Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part VII

Part I II III IV V VI

It occurs to me I haven't been doing the kind thing and actually linking to Junior Junkie's blog, for you, or for the search engine robots to boost him up.

I've got more McGwires today, slowly but surely approaching the end of his A's years.

1994 Donruss #335 Mark McGwire
1995 Donruss #460 Mark McGwire (x2)
1995 Score #377 Mark McGwire
1995 Topps Stadium Club #289 Mark McGwire (x2)

I had neither the 1995 Donruss or Stadium Club cards of McGwire, and now I have 2. It's always good to have a backup.

1995 Pinnacle Zenith #71 Mark McGwire
1995 Upper Deck #35 Mark McGwire
1996 Upper Deck Collector's Choice #710 Mark McGwire
1996 Topps - Profiles #AL18 Mark McGwire
1996 Topps Finest #B162 Mark McGwire
1996 Upper Deck #151 Mark McGwire

I've seen those Oakland Oaks throwbacks on other cards before. They're a little odd on the typically green-and-gold A's.

1995 Pinnacle #196 Mark McGwire
1996 Sportflix #117 Mark McGwire

I needed both of these cards, which both show the best thing you can on a horizontal card of a slugger, the full swing extension.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part VI

Part I II III IV V

I hope you like Mark McGwire cards, because I've got another post full of them. Actually, I hope you don't like Mark McGwire cards, so you'll send them all to me.

1991 Topps #270 Mark McGwire
1992 Studio #226 Mark McGwire
1993 Duracell #9 Mark McGwire
1993 Donruss Triple Play #87 Mark McGwire (x3)
1993 Pinnacle #58 Mark McGwire (x2)
1993 Topps Stadium Club #595 Mark McGwire

I actually got 4 Triple Play cards, but 18 cards scan much nicer than 19. And, I figured you got the gist of it after 3 of them.

1993 Studio #141 Mark McGwire
1993 Upper Deck #566 Mark McGwire (x3)
1993 Upper Deck #493 Mark McGwire
1994 Pinnacle #300 Mark McGwire
1994 Topps Stadium Club #358 Mark McGwire
1994 Donruss Triple Play #5 Mark McGwire
1994 Upper Deck #67 Mark McGwire

Either the photos on the Pinnacle and Triple Play cards were taken at the same time, or this was one of Big Mac's daily drills. Even if it was, he's got the exact same jacket, and the sun's at about the same angle based on the shadow of his hat bill. I vote for two photos of the same practice.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part V

Part I II III IV


I've got a lot of McGwires to go through. I'm nowhere near the St. Louis years yet.

1990 Starline Long John Silvers #9 Mark McGwire
1990 Starline Long John Silvers #11 Mark McGwire (x2)
1990 Kmart #32 Mark McGwire
1991 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-9 Mark McGwire
1991 Score 100 Superstars #39 Mark McGwire
1991 Score #324 Mark McGwire (x3)

I think those Green-Bordered cards were some sort of Long John Silvers giveaway, from some searching around the web.

1991 Upper Deck #174 Mark McGwire
1992 Donruss #348 Mark McGwire
1992 Fleer Ultra #115 Mark McGwire (x2)
1992 Pinnacle #217 Mark McGwire
1992 Upper Deck Fanfest #32 Mark McGwire

The 1992 Upper Deck FanFest set is another new one for me. It's increasingly rare for me to get a card from a set I don't already have cards from, but that one and the Starline cards were both new sets to my collection.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part IV

Part I II III

The cards from the giant box continue. I've got mostly McGwires left. And this is going to take me awhile.

1988 Donruss #1 Mark McGwire (x5)
1988 Donruss #256 Mark McGwire
1988 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-23 Mark McGwire
1988 Topps #759 Athletics Leaders (x2)

Yes, there's a few duplicates, but with cards like Diamond Kings, who cares?

1988 Score #5 Mark McGwire
1988 Score #659 Mark McGwire
1989 Classic Travel Purple #190 Mark McGwire
1989 Topps #70 Mark McGwire
1989 Upper Deck #300 Mark McGwire
1990 Classic Update #T33 Mark McGwire
1990 Donruss #185 Mark McGwire
1990 Donruss #697 Mark McGwire

I was glad to see a few of the slightly harder-to-find cards, like the 89 and 90 Classic cards. Not that those are impossible, but there are certainly more 1990 Donruss or 1989 Topps around.

