Zistle Trade #29, Part II

Today's the rest of the Zistle trade I started on Thursday. It's all 1989 Upper Deck, and all Cardinals.

1989 Upper Deck Main Set #281 Luis Alicea
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #306 Pedro Guerrero
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #348 Tim Jones
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #514 Jose Oquendo
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #531 Greg Mathews
1989 Upper Deck Main Set #602 Tom Pagnozzi

However, we can play the old game of "One of these things is not like the other". The first five all show the Cardinals in BP gear, most likely in spring training. Tom Pagnozzi, on the other hand, is in full game uniform, and almost looks like a painting. I can't really explain it, though. He was on the team in 1987 and 1988, so surely would have been at 1989 Spring Training, since they bring in a whole lot of catchers to work with all the pitchers.

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

Zistle Trade #24

I made another smallish trade on Zistle, for some needs from the overproduction era. A few are base cards, but 6 of the 9 are either from traded sets or inserts, so they're a little harder to track down.

1988 Fleer #276 Jose Canseco
1988 Fleer Update #U-68 Todd Stottlemyre
1989 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-15 Cal Ripken
1989 Score Young Superstars II #20 Todd Stottlemyre
1989 Upper Deck #674 Ozzie Smith
1989 Upper Deck #754 Todd Zeile
1990 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-10 Ryne Sandberg
1991 Topps Traded #83T Phil Nevin
1993 Topps Gold #3 Ryne Sandberg

I've long been working on the 1990 Donruss set, and Ryne Sandberg was one of the two Bonus MVPs I didn't have yet. I've got the other on the way in another trade, too, so that insert set is nearly complete along with the base set, which I think is almost complete except for some errors and variations. I have a lot of 1989 Donruss base cards, but not many bonus MVPs, so the Ripken is a good get for me. The two Todd Stottlemyre cards are just because I collect Todd Stottlemyre, much like the Ozzie, Todd Zeile, and Jose Canseco cards. I put the Team USA cards from 1991 Topps Traded on my list after getting a few of them in the past and liking them, and finally there's a 1993 Topps Gold, also of Ryne Sandberg. I've still got over 780 of those to go to complete that set.

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 V

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 IV

Sunday's a good Donut Day, too.

1986 Topps
#25 Willie Wilson
#62 Bob Boone
#128 John Wathan
#271 Dave Collins
#407 Sal Butera
#740 Lance Parrish

With just a bit more cropping, Lance Parrish's card would never have been in this donut collection.

1988 Fleer League Leaders #8 Eric Davis
1988 Topps
#67 Ken Oberkfell
#466 Jerry Mumphrey
1989 Topps
#19 Greg Gagne
#53 Ruben Sierra
#356 Kevin Elster
#553 Luis Salazar
#577 Randy Bush

1989 Upper Deck
#53 Steve Sax
#329 Danny Tartabull
#485 Brian Downing
#522 Juan Castillo
#527 Donnie Hill
#750 Ray Quinones

1989 Upper Deck feels like one of those historic sets that I should complete. These will put me a little closer, but I still only have about 30 unique cards from the set.

eBay Wins #133

Today I've got 2 1989 Upper Deck cards. I've already got the most expensive card in this set, the Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie card, so I should really try to complete the rest of it.

1989 Upper Deck
#162 Luis Polonia
#495 Andy Hawkins

I don't have any particular attachment to either of these players, so here's an error I noticed on the back of Mr. Polonia's card.

1989 Upper Deck #162 Luis Polonia

Notice that his Batting Average in 1987 is listed as /287 instead of .287. I guess somewhere along the way these stats were typed in free-form, rather than culled from spreadsheets with some sort of sanity checking. I couldn't find any reference to this error online, though I'm still sure I'm not the first to find it. I assume that means no corrected version exists.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3049
Total Spent	$49.02
Per Card	1.608 cents
Change	0 cents

Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Part 6

Sometimes when I win a contest, I set the prize aside until I have time to fully rummage through all of it. In this case I won a contest back in late September, and I think the "Small Flat Rate Box" arrived by early October. I opened it immediately, but it's been sitting on my desk, too daunting of task to sort, since then. I finally felt the need to dive into it, and give jaybarkerfan his proper thank you post.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Today I've got 10 singles and a pair of 1992 Score to show you.

