eBay Wins #242

If you buy a bunch of random cheap cards, you're going to get a fair bit of 1989 Donruss. I've got enough that I'll have to split it across at least 2 posts.

1989 Donruss
#3 Pete Incaviglia
#8 Cory Snyder
#10 Kevin Seitzer
#11 Rick Reuschel
#12 Johnny Ray (x2)
#14 Andres Galarraga
#15 Kirk Gibson
#16 Fred McGriff
#18 Jeff Robinson (x2)

I've always liked Diamond Kings.

1989 Donruss
#19 Vince Coleman
#20 Dave Henderson
#21 Harold Reynolds
#23 Frank Viola
#26 Don Mattingly
#27 Checklist
#30 Cameron Drew
#32 Erik Hanson
#34 Greg Harris

1989 Donruss
#37 Carlos Quintana
#39 Cris Carpenter
#41 Dave West
#42 Randy Johnson
#43 Mike Harkey
#44 Pete Harnisch
#45 Tom Gordon
#47 Alex Sanchez
#57 Greg Brock

There aren't a ton of huge stars past the Diamond Kings, but here's a Randy Johnson card I've wanted for awhile.

1989 Donruss
#59 Craig Lefferts
#61 Danny Tartabull
#65 Mark Davis
#67 Dennis Eckersley
#69 Mike Scott
#71 Tom Browning
#73 Mel Hall
#76 Juan Samuel
#89 Charlie Leibrandt

1989 Donruss
#90 Frank Tanana
#94 Mark McLemore
#99 Kevin McReynolds
#100 Checklist
#102 Dave Martinez
#107 Pete O'Brien
#111 Keith Moreland
#114 Brook Jacoby
#115 Keith Brown

1989 Donruss
#118 Bob Forsch
#120 Willie Wilson (x2)
#121 Tommy Gregg
#122 Jim Rice
#123 Bob Knepper (x2)
#124 Danny Jackson
#125 Eric Plunk (x2)
#126 Brian Fisher (x2)
#127 Mike Pagliarulo

1989 Donruss
#129 Lance McCullers
#133 David Palmer
#135 Greg Walker
#136 Kirk McCaskill (x2)
#138 Andy Allanson
#139 Rob Murphy
#142 Scott Fletcher
#143 Steve Balboni
#145 Ozzie Virgil

This is the first time I've tagged a Rob Murphy card. I don't remember him playing for the Cardinals at all, but apparently he did in 1993 and most of 1994, making 123 appearances in relief. Those weren't the greatest years for the team, including the strike season, so maybe that's why he doesn't stand out in my mind.

1989 Donruss
#149 George Bell
#156 Tim Wallach
#160 Von Hayes
#175 Ted Higuera
#180 Alan Trammell
#181 Vince Coleman
#186 Mike Greenwell
#187 Billy Hatcher (x2)
#191 Cory Snyder

1989 Donruss
#192 John Candelaria
#194 Kevin Gross
#198 Kal Daniels
#200 Checklist
#201 Joe Magrane
#212 Mickey Brantley
#222 Rick Mahler
#225 Mitch Williams
#226 Chuck Finley

1989 Donruss
#227 Mark Langston
#228 Jesse Orosco
#229 Ed Whitson
#230 Terry Pendleton
#231 Lloyd Moseby
#232 Greg Swindell
#233 John Franco
#234 Jack Morris
#235 Howard Johnson

These all came out of the half-cent pile, so the 90 cards plus 8 duplicates were just 49 cents.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4425
Total Spent	$58.75
Per Card	1.328 cents
Change	-0.018 cents

182 Packs Giveaway, Part I

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.

1996 Leaf
#2 Dennis Eckersley
#70 David Bell
#98 Sandy Alomar, Jr.

I guess the Eckersley and Alomar were randomly assigned to me as duplicates, or no one claimed the A's and Indians. Even so, Eck is definitely a player I liked even before he got to the Cardinals, so that's a great card to me.

