eBay Wins #74

Ah, 1990. In the fall, I started 3rd grade, and still had no interest in - or knowledge of - baseball or baseball cards. Yet, 1990 is one of the biggest years by quantity in my collection, since they've been cheap and plentiful from the time I started collecting in 1992 all the way until now. Here are 40 more for 40 cents.

1990 Donruss
#163 Joe Magrane
#555 John Costello

There were 2 uniformed Cardinals out of the 26, which I guess is twice the expected value of a random assortment in 1990, when there were 26 teams. I'll call that a win.

1990 Donruss
#11 Kevin Mitchell
#47 Julio Machado
#116 Greg Minton
#122 Dwight Evans
#170 Kirk McCaskill
#189 Rob Dibble

I'm a Diamond King fan, and Rob Dibble's still around baseball, so those are good ones.

1990 Donruss
#194 Darren Daulton
#214 Mike Moore
#239 Tommy Gregg
#282 Mike Devereaux
#294 Ivan Calderon
#333 Bob Milacki

I was a bit of a bandwagoner as a kid, so when the Phillies were back to back champions I took an interest in them, making that Darren Daulton card stand out to me. [Edit: The Blue Jays beat the Phillies in 1993, but the Braves in 1992. Thanks to Mark for pointing that out.]

1990 Donruss
#345 Erik Hanson
#383 Dave Magadan
#389 Jose Alvarez
#430 Ken Howell
#538 Joey Cora
#541 Wes Gardner

It felt like Joey Cora would be such a huge star at one point, but he seemed to level off. Now, he needs to run far away from Ozzie Guillen if he wants another MLB coaching gig.

1990 Donruss
#557 Rick Dempsey
#629 Vance Law
#631 Todd Frohwirth
#651 Steve Lyons
#698 Steve Cummings
#709 Larry McWilliams

Psycho! I like cards of guys with other ties to the game, whether it's coaching or broadcasting, so maybe I should start a side collection. That would cover a big percentage of players though. Also in this bunch, Larry McWilliams is a former Cardinal too, but a group of 24 cards scans much more nicely than 23.

Alright, enough with the red borders, let's see what's next.

1990 Topps
#224 Delino DeShields
#725 Terry Pendleton

This is Delino in his pre-Cardinal days. Also, I associate Terry Pendleton so strongly with the Atlanta Braves that it always seems weird to see footage or cards of him as a Cardinal.

1990 Topps
#143 Rafael Belliard
#195 Tim Burke
#243 Barry Jones
#349 Steve Finley
#401 Kevin Mitchell
#402 Eric Davis

2 All-Stars isn't bad.

1990 Topps
#425 Bill Landrum
#524 Daryl Boston
#537 Mark Grant
#554 Jay Buhner
#593 Scott Bradley
#658 Donell Nixon

As a guy who had normally kept a shaved head (except for a brief time in college), I appreciate Jay Buhner. Also, there's this:

Of course, Frank shortchanged Jay here. He had 40 HR in 1995, the "last year" to which he was referring in this clip.

On a statistical note, I shattered the 1.8 cents/card mark with this purchase, coming down from 1.802 to 1.789.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2390
Total Spent	$42.75
Per Card	1.789 cents

182 Packs Giveaway, Part III

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.
[Part I]
[Part II]

1991 Topps
#262 Tim Jones
#734 Bryn Smith

Here are Tim Jones and Bryn Smith sporting a look the cardinals have brought back this year, red caps on the road.

1990 Score
#235 Scott Terry
#347 John Costello
#537 Greg Mathews
#556 Ken Dayley

More road shots except for Scott Terry. These cards kind of remind me of the blue and red parallels modern Topps has.

1991 Studio
#65 Storm Davis
#106 Mark McGwire

Storm Davis arrived via the randomizer, and here's the final McGwire I received.

1991 Studio
#232 Pedro Guerrero
#237 Lee Smith
#240 Todd Zeile

Now here are 3 guys I remember well from when I first started watching baseball. I'd have traded you any other 1B, Closer, or 3B for these cards back then.

