Starting Series 2

So far I have done well on my goal of not buying any Series 2 packs.  I have come across some at 2 different Walmarts, and also saw plenty of overpriced blasters at the card show last weekend.  The sooner I can complete the Cardinals team set, the less I will have to fight the temptation.  A trade last week with TCDB member suorange93 got my set started.

There are 11 Cardinals in Series 2 not counting the Musial short print.  This trade almost brought me half of them.  8 of the 11 cards are of pitchers.  Most of them are either hurt or have been very ineffective so far.  That is a big reason why the Cardinals are in 4th place and 8 games behind the Brewers.

I also received my first Series 2 insert with the 1965 Molina card.  I like how Topps used a photo with him wearing a retro uniform.  Flaherty is one of the afore mentioned injured pitchers.  It sounds like it will be August before he returns.  

Moving on to the Donruss portion of the trade with a couple of colored 2021 parallels.  Goldy is not playing up to his standards yet, but he usually heats up when the weather does.  Hope that is sooner rather than later.  Wainwright is having a pretty good season for a soon to be 40 year old pitcher who has trouble hitting 90 mph on the gun.  A winning record with an ERA around 3.6 is great for this Cardinals team.

Gorman should play his first Triple A game today barring a rain out.  If they National League still had a DH, he might have made his debut this year.  It should come early next year.  His 2021 Mojo Refractor show him in a spring training uniform.  Topps actually chose a photo to use that required no airbrushing. 

  

First Card Show in a Long Time

As I mentioned in Friday's post, my plans for Saturday were to hit up a card show for the first time since early March 2020.  After getting the yard mowed in the morning, my wife, son, and I headed out a little after noon.  It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get there.  We walked in the front entrance and were greeted with flea market tables.  No big deal though as I knew most of the time this show was set up inside the main concourse.  We were almost in for a major disappointment as that area had nothing but more vendors with no cards.  Good thing we decided to walk around the entire mall, as the show was inside the old JC Penny store.  

Beckett online advertised the show as having 70 tables.  I would guess that was accurate as things were spread out very well with plenty of room to work around the various tables.  We did a quick walk through to see what dealers had dime or quarter boxes first before we dug in.  We ended up only buying from 3 different tables.  It might have been more, but we spent 2 hours there and I had to get my son back for a swimming party at 6.  

The first dealer we purchased from had two 5000 count boxes full of dime cards along with another box of cards ranging from a quarter to a dollar.  That box had the Cardinals separated out, so I spent quite a bit of time there.  The dealer was very polite and even involved my son in the conversation.  Some guys would not even bother talking to a 12 year old.  He had a little stack of packaged cards he was giving away to kids.  My son was lucky enough to get one.   It had about 15 football cards in it and these baseball cards:

I know game used cards are not much of a thing anymore, but it was great to get one along with some inserts and cool base cards for nothing.  We hope to trade these for needed Altuve cards.  I ended up spending $3 at his tables for the following cards.

It was hard just picking out 3 Cardinals to buy, as he had a ton more that I needed but I did not want to spend a lot right away.  Looking back I should have.  The 1977 Hostess Ted Simmons is easily my favorite card.

I believe these were all in the quarter box.  The Mancini is already in the mail to another collector in exchange for a nice Dylan Carlson card.

These 2017 Bowman Topps 100 cards were all in the dime box.  No big names, but I know of a few people who collect these sets.

These were also dime box finds that should be easily traded.  

It was a no brainer to pick up all 13 2021 Bowman Chrome cards I found in the dime box.  No big names in the lot, but once again there are quite a few people trading for these.  

The next dealer we bought from came from North Carolina.  From the way he talked, things were rather slow.  He also had 2 5000 count boxes of dime cards.  He offered them to me for $50, but there was a ton of basketball and football cards mixed in that I did not want to mess with.  Instead we picked out 27 cards for $3.  They were all dime cards, but I did not want to mess with the change.

Not very many Cardinals in his boxes at all.  I already have the Carlson, but could not leave it for just a dime.  The Edman completed my 2020 Panini Prizm team set.

I will buy Topps Gold cards all day long for a dime each.  I already had the Carson Kelly card in my Cardinals pc, but maybe Kerry needs a copy.  

There were not very many inserts mixed in his boxes, but I did find a few.  The Bell is a Metallic Snowflake from 2018.

He did have a few Panini cards from recent sets that I though I would be able to trade.  The 2018 Obsidian is a very thick card.  

