Zistle Trade #31

With this trade post, I'm all caught up with Zistle, because I've been extremely inactive there for the last few months.

1992 Fleer #596 Todd Zeile
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #230 Ron Gant
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #231 Brian Jordan
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #232 Ray Lankford
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #234 Tom Pagnozzi
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #235 Todd Stottlemyre
1998 Fleer Ultra Main Set #295 Todd Zeile

I liked the sparkly set that was 1997 Metal Universe, and bought several packs when it was new. Before this trade I only had one uniformed Cardinal, John Mabry, which came in a prize package. Now I've got 6 with the addition of these 5, leaving me Alan Benes,  Andy Benes, and Dennis Eckersley to complete the team set. I also picked up 2 Todd Zeiles, one featuring his time with the Marlins, where he arrived with a much higher-profile star, Mike Piazza. Piazza of course was quickly sent to the Mets, and Zeile would go to the Rangers at the trade deadline, and the following season, rejoin Piazza on the Mets. I guess I never realized before they played together for both of those teams and Los Angeles.

eBay Wins #249

I'm tired today. So here's a wall of cards with no commentary!

1989 Topps
#284 Jim Leyland
#285 John Candelaria
#290 John Franco
#292 Jim Corsi
#293 Glenn Wilson (x2)
#294 Juan Berenguer
#296 Ron Gant
#298 Chris James
#299 Steve Ellsworth (x2)

1989 Topps
#301 Charlie Leibrandt
#303 Felix Fermin
#306 Tracy Woodson
#307 Lance McCullers
#309 Mario Diaz
#316 Walt Weiss
#322 John Smiley
#323 Gary Thurman
#327 Mark Lemke

1989 Topps
#328 Rick Honeycutt (x2)
#337 Calvin Schiraldi
#340 Kirk Gibson
#341 Jim Deshaies
#350 Andy Van Slyke
#357 Jerry Reuss (x2)
#366 Herm Winningham
#368 Brian Holton
#374 John Wathan

1989 Topps
#375 Terry Pendleton (x2)
#379 Tim Flannery
#384 Mark Salas (x2)
#388 Bobby Bonilla
#392 Andy Van Slyke
#398 Julio Franco
#414 Jim Fregosi
#420 Joe Carter
#423 Brian Fisher (x2)

1989 Topps
#424 Luis Polonia
#425 Jay Howell
#430 Mark Gubicza
#433 Albert Hall
#440 Bobby Bonilla (x2)
#446 Rob Murphy
#448 Eric Plunk
#453 Tom Prince
#454 Paul Assenmacher (x2)

1989 Topps
#456 Tim Belcher
#462 Jose Guzman
#474 Bob Rodgers
#475 Dave Parker
#477 Dick Schofield
#478 Doug Drabek
#482 Steve Peters
#483 Mickey Hatcher
#488 Kevin Coffman (x2)

1989 Topps
#504 Bob Walk
#512 Donnie Hill (x2)
#513 Jesse Orosco
#514 Chet Lemon
#522 Randy Kramer
#523 Andres Thomas
#527 Dave Henderson
#537 Pete Smith
#547 Mark McLemore

1989 Topps
#551 Randy Ready (x2)
#552 Greg Cadaret
#564 Russ Nixon
#566 Al Pedrique
#569 German Jimenez
#571 Billy Ripken (x2)
#575 Juan Samuel
#576 Greg Minton
#580 Harold Reynolds

1989 Topps
#581 Gene Nelson (x3)
#582 Mike Marshall
#586 Joe Boever
#588 Luis Alicea (x2)
#592 John Cangelosi (x3)
#598 Ken Gerhart
#599 Tom Candiotti
#605 Bob Welch
#606 Rick Dempsey

1989 Topps
#607 Willie Ansley
#621 Rick Mahler
#622 Stan Javier (x2)
#634 Marvin Freeman
#641 Curt Young (x2)
#653 Tommy Barrett
#658 R.J. Reynolds
#678 Dion James (x2)
#681 Jeff Robinson

