eBay Wins #184

Today I've got another bundle of penny cards, but thankfully they're unique cards, unlike the 9-of-a-kind from post #183. Today I've got some 2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update
#344 Grady Sizemore
#371 Gil Meche
#401 Francisco Liriano
#450 Jim Edmonds
#451 Jake Peavy

Jim Edmonds was a member of the Padres for less than 2 months of the season before being released, hence this is actually a Cubs card despite the photo.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update
#350 Garrett Atkins
#442 Zach Duke
#492 Scott Rolen

The Cardinals traded Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus, so now I have the other half of this trade, which I first mentioned when I got the Glaus card in this post. That'd be an interesting collection: the cards of players traded for each other, especially if they both showed up in that year's Update/Traded sets.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3318
Total Spent	$51.68
Per Card	1.558 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

Tis The Season Winnings, Part VII

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

Yes, this prize package is still going. The Cardinals/Yankees/Red Sox singles continue with the early 2000s.

2002 Donruss Fan Club #162 Edgar Renteria
2005 Fleer Showcase #62 Scott Rolen
2005 Upper Deck MVP #80 Scott Rolen
2005 Donruss Team Heroes #54 Curt Schilling
2005 Donruss Team Heroes #64 Tim Wakefield
2005 Donruss Team Heroes #298 Reggie Sanders
2005 Topps Update #UH8 Matt Lawton
2005 Topps Update #UH126 October is Month of Reggie
2005 Upper Deck All Star Classics #11 Derek Jeter

These Cardinals are the team that started the resurgence that has resulted in success over the last 11-12 seasons or so. The 2004 Team was swept by the Red Sox, but they returned to the NLCS in 2005, and would win the World Series in 2006. I enjoy cards with cameo appearances, like the clear shot of Larry Walker on the Reggie Sanders postseason card. Jeter, Schilling, and Wakefield are some nice additions too.

Zistle Trade #5

The Baseball season may be over, but my card collecting season doesn't stop. Here I've got another small trade made through Zistle, acquired for some of my 2012 Gypsy Queen duplicates

1986 Topps Mini League Leaders #59 Jack Clark

I was surprised to find I didn't have any cards from this set, yet, but now all of the Cardinals are on my want list.

2008 Allen and Ginter #263 Yadier Molina
2007 Upper Deck Future Stars #87 Scott Rolen
2009 O-Pee-Chee #493 Yadier Molina
2011 Topps Finest #100 Daniel Descalso

Offering a Molina or two is a good way to get your trade accepted by a Cardinal fan. Descalso and Rolen are good 3B pickups too, but I actually had this trade in progress the same time as the last one, and I didn't realize both traders had offered me the Future Stars Rolen. It's a nice enough card, but I don't really need 2, so it's now back on my trade list unless/until a Rolen autograph opportunity comes up and I need a duplicate to get signed.

Zistle Trade #4

There are no small trades, only small traders, or something like that. However, I manged to snag these 5 cards for just a Bryce Harper base card in a PWE. This trade came in when Zistle.com first announced their free trial of their enhanced features, which seem to allow for easier matching of want and trade lists, and my trading partner found me.

1993 Upper Deck #428 Dmitri Young
1997 Collector's Choice #471 Matt Morris
2007 Upper Deck Future Stars #87 Scott Rolen

The cards above were nice, and on my want list, but the two below are of players I really collect.

1990 Leaf # Ozzie Smith
1997 Fleer #193 Mark McGwire

Even though these are two base cards of fairly common sets, I didn't have them yet. The McGwire is especially surprising to me given how much wax I was buying in 1997, and how much McGwire stuff I bought from my LCS in 1998-99.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 16

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 ]

2005 Upper Deck #184 Edgar Renteria

I felt like Edgar Renteria was ageless, having already had a World Series winning hit before arriving at the Cardinals, playing here for 6 years, and then 7 more seasons elsewhere after that. Of course, he was actually quite young on arrival, and he was only 21 in that World Series win for the Marlins.

