2 EBAY Wins

The Cardinals start their unlikely playoff run today.  I do not give them much of a chance to get past the Padres, even with Clevinger and Lamet are not pitching.  The offense has not been scoring very many runs the last couple of weeks.  Maybe the last 2 days off will help, but I am not getting my hopes too high.  One guy that has been hitting better since he was recalled is Dylan Carlson.  He should start somewhere in the outfield for all the games.

This is my first Topps Now card.  In fact, it was so cheap I bought 2 copies.  I almost bought directly from the Topps website, but found a nice deal on EBAY where I got 2 delivered for less than 1 from Topps.  It took almost a month after Topps shipped the cards to buyers, but it was worth the wait.  

One pitcher the Cardinals will most likely face in this series is former closer Trevor Rosenthal.  He has been almost unhittable since joining the Padres.  He had a very good run as the Cardinals closer in 2014 and 2015.  He is from a long line of great Cardinals closers that started with Bruce Sutter in the early 1980s.  After Sutter, the Cardinals turned to a hard throwing rookie in late 1985.

Worrell was about as dominant as a reliever could get from 1986-1989 until he got injured.  I was thrilled Topps included an autograph of him in this year's Archives.  I believe this is his first certified autograph.  It was no surprise that these sold well upon release.  I waited awhile to find this one for a little less than $10 delivered.  

I Remember Marc

It is always nice to run across a blogger on TCDB.  It is even better when that person initiates a trade.  Marc B from Remember The Astrodome fame recently sent me a great trade offer that brought a bunch of fun cards my way last week.  

Bader was the last card I needed for my 2020 Archives team set, not counting all the wonderful variations.  This set is done in my book.

Marc almost finished my 2020 Allen & Ginter set.  I just need to track down the Tommy Edman base card now.  It was nice to get the Brock short print in a trade rather than surfing EBAY.  Some of his cards are still inflated in value due to his passing.  The Musial insert is great.   Topps good a wonderful job with the baseball inserts in A&G this year.

Refractors, gold, and colored are about as good as you can get with inserts.  I hope Topps goes back to a full gold border in 2021.

My first taste of 2020 Topps Stickers include 3 sticker card backs and a cool mascot card.  I am glad these are full sized again.  It makes storage so much easier.

The 2019 Topps sticker Yadi is also full sized.  I like this version better than the spring training photo used on the 2020 card back.  Molina has a ton of cool inserts from Panini.  This is just the base card from 2019 Leather & Lumber, but it is still a great looking card.

 

2020 Allen & Ginter EBAY Team Break

I have to admit I am getting a little addicted to watching team breaks.  Even if I am not in them, it is fun to see what great cards get pulled.  I bid on my fair share, but have not won very many.  I have a hard time going over the price of a blaster box without the guarantee of getting a base team set.  The higher end stuff like Bowman Chrome will be out of my price range for awhile.  Last week I did get lucky and win a 3 hobby box break of 2020 Allen & Ginter on EBAY for a little less than $15 delivered.  There are 13 Cardinals in the base set including one short print.  There are also all the minis and a handful of inserts to chase.

I received 8 of the base cards.  That is not too bad, but the collation was horrible.  I received 3  Bob Gibson cards and 2 Ozzies.  I believe there were 5 Howie Kendrick cards out of the 3 boxes.

I received a regular mini along with a A& G back variation.  

My lone insert was this Molina.  It was nice of Topps to actually come up with a new idea.  How cool would it be if they could produce a game used catcher's mask card.

I was lucky to score 1 of the 9 hits from the 3 boxes.  Once again bad collation struck as 2 relics of the same skateboarder were pulled.  That is a big reason why I never bust any packs of A&G.  One of the other hits was a mineral card numbered to 10.  That may be a sweet pull, but not in my book.  Overall the break was ok.  I came pretty close to getting fair value for the money I spent.  The cards were shipped very quickly and packaged well.  My only big complaint was the breaker's language.  I lost count of how many F bombs he dropped over the course of the 45 minute break.  I am all for being excited over a great pull, but the use of that type of language does not come across as very professional to me.  Regardless of price, I will not be getting into any of his future breaks.

  

The End is in Sight

The MLB regular season is coming to end this weekend.  The Cardinals have 4 games left against the Brewers.  Depending on how those games go, they may have to play a doubleheader on Monday in Detroit to determine their playoff status.  I hope it does not come down to that.  The pitching staff could use a break.

Something else coming to an end is the pile of cards I need to scan.  As of this morning I am caught up, but I should have 3 packages arriving today or tomorrow to keep me busy this weekend.  The fun never stops.  This morning I scanned the last 2 trade envelopes I received early this week.  First up is a pwe from TCDB member bigblue88.

