Celebrating Opening Day with 7th New Lankford of 2024

Happy Opening Day!  It has been a long time since the Cardinals played in a game that mattered.  I do not have very high expectations for the opening series.  I think the Dodgers will win 3 of 4, but hopefully, the games are competitive.

What better way to ring in Opening Day than to show off my newest Ray Lankford card.

This beauty arrived yesterday.  Only took 3 days to get here after winning the EBAY auction.  This is the emerald parallel, which looks a lot more green in person.  I actually got this one a little cheaper than the one numbered  1/5.  
    

Astros for Cardinals

I had a nice team trade recently with TCDB member jc645.  I sent him a pwe full of Astros in exchange for some Cardinals.  I was a little surprised he did not have any duplicate Altuve cards my son needed, but at least he took some duplicates we had.  

My Topps Gold quest continues with a pair of former Cardinals.  Maybe one of these sets will be my first completed Gold team set.  I need 5 more to complete each one.

I am starting to get a few 2024 inserts in.  This is one of the more common ones.  I bet I would receive 4 to 5 matches per day on TCDB, with members adding it to their trade list.

This member was gracious enough to counter my initial trade offer to include these numbered cards.  Neither is a big name, but I will gladly add cards numbered to 25 and 10.  The Kim Topps Total is a nice color match.

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #72

 After I skipped last Tuesday, I am back with the final 2 for Tuesday before the regular season starts.  Today will be pretty quick with 2 3 card pwe trades.  First came from member BubbaV304.

You are probably getting tired of seeing these 2001 HTA cards in the last couple of weeks. 30 down with 6 more to go.  No trades in the works for them yet.  

Second trade came from member nozzlemaster.    

I have also shown a few 1989 ProCards off recently.  That set is almost done, with only 3 more to go out of 28.  The 1990 CMC card finished the 33 card team set.     

Card Show Recap

Unlike the last card show I attended, I am not waiting almost a month to recap the one my son and I attended this past Saturday.  This one was only a 45 minute drive.  Free admission and 80 tables is hard to beat.  We knew it was going to be a good show when the first dealer we saw had 5 5,000 count boxes full of dime cards.  About an hour later, we pulled 65 cards that cost us $6.  Small discount without even asking is a great way to start.  

We managed to find a few Cardinals we needed.  

2014 mini blue refractors numbered to 250

3 online exclusive 582 Montgomery cards.  Wish there were more of these.

Some miscellaneous inserts and parallels were too hard to pass up for a dime each.

It is rare for me to show off Cub cards or even buy them, but the Grace 1996 Ultra Gold Medallion Prime Leather is cool card.  These will be easy to trade with my new TCDB Cub collector.

The rest of the dime cards consisted of Pirates and Yankees for trading friend Ron B, and about 25 assorted Topps Gold parallels from 2014-2020.  No big names, but once again, these are great values for 10 cents each.

The next dealer had a little bit of everything at his table, including some low-grade vintage.  This 1965 Topps card was marked at $5.  Once again, without even asking for a discount, the dealer sold it for $3.  The corners are rough, and there is a slight crease in one of them, but how can I pass up a Mays card for that price.

Our third buy was 3 cards for $1.  The Cruz variation caught my eye first.  

The next dealer had 2 boxes full of Cardinals separated by player.  Most were common cards, but I did find a Wainright regional card I needed along with 2 Busch Stadium cards I use for in person autographs.  These were $1 total.  Had a nice conversation with this dealer and found out he is a member of TCDB also.

The next dealer had several boxes full of inserts sorted by teams.  Great setup, except nothing was priced.  I am always hesitant to pull any card that is not marked, but he had some Altuves my son needed and a couple of Pirates, so we made a deal for $10.  Not a horrible deal, just not as good as some others.  

The last dealer we bought from was all ungraded vintage.  My kind of guy.  These 3 1959 cards and 2 1960 cards were marked $3 each, but he cut us a deal for $10.  All are in excellent condition.  I consider the Cimoli a Cardinals card even though it lists him as a Pirate.

