Gold Stars

It was not hard coming up with a title for today's post.  Last week a nice mailer arrived from TCDB member CK3.  He gave me a great start to my 2020 Cardinals Topps Gold Star set.  He sent 13 of the 22 cards from the set along with another card for my son.

  

By now you have seen most of these cards from 2020 Topps minus the gold stars.  I don't mind the gold star look as long as it does not resemble the gold parallel too much.

Alutve #475 is now in one of my son's binders.  He will get to 500 some time this year.  If the virus and weather calm down some, we should be able to hit a card show or two in February that will help him get there quicker.  Speaking of the weather, it sounds like I am in for some winter mixer Wednesday and Thursday.  The 6-8 inches of snow does not really bother me, but the quarter inch of ice before that will not be good.  Hopefully the forecast changes in between now and then.  

Trading Bases Trade

We made it to the end of the work week.  I would hope everyone is doing well.  Here in southern Illinois we are getting a few snow flurries today with little to no accumulation expected.  That is a far cry for anyone on the east coast.  I hope the forecast is wrong about all the snow and wind that is headed that direction, but it sounds like it could be a rough few days.  If it does happen, maybe all the collectors can spend time in their card room and catch up on any scanning and/or filing they need to do.   That is part of my plan for Saturday.  

I am down to 4 stacks of cards on my desk.  My goal is to get them all scanned and the trades recapped before the next wave of envelopes arrive next week.  Today's recap is a nice batch of Cardinals from Trading Bases member Chris D.  I believe this is the first time I have had the pleasure of exchanging cardboard with him.   

Since it is snowing, I will start off with a couple of snowflake cards.  The 2021 Flaherty completed my Holiday base set.  The Carpenter is a metallic parallel from 2016.

Let's move to thoughts of spring with a couple of green Gypsy Queen cards.  These cards make me think of mowing grass.  Glad I will not have to do that for a few months.  Martinez from the 2017 set, Molina the 2020 set.  

Rainbow foil parallels are not as tough to find as the gold cards, but I have yet to complete a team set of them either.  Hicks if from 2020, Molina 2018 Update.

It is great to cross off a Heritage short print need from my wantlist.  Only 1 more to track down to finish the 2020 set.  The Goldy mini is an A&G ad back variation.  

The Paul DeJong portion of the trade features a 2020 Stadium Club red parallel and a 2020 GQ chrome box topper.  At first I thought the Stadium Club photo was showing DeJong turning a double play, but he is making a throw to third base.  Maybe he turned the dp anyway.  The baby blue uniform looks great with the chrome finish.  

I will finish up with a trifecta of Cardinals pitchers.  Wainwright is a 2012 refractor, Reyes a 2017 Class 2 , and Gibson a 2021 base card.  You could say these are Cardinals aces from the past, present, and future.  At least I am hoping Reyes can be an ace.  It sounds like the Cardinals are giving him a shot to start this season.  Wainwright, Flaherty, Hudson, Mikolas, and Matz are the top 5.  If it is like any other recent year, one of them will have a season ending injury before the season even starts and Reyes will get his chance.  

  

Another Devilish Trade

There are over 60,00 registered members on TCDB.  I am not sure how many of those are active, but I would bet it is well below 50%.  There are also members who have no interest in trading, rather just using the site to keep track of their collections.  That still leaves thousands of members who are just like me and looking for a trade.  

There are members who I know I can work out a trade with almost anytime.  There are others who I have never traded with before, but have a few trade matches with.  These are the ones I like to reach out to and see if we can work something out.  Earlier this month, I worked out a deal with member DukeyDevil.  Our first trade was a nice and easy transaction.  He has since added more cards to his trade list, so we were able to complete our second trade of the month last week.  

In our first trade I received a Lou Brock 1986 Sportflics card.  This time it was Bob Gibson.  Maybe Dukey will find the other 5 cards I need for the team set.

It is always nice to add a minor league card to my collection.  Some people may not like these cards because they have little to no value compared to the flashy cards of today, but this 1990 CMC card is right up my alley.  

I only need 1 more Ozzie to complete the 2002 UD Prospect Premieres subset.  There are 9 cards that feature a different highlight in his career and a checklist.  It is fun remembering the highlights of his great career like his walkoff home run in the 1985 NLCS.

