Pink makes #15

My progress towards the 2023 Donruss Ray Lankford rainbow is slowing down.  At first, I thought not many people were opening Donruss anymore, but then I realized most of what I need is numbered to 25 or less.  I was able to cross 1 off my list last week.

The Holo Pink parallel was about $2 delivered from EBAY.  It pays to wait, as the first copy I bid on went for about $6.  The Yellow parallel is the last one I need that is not numbered.  Have not seen one yet, but once added, it may be awhile before you see any new ones.    

Vintage Twitter Buys

Last Saturday, I bought 3 vintage cards from 2 different sellers on Twitter.  I was a little surprised to see both pwe's arrived Tuesday.  Very quick turnaround.  I wish EBAY sellers were like that.  

This 1966 Lou Brock cost me $5.  At little off-centered, and not sure what the mark is by his nose.  It is not paper loss.  Very pleased with the condition for the price.

These 2 1968 Topps cards were $8 total.  Once again they are not mint, but in great shape for the price I paid.  No major creases or writing on either one.  A great deal in my book to cross off a Hall of Famer from my wantlist for less than $10. 

  

2 from 2022, 2 from 2023

Sometimes is the small trades that get me most excited.  Take for instance my recent trade with former blogger and TCDB member marcbrubaker.  We did our customary Astros for Cardinals exchange with 3 cards going his direction and 4 coming back to me.  

I was able to cross off 1 2023 Donruss card and 1 2022 Optic card from my wantlist.  

A nice color match parallel from 2022 Stadium Club featuring one of the Cardinals most likely to get traded this week.  I have read O'Neill and Dylan Carlson are both on the block.  I like O'Neill, but prefer to keep Carlson.  

Final card was this great 2023 Carolina Blue Lankford card.  About a week before this trade, I thought I had this card coming from a Sportlots seller.  After I had already paid, the order was canceled, and relisted for twice the price.  That moron seller will never get any of my business.  Everything worked out for the better though.    

    

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #48

It is Tuesday, so you know what that means.  A couple more trade recaps from TCDB members.  This week will feature a little something different for one of the trades.  First, though is a nice package from member TheForeverMan.

My 2023 Heritage set build is coming along nicely.  This won't be the last one you see in the post.

A couple of colored parallels of former Cardinals.  I prefer the 2021 Royal Blue Wong over the 2016 Purple Pham.  

A couple of inserts of Cardinals stars.  I always like seeing the Arch featured on cards.  Gives them a hometown feeling.  I am inching very close to 1,000 different Pujols cards in my collection.  This one makes 988.

Second trade came from one of my favorite trading partners, timriess.  This was our 16th completed trade.  Tim and I always find duplicate Cardinals each other needs.

Only 1 more base card and 1 short print left to finish 2023 Heritage.  Will most likely get done before my 2022 team set.

I finally have the base Lankford from 2023 Donruss after showing off all the parallels.  Feels strange to get this one last.

Tim did a huge favor for me.  While I was on vacation last month, my family and I attended a game in his home town of Davenport, Iowa.  It happened to be a bobblehead give away.  Unlike every other game I have been to, the bobblehead was not handed out until after the 6th inning.  Normally I would have stayed, but the game was delayed over an hour due to rain and this was our final night of vacation.  With a 4.5 hour drive home, I decided to leave.  Luckily, I mailed the vouchers to Tim and he picked them up for me.  

Kyle Tucker was one of the better Astro player to pass through the Quad Cities before it changed to a Royals affiliate.  I now have 4 of these to trade for Cardinals bobbleheads I need.  Big shout out to Tim for the help.

Card Show Recap: Vendor #3

The last of the vendors we bought from had 3 tables full of boxes at various prices.  Major props to him for having them separated by sport.  It is becoming more common for dealers to just throw all sports into a box.  We spent all our time going through 2 monster boxes full of dime cards.

I found quite a few Cardinals I needed.  Nothing huge, but a lot of nice parallels.

Once again, I did not check my have lists since the cards we cheap.  I ended up pulling 9 cards I already had. 

My son did well finding some Altuve cards.  He needed the top 5.

Everything else we pulled is trade bait included a nice staff of Topps Chrome Sapphire cards.

Braves for trade.  

Some nice Dodgers

 A few Indians

Various Buster Posey cards.

A few more random cards to make it an even 100 cards for $10.  If we had more time, I would have started on the quarter boxes, but both of us were getting hungry after 2 plus hours at the show.  It was a great time with lots of great cards.

