Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXX

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 XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX

I'm not sure I've ever done a 30 part post before. Oh well, let's keep rolling! Today I've got Kyle Lohse, Matt Holliday, a Matt Carpenter, Trever Miller, and Mark Ellis, and a pair of team cards.

2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars #77 Matt Holliday
2011 Topps - Factory Set Diamond Anniversary #373 Trever Miller
2012 Topps - Gold Sparkle #26 Kyle Lohse
2013 Topps Archives #125 Kyle Lohse
2013 Topps Gypsy Queen #343 Kyle Lohse
2014 Topps - Blue Parallel #44 Matt Carpenter
2014 Topps - Red Hot Foil Parallel #329 Matt Holliday

I'm still a little bummed Matt Holliday won't finish his career in St. Louis, but that's sort of the nature of the game when players who are much better hitters than defenders can go to the American League and squeeze in another season or two.

2012 Topps #233 St. Louis Cardinals
2012 Topps - Gold Sparkle #233 St. Louis Cardinals
2014 Topps Update #US272 Mark Ellis
2016 Topps #254 Matt Holliday

I know Mark Ellis played for the Cardinals, but it felt like I never actually saw him play during his one season in St. Louis. He only started 46 games and played in 73 total, so that may be part of the reason. The team cards here commemorate the game that clinched a World Series appearance for the Cardinals, which they ultimately went on to win for the 11th World Championship.

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XI

College football will be here again before we know it, 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

Let's see some Jon Jay!

2010 Topps Update #US203 Jon Jay
2010 Topps Chrome #178 Jon Jay
2011 Topps - Platinum Diamond Anniversary #295 Jon Jay
2013 Bowman #54 Jon Jay
2013 Topps Archives #7 Jon Jay
2015 Bowman #94 Jhonny Peralta
2015 Topps
#11 Jon Jay
#311 Jhonny Peralta
#527 Carlos Martinez

Jon Jay was traded to San Diego for Jedd Gyorko before this season. So far it seems to have been a decent trade. Unfortunately that means we no longer have a player to lead the team in High Sock Sundays.

2014 Topps Update
#US134 Tony Cruz
#US212 Randy Choate
#US260 Jhonny Peralta

Randy Choate became a free agent at the end of 2015, was a member of the Blue Jays organization (though never played for the MLB team) for part of March, and baseball reference now claims he's signed with the dodgers, but he doesn't seem to be on even the 40-man roster. I really thought Tony Cruz was being groomed to replace Yadier Molina when he retires - or goes to the AL to DH, but the Cardinals sent him to Kansas City, and he has since been sent to AAA. These are the first 2014 Update cards I have. That was a year I just didn't buy much current stuff at all.

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part VIII

College football will be here again before we know it, 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

2011 Bowman - Prospects
#BP13 Alex Castellanos
#BP40 Deryk Hooker
#BP75 Brian Broderick
2011 Bowman Platinum
#22 Daniel Descalso
Prospects #BPP87 Adron Chambers
2011 Bowman Chrome #195 Daniel Descalso
2011 Bowman Chrome - Prospects
#BCP13 Alex Castellanos
#BCP40 Deryk Hooker
#BCP90 Adron Chambers

Bowman really just vexes me, with a lot of confusion around whether certain inserts are part of Bowman flagship, Bowman Chrome, or Bowman Draft. I really like the look of the cards, it's just the organization that bugs me, because I want to get it perfect. I'm pretty sure I found the right sets for all these, and since the sets are pretty small, the three cards each nearly completes the Cardinals in the Prospects insert set for both Bowman and Bowman Chrome.

2013 Topps - Blue Parallel
#190 Daniel Descalso
#261 Trevor Rosenthal
2011 Topps #87 Daniel Descalso

I'll finish off with a few more Daniel Descalso cards, and a Trevor Rosenthal just because it's from the same blue parallel set.

Zistle Trade #22

As I've said before, my Zistle trades always seem to come in bunches. Here's the second in a rapid-fire group of 3 that were proposed to me.

