eBay Wins #181

Today's eBay penny card is a shiny 2005 Topps Chrome, which is ipso facto better than win #180, a 2005 base card, right?

2005 Topps Chrome #253 Garret Anderson

Garret Anderson played so long for the Angels that my memories of him playing for the Braves feel like some kind of weird fever dream. So, I'll enjoy this card of "the before times".

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3299
Total Spent	$51.49
Per Card	1.561 cents
Change	0 cents

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

eBay Wins #180

Another day, another penny card.

2005 Topps #249 Luis Matos

I have surprisingly few 2005 Topps cards in my collection. This is only the third. At this rate I'll complete the set about the time the Y10k problem kicks in.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3298
Total Spent	$51.48
Per Card	1.561 cents
Change	0 cents

1994 Fleer Ultra from the Pack Stash

Today I'm digging back into the pack stash. I've depleted it quite a bit, which is good. I don't want to have too much unopened wax (or foil as the case may be) sitting around hiding my big hits. Of course, there's little risk to that with a pack from 1994. Let's see the cards.

1994 Fleer Ultra
#323 Chad Curtis
#342 Robin Ventura
#351 Manny Ramirez
#366 Wally Joyner
#378 Kevin Seitzer
#392 Pedro Munoz

Manny's the biggest star of that bunch, and I particularly enjoy playing-career-era cards of managers, so Robin Ventura's a good one too. Wally Joyner may get there too one day.

1994 Fleer Ultra
#408 Rickey Henderson
#411 Ruben Sierra
#499 Craig Biggio
#538 Quilvio Veras
#561 Rick White
#567 Tom Pagnozzi

This scan's got two Hall of Famers and two Cardinals, including Rick White, who played for St. Louis at the end of 2002. There's also lifetime Cardinal Tom Pagnozzi, who the reason Todd Zeile could be shifted to third base.

1994 Fleer Ultra
#307 Mike Mussina
#316 Otis Nixon
#404 Bob Wickman
#492 Chris Hammond
Hitting Machines #9 Mike Piazza

I would assume Mike Piazza will make the Hall of Fame, and Mike Mussina has a decent chance, too. That's a pretty good number out of a single pack, except for maybe tiny sets that have nothing but stars. That Hitting Machines card definitely lets you know this is a mid-90s set, if all the gold foil on the base cards didn't make it clear enough.

eBay Wins #179

Do checklists count as cards? Generally I'd say they do, and it's my collection, my rules. Thus, today's eBay penny card post has 2 cards for 2 cents.

2004 Flair - Checklist
2004 Skybox LE #84 Esteban Loaiza

While checklists are cards, they'd be a bit of a stretch to be the only card of a post, so I doubled up on this one, and added in the next card up, a 2005 Skybox LE, which stands for Limited Edition. These are both from sets that are yet again new to my collection.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3297
Total Spent	$51.47
Per Card	1.561 cents
Change	0 cents

A Repack Hit From 2010 Topps

I spoiled the end a bit in the title, but let's see a 2010 Topps Series 2 pack I pulled from my pack stash, originally from a repack box.

2010 Topps
#361 Washington Nationals
#372 Phillies Franchise History
#545 Fred Lewis
#558 Ronny Paulino
#652 Chipper Jones

I don't hate horizontal cards. I just don't like how they mess with my scanning groups. Also, even though it's been a few years, it's still weird to think that Chipper Jones is retired.

2010 Topps
#345 Chris Volstad
#355 James Russell
#386 Dan Haren
#413 J.J. Hardy
#424 David Herndon
#440 Willie Harris
#450 Omir Santos
#479 Chris Carpenter

Chris Carpenter represents the lone uniformed Cardinal from the pack, but I also got a Dan Haren, whose cards haunt me and remind me we traded him away for 55 games of Mark Mulder.