 

  

Card Show Recap: Vendor #2

The second vendor I bought from at Saturday's card show was a couple of younger guys, maybe early 20s at best.  Might have been brothers or just friends.  I do not recall seeing them set up at this show before.  They were one of the few dealers who did not have showcases full of graded cards.  A little surprising considering their age.  Instead, they had 3 boxes of base cards marked 15 for $1 that were sorted by team.  We found a lot more than base cards.  We pulled 45 for $3.

Not too many Cardinals in the box.  Since they were so cheap, I pulled the few inserts and parallels I found without checking my wantlist.  Flaherty is the only card I needed.

Not very many Altuve cards either.  The Holo Orange ended up being a duplicate.  The rest of the cards I pulled are trade bait for various team collectors.

Had to take care of my Pirates friend.

Quite a few nice Braves.

A lot of nice Dodgers also.

A few Indians

And finally, 3 Giants and a lone Royal.

There were 2 other boxes filled with cards that were unmarked.  One row was nothing but 2023 Bowman cards.  They ended up being 5 for $1.  I pulled $7 worth from there.  

Found 2 Cardinals I needed, along with some other inserts.

Spotlight inserts

Top 100 inserts

Lunar Glow refractors.  Shocked to see these for $0.20 each.  No big names, but still a nice find.

Camo parallels from 2021

2 final cards to make it an even $7 for a grand total of $10.  There were a few cards lying on a table in top loaders.  Nothing really jumped out at me except for a Tommy Edman autograph numbered to 99 for $15.  For some reason, I did not pick it up.  Maybe next time.

Card Show Recap: Vendor #1

Time to recap my pickups from the card show this weekend.  This was the first one my son and I attended since March.  Seems like it had been years.  This was a 75 table show set up at a mall about an hour's drive from home that we have been to quite a few times in the last few years.  Some have been great, others not so much.  This one was on the good side.   We spent about 2.5 hours there, mostly digging through bargain boxes.  We spent a total of $34 with 3 different vendors.  I believe we came home with a little over 200 cards.  This post will show the smallest purchase but most expensive at $14.

The most expensive card I purchased all day was this 2023 Big League short print for $2.  That is a little cheaper than EBAY.  

The vendor had a stack of about 200 1968 and 1969 commons for $1 each.  I found a nice 1969 Topps for my team set.  

The rest of the cards were in 50 cents bins that were buy 10, get 1 free.  

Some big names from the 2022 A&G X set along with a couple of minis.

A few other Cardinals included a couple of premium base cards and a nice Opening Day blue foil.

I made my son pick out the Altuve cards he wanted and compare them to his havelist.  He did well by pulling 5 cards he did not have.

All these Pirates will be headed east to trading friend Ron B.  It is a shame Topps would put a stamp on a 1971 card.  

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #47

I will hold off my card show recap from the weekend 1 day longer in order to do my 2 for Tuesday post.  Need to clear room on my scanner table anyway for the card show pickups.  First trade came from member Papayanz.

This was a simple Cardinals for Nationals trade.  I do not recall ever running across a Nats collector until this trade.  The Goldschmidt looks like a 2020 base card, but it is from the National League Standouts set.  First time ever seeing this card.

Second trade was a 2023 Donruss lot from member supergajit.

This year's Donruss set is made up of retired players and prospects.  Lou Brock and Enos Slaughter are the 2 bigger names in the retired section.  Musial and Gibson were left out in favor of Jim Edmonds, Vince Coleman, and Ray Lankford.  I am not complaining about that one bit.

Various prospects from other teams have been promoted just like Jordan Walker for the Cardinals.  The set must have been in production early enough to be able to include them.  Nice to get some new cards of lesser know prospects like Cho and Graceffo.

  

Big League with a Little Vintage

 It was a long exhausting weekend.  Our church had its yearly fundraising dinner and carnival on Sunday.  Set up lasted most of Saturday morning, while the event took place from 10-7 yesterday.  My son and I did manage to hit up a card show Saturday afternoon.  We bought a little over 200 cards, but I did not have time to scan everything, so today you get a trade recap from a nice package from TCDB member Ymmat.

Nice to get 3 shortprints in 1 trade.  Now I have the 4 shortprints from tiers 2 and 3 to find.  That will take awhile.

Always nice to add a vintage card from a trade.  This 1965 Topps card highlights Tim McCarver's home run to win game 5 of the 1964 World Series.  

This is one of the many cards from 2022 Panini Chronicles.  I believe Yepez will get traded before the deadline.  Nothing personal against him as he is a great guy in person, but I hope he does not turn into an Adolis Garcia or Randy Arozarena type player after he leaves St. Louis.