A Few of the Many From Kerry

2 weeks ago, I received a very nice package from my favorite Cardinals blogger, Kerry .  We completed a large TCDB trade involving 35 Cardinals going in each direction.  Although my stats show this was our fifth trade on the site, there have been quite a few more.  We help each other out by exchanging duplicates.  

Kerry is a great source of cards for my in-person autographing needs.  I often look at his Cardinals trade list when picking out a card to have autographed.  I always like to keep a copy unsigned for my collection.  Of the 35 cards I received, 28 of them were replacements.  Here are the 7 cards new to my collection.

This is my favorite of the bunch.  2011 Topps Cognac Diamond Anniversary parallels have a great design.  They have more of a gold finish in person instead of the bronze look my scanner gave this card.

Despite his down 2024 season, I am still an Arenado fan.  He may not be the same 35 home run, 120 RBI guy, but I think 25 and 100 would still be in reach.  

It is hard to tell from the scan, but the Lester is Metallic parallel.  This is Goldy #345 in my collection.  Not sure I will reach the 400 mark with his unsure future this offseason.  He is another guy I would not mind having back, but it would have to be at a reduced rate.  

The Panini portion of the package features a nice Wainwright Prizm and one of the many brands from 2022 Panini Chronicles.  Recon is not a bad design.  The photo choice helped to hide the lack of logos.  

  

          

Card Shop Quarters

I spent yesterday afternoon scanning the remaining cards on my desk and filing them away in my team boxes.  Every time I accomplish this feat, it is bittersweet.  I love being able to say I am all caught up, but I do not like the fact I do not have any trades coming in.  

When I was filing cards away, I realized I had a stack of cards I had forgotten about.  On September 1, my son and I had the chance to visit a new card shop.  My wife and daughter wanted to shop, so we found a shop a few miles from the mall.  The shop was well organized, with showcases organized by sport.  Vintage and modern cards were also separated.  I did not spend much time looking at those, but I did notice a stack of 5000 count boxes.  The owner informed us everything was a quarter, and they were all organized by sport.  That was music to my ears.  We spent close to an hour going through 4 of the boxes.  We pulled 20 cards, most of which were former Cardinals.

There was almost a full box of Donruss parallels.  Not very many that I needed, though.

 

There were quite a few other Panini parallels.  The Mosaic red Edman is a great looking card.

We managed to find a few needs for a small run of Topps Chrome refractors.

A few Topps parallels, including the only current Cardinal Goldschmidt.  

My favorite card was this 1997 Flair Showcase.  I found a few older premium cards from Showcase, Upper Deck Encore, and SP Legendary Cuts, but only this Young that I needed.

The $5 we spent was cheap entertainment for an hour.  We will most likely visit again, as the shop is in the same town as my daughter's college.  

 

  

Shiny Trade

Happy Friday!  Only a few games left in the season for the Cardinals.  They will be eliminated from the wild card with their next loss or a Mets win.  At this point, I prefer that they finish as badly as possible to get a better draft pick.  It does not matter if they finish third or last.  

I plan on listening to the game tonight while I file away some recent trades.  Some of the cards are from today's recap of a trade from TCDB member Sandycoach.

I am slowly plugging away at my 2024 Topps Chrome team set.  4 more to add before this set is complete.

My 2023 Platinum Anniversary team set is a lot farther behind.  I need another 10 cards for this one.

This card makes 785 Ozzie cards in my collection.  I thought I would be closer to 1,000 with as many cards as Topps and Panini put out every year.  I will have to make one of my 2025 resolutions to reach at least 850.    

         

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #91

My trading picked up last week, as I completed four trades on TCDB.  I'm not sure I will have time to scan them all this week, but I will get my customary two small ones out of the way today.  First up are a couple of cards from user JEGoethe.  He also sent a few 2019 Topps Busch Stadium cards I use for autographs, but I have already shown them off plenty of times. 

This is the last non-variation I needed for my 2023 Stadium Club team set.  Flaherty has pitched well for the Dodgers except for his last start.  It will be interesting to see where he signs this winter.

This card shows what a crazy team collector I am.  I am not a big fan of mini cards, and I am even a lesser fan of Heyward.  After being traded, he only spent one season in St. Louis, then left in free agency to sign with the Cubs.  No explanation needed.

The second trade came from member williams3b.

The 1993 Stadium Club Murphy set consists of draft picks and players who made the 1992 All-Star Game. Despite a third-place finish that year, the Cardinals sent four players to the All-Star Game: the three players pictured in the top row along with Ozzie Smith.

That is an extreme close-up of Luis Ordaz on his 1997 Bowman International parallel.  This is another parallel set that I will struggle to finish, just like Topps Gold and Ultra Gold Medallion.    
    

      

2 EBAY Pickups including 15th New Lankford of 2024

Last week was a big EBAY week for me, but not in terms of items bought, as I only made two purchases.  I bought 2 cards, one being a Topps Now card from a game I attended earlier this year, the second a new Ray Lankford card.

I will be the first to admit I am not a Topps Now fan. It seems like another money grab. If they are cheap, I will buy one from the games I attended.  Goldschmidt hit a walk-off home run on July 28 this year.  For less than $5, I thought this was a good buy.  

My newest Lankford card is another autograph from 2023 Panini Flawless.  This is my fourth version of this card.  I still need two more, one numbered to 5 and the 1 of 1.  It was ironic this card was delivered on Saturday, as the back of the card celebrates Lankford hitting for the cycle on September 15, 1991.    
      
