Tis The Season Winnings, Part XI

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 IV V VI VII VIII IX X

You can tell from my ordering by year that we're getting close to the end, considering how long ago this prize was sent. This post spans 2009-2011.

2009 Goodwin Champions #75 Carlton Fisk
2010 Topps Attax - Silver Foil "Hot Streak" #39 Victor Martinez
2010 Topps #483 Daisuke Matsuzaka
2010 Topps - Turkey Red #TR4 Albert Pujols
2011 Topps Heritage #101 Jacoby Ellsbury
2011 Topps Heritage #336 John Lackey
2011 Topps Attax #178 Robinson Cano
2011 Topps - Gold #448 Colby Rasmus #1947/2011
2011 Topps - Walmart Black #610 Josh Beckett

I've never purchased any Goodwin Champions or Topps Attax directly, though I've acquired a few through trades. I didn't have the Pujols or Rasmus cards yet, so those are nice to knock off my want list.

2011 Bowman Platinum #31 Adrian Gonzalez
2011 Lineage
#32 Jon Lester
#38 Chris Carpenter
#48 Carlton Fisk
#90 Tris Speaker
#122 Paul O'Neill
#175 CC Sabathia
#178 Albert Pujols

I really like the 2011 Lineage set, but I think I'm one of the few, as evidenced by Topps' decision not to have it return in 2012. I still need 7 cards to complete the base set, but these were not those 7, and they'll go into my trade list.

Zistle Trade #8 Part A

I recently completed a trade on Zistle. I like getting random Cardinals from fellow bloggers contest prizes or throw-ins for trades, but there's something immensely satisfying about checking off something from my want list on every single card in a package.

1989 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-24 Gerald Perry
1992 Topps - Gold #645 Deion Sanders
1992 Topps Kids #28 Lee Smith
1992 Donruss - Diamond Kings #DK-9 Andy Van Slyke
1993 Topps - Gold #700 Nolan Ryan
2011 Topps Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF-7 Mariner 2

Gerald Perry, Andy Van Slyke, and (obviously) Lee Smith were on my want list because they were all Cardinals. I'd like to complete the 1992 and 1993 Topps Gold sets, so all the remaining cards from those sets are on my list as well. These were no commons, though. In fact, both are Hall-of-Famers...though Deion's in the football hall of fame. Finally, much lower on my priority list, but still there, is an insert from 2011 Heritage.

There are actually slightly more cards to this trade, but I like to be able to search out my cards using blogger's tags, and I'm out of space for this post. So instead, I'll share a mildly amusing anecdote.

A family member of mine who was a bit older was, for some reason, trying to come up with Deion Sanders' name. I don't recall why exactly, probably because he had made a play in a recent game against the Cardinals and we were talking baseball. He kept saying "you know" and "uh" and was getting increasingly frustrated and the name that was on the tip of his tongue. He finally blurted out "you know, Fancy Pants!", referring to Neon Deion's flashy ways. We were in the middle of a restaurant at the time, and everyone had only heard him say "Fancy Pants" rather loudly. We got a few weird looks, but we all laughed it off. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who figured out who he meant, too. So from then until today, Deion Sanders is always "Fancy Pants" in my mind.

Zistle Trade #6

I made another small Zistle trade, for 4 Cardinals and a Heritage SP. I'm finding that as long as I put cards in my want list, and mark duplicates in my trade list, Zistle makes it fairly easy to put together trades that cherry pick my wants from my trading partner's trade list, and vice versa.

2011 Topps Update - Diamond Duos #DD-12 Matt Holliday/Colby Rasmus
2012 Topps  - Walmart Blue Border #291 David Freese
2013 Topps - Chasing History #CH-74  Stan Musial
2013 Topps - Chasing History #87 Lance Lynn

2011 Topps Heritage
#427 Will Rhymes SP

This card leaves me with about 19 High Number SPs to go for 2011 Heritage, and 76 total cards if I count all the variations available. As I get closer I'll figure out how close I really am to a "complete" 2011 Heritage set.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 5

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
[ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 ]

2011 Heritage
#18 Manager's Dream (Albert Pujols/Ryan Braun)
#106 Yadier Molina
#344 Fernando Salas
#370 Matt Holliday
#372 Jaime Garcia
#395 Matt Holliday

Plantar fasciitis and a 65-game suspension is no Manager's Dream this year. I got 2 more Holliday cards to go with the 2 from Allen and Ginter in part 4, which is great, because I'm a big Holliday fan.

2011 Topps
#87 Daniel Descalso
#138 League Leaders (Albert Pujols, Carlos Gonzalez, Joey Votto)
490 Matt Holliday 

2011 Topps #429 Skip Schumaker

2011 Topps - Diamond Duos #DD-HHO Rogers Hornsby/Matt Holliday

Again, 2 more Holliday cards and another Pujols card. Just for fun, note the different jersey number in the base set and the insert set for Holliday. He wore 15 for his partial season with us, then switched to 7 after signing a 7-year deal.

2011 Bowman #6 Albert Pujols

Yet another Albert Pujols. Part of me wants to root against him now that he's left, but then the logical part of my brain says that what's done is done, and his performance from this point forward won't affect how the Cardinals do, except in the 3 games every 2 or 3 years we might play against the Angels. So I quickly turn back around and root for him. I'm sure he'll hit homerun #500 early next year, or maybe even this year if he can return in time.

