Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XVII

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

2012 Topps Archives #114 Jason Motte
2013 Topps Archives #151 Jason Motte
2013 Topps #130 Jason Motte
2013 Opening Day #202 Jason Motte
2013 Topps Blue Parallel
#96 Edward Mujica
#188 Brian Fuentes
#235 Jake Westbrook
2014 Topps #599 Jason Motte

In addition to a fine collection of Jason Motte base cards, I got a trio of 2013 blue parallels in the prize package too, including Brian Fuentes, who pitched 5 innings over 6 games with the Cardinals to end his career.

2009 Allen and Ginter #157 Jason Motte
2013 Allen and Ginter #283 Jason Motte
2013 Topps #269 St. Louis Cardinals
2013 Gypsy Queen - Mini #322 Jason Motte

Jason Motte had a great 2012, leading the NL with 42 saves, but lost all of 2013 to injury, and never quite made it back to that same level of performance. He's back on the DL in Colorado now, too, with just 20 2/3 innings pitched this year.

eBay Wins #188

I've got another larger eBay lot this time, 23 whole cards from the same set. They were still a penny each, lowering my all-time per-card price by .003 cents again.

2009 Upper Deck
#43 Coco Crisp
#44 J.D. Drew
#86 Javier Vazquez
#118 Brian Fuentes
#161 Brandon Backe
#196 James Loney
#285 Emil Brown
#319 Brian Giles
#357 Braden Looper

Drew, Fuentes, and of course Looper were all Cardinals. This card was from Braden Looper's second stint with the Cardinals

2009 Upper Deck
#506 Yusmeiro Petit
#646 Dallas McPherson
#663 Doug Brocail
#686 Erick Aybar
#703 Hong-Chih Kuo
#734 Francisco Liriano
#829 Heath Bell
#839 Chris Young
#986 Huston Street

Huston Street's studio shot looks odd among all these action shots, even if it is a team checklist.

2009 Upper Deck
#23 Yunel Escobar
#330 Fred Lewis
#622 Clint Barmes
#833 Cha Seung Baek
#840 Brian Giles

I'm not sure why Brian Giles has 2 base cards in this set. Neither is a checklist or All-Star card. At least he got two different uniforms pictured.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3360
Total Spent	$52.10
Per Card	1.551 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

Zistle Trade #9

These cards cost me some Thomes, some Cabreras, some Ortizes, and a couple of Ichiros. But I got a few Cardinal managers, and closer to completing 2012 Update. It's win/win, like any trade should be.

1987 Topps #68 Tony La Russa
1988 Topps #344 Tony La Russa
1988 Topps #744 Whitey Herzog
2012 Topps Update #US3 Adam Kennedy
2012 Topps Update #US26 Santiago Casilla
2012 Topps Update #US27 Cesar Izturis

Several of the Update cards happened to be Cardinals too, including Adam Kennedy and Cesar Izturis.

2012 Topps Update
#US58 Manny Acosta
#US69 Brett Jackson
#US80 Jered Weaver
#US92 Chone Figgins
#US102 Brandon League
#US115 Jason Grilli
#US121 Johnny Damon
#US141 R.A. Dickey

2012 Topps Update
#US162 Yu Darvish
#US169 Steve Cishek
#US205 Travis Ishikawa
#US219 Brian Fuentes
#US235 Marc Rzepczynski
#US279 Ryan Cook
#US289 Prince Fielder
#US302 Lucas Harrell

The sportscasters here liked to call Rzepczynski "Scrabble". I don't know if that nickname predated his time here, or just reflects our relatively low Polish population.

2012 Topps Update
#US17 Joe Smith
#US170 Jerry Hairston
#US238 Shawn Camp
#US294 Sergio Santos
#US316 Ryan Theriot

Finally I got one more Cardinal middle infielder, short-timer Ryan Theriot.

If my Zistle want list is to be believed - and it usually is - I still need over 70 cards to finish the Update set. But, this knocked out about a quarter of the list.

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #3

Here we are on Opening Day (observed) 2014, and I'm still working on 2013. I promised to finish off this jumbo box by the All Star Break...and hopefully Series 2 and Update by the playoffs. On my last pack post, I got a few comments offering a trade if I wind up with any holes in the set, which is awesome. I think they both sensed my slight panic at the lack of set progress from the pack. I'll definitely circle back around and respond with a list once I've finished the box, because I don't intend to buy any more 2013 flagship, if I could even find it.

