It Took 4 Weeks

If you guessed from today's title that I will have something to say about the postal service, you are correct.  To keep things short and sweet, TCDB member pezNpirates mailed a pwe from Maryland on 3/2.  It finally arrived in Illinois yesterday, 4 weeks later.  If I could give the UPS a grade lower than an F, I would.  At least the cards were safe and sound.

When I agreed to this trade, I still needed the Carlson.  This is my third copy.  I did need the Goldy though.

My needs for 2021 inserts should be in single digits now after this trade.  I need some of the 1986 silver pack cards and some of the 7 years of Topps.  Most team sets like the 1952 Redux and Stars in Service are now done.  The other Yadi is from 2020 Gallery.  The artist did a great job with this card.

Hard to believe it took me almost 30 years to acquire a 1992 Score The Franchise Musial.  Hope it does not take that long to get the card he shares with Yaz and Mantle.  It only took me a few months to get the 2020 Turkey Red Chrome card.  

Finishing things off with a couple of Bowman brand inserts.  The gold chunk cards are hard to find in mint condition due to the chipping.  Good thing I really do not care that much about gem mint cards.  The  Ankiel is a nice die cut from 2000 Bowman's Best.

  

  

2 Blasters 2021 Topps Heritage

Last week I was shopping Target's website looking for a couple of Easter gifts for my kids.  Before checking out, I searched to see what cards were available.  I had very lucky timing as I was able to grab 2 blasters of 2021 Topps Heritage.  What made this find even better was I had a coupon for 25% off my purchase, so the 2 blasters came to just under $17 delivered.  After a fun baseball practice yesterday afternoon, my son and I came home to find the blasters waiting on the front porch.  Forget about eating and taking a shower, we opened the packs first.  Each blaster had 8 packs containing 9 cards.

My son pulled all of these except the Molina.  It was nice to hit a Carlson in our packs.  There are 16 Cardinals in the set, 3 of them being short prints.  As with any of my Heritage team sets, this will take a while to complete.

I pulled the Altuve for my son's collection.  I hope to work out a trade for his base card.  Thankfully it is not a short print.

Short prints are seeded 1:3 packs.  We slightly beat the odds pulling 6.  In an ideal world, I will trade these for the Cardinals short prints.  

Heritage uses the same inserts each year with the occasional new one like The Great One this year.  Nothing too exciting about these, but Heritage is more about building the set than finding the big hits.  I doubt if we will rip any more packs of Heritage.  I also doubt I will find any.    

2 For Tuesday.

I am at a loss for a post title today, so I will use one that I am sure most of you have seen quite a few times.  I received 2 nice pwe trades yesterday that I opened last night while watching Kansas get slaughtered by USC.  First up is a trade with Trading Bases member Jeff L.

Only 2 cards in this one, but a very nice 2 cards they are.  The 2021 70 Years of Topps insert of Yadi is a great picture.  I am not a huge fan of the set, but at least Topps chose a nice design for this card.  The Carlson is a gold foil parallel.  I am very excited to see how he will do this season.  I have seen quite a few publications giving the Rookie of the Year award to Hayes in Pittsburgh, but I think Carlson will surprise a few of them.  He may not be a true superstar, but he should be very steady.

The other pwe came courtesy of TCDB member TigerVol18.

I really need to make a Sportlots order to knock off more base card needs from the 1990s like the 1997 Pinnacle Inside Young.  I still need 1 more card to finish the team set.  The Izzy is a short print from 2002 Topps Traded.  Need 1 more card to finish that set also.

I was able to finish the 2020 Big League Orange parallel set with this Wong card.  It will be strange not seeing him at second base for the Cardinals this year.  It would not shock me to see him play well for the Brewers every time they come to St. Louis.  The Yadi 1952 Redux was not part of the original trade, but the card I wanted had a corner ding so it was replaced.  At the time I needed Yadi, but now I have 3 copies.  I had not seen the KK card before this trade.  Starting with this years Topps set, I am trying to add all base and insert Cardinals to my TCDB wantlist when the checklist is released.  That should hopefully help me avoid finding new to me inserts years after they have been released.  

4 Pack Monday

It was a brutal weekend for my brackets.  I threw them away after Saturday's game.  Things only got worse after Illinois lost yesterday.  At this point I am rooting for any double digit team to win it all.  After such a crazy year, it would only be fitting.  To take my mind off the games, I did go through some trades envelopes that arrived over the weekend.  First up is a four pack of cards from TCDB member napkindoon.

