Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part VI

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.

Part I II III IV V

2016 Topps
#46 Jhonny Peralta
#106 Jordan Walden
#107 Kevin Siegrist
#134 Yadier Molina
#146 Stephen Piscotty
#217 Lance Lynn
#244 Matt Carpenter
#319 Adam Wainwright

I still haven't bought any 2016 Topps cards. The other was from winning the subcontest within this same contest, picking the Belk Bowl. The only Cardinal in that prize was Pat Neshek, now with the Astros, so these were still all new to my collection.

2016 Topps
Back to Back #B2B-9 Red Schoendienst/Stan Musial
Berger's Best #BB-16 Steve Carlton
Pressed Into Service #PIS-6 Stan Musial
Perspectives #P-25 Ozzie Smith

Here we have more 2016 Topps, all inserts and all Hall of Famers. I'm glad to see Ozzie Smith has been included more and more in sets with older players. And I'm always happy to get Musial and Schoendienst cards.

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. 

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.

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.

Finally, I Can Open My Hanger Pack

I bought a few hanger packs of 2012 Update in late 2012, because I knew Target would only carry them for so long, but I've been so behind on blogging cards, and didn't want to make a mess of my desk, that I just now opened the first one. Here's what I found.

2012 Topps Update
#US123 Jamie Moyer/Checklist
#US178 Lance Lynn
#US273 Yadier Molina

2012 Topps Update
#US11 Rick Ankiel
#US46 Jamie Moyer

I only post base cards of Cardinals, and Moyer technically was one for 8 appearances wayyyy back in 1991. That's reason enough to show his 2 base cards here. Those Lynn and Molina guys are pretty good too.

2012 Topps Update - Target Red Border
#US57 Hanley Ramirez
#US122 Logan Ondrusek

Red Parallels look good for red teams, and bad for most others. I don't think I'm saying anything new with that statement. I am rather surprised they don't look pleasing with the Dodgers jerseys, though, with that bold red jersey number on the front.

2012 Topps Update
Golden Greats #GG-92 Reggie Jackson
Blockbusters #BB-24 Steve Carlton

I'm not sure I'm a fan of all the gold in 2012 Topps, but at least something finally goes with the A's uniform. That's a good looking card of Reggie Jackson. I do, however, like the Blockbusters set, despite its reminder of the 4-time Cy Young winner Steve Carlton the Cardinals traded away.

2012 Topps Update
Gold Sparkle #US155 Franklin Morales
1987 Topps Minis #TM-148 Justin Morneau

I scanned these two this way just so the mini would look mini. Why do gimmicks like minis and sparkly gold tempt me so?

2012 Topps Update - Gold Border
#389 Alexi Casilla #0029/2012
#511 Ervin Santana #0838/2012

These 990-card parallels nearly sucker me in every year. I think one year I'll actually try to collect them all, along with all of the attainable Series 1 and Series 2 parallels. #/50s and 1/1s will probably have to be skipped over, unless I win a small lottery and feel like blowing it all on cards. Also, I love that throwback LA Angels hat on Ervin Santana. I might need to get one of those.

2012 Topps Update
Gold Border #US238 Shawn Camp #0298/2012
Golden Moments #GM-U38 Tim Lincecum

Another Gold Border parallel, but it's a Cub. I like Tim Lincecum. I don't like that the Giants beat us in the NLCS in 2012. So I give this card a B.

My non-Cardinals insert cards are generally up for trade, so if you see anything you'd like here, or in my next few hanger packs, let me know.