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 Bought	4765
Total Spent	$60.45
Per Card	1.269 cents
Change	-0.008 cents

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 Bought	4712
Total Spent	$60.185
Per Card	1.277 cents
Change	-0.011 cents

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part IV

Part I II III

The cards from the giant box continue. I've got mostly McGwires left. And this is going to take me awhile.

1988 Donruss #1 Mark McGwire (x5)
1988 Donruss #256 Mark McGwire
1988 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-23 Mark McGwire
1988 Topps #759 Athletics Leaders (x2)

Yes, there's a few duplicates, but with cards like Diamond Kings, who cares?

1988 Score #5 Mark McGwire
1988 Score #659 Mark McGwire
1989 Classic Travel Purple #190 Mark McGwire
1989 Topps #70 Mark McGwire
1989 Upper Deck #300 Mark McGwire
1990 Classic Update #T33 Mark McGwire
1990 Donruss #185 Mark McGwire
1990 Donruss #697 Mark McGwire

I was glad to see a few of the slightly harder-to-find cards, like the 89 and 90 Classic cards. Not that those are impossible, but there are certainly more 1990 Donruss or 1989 Topps around.

1989 Fleer #634 Jose Canseco/Terry Steinbach/Mark McGwire (X3)
1988 Score #648 Mark McGwire/Matt Nokes
1990 Fleer #638 Don Mattingly/Mark McGwire
1990 Upper Deck #36 Oakland A's Checklist
1989 Topps Big #34 Mark McGwire

I wonder how many cards featuring both McGwire and Canseco are out there. I got two different examples in this bunch, counting the one with Terry Steinbach. Don Mattingly and Matt Nokes also made appearances. I think my favorite cards of this post is the Topps Big, although now I've got even more of a need to figure out how exactly to store cards from that set. I'd be glad to hear any good ideas anyone has.

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.

Zistle Trade #11 Part II

[Part I]

Yesterday I showed some cards from a recent Zistle trade, all from the junk wax year of 1990. As you can see, the rest were from about the same era.

I'm not sure why I put the Bill Buckner card on my want list, unless his name just stood out due to the famous play he didn't quite make for the Red Sox, while I was adding some other 1989 Fleer to my want list. Ultimately I hope to complete most of the easy-to-find sets like Donruss, Fleer, and Topps from these years, so I'm glad to have it. The rest of the players were all Cardinals at one time or another. I was sort of surprised I didn't have the 1987 McGwire, but I double checked my sorted cards and sure enough, I didn't.

1987 Topps #366 Mark McGwire
1989 Fleer #278 Bill Buckner
1990 Topps #261 Whitey Herzog
1991 Donruss #155 Todd Stottlemyre
1991 Fleer #635 Ken Hill
1993 Score #241 Ozzie Canseco

When I first started watching baseball, two of my favorite players besides Cardinals were the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. Imagine my surprise in September 1992 when I found out Jose's twin brother was in the minor league system, and came up to the big leagues when rosters expanded. He actually played 9 games in a row that year, from September 2-12 with a few off days, then disappeared for the rest of the year. Then in 1993, he played 6 consecutive games, May 7-13. That was the end of his major league career, though, after 15 games in St. Louis and 9 in Oakland.

Zistle Trade #10

This was my first trade with a repeat partner on Zistle, BucCollector. Much like last time, these cards just cost me some Pirate duplicates.

1990 Donruss
#10A Brian Downing DK ERR (Reverse neg- on card front)
#650A Bo Jackson AS ERR (Stat header titled Recent ML Performance)
#700A Checklist 640 - BC-26 ERR (Missing #716)
#659 Nolan Ryan 5000K

I copied the exact description for each card directly from Zistle, since these were all error or variation cards from 1990 Donruss, and I'm not sure I could explain them any more concisely. I'm now about 35 total cards from finishing the full base set with errors, and with the Nolan Ryan and Checklist card, I believe I now have at least one variation of each card in the set.

1982 Fleer #113 George Hendrick
1988 Fleer #27 Vince Coleman
1989 Fleer #285 Bo Jackson
1991 Topps Traded #51T Jeffrey Hammonds USA RC
1992 Studio #96 Tom Pagnozzi
1992 Studio #170 Mark Whiten

How is it possible I've never posted a George Hendrick card before today? He even coached for the Cardinals for awhile. Bo Jackson is one of the few non-Cardinals I like to collect, so that's why his 1989 Fleer card was on my want list. At some point I decided I'd like to at least get the Team USA cards from 1991 Topps Traded, so that's why Jeffrey Hammonds was part of this trade. Pagnozzi and Coleman are obviously Cardinals here, and Mark Whiten joined the team a year after this card. I've still got 14 more current/former/future Cardinals to track down from 1992 Studio, though.

