan Trammell
#181 Vince Coleman
#186 Mike Greenwell
#187 Billy Hatcher (x2)
#191 Cory Snyder

1989 Donruss
#192 John Candelaria
#194 Kevin Gross
#198 Kal Daniels
#200 Checklist
#201 Joe Magrane
#212 Mickey Brantley
#222 Rick Mahler
#225 Mitch Williams
#226 Chuck Finley

1989 Donruss
#227 Mark Langston
#228 Jesse Orosco
#229 Ed Whitson
#230 Terry Pendleton
#231 Lloyd Moseby
#232 Greg Swindell
#233 John Franco
#234 Jack Morris
#235 Howard Johnson

These all came out of the half-cent pile, so the 90 cards plus 8 duplicates were just 49 cents.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4425
Total Spent	$58.75
Per Card	1.328 cents
Change	-0.018 cents

A 2016 Bowman Draft Autograph from Sports Card Info

I won another contest at Sports Card Info, this time for an autograph from 2016 Bowman Draft. The contest ended on December 31, so that's the closest I've ever come to acquiring Bowman Draft cards in the year they were released.

2016 Bowman Draft - Chrome Draft Pick Autographs #CDA-TT Taylor Trammell

Chrome never scans well, but this is a nice looking card in person. Taylor is the #5 to #7 prospect in the Reds system, depending on whose ranking you use. Just for comparison's sake, I looked up a ranking of the top Cardinals prospects, and I haven't heard of our #5-#7 guys either. But, Taylor was a first rounder in 2016, so he'll probably climb that list on his way to Cincinnati before too long.

Thanks again to Sports Card Info for all the contests.

eBay Wins #241

Today's eBay post covers the first ever Upper Deck set 1989. As you probably know, this set is widely credited with the shift from brown to white cardstock, which seems to be just slightly thinner and stiffer as well. I can definitely attest that these are easier to line up on a flatbed scanner than other cards of this era I've been scanning, as they still mostly lie flat. There were a handful of duplicates, some from a big lot of Oakland A's I bought awhile back.

1989 Upper Deck
31 Kevin Gross
33 Jeff Calhoun
93 Albert Hall
246 Von Hayes
269 Kevin Elster
316 Scott Bankhead
317 Milt Thompson
337 Mike Campbell
338 Mike Maddux

When I was a kid and the web was relatively devoid of the minutiae you can now find on it, I had to make up my own back story for players with interesting names, especially if they were not Cardinals and thus much less likely to be discussed on a broadcast I would watch. I always figured Von Hayes was Dutch or Scandinavian, just based on his first name. Of course, his card lists his birthplace as California, and I still don't know where the name Von came from.

1989 Upper Deck
392 Curt Young (x2)
393 Jeff Treadway
409 Don Carman (x2)
412 Pete Smith
430 Jackie Gutierrez
433 Jerry Royster
443 Glenn Davis
474 Randy Ready
476 Kelly Downs

I think I've said it before, but to me Randy Ready sounds like a professional wrestler or some sort of local TV commercial mascot name. Wait no, last time I went with Superhero in a low budget Syfy movie.

1989 Upper Deck
478 Shawn Hillegas
492 Mark Parent
501 Chuck Crim
510 Kevin Seitzer
531 Greg Mathews
539 Jim Gott
544 Atlee Hammaker
550 Mickey Brantley
583 Mike Gallego (x2)

Finally, a uniformed Cardinal, Greg Matthews. Mike Gallego also finished up his career with the Cardinals, presumably coming here because of Walt Jocketty and Tony La Russa's experience with him in Oakland. Milt Thompson above was also a Cardinal.

1989 Upper Deck
585 Doug Jennings (x2)
623 Bill Swift
637 Charlie Leibrandt
640 Danny Jackson
641 Greg Booker
642 Jim Presley
679 Cory Snyder/Cleveland Checklist
688 Eric Davis/Cincinnati Checklist
758 Mike Moore (x2)

Finally there are two more Cardinals before they were Cardinals, Eric Davis and Danny Jackson. Eric Davis was signed pretty late in his career, but actually played here two seasons, and one more in San Francisco. Danny Jackson was traded away during his final season and finished in San Diego. When I look at that trade, it's not immediately obvious to me who was buying and who was selling, and it wasn't even a deadline deal; it happened June 13. The Cardinals traded Jackson, Rich Batchelor, and Mark Sweeney, and got Scott Livingstone, Phil Plantier, and Fernando Valenzuela. I guess Sweeney was the big piece in that trade, because Jackson, Plantier, Batchelor, and Valenzuela were finished in 1997, and Livingstone in 1998. Sweeney was 27 and played through 2008. At the deadline in 1997 the Cardinals picked up Mark McGwire, so maybe they were trying to clear some salary space. I really have no idea what they were thinking.

I added 41 total cards (the 36 pictured plus the 5 duplicates noted), for 41 cents.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4327
Total Spent	$58.26
Per Card	1.346 cents
Change	-0.004 cents