Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XX

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


No Cardinals prize package would be complete without some Albert Pujols cards. This one still isn't complete with it though.

2002 Topps #719 Albert Pujols
2002 Topps Total - Total Topps #TT36 Albert Pujols
2004 Playoff Honors #177 Albert Pujols
2007 Topps #130 Albert Pujols
2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update - Star Quest Common #SQ-32 Albert Pujols
2009 Upper Deck Icons #5 Albert Pujols
2010 Topps - Factory Set Bonus #RS5 Albert Pujols

Almost all of these were new cards to my collection, except the Upper Deck Icons, of which I oddly enough already have 2, and I've also got 3 Ryan Ludwicks from that set. The Factory set insert is a good pickup since it's one I don't think I'd encounter much in the wild (the wild of card shows, that is), and if I did, I'd probably flip past it thinking it's just a base card.

2007 Bowman #175 Albert Pujols
2010 Upper Deck - Tape Measure Shots #TMS-11 Albert Pujols
2015 Topps Update - Highlight of the Year #H-89 Albert Pujols

That 2015 Update card offers me assurances that I can still get new Pujols Cardinals cards for the rest of his career and beyond.

Zistle Trade #26, Part I

In my neverending quest for more Cardinals, I made another Zistle trade that knocked some out from multiple sets. I'm still a long way from even finishing base cards from common sets, partially because I want cards like Will Clark on the Giants, Todd Worrell on the Dodgers, and John Mabry with the Rockies.

1990 Fleer #54 Will Clark
1998 Score #128 Todd Worrell
2007 Topps Opening Day #214 Fredbird
2007 Upper Deck #675 John Mabry
2008 Upper Deck First Edition #53 Troy Percival
2010 Topps - Turkey Red #TR34 David Wright
2010 Topps - Turkey Red #TR57 Jimmie Foxx

I also picked up two more 2010 Turkey Reds, and I still need 62 of 100 from Series 1 and 2, and 12 of 50 from Update.

1995 Fleer - All-Stars #2 Frank Thomas / Gregg Jefferies
2008 Upper Deck First Edition #54 Albert Pujols

I ran out of space to tag all the cards in one post, so the rest are in part 2, but luckily for ease of scanning I stuck both horizontal cards in the same post. I still remember when Gregg Jefferies came to the Cardinals. I was skeptical, but he made it to the All-Star game. It seems like his career peaked around that time though, and he never really turned into a superstar. Albert Pujols was a pretty good first baseman for the Cardinals, too.

Tis The Season 2015 Winnings

JediJeff's Tis The Season 2013 giveaway cards sat on my desk about a year before I managed to get them posted in early 2015. I did better this time, as these have only been there less than 2 months. Even though there were many different stacks of cards offered in the contest, I didn't try for any until some 2015 Allen and Ginter popped up, and I came up a winner.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#12 Nelson Cruz
#14 LaTroy Hawkins
#16 Felix Hernandez
#19 Charlie Blackmon
#23 Johnny Cueto
#28 Jayson Werth
#29 Nick Swisher
#31 Frank Caliendo
#32 James Murray

2015 Allen and Ginter
#34 Buster Olney
#36 Anthony Ranaudo
#40 J.J. Hardy
#41 Brandon Finnegan
#46 Andrew McCutchen
#50 Francisco Rodriguez
#54 Javier Baez
#60 Marcus Semien
#65 David Ortiz

2015 Allen and Ginter
#69 Christian Bethancourt
#72 Joe Panik
#74 Casey McGehee
#83 Matt Harvey
#87 Francisco Liriano
#88 Carl Crawford
#90 Darren Rovell
#96 Tim Hudson
#98 Yimi Garcia

2015 Allen and Ginter
#102 James "Clubber" Lang
#110 Victor Martinez
#115 Dustin Pedroia
#131 Josh Reddick
#135 Mark Teixeira
#137 Marlon Byrd
#146 Michael Morse
#153 Brandon Moss
#156 Brian Dozier

