TCDB 2 for Tuesday #21

 Had a couple of smaller TCDB trades arrive over the weekend that I saved for today's post.  Same routine as usual.  2 pwe trades from 2 different TCDB members.  First up is a 3 pack of Cardinals from member nkandy11.

These 2 McGwires give me 786 in my collection.  Amazing how quickly they add up. The Ludwick gold is from 2008 Topps Update.  

The second trade was another 3 pack of Cardinals from member BigOinPa.  

These are from the retail version of 2022 Absolute Memorabilia.  The hobby version has a foil finish like the McGwire I showed in yesterday's post.  I was almost tempted to try a blaster box of these at Walmart, but just could not bring myself to pay $30 for some base cards and a game used card that I might get $5 out of.  

  

Card Show Recap

My last 2 Saturdays have been filled with soccer and band competitions.  My son plays soccer while he and my daughter are in the marching band.  So far, we have not had any scheduling conflicts that prevent him from doing both.  That may change this upcoming Saturday when the soccer game and band competition are a 3 hour's drive apart.  Sometimes the locations work out in our favor.  A week ago, his game ended early, so we had some spare time to kill before making the hour drive to band.  As luck would have it, there was a card show at a local mall along the way.

We have recently been to this show a few times, so I was looking for certain dealers.  We had about 45 minutes to go through everything.  That was not enough time to see all the tables, but I did find 2 of the dealers I wanted to see.  The first dealer had 3 monster boxes of dime cards.  Most of them were base cards, but I did find 8 cards for trade bait.

Nothing huge here, but some nice numbered cards and some shiny inserts.  I did not want to spend more time to find  2 more cards for an even $1, so these ended up being slightly more than a dime.  Still a good buy in my book.

The second dealer had a variety of quarter and dollar boxes.  I spent a total of $10 at this table.  If I had more time, I would have spent twice that much.  He had lots of nice stuff, but I did not want to waste to much time checking my want list.

All four Altuve cards were $1 each.  Maybe a slight overpay, but I knew my son needed them all, and I felt he needed a reward for his shutout in goal at the soccer game.  

The other $1 cards I grabbed are a couple of nice Pirates for another trader.  He end up having the Cutch Pink Wave from 2020 Chrome Update, so if anyone needs it lmk.

The dealer had all his Cardinals in a 2 row box.  That made it very easy to flip quickly through them.  The first cards that caught my eye were these 2015 Platinum Series cards.  Wish I had looked at them a little closer, as the Peralta cards in the lower right corner is full of creases.  

There were a few colored Topps parallels in the box.  I needed the top 2.  The bottom gold card is already headed to another Cardinals collector.

I was 2 for 3 on purple parallels.  I already had the Bader.

I will gladly grab refractors for a quarter, even if the player is no longer on the Cardinals.  

I did not find too many Panini brand cards I needed.  The green Boyer is from 2021, while the McGwire is the hobby version from 2022.

The last and most interesting Cardinals I grabbed was this 1994 Classic Best Gold Acetates Dmitri Young.  I have never seen or heard of this card before.  Good thing TCDB has a search feature where you can enter a player's name and the card number.  

The only trade bait I grabbed were these 2.  I wanted to make it an even $11, but the dealer knocked it down to $10.  Overall I was pleased with my $11 spent at the show.  

        

Brewers for Cardinals

The Cardinals' offense continued to be nonexistent last night against San Diego.  They better figure out how to hit again, or their playoff run will be very short.  Good thing the Brewers continue to lose.  That is the only way the magic number will shrink.  It stands at 6 right now.  

My lastest TCDB trade was with a Brewers fan.  I sent member cynicalbuddha a small stack of inserts in exchange for my usual Cardinals goodies.

Start things off with a couple of framed parallels from 2011 Gypsy Queen.  I wonder why Topps did not number the green Musial, but the framed Hornsby is numbered to 999.  Both are great looking cards either way.

The rest of the cards I did not know how to group, and did not want to scan each one separately, so you get 3 position players in this scan and 3 pitchers in the next scan.  Holiday is a orange day glow parallel from 2013 Archives, Pujols is a nice base card from 2010 Topps Tribute, and the Van Slyke is from 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes.  

The 2009 Chrome refractor Walters card is by far my favorite of this group.  I love Chris Carpenter, but it is hard to love a card with a Cub on it.  The 2003 Morris Standing O Die Cut is nice, but these things are a pain to store.  
  

  

Killer TCDB Trade

One positive aspect of my lack of trading is that it is easier to stay current with my trade recaps.  I wish I could say the same about filing cards away.  I have not done that in close to 2 months.  I am guessing a stack of 300 Cardinals needs to be put in the proper boxes.  Until I find the time, I will keep adding cards to the pile like the ones I received from TCDB member bobberkill.        

I do not often cross off OPC cards from my want list, let alone older ones like this Tyson card from 1979.  Only 3 more to go to finish the 10 card team set, with 2 of them being Lou Brock and Keith Hernandez.

It is great to see Wacha having success with the Red Sox this year.  He was so great his first few Cardinals seasons before injuries set in.  This 20016 Heritage Chrome card is numbered to 999.

Speaking of injuries to pitchers, Flaherty has made 3 starts since returning from the DL.  The Cardinals need him back to his 2019 form if they hope to advance far in the playoffs.

If the season ended today, Flaherty would face Sosa and the Phillies in the Wild Card round.  I like the Cardinals' chances against them better compared to the Padres or Braves/Mets.    

Finishing things up with 5 more cards from 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum  Anniversary.  I try to forget the Dexter Fowler era in St. Louis, but every now and then Topps reminds me about it.  