Overall it was a great show.  About 2.5 hours and $31 spent was a good morning.  This is a quarterly show that I will be sure to hit up in late June again.  

 

  

Big Chunk from 2001

 Last week, I wrote a post showing off some 2001 Topps HTA cards, the first in my collection.  I added the rest of the Cardinals to my want list after that trade.  TCDB member Jaysredlegs proposed a trade shortly after, which brought me quite a few more.

13 more to be exact.  2 trades have brought in 26 of the 36 Cardinals in the set, with a few more on there way.  There is not a Pujols card in this set, so I should be able to finish this one sometime this year.

It is rare to trade for a 1990s parallel I need like this 1999 Fleer Tradition Warning Track card.  I doubt dealers will have 20 year old cards in dime boxes at shows, so Sportlots may be the answer to finishing this set.

Nice to grab a short print from 2005 Turkey Red.  Now to find the Pujols short print to complete the set.

The final 2 cards included another short print, this one from 1999 Ultimate Victory.  I remember going to card shows in 2000 and 2001 with my wife hunting Drew cards.  She had a major crush on him until we met him at a show.  He signed a ball for her and never looked up or said a word.  Just rolled in across the table.  At the same show, I paid $25 less to meet Stan Musial.  Stan shook my hand, asked where I was from, and thanked me for coming.  I still have both balls, though 1 never gets looked at.

  
  
      

Fifth and Sixth Lankfords of 2024

It is rare for me to receive 2 new Lankfords cards in the mail on the same day, but Saturday was my lucky day.  2 EBAY packages arrived with 2 new Flawless cards.

This one goes well with the Ruby version I have that is also number 2 of the print run.
  

This is my first version of the Achievements card.  Great idea to tie a card to a specific game.  Hope to add more versions of each card soon.    

Overdue Card Show Recap

Usually, when I attend a card show over the weekend, I try to post the recap early the following week.  That was not the case after my son and I attended a show on February 10th.  It took a few days to sort the cards, and then I set them aside when getting to incoming trades.  A month went by, and the cards were still on my desk waiting to be scanned.  Thanks to the rain last night, I finally scanned them and filed them away.

This show was advertised as 200 tables.  That was accurate, but a good 20-30 of them were Pokemon only.  I have no problem with that, other than the fact those tables were scattered throughout the show floor.  It would make more sense to have them in one area.  I was on the hunt for ungraded vintage Cardinals and bargain boxes.  The vintage was either graded or priced too high for my taste.  The bargain boxes were ok.  Most were $1, but I did happen to find a dime box in the last row.  Wish I found it sooner.  It was loaded with nice inserts and some parallels.  I spent a total of $12 at the show, $10 with the dime box dealer.  I will spare you the trade bait scans.  A decent chunk of it has already been traded, anyway.     

These 2018 A&G cards are the glossy hot box parallels, my first from that set.

Not too many refractors in the box, but I managed to find a couple of 2022 Topps Chrome Cardinals I needed.

There were several different colored parallels across several brands.  The orange Big League is a great-looking card.

Not too many numbered cards in the dime box.  I did find a Gold Label numbered to 500 and a 2002 Donruss Best of Fan Club insert numbered to 300.

Pair of horizontal cards.  Love the Arenado card.

Hard to go wrong with a couple of legends for a dime each.  I have never seen the 1992 RBI Magazine Ozzie before.

This 2021 Finest Carlson is the design variation.  Not really rare, but still a cool dime card.  

  

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #71

Good thing I received 2 trades in the mail yesterday.  Otherwise, I would only have 1 package to show off for today's post, which would be completely wrong.  It is 2 for Tuesday after all.  First up is a 3 pack of cards from member bklassen52.