2010 Topps
#514 Rafael Soriano
#515 Mariners Franchise History
#520 Randy Wells
#523 Phil Coke
#525 David Huff
#532 Hunter Pence
#561 Ryan Zimmerman
#571 Brandon Lyon

Those Franchise History cards would look good in a binder, if they were all consistently vertical or horizontal.

2010 Topps
#592 Brian Roberts
#595 Mike Lowell
#610 Alex Gordon
#614 Kelly Johnson
#632 Daric Barton
#650 Dustin Pedroia
#654 Collin Balester
#657 Chris Young
#659 Nick Blackburn

Call me an anarchist if you want, but I really hope Alex Gordon and 6 or 7 more Royals start in the All-Star game. Frankly I hope they get all 9 fan-voted slots, and Ned Yost brings in a Royals pitcher before he replaces the first position player.

2010 Topps
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT66 Warren Spahn
History of the World Series #HWS18 Paul Molitor
Topps Attax #JM Justin Morneau
Turkey Red #TR97 Chase Headley
Peak Performance #PP-52 Lance Berkman
Peak Performance Autos #PPA-DS Daniel Stange

I got another Cardinal with Lance Berkman, but the big hit is the last card, of Daniel Stange. Now he's certainly no superstar, but I'm always happy to add another autograph to my collection. Just because I have his card, I looked up his stats, and it appears he's now out of baseball, last playing in the 2014 Venezuelan Winter league. Still, I'm surprised to get this out of a repack, and glad to see that not every rack pack is apparently searched.

eBay Wins #178

Today's eBay post brings me 2 more cards from a set new to me, 2004 Donruss Team Heroes. I had a few cards from the 2005 incarnation of this set, but not 2004.

2004 Donruss Team Heroes
#102 Josh Hall
#409 Doug Waechter

I don't know what happened to Josh Hall, but he only ever played in 6 games in MLB. Here's an odd stat for you: he started 5 and finished 1, and had no complete games. I wonder if anyone else has ever only started and finished games with more appearances. Doug Waechter had a bit more success, playing in 6 out of the 7 seasons from 2003-2009.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3295
Total Spent	$51.45
Per Card	1.561 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

2013 Topps Series 2 Pack

Diving back into my pack stash, I found a pack of 2013 Topps Series 2 that I got in a repack. I know it was from a repack because there's no reason I would have bought one. I already built this set from a Jumbo Box of Series 1 and 2, so all of the base cards will be duplicates that go into my trade list. So, let's hope whatever inserts or SPs are new.

2013 Topps
#333 Santiago Casilla
#342 Matt Dominguez
#354 Casey Janssen
#366 Ervin Santana
#392 Tom Koehler
#499 Billy Butler
#571 Melky Cabrera
#612 Robinson Cano
#628 Martin Maldonado

Ervin Santana and Billy Butler should have stuck it out with the Royals a little longer. They would have found their way onto the AL All-Star team this year. Yes, I know Santana's a pitcher, but I'm sure the KC fans would have found some way to get him on the team.

2013 Topps
#451 Pedro Florimon
#507 Lance Lynn
Making Their Mark #MM-23 Todd Frazier

Here's a strong finish; A Cardinal and an insert. I could have sworn I had this Todd Frazier card, but according to my Zistle collection, and the physical box where I keep these cards, I didn't, so the pack did net me a single new card. The rest will hopefully be traded away to someone trying to complete their base set at some point.

eBay Wins #177

Plowing ahead with my eBay penny cards, today I've got 5 cards that cost me a nickel.

2004 Fleer Tradition
#26 Milwaukee Brewers Team Leaders
#56 John Lackey
#82 Chone Figgins
#306 Brian Lawrence
#391 Dave McCarty

5 cards for 5 cents, and they're all from a new set to my collection. I've got Fleer Tradition cards from many other years, but these are my first from 2004. And, I got one Cardinal in his pre-St. Louis days, John Lackey.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3291
Total Spent	$51.41
Per Card	1.562 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

2014 Bowman Contest at Waiting 'til Next Year

How would you like a nice start on a 2014 Bowman set? P-town Tom won a whole bunch of 2014 Bowman from My Cardboard Habit, and decided to collate it all and regift the 2nd and 3rd partial sets he put together. The prizes are 400 and 358 of the 440 cards, respectively. And who doesn't love some shiny Chrome cards to go along with the sets?