2011 Topps Diamond Anniversary is one of my favorite parallel sets.  These cards look so good in person.  I would not be shocked to see these pop back up in some brand this year since it is the 10 year anniversary.

Freese had a ton of 2012 cards thanks to his 2011 World Series MVP performance.  I do not believe the photo from this Topps Chrome refractor was taken from the playoffs, but it is still a great card.

My 2021 Topps insert needs are slowly dwindling down.  My son and I plan on trying our luck with the Home Run Challenge this year.  Not just with Cardinals, but with anyone.  I figured that would be a good way for him to follow the scores more closely.    

  

More Cardinals From Cards on Cards

I had a surprise pwe in the mail yesterday from Kerry.  If you have not checked out his blog in a while, he is running his NCAA contest.  Be sure to check it out for a chance to win some cards.  Let's see what his latest offering brought me.  

 These Opening Day Blue cards having been showing up quite a bit lately.  This one is from 2015.

2020 A&G X is a set I did not have a wantlist for yet.  I do now and it has 2 less cards on it thanks to Kerry.  

Yesterday I showed the McGwire base card from 2020 Chrome Update, today it is Pujols.  That just leaves the Molina to finish my set.  I did cross 1 Molina off the wantlist with this 2018 Finest base card.  Finest cards usually look great, but I am not a big fan of the busy background on this one.

Even though Goldschmidt has only played 2 seasons with the Cardinals, I have 123 of his cards.  It would not surprise me for that total to triple before his career is over.  I am not complaining about that as Paul is a great player.

I just had to stick this 1999 Powerdeck Drew disc into my laptop last night.  It showed 53 seconds of highlights.  I was shocked it even worked.    
  

  

2 Small PWE Trades

Despite my informed mail delivery showing nothing was to be delivered yesterday, there were 2 pwe trades waiting for me in the mailbox.  I think the post office should change the name to my best guess delivery.  

First up is a trade with fellow Cardinals fan and TCDB member KMack.  I sent him a small staff of 2021 Topps base cards in exchange for 3 Cardinals.

It is hard to find a red bordered Cardinals card that does not look good.  Even low budget brands like 2004 Bazooka showcase the Cardinals uniform well.  Blue parallels are good also.  I prefer refractors from Topps brands, but 2019 Prizm cards are not bad.

I do not have very many photo variations in my collection.  This 2020 Update Molina photo appears to be taken after a 2019 playoff game.  I would guess it was after Game 4 against Atlanta when he hit a walk off sac fly.

The second pwe came from The Bench member gestes72.  I sent him 3 2021 Topps inserts in exchange for 4 Cardinals.

I wish Topps still included managers in the base set.  The guy leading the team should get some love also.  I do not recall seeing too many inserts of managers either.  Shildt has done well since taking over for Mike Matheny in the middle of the 2018 season.  He seems to be a pretty low key guy who is a player's manager.  The Fernandez is a rainbow foil from last year.  He was among the first roster cuts last week after not being able to throw a strike during spring training.  When he did, it was hit hard.

I love the 2020 Utz Goldschmidt card.  It is a great picture of him showing why he has won 3 Gold Gloves.  The McGwire is a base card from 2020 Chrome Update.  Like most collectors, I was not a big fan of the set but I still have to track down the Cardinals cards.    

  

18 From the 80s

I grew up in the 1980s.  My childhood is full of great memories from those years.  From playing outside until dark, to watching cool cartoons like He-Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles there were so many things to love.  I wish MTV would re air some of the "I Love the 1980s" shows so I could relive some of those times.  Whenever there is a movie from then on TV like Police Academy, I usually sit down and watch.  

It was during that decade when my love for the Cardinals grew.  The Cardinals played in 3 World Series during the decade.  I vaguely remember some of the 1982 World Series, but was glued to the TV during the 1985 and 1987 playoffs.  Those Cardinals teams were so fun to watch with so much speed and great defense.  What they lacked in power, they made up for it with hustle.

It was also during this time that I first started collecting cards.  1986 was the first year that I really remember opening packs.  Cards were everywhere back then.  From Wal-mart, to local stores like Big Johns grocery and Super X pharmacy, cards were very easy to find.  Far cry from what is going on today in the retail world.