1989 Fleer #634 Jose Canseco/Terry Steinbach/Mark McGwire (X3)
1988 Score #648 Mark McGwire/Matt Nokes
1990 Fleer #638 Don Mattingly/Mark McGwire
1990 Upper Deck #36 Oakland A's Checklist
1989 Topps Big #34 Mark McGwire

I wonder how many cards featuring both McGwire and Canseco are out there. I got two different examples in this bunch, counting the one with Terry Steinbach. Don Mattingly and Matt Nokes also made appearances. I think my favorite cards of this post is the Topps Big, although now I've got even more of a need to figure out how exactly to store cards from that set. I'd be glad to hear any good ideas anyone has.

Junior Junkie's Generosity Part III

Part I II

Today I've got the rest of the Bo Jackson cards, a few Ozzie Smiths, and some other miscellaneous minor leaguers and a logo sticker. There's still a huge stack to go.

1990 Fleer - Action Series Stickers #STL Cardinals Logo
2013 Pinnacle #16 Bo Jackson
2014 Allen and Ginter #61 Bo Jackson
2014 Elite Extra Edition #19 Cole Lankford
2014 Elite Extra Edition #52 Danny Diekroeger
2014 Stadium Club #67 Ozzie Smith

Old players in new sets mean a player collector's job will never be done. These card companies might have something about us figured out.

1994 Upper Deck #117 Bo Jackson
1994 Upper Deck - Diamond Collection #C7 Ozzie Smith
1995 Collector's Choice #200 Ozzie Smith

In retrospect, I should scan 3 horizontal cards side by side instead of verically stacked. Look at all that wasted space on the sides. Oh well. On to Part IV tomorrow!

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part II

Part I

Next up from Junior Junkie: More Bo Jackson.

1990 Stadium News #BJ Bo Jackson
1991 Topps #600 Bo Jackson
1991 Upper Deck #545 Bo Jackson
1991 Upper Deck #744 Bo Jackson
1992 Donruss #470 Bo Jackson
1992 Score #361 Bo Jackson

That first card has no copyright notice on it, but 1989 Stats, so I assumed it was a 1990. A reverse Google image search led me to find that the set is called Stadium News, which I should have assumed, and I found several other cards from the set in Zistle.

1992 Topps #290 Bo Jackson
1992 Triple Play #164 Bo Jackson
1992 Upper Deck #555 Bo Jackson
1993 Leaf #316 Bo Jackson
1993 Topps #400 Bo Jackson
1994 Sportflics 2000 Rookie/Traded #150 Bo Jackson

These cards have brought me to a decision. I must find a black White Sox jersey T-shirt with Jackson #8 on it.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part I

Back in March, Junior Junkie sent out packages to over 60 bloggers, and I was one of them. I'm notoriously slow to want to sit down and sort out large packages for posting, so here's a very late thanks. Also, I'm notoriously insistent upon posting every card I get in a trade or prize package, including tagging the set and players among those I collect, so strap in, you're in for at least a week of posts.

First up is the first half of the Bo Jackson cards. Which wasn't even the largest stack.

1988 Donruss #220 Bo Jackson
1988 Score #180 Bo Jackson
1990 Bowman - Art Inserts #4 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss #1 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss #61 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-1 Bo Jackson
1990 Donruss - Grand Slammers #12 Bo Jackson
1990 Fleer #110 Bo Jackson
1990 Score #687 Bo Jackson

Somehow, I was relatively unaware of the Grand Slammers inserts from 1990 Donruss. A quick internet search told me they were in the factory sets and cello packs. As 1990 Donruss has been a longtime project of mine, including all the error variations, I'll probably be adding those to my want list.

1990 Topps #300 Bo Jackson
1990 Upper Deck #75 Bo Jackson
1991 Fleer - Pro-Visions #5 Bo Jackson
1991 Fleer #561 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #5 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #412 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #420 Bo Jackson
1991 Score #692 Bo Jackson
1991 Score 100 Superstars #2 Bo Jackson

I was kind of stunned to see Bo got 4 cards in 1991 Score's base set, until I looked it up and saw he actually had 5. He only had 2 cards total in 1991 Fleer, and I got both of those.

