A Trade With Mr. Haverkamp

Thanks to a post I made about Turkey Red a few weeks ago, a reader by the name of Mr. Haverkamp contacted me with some more Turkey Reds from my wantlist. You've probably seen his name a few times on other blogs, as he's a pretty active trader. 

2005 Topps Turkey Red
#54 Chris Carpenter
#94 Mark Buehrle
#129 Kip Wells
#156 Jake Westbrook
#229 Dmitri Young
#309 Wade Boggs

2005 isn't the main Turkey Red set I'm focused on right now, so my wantlist is only the Cardinals and retired players, hence why I've got 5 players who played for the Cardinals, and Wade Boggs.

2010 Topps - Turkey Red
#TR13 Yovani Gallardo
#TR20 CC Sabathia
#TR29 Gordon Beckham
#TR35 Stephen Drew
#TR38 Rick Porcello
#TR55 Aaron Hill

2010 Topps' Turkey Red insert set is my big target, and I knocked 6 more off that list. I still need 76 of the 150 total cards in flagship and update, so I'm almost at 50%.

2011 Topps Lineage
1975 Mini #9 Matt Holliday

This was a nice surprise thrown in with all the Turkey Red, also off my want list. Lineage is a set I really liked but didn't seem to be a big hit, only lasting a single year. I have the entire mini parallel set on my wantlist, but I'll likely never finish it. This Matt Holliday brings me up to just 15 out of the 200 cards.

Thanks for the trade, Mr. Haverkamp!

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.

2013 Allen and Ginter Set

You read that title right; we're throwing back allllll the way to 2013.

I bought the full set (almost) from Nachos Grande last year, and it's been sitting on my shelf as I procrastinated entering the cards into my Zistle account. I actually purchased the non-SPs only, and this was also at the beginning of Puig-mania, so a Puig-free set was offered at a substantial discount, so I decided to take a chance that Yasiel Puig would cool off a bit, along with the prices for his cards. So far that doesn't seem to be happening, though. In any case, the set I purchased was 299 of the 300 base cards. In a separate purchase, I bought all 50 of the SPs, so I'm at 349/350, needing only a Puig to finish off the set.

I decided while flipping through the cards again that I'd go ahead and post the Cardinals like I normally do, but there were a large number of them by my criteria. I tried to split them up somewhat logically, though with all of the retired players the divisions became a bit fuzzy. Today was supposed to be players who have moved on from the team.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#5 Albert Pujols
#12 Dan Haren
#20 John Smoltz
#27 Shelby Miller
#46 Colby Rasmus
#93 A.J. Pierzynski

The Shelby Miller trade caught me off guard, and I had to re-scan my cards. Also, I don't know what I was thinking putting A.J. Pierzynski in this pile, even though he is technically a free agent right now. He could still be a Cardinal next year, though he may just as easily be playing somewhere else. Also, Smoltz retired after a partial season with the Cardinals, so one could argue he should have been in the next post, with guys like Ozzie Smith.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#183 Ryan Ludwick
#189 David Freese
#208 Allen Craig
#235 Carlos Beltran
#245 Mark Buehrle
#284 Will Clark

Will Clark's another guy who finished with the Cardinals, though he clearly had the most productive years of his career elsewhere. And Mark Beuhrle has never been a Cardinal, though I still suspect he'd give them a pretty good hometown discount. I like to track his cards just because he grew up in the same town as me.

In conclusion...these are some random 2013 Allen and Ginter cards of guys I collect for reasons not limited to playing for the Cardinals?

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #6

And now we have the opening pack of the second half of the middle box of 2013 Topps. Much like discovering your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate, that means absolutely nothing of consequence.

2013 Topps
#414 Mark Buehrle
Chasing History #CH-60 Derek Jeter
Cut to the Chase #CTC-28 Al Kaline
Gold Parallel #623 Alexi Ogando #0938/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-2 Mike Trout
1972 Topps Mini #TM-97 Josh Johnson

This is my second consecutive pack with no Cardinals base cards or inserts, but I did get a Mark Buehrle, a guy I casually collect, by virtue of his attendance at a high school mere blocks from my house. Other than that there were some of the standard inserts, and the slightly more rare Cut To The Chase. I've said it before, but Al Kaline still reminds me of being a dumb kid and assuming that was a made up name someone pulled off an alkaline battery. That Jeter Chasing History mentions sort of an odd milestone, 3500 hits and 350 stolen bases. As the card mentions, going into 2013 he only needed 2 SB, but 196 hits (less than 2012's total) to reach those marks. Of course, no one ever counts on season-limiting injuries, so Jeter is still well short of the hits mark, and may not reach it before he retires at the end of 2014. 3300+ hits, however, is nothing to sneeze at.

