eBay Wins #117

Today I've got another pseudo-lot from eBay, consisting of 1982-83 cards. As with all of these lots, they were a penny per card.

1982 Topps #412 Dan Meyer

I don't really know much about Dan Meyer, but I do love that old triton Mariners logo.

1983 Donruss #512 Mike Torrez

Mike Torrez was a Cardinal at the beginning of his career, something the 1978-1982 stats on the back didn't reveal to me. He played here until mid-1971 before being traded to the Expos.

1983 Fleer
#1 Joaquin Andujar
#11 Jim Kaat
#64 Dennis Martinez
#265 Gary Lavelle
#310 Larry McWilliams
#408 Ed Glynn
#418 Lary Sorensen
#517 Wayne Gross
#569 Dave Hostetler

I always forget how long and how late in his life Dennis Martinez pitched until I see old pictures of him like this 1983 card. 23 seasons is just amazing. Other than the uniformed Joaquin Andujar and Jim Kaat, other Cardinals in this bunch include Larry McWilliams and Lary Sorensen, for a season each.


On another note, my per card average dropped below 1.65 cents with these 11 penny cards. I'm not really sure what number I'm trying for, but stats are interesting to me.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2857
Total Spent	$47.10
Per Card	1.649 cents

Zistle Trade #8 Part B

Here's the second part of my trade from yesterday. As I said there, Blogger's label limitations have forced me to split up the relatively small number of cards into two posts. I had just barely too many characters for one post, so I didn't have to split them very carefully, so I went with vertical cards in the previous post, and horizontal in this one, mostly for ease of scanning.

1999 Topps #452 Alex Rodriguez/Nomar Garciaparra/Derek Jeter
2007 Topps Opening Day #69 Albert Pujols
2010 Upper Deck #463 Albert Pujols
2011 Allen and Ginter - Hometown Heroes #HH9 Adam Wainwright

I've been a fan of Nomar since his rookie year, and I still don't really remember why. I do know I spent many hours on a high school art project featuring him that year.

The Pujols cards are Pujols cards, and that's the only reason I need for those. I don't see much of 2007 Opening Day, but hopefully my quest for a Cardinals team set isn't in vain. I actually just purchased the full 2010 Upper Deck set from Matt's case break at Once A Cub, but Cardinal duplicates are often what I wind up trading away on Zistle to fellow Cardinal fans with different Cardinal duplicates, so this one may still serve a purpose.

Finally, there's an Adam Wainwright card from 2011 Allen and Ginter. I generally convince myself not to spend the money necessary to get much Ginter, but I like the set, so these inserts always wind up on my list. This year I'm jumping on the bandwagon, though, and at least picking up a few packs of it when it hits the shelves.

Zistle Trade #8 Part A

I recently completed a trade on Zistle. I like getting random Cardinals from fellow bloggers contest prizes or throw-ins for trades, but there's something immensely satisfying about checking off something from my want list on every single card in a package.

1989 Donruss - Bonus MVPs #BC-24 Gerald Perry
1992 Topps - Gold #645 Deion Sanders
1992 Topps Kids #28 Lee Smith
1992 Donruss - Diamond Kings #DK-9 Andy Van Slyke
1993 Topps - Gold #700 Nolan Ryan
2011 Topps Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF-7 Mariner 2

Gerald Perry, Andy Van Slyke, and (obviously) Lee Smith were on my want list because they were all Cardinals. I'd like to complete the 1992 and 1993 Topps Gold sets, so all the remaining cards from those sets are on my list as well. These were no commons, though. In fact, both are Hall-of-Famers...though Deion's in the football hall of fame. Finally, much lower on my priority list, but still there, is an insert from 2011 Heritage.

There are actually slightly more cards to this trade, but I like to be able to search out my cards using blogger's tags, and I'm out of space for this post. So instead, I'll share a mildly amusing anecdote.

