A Prize For My Prescience, part 1

Way back in the few days between the 2011 Regular Season and Playoffs, I managed to predict the Cardinals would win the World Series in a contest at The Great Orioles Autograph Project. Amazing, right?

OK, I had multiple entries and picked the Phillies over the Rangers in #1. No matter; the point is I won, and Ryan took his time combing my want lists and putting together quite a pile of cards for me. So many that, as always, I'll have to split into multiple posts because I have an overwhelming need to

I have a feeling that image will stick around on this blog for awhile.

First up, some 2011 Topps Heritage to chip away at my want list, including 6 short prints.

2011 Topps Heritage #438 Shaun Marcum

2011 Topps Heritage #446 Carlos Marmol

2011 Topps Heritage #455 Joe Saunders

2011 Topps Heritage #456 Jeff Keppinger

2011 Topps Heritage #484 David Eckstein

2011 Topps Heritage #489 Brandon Morrow

2011 Topps Heritage #56 NL ERA Leaders

2011 Topps Heritage #18 Managers' Dream

The full list of 2011 Topps Heritage was:

10 Andrew McCutchen
11 Joe Nathan
15 Fausto Carmona, aka, Roberto Hernandez Heredia
18 Managers' Dream - Pujols/Braun
22 San Diego Padres
38 Coco Crisp
42 Nelson Cruz
46 cole Hamels
56 NL ERA Leaders
89 Jake Peavy
101 Jacob Ellsbury
105 Max Scherzer
115 Alfonso Soriano
125 Vladimir Guerrero
130 Omar Infante
134 Brett Cecil
135 Babe as a Boy
136 Babe Joins Yanks
138 The Famous Slugger
142 Babe's Batting Record
146 Placido Polanco
152 Jim Riggleman
156 Hank Conger
181 Dillon Gee
184 Kurt Suzuki
188 Freddy Sanchez
227 Cliff Lee
249 Vance Worley
257 Scott Kazmir
263 Rangers Danger - Hamilton/Cruz
267 B.J. Upton
271 Jeremy Jeffress
278 Derek Lowe
307 Jair Jurrjens
308 Jason Bay
309 Yonder Alonso
355 Brian Matusz
368 J.P. Arencibia
392 Ryan Zimmerman
399 Roy Halladay
422 Kendry Morales
423 Fear the Beard - Wilson/Posey
438 Shaun Marcum
446 Carlos Marmol
455 Joe Saunders
456 Jeff Keppinger
484 David Eckstein
489 Brandon Morrow

Next, some Ozzies to round out Part 1.

1993 U.S. Playing Cards Aces #3H Ozzie Smith

1994 Bowman's Best (- Refractor?) #R3 Ozzie Smith

Can anyone tell from the scan if this is a Refractor? It bugs me when parallel sets don't announce themselves clearly, but of course if this is a base card maybe the backs of the refractors are perfectly clear.

1993 Post #26 Ozzie Smith

Check out that sweet airbrush job for this MLBPA set. The Red cap and grey uniform can only mean this was a spring training game, as the Cardinals had ushered in the Navy road caps by 1993.

1993 Select #15 Ozzie Smith

1993 Donruss #520 Ozzie Smith

I think what I remember most about this set is excitedly buying the blister-packed full team sets of the Marlins and Rockies. One of these days I'll have to dig those up, scan them, and share the story.

I'll have more of the great prize package Ryan sent me in my next post, tomorrow if all goes well.

eBay Wins #15

Well I've totally blown my eBay Bargain-Hunting average, but that's ok, this one wasn't bought because it was cheap.

2011 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Colletion Relics #CCR-JT Jim Thome

Shortly after 2011 Heritage his the shelves, I pulled a Josh Willingham Relic, and really liked how it looked, so I decided I wanted one of a bigger name player. I happened to come across this one in an auction. Early on it looked like it would go fairly cheaply, but I wound up bidding it up to $4.50 shipped. Overall I think that's not bad for a future Hall of Famer and 600 Home Run Club member.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	997
Total Spent	$21.02
Per Card	2.11 cents

eBay Wins #14

I found a seller who had several listings of individual 2011 Heritage cards at 1 penny with 75 cents shipping.  I wasn't quite willing to spend that much, so I contacted the seller who confirmed he would combine shipping for me.  I also picked up some 2011 Topps inserts and one odd man out at the end. In the end I won 69 auctions for a total of $0.90 plus $6 shipping

You don't really need to see more Heritage right now, do you?
2011 Topps Heritage: 4, 14, 17, 27, 41, 52, 59x2, 60, 61, 75, 82, 86, 124, 126, 145, 167, 178, 190, 191, 194x2, 197, 216, 219, 222, 229,231, 254, 260, 268, 282, 285, 290, 292, 295, 317x2, 327, 332, 338, 341, 346, 351, 362, 364, 373, 378, 383, 389, 391, 396, 404, 413, 415, 418, Then and Now TN-6