2013 Topps
Chase It Down #CD-2 Pablo Sandoval
Emerald Parallel #396 Aroldis Chapman

The back of the Sandoval card feels like Topps thought they needed to justify featuring the big man on a set about great fielding plays. "After taking extra ground balls during an off-day for the team, Sandoval was sharp when it counted." Big guys can be quick, even if they're not as fast around the bases. We believe it happened, Topps, it's OK.

This pack had the full 42 base cards expected. Only 2 were duplicates, so I added 40 cards to my Series 2 set, which is more than the 10% I must average per pack. All in all, I'm still on track to finish the set.

Series 2 Completion: 209/330 (63.3%)

2013 Opening Day Blaster

Nearly a year after its release, I'm finally opening this Opening Day blaster. I haven't had it for a year; I think I bought this one toward the end of the season, but my "to blog" pile is getting ridiculous. At some point I may just have to declare blog pile bankruptcy, and rip open every pack without scanning and sharing them. But today, here are some new-to-me 2013 Opening Day cards.

2013 Topps Opening Day
#9 Mark Buehrle
#13 Carlos Beltran
#91 Adam Wainwright
#197 Jhonny Peralta
Mascots #M-2 Phillie Phanatic
Mascots #M-3 Mariner Moose
Ballpark Fun #BP-21 Jurickson Profar
Ballpark Fun #BP-22 David Price
Opening Day Edition #179 Wade Miley #0670/2013

I threw a bit of everything in this first scan. I pulled Buehrle and Wainwright last time I opened some packs of these, as well as the Jurickson Profar card. Here I've also got a card of new Cardinal Jhonny Peralta, and now-former Cardinal Carlos Beltran. The Mascots are one of my favorite insert sets, and I got 2 in this box. Finally there's a parallel with too many colors: the blue border, red team color, and purple throwback uniform. I challenge you to find me an uglier card in this set. Nothing against Wade Miley, of course.

2013 Topps Opening Day
Superstar Celebrations #SC-8 Ryan Zimmerman
Play Hard # Dustin Pedroia
Superstar Celebrations #SC-20 Prince Fielder
Play Hard #PH-18 Carlos Ruiz
Opening Day Edition #65 Will Venable #1584/2013
Play Hard #PH-16 Matt Kemp

3 packs had a Play Hard insert, and one had another Blue parallel that could have been used on a Play Hard card as well. The Prince Fielder is yet another duplicate from my previous packs.

2013 Topps Opening Day - Opening Day Stars
#ODS-16 R.A. Dickey
#ODS-19 Bryce Harper

I dare you to enlarge the scan of these 3D cards and stare at them for 2 minutes without getting a headache. I dig 'em in person though.

2013 Topps Opening Day
#141 Yadier Molina

To finish up, here's Yadier Molina, with a nice cameo from Adam Wainwright, since I couldn't scan 7 horizontal cards in one nice block.

March Radness in September

Remember the NCAA basketball tournament from about 6 months ago? I mostly made safe picks this year, and predictably scored "okay" on a scale from awful to fortune teller. However, the rest of the pool in madding's March Radness contest didn't pick enough of the right upsets to defeat me, and I wound up a winner. My prize was a 2013 Heritage blaster, as well as first pick among some singles before 2nd through 4th place got to pick.

First off, the single card

2008 Topps Heritage
T205 Mini #HTCP1 Albert Pujols

This Pujols card is very red, and a little gold. I like it.

With 8 packs in the blaster, I decided to rank them worst to best, based on the insert, short print, or Cardinals contained within.

Pack 8:
114 Cody Ross
126 Craig Kimbrel
162 Hitting Area (Bryce Harper/Chipper Jones)
186 Casper Wells
204 Gregor Blanco
318 Kendrys Morales
371 Cole De Vries
408 2013 Rookie Stars (David Lough/Jack Odorizzi)
497 Jonathan Lucroy SP

2013 Topps Heritage
#497 Jonathan Lucroy SP

Nothing personal, Jonathan, but someone had to finish last.

Pack 7:
25 Andrew Cashner
60 Will Middlebrooks
132 Rickie Weeks
140 Carlos Pena
210 Jacoby Ellsbury
231 Jeff Francoeur
322 Scott Baker
400 Kris Medlen
430 Mike Trout SP

2013 Topps Heritage
#430 Mike Trout SP

An All-Star Rookie trophy solidifies Mike Trout at #7.