1989 Upper Deck #373 Mike Henneman
1993 Conlon TSN #801 Sad Sam Jones
1991 Fleer #281 Joe Bitker
1991 ProCards #2225 Kenny Lofton
1991 Score 100 Superstars #44 Dave Parker
1992 Score #47 Travis Fryman

1991 Fleer is starting to appeal to me. Maybe it'll be the next classically ugly set I collect after 1990 Donruss. Also, that Dave Parker is from the same set with misplaced players I mentioned back in part 1, but this time I think Superstar is a fair label.

1992 Score #83 Jose Rijo
1993 Classic Best #136 Rick Gorecki
1993 Select Rookie/Traded #89T Kevin Roberson
1994 Donruss - MVPs #3 Jose Rijo
1994 Topps - Topps Gold #705 Jose Rijo
1995 Bowman #259 Marc Newfield

This stack was heavy on Jose Rijo. For those of you trivia buffs, he's in the elite club of players who returned to the game after receiving at least one hall of fame vote. Injuries kept him out of the game for 5 full seasons, enough for him to qualify for the ballot, but he returned for parts of 2 more seasons afterward.

There's just a little bit left in the box...

All-Star Winnings, Part 9

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 ]

1991 Panini Canadian Top 15 #1 Willie McGee
1991 Stadium Club - Charter Member #20 Willie McGee
2005 Topps Rookie Cup #50 Willie McGee

Not only were these 3 Willie McGee cards I didn't have, but they're from 3 sets I had no cards from either. I have some 1991 Stadium Club, but nothing from the Charter Member set. That card commemorates one of the odder moments in baseball history, as Willie was traded away in late August to Oakland - in the AL - but still had enough at bats to qualify for, and win, the NL batting title.

1986 Topps #740 Ozzie Smith
1989 Donruss All-Stars #37 Ozzie Smith
1989 Upper Deck #265 Ozzie Smith
1990 Score #285 Ozzie Smith
1990 Kmart #4 Ozzie Smith
1991 Fleer Ultra #296 Ozzie Smith
1991 Stadium Club #154 Ozzie Smith
1992 Post #8 Ozzie Smith

What more can I say about Ozzie Smith I haven't said since starting this blog? As the long-reigning franchise player when I started watching the team, he was obviously one of my early favorites. I'm rather glad he played in an era of such baseball card variety, aka the overproduction era to some. It means I'll probably never get every card of his, and I'll always be adding new ones to my collection, and discovering new oddball or unlicensed sets, like the Kmart and logo-less Post card above.

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.

My Favorite Childhood Player

The lastest of Fuji's blog-inspiring contest questions is Who were your childhood favorites (players)? Do you collect their cards & memorabilia? If so, what's your favorite item (of your favorite childhood player) in your collection?


As I've mentioned on my blog before, my favorite player was Mark McGwire. I can't even really pinpoint why, because I've always been a Cardinals fan. I think it might be because I got to see some A's games when they were in the playoffs in 1988-1990 and 1992. I liked collecting cards from the A's, so I also was a fan of Jose Canseco, Dennis Eckersley, and Tony La Russa. Needless to say, 1996-97 was great for me as the Cardinals hired La Russa, brought in Eckersley, and traded for McGwire in mid-1997.

As for my favorite McGwire-related Memorabilia, #1 is probably the rookie card I wrote about in this Fleamarkets post.

1989 Upper Deck #1 Ken Griffey, Jr.
1985 Topps #401 Mark McGwire

I don't have a picture handy, but one somewhat unique item is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Special Edition" that was sold outside the stadium after the game in which he hit #61. The funny thing about that is that early in the season, when he was on a tear, I tried to project in which game he'd hit #62 and got tickets to that game. He wound up hitting #61 to tie the record, so I was close. Anyway, I ran into a friend of mine whose dad works for the paper, and they were selling the commemorative copies for 50 cents. I grabbed either 2 or 4, and they're still stored away somewhere (I hope).

