eBay Wins #241

Today's eBay post covers the first ever Upper Deck set 1989. As you probably know, this set is widely credited with the shift from brown to white cardstock, which seems to be just slightly thinner and stiffer as well. I can definitely attest that these are easier to line up on a flatbed scanner than other cards of this era I've been scanning, as they still mostly lie flat. There were a handful of duplicates, some from a big lot of Oakland A's I bought awhile back.

1989 Upper Deck
31 Kevin Gross
33 Jeff Calhoun
93 Albert Hall
246 Von Hayes
269 Kevin Elster
316 Scott Bankhead
317 Milt Thompson
337 Mike Campbell
338 Mike Maddux

When I was a kid and the web was relatively devoid of the minutiae you can now find on it, I had to make up my own back story for players with interesting names, especially if they were not Cardinals and thus much less likely to be discussed on a broadcast I would watch. I always figured Von Hayes was Dutch or Scandinavian, just based on his first name. Of course, his card lists his birthplace as California, and I still don't know where the name Von came from.

1989 Upper Deck
392 Curt Young (x2)
393 Jeff Treadway
409 Don Carman (x2)
412 Pete Smith
430 Jackie Gutierrez
433 Jerry Royster
443 Glenn Davis
474 Randy Ready
476 Kelly Downs

I think I've said it before, but to me Randy Ready sounds like a professional wrestler or some sort of local TV commercial mascot name. Wait no, last time I went with Superhero in a low budget Syfy movie.

1989 Upper Deck
478 Shawn Hillegas
492 Mark Parent
501 Chuck Crim
510 Kevin Seitzer
531 Greg Mathews
539 Jim Gott
544 Atlee Hammaker
550 Mickey Brantley
583 Mike Gallego (x2)

Finally, a uniformed Cardinal, Greg Matthews. Mike Gallego also finished up his career with the Cardinals, presumably coming here because of Walt Jocketty and Tony La Russa's experience with him in Oakland. Milt Thompson above was also a Cardinal.

1989 Upper Deck
585 Doug Jennings (x2)
623 Bill Swift
637 Charlie Leibrandt
640 Danny Jackson
641 Greg Booker
642 Jim Presley
679 Cory Snyder/Cleveland Checklist
688 Eric Davis/Cincinnati Checklist
758 Mike Moore (x2)

Finally there are two more Cardinals before they were Cardinals, Eric Davis and Danny Jackson. Eric Davis was signed pretty late in his career, but actually played here two seasons, and one more in San Francisco. Danny Jackson was traded away during his final season and finished in San Diego. When I look at that trade, it's not immediately obvious to me who was buying and who was selling, and it wasn't even a deadline deal; it happened June 13. The Cardinals traded Jackson, Rich Batchelor, and Mark Sweeney, and got Scott Livingstone, Phil Plantier, and Fernando Valenzuela. I guess Sweeney was the big piece in that trade, because Jackson, Plantier, Batchelor, and Valenzuela were finished in 1997, and Livingstone in 1998. Sweeney was 27 and played through 2008. At the deadline in 1997 the Cardinals picked up Mark McGwire, so maybe they were trying to clear some salary space. I really have no idea what they were thinking.

I added 41 total cards (the 36 pictured plus the 5 duplicates noted), for 41 cents.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4327
Total Spent	$58.26
Per Card	1.346 cents
Change	-0.004 cents

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXVII

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 XX
XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI


There's another randomish collection of Cardinals cards today, some draft picks, some 2000 Topps, and some Eli Marrero. To enter this year's Bowl Pick 'Em, go sign up at Cards on Cards before Saturday's bowl games begin.

1997 Bowman #409 Brent Butler
1997 Bowman #430 Adam Kennedy
1997 Bowman - Rookie of the Year Favorites #ROY12 Eli Marrero
1998 Skybox Dugout Axcess #92 Eli Marrero
1999 Upper Deck MVP #174 Eli Marrero
2000 Topps #68 Eli Marrero
2000 Topps #190 Eric Davis (x2)
2000 Topps #192 Joe McEwing
2000 Topps #212 Chance Caple/Jason Jennings

Brent Butler never played in the majors for the Cardinals, having been traded to Colorado in the deal that brought Darryl Kile to St. Louis. Adam Kennedy played for the Cardinals two different times, but he really had his best years in Anaheim.

1999 Fleer Ultra #45 Eli Marrero
1999 Upper Deck UD Choice #132 Eli Marrero

Eli Marrero arrived in 1997, and looked like he could bloom into a star catcher for the Cardinals, but in 2002 they got Mike Matheny, and tried to move Eli more often to the outfield, and infield a little. He was eventually traded to the Braves with J.D. Drew to acquire Adam Wainwright.

eBay Wins #237

Today's eBay lot comes from perhaps my favorite 1989 design, Score. Sure, it's overly simple, and the borders are multicolored but not team colored, but it looks very clean. Anyway, I had 26 penny cards, with a few duplicates mixed in.

1989 Score
6 Fred McGriff
14 Johnny Ray
26 Gary Pettis
29 Curt Young
34 Glenn Hubbard (x2)
58 Tim Teufel
71 Mitch Webster
89 Mickey Brantley

No Cardinals in the first scan, but there is Hall-of-Fame-eligible Fred McGriff. His vote totals appear to be too low to reach 75% in the next two years, but my completely subjective feeling is that he ought to be in.

1989 Score
91 R.J. Reynolds
109 Eric Davis
136 Howard Johnson
144 Andres Galarraga
165 Walt Weiss
205 Don Baylor
230 Lou Whitaker
255 Juan Samuel

Now we've got some Cardinals: Eric Davis and Andres Galarraga, as well as our former hitting coach Don Baylor. We lost both Baylor and Galarraga to the Rockies in 1993, making them my least favorite team for a short while, until I accepted the realities of players and coaches changing teams.

