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.

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?

2011 Allen and Ginter Discount Blaster

This box had been sitting in my unopened pack box for far too long. I picked it up for 11.99 maybe a year or more ago, whenever Target had them in their discount section.

2011 Allen and Ginter
#2 Ty Wigginton
#10 Miguel Cabrera
#22 Michael Bourn
#28 John Lindsey
#30 Hanley Ramirez
#31 Jimmy Rollins
#41 Carlos Santana
#51 Tim Collins

The base cards started off in a promising direction for my collection, with a one-time Cardinal, Ty Wigginton. But, that would be all I would get among the base cards. Let's see the rest of them anway.

2011 Allen and Ginter
#56 Scott Kazmir
#62 Alfonzo Soriano
#87 Colby Lewis
#97 Zach Britton
#118 Rafael Soriano
#124 Chad Billingsley
#149 Lars Anderson
#166 Geovany Soto

I didn't remember that Rafael Soriano also played for the Yankees, so at first I thought they put Alfonso in some weird pitcher-looking pose. Seeing his Cubs card made me realize what was going on, though.

2011 Allen and Ginter
#173 Mariano Rivera
#183 Mike Napoli
#205 Kendry Morales
#215 Andrew McCutchen
#254 Denard Span
#276 Desmond Jennings
#322 Trevor Cahill
#335 Jason Heyward

If I've read my online checklists correctly, those last 2 are among the short printed base cards, along with the next two. They don't seem all that short printed from this box, since they compose 1/7 of the set, and over 1/7 (4/26) of the base cards I received. Maybe I'm not accounting for something else in my math there.

2011 Allen and Ginter
#320 Jon Lester
#323 Orlando Hudson
Floating Fortresses #FF15 USS Cairo
Ginter Code Card
Animals in Peril #AP22 Sea Otter

The greatest threat to the Sea Otter? That'd be Floating Fortresses. I'm kidding...maybe...I don't really know why the otter is in peril. I do know the Otters were our local minor league hockey team many years ago.

2011 Allen and Ginter
Baseball Highlight Sketches
#BHS-10 Ryan Howard
#BHS-13 San Francisco Giants
Hometown Heroes
#HH2 Colby Rasmus
#HH15 Matt Holliday
#HH23 Dustin Pedroia
#HH24 Ryan Zimmerman
#HH34 Chipper Jones
#HH47 Phil Hughes

I have a few of these Hometown Heroes cards, but luckily neither of the Cardinals I pulled, Matt Holliday and Colby Rasmus. The sketches aren't bad either, one of them featuring native St. Louisan Ryan Howard. There was talk about the Cardinals trying to sign him in lieu of Pujols back when the contract talks were going on, but I think they came out ahead overall by not getting either one.

2011 Allen and Ginter
Mini #152 Ryan Zimmerman
Mini #308 Jhonny Peralta
Mini Allen and Ginter Back #254 Denard Span
Mini Allen and Ginter Back #264 Adam Jones
Mini Black Border #348 Russell Martin
Portraits of Penultimacy #PP1 Antonio Meucci
Step Right Up #SRU3 Fire Eating
Code Card #201 Andrew Romine
Ascent of Man #AOM15 Catarrhini
Minds That Made The Future #MMF9 Elisha Otis
Checklists #4

Here we have the big draw of Allen and Ginter, the minis. I got 2 regular and 2 A&G backs, and one black border, so none of the extreme low-numbered parallels. I almost filed that Andrew Romine with the base cards, but it has the Ginter Code symbols on its corners.

2011 Allen and Ginter
Framed Relics #AGR-FH Felix Hernandez

Finally, the prize of the pack is this Felix Hernandez Relic. He'll definitely be in the running for the AL Cy Young this year, having won the ERA title, even if it was on questionable retroactive scoring decisions. I think the biggest knock against him will be that the voters for these awards like to see a guy make the postseason, and the Mariners clearly did not this year, while Max Scherzer's Tigers did.

