A Season Starting PWE, Part I

Way back in March, Stealing Home sent out some PWEs to celebrate the start of the season. I saw a few others post theirs at the time, but I'm just now getting to mine.

As usual, I like to tag every Cardinal player and card set, and I just barely ran out of space, so even this PWE is getting split into 2 posts. So, today, let's see the horizontal cards.

2015 Topps #60 Michael Wacha
2016 Stadium Club #37 Yadier Molina
2017 Topps #234 Luke Weaver

I really need to get more of that Stadium Club set. I like it, even if it does look a lot like some mid 90s Fleer sets. The cards flanking that one are an interesting pair, as there's currently talk of demoting Wacha and/or bringing up Weaver to try to save this season.

A Little Heritage Contest Win

Adam from Addiction as Therapy held his annual giveaway, and the prizes this year were packs of 2017 Heritage. This is my first look at this year's Heritage in person, so it was an interesting pack to open.

2017 Heritage
#336 Colorado Sluggers (DJ LeMahieu/Charlie Blackmon)
#358 San Diego Padres
#393 Rookie Stars (Matt Dermody/Danny Barnes)

I've read lots of complaints that the 1968 design is bad, but I never looked at it that way. It's not something that would be a great original modern design, but I always thought it fit fine with the other 1960s sets.

2017 Topps Heritage
#77 Yadier Molina
#245 Tucker Barnhart
#272 Wei-Yin Chen
#301 Martin Prado
#311 Rajai Davis
#471 Danny Salazar (SP)

I flipped through these looking at the fronts first, and so was excited to see a Yadier Molina. In my past Heritage purchases, there always seemed to be roughly one insert or short print per pack, so with no obvious inserts, I flipped the stack over to check for SPs, and found the Danny Salazar card. I saw a dealer collated set listed for $300 including all 100 SPs this past weekend, which seems crazy to me, but that's supply and demand for you I suppose.

Thanks for the contest, and everyone else go check out and follow Addiction as Therapy!

Pull Tab Awareness Week Win Part 1

I'm still digging through my pile of packages, unfortunately not in order, so here's one from July 2016 or so. You can read about the reason for the season at Baseball Card Breakdown, and I won a prize by spreading the word. Let's see what I've been letting languish on my desk.

1996 Leaf Signature - Extended Autographs Tom Urbani
2001 Topps Archives #16 Enos Slaughter
2003 Bowman #207 Chris Duncan
2005 Upper Deck Classics #32 Enos Slaughter
2012 Panini Prizm #73 Yadier Molina
2013 Topps Archives #139 Matt Holliday
2015 Topps Archives #71 Matt Holliday

Based on the other images I see online, Tom Urbani didn't quite sign that card where he was supposed to. All of the other signatures are in that big blank space at the bottom. Perhaps he's to blame for the scourge of sticker autographs.

The two Hollidays were both Archives cards I didn't have. Of all the years of Archives, I only had his 2012 card before. In fact, all of these were new to my collection, and I've now doubled my count of Enos Slaughter cards.

There's even better stuff in part 2 of this package. And don't worry, this one's only a two-parter.

A Celebration Contest at Sport Card Collectors

This pretty awesome Yadier Molina card is being given away at Sport Card Collectors in celebration of 600,000 views.

2016 Prime Cuts - Timeline Trios
#3 Yadier Molina #10/99

And if enough people enter, a bonus prize will be given out.

2016 Prime Cuts
#87 Carlos Gonzalez #21/99

Go check out the contest to enter.

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.

Me Too!

I've seen lots of 2015 Update boxes with the Chrome cards on your blogs, and had to get one myself. Let's see how I did. As usual I like to show off the Cardinals and inserts, lest I spend a ton of time scanning 9 cards at a time.

2015 Topps Update
#US106 Shelby Miller
#US214 Yadier Molina
#US338 Pete Kozma
#US373 Mitch Harris
#US393 Dan Haren
Pride and Perseverence #PP-8 Jon Lester
Rarities #R-3 Daniel Nava
Rookie Sensations #RS-6 Nomar Garciaparra
Rookie Sensations #RS-20 Tom Seaver

Shelby Miller's got an ugly hat, and Yadi's got a ridiculous gold chest protector, but I like All-Star game cards. It's not Topps' fault the game has started to look a bit silly.

Pride and Perseverance is a good idea for a set, featuring players with unique challenges, mostly medically related from the checklist. I think it might have been better if it didn't just look like a brown parallel, though. The other insert card of note in the first bunch is the Nomar Garciaparra, one of the very few players I collect that hasn't played for the Cardinals.

2015 Topps Update
Highlight of the Year #H-76 Hank Aaron
Tape Measure Blasts #TMB-11 Mark McGwire

Here are two more retired players feature on inserts. I guess it's a nice easy way to please everyone, having insert sets featuring not only the biggest stars of today, but all time. The McGwire card features a specific long home run he hit just a few months before being traded to St. Louis in 1997, and breaking the single-season record in 1998.