The last 13 cards I bought from the second dealer were all 2020 Big League Orange parallels.  There were a few bigger names in the lot like Bellinger and Bieber.  

The last dealer I bought from had a little bit of everything.  He had some game used pants and jerseys.  Not cards, but the entire piece of clothing.  He also had a ton of oversized Topps exclusive cards.  I have purchased some of these from the Topps website before, so I know he had them marked up quite a bit.  Some were 2-3 times more than what he paid.  He had quite a few Cardinals stadium give aways also, but I mainly stopped at his tables to look through 6 or 7 boxes of various cards in top loaders.  Just after my son and I sat down, he came over and gave a well thought out speech about his pricing and how he would negotiate on a large deal.  One thing that stood out to me was his quote of being in line with EBAY prices.  Some things were, but a 2021 Topps Stars in Service Adam Wainwright  is not a $4 card.  I ended up picking out 3 cards priced at $12 total that he gave me for $10.

He had a ton of Topps Now and other cards you can only buy online like the 2020 Kenny Mayne Altuve card.  I saw quite a few Cardinals but would not pay $15 each for a Topps Now or Throwback Thursday card.  He had a ton of assorted game used and autograph Cardinals, but nothing that really caught my eye other than the 2017 Clearly Authentic Diaz card.  I love the see through cards.

Overall it was a fun show.  I thought we did pretty well for only spending $16.  We will definitely go back if they have another there.  Maybe next time we can catch up with some other bloggers like Ptown Tom.  He was at the same show, just a day earlier.

  

5 For Friday

The weekend is almost here.  I have been looking forward to this one for a couple of weeks.  With any luck, my son and I will be attending our first card show since last March.  It is a little over an hour away.  It is a mall show with 60 tables advertised.  It has been 10+ years since I have been to this show, so I am not sure what to expect.  All I know is we both can't wait to dig through some boxes.    

It will be nice to hopefully get some new cards in.  Retail is still nowhere to be found.  I have not been surfing EBAY as much recently.  Not sure why, but with the release of Stadium Club today that may change.  My trading has also slowed down quite a bit.  There has only been 1 envelope delivered to the house earlier this week courtesy of TCDB member CoachBarry.  He sent along 5 different cards to help along 2 different collections.  

I love these Bowman inserts every year.  It is fun looking back on the Top 100 cards to see how the player pans out.  Those players usually make the Majors, unlike some from the Talent Pipeline cards.  Nothing against Conner Capel, but I doubt he has much of a career in St. Louis.

Base cards from high end products are always nice to get in a trade.  I will never buy a box of Inception, and highly doubt I would get into a box break.  It is too high priced for my blood.

The final 2 cards went into my son's Altuve binders.  Jose is still hitting the ball pretty well.  It looks like he will make an All Star appearance next month.  Not sure the fans will vote him as the starter, but he is worthy of being there. 

Some For Me, Some For My Son

If you follow my blog very much, you know you are going to see 1 or 2 different types of cards:  Cardinals or Jose Altuve.  It may seem like a strange combination, but my son has a soft spot for the undersized second baseman.  

It started about 4 or 5 years ago when he was in Little League.  At the time he was also on the smaller side and played second base, so it was easy for him to root for Altuve.  Fast forward a couple of years and he has grown up quite a bit while Altuve has experienced some rough times the last few years.  Despite that, my son is still chasing after his cards.   

A great feature on the TCDB website is the ability to check another person's trade list by a player's name.  I try to remember to check for Altuve cards my son needs when working out a trade, but sometimes I forgot.  Last week I did remember to check and scored a couple for him from member PhillipKnightScott.  Of course I gained some nice Cardinals also.

My son is learning the difference between Topps and Panini cards.  The lack of logos is the easy way to teach him, but I also have him trying to recognize the brand names.  The Diamond Kings was not too hard, but the many brands of 2020 Chronicles had him confused..

My portion of the trade almost finished my 2020 Optic set.  I am down to needing the Goldschmidt base card.

I try to add inserts to my wantlist when the set comes out, but I tend to forget to do so.  Then I either see the cards on other posts or seaching EBAY and think I already have them.  These 3 are cards I have seen numerous times, but did not have in the collection.  

Finishing things up with a couple of Bowman inserts.  The Montero is a Chrome version from 2020 Bowman Heritage, while the Liberatore is a sweet looking Mojo refractor from 2021 Bowman.  
  

 

All Set

It has been quiet for me on the trading front lately.  Other than Topps Series 2, none of the new releases have been very appealing to me.  Maybe with Stadium Club coming out next week, things will pick up.  I have managed to complete a handful of trades on TCDB.  A large one with member DarthPanzer arrived Monday with a huge stack of needed Cardinals.  