Pack 6:
64 Brian Wilson
135 Domonic Brown
155 Red Sox Sockers (Will Middlebrooks/David Ortiz)
252 Yonder Alonso
373 Ted Lilly
379 Nyjer Morgan
398 2013 Rookie Stars (Jeurys Familia/Collin McHugh)
421 Welington Castillo
New Age Perfomers NAP-DW David Wright

2013 Topps Heritage
New Age Performers #NAP-DW David Wright

Wright beats Trout based on rarity; this is a 1:8 insert.

Pack 5:
18 Adam Lind
30 Chad Billingsley
94 2013 Rookie Stars (Henry Rodriguez/Tony Cingrani)
255 Salvador Perez
292 Trevor Cahill
368 Ryan Dempster
391 Andy Pettitte
402 Will Venable
Memorable Moments MM-DP David Price

2013 Topps Heritage
Memorable Moments #MM-DP David Price

I think this set is new to Heritage this year. I like commemorating yearly achievements, and 20 wins is pretty rare these days.

Pack 4:
69 Alex Rodriguez
96 Jeff Samardzija
174 Derek Norris
203 Alcides Escobar
229 Jed Lowrie
360 Mark Teixeira
397 Clint Barmes
417 Juan Francisco
Then and Now TN-MG Juan Marichal/Gio Gonzalez

2013 Topps Heritage
Then and Now #TN-MG Juan Marichal/Gio Gonzalez

A 1960s star out of a 2013 pack is always fun.

Pack 3:
24 Anibal Sanchez
87 Bruce Bochy
106 Mike Leake
160 David Freese

2013 Topps Heritage #160 David Freese

223 James Loney
246 Josh Hamilton
344 Andrew Bailey
364 Russell Martin
Target Red Border 190 Derek Jeter

2013 Topps Heritage
Target Red Border #190 Derek Jeter

This was the first pack with 2 "hits" by my generous definition. We've all grown attached to David Freese in St. Louis, but there are rumblings of an offseason trade with such cheap infield talent at AAA ready to arrive. That may also make the Cardinals lots of merchandising money, because plenty of folks will want to go replace their Freese jerseys and t-shirts purchased after his amazing 2011 postseason.


Pack 2:
40 Carlos Beltran

2013 Topps Heritage #40 Carlos Beltran

159 Desmond Jennings
176 Ervin Santana
197 Mark Buehrle

2013 Topps Heritage #197 Mark Buehrle

264 Vernon Wells
267 Marco Estrada
276 Nick Swisher
396 Jeff Karstens
437 Billy Butler SP

2013 Topps Heritage #437 Billy Butler SP

A 3-hit pack, only because I count Mark Buehrle. And I'll deduct points for a card of a DH, even if it is the likable Billy Butler.

Pack 1:
1 2012 NL ERA Leaders (Clayton Kershaw/R.A. Dickey/Johnny Cueto)
13 Adam LaRoche
21 Joe Girardi

2013 Topps Heritage #21 Joe Girardi

Is that Joe Girardi, or Vince McMahon in a Yankees cap?

218 Brandon Beachy
254 Nathan Eovaldi
268 Justin Ruggiano
Baseball Flashback #BF-EB Ernie Banks

2013 Topps Heritage
Baseball Flashback #BF-EB Ernie Banks

Even a Cardinals fan has to enjoy a card of Mr. Cub.

Clubhouse Collection Relics CCR-BP Brandon Phillips

2013 Topps Heritage
Clubhouse Collection Relics #CCR-BP Brandon Phillips

Madding picked up a good blaster for me, since these are seeded 1:55 packs, or a little more than once every 7 8-pack blasters. Based on that alone, this pack has to win the blaster.

For once, I managed to cram one of Cards on Cards' contest results into a single post. Thanks to madding for the blaster and the mini!

2013 Opening Day Jumbo Packs

It's late August, which can only mean one thing...Opening Day? The truth is, sometimes I buy cards from a set I know I want, but defer opening them until later, especially if I want to show them on my blog. These packs aren't too terribly old though, they're from the early August 1/2 price sale on cards at Target. I don't think I've ever seen a store run a sale on current products, but I went straight to my local Target when I heard about the sale, to get Topps' cheapest product even more cheaply. I only found 4 24-packs of Opening Day, so I went ahead and bought all 4 for a total of $5.98. Here are the highlights from all 4 packs at once.