I scanned 90 cards, and there were 19 duplicates and 2 triplicates, for a total of 111 cards. For you math whizzes out there, at a penny each that's  $1.11.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4972
Total Spent	$62.09
Per Card	1.249 cents
Change	-0.005 cents

eBay Wins #247

Here are the rest of the 1989 Fleer cards from my eBay bargain hunting. As you can see, they were mostly from team lots, including Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and LA and Oakland in the last post. Since I usually sort my cards by number, I appreciate a set that keeps teams contiguous.

1989 Fleer
#214 Jose Lind
#215 Junior Ortiz
#216 Vicente Palacios
#217 Tom Prince
#218 Gary Redus
#219 R.J. Reynolds
#220 Jeff Robinson
#221 John Smiley
#222 Andy Van Slyke

Andy Van Slyke started with the Cardinals, and Vicente Palacios nearly finished with them, except he played in Mexico for 3 years after St. Louis and came back to play in San Diego for part of a season.

1989 Fleer
#223 Bob Walk
#224 Glenn Wilson
#283 Mark Gubicza
#385 Dennis Martinez
#421 Jody Davis
#547 Mario Diaz
#584 Milt Thompson
#585 Jose Alvarez (x2)
#586 Paul Assenmacher

1989 Fleer
#587 Bruce Benedict
#588 Jeff Blauser (x2)
#589 Terry Blocker
#590 Ron Gant
#592 Tommy Gregg
#593 Albert Hall
#594 Dion James
#595 Rick Mahler
#596 Dale Murphy

It's hard to believe Ron Gant only played in St. Louis for 3 years, but he was here when they returned to making playoff appearances in 1996.

1989 Fleer
#597 Gerald Perry
#598 Charlie Puleo
#599 Ted Simmons
#600 Pete Smith
#601 Zane Smith
#603 Bruce Sutter
#604 Andres Thomas
#605 Ozzie Virgil
#637 Cannon Arms (Chris Sabo/Bobby Bonilla)

In this photo, Gerald Perry, Ted Simmons, and Bruce Sutter were all Cardinals, as were both of Chris Sabo and Bobby Bonilla.

1989 Fleer
#647 Prospects (Randy Kramer/Miguel Garcia)
#649 Prospects (Jim Corsi/Bob Milacki)
World Series
#4 Dramatic Comeback
#5 Gibson Steals the Show
#10 Series Caps Award-Winning Year
#12 Dodger Blue, World Champs

I'm not sure if the World Series cards were inserts, or were just as common as the base set cards, but I got quite a few of them since two of the lots were LA and Oakland.

1989 Fleer
World Series
#1 Dodgers Secret Weapon
#2 Rookie Starts Series
#6 "Bulldog"
#7 One Swing, Three RBI's
#9 Sax's Speed Wins Game 4
Stickers
Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
Pittsburgh Pirates

And it finishes off with the rest of the World Series cards, and some team Stickers. I've got a lot of these around, I should really peel them and put them somewhere around my desk at work or something.

There were only two doubles in this post, which is a good number for my eBay purchases. By my count, that's a total of 53 cards, which rang up 26.5 cents out of the half penny box. See, I told you it would even itself back out.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4765
Total Spent	$60.45
Per Card	1.269 cents
Change	-0.008 cents

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXXIII

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

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX
XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX
XXXI XXXII


With the pro football season winding down, I'll run through these a little faster now. Today's them is "Horizontal cards and others in the same set or with the same player". Catchy, right?

1996 Topps #167 Danny Jackson
1999 Upper Deck Victory #439 Mark McGwire
2000 Skybox Dominion #37 Mark McGwire
2000 Skybox Dominion #102 J.D. Drew

I like the shiny sets from 98-2000, which was really the heyday of collecting for me the first time around. Skybox Dominion just reminds me of when there were so many products I couldn't keep track, and would buy maybe a pack from each product per year.