I have been getting a lot of Topps Gold cards lately, but not too many from before 2010 like the Miles card from 2008.  I guess that happens when you try to find inserts or parallels that are over 10 years old.

Brebbia is not a huge name to non Cardinal fans, but he has been a valuable reliever the last few years.  His Tommy John surgery this year sure has hurt the bullpen.  I miss the wooly beard also.

The next pwe was from TCDB member Diamondreams.

This Ozzie completed my 1994 Collector's Choice Silver Sig team set.  His signature has not changed much since then.  

Molina collected his 2,000 hit last night in the Cardinals victory.  His contract is up at the end of the year, but I doubt he will retire.  I could live with another year or two, but not at his current $20 million salary.  It would be cool to see him and Wainwright retire together at the end of next year.

EBAY Cardinals Lot

I struck out in my efforts to find any 2020 Stadium Club at Walmart for the last few weeks.  I was undecided whether to go the EBAY route, or try and trade for all 12 Cardinals in the set.   I surfed EBAY first and found a lot that included a nice extra.  Total including shipping was $10.46.

  

I am guessing most of you have seen these before, but the photography is too good to to show again.  While the Goldschmidt is a great photo that Topps has used for a few other players, the Yadi is my favorite of this bunch.  It is a wonderful shot of him coming out on the field for a playoff game last year.

It was nice to Topps actually use a photo of Paul Dejong on his card this year after using a Greg Garcia photo last year.  The Ozzie is my favorite of this group.  His card shows the hustle that was a mainstay for the 1980s Cardinals teams.

The extra card in the lot was a 2020 Topps Archives Tom Pagnozzi auto.  I have his 1996 Leaf Signature auto, but I always prefer an on card  Topps autograph.  Pags always favored the double flap helmet even though he did not switch hit.    

  

A Little of This, A Little of That

 Hope everyone had a good weekend.  I spent mine doing a lot of odd jobs outside.  The weather was so perfect it was hard staying indoors.  I really need to make some time to file away a huge stack of cards that seems to grow daily.  Well not quite daily, but when you get a large lot of Cardinals like a recent trade package from TCDB member Hilochef, the stack just multiplies by itself.

Always nice to knock out wants from sets that are not very popular like Honus Bonus and MLB Showdown.  Happy 29th Birthday to Carlos today.

It was nice to see Flaherty bounce back with a win against the Pirates yesterday after his awful start against the Brewers.  Goldy has remained his usual consistent self all year.  Great to see him bounce back after a somewhat down year in 2019.  

Yadi hit the game winning home run yesterday.  With only a week left, the Cardinals can still sneak into the playoffs.  I doubt they go far if they get it.

Not sure why I grouped these 2 inserts together other than they were the last ones in the package.  One is pretty sharp, the other not so much.  I will let you guess which one I like more.  Hint:  it has logos.

This group of 2019 Prizm parallels are not too different than the Mikolas purple Donruss.  It is a wonder what a chrome finish can do for a card.

I have started to add A&G minis to my want lists.  Still not a huge fan, but my tolerance level has gone up for them.    

2 For Tuesday

Seems like I have been talking a lot about the number 2 lately.  Whether it be the Cardinals playing doubleheaders, or getting 2 packages in the same day it has been happening very frequently.  This week the Cardinals have 3 doubleheaders.  They split yesterday with the Brewers, and also have 2 on Wednesday and Friday. 

On the trading card front, I had 2 packages arrive late last week from The Bench members.  The first one from member jdtakid36 contained 2 shortprints.

I love the photo on the 2019 Brock card.  From the sign I am guessing it was taken in 1977 when Brock broke Cobb's all time stolen base record.  The Altuve is a short print from 2015 Heritage.

The second package came from member 3greyhounds.

My 2020 Topps Chrome team set is now complete.  On to Allen & Ginter and Bowman Chrome.

I am more a fan of the colored refractors, but sepia is growing on me.  It was nice getting 4 of the 7 Cardinals in one trade. 

More of My Favorites

When you come to my blog , you know you are most likely only going to see 2 types of cards:  Cardinals and the occasional Jose Altuve.  Sounds like a strange combination, but you have to keep kids interested in collecting.  Even through the cheating scandal and his awful 2020 season so far, my son has continued his pursuit of Jose cards.  I will gladly help him add to it.  Last week a trade with TCDB member La Loosh  brought some cards for the both of us.

   
These 2 brings my son's Altuve collection up to 335.  I doubt if he reaches 400 before the end of the year, but 350 should be doable.