I have received a lot of cards of Cardinals first basement recently.  The McGwire photo variation completed the 2000 Pacific team set.  Pujols is a 2011 Topps Attax card.  I need to find 3 more to finish this one included a Fredbird card.  

    

OPC Trade

One of my most favorite recent trades was with TCDB member ericcapemay.  I received 9 Cardinals from him, all but one of them from various O-PEE-CHEE sets.  The cards have been on my wantlist for a long time.  It was great to cross them off the wantlist and finish some team sets along the way.

My 1983 OPC set is now complete.  All the cards I received in this trade are of Hall of Famers.  Nothing really high dollar to speak off, but they were more difficult to find than the regular commons.  Besides being noted on the front, these are easy to spot because of the brighter card backs and French text.  

My 1989 team set is also complete thanks to adding this Ozzie Smith.  The 1989 set was very similar to previous OPC versions, but without the brighter back.  

In 1990, Topps removed the OPC designation on the front.  The backs are about the same color as the base set, but at least the French text is still there.  I still need to track down 1 more card to finish this one.  The 1990 Fleer card is the Canadian version.  If you look very closely at the bottom, you will see in was printed in Canada.  This set is also complete.

The 1991 set also had no notation on the front, but the brighter backs returned along with the French text.  This team set is also complete.  Most of my 1980-present OPC needs were crossed off thanks to this trade.  Now to start working on the 1970s set.

  
  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #8

 Another Tuesday, another 2 TCDB trades to recap so I can move these cards off my desk.  First up is a 5 pack of Cardinals from member FSCGrad777.  I am embarrassed to say these cards have been sitting on my desk for over a month.  Not sure why I overlooked them for so long.

1997 Bowman International cards do not scan the greatest.  The black border makes this card look a lot darker than what it really is.  

These 2 1999 cards are part of team sets that have not been hit for a long time.  I only need 1 more card to finish each of them.  

The last 2 cards feature a couple of power hitting first basemen.  Goldscmidt gets the nod for being a better all around player, but it sure was fun watching McGwire hit.  Yes he was a big part of the steriod problem, but I was awestruck watching him during batting practice.  The man could hit them a long way.

The second trade from member royals arrived 2 weeks ago.  Still not a fast turnaround, but not a month either like the first one.

Funny how both of these trades contained JD Drew short print cards.  This one is from 2003 Sweet Spot.  I have a soft spot for Drew.  He was never going to live up to the hype, but was always a good player.  And without him, the Cardinals would have never gotten Adam Wainwright.

Walker was part of the last class of players elected into the Hall of Fame by the sports writers.  Remember last year no one received 75% of the vote.  Tonight we will find out if anyone gets in this year.   This Walker is from the 2005 Pack Wars set.  This was the Topps equivalent of the MLB Showdown game cards.  Speaking of which

Here are 5 cards from the 2005 Showdown set along with a 2004 Tino Martinez.  Good thing the year is printed on the back otherwise you could not tell the difference between the 2 sets.    
   

  

EBAY Draft Lot

With all of the trading that I have been doing lately, my EBAY purchases have been few and far between.  I have bid on a few items, but did not get very aggressive with my bidding so I did not win anything other than a small 2021 Bowman Draft Cardinals lot.  Prices are still higher than what I want to pay for singles or box breaks, so I have been hunting for lots.  Most will come with duplicates, but those will be used for trade bait or hopefully for some in person autographs later this summer in Peoria. 

I won this lot on January 13th from a seller in New York.  It arrived in Illinois on the 15th.  Talk about a quick turnaround.  All cards were in penny sleeves, put in a team bag, and placed between 2 pieces of cardboard.  Wish all sellers were this good.  Here is what I received for a little of $6 delivered.

I received at least 2 copies of every Cardinals paper card, some 3.  

I received 1 base Chrome and 1 refractor.  The Herrera refractor was a nice surprise as the auction scan looked like it was just a base Chrome.

