July Card Show Purchases

In addition to my autographs, I did make one purchase at the card show; a full set of 2015 Gypsy Queen, without the SPs.  I have so many sets I haven't quite completed, that this one felt like a good idea when I saw it. I might still buy a few packs for a smattering of insert, and put the extra base cards in my trade list.

I decided to pull out all the Cardinals and players I collect to show, and as it turns out there were 24 of them, so I split them into two posts so I can tag them all. I tried a few different ways to sort them into two equal groups of 12, and couldn't quite get there, so I just sorted them numerically. Here's the second half first.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#141 Nomar Garciaparra
#184 Michael Wacha
#197 Matt Adams
#228 Jhonny Peralta
#238 Carlos Beltran
#263 Mark Buehrle

I went with the second half of the cards first because today is Nomar's Birthday. He's 42 today, and I'm glad to see him showing up in current products. In addition to the 4 Cardinals, there's also my hometown compatriot Mark Buehrle.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#265 Jason Heyward
#271 Lance Lynn
#273 Allen Craig
#274 Dan Haren
#284 Trevor Rosenthal
#299 Kolten Wong

Some local sportswriters have talked about the possibility of Dan Haren making his way back to the team by the trade deadline, although I don't know how likely that really is. All told from this half I got 7 uniformed and 3 former Cardinals.

2012 Heritage Blaster #6

This box was suspiciously low on SPs, inserts, and even Cardinals. I expect Cardinals to be a bit random, but inserts generally fall about 1 per pack. Only 5 showed up. I was hopeful that meant I was missing a color-swap variation among the base cards, but they all appeared to check out as the regular variety.

2012 Topps Heritage
#190 Matt Holliday
#278 Jhonny Peralta
#390 Jason Heyward
Blue Parallel #164 Austin Jackson
Checklist #C4
Chrome Parallel #HP54 Felix Hernandez #0605/1963
News Flashbacks #NF=A Alcatraz
Stick-Ons #9 Jacoby Ellsbury

I tried out a different scanner for these, and it appears to have cropped the edges and resulted in a generally grainier photo. I won't be using that one anymore if I can help it.

On to the progress! (With a few of the total insert set sizes fixed)

Base: 274/425
Base SPs: 12/75
Baseball Flashbacks: 3/10
Blue Parallel: 4/30
Checklists: 3/5
Chrome Parallels: 5/100
Clubhouse Collection Relics: 1/71
New Age Performers: 2/15
News Flashbacks 5/10
Stick-ons: 6/46
Then and Now: 1/10

2012 Heritage Blaster #4, Almost 3 Years Later.

I bought several of these boxes from Dave and Adam's quite awhile ago, sometime after 2013 came out I'm sure. Since the last one I posted was #3 in late 2012, I guess this is #4. I'm not very good at maintaining a FIFO method of opening and posting my cards, so these were just the next most interesting ones in my box of unopened stuff. The others ones will probably be next.

2012 Topps Heritage
#22 Edwin Jackson
#172 Yadier Molina
#206 Lance Lynn
#244 Jason Motte
#265 2012 Rookie Stars
#281 Jason Marquis
#306 Star Receivers
#321 2012 Rookie Stars
#357 Allen Craig

I'm not sure why Adron Chambers showed up on multiplo different Rookie Stars cards, but I got two of them. He's on a third version I got in that third blaster. Both cards featuring Yadier Molina came in a pack together, which is nothing more than a statistical oddity, but it was with a Cardinal, so I noticed.

#390 Jason Heyward
#429 Jonny Venters
#434 Shane Victorino
Baseball Flashbacks #BF-AK Al Kaline
Blue Parallel #84 Doug Fister
New Age Performers #NAP-RC Robinson Cano
News Flashbacks #NF-UA University of Alabama
Checklist #C2
Stick-Ons #27 Ryan Howard

I got so many Cardinals they spilled into the Inserts scan, since we picked up Jason Heyward this year. That blue Doug Fister is my second copy, and those are the only two blues I have. Again, statistical anomalies are weird when they happen to you. Something about the more common insert sets in Heritage make me want to complete them all, and I'm not sure what it is. Let's see my current status:

Base: 212/425
Base SPs: 12/75
Baseball Flashbacks: 3/10
Blue Parallel: 1/30
Checklists: 3/5
Chrome Parallels: 3/100
New Age Performers: 2/16
News Flashbacks 3/15
Stick-ons: 4/46
Then and Now: 1/10

Tis The Season Winnings, Part II

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

The prize nearly filled an 800 count box, so I've got a few more posts to write. This one's all 2012 Allen and Ginter base cards and inserts, and a pretty good start on completing the set. There were a few duplicates too, which will pad out my trade list a little bit.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#1 Albert Pujols
#4 Yu Darvish
#5 David Price
#7 Mickey Mantle
#19 Bob Knight
#20 Miguel Montero
#21 Matt Moore
#27 Ricky Nolasco
#28 Dustin Ackley

2012 Allen and Ginter came right out of the gate and poked me in the eye with card #1 featuring Albert Pujols in his new uniform. I've made peace with him leaving, though, helped greatly by the Cardinals making it to the NLCS all 3 years he's been gone, and to the World Series once.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#37 James McDonald
#43 Josh Johnson
#44 Brandon League
#51 Don Denkinger
#55 Colin Montgomerie
#56 Jordan Pacheco
#63 Zach Britton
#65 Alex Rios
#69 Kurt Suzuki

