4 and 1

Some packages have started to arrive from trades I made with the Stadium Club cards from my son's trip to the card shop.  Since he paid for the packs with most of his own money, I tried to find Altuve cards that he needs.  The Bench member reickholt had some along with an autograph for my collection.

My son still needs quite a few base cards like this 2016 Topps Archives.  It is a nice change of pace going after something other than Cardinals.  With Altuve being a superstar, there are a ton of inserts like the 2013 Bowman gold that we can trade for.

2018 High Tek is one confusing set.  I wish Topps would have put the pattern name on the back of the card instead of making collectors guess what they have.  Too make things more confusing, I believe the National League and American League have different designs for the same pattern number.  Good thing there are numerous sites that picture all the patterns.  The card on the left is pattern 3, the right is a pattern 1 magma diffractor.

I scored a nice Marcell Ozuna auto from 2018 Tek.  It will be interesting to see how Ozuna finished out this year since coming back from injury.  He will be a free agent this winter.  I would think the Cardinals have some interest in keeping him, but it would have to be at the right price.