I give this discount box a 35 stars out of 37, which doesn't really mean much of anything. A retail relic is always a nice surprise, and at 8 bucks off the original price, how can I go wrong?

2010 Topps, Geoffrey the Giraffe Style

Does Toys R Us still use Geoffrey as a mascot? I don't go there often enough to notice, but I was there recently and noticed some clearanced baseball cards from the last few years. There were actually several products to choose from, but thanks to the wonders of smartphones, I was able to see that most of the prices could be beat online. I did opt to buy a $12.99 blaster of 2010 Topps, with Albert Pujols on the box.

2010 Topps
#111 Ty Wigginton
Gold Border #99 Garrett Jones #1997/2010
Black Border
#5 Texas Rangers
#56 Andy Pettite
#105 Madison Bumgarner
#135 Ryan Dempster
#152 Nyjer Morgan
#177 Adam Lind
#226 Juan Rivera

2010 is special to me because that's the year I got back into card collecting. I was killing time walking around in a Target, and browsed the baseball card displays for the first time in many years. A pack of 2010 Series 2 looked interesting for some reason, and my 10 year collecting hiatus was over.

2010 Topps
#54 John Lackey
#207 Colby Rasmus
Black Border #38 Houston Astros
Black Border #329 Colorado Rockies Franchise History
Commemorative Patch #MCP-37 Chipper Jones
Million Card Giveaway #TMC-6 Mickey Mantle
Million Card Giveaway #TMC-7 Roger Maris
Legendary Lineage #LL14 Warren Spahn/Tommy Hanson
Legendary Lineage #LL24 Bob Gibson/Tim Lincecum

I managed to get 3 total Cardinals base cards, including future Cardinals John Lackey and Ty Wigginton, and Colby Rasmus in uniform. I was expecting 2 full packs of black base cards, as promised on the box, but wound up with only 9. I was surprised to see regular inserts also in those packs. I sort of buried the "hit" of the box in the middle of this scan, but it's a nice looking 40th anniversary patch. Also in this bunch are two looooong-expired Million Card Giveaway cards, and a Bob Gibson Legendary Lineage.

2010 Topps
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT-6 Frank Robinson
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT-19 Steve Carlton
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT-44 Mike Piazza
Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs #MTO-25 Mike Schmidt
Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs #MTO-39 Frank Thomas
When They Were Young #WTWY-YM Yadier Molina
Peak Performance #PP-5 Babe Ruth
Peak Performance #PP-41 David Wright
Peak Performance #PP-50 Ty Cobb

The 1993 Ozzie Smith from the Cards Your Mom Threw Out set was actually a big reason that first few packs in 2010 brought me back to collecting. I still have my original though, my mom knew better than to throw out my cards. I got another Cardinal here in Steve Carlton, though he's much better known as a member of the Phillies. I also got a card featuring Yadier Molina as a kid. Overall, this was a good blaster for Cardinals.

2010 Topps - Topps Town
#TTT2 David Wright
#TTT6 Ichiro
#TTT9 Roy Halladay
#TTT10 Tim Lincecum
#TTT12 Miguel Tejada
#TTT15 Miguel Cabrera
#TTT23 CC Sabathia
#TTT25 Manny Ramirez

I never did get into Topps Town, and I'm still not really sure exactly what it is/was.

2010 Topps
History of the Game #HOTG17 Dodgers and Giants move to California
History of the Game #HOTG18 Roger Maris
Tales of the Game #TOG-3 Babe Ruth
Tales of the Game #TOG-6 Ernie Banks
Topps Town Gold #FCTTT7 Josh Hamilton
Topps Town Gold #FCTTT19 Justin Upton
Turkey Red #TR28 Mickey Mantle
Turkey Red #TR42 Ian Kinsler

In retrospect, I'd say the inserts in 2010 are actually not that good, except for Turkey Red, which I really like, enough that I'll probably add it to my long list of sets and insert sets I'd like to complete. Don't get me wrong, Babe Ruth and Ernie Banks are obviously all time greats, but the Tales of the Game design just doesn't grab my attention. There's also Topps Town Gold, which is probably like Topps Town, but...more Toppsy? I don't really know. Maybe it unlocked more on the site, or maybe they're just golden. I also grabbed one more Cardinal, Roger Maris.