A trade last week with TCDB member Packsux brought a large lot of  Cardinals from the 1980s that reminded me of all those good times and great teams.

Hendrick was about the Cardinals only power source in the early 1980s.  From 1981-1983 he led the team in home runs with less than 20 each year.  This 1984 Drakes card shows off the famous baby blue uniforms from that time period.  

There are 133 different pins in the 1984 Fun Foods set, 5 of them being Cardinals.  Silent George makes his second appearance along with fan favorite Willie McGee and funny man Andujar.  You do not see too many players were those type of pullovers anymore.

These may look like regular 1988 Fleer cards, but they are the Glossy version.  Quite a few of the main guys from 2 World Series teams are included like Coleman, Clark, McGee, and Ozzie.  You also get a Dough Decinces card for a guy who played all of 4 games for St. Louis.

Oquendo played 10 straight years for the Cardinals starting in 1986.  While he was a very steady player, I am not for sure I would call him a Super Star like this 1989 Super Star Disc.  

I really wish I would have been able to drive in the 1980s.  The Cardinals Triple A team was in Louisville, and the Double A team was in Springfield, IL.  Both are a little over 2 hours from me.  Check out the Durham card from the 1989 ProCards set.  He began his career with the Cardinals in 1980 and ended there in 1989 with a 29 game stint.  The other 4 guys all saw time in a Cardinals uniform.

That is all 18 cards from the 1980s, but that was not all that I received in the trade.

Fleer made it very easy for collectors to tell they pulled a Ultra Gold Medallion card in 2004.  I believe these were one per pack pack then.  1999 Warning Track cards were also seeded one per retail pack, but for some reason I have a hard time finding these.  

The chase for Topps Gold cards continues with a team card from 2004 and a 2005 Suppan.  

I do not miss the Walmart blue parallels, but it would be nice for the Red Hot Foil cards to make a comeback.  Maybe Topps will make a Chrome version this year.

Finishing up the package with 2 cards not even closely related, but I was too lazy to scan them separately.  Yadi is a 2019 Gold Label Class 2, Mac a 1999 SP Authentic Home Run Chronicles insert.    

 
    
  
  

   

A Swell Trade

It was a rather slow weekend for me card wise.  Only one package arrived, but that is ok.  I spent most of my time watching college basketball.  Shout out to the Illinois Fighting Illini for winning the Big 10 Tournament and also getting a #1 seed.  The Big Dance should be very interesting this year.  I hope there will be no Covid related cancellations. 

Enough about basketball.  You came here to see the latest batch of Cardinals that I received from TCDB member Jquirp001.

I love the 1989 Swell set.  It is great to see regular HOF players like Slaughter and Steve Carlton featured, but also get cards of Drabowsky and Walker.  Many people have heard of Slaughter's mad dash in the 1946 World Series, but may not know that Walker drove him in.  Great looking cards.  I love seeing the different style of uniforms.

2021 Topps Opening Day is scheduled to be released next week.  I am not sure if blue parallels are included this year, but I hope so.  Just like this 2018 card, they always look sharp.

2020 Rainbow Foil parallels have been easier to find than the 2021 cards.  I am a little over half way done with the 2020 team set.  I know it is still early, but I only have 1 2021 card so far.  I guess I should just give it more time like I have with the 2019 150th Anniversary cards.  I now have 18 of the 25 Cardinals from that set.

  

Check out those Torre sideburns on this 2020 Heritage insert.  From the sideburns to the pullover jersey, this photo screams 1970s.  

Bench Trade

Breaking away from TCDB and blog trade recaps today to show a package I received from The Bench member dred0gg024.  I visit the website daily, but am finding it harder to trade there.  There are so many newer investors on there wanting HOF autos or rookies in exchange for inserts.  While I am in this hobby for fun, I also will not be taken advantage of.  If you make it through all those posts, you will find true collectors willing to trade.

I am making pretty good progress on the 2021 Cardinals inserts.  Parallels are a different story.  The 1986 cards look great with the red name plate matching the Cardinals uniform.  

I still plugging away at Topps Gold cards from older years like this 2014 card.  One of these days I will complete a team set.

It is strange to see a batting helmet without an earflap or face guard.  Either the players back in the 1980s were tougher, or the pitchers had better command so the hitter did not have to worry about getting drilled in the head.

One positive about minis is you can scan a bunch of them at the same time.  That might be the only positive in my book.  It has been awhile since I added any to the Cardinals collection.