2013 Opening Day - Mascots
#M-6 Oakland Athletics
#M-7 Screech
#M-13 Atlanta Braves

Opening Day followed a few of the same patterns this year. There were 6 1:2 insert sets, so my first 3 packs all had inserts from the same 3 sets. I can't quite place what it is I like about these mascot cards so much. Maybe it's because I rarely get to see any opposing team's mascot on TV, and almost never in person.

2013 Opening Day - Play Hard
#PH-1 Buster Posey
#PH-2 Bryce Harper
#PH-20 Yadier Molina

There have been rumblings in the league about eliminating the catcher collision play. I've heard that Buster Posey has been specifically instructed not to block the plate, since he's too valuable offensively. Seeing Yadier Molina bowl over the catcher, also in red, makes me imagine the positions switched, which then makes me think I really don't like the collision at the plate any more.

2013 Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations
SC-17 Chase Headley
#SC-20 Prince Fielder
#SC-21 Buster Posey

I like what Opening Day has done with Superstar Celebrations this year, switching from the common border and design to team colors.

2013 Opening Day
Ballpark Fun #BF-21 Jurickson Profar
Opening Day Stars #ODS-25 Yadier Molina
Opening Day Edition #192 Josh Beckett #0571/2013

The last pack had 3 different insert sets. If all of the Ballpark Fun set is pie-in-the-face cards, I may not try to complete it. But, if there's a card with the old wad of bubble gum on the hat squatchee, I'm in. Also, I pulled another Molina, and Opening Day's favorite parallel color, blue.

2013 Opening Day
#9 Mark Buehrle
#91 Adam Wainwright

Would you believe, out of 84 base cards, only 1 was a Cardinal? That would be Adam Wainwright on the left. That's okay, though, because I tend to get random cardinals in trades, so really from a set-completion standpoint, non-Cardinals are better, right? I also included local guy Mark Beuhrle, because I follow him a bit too.

I'm hoping to eventually build this set, and most of the common inserts. I've got some more I haven't opened yet, which is good, because at best I'm 84 cards into the 220 card base set.

I Won Play at the Plate's June Contest

Hey, it's only July 6, I've been way further behind than this before. The June Contest was for a blaster of 2012 Topps Series 2, so I won a whopping 81 cards. Here's what I got.

Base cards:

There were 51 base cards, 2 of which were Cardinals, and one of which is a guy from my hometown (or at least my home megalopolis of connected towns), Mark Buehrle.

2012 Topps #612 Carlos Beltran

2012 Topps #559 Brandon Dickson

2012 Topps #355 Mark Buehrle

And the rest:
332 Jose Reyes
337 Glen Perkins
338 Jose Constanza
342 Kosuke Fukudome
352 Julio Teheran
355 Mark Buehrle
369 Huston Street
371 Jim Thome
378 Brandon League
381 David DeJesus
382 Wandy Rodriguez
384 Sean Marshall
385 David Murphy
386 Ryan Zimmerman
389 Alexi Casilla
390 Taylor Green
406 Juan Rivera
410 Jeff Locke
420 Barry Zito (Really Topps? This isn't a little too on-the-nose for you?)
421 Heath Bell
428 Jordan Schafer
432 Wei-Yin Chen
438 Juan Uribe (one of my worst Fantasy Baseball pickups this year)
442 Johnny Giavotella
443 B.J. Upton
449 Shane Victorino
460 Thomas Field
465 Michael Schwimmer
481 Matt Harrison
493 Ryan Madson
523 Jim Johnson
526 Casper Wells
538 Wilson Betemit (As he's a Wilson, I feel like I should start a collection)
545 Randy Wolf
553 James Darnell
559 Brandon Dickson
564 Jose Valverde
568 Jason Castro
572 Hiroki Kuroda
580 Tony Campana
582 Shin-Soo Choo
596 Freddy Garcia
604 Juan Abreu
611 Neftali Feliz
612 Carlos Beltran
622 Daniel Hudson
623 Clint Barmes
637 Brad Brach
641 Derek Jeter CL
650 Prince Fielder
658 Juan Pierre

Blue-Bordered Parallels:

Because this was a Wal-Mart blaster, there were 2 full packs of Blue-bordered Parallel cards out of the 10 total packs, 12 cards in all because there were inserts in the packs as well.

2012 Topps - Blue Border #574 Kerry Wood

And here are the rest of those:
373 Carlos Gonzalez
401 Kenley Jansen
418 Jarrod Parker
515 Willie Bloomquist
534 Hector Gomez
541 Jack Hannahan
546 Matt Thornton
574 Kerry Wood
586 Daisuke Matsuzaka
603 Lonnie Chisenhall
625 Tommy Hunter
644 Andy Dirks

Golden Moments Parallel:

More parallels! Inserted 1:4 packs, I should have expected 2.5, and got 3.

