2 More Recaps

Today I will continue with yesterday's theme of highlighting 2 recent trade packages.  Speaking of 2s, it was reported earlier this morning that the Cardinals game for today is cancelled due to 2 players testing positive for the virus.  I hope this does not turn into a Marlins like situation.  It was so nice seeing baseball games even if the Cardinals were on the losing end. 

The first pwe was courtesy of TCDB member jfcard.

He finished my 1991 Topps Debut '90 set by sending the last 8 Cardinals.  Not too many household names in this foursome, although Perez did have a few decent years as a reliever.

This group features 4 guys who made a bigger impact, although with vary degrees.  Mr. Lankford of course was the best of the bunch.

The next package was from The Bench member Billy J.  He also sent a pwe with some Cardinals set hits.

 
Billy finished my 2020 Diamond King team set by sending the Ozzie card.  I have over 600 different Ozzie cards now.  If Topps keeps putting him in every base set, I should reach 1000 before my collecting days are over.  I am just shy of 300 Musial cards.  One of these days I will have to get one from his playing days.

Both of these guys had good years in Triple A last year, but there was room for only 1 on this year's roster.  Ravelo had an outside chance to make the team this spring, but once the DH rule came into affect he was almost guaranteed a spot.  Arozarena was traded to Tampa Bay along with Jose Martinez to reduce the Cardinals crowded outfield. 

Flaherty was scheduled to pitch this afternoon.  I hope he still gets a chance sometime this weekend.  He had a good, but not great first start against the Pirates getting the win. 

2 Highlights

2 Highlights.  That sounds like the Cardinals season so far.  They won the first 2 games against the Pirates, and have dropped the next 3.  They have not even really been competitive in those losses.  The pitching has been decent, but the hitting is nonexistent.  Last night they managed 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 9 times.  That is not a good formula for a  win. 

Instead of dwelling on how bad the Cardinals are playing, how about I show off highlights of 2 packages that arrived this week.  First was a pwe from TCDB member jsteved.

The bulk of the pwe were these 2019 A&G Hot Box Gold cards.  For flagship I prefer the gold border, but A&G cards look better without them.  Still not a bad looking card though.  Panini cranks out a lot worse.

In 1995, Upper Deck used a Future Stock parallel for the Minors set instead of the Electric Diamond parallel from the MLB version.  Not much difference between the 2 of them.

TCDB member astrosammy also set a pwe with 4 hits to various team sets.

The Brian Jordan card completed the 1992 Topps Traded team set.  Good to cross that one of the list.  Covelli, or Coco as most of you know him, Crisp never played a game for the Cardinals.  He was part of the trade that brought Chuck Finley to St. Louis in 2002. 

The Bud Smith 2001 Fleer Tradition card just leave me 1 short of the team set.  Anyone want to guess what future Hall of Famer that is?  The Renteria card that scanned so badly is from 2001 Bowman Heritage Chrome.  I promise it does not look like that in person. 

Another From Trading Bases

I halted my trading on TCDB before I left on vacation.  I did not want to bother with trying to work out deals or worrying about whether the mail was being delivered.  I did manage to work out a couple of trades with Trading Bases members.  One was from yesterdays's post, while the second was with member Matt S.  This is the second time I have traded with him this year.  The first time brought me a quite a few nice Cardinals.   This time was no different. 

My dislike for minis is not as strong as it once was.  Nice Cardinals like these make it more easier to trade for them.  The 17 Reyes is an A&G back while the 18 Gibby is a black border.

Although the design and photo is nothing to write home about, I could not pass up a numbered card of 2011 World Series hero David Freese.

This will be the first year in a long time I will not have any new minor league sets to track down.  I guess I will track down some All Star or Top Prospect card like the ones above. 

The 2015 Topps Heritage '51 set  was only released in a factory set.  That would be why I these are the first in my collection.  I shy away from factory sets or any other online exclusives.

Speaking of online exclusive cards, the Brock is from the 2017 3000 Hit Club on demand set.  Nice shiny card, but I would never buy the set .  The Ozzie is from the 2018 Topps New Era set.

I do not have a Meijer store within 2 hours of driving distance.  That makes it tough to find these purple parallels every year. 

I do have a couple of Walgreens within 30 minutes, but I cannot tell you the last time I was in one.  It is not the first place I think of when I want to buy some cards.  I understand it can be very hit and miss to find cards there anyway.

Finishing up with some 150th Anniversary parallels from 2019.  As Chris noted in a comment on an earlier post, you gotta love the high socks that Gant is wearing. 