1990 Score #566 Bo Jackson
1990 Topps Stickers #24 Lonnie Smith

 Why'd I throw in a random Lonnie Smith sticker to this bunch?

1990 Topps Stickers
Sticker Backs #51 Bo Jackson

Apparently in 1990 Topps Stickers, there were stickers on one side, and the backs had a different player. Thus, this card is doubly collectible for me, with Bo Jackson one one side and former Cardinal Lonnie Smith on the other.

eBay Wins #189

I'm kind of cheating by putting this card into its own post instead of with #188, since 2009 Upper Deck Update was apparently only available in packs with Series 1 and Series 2, according to my 2 minutes of internet research. But, it's a distinct set, so it gets a distinct tag, and in this case, a distinct post.

2009 Upper Deck Update #U2 Garret Anderson

Garret Anderson has now appeared in 3 of my last 9 eBay posts, after showing up back to back in #181 and #182. Here he's in his Braves uniform, which as I mentioned before is very odd to me, probably because he was on the Angels for so long, and only left when my baseball and baseball card interest was waning a bit. I also had him on my fantasy baseball team for many years when he was with the Angels, even in his later years when he was my 4th outfielder for off days.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3361
Total Spent	$52.11
Per Card	1.55 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

August Card Show Autographs

I practically had to go to the August card show to get Bill Virdon's autograph, because in July, it was actually one dollar cheaper to buy a ticket good for the three I got plus Virdon. I couldn't let the ticket go to waste. Also appearing at this show were Dave LaPoint and Scott Cooper.

Bill Virdon
N.L. R.O.Y. 55

1982 WS Champs
Dave LaPoint #35

Scott Cooper
All-Star
"93-94"

At this show, specific inscriptions can be requested for an additional fee, which I assume is a normal thing you veteran autograph seekers are familiar with. I haven't purchased inscriptions, though I've heard several people talk about specifically what they wanted written on their items. As it turns out, I got an inscription from all 3 players, despite giving them no requests other than "on the sweet spot, please".



I did a little bargain basement shopping at the show, too, and I have no time to go through this stuff yet, so I'll just show you my haul here, in its unopened glory.

One seller had several tables full of $5 wax boxes. He probably had 30 each of 1991 and 1992 Donruss, along with several of the usual suspects, Fleer, Score, etc. I resisted the urge to load up, though, and restricted myself to a few boxes I don't see everywhere, 1992 Triple Play and 1988 Topps Big. I also picked up the 1988 Topps Traded set mostly on a whim, as I had exactly one card from it in my wantlist, the Todd Stottlemyre.

I'm all-in on autographed baseballs now. There's another show in September with 7 Cardinals attending, and I've already purchased some advanced tickets.

eBay Wins #188

I've got another larger eBay lot this time, 23 whole cards from the same set. They were still a penny each, lowering my all-time per-card price by .003 cents again.

2009 Upper Deck
#43 Coco Crisp
#44 J.D. Drew
#86 Javier Vazquez
#118 Brian Fuentes
#161 Brandon Backe
#196 James Loney
#285 Emil Brown
#319 Brian Giles
#357 Braden Looper

Drew, Fuentes, and of course Looper were all Cardinals. This card was from Braden Looper's second stint with the Cardinals

2009 Upper Deck
#506 Yusmeiro Petit
#646 Dallas McPherson
#663 Doug Brocail
#686 Erick Aybar
#703 Hong-Chih Kuo
#734 Francisco Liriano
#829 Heath Bell
#839 Chris Young
#986 Huston Street

Huston Street's studio shot looks odd among all these action shots, even if it is a team checklist.

