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.