2011 Topps #10 Stephen Strasburg

2011 Topps - Topps 60 #T60-34 Mark Reynolds

2011 Topps - Topps 60 #T60-25 Orlando Cepeda

2011 Topps - Diamond Duos #DD-CS Steve Carlton, CC Sabathia

2011 Topps - Diamond Duos #DD-HG Josh Hamilton, Vladimir Guerrero

2011 Topps - 60 Years of Topps #60YOT-08 1959 #202 Roger Maris

2011 Topps - 60 Years of Topps #60YOT-53 2004 #527 Mark Teixeira

2011 Topps - 60 Years of Topps #60YOT-48 1999 #459 Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez, Jason Kendall

2011 Topps - Kimball Champions
#KC-32 Alex Rios
#KC-33 Martin Prado

2007 Goudey #104 Ichiro

This seller had all sorts of 2011 Topps and Heritage, and, for some reason, this one 2007 Goudey. I've liked Ichiro for a long time, and I had room in my basket before shipping increased, so I figured, why not.

I've really destroyed my average compared to the results as of the last eBay post, but I got some actual wantlist needs this time, instead of random junk wax.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	996
Total Spent	$16.52
Per Card	1.66 cents

Trade With Reader Ryan

Without realizing it at the time, I put the kibosh on Ryan's trade offer with Too Many Grandersons when I filled out his 2010 Update set. You can still see my faux pas in the comments.  Luckily, he didn't hold that against me, and contacted me too make a trade.  He wanted a bunch of my spare Heritage and 2010 Update, and saw I had some Series 1 on my want list.  To even it out, he also sent a bunch of Gypsy Queen and Lineage base cards.  I sent him an entire 300ct box, and he sent a huge envelope with 6 or 7 team bags full of cards, so I'll just cover the highlights here.

All the 2011 Heritage were base cards, so here's the only one with a playoff team

The 2011 Topps were also all base cards, so again, here's one from a playoff team.

The only Cardinal of the 2011 Lineage base cards. I really like this set. I foresee a few blaster purchases.

Two 2011 Gypsy Queen SPs, to represent the dozens of base cards.

Four 2011 Gypsy Queen Wall Climbers

Two 2011 Gypsy Queen Future Stars

2011 Gypsy Queen Sticky Fingers Pudge

Two 2011 Gypsy Queen Minis of two Cardinal greats. But wait, didn't I already have the Schoendienst Mini, and its Green Border couterpart?

The Red Schoendienst is the Red Back Mini.  At this point I feel like I should go for the whole 2011 GQ "Rainbow" of Red.

2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces

Two David Freese Rookie Cards, the hero of Game 4.  2009 Topps and 2009 Topps 206.

And now, I see that I've let my Want List and Trade List get woefully out of date.  I've got lots of unsorted cards lying around.  I'm working on getting them entered into Zistle.com, and hopefully exporting the resulting want and trade lists to a nice format.  I'm starting with any and all 2011 cards, and hopefully I'll be able to get them all in before the first 2012s come out.  Then I'll try to keep up with 2012 while working back through 2010 and beyond.

A Trade with Cards on Cards, part 1

See how I resisted the title "Cards on cards from Cards on Cards"?

When Cards on Cards casually mentioned in his Heritage UPC post that he had a Heritage want and trade list, I knew this would be my opportunity to get rid of some doubles and knock out some of my needs.  I also saw he needed some 2010 Topps Update Turkey Reds, so the trade started to grow.  Here's part of what he sent me.

2011 Heritage needs

2010 Topps Turkey Reds I didn't have

3 Todd Stottlemyre cards:

1997 Topps Finest

1998 Pacific

1996 Upper Deck Collector's Choice

2 Ozzie Smith cards:

1990 Collect-A-Books

1991 Cracker Jack (looks like 1991 Topps, but it has the Sailor Jack and Bingo logo on the back)

If you're still reading, you may notice I said this is part of what he sent me.  "Why is he splitting this trade into multiple posts?" you may ask yourself.  Mostly because I've become addicted to the Labels/Tags feature for documenting which sets appear in a post, but there's a limit of 200 characters per post.  Names like "1996 Upper Deck Collector's Choice" and even "Todd Stottlemyre" take up a lot of space.  The Trade Post is most certainly not dead at Tenets of Wilson, as you'll see over the next few posts.

Another RBI Collecting Contest

It seems like every time I make a contest post, another one crops up shortly after, meaning if I'd just waited I could combine them.  Today's contest is at RBI collecting, which, as you may recall, was where I won 2 packs of Gypsy Queen in the previous contest.  This contest works the same as the last one, where you must guess the players Ryan got autographs from in a recent homestand, with a bonus for guessing the day this time.  The prizes are 2 packs of Heritage, and some cards of your favorite team.  Go enter, and good luck to all!

Another contest, at RBI Collecting

My second contest post in 2 days.  You'd think I was being bribed with additional entries :)

RBI Collecting is running a contest for 2 packs of 2011 Topps Heritage or Gypsy Queen, or one of each for those of you I-don't-have-a-favorite-kid types.  You just have to guess which 3 A's players signed autographs for him during a recent series.