1996 Topps #431 Jaime Bluma/David Coggin/Steve Montgomery/Brandon Reed
1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated World Series Fever #34 Ron Gant
1999 UD Choice #130 Mark McGwire
2000 Skybox Dominion - New Era #18 Adam Kennedy

Here are the aforementioned horizontal cards. Can you tell 98-99 was the homerun era? Also, for its time, that prospect card had a decent hit rate, with 3 out of 4 players making it to the major leagues. Steve Montgomery is shown as a Cardinal, because they drafted him, but he was traded for Dennis Eckersley before he made it to St. Louis.

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXII

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

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI

1996 Topps #232 Matt Morris
1997 Bowman's Best #197 Matt Morris
1998 Donruss #110 Matt Morris
1998 Score Rookie/Traded #RT56 Matt Morris
1998 Score Rookie/Traded #RT203 Ron Gant
1998 Topps #128 Matt Morris
1999 Upper Deck MVP #173 Matt Morris
2002 Topps Total - Award Winners #AW25 Matt Morris

Matt Morris came along just as the Cardinals were starting to get good for the first time in my baseball-watching life. He had several really good years, culminating in a third place finish to Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling for the Cy Young award. He couldn't quite get them to split the vote and sneak in there.

1999 Topps #131 Ron Gant
1998 Upper Deck #203 Ron Gant
1998 Fleer Tradition #380 Ron Gant

Ron Gant was in my first in-person baseball game, although on the Braves at that time. In my head it feels like he was a big part of the team for a long time, but he was only here 3 years, and played 5 seasons afterwards and 9 before.

eBay Wins #224

Today I've got the end of my 1988 Donruss half-penny pile, which is 72 more cards. 

1988 Donruss
#454 Terry Pendleton
#455 Dave Meads
#460 Jay Aldrich
#464 Tim Crews
#467 Steve Ontiveros (x2)
#472 Dave Stewart
#475 Dave Anderson
#484 Mike Bielecki
#488 Jim Sundberg

I remember as a new baseball fan, my dad telling me Terry Pendleton used to be on the Cardinals. This would have been around 1992, and I could barely believe it. I knew he played for the Braves, and in my mind it just seemed like players were always on the same team. Of course I'd quickly encounter more and more players that joined or left the Cardinals.

1988 Donruss
#499 Tracy Woodson
#501 Ken Schrom
#502 Angel Salazar
#503 Eric Plunk
#506 Geno Petralli
#508 Robbie Wine (x2)
#511 Mark Grant
#513 Jeff Blauser
#514 Bob Walk

Tracy Woodson finished his career in St. Louis in 1992 and 1993, after being out of the majors from 1990-1991. According to my tags, this is my first Tracy Woodson card posted.

1988 Donruss
#515 Craig Lefferts (x2)
#516 Manny Trillo
#517 Jerry Reed
#518 Rick Leach
#525 Jeff Hamilton
#528 Greg Cadaret
#534 Eric Nolte
#537 Charlie Puleo (x2)
#538 Tom Prince

No Cardinals in this bunch, and barely any names I recognize.

1988 Donruss
#540 Jim Lindeman
#546 Mike Devereaux (x2)
#548 Jose Rijo
#552 Dave LaPoint
#554 Rocky Childress (x2)
#555 Wally Ritchie
#558 Jeff Robinson (x3)
#560 Ted Simmons
#562 Keith Miller

Apparently this is my first Jim Lindeman card posted too. Dave LaPoint was another Cardinal, and Ted Simmons is here in his final season, his 21st, after his first 13 were in St. Louis.

