2017-03-30

Zistle Trade #29, Part I

Will I post all my Zistle trades before they shut down? Maybe!

1983 Fleer Main Set #3 Steve Braun
1983 Fleer Main Set #19 Mike Ramsey
1989 Bowman Main Set #435 Tony Pena
1990 Donruss #676 Cal Ripken, Jr.
1990 Fleer Main Set #276 Rich Gedman
1991 Topps Main Set #58 Mel Stottlemyre Jr.
This trade had a bunch of Cardinals, along with the Ripken All-Star card, one of the very few from 1990 Donruss I didn't have yet. I also knocked another Stottlemyre off my list, Mel, Jr., son of Mel and brother of Todd. And there were just enough players in this trade I had to split this one into two posts.






2017-03-28

eBay Wins #250

250's sort of milestone type number, right? Well, bad news, I just have the rest of my 1989 Topps cards.

1989 Topps
#686 Scott Terry
#688 Zane Smith
#691 Roberto Kelly
#692 Steve Ontiveros
#697 Franklin Stubbs
#698 Keith Atherton
#701 Storm Davis
#708 Chuck Finley
#712 Bill Swift
Chuck Finley finished his career in St. Louis, coming in the trade that brought Coco Crisp to Cleveland.

1989 Topps
#721 Ron Tingley (x2)
#723 Rafael Belliard (x2)
#724 Jerry Don Gleaton (x2)
#725 Terry Steinbach
#727 Joe Orsulak
#728 Charlie Puleo
#735 Roger McDowell
#736 Jeff Hamilton
#739 Brook Jacoby

1989 Topps
#743 Mike Heath
#749 Rafael Ramirez
#751 Ken Oberkfell
#752 Jim Gott
#755 Mike Scioscia
#756 Scott Medvin
#767 Mike Capel
#769 Junior Ortiz
#778 Bruce Benedict
Mike Heath played just 65 games in St. Louis, before being sent off for Ken Hill and Mike Laga. I don't think I have many Ken Oberkfell cards showing him as a Pirate. Most of them have him on the Cardinals or Braves.

#787 Dave West
I could have sworn when I counted up my cards, it came out to a multiple of 9. Then I got to the end of my scans, and this Dave West card remained.

#141 Cleveland Indians Leaders (x2)
#171 Atlanta Braves Leaders
#201 Toronto Blue Jays Leaders
#321 Boston Red Sox Leaders
#459 Seattle Mariners Leaders
#579 Houston Astros Leaders
#639 Oakland Athletics Leaders (x2)
#669 Los Angeles Dodgers Leaders
#699 Pittsburgh Pirates Leaders
I had 9 unique team leaders cards, but no Cardinals unfortunately.

I've got 37 cards scanned, plus 5 duplicates, for a big 42 cents today.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought5014
Total Spent$62.51
Per Card1.247 cents
Change-0.002 cents









2017-03-25

Zistle Trade #28

While we're all mourning the seemingly inevitable loss of Zistle, I've still got some trades to post from it. This was a pretty small addition for me, but it only cost me 1 card in return.

1982 Donruss #404 Ken Oberkfell
1982 Topps #452 Lee Smith RC
1984 Topps #310 Willie Mcgee
1994 Score - Gold Rush #149 Todd Stottlemyre
1995 Fleer - All-Stars #2 Frank Thomas / Gregg Jefferies
I don't have a whole lot from the early 80s, so two Cardinals, and eventual Cardinal Lee Smith were good to knock off my want list. I've got plenty of 90s cards, but a sparse amount of insert cards, which is where the Stottlemyre and Jefferies come in. The front side of Jefferies shows his 1B counterpart in the American League, Frank Thomas.

2017-03-23

eBay Wins #249

I'm tired today. So here's a wall of cards with no commentary!