2005 Upper Deck #185 Jason Isringhausen

I think I see some Wrigley Field ivy in the background of Izzy here.

2004 Fleer Legacy
#8 Sammy Sosa
#48 Hideo Nomo
#53 Richie Sexson

These cards were a little dinged up and sort of used as packing material on the outside of each stack in the team bags. Still, those are some medium to big stars on the cards (Sorry Richie, you necessitated the "medium to" there).

2003 Topps
#469 Brett Tomko
#567 So Taguchi
#702 Jim Edmonds

I'm continually surprised that I keep finding sets I don't have cards from. 2003 Topps was one of those as well, which is even stranger, since Topps base cards from any year seem to just float around and settle in my card boxes.

2003 Upper Deck Game Face
#102 J.D. Drew
#104 Scott Rolen
#106 Tino Martinez

Game Face is a bit more of an obscure set, so it's not surprising I didn't have any of it. Rolen has a legitimate focus-on-the-pitch game face. However, it would appear someone caught J.D. Drew after fouling a ball off his shin, and Tino before a dugout tirade.

1991 Upper Deck
#636 Stolen Base Leaders (Lou Brock/Ricky Henderson)

1991?! That's right, there's a bit of a gap in the cards I received as prizes, from 1992 to 2002. Given that it took me 16 posts to get through the 11 years of 2003-2013, I figure that saves you about 16 more posts of reading. We're at the beginning of the end now. Or is the end of the beginning, since I'm going reverse chronologically?

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 15

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 ]

2006 Fleer
#86 Tyler Johnson
#91 Mark Mulder

I didn't own a single card from 2006 Fleer before these two. Now, my want list has had a net gain because I've added all Cardinals from the set.

2006 Fleer Ultra #40 Mark Mulder

I also didn't own any 2006 Fleer Ultra, but that one only added 5 Cardinals to my want list. Now, look at this card, then look at Mulder's Fleer card above. They look suspiciously similar, don't they? I'm pretty sure these were taken from the same game. How can I be so sure? I can't be 100% positive, but here is my evidence:

• Those are the Cardinals Home Sunday caps. They don't mess around and wear them on special days; they're for Home Sundays.
• Mulder had no relief appearances in 2005, narrowing my search to his starts.
• He only started 1 Sunday game at Busch Stadium in 2005, on July 3.

Mulder was actually healthy in 2005, with 32 starts. It looks like he got a few extended breaks between starts down the stretch, but that may have just been because the Cardinals had a sizable lead and won 100 games. But I suppose 32 chances is many fewer than 150-162 a photographer would have to get a shot of a position player, making something like this slightly more palatable.

2006 Upper Deck #808 Gary Bennett

Gary Bennett was a solid, dependable backup to Molina for 2 years, but he wasn't near the character Jason LaRue was.

2005 Opening Day
#32 Chris Carpenter
#65 Woody Williams (x2)
#154 Scott Rolen
#156 Edgar Renteria
#157 Larry Walker

2005 Opening Day #17 Jim Edmonds

The Cardinals seem to pick up a lot of aging stars for their final years, but they seem to work out to be productive years. When Larry Walker came to St. Louis, I enjoyed getting to see a player I had known to be a superstar for a long time, and he did quite well in his final year and a half with us. 2005 Opening Day is another new set for me, despite my fondness for the current Opening Day sets.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 13

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 ]

2007 Topps Heritage
#24 Yadier Molina
#60 Preston Wilson
#65 Chris Narveson
#96 Kip Wells
#106 Scott Rolen
#210 Jim Edmonds
#476 Albert Pujols

More Heritage! This really is one of my favorite sets (every year) since I resumed collecting, but I haven't completed the Cardinals yet, so I'm glad these have been a big part of my prize. And even though I sorted these by number to scan, I managed to line up in the bottom row the guys once called MV3, when speculation was they would finish 1-2-3 in the MVP vote, or possibly cancel each other out.

