Seeing Some Red

As a Cardinals fan, you might expect my favorite color to be red. Surprisingly, it’s actually blue. My mom’s favorite color is blue, so I suppose that’s where I got it from. However, red would definitely be in my top three favorites.  It is number one when it comes to baseball cards.  TCDB member GoldenEagle555 recently sent a nice pwe filled with some red cards.

Red border, red helmet, red sleeves, red socks, red shoes.  Hard to get much more red on this 2013 Topps Update red parallel.

Quite a bit of red on these 1989 Star cards.  Even the print on the back is red.  

The red on this 2015 Elite Extra Edition insert is not as prominent but still very noticeable.  I like the Dominican flag featured on the front.  

The last two cards do not have much red but are my two favorites of the trade.  The Brock short print finished my 2024 A&G team set.  The Ozzie Prizm card looks great in person with the blue border and red outline.  Plus, Panini did not have to airbrush much on his uniform or helmet.  

    

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #110

Hard to believe that in a little over three weeks, MLB games will count.  The weather is getting warmer here, so it feels like baseball season.  My son had his first official high school baseball practice yesterday.  Daylight Savings Time is coming this weekend.  All signs point to spring.  Fingers crossed Mother Nature does not have a last round of winter coming.  

With better weather and more daylight, my trading will slow down somewhat.  I better take advantage while I can and knock out a few more trades so I have content for 2 for Tuesdays.  No worries about today, though.  First trade package came from member JustinBobo77.

Hard to tell that these are the framed blue parallel from 2022 Diamond Kings.  I guess you can call it a dark blue.

This blue is more like it.  Royal blue, in fact.  The Burleson is a green foilboard numbered to 499.

The second trade came from member Jquirp001.

My third shade of blue is holofoil from 2024 Topps Update.  This one is numbered to 999.

Changing colors to a nice 2021 Mosaic vintage green Lou Brock.  The stained glass background looks great.

From all reports, Arenado's swing looks better this spring.  I still doubt he has a long term future in St. Louis, but I will root for him while he is here.  

  
      

No Need to Bust 2025 Topps

It took me all of two trades to finish my 2025 Topps series 1 team set.   That was more economical than busting a few packs.  I would guess postage and the few cards I traded cost me less than $5.  I will gladly go the trade route any day.  It is not as exciting as opening packs, but I do get a small thrill of opening the mailbox to find a trade package like the one from TCDB member SMSiegell that arrived on Saturday.

To my knowledge, Winn is the only card with the rookie cup logo in the upper left corner instead of the lower left.  It looks very out of place at the top.

Moving from the current shortstop to a former one, here is a great looking Ozzie Smith from 2024 Topps silver packs.  Kudos to Topps for using a photo I do not recall seeing before.

The final three cards are of 2023 first-round pick Chase Davis. Davis should start the season in Double A for a few months and have a good chance of moving up to Triple A before the end of the year.  He profiles to be a corner outfielder with power.    

  
    

HOF for Cardinals Greats

TCDB member PIANELLI and I have traded for quite a few years as members of Trading Bases.  Pete P. collects cards of Hall of Famers and soon to be Hall of Famers.  He had a few Cardinals duplicates to trade for a handful of HOF cards I had.  

Nice start with 2 Cardinals legends, including a Brock numbered to 200.

Albert Pujols is the only player besides Ray Lankford of whom I have over 1,000 different cards.  Always happy to add more.

I have 3 versions of the Elite Teams card now.  I am a fan of multiplayer cards from the same team.  Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds were nicknamed MV3 after the 2004 season.  Each of them finished in the top 5 voting for MVP that year.      
  

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #109

The Cardinals managed to win their first spring training game yesterday.  I listened to most of it while I was at work.  It is nice to have baseball back, even if it does not count.  Sure does help pass the time.  When I get home at night, I listen to podcasts or YouTube videos about the game while scanning cards and filing them away.  It did not take very long last night to scan the seven cards from today's two recaps.  The first trio of cards came from member abide.  

I do not remember the 2005 UD Mini Jersey Collection set at all.  Not a bad design, just one of those sets that does not stand out.

I am a big fan of the Gold Sparkle parallel.  Not sure why Topps only used it for the 2012 season.

The second trade came from member mlemois.

I will never turn down Chrome refractors, even if they are of players who are not with the Cardinals anymore.  Fermin is still on the roster, but will most likely be headed to Triple A or be released.  Rom was hurt most of last year and is still hurt this spring.  Pham has moved on to the Pirates after a short stint with the Cardinals last year.

This guy is still a Cardinal.  For how much longer, who knows.  A few websites reported the Astros were still interested, but if Areando vetoed the first trade, why would he agree to the second.  At this point I am guessing he will be around until the trade deadline.

      

Start of 2025 Team Set

After I won my first 2025 card on EBAY, I started searching TCDB for members with 2025 Cardinals for trade.  There are 11 Cardinals in the base set.  I was hoping to find someone with a good chunk of them.  I did in member Balzer.  We worked out a great trade with over 80 set fillers headed his way for 22 cards coming back to me.

Getting 8 of the 11 base cards in one trade is great.  I echo the thoughts of several collectors who do not like the foil on the base cards.  The design itself is ok.  I am not a fan of the close-up photos.  

  
My first 2025 inserts are of two guys I did not think would be with the team back in November.

2023 Platinum anniversary parallels look great.  The top three are prism refractors.  The bottom included a blue prism and a regular refractor.

The other two inserts came from 2024 Topps Pro Debut.  Maybe I will get to see these guys play in Peoria this year.

I have never heard of Mark Williams before.  This is my first and most likely only card of him.  Glad it completed my 1993 Stadium Club Murphy set.  

My son added four nice Atluves to his collection.  He might reach 800 before the season starts.  14 more to go.

  

  

First 2025 Topps Card

I have not opened any 2025 Topps packs.  I cannot even tell you if my local Walmart has them in stock.  The store is currently going through a remodel and everything has been moved around.  It is a mess trying to do the grocery shopping.  I have also resisted the urge to join any group breaks.  It appears the odds of pulling an insert or parallel are not the greatest this year.  Over production looks to be the blame.  I will stick to trades, EBAY, and shows to get my 2025 