1996 Leaf
#142 Brian Jordan
#212 Alan Benes

Two more from 1996 Leaf, Brian Jordan, and the middle Benes brother, Alan. The Cardinals once had all 3 Benes brothers in their system, but Adam only made it up to AA Arkansas.

1997 Pinnacle
#41 Brian Jordan
#81 Ron Gant
#122 Ozzie Smith

1997 Pinnacle
#136 Gary Gaetti
#185 Dmitri Young

1997 cards bring me good memories of the Cardinals resurgence from mediocrity in the mid 90s, to make the playoffs in Tony LaRussa's first year in 1996.

1998 Stadium Club
#114 Alan Benes
#232 Gary Gaetti
Checklist 2 of 2

Here's another Alan Benes and Gary Gaetti from 1998, as well as...

1998 Stadium Club #74 Todd Stottlemyre

Todd Stottlemyre! Of course, I would have gotten this card even if I only claimed the Cardinals, but I wanted to be covered in case any of his Blue Jays or A's cards came up.

1998 Stadium Club - Royal Court #RC5 Mark McGwire

And here's another of my favorites, Mark McGwire, in an extra sparkly Stadium Club insert. Since he's a Cardinal, I double-claimed this one too.

That's it for now, look for this series to end sometime in mid-2015.

March Radness Win, Part VII

[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]
[Part IV]
[Part V]
[Part VI]

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.

I've reached the end of this prize, but this post has the most cards of all. Lucky for you, they're not all scanned. You'll see what I mean at the end.

As I flipped through the 1990 Donruss from the package, I set aside anyone who was a Cardinal. This wasn't based on research, just memory, so I may have missed a few. And I actually had to look up Chris Sabo because I thought I knew he was a Cardinal, but I don't really remember it, if that makes sense. As it turns out, he played 5 games for us after the White Sox released him in 1995, but was again released during September.

1990 Donruss
#41 Andy Benes
#42 Delino Deshields
#210 Dennis Eckersley
#230 Will Clark
#242 Chris Sabo
#349 Tom Henke
#378 Jamie Moyer
#578 Larry Walker
#674  Pedro Guerrero

1990 Donruss
#695 Eric Davis
#697 Mark McGwire
Bonus MVPs #BC-12 John Smoltz
#BC12A John Smoltz (Erorr)

I've bid on this Tom Glavine/John Smoltz error card on eBay a few times, but it always seems to go a bit high because of its perceived value.

So, how many non-Cardinals were there from 1990 Donruss? Oh, about this many:

1990 Donruss, sleeved and ready to be sorted

I haven't gone through them completely yet, but it looks like if this doesn't complete my 1990 Donruss set, it brings me very close. What an awesome prize for a blog contest. Now of course, I realize if my want list consisted of refractor parallels and cards numbered to 25, instead of lots of cards widely considered junk wax, I'd probably have gotten a much lighter envelope, but I love these cards. That's the cool thing about collecting instead of investing in cards; show me a bunch of ugly 1990 Donruss card and I can get as excited as one fancy relic "from no particular event". To sum up, thanks again to madding, and go follow Cards on Cards.

A Contest at 30-Year Old Cardboard

There is a 500k hit celebration contest going on at 30-Year Old Cardboard, with 10 prizes. And, because he offers a bonus entry for promoting it on your blog, and others I follow did so, I found a new blog to follow, and get a contest entry to boot. Personally, I'm hoping to win this one:

2010 Topps - Peak Performance Relics #DE Dennis Eckersley

Go enter, and good luck to all.

Spring Training Giveaway, part 2

[Part 1]
I won another contest at Number 5 Type Collection. After ranking the 5 teams I wanted from what he had to offer, I tied another reader and so wound up with half the Tigers and Red Sox.

1981 Fleer Stickers #13 Carl Yastrzemski

1981 Fleer Stickers #34 Dennis Eckersley

1981 Fleer Stickers #53 Jim Rice

1981 Fleer Stickers #58 Carlton Fisk

All 4 of these Fleer Stickers have Hall of Famers on them. That's pretty awesome.

1982 Donruss #5 Alan Trammell

1983 Donruss #5 Jack Morris

It's kind of crazy that Donruss used the same Diamond King design in 1982 and 1983. I never knew that before just now.

