Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part I

College football will be here again before we know it, 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.

2013 Topps Update - Blue Parallel #US4 Matt Adams
2015 Gypsy Queen - Mini #197 Matt Adams

It's hard to believe this is Matt Adams's 5th season in the majors. He still seems like one of the new kids on the team.

1993 Pinnacle #599 Rene Arocha
1993 Topps Stadium Club #712 Rene Arocha
1994 Fleer - Rookie Sensations #1 Rene Arocha
1995 Fleer Ultra #221 Rene Arocha

I was too young to really be aware of it at the time, but Rene Arocha was apparently the first player to defect from the Cuban national team. There was a great article about it in the New York Times a few months ago, you can read here.

1996 Donruss #92 David Bell
1996 Leaf #70 David Bell

Both of these cards are from the same year, yet Donruss claims David Bell wore #25, while Leaf clearly shows 27. He first wore 25 when he came over from Cleveland near the trading deadline, and switched to 27 later that same year, about 2 full seasons before Mark McGwire arrived. Yet, now that he's the Cardinals hitting coach, he's wearing 25 again, because Jhonny Peralta has 27.

2015 Gypsy Queen #27 John Lackey
2015 Topps Opening Day #29 John Lackey

I started out just grabbing guys from the beginning of the alphabet (I'm always sorting), but to cram as many cards as possible in while still tagging each set, I'm doing my best to stick players together who both have cards in common sets, like John Lackey and Matt Adams, who both had a 2015 Gypsy Queen in the package.

July Card Show Purchases II

Here's the other half of the Cardinals and other players I collect.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#9 Bo Jackson
#25 Matt Carpenter
#27 John Lackey
#37 Mark McGwire
#44 Steve Carlton
#47 Ozzie Smith

That's a strong bottom row, with two Hall-of-Famers, and one that would have been, probably if he just handled the post-career PR a little better. Bo Jackson is one of the few players who never played for the Cardinals that I nevertheless collect, just because his story was so fascinating. I think the two-sport aspect gets me a little, too, because I considered adding Deion Sanders to my collections as well.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#48 Shelby Miller
#49 Albert Pujols
#59 Adam Wainwright
#72 Carlos Martinez
#84 John Smoltz
#99 Roger Maris

This half netted me 6 uniformed Cardinals and 5 other Cardinals, for a total of 13 uniformed and 8 other. I wanted to say "former", but both Smoltz and Maris are pictured with teams they played on before St. Louis. I wasn't expecting a full 8% of the base set to fall into my personal collection, but here we are. Certainly that's somewhat due to the Cardinals recent success, and at the expense of other teams, so I will enjoy and appreciate this while the winning lasts. 

eBay Wins #177

Plowing ahead with my eBay penny cards, today I've got 5 cards that cost me a nickel.

2004 Fleer Tradition
#26 Milwaukee Brewers Team Leaders
#56 John Lackey
#82 Chone Figgins
#306 Brian Lawrence
#391 Dave McCarty

5 cards for 5 cents, and they're all from a new set to my collection. I've got Fleer Tradition cards from many other years, but these are my first from 2004. And, I got one Cardinal in his pre-St. Louis days, John Lackey.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3291
Total Spent	$51.41
Per Card	1.562 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

Tis The Season Winnings, Part XI

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 II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X

You can tell from my ordering by year that we're getting close to the end, considering how long ago this prize was sent. This post spans 2009-2011.

2009 Goodwin Champions #75 Carlton Fisk
2010 Topps Attax - Silver Foil "Hot Streak" #39 Victor Martinez
2010 Topps #483 Daisuke Matsuzaka
2010 Topps - Turkey Red #TR4 Albert Pujols
2011 Topps Heritage #101 Jacoby Ellsbury
2011 Topps Heritage #336 John Lackey
2011 Topps Attax #178 Robinson Cano
2011 Topps - Gold #448 Colby Rasmus #1947/2011
2011 Topps - Walmart Black #610 Josh Beckett

I've never purchased any Goodwin Champions or Topps Attax directly, though I've acquired a few through trades. I didn't have the Pujols or Rasmus cards yet, so those are nice to knock off my want list.

2011 Bowman Platinum #31 Adrian Gonzalez
2011 Lineage
#32 Jon Lester
#38 Chris Carpenter
#48 Carlton Fisk
#90 Tris Speaker
#122 Paul O'Neill
#175 CC Sabathia
#178 Albert Pujols

I really like the 2011 Lineage set, but I think I'm one of the few, as evidenced by Topps' decision not to have it return in 2012. I still need 7 cards to complete the base set, but these were not those 7, and they'll go into my trade list.