Don Denkinger is a well-known umpire in St. Louis, for making the wrong call in the 1985 World Series against Kansas City. Some like to blame that call for the loss of the series, but that was game 6, and the Royals won game 7 11-0.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#73 Joakim Soria
#73 Jordan Zimmermann
#82 Giancarlo Stanton
#86 Nyger Morgan
#89 Edwin Jackson
#92 Craig Kimbrel
#99 Sandy Koufax
#102 Huston Street
#107 C.J. Wilson

This post has been dotted with former Cardinals, including brief Cardinal Edwin Jackson. That's a nice looking Sandy Koufax card too.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#111 Wandy Rodriguez
#115 Carlos Santana
#116 Brandon Beachy
#120 Mariano Rivera
#129 Michael Phelps
#135 Michael Morse
#146 Josh Beckett
#157 Roger Federer
#165 Alex Avila

2012 Allen and Ginter
#181 Joe DiMaggio
#186 Jemile Weeks
#194 J.J. Hardy
#196 Lou Gehrig
#197 Ty Cobb
#202 Jaime Garcia
#208 Martin Prado
#214 Yunel Escobar
#216 Corey Hart

I'm not sure what Jaime's doing in this photo.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#217 Brian Wilson
#225 Roger Maris
#232 Kate Upton
#256 Brandon Morrow
#258 Doug Fister
#259 Wade Davis
#260 Alex Liddi
#264 Brian McCann
#265 Chris Parmelee

2012 Allen and Ginter
#266 Carlos Ruiz
#269 Mike Schmidt
#270 Anthony Rizzo
#271 Mark Reynolds
#279 Brett Gardner
#286 Neal Walker
#289 Brandon Phillips
#290 Derek Holland
#292 Greg Gumbel

This is my first card of Mark Reynolds since he became a Cardinal. I'm not sure how he'll work out, but hopefully they'll slot him in the right situations for success.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#299 Jeff Niemann
#303 Ivan Nova
#310 Russell Martin
#314 Michael Buffer
#330 Mike Napoli
#331 Carl Crawford
#340 Marty Hogan
#341 Colby Lewis
#342 Ryan Dempster

2012 Allen and Ginter - Worlds Tallest Buildings
#WTB2 Taipei 101
#WTB3 Petronas Towers
#WTB5 1 World Trade Center
#WTB6 Empire State Building
#WTB8 40 Wall Street
#WTB10 Metlife Building
Historical Turning Points
#HTP4 The Reformation
#HTP10 Discovery of Electricity
#HTP19 Sputnik I

Ginter always has some curious insert sets, like 2012's Tallest Buildings and Historical Turning Points. They're not exactly chase cards, but they're at least interesting. Also, a fun game to infuriate people is to insist that Russian satellite's name is pronounced "Spootnik".

2012 Allen and Ginter
#26 Hunter Pence
#29 Hanley Ramirez
#40 Jimmy Rollins
#71 Curtis Granderson
#76 Michael Bourn
#84 Andre Ethier
#104 Ian Desmond
#162 Jeff Francoeur
#215 Dan Haren

Back to the base cards, here are the horizontal ones. Dan Haren is another Cardinals in the box, though Jaime Garcia remains the only one actually wearing the Birds on the Bat in 2012.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#229 Ichiro
#231 Todd Helton
#274 Derek Jeter
#317 Jason Heyward
What's in a Name
#WIN14 Chipper Jones
#WIN37 Jason Heyward
#WIN50 Mike Schmidt
#WIN95 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Another new Cardinal for 2015 is Jason Heyward, and I got a short print and insert featuring him.

2012 Allen and Ginter
#346 Lefty Kreh
Baseball Highlight Sketches #BH-21 Willie Mays

Finally, I have the two cards that didn't fit when I scanned all the horizontal cards, and didn't fit with anything else. Why a fisherman is a Short Print, I have no idea, but the famous over-the-shoulder catch by Willie Mays makes a nice sketch.

2013 Allen and Ginter Set, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post of Allen and Ginter cards, I bought an almost-complete Allen and Ginter set (minus Puig), along with a separate purchase of the 50 Short Prints. Before I file it away with my "sorted" cards, here are the rest of the Cardinals from the set.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#108 Bob Gibson
#115 Stan Musial
#139 Red Schoendienst
#161 Enos Slaughter
#254 Lou Brock
#341 Ozzie Smith

6 Hall of Fame cards is a pretty good number out of a single set that mostly features current players. These players all have numbers retired by the Cardinals.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#125 Matt Holliday
#172 Jon Jay
#276 Lance Lynn
#283 Jason Motte
#340 Yadier Molina
#342 Adam Wainwright

There were also 6 Cardinals pictured in uniform in the set that are still on the team, though Motte hasn't been re-signed yet. Everyone else will be back, though.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#96 Jayson Heyward

Finally, here I have the newest Cardinal, Jason Heyward. I'll be interested to see how his 2015 goes, since it's his contract year, and what that ultimately means for his next contract, whether its with St. Louis or elsewhere. His acquisition puts 2 2014 Gold Glovers in the Cardinals' 2015 lineup, and may be the tipping point to make me decide to attend the Cardinals' Winter Warmup this year, to get an in-person autograph before he even plays his first game here.