  

Topps Hobby Rip Night

Starting yesterday, my next five Saturdays will consist of driving my son back and forth between soccer and band competitions.  It is amazing there are no time conflicts yet, but we still do not know the schedule for the last weekend.  Yesterday the two locations were two hours apart.  After winning his game 5-0 in the morning, we made the drive north.  He arrived 1.5 hours before the band performed, so my wife and I had time to drive another 20 minutes to a card shop.

We had been to this shop back in August  on National Trading Card Day.  This time it was Topps Hobby Rip Night.  This day also involved customers receiving a free pack of cards.  My wife opened hers first and did pretty well.

Always nice to pull a Pujols card I do not have.  The Holliday is a red or orange parallel.  Not sure the odds on pulling one, but it is a nice color match.

My pack was not as good, but still some nice cards.

The Jeter already has a home, while the Will should not be very hard to trade.  Everything in the shop was 10% off.  I passed on all the wax packs and dug through 2 $1 boxes to find 4 cards.

I have the Goldschmidt card, but I was not going to pass up a photo variation for less than $1.  I did need the Crooks sapphire card.

There was a small stack of 2024 Chrome refractors.  I pulled the Williams for another trader on TCDB, while the Butler was an impulse buy.  The A's are not doing well, but Butler is quietly having a good season.  The raywave cards look cool in person.  

   

2024 American Cancer Society Day At Busch Stadium #2

The second ACS day at Busch was this past Sunday.  It followed the same format as the first one, with autographs before the game being the main draw.  The pregame crowd was larger this time, but we were still able to get most of the autographs we wanted.

While my wife held our place in another line, my son and I got 2 other players.  Fermin has not played much this year, nor does he have much of a future with the Cardinals, but he is someone I do not have an autograph from.  He has several certified autographs this year that I also need to get a copy of.

Politte was at the same table as Fermin.  I have gotten his autograph a few other times, but not on these.  He liked the SP Top Prospect card.  

We joined our wife in the Victor Scott line next.  His line was by far the longest.  He had not seen the 2024 Pristine card yet.  I was lucky to find an EBAY seller with one for sale a couple hours north of me.  He also commented on the Peoria card and wanted to know if we had his bobblehead from there ( I do).

I was a little selfish and double-dipped Scott. Although autographs are advertised as one per person, I saw numerous people in front of us getting two or three cards signed.  This ball turned out great.

Former reliever Mike Crudale was our next autograph.  We had wanted to get in the Luken Baker and Al Hrabosky line first, but I do not think we would have made it to the front before time was up.  That is ok, as I have not gotten Crudale before.

I have lost track of how many times we have met John Costello.  It must be at the last five or six.  I am running out of different cards for him to sign.

Kyle Leahy was scheduled to sign, but he was demoted to Triple A on Saturday.  His replacement, Chris Roycroft, signed instead.  He signed a Busch Stadium card for me on the other ACS day, so he signed one of the generic postcards that was available on the tables. 

The game itself was a stinker.  Miles Mikolas gave up 7 runs in 2 innings, making it difficult for the Cardinals to come back.  We left after the 8th inning to beat some traffic.  Final score was 10-4 in favor of the Mariners.  The highlight for me was watching Julio Rodriguez interact with the crowd in between innings.  He would also throw a ball into the stands after warming up but made the crowd work for it.     
    

    

       

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #90

It has been a slow trading week.  My spare time is limited, thanks to my son's high school soccer season being in full swing.  On game nights, it is 8:00 or after before we get home.  After dinner and other chores, I am not interested in looking at cards.  It is usually the couch and a ball game before bedtime.  

The trades I do finish are on the small side.  The two I have today have a total of five cards.  First up is a two pack from member pinfit.

McGwire has hundreds of cards that I do not have.  I do not have many on my want list, but I will gladly take any offered that I do not have.  These two give me a total of 804 different ones.  The 1998 Pinnacle Plus die cut is a great-looking card in person.  The card is not nearly as dark as the scan, and the wavy right border is cool.

The last 3 cards came from member coachspike.  

My 2024 Donruss team set is now complete.  Something is fulfilling about crossing a set off my list.  

2024 Topps Chrome cards do not scan well, either.  The black border gives the card a dark look.  It will be interesting to see if the Cardinals offer Goldschmidt a contract this winter.  He will be a free agent at the age of 37.  If he has a good last month, I can see the Cardinals giving him a 2 year contract.  Both sides have mentioned a preference for him to retire in St. Louis.  I just hope they do not spend too much money on him that could be used for some pitching help.

  
  
    

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #89

I had to remind myself last night that today is Tuesday.  Those long holiday weekends can make you forget the day of the week.  Good thing I have a calendar by my scanner.  Only six cards to show off today from the two trades last week.  First trio came from member plevin.

Topps Flagship Collection has a nice clean design.  I like it better than the flagship design.  The lack of borders makes the image stand out.

The second Sonny Gray of the package was a nice blue 1989 parallel.  Gray has been a really good pitcher this year when he can keep the ball in the park.  After only giving up 8 home runs in 2023, he already has served up 21 this year.  That is the main reason his ERA is over a run higher.

The second trade came from member DThiry.

The dark borders from flagship look even darker on Chrome.  At least Topps included Scott in the set after he was not in Series 1 or 2.  

With 31 games left this season, Arenado has 15 home runs.  For a guy that averaged over 30 his first 11 years, that is quite a drop off.