Just go visit Waiting 'til Next Year and leave a comment to enter. You've got a little less than two days

A Jumbo From the Pack Stash

Today I have a Jumbo Pack of 2008 Upper Deck. That's 36 cards, including two Rookie Debut cards visible through the clear wrapper on the back of the pack.

2008 Upper Deck
#54 Francisco Cordero
#93 Livan Hernandez
#131 Felix Hernandez
#132 Jeff Weaver
#154 Billy Wagner
#270 Magglio Ordonez

Jeff Weaver played half a season for the Cardinals in 2006, won a World Series, then promptly priced himself out of St. Louis's range. I'll admit when he left I was wondering if we'd regret it, but he regressed a bit and in the end I think it was in the Cardinals best interest not to pay him as much as he got in Seattle.

2008 Upper Deck
#318 Kevin Hart
#341 Bronson Sardinha
#363 Grady Sizemore
#390 Jake Peavy

A few weeks ago, someone called no-grass cards like Peavy's "Tattooine cards" after the desert planet. Now that's all I can think of when I find one.

#14 Chad Qualls
#36 Gregg Zaun
#37 Aaron Hill
#112 Barry Zito
#114 Brad Hennessey
#115 Jack Taschner
#151 John Maine
#152 Tom Glavine
#153 Orlando Hernandez

Check out that Gigantes jersey on Brad Hennessey. I'm glad when the photographers show up on special uniform days. The three Mets cards show different jerseys, too, and clearly the two Blue Jays cards do as well.

2008 Upper Deck
#191 Jamie Moyer
#193 Kyle Lohse
#209 Ryan Doumit
#231 Bronson Arroyo
#232 Matt Belisle
#248 Kazuo Matsui
#269 Gary Sheffield
#287 Jim Thome

Here I've got two former Cardinals playing for the Phillies, Kyle Lohse and Jamie Moyer.

2008 Upper Deck
#271 Matt Garza
#327 Jonathan Meloan
#359 B.J. Upton
#377 Magglio Ordonez
#386 Frank Thomas
Rookie Debut #7 Ryan Hanigan
Rookie Debut #23 Dave Davidson
Yankee Stadium Legacy #YSL3088 Moose Skowron

Since the Rookie Debut cards are what's immediately visible outside the pack, I'd wager that's the reason this particular pack made it to the repack factory. Ryan Hanigan and Dave Davidson weren't exactly the hottest prospects in a set with Ian Kennedy, Joey Votto, and Clay Buchholz. That Yankee Stadium Legacy set is kind of cool, but I don't think I'll be tracking down the other 6000+ cards for it. It'd be pretty awesome to have something like this for Busch Stadium, but I definitely understand the New-York-centricity of the card collecting world.

A Celebratory Contest at Baseball Card Breakdown

These dogs are clearly ready to party

To celebrate 2 years of posting and 500 posts, there's a giveaway at Baseball Card Breakdown. Just go leave a comment with your favorite of the 500 posts to enter. Do that and you'll be thrown into the randomizer to win some fabulous prizes. So go enter. Now!

eBay Wins #176

I've had a lot of one card eBay posts, so today, we're doubling up, with two penny cards from 2003 Topps.

