2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #7

Onward to Pack 7!

2013 Topps
#378 Joe Kelly
#562 Jason Marquis
Gold Parallel #348 Jonny Gomes #0936/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-24 Manny Machado
World Baseball Classic #WBC-9 Carlos Beltran
1972 Topps Mini #TM-86 George Brett

I'm back in the red - which is a good thing in this terrible-pun case - with this pack containing 3 current and former Cardinals. The George Brett mini isn't too shabby either. And the Making Their Mark with Manny Machado makes me want to write an M-based tongue twister, but I'm no writer, as any of my readers can attest.

2013 Topps
Emerald Parallel #456 Pablo Sandoval
Cut to the Chase #CTC-27 Ralph Kiner

All but one of the Emerald Parallels in this box have been horizontal cards. There's your useless fact of the day.

This box once again had the full complement of 42 base cards, and 38 of them were new. I'm hoping my 2 Auto's and 1 Relic are contained in packs 8, 9, and 10, because I haven't seen any in this box yet.

Series 2 Completion: 247/330 (74.8%)

eBay Wins #124

One of these cards is not like the others.

1987 Donruss
#68 Rick Sutcliffe
#69 Gary Carter
#70 Mike Moore
1987 Leaf #142 Hubie Brooks

If you're like me, and I hope for your sake that you're not, any time you hear that phrase, you have to finish the Sesame Street song in your head, or possibly out loud. Clearly, the outlier here is Mr. Brooks, in the Donruss lookalike set, Leaf. These are the type of sets that drive me mad when sorting through a trade package, along with 1980s O-Pee-Chee and Topps. I almost always put those cards in with Donruss/Topps at first, and only later notice what I have when the number doesn't match the checklist as I'm cataloging. It's generally a nice surprise though, because I have very few Leaf and O-Pee-Chee cards, and certainly many fewer than Donruss and Topps. In fact, this appears to be my very first and only 1987 Leaf card.

Of these 4 players, only Rick Sutcliffe was a Cardinal, pitching in 16 games in the strike-shortened 1994 season. I vaguely remember him playing for us, in fact, it's so vague I could have sworn he was here for a few years. But, I haven't ever seen baseball-reference.com proven wrong on anything in the modern era.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2937
Total Spent	$47.90
Per Card	1.631 cents

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #6

And now we have the opening pack of the second half of the middle box of 2013 Topps. Much like discovering your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate, that means absolutely nothing of consequence.

2013 Topps
#414 Mark Buehrle
Chasing History #CH-60 Derek Jeter
Cut to the Chase #CTC-28 Al Kaline
Gold Parallel #623 Alexi Ogando #0938/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-2 Mike Trout
1972 Topps Mini #TM-97 Josh Johnson

This is my second consecutive pack with no Cardinals base cards or inserts, but I did get a Mark Buehrle, a guy I casually collect, by virtue of his attendance at a high school mere blocks from my house. Other than that there were some of the standard inserts, and the slightly more rare Cut To The Chase. I've said it before, but Al Kaline still reminds me of being a dumb kid and assuming that was a made up name someone pulled off an alkaline battery. That Jeter Chasing History mentions sort of an odd milestone, 3500 hits and 350 stolen bases. As the card mentions, going into 2013 he only needed 2 SB, but 196 hits (less than 2012's total) to reach those marks. Of course, no one ever counts on season-limiting injuries, so Jeter is still well short of the hits mark, and may not reach it before he retires at the end of 2014. 3300+ hits, however, is nothing to sneeze at.

2013 Topps
Chase It Down #CD-2 Pablo Sandoval
Emerald Parallel #396 Aroldis Chapman

The back of the Sandoval card feels like Topps thought they needed to justify featuring the big man on a set about great fielding plays. "After taking extra ground balls during an off-day for the team, Sandoval was sharp when it counted." Big guys can be quick, even if they're not as fast around the bases. We believe it happened, Topps, it's OK.

This pack had the full 42 base cards expected. Only 2 were duplicates, so I added 40 cards to my Series 2 set, which is more than the 10% I must average per pack. All in all, I'm still on track to finish the set.

Series 2 Completion: 209/330 (63.3%)

eBay Wins #123

Today I have 30 cards from 1986 Topps, the big black banner set.

1986 Topps
#82 Tippy Martinez
#89 Randy St. Claire
#161 Lee Tunnell
#198 Ken Dixon
#209 Randy Ready
#226 Lee Lacy
#240 Tommy John
#302 Greg Gross
#317 Ed Romero

How have I never heard of Tippy Martinez before? That's gotta be one of the great names in sports. In the first bunch, only Lee Tunnell was a Cardinal, in 1987.

