Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XIV

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

You're wondering when I'll mess up these Roman numerals, aren't you?

1999 Fleer Tradition - Rookie Flashbacks #6 J.D. Drew
1999 Pacific #352a J.D. Drew (Headshot)
1999 Upper Deck #522 J.D. Drew

The great thing about collecting players from about 1997-2002 is that there are so many sets from each year, a random package is pretty likely to contain all new cards for me. The Pacific card is a Headshot variation. It's unclear to me if those were any rarer than base cards though.

2000 E-X #34 J.D. Drew
2000 Fleer Tradition #85 J.D. Drew
2000 Pacific Omega #115 J.D. Drew
2000 Topps Gold Label - Class 1 #78 J.D. Drew
2000 Upper Deck Ovation - Diamond Futures #DM1 J.D. Drew
2000 Upper Deck Victory #75 J.D. Drew
2002 Fleer Maximum #8 J.D. Drew
2002 Upper Deck Ovation #37 J.D. Drew

Lots of shiny and thick cardstock cards here. The Topps Gold Label stuck out to me, because as you can see, it's a bit narrower than the rest of the cards.

The Cardinals got a few good years out of Drew, but then traded him to the Braves in the trade that included Adam Wainwright. Drew still had success after the trade, but ultimately I think the Cardinals came out ahead in that deal.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part X

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Today's post finishes off the McGwires, and almost finishes the whole box that was sent to me.

1999 Topps #201 Mark McGwire
1999 Upper Deck #518 Mark McGwire(x2)
1999 Upper Deck - Opening Season Superstars #S2
2000 Topps #232 Mark McGwire
2000 Topps #469 Mark McGwire

The card companies were in full "post-homerun photo" mode by 1999, which I'll admit did capture Big Mac's 1998 pretty well.

2000 Topps - Own The Game #OTG6 Mark McGwire
2000 Topps Opening Day #1 Mark McGwire(x2)
2000 Upper Deck Ovation #18 Mark McGwire
2000 Upper Deck #537 Mark McGwire
2001 Fleer Genuine #54 Mark McGwire
2014 Topps - Future Stars That Never Were #FS-13 Mark McGwire
2014 Topps Archives #69 Mark McGwire

It still seems weird that McGwire only played one full season and 2 half seasons after setting the home run record at 70. Finishing off his cards from this package are two from just last year, featuring him back in his Oakland days. I'm glad to see him showing up in current products, even if it does just keep expanding my ever-growing wantlist.

I've got one more post to go in showing off this massive mailing from Junior Junkie.

A Fantastic Trade, Part I

Again with the pun title?

It's always good to find a new trading partner, and I recently got an email from Fantastic Catch with an offer of a bunch of cards from my wantlists, and I was able to send him some stuff for his player PCs and set needs. Of course as a fellow Cardinal fan, he sent so many he triggered my obsessive need to use up my all of my available tag space, so here's part 1 what I got in my 2-piece box:

2010 Upper Deck #460 Colby Rasmus

2010 Upper Deck #464 Joe Thurston

2010 Upper Deck #466 Yadier Molina

2010 Upper Deck #468 Brad Thompson

2010 Upper Deck #469 Denys Reyes

2010 Upper Deck - Season Biography #SB-79 

I've now got 7 of the 17 Cardinals from 2010 Upper Deck. I like this set because it manages to get some interesting photography despite no MLB logos allowed.

2011 Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF-9

2011 Heritage - Baseball Flashbacks #BF-10

I also got 2 more Heritage inserts toward my set, and 3 base cards:
137 Babe and Mgr. Huggins
217 Don Mattingly
256 Ruben Tejada

1999 Upper Deck - Textbook Excellence #T21 Mark McGwire

And a nice Mark McGwire insert to finish off this half. More tomorrow!