Did you know Clubber Lang's first name was James? I didn't, but I guess if you asked me I would assume it wasn't really Clubber. Also, is this the first fictional character in the Allen and Ginter base set? Brandon Moss is the first Cardinal to appear in this post.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#158 Kurt Suzuki
#163 Zach Lowe
#166 Carlos Gomez
#167 Julie Foudy
#171 Anthony Rendon
#174 Joe Mauer
#175 DJ LeMahieu
#180 Scott Kazmir
#184 Marcell Ozuna

2015 Allen and Ginter
#187 Miguel Cabrera
#192 Fernando Rodney
#196 Ian Kinsler
#198 Albert Pujols
#202 Travis Ishikawa
#206 Erick Aybar
#212 Chris Tillman
#221 Doug Fister
#223 Incredibeard

I've seen lots of stuff in Allen and Ginter, and that particular photo of Incredibeard might be the grossest. Also, Albert Pujols is the second Cardinal to show up.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#227 Christian Yelich
#233 Ike Davis
#239 Zach Britton
#243 Jean Segura
#248 Jose Bautista
#249 Bryce Harper
#253 Carlos Beltran
#261 Yu Darvish
#264 Matt Kemp

Carlos Beltran is the third and final Cardinal in this prize package. None of them were in uniform, though Moss did join the team in 2015 and is still here for 2016.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#268 Jimbo Fisher
#269 Jeremy Roenick
#276 Alex Rodriguez
#282 Adeiny Hechavarria
#286 Addison Reed
#287 Jon Lester
#288 Robinson Cano
#295 Joe Nathan
#303 Denard Span

2015 Allen and Ginter
#306 Stephen Drew
#310 Chris Coghlan
#312 Gerrit Cole
#317 Hunter Strickland
#320 Dallas Keuchel
#325 Aroldis Chapman
#326 Mitch Moreland
#331 Alcides Escobar
#334 Nick Tropeano

2015 Allen and Ginter
#335 Collin Cowgill
#340 Neftali Feliz
#343 Angel Pagan
#348 Aaron Sanchez
#350 Masahiro Tanaka
Ancient Armory #AA-13 Taiaha
Great Scott! #GS-3 Polio Vaccine
Great Scott! #GS-6 Deoxyribonucleic Acid
Great Scott! #GS-9 Fingerprints

Is that Incredibeard again with the Taiaha? Great Scott is an insert set that celebrates scientific breakthroughs. At first I thought maybe it was forensics-focused when I saw Fingerprints and DNA, but the Polio Vaccine clearly isn't forensic.

2015 Allen and Ginter
Menagerie of the Mind #MM-11 Zombie
Menagerie of the Mind #MM-13 Cyclops
Menagerie of the Mind #MM-14 Djinn
Starting Point #SP-33 George Springer
Starting Point #SP-68 Cliff Lee
What Once Would Be #WOULD-3 Robot Housekeepers

That zombie still isn't as gross as Incredibeard.

2015 Allen and Ginter
#105 Daniel Norris
#121 Wei-Yin Chen
#194 Zack Cozart
#259 Jonathan Schoop
#293 Philae Probe
What Once Was Believed #WAS-5 Alchemy
What Once Would Be #WOULD-6 Giant Airliners
What Once Would Be #WOULD-9 Vacuum Tube Trains

That was a quite a pile of cards, 104 in all. Thanks to JediJeff for this contest, and all his annual Tis The Season contests!

A PWE of Kindness from 2 by 3 Heroes, Part 2

JediJeff of 2 by 3 Heroes is a fellow 2010 Topps Turkey Red collector, and we traded some awhile back. When he picked up a handful for his wantlist and got some duplicates, he kindly forwarded a few to me, along with some other Cardinals.

Here's the rest of the PWE, the other Cardinals.