Turning Bowman into Cardinals

Most of my trades of late have been the pwe variety.  I love the small trades.  Postage is usually less than $1 and when my cards arrive there is not as many to scan and file away.  Despite all this, I will not pass up a chance to get a large chunk of cards in either.  Most of the time I am able to get rid of a decent amount of cards myself.  This was the case with a recent trade with Trading Bases member Tom B.  I sent him almost every 2020 Bowman card I had in exchange for a nice batch of Cardinals set needs.

 
I will start with the only inserts from the package.  I believe I only need 2 more cards from both the 1995 Upper Deck Electric Diamond and 1994 Stadium Club Golden Rainbow sets. 

I was able to finish my 1994 Bowman's Best team set.  I love the Best sets from the mid 1990s.  The refractors really stand out, while the base cards even look great.

1997 Topps Gallery is one of the rare sets with the card number on the front.  Look closely and you will see it under the player's name. 

The 1998 Topps Gallery base cards are a little dark compared to 1997.  At least you get to see Ron Gant's front side.  The Super Joe McEwing card finished my 1999 Bowman Chrome team set.

JD Drew had a ton of cards in his first couple of years.  I still need quite a few.  The Vina card is from 2001 Topps Fusion. 

Edmonds is another guy I still need a ton of base cards from, although quite a few are from premium brands. 

Pujols is 1 guy I know I will never cross all his cards off my wantlist.  A lot of his 2001 rookie cards are out of my price range.  I will be content knocking off other like this 2004 SP Prospects card that completed a team set.

My favorite card of the package was the 2013 Topps Tribute Musial.  The 2005 Origins is not bad, but the green border just seems off to me.  Cardinal red would have been better.

Rounding out the package were 2 shortprints from 2007 Topps Heritage.  These yellow nameplate variations bring my set needs down to 5. 

Series 2 Cardinals Box Break Results

I admit I am getting hooked on box breaks.  If I have any spare time in the evenings, I find myself searching youtube for breaks of the latest products.  I will admit I get really tired of hearing the word MOJO all the time, but for the most part the videos are fun to watch.  Before I left on vacation last weekend, I won spot in an EBAY break for 3 jumbo Boxes of 2020 Topps Series 2.  Total cost was just under $19.  The package arrived while I was gone.  It is always nice to have some mail waiting for you when you get back.

I always make sure the breaks I get in include base cards.  Getting a team set is my first priority.  This breaker did not show all the base cards, but I was pretty sure I came away with all 11 Cardinals while I watched it.  Turns out I have 3 complete team sets and a few other duplicates.

 
Jumbo boxes offer 1 autograph and 2 other relics/hits.  I was lucky enough to get this Draft Medallion Goldschmidt.  Sooner or later Topps is going to run out of ideas for these manufactured relic cards.

I was a little disappointed to receive 2 of the Ozzie inserts, but the nice KK silver pack card made up for it.

The rest of my lot consisted of 2 Decade's Best inserts and a Gold card.  The Goldy, one Ozzie, the gold card, and the 1950s card all came from one pack.  If it was not for that one pack, I would not have done very well.  Overall I am satisfied with what I got for the price.  I have yet to find any Series 2 blasters or packs at my local Walmart, so this was a win in my book.

Almost Made It

I am going to fall a little short of my goal to catch up before vacation.  The only thing left on my desk to highlight will be a large EBAY lot that came last weekend.  Today's post will show my last 2 pwe trades from TCDB members.  First up is a package from Gasypo30.

I can finally say I completed a Heritage team set that includes shortprints.  The Goldschmidt was the last 2020 Heritage I needed.  I am a pretty close on the 2016 set thanks to getting the Oh.  Not counting the action variations/color swaps/throwback uniform cards, I just need 1 more for that set.  The Larussa brings my 2008 set needs down to 5. 

The other cards were from 2016 A&G X set.  I am not a huge fan of the all black background.

I am not going to name the trader who the next batch of cards came from.  Although none of the cards arrived damaged in the pwe, they were all loose in a team bag.  No sleeves or cardboard protection.  Someone with over 75 completed trades on the site should know better.

I received the last 2 needed base cards from 2020 Pro Debut.  Montero was 1 of 3 Cardinals who have tested positive for the virus so far.  All 3 shared a plane from the Domican, but are doing fine.  It was announced today that less than 2% of the 3,748 players and coaches tested came back positive.  That is encouraging to hear.  Other than Freddie Freeman, I have not heard of anyone that is has affected really bad.

