Sox for Cards

It has been a while since I did a pure team for team trade.  Years ago, I enjoyed doing a blind trade where I would send hundreds of a certain team for the same amount of Cardinals.  I do not do many of those types of trades anymore because I am trying to cut down on my duplicates, and I also do not open enough wax to accumulate very many cards.    

I still enjoy trading with other team collectors, just not on the large scale anymore.  Last week I worked a trade with TCDB member Scottzoe with Red Sox going his way and Cardinals coming back to me.

My 2002 Archives Reserve team set is now complete.  Always nice to knock off a 20 year old set from my wantlist.

I am inching closer to completing the 29 card team set from 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary.  Only 4 more left to go.  

I also appreciate getting premium brand base cards in a trade like this 2020 Museum Collection.  If I find them in bargain boxes, it is never Cardinals I need.  The Molina is a royal blue parallel from 2020 Update.

 

About the only thing Poncedeleon and Gibson have in common is they were both right handed pitchers for the Cardinals.  I was too lazy to scan each card by itself, so this may be the only time you see their cards side by side.  The Ponce is a rainbow foil from 2019.  The Gibson is from the 1987 Hygrade set.

 

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #25

Today's 2 for Tuesday post will be rather short.  I was tempted to recap more than 2 trades but decided not to break with the format.  First up is a pwe from member jmkidd.

My 2022 Topps Fire team set got a nice boost with these 4 cards.  Just 4 more needed to complete the team set.

My son added some color to his Altuve collection with a 2013 Triple Play red sticker and a 2021 Big League blue border.  

Second trade was a 2 pack of 2022 Topps Gallery  Cardinals from member  MMehler30.

You can always count on Gallery for cards of the retired greats.  You can also bet you have seen the photos on other cards.  Musial is a base, while Ozzie is a rainbow foil.

  

2022 Panini Mosaic Team Break

 Shortly after taking part in a 2022 Topps Update group break, the same member from The Bench had a 2022 Panini Mosaic break.  The Cardinals spot in the 1 box break cost me $8.  I like the colored parallels from the last few years, so I figured I would give this break a shot.

I received 3 base cards.  Have I mentioned recently how great it is to have Pujols cards in a Cardinals uniform again?

2 more Pujols cards, including an insert and a Mosaic parallel.  This was a nice surprise because when I watched the video, it appeared to be a duplicate of the base card.

The final 2 cards were an Arenado Prizm parallel and a Molina insert.  Overall not bad for a little over $1 per card.  

A Trader I am Thankful For

I have a lot to be thankful for in the baseball card world this year.  I passed 25,000 different Cardinals in my collection.  My son and I have been able to attend quite a few shows.  I love spending time with him digging through bargain boxes.  First and foremost,  I am thankful for all the traders I have had the pleasure of dealing with.  It is our fellow collectors that make this hobby so enjoyable for me.  At the top of this list is Trading Bases member Ron B. 

Our ongoing open-ended trade has been going on for years.  I received a large package in August that included many nice Cardinals.  I sent him some return fire in October hoping to get even, but he jumped ahead with another package that arrived this past weekend.  

Because he is located on the East coast, Ron can find Cardinals a lot cheaper than I can.  All these Molina cards came from quarter boxes.  The 2018 Heritage Green numbered to 250 was a steal at that price.  The 2022 Donruss card is a stat line parallel numbered to 500.  

Going back a few years to 2012 and Topps Gold Rush cards.  I did not know these cards existed before this trade.  These were a redemption for Series 1 wrappers.

More Topps parallels including a nice 2019 Topps Gallery Orange parallel numbered to 25.  Despite its low number, I like the 2022 Orange O'Neill better.

Only 3 Panini brand cards in this package.  A Holo parallel, a pink parallel, and a silver wave Prizm numbered to 60.

Finish things off with a couple of nice autographs.  The 2017 Tek Blue Diaz is numbered to 50.  The 2017 Fire Reyes is numbered to 420.  I was a little heartbroken to see him non tendered last week.  I started watching him in 2014 when he played in Peoria.  Wish he could have stayed healthy, but I hope he gets another chance to pitch in the Majors.      

Cardinals Lot from The Bench

I am almost ashamed to say I have had this lot of Cardinals sitting on my desk for 2 weeks.  Earlier this month The Bench member Scobes was running a sale with most cards costing a dime or a quarter.  I found quite a few Cardinals I did not have and ended up spending about $7 by the time I paid shipping.  They arrived 2 days after I paid and just sat on my pile of cards to be scanned.  I had some spare time last night before watching Monday Night Football to finally get to them.