1989 Topps
#284 Jim Leyland
#285 John Candelaria
#290 John Franco
#292 Jim Corsi
#293 Glenn Wilson (x2)
#294 Juan Berenguer
#296 Ron Gant
#298 Chris James
#299 Steve Ellsworth (x2)

1989 Topps
#301 Charlie Leibrandt
#303 Felix Fermin
#306 Tracy Woodson
#307 Lance McCullers
#309 Mario Diaz
#316 Walt Weiss
#322 John Smiley
#323 Gary Thurman
#327 Mark Lemke

1989 Topps
#328 Rick Honeycutt (x2)
#337 Calvin Schiraldi
#340 Kirk Gibson
#341 Jim Deshaies
#350 Andy Van Slyke
#357 Jerry Reuss (x2)
#366 Herm Winningham
#368 Brian Holton
#374 John Wathan

1989 Topps
#375 Terry Pendleton (x2)
#379 Tim Flannery
#384 Mark Salas (x2)
#388 Bobby Bonilla
#392 Andy Van Slyke
#398 Julio Franco
#414 Jim Fregosi
#420 Joe Carter
#423 Brian Fisher (x2)

1989 Topps
#424 Luis Polonia
#425 Jay Howell
#430 Mark Gubicza
#433 Albert Hall
#440 Bobby Bonilla (x2)
#446 Rob Murphy
#448 Eric Plunk
#453 Tom Prince
#454 Paul Assenmacher (x2)

1989 Topps
#456 Tim Belcher
#462 Jose Guzman
#474 Bob Rodgers
#475 Dave Parker
#477 Dick Schofield
#478 Doug Drabek
#482 Steve Peters
#483 Mickey Hatcher
#488 Kevin Coffman (x2)

1989 Topps
#504 Bob Walk
#512 Donnie Hill (x2)
#513 Jesse Orosco
#514 Chet Lemon
#522 Randy Kramer
#523 Andres Thomas
#527 Dave Henderson
#537 Pete Smith
#547 Mark McLemore

1989 Topps
#551 Randy Ready (x2)
#552 Greg Cadaret
#564 Russ Nixon
#566 Al Pedrique
#569 German Jimenez
#571 Billy Ripken (x2)
#575 Juan Samuel
#576 Greg Minton
#580 Harold Reynolds

1989 Topps
#581 Gene Nelson (x3)
#582 Mike Marshall
#586 Joe Boever
#588 Luis Alicea (x2)
#592 John Cangelosi (x3)
#598 Ken Gerhart
#599 Tom Candiotti
#605 Bob Welch
#606 Rick Dempsey

1989 Topps
#607 Willie Ansley
#621 Rick Mahler
#622 Stan Javier (x2)
#634 Marvin Freeman
#641 Curt Young (x2)
#653 Tommy Barrett
#658 R.J. Reynolds
#678 Dion James (x2)
#681 Jeff Robinson


I scanned 90 cards, and there were 19 duplicates and 2 triplicates, for a total of 111 cards. For you math whizzes out there, at a penny each that's  $1.11.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought4972
Total Spent$62.09
Per Card1.249 cents
Change-0.005 cents



2017-03-21

A Football Card in March, Why Not?

I recently won another contest from Sports Card Info, for an autographed football card.

2008 Upper Deck SP Authentic – Autographs #SP-MK Malcolm Kelly

As is usually the case with a 9-year-old card, the player shown is no longer in the league. Malcolm Kelly played just 21 games in two seasons in his career, after getting drafted in the 2nd round. But, according to Wikipedia, he recently joined the staff of the University of Houston football team, so maybe we'll see him back on the sidelines.

Thanks to Sports Card Info for the contest!

2017-03-19

eBay Wins #248

I left probably the biggest pile of 1989s for last, Topps. I'd guess there were more Donruss cards, but the thicker Topps cardboard made these stack a bit higher and look more daunting.

1989 Topps
#6 Doug Jones (x2)
#11 Bruce Sutter
#13 Doug Sisk
#15 Robby Thompson
#18 Rick Rhoden
#20 Steve Bedrosian
#22 Tim Crews
#27 Orestes Destrade
#35 John Tudor
Sutter and Tudor were both Cardinals, and would make a good name for a comedy duo.