1986 Sports Design Products Tigers #5 Mickey Cochrane

It took me awhile to track down what set this one was from. The confusion came in that the back just says 1986 Sports Design Products, but there was a league-wide set that year by that name as well.

1989 Bowman #26 Roger Clemens

This card doesn't fit in a regular sleeve. Between these and Topps Big, I need to find some more accommodating supplies.

1992 Denny's #5 Jack Clark

I'd never seen these Denny's cards before, I must have started collecting after they came out that year. I have several from later years.

2005 Fleer Tradition #141 Bobby Higginson

2005 Fleer Tradition #121 Johnny Damon

2006 Tristar Prospects Plus #21 Jason Place

2007 Topps #28 Brandon Inge

2007 Topps #87 Alexis Gomez

2007 Topps #280 Curt Schilling

2007 Topps #294 Mike Rabelo

2007 Topps #304 Kenny Rogers

Free Cards from Cards on Cards

I've been holding off on this post while I try to get my scanner to work, but I'm irritated with it, so you get photos with trapezoidal cards!


Free? That's right, Cards on Cards ran a Free Fleer Group Break a while back.  The boxes were 1995 Fleer Update, 1993 Fleer Ultra Series 2, and the1993 Fleer flagship set.  Since it was free, I figured I had nothing to lose, and jumped in to take the Cardinals with the caveat that I was only getting what he didn't want.  When the time came for the 2nd team, I took the A's, who were my second favorite team for a long time.  As you'll see, it paid off with some PC hits.

First up, the packing material:

I had actually completely forgotten about this break, even though I read all the posts about the Fleer box breaks. So when I opened the envelope and saw Sandy Alomar facing me, I thought I had received someone else's trade package.  I then realized some beat up junk wax was being used to protect the outside cards.  After opening the first team bag I remembered the break and excitedly tore through the stacks.

1993 Fleer

All cards included:
124 Rheal Cormier (2)
125 Bernard Gilkey (2)
126 Felix Jose (2)
127 Ray Lankford (2)
128 Bob McClure
129 Donovan Osbourne (2)
130 Tom Pagnozzi (2)
131 Geronimo Pena (2)
132 Mike Perez (3)
133 Lee Smith
134 Bob Tewksbury
135 Todd Worrell (2)
136 Todd Zeile
290 Lance Blankenship
291 Mike Bordick (2)
292 Jerry Browne
293 Dennis Eckersley
294 Rickey Henderson (2)
295 Vince Horsman (2)
296 Mark McGwire (2)
297 Jeff Parrett (2)
298 Ruben Sierra (2)
299 Terry Steinback (2)
300 Walt Weiss (2)
301 Bob Welch (2)
302 Willie Wilson (2)
303 Bobby Witt
Rookie Sensations: 9 of 10 Mike Perez

1993 Fleer Ultra

All cards included:

460 Rene Arocha
461 Brian Barber
462 Rheal Cormier (2)
463 Gregg Jeffries
465 Omar Olivares
466 Geronimo Pena
467 Allen Watson
603 Scott Brosius
604 Storm Davis
605 Eric Fox (2)
606 Goose Gossage (2)
607 Scott Hemond
608 Dave Henderson
609 Mark McGwire
610 Mike Mohler
611 Edwin Nunez (2)
612 Kevin Seitzer (2)
613 Ruben Sierra (2)
Dennis Eckersley Career Highlights #1

1995 Fleer Update

All cards included:
U-70 Jim Corsi (2)
U-71 Mike Harkey (2)

U-72 Dave Stewart (2)

U-73 Todd Stottlemyre (2)
U-153 Allen Battle

U-157 John Frascatore (2)

U-159 Tom Henke

Diamond Tribute 7 of 10 Rickey Henderson (2)

There were quite a few of my favorite players in there, including A's who later became Cardinals (McGwire, Eckersley, Stottlemyre).

Thanks for a great group break, especially for the price!  I'll definitely have to send some extra stuff in our next massive trade.