2003 Topps
#25 Nick Neugebauer
#246 Jose Valentin

I like to consider this a "Final Tribute" card for Nick Neugebauer. After all, he last played in MLB in 2002. He first played in 2001, and was only 22 when he last played, so Topps could be forgiven for thinking he'd be back at some point. On the other side we have Jose Valentin, who didn't even hit the majors (also with Milwaukee) until his age-23 season, but played for 16 seasons. It's gotta be the mustache.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3286
Total Spent	$51.36
Per Card	1.563 cents
Change	0 cents

Last 2013 Triple Play Pack, For Now

2013 Panini Triple Play
#15 Alfonso Soriano
#29 Prince Fielder
#69 Buster Posey
#82 Yu Darvish
#87 Stephen Strasburg
All Stars #11 David Wright
Red Bordered Stickers #26 Brett Lawrie

4 packs have given me 20% of the 90-card base set, but of course future random packs will be likelier and likelier to have duplicates of my current cards. I think I will go ahead and purchase a box or two of these, and show you my progress in completing the set or master set.

eBay Wins #175

Today I've got another first for my collection, a card from 2003 SP Authentic. Considering that hobby boxes are still going for about $1/card, I'd consider the penny for this base card a pretty good deal.

2003 SP Authentic #6 Miguel Tejada

Obviously that $1/card price isn't evenly distributed, but instead people are chasing the high-end inserts. But I'd say I got at least 10-25x my money's worth here. With only 90 cards in the base set, they're all bound to be stars, too, and Miguel Tejada is no exception.


I also brought down my arbitrarily-rounded per-card eBay spending by another .001 cent, so there's that.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3284
Total Spent	$51.34
Per Card	1.563 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

2013 Triple Play #3

Finally, I pulled a Cardinal from one of these. Although, he's already gone from the team, and has been demoted to the minors for about a month. Yes, it's Allen Craig.

2013 Panini Triple Play
#25 Dexter Fowler
#30 Justin Verlander
Blue Bordered Stickers #2 Adam Jones
Eye Blacks #9 Felix Hernandez
#45 Josh Johnson
#77 Allen Craig
Baseball 101 #6 Infield

There's really nothing dictating which Hernandez these Eye Blacks belong to, so I'm going to go with Keith Hernandez. I was doing some online searching and saw full boxes of these going very cheaply, so I just might pick one up for the fun of putting together the set, and trying for a master set of all inserts.

eBay Wins #174

Now that I'm firmly into the mid-2000s, many of my eBay penny cards represent sets I've never seen in person, at least not in my collection. Today is another such example, from 2003 Fleer Tradition Update.

2003 Fleer Tradition Update

I don't even have any cards from Fleer Tradition in 2003, let alone update. I have vague memories of Graves from his time with the Reds due to the division rivalry with the Cardinals. His name is also one letter short of matching that of a guy who was in my high school class at the time, so he caught my attention for that reason. Maybe that makes me odd, but I have this card and you don't. Unless you do, then I guess you got me this time.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3283
Total Spent	$51.33
Per Card	1.564 cents
Change	0 cents

2013 Triple Play #2 from the Pack Stash

2013 Panini Triple Play
#44 Giancarlo Stanton
#83 Adrian Beltre
#84 Brett Lawrie
#85 Jose Bautista
#88 Gio Gonzalez
Red Bordered Stickers #1 Freddie Freeman
Eye Blacks #3 Josh Hamilton

After 2 packs, I'm still without a Cardinal. I haven't really combed the checklist to see how many I should expect, but among the 90 base cards I believe there are 6, counting current and former members of the team. I'm still liking the cards though, other than the awkward scans that result from the mix of horizontal and vertical cards. Maybe I should have bitten off a bigger chunk of the pack stash and put a few packs into a single post.

eBay Wins #173

My eBay randoms are getting into the territory where there are many sets with which I am unfamiliar, since I didn't actively collect from about 2000 to 2010. For example, I figured this was a Donruss insert, when it fact it's a base card of an entirely separate Diamond Kings product from 2003.

