Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXXVII

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE IS OVER, so I've got to get my prize from last season's Bowl Pick 'Em contest at Cards on Cards posted! My prize for a second place tie was a very generously sized box of cards, so I felt a bit overwhelmed even sorting through them. I finally sorted them out by player, and, as usual, I'll plan to post them all eventually, but I might quit halfway through, we'll see.

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX
XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX
XXXI XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXV XXXVI

The giant prize pile is down to a large handful...

1982 Fleer #123 Ken Oberkfell
1983 Fleer #17 Ken Oberkfell
1991 Donruss #43 Ray Lankford
1991 Donruss #143 Brett Butler
1994 Topps Stadium Club Draft Picks #30 Carl Dale
1994 Topps Stadium Club Draft Picks #55 Yates Hall
1995 Topps Stadium Club #424 Ray Lankford
1999 Topps Stadium Club #21 Darren Oliver
1990 Upper Deck - Team Hologram Cardinals

I always find it interesting to see what happpened with Cardinals draft picks I've never heard of.
Carl Dale was sent to Oakland as part of the deal acquire my cousin, Todd Stottlemyre, and eventually made it to MLB with Milwaukee in 1999 after rosters expanded. Yates Hall appears to have played his entire career in the Cardinals minor league system, and only played through 1998, when he was 25, but only rose to AA.

Brett Butler, I'm pretty sure, was another "packing material" card, protecting a stack by covering the end. But it's in good enough shape to throw into my 1991 Donruss box, along with the Ray Lankford. Also, I promise that hologram is of a 1990s Cardinals logo, though it's pretty hard to tell that from the scan.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part V

Part I II III IV


I've got a lot of McGwires to go through. I'm nowhere near the St. Louis years yet.

1990 Starline Long John Silvers #9 Mark McGwire
1990 Starline Long John Silvers #11 Mark McGwire (x2)
1990 Kmart #32 Mark McGwire
1991 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-9 Mark McGwire
1991 Score 100 Superstars #39 Mark McGwire
1991 Score #324 Mark McGwire (x3)

I think those Green-Bordered cards were some sort of Long John Silvers giveaway, from some searching around the web.

1991 Upper Deck #174 Mark McGwire
1992 Donruss #348 Mark McGwire
1992 Fleer Ultra #115 Mark McGwire (x2)
1992 Pinnacle #217 Mark McGwire
1992 Upper Deck Fanfest #32 Mark McGwire

The 1992 Upper Deck FanFest set is another new one for me. It's increasingly rare for me to get a card from a set I don't already have cards from, but that one and the Starline cards were both new sets to my collection.

Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot, Part III

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

It's a busy week for me. So, let's just see some more donuts, featuring 3 Cardinals this time, though all in other uniforms.

1991 Topps
#139 Jeff Treadway
#604 Billy Hatcher
#726 Phil Stephenson
#781 Darryl Hamilton
1991 Fleer #75 Joe Oliver
1991 Upper Deck
#3 D. J. Dozier
#291 Joey Cora
#340 Larry Sheets
#502 Bob Boone

Bob Boone doesn't look nearly old enough on this 1991 card to be the father of Bret Boone, on the 1992 card below.

1991 Upper Deck
#560 Chris Gwynn
#675 Hensley Meulens
#754 Tony Fernandez
1992 Upper Deck
#121 Hal Morris
#327 Kevin Seitzer
#771 Bret Boone
#737 Dan Gladden
1992 Topps
#333 Pat Tabler
#647 Marquis Grissom

1991 Donruss
#80 Kevin Reimer
#109 Ken Oberkfell
#253 Glenn Braggs
#255 Kevin Mitchell
#445 Kirk Gibson
#530 John Olerud
1992 Donruss #759 Dave Anderson
1992 Triple Play #24 Reggie Jefferson
1992 Fleer Ultra #279 Thomas Howard

Ken Oberkfell and Thomas Howard are the two Cardinals in this bunch, along with Royce Clayton below. The Howard card has a sneaky donut on it, on the bat of the player on deck.

1992 Leaf #272 Royce Clayton

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.

eBay Wins #144

Today's cheap eBay lot is 1991 Donruss, the set that always confused me as a kid until I sorted my cards by number, and realized that the first half was blue-bordered, and the second half was green-bordered. I later learned was a series was.

1991 Donruss
#82 Mike Fitzgerald
#255 Kevin Mitchell
#408 Darryl Strawberry

I have no particular attachment to these three players, except in digital form. 2 out of 3 - Kevin Mitchell and Darryl Strawberry - are in R.B.I. Baseball, which is still one of my favorite baseball video games to play, followed by Triple Play '98 for Playstation. Like all of these lots, this one was a penny per card, bringing my rounded-to-three-decimal-places per-card average down another 0.001 cent.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3212
Total Spent	$50.62
Per Card	1.576 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

eBay Wins #115

Today I've got cards from 2 of Donruss's more garish 90s sets, which look even worse next to each other. But, these are the cards I grew up with, so they make me happy. It also doesn't hurt that they only cost me a penny each.

