eBay Wins #229

Today I have the rest of the 1988 Topps that I started in my last eBay post, with plenty more Cardinals.

1988 Topps
#534 John Wathan
#536 John Morris
#544 Jim Traber
#546 John Candelaria
#549 Albert Hall/Dale Murphy/Ken Griffey/Gerald Perry
#557 Craig Reynolds (x2)
#600 Mike Schmidt
#613 Bobby Thigpen
#616 Jay Aldrich

John Morris is obviously a Cardinal, but so is Gerald Perry, in that Braves Leaders card I sort of forgot was horizontal until I started writing this post. Whoops. Just turn your head a little, it's good for your neck after hours at the computer.

1988 Topps
#617 Oddibe McDowell
#618 Cecil Fielder
#619 Mike Dunne
#621 Gene Nelson (x8)
#629 Kelly Downs
#632 Steve Shields
#642 Bob Dernier
#643 Rocky Childress
#658 Tim Conroy

I know Cecil Fielder played for the Blue Jays, but it still hits me oddly every time I see it. He's supposed to be a Tiger. Every player "belongs" on their 1992 or 1993 team in my mind, because that's when I started watching baseball. And yes, Gene Nelson was another multicard player from that A's lot I bought. That Bob Dernier card is a prime example of why I need to get through all these eBay cards and put them in my collection. I traded for it pretty recently, even though I've had these cards sitting in my "to post" box for who knows how long.

1988 Topps
#662 Jim Rice
#667 Luis Quinones
#697 Steve Lombardozzi
#700 George Brett
#702 Mike Gallego (x2)
#718 Mike Felder
#720 Tim Raines
#724 Danny Tartabull
#729 George Bell/Fred McGriff

Mike Gallego was one of Tony La Russa's favorites he eventually brought over to the Cardinals. He didn't put up fantastic numbers, but I remember him being a solid bench player.

1988 Topps
#740 Rick Sutcliffe
#752 Mark Grant
#754 Mike LaCoss
#761 Tony Armas
#768 Dickie Noles
#769 Cecil Cooper
#779 Tom Glavine
#784 Joe Sambito
#785 Alvin Davis

Rick Sutcliffe was probably best known as a Cub, but he finished his career in St. Louis, making 14 starts in 1994.

1988 Topps
#791 Ted Simmons

I could claim I left Ted here alone since he was a Cardinal, but really it was just poor planning on my part. When I get a giant stack to scan, sometimes I lose track, and don't count how many cards are left until too close to the end to even it out nicely with some scans of 8 instead of 9. I believe there were 10 left when I realized my blunder.

Once again these were from the half-cent box, knocking my per-card average down by almost one hundredth of a penny, which sounds like a ridiculous thing to track when you say it like that!

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4173
Total Spent	$56.79
Per Card	1.361 cents
Change	-0.009 cents

eBay Wins #50

This win is actually from two auctions. A seller had a bunch of 1992 Donruss team sets, and I won two of them at 19 cents each for 15 cards each.  Since I started collecting in 1992, but definitely saw Topps as the best card company, these cards used to represent some kind of "Evil Empire" to me, by their very existence. It's funny how things can turn around in 20 years; I'd love to see some Donruss out there now in addition to Topps. Let's see which Phillies and Blue Jays had cards in '92.

1992 Donruss
#8 Eddie Zosky
#11 Andy Ashby
#28 Roberto Alomar
#57 Lenny Dykstra
#58 Roberto Alomar
#65 Kelly Gruber

Two Hall-of-Fame cards in the first bunch, though they're both Roberto Alomar.

1992 Donruss
#76 Pat Combs
#92 John Morris
#94 Tommy Greene
#98 John Olerud
#109 Tommy Greene
#141 Tom Henke

This bunch has a duplicate player again, Tommy Greene's base card, and one commemorating his No-Hitter. There are also the first two former cardinals, in John Morris and Tom Henke.

1992 Donruss
#146 Dale Murphy
#179 Randy Ready
#180 Devon White
#187 Ed Sprague
#198 Darren Daulton
#219 Jimmy Key

I only recently learned that Dale Murphy played anywhere but Atlanta. I think of him as a player from the 70s and 80s, but apparently he even played a year for the Rockies in 1993. Speaking of learning, thanks to Donruss's policy of putting full names on the back, I learned that Randy Ready, whose name already makes him sound like a superhero, has an action-hero middle name too: Max. Randy Max Ready. Tell me that's not the hero in a cheap SyFy movie.

1992 Donruss
#230 John Kruk
#263 Todd Stottlemyre
#268 Terry Mulholland
#274 Rene Gonzales
#300 Jose DeJesus
#301 Mike Timlin

I think John Kruk was one of my favorite players when I started watching baseball in 1992. He seemed to have a big personality. It probably didn't hurt that as a kid I was carrying a few extra pounds and could identify with him a bit more. Next to him is one of my current favorite players, Todd Stottlemyre. Mike Timlin, on the bottom right, was also a former Cardinal.

1992 Donruss
#308 Duane Ward
#319 Darrin Fletcher
#342 Greg Myers
#353 Mitch Williams
#379 Pat Borders
#384 Wes Chamberlain

The last group features 3 catchers, showing a nice juxtaposition of different ways their cards can be executed. I think Darrin Fletcher is the best of the 3, having an action shot in full gear. I don't know much about Pat Borders, except that he served as Tom Pagnozzi's backup for about half of 1996 on the Cardinals, but unless he was known as a big power hitter (or even a high-average hitter), the batting pose seems like a wasted opportunity. Finally there's Greg Myers, who was just walking around and a lazy photographer asked him to squat. He's got a forward cap, no gear, and is in grass. That's no way to do a catcher card, Donruss.

Despite that Greg Myers pose, this seemed like pretty good purchase. After all, Toronto won the World Series in 1992 and 1993, and most of these Phillies helped them to win the NL in 1993.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2064
Total Spent	$39.13
Per Card	1.896 cents

March Radness Win, Part V

[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]
[Part IV]

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.

How much more can there be? In this post, I'll show a good mix of late 1980s Cardinals.

1987 Topps
#7 Todd Worrell
#440 Willie McGee

It's weird for me to see Todd Worrell as the closer, since he was the setup man by the time I started paying attention. And doesn't the 1987 set just scream wood paneled station wagon?

1988 Topps #380 Joe Magrane

The younger people in town learned the Cardinals used to have a pitcher named Joe Magrane earlier this year, when his daughter was briefly on American Idol.

1989 Topps
#259 Larry McWilliams
#578 John Morris
#640 Willie McGee

Two guys I've honestly never heard of, and St. Louis's favorite standing ovation target, Willie McGee.

1990 Score #68 Jose Oquendo

The Secret Weapon! He's played every position for us, including Manager (fill in), 3B Coach, and I think even 1B Coach (fill in again).

1990 Bowman
#183 Joe Magrane
#185 Todd Worrell
#186 Jose DeLeon
#194 Willie McGee
#200 Jose Oquendo

Some nice 1990 Bowman here, with a lot of repeated players from above, and Jose DeLeon.

1990 Donruss
#516 John Morris
#536 Jose DeLeon

Finally, here's two more 1990 Donruss for my longest project ever, completing this set. I think it's been about 18 years since I bought a bunch of these and started trying for the set.