1996 Score #430 Scott Cooper
2008 Upper Deck X #91 Albert Pujols
2009 Topps 206 #254 Johnny Mize
2009 Upper Deck #355 Ryan Ludwick
2009 Upper Deck Icons #5 Albert Pujols
2014 Panini Prizm #183 Kolten Wong
2008 Topps - 50th Anniversary All Rookie Team #AR41 Albert Pujols

Collecting cards has taken on a different feel since I started getting in-person autographs often. Of the 4 modern-era players here, I've met 2 of them in person, Scott Cooper and Kolten Wong, and had them autograph baseballs. One of these days I hope to meet Albert Pujols in person. I think the irrational anger at him for taking more money to go to the Angels has probably quieted down enough he could now do a signing in town.

Thanks to JediJeff for the Turkey Reds and Cardinals!

Play at the Plate's 2016 Topps Contest

In an effort to get more comments than any post ever, Play at the Plate is offering a contest to win a Hanger box of 2016 Topps if you can guess the first card he pulls from his first 2016 pack. You can have up to 5 guesses per day, or if you're easily bought like I am, 8 guesses per day if you promote it like this.

Since I don't have any 2016 myself yet, here's one I pulled from topps.com. Nevermind that it's a series 2 card; you get the picture.

2016 Topps Albert Pujols

July Card Show Purchases II

Here's the other half of the Cardinals and other players I collect.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#9 Bo Jackson
#25 Matt Carpenter
#27 John Lackey
#37 Mark McGwire
#44 Steve Carlton
#47 Ozzie Smith

That's a strong bottom row, with two Hall-of-Famers, and one that would have been, probably if he just handled the post-career PR a little better. Bo Jackson is one of the few players who never played for the Cardinals that I nevertheless collect, just because his story was so fascinating. I think the two-sport aspect gets me a little, too, because I considered adding Deion Sanders to my collections as well.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#48 Shelby Miller
#49 Albert Pujols
#59 Adam Wainwright
#72 Carlos Martinez
#84 John Smoltz
#99 Roger Maris

This half netted me 6 uniformed Cardinals and 5 other Cardinals, for a total of 13 uniformed and 8 other. I wanted to say "former", but both Smoltz and Maris are pictured with teams they played on before St. Louis. I wasn't expecting a full 8% of the base set to fall into my personal collection, but here we are. Certainly that's somewhat due to the Cardinals recent success, and at the expense of other teams, so I will enjoy and appreciate this while the winning lasts. 

2012 Heritage Blaster #5

Let's open up another Blaster and see all the Cardinals, Inserts, and my completion status.

2012 Heritage
#8 AL Pitching Leaders
#54 2012 Rookie Stars
#95 2012 Rookie Stars
#129 Chris Perez
#144 World Series Game 3
#172 Yadier Molina
#206 Lance Lynn
#250 Jon Jay
#313 Jaime Garcia

It's too bad Adron Chambers is with the Cubs now, because that decreases the chances of him signing autographs at some random St. Louis area location. I have so many Rookie Stars cards I could have him sign. I got a few more former Cardinals with Dan Haren, Chris Perez, and Albert Pujols, but 4 that are still with the team, too.

2012 Heritage
#321 2012 Rookie Stars
#472 Alfonso Soriano
#476 Prince Fielder
Blue Parallel #76 Jon Lester
Blue Parallel #130 David Freese
Checklist #C5
Chrome Parallel #HP14 Paul Konerko
News Flashbacks #NF-PS Penn Station

More Adron! I had forgotten the Blue Parallel is not a full set, but only 30 cards, so I can't get blue versions of all the Cardinals base cards, but in addition to Freese, there is a Jon Jay, Albert Pujols, and Yadier Molina available. Unfortunately the two SPs are both duplicates, leaving me at only 12/75 complete.

2012 Heritage
Clubhouse Collection Relics #CCR-YG Yovani Gallardo
Stick-ons #31 Curtis Granderson

This box had a relic in it, that nice gray Yovani Gallardo swatch. I'm not a big relic chaser, but I've always thought Heritage has made pretty good ones. I do prefer a bat to a jersey for some reason, though.

So how is my quest going?