The highlight for me was a complete set of 2007 DAV cards.  The TCDB lists 35 cards in the set, but I received 42.  I will show why in the next scan, but first here are 4 of my favorites.  I like the simple design with a red border.  This set was not meant to be flashy.

These 7 broadcaster cards were not listed in the checklist.  They show all the various guys from radio, regional TV, and national TV.  Fun addition to the Cardinals collection.

Not all cards were from the DAV set.  I scored a couple of Bowman gold cards and a sweet Yadi Xfractor from 2008 Topps Chrome.

I also received some various Pujols cards for my team sets.  The 2004 Topps Pristine is a great looking card.

2 Ultra Gold Medallion cards and a 2003 Upper Deck 40 Man base card finish the package.  It is nice to see Pujols having some success with the Dodgers after being released by the Angels.  Maybe he can win a third ring if the Dodgers pitching holds up.  

  

Happy and Mad at the Same Time

 After today's post I am finally caught up.  I do not have any incoming trades as of right now.  I took a couple of weeks off because of a busy schedule and I had family visiting most of last week.  I still have some filing to do, but with the forecast of rain for most of this week I hope to have a spare hour or two to get that done.  

This trade envelope from a TCDB member arrived last week.  I was really looking forward to it because it was another Cardinals for Cardinals swap with someone I had traded with 2 times before.  I mailed off 81 cards from my duplicates box, while I had 31 different Cardinals coming my way.  I mailed mine in 100 count box packed with shipping peanuts.  The other nameless trader received his end before he mailed mine.  That is not a big deal as things often happen and someone cannot mail out when they want to.  What is a big deal is stuffing all 31 cards into 1 Ultra Pro 9 pocket sheet, then stuffing that into a pwe.  No cardboard protection either.  To make things worse, he just put a regular stamp on it.  Of course it arrived with $1.05 postage due.  I sent him a not so nice message with a scan of the envelope.  He agreed to send a couple of more cards my way to offset the cost.  I am not holding my breath.  Needless to say this will be the last time I deal with him.  I was very fortunate that only a couple of cards had corner dings.

Enough of the whining. Here is what I did get.

A large number of the incoming cards were numbered including this 2002 Flair short print rookie and the 1998 Topps Stars DeShields card.  The scan did a good job of hiding a corner ding on the Flair card.  It is not horrible, but could have easily been prevented.  

These 4 cards were a few of the non numbered.  I love the 2 2011 World Series cards.  Not sure why the other trader would have broken up the box set.  The Coleman is a 2005 Topps Rookie Cup reprint, while the Eckstein is a Topps Pepsi card that looks just like the flagship card.  

The mini portion of the trade including a black border Ginter, a gold border Ginter, a min black #ed to 199, and a A&G back.  The bottom card is from the 2006 Bowman Heritage set.  

These 3 cards have almost nothing in common, but they were the last ones I had to scan.  The Craig 2013 Opening Day Blue #ed to 2013 is my favorite.  The Mikolas is a 2020 Gold Foil parallel, while the Martinez is a 2008 Bowman Chrome refractor #ed to 599.

The rest of the cards are from a handful of the same players.  I remember having high hopes for Miller when he was the Cardinals #1 pick in the 2009 draft.  After being an All Star for the Braves in 2015, he has not found much success in  Arizona, Texas, or Chicago.  The 2014 Heritage Chrome is  #ed to 999.

Dejong is on a rehab stop in Triple A right now.  Hopefully his impending return can spark the Cardinals.  It was tough watching them get swept in a 4 game series at home against the Reds.  The Silver Pack Green refractor was the other card with a corner ding.  Shame it happened to such a great looking card.

Bader is also on the injured list, but I am not sure when he might return.  His return to centerfield will push Dylan Carlson back to rightfield so the Cardinals will not have to put Justin Williams, Lane Thomas, or Jose Rondon in the starting lineup.  The 2018 Bowman Chrome is a refractor #ed to 499.

The rest of the trade consisted of Matt Adams cards.  Big City was always one of my favorite Cardinals when he played in St. Louis.  It was great to see him win a World Series with the Nationals.  He is still hanging around as a platoon player with the Rockies.  If only he could hit left handed pitching.

I have a couple of other Adams cards from the 2015 Prizm set, but will not pursue the entire rainbow.  The Tie Dye is #ed to 50, the blue to 75.