2003 Donruss Diamond Kings

You can almost feel the pain my scanner was in when trying to make sense of the shimmery background on this card. "I give up, give it rainbow stripes". These cards don't quite grab me like the near-caricatures of the 80s and early 90s Diamond Kings, but like I always say, for a penny I'm happy to have another sample from a heretofore unseen set in my collection.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3282
Total Spent	$51.32
Per Card	1.564 cents
Change	0 cents

PWE Time!

Stealing Home, from All Trade Bait, All The Time recently sent me a PWE. If you're sick of seeing Cardinals on my blog, well I'd suggest you don't read it? But this one has more than just Cardinals, have a look.

1991 Studio #235 Joe Magrane
2013 Topps - Chasing History Gold Foil #CH-87 Lance Lynn
2014 Topps - #157 Lance Lynn

OK, I tricked you. the first 3 were Cardinals, including a nice shiny Gold foil parallel I wasn't really aware existed. If not for the rainbow shininess of the card, I probably would have just filed the Lance Lynn away with my other Chasing History cards.

1998 Topps #268 Nomar Garciaparra
2000 Upper Deck MVP - Pure Grit #G9 Nomar Garciaparra
2002 Donruss #12 Nomar Garciaparra
2003 Leaf #23 Nomar Garciaparra
2003 Leaf - Certified Samples #LC-14 Nomar Garciaparra
2004 Topps #200 Nomar Garciaparra

I get lots of Cardinals in various ways, but I don't get as many Nomars, mostly because among players I collect, he's the only one that never played for St. Louis. 5 of the 6 were new cards to my collection. I inexplicably already have 3 copies of that 1998 base card, and a search of my blog doesn't show any of them arriving in the last few years, which means I probably had them all in 1998. I thought I had the 2004 card, but it turns out I have the Opening Day version. My Nomar collection isn't all that big, so these are a nice addition and gives it a relatively large boost.

Thanks for the PWE, Stealing Home!

2015 College World Series Contest

It's May 28, which means it's time to get into the College World Series contest at Autographed Cards. Seriously, all my promotion posts have been May 28, in 2012, 2013, and 2014. I suspect the calendar will conspire against me to force me to do it earlier next year.

But enough numerology. Go pick the teams that advance from each pool of 8 before the games start tomorrow. Then you can wait until the final 8 team bracket is set before making your further picks. I've got no Billikens again this year, so I suppose I'll be rooting for Missouri State for starters.

eBay Wins #172

My last eBay post was of a 1997, and this one is a 2002 card. I sorted out all the penny cards by year a long time ago, yet somehow there are 4 consecutive missing years. This is only my second 2002 Fleer Ultra card. The other is a Bud Smith I received as part of contest win early last year.

2002 Fleer Ultra #193 J.T. Snow

J.T. Snow never played for St. Louis, but he has a very tangential connection to the city. His dad, Jack Snow, was a broadcaster for the Los Angeles Rams, and actually came along to St. Louis with them in 1995. I don't know if that normally happens when teams move, or if there have been enough moves to really say what's "normal", but I think it worked out nicely for the Rams. Rather than having a local broadcaster take over, we had a radio broadcaster who really knew the team, because he had been watching most of the players for multiple seasons by that point.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3281
Total Spent	$51.31
Per Card	1.564 cents
Change	0 cents

Zistle Trade #16 Part II

My Zistle trading binge continues, and this time I got enough Cardinals that I had to split into two posts just to tag them all. In return, I sent off some 2011 Topps Lineage cards, several of which were triples and quadruples, because I bought several discounted packs and blasters of that set.

Part I

1983 Fleer #613 Gary Gaetti
1990 Upper Deck
#225 Ozzie Smith
#278 Milt Thompson
1992 Donruss
#116 Kent Mercker
#163 Brian Hunter
#208 Tony Pena
#424 Chris Sabo
1993 Hostess
#18 Andres Galarraga
#25 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Since I made these trades at the same time, I wound up trading for the Chris Sabo card twice. But, I'm not too upset about it. The main draw in this trade was the Hostess cards. I'm not sure how many Hostess Baseballs I ate in the summer of 1993, but I feel like it was on the order of dozens. Before these two, I had 25 unique cards from the set, and 9 duplicates. A quick blog search indicates I've received 4 in trade, and sent off a few, so that probably means I got at least 30 from eating the baseball cakes. Most importantly, I now need only 5 more to finish the set.