Base: 243/425
Base SPs: 12/75
Baseball Flashbacks: 3/10
Blue Parallel: 3/30
Checklists: 3/5
Chrome Parallels: 4/100
Clubhouse Collection Relics: 1/71
New Age Performers: 2/16
News Flashbacks 4/15
Stick-ons: 5/46
Then and Now: 1/10

Pack Stash, 2012 Triple Play Edition

Today I reach into my box of unopened cards which is currently gaining packs faster that it is losing them, to try to reverse that trend. Inside I found a pack of 2012 Panini Triple Play. I don't think I've opened any of this product before, nor do I have any of the singles in my collection. So, this pack will be my first impression, and probably determine if I attempt to track down any more of it.

2012 Panini Triple Play
#18 Paul Konerko
#86 Jose Bautista
#180 Orlando Hudson Puzzle 9 of 9
#228 Jose Bautista Puzzle 3 of 9
#266 Diamond
#60 Yoenis Cespedes
Stickers #14 Albert Pujols

I like to be pretty organized, so my first thought upon reviewing the cards in this pack was that I was surprised that all but one of these are base cards. At the very least, those two Jose Bautista cards scream "parallel". But, the second one is part of the puzzle-back (or is it puzzle-front?) cards that are part of the base set. The Baseball 101 card is another subset, rather than an insert set, which looks a little out of place. The subsets are in continuous runs, and are treated like inserts on the packaging, but due to the numbering, I'm going to have to call them all base cards.

The only non-base card is the Albert Pujols sticker, which doesn't say "Albert Pujols" anywhere on it. It clearly looks like him, and every online checklist lists it as Pujols, but the other stickers in the set say things like Home Run, Beanball, and - I'm not kidding - Manager Arguing. Later in the set there are headshots with actual names on the cards.

For me, because of the Matt Holliday and Albert Pujols puzzles, this might be a set I'd be interested in collecting. But, if none of the 12 were current or former Cardinals, I think I might tire of the puzzle repetition. I might pick up a few more packs and see if I then feel like completing the 90-card "base" set, the whole set 1-300, or just putting them up for trade.

Turkey For Me, Turkey For You III: Turkeys in Time

If you get that sequel reference, you're probably just about my age, and, like me, you felt that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could do no wrong in 1993. Anyway, let's see the last of the Turkey Red trade from 2 by 3 Heroes.

2008 Upper Deck - Star Quest #SQ-16 Albert Pujols
2008 Upper Deck - Star Quest #SQ-32 Albert Pujols
2006 Fleer Ultra #38 Jim Edmonds
2007 Fleer Ultra #149 Jim Edmonds
2013 Gypsy Queen #80 Bob Gibson
2007 Topps #660 Yadier Molina
2003 Upper Deck Victory #88 Mark McGwire
1993 Topps #191 Sean Lowe

That's a nice pile of Cardinals to finish off the trade. With all the Cardinals cards I have stockpiled, I'm always kind of impressed to see just how many simple base cards are out there that I don't have, even though I know that shouldn't surprise me.

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.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part II

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

The prize nearly filled an 800 count box, so I've got a few more posts to write. This one's all 2012 Allen and Ginter base cards and inserts, and a pretty good start on completing the set. There were a few duplicates too, which will pad out my trade list a little bit.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#1 Albert Pujols
#4 Yu Darvish
#5 David Price
#7 Mickey Mantle
#19 Bob Knight
#20 Miguel Montero
#21 Matt Moore
#27 Ricky Nolasco
#28 Dustin Ackley

2012 Allen and Ginter came right out of the gate and poked me in the eye with card #1 featuring Albert Pujols in his new uniform. I've made peace with him leaving, though, helped greatly by the Cardinals making it to the NLCS all 3 years he's been gone, and to the World Series once.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#37 James McDonald
#43 Josh Johnson
#44 Brandon League
#51 Don Denkinger
#55 Colin Montgomerie
#56 Jordan Pacheco
#63 Zach Britton
#65 Alex Rios
#69 Kurt Suzuki