1989 Topps
#38 Paul Runge
#40 Steve Sax (x2)
#47 Carney Lansford
#52 Bob Brenly (x4)
#54 Steve Trout
#56 Pat Tabler
#57 Alejandro Pena
#62 Alfredo Griffin
#64 Alex Trevino
Somehow I had 4 Bob Brenly cards in there.

1989 Topps
#68 Darrell Miller
#76 Terry Blocker
#79 Scott Bankhead (x2)
#83 Jeff Blauser
#84 Bill Bene
#89 Dave LaPoint
#92 Jeff Kunkel
#93 Ken Howell
#94 Chris Speier
Bill Bene was the only player Baseball-Reference's linker couldn't find. It would  appear he never made it to the majors, despite being a high first round pick.

1989 Topps
#102 Mike Gallego
#105 Ron Darling
#113 Lloyd Moseby
#114 Bob Kipper
#117 Dave Anderson
#121 Garry Templeton
#126 Sid Bream
#130 Gerald Perry
#131 Dave Otto
Maybe it's just confirmation bias, but  I seem to be picking up a lot of Garry Templeton cards lately.

1989 Topps
#132 Curt Ford
#133 Bill Long
#142 Mike Diaz
#144 Jay Bell
#145 Dave Stewart (x2)
#154 Don Carman
#158 Mike Aldrete
#160 Jeffrey Leonard
#165 Mike Dunne
Curt Ford was the only uniformed Cardinal in this first batch, a player I used to confuse with Curt Flood as a kid.

1989 Topps
#166 Doug Jennings (x14)
#169 Mike Jackson
#174 Todd Burns(x2)
#175 John Shelby
#179 Ozzie Virgil
#186 Pat Perry
#198 Danny Heep
#210 Dale Murphy
#212 Scott Sanderson
There were 14 of those Doug Jennings cards. 14!

1989 Topps
#217 Joe Price
#218 Mike LaValliere
#219 Jim Clancy
#225 Ramon Martinez
#232 Ricky Horton (x2)
#236 Charles Hudson
#237 Glenn Hubbard (x2)
#241 Brett Butler
#244 Jim Acker
I need more Rick Horton cards, and more importantly, I've got to track him down for an autograph one of these days, since he's in town doing Cardinals broadcasts.

1989 Topps
#248 Tony Phillips (x2)
#249 Tim Leary
#252 Billy Hatcher
#253 Jose Alvarez
#272 Ron Hassey
#273 Jose Lind
#277 Mike Davis
#280 Bob Knepper
#281 Gary Redus

As with the other 1989 posts, there are more of these, but  I'm out of tag space for Cardinals players 86 of these cards were in my half-cent box, which is cleared out for now. Along with all the duplicates, there were 96 total, for a purchase total of 53 cents. The empty half-cent box means I can only asymptotically approach 1 penny per card in the below chart by continuing to buy cards for cent each.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought4861
Total Spent$60.98
Per Card1.254 cents
Change-0.015 cents

2017-03-17

March Card Show Autographs

I returned to my local-ish card show after several months off, either due to uninteresting autograph signers, or just a busy Sunday schedule on my part. Everything came together in March, and I added two autographed balls to my collection.

Ken ReitzDick Hughes
'67 WS CHAMPS
The guy in front of me had a 1980 All Star game ball, which impressed Ken Reitz. He said that was the only game that ever made him feel nervous, first because he found out he was starting in place of the injured Mike Schmidt, but also because he was the lone infielder in red, with the other starting 3 all members of the Dodgers, for a game in Dodger Stadium.

Dick Hughes kindly offered to put the '67 World Series Champs inscription on his ball, so of course I took him up on the offer. He only played in MLB for 3 seasons, 1966-1968, but managed to throw 222 innings in 1967 alone, and get a World Series ring out of it.

2017-03-15

A Contest at A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts

As the title would suggest, over at A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts, Jon is running his first ever contest, for some COMC credit, which basically means you'll get to pick your prize. Just leave a comment on the contest post to enter.

His blog name now constantly reminds me of this song, due to the opening line by Yoda. Be careful watching this if you're prone to getting songs stuck in your head.