1986 Topps
#324 Dan Schatzeder
#382 Ivan Calderon
#393 Chris Pittaro
#440 Alvin Davis
#466 Tom Foley
#472 Joe Hesketh
#503 Mike Fitzgerald
#526 Charlie Lea
#562 Joe Beckwith

These 9 are decidedly common cards. At least Alvin Davis and Ivan Calderon were All-Stars once each.

1986 Topps
#598 Jim Presley
#623 Floyd Rayford
#626 Roy Thomas
#633 Jackie Gutierrez
#644 Mark Gubicza
#648 Steve Bedrosian
#703 Tim Wallach
#739 Dave Rozema
#775 Al Oliver

Floyd Rayford and Roy Thomas were both Cardinals I didn't know before looking it up for this post. One guy I really knew well was Steve Bedrosian, who was my go-to closer in RBI Baseball for NES.

1986 Topps
#321 Earl Weaver
#390 Tom Seaver
#780 Robin Yount

And, because the 30 cards didn't fit evenly into scanning groups of 9, here are my 3 favorite cards of the bunch. These guys, or at least their names, would also make a great law firm: Weaver, Seaver, and Yount. Just try to tell me you wouldn't trust that name.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2933
Total Spent	$47.86
Per Card	1.632 cents

Baseball Card Breakdown's Anniversary Extravaganza

To celebrate 1 year of blogging at Baseball Card Breakdown, a contest has been announced! The winner will get a choice among several lots of certified autographs. Go comment to enter, and if you're not following him, do that too, because if the follower count reaches 100, a second chance drawing will be held as well.

My favorite lot of the 8 up for grabs

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #5

After this pack I'll be half done with the Series 2 box. And half-done with the 3-box combo I bought: Series 1, 2, and Update.

2013 Topps
Gold Parallel #580 Jordan Danks #0730/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-21 Jurickson Profar
The Elite #TE-7 Reggie Jackson
World Baseball Classic #WBC-4 Robinson Cano

With the World Cup in full swing, the World Baseball Classic cards seem especially cool.

2013 Topps
Chasing History #CH-79 Hank Aaron
Emerald Parallel #449 Michael Cuddyer
1972 Topps Mini #TM-67 Tim Lincecum

There were no Cardinal base cards in this pack - not even former Cardinals. The Elite insert is a bit thicker than a regular card, but not as thick as the Rookie of the Year card from the last pack, so there were 38 total base cards in the pack. Of those, 30 were new, leaving me still just above the 10%-per-pack mark.

Series 2 Completion: 169/330 (51.2%)

eBay Wins #122

Today I add 2 more penny cards to my collection.

1986 Fleer
#398 Tim Laudner
#458 Jim Beattie

The cards may not be flashy, but powder blue Sansabelt pants just scream 1980s baseball, along with the 1980s logos for the Twins and Mariners. I've said before how much I like that trident logo, and I'm starting to think I might want to purchase a throwback Mariners hat if I can find one. I'll just tell everyone it's M for Matt.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2903
Total Spent	$47.56
Per Card	1.638 cents

Red Cardboard's Contest

There are a ton of prizes in Red Cardboard's contest, which he has rightfully dubbed a Mega Contest, so I'll keep this short. Go leave him a comment to enter. And if you haven't heard of his blog before, mention I sent you if you feel like giving me a bonus entry.

OK fine, one prize preview image, but then you have to go enter. Deal?

2013 Topps - Parallels

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #4

So far, I'm still resisting the urge to just open every pack at once. Here's the 4th pack of 10 in my Jumbo box.

2013 Topps
#562 Jason Marquis
Emerald Parallel #405 Hector Sanchez
Gold Parallel #473 Josh Johnson #1928/2013

I'm not a big fan of camo uniforms, but I'm glad to get another former Cardinal in Jason Marquis.

2013 Topps
Making Their Mark #MM-14 Lance Lynn
Rookie of the Year Tropy #ROY-JB Johnny Bench

I also got a current Cardinal, Lance Lynn. And this Rookie of the Year trophy card is going to cause me to have to buy a pack of extra-thick toploaders. That's a nice looking picture of Johnny Bench, though.

2013 Topps
Chasing History #CH-73 Robinson Cano
1972 Topps Mini #TM-58 James Shields

Finally here are two more of the standard inserts. I still really like those minis.

Due to the thick Johnny bench card, this pack only had 36 base cards. I also saw the first duplicates in the box, with only 18 of the 36 adding to my set. Still, I'm on pace to finish the set by pack #10, which is all I'm hoping for. All the inserts are just gravy.

Series 2 Completion: 139/330 (42.1%)

eBay Wins #121

Marching inexorably forward, I'm now at 1986 in my eBay pseudo-lots.