Don Denkinger is a well-known umpire in St. Louis, for making the wrong call in the 1985 World Series against Kansas City. Some like to blame that call for the loss of the series, but that was game 6, and the Royals won game 7 11-0.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#73 Joakim Soria
#73 Jordan Zimmermann
#82 Giancarlo Stanton
#86 Nyger Morgan
#89 Edwin Jackson
#92 Craig Kimbrel
#99 Sandy Koufax
#102 Huston Street
#107 C.J. Wilson

This post has been dotted with former Cardinals, including brief Cardinal Edwin Jackson. That's a nice looking Sandy Koufax card too.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#111 Wandy Rodriguez
#115 Carlos Santana
#116 Brandon Beachy
#120 Mariano Rivera
#129 Michael Phelps
#135 Michael Morse
#146 Josh Beckett
#157 Roger Federer
#165 Alex Avila

2012 Allen and Ginter
#181 Joe DiMaggio
#186 Jemile Weeks
#194 J.J. Hardy
#196 Lou Gehrig
#197 Ty Cobb
#202 Jaime Garcia
#208 Martin Prado
#214 Yunel Escobar
#216 Corey Hart

I'm not sure what Jaime's doing in this photo.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#217 Brian Wilson
#225 Roger Maris
#232 Kate Upton
#256 Brandon Morrow
#258 Doug Fister
#259 Wade Davis
#260 Alex Liddi
#264 Brian McCann
#265 Chris Parmelee

2012 Allen and Ginter
#266 Carlos Ruiz
#269 Mike Schmidt
#270 Anthony Rizzo
#271 Mark Reynolds
#279 Brett Gardner
#286 Neal Walker
#289 Brandon Phillips
#290 Derek Holland
#292 Greg Gumbel

This is my first card of Mark Reynolds since he became a Cardinal. I'm not sure how he'll work out, but hopefully they'll slot him in the right situations for success.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#299 Jeff Niemann
#303 Ivan Nova
#310 Russell Martin
#314 Michael Buffer
#330 Mike Napoli
#331 Carl Crawford
#340 Marty Hogan
#341 Colby Lewis
#342 Ryan Dempster

2012 Allen and Ginter - Worlds Tallest Buildings
#WTB2 Taipei 101
#WTB3 Petronas Towers
#WTB5 1 World Trade Center
#WTB6 Empire State Building
#WTB8 40 Wall Street
#WTB10 Metlife Building
Historical Turning Points
#HTP4 The Reformation
#HTP10 Discovery of Electricity
#HTP19 Sputnik I

Ginter always has some curious insert sets, like 2012's Tallest Buildings and Historical Turning Points. They're not exactly chase cards, but they're at least interesting. Also, a fun game to infuriate people is to insist that Russian satellite's name is pronounced "Spootnik".

2012 Allen and Ginter
#26 Hunter Pence
#29 Hanley Ramirez
#40 Jimmy Rollins
#71 Curtis Granderson
#76 Michael Bourn
#84 Andre Ethier
#104 Ian Desmond
#162 Jeff Francoeur
#215 Dan Haren

Back to the base cards, here are the horizontal ones. Dan Haren is another Cardinals in the box, though Jaime Garcia remains the only one actually wearing the Birds on the Bat in 2012.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#229 Ichiro
#231 Todd Helton
#274 Derek Jeter
#317 Jason Heyward
What's in a Name
#WIN14 Chipper Jones
#WIN37 Jason Heyward
#WIN50 Mike Schmidt
#WIN95 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Another new Cardinal for 2015 is Jason Heyward, and I got a short print and insert featuring him.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#346 Lefty Kreh
Baseball Highlight Sketches #BH-21 Willie Mays

Finally, I have the two cards that didn't fit when I scanned all the horizontal cards, and didn't fit with anything else. Why a fisherman is a Short Print, I have no idea, but the famous over-the-shoulder catch by Willie Mays makes a nice sketch.