2007 Bowman Heritage
Prospects #BHP77 Nathan Southard
Prospects #BHP84 Jarrett Hoffpauir
#154 Scott Rolen
#164 Chris Duncan

I have much less Bowman Heritage, in fact it's a total of 7 cards now, 5 of them Cardinals, spanning 2001-2007.

2007 Fleer #47 Yadier Molina

Since my collecting hiatus (~2000~2010) included Topps getting their exclusive deal, I think of companies like Fleer as ceasing production in 1999 or so. I like seeing sets that are new to me, and 2007 Fleer is one of them. Having my one card from this set be our All-Star catcher is icing on the cake.

All-Star Winnings, Part 14

Way back in July 2012, I won a contest at Cards On Cards. The premise was to pick the Cardinals player who would have the biggest impact on the game, determined Sabermetrically. I picked the right player, and got a pile of Cardinals for my trouble. They've been sitting in that same pile, haunting me, for quite some time, so now is the time to show them to you.
Part [ I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII ]

Guess what? This is the last post in this series. And I'll finish it off with some Ozzies, and a relic.

1993 Leaf - Heading for the Hall #10 Ozzie Smith
1993 Stadium Club #548 Ozzie Smith
1993 Triple Play - Action #3 Ozzie Smith
1995 Topps D3 #58 Ozzie Smith
1996 Fleer #556 Ozzie Smith
1997 Fleer #452 Ozzie Smith

What happened here, did my scanner give up halfway through? No, when I sorted these cards by year the bottom 3 just happened to be the less bold 1996-97 Fleer, and a 3D set called Topps D3. The Triple Play Action card actually unfolds and has a little scratchoff game inside, played much like card-based tabletop baseball games. I didn't scratch it, of course. Despite the scanned appearance, I like 1996-97 Fleer, and it presented a very different look from what was currently on the market when it came out.

1993 Fleer Ultra - Top Glove #6 Ozzie Smith
1988 UK Minis #72 Ozzie Smith
1988 King B #4 Ozzie Smith

Between a horizonal card, a mini, and a round meat snack insert, there was no good way to do this scan. The King B "card" brings a childhood memory flooding back, as I found a similar card featuring Andres Galarraga (on the Rockies, so 1993 or later) on my gradeschool playground. I kept it for a long time, but I have no idea where it is currently. I wouldn't be surprised if I still have it, though.

2007 Upper Deck - Game Materials #UD-SR Scott Rolen

Finally, we have the cornerstone of the prize, a Scott Rolen relic card. I've mentioned this before, but I was at Rolen's first game in St. Louis after we traded for him, and he was such a huge part of our offense and defense for so long, that a Rolen relic is a great addition to my collection.

I want to say thanks one more time to madding at Cards on Cards for being so generous with his contest prizes. And to everyone else, Vote Yadi for All-Star Catcher.

This Break is so 2007, Part V

When CaptKirk42 of the aptly named CaptKirk42's Trading Cards Blog opened up a break of 5 boxes of 2007 baseball cards, I jumped right in to claim the Cardinals and my 2 random teams. It was slow to fill so each slot wound up with 3 random teams, which also caused me to pick up the Dodgers as well in hopes of a Nomar Garciaparra card or two. In all I got the Athletics, Braves, Cardinals, [Devil] Rays, Dodgers,  Mariners,  Royals, and Twins.
[ I | II | III | IV ]


I might be a sucker, I might be behind the times, I might just dig in my heels when people disagree with me, but so help me, I like both Heritage and Turkey Red.

2007 Heritage
#27 Dan Haren
#41 Anthony Reyes SP
#65 Chris Narveson
#106 Scott Rolen
#199 Ronnie Belliard
#287 Chris Carpenter
#337 Jason Isringhausen
#476 Albert Pujols
#492 Brad Penny SP

I landed 2 SPs among the Cardinals, although one was Brad Penny, who pitched 9 games and hit one Grand Slam for us in 2010.

2007 Heritage
#216 2006 Cardinals
#289 Justin Verlander/Jeff Weaver

World Series winners usually get some bonus cards in the following year's set, such as this Verlander/Weaver card.