2010 Topps - Peak Performance #PP-46 Rogers Hornsby

This card covers an interesting Cardinals fact I didn't know before, which is increasingly rare. Rogers Hornsby won the "1920s Triple Crown", that is, his 10-year totals for 1920-29 were better than anyone else in Home Runs, Batting Average, and RBIs. Another Cardinal, Albert Pujols, completed the feat for 2000-2009. The other two players to do so were Honus Wagner in the 1900s, and Ted Williams in the 1940s. Hornsby and Williams both won 2 single-season triple crowns during their decades of dominance, letting them slack off a little the other 8 years.

2011 Topps - Kimball Champions
#KC-41 Pablo Sandoval
#KC-45 David Ortiz
#KC-49 Jose Bautista

The end of 2010 was when I started collecting cards in earnest again, so 2011 was the first time I got to get excited about new set released. I immediately took a liking to the Kimball Champions set, and added them all to my want list. I haven't gotten very far, but this took 3 more off the list. After these three, all from Series 1, I still need 26/50 from Series 1, 44/50 from Series 2, and 45/50 from Update.

Zistle Trade #15

This was another trade where I only had to send one card to my trading partner, but at least it was a 2011 Heritage SP this time. I'd say it balanced these well enough.

2012 Opening Day - Fantasy Squad #FS-13 Victor Martinez
1992 Topps - Gold #151 Jeff Hamilton
2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-24 Josh Johnson
2011 Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations #SC-10 Carlos Pena

1992 was when I first started collecting cards, so the first current-year packs I bought were 1992 Topps. The Gold parallel set has been one of my biggest wants ever since then. I felt like I had a lot of them many years ago, but my collection currently only has 12, now 13 with the addition of Jeff Hamilton. It's possible I believed 10 or so was a lot back then, and it's possible I'll unearth a box of cards somewhere with more Golds in it when helping my parents clean out their basement one of these days.

This trade was full of inserts, with a card from the 2011 Kimball Champions set I've been so enamored with, and two Opening Day inserts. Opening Day always seems like it'd be an easy set to complete a bunch of insert sets from, but so far I haven't bought any full boxes to try to do so the easy way. Instead I'll let them trickle in through the years in trades like this.

Zistle Trade #13

I recently received a flurry of trade proposals on Zistle, so I'll have a few of these to post in the next few days. This small batch of cards cost me a JFK, a Harry Truman, and a Nate McLouth. In return I got 3 Cardinals I didn't have yet.

1991 Studio #231 Bernard Gilkey
1992 Pinnacle #304 Allen Watson
2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-65 Bob Gibson

I have no way of proving this, but I think I very recently added the Gilkey and Watson cards to my wantlist. When I'm adding cards to my collection, if I'm not in a hurry I'll go through the rest of the set and add any missing Cardinals to my want list, since I'd like one of every Cardinal, even from the junk wax sets. I think I did that recently for 1992 Pinnacle and 1991 Studio.

I've had the entire Kimball Champions insert set on my wantlist for several years now, but I haven't made any great efforts to complete it. It's just out there as a reminder that I like the ones I have and I want more. Luckily for me, my trading partner had one of my top wants from that set, Bob Gibson.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part XII

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 XI

Today I have the last of the Red Sox and Yankees. When I sorted roughly by year, no Cardinals showed up in this last bunch.

2012 Bowman #102 Clay Buchholz
2012 Bowman - Prospects #BP105 Xander Bogaerts
2012 Topps Update #US310 Kelly Shoppach
2012 Topps Chrome #4 David Ortiz
2012 Topps Heritage #20 Derek Jeter
2013 Topps Update #US177 David Ortiz

I don't buy much Chrome, for some reason, so it's always nice to get them in the mail. Bowman products are sort of in that same category, because the sheer number of sets and subsets just overwhelms me. But, just like Chrome, I like getting them in the mail, because they're very rarely duplicates.