A family member of mine who was a bit older was, for some reason, trying to come up with Deion Sanders' name. I don't recall why exactly, probably because he had made a play in a recent game against the Cardinals and we were talking baseball. He kept saying "you know" and "uh" and was getting increasingly frustrated and the name that was on the tip of his tongue. He finally blurted out "you know, Fancy Pants!", referring to Neon Deion's flashy ways. We were in the middle of a restaurant at the time, and everyone had only heard him say "Fancy Pants" rather loudly. We got a few weird looks, but we all laughed it off. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who figured out who he meant, too. So from then until today, Deion Sanders is always "Fancy Pants" in my mind.

eBay Wins #116

Today I've got 9 1982 Fleer cards to show off. The corners are a little fuzzy, and what gloss was on the card is a little dulled, but I've learned I can't be too picky on condition on 30-year-old cards, especially those I get for a penny.

1982 Fleer
#58 Bruce Berenyi
#117 Jim Kaat
#172 Scott McGregor
#225 Craig Reynolds
#230 Joe Sambito
#425 John Wathan
#465 Butch Hobson
#558 Hosken Powell
#567 Juan Bonilla

There was just one Cardinal in the bunch, one of the longest-tenured pitchers ever, Jim Kaat.

Since this is my blog, I set the rules around here, and I've decided to change one. In the past I've generally shown my eBay lots as they arrived, resulting in some individual card postings, or sometimes a few that arrived the same day being shown together, and sometimes lots of 50 cards in a post. I wound up with quite a backlog of cards to show, with many different sets all intermixed in each lot. They were all a penny per card, so, under the principle of fungibility, I finally broke down and broke the lots apart, sorting the cards by set.

My plan is to go through the piles one (or maybe more for small piles) set at a time for efficiency's sake, until my eBay posting backlog is back to a manageable size. An advantage of this, too, is that I've been avoiding entering some semi-old cards in my want list, because I knew I had some cards from the early 1980s to present in my "to blog" pile, but I didn't really know which ones. Now I can peruse the 1982 Fleer list and add all of the Cardinals to my want list, for example, and continue to do so with other sets as I organize them.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2846
Total Spent	$46.99
Per Card	1.651 cents

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #9

Pack 9 is here. Will I get within striking distance of finishing the set?

2013 Topps
#146 Kyle McClellan
#193 Matt Carpenter
#224 Jon Jay
#233 Edwin Jackson

This pack had 4 Cardinals in it, including my first Jon Jay and Edwin Jackson cards from this set.

2013 Topps
Chasing the Dream #CD-10 Giancarlo Stanton
Chasing History #CH-18 Ken Griffey, Jr.
Emerald Parallel #278 Christian Garcia
Gold Parallel #253 Adam Greenberg #0077/2013

Some more of the standard inserts, but with a nonstandard subject on the upper right, Ken Griffey, Jr. This card celebrates his tying of the record for most consecutive games with a Home Run, at 8. There's also a Gold Parallel of Adam Greenberg, the guy who had a 1-day contract with the Marlins after getting severely injured in his first ever at-bat, on the first pitch, with the Cubs many years ago.

2013 Topps
Cut to the Chase #CTC-4 Babe Ruth
1972 Topps Mini #TM-47 Roberto Clemente

If I got to pick 2 Hall of Famer cards (and wasn't allowed any Cardinals), these two would definitely be near the top of my list.

With only 23 new base cards in this pack, I'll now need 36 in the final pack. It won't be impossible, but it'll mean Topps needs to have very good collation, something I've heard isn't really the case these days. With 1 pack left in the box, I'll find out soon enough if I'm going to have to beg for some trades.

Series 1 Completion: 294/330 (89.1%)

eBay Wins #115

Today I've got cards from 2 of Donruss's more garish 90s sets, which look even worse next to each other. But, these are the cards I grew up with, so they make me happy. It also doesn't hurt that they only cost me a penny each.