2009 Upper Deck
#23 Yunel Escobar
#330 Fred Lewis
#622 Clint Barmes
#833 Cha Seung Baek
#840 Brian Giles

I'm not sure why Brian Giles has 2 base cards in this set. Neither is a checklist or All-Star card. At least he got two different uniforms pictured.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3360
Total Spent	$52.10
Per Card	1.551 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

Zistle Trade #18

It seems like anytime I accept a trade on Zistle, one or two more offers come right away, so here's my second trade post this week. I got the higher volume on this trade, sending just two Mike (pre-Giancarlo) Stanton cards for these 10. Looking at the names in the trade offer, I was expecting to see a bunch of Cardinals, but in 1992, only Jose Oquendo was on the team. The rest became Cardinals later in their careers, except Lance Johnson who started in St. Louis

1992 Donruss
#259 Larry Walker
#267 Lance Johnson
#269 Rick Honeycutt
#277 Delino DeShields
#280 Jose Oquendo
#295 Jeff Brantley

In the background of Jose Oquendo's card, there are clearly two more Cardinals, Andres Galaragga and Ozzie Smith

1992 Donruss
#296 Les Lancaster
#314 Mike Gallego
#325 Mark Whiten
#372 Gregg Jefferies

These are the first cards I've posted of Les Lancaster, Mike Gallego, and Rick Honeycutt, by my reckoning.

It's fun to see a group of cards like this, all with players who were Cardinals, but on lots of different teams. My style of collecting means my "team set" completion takes a bit longer, but the result is more complete, too. I've still got 31 cards on my want list from 1992 Donruss.

eBay Wins #187

Once again I bid on a whole bunch of auctions for the same card without realizing it. This time I won 15 separate auctions for a penny each.

2009 Bowman Draft - Prospects #BDPP10 Telvin Nash (x15)

Telvin Nash hasn't reached the big leagues yet, but he's still in the Astros' system at AA. 14 copies of this card are now on my trade list.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3337
Total Spent	$51.87
Per Card	1.554 cents
Change	-0.003 cents

Zistle Trade #17

Zistle has allowed me to whittle down my want list bit by bit, while helping others do the same with my doubles. I've got a lot of overproduction-era Cardinals still missing from my collection, so every now and then someone finds me and can knock off quite a few of them. This particular trader just wanted a Joe Carter card in return, and as a Blue Jays fan, had a few Todd Stottlemyre cards for me, too.

1985 Topps #683 Whitey Herzog
1990 Fleer #243 Cris Carpenter
1990 Fleer #251 Ken Hill
1990 Fleer #252 Joe Magrane
1990 Fleer #253 Willie McGee
1990 Fleer #261 Scott Terry
1990 Fleer #263 Denny Walling
1990 Fleer #264 Todd Worrell
1990 Topps #6 Vince Coleman RB

These were the last of the 1990 Fleer Cardinals I needed, so that's one more team set off my list.

1990 Topps #591 Todd Stottlemyre
1991 Topps #348 Todd Stottlemyre
1992 Topps #607 Todd Stottlemyre

As I've mentioned before, Todd Stottlemyre and his father, Mel, are distant cousins of mine, which is why I started collecting his cards in earnest. Now since I've widened my collecting net to anyone who has suited up for the Cardinals, I've got two reasons to collect his cards, so I'm glad to have 3 more off my list. The sender wrote a note saying he figured he'd have more Stottlemyre cards I needed, which caused me to check my list and see my want list was far from containing every card of his I don't have, so I've rectified that now. Thus, the net result of this trade for me was my want list increased by several dozen cards. Hooray progress?

eBay Wins #186

Today's eBay lot has 2 more cards, this time from 2009 O-Pee-Chee

2009 O-Pee-Chee
#411 Delmon Young
#524 Kansas City Royals

I only had 5 cards from this set, 4 Cardinals and a Mike Lowell, so now I'm up to 7, or one more than 1%. This is another of those sets that came out while I wasn't collecting, so I'm a long way from completing it.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3322
Total Spent	$51.72
Per Card	1.557 cents
Change	0 cents

Another Sports Card Info Contest Win

There's a contest nearly every week at Sports Card Info, and sometimes two, so I'm there entering almost every single day. I've won a few of them over the years, and another recent contest went my way, so now I've got this nice red swatch from Yu Darvish

2015 Topps - Career High Relics #CHR-YD Yu Darvish

Topps made this a bit confusing by having Career High Relics in both series 1 and 2, with some of the same players, but the series 1 cards are inexplicably numbered CRH-xx instead of CHR-xx. But, I sorted it out, and I've got the series 2 K/9 Career High, as opposed to the Series 1 "Strikeouts in a Season" Career High.

Thanks to Sports Card Info for all the contests through the year, and my new relic.

eBay Wins #185

I'm getting ever-closer to the present day with my eBay penny cards. I'm up to 2008 Topps now, with 2 cards. It's now been so long since I resorted my cards that I have no idea if I got these at the same time or not.