2015 Topps Update - Chrome
#US237 Craig Kimbrel
#US238 A.J. Cole
#US309 Howie Kendrick
#US308 Joey Butler
#US319 Will Harris
#US392 Odrisamer Despaigne
#US398 J.T. Realmuto
2015 Topps Update - Rookie Sensations Chrome #RSC-2 Ichiro Suzuki

Here's the big draw for these boxes, the Chrome parallels. There were 8 and they scanned nicely this way, so apologies to Joey Butler's card for being sideways. I didn't get any Cardinals in the Chrome packs, but I did get an Ichiro insert. The exclusive nature of these means I might be tempted to grab another box or two, and then try to trade for or buy the rest secondhand.

2012 Heritage Blaster #5

Let's open up another Blaster and see all the Cardinals, Inserts, and my completion status.

2012 Heritage
#8 AL Pitching Leaders
#54 2012 Rookie Stars
#95 2012 Rookie Stars
#129 Chris Perez
#144 World Series Game 3
#172 Yadier Molina
#206 Lance Lynn
#250 Jon Jay
#313 Jaime Garcia

It's too bad Adron Chambers is with the Cubs now, because that decreases the chances of him signing autographs at some random St. Louis area location. I have so many Rookie Stars cards I could have him sign. I got a few more former Cardinals with Dan Haren, Chris Perez, and Albert Pujols, but 4 that are still with the team, too.

2012 Heritage
#321 2012 Rookie Stars
#472 Alfonso Soriano
#476 Prince Fielder
Blue Parallel #76 Jon Lester
Blue Parallel #130 David Freese
Checklist #C5
Chrome Parallel #HP14 Paul Konerko
News Flashbacks #NF-PS Penn Station

More Adron! I had forgotten the Blue Parallel is not a full set, but only 30 cards, so I can't get blue versions of all the Cardinals base cards, but in addition to Freese, there is a Jon Jay, Albert Pujols, and Yadier Molina available. Unfortunately the two SPs are both duplicates, leaving me at only 12/75 complete.

2012 Heritage
Clubhouse Collection Relics #CCR-YG Yovani Gallardo
Stick-ons #31 Curtis Granderson

This box had a relic in it, that nice gray Yovani Gallardo swatch. I'm not a big relic chaser, but I've always thought Heritage has made pretty good ones. I do prefer a bat to a jersey for some reason, though.

So how is my quest going?

Base: 243/425
Base SPs: 12/75
Baseball Flashbacks: 3/10
Blue Parallel: 3/30
Checklists: 3/5
Chrome Parallels: 4/100
Clubhouse Collection Relics: 1/71
New Age Performers: 2/16
News Flashbacks 4/15
Stick-ons: 5/46
Then and Now: 1/10

2012 Heritage Blaster #4, Almost 3 Years Later.

I bought several of these boxes from Dave and Adam's quite awhile ago, sometime after 2013 came out I'm sure. Since the last one I posted was #3 in late 2012, I guess this is #4. I'm not very good at maintaining a FIFO method of opening and posting my cards, so these were just the next most interesting ones in my box of unopened stuff. The others ones will probably be next.

2012 Topps Heritage
#22 Edwin Jackson
#172 Yadier Molina
#206 Lance Lynn
#244 Jason Motte
#265 2012 Rookie Stars
#281 Jason Marquis
#306 Star Receivers
#321 2012 Rookie Stars
#357 Allen Craig

I'm not sure why Adron Chambers showed up on multiplo different Rookie Stars cards, but I got two of them. He's on a third version I got in that third blaster. Both cards featuring Yadier Molina came in a pack together, which is nothing more than a statistical oddity, but it was with a Cardinal, so I noticed.

#390 Jason Heyward
#429 Jonny Venters
#434 Shane Victorino
Baseball Flashbacks #BF-AK Al Kaline
Blue Parallel #84 Doug Fister
New Age Performers #NAP-RC Robinson Cano
News Flashbacks #NF-UA University of Alabama
Checklist #C2
Stick-Ons #27 Ryan Howard

I got so many Cardinals they spilled into the Inserts scan, since we picked up Jason Heyward this year. That blue Doug Fister is my second copy, and those are the only two blues I have. Again, statistical anomalies are weird when they happen to you. Something about the more common insert sets in Heritage make me want to complete them all, and I'm not sure what it is. Let's see my current status:

Base: 212/425
Base SPs: 12/75
Baseball Flashbacks: 3/10
Blue Parallel: 1/30
Checklists: 3/5
Chrome Parallels: 3/100
New Age Performers: 2/16
News Flashbacks 3/15
Stick-ons: 4/46
Then and Now: 1/10

Turkey For Me, Turkey For You III: Turkeys in Time

If you get that sequel reference, you're probably just about my age, and, like me, you felt that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could do no wrong in 1993. Anyway, let's see the last of the Turkey Red trade from 2 by 3 Heroes.

