eBay Wins #210

Today I've got 21 penny cards from 1987 Donruss, but with a slight twist. I noticed that the backs were rotated 180 degrees on some of the cards, and some quick research (that is, a Google search) led me to the knowledge that the factory set backs were rotated. I believe the first 16 cards here are from a factory set, and the last 5 are not. If that's the case, all of the 1987 Donruss cards I had before this point were from packs.

1987 Donruss - Factory Set
#61 Glenn Davis
#275 Walt Terrell
#286 Bill Doran
#296 Tom Brookens
#301 Steve Farr
#308 Dave Smith
#318 Steve Lombardozzi
#357 Ken Dayley

There's only one uniformed Cardinal in this bunch, Ken Dayley.

1987 Donruss - Factory Set
#373 Dan Petry
#420 Dave Bergman
#431 Terry Puhl
#439 Jesse Orosco
#461 Chuck Cary
#554 Denny Walling
#578 Jeff Calhoun
#605 Jim Pankovits

Jesse Orosco played for the Cardinals in 2000 when he turned 43, and still played 3 more seasons after that. Denny Walling also played for the Cardinals, 1988-1990.

1987 Donruss
#299 Franklin Stubbs
#306 Russ Morman
#308 Dave Smith
#312 Jim Winn
#334 Ron Karkovice

The factory set variation is so subtle I'm not sure I should bother to catalog them separately, yet I feel like it would be wrong to claim I have a duplicate of the Dave Smith card you see pictured twice above, because they have two different backs. These are the things that keep cards piled on my desk for weeks until I make a decision.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3462
Total Spent	$53.09
Per Card	1.534 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

Zistle Trade #17

Zistle has allowed me to whittle down my want list bit by bit, while helping others do the same with my doubles. I've got a lot of overproduction-era Cardinals still missing from my collection, so every now and then someone finds me and can knock off quite a few of them. This particular trader just wanted a Joe Carter card in return, and as a Blue Jays fan, had a few Todd Stottlemyre cards for me, too.

1985 Topps #683 Whitey Herzog
1990 Fleer #243 Cris Carpenter
1990 Fleer #251 Ken Hill
1990 Fleer #252 Joe Magrane
1990 Fleer #253 Willie McGee
1990 Fleer #261 Scott Terry
1990 Fleer #263 Denny Walling
1990 Fleer #264 Todd Worrell
1990 Topps #6 Vince Coleman RB

These were the last of the 1990 Fleer Cardinals I needed, so that's one more team set off my list.

1990 Topps #591 Todd Stottlemyre
1991 Topps #348 Todd Stottlemyre
1992 Topps #607 Todd Stottlemyre

As I've mentioned before, Todd Stottlemyre and his father, Mel, are distant cousins of mine, which is why I started collecting his cards in earnest. Now since I've widened my collecting net to anyone who has suited up for the Cardinals, I've got two reasons to collect his cards, so I'm glad to have 3 more off my list. The sender wrote a note saying he figured he'd have more Stottlemyre cards I needed, which caused me to check my list and see my want list was far from containing every card of his I don't have, so I've rectified that now. Thus, the net result of this trade for me was my want list increased by several dozen cards. Hooray progress?

eBay Wins #140

Today I have the set I generally consider the ultimate Topps junk wax set, 1989. This might not beat 88 or 89 Donruss for the overall junk set champion. But, with the 25th anniversary parallels in 2014 flagship bearing the 1989 design, maybe now is the best time to sell. I bet I could get twice my money back! "My money" was just 60 cents for 60 cards, of course.

1989 Topps
#5 Orel Hershiser
#8 Dave Eiland
#30 Doc Gooden
#42 Jim Eppard
#44 Jim Snyder
#45 Kal Daniels
#80 Cory Snyder
#89 Dave LaPoint (x2)

Two Daves don't make a right, right? At least that's what I always told my two friends named Dave in college.

1989 Topps
#105 Ron Darling
#110 Paul Monitor
#129 Terry Clark
#131 Dave Otto
#139 Mike Flanagan
#190 Mike Witt
#196 Denny Walling
#197 Neal Heaton
#200 George Brett

Fun fact, which is only relevant to this particular arrangement of cards: George Brett's first Hall of Fame Ballot was also Mike Witt's. Brett got 98.2% of the vote. Witt got 0.

1989 Topps
#206 Roberto Alomar
#209 Jeff Bittiger
#210 Dale Murphy
#253 Jose Alvarez
#267 Jeff Robinson
#275 Danny Tartabull (x2)
#330 Eric Davis
#339 Scott Bailes

1989 Topps
#340 Kirk Gibson
#367 Johnny Paredes (x2)
#387 Ryne Sandberg (x3)
#390 Darryl Strawberry
#408 Greg Walker (x3)

As a Cardinals fan, I feel like I'm supposed to have this hatred for the Cubs, but I just can't muster it. I think part of the reason is that when I was first starting to watch baseball, the daycare I attended would let us turn on WGN in the afternoons and watch the Cubs day games. I got to know several of their players well, especially Ryne Sandberg. So this Three-of-a-kind of Sandberg isn't cringe inducing to me, as it might be to some St. Louis fans.