I have been getting quite a few of these 1989 ProCards lately. It is strange how sometimes a set does not get hit forever, and then you get flooded with them. It was weird to see a minor league card of Power after he had played in the majors for several years.

The second trade envelope came from member Miabert1.  He managed to send 14 cards safely in a pwe.  

13 of the cards were from the 2001 Topps Home Team Advantage set, which is a great start to the 36-card team set.  I miss the days when a team card showed the entire roster.  

The final card is from the 1995 Stadium Club Super Team World Series set.  That is a mouthful of a set name.  

    
  

Second of Two

My second trade package from TCDB member bdhrbob, aka Trading Bases member Bob J, contained a few more Cardinals than the first but a lot more value.  Bob did all the leg work on the trade.  He found Cardinals I needed and enough Cubs and trade bait to complete the deal.

I was thrilled to mark the 2002 Topps Traded Chuck Finley off my want list, completing a team set in the process.  This short print has eluded me for a long time.  The Chrome Traded cards have the typical curve in them like other sets from that time frame.  Hopefully, some time in a top loader will help.

Somehow, I have overlooked the 2004 Sweet Spot Classic set until now.  Great start to the team set with 2 Hall of Famers.

Our first trade contained a 2003 Bowman's Best Bo Hart.  This one included 3 numbered cards.  The blue BB numbered to 100 is a sweet looking card.

Yet another Hart card was among the refractors in the package.

3 gold refractors included 2 from 2004 Topps and 1 from 2003 Bowman Chrome numbered to 170.  It was encased in a Topps one touch, but I cannot stand those, so it is now free.  

3 inserts of pitchers included a blue press proof numbered to 100 and a great looking 2003 Ultra Gold Medallion die cut.

Last but not least are 4 Topps Chrome autographs.  The black Greene is numbered to 200.  Greene and Hawksworth played a few games for St. Louis, while McCormick spent 4 seasons in the minor leagues before calling it a career.  

I highly recommend trading with Bob if you are active on TCDB.  Great guy who is very easy to work with. 

  
  

  

  

First of Two

Late last month I was using the trade matching feature on TCDB to find someone to take some Cubs cards off my hands.  I bought quite a few numbered Bowman cards at a show last year for a dime each, but have not found any takers for them until now.  Member bdhrbob also happens to be a member of Trading Bases.  We worked out a nice Cardinals for Cubs swap that each of us received a week ago.  Since then, we worked out an even larger trade over the weekend that arrived yesterday.  I will showcase that one next week.  Today you get the cards from the smaller first trade.  

These 3 2002 Topps Pristine cards started the trade.  A simple yet flashy design with the logo in the background.

A trio of other team set needs from 2000 Pacific Revolution, 2003 Bowman's Best, and 2023 Stadium Club.  

2 different foil cards, though the 2016 Rosenthal is hard to tell from the scan.

A trio of 2023 inserts with a winter theme.  Metallic snowflake, ice foil, and Carolina blue.  

2 numbered inserts.  Although the 2017 Topps Fire Orange Diaz numbered to 299 is nice, the 2017 Topps Update red is an awesome card showing Motte and Molina moments after the final out of the 2011 World Series.

Finishing up with 2 Stan the Man cards.  The 2023 Topps Update MVP medallion is a very thick card.  

  

Pair of 4s

Catching up on finishing some 2023 team sets with today's recap of a trade with TCDB member BristolBob.  

I hope Topps does a better job of getting 2024 Stadium Club released on time this year.  At least the great photography makes it somewhat worth the wait.  Nice to see them use a new photo for Hornsby.  The Gibson photo has been used numerous times.

My first 2023 Bowman Draft Chrome cards contained 4 of the 5 Cardinals in the set.  Of course I would be missing last year's #1 draft pick Chase Davis.  I worked out a trade at the end of January for the paper version of all 5, but that trader looks to have skipped town.   Will not answer any messages from me or anyone from TCDB.  This would be my first time being ripped off on the sight.  Guess it happens to everyone once in a while.