As with all trades, I'm just happy to knock 10 more cards off my gigantic want list, and be rid of some duplicates in the process. 

eBay Wins #137

In my eventually-ending quest to run through all my eBay penny cards, I'm up to 1989. True, I already posted some from 1990 the other day, but this pile was big and I felt lazy. Today's lot has 21 cards, and the return of Clarkmania™.

1989 Fleer
#97 Jim Rice
#169 Ron Robinson
#174 Frank Williams
#212 Dave LaPoint
#252 Jack Clark
#253 Richard Dotson
#291 Bret Saberhagen
#299 Roberto Alomar
#321 Ed Whitson

This is the first card of Dave LaPoint I've ever posted, though I did receive his 1990 Score card in a trade a few years ago. Clearly I flipped through those cards too quickly and didn't realize I missed a Cardinal. Not only was he a Cardinal, but he played for the team in 1982, and pitched in 2 games of the World Series they won over the Brewers.

1989 Fleer
# 325 Will Clark
#342 Don Robinson
#355 Glenn Davis
#366 Craig Reynolds
#510 Jerry Reuss
#526 Chad Kreuter
#542 Jay Buhner (x2)
#549 Erik Hanson

What is Jerry Reuss doing with a bat in 1989 (likely 1988 in the photo)? He never came to the plate in 1988-89 with the White Sox and Brewers. You see, kids, back in '89, the Brewers were in the AL, and there was no interleague play, so AL pitchers didn't ever bat unless they made the World Series, unless there was a weird injury/double-switch/crazy-like-a-fox-manager situation.

Also, I might be able to let one Jay Buhner card go without doing this, but I simply can't show 2 Jay Buhner cards without this video:

1989 Fleer
#655 Checklist (Twins/Tigers)
#642 Prospects: Brad Pounders/Jerald Clark
World Series #2 Rookie Start Series (Tim Belcher)

Rounding things out are 3 oddballs of the lot: A checklist, a horizontal card, and an insert. That would make for a terrible Carnac bit. Brad Pounders is one of the grayest looking prospects I've ever seen, but I looked him up, and he was born in 1963, so he was a reasonable, though slightly older than usual, age for a prospect in 1989. The World Series card is nice, but now it makes me want to chase a 25-year-old insert set to pick up the other 11 cards, which include Eckersley and McGwire.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3122
Total Spent	$49.75
Per Card	1.594 cents
Change	-0.004 cents

All-Star Winnings, Part 8

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 ]

1989 Fleer #652 Ken Hill/Dennis Cook

1989 Score Rookie/Traded #98T Ken Hill
1995 SP #100 Ozzie Smith
1995 SP #102 Ken Hill

Ken Hill was traded for Andres Galarraga before I started paying attention to baseball, but he returned for a bit in 1995, before being traded again for David Bell among others. And since I had 2 cards from the 1995 SP set, there's a certain All-Star shortstop in the middle of that scan.

1994 Post #28 Gregg Jefferies
1994 Stadium Club #531 Gregg Jefferies
1995 Collector's Choice Special Edition #80 Gregg Jefferies

Gregg Jefferies was the player I most associated with #25 before Mark McGwire arrived, although, David Bell and 2 others each wore it for a bit in 1995.

2005 Fleer Tradition #62 John Mabry

Speaking of 1995, this card is from Mabry's third stint with the Cardinals, but the first started way back in 1995, under Joe Torre. John always seemed like a solid and reliable player, although he didn't excel in any one area. Now, he's the Cardinals' hitting coach, after a year as Mark McGwire's assistant.

eBay Wins #66

Another day, another 22 penny cards. Let's go oldest to youngest this time.

1989 Fleer
#249 Luis Aguayo
#271 Don Slaught
#273 Gary Ward
#468 Dante Bichette

A little '89 Fleer, aka, the prison bars set.

1989 Topps - Rookies #9 Ron Gant

The only Cardinal in the bunch, Ron Gant. To me, 1989 Topps is the definition of junk wax, but the inserts seem to have not been been overproduced nearly as much.

