Friendly Fire

I have mentioned before, but some of my favorite trades are with other Cardinals fans.  I thin out my doubles box in exchange for Cardinals I need, or sometimes I score cards not even on my wantlist.  A package arrived last week from Trading Bases member Mark that contained some of both.

I am way behind on my 2016 team sets this year.  These are my first 2016 Topps Archives.  Maybe I will be able to hit up some Black Friday sales to put a dent into this set.

2016 Topps Chrome is another set I have a long way to go before I finish.  The Oh card is a nice addition to my base set.  The Rosenthal is a Black Wave Refractor #ed to 75.  The 2016 Bowman's Best Wainwright is a Green Refractor #ed to 99.  Almost looks like a Christmas themed card with all the red and green.

I had never seen this Brian Barton card before.  After a little research on baseballcardpedia.com I found out it is a 2008 Topps Kmart card inserted into Update packs.  Score's answer to Topps Gold cards were Gold Rush inserts.  The 1995 Ozzie did not scan very well, but looks much sharper in person.  Brian Jordan played along side Ray Lankford for 7 years in the Cardinals outfield during the 1990s.  He was a member of some bad teams before the 1996 season when the Cardinals fell 1 game shy of reaching the World Series.  I always like the die cut inserts regardless of brand.

The big surprise of the package was this 2013 Topps Tier One Allen Craig auto #ed to 25.  While this is not my first Craig auto, it is by far the coolest.  Craig was a key member of the 2011 World Series team, but was never the same after a series of injuries during the 2013 season.  He was traded to the Red Sox at the 2014 trade deadline and has bounced between the Sox and Triple A since then.