In all, I think this was a marginal purchase, but I'm still filling in gaps in my collection, so these cards from right before my collecting phase 2 began were nearly all new to me.

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%)

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #2

The 2014 card releases are in full swing, but I've got to get through my 2013s first. Let's see how the set building quest is going.

2013 Topps
#54 Jaime Garcia
#68 Colby Rasmus
#266 Albert Pujols

There were 3 base Cardinals this time, and two were duplicates from Pack #1. That's not a great start, as much as I like the Cardinals

2013 Topps
Chasing History #CH-43 CC Sabathia
Emerald Parallel #256 Madison Bumgarner

While the Chasing History cards didn't mention specific projections for the milestones, CC's certainly implied he should get his 200 wins soon, since he had 191 going into 2013. I'll save you the trip to baseball-reference: he now has 205. That Madison Bumgarner's not too shabby of a LHP either.

2013 Topps
Chasing the Dream #CD-23 Jose Altuve
1972 Mini #TM-42 Willie Mays

When I see young, hyped, talented players like Jose Altuve on bad team, I can't help but root for their teams to get better or for them to find a home elsewhere. That largely comes from realizing a few years ago that, in all of Steven Jackson's career with the Rams, they were never better than 8-8, and only made the playoffs in his rookie season when he was a backup.
As for the Mays card, I didn't realize the '72 minis included retired players. That was a cool card to see come out of the pack.

2013 Topps
Cy Young Award Winners Trophy #CY-JS

First, let me say this is a nice card. It's actually a little shadowbox with a real metal emblem of the trophy. However, it's as thick as 19 base cards (I measured!). That means there were only 33 cards in the pack. Clearly, at 1:, I shouldn't expect to see another one of these in my box, but that's going to put a bit of a damper on my attempt to complete the set. Luckily, like I said before, I already had some base cards going into this, so Series 1 will still likely get finished by the box, but I only added 13 new cards this time.

Series 1 Completion: 146/330 (44.2%)

Zistle Trade #6

I made another small Zistle trade, for 4 Cardinals and a Heritage SP. I'm finding that as long as I put cards in my want list, and mark duplicates in my trade list, Zistle makes it fairly easy to put together trades that cherry pick my wants from my trading partner's trade list, and vice versa.

2011 Topps Update - Diamond Duos #DD-12 Matt Holliday/Colby Rasmus
2012 Topps  - Walmart Blue Border #291 David Freese
2013 Topps - Chasing History #CH-74  Stan Musial
2013 Topps - Chasing History #87 Lance Lynn

2011 Topps Heritage
#427 Will Rhymes SP

This card leaves me with about 19 High Number SPs to go for 2011 Heritage, and 76 total cards if I count all the variations available. As I get closer I'll figure out how close I really am to a "complete" 2011 Heritage set.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 10

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 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 ]

2008 Goudey
#171 Albert Pujols
#173 Lou Brock
#174 Chris Duncan
#175 Vince Coleman
#193 Troy Glaus

In his rush and/or zealous generosity (or is that generous zeal), madding sent me 2 of each of these cards. That's an easy mistake to make though, and I didn't even realize it the first time I looked through them, because there were simply so many cards. Eventually I sorted them out by set and lo and behold, my 10 Goudey cards only had 5 unique. So, I've got one each of these to keep, and one to trade.

2008 Upper Deck #70 Rick Ankiel

I'm starting to build up quite an Ankiel collection now. I wasn't collecting during either of his heydays with the Cardinals, so I never pulled one of his cards in a current pack.

2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic
#78 Matt Holliday

SP Authentic is a set that makes me want Upper Deck back in the game. It's got a very clean look that appeals to me.

