2019 Set Help

School has been in session about 2 weeks now.  My free time has taken a big hit.  Most nights it is 8:30 before I have a chance to escape to my computer/card room.   Trading has taken a big hit, but has not stopped all together.  Over the weekend I received a nice PWE from TCDB member Setshot68 that helped knock off a few 2019 team wants.

I am missing a 3 short prints from 2019 Heritage regular set.  I have not even started High Numbers.  Good thing there are only 2 short print Cardinals to chase.

Speaking of short prints, I need 2 more to finish 2019 A&G.  These should be much easier to find than the Heritage ones. 

The lone non base card was this 150th parallel.  I hope to hit a card show or two before the end of the year and find some of these in bargain boxes.  If not, the parallel set will join Topps Gold as something that I may never finish.

2 PWE Trades

Yesterday's mail brought a couple of trades that arrived in PWE.  These are growing more popular as collectors are finding safe ways to ship without using a bubble envelope.  I have started using them more also for trades involving just base or low dollar inserts.  Most of the time you can save up to $2.  On to the cards.

First trade came from TCDB member Hundomatic.

I was able to finish the 2019 Bowman Platinum team set and get a nice Dakota Hudson insert.  Hudon will most likely lead the Cardinals in wins this year, but would be the #3 starter if the Cardinals make the playoffs. 

I also finished the 1990 Topps Glossy Send In set, although there is only 3 Cardinals in the set.  The Pujols brought my 2018 Archives needs down to a McGwire short print.  The 2019 set came out yesterday.  Wonder which I will finish first ?

The second PWE came from TCDB member grim25. 

The Ozzie is a 1994 Pre Production Finest card.  Not sure how it was released.  The 1996 Metal Checklist scanned very badly.  I am one of those collectors who includes the checklist with a team set.  Weird I know.

Ankiel never had the chance to see if he could come back as a reliever this year thanks to an injury.  I doubt he tries it again, but it would have been fun to see him try.

Chrome from Kerry

Earlier this month Kerry from Cards on Cards posted his results from a box break of 2019 Topps Chrome.  He finished his Cardinals team set and had extra base cards to trade.   At the time I did not plan on opening any Chrome, so I sent him a few Cardinals duplicates in exchange for a team set that arrived yesterday.

It was nice to knock out the set in one trade.  I had the Molina already from a couple of packs my son bought at the card shop on National Baseball Card Day.  Good thing there are plenty of Yadi collectors.

Kerry also sent a nice Futures Stars insert that I received in another trade last week.  I am sure this card will also find a good home in another Cardinals fan's collection.

Also included was a nice 2019 Silver pack Ponce.  He should get a September call up in a few weeks.  Not sure if he will start, but he should provide some type of help for the stretch run

These 2 Ozzies were my first from both sets, 1984 Nestle and 2019 Topps Museum.  Looks like the Museum photo was taken at Wrigley.  Not very hard to recognized the ivy wall.   Thanks Kerry for another great package.  I should have a few cards left from your want list for a future trade.

Stickers and Base for the Wantlist

One of the best things about a trade for me is being able to cross cards off my wantlist.  It does not really matter if it is a single base card, some inserts, or a nice game used or auto.  I will admit that my wantlist never seems to get smaller because I am always finding new sets to add.  TCDB member BLWinborn40 helped knock a few things from my list with a nice package that arrived Friday.

Some collectors may not consider Topps Stickers as cards, but I like them.  This one from 2015 put me at 6 cards out of the 10 card team set. 

I have just 1 sticker left to track down from the 2018 set after receiving these 7.  Time to start looking for the 2019 cards that feature backs like the sets from the 1980s.

I am doing better completing my 2019 base card sets than I did in 2018.  Only 1 more Big League card and 2 Stadium Club cards needed to file these away.  The Musial card is one of the most unique photos I have ever seen on a card. 

I have been slowly added Topps Gold cards to my wantlist.  I usually do not added inserts or parallels. but TCDB makes it very easy to find all the cards in a team set.  I doubt I will ever complete a set, but there is always the thrill of the hunt. 