2017-03-11

A Little Heritage Contest Win

Adam from Addiction as Therapy held his annual giveaway, and the prizes this year were packs of 2017 Heritage. This is my first look at this year's Heritage in person, so it was an interesting pack to open.
2017 Heritage
#336 Colorado Sluggers (DJ LeMahieu/Charlie Blackmon)
#358 San Diego Padres
#393 Rookie Stars (Matt Dermody/Danny Barnes)
I've read lots of complaints that the 1968 design is bad, but I never looked at it that way. It's not something that would be a great original modern design, but I always thought it fit fine with the other 1960s sets.

2017 Topps Heritage
#77 Yadier Molina
#245 Tucker Barnhart
#272 Wei-Yin Chen
#301 Martin Prado
#311 Rajai Davis
#471 Danny Salazar (SP)
I flipped through these looking at the fronts first, and so was excited to see a Yadier Molina. In my past Heritage purchases, there always seemed to be roughly one insert or short print per pack, so with no obvious inserts, I flipped the stack over to check for SPs, and found the Danny Salazar card. I saw a dealer collated set listed for $300 including all 100 SPs this past weekend, which seems crazy to me, but that's supply and demand for you I suppose.

Thanks for the contest, and everyone else go check out and follow Addiction as Therapy!

2017-03-09

eBay Wins #247

Here are the rest of the 1989 Fleer cards from my eBay bargain hunting. As you can see, they were mostly from team lots, including Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and LA and Oakland in the last post. Since I usually sort my cards by number, I appreciate a set that keeps teams contiguous.

1989 Fleer
#214 Jose Lind
#215 Junior Ortiz
#216 Vicente Palacios
#217 Tom Prince
#218 Gary Redus
#219 R.J. Reynolds
#220 Jeff Robinson
#221 John Smiley
#222 Andy Van Slyke
Andy Van Slyke started with the Cardinals, and Vicente Palacios nearly finished with them, except he played in Mexico for 3 years after St. Louis and came back to play in San Diego for part of a season.

1989 Fleer
#223 Bob Walk
#224 Glenn Wilson
#283 Mark Gubicza
#385 Dennis Martinez
#421 Jody Davis
#547 Mario Diaz
#584 Milt Thompson
#585 Jose Alvarez (x2)
#586 Paul Assenmacher

1989 Fleer
#587 Bruce Benedict
#588 Jeff Blauser (x2)
#589 Terry Blocker
#590 Ron Gant
#592 Tommy Gregg
#593 Albert Hall
#594 Dion James
#595 Rick Mahler
#596 Dale Murphy
It's hard to believe Ron Gant only played in St. Louis for 3 years, but he was here when they returned to making playoff appearances in 1996.

1989 Fleer
#597 Gerald Perry
#598 Charlie Puleo
#599 Ted Simmons
#600 Pete Smith
#601 Zane Smith
#603 Bruce Sutter
#604 Andres Thomas
#605 Ozzie Virgil
#637 Cannon Arms (Chris Sabo/Bobby Bonilla)
In this photo, Gerald Perry, Ted Simmons, and Bruce Sutter were all Cardinals, as were both of Chris Sabo and Bobby Bonilla.

1989 Fleer
#647 Prospects (Randy Kramer/Miguel Garcia)
#649 Prospects (Jim Corsi/Bob Milacki)
World Series
#4 Dramatic Comeback
#5 Gibson Steals the Show
#10 Series Caps Award-Winning Year
#12 Dodger Blue, World Champs
I'm not sure if the World Series cards were inserts, or were just as common as the base set cards, but I got quite a few of them since two of the lots were LA and Oakland.

1989 Fleer
World Series
#1 Dodgers Secret Weapon
#2 Rookie Starts Series
#6 "Bulldog"
#7 One Swing, Three RBI's
#9 Sax's Speed Wins Game 4
Stickers
Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
Pittsburgh Pirates
And it finishes off with the rest of the World Series cards, and some team Stickers. I've got a lot of these around, I should really peel them and put them somewhere around my desk at work or something.