1990 Kmart #14 Mark Davis

Slowly but surely I'll put together this whole Kmart set. If I'm lucky it'll be before Kmart goes bankrupt.

1992 Upper Deck
#250 Billy Ripken
#640 Oakland A's Checklist

Here's Billy Ripken trying to create another quirky card, and two of my favorite players from the 90s (at the time).

2004 Throwback Threads #190 Hank Blalock

Doesn't a set name like Throwback Threads seem like it should include a relic, or at least a throwback uniform?

2007 Topps #269 Fred Lewis

Just a 2007 base card of a career .266 hitter.

2007 Upper Deck
#555 Kelly Johnson
#704 Aaron Boone
#761 Reggie Willits
#765 Justin Speier
#873 Rod Barajas
#926 Ryan Klesko
#993 Jeremy Accardo
#999 Josh Towers

Do you ever scan a bunch of cards, then realize you messed up the orientation? Because I haven't. No sir. Although I don't know how I'd have arranged 7 vertical cards and 1 horizontal card nicely in a single scan, so it's for the best.

2007 Upper Deck Artifacts #1 Miguel Tejada

Again, "Artifacts". Give me a...well...an artifact.

2009 Upper Deck First Edition #352 Francisco Rodriguez

K-Rod looks terrified to be joining the Mets for 2009.

2010 Bowman Platinum - Propects
#PP26 Jose Iglesias
#PP46 Noe Ramirez

And we'll finish off this collection as weakly as possible, with 2 prospect cards. At least it's only 2010, so in 2-3 years I might look back and see these as cards I didn't know would be so great. Although so far in spring training, Noe's got a 20.25 ERA.

That's it for this round, except for the tracker.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2243
Total Spent	$41.28
Per Card	1.84 cents

eBay Wins #51

Here's another 1 penny card I picked up from the bottom of the eBay barrel. With that name and that mustache, I have to wonder if he's some kind of alter ego for a superhero. With this card, I only have 584 more cards to complete the 1989 Fleer set!
.

1989 Fleer #414 Ron Tingley

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2065
Total Spent	$39.14
Per Card	1.895 cents

Baseball Cards from Bo, Part III

[Part I]
[Part II]


Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life contacted me about a trade, and he even did all the work picking cards from both my wantlist and tradelist to set up the swap. Here's the rest of my haul.

1989 Fleer
#5 Jose Canseco
#245 Todd Stottlemyre
#457 Willie McGee
#462 Steve Peters
#463 Ozzie Smith

Jose Canseco was one of my favorites as a kid, so I still collect his cards when the opportunity comes up. I now only need 1 card, Curt Flood, to complete the 1989 Fleer Cardinals. And Todd Stottlemyre, as I've stated many times, is a distant cousin. I got a few more of him in this deal too.

1988 Donruss #658 Todd Stottlemyre

1989 Donruss #620 Todd Stottlemyre

1989 Score #453 Todd Stottlemyre

1989 Topps #722 Todd Stottlemyre

1989 Upper Deck #362 Todd Stottlemyre

1993 Topps #23 Todd Stottlemyre

1993 Topps - Gold
#7 Pete Incaviglia
#29 Dwayne Henry
#43 Ruben Amaro
#77 Junior Felix
#89 Eric Anthony
#103 Jody Reed

I learned a valuable lesson with these Topps Golds. Keep your wantlist up to date! Apparently I started adding 1993 Topps Gold to my wantlist, but got bored after 103 and just stopped. Who knows how many more I might have gotten in this trade or others if that had been corrected.

All in all, I got a lot of neat stuff in this trade. A big thanks to Bo, and as I always implore you when I make a trade, go follow Baseball Cards Come to Life.

eBay Wins #9

My bargain-hunting continued with some junk wax, but for 2 cents apiece, why not.  I bought a lot of 24 1989 Fleer California Angels.  I figured I'd be willing to pay $13.20 for the whole 660 card set, so these were worth it.

The highlights:

The Bonus Packing Material - 2 1989 Fleer Stickers
It's nice when people make sure the outer cards in the stack won't get dinged 

1989 Fleer Dante Bichette

1989 Fleer Bob Boone

1989 Fleer Chuck Finley
The former Cardinal!

1989 Fleer Wally Joyner

eBay Tracker
Total Cards Bought	123
Total Spent	$3.28
Per Card	2.67 cents