2013 Allen and Ginter Set

You read that title right; we're throwing back allllll the way to 2013.

I bought the full set (almost) from Nachos Grande last year, and it's been sitting on my shelf as I procrastinated entering the cards into my Zistle account. I actually purchased the non-SPs only, and this was also at the beginning of Puig-mania, so a Puig-free set was offered at a substantial discount, so I decided to take a chance that Yasiel Puig would cool off a bit, along with the prices for his cards. So far that doesn't seem to be happening, though. In any case, the set I purchased was 299 of the 300 base cards. In a separate purchase, I bought all 50 of the SPs, so I'm at 349/350, needing only a Puig to finish off the set.

I decided while flipping through the cards again that I'd go ahead and post the Cardinals like I normally do, but there were a large number of them by my criteria. I tried to split them up somewhat logically, though with all of the retired players the divisions became a bit fuzzy. Today was supposed to be players who have moved on from the team.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#5 Albert Pujols
#12 Dan Haren
#20 John Smoltz
#27 Shelby Miller
#46 Colby Rasmus
#93 A.J. Pierzynski

The Shelby Miller trade caught me off guard, and I had to re-scan my cards. Also, I don't know what I was thinking putting A.J. Pierzynski in this pile, even though he is technically a free agent right now. He could still be a Cardinal next year, though he may just as easily be playing somewhere else. Also, Smoltz retired after a partial season with the Cardinals, so one could argue he should have been in the next post, with guys like Ozzie Smith.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#183 Ryan Ludwick
#189 David Freese
#208 Allen Craig
#235 Carlos Beltran
#245 Mark Buehrle
#284 Will Clark

Will Clark's another guy who finished with the Cardinals, though he clearly had the most productive years of his career elsewhere. And Mark Beuhrle has never been a Cardinal, though I still suspect he'd give them a pretty good hometown discount. I like to track his cards just because he grew up in the same town as me.

In conclusion...these are some random 2013 Allen and Ginter cards of guys I collect for reasons not limited to playing for the Cardinals?

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #2

Onward to Pack 2!

2013 Topps
#350 Albert Pujols
#658 David Freese

Both of these guys are Angels now, and it still stings a bit to see them at the same time on the same team again. But, winning cures all, so a good 2014 for the Cardinals will make it OK.

2013 Topps
#507 Lance Lynn
Chasing History #CH-57 Cal Ripken, Jr
Emerald Parallel #468 Anthony Gose

Here I have my third Cardinal base card, Lance Lynn, and 2 of the standard inserts.

2013 Topps
Gold Parallel #450 Jay Bruce #0568/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-18 Wade Miley
World Baseball Classic #WBC-7 Adrian Gonzalez

I think Mexico has some of the best baseball uniforms. They usually have really good soccer uniforms too, for that matter. I wonder why that is.

2013 Topps
Cut to the Chase #CTC-31 Matt Holliday
1972 Mini #TM-71 Reggie Jackson

I like the base cards, but a Cardinal insert is always an indicator of a successful pack for me.

All 42 base cards in this pack were new, which is great. I'm even further ahead of the 10%-per-pack pace than I was after pack 1. I'm fairly confident I'll get a full set from the box after successfully getting one for Series 1, but you never know.

Series 2 Completion: 79/330 (23.9%)

Zistle Trade #8 Part B

Here's the second part of my trade from yesterday. As I said there, Blogger's label limitations have forced me to split up the relatively small number of cards into two posts. I had just barely too many characters for one post, so I didn't have to split them very carefully, so I went with vertical cards in the previous post, and horizontal in this one, mostly for ease of scanning.

1999 Topps #452 Alex Rodriguez/Nomar Garciaparra/Derek Jeter
2007 Topps Opening Day #69 Albert Pujols
2010 Upper Deck #463 Albert Pujols
2011 Allen and Ginter - Hometown Heroes #HH9 Adam Wainwright

I've been a fan of Nomar since his rookie year, and I still don't really remember why. I do know I spent many hours on a high school art project featuring him that year.