My lone insert was of the Cardinals #1 draft pick from 2021.  McGreevy is one of the those safe draft picks that has a low ceiling/high floor potential.  The Cardinals most likely picked him to save draft pool money for higher upside picks from the lower rounds.  I would guess he will turn into a bullpen arm before he reaches St. Louis.  Still hope to get a chance to watch him pitch this summer.

5 for Friday

The card stacks on my desk do not seem to be shrinking despite my best effort to post a recap every weekday.  I received 5 different packages on Tuesday that just added to the backlog.  In the spirit of my 2 for Tuesday posts, today I am going to do a 5 for Friday post featuring 5 different packages.  These were not all the ones from Tuesday (wish I was that caught up).  First up is are 3 cards I purchased from The Bench member 7timecy.

These 3 Bo Hart numbered cards cost me $1.75 delivered.  Not bad for 3 short print cards that are almost 20 years old.  The 2003 Flair is numbered to 500, the 2003 Authentix to 1250, and the 2003 Genuine insert to 150.  

Next up is one of the Tuesday packages from TCDB member CoachBarry.

This simple 3 for 3 pwe trade brought me 3 nice shiny 2021 cards.  After receiving the Arenado card, I just need to find the Dylan Carlson to complete my Finest team set.  The Molina is one of many 2021 Chronicles.  The Dejong is from online exclusive Finest Flashbacks.  I need 4 more for that set including the Carlson again.  

Another Tuesday package came from TCDB member eortiz01.

Shortly after receiving most of the 2019 Cardinals ASG team set in this trade last week, I found the last 3 I needed.  It was great to get them in 1 deal.

A third Tuesday package came from TCDB member Jahape1.  I sent him 4 different 2021 Topps Chrome refractors for these 4 Cardinals.

The Arenado silver pack card looks awesome.  Topps did a good job of using a spring training photo so his uniform would match the team banner.  After crossing Oviedo off my 2021 Heritage High Numbers want list, I just need to find a Andrew Knizner short print.  The bottom 2 Xfractors are my first ones from 2021 Topps Chrome.  That will be a difficult set to complete because of, you guessed it, the Dylan Carlson card.

The last trade package from TCDB member twinscollector 34 has been sitting on my desk for 2 weeks.  

Here are 3 oddballs and a Dylan Carlson that did complete my 2021 Topps Fire set.  The Jefferies is from 1993 Baseball Card Magazine, while the bottom 2 are from the 1990 AGFA set.  I have not heard of this 22 card set before, and could not find much information on how it was distributed.  One EBAY auction I found said AGFA was a German based photo company that gave the cards out with the purchase of film.  Not sure if that is true, but it does make for an interesting story.
  

  

Birds for Birds

You may think from the title that today's post is another Cardinals for Cardinals trade recap.  I do have a rather large trade like that to write about, but today is a different birds for birds trade.  TCDB member George1369 is a Orioles team collector who I have trade with a couple times before.  Our latest trade involved 50 Orioles, 17 Cardinals, and 1 Astro.  I am pretty sure you can guess who ended up with which cards, but I am going to show you my end anyway.

Baseball America named Walker the #24 prospect in baseball earlier this week.  That is high praise for a 19 year old who has not reached Double A yet.  Funny how Topps used 2 different uniform numbers on these Bowman Platinum cards.  The airbrush job on the Precious Elements insert is a little better than the Top Prospects card.

Here we have 4 pitchers on various inserts except for the 2021 Optic base of Flaherty.  The Orange Mikolas numbered to 299 stands out in this group.

A couple more inserts from 2021 featuring Ozzie and Yadi.  The 1986 Ozzie wins in my book due to the nostalgic factor.  The first pack of cards I ever opened was 1986 Topps.

Moving on the non logo part of the trade, we have some 2021 Mosaic cards.  The Wainwright is a blue camo parallel, the Brock a mosaic parallel.  Kim is just a regular base card that brings my team set needs down to 1.

Prizm had quite a few parallels sets that also had colored parallels.  Green works well for the Fearless insert, but not so much for Old School.  The Carlson Fearless is my second copy following the one I received from Kerry.  I have found the duplicate a good home already in another Cardinals fan's collection.

The Goldschmidt portion of the trade features a Red Wave parallel, a Pink Prizm, and a Absolute insert.  The Red Wave is a really sharp looking card.