1990 Donruss
#82 Milt Thompson
#359 Larry Andersen
1991 Donruss
#461 Ernest Riles
#511 Wally Whitehurst
#525 Kent Anderson
#563 John Shelby
#678 Danny Jackson
#670 Ken Hill
#735 Ken Dayley

That makes 3 Danny Jackson cards in my last 10 eBay posts. That stat sounded like much more of an outlier before I typed it. Nonetheless, he counts as a Cardinal in my book, due to his 2 and a half seasons in St. Louis, so the lot netted 4 Cardinals out of 9 cards.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2837
Total Spent	$46.90
Per Card	1.653 cents

Pick a Number at Nachos Grande

Once again, my post for the day is a contest promotion. I'll be back to showing actual cards one of these days.

Today's contest is at Nachos Grande. He's about to do another of his usually-interesting Theme Weeks, and this week will be PWEs. That's Plain White Envelopes if you're not in the know. Anyway, this one's a bit of a math puzzle, where the winner will be whoever can guess the sum of the 7 Zip Codes from PWE week, without going over. He's even provided the 35 digits, so you can go into some deep analysis and try to figure out what zip codes are most likely to house baseball card bloggers. Or you can take a shot in the dark.

Go enter your guess before 6pm Eastern Time Monday, and all week you can obsess over who's winning as the zip codes are revealed.

Wake Up, Sheeple!

Baseball Sheeple, that is.

Go Rams?

Josh at Royals and Randoms is running an innovative contest called Baseball Sheep. Basically, you score points based on your answers to a list of questions, with more popular answers scoring more points. That is, you get points for being sheep - following the crowd - as best you can. Visit Josh's blog for a slightly better explanation of the scoring system, and fill out the questionnaire before midnight Sunday night to be eligible to win.

Play at the Plate's 2000th Post Contest

It seems like I've already seen a dozen posts or more promoting Play at the Plate's 2000th post contest, and with good reason. You can leave a comment Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for 1 entry each, and double your entries by promoting it. What can you win?

2014 Bowman
Hobby Box

A Hobby box of Bowman, which was kindly provided by Topps for the contest. There are already a huge number of entries for this great prize, but give it a shot and go throw in your name, too.

Dodger Penguin Contest

Want to win this 2014 Bowman Dodger team set, and maybe more?

2014 Bowman
Dodgers that are too blurry for me to decipher

Go to the contest post at Dodger Penguin and leave him comments all month long. You can also retweet his contest tweets or promote it on your blog for more entries.

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #8

I've had quite a few Cardinals in the box so far, but this one has just one base card, and it's of a guy who only played here for a month of last season, John Axford.

2013 Topps
#59 John Axford
Chasing History #CH-26 Chipper Jones
Chasing the Dream #CD-17 Addison Reed
Emerald Parallel #65 J.P. Howell

 A few other standard inserts were in the pack as well, but nothing earth-shaking.

2013 Topps
1972 Topps Mini #TM-42 Willie Mays
Gold Parallel #298 Pablo Sandoval #1040/2013

This is the second Mays mini from this box; I also got one in Pack #2. But that's ok, because what I'm really after is the base cards, and there were 43 in this pack. 32 of them were new, meaning I'll need 29 and 30 out of the last two packs to complete the set.

Series 1 Completion: 271/330 (82.1%)

eBay Wins #114

For today's eBay penny cards, we'll go allll the way back to 1989, the year Pete Rose was banned, Kevin Siegrist was born, and Donruss released an All-Star set which could be mistaken for the regular set from the front.

1989 Donruss All-Stars
#58 Bob Walk

Here's one of the All-Star cards I got.

1989 Donruss
#236 Glenn Davis
#346 Mickey Hatcher
#438 Doug Jones
#515 Bruce Ruffin
#553 Ron Oester
#631 Marvin Freeman

And here are some base cards from the regular set. While the All-Stars cards have side panels that are blue instead of black, I still didn't realize what I had until I flipped them all over on the scanner.

I now have 189 cards from the 1989 set, so who knows, maybe I'll try to complete it one of these days. I don't think it'd cost me too much.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2828
Total Spent	$46.81
Per Card	1.655 cents

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #7

With 4 packs and 113 cards to go, can I stay on pace to complete the set?