2013 Topps
#130 Jason Motte
#188 Brian Fuentes
#190 Daniel Descalso

This is my 4th (!) copy of the Motte card. The other 3 have come from Pack 1, a contest win, and an eBay win. Also in the eBay win and contest prize were a copy of the Fuentes and Descalso card. Oh well, more Cardinals to trade.

2013 Topps
#269 St. Louis Cardinals
Chasing History - #CH-9 Mariano Rivera

I try not to buy into the Mystique of the Yankees too much, as one Mr. Curtis Schilling once said, but even hype-adjusted (did I just invent a new Sabermetric coefficient?), Mariano Rivera had a very impressive career.

2013 Topps - 1972 Mini
#TM-6 Trevor Bauer

I kind of want all these minis, but I'll never complete the set unless I go on a buying spree.

2013 Topps
Calling Cards #CC-2 Brandon Phillips
Chasing the Dream #CD-18 Chris Sale
Emerald Green #271 Jeurys Familia

And here are 3 of the most common insert sets to finish off the pack, including White Sox Opening Day starter and winner Chris Sale.

I added 22 cards this time, which is not bad since I started with 111 cards before the first pack. I'm just over halfway there, with 7 packs and 162 cards to go.

Series 1 Completion: 168/330 (50.9%)

eBay Wins #88

This time around I picked up some 2006 Upper Deck inserts. These paralells look almost identical to the base, except for the gold foil and number to 299. These ran a penny each.

2006 Upper Deck - Gold
#557 Alex Cintron #145/299
#580 Scott Hatteberg #013/299
#593 Brian Fuentes #060/299
#717 Bubba Crosby #156/299

Short-term Cardinal Brian Fuentes got the dreaded horizontal card. Dreaded because then I can't scan it easily with the vertical cards, that is.

2006 Upper Deck - Gold
#524 Mike Remlinger #051/299
#537 Coco Crisp  #140/299
#583 Danny Graves #265/299
#591 Scott Sauerbeck #045/299
#662 Robb Quinlan #116/299
#736 Milton Bradley #001/299
#746 Tom Gordon #107/299
#748 David Dellucci #228/299

The old eBay 1/1 showed up for Milton Bradley. My favorite player of this group is probabaly Tom "Flash" Gordon, for playing so many years, and for getting my fantasy baseball team lots of Holds in his years setting up for Mariano Rivera.

2006 Upper Deck - Gold
#821 Doug Wachter #102/299
#828 Travis Harper #221/299
#829 Ty Wigginton #032/299
#838 Kameron Loe #134/299
#845 Bengie Molina #156/299
#853 Justin Speier #032/299
#861 Gary Majewski #121/299
#880 Brandon Webb Diamondbacks Team Checklist #291/299

A former Cardinal - Ty Wigginton - and a current Cardinal coach - Bengie Molina - highlighted this bunch for me.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2477
Total Spent	$43.62
Per Card	1.761 cents

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 1

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.

I've decided to go more or less in backward chronological order with these, so for this post, you get some of the 2013 Series 1 cards. Specifically, the pitchers.

2013 Topps
#50 Adam Wainwright
#54 Jaime Garcia
#96 Edward Mujica
#130 Jason Motte
#146 Kyle McClellan
#188 Brian Fuentes
#235 Jake Westbrook
#261 Trevor Rosenthal
#305 Shelby Miller

I realize you could say this about just about any MLB team, but if all of these guys had stayed healthy (and with the team in the case of McClellan and Fuentes), I think the Cardinals would be running away with the division today, not struggling to hold back or catch the Pirates and Reds.

eBay Wins #68

The same seller who had 90 individual auctions for 2013 Topps singles reappeared on eBay a few days later with more. Last time, all the cards were under #100, and this time they were all over, so I bid away and won 47 more at a penny apiece. As much as you'd love for me to put these together like an uncut sheet and scan the whole thing, how about just the Cardinals again?

2013 Topps
#130 Jason Motte
#146 Kyle McClellan
#188 Brian Fuentes
#190 Daniel Descalso

According to rumors on the internets, there are 18 Cardinals in Series 1, including the team card. I now have 9 of them without opening a single pack, thanks to the previous auction and a blogger's giveaway.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2311
Total Spent	$41.96
Per Card	1.816 cents