  

American Cancer Society Day At Busch #2

Back in the middle of August, my wife, son, and I attended an American Cancer Society Day At Busch .  That one was sponsored by the Illinois society.  The Missouri society had its day yesterday.  Same setup as before with player autographs, free hot dog and soda, and early admission to guarantee the promotion item being given away.  I will get to that in a bit but first are the autographs.

 

Lars Nootbaar was the big name on our list.  We have missed him at several minor league games in the last couple of years.  He had the biggest line by far.  My wife and son spent over half their time waiting in his line.  I decided to leave my card with my nephew and jump in another line.

Kyle McClellan was at the same table as Nootbaar.  I have gotten his autograph quite a few times over the years, so I am running out of different cards for him to sign.  My son said he loved this 2004 Peoria Chiefs card.  

Zack Thompson is another rookie I have never gotten an auto from.  He signed the 2020 Pro Debut for me. After my wife and son finished with Nootbaar, they were able to get in Thompson's line.

Bernard Gilkey was at the same table as Thompson.  His line was the last one my wife and son were able to go through in the hour and 15 minute time limit.

I left the Nootbaar line to make sure I could get Gilkey to sign this 10x13 photo.  It should not be very hard to get Ray Lankford and Brian Jordan, but Mark Whiten may be a challenge.  

It is great to add autographs of players who won a World Series like Motte did in 2011.  He still has his signature beard.  It just has a lot more gray to it now.  Packy Naughton was at this table also, but I did not have anything for him to sign.

Bo Hart told me that Albert Pujols is the player in the background of his 2004 Upper Deck card.  He joked that made this card his most valuable.

I had Pallante sign this same card at the first cancer day in August.  Hope he will be in 2022 Topps Update, so he has different cards to sign in the future.  

That finished up our autograph day.  13 autographs is not as many as the 23 we received the first time, but that is still pretty good considering the crowd was a lot bigger.  I am not sure how many people attended the Illinois game, but there were 8,000 tickets sold for the Missouri day.  I am guessing the free promotional item has a lot to do with that.  People 16 and older received an Albert Pujols bobblehead.  15 and under received a Build A Bear teddy bear.  

I am sure the teddy bear is nice, but the bobblehead was the big draw.  We ended up with 3 of them.  My 14 year old son was given the choice of what he wanted.   If you search EBAY for this Pujols bobblehead, you can tell why there was such a big crowd.  I do not consider 25,000 to be a limited supply, but some people do.  After the game, quite a few people with trash bags outside the stadium offered $20 for them.  I was glad to see most people knew the value of these and did not take them up on the offer.     

A Devil of a TCDB Trade

By the title, you may think I had a bad trade on TCDB.  You would be wrong.  I had a great trade with member DukeyDevil.  He is one of the more active traders on site, with over 2000 completed trades.  I thought I was doing good with a little over 600 trades.  It is scary to think what he has spent on postage through the years.  

There are 28 Redbirds in the 1989 ProCards Triple A set.  I have picked up a few over the years including these 3.  Time to add the rest to my wantlist and knock this set out.  None of the cards are very valuable, but I hope some collectors have gone to the trouble to list them for trade.

I never realized there were color variations to the black-bordered Conlon sets.  These burgundy and blue cards are from the 1994 set.

I have seen so many Topps inserts over the years that sometimes I fail to realize I do not have some of them like this 2011 Topps Town card.  These were so easy to pull back then that I was sure I had them all.  Guess not.

My son's Altuve collection has not seen much action lately.   Time to fire back up and maybe reach the 600 mark by the end of this year.  These 3 put him at 553.  
  

      

2 More Small Trades

Building on yesterday's 2 trade post, today I have a couple more pwe trades.  This time both are from TCDB members.  These both arrived a little late to do a 2 for Tuesday post.  I guess we can call this 2 for Thursday.   First up is a 4 pack of Cardinals from member Cfmaly.

I am still on the hunt to finish a gold parallel set from either Ultra or Topps.  I am guessing an Ultra set will happen first.  These 2 are from the 1996 set, while the  Topps Gold is from 2015 Update.

I now have 5 of the 9 2021 orange parallels from Topps Big League.  Maybe this one will get done before a gold set.  I am pretty sure I can find the last four on Sportlots, but that takes away the thrill of the hunt.  

The second trade brought 3 Cardinals from member NWA_Rich.

These 3 may not seem like they were worth the cost of postage, but for 60 cents it is a good buy in my book.  The Nootbaar alone was worth it in my book.  The LaRussa is another example of the bad centering found in 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary cards.  Finally the Goldschmidt is an insert from Series 2.  Goldy has an outside chance at the Triple Crown.  As of today he leads in average and RBIs, and is 1 behind in home runs.  I doubt if he can make it, but it will be fun to watch.

2 Small Bench Trades

I have been a little quiet on the trading front.  A combination of nice weather, school ball games, and overtime at work leaves me without much desire to do anything once I am home.  I did find the energy to complete 2 trades on The Bench last week.  In both cases the other party contacted me with an offer.  That always makes things easier.  First trade was with member zlw1.

I sent an Adley Rutschman insert in exchange for these 3 shiny Cardinals.  I have noticed quite a few 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary cards have major centering issues.  I would guess this Wong is 30/70 at best.  Molina is my first 2022 Topps Pristine card.  The Goldschmidt is a 2021 Panini Mosaic Big Fly Mosaic parallel.  

The second trade only involved 2 cards.  I sent 2 bobbleheads I received from my Cincinnati trip in July to member cornwellfamily.  He sent 2 nice Cardinals my direction.

This is my first Lars Nootbaar autograph.  Love that it is on a 1987 bordered card.  Noot has been getting the bulk of the playing time in right field lately.  He brings great defense and a lot of energy to the team.  This is my 5th different Matt Adams relic card.  I will always be a Big City fan.  Great guy who hit some big home runs during his time in St. Louis.