Last but not least is a 2021 Carolina Blue Prizm for my son's Altuve collection.  The scan really brought out the colors in this one.  

  

  

Old and New Heritage from Ron B

I was tempted to skip a post today as it is my daughter's 17th birthday.  As soon as work is over we are headed for dinner and a movie.  After being in quarantine for her 16th birthday last year because I had Covid, I feel the need to make this year a great one.  We have bigger plans this weekend if the weather allows us to travel.  Good thing I have a slow day at work to knock out today's trade recap from Trading Bases member Ron B.  Ron sent his usual great Cardinals lot that was heavy on Topps Heritage.

I could not tell you that last time I received a 2011 Heritage Minors card that I needed.  This Cox was 1 of 2 shortprints that I needed.  Down to just 2 more total to finish this one up.

Ron actually sent 2 packages.  One was a bubble mailer and the second was a pwe that contained this Brock poster from 2021 Heritage High Numbers.  This thing was so big that it did not fit on my scanner bed, so I cut off the bottom.  I love the spring training photo with the palm trees in the background.

I was able to put a good dent in my High Numbers needs.  

Along with the base cards, I received an action variation of Paul DeJong.  I also added his 2021 Topps Gold.  One of my big hopes for the 2021 season is for DeJong to have a good one.  It is hard not to root for a nice guy who has a great looking autograph.

Ron included some various colored parallels.  Normally I would pick the Carlson as my favorite, but the green Allen Craig really stands out.  

The last card was a stat line parallel from 2016 Donruss.  Piscotty is a player who is also easy to root for due to his mother's battle with ALS.  He may still be in St. Louis if she came down with the disease and passed away.  

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #7

Installment #7 of TCDB 2 for Tuesday will be short and sweet.  As always 2 different trades with TCDB members.  This time only 3 total cards to show off.  First is the bigger trade with member jamestagli.  I sent him 4 different Indians inserts for a couple of Cardinals from 2021 Topps Archives.

You see a mini 1989 Paul Goldschmidt on top of a big Dylan Carlson head that is a 1963 Peel Off.  These 2 are worth the $0.58 price of postage.  

The second trade with member BLWinBorn40 was a simple 1 for 1 trade.  

This is the first time I have received a relic card in a pwe.  It arrived safe and sound.  It helps this 2021 A&G card is not much thicker than a base card.  I do not really care for the pale green border, but the card design is not bad.  It is hard to see the small cut out on the bat piece so you can feel it.  

PWEd by Kerry

Like most collectors/bloggers who send anything through the mail,  the post office always finds a way to surprise us.  Sometimes good, sometimes bad.  Last Saturday I mailed a trade to New Jersey in a bubble mailer.  It was delivered on Monday.  I contacted the trader to verify the tracking was true, and sure enough he received it.  2 days to getting from Illinois to New Jersey is unbelievable.  The week after Christmas I received a pwe from one of my favorite Cardinals blogger Kerry  This was somewhat unexpected, but very welcome.  2 days later I receive another pwe from him.  I did not ask, but I assume he mailed them the same day.  At least all the cards in both envelopes arrived in great shape.

These are my first silver portraits parallels from 2021 A&G.  Someone was lucky enough to get a hot box this year.

Kerry also sent my first 2021 Stadium Club Chrome cards.  Hard to go wrong with great photography and a chrome finish.

I did have a one card from 2021 Gold Label.  Kerry added a couple more from Class 1, a Class 2 Arenado, and a Black Class 1.  Glad Topps noted on the front of the card what class it is.

I received a couple of inserts from 2021 Panini Prizm.  You have already seen these in a couple of previous posts, but they will be passed on to another Cardinals collector.  It is tempting to hold onto the Carlson, but in the end I thought it was best to share the wealth.

The last card was a nice 2019 Bowman's Best refractor.  If I had to pick a favorite current Cardinals, it would be a close toss up between him and Wainwright.  I love how they just go about their daily business and do not feel the need to show off a lot of emotion.  I am an old fashioned guy who does not care for the bat flips and stare downs.  I understand the need to jump around or celebrate after a big hit, but I do not want to see it every time you hit a home run.  Put your head down, run the bases, and act like you have been there before.