Zistle Trade #23

This Zistle trade was mostly from the junk wax era, but I haven't quite filled all those gaps in my collection, so there's a smattering of them on my want list. Oddly enough, my trading partner wanted some "junk" in return, so I figured, why not. I'm too lazy to look it up now, but I think it was mostly 89 or 91 Donruss.

1988 Topps #642 Bob Dernier
1990 Score #233 Ken Hill
1991 Fleer #633 Bernard Gilkey
1991 Fleer #636 Felix Jose
1991 Fleer #640 Jose Oquendo
1991 Fleer #645 Lee Smith
1991 Topps #112 Frank DiPino
1992 Fleer #589 Gerald Perry
1992 Score #544 Bernard Gilkey

One of these things is not like the others, and that is Bobby Dernier. The others are all Cardinals, and actually mostly guys I remember playing for the team during my childhood, except for Frank DiPino. As for Bobby, I added that to my list awhile back because he was the favorite player of a good friend of mine when he was growing up. I was looking through my collection for a card of his to perhaps try to get autographed through the mail, but I didn't have any, and thus I added a few I should be able to get cheaply to my want list. Now I just need to track down an address for Mr. Dernier, or figure out who he's working for.

1992 Donruss #427 Bobby Bonilla
1992 Donruss #442 John Smoltz
1992 Donruss #564 Deion Sanders
1992 Donruss #610 Bobby Bonilla

I recently purchased a 1992 Donruss Series 1 set, which actually quashed the first trade this particular trader proposed to me. He did it the day after I bought the set, before I thought to remove the series 1 cards from my want list. Luckily my oversight didn't frustrate him, and we worked out a deal removing those cards. Here are the series 2 cards I still needed. If you're not a Cardinals fan, you may have forgotten that Smoltz and Bonilla both finished their careers in St. Louis. It wasn't very long for either one, but I still consider them players I collect. I've waffled about whether I should start collecting Deion Sanders cards. He'd go well with my other two-sport-star collection target, Bo Jackson. He was also a part of the very first baseball game I ever attended. I'll probably complete this base set eventually anyway, so I went ahead and added it to my wantlist, and now I have it.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part I

Back in March, Junior Junkie sent out packages to over 60 bloggers, and I was one of them. I'm notoriously slow to want to sit down and sort out large packages for posting, so here's a very late thanks. Also, I'm notoriously insistent upon posting every card I get in a trade or prize package, including tagging the set and players among those I collect, so strap in, you're in for at least a week of posts.

First up is the first half of the Bo Jackson cards. Which wasn't even the largest stack.

1988 Donruss #220 Bo Jackson
1988 Score #180 Bo Jackson
1990 Bowman - Art Inserts #4 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss #1 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss #61 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-1 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss - Grand Slammers #12 Bo Jackson
1990 Fleer #110 Bo Jackson
1990 Score #687 Bo Jackson

Somehow, I was relatively unaware of the Grand Slammers inserts from 1990 Donruss. A quick internet search told me they were in the factory sets and cello packs. As 1990 Donruss has been a longtime project of mine, including all the error variations, I'll probably be adding those to my want list.

1990 Topps #300 Bo Jackson
1990 Upper Deck #75 Bo Jackson
1991 Fleer - Pro-Visions #5 Bo Jackson
1991 Fleer #561 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #5 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #412 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #420 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #692 Bo Jackson
1991 Score 100 Superstars #2 Bo Jackson

I was kind of stunned to see Bo got 4 cards in 1991 Score's base set, until I looked it up and saw he actually had 5. He only had 2 cards total in 1991 Fleer, and I got both of those.

1990 Score #566 Bo Jackson
1990 Topps Stickers #24 Lonnie Smith

 Why'd I throw in a random Lonnie Smith sticker to this bunch?

1990 Topps Stickers
Sticker Backs #51 Bo Jackson

Apparently in 1990 Topps Stickers, there were stickers on one side, and the backs had a different player. Thus, this card is doubly collectible for me, with Bo Jackson one one side and former Cardinal Lonnie Smith on the other.

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 #145

Today's nickel spent on eBay bought me these vibrant yellow 1991 Fleer cards. None of them were Cardinals, though one gave me pause for half a moment, until I came back to the reality that these cards are 23 years old, and the Cardinals' Carlos Martinez was actually born in 1991.

1991 Fleer
#128 Carlos Martinez
#390 Don Carman
#503 Danny Darwin
#520 Eric Yelding
#687 Nick Esasky

I like sets with colored borders, such as this one and 1990 Donruss. I've also always appreciated Fleer's inclusion of the year on the front of the cards when I'm trying to figure out the year on the less obvious sets, like the similar looking Fleer Ultra sets of the mid-90s. If I had more of these, I'd probably be seeking to finish the whole set. But, out of the 720 base cards, I've got 55 unique cards now, along with a few Cardinals duplicates.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3217
Total Spent	$50.67
Per Card	1.575 cents
Change	-0.001 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...

