eBay Wins #210

Today I've got 21 penny cards from 1987 Donruss, but with a slight twist. I noticed that the backs were rotated 180 degrees on some of the cards, and some quick research (that is, a Google search) led me to the knowledge that the factory set backs were rotated. I believe the first 16 cards here are from a factory set, and the last 5 are not. If that's the case, all of the 1987 Donruss cards I had before this point were from packs.

1987 Donruss - Factory Set
#61 Glenn Davis
#275 Walt Terrell
#286 Bill Doran
#296 Tom Brookens
#301 Steve Farr
#308 Dave Smith
#318 Steve Lombardozzi
#357 Ken Dayley

There's only one uniformed Cardinal in this bunch, Ken Dayley.

1987 Donruss - Factory Set
#373 Dan Petry
#420 Dave Bergman
#431 Terry Puhl
#439 Jesse Orosco
#461 Chuck Cary
#554 Denny Walling
#578 Jeff Calhoun
#605 Jim Pankovits

Jesse Orosco played for the Cardinals in 2000 when he turned 43, and still played 3 more seasons after that. Denny Walling also played for the Cardinals, 1988-1990.

1987 Donruss
#299 Franklin Stubbs
#306 Russ Morman
#308 Dave Smith
#312 Jim Winn
#334 Ron Karkovice

The factory set variation is so subtle I'm not sure I should bother to catalog them separately, yet I feel like it would be wrong to claim I have a duplicate of the Dave Smith card you see pictured twice above, because they have two different backs. These are the things that keep cards piled on my desk for weeks until I make a decision.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3462
Total Spent	$53.09
Per Card	1.534 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot, Part IV

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.

Part I II III

Shouldn't Friday always be Donut Day?

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.

eBay Wins #124

One of these cards is not like the others.

1987 Donruss
#68 Rick Sutcliffe
#69 Gary Carter
#70 Mike Moore
1987 Leaf #142 Hubie Brooks

If you're like me, and I hope for your sake that you're not, any time you hear that phrase, you have to finish the Sesame Street song in your head, or possibly out loud. Clearly, the outlier here is Mr. Brooks, in the Donruss lookalike set, Leaf. These are the type of sets that drive me mad when sorting through a trade package, along with 1980s O-Pee-Chee and Topps. I almost always put those cards in with Donruss/Topps at first, and only later notice what I have when the number doesn't match the checklist as I'm cataloging. It's generally a nice surprise though, because I have very few Leaf and O-Pee-Chee cards, and certainly many fewer than Donruss and Topps. In fact, this appears to be my very first and only 1987 Leaf card.

Of these 4 players, only Rick Sutcliffe was a Cardinal, pitching in 16 games in the strike-shortened 1994 season. I vaguely remember him playing for us, in fact, it's so vague I could have sworn he was here for a few years. But, I haven't ever seen baseball-reference.com proven wrong on anything in the modern era.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2937
Total Spent	$47.90
Per Card	1.631 cents

All-Star Winnings, Part 13

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.

A Contest Win from 30-Year Old Cardboard

I only recently found 30-Year Old Cardboard, when another blogger promoted the contest he was having for 500,000 hits! Obviously I was late to the game on this one, but I made it in time for the contest and won one of 10 prizes.

1987 Donruss #492 Barry Larkin

1987 Fleer #204 Barry Larkin

1987 Topps #648 Barry Larkin

For a long time, I didn't like Barry Larkin, because he took Ozzie Smith's spot at the 1993 All-Star game (at least in my 10-year-old and new-to-baseball mind). As I got older and learned that other teams can have good players, and even nice guys, too, I appreciated Mr. Larkin a lot more. So, winning these 3 Larkin rookies was really cool.

A big thanks to 30-Year Old Cardboard! Go follow his blog if you haven't yet, there's a ton of posts to read every month.

Number 5 Type Collection's Cardinals Giveaway, Part 1

I won a nice contest from Number 5 Type Collection, and the pile he sent me was over 40 cards. Unfortunately for all of you, I have this urge to

and also tag the sets and players I collect, which means, due to the blogger limit of 200 characters, I'll have to split them into 5 posts. At least it's an appropriate number. Let's start #1 off strong with some Ozzies:

1996 Pinnacle Aficionado #5 Ozzie Smith

1989 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-14 Ozzie Smith

1987 Topps Glossy All Stars #5 Ozzie Smith

1988 Nestle #5 Ozzie Smith

1987 Donruss #5 Ozzie Smith

1993 Duracell Power Players I #11 Ozzie Smith

That concludes the Ozzie Smith portion of the prize. I like the oddballs thrown in, it virtually guarantees I don't have the card.

1988 Kmart #5 Jack Clark

I actually don't remember Jack Clark as a member of the Cardinals, but he managed a local Minor League team for awhile, and now does some in-studio work on Fox Sports for Cardinals games, so on some level I'm still familiar with him.

1988 Topps Big #5 Vince Coleman

1991 Post #5 Vince Coleman

Vince Coleman, another guy I don't remember from his playing days with the Cardinals, though I do recall him with the Mets and a few other stops. The 2 things I think about most with him are getting run over by the tarp, and throwing fireworks into a group of fans. It's kind of an odd legacy.

More to see tomorrow...