TCDB 2 for Tuesday #56

With today's 2 for Tuesday post, I am finally caught up with trade posts.  I do have a couple of trades incoming along with some EBAY wins, but for now my scan desk is empty.  Wish I could say the same for the stack of cards that need to be filed away.  That stack has close to 300 cards sitting there.  Today's first envelope is from member DukeyDevil.

This one had a Panini flare to it with 3 inserts.  Not much airbrushing needed except for the Goldschmidt.

This 1976 SSPC is not a Cardinals card on front, but Lee Richard is listed as a Redbird on the back.  Guess that qualifies as a team card.

Second trade came from favorite trading partner timriess.  

I mentioned before my 2023 Donruss set was complete.  Forgot these 2 needed to be scanned.  How could I forget these 2 rookies?

A couple of Bowman 1st Edition cards from 2022.  Crooks is from Bowman Draft, Baez the regular set.

A 4 pack of Topps brand inserts.  May have to try the Goldschmidt home run challenge before the season ends.  Hard to tell if he will play the remaining 6 games or not.

EBAY Lot

My EBAY spending has gone up quite a bit this month.  Most of the items I have won are single cards that have not arrived yet.  The lone exception was a nice Cardinals lot I won for about $8 that arrived late last week.  

The lot was made up of 2022 and 2023 cards, some base and some inserts.  These are my first 2023 Finest cards, including a nice Pujols insert.

Some refractors from 2023 Topps Chrome.  I also received a handful of base cards I already had.

A nice Musial base and 2 more sweet refractors from 2022 Stadium Club Chrome.  I also received some base from this set that I already had.

2 more Pujols cards including a 2023 Topps Tribute to go along with a Arenado blue parallel insert from 2023 Topps.  Very pleased with getting 5 new Pujols cards and a couple of Jordan Walker cards for less than $1 each.  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #55

 A big congratulations to Adam Wainwright for finally getting win #200 last night.  Great effort against the first place Brewers throwing 7 innings of shutout baseball.  Wish I had a card of his to show off from today's 2 trades, but no dice.  Maybe next week I can if he wins #201.  I do have quite a few other pitchers to show off.  First is a small package from member Jdogbarkn2.

This 1996 gold medallion was not part of the original trade, but the member sent 1 wrong card and replaced it with this.  Glad there are some honest traders out there.  Mathews was an average reliever who is most famous for being part of the Mark McGwire trade.

I only need the Albert Pujols card to finish my 2003 Bowman Chrome set after adding these 2.  Johnson and Duncan both contributed to the 2006 World Series team. 

I did get this cool 2003 Fleer Pepsi mini Pujols card.  First time ever seeing this one.

Second trade package came from member hatchetman1367.

Hence pitched the Double A Springfield Cardinals into the playoffs earlier this week.  If he stays healthy, he should see some bullpen time in St. Louis next year.  Walsh had a break stint in the bullpen last year before getting released this year.

Two of my favorite Bowman Chrome cards are the Top 100 set and the Mojo refractors.  

Another favorite brand is Finest Flashbacks.  The 1995 design used for the 2022 release is a little dark, but still a great looking set.  Weird seeing Carpenter in a Cardinals uniform.    

Another Rob B Package

In what is becoming almost a monthly post, I have more cards to show off from Trading Bases member Ron B.  This one arrived shortly after Labor Day.  The stack was so big I have been putting off scanning it.  I finally got around to it last night while I was listening to the Peoria Chiefs playoff game.  They lost game 2 and will play a winner take all game 3 tonight to determine who advances to the Midwest League Championship.  The great cards kept my spirits up despite the loss.

My 2023 Heritage set is now complete.  Always nice to cross off a set that contains short prints, even though the DeJong was the only Cardinals one in the set.  Pallante continues my 2022 Stadium Club Chrome set build.

My 2023 Donruss team set is also done.

It is hard to tell from the scan, but these are the gold signature parallel from 1994 Archives.  Never knew these existed.

Some nice color parallels including a sweet color match Woodford numbered to 100.

A little bit of color and some refractors from Topps Chrome.  

A handful of Panini brands.  I love the New Age insert from Capstone.  

A few miscellaneous inserts and a 1989 Khans Lou Brock.  The Gant 1998 Player's Private Issue is numbered to 250.  

Moving to the player lots, here are some nice Goldschmidts including a 2022 Chrome Xfractor.   That was a $40 card earlier this year.  

The 2 Flaherty cards on the right are numbered to 199.  The A&G Chrome would have looked very sweet in red instead of magenta.

It would be interesting to see how many Altuve cards Ron has sent my son out of the 676 in his collection.  Pretty sure it is over 50 of them including some rare ones like the 2021 Heritage Black limited to 50 copies.

    

Contest Winnings from Kerry

In Monday's post, I mentioned a large package I received from Kerry of Cards On Cards fame.  This one contained some free Cardinals for finishing 2nd in his yearly NCAA tournament pool.  Kerry sent a very nice mixture of cards my way, a lot more than I was expecting.

Up until now, the only Cardinals post cards I had in my collection were Ray Lankford.  This Ozzie Smith is from 1986.  

A couple of Topps Gallery rainbow foil cards including a second Smith card.