1986 Donruss
#20 Gary Ward
#104 Jerry Reuss
#159 Toby Harrah
#211 Bill Schroeder
#180 Harold Baines
#347 Don Baylor
#378 Dave Schmidt
#379 Bob James

While Don Baylor was never a Cardinal player, he was the first hitting coach I remember. And kid-me figured he must have been pretty good to have been hired away as the Rockies first manager. Also in this first bunch is Cardinal and St. Louis native Jerry Reuss.

1986 Donruss
#403 Bill Stein
#417 Dan Pasqua
#435 Ivan Calderon
#446 Jerry Royster
#458 Bob Shirley
#488 Juan Agosto
#544 Steve Buechele
#601 Joe Niekro

1986 is still a bit before I really started watching baseball, so I still have to look up each non-All-Star player on baseball-reference if I want to know for sure if he ever played for the Cardinals. One guy I found that way was Bill Stein, who only has Rangers stats on his 1986 card, but started out with the Cardinals in 1972-1973. Bob Shirley did have some Cardinals stats on his card, otherwise he would have been another one I didn't know played for my favorite team. I was previously aware of Juan Agosto, since he was in St. Louis in 1992.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2901
Total Spent	$47.54
Per Card	1.639 cents

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #3

2013 Topps
#569 Ryan Ludwick
Chase It Down #CD-15 Giancarlo Stanton
Chasing History #CH-90 Prince Fielder
Emerald Parallel #597 Marco Scutaro

Even though Ryan Ludwick is celebrating with the division-rival Reds, I'm happy to have a Ryan Ludwick card, since he's a former Cardinal. I've heard trade rumor of Giancarlo Stanton coming to the Cardinals, but we're so heavy on outfielders, I can't really see that happening, unless Miami needs 2 OFs in return.

2013 Topps
Making Their Mark #MM-9 Tyler Skaggs
Gold Parallel #568 Steve Lombardozzi #1366/2013
1972 Topps Mini #TM-85 Matt Williams
Black Parallel #540 Michael Bourn #28/62

All you collectors who hate the number of parallels out there can blame people like me. I like them. In fact my most desired set of all time is 1992 Topps Gold, a gold-foil parallel set. I'll never complete the 2013 sets of all 990, but maybe I can track down a few Cardinals in black, and gold.

Once again, all 42 base cards were unique to my set, so I'm well on pace to complete Series 2. But we'll see what happens in the later packs. For now, it's looking good.

Series 2 Completion: 121/330 (36.7%)

eBay Wins #120

Today I've got 2 cards from 1985 Donruss, with black, chipped borders and all. I've kindly cropped the image by about millimeter around each edge, so as not to offend your eyes.

1985 Donruss
#111 John Denny
#454 Storm Davis

John Denny played for the Cardinals from 1974 to 1979, which wasn't a very successful time in team history. He played 1985 with the Phillies as shown, and 1986 with the Reds before retiring.

Storm Davis wasn't a Cardinal, but he definitely has one of the great baseball nicknames. For some reason names like his make me think of an interview I saw by Stone Phillips of Garry Shandling, in which he riffed for a few minutes on how Stone's parents must have arrived at his name. He ultimately decided it's because Rocky was already taken.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2885
Total Spent	$47.38
Per Card	1.642 cents

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #2

Onward to Pack 2!

2013 Topps
#350 Albert Pujols
#658 David Freese

Both of these guys are Angels now, and it still stings a bit to see them at the same time on the same team again. But, winning cures all, so a good 2014 for the Cardinals will make it OK.

2013 Topps
#507 Lance Lynn
Chasing History #CH-57 Cal Ripken, Jr
Emerald Parallel #468 Anthony Gose

Here I have my third Cardinal base card, Lance Lynn, and 2 of the standard inserts.

2013 Topps
Gold Parallel #450 Jay Bruce #0568/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-18 Wade Miley
World Baseball Classic #WBC-7 Adrian Gonzalez

I think Mexico has some of the best baseball uniforms. They usually have really good soccer uniforms too, for that matter. I wonder why that is.

2013 Topps
Cut to the Chase #CTC-31 Matt Holliday
1972 Mini #TM-71 Reggie Jackson

I like the base cards, but a Cardinal insert is always an indicator of a successful pack for me.

All 42 base cards in this pack were new, which is great. I'm even further ahead of the 10%-per-pack pace than I was after pack 1. I'm fairly confident I'll get a full set from the box after successfully getting one for Series 1, but you never know.

Series 2 Completion: 79/330 (23.9%)

eBay Wins #119

Today I've got 9 more penny cards, this time from 1985.