1995 Topps
#167 Bret Wagner
CyberStats #173 Todd Zeile

Bret Wagner - never heard of him. I enjoy how baseball-reference.com let's me immediately find out what happened to these unknown draft picks, though. Bret made it up to AA, then got traded to Oakland, but stayed at AA. The Todd Zeile card is a parallel set with a dumb name but an interesting concept. Topps jumped at the rare chance to simulate the rest of the 1994 Season after the strike, and put out the projected stats onto cards. Todd would have hit over 50% more doubles than he did in the real season (38 vs 25), but just under 37% more home runs (26 vs 19). I wonder why that is.

That's it for today, and there are still plenty more to go.

eBay Wins #33

I bought this lot of 23 cards with some stars peppered in for 49 cents. They're from 1988-1991, but for just over 2 cents apiece I figured I couldn't go wrong, and I'd get a nice long blog post taking me, and maybe you, down memory lane

1988 Score #7 Wally Joyner

1988 Score #275 John Tudor

I only vaguely recall John Tudor as a Cardinal, and I think mostly I've just heard the name over and over, I don't actually remember him playing.

1988 Score #278 Jerry Browne

1988 Score #481 Kevin Mitchell

The yellow border goes nicely with the Giants, so much so I didn't even remember Score has colored borders by card number, not by team, until I went to file this one with the rest of them.

1989 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-22 Will Clark

Speaking of the Giants, it's MVP and former (future?) Cardinal Will Clark.

1989 Score #193 Dwight Evans

1989 Score #221 David Cone

1989 Score #429 Tim Leary

1989 Score #534 John Costello

Another Cardinal I've never heard of. Maybe he was traded to whichever team Jim Abbott was on to give the local sportswriter an easy headline season.

1989 Topps #5 Orel Hershiser

1989 Topps #300 Darryl Strawberry

1989 Topps #390 Darryl Strawberry

1989 Topps #478 Doug Drabek

If I was going to get some 1989 Topps, these are pretty good cards to get. I always think of the guys who were aging superstars in 1992-1995ish as the greatest cards ever, corresponding with the first time I started paying attention to baseball. And of course Doug Drabek was on the last successful Pirates teams.

1990 Donruss #269 Kirby Pucket

The lone 1990 Donruss was one I already had, so this will go on my trade list. Not that anyone will trade me for a 1990 Donruss, so it'll probably languish there for awhile until I clean house.

1990 Fleer #314 Ruben Sierra

1990 Fleer #399 Orel Hershiser

I like the look of 1990 Fleer, and another Orel Hershiser isn't bad either. I'm kind of surprised to see he fell off the Hall of Fame ballot in 2007 on just his second try. He seemed like a plausible candidate to me.

1991 Donruss #433 Ryne Sandberg

1991 Donruss #490 Kirby Puckett

I like the green 1991 Donruss better than the blue for some reason, but both designs scream 90s.

1991 Upper Deck #193 Mitch Williams

1991 Upper Deck #418 Jeff Reardon

1991 Upper Deck #744 Bo Jackson

Of all the non-Cardinals out there, Bo Jackson is a player I've really considered collecting for awhile. I really like every time I get one of his cards, but I can't bring myself to add another player to my list. Although, there must not be too many of him out there for the few years he played, right? That's it, I've talked myself into it. Bo Jackson is now a player I collect.

1991 Upper Deck #768 Vince Coleman

Here's Vince Coleman trying not to get run over by a tarp.

1991 Upper Deck #769 Mitch Williams

In case I lost you along the way, notice that's the second Mitch Williams from 1991 Upper Deck. Without looking it up, I assume the cards were put out in two or more series that year, giving them time to print up a new card with Mitch on his new team. According to baseball-reference, he was traded April 7, the day before opening day for the Phillies. That seems strange, but I don't see any "crazy" stories about the trade online anywhere.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	1926
Total Spent	$37.52
Per Card	1.948 cents