2 base cards and an insert from 2023 Prizm.  I like getting prospect cards, but Prizm is a brand I could do without.

It will be interesting to see what the Cardinals do with O'Neill this winter.  2024 will be his last year of arbitration before becoming a free agent.  I was betting he would have been traded this year if  he was healthy.

Nice mixture of Topps parallels, an online exclusive Arendao, and 2017 Archives Snapshots Edmonds that finished a team set.  

Do I already have a Motte autograph in my collection? Yes.  Do I already have relics of DeJongs and Edmonds?  Yes.  Do I still love getting autographs and relics cards I do not have?  You bet.  

A big thank you Kerry for the wonderful package.  

Nothing But Chrome

Today is officially Bowman Chrome release day, although some of the cards started showing up online last night.  While I love Chrome just as much as the next collector, I do not go overboard looking for the hot prospects.  I will eventually hunt down the base Cardinals and maybe the autographs from this year's set.  The autos are from a low A catcher and a Triple A pitcher.  Neither should cost over $5 after a few weeks.

I did get my Chrome fix with a recent trade from TCDB member Jahape1.  Not much of the Bowman Chrome variety, but still plenty of shiny cards.

My 2023 Topps Chrome set is now complete.  I thought the Walker RC would be harder to get, but thankfully it was not.

Stadium Club and Chrome go very well together.  Nothing better than great photos that shine.

I was disappointed to see Flaherty not getting a start during the Orioles series.   Would have been interesting to see him pitch against his former team.  On the bright side, Adam Wainwright finally won career game 199 last night.  He will have 3 chances to reach 200.  Fingers crossed it will happen.  

Walker soared up the prospect rankings in 1 year.  The 2022 Bowman Top 100 card had him at 87.  He moved up to 5 in the 2023 set.

    

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #54

I have several small trade packages sitting on my desk still waiting to be scanned.  That gives me plenty of material for the next few 2 for Tuesday posts.  Time to knock a couple out today with the first one from member Sandman1971.

Wish I had this card a few weeks ago.  Could have gotten in autographed, but Robinson does sign a lot so I will have other chances next year.  Always fun to add a minor league card to the collection like this 1997 Best.  

Hard to believe I have never heard of or seen this 1993 Donruss insert.  The back mentions  Ray Lankford leading the 1992 Cardinals with 20 home runs.  A lot of guys have that total before the All Star break now.

I do not scan the back of a card very often, but I wanted to show off the hologram of this 1998 Collector's Choice card.  Cards from Series 1 have 2 different versions.  The factory set has the diamond hologram seen on this card, while cards pulled from packs have a home plate hologram.

Second trade came from member BubbaV304.

A new week with another 1992 Topps Gold crossed off the list.  

Continuing with the gold theme of this trade are 3 cards from 2002 Ultra.  I am getting close to 800 different McGwire cards.  Not bad for not actively collecting his cards.

  

Blogger/TCDB/Cardinals Fans Swap

Last week I received a large package from Kerry B of Cards on Cards fame/ madding on TCDB / fellow Cardinals fan sharing in this year's misery.  This one was a prize package that I have not scanned yet.  It reminded me that I had not shown the cards from our trade about a month ago.  I believe I received them when my scanner was on the way out.  Not a good excuse, but nobody's perfect.

Walker and Winn are getting a lot of playing time right now.  Hopefully getting their feet wet now will translate to success in 2024.

Nootbaar is the only current outfielder that appears to have a starting job next year.  That could change with the Cardinals needing at least 3 starting pitchers and not much attractive trade bait on the big league roster.  

1996 Flair can be confusing with the 2 different versions.  Silver letter with a gold background, or gold lettering with a silver background.  It is very easy to mistake which one you have if you are in a hurry.

Last but not least is a 1990 CMC minor league card.  Green and yellow borders are not a great combination for a baseball card.  Works better for an NCAA football card of Kerry's Oregon Ducks.

     

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #53

Hope everyone enjoyed the Labor Day holiday yesterday.  I spent mine changing the brakes on my truck.  I was hoping to save some money on labor, which I did but wasted an extra 3 hours due to some bolts being stripped out.  Next time I will just take it to the garage.  I hoped to spend some time filing away cards, but that did not happen.  I did scan a few for this week's posts including 2 small trades from last week.  First up is a package from member ccook.

It has been almost a year since Bruce Sutter passed away.  Seems every year the Cardinals loss a Hall of Famer.  

Whitery Herzog appears to be going strong at age 92.  I know he is still doing public autograph appearances.  I have met him a couple of times in the past, but may try again before it is too late.  I love getting oddball cards like this 1987 Donruss Pop Up.

I marked the 1989 Classic set off my team list thanks to getting these 2 cards.  I remember that team not being very good, but they managed a 3rd place finish while being 10 games over .500.  A lot better than I can say for this year's team.  

Second trade consisted of 3 base cards from member Drdirt.

Not a lot of value, but I will gladly mark 3 cards off my needs list.  This was also a trade that I did not propose.  Most of the time I will gladly accept a trade when the other party goes to the trouble of putting it together.  Nice to see Hall of  Famer Frisch getting some cardboard love from Panini.