Zistle Trade #31

With this trade post, I'm all caught up with Zistle, because I've been extremely inactive there for the last few months.

1992 Fleer #596 Todd Zeile
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #230 Ron Gant
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #231 Brian Jordan
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #232 Ray Lankford
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #234 Tom Pagnozzi
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #235 Todd Stottlemyre
1998 Fleer Ultra Main Set #295 Todd Zeile

I liked the sparkly set that was 1997 Metal Universe, and bought several packs when it was new. Before this trade I only had one uniformed Cardinal, John Mabry, which came in a prize package. Now I've got 6 with the addition of these 5, leaving me Alan Benes,  Andy Benes, and Dennis Eckersley to complete the team set. I also picked up 2 Todd Zeiles, one featuring his time with the Marlins, where he arrived with a much higher-profile star, Mike Piazza. Piazza of course was quickly sent to the Mets, and Zeile would go to the Rangers at the trade deadline, and the following season, rejoin Piazza on the Mets. I guess I never realized before they played together for both of those teams and Los Angeles.

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXVI

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE, 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

We're just about into Bowl Season again. Will I get these done anytime soon?

1986 Topps Traded #82T Jose Oquendo
1990 Sportflics #85 Jose Oquendo
1991 Topps Stadium Club #190 Jose Oquendo
1991 Topps Stadium Club #366 Felix Jose
1991 Topps Stadium Club #481 Jamie Moyer
1992 Donruss - Diamond Kings #DK-13 Felix Jose

St. Louis was Jamie Moyer's 3rd team, and yet he retired 21 years after he left the Cardinals.

1992 Fleer - All Stars #1 Felix Jose
1996 Donruss #87 Brian Jordan
1996 Donruss #153 Tripp Cromer
1996 Donruss #234 Jose Oquendo
1996 Donruss #282 Mike Morgan
1996 Pacific #228 Jose Oquendo

I got a nice handful of Felix Jose and Jose Oquendo cards, among others. Both of them were on the 1992 team which was the first I ever watched. Oquendo had a long coaching career with the Cardinals as well, but has opted to just be a spring training instructor for now. He's no Hall of Famer, but I think the Cardinals should retire #11 for him, for combined playing and coaching contributions to the team.

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.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part IV

Sometimes, I procrastinate posting and sorting some cards. Normally I don't pay too much attention to how long a particular item has been sitting on my desk, but given that this one was the Tis the Season contest from 2013, I've probably had it in my possession for a little over a year now. But, even with the long delay, I still want to throw Jeff at 2 by 3 Heroes some referral traffic while I show off my prize.
Part I II III

Today I've got some more of the miscellaneous Cardinals, Red Sox, and Yankees from the prize package.

1990 Donruss #82 Milt Thompson
1990 Leaf #499 Greg Harris
1991 Topps - All Stars #16 Ozzie Smith
1992 Fleer #44 Phil Plantier
1992 Donruss #628 Greg Cadaret
1992 Donruss Rookies #34 Mike Draper

The Topps Glossy All Stars are definitely cards I should have in my collection, so this Ozzie along with yesterday's Vince Coleman were good additions. Guys like Phil Plantier are the reason I always look up players before assuming they weren't Cardinals. He apparently played for the Cardinals in the second half of 1997, coming over in the trade for Fernando Valenzuela. He played in the outfield in 32 games, and yet I had no memory of him.

1990 Topps #206 Nick Esasky
1990 Topps #409 Tom Brunansky
1990 Upper Deck #191 Don Mattingly
1990 Upper Deck #782 Billy Jo Robidoux
1992 Fleer Ultra #12 Tom Brunansky
1992 Fleer Ultra #15 Roger Clemens

Not only did I get two different Tom Brunansky cards, but as Red Sox and Yankees go, Clemens and Mattingly are two all time greats. A few years ago, I figured Mattingly would continue climbing up the Hall of Fame balloting and eventually make it in, but he's finally officially off the ballot. I suspect Clemens will eventually make it, once the fervor over PEDs dies down a bit, which may already be starting to happen now that Andy Pettitte is getting his number retired with the Yankees.

eBay Wins #150

Today in eBay penny cards, I have 3 1992 Fleer cards. 2 out of the 3 once played for the Cardinals, including Eric Davis, the longtime Cincinnati Red. I didn't really realize at the time what it must have felt like for Cincinnati fans to see their guy go to an archrival, but every time I see a former Cardinal go to the Cubs, I think I understand the feeling just a little bit more.

