Canadian Blaster

My son's baseball practice was rained out last night, so I finally had time to scan some cards that have been sitting on my desk since last Monday.  This was the third and largest trade package that arrived on that day, all from Trading Card Database members.  It was a 300 count box that came all the way from Canada.  It had been forever since I mailed anything outside the US, so I had to ask the trader if postage would affect the deal.  He assured me it would be less than $20.  I was getting over 250 Cardinals in the deal, so I figured it was worth the chance.  It cost me $15.50 and about 10 minutes in the post office, but I ended up spending less than a blaster to pull of the trade.  The cost per card was about 6 cents.  I could not have bought these cards at a show for that price.  In addition, you do not see a lot of the cards at shows.  Here are the cards from the 1980s.

The box was full of Topps O-PEE-CHEE cards from every year in the 1980s.  I have very few of these in my collection, with most of them coming from a package I received from Kerry of Cards on Cards fame.  I believe there were about 10 1980 cards.  Some of the card had the same photos as the Topps brand, but others had different pics.  The backs also featured French text.  Some of you may recognize Vuckovich as slugging first baseman Clu Haywood from the Major League movie.  He won the AL CY Young award in 1982 as a member of the Brewers, but would lose in the World Series to the Cardinals.

1981 added the O-PEE-CHEE name on the front.  I am not crazy about cards like the Shirley being listed as a Cardinals, but it is so it was be filed away with the rest of my Cardinals. 

Check out the sideburns on the 1982 Lonnie Smith.  He won a World Series with 3 different teams: 1980 Phillies, 1982 Cardinals, and 1985 Royals. 

I like to think of 1983 as the bulls-eye design.  Sadly Porter and Forsch have both passed on.  Porter died of a drug overdose in 2002, Forsch of a heart attack just days after throwing out the first pitch of Game 7 of the 2011 World Series.  He is the only Cardinals pitcher to throw 2 no hitters.

Smith was still rocking the sideburns in 1984.  Tom Herr chose to go with the perm look.

Jack Clark was the only power threat of the Cardinals during the 1985 season.  I know a lot of athletes age once they retire, but I bet Clark is almost twice as big now as he was on this card. 

The first non O-PEE-CHEE card in the package was this 1985 Kondritz Vince Coleman.  This was part of a 20 card set that highlighted his 1985 Rookie of the Year season.  VMC stands for Vincent Maurice Coleman.  I thought it was strange the other trader only had 1 card from this set.  I am pretty sure you had to buy all 20 cards as a set.

I mentioned in yesterday's post how I love the 1986 design.  The OPC version looks good also.  I hate to be mean, but I don't think many cards used a close up of Willie McGee for a reason.  Various Cardinals fans have given him the nickname ET.

Leaf was the Canadian Donruss version in the 1980s.  I always think of the crazy prices the Jose Canseco Rated Rookie card brought in the late 1980s when I see the 1986 design.

Classic 1987 wood grain design.  Enough said.

I am not sure why O-PEE-CHEE used different font colors on the front of the 1988 cards.  I have seen white, blue, and black versions. 

Look closely and you will see Leaf added a leaf to its name in 1988. 

Who doesn't love stickers that double as baseball cards.  The front of these 1988 Topps stickers have 2 peel offs, while the back features just one player.

1989 OPC closes out the decade.  Like 1988, black and white fonts were used. 

Topps changed some of the stickers in 1989 to a single player on the front.  I like that version a lot better.

Panini also produced stickers in 1989.  I will give them the edge over Topps because of the use of Cardinal colors for the borders.