1990 Donruss
#82 Milt Thompson
#359 Larry Andersen
1991 Donruss
#461 Ernest Riles
#511 Wally Whitehurst
#525 Kent Anderson
#563 John Shelby
#678 Danny Jackson
#670 Ken Hill
#735 Ken Dayley

That makes 3 Danny Jackson cards in my last 10 eBay posts. That stat sounded like much more of an outlier before I typed it. Nonetheless, he counts as a Cardinal in my book, due to his 2 and a half seasons in St. Louis, so the lot netted 4 Cardinals out of 9 cards.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2837
Total Spent	$46.90
Per Card	1.653 cents

eBay Wins #76

With this purchase, I've added 6 more penny cards to my collection.

1989 Donruss
#196 Neil Allen
#393 Frank DiPino
#536 Ken Hill
#580 Tony Armas

With Donruss's far-off photography, I can pretend these are bigger stars. On the top row we have David Cone, followed by a young Greg Maddux. Ken Hill is Ken Hill because he's a Cardinal, and that particular shot is too close up to mistake him for anyone else. Finally we have Mr. October, Reggie Jackson.

1991 Donruss
#57A Jack McDowell (ERR)
#202 Jeff Russell 

That Jack McDowell is an error card, simply because of a math error in the stats. With 4 games in 1987, 26 in 1988, none in 1989, and 33 in 1990, he's listed with 30 career appearances. Someone forgot to add 1990's 33 when copying over the previous year's stats, I assume. Donruss actually corrected it, though, so there's a version out there with no difference except the 63 career games stat.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2397
Total Spent	$42.82
Per Card	1.786 cents

eBay Wins #69

This time around on eBay, I picked up 33 more penny cards. They are decidedly junk wax, with perhaps 1 exception.

1988 Donruss
#5 Danny Tartabull
#110 Wally Joyner

There were 11 1988 Donruss cards. I'm in the camp that loves the Diamond Kings, so that Danny Tartabull is worth the price of the lot. And just for fun, here's Wally Joyner too.

1990 Donruss #222 Lonnie Smith

This was the only former Cardinal in the lot, and the one of 20 1990 Donruss cards in the lot.

1991 Donruss #573 Mike Kingery

This was the only 1991 Donruss card, so I figured, what the heck, let's scan it.

1992 Stadium Club #686 Bryan Hickerson

Finally, inching out of the junk wax era, we have 1992 Stadium Club. Those full-bleed photos felt revolutionary at the time, but somewhere along the way Topps seems to have decided they need distinctive borders again.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2344
Total Spent	$42.29
Per Card	1.804 cents

Pi Day 2013

Last year, I brought you Felix Pie - all 2 cards of his I owned at the time. And yes, I know the pronunciation is not the same as pi, but I'm a simple man, seeking out cheap laughs. This year, I hereby declare.

Pete Incaviglia Day

That's right, Pete Incaviglia. Did you know that - at least according to baseball reference's player listings - he's the only MLB player in history with the initials P.I.? I bet you didn't, nor did you care...nor do you care now. But here's ol' Pete anyway.

1990 Donruss #48 Pete Incaviglia

1991 Donruss #464 Pete Incaviglia

1992 Upper Deck #271 Pete Incaviglia

1993 Topps - ToppsGold #7 Pete Incaviglia

1994 Fleer Ultra #246 Pete Incaviglia

It was easy to choose the scans to use, because these are the only 5 Incaviglia cards I have, though I have multiple copies of the 1991 Donruss.

But wait, there's more.

1997 Topps #550 Pete Incaviglia

I don't own this card, but it won me a few other cards in the 2011 Prime 9 redemption set, when I picked it out based on a small cropped piece.

Now, everyone go enjoy some pie.

eBay Wins #42

I found another seller with some 1 penny cards, and wound up winning just two of his auctions. Viva Junk Wax!

1990 Upper Deck #562 Jeff Innis

1991 Donruss #485 Ben McDonald

Oddly enough, this is the first 1990 Upper Deck card I've posted in my blog's 1.5 years. That's always easy to notice when I'm typing in the tags on the post.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2015
Total Spent	$38.56
Per Card	1.914 cents

eBay Wins #33

I bought this lot of 23 cards with some stars peppered in for 49 cents. They're from 1988-1991, but for just over 2 cents apiece I figured I couldn't go wrong, and I'd get a nice long blog post taking me, and maybe you, down memory lane

1988 Score #7 Wally Joyner

1988 Score #275 John Tudor

I only vaguely recall John Tudor as a Cardinal, and I think mostly I've just heard the name over and over, I don't actually remember him playing.