2008 Topps
#51 Erik Bedard
#143 Willie Harris

I've got 286 unique cards out of the 660 or so from 2008 Topps, which I mostly got in discounted old packs. I wasn't collecting in 2008, so this set is in the gap I'm still sort of filling in. These two cards both added to my set.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3320
Total Spent	$51.70
Per Card	1.557 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

July Card Show Purchases III

[Part I II]

I really had no intention of stretching out a single set purchase to 3 posts, but then the Cardinals go and trade for a new player for me to collect, Steve Cishek. He's in 2015 Gypsy Queen, too, and they technically acquired him before my part II post...posted, though not before I scanned the cards and wrote it.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen #283 Steve Cishek

Welcome aboard, Steve. I like that you pitch side-armed like me, but other than that fact, I have much to learn before I can pass my judgement on this move.

July Card Show Purchases II

Here's the other half of the Cardinals and other players I collect.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#9 Bo Jackson
#25 Matt Carpenter
#27 John Lackey
#37 Mark McGwire
#44 Steve Carlton
#47 Ozzie Smith

That's a strong bottom row, with two Hall-of-Famers, and one that would have been, probably if he just handled the post-career PR a little better. Bo Jackson is one of the few players who never played for the Cardinals that I nevertheless collect, just because his story was so fascinating. I think the two-sport aspect gets me a little, too, because I considered adding Deion Sanders to my collections as well.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#48 Shelby Miller
#49 Albert Pujols
#59 Adam Wainwright
#72 Carlos Martinez
#84 John Smoltz
#99 Roger Maris

This half netted me 6 uniformed Cardinals and 5 other Cardinals, for a total of 13 uniformed and 8 other. I wanted to say "former", but both Smoltz and Maris are pictured with teams they played on before St. Louis. I wasn't expecting a full 8% of the base set to fall into my personal collection, but here we are. Certainly that's somewhat due to the Cardinals recent success, and at the expense of other teams, so I will enjoy and appreciate this while the winning lasts. 

July Card Show Purchases

In addition to my autographs, I did make one purchase at the card show; a full set of 2015 Gypsy Queen, without the SPs.  I have so many sets I haven't quite completed, that this one felt like a good idea when I saw it. I might still buy a few packs for a smattering of insert, and put the extra base cards in my trade list.

I decided to pull out all the Cardinals and players I collect to show, and as it turns out there were 24 of them, so I split them into two posts so I can tag them all. I tried a few different ways to sort them into two equal groups of 12, and couldn't quite get there, so I just sorted them numerically. Here's the second half first.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#141 Nomar Garciaparra
#184 Michael Wacha
#197 Matt Adams
#228 Jhonny Peralta
#238 Carlos Beltran
#263 Mark Buehrle

I went with the second half of the cards first because today is Nomar's Birthday. He's 42 today, and I'm glad to see him showing up in current products. In addition to the 4 Cardinals, there's also my hometown compatriot Mark Buehrle.

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen
#265 Jason Heyward
#271 Lance Lynn
#273 Allen Craig
#274 Dan Haren
#284 Trevor Rosenthal
#299 Kolten Wong

Some local sportswriters have talked about the possibility of Dan Haren making his way back to the team by the trade deadline, although I don't know how likely that really is. All told from this half I got 7 uniformed and 3 former Cardinals.

eBay Wins #184

Today I've got another bundle of penny cards, but thankfully they're unique cards, unlike the 9-of-a-kind from post #183. Today I've got some 2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update
#344 Grady Sizemore
#371 Gil Meche
#401 Francisco Liriano
#450 Jim Edmonds
#451 Jake Peavy

Jim Edmonds was a member of the Padres for less than 2 months of the season before being released, hence this is actually a Cubs card despite the photo.

2008 Upper Deck First Edition Update
#350 Garrett Atkins
#442 Zach Duke
#492 Scott Rolen

The Cardinals traded Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus, so now I have the other half of this trade, which I first mentioned when I got the Glaus card in this post. That'd be an interesting collection: the cards of players traded for each other, especially if they both showed up in that year's Update/Traded sets.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3318
Total Spent	$51.68
Per Card	1.558 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

July Card Show Autographs

The stars aligned and I had copious free time on the day of a local monthly-ish card show, and there were 4 former Cardinals signing, so I had to go. I prefer my autographs on baseballs instead of cards, so here are the additions to my collection.