2010 Topps, Geoffrey the Giraffe Style

Does Toys R Us still use Geoffrey as a mascot? I don't go there often enough to notice, but I was there recently and noticed some clearanced baseball cards from the last few years. There were actually several products to choose from, but thanks to the wonders of smartphones, I was able to see that most of the prices could be beat online. I did opt to buy a $12.99 blaster of 2010 Topps, with Albert Pujols on the box.

2010 Topps
#111 Ty Wigginton
Gold Border #99 Garrett Jones #1997/2010
Black Border
#5 Texas Rangers
#56 Andy Pettite
#105 Madison Bumgarner
#135 Ryan Dempster
#152 Nyjer Morgan
#177 Adam Lind
#226 Juan Rivera

2010 is special to me because that's the year I got back into card collecting. I was killing time walking around in a Target, and browsed the baseball card displays for the first time in many years. A pack of 2010 Series 2 looked interesting for some reason, and my 10 year collecting hiatus was over.

2010 Topps
#54 John Lackey
#207 Colby Rasmus
Black Border #38 Houston Astros
Black Border #329 Colorado Rockies Franchise History
Commemorative Patch #MCP-37 Chipper Jones
Million Card Giveaway #TMC-6 Mickey Mantle
Million Card Giveaway #TMC-7 Roger Maris
Legendary Lineage #LL14 Warren Spahn/Tommy Hanson
Legendary Lineage #LL24 Bob Gibson/Tim Lincecum

I managed to get 3 total Cardinals base cards, including future Cardinals John Lackey and Ty Wigginton, and Colby Rasmus in uniform. I was expecting 2 full packs of black base cards, as promised on the box, but wound up with only 9. I was surprised to see regular inserts also in those packs. I sort of buried the "hit" of the box in the middle of this scan, but it's a nice looking 40th anniversary patch. Also in this bunch are two looooong-expired Million Card Giveaway cards, and a Bob Gibson Legendary Lineage.

2010 Topps
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT-6 Frank Robinson
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT-19 Steve Carlton
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT-44 Mike Piazza
Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs #MTO-25 Mike Schmidt
Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Backs #MTO-39 Frank Thomas
When They Were Young #WTWY-YM Yadier Molina
Peak Performance #PP-5 Babe Ruth
Peak Performance #PP-41 David Wright
Peak Performance #PP-50 Ty Cobb

The 1993 Ozzie Smith from the Cards Your Mom Threw Out set was actually a big reason that first few packs in 2010 brought me back to collecting. I still have my original though, my mom knew better than to throw out my cards. I got another Cardinal here in Steve Carlton, though he's much better known as a member of the Phillies. I also got a card featuring Yadier Molina as a kid. Overall, this was a good blaster for Cardinals.

2010 Topps - Topps Town
#TTT2 David Wright
#TTT6 Ichiro
#TTT9 Roy Halladay
#TTT10 Tim Lincecum
#TTT12 Miguel Tejada
#TTT15 Miguel Cabrera
#TTT23 CC Sabathia
#TTT25 Manny Ramirez

I never did get into Topps Town, and I'm still not really sure exactly what it is/was.

2010 Topps
History of the Game #HOTG17 Dodgers and Giants move to California
History of the Game #HOTG18 Roger Maris
Tales of the Game #TOG-3 Babe Ruth
Tales of the Game #TOG-6 Ernie Banks
Topps Town Gold #FCTTT7 Josh Hamilton
Topps Town Gold #FCTTT19 Justin Upton
Turkey Red #TR28 Mickey Mantle
Turkey Red #TR42 Ian Kinsler

In retrospect, I'd say the inserts in 2010 are actually not that good, except for Turkey Red, which I really like, enough that I'll probably add it to my long list of sets and insert sets I'd like to complete. Don't get me wrong, Babe Ruth and Ernie Banks are obviously all time greats, but the Tales of the Game design just doesn't grab my attention. There's also Topps Town Gold, which is probably like Topps Town, but...more Toppsy? I don't really know. Maybe it unlocked more on the site, or maybe they're just golden. I also grabbed one more Cardinal, Roger Maris.

In all, I think this was a marginal purchase, but I'm still filling in gaps in my collection, so these cards from right before my collecting phase 2 began were nearly all new to me.