Some 2 By 3 Cards

Wait a minute, aren't standard cards 2.5" by 3.5"? 2 by 3 Heroes is a little short each way, but that's OK,  because he gave me free stuff! First, the two from the very complex part of the contest, in which I had to choose the two cards I wanted. I picked two from 2011 Heritage to bring me a little closer to finishing that set.

2011 Topps Heritage - Then and Now #TN-8 Juan Marichal / CC Sabathia

2011 Topps Heritage - #470 Carl Crawford SP

I'm actually showing off two packages at once here, as Jeff also sent me a few cards for being extremely pedantic in the earlier part of his contest. He searched my wantlist and spotted some holes in the Lineage set.

2011 Topps Lineage
#2 Derek Jeter
#24 Tsuyoshi Nishioka
#26 Grady Sizemore
#37 Justin Upton
#107 Chad Billingsley

He also found a Kimball Champions card I was missing. I'm putting together this set extremely slowly, but maybe I'll finish it off one day.

2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-38 Roy Oswalt

And here were some Cardinals thrown in for fun, McGwire and Ozzie, which I always appreciate.

1999 Upper Deck #518 Mark McGwire

2005 Upper Deck All Star Classics - #94 Ozzie Smith

1995 Upper Deck - Electric Diamond #60 Ozzie Smith

1996 Leaf Preferred - #31 Ozzie Smith

Thanks again to Jeff at 2 by 3 Heroes for the contests.

Free Card Friday at Jaybarkerfan's Junk

The title pretty much says it all. Go leave a comment on this post for a chance to win these cards:

That's really hard to see, so here's the list straight from the post.
2011 Topps Pro Debut Evan Chambers
2012 Bowman Platinum Jeurys Familia
2011 Bowman Kurt Suzuki
2011 Topps Heritage Max Scherzer
2009 UD Spectrum Aaron Rowand
1999 Stadium Club Roger Clemens

And 3 more

2011 Bowman Chrome Brandon Belt
2011 Bowman Chrome Evan Crawford
2011 A&G Jersey Elvis Andrus


If 25 people enter, the prize gets bigger next week, so do us both a favor and go enter now.

A Trade Post is in Order, Part III

[Part I]
[Part II]

Thanks to my obsessive need to scan and post every insert card I receive, I got an email from The Angels, In Order about the Tyler Chatwood in this contest win post.

Here's the final part of my trade.

1997 Donruss Preferred
#45 Brian Jordan

I need one of these pullover warmup jerseys from the 90s.

2002 Upper Deck Victory
#599 Chuck Finley

Chuck Finley in the now seldom-seen Sunday home cap. It used to just be the Sunday cap.

2005 Topps Update
#UH117 Reggie Sanders

2005 NLDS cards in a 2005 set. I wonder how late these had to come out to manage that.

2011 Heritage
#26 Josh Thole
#328 Raul Ibanez
News Flashbacks #NF-10 Robinson Enshrined in Cooperstown

 My 2011 Heritage wantlist is quickly dwindling, so even 2 base and an insert are exciting at this point.

2012 Heritage
#147 World Series Game 6
#331 World Series Foes

I don't think 2012 Heritage is on my wantlist yet, because I'm still planning to buy some more, but I can always use 2 more cards commemorating last year's great World Series, especially game 6, which I stayed up for and found out the next morning most of my friends had given up on and went to bed, thinking we lost.

Then Albert left for the Angels. Though I'd transfer anywhere you wanted me to go for that kind of money, so I can't hassle him really.

Thanks to The Angels, In Order for the trade, and go follow his blog while you're reading so close to the helpful link I've left you here.

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!

eBay Wins #32

I happened to find a base card I was missing from my 2011 Heritage set, and this seller also had a few 2011 Topps cards. I only wound up winning these two for a total of 12 cents.

2010 Topps #359 Aramis Ramirez

2011 Topps Heritage #25 Starlin Castro

It feels wrong to have an all-Cubs post, but I suppose I can allow it given how far back they are this year.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1903
Total Spent	$37.03
Per Card	1.946 cents

Big Pile, part 2

[Part 1]
Josh at Royals and Randoms had a draft-style contest called Big Pile way back in late 2011, and I misplaced the envelope until this week.

1991 Classic Game #21 Pedro Guerrero

Pedro was finishing his career in MLB when I first started paying attention to baseball in 1992, but I still remember him as being quite a power hitter.

1996 Collector's Choice #404 St. Louis Cardinals Checklist

This is what checklist cards should be, with a nice full color photo of a player on the front. Also, this is an Ozzie that would evade my searches of internet checklists, as it's listed as a Cardinals Checklist only.

2011 Heritage #304 Brett Myers

I think I might have been missing this one when I picked it, but I've since acquired another copy for my Heritage set, so this one goes in the duplicates.

2005 Turkey Red #238 David Dellucci

2005 Turkey Red #235 Scott Podsednik

2005 Turkey Red #234 Mike Lowell

2005 Turkey Red #159 J.D. Drew

2005 Turkey Red #82 Ramon Ortiz

2005 Turkey Red #31 Nick Johnson

I really like these Turkey Red cards, even though the first time I saw them was in the 2010 Update set as inserts. I'll probably put these sets on my wantlist eventually. I also had to pick the J.D. Drew card as a former Cardinal, so I figured I might as well grab the rest of the available cards from the set as well.