Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXV

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

With Jaime Garcia getting traded today, I thought I'd play one of Deadspin's favorite games: Let's Remember Some Guys. Except I'll throw in some context about how they left.

2011 Topps Allen and Ginter #303 Jaime Garcia
2011 Topps Lineage #189 Jaime Garcia
2012 Topps Archives #34 Jaime Garcia
2012 Topps Chrome #119 Jaime Garcia
2013 Topps #54 Jaime Garcia
2014 Topps Allen and Ginter #84 Joe Kelly
2014 Topps Allen and Ginter #198 Pete Kozma
2014 Topps Archives #28 Joe Kelly
2015 Topps Heritage Minor League #2 Rob Kaminsky

Jaime Garcia went to the Braves after multiple injury plagued seasons here. I hope for his sake he can make it through a season. On the scale of Braves-Cardinals trades, I just need this one to go better than Jason Heyward, and if we're lucky, as good as Adam Wainwright. The return is all prospects, so we'll see what happens.

Joe Kelly was part of the deal to bring John Lackey to St. Louis. I'd say that trade was a success overall, especially since the Cardinals got his 2015 season very cheaply due to a quirk of his contract triggered by an injury earlier on.

Pete Kozma signed with the Yankees after becoming a free agent at the end of the 2015 season. He played all 4 infield positions and 130 games in 2016, but in AAA only.

Rob Kaminsky hasn't even made it to AAA yet, but was sent to Cleveland for Brandon Moss at the 2015 trade deadline. He lasted through the 2016, but is now a free agent. Moss wore my favorite jersey number, so I'll have to have a new default favorite player in 2016.

A Trade With Mr. Haverkamp

Thanks to a post I made about Turkey Red a few weeks ago, a reader by the name of Mr. Haverkamp contacted me with some more Turkey Reds from my wantlist. You've probably seen his name a few times on other blogs, as he's a pretty active trader. 

2005 Topps Turkey Red
#54 Chris Carpenter
#94 Mark Buehrle
#129 Kip Wells
#156 Jake Westbrook
#229 Dmitri Young
#309 Wade Boggs

2005 isn't the main Turkey Red set I'm focused on right now, so my wantlist is only the Cardinals and retired players, hence why I've got 5 players who played for the Cardinals, and Wade Boggs.

2010 Topps - Turkey Red
#TR13 Yovani Gallardo
#TR20 CC Sabathia
#TR29 Gordon Beckham
#TR35 Stephen Drew
#TR38 Rick Porcello
#TR55 Aaron Hill

2010 Topps' Turkey Red insert set is my big target, and I knocked 6 more off that list. I still need 76 of the 150 total cards in flagship and update, so I'm almost at 50%.

2011 Topps Lineage
1975 Mini #9 Matt Holliday

This was a nice surprise thrown in with all the Turkey Red, also off my want list. Lineage is a set I really liked but didn't seem to be a big hit, only lasting a single year. I have the entire mini parallel set on my wantlist, but I'll likely never finish it. This Matt Holliday brings me up to just 15 out of the 200 cards.

Thanks for the trade, Mr. Haverkamp!

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.

All-Star Winnings, Part 2

Way back in July 2012, I won a contest at Cards On Cards. The premise was to pick the Cardinals player who would have the biggest impact on the game, determined Sabermetrically. I picked the right player, and got a pile of Cardinals for my trouble. They've been sitting in that same pile, haunting me, for quite some time, so now is the time to show them to you.
Part [I]

2010 Topps - Topps Attax Matt Holliday
2011 Bowman #122 Matt Holliday
2011 Lineage #9 Matt Holliday

First up in this batch is the player who won me these cards, Matt Holliday. If you can figure out what to do with it, the code from the 2010 Attax card is all yours. Matt changed jersey numbers for 2011, but Bowman apparently went with a 2009 shot in the 2011 product.

2011 Topps Update
#US114 Lance Lynn
#US260 Matt Holliday
#US294 Edwin Jackson

Here are 3 cards from 2011 Update, and right in the middle, Matt Holliday is celebrating that he had slightly more statistical impact than his 2 teammates at the All-Star Game. I don't think this pick is from the game, however, because Molina was on bereavement leave at the time.

1999 Topps #433 Adam Kennedy/Mickey Lopez/Jackie Rexrode
1998 Bowman #77 Adam Kennedy
2008 Topps #542 Adam Kennedy
2008 Topps #285 Tony La Russa

Here's a little sunrise-sunset on Adam Kennedy, since he started his first stint with the Cardinals in 1999 (drafted in 1997), and finished the second one in 2008. Also from 2008, Tony La Russa, who probably didn't want to pose for this shot.

2010 Topps
Peak Performance #PP-80 Ozzie Smith
Vintage Legends #VLC9 Ozzie Smith

And finally for today, here are 2 Ozzies from 2010. Cards like this make me appreciate Topps reaching back to the past for card subjects. They even got the logo era-appropriate on the Peak Performance card.

