Trio of Trades

In an effort to catch up on a few trade posts, today I will am going over 3 recent TCDB trades.  First up is a small pwe trade with member Themissionguy.

I received 7 other cards in this trade, but they were all trade bait that I mailed off.  You really only come here to see the Cardinals anyway.  The Liberatore is a 2020 Mojo refractor, while the Torre is a 2020 A&G mini.  Liberatore should make his debut sometime next year.  Not sure it will be as a starter, but that is where his long term spot should be.

Next up are 3 cards from member Trapdoor.

All of these cards are from 2021.  The Ozzie Silver Pack is my favorite.  

The third trade is a 4 pack of Cardinals from member irish77.  

It is almost embarrassing to say I still need cards from 2003 Fleer Tradition Update.  Now I just need 1 more to complete the 18 card team set.  I did not scan the front of the Molina because it looks the same as any other 2018 Topps base card.  This one is different because it is from the NL Standouts set.  The Dylan Carlson card is from the Series 2 1965 Redux set.  I had high hopes Carlson would be NL Rookie of the Year, but unless he has a great  September I am guessing that honor will go to Trevor Rogers or Jonathan India.  

  

It Must Be Monday

 Today's post will only be the 7th one for me in August.  For some reason I have managed to make one each of the 5 Mondays this month.  Not sure why that is, but I hope to improve in September.  Can't really say why I have been slacking.  There is a healthy stack of cards on my desk to scan, and also a few other baseball related items to write about.  Maybe I am just getting old and lazy. 

 Anyways, today's cards come from Trading Bases friend Ron B.  He decided to break up some of his sets that will never be complete due to short prints or just a lack of interest in the set anymore.  He always thinks of me first when getting rid of his Cardinals.

My 2014 Elite Extra Edition team set is now complete thanks to these 3 cards.  I have the Gomber and Kiekroeger cards autographed, but prefer unsigned cards for my team set.

2001 Fleer Platinum had a lot of short print rookie cards.  I doubt I will ever complete this set due to the 2 Pujols rookie cards.

2001 Fleer E-X also had a lot of short print rookie cards.  This Snead is numbered to 2499.  The first 500 copies are autographed like this one.  Once again there is a Pujols rookie card in this set that I may never get.

Changing gears a little to a parallel set from 2003 Topps Gallery.  It is hard to tell from the scan, but these are the Artist Proof foil cards.  They look very nice in hand.  A lot more gloss to them than the current day rainbow foil from Topps flagship.

This 2002 Fleer Fall Classics Keith Hernandez is a team short print.  The base card shows him in a Mets uniform.  The Goldy HR card is from 2020.  I still have 2 codes to enter for this year.  Hope he stays hot for another few weeks.

Wrapping things up with a couple of nice Chrome Cardinals greats.  The Ozzie is a refractor from 2020 Stadium Club Chrome.  The Gibson is from 2021 Topps 70 Years of Topps. 
  

Twice As Nice

 Late last month, I posted about a trade that brought a nice Dylan Carlson auto into my collection.  Last week the same trader messaged me asking if I had any other duplicate Yadier Molina rookie cards to trade.  We worked out a trade for my extra 2004 Topps rookie.  I received 3 cards that arrived on Saturday.  2 are trade bait that have already been mailed out.  The third card will stay with me for a long time.

This Molina autograph is from 2006 Upper Deck Ovation.  It is slightly faded, but overall in great condition.  His signature has changed a ton since then.  

Molina signed this baseball at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up in 2016.  What a difference 10 years makes.  

2021 Panini Prizm Box Break

After getting lucky with my last box break , I did not wait long to get into another.  This time a member from The Bench was opening a box of 2021 Panini Prizm.  For $22 you picked your first team, then a chose another team from those not claimed in the first 15 picks.  

My second team was the Brewers.  I wanted the Astros with my second pick, but they were taken 1 spot in front of me.  At least I have a friend on TCDB who needs these.

I received 3 Cardinals base cards.  Both of the Woodfords came from the same pack.  Shows that Topps is not the only company with quality control issues.  

I ended up with 2 parallels and 1 insert.  The Carlson is a silver Prizm.  The colored Prizm cards look great in hand.  Hope to find more of these in card show bargain boxes soon.

I was lucky enough to hit another auto, though not quite as good as the Carlson Gypsy Queen.  This Oviedo is numbered to 25.  It would look a lot better if the auto was on card, but all of his Topps autographs are also stickers.  Who would have thought a Triple A pitcher did not have time to sign cards instead of stickers.    

  

Conlon and Queen

My latest pwe trade contained 6 different Cardinals from TCDB member JEGoethe.  He finished off a massive team set and also helped along another current one.