2008 Upper Deck - Star Quest #SQ-16 Albert Pujols
2008 Upper Deck - Star Quest #SQ-32 Albert Pujols
2006 Fleer Ultra #38 Jim Edmonds
2007 Fleer Ultra #149 Jim Edmonds
2013 Gypsy Queen #80 Bob Gibson
2007 Topps #660 Yadier Molina
2003 Upper Deck Victory #88 Mark McGwire
1993 Topps #191 Sean Lowe

That's a nice pile of Cardinals to finish off the trade. With all the Cardinals cards I have stockpiled, I'm always kind of impressed to see just how many simple base cards are out there that I don't have, even though I know that shouldn't surprise me.

2013 Allen and Ginter Set, Part II

As I mentioned in my last post of Allen and Ginter cards, I bought an almost-complete Allen and Ginter set (minus Puig), along with a separate purchase of the 50 Short Prints. Before I file it away with my "sorted" cards, here are the rest of the Cardinals from the set.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#108 Bob Gibson
#115 Stan Musial
#139 Red Schoendienst
#161 Enos Slaughter
#254 Lou Brock
#341 Ozzie Smith

6 Hall of Fame cards is a pretty good number out of a single set that mostly features current players. These players all have numbers retired by the Cardinals.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#125 Matt Holliday
#172 Jon Jay
#276 Lance Lynn
#283 Jason Motte
#340 Yadier Molina
#342 Adam Wainwright

There were also 6 Cardinals pictured in uniform in the set that are still on the team, though Motte hasn't been re-signed yet. Everyone else will be back, though.

2013 Allen and Ginter
#96 Jayson Heyward

Finally, here I have the newest Cardinal, Jason Heyward. I'll be interested to see how his 2015 goes, since it's his contract year, and what that ultimately means for his next contract, whether its with St. Louis or elsewhere. His acquisition puts 2 2014 Gold Glovers in the Cardinals' 2015 lineup, and may be the tipping point to make me decide to attend the Cardinals' Winter Warmup this year, to get an in-person autograph before he even plays his first game here.

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.

2013 Topps Update Jumbo Pack #6

The last pack had a recently acquired Cardinal in it, and this one did too.

2013 Topps Update
#US142 Yadier Molina
Chasing History #CH-107 Babe Ruth
1971 Topps Mini #TM-14 Troy Tulowitzki

The more I see of the Chasing History set, the more I like it, especially as it deals with the history of the game and statistical milestones. Some of its stats are a little esoteric, but this one is straightforward. Babe Ruth is the only player to hit 3 Home Runs in a World Series game twice. Albert Pujols, Pablo Sandoval, and Reggie Jackson have each done it once.

2013 Topps Update
#US93 Adam Wainwright
#US96 Mark DeRosa
#US239 Justin Masterson
Emerald Parallel #US115 Drew Stubbs
Gold Parallel #US94 Joba Chamberlain #0433/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-34 Nolan Arenado
Postseason Heroes #PH-20 David Wright
Making Their Mark Autograph Redemption #MMA-AH Aaron Hicks

This is the first card I've shown of new Cardinal Justin Masterson. He didn't have a stellar first game on Saturday, but the offense scored enough to earn a victory for him. Also in this bunch is the second hit of my box, an autograph redemption for Aaron Hicks. This will be the first redemption of this type for me since I mailed in a Topps Black Gold winner card in 1993 or maybe 1994. This is also the reason I started going through these boxes, because I knew there was a chance there would be a card that would eventually expire. However, I have another 2 years to send it in. Hopefully I'll take care of it before then.

This pack had 43 base cards, and all 43 were new, so I'm still reasonably well on track to finish the set, and maybe even find another fully redundant pack like pack 5.

Update Series Completion: 211/330 (63.9.%)

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #10

It's the end of the road for my Jumbo Box; one last shot to get the final 36 out of 330 cards. Do I have faith in Topps' collation?

2013 Topps
#50 Adam Wainwright
#182 Randy Choate
#220 Octavio Dotel

First we have a few Cardinals base cards. The Randy Choate and Octavio Dotel were new to me in this pack, so that's 2 towards completing the set.

2013 Topps
#4 Yadier Molina
#125 Matt Holliday

And here are some horizontal Cardinals base cards, with Matt Holliday also filling a gap in the set.