I found it surprising that these are the first cards I'm posting of Andres Galarraga, Brian Hunter, and Kent Mercker. I'd especially expect a card of Galarraga to have come up by now.

Another nice card in the trade is the Gary Gaetti rookie card. He first played a few games in the majors in 1981, and in an era before the modern Bowman, he didn't get a rookie card until he completed his first full season in 1982.

Zistle Trade #16 Part I

My Zistle trading binge continues, and this time I got enough Cardinals that I had to split into two posts just to tag them all. In return, I sent off some 2011 Topps Lineage cards, several of which were triples and quadruples, because I bought several discounted packs and blasters of that set.

1989 Bowman
#242 Todd Stottlemyre
#429 Todd Worrell
#437 Terry Pendleton
#440 Pedro Guerrero
#444 Tom Brunansky

Ah 1989 Bowman, the cards that don't quite fit in standard sleeves and boxes, and often get bent up when mailed in a stack of standard cards. Luckily with 5 of them they stayed pretty safe in the envelope. I didn't have very many of these, so I've still got 12 Cardinals on my want list.

1990 Fleer
#250 Pedro Guerrero
#262 Milt Thompson
1990 Topps
#82 Scott Terry
#688 Milt Thompson
#788 Frank DiPino

I still need 7 more Fleer cards, and 17 more Topps cards (including some Tony La Russa and a Derek Lilliquist) to complete my current Cardinals wantlists for these two sets. If I ever get ridiculously flush with free time, a PC I would start would be guys wearing #37, so that Scott Terry card has great things ahead of it in my theoretical future.

eBay Wins #171

Today's eBay penny card isn't in fantastic shape. It appears to have some sort of bubble-effect over the foil. I'm not really sure what caused that, but I suspect moisture, or maybe another glossy card stacked on top of it for too long.

1997 Pinnacle #31 Chan Ho Park

Quick, guess what year Chan Ho Park finished playing.  If you're not a Pirates or Yankees fan, I bet you guessed way too early.

The answer is 2010. I would have probably said 2004, and I could have only listed the Dodgers and Rangers as his teams. I knew he started young, and had some great years, but I had no idea he lasted through 17 seasons.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3280
Total Spent	$51.30
Per Card	1.564 cents
Change	0 cents

Zistle Trade #15

This was another trade where I only had to send one card to my trading partner, but at least it was a 2011 Heritage SP this time. I'd say it balanced these well enough.

2012 Opening Day - Fantasy Squad #FS-13 Victor Martinez
1992 Topps - Gold #151 Jeff Hamilton
2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-24 Josh Johnson
2011 Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations #SC-10 Carlos Pena

1992 was when I first started collecting cards, so the first current-year packs I bought were 1992 Topps. The Gold parallel set has been one of my biggest wants ever since then. I felt like I had a lot of them many years ago, but my collection currently only has 12, now 13 with the addition of Jeff Hamilton. It's possible I believed 10 or so was a lot back then, and it's possible I'll unearth a box of cards somewhere with more Golds in it when helping my parents clean out their basement one of these days.

This trade was full of inserts, with a card from the 2011 Kimball Champions set I've been so enamored with, and two Opening Day inserts. Opening Day always seems like it'd be an easy set to complete a bunch of insert sets from, but so far I haven't bought any full boxes to try to do so the easy way. Instead I'll let them trickle in through the years in trades like this.

eBay Wins #170

Today, I break free from my need for neat, orderly scans with a 2-card horizontal-vertical combo, which provides no way to avoid whitespace, apart from doing two separate scans. Maybe that would have been the move.