2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-6 CLay Buchholz
2011 Topps Update - Kimball Champions #KC-130 Adrian Gonzalez
2013 Topps Update - Blue Parallel #212 Alfonso Soriano
2012 Topps #50 Adrian Gonzalez

Kimball Champions are one of those insert sets that Ambitious Me thought I would finish by now. Maybe someday.

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.

eBay Wins #87

I don't usually buy enough of any one product to come anywhere close to completing an insert set, so I pounced on these insert cards listed at a penny each. I wound up winning 10 for a dime, which I would have gladly paid for the Pujols or Holliday alone. The original insert rate was 1:6, so this represents 60 packs worth of Diamond Stars. There were a few duplicates within the lot, as you can see, but I didn't have any of the 7 unique cards previously. I've still only got 10 of the 25 cards in the set.

These cards are shiny in person, but put next to each other in a scan, and I start to feel dizzy just looking at all the colors, lines, and sparkle.

2011 Topps - Diamond Stars
#DS-3 Joe Mauer
#DS-10 Albert Pujols
#DS-12 Alex Rodriguez (x2)
#DS-15 Cliff Lee (x2)
#DS-16 Felix Hernandez
#DS-17 Matt Holliday
#DS-24 Ryan Braun

I actually got 2 of the Braun cards as well, but my scanner is wide enough to go 5 cards by 2. It looks mostly like the first one, though, so you can imagine it.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2457
Total Spent	$43.42
Per Card	1.767 cents

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.

Diamond Giveaway Winnings, Part II

[Part I]
I only paid for 25 cards to be delivered, and showed you the "rest" in the last post. Now here are the best, completely subjectively and based on my own opinion.

1954 Topps #118 Carl Scheib
1958 Topps #287 Sam Jones
1967 Topps #279 Frank Linzy
1979 Topps #181 Mike Garman
1980 Topps #554 Art Howe
1984 Topps #690 Jack Clark

So what do these 6 guys have in common to put them in the "best" category? They all played for the Cardinals, even if it was brief for some. The '54 Scheib up there really hosed up my perfect grid for scanning, and doesn't fit in any sleeves I have. Such is what we'll put up with for a nearly 60 year old card. And with Art Howe we've got a well known manager, a featured character of Moneyball, a former Cardinal, and the Tequila Sunrise Astros jersey, all in one card. He also looks a little like John Cleese. Finally, I can always use another Jack Clark card.

2011 Topps - Diamond Die Cuts #DDC-48

Oh yeah, I can't forget card #25. These Diamond Die-Cuts really don't scan nearly as nicely as they look in person. If one was made of one of your favorite players, I highly suggest tracking one down.

That's it for the Diamond Giveaway for me. I've pulled a few Golden Giveaway cards this year, but haven't redeemed them yet. I think I'll wait and see how obsessively I buy 2012 Update and then evaluate if I want to trade them off or try for more fabulous prizes.

March Radness Win, Part II

[Part I]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

2008 Upper Deck (Series 2)
#651 Chris Carpenter
#652 Mark Mulder
#653 Juan Encarnacion
#654 Skip Schumaker
#655 Troy Glaus
#657 Cesar Izturis
#659 Chris Duncan
#660 Matt Clement

2007 Topps #207 Mark Mulder

Another Mulder to go with his 2008 UD above.

2011 Topps - Kimball Champions
#KC-15 David Price
#KC-36 Hanley Ramirez

For awhile I had the idea I'd collect the Kimball Champions set. It may happen, but man is it ever going slow. I still need about 75 of the 100 from Series 1 and 2, and some of the Topps Updates ones as well. My guess is it'll finish sometime in 2027.

2011 Goodwin Champions #55 Bill Walton

This wasn't on a wantlist, and isn't even a baseball player, so I was unsure if this was thrown in accidentally. Then I realized, the fact that it's not a baseball player is probably the key. The Contest was for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, after all, so it's only fitting to have a basketball player in the mix.

A Rookie Contest Win, 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.