2013 Topps
#245 Jason Isringhausen
#305 Shelby Miller

I like to pretend former Cardinals in Angels or even sometimes Rangers uniforms are still Cardinals. Squinting just slightly at Izzy makes that pretty easy on this card.

2013 Topps
Calling Cards #CC-5 Jonathan Papelbon
Chasing History #CH-42 Alex Rodriguez
Chasing the Dream #CD-19 Yu Darvish
Emerald Parallel #303 Alex Rodriguez/Checklist

2 A-Rod inserts from a single pack would have been a bit more exciting before the whole year-long suspension thing.

2013 Topps
Cut to the Chase #CTC-16 Nelson Cruz
1972 Topps Mini #TM-27

These die-cuts are still weird, and the minis are still awesome.

Out of 42 base cards, 22 were new this time. The set-complete percentage is still slightly above the box-busted percentage, but it's getting closer.

Series 1 Completion: 239/330 (72.4%)

eBay Wins #113

I won 97 auctions for individual 1991 Leaf cards this time around. The seller couldn't find one of them, and asked if he could replace it with another card from the set, and since I was agreeable to that, he sent me two replacement cards. So this bundle is 98 cards for 97 cents. The cards were just curved enough to make them annoying to scan, so I've trimmed this post down to just the 11 Cardinals in the stack.

1991 Leaf
#23 Pat Borders
#45 Chuck Finley
#139 Delino DeShields
#193 Mike Morgan 

1991 Leaf
#226 Bryn Smith
#227 Todd Stottlemyre
#234 Mark Whiten
#268 Danny Jackson

Mark Whiten made me want to be an outfielder, because it was simply amazing to see him throw the ball from to the warning track to home plate on the fly. I'm not sure how many runners he actually threw out, but he certainly made runners think twice about tagging up, much like Molina seems to give would-be base-stealers pause.

1991 Leaf
#350 Danny Cox
#376 Ken Hill
#403 Lance Johnson

These cards really aren't curved that badly when I put them in sleeves, but for some reason it took me way too long to line them up on my scanner.

Before these 98, I had 23 cards from the 1991 Leaf set. There were a few duplicates, but now I have 116 cards from the set.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2821
Total Spent	$46.74
Per Card	1.657 cents

Another Long-Term Contest from Fuji

You know The Chronicles of Fuji, don't you?

If not, follow him or add it to your RSS reader, and especially if you're into the Athletics, the Sharks, the Packers, and a few other mostly west coast teams.

He's running a contest from now until June 7th, which you can enter by commenting on his posts from now until then. You may still have time to get in on the first one, which is here. The prizes will be 4 lots of cards, sized 100, 200, 300, and 400, which add to 1000, in celebration of his 1000th post.

Good luck to you, but better luck to me.

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #6

We're on the downslope now, with the first pack of the second half of the box.

2013 Topps
#24 Dan Haren
#261 Trevor Rosenthal
#321 Allen Craig
#327 Jhonny Peralta

I pulled 5 current/former/future Cardinals from this pack, including new SS Jhonny Peralta, which is why I said "future".

2013 Topps
#207 Matt Holliday
Gold Parallel #81 NL ERA Leaders #0013/2013
Chasing History #CH-34 Robin Yount
Chasing The Dream Relics #CDR-CS Chris Sale

Here's the 2nd of the 3 hits promised in the box, a Chris Sale relic. It could simply be confirmation bias speaking, but there seems to be an awful lot of Chris Sale in this box.

2013 Topps
Chasing the Dream #CD-9 Devin Mesoraco
Emerald Parallel #318 Hiroki Kuroda
1972 Topps Mini #TM-45 Cal Ripken, Jr.

Of course, the 3 Chris Sale inserts are at least of a current player. This is the second Cal Ripken, Jr. insert in as many packs. I'm not complaining, just noticing.