Lots of Cardinals From the Quarry

You never know when something small is going to turn into something big.  There are examples all over the baseball card world.  Maybe you bought a few boxes of 2011 Topps Update years ago.  If you were lucky enough to pull a Mike Trout RC, you turned a very nice profit.  As a Cardinals fan, Randy Arozarena comes to mind.  Not just the relatively small trade that sent him to Tampa, but also the crazy jump in prices for his cards during the 2020 playoffs.  I usually do not trade any of my Cardinals personal collection, but I could not resist turning a $10 Topps Chrome auto into a $100 bill.  

A more recent example is a trade I completed with Johnny from Cards from the Quarry.  I had just started blogging in 2015 when he was slowing down.  Johnny fired things back up earlier this year with a some of his trademark Sunday PWE trade posts.  I claimed 1 Cardinals card that led to us exchanging a few emails and working out a large trade.  Well I guess it was large for me.  I believe I received a total of 65 cards, while I sent a mere 10 cards his way.  My cards arrived on Monday.  It has been fun going through them the last couple of nights and sorting all the goodies.

This is the card that started our trade, a 2020 Bowman Platinum purple card #ed to 250.  I was confident I had at least 1 Rockies card Johnny could use.  He found a small lot of Clint Barmes cards he needed, so I searched his Sportlots inventory and a list of  Cardinals he and found a great batch of Cardinals Johnny set along with the Thompson card.  

I am breaking with my routine of posting Altuve cards last because I am worried I would forget to show them.  There are a ton of Cardinals cards to get to.  This brings my son's collection to 385 Atluve cards.  The 2014 Red Hot Foil  was by far his favorite.  

The only base cards in the lot were these 4 from 2015 Elite Extra Edition.  Johnny just left me 1 shy of completing the team set.  

Moving on to some Topps parallels and an Opening Day blue foil DeJong card.  I love added older cards like the 2014 Neshek.  Without card shows, these are getting tougher to find.

A couple of Bowman inserts including a Silver Molina parallel along with a Finest Lou Brock.  I hate to label anyone who was drafted a failure, but Nick Plummer is pretty close.  He was the 23rd overall pick in 2015.  Before the covid hit last year, he had only played 1 season above low class A.  At 25 years old, his clock is running out.

Here we have 2 cards with a pair of teammates.  The Stadium Club looks much better.  From the high 5 to the neon green arm sleeve, it has a lot going on.  The Heritage insert is a nice idea, but at least show more of Yadi than the back of his uniform.

I am not sure how many people buy Topps Gallery since it has became a mostly online product, but you do not see very many parallels around.  The DeJong is a canvas parallel, the Yadi a wood version.

You do see plenty of Topps Chrome refractors floating around.  I have a soft spot for the pink ones like the Diaz even though the scan looks purple.  Topps Fire does not get a lot of love, but I have always liked it.  The Flame parallels are sharp, as are the Gold Minted ones.

I will finish of the Topps portion of the trade with a couple of relics.  Edmonds has a ton of jersey/bat cards from the early 2000s.  This is my 10th.  The 2020 Goldy coin card is super thick.  I am not even sure I have a top loader big enough for it.  

I received a good dose of Panini branded inserts also.  Here are different purple parallels along with a Holo Piscotty.  Those Holo cards can be tough to spot if you do not have the base card to compare it to.

Select and Prizm were 2 of the most attractive brands in 2020.  The Select Scope cards can make you dizzy if you stare at them long enough.  The many shades of Prizm include purple and silver wave.  

2020 Diamond Kings had some nice looking parallels as well.  Panini did a good job of hiding the logos on these, not so much on the Musial framed red.  The 2019 red Tyler O'Neill is just the start of the colored Donruss parallels.  

Johnny either opened a ton of 2020 Donruss or tried to complete a master set, as he sent a large stack of various colored Cardinals.

Blue

Purple

Red

Pink

Orange

Yellow

Independence Day

Baby Shark

That is a ton of different variations.  I will be adding all the missing cards from each set to my TCDB want list.  Should be fun to see how many team sets I can complete.  

Last but not least are some 2020 insert parallels.  At the top is a rapture and silver Goldscmidt.  Both cards on the bottom are pink fireworks cards.  Wow that was a long post, but I wanted to show everything from this awesome trade.   Thanks again goes out to Johnny.  I am pretty sure I owe him more Rockies.