Mike LaValliere
Wally Moon
Dal Maxvill

As I said, there were supposed to be 4 Cardinals there. Bill Virdon was apparently not feeling well, so he didn't show up, but is supposed to be there in August. I still bought the "All 4 Cardinals" autograph ticket, so I'll have to go back. So, I've given myself a nice commitment device to make it to the next show.

eBay Wins #183

Sometimes I bid on lots of cards at once on eBay. I'll bid a penny on pretty much any card, and more on cards I specifically want. I figure at the very least penny cards give me something to trade. I didn't really realize that I bid on at least 9 different auctions for this same card from the same seller, until the envelope arrived with all 9 of these in one stack.

2006 Bowman Draft - Draft Picks #DP58 Kristopher Medlen (x9)

I could have just scanned one, but then you wouldn't get the whole self-Bipping experience I gave myself. On the plus side, I gamed my stats and I've had 2 posts in a row where my average eBay card cost dropped by .001 cent.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3310
Total Spent	$51.60
Per Card	1.559 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

Pull Tab Awareness Week

It's Pull Tab Awareness Week! That's when defgav at Baseball Card Breakdown bribes us with a contest to spread the word about a better way to send cards in toploaders. You can go read his post, or follow along as I package up a single card someone recently requested on Zistle.

First, I get the card, a penny sleeve, and a toploader. In this case we have a 1997 Studio #96 Joe Carter, and a very old toploader

The card goes in the sleeve. You know the drill. I can get away with 2 in a regular toploader, or 4-6 in a thick toploader, but any more than that and I start worrying about dinged corners.

I always put the card into the toploader upside down. That makes it so if the whole thing starts to slide apart, the card is still not exposed to any tape. I haven't seen anyone else do this, but I haven't found any reason this is a bad idea yet, so please let me know if you know of one.

Next, the classic pull tab, over the opening of the toploader. Again, the only part inside the toploader exposed to the adhesive is the bottom of the sleeve.

I don't like putting a toploader directly into an envelope, so I usually grab a sheet of 8.5x11 paper and fold it like so, into a little packet that keeps the toploader from ripping the envelope, and keeps the contents hidden a bit more.

The packet goes into the envelope, but you probably knew that. Now I just need a stamp, normally. But this one's going to Canada, so I'll be swinging by the post office to get the proper amount on it.

2012 Heritage Blaster #6

This box was suspiciously low on SPs, inserts, and even Cardinals. I expect Cardinals to be a bit random, but inserts generally fall about 1 per pack. Only 5 showed up. I was hopeful that meant I was missing a color-swap variation among the base cards, but they all appeared to check out as the regular variety.

2012 Topps Heritage
#190 Matt Holliday
#278 Jhonny Peralta
#390 Jason Heyward
Blue Parallel #164 Austin Jackson
Checklist #C4
Chrome Parallel #HP54 Felix Hernandez #0605/1963
News Flashbacks #NF=A Alcatraz
Stick-Ons #9 Jacoby Ellsbury

I tried out a different scanner for these, and it appears to have cropped the edges and resulted in a generally grainier photo. I won't be using that one anymore if I can help it.

On to the progress! (With a few of the total insert set sizes fixed)

Base: 274/425
Base SPs: 12/75
Baseball Flashbacks: 3/10
Blue Parallel: 4/30
Checklists: 3/5
Chrome Parallels: 5/100
Clubhouse Collection Relics: 1/71
New Age Performers: 2/15
News Flashbacks 5/10
Stick-ons: 6/46
Then and Now: 1/10

eBay Wins #182

Today I've got cards from another set new to my collection; 2005 Upper Deck ESPN.

2005 ESPN
#1 Garret Anderson
#32 Carl Pavano

Other than branding synergies and other such buzzwords, I'm not sure why ESPN has their name on cards. These definitely have the busy feeling of a SportsCenter screen, though. So, job well done, Upper Deck?

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3301
Total Spent	$51.51
Per Card	1.56 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

2012 Heritage Blaster #5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So how is my quest going?

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