There were 41 base cards in this pack, and 25 were new to me. The set is starting to come together, and with 60% of the box busted, I've got over 60% of the set. I will need a little over 28 new cards per pack to finish it off.

Series 1 Completion: 217/330 (65.8%)

Easy as ABC

Andrews Baseball Cards, that is. He's running a little contest for some pink parallels from 2013 Topps Minis. Will the puns never stop?

2013 Topps Mini
#611 Drew Storen #20/25

2013 Topps Mini
#647 Adam Dunn #12/25

Go comment and promote it on your blog to enter. You've got until April 30th.

eBay Wins #112

Another day, another card, another penny.

1990 Upper Deck
#577 Matt Williams

I'm not generally a sore loser, so I had no problem posting this today, after the Matt Williams-managed Nationals beat the Cardinals on a walk-off sacrifice fly. However, if the series was still going on, I might have let superstition move this card down my stack a bit.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2723
Total Spent	$45.77
Per Card	1.681 cents

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #5

Let's open another pack, and I'll be halfway done with my Jumbo box.

2013 Topps
#205 Ryan Theriot
#235 Jake Westbrook
#266 Albert Pujols

Hmm, pack #1 also gave me all 3 of these guys. This one lacked Jason Motte and Jaime Garcia among Cardinals, though.

2013 Topps
Chasing the Dream #CD-25 Mike Moustakas
Emerald Parallel #185 Rob Scahill
1972 Topps Mini #TM-14 Chris Sale

I know it's not original, but Handlebar Moustakas has to be the best fantasy baseball team name in my league. Also, I think it's time Topps started considering their parallels when choosing photos. Purple and green together make me go cross-eyed.

2013 Topps
Gold Parallel #76 Brandon Inge #0638/2013
Chasing History #CH-4 Cal Ripken, Jr.
Chasing History Autographs #CHA-JH Joel Hanrahan

Now a Gold Parallel on Oakland's gold jerseys works nicely, even if it's not the same gold. The second card in this bunch is nothing to sneeze at either, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., but forgive me for jumping straight to the last one. Just before I opened this pack I said to myself "I haven't seen any autos or relics yet, I wonder if they'll all be here." Sure enough, the autographed card is. I knew Hanrahan wasn't still on the Pirates, but I was having trouble placing him, so I did a quick search. As you may know, he spent 2013 with Boston, but as you may not know, he just worked on on Thursday (April 17) for the Mets and Yankees. So, I don't think this auto is going to put anyone's kid through college, but, they can't all be superstars.

I got 43 base cards in this pack, thanks to the regular-thickness auto and other inserts. But, for some reason, almost all of them until the higher numbers were duplicates. My total unique cards went up by just 4, to 192. I'm starting to worry a bit more about completing the set with this box. At least I can say that if the collation is pretty good I still have a chance, since I have 250 more cards (200 or so base) to complete the 138 left.

Series 1 Completion: 192/330 (58.2%)

eBay Wins #111

These cards don't really go together, except I got them about the same time. Enough logistics, on with the cards. 

2000 SP Top Prospects
#62 Tony Armas, Jr

Shiny cards come out weird in scans, but that's okay. This is my first 2000 SP Top Prospects card.

2010 Upper Deck
#395 Jason Jaramillo
#214 Emilio Bonifacio

This post is devoid of MLB logos (mostly), due to these unlicensed 2010 Upper Deck cards, and the minor league card above. So that's sort of a connection, right?

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2722
Total Spent	$45.76
Per Card	1.681 cents

Cubs Cardboard Contest

Cubs Cardboard has been around since January of 2013, but for some reason I didn't have it in my RSS reader until today, when I saw a contest post on another blog. The contest is for these 4 cards.

2013 Gypsy Queen - Mini Relics
#GQMR-JZ Jordan Zimmerman

2013 Allen and Ginter - Framed Mini Relics
#AGR-JHK Jeremy Hellickson

2013 Bowman Chrome
Cream of the Crop Mini
#CC-AD5 Stryker Trahan

2013 Bowman Chrome
Cream of the Crop Mini
#CC-A3 Nick Maronde

Just leave a comment daily to enter, and/or promote it on your blog.