2013 Topps
Calling Cards #CC-14 Pablo Sandoval
Chasing History #CH-2 Roberto Clemente
Chasing the Dream #CD-23 Jose Altuve
Emerald Parallel #224 Jon Jay
The Greats #TG-14 Stan Musial
1972 Topps Mini #TM-8 Dan Uggla

Finally there's a nice collection of inserts, except the Altuve I already got in Pack #2. I actually wound up with 3 duplicates from the Chasing the Dream set. The Jon Jay card is particularly green, I think because he takes up less space on the card in this far-away shot than the average close up you see in the base cards above. So the greening of the background got almost the whole card. The Musial card is the second one from the "The Greats" set that I got, but the other was Albert Pujols (though as an Angel). Since I'm 2 for 2 on Cardinals, I thought I'd check the checklist, and so I added 2 more to my want list: Bob Gibson, and John Smoltz just for completeness (yes, he was a Cardinal for a bit).

But the grand drama that has been building is whether or not I could complete the base set. I'm happy to say, I did, though when I first checked, my list showed I was missing Jason Isringhausen, which I knew I pulled in a previous pack. Once that was rectified, I've got all cards 1-331 (minus 7) checked off.

Series 1 Completion: 330/330 (100.0%)

Superbowl Winnings, Part 1

Remember that awful, lopsided game back in February? It won a contest for me at Collector's Crack, properly know as Almost the Easiest Superbowl Contest on the Web IV. Going into the game, I knew I had a decent chance of winning since I had chosen Seattle to win and Denver as their opponent, which no one else did. However, even if it had come to the 2nd and 3rd tiebreaker, I'd have done alright. I forecasted 50 total points in the game - which wound up 43-8 if you don't remember - missing the total by just 1. Or, as I prefer to think of it, I predicted everything except the fact that Denver would go for 2 on their TD when down by 30. I also went with 4 turnovers as the final tiebreaker, and hit that dead on.

It sounds a little like I'm bragging, so to be completely clear, I did use my projections to pick the the teams, but the points and turnovers were pretty much just guesses, and I got lucky. Better lucky than good, some say.

Let's see the prizes!

1998 Finest - Refractors
#127 John Mabry

Look at that shimmering Refractor, still protected - and blurred - by Topps Finest protective coating. I've said it before, one day I'm going on a peeling rampage, and freeing most of my Topps Finest cards for the first time.

2004 Donruss Classics
National Trading Card Day
#DP-1 Albert Pujols

Here's the second card in a row I thought was a base card at first, but turned out to be a parallel. The Donruss Classics set included a parallel with the National Trading Card Day logo.

2011 Topps Chrome
#32 Yadier Molina
#141 Lance Berkman
#150 Albert Pujols

Shiny shiny Chrome. I'm surprised I didn't have any Cardinals from the set yet. I'll be adding the others to my want list now.

2008 Allen & Ginter - Mini A&G Backs
#44 Adam Wainwright
#88 Troy Glaus
2010 Allen & Ginter - Mini Black Border
#51 Matt Holliday

And I'll close it with some Allen and Ginter minis. That's a lot of white space on the horizontal Adam Wainwright card. He's in a very vertical pose for a horizontal card, so I kind of wonder why Topps did that. Also, both of the 2008s are Allen and Ginter backs.


I'd keep going, but I like to tag my posts with all the sets and Cardinal players pictured, and I'm at the limit. There's more good stuff left for tomorrow, though.

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.

Contest Winnings, Part III

A good friend of mine likes to say - jokingly, I think - that second place is the first loser. When Daniel of It's like having my own Card Shop, opened up a contest to help Pack War reach 100 followers, I joined in, and the Randomizer put me in 6th for 4 prizes. But, since 2 people won the top 4 prizes, he was kind enough to throw some cards to the 5th and 6th position to still have 4 people as winners. Consequently, I got some cool stuff for being the 5th loser.

Part I | II

The end of my prize package posts has the 2011-2013 cards, with players who are mostly still on the team.

2012 Topps Archives
#14 Yadier Molina
#34 Jaime Garcia
#85 Matt Holliday
#114 Jason Motte
#125 David Freese
#197 Allen Craig

Here we have half of the 2012 Archives Cardinals. I almost have to get the other 6 now. Freese is gone to the Angels, but the other 5 are still here.

2012 Topps
Red Parallel #363 Fernando Salas

2013 Topps
Red Parallel #125 Matt Holliday

I really like red parallels, especially for Cardinals cards. Completing the red parallel team sets is on my long list of collecting goals. Also, Salas was another part of the same trade that sent Freese to the Angels, but like any former Cardinal, I still collect his cards.

2013 Gypsy Queen - Mini #322 Jason Motte
2011 Allen and Ginter - Mini #303 Jaime Garcia

Finally, we have 2 minis. Like I said in the last post, I think everyone loves minis. Motte and Garcia are both coming off injuries this year, so I'm hoping they'll strengthen our already very good bullpen, Garica indirectly as a starter.

Thanks to Daniel from It's like having my own Card Shop for all the Cardinals!

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.

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.

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.
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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.