First, the promised stack, starting with some 2011 Topps:

2011 Topps - Cognac Parallel #143 Jeremy Jeffress

Base cards:
80 Desmond Jennings
83 Greg Halman
117 Brett Sinkbeil
213 Brandon Snyder
285 Hank Conger
368 Brian Broderick
401 Michael Crotta
418 Zach Britton
446 Brandon Beachy
461 Eric Sogard
503 Nathan Adcock
604 Joe Paterson
605 Brandon Belt
633 Aaron Crow

Next, some 2011 Update

2011 Topps Update - Cognac Parallel #US288 Eric Thames

2011 Topps Update - Blue Parallel #US194 Jason Kipnis

2011 Topps Update - Topps 60 #T60-142 Tyler Chatwood 

2011 Topps Update #US114 Lance Lynn

2011 Topps Update #US39 Eduardo Sanchez

Base cards:
US9 Jose Iglesias
US24 Rex Brothers
US39 Eduardo Sanchez
US47 Paul Goldschmidt
US56 Ryan Adams
US66 Andy Dirks
US73 Juan Nicasio
US103 Josh Collmenter
US112 Lonnie Chisenhall
US114 Lance Lynn
US117 Michael Stutes
US132 Jose Altuve

US136 Brandon Crawford
US151 Cory Gearrin
US152 Julio Teheran
US155 Eric Hosmer
US159 Alex Cobb
US165 Al Alburquerque
US174 Jacob Turner
US177 Rene Tosoni
US179 Michael Pineda
US180 Daniel Moskos
US184 Tyler Chatwood
US186 J.D. Martinez
US203 Juan Nicasio
US213 Louis Coleman
US231 Charlie Blackmon
US254 Dustin Ackley
US282 Brad Hand
US308 Kyle Seager

Then, some 2012 Topps, including Series 2.

2012 Topps Golden Moments Parallel #95 Chris Parmelee

2012 Topps Golden Moments Parallel #36 Michael Taylor

The Gold overlay on all the green in this card makes it look pretty awesome in person.

2012 Topps Blue-Border Parallel #134 Stephen Lombardozzi

2012 Topps #90 Adron Chambers

2012 Topps #559 Brandon Dickson 

And, as usual, the base cards:
9 Jesus Montero
40 Tom Milone
41 Devin Mesoraco
42 Drew Pomeranz
79 Austin Romine
90 Adron Chambers
198 Matt Dominguez
202 Andrew Carignan
218 Kyle Hudson
235 Joe Benson
252 Dellin Betances
274 Alex Liddi
275 Brad Peacock
338 Jose Costanza
432 Wei-Yin Chen
559 Brandon Dickson
570 Zack McAllister
604 Juan Abreu
615 Luis Marte

And here's two Mark McGwire's he threw in off my want list.

1994 Leaf Limited #61 Mark McGwire

1996 Upper Deck SP #140 Mark McGwire

Not only did I get all this, but there's more for my next post as well. Once again, thanks to all the way to the backstop for the great cards.

Big Pile, part 4

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]
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.

2011 Topps #212 Pedro Feliz

You don't see a lot of guys wearing #77 on cards.

2007 Fleer Ultra #152 Adam Wainwright

Fun fact: Adam Wainwright is on my fantasy baseball team this year, and threw a Complete Game Shutout this week. We have both CG and SHO as categories, and 1 will usually win it for you for the week. I forgot to put him in, and left him on the bench. D'oh!

2006 Bowman #183 Mark Mulder

The Dan Haren-Mark Mulder trade was really unwise in retrospect. It made me nervous at the time, but I thought we'd get a few solid years of All-Star pitching. Of course, I'd be a heck of a GM with the benefit of hindsight in all trades.

2006 Bowman #44 Chris Carpenter

Come back, Chris!

2001 Bowman Heritage #17 Jim Edmonds

I like the Black and White look of this card, and all things Heritage, so I had to draft this Edmonds.

2009 O-Pee-Chee #579 David Freese

As he's the reigning World Series (and NLCS) MVP, I'll consider this the best card of the bunch. Hopefully he's got a lot of his career story left to write, though.

That's it for the Big Pile. A big thanks to Josh for giving away 360 or so cards to 12 lucky readers.