The Pujols cards are Pujols cards, and that's the only reason I need for those. I don't see much of 2007 Opening Day, but hopefully my quest for a Cardinals team set isn't in vain. I actually just purchased the full 2010 Upper Deck set from Matt's case break at Once A Cub, but Cardinal duplicates are often what I wind up trading away on Zistle to fellow Cardinal fans with different Cardinal duplicates, so this one may still serve a purpose.

Finally, there's an Adam Wainwright card from 2011 Allen and Ginter. I generally convince myself not to spend the money necessary to get much Ginter, but I like the set, so these inserts always wind up on my list. This year I'm jumping on the bandwagon, though, and at least picking up a few packs of it when it hits the shelves.

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #5

Let's open another pack, and I'll be halfway done with my Jumbo box.

2013 Topps
#205 Ryan Theriot
#235 Jake Westbrook
#266 Albert Pujols

Hmm, pack #1 also gave me all 3 of these guys. This one lacked Jason Motte and Jaime Garcia among Cardinals, though.

2013 Topps
Chasing the Dream #CD-25 Mike Moustakas
Emerald Parallel #185 Rob Scahill
1972 Topps Mini #TM-14 Chris Sale

I know it's not original, but Handlebar Moustakas has to be the best fantasy baseball team name in my league. Also, I think it's time Topps started considering their parallels when choosing photos. Purple and green together make me go cross-eyed.

2013 Topps
Gold Parallel #76 Brandon Inge #0638/2013
Chasing History #CH-4 Cal Ripken, Jr.
Chasing History Autographs #CHA-JH Joel Hanrahan

Now a Gold Parallel on Oakland's gold jerseys works nicely, even if it's not the same gold. The second card in this bunch is nothing to sneeze at either, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., but forgive me for jumping straight to the last one. Just before I opened this pack I said to myself "I haven't seen any autos or relics yet, I wonder if they'll all be here." Sure enough, the autographed card is. I knew Hanrahan wasn't still on the Pirates, but I was having trouble placing him, so I did a quick search. As you may know, he spent 2013 with Boston, but as you may not know, he just worked on on Thursday (April 17) for the Mets and Yankees. So, I don't think this auto is going to put anyone's kid through college, but, they can't all be superstars.

I got 43 base cards in this pack, thanks to the regular-thickness auto and other inserts. But, for some reason, almost all of them until the higher numbers were duplicates. My total unique cards went up by just 4, to 192. I'm starting to worry a bit more about completing the set with this box. At least I can say that if the collation is pretty good I still have a chance, since I have 250 more cards (200 or so base) to complete the 138 left.

Series 1 Completion: 192/330 (58.2%)

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #4

In my ongoing effort to get to my 2013 Series 2 box before 2014 Series 2 hits the stores, here's the 4th pack of Series 1.

2013 Topps
#68 Colby Rasmus
#96 Edward Mujica
#315 Rafael Furcal
The Greats #TG-25 Albert Pujols

There were only 2 uniformed Cardinals in this pack, and one former Cardinal among the base cards. A subset I hadn't yet seen appeared, though. "The Greats" is on needlessly thick cardstock for some reason. I figured I had found a relic when I first opened the pack, and was pretty excited to see Pujols. So there was a slight letdown when I realized it was just a thick card.

2013 Topps
Calling Cards #CC-13 Aroldis Chapman
Chasing History #CH-40 Mike Schmidt
Chasing the Dream #CD-19 Yu Darvish
Emerald Parallel #45 Travis Ishikawa

Here we have the rest of the standard inserts. The more I see the Chasing History set, the more I like it, despite Mike Schmidt's powder blue uniform.

2013 Topps - 1972 Mini
#TM-20 Justin Verlander

And finally, a tiny Tiger.

This pack had 41 base cards in it, and 20 were new to me. I'll need to average a little better than that to complete the set by pack 10. I need 23 2/3 new cards per pack for the next 6 packs to reach 330.

Series 1 Completion: 188/330 (57.0%)