These are the last 2 Cardinals I needed from the 1992 Conlon set.  When filing these away, I double checked to make sure I had all 49 cards.  Glad to put this huge set to rest.  

I still need 1 more base card and 2 short prints to finish the 2021 Gypsy Queen team set.  I may have to go the EBAY route for the Musial and Brock short prints as I have yet to see either one for trade.  

My first 2021 GQ insert is this nice Arenado mini.  Nolen most likely will not get to his Coors Field numbers, but 30 home runs and 100 rbis should not be out of the question.  I sure hope he does not choose to opt out of his contract this offseason.  
   

Great EBAY Box Break

It has been around 3 months since the last time I bought into a box break.  The one back in May was not really worth the money, but that is the risk you take.  Quite a few new products have been released since then, but I have found none at the local Walmart.  Wanting to make some progress on recent team sets, I won an EBAY auction last week with 20 different blaster boxes.  The break featured 5 blasters each of Stadium Club, Gypsy Queen, Select, and Absolute.  I paid a little less than the price of 2 blasters.  This one turned out quite well for me.

The are only 3 packs of 4 cards in each Select blaster with each pack containing 1 Scope parallel.  I was very lucky getting 2 of those with 1 being a sweet Dylan Carlson rookie.  There was not much else pulled out of Select.  Glad I did not waste $20 on a blaster.

Absolute boxes have 5 packs of 8 cards and 1 hit per box.  The base cards are nothing too exciting, but it was nice to get Arenado in a Cardinals uniform.  I received 2 of them along with a Molina base that I already had from a trade.

I did well with the inserts pulling a Goldschmidt and a red Arenado numbered to 99.

Each box has 5 green parallels.  I almost got a full box's worth with 3 of them being inserts.  

Stadium Club blasters also have 40 cards like Absolute.  Unlike Absolute, Stadium Club is 8 packs of 5 cards.  I did not put much of a dent in my team set as I only received 4 base cards.  Too bad I already bought the Kim and Gibson cards at a card show in July.  

The only other card I got was a great Beam Team black parallel numbered to 99.  This was my second nice Carlson inserts and second insert numbered to 99 out of the first 15 boxes.  Already a lot better than the last box break I was in.

Gypsy Queen blasters have 7 packs of 7 cards.  I received 7 total Cardinals base cards with one being a duplicate Molina and also my 3 Carlson card.  It would not be the last.

Autographs fall 1:110 packs in blaster boxes.  I admit I let out a yell when I saw the Carlson card.  These are selling for a little over what I won the auction for.   Throw in the black Beam Team and all the other inserts and base cards, and I think I came out smelling like a rose on this one.    

  

2020 Lot

 Besides the cards from yesterday's post, I also received a pwe from TCDB member glassnickels.  Although it contained only 6 cards, it put a nice dent in some of my 2020 team sets.  

I was able to finish the 2020 Finest Flashbacks and 2020 Bowman's Best team sets.  I love the Finest brand, but I hope Topps does not go overboard and recreate every set.  

I now have 8 of the 13 Cardinals from the 2020 Allen & Ginter X set.  The 2021 regular set is due out next week.  Since I am not a big fan of minis or non baseball cards, I will not be opening any packs.  I doubt I could find any locally anyway.  

My son added his 420th different Altuve to his collection with this 2013 Topps Chrome.  I doubt if he will get to 500 before the end of  2021, but 450 might be within reach.  

Monday Cards From Marc

Technically the cards from today's post arrived on Saturday, but the title sounds better with Monday.  Everyone's favorites Astros fans Marc B is not blogging much these days, but he is still trading on TCDB.  He proposed a quick Astros for Cardinals trade earlier last week that helped out both of our team collections.   

I love obscure minor league cards like these 1991-92 ProCards Tomorrow's Heroes.  I now have 9 of the 17 Cardinals in the set. It is fun to see a young Bryan Eversgerd as a minor leaguer.  He is not the Cardinals bullpen coach.

These minor league cards are from 1999 Team Best.  Always great to receive a Peoria Chiefs card.  

Purple is not one of the most used colors in the Topps parallel rainbow.  It is not the best, but not that bad either.  The glossy 2013 Bowman Platinum does look better than the 2013 Bowman. 

The last 3 cards have nothing in common, but I did not want to make a longer post with 3 more pictures.  It was nice to finally get the 2016 Diamond Kings Piscotty regular card instead of the variation.  The Yadi is a 1972 Die Cut from 2021 Heritage.  Molina passed Albert Pujols for 4th place on the Cardinals all time hit list.  He needs 37 more to pass Rogers Hornsby for 3rd.  I doubt he will get another 640 to pass Lou Brock for 2nd.