1988 Donruss
#571 Pete Smith
#572 Darnell Coles (x2)
#575 Dennis Rasmussen
#576 Steve Jeltz
#580 Ron Hassey
#587 Tim Belcher
#589 Melido Perez
#590 Rick Honeycutt
#592 Curt Wilkerson

I really didn't remember Darnell Coles playing for the Cardinals in 1995, but he did, in 63 games. I do remember Rick Honeycutt, as one of Tony La Russa's favorites that was brought over from the A's.

1988 Donruss
#595 Storm Davis
#598 Alejandro Pena
#604 Tom Newell (x2)
#606 Jim Gott (x2)
#607 Harry Spilman
#610 Mickey Brantley
#611 Jose Nunez
#616 Bobby Meacham

1988 Donruss
#618 Gene Garber
#620 Randy Myers
#622 Domingo Ramos
#623 Ed Romero
#626 Pat Perry
#627 Andres Thomas
#643 Keith Hughes
#654 Ron Gant

Pat Perry and Ron Gant finish off this post for Cardinals. Perry was another Cardinal that wore my favorite number, 37.

With the duplicates I didn't scan, there was a total of 72 cards in this post. As they were from my half-cent box, they cost me 36 cents, and brought my average down another .016 cents per card. My total eBay bargain cards is now over 4000.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4035
Total Spent	$56.09
Per Card	1.39 cents
Change	-0.016 cents

Zistle Trade #20

I've now successfully completed 20 trades on Zistle, and this one was with a frequent trading partner, who seems to be a Marlins collector for the most part. Every time I add some relatively common cards to my want list, he's usually got a trade for me within a few weeks. I'm certain most of these were added recently, especially the 1993 Studio cards I added when I got the Gregg Jefferies in my last trade.

1993 Studio #45 Scott Cooper
1993 Studio #62 Todd Zeile
1993 Studio #88 Ron Gant
1992 Donruss #334 Heathcliff Slocumb
1993 Bowman #111 Todd Stottlemyre
1995 Topps #635 Steve Kline / Herb Perry

I like these Studio cards, but I really started collecting Studio in 1997. I liked the design that year and bought a whole box, which was tough to do on the budget of a teenager. Those cards made me appreciate the Studio brand, so through the years I've sought out at least the Cardinals from other years, including those not pictured on the team, as I always do.

The other 3 cards also feature out-of-uniform Cardinals, including rookie cards for Heathcliff Slocumb, who played part of 1999 with the team, and Steve Kline, who played here 2001-2004, and was the league leader in appearances each season 1999-2001. Then there's my long lost cousin, Todd Stottlemyre. I always forget the exact relationship; I think technically it's 2nd cousin once removed. Now I've got to call my mom and maybe grandma tomorrow to sort this out.

Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot, Part IV

Several weeks ago, I read a post at Johnny's Trading Spot titled Instant mini collections up for grabs. "Up for Grabs" always gets my attention, so I threw my name into the mix. They were supposed to be randomly assigned, but through a lucky draw and one trade, each of the winners wound up with exactly what they originally wanted most. For me, that was cards with batting donuts.

Part I II III

Shouldn't Friday always be Donut Day?

1990 Fleer
#292 Steve Buechele
#301 Pete Incaviglia
#559 Von Hayes
#560 Tom Herr
1990 Topps
#143 Rafael Belliard
#325 Robby Thompson
1990 Topps Traded
#65T Candy Maldonado
#85T Junior Ortiz

I've never heard whether there's any sort of interesting story behind it, but for some reason 1990's Tom Herr was 1987's Tommy Herr.

1987 Donruss
#140 Tommy Herr
#169 Keith Moreland
#183 Terry Pendleton
#485 Bob Brenly
#622 Dave Henderson
1989 Donruss
#309 Rafael Santana
#346 Mickey Hatcher
#355 Gene Larkin
#484 Wallace Johnson

It still fills me with cognitive dissonance that Terry Pendleton was a Cardinal longer than a member of the Atlanta Braves. I started watching baseball in 1992, so I never saw him play for us firsthand, and I didn't find out that he did until years later.