2007 Heritage
#103 Carl Crawford SP
#339 Jarrod Washburn SP
#357 Eric Stults SP
#419 Scott Kazmir SP

Here are the other SPs I received. I like having all of the SPs in the highest numbers like 2011-2013 Heritage, because then I feel like 1-425 can be seen as the base set. Also, I know when I flip through the cards by number which ones are SPs. To track these down, I had to go to some shady user-generated content sites, so hopefully they're correct.

2007 Heritage
Flashbacks #FB7 Eddie Yost
New Age Performers #NP11 Chipper Jones

These inserts don't seem to fit the set as well as other years of Heritage. But a Chipper's always a good thing.

2007 Heritage - A-Rod Road to 500 #71

Finally, my randomly assigned Seattle pays off again. This set was inserted across Topps products, so it'd be a bear to put together through pack buying.

That's it for the break. It was a lot of fun going through my giant box of cards, covering 5 different products and 8 teams. And, of course, I now own 5 more partial team sets of the Cardinals, so my wantlist has only increased.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part IV

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.
[ I | II | III ]

2006 Opening Day #19 Scott Rolen

I'm sure I've noted this before, but I was at Rolen's first home game for the Cardinals, sitting in a friend's rich uncle's close seats. As he ran from his stretches in right field back to the dugout, someone in my section yelled out "Welcome to St. Louis, Scott!" and everyone around me cheered. A little schmaltzy, but it got a smile out of him.

2009 Upper Deck Icons #85 Rick Ankiel

I was at Ankiel's first game as an Outfielder too. I wasn't nearly as close that time, I had tickets we bought through my wife's cheap company. Luckily they were in foul ground on the third base side, so we had a clear view of RF that night. Also, now I have 3 of the 4 Cardinals in this small set.

2008 Goudey #193 Troy Glaus

Glaus was obviously supposed to be pictured as a Blue Jay in 2008 Goudey, because he's surrounded by Blue Jays in the checklist, and the Cardinals are a few cards back.

2012 Gypsy Queen
#197 David Freese
Hallmark Heroes #HH-SM Stan Musial
#237 Bob Gibson

Ah Gypsy Queen, one of my weaknesses, because I'm a bargain shopper, and they're 50 cents a card in retail packs. Yet, I feel the need to collect it. I've actually got 2 of the Musials now, after pulling the same card from a discounted blaster.

2012 Opening Day #60 Adam Wainwright

2012 Opening Day #206 David Freese

We've see these two guys together before too. More Cardinals for my trade list.

2012 Topps #559 Brandon Dickson

I can't get enough of this guy either. I was hoping he'd be our next young fireballer, but he has left for the Orix Buffaloes in Japan.

2012 Opening Day Rack Pack #4

I haven't blogged one of these since July, though admittedly I've had a few unopened packs sitting by my monitor for a few weeks. Let's see if I can knock them out before Opening Day 2013 hits the stores.

2012 Opening Day #110 Scott Rolen

No Cardinals this time around, but one former Cardinal in Scott Rolen here.

2012 Opening Day - Elite Skills #ES-25 Elvis Andrus

 Sacrifice Bunt is not nearly as good a title as Barehand the Squibber.

2012 Opening Day - Opening Day Stars #ODS-12 Prince Fielder

Prince is a big boy to put on a 3D card like this. Also those stripes, despite being mostly vertical, are not very slimming.

2012 Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations #SC-20 Martin Prado

Here we have the newest Diamondback, assuming that deal goes through.

Now, just like the other packs, here are the base cards:
7 Mickey Mantle
52 Matt Joyce
82 Phil Hughes
101 Todd Helton
107 Rickie Weeks
110 Scott Rolen
116 Josh Hamilton
135 Josh Reddick
139 Trevor Cahill
146 Ian Desmond
163 Heath Bell
164 Nyjer Morgan
173 Michael Pineda
176 Geovany Soto
178 Desmond Jennings
183 Cliff Lee
189 Mariano Rivera
190 Stephen Strasburg
195 Ike Davis
203 John Danks
211 Ben Revere

Big Pile, part 3

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
Josh at Royals and Randoms had a draft-style contest called Big Pile way back in late 2011, and I misplaced the envelope until this week.