1989 Score
308 Bob Welch
323 Devon White
459 Doug Jennings (x2)
465 Todd Burns
537 Mike Gallego
610 Buddy Bell
614 Al Pedrique
624 Mike Harkey

Mike Gallego and Todd Burns, yes, that Todd Burns, were both Cardinals. And there's another card for my eventual RBI Baseball collection, Al Pedrique,

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4220
Total Spent	$57.22
Per Card	1.356 cents
Change	-0.002 cents

Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot, Part V

Several weeks ago, I read a post at Johnny's Trading Spot titled Instant mini collections up for grabs. "Up for Grabs" always gets my attention, so I threw my name into the mix. They were supposed to be randomly assigned, but through a lucky draw and one trade, each of the winners wound up with exactly what they originally wanted most. For me, that was cards with batting donuts.

Part I II III IV

Sunday's a good Donut Day, too.

1986 Topps
#25 Willie Wilson
#62 Bob Boone
#128 John Wathan
#271 Dave Collins
#407 Sal Butera
#740 Lance Parrish

With just a bit more cropping, Lance Parrish's card would never have been in this donut collection.

1988 Fleer League Leaders #8 Eric Davis
1988 Topps
#67 Ken Oberkfell
#466 Jerry Mumphrey
1989 Topps
#19 Greg Gagne
#53 Ruben Sierra
#356 Kevin Elster
#553 Luis Salazar
#577 Randy Bush

1989 Upper Deck
#53 Steve Sax
#329 Danny Tartabull
#485 Brian Downing
#522 Juan Castillo
#527 Donnie Hill
#750 Ray Quinones

1989 Upper Deck feels like one of those historic sets that I should complete. These will put me a little closer, but I still only have about 30 unique cards from the set.

eBay Wins #150

Today in eBay penny cards, I have 3 1992 Fleer cards. 2 out of the 3 once played for the Cardinals, including Eric Davis, the longtime Cincinnati Red. I didn't really realize at the time what it must have felt like for Cincinnati fans to see their guy go to an archrival, but every time I see a former Cardinal go to the Cubs, I think I understand the feeling just a little bit more.

1992 Fleer
#68 Bobby Rose
#403 Eric Davis
#576 Jose DeLeon

Like I've mentioned many times before, 1992 is when I really started paying attention to baseball, and consequently the players on the Cardinals at the beginning of that season are the ones I'll always vividly remember. Jose DeLeon is one of those, even though he was released that August and signed by Philadelphia that September. That might even be the transaction that caused me to make my dad explain what being released was, and try to get through to me why some guys just couldn't be traded for anything.

I didn't have any specific recollection of Bobby Rose, so I looked him up to see if there was anything interesting about him. He went to San Dimas High School in San Dimas, CA, which I'm pretty sure is the one Bill and Ted attended during their Excellent Adventure, and possibly also their Bogus Journey. His last MLB game was May 19, 1992, 10 days after I first started watching baseball, and then he played in Japan for a few years.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3241
Total Spent	$50.91
Per Card	1.571 cents
Change	0 cents

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 #134

Today I have a pile of 1988 Donruss, a set you're likely to encounter a lot when you buy "random" cards for a penny each.

1988 Donruss
#8 Devon White
#46 Eddie Williams
#66 Kevin Mitchell
#74 Jim Clancy
#93 Dave Righetti
#96 Bret Saberhagen
#174 Ellis Burks
#183 Jack Clark
#184 Glenn Davis

Sorted by numbers, there was just one Cardinal in the first bunch: Jack Clark, my favorite River City Rascal (that's a local minor league team he managed, not a lame nickname I gave him).

1988 Donruss
#188 Sid Bream
#202 Ken Griffey
#204 Will Clark
#211 Harold Baines
#216 Dwight Evans
#249 Paul Molitor
#254 Joe Carter
#258 Brian Downing

When typing "Ken Griffey", my hands instinctively start to type ", Jr." afterwards. That's why pencils have erasers, or keyboards have backspaces. This bunch also had 1 Cardinal (by my rules), Will Clark. It's Clarkmania™.

1988 Donruss
#305 Bob Boone
#313 Chili Davis
#340 Claudell Washington
#350 Cory Snyder
#369 Eric Davis
#388 Dave Parker
#399 Jim Rice
#407 Don Sutton

If only Chili Davis and/or Glenn Davis from the first scan had also been Cardinals, it would also be Davismania™. But only one surname can rule the day, and only Eric of these three Davises was a Cardinal.

1988 Donruss
#462 Oil Can Boyd
#463 Dan Pasqua
#471 Dan Quisenberry
#560 Ted Simmons
#626 Pat Perry
#640 David Wells
#656 George Bell
#657 Gregg Jefferies

I'm a little skeptical of this fact, but it seems to check out. This is the first card of Pat Perry, and the first card of Dan Quisenberry that I have shown on my blog. I know I have many Perry cards, and at least a few Quisenberry cards (Quisenberries?). I guess it's possible I acquired them all long ago, and none since the inception of this blog. Among these cards, Ted Simmons and Gregg Jefferies also played for St. Louis. Jefferies was one of the few bright spots for the early 90s Cardinals, making the All Star team in 1993 and 1994, along with Lee Smith and Ozzie Smith once each.

I lowered my per-card average a little bit more, and I'm getting close to cracking the 1.6 cents barrier. At that point... I'll probably just shoot for 1.5 and keep going.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3082
Total Spent	$49.35
Per Card	1.601 cents
Change	-0.007 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

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.