Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XL

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 XXXVII XXXVIII XXXIX

40's a good round number to end on. Not that I had a choice. I made it all the way through!

2004 Topps #203 Bo Hart
2009 Topps - Ring of Honor #RH12 David Eckstein
2013 Panini Hometown Heroes #8 David Eckstein
2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks #45 Mike O'Neill
2013 Topps Opening Day - Mascots #M-4 Fredbird
2013 Topps Pro Debut #128 Stephen Piscotty
2013 Topps Pro Debut #161 Mike O'Neill
2014 Topps Opening Day - Mascots #M-6 Fredbird

This aren't necessarily my favorite 8 cards in the prize package, but they're a good representation of what it had. Some guys I've bafflingly never posted before (Bo Hart), some sets I never had cards from (Panini Hometown Heroes, Panini Prism Perennial Draft Picks, and Topps Pro Debut), some draft picks that never quite made it (Mike O'Neill, who is now playing independent ball), some that did (Stephen Piscotty), and some fun cards (Fredbird).

I must say thanks once more to Cards on Cards for the Bowl Pick 'Em Contest each year. In case you've lost track, this came from 2015-2016's contest, not the 2016-2017 one in which I totally took a freefall in the last 5-6 games. I've got a whole bunch of other cards that have been piling up to post while I pushed myself to get through these, so I'll be happy to start knocking those out soon.

PWE Time!

Stealing Home, from All Trade Bait, All The Time recently sent me a PWE. If you're sick of seeing Cardinals on my blog, well I'd suggest you don't read it? But this one has more than just Cardinals, have a look.

1991 Studio #235 Joe Magrane
2013 Topps - Chasing History Gold Foil #CH-87 Lance Lynn
2014 Topps - #157 Lance Lynn

OK, I tricked you. the first 3 were Cardinals, including a nice shiny Gold foil parallel I wasn't really aware existed. If not for the rainbow shininess of the card, I probably would have just filed the Lance Lynn away with my other Chasing History cards.

1998 Topps #268 Nomar Garciaparra
2000 Upper Deck MVP - Pure Grit #G9 Nomar Garciaparra
2002 Donruss #12 Nomar Garciaparra
2003 Leaf #23 Nomar Garciaparra
2003 Leaf - Certified Samples #LC-14 Nomar Garciaparra
2004 Topps #200 Nomar Garciaparra

I get lots of Cardinals in various ways, but I don't get as many Nomars, mostly because among players I collect, he's the only one that never played for St. Louis. 5 of the 6 were new cards to my collection. I inexplicably already have 3 copies of that 1998 base card, and a search of my blog doesn't show any of them arriving in the last few years, which means I probably had them all in 1998. I thought I had the 2004 card, but it turns out I have the Opening Day version. My Nomar collection isn't all that big, so these are a nice addition and gives it a relatively large boost.

Thanks for the PWE, Stealing Home!

eBay Wins #100

It's post #100 in a series, which means I must have a big milestone-sized post planned, right?

Wrong.

To be honest, it sort of sneaked up on me (fun fact: snuck isn't considered proper English), so rather than one of the larger piles of eBay winnings waiting to be posted, today you get 2 cards, purchased for a total of 1 penny.

1990 Fleer #532 Dave Gallagher
2004 Topps #270 Mike Hargrove

I actually only bid on the Mike Hargrove card. For some reason, Dave Gallagher showed up in the same sleeve. I doubt the seller had them stored like that, at least not on purpose, since the cards are so many years apart and picture different teams. Gallagher did play 15 games in his rookie season for Cleveland, but that was 2 years after Hargrove last played for them and 4 years before he managed them. He also played for the Baltimore in 1990, 10 years before Hargrove managed there. I'll never know exactly what link, if any, caused me to get both of these cards for the price of one.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2541
Total Spent	$44.14
Per Card	1.737 cents

182 Packs Giveaway, Part V

When I claimed the Cardinals - and Mark McGwire and Todd Stottlemyre - in the pack-per-day giveaway held at TribeCards, I had no idea just how many cards I'd wind up with, and how many different players. So that I can tag all of the sets and Cardinal players, I've broken this up into a series of who knows how many posts. Thanks for all the cards, David.
[ I | II | III | IV ]

2004 Topps #137 Brett Tomko

This is the first 2004 Topps card I have. That falls right about in the middle of my collecting hiatus.

2006 Topps
#339 Yadier Molina
#491 John Rodriguez
#198 Brad Thompson

I've bought a few 2006 packs from Target's bargain bin, but only have a small part of the set, so all 3 of these are also new to me. The Yadi's obviously the star of the bunch, but I can never see John Rodriguez without remembering some of our old, unhip announcers trying to get J-Rod to catch on. That was almost as good as Al Hrabosky encouraging the crowd to yell Puuuuuu for Albert Pujols, since we were already doing a similar cheer for Isaac Bruce over at the Rams games.

2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic
#4 Yadier Molina

Another Yadi! It looks like if the Cardinals want him - i.e., don't trade him - he'll be a Cardinal for life, since he's been signed through 2017 with a team option for 2018.

2011 Topps Attax
#59 Colby Rasmus
#232 Angel Stadium of Anaheim

I didn't realize this stadium carries forward the silly nomenclature of the team. At least it only mentions one city instead of two. Also, I got Cardinal Colby Rasmus.

2009 O-Pee-Chee
#463 Chris Perez
#587 Colby Rasmu

I think these might be the best looking cards of this post, I've been a fan of 2009 O-Pee-Chee ever since I got the David Freese card. I wish we still had Chris Perez, especially with Motte out for awhile, possibly all year. But I didn't like the trade at the time. I almost never like trades though, so maybe that's just me Monday-Morning-Quarterbacking. I guess I didn't like the Colby Rasmus trade either at the time, although I'm ok with it now. I'm just full of unbridled optimism for promising prospects.

The pile is shrinking...