A Real Lineage Blaster, Extreme Value Style

I thought I was clever and "beating the system" when I built my own blaster last time, but then I found this Extreme Value Blaster at Target for $11.99. For the same price (give or take a few pennies) as 56 cards in 4 of those packs, I got 8 packs of 7, so 56 cards, plus a relic card. Foiled again by the discount store sales cycle!

2011 Lineage
#40 Stan Musial
#141 Ozzie Smith

First up are 2 Cardinals Hall of Famers.

2011 Lineage
#9 Matt Holliday
#178 Albert Pujols
#189 Jaime Garcia

And 3 present-day Cardinals (as of 2011 at least). I got Pujols and Garcia in my last grouping, but Holliday is new.

2011 Lineage - Platinum Diamond
#19 Larry Walker
#157 Wandy Rodriguez

Here are some more not-really-that-blue Platinum parallels.The blue scan makes the purple Rockies uniform clash horribly; the real card is slightly less offensive. He is still wearing a purple jersey, after all. But it's former Cardinal Larry Walker, so I'm happy.

2011 Lineage
Diamond Anniversary #184 Josh Hamilton

Sometimes I look back at gimmicks like these Diamond Anniversary parallels and think they were dumb, but in this case, I kinda really want to get all 200 of these.

2011 Lineage
Topps Rookies #TR6 Jake McGee

This guy's listed at 6'3", 190lbs. There's no way that's right unless this is a terribly awkward angle.

2011 Lineage
Topps 3D #T3D15 Evan Longoria

Another Tampa Bay Ray, this time in threeeeee-deeeeee.

2011 Lineage
Stand Ups #TS14 Joey Votto

Here's a card that will never live out its destiny, since I can't bring myself to break the perforations.

2011 Lineage
Cloth Stickers #TCS11 Jackie Robinson

And another, unless I can find an excellent, permanent place to put this sticker.

2011 Lineage
Checklist 1 of 4

Boom, finished the Checklists subset! Ok, I know, that's not really a subset. But whatever, I've got all 4 now.

2011 Lineage - 1975 Minis
#145 Adrian Gonzalez
#161 Luis Aparicio

Minis! Neither variety of Sox is the team I primarily root for, but these look good enough I just might want to grab all 200 of this parallel too.

2011 Lineage
1975 Mini Relics #75-NR Nolan Ryan

Finally, we have the money card: the mini relic. Nolan Ryan has to be one of the biggest stars in this set, at least in my mind. He's also one of the first guys I knew as a storied veteran since I started really watching baseball in 1992. I'm really happy with this card. The jersey swatch even has a little character in it, as it appears that it might be where a button was, due to the 4 holes.

Who am I kidding, the guy who wrong that last post was foolish; this relic was well worth getting the blaster.

Building My Own 2011 Lineage Blaster

Remember how Bullwinkle cartoons would sometimes have an alternate title after the main one? This one would be "Or, how a Ph.D. student in Applied Mathematics can still be bad at math".

A while back, I found some Lineage rack packs discounted to $2.98 from $4.98. At this particular Wal-mart, I always seem to find pack-searchers, including one who started talking tough when I gave him a look and his guilt kicked in. I'm not looking to get into a physical fight over baseball cards, so I left rather quickly. I share that story because I'm going to use that stressful memory to excuse my mental lapse.

$20 blasters have 56 cards plus a mini relic, so at 14 cards per $3 rack pack, I figured I was getting a sweet deal. I'd buy 5 packs for a total of $15, and most likely that missing relic wasn't worth the $5 to me, when what I really wanted was the base cards to complete the set. I'd still have exactly 56 cards, but no relic.

Of course, if you're following the logic, the relic-free blaster cost me $12, not $15. 4 x 14 = 56. Somewhere along the way when I was counting the packs and cards in my mind, I added one. So I wound up with 70 cards, an even better deal than I first thought.

Enough of my tale spinning, let's see what came in those 5 packs.

2011 Topps Lineage
#6 Carlos Beltran x3!
#142 Dan Haren
 #178 Albert Pujols
 #189 Jaime Garcia

Well that's not such a great start. I like Carlos Beltran, but I don't think I need 3 of him. Haren, Pujols, and Garcia were good additions though.

2011 Topps Lineage
Diamond Anniversary #35 Hanley Ramirez
Platinum Diamond #69 Jayson Werth
Platinum Diamond #116 Pedro Alvarez
Checklists #3
Venezuelan #TV11 Clayton Kershaw
Topps Rookies #TR18 J.P. Arencibia

Here we have the regular-sized inserts. I'm having trouble figuring out what to call the sparkly versus shiny cards, but I think I got it right. Those look like solid blue borders in my scan but they're really more chrome-like. I'm a fan of checklists, so I scanned that, as well as the back of the Venezuelan Kershaw, since that's the only way you can tell it's not the base card. Finally there was a Rookies insert, of J.P. Arencibia.

2011 Lineage 1975 Mini #3 Jimmie Foxx

Finally, we have a mini in lieu of a mini relic. Try as I might, I couldn't get this one to size appropriately to look mini compared to the cards above. I'm glad Jimmie Foxx is pictured as a member of the Athletics here, since they're one of my favorite teams not from St. Louis.