1989 Topps
#410 Jack Clark
#427 Eric Show
#449 Carmelo Martinez
#485 Hubie Brooks
#488 Kevin Coffman
#502 Duane Ward
#527 Dave Henderson
#531 Dave Hengel
#536 Joel Skinner

Jack Clark is all over these late 80s/early 90s posts.

1989 Topps
#571 Billy Ripken (x2)
#584 Randy Velarde
#588 Luis Alicea
#604 Paul O'Neill
#624 Jack McKeon
#651 Tom Niedenfuer
#693 Pat Borders
#704 Carlos Quintana

Here we have a decidedly unfamous Billy Ripken card, relatively speaking, and a Jack McKeon's magnificent mustache. Also a former, current, and future Cardinal as of the printing time of these cards, Tom Niedenfuer, Luis Alicea, and Pat Borders.

1989 Topps
#736 Jeff Hamilton
#744 Roger Craig
#750 Bret Saberhagen
#751 Ken Oberkfell
#579 Astros Leaders
#669 Dodgers Leaders

This last scan is brought to you by laziness and miscounting, but it worked out alright in the end. I thought I only had 59 cards and thus would have a row of vertical and a row of horizontal cards for the last scan. Thanks to the miscount, I discovered my scanner is almost exactly (2 card widths + 1 card length) wide.

Right now I would need about 2000 cards for $1.47 to get my average to 1 cent per card. That's not a particular goal of mine, but that is an interesting round number to help put the change values into perspective.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3194
Total Spent	$50.47
Per Card	1.58 cents
Change	-0.011 cents

eBay Wins #129

1987 Topps always reminds me of a wood-paneled station wagon. There's probably a deeper metaphor I could dive into about utility versus beauty, but let's just see some cards.

1987 Topps
#2 Jim Deshaies
#3 Dwight Evans
#15 Claudell Washington
#18 Dick Howser
#26 Greg Brock
#40 Dave Righetti
#68 Tony La Russa
#115 Donnie Moore
#130 Dwight Gooden

I'm always happy to add another La Russa card to my collection.

1987 Topps
#140 Bret Saberhagen
#155 Eddie Whitson
#166 Bob Boone
#174 Henry Cotto
#175 Bob Stanley
#181 Cardinals Leaders
#185 Roger McDowell
#193 Roger Craig x2

I didn't know Roger Craig played for the Cardinals until just now. He went 7-9 in 1964. I've even posted a card with him and Tony La Russa before.

1987 Topps
#194 Kirk McCaskill
#219 Cecilio Guante
#220 Joe Carter
#222 Denny Walling
#230 Don Baylor
#241 Danny Heep
#243 Whitey Herzog
#254 Bob Tewksbury
#266 Jeff Hamilton

Bob Tewksbury was probably the Cardinals ace - on a team that wasn't very good - when I started watching baseball, so I always have to remind myself that my memories of him are a bit twisted by my perspective at the time.

1987 Topps
#267 Howard Johnson
#276 Jackie Gutierrez
#283 Doug Drabek
#285 Dennis Boyd
#287 Dave Von Ohlen
#293 Bob Rodgers
#295 Len Dykstra
#316 Brian Fisher
#317 Clint Hurdle

Clint Hurdle is another manager I didn't realize played for the Cardinals.

1987 Topps
#319 Greg Swindell
#343 Hal Lanier
#374 Glenn Hoffman
#399 Curt Ford
#401 Billy Jo Robidoux
#404 Doug Sisk
#412 Eric Davis (x2)
#426 Floyd Rayford

Eric Davis played 2 of his last 3 seasons for the Cardinals, but he was definitely on the downslope of his great career. Still, he was a good, consistent veteran to have around, which is always helpful in a game so focused on bringing up 19-to-21 year old prospects as soon as possible.

Since I like to tag all former Cardinals that I post so that I can quickly access any post by player, I'll have to stop here for the 1987 Topps pile. This is still part of my massive penny card re-shuffling, so these 45 cards add another 45 cents to my eBay Bargain Tracker.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2999
Total Spent	$48.52
Per Card	1.618 cents
Change	-0.009 cents

eBay Wins #82

Today's selection is some decidedly common cards, of a 1989 to 1996 vintage. I hope you'll enjoy it.

1989 Donruss #279 Denny Walling
1991 Leaf #291 Jeff Russell
1995 Stadium Club #428 Melvin Nieves
1996 Topps #235 David Yocum

Denny Walling played 18 seasons in MLB, and parts of 3 for the Cardinals, yet I really don't know anything about him. I'm sure any Astros fan knows him, since many more of those 18 years were with Houston.

As for Jeff Russell, the photographer caught his arm at the exact angle that makes me say "That's why I'll never be a pitcher".

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2433
Total Spent	$43.18
Per Card	1.775 cents