Small Thursday

Things have been slow on the trade front lately.  My son's baseball games/practices have really cut into my spare time during the evenings.  By the time we get home, eat, and clean up I either have zero interest in sitting in front of a computer, or have regular household things that need attention.  In a good month I try to do 4 or 5 trades a week.  I will be lucky to average 2 a week in April.  I did mange to work out a small trade with TCDB member sparkchaser41 last week for a handful of team set needs.

I need 2 more base cards and 3 short prints to finish the 2022 Heritage set.  Doubt that will happen anytime soon.

I did complete my 2002 Topps Archives team set with this Flood card.  I only have 14 of his cards in my collection.  That is pretty sad considering he played on some great teams in the 1960s, and also had a major role in the birth of free agency.  He does not get included in too many retro sets like other Cardinals, but he still has a fair amount of cards.  One of my white whales is a relic or autograph of his.  

   

Thanks to Kerry

My favorite Cardinals blogger Kerry sent me an unexpected pwe full of Cardinals last week.  What a great way to celebrate the new season than with cards from a fellow Cardinals fan.  The pwe reminded me that I needed to send Kerry some payback from his previous package around Christmas time.  If you are reading Kerry, a small package should arrive sometime this week.  

It looks like Pacific took both of these shots at the same game.  There are a couple other cards from the 1998 Pacific Invincible Gems of the Diamond set that show Cardinals in the same uniform.  

I was surprised to find out I did not have any of the 2001 SP Game Bat Milestone Cardinals before this package.  Now I have 2.  This set will most likely never get finished due to the Pujols rookie card.  Albert hit home run #681 yesterday.  It would be awesome to see him get to 700 this year.  The Haren completed my 2003 Donruss Rookies team set.

I am still searching for a few 2021 Stadium Club Chrome Cardinals.  Now there is 1 less.  The Ozuna is from the 2018 Topps X Bryce Harper set.  First time I have seen one of these cards in person.

Kerry included a nice trio of refractors that included a 2013 Bowman Platinum purple, 2010 Topps Chrome Xfractor, and a 2021 Topps Chrome Prism refractor.  The Carpenter is not miscut despite what my scanner did to it.

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #13

The first TCDB 2 for Tuesday in April brings more of the usual things you would expect, 2 small trades from the Trading Card Database (TCDB) website. Today's first pwe trade arrived yesterday from member frankgifford.  This trade brought me 7 cards, but 3 of them I plan to use for in person autographing so I will spare you those pictures until I get them signed.

I am down to just needing a Jack Flaherty card to finish my 2021 Gallery team set.  I like how you can see the arches of Busch Stadium's upper deck in the background of the Gibson card.  

Altuve # 487 and 488 are now in my son's binders.  He loves how the 2018 Donruss Dominators Crystal cards looks.  Reminds me of a Topps cracked ice card.

The second trade came from member coachspike.  I sent him a few 2021 Topps Heritage Minor League cards in exchange for these 4 Cardinals.

Most of my 2021 Topps brand base sets are done minus a few short prints, so now it is time to fill in the holes on the parallel sets.  I am a big fan of the green border Gypsy Queen cards.  I think it is because all the green reminds me of a baseball diamond.  If mother nature holds out, I will be in the bleachers tomorrow to watch  Adam Wainwright pitch.  The way it looks now that is not going to happen.

Mosaic was my favorite Panini brand from 2021.  The parallels and inserts looked a little better than the Prizm ones.  Not much to say about the rather bland 2021 Optic Carlson other than I like the player.  Carlson is off to a pretty good start in the leadoff spot.  I mentioned last week that I expect a big year from him.  It should not hurt that he gets to face the Pirates and Cubs quite a few times this year.  Neither pitching staff is all that great.   

 

All Shapes and Sizes

Most collectors know the standard baseball card measures 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches.  That is the size I prefer my cards to be.  It makes sorting and storing cards so easy when they all identical in size, but we know all cards are not made the same.  I cannot count how many times I have voiced my displeasure for mini cards over the years.  I have grown to tolerate them more as long as it is a Cardinals card.  Larger cards are not as common as minis, but still pose the same problem.  I received some of both in a recent trade with TCDB member Cardsrule.  Great username by the way.  I believe Cards is short for Cardinals because I traded him about 40 Cardinals duplicates for this lot. 

I will work my way up from smallest to largest.  I have never seen or heard of 1983 Fleer Stamps before this trade.  They are slightly larger than a regular postage stamp, measuring 1.25 inches x almost 1.5 inches.  These will all be placed in a sleeve and top loader, then sealed with a piece of painter's tape.  Not sure how else to store them.

1983 Fleer Star Stickers are 1.75 inches x 2.5 inches.  It was a lot easier keeping these straight on the scanner bed than the stamps.  This team set is now complete.

1982 Fleer Stamps measure almost 2 inches by 2.5 inches.  Not sure why Fleer decided to shrink them a year later.  This set is also finished now.

I did not want to make 3 different scans for the regular and larger cards, so here you go.  The  1996 Fleer Update Bailey is the only normal card in the lot.  The middle card from the 2001 Cardinals Police stadium giveaway set measures 2 5/8 inches x 4 1/8 inches.  Not sure why this card was not in the set I bought off EBAY, but now the set is complete.  The final Ozzie Smith 1987 Donruss All Star Pop Up measures 2.5 inches x 5 inches.  Sorry for all the numbers in this post.  It almost felt like math class typing all of it.  

Celebrating Opening Day with a Big Purchase

The second best holiday of the year is finally here.  After Christmas, I consider MLB Opening Day to be the best holiday.  Nothing sums up the offseason better for a baseball fan than this quote from Rogers Hornsby "People ask what I do in winter when there's no baseball.  I'll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window and wait for spring."  No more waiting now.  