That's all for my blaster-assembling adventure. If any inserts look good, or you're one of the few out there looking to complete the Lineage set, let me know and we can probably work out a trade.

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.

A Fantastic Trade, Part II

I always enjoyed using Roman Numerals, except VI sorts lexicographically after IX, which just messes everything up.

In case you missed Part I, go check it out.

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 2 what I got in my 2-piece box:

2011 Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations #SC-21 Matt Holliday

Opening Day is a set I really like, and I've bought enough I've decided to collect the inserts too. I'm working on 2012 too, but I won't put up my wantlist until I've finished buying packs. From this 2011 set I also got:
SC-5 Ubaldo Jimenez
SC-17 Prince Fielder

2011 Opening Day - Mascots #M-23 Rangers Captain

And also:
M-6 Gapper (Reds)
M-24 Toronto Blue Jays
M-25 Screech (Nationals)

2011 Opening Day - Spot the Error #2 Jason Heyward

He also sent a good pile of base cards from my list, with no Cardinals, oddly enough:
3 Jon Lester
13 Carl Crawford
25 Johan Santana
35 Vladimir Guerrero
38 Mike Stanton
43 Jered Weaver
44 Omar Infante
54 Ian Stewart
57 Zack Greinke
61 Jason Bay
71 Jon Niese
91 Andres Torres
92 Nick Markakis
101 Brian Wilson
112 Andre Ethier
120 Roy Halladay
138 Chris Young
156 Ryan Zimmerman
165 Carlos Zambrano
170 Logan Morrison
192 Dustin Pedroia
194 Delmon Young
212 Vernon Wells

I guess I had a lot less of that set than I realized.

2011 Lineage #12 Elvis Andrus

There was just a single 2011 Lineage card, but this is another set I'm working to complete. A lot of people kind of trash-talked it last year, but I liked it; I'm not sure why.

2010 Topps Update - Vintage Legends #VLC-30 George Sisler

2010 Topps Update #TR128 Chris Carpenter

2010 Update was what really brought me back into collecting, and I have a ton of extra base cards, so it's nice to a few inserts, since I definitely won't be buying any more packs of it.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update - Star Quest Common #SQ-32 Albert Pujols

Good old UDFEU for short.

Thanks again for the trade, and go check out Fantastic Catch if you're not following it yet.

eBay Wins #27

My next eBay purchase came in the form of 6 cards over 3 auctions from the same seller, all for 2011 Lineage cards.

Auction 1: Willie McCovey - 2 base cards for $0.25

2011 Topps Lineage #192 Willie McCovey

2011 Topps Lineage #57 Willie McCovey

 Auction 2: Zach Britton - Base card and Rookie insert card for $0.35

2011 Topps Lineage #61 Zach Britton

2011 Topps Lineage - Topps Rookies #10 Zach Britton

 Auction 3: Mel Ott - Base card and 1975 Mini parallel for $0.36

2011 Topps Lineage #186 Mel Ott

2011 Topps Lineage - 1975 Mini #186 Mel Ott

Overall, under a buck for 4 base cards and 2 inserts isn't bad. I'm hoping to complete this set soon along with the small insert sets, and the 75 mini set eventually.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1896
Total Spent	36.2
Per Card	1.909 cents

Group Break Results from JABOs

Kyle at Juuust a Bit Outside held a group break of 2011 Lineage and Finest back in January. Since I'm nearly 3 months behind now, here were my results, with which I was pretty pleased. I bought 3 teams because I can't resist the Add-a-team-for-a-few-more-dollars deal. The third team, assigned randomly, was the Blue Jays, but I managed to trade it for the Tigers. That turned out very well for me as you'll see.

2011 Lineage - 75 Mini Relics #75R-AJ Austin Jackson

2011 Lineage - Diamond Anniversary #135 Tim Lincecum

2011 Lineage - Cloth Stickers #TCS40 Tim Lincecum

2011 Lineage - Refractors #192 Willie McCovey

2011 Lineage - Rookies #11 Brandon Belt

2011 Finest - Refractors #12 Miguel Cabrera #155/549

2011 Finest - Autographs #99 Eduardo Sanchez #454/499

Base Card Listings:
2011 Lineage:
4 Buster Posey
9 Matt Holliday
38 Chris Carpenter
40 Stan Musial
43 Victor Martinez
47 Lance Berkman
57 Willie McCovey
83 Adam Wainwright
85 Al Kaline
105 Ty Cobb
119 Matt Cain
135 Tim Lincecum
141 Ozzie Smith
155 Bob Gibson
156 Austin Jackson
162 Brandon Belt
176 Miguel Tejada
178 Albert Pujols
187 Justin Verlander
189 Jaime Garcia
192 Willie McCovey

2011 Finest:
3 Buster Posey
22 Justin Verlander
83 Brandon Belt
99 Eduardo Sanchez
100 Daniel Descalso