1990 Upper Deck
#86 Neal Heaton
#148 Ernie Whitt
#232 Ron Gant
#240 John Moses
#289 Eddie Williams
#298 Mike Scioscia
#306 Mike Heath
#419 Tim Laudner

1990 Upper Deck was clearly big on the donut photo on the back of the card, favoring action shots for the most part on the front.

1990 Bowman #332 Jerry Browne
1989 Fleer #219 R.J. Reynolds
1989 Fleer #573 Steve Jeltz
1990 Donruss #456 Glenn Braggs
1990 Donruss #798 Chris James
1991 Leaf #36 Spike Owen.

Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Bonus Round!

Sometimes when I win a contest, I set the prize aside until I have time to fully rummage through all of it. In this case I won a contest back in late September, and I think the "Small Flat Rate Box" arrived by early October. I opened it immediately, but it's been sitting on my desk, too daunting of task to sort, since then. I finally felt the need to dive into it, and give jaybarkerfan his proper thank you post.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

I honestly had no intention of opening these packs, but they sat in a nice pile on my desk, taunting me. I started by opening 1, and in a few minutes had opened the rest. So, why not, here's the content of the packs from part 7.

1988 Donruss
#654 Ron Gant
#626 Pat Perry
#602 Don August
#523 Al Nipper
#432 Rick Schu
#421 Jon Marzano
#411 Shane Mack
#375 Calvin Schiraldi

1988 Donruss
#320 Kent Hrbek
#243 Phil Bradley
#209 Craig Reynolds
#131 Brook Jacoby
#130 Ken Howell
#97 Curt Young
#42 John Farrell
Puzzle Pieces 13, 14, and 15

1988 Donruss
#60 Danny Cox
#65 R.J. Reynolds
#182 Ivan Calderon
#187 Stan Jefferson
#305 Bob Boone
#310 Tracy Jones
#314 Glenn Hubbard
#427 Greg Harris

1988 Donruss
#432 Rick Schu
#436 Mike LaCoss
#437 Gerald Perry
#550 Mike Loynd
#554 Rocky Childress
#558 Jeff Robinson
#559 Jose Uribe
Puzzle Pieces #43, 44, and 45

2 packs of 1988 Donruss yielded just 2 Cardinals, and only one actually in the St. Louis uniform, Danny Cox. Ron Gant is the other. 

1989 Topps
#9 Tim Teufel
#186 Pat Perry
#195 Ozzie Guillen
#275 Danny Tartabull
#346 Rex Hudler
#388 Bobby Bonilla
#450 Roger Clemens
#457 Mackey Sasser

1989 Topps
#565 Jeff Russell
#584 Randy Velarde
#616 Steve Rosenberg
#635 Willie Randolph
#677 Dave Schmidt
#702 Jamie Quirk
#706 Pete Incaviglia
Contest Card

The 89 Topps pack also had 2 Cardinals, but this time neither was in uniform. They're Rex Hudler and Bobby Bonilla.

1985 Fleer Stickers
#52 Kevin Bass
#77 Mike Schmidt
#87 Dwight Gooden
#97 Rick Rhoden
#110 Dave Steib
#114 Fernando Valenzuela

1985 Fleer Stickers
Logos - Orioles

I didn't have any 1985 stickers, so the size of these surprised me. The long edge is just about as long as the short edge of a full-sized baseball card.

1986 Fleer Stickers
#4 Juan Beniquez
#10 Phil Bradley
#14 Tom Browning
#21 Steve Carlton
#76 Paul Molitor
Logos - Cardinals

The 86 stickers are back to full card size. I got a nice Cardinals "hipster bird" logo (that's what the Busch Stadium tour guide called it), and Steve Carlton, who is probably more famous for playing in Philadelphia, but started out as a Cardinal, and even got his personal catcher Tim McCarver traded to the Phillies with him.

Ok, that's really it now. There won't be anything else out of the box. Thanks again, jaybarkerfan.