If the rain holds off in St. Louis, it should be a historic opening day.  Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina will start their 306th game together.  They need 20 starts to break the all time battery mark.  Molina has already said this will be his final season.  I will believe that when he does not report for spring training next year.  Wainwright has not decided yet, but how many more season does a 40 year old starting pitcher have left/

This will also be the first time since 2011 that Albert Pujols will be in a Cardinals uniform.  Thanks to the universal DH rule he gets to play his final year in St. Louis.  This will be his 22nd straight opening day start, tying him for second all time with Hank Aaron and Carl Yastrzemski and 1 behind Pete Rose.  Pujols is also chasing history this season, needing 21 home runs to reach 700.  I have my doubts whether he will make it, but it should be fun watching him try.

One of the major cards that I have been missing in my Cardinals collection is a Pujols autograph.  Once the Cardinals Winter Warm Up was cancelled this year, I told myself that I would take the money saved and buy a nice Pujols.  I searched EBAY off and on the last few months, but did not find anything I liked or at the price I wanted to spend.  Last week a large autograph collector on The Bench decided to sell most of his collection.  Luck was with me as I was the first to claim this card.

This 2004 Fleer Showcase Sweet Sigs autograph numbered to 150 met 2 of the 3 requirements for a Pujols autograph.  It is blue and is on card.  I would have preferred a Topps card, but this one will do.  It is in perfect shape and looks awesome.  The $165 delivered price I paid for it is by far the most I have ever spent on a single card.  Here is to a great baseball season, and go Cardinals!

Minor Goodness

The MLB regular season is set to start tomorrow.  That almost did not seem possible back in January when the strike was going on.  At that time it looked like minor league baseball would be the only games being played.  Thankfully the strike ended and we will get to see both brands of baseball.  

The Triple A minor league season got started last night.  The Cardinals Triple A team Memphis pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Braves Gwinnett team.  I am listening to their second game right now as I type this post.  A great way to pass the long afternoon at work while it is raining.  The rain also gives me plenty of down time to write about a recent trade with TCDB member 5marchx that contained a nice lot of minor league cards.  

I love finding minor league cards that are not part of the team issued sets.  I am guessing these 1987 Feder Texas League All Star cards were available during the 1988 season.  Peters and Fitzgerald had brief careers in St. Louis, while the other 3 never cracked the majors.  The big names in the 35 cards set are Gregg Jefferies and Sandy Alomar Jr.  

In 1988 the Cardinals double A team in Springfield, IL was part of the Midwest League.  Now their high A team in Peoria is part of that league.  This set was quite large with 59 cards in it.  I have a copy of the Lankford card in my player collection, but needed this one and the Becker for my team collection.  The Clark card is from 1999 Team Best.  This 100 card set was available in 18 pack boxes.  

I did receive a very nice MLB card in this 2018 Opening Day autograph of Harrison Bader.  This is my second certified autograph of him.  It is not as flashy as some of his other autograph cards, but I will gladly give it a good home   

    

Full House Trade

I am not much of a poker player.  When I was growing up, my family spent many nights playing euchre and pinochle.  I was taught how to play poker, but I found the other 2 games to be more fun.  Even in college my friends and I preferred euchre.  None of us were much into playing for chips or money.  The extent of my poker playing these days is at local church fundraisers for high dollars prizes like a 2 liter of soda or a free pizza.  That does not mean I have forgotten what makes up certain poker hands.  A recent trade package from TCDB member jmkidd gained me a full house of Cardinals.  The pwe contained 3 Nolan Arenado cards and 2 Dylan Carlson cards.

If you look closely you can see the top left card is the Fractal Revolution parallel and the top right is the base Revolution from 2021 Panini Chronicles.  I like them both, but doubt I will track down all 9 different parallels.  The bottom 2021 Gallery base cards leaves me 3 short of the team set.  

I added a couple more Panini Chronicles base cards.  Even though the Titan is nice and shiny, the Classics card gets the win in my book due to the color matching.  I am looking for Carlson to have a big year this year if healthy.  I am guessing he will be a 20-20 man with a .270 average.    

    

Cardinals Trade

I did not plan on taking last week off from blogging.  It just sort of happened.  I had a few packages come in, but just did not have the desire to scan or write about them.  I admit it was nice to take a short break, but now I am ready to get back into the swing of things.  Today I will highlight my favorite type of trade, a Cardinals for Cardinals swap.  TCDB member timriess and myself have done this type of trade quite a few times.  I sent him 39 duplicates in exchange for 27 cards.  21 of those cards are already in the mail to another collector.  I ended up with 5 Cardinals, while my son added a new Jose Altuve card.

I finished off my 2021 Chrome Update team set with this Carlson card.  The purple refractor was a nice bonus.

When I showed his Series 1 card a few weeks back, I mentioned how strange it was to see Lester in a Cardinals uniform. Not sure if I will ever get used to it, but if Topps puts him in enough sets I guess I will.

Did I need another copy of a 1995 and 1996 Topps Ray Lankford when I already have one in his player collection and another in the team set?  In this case yes.  Later this summer I should have an opportunity to get these signed in person.  I am trying to get all of his base Topps cards autographed.  Hopefully next time you see these in June they will look a little different.  

My son's quest for 500 Altuves is slowly moving along.  This 2021 Update Chrome All Star inserts is #486.  He hopes to make it by the end of the summer.  That should not be a problem with quite a few new sets coming out this month including 2022 Donruss and its numerous border variations.