1992 Fleer
#68 Bobby Rose
#403 Eric Davis
#576 Jose DeLeon

Like I've mentioned many times before, 1992 is when I really started paying attention to baseball, and consequently the players on the Cardinals at the beginning of that season are the ones I'll always vividly remember. Jose DeLeon is one of those, even though he was released that August and signed by Philadelphia that September. That might even be the transaction that caused me to make my dad explain what being released was, and try to get through to me why some guys just couldn't be traded for anything.

I didn't have any specific recollection of Bobby Rose, so I looked him up to see if there was anything interesting about him. He went to San Dimas High School in San Dimas, CA, which I'm pretty sure is the one Bill and Ted attended during their Excellent Adventure, and possibly also their Bogus Journey. His last MLB game was May 19, 1992, 10 days after I first started watching baseball, and then he played in Japan for a few years.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3241
Total Spent	$50.91
Per Card	1.571 cents
Change	0 cents

Zistle Trade #2

I got this trade proposal within a day or two of my last Zistle trade. They seemed to come out of nowhere, although I had added a lot of cards to both my have list and want list in the preceding weeks. I didn't recognize the name, so I don't think this person is a blogger, but if you are, and you sent me these cards, please let me know.

1990 Fleer #151 Andy Benes

The pride of Evansville, Indiana, Andy Benes. He was born there and went to college there, something I learned when browsing college brochures back in high school. I wonder if they know he's on a SLU Billboard in town.

1992 Score #223 Ray Lankford

1993 Upper Deck #461 Ray Lankford

Ray Lankford should have been even more of a fan favorite than he was. After all, he refused to sign with the Cubs the first time he was drafted, and signed with us the following year. And we love giving the Cubs a hard time.

1992 Fleer #592 Ozzie Smith

1992 Score #590 Ozzie Smith

1994 Pacific #604 Ozzie Smith

I'm surprised there were 3 Ozzie commons I didn't have, but here they are. Pacific is a little more believable, but surely I would have had an opportunity to pick up the Fleer and Score cards sometime in the past.

1996 Topps #211 Nomar Garciaparra

1998 Score Rookie and Traded #RT35 Nomar Garciaparra

And we finish with one of my favorite non-Cardinals, Nomar Garciaparra.

This wasn't a big trade, neither in number of cards nor total "book value", but it fell right in the wheelhouse of my collecting habits. Those are the most satisfying trades. Now I just need to finish entering all of my collection in Zistle, and of course, add more cards to my want list.

A Rookie Contest Win, Part 2

[Part 1]

In Mid-June I won a contest at all the way to backstop by going 3 for 3 in guessing the Rookie cards in his big stack. My prize: the stack, and some other cool stuff he picked out for me.

I can tell my wantlist was well-searched, because I also received 7 cards of one of my favorite players, and a distant cousin, Todd Stottlemyre.

1991 Score #39 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Donruss #263 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Fleer #342 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Pinnacle #240 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Fleer Ultra #153 Todd Stottlemyre

1993 Fleer Ultra #293 Todd Stottlemyre

1994 Collector's Choice #269 Todd Stottlemyre 

Also from my wantlist, 1993 Topps Gold cards. And some base cards to boot.

1993 Topps #425 Joe Girardi

I've gotta show former Cardinals, no matter how brief a stint they had in St. Louis. Here are the rest of the base cards:

425 Joe Girardi
562 Bob Zupcic
598 Rico Brogna
606 J. Owens
613 Joel Adamson
622 Ben Rivera
699 Chad Curtis
732 Travis Buckley
747 Carl Willis
773 Cliff Brantley
790 George Bell

1993 Topps - Gold #483 Brian Griffiths

Not to be confused with Brian Griffin

1993 Topps - Gold #787 Mike Matthews

I'm trying to complete a set of 1992 and 1993 Topps Gold, and maybe 1994 as well. I haven't organized them all into my have and want list, but I don't have too many so there's a good chance any I get are unique for now, and a quick check of my "to enter in Zistle" box says these two bring me 2 cards closer to the 825 card set.

Once again, thanks to all the way to the backstop for the great cards.