Collections for the Collection

Card companies were cranking out products left and right in 1998.  Baseball Card Pedia lists over 50 different set produced that year.  It was nice to have a large variety to choose from, but some of the sets were redundant where the manufacturing used the same photo with a different finish to it..  Topps had Topps Chrome.  Upper Deck had Special F/X.  Not to be left out, Donruss produced its Colletions set that featured cards from its base set. Leaf, Elite, and Preferred.  Just like the other 2 companies, the new set featured the same cards with a chrome like finish.  My lastest trade package from TCDB member udelljaru brought me a handful of these cards.

These two are from the Donruss set.  The cards scanned much darker than what they really are.  Very comparable to the Topps Chrome cards.

These are from the Leaf set.  The trader thought the Marrero was the rarer Prized Collection version, but it is just the regular card.  No big deal to me as I needed it anyway.

The last 2 cards are from a couple of lesser known sets.  The Gibson is from 2015 Panini Contenders set.  Gibson was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few months ago.  I have not heard any recent updates on his health other than he is getting treatments.  The Simontacchi is from the 2002-03 Upper Deck Superstars sets that featured players from different sports from the same city.  Not a bad idea, but the cards are rather plain.  

The Good and The Bad of a Trade

It is not very often I have something bad to say about a trade.  In my 25 plus years of trading, I can only think of a handful of times were I did not receive something or the package arrived damaged.  With over a 1,000 trades completed, that is a pretty good percentage.  But my latest trade with The Bench member AndyDrummond left a bad taste in my mouth.  I will say this had nothing to do with what he did, but more with what I received.  He went above what we agreed upon.

The good part of the trade were these 2 2019 Topps Chrome cards.  I find it hard to think of a 30 year old pitcher as a Future Star, but I guess Topps has other ideas.  The Ponce card is a prism refractor that looks much better in hand.

Now the bad part:

This card was not in the original deal I agreed upon.  The other trader had it laying on his desk and thought I would enjoy it.  I really appreciate his generosity, but Topps screwed this up big time.  Why would you take a 50 year old card that is in pretty good shape and put a damn stamp on it?  I do not even have the original card in my collection.  The stamp is not even centered on the card.  Epic fail if you ask me. 

National Trading Card Day

My son's growing Jose Altuve collection gave us an excuse to visit a somewhat local card shop on Saturday for National Baseball Card Day.  He likes to look at his cards, so we store them in a binder.  A few weeks ago, I ran out of Ultra Pro pages.  I also needed some storage boxes for myself, so we made the 45 minute drive to our closest hobby shop. 

We usually hit this shop a few times a year for supplies or promotions like Saturday's or Black Friday.  It has the a large selection of supplies and wax boxes/packs.  They also have a large selection of singles sorted by star players and teams.  The singles were a little high for my budget.  Most of the star player cards are base that are priced from 50 cents to $1.  I flipped through the Cardinals cards and found a lot of junk area cards priced for 25 cents.  Molina and Goldschmidt cards were $1 and up.

We received 3 of the promo backs.  My wife also made the trip, so it was nice the owner gave all of us one.

These were some of the better cards we received.  No doubles out of our 3 packs.

My son wanted the Harper card that came with a $10 Topps purchase.  Not sure why because he is not a Harper or Nationals fan.  I guess the advertising suckered him in.  He wanted to open some 2019 Topps Chrome, so I overpaid and bought 5 four card packs for $5.99 plus tax.  I always try to teach him the value of a $1.  At a $1.50 per card, these packs were not a great value.

Out of the 20 cards, Yadi was the only Cardinals we received.  Good thing Kerry @ Cards on Cards has extra base cards to send our way.

Our best base cards were these 3.

We received the usual 1 insert per pack.  2 prism refractors, 2 base refractors, and a Future Stars.  The Acuna an Ohtani are nice cards that should bring back some nice Altuve or Cardinals.         

Ginter Goodness

I have made no secret about my opinion of Allen & Ginter.  There are 2 major flaws for me. One, I am not a lover of mini cards.  I still have plenty Cardinals minis in my collection, but I do not go out of my way to find them.  Second and most of all,  I do not like buying a pack of cards and getting a dog, or fish, or airplane.  I buy baseball cards to get a card of a baseball player, not some gimmick.  It has been many years since I bought a pack of A&G.