2011 Topps Heritage - Blaster Box

7 packs, plus one extra pack?! How exciting!

Why don't they just say 8 packs? Anyone know?

 I could break this up into 8 blog posts, but frankly, no one wants that, not even me. Here's the whole box in one giant post.  I really need to get hold of a good scanner, so for now I'll spare you any sub-par scans. Note that this was purchased at Target, so I payed the 1 cent premium.  Let's hope it pays off.

Pack 1:
52. NL Batting Leaders
159. Joba Chamberlain (the Hut!)
193. Miguel Tejada
209. Andrew Romine
243. A.J. Burnett
359. Carlos Zambrano
403. Jonathan Papelbon
412. Colby Rasmus (When he hits homeruns the commentators love referring to is as a Colby Jack.  Does that cheese exist anywhere but St Louis?)
Chrome Refractor: C91 Dan Haren #140/562 - He's a former Cardinal, I'm waffling on whether it's up for trade.

Pack 2:
43. LA Dodgers
128. Joel Pineiro (former Cardinal and reason for dozens of local Joels to go by Jo-el)
153. Marco Scutaro
160. Garrett Jones
172. Dusty Baker (I like manager cards, I don't know why)
248. Chris Johnson
268. Ervin Santana
325. Alexi Ramirez
SP: 461 Russ Mitchell

Pack 3:
1. Josh Hamilton
3. David Ortiz
69. Cory Luebke
241. Josh Johnson
293. Jonathon Niese
314. Miguel Cabrera
330. Mike Napoli
346. Felix Hernandez
Chrome: C97 Ryan Doumit #0182/1962 - Definitely up for trade

Pack 4:
84. Denard Span
95. Ryan Zimmerman
182. Cody Ross
239. Brandon Beachy
272. Delmon Young
274. Will Venable
348. Eric Sogard
358. Andre Ethier
Green Parallel: 124 Brian Duensing - Up for trade

Pack 5:
7. Carlos Beltran
54. NL Home Run Leaders (with a nice Pujols scowl)
76. Freddie Freeman
118. Skip Schumaker (The reason you don't put an OF at 2B)
225. Adrian Beltre
322. Bruce Bochy
339. J.J. Hardy
405. Gio Gonzalez
SP: 444. Rafael Furcal

1 hit per pack so far, if you count SPs, which I do, cause it's my blog and I wanna.

Pack 6:
30. Chipper Jones (oh how I remember taunting him with Larrrrr-ryyyyyyyyyy)
108. Matt Kemp
194. Jordan Walden
208. Rickie Weeks
232. 2010 World Series Game #1
247. Jonathan Lucroy
269. Lance Berkman (in a Cardinals uniform no less)
300. Carl Crawford
SP: 450. Johnny Cueto (Karate Man)

Pack 7:
93. Nick Swisher (of "How I Met Your Mother" fame)
96. Jered Weaver (of causing his-own-brother-to-be-released fame)
115. Alfonso Soriano (the reason you don't put a 2B in the OF)
167. Wilson Ramos
187. Jon Lester
242. Manny Acta
298. Jason Kubel
351. Twin Terrors (Morneau-Mauer)
399. Roy Halladay
and a tenth, unnumbered card, labeled Checklist 6 of 6.  I'm having a hard time finding information about these, but I'm guessing there's, oh, I don't know, 6 or so.  It is interesting that it was the 10th card of the 9-card pack though.  I don't think I'll trade it just yet.

Pack 8:
64. Nick Markakis
68. Travis Snider
116. Gavin Floyd
120. Bronson Arroyo
131. Brett Sinkbeil
145. Dallas Braden
170. Aramis Ramirez
365. Howie Kendrick
News Flashbacks - NF-8: New York Mets join National League - up for trade.

Well there you have it.  One hit per pack if you count generously.  No relics, but that's ok, I think I'd rather have the 2 base cards right now, unless it's a Cardinal.  I'll make sure my Want list and Trade list are updated accordingly.  Make me some offers.  Please?

2011 Topps Heritage Tracker:
Base 70/425
SP 3/75

2011 Topps Heritage

The Dimwit put 5 Topps Heritage cards in one of his Five Card Fridays, and I bit.  Once I got those 5 cards in hand, I knew I wanted to collect the set.

The theme was "AL Central".  Hope it's cool I borrowed your scan, Dimwit.

The set it honors still predates my life by 20 years, so it's not nostalgia per se, but I really like the non-glossy cards for a change sometimes.  In fact, I just checked my collection and I have a grand total of 2 cards older than 1962.

This will be a somewhat expensive set to collect relative to its popularity.  As far as I can tell the cheapest per-card price is the $20 Target and Walmart blaster boxes of 8 packs.  It'll take 6 of those to at least get 425 base cards to make 1 for 1 trades.  Of course, once I get a few inserts and SPs I'll probably want to complete some of those sets too.

I've purchased one blaster box, but I think I'll rate-limit myself by only opening a pack or two a week, and sharing the results on my blog.

Base 5/425
SP 0/75