1997 PowerDeck #11 Scott Rolen

I remember when these came out in 1997, thinking they'd be really cool, then seeing a rather high price and never buying any. It probably didn't help that I was 14 with no job.

1997 Upper Deck - Star Attractions #SA10 Kenny Lofton

How could I resist a shiny, diecut card like this?

1990 Fleer #461 Barry Bonds

Junk wax but a star player. It seems like these are a little hard to find, so I went ahead and picked this card.

1996 Fleer Ultra #533 Jason Kendall

I had Jason Kendall on a lot of fantasy baseball teams in the early 2000s, which caused me to follow his career a little closer than I might have otherwise for another team's catcher.

2006 Bowman Chrome - Prospects #BC109 Leonard Davis

Oooh shiny.

1997 Bowman #401 Jason Marquis

Former Cardinal Jason Marquis.

1993 Studio #42 Mark Grace

A Cub?! No matter the team, I appreciate a player who plays the game right and has fun doing it. For example, during a pitching appearance in a blowout during his time in Arizona, he imitated Mike Fetters' idiosyncrasies.

2012 Heritage Blaster

Saturday morning I had a friend coming over for help with some programming homework at 10am, and I was due to give blood that day. When my alarm went off at 6:30, I thought, "it'd be much nicer to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, and do nothing for an hour or so before he gets here". So at that moment I made a deal with myself that if I got up and gave blood, I could buy a Heritage blaster guilt-free. I hadn't bought any Heritage yet this year up to that point.

I guess it sounded like a good deal to me, because I got up, ate enough breakfast so I wouldn't pass out, and took off for the American Red Cross to donate my 29th unit of blood (I love that they keep track) in my life. I got some juice and cookies and was home by 9, still allowing me time to be a little lazy.

So later that day I picked up a blaster. What follows is the good stuff.

First, some SPs:

2012 Heritage #494 Ryan Zimmerman SP

2012 Heritage #483 Mike Stanton SP

I didn't realize until yesterday's game that he's now going by his "real" first name, Giancarlo. I'm glad we held him to 0 for 4.

2012 Heritage #482 David Ortiz SP

Some inserts:

2012 Heritage - Checklist C2

Oooooh, checklist. I know, it's a pretty weak "insert". At least it doesn't count as a real card, as there were 10 total cards in the 9 card pack with this one.

2012 Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF-PP Pope Paul VI

I guess this guy was technically a Cardinal too.

2012 Heritage - Baseball Flashbacks #BF-HA Hank Aaron

I don't like the "numbering" that doesn't include numbers. It's too hard to make want lists without looking up the full checklist.

2012 Heritage - Stick-Ons #29 Mariano Rivera

A sticker I'll probably never peel.

2012 Heritage - Chrome Parallel #HP48 Cole Hamels #0926/1963

Some former Cardinals:

2012 Heritage #203 Scott Rolen

2012 Heritage #43 Veteran Masters (Rivera/Girardi)

Yes, Joe Girardi was briefly a Cardinal.

2012 Heritage #3 NL Home Run Leaders

I wasn't sure whether this should have gone in former or current based on the uniform pictures, so I nestled it right between.

And the two current Cardinals.

2012 Heritage #375 Daniel Descalso

2012 Heritage #97 Kyle Lohse

I guess Mike Matheny knows what he's doing. I don't think most people would have expected Kyle Lohse to be our opening day starter even if 2 or 3 guys got hurt. I'm glad Kyle was able to have a strong outing, but I don't know that we can expect as much out of him every start. I hope I'm wrong though, and he has a great season.

In addition to these cards there were more base of course, but none of them were duplicates yet, so I won't list them here because you can't have them! That, and I'm still being lazy of course.