For this lot, I chose to scan them in chronological order.  These 4 are from the 1990s.  The 1998 Finest No Protector DeShields is the best of this bunch, although the 1998 Crown Royale is also pretty sweet.

3 cards from the 2000s featured 2 red Leaf Press Proofs and a Bowman Gold parallel.  

The 2010s featured more colorful and shiny cards along with the first taste of Panini cards.  I will call the 2012 Panini Cooperstown Mize a Cardinals card, even though there is no mention of a team on it.  

The 2020s bring a lot of color.  Lime green, red, orange, gold foil, green, and chrome.  It is almost scary to think what colors will come in the next decade.  

1 lone card from this year is a red parallel.  Goes well with the Cardinals uniform.  There were a handful of other cards in the lot that I bought for trade bait.  The total cost per card including shipping was close to 30 cents.  Not a bad deal at all.    

  

Nothing but Panini

It has been a long time since I posted 5 days in a row.  Now that the weather is getting colder and the daylight hours are getting shorter, I have more time to make trades.  That leads to more trade recap posts.  Today's recap is a package from TCDB member philhigh.  One big thing missing from this trade is logos.  Every card is from a Panini brand.  Strange how that works sometimes.  

Panini did well to hide the logos on these Leaf  Certified cards from 2021 Chronicles.  Scanning them side by side makes it look like a booklet card.  

These are my first cards from 2022 Prizm.  Not much difference between this design and last year's.  

Altuve gets his own scan since it goes into my son's collection, not mine.  The card would look better with an orange outline similar to the red on the Cardinals' cards.  The black makes the card look too dark.

The parallels and inserts look a lot better.  Panini does a good job with the action shots for catcher's cards.  Once again a great way to hide logos.  

USPS Finally Delivered

If you trade enough, you have most likely had a package lost in the mail.  In my 20 years or so of trading online,  I would guess my number of lost packages is less than 10.  Pretty good percentage all things considered.  I know 3 of those have been this year though.  I was thinking a recent trade with TCDB member Themissionsguy would be #4, but it finally arrived Monday.  It only took a little over 3 weeks to get from Nevada to Illinois.  

The bulk of the trade was cards from 2022 Topps Chrome including an Arenado insert.  I only need a Lars Nootbaar rc to finish the team set.

I am still finding inserts from 2022 Series 2 that I need like both of these.  Always nice to add an Ozzie to the collection.

Last are 2 parallels from 2021.  Knizner is from Update, DeJong from Series 1.  It would not shock me if neither one of these guys are with St. Louis in 2023.  

2 Box Team Break of 2022 Update

 Last week I bought into a box break on The Bench website for 2 hobby boxes of 2022 Update.  I did pretty well for the $15 I spent. 

I was 1 card shy of getting 2 full base sets.  Of the 11 Cardinals in the set, these are my favorites.  3 Pujols cards and 2 rookie cards.  The middle card with Wainwright, Pujols, and Molina is the best of the bunch.

I did well with hitting 5 inserts.  The Ozzie die cut, and Arenado Black Gold stands out in this group.

I was very lucky to get this black autograph numbered to 199 of Brendan Donovan.  It is a sticker auto, but still a nice card.  I love him as a player, but his autograph prices are a little high right now due to limited supply and his 3rd place ROY finish.  He does have an on card auto in Allen & Ginter, so maybe prices will change.  

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #24

November is half over today.  Before you know it, Christmas will be here.  I have not even started to shop.  Maybe next week when the Black Friday ads come out I will get in the mood.  Until then, I will spend time in the card room filing away trades like these 2 recent TCDB ones.  First up is a 3 pack from member TxRyan which arrived yesterday.

One gold from 2020, one gold from 2005, and an Inception base card from 2019.  I keep saying it, but one of these days I will finish a Topps Gold team set.  

The next trade envelope came from member Orry04.  This is my 8th trade with him.  He is one of the easiest guys to trade with due to his large want list and ample trade bait.

2021 Prizm Draft boxes have sat on the shelf of my local Walmart for a long time.  Glad someone else opened them so I do not have to.  The red velocity parallel Baez is a great looking card in person.  Also included was a Nolan Gorman insert from 2021 Panini Contenders.  I hope Gorman can cut down on his strikeouts next year and take over the full time DH role.  That is assuming he does not get traded this winter.