2009 Upper Deck X #97 Colby Rasmus

And on the flip side, we have Upper Deck X. It's a little too busy for my taste, but I always love getting a new Cardinal card.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 7

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 | Part 5 | Part 6 ]

2010 Allen and Ginter #127 Albert Pujols

I don't recall ever seeing horizontal A&G cards, so I was wondering if this was some sort of short print. Evidently I'm just very unfamiliar with the set.

2010 Allen and Ginter
#28 Felipe Lopez
#58 Colby Rasmus
#182 Chris Carpenter
#343 Brad Penny

My scanner seems to have a little trouble with the backgrounds of 2010 Allen and Ginter. The pale blue fading into the amorphous white border causes it to totally lose its bearings. But the important parts are all there.

2010 Topps
#325 Julie Lugo
#452 Allen Craig

How about that, an Allen Craig rookie. And 51-game Cardinal Julio Lugo.

2010 Topps
Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs #CMT-111 Ichiro/Albert Pujols
Legendary Lineage #LL-48 Stan Musial/Matt Holliday

Ichiro, Pujols, Musial, and Holliday on just 2 cards? I'll take that any day of the week. That Ichiro/Pujols reprint took me a while to figure out, though, since it's an original back version. The word "reprint" appears in small print on the back, though, along with a 2010 copyright date, which helped me narrow it down.

2010 Topps Update
#US-125 Adam Wainwright
#US-176 Felipe Lopez
#US-278 Brad Penny
Peak Performance #PP-109 Colby Rasmus

Brad Penny and Felipe Lopez both started 2010 with the Cardinals, yet they showed up in the Update set for some reason. Even more curious, both are in the A&G group above. I suppose the later release date allows Allen and Ginter to have more up-to-date rosters. This is the set that brought me back to collecting, when I bought a pack on a whim while killing time in Target. Consequently, both it and 2010 flagship - because it has the same look - bring me fond (recent) memories.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 6

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 | Part 5 ]

2010 Heritage
#11 Adam Wainwright
#91 Colby Rasmus
#118 Yadier Molina
#127 Joel Pineiro
#139 Tony La Russa
#178 Matt Holliday
#295 Rick Ankiel
#358 Skip Schumaker

Matt Holliday is the odd man out in this heritage collection, like Jon Jay in 2012, wearing his blue hat and road grays. And, a quick note about Rick Ankiel. I don't ever remember seeing him with a beard, but as you'll see in coming posts, he shows up on multiple cards like that. Maybe that's an issue with the Topps monopoly, and they just went and photographed him on one day. Somehow he managed 45 games played by June 8 this year, despite a week off after his release by the Astros, but then got released by the Mets at that point and hasn't caught on elsewhere yet.

2010 Heritage
#47 NL Wins Leaders
#347 St. Louis Cardinals
#404 Rogers Hornsby

I didn't realize the Cardinals had the top 2 NL wins leaders in 2009. Unfortunately it didn't help in our 3 game sweep by the Dodgers in the NLDS.

2010 Topps T206 #1 Matt Holliday

When I shave my head, I like to pretend I look like Matt Holliday. Unfortunately I'm a little heavier and a lot shorter, and look a little more like post-baseball John Kruk.

2010 Topps Chrome
#99 Chris Carpenter
#161 Yadier Molina

I'm keeping these chrome cards small so you can't see how badly they scan. I owe that much to the best battery the Cardinals have had in recent years.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 4

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 ]

2012 Allen and Ginter
#133 Carlos Beltran
#134 David Freese
#202 Jaime Garcia
#311 Bob Gibson

Even though these are 3 of the Cardinals' biggest present-day stars, the best of this bunch of Bob Gibson.

2012 Bowman
#36 Lance Berkman
#132 Jason Motte

Bowman is fairly rare on my blog, but it seems to be showing up more and more these days.

2011 Allen and Ginter - Hometown Heroes
#HH2 Colby Rasmus
#HH15 Matt Holliday
#HH67 Jon Jay
#HH93 Lance Berkman

2011 Allen and Ginter
#240 Matt Holliday
#280 Adam Wainwright

It's rare to get more inserts than base out of someone's duplicates pile. Less rare is the phenomenon where receiving cards makes my want list longer. I've got 4 of the 6 Cardinals in the Hometown Heroes set, so I practically have to add Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter now.