He also asked for a mention of his 2014 Allen and Ginter break for a bonus entry. You get 2 teams from 2 boxes for $15. There are a few slots left, including the Cardinals, which I'm contemplating. Or I may get silly and try to complete the whole set this year.

Fernando Vina Autographed Ball

Fernando Vina
2x Gold Glove

Another Menards opened in the St. Louis area a few weeks ago, and they brought in Fernando Vina to sign autographs. After getting there too late to make the line worth it for David Eckstein at my previous Menards try, I decided to show up about an hour early. I wound up about 75 minutes early due to low traffic, and about 10th in line. When Fernando arrived, early no less, he actually walked from the back of the line all the way up to his table, waving and saying hi the whole way. He definitely seemed to appreciate that people came out to see him. When signing the completely empty ball, he even asked me whether I wanted his autograph on the sweet spot, which I always take as sort of a humble question, since I assume that means he knows I might want to get multiple guys from a team he played for, and put the bigger star in that spot. I'm pretty much a one-auto-per-ball collector though, so I told him, absolutely.

Vina played for the Cardinals during a time they gave away a lot of bobbleheads, because I saw at least 2 distinct variations that some fans brought, and he only played here 4 years. The woman behind me was a big Vina fan, and actually had an authentic jersey for him to sign, along with her bobblehead, which she asked him to sign on the butt. He obliged, and she couldn't have been happier.

Between my spot at the front of the line and Fernando's early arrival, I was out of the 6pm signing by about 6:05 and on my way home, with another ball for my collection.

eBay Wins #110

I won 6 auctions for cards, each stating they were random cards from a given set. The first two were 1986 Topps, and the last 4 were 1994 Topps. That wasn't exactly what I got, but I'm not complaining.

1986 Topps #241 Tony Fernandez
1986 Topps #252 Bobby Castillo
1994 Topps #67 Alex Gonzalez
1994 Topps #555 Chuck knoblauch
1994 Topps - Black Gold #7 Juan Gonzalez
1994 Finest #1 Mike Piazza

The Juan Gonzalez is from 1994 Topps, but it's a Black Gold insert. The Gold and Black Gold from 1992-1994 are some of my favorites, so this was a definite upgrade from some of the possibilities of a "random" card, like, say, Bip Roberts. That last card is from Finest, and I can't imagine why the seller would lump that into a random auction instead of selling it alone. I'd think it'd fetch better than the 1 cent gamble I placed on it. It is missing the protective covering, so maybe it was perceived to be in bad condition. Whatever the reason, I now have a nice shiny Piazza.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2719
Total Spent	$45.73
Per Card	1.682 cents

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #4

In my ongoing effort to get to my 2013 Series 2 box before 2014 Series 2 hits the stores, here's the 4th pack of Series 1.

2013 Topps
#68 Colby Rasmus
#96 Edward Mujica
#315 Rafael Furcal
The Greats #TG-25 Albert Pujols

There were only 2 uniformed Cardinals in this pack, and one former Cardinal among the base cards. A subset I hadn't yet seen appeared, though. "The Greats" is on needlessly thick cardstock for some reason. I figured I had found a relic when I first opened the pack, and was pretty excited to see Pujols. So there was a slight letdown when I realized it was just a thick card.

2013 Topps
Calling Cards #CC-13 Aroldis Chapman
Chasing History #CH-40 Mike Schmidt
Chasing the Dream #CD-19 Yu Darvish
Emerald Parallel #45 Travis Ishikawa

Here we have the rest of the standard inserts. The more I see the Chasing History set, the more I like it, despite Mike Schmidt's powder blue uniform.

2013 Topps - 1972 Mini
#TM-20 Justin Verlander

And finally, a tiny Tiger.