Random Cardinals from Josh, Part I

I won a little contest at Royals and Randoms, just for doling out an opinion. The randomizer fell my way, and here's what showed up in the mail.

1983 Topps #734 Steve Braun

 The oldest card of the bunch, nearly as old as me. I must admit I don't think I've heard of Steve Braun though.

1987 Sportflics #173 John Tudor

I'm not sure why I even scan Sportflics cards. They never look nice like they do in person.

1991 Classic Game
#29 Joe Magrane
#173 Todd Zeile

Now we're getting to the guys I remember.

1991 Fleer - Team Stickers - Cardinals 

I wish I wasn't so hung up on keeping my cards in good condition so I could stick these stickers on things.

1995 Flair #410 Brian Jordan

 This is my first 1995 Flair card, I think, unless there are some in my unsorted boxes.

2005 Turkey Red #39 Preston Wilson

I like all of the Turkey Red sets, so I've got most of the Cardinals (and former/future Cardinals) on my wantlist. This knocks one more of them off, which is always appreciated.

More next time...

eBay Wins #23

I was feeling random, so I bid on and won 62 "Random 1990s" cards, most of which were from the 1980s, so all the better. Most of the cards are commons of course, but there were a few Cardinals and stars as well.

1983 Fleer #596Charlie Leibrandt

The lone 83 Fleer in the bunch.

1986 Topps #422 Mike Jorgensen

9 years later Mike would take over for a fired Joe Torre as Cardinals manager long enough for us to bring in Tony LaRussa for the next season.

1986 Topps
24 Len Barker
66 Cardinals Leaders (2)
112 Bill Campbell
114 Mike Brown
134 Carney Lansford
140 John Candelaria
150 Joaquin Andujar
161 Lee Tunnell
167 Zane Smith
216 A's Leaders
252 Bobby Castillo
304 Mike Gallego
404 Frank Robinson
422 Mike Jorgensen
433 Chris Codiroli
437 Rick Mahler
439 Rick Honeycutt
543 Jerry Narron
549 Bob Welch
566 Alfredo Griffin
583 Al Bumbry
602 Mariano Duncan (2)
731 Don Robinson
758 Dave Anderson
766 Rick Langford

1988 Topps #170 Rich Gossage

Hey look, a Hall-of-Famer. Junk wax or not, that's cool.

1988 Topps
170 Rich Gossage
564 Frank Lucchesi

1989 Donruss #119 Bert Blyleven

Another (recent) Hall-of-Famer.

1989 Donruss
47 Alex Sanchez
85 Frank White
102 Dave Martinez
109 Henry Cotto
110 Mike Marshall
114 Brook Jacoby
115 Keith Brown
119 Bert Blyleven
121 Tommy Gregg
125 Eric Plunk
131 Jose Uribe
318 Greg Gagne
336 Randy Myers
430 Bob Dernier
447 Glenn Wilson
492 Willie Upshaw
499 Zane Smith
568 Glenn Hubbard
575 Juan Nieves
578 Luis Rivera

1991 Fleer Joe Oliver

The streak had to end sometime. Here's the lone bright yellow 91 Fleer.

1991 Score #164 Jeff Reardon

1991 Score
151 Roy Smith
162 Brook Jacoby
164 Jeff Reardon
167 Gary Mielke

1992 Donruss #376 Bernard Gilkey

I don't remember much of Bernard Gilkey as a Cardinals player, as he never seemed to stand out much. He was a local guy though, and a consistent starter.

1992 Donruss
164 Alan Trammell
347 Dante Bichette
353 Mitch Williams
359 Scott Leius
365 Vicente Palacios
370 Pat Kelly
376 Bernard Gilkey

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1885
Total Spent	$34.91
Per Card	1.85 cents

eBay Wins #19

I won a big ol' lot of 3 junk wax cards for a mere 6 cents shipped, and another lot of 2 Carters for another 6 cents.

1991 Fleer #395 Lenny Dykstra

Much like Lenny's mullet, this card is business in the front, party in the back. He's listed as Len on the front of the card, but Lenny on the back.

1991 Fleer #9 Dave Henderson

I dig anything A's, they've been my second favorite team forever.

1991 Fleer #609 Gary Gaetti

I remember when we signed Gary to play 3B for the Cardinals. I couldn't like him at first because in my young mind, Todd Zeile should have been our 3B forever. For some reason my most vivid memories of him are from a time he had to pitch. Apparently that was either 97 or 98, and he also pitched in 99 for the Cubs. I bet not many position players have pitched in 3 consecutive years.

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier #194 Joe Carter

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier #29 Gary Carter

I don't know if these two cards were lumped together because they're both Carters, both playing on Canadian teams, or what, but I figure, why question it?

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1798
Total Spent	$33.36
Per Card	1.86 cents