Torre is getting more cards in a Cardinals uniform this year.  He will be in the upcoming Allen & Ginter release later this week.  I love the 1980s Cardinals teams.  I doubt if you will ever see that style of baseball again.  Run and gun with less than 100 home runs a year. 

Wainwright has been cheating Fr. Time this year.  He just took his first loss over the weekend.  I am guessing he will come back next year for one more season than retire.  Maybe him and Molina will go out together.  Gibson may be the oldest living Cardinals HOF member now that Lou Brock passed away.  I have not heard much about him since he was diagnosed with cancer in 2019.

I am sure you will see a bunch of new A&G minis on other blogs in the next couple of weeks.  I may even show one of my son feels the need to bust some packs this weekend.  That is if we are lucky enough to find any at the local Walmart.

A Couple of Smalls

Well the Cardinals did not quite take 4 of 5 from the Cubs.  I guess 3 is better than 2.  It was nice to see them sweep the doubleheader on Saturday.  This week holds more doubleheaders as the team plays catch up from Covid.  Two yesterday, off today, then 2 Thursday.

Keeping with the 2 theme, I received 2 small pwes over the weekend.  The first was an unexpected package from long time trading friend Mark Z.

I have never heard of the Title Town cards before.  Very sweet looking card though. 

Panini did a nice job of hiding the logos on the Gibson card.  I like the leaves in the background for the fall touch.  The Taylor is a 2014 buyback.  This one is in better condition than the original I have for my team set.

The second pwe came from The Bench member ripahl.

These 2 finished my 2020 Bowman 1st Edition team set.  Carlson was sent back down yesterday after not hitting that well.  I am not too concerned for his future though.  He should get a ton of playing time next year.

This scan is almost like a past, present and future for the Cardinals.  Still hard to believe Mr. Brock is no longer with us.

RIP Sweet Lou Brock

I was pretty excited to sit down and watch the Cardinals Cubs game last night.  A few minutes into the pregame show, news broke that Cardinals HOF Lou Brock had passed away.  That put a big damper on the evening.  Mr. Brock had been battling numerous health issues the last few years, but had seemed to be doing ok.  Goes to show anything can change in a blink of an eye.  Here are a few of my favorite Brock items.

I have 2 Brock autographs in my collection.  Both on card and both very beautiful.

I have 7 different Brock game used cards. Love the baby blue swatch.

I never had the opportunity to get Brock's autograph in person.  He signed quite a few times at different events in St. Louis, but I never was able to attend.  Not sure when I bought this PSA authenticated ball off EBAY, but I do remember it was for $45.

Another EBAY purchase was this Playoff Absolute Signing Bonus.  I believe this was around $20 back in 2003.

This was my second ever stadium bobblehead giveaway.  My wife and I attend this game back in June of 2004.

This 12 inch statue was a birthday gift from my sister when I was around 12 or 13.  She bought it a garage sale in Springfield, IL for $10.  I have neve seen another one like it.  I always thought I would have Brock sign it.

My family and I met Mr. Brock at the All-Star Fan Fest in Cincinnati in 2015.  I had taken the statue in hopes of getting an autograph, but time did not allow it.  He did take the time to thank us for driving 4 hours to see him and for wearing Cardinals red in enemy territory.  Thanks for all the great memories Lou!

Big Weekend

In a few more hours my 3 day weekend starts.  I have a few things on my to do list including keeping up with the Cardinals 5 game series with the Cubs.  If the Cardinals have any hope of winning the NL Central, they need to win at least 4 of the games.  I doubt that happens, but is should be a fun series to follow. 

While I am watching or listening to the games, I plan to file away the various card stacks on my desk.  I would guess I have around 200-250 Cardinals that I need to log in my spreadsheets and put away in their proper boxes.  Including in that total are some cards that arrived yesterday from TCDB member tkicker182.

I need one more card to finish my 2020 Archives set.  Of course that is not counting all the variations.

There are a ton of colors to chase in 2020 Donruss.  If the cards were a little more attractive, I would be tempted to complete a player rainbow.  Instead I will be content to add what Cardinals I can find.

I hope all 3 of these guys have a big weekend.  Carlson has yet to hit well, but maybe the friendly confines will help.  Flaherty gets the start tonight against Darvish in the best pitching matchup of the series.  Goldy had been great so far this year. 

Even though Goldschmidt has only been a Cardinals for 2 years, I am starting to accumulate quite a few of his cards.  This trade put my total at 73. 

This is one of the many Molina cards from 2019 Chronicles.  Love the looks of this one.

My son received some nice Altuves.  The Inception card was his favorite.  It is a lot easier filing these cards away as they go in his binder.