This pack had 41 base cards in it, and 20 were new to me. I'll need to average a little better than that to complete the set by pack 10. I need 23 2/3 new cards per pack for the next 6 packs to reach 330.

Series 1 Completion: 188/330 (57.0%)

eBay Wins #109

Today's post has no baseball, technically, but two other subjects in which I'm somewhat interested. I bid on this Alan Bean card from 2012 Goodwin Champions, was the only bidder, and therefore won it for the starting bid of a penny. I really bought this card because it fills a hole in a mostly-baseball set I may try to complete at some time in the future, not just because it has an astronaut, even though I've always been interested in the space program. I even applied for a summer job at NASA in college, despite living several hundred miles from the nearest location. And, visiting the Kennedy Space Center a few years ago is probably one of my favorite vacations I've ever taken.

2012 Goodwin Champions
#30 Alan Bean

It might be interesting to see long-term how well the non-sports subjects hold their value in sets like Goodwin Champions and Allen & Ginter. At least in the short term, I know of at least 2 such cards I've purchased for a penny; this card, and Mary Shelley from 2008 Ginter.

For some reason, the seller threw in two Jurassic Park movie trading cards. This was probably the first movie I saw in theaters that scared me. Luckily I was with a big group of kids who were all being slightly distracting, so I wasn't too lost in the moment.

1993 Jurassic Park
#66 A Long Clime to Freedom
#68 No Escape

Even though I wasn't seeking the cards, I'll call this 3 for a penny, because it brings my average per card down further. And, it's my blog, so I make the rules.

One more thing. This is now stuck in my head, so I'll pass it along to you.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2713
Total Spent	$45.67
Per Card	1.683 cents

Three Contests from Chavez Ravining

Alex at Chavez Ravining is running one of his contests again, and you have until Monday evening to go comment to enter. 3 different people will each win one Team USA relic card.

Now for the other two contests, those are in the past. That is to say, I won two consecutive contests at Chavez Ravining. The first contest was an effort to get Dodger Penguin up to 50 followers, which was achieved. I got my pick of Alex's trade bait, and I went with a shiny Pujols.

2013 Topps Chrome
1972 Refractors #72C-AP Albert Pujols

A week later, I won again! This time the prize was a nice relic from 2014 Topps of Ben Zobrist.

2014 Topps
Trajectory Relics #TR-BZ Ben Zobrist

At least Alex saved some postage by sending the two cards together. In both contests, I also won some Chavez Code points, which I'll have to get around to redeeming one of these days.

Also in this package, Alex sent the 4th McGwire card from the Mother's Cookies set. He sent the other 3 in our previous trade.

1988 Mother's Cookies Mark McGwire Set #1/4

As a Midwesterner, these are tough to find locally, since Mother's Cookies never quite made it this far. I'm keeping this one in its original wrapping too, since I can see both sides.

Thanks to Alex for the contests!

Big 44 Sports Cards Contest

There's a contest going on over at Big 44 Sports Cards. Just leave a comment with your favorite active player, and/or answer whether or not you're also a football card collector. The prizes are 3 Chrome cards and a Heritage relic.

2013 Topps Chrome #57 Jurickson Profar
2013 Topps Chrome #39 Mike Zunino
2010 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Collection Relics #CCR-JF Jeff Francis
2013 Topps Chrome - Connection Die-Cuts #CC-MHO Matt Holliday

Of course, you can promote it on your blog for a bonus entry too. Good Luck!

eBay Wins #108

Today's win is a single minor league baseball card, for a penny. He's shown as a member of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, which might be one of the the longest names in baseball, as well as the only one to include a slash and a hyphen.

2000 Q Cards
#12 Larry Huff

Larry Huff spent part of 1999 and all of his 2001 games at AAA, but never quite got the call to the majors. His first 6 years were in the Phillies system, then he played at AA for Wichita (Kansas City) in 2000, and AAA for Edmonton (Minnesota) in 2001. He's pitched a total of 4 times, presumably in an emergency mop up role.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2710
Total Spent	$45.66
Per Card	1.685 cents