I did finish the 2022 Absolute Memorabilia team set with this Arenado card.  Edman is a silver prizm from 20212 Mosaic.  Wainwright is my first Cardinal from 2022 Topps Fire.  I have always liked this brand.  I know some collectors think it is cheap, but the designs remind me of Metal Universe cards from the mid 1990s.  

This collector is an Astros fan.  Every now and then he gets an Altuve duplicate that my son needs like this 2021 Topps Chrome sepia refractor.  I have sent him a few duplicates also.  Works out great.    

  

Card Show Recap

 A week ago Saturday, I was scheduled to play in my final slow-pitch softball tournament of the year.  Temps were in the 70s, which is hard to believe for the first week of November in my area.  Only problem was Mother Nature decided to let it rain 2 inches over night.  I was a little disappointed because this was the last chance I would see some of these guys for a few months, but also a little excited because I now had no plans for the day.  A quick online search revealed a card show a little over an hour's drive away.  

I attended a show at the same location back in September, but did not get to spend much time there.  This time I did not foresee any time constraints.  I was proved wrong.  Both my wife and daughter came along with my son and me since the show was in a mall.  Perfect chance for them to do some shopping.   After 2 hours, they were ready to go, and we had only been to 3 of the 50 tables.    I was content with our 2 hours of digging and decided getting lunch was more important.  

As you can guess, most of our time was spent going through value boxes.  My focus was to find some Altuves for my son's collection, some Cardinals for me, and some cheap trade bait.  There are a ton of team collectors on TCDB that have cards I need, so I was hoping to find something for them.  Even when adding the cost of postage for a trade, I still come out ahead in most cases because of having to pay the regional premium for Cardinals.

Our first stop was not a planned one.  This dealer had quite a few boxes set up, but most were $3-5.  Not a bad price, but I wanted to hit the cheaper boxes first.  He was very friendly and struck up a conversation about baseball in general with my son and me.  He told my son to pick out $5 of cards for free.  He found 2 Altuves that were $1 each.  We thanked him and planned to revisit his table, but time did not allow it.  I feel a little guilty for not buying anything from him, but will remember to next time I see him.  

Our first real stop was a dealer with quite a few boxes but no pricing.  He owned a card shop about an hour from the show and was looking to downsize his boxes.  His pricing was more than fair.  Anything in a top loader was $1-3, sleeved cards 50 cents, unsleeved cards 12 for $1.  We spent well over an hour at this table and spent $13 total.  

These 2 cards were $5.  I was surprised to see the dealer had a 400-count box of Pirates.  I picked these up for Trading Bases friend Ron B.  The Taillon is numbered to 75, the Wagner to 99.  Hayes is an Atomic refractor.    

I pulled 96 unsleeved cards to make up the last $8.  There was a ton of value in these for less than a dime a card.  

There were a ton of Panini parallels in the boxes, but also some nice Topps ones, like the 2 Pink Wave refractors in the 3rd scan.  I pulled about every Cardinals I could find without checking my wantlist.  The 8 cards in the 4th scan ended up being duplicates, but for less than $1 I will be ok.  

My son added 7 new Altuve cards to his collection.  He remembered to bring along his have list, so no doubles this time.

I pulled quite a few Pirates for Ron B.  I really liked the Teal Wave Bell and the Topps Chrome Sapphire Reynolds in the second scan.

All of these Panini cards are trade bait.  

Topps trade bait included a sweet Ken Griffey Jr Pink Wave refractor and a Kyle Tucker Finest rookie card.  

It was easy to spot the premium brand cards due to the thickness.  Lots of star players in here, including a Ted Williams Museum copper parallel.  

Our next stop was at a dealer with about the same setup.  Plenty of 10 for $1 boxes, a few 50-cent boxes, and some $1 boxes.  We spent $10 with him.  It could have been more, but the females said it was time to go before we went through all the boxes.  

I pulled 4 Cardinals for a little over $2.  The 2 Chrome Sapphire cards were 50 cents each, the Wong relic was $1, and the Sosa was a dime.

I believe the Altuve cards were $2.50.  

All the Pirates were a dime each except the Hayes, which was $1.  The Waddell is a green refractor numbered to 99.  

The last 4 cards are all trade bait.  I was in a hurry to find a few cards to make an even $10.  I know the Devers relic was $1.  All in all a great show.  My son and I did great only spending $23 in 2 hours.  My wife and daughter went well over that.  Turns out clothes shopping gets to be expensive.