Finally, my most desired memorabilia right now would be an autographed ball. Prices went sky-high while he was playing here at the Cardinals Winter Warm-Up, their annual autographs-for-charity event. Every autographed ball I have was acquired in person, which feels like a bigger deal to me than buying one. Now that he's back coaching with the team, I'm hoping he'll be available at some point so I can add this much-wanted piece to my autographed ball collection, which currently includes Ozzie Smith, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Kyle McClellan, and 1 ball with a bunch of guys from 1998.

Flea Markets, and 2 contest plugs

This post is just laden with grabs for free stuff. First up is my experience with flea markets for collectibles, for Fuji's contest, and then two gratuitous links to two new contests. It seems like when it rains it pours with contests in the baseball card blogosphere.

When I was somewhere between 12 and 14, I used to go to a flea market with my mom or both mom and dad early on Sunday mornings before church, about once a month or so during nice weather. It was about 20 minutes west of us, in the rural direction. There were prime spots indoors, with maybe 30 tables or so, some prime outdoor spots near the building, and then the cheap spots up the hill and around the building. There were usually puppies and kittens for sale, "antique" furniture, which was mostly just old and beat up, and, as it was the mid-to-late 90s, lots of baseball cards.

I'm certain a few of the guys indoors were running hobby shops, as they always had boxes of the newest products. I don't think they could have sustained that with only a few hours to sell each week. Some weeks I just really liked looking at all of the autographed photos, and the rare and/or vintage cards. Occasionally I'd buy a pack of cards from them, but I usually wouldn't, buying instead from my more local hobby shop during the week.

My favorite seller to talk to was an older guy who had an outdoor spot, but had his cards in some nice glass-topped cases. In retrospect, I wonder how much UV damage some of his cards sustained week after week. I think I also visited his spot a lot because he had two cards I really wanted, sitting side by side, every week. One was a McGwire rookie, and the other was a Griffey rookie. I'd ask him the price from time to time, getting a slightly different number every time, and usually a lower number after I'd look disappointed. I never had enough cash to make an offer though.

Then, one week I bought a can of 1997 Pinnacle Inside, the cards in a can, from my hobby shop. I pulled a Diamond Edition parallel of Cal Ripken Jr., which is die-cut and a little shiny. Here's an example Jim Edmonds from CheckOutMyCards.com.

1997 Pinnacle Inside - Diamond Edition #115 Jim Edmonds

The way I remember it, it came from the Ripken can on top, but it could have been any of these 3.

1997 Pinnacle Inside - Cans #19 Mike Piazza
1997 Pinnacle Inside - Cans #22 Cal Ripken, Jr.
1997 Pinnacle Inside - Cans #23 Mark McGwire

At the time, I think this card booked for $300. According to COMC, the Randy Johnson is currently booking for $25, so I'd imagine Cal might be $30 at best now. I had a feeling that $300 was overinflated, so I got the bright idea to try to trade it.

I took it up to the flea market one Sunday, and approached the McGwire and Griffey. I asked to see the cards, much like the Wayne's World scene in which he checks out the same guitar he's been checking out every week. I showed him my Ripken, and confidently told him what it booked for. I think at the time the McGwire was about $70 and Griffey was around $100. I can't recall exactly what we settled on, but it included both cards and cash, I want to say about $80. That sounds like way more than a vendor would PAY at a flea market, but again, this was the late 90s, right in the card boom, so I guess it might have been.

1989 Upper Deck #1 Ken Griffey, Jr.
1985 Topps #401 Mark McGwire

I was ecstatic that I had turned my 3 or 4 dollar pack (can) of cards into these two cards I desired for so long. Of course, the book values, for what it's worth, have plummeted on all of those cards, but that doesn't matter to me. I haven't visited any flea markets since my return to collecting in late 2010, but I have occasionally found things at garage sales, which are kind of a suburban flea market I suppose.

Now that I'm done reliving my childhood, here's two more contests for you.
First, Number 5 Type Collection's Fourth Anniversary HOF Giveaway. Go comment with your favorite 50s-60s player to enter.
Next, a new blog I just found thanks to some more contest promoting, Drinking The Orange Kool-Aid's The "You Did WHAT With The Cup?" Contest. Let him know what you'd do with your 24 hours with the Stanley Cup if you were on the NHL champs.