2012 Topps - Golden Moments Parallel #348 Alfonso Soriano

2012 Topps - Golden Moments Parallel #554 Raul Ibanez

2012 Topps - Golden Moments Parallel #610 Cody Ross

Golden Moments:

Yeah, I'm confused too. I'm pretty sure the above are in fact called Golden Moments Parallels, while these are just Golden Moments. Also inserted 1:4 packs, I got 2. That's much better than 2.5 of each.

2012 Topps - Golden Moments #GM-22 David Wright

2012 Topps - Golden Moments #GM-28 Joe Mauer

1987 Topps Mini:

For some reason I like when Topps uses old designs with current players, and I think lots of collectors do, too, but I hope they don't overdo it with Heritage, Archives, the 1975 Minis that were in 2011 Lineage, and now these 1987s. These were also 1:4, so I got an extra half again.

2012 Topps - 1987 Mini #TM-57 Jacoby Ellsbury

2012 Topps - 1987 Mini #TM-66 Cole Hamels

2012 Topps - 1987 Mini #TM-85 Michael Pineda

A Cut Above:

Now to the rarer inserts, at a scant 1:6 packs. These are die-cut and hard to get into sleeves, but cool looking. Also they seem to feature Hall of Famers based on my small sample. I got 2 instead of my promised 1.67.

2012 Topps - A Cut Above #ACA-14 Willie Mays

2012 Topps - A Cut Above #ACA-20 Johnny Bench

Gold Futures:

Another 1:6, but features young guys this time. I got 2 again, I'm on fire!

2012 Topps - Gold Futures #GF-32 Drew Storen 

2012 Topps - Gold Futures #GF-29 Chris Sale

Gold Standard:

I have a feeling all these gold names are going to get confusing when traders are emailing back and forth. Here's another 1:6 of which I received 2.

2012 Topps - Gold Standard #GS-38 Paul Molitor

 I love that Jays uniform, I'm glad they brought something similar back.

2012 Topps - Gold Standard #GS-48 Lou Gehrig

Career Day:

What an arbitrary accomplishment to celebrate. Dustin Pedroia is only the second player since 1919 to get 5 hits, 3 home runs, a double, and a walk in one game. Another 1:6, but sadly my luck has run out and I only got 1.

2012 Topps - Career Day #CD-14 Dustin Pedroia

Golden Giveaway:

I wish they'd make these more like real cards, because they're numbered and I still feel compelled to collect them. This one features "The Old Man" as I jokingly refer to him to my friend who lived in Baltimore for a bit. These were also 1:6, and I got 1. I haven't redeemed the few of these I have yet, and I think I may try to trade the codes off soon. Watch for a post on that if anyone's still reading this far down.

2012 Topps - Golden Giveaway #GGC-18 Cal Ripken, Jr.

Mound Dominance:

Here's a 1:8 insert, the rarest of the common. This one celebrate Tom Seaver No-hitting the Cardinals June 16, 1978. Booo. But hooray for me for getting a cool card.

2012 Topps - Mound Dominance #MD-1 Tom Seaver

Retired Number:

After seeing may bloggers post the Historical Stitches cards, I was hoping I would get one of those for my patch card, but that was before I saw the Retired Number cards. To me, these are better looking than the alternative.

2012 Topps - Retired Number #RN-GC

Now for a little math diversion. Skip to the end if you loathe math. I was wondering if I got something near what was promised on the box as far as inserts. Of course, those odds are across the entire run, so certainly a little variation is acceptable.

Set	Rate	Expected	Actual	Difference
Golden Moments Parallel	1:4	2.5	3	+0.50
Golden Moments	1:4	2.5	2	-0.50
1987 Topps Mini	1:4	2.5	3	+0.50
A Cut Above	1:6	1.67	2	+0.33
Gold Futures	1:6	1.67	2	+0.33
Gold Standard	1:6	1.67	2	+0.33
Career Day	1:6	1.67	1	-0.67
Golden Giveaway	1:6	1.67	1	-0.67
Mound Dominance	1:8	1.25	1	-0.25
GM Wood	1:31k	0.0003	0	-0.0003
GM Platinum	1:31k	0.0003	0	-0.0003
			Total	-0.08

In conclusion, I was shorted 8% of an insert card. How awful, Topps!! I'm kidding of course, I don't think it'd be possible to get any closer than that.

Well that was a long post, so in case you've forgotten, I owe a thanks to Play at the Plate for another awesome contest. He runs them monthly and always had some cool prizes.