Bowman also has a colorful rainbow.  The 2012 Orange is #ed to 250, the 2012 Chrome refractor to 300, and the 2014 Chrome Bubbles to 99.  The Bubbles card looks really great in hand.

The last 2 cards are a 2017 Vintage Stock #ed to 99, and a 2015 Finest Green refractor #ed to 99 also.  Overall the trade was a good one.  It just shocks me someone would stick that many cards into a pwe and place just 1 stamp on it.  

Mega Fun

Saturday was a fun day of baseball in my household.  My son had a tournament about 20 minutes from home.  The weather was great for a change.  After playing last weekend in the cold and rain, it was a beautiful 78 degrees.  He won his first game against a team they were 0-3 against so far this year.  That was fun, but the second game was even better.  His team was down 8-6 going into the last inning.  A lead off home run cut the lead to 1, then a single put the tying run on with my son up to bat.  2 pitches later he hit a walk off home run.  I am not sure who was more excited.  He has hit a few home runs this year, but nothing like that.  The ball now sits in his room next to a few other trophies.

We had a 4 hour gap in between his 2 games that day.  As luck would have it, the mailman delivered a box from Target that contained 2 2021 Bowman Mega boxes I had ordered the Friday before Memorial Day during our break.  It is a tradition for us to open Bowman together, but our Walmart has been sitting empty for weeks now.  This is the first time we have ever opened a Mega box.  I was tempted to save a box for another time, but that thought did not last long.  Here are the goods.   

With only 50 cards per box, I was not sure if we would hit any Cardinals.  We were lucky to receive the only paper prospect needed for the team set along with a Mojo refractor.  

There was nice assortment of base including some good rookie cards.  

We did ok with the prospects.  We did not pull any of the big name rookie cards, but did get some top rated players.

Our Chrome cards were outstanding.  I have watched enough breaks to know these 4 cards have great value right now.  

The Mojo refractors had some big names also, but once again no rookie cards.  I am not complaining about that, just found it strange none of the 4 packs had a single RC in it.

The Mojo inserts look great.  The Bohm was a nice pull.  With the Mojo cards, everyone is looking for color and autographs.  We were lucky to pull one of each.

My son pulled this Yellow out of our first box.  Salas is the Marlins #19 prospect.  Since there is not much of a Miami card following, this may be something I stash away and hope he gets traded.

I pulled this out of our second box.  I love pulling autographs, just not of Cub players.  Howard is the Cubs #5 prospect right now.  I should be able to either trade or sell this card for a nice Cardinals card.  Overall I was pleased with our 2 boxes.  Zero duplicates was great.  I guess the price has went up from previous years.  I heard the Mega boxes were $15 in the past, but now are $25.  

  

Should Have Waited

Today I am taking a break from trade recaps to show off the results of 2 box breaks.  Back in late April Diamond Kings and Bowman released on the same day.  Knowing I would have little to no luck finding any retail packs to open (still have not seen any at my local Walmart), I searched for a group break to join.  In early May, I found a seller who was breaking 2 Jumbos of Bowman and 3 Hobby boxes of Diamond Kings on the same day.  I won both auctions for $20.50.  I was a little disappointed with the shipping cost of $5 for each auction.  That is not high, but the seller refused to combine shipping even though both auctions ended on the same day and the boxes were opened the same day.  Doesn't not make sense to me, but he did ship them in 2 separate bubble mailers.  Cost both of us a few dollars by doing so.  

Before I show the cards, I will say I should have waited another week or 2 to join breaks for both of these sets.  The price has come down a little, plus most of the cards I received in the break are readily available for trade.  That is the risk you take when joining a break.  Here is what roughly $55 got me.

I received 3 each of the non prospects from  Bowman.  It was nice to get multiple Carlsons.

I received 3 of the 4 prospects from the set.  Still missing the Nolan Gorman card.  I did get doubles of Walker and Liberatore.  I plan to hold onto those just in card in person autographing every makes a comeback from Covid.

I am missing the Libertore from the Chrome set.  No doubles out of these.  No inserts or parallels out of the 2 boxes.  Was this lot worth $25?  Most likely not.

I did get 2 complete Diamond Kings team sets and a third Carlson card.  The Musial is a short print.  

I did get 4 inserts from the 3 boxes including my first Arenado Cardinals card, but it was a downer to get duplicates.  Just like Bowman, I doubt I got $25 worth of cards from Diamond Kings.  Hopefully I learn from my mistake and can resist the urge to immediately join a Topps Series 2 break next week.