1997 Upper Deck Collector's Choice
#322 Mark Thompson
#323 Walt Weiss

I always do a cursory search of players I don't recognize, and even some I do, to see if they played for the Cardinals. Generally, I find nothing, as I remember most Cardinals, especially those who played for the team after 1992 when I started watching, or even after the junk wax era began, let's say 1985. But here's Mark Thompson, heretofore unknown to me as a Cardinal, who actually played the last year and a half of his career with St. Louis. He made 5 starts in 1999, and 20 relief appearances in 2000. Clearly there's a bit of a gap in my baseball memory, from right around the time there's a gap in my baseball card collection, starting in 1999 or 2000.

I bet you thought this post would be mostly about Walt Weiss.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3279
Total Spent	$51.29
Per Card	1.564 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

Zistle Trade #14

My trading partner today wanted just one card, a 2011 Opening Day Mike Stanton base card. He's doing quite well right now, so I sold high (I think) for a collection of 1992 Donruss Cardinals.

1992 Donruss
#397 Royce Clayton
#424 Chris Sabo
#428 Will Clark
#481 Omar Olivares
#533 Geronimo Pena
#553 Rich Gedman
#570 Scott Cooper

I've still got 44 cards on my wantlist for this set, of which 43 are Cardinals and one is Deion Sanders, just because. Of course many are like these Chris Sabo and Will Clark cards, playing in other uniforms. There are a good number of them among the 188 cards of this base set I have, too. Free Agency keeps my collecting net wide enough that I'll probably never finish my want list.

eBay Wins #169

Today's eBay penny cards come from one of the most 90s sets of the 90s, Circa '97.

1997 Circa
#323 Jeff Fassero
#345 Jeff D'Amico

I already detailed Jeff Fassero's stints with the Cardinals 3 eBay posts ago with #166, and Jeff D'Amico has no connection to the Cardinals, so here's something I was inspired to embed due to this post having too many Jeffs. Put the kids to bed before the halfway point for sure.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3277
Total Spent	$51.27
Per Card	1.565 cents
Change	0 cents

Zistle Trade #13

I recently received a flurry of trade proposals on Zistle, so I'll have a few of these to post in the next few days. This small batch of cards cost me a JFK, a Harry Truman, and a Nate McLouth. In return I got 3 Cardinals I didn't have yet.

1991 Studio #231 Bernard Gilkey
1992 Pinnacle #304 Allen Watson
2011 Topps - Kimball Champions #KC-65 Bob Gibson

I have no way of proving this, but I think I very recently added the Gilkey and Watson cards to my wantlist. When I'm adding cards to my collection, if I'm not in a hurry I'll go through the rest of the set and add any missing Cardinals to my want list, since I'd like one of every Cardinal, even from the junk wax sets. I think I did that recently for 1992 Pinnacle and 1991 Studio.

I've had the entire Kimball Champions insert set on my wantlist for several years now, but I haven't made any great efforts to complete it. It's just out there as a reminder that I like the ones I have and I want more. Luckily for me, my trading partner had one of my top wants from that set, Bob Gibson.

eBay Wins #168

I'm progressing rapidly through my eBay wins, with the last post representing all of 1996, and this one starting 1997. However, I've got more on the way from the junk wax era, so I'll just have to start this process all over again. Eventually the cycles will get shorter, I think.

1997 Donruss #127 George Arias

Here we've got George Arias in uniform during the last year of the California Angels, before they became the Anaheim Angels. That move was around the time I was collecting caps from each MLB team, and I was thoroughly frustrated by their logo change. Now I just embrace changes, as they just make my current hat a throwback.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3275
Total Spent	$51.25
Per Card	1.565 cents
Change	0 cents

Another Pack Stash Pack, from 2013 Triple Play

I believe this packs was a free bonus in a Dave and Adam's order, though I could be wrong. These are my first cards of 2013 Triple Play.