I have never bought an of Topps online exclusive cards or sets.  In fact, this is my first Topps Total card since it was reborn.  Nice clean design, but I would not pay over $1 for the commons.  Topps did such a great job with 2020 Big League this year, I wonder if they wonder consider bringing Total back as a low budget set with a large team checklist.  Bring back the days when you had to track down 20+ cards of your favorite team.

 Last but not least are 2 Altuves for my son's collection.  He informed me I should be trying harder to get his cards. 

Getting There

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with regards to getting caught up with my trade posts.  I have a couple of small ones coming this week, and an EBAY purchase to recap before I leave this weekend.  Today's pwe trade arrived last week from TCDB member nkandy11.

I am getting very close to finishing the 1994 Stadium Club Golden Rainbow team set.  Only 3 more out of 24 left to go.  2 Ozzie Smith cards and a Rheal Cormier.

I did finish the 1999 Ovation team set with the JD Drew card.  The Polite is a Spectrum parallel from 1998 SPx Finite that is numbered to 1250. 

The last cards is not really a card.  This mini poster is from 1998 Sports Illustrated Then & Now.  I assume the Great Shots set are from old SI covers.  This was the last of 3 Cardinals that I needed. 

Trading One for Many

I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July.  We had a small family gathering at my place.  No fireworks involved, just a cookout with some water fights for the kids and card playing for the adults.  After skipping out on a post yesterday, I am back at it today in my attempt to be caught up before I leave on vacation Saturday.  Today I show a package from The Bench member Trishlp.  I traded her a 2020 Big League Ballpark Oddities card from my box break in exchange for a nice Cardinals lot.

I finished up my 2020 Big League team set.  Like quite a few other collectors, I think I may try to complete the 300 card base set.  I love the design.

I also added a couple of other 2020 Big League Cardinals.  Love the orange parallels, the Star Caricature not so much.  It is not a bad drawing of Goldy, it is just that I am not a fan of the cartoonish looking cards.

I am getting closer on the 2019 Big League Gold team set.  6 more out of 16 to track down.

These are my first cards from 2020 Pro Debut.  It is a shame none of these teams will get to play this year. 

If MLB plays any games this year, I look for Carlson to make his debut sometime.  A week ago I had hope that a season would be played, but now with quite a few players testing positive or opting not to play, I have some doubt. 

Kerry's Cards Package

Two posts in a row that show cards from Cardinals fans.  As promised, this one is a recap from a package that Kerry from Cards on Cards set.  It was a rather large bubble mailer, so I was very curious to see what was inside.

Kerry helped with my 2020 Diamond Kings team set and also include a nice Musial insert.  I may have mentioned this before, but of Musial's 3,630 career hits, 1,815 were at home and 1,815 were on the road.

I wonder if mascots will be allowed at MLB games this year.  It will be strange to see them there without any fans to interact with.

Select seems to be one of Panini's premium brands.  I do not have much luck finding them at shows or shops.  These 2 base cards from 2013 are welcome additions.

I added 2 shiny inserts to the collection.  The Pujols is from 2005 Leaf Certified Materials.  I miss LCM cards.  I always loved the mirror inserts and Fabric of the Game jersey cards.  The O'Neill is one of the many colored inserts from 2019 Optic.  I believe this one is the Caroline Blue.

The reason for the big mailer was this 1985 Topps Super card.  It is huge compared to the standard sized card.  It was nice of Kerry to include a top loader large enough for it.

Another Cards for Cards Trade

I bet you thought by reading this post's title that today I would show cards from Kerry.  I do have a package from him to recap, but today I will show cards from a trade with another Cardinals fan.  TCDB member Gapporin lives in Springfield, Mo , home of the Double A Cardinals.  It is great to have another outlet for my doubles that I can turn into cards I need. 

I have never seen cards from the 2007 Pepsi set before.  Then again, maybe I have and did not turn the cards over to see the card number. 

 
Bowman has a bevy of numbered inserts.  The Garcia Blue numbered to 399 is from 2010 Bowman Draft.  The Knizner is an 2019 Atomic Refractor .

Hicks will start the season on the DL, if the season ever gets started.  He is just over a year removed from Tommy John.  The 2018 Heritage Black Weaver is not numbered, but has a print run of 50. 

It is not hard to tell what this 2019 Donruss card is numbered to.  That is a lot of 42s to put on a card.

I received all types of Tyler O'Neill cards.  Rainbow foil, Advanced Stats, A&G mini, and  a purple Donruss were included.  I am guessing he will be given the first chance to win the starting left field job, but Lane Thomas and Dylan Carlson will also be in the mix.

Closing out the post with 2 of my favorite types of cards, golds and refractors.