1985 Fleer
#235 Tom Nieto
#367 Bob Bailor
#352 Bob Knepper
#446 Steve Farr
#514 Scott Fletcher
1985 Topps
#88 Bryn Smith
#164 Jorge Orta
#416 Wayne Gross
#652 Joe Nolan

My scanner's dimensions allow me to scan 3 cards wide and 3 cards high, or 4 cards wide and 2 cards high, so groups of 5 or 7 always give me trouble. Thus, your 1985 frankenset above, with 5 Fleer and 4 Topps. Aside from Tom Nieto, who is wearing the birds on the bat on his card, Bryn Smith was also a Cardinal, from 1990-1992. I started watching baseball in 1992, and didn't really learn all the players until 1993, so I have no direct memory of him. I didn't even know he left us for the Rockies along with Andres Galarraga in 1993 until I looked him up on baseball-reference, though I vividly remember being upset at Galarraga's departure.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2883
Total Spent	$47.36
Per Card	1.643 cents

2014 College World Series Contest

It's that time of year again, when Autographed Cards starts the annual College World Series contest. In fact, it's exactly that time of year, as my promotion posts from 2012 and 2013 both went up on May 28 as well.

Sadly, there are no Billikens this year, as they lost in the semifinal of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, despite it taking place on their home turf. But that means I won't be tempted to make any sentimental picks this year.

Go pick the 8 College World Series participants from the field of 64 for now, and don't forget to come back once the final 8 are set for the next phase. You've only got until high noon Eastern Time on Friday, so don't wait, enter now!

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #1

I've decided to jump right into my Series 2 Jumbo box, and show another 10 packs of year-old Topps. I got in ahead a little ahead of the 2014 Series 2 release. Now I just need to finish this one before Update hits the shelves.

2013 Topps
#527 Carlos Beltran
Gold Parallel #588 Jordan Zimmerman #1002/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-12 Zack Cozart
The Elite #TE-5 Sandy Koufax
World Baseball Classic #WBC-2 Anthony Rizzo
1972 Topps Mini #TM-78 R.A. Dickey

The first pack only had one Cardinal in it; the Carlos Beltran base card. The Gold Parallels and Minis are the same as Series 1, and "The Elite" is just about the same as "The Greats", but more greater? And still thick enough to make you think you've got a relic on your hands. And, maybe I'm a sucker for a good marketing ploy, but I like the World Baseball Classic. But, looking over the set checklist, I think Anthony Rizzo is probably the lowest on the totem pole among the 15 stars featured, and that's not just my anti-Cubs bias.

2013 Topps
Chasing History #CH-55 Ken Griffey, Jr.
Chasing the Dream #CD-3 Ryan Zimmerman
Emerald Parallel #523 Wandy Rodriguez

Ken Griffey always reminds me of all the Wheaties and Frosted Wheaties boxes I had saved from the late 90s. Sadly, at one point I felt bad taking up the bottom of my parents utility closet with my boxes full of cereal boxes, and recycled them.

Unlike Series 1, I began this journey fresh, owning no cards from Series 2. That does, however, mean all 37 base cards contributed to set completion, keeping me ahead of the 10% per pack pace.

Series 2 Completion: 37/330 (11.2%)

eBay Wins #118

Today's pseudo-lot contains 17 cards from 1984 Fleer.

1984 Fleer
#23 Tim Stoddard
#52 Floyd Bannister
#66 Dennis Lamp
#71 Mike Squires
#81 John Grubb
#114 Derrel Thomas
#178 Terry Forster
#195 Mark Brouhard
#223 Bill Dawley

In this bunch, only Bill Dawley played for the Cardinals, in 1987. But he didn't make the postseason roster after struggling during the season.

1984 Fleer
#257 Jim Morrison
#279 Bryan Little
#373 Atlee Hammaker
#379 Jeff Leonard
#457 Mike Norris
#541 Mike Fischlin
#555 George Vukovich
#557 Tom Brunansky

In the top row we have Jim Morrison, which is probably not the deceased singer, but you never really know for sure. Fun Fact: an anagram of Jim Morrison is Mr. Mojo Risin, which the singer sometimes used as a pseudonym and was in the lyrics of L.A. Woman. There's also Mr. One Flap Down himself, Jeffrey Leonard, who I guess went by Jeff at that time.

I'm surprised I haven't had any Tom Brunansky cards on my blog yet. He was a Cardinal from mid-1988 to mid-1990, and was involved in 2 somewhat big trades. His arrival was in exchange for sending Tom Herr to the Twins, and he left when the Cardinals acquired Lee Smith from the Red Sox.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2874
Total Spent	$47.27
Per Card	1.645 cents

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%)

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