2013 Panini Triple Play
#8 Manny Machado
#16 Kevin Youkilis
#56 Derek Jeter
Tattoos #9 Derek Jeter
#90 Jayson Werth
#93 Buster Posey
Red Bordered Stickers #6 Aroldis Chapman

I got a bit of a Derek Jeter hot pack here, with his base card and the tattoo insert. These cards look a bit more cartoonish than 2012, based on my small sample. The pictures appear more like caricatures, as opposed the post-processed photo look the previous year. I've got a few more of these in the pack stash, and I'm kind of eager to get them open now, at least to see if I can pull a Cardinal or two.

eBay Wins #167

You know the drill by now. Here's one set's worth of cards I got for the lowest possible single-card price on eBay, a penny each.

1996 Topps Stadium Club
#362 Kevin Appier
#413 Chris Bosio

Before these two cards, I only had 15 base cards from 1996 Stadium Club. Now I'm up to 17. If only I could find the rest for a penny each, I could build the rest of the set for a mere $4.33.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3274
Total Spent	$51.24
Per Card	1.565 cents
Change	0 cents

Pack Stash, Super Mega Jumbo Ultra

...which is the full name of Fleer Ultra before they changed it for showbiz purposes.

I reached back into the pack stash and found a pack of 1994 Fleer Ultra, Series 2. It's a huge pack by today's standards - 15 cards! (Edit: clearly a math degree doesn't prevent counting errors. There are 17 cards.) I got one Cardinal, which is probably a decent ratio, but 2 players I collect.

1994 Fleer Ultra
#310 Chris Sabo
#314 Mike Greenwell
#330 Bo Jackson
#337 Ozzie Guillen
#340 Jack McDowell
#343 Carlos Baerga
#347 Eddie Murray
#367 Brent Mayne

The non-Cardinal I collect is Bo Jackson. He played his last year for the Angels, something I probably won't have gotten right if asked as trivia. I also got former Cardinal Chris Sabo, Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, and future manager Ozzie Guillen.

1994 Fleer Ultra
#374 Pat Listach
#382 Wes Weger
#384 Rick Aguilera
#390 Shane Mack
#399 Xavier Hernandez
#412 Terry Steinbach

No Cardinals here, but the A's were my favorite AL team back when there was no interleague play. Now it seems odd to like any team my favorite team plays against every few years. As a kid, I think the real reason I was drawn to the A's was the uniqueness of a team wearing green, and Terry Steinbach's wearing plenty of it here.

1994 Fleer Ultra
#364 Tom Gordon
#401 Terry Mulholland
Phillies Finest #11 Darren Daulton

I almost didn't catch that the Darren Daulton card was an insert, until I sorted out the cards by number and saw there was no way it could be in Series 2. I'm always learning things I didn't know - or didn't remember - about older sets. That Phillies Finest set, to celebrate their world series appearance I guess, just has 10 cards of John Kruk, and 10 of Darren Daulton. I would have figured there would be a matching insert set for the actual champions, the Toronto Blue Jays, but none seems to exist.

eBay Wins #166

Among my many eBay penny cards, I had 5 from 1995 Topps. I can't recall whether these all came in one transaction, every since my great reshuffling of my eBay wins pile.

1995 Topps
#415 Mike Magnante
#488 Scott Ruffcorn
#493 Jorge Fabregas
#603 Jeff Fassero
#634 Rod Bolton/Olmedo Saenz

The only Cardinal in these cards is Jeff Fassero, who was sort of on the team twice. He was drafted by the Cardinals in 1984, but stayed in the minors for them, as well as the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland before signing with Montreal and making it to the big leagues. He went to a few more teams before the Chicago Cubs traded him back to the Cardinals just before the nonwaiver deadline in 2002, then he actually picked up 2 wins in relief against Arizona in the NLDS.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3272
Total Spent	$51.22
Per Card	1.565 cents
Change	-0.001 cents