Thank goodness there are plenty of guys who love Allen & Ginter for the things I do not.  Trading Bases member and my great friend Ron B opened a couple of hobby boxes and sent me his extra Cardinals.

I received a great start to my team set.  I need 2 more base cards and 3 sps to finish.  It looks like the sps are not too tough this year, so I hope this set will be done before too long.

I will show the minis despite my lack of love for them.  The top row are all A&G back variations.  I also received a regular and black border Matt Carpenter.  It was good to see him not hitting leadoff upon his return from the DL.  A guy who hits below .220 and strikes out a ton is not your typical table setter.

 I do like the Ginter Greats inserts set.  Stan the Man is 1 of 4 Cardinals in the set. 

My son added some sweet Altuve cards to his collection including a 2018 Triple Threads, 2019 A&G, and a 2019 Topps Top of the Class card. 

 

One From The Bench, One From TCDB

School starts here in one week.  That means my spare time will be cut down big time.  My son starts soccer practice this weekend, while my daughter has volleyball games starting by the end of the month.  At least I might have time on the weekends to spend with my collection.  In the meantime, I have been busy working out trades wherever I can.  Monday brought packages from 2 different sites.
The Bench member Oriiolesfan8 sent a four pack of Cardinals, while TCDB member corozco sent a nice Paul Goldschmidt along with some trade bait.

The Goldy HR Challenge cards was the lone card from my second package.  I have never tried the challenge before, but I think I will try with this card.  May have to do some homework before I pick a date.  I love the green bordered GQ cards.  They remind me of a baseball diamond.

Though not as sharp as the green cards, the purple GQ is also pretty sharp.  Bader was sent down to Triple A Memphis a couple of weeks ago to learn how to hit again.  He was hovering around the .200 mark for most of the season.  I hope he gets it figured out because he is a fun player to watch in the field and on the bases.

The last cards is a 2015 Chrome Prism refractor.  Wainwright is having somewhat of a bounce back season in what could be his final year.  He is not the pitcher he was 5 years ago, but every 4th or 5th start he will show flashes of his former self.  I am glad he has a chance to finish his career as a starter for the Cardinals.  Always a class act who does a lot for the community. 

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.      

I Remember That Blogger

The trade packages keep rolling in this week.  I received a nice one yesterday from Marc of Remember the Astrodome fame.  He is not actively blogging right now, but does continue to trade on TCDB. 

I am chipping away at my 2019 Stadium Club set.  I love the Ozuna card.  Both these guys were in the lineup last night for Triple A Memphis along with Harrison Bader.  Hard to believe the Cardinals sit in first place without them and Molina not playing for a few weeks.  Maybe a change is better sometimes. 

I scored some oddball cards including a 2017 Honus Bonus, 2018 Topps Sticker, and a 1987 Sportflics logo card.

I am a sucker for the old timers sets, even if the cards lack logos.  These are from the 2015 Leaf Heroes of Baseball set.  The cards are about as plain as you can get.

 Finally I scored a couple of gold parallels from 1994.  The Topps card finished my 27 card team set.  I need 2 more Score cards to finish that 21 card set.  Anybody have Mike Perez or Gerald Perry laying around?

4 Corners

It was nice to get home Sunday evening after a long and hot weekend in St. Louis.  Even though the Cardinals lost both games we went to, we still had a great time.  Once I unpacked and took a much needed shower, I had a little spare time to opening Saturday's mail.  One package from TCDB member Ryans0625 contained a quartet of corner infielders from the past, present, and future.  

 

McGwire is the first baseman from the past.  This 1999 Ultimate Victory is one of 30 McGwire cards in the set.  Upper Deck loved their McGwire cards.

Goldy is the current first baseman.  He has heated up along with the weather.  Last week he homered in 6 straight games on his way to NL Player of the Week honors.  Glad I could knock off a 2019 Heritage SP with this card.

Two players of the future are both third basemen right now.  Montero is in Double A, Gorman in High A.  I am guessing Montero will be moved to first base or traded.  He won Midwest League MVP honors last year, but has been hurt a large portion of 2019.  Gorman has better range at third, hits for more power, but does not have as good of a batting average.  The Cardinals will give him every chance to be the starting third baseman in a couple of years.