There were only two doubles in this post, which is a good number for my eBay purchases. By my count, that's a total of 53 cards, which rang up 26.5 cents out of the half penny box. See, I told you it would even itself back out.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought4765
Total Spent$60.45
Per Card1.269 cents
Change-0.008 cents

2017-03-07

He's Back!

I use Feedly to keep up with blogs, and when someone stops blogging, rather than remove them from my list entirely, I drop them into a "retired" section. That way it really gets my attention when something shows up there.

A few weeks ago, I saw a post show up from The Daily Dimwit, (with a pretty great Lou Gehrig Prime Cuts card) just in time for Spring Training to begin. He's back, at least one some level, and holding a contest to get everyone to get the word out, so go add The Daily Dimwit back to whatever you use to keep track of the blogs you read. You'll have to spread the word some more in a blog post for a chance at the prize, an autograph or relic from your team and some more miscellaneous cards for your collection.


2017-03-05

eBay Wins #246

I'm firmly entrenched in the junk wax era, going through my eBay purchases sorted by year. Today I've got more cards from the half cent box, from 1989 Fleer.

1989 Fleer
#1 Don Baylor (x2)
#2 Lance Blankenship
#3 Todd Burns
#4 Greg Cadaret
#6 Storm Davis
#8 Mike Gallego
#9 Ron Hassey
#10 Dave Henderson
#11 Rick Honeycutt
There are 4 (!) Cardinals in this scan, counting their former hitting coach Don Baylor.

1989 Fleer
#12 Glenn Hubbard
#13 Stan Javier
#14 Doug Jennings
#15 Felix Jose
#16 Carney Lansford
#18 Gene Nelson (x2)
#19 Dave Parker
#20 Eric Plunk
#21 Luis Polonia (x2)
Felix Jose was one of my first favorite players, as one of the heavy hitters for the 1992 Cardinals.

1989 Fleer
#22 Terry Steinbach
#23 Dave Stewart
#24 Walt Weiss
#25 Bob Welch
#26 Curt Young (x2)
#53 Dave Anderson
#54 Tim Belcher
#55 Mike Davis
#56 Mike Devereaux

1989 Fleer
#57 Kirk Gibson
#58 Alfredo Griffin
#59 Chris Gwynn
#60 Jeff Hamilton
#61 Danny Heep
#63 Brian Holton
#64 Jay Howell
#65 Tim Leary
#66 Mike Marshall

1989 Fleer
#68 Jesse Orosco
#69 Alejandro Pena
#70 Steve Sax
#71 Mike Scioscia
#72 Mike Sharperson
#73 John Shelby
#74 Franklin Stubbs
#75 John Tudor
#77 Tracy Woodson
Tracy Woodson was a curious case, who played in parts of 3 seasons before spending 2 whole seasons at AAA. He then played parts of 1992 in AAA and St. Louis, and all of 1993 in St. Louis, before again being in AAA from 1994-1996.

1989 Fleer
#78 Marty Barrett
#94 Larry Parrish
#95 Carlos Quintana
#114 Brian Harper
#131 Paul Gibson
#172 Van Snider
#201 Rafael Belliard
#203 Bobby Bonilla
#204 Sid Bream
Here's your annual reminder that the Mets still owe Bobby Bonilla his deferred salary for another 18 years.

1989 Fleer
#205 Benny Distefano
#206 Doug Drabek
#207 Mike Dunne
#208 Felix Fermin
#209 Brian Fisher
#210 Jim Gott
#211 Bob Kipper
#212 Dave LaPoint
#213 Mike LaValliere
I was curious if Dave LaPoint and Mike LaValliere were battery-mates on the Cardinals, but they didn't quite overlap, with Mike arriving and Dave leaving between 1984 and 1985.

With 63 cards and 4 duplicates, these 67 total cards cost me 33.5 cents. Obviously I didn't actually find a way to spend half a cent, but I ran out of space to add Cardinal players to the tags on an odd numbered card. It'll even out by the time I finish off the cheap cards from this set.


eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought4712
Total Spent$60.185
Per Card1.277 cents
Change-0.011 cents