2010 Upper Deck Bonus Pack #3

I've ripped open another bonus pack from my free bonus stack of packs from Dave and Adam's Card World.

2010 Upper Deck
#460 Colby Rasmus
Season Biography #SB-99 Lance Berkman

Another Berkman! Last time it was the base card. I already had two of the Rasmus cards, from a prize and a trade.

2010 Upper Deck Celebrity Predictors
#CP-11 Anna Kournikova
#CP-12 Enrique Iglesias

Upper Deck took this whole unlicensed thing to the next level, and drew some caricatures of celebrity couples, along with not-so-vague descriptions on the back. I'm not sure how much overlap there is between baseball card collectors and celebrity-romance obsessors, but for the record, the predictor didn't really get resolved, as they've neither broke up nor gotten married, to this day.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part V

When I claimed the Cardinals - and Mark McGwire and Todd Stottlemyre - in the pack-per-day giveaway held at TribeCards, I had no idea just how many cards I'd wind up with, and how many different players. So that I can tag all of the sets and Cardinal players, I've broken this up into a series of who knows how many posts. Thanks for all the cards, David.
[ I | II | III | IV ]

2004 Topps #137 Brett Tomko

This is the first 2004 Topps card I have. That falls right about in the middle of my collecting hiatus.

2006 Topps
#339 Yadier Molina
#491 John Rodriguez
#198 Brad Thompson

I've bought a few 2006 packs from Target's bargain bin, but only have a small part of the set, so all 3 of these are also new to me. The Yadi's obviously the star of the bunch, but I can never see John Rodriguez without remembering some of our old, unhip announcers trying to get J-Rod to catch on. That was almost as good as Al Hrabosky encouraging the crowd to yell Puuuuuu for Albert Pujols, since we were already doing a similar cheer for Isaac Bruce over at the Rams games.

2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic
#4 Yadier Molina

Another Yadi! It looks like if the Cardinals want him - i.e., don't trade him - he'll be a Cardinal for life, since he's been signed through 2017 with a team option for 2018.

2011 Topps Attax
#59 Colby Rasmus
#232 Angel Stadium of Anaheim

I didn't realize this stadium carries forward the silly nomenclature of the team. At least it only mentions one city instead of two. Also, I got Cardinal Colby Rasmus.

2009 O-Pee-Chee
#463 Chris Perez
#587 Colby Rasmu

I think these might be the best looking cards of this post, I've been a fan of 2009 O-Pee-Chee ever since I got the David Freese card. I wish we still had Chris Perez, especially with Motte out for awhile, possibly all year. But I didn't like the trade at the time. I almost never like trades though, so maybe that's just me Monday-Morning-Quarterbacking. I guess I didn't like the Colby Rasmus trade either at the time, although I'm ok with it now. I'm just full of unbridled optimism for promising prospects.

The pile is shrinking...

eBay Wins #64

I won 90 auctions for individual 2013 Topps cards at a penny apiece. For some reason the seller sent me 92, so I'm going to count it as 92 for $.90 in my tracker. Now, let's see all 90!


...


Ok, how about just the Cardinals (current and former).

2013 Topps #24 Dan Haren

Come back, Dan.

2013 Topps #68 Colby Rasmus

You can stay in Canada, Colby.

2013 Topps #96 Edward Mujica

We picked up Mujica at the trading deadline, thanks to the emergence of David Freese, which allowed us to dump off a previously touted 3B prospect in Zack Cox. He was a pleasant surprise with a low ERA for the remainder of the year.

2013 Topps #54 Jaime Garcia

I'm hoping Jaime can come back strong this year...

2013 Topps #50 Adam Wainwright

...because once again, Adam Wainwright is going to be our ace. Chris Carpenter's continued injury moves everyone up a spot in the rotation, and Waino has been tabbed for Opening Day.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2207
Total Spent	$40.92
Per Card	1.854 cents