1988 Score #278 Jerry Browne

1988 Score #481 Kevin Mitchell

The yellow border goes nicely with the Giants, so much so I didn't even remember Score has colored borders by card number, not by team, until I went to file this one with the rest of them.

1989 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-22 Will Clark

Speaking of the Giants, it's MVP and former (future?) Cardinal Will Clark.

1989 Score #193 Dwight Evans

1989 Score #221 David Cone

1989 Score #429 Tim Leary

1989 Score #534 John Costello

Another Cardinal I've never heard of. Maybe he was traded to whichever team Jim Abbott was on to give the local sportswriter an easy headline season.

1989 Topps #5 Orel Hershiser

1989 Topps #300 Darryl Strawberry

1989 Topps #390 Darryl Strawberry

1989 Topps #478 Doug Drabek

If I was going to get some 1989 Topps, these are pretty good cards to get. I always think of the guys who were aging superstars in 1992-1995ish as the greatest cards ever, corresponding with the first time I started paying attention to baseball. And of course Doug Drabek was on the last successful Pirates teams.

1990 Donruss #269 Kirby Pucket

The lone 1990 Donruss was one I already had, so this will go on my trade list. Not that anyone will trade me for a 1990 Donruss, so it'll probably languish there for awhile until I clean house.

1990 Fleer #314 Ruben Sierra

1990 Fleer #399 Orel Hershiser

I like the look of 1990 Fleer, and another Orel Hershiser isn't bad either. I'm kind of surprised to see he fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2007 on just his second try. He seemed like a plausible candidate to me.

1991 Donruss #433 Ryne Sandberg

1991 Donruss #490 Kirby Puckett

I like the green 1991 Donruss better than the blue for some reason, but both designs scream 90s.

1991 Upper Deck #193 Mitch Williams

1991 Upper Deck #418 Jeff Reardon

1991 Upper Deck #744 Bo Jackson

Of all the non-Cardinals out there, Bo Jackson is a player I've really considered collecting for awhile. I really like every time I get one of his cards, but I can't bring myself to add another player to my list. Although, there must not be too many of him out there for the few years he played, right? That's it, I've talked myself into it. Bo Jackson is now a player I collect.

1991 Upper Deck #768 Vince Coleman

Here's Vince Coleman trying not to get run over by a tarp.

1991 Upper Deck #769 Mitch Williams

In case I lost you along the way, notice that's the second Mitch Williams from 1991 Upper Deck. Without looking it up, I assume the cards were put out in two or more series that year, giving them time to print up a new card with Mitch on his new team. According to baseball-reference, he was traded April 7, the day before opening day for the Phillies. That seems strange, but I don't see any "crazy" stories about the trade online anywhere.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1926
Total Spent	$37.52
Per Card	1.948 cents

eBay Wins #6

I was in a random mood, so I bid a penny on a bunch of "Random 1980-90s baseball card" auctions.  The results weren't bad, actually, at least for a collector of Cardinals.  In all, I won 41 of them.

1988 Score

181 Carmelo Martinez

1990 Fleer

183 Randy Milligan

192 Jay Tibbs

205 Keith Hernandez

241 Gerald Young

324 Jim Gantner

1990 Score

88 Steve Lyons
222 Jesse Barfield
447 Ernest Riles
453 Bob Melvin
467 John Kruk

1990 Topps

135 Dave Magadan

1991 Donruss

384 Norm Charlton

1991 Score

Even for a Junk Wax set, I had to scan all 3 former Cardinals

22 Kevin Gross

81 Lee Smith

82 Dave Martinez

84 Bill Spiers

87 Tracy Jones

112 Mike Heath

115 Barry Jones

125 Jay Buhner

128 Greg Hibbard

130 Mike Greenwell

192 Jeff Robinson

197 Tom Gordon

234 Marquis Grissom

237 Don Carman

241 Larry Walker

257 Steve Buechele

299 Omar Vizquel

322 Mike Harkey

325 Gary Gaetti

328 Frank Tanana

330 Barry Bonds

336 Jeff Schulz

339 Mike Bordick

393 Wade Boggs AS

399 Roger Clemens AS

401 Bobby Thigpen AS

415 Ken Caminiti

418 Bobby Thigpen

All in all, I'm happy with my random assortment for 41 cents.  I seem to have an attachment to the 89-92 years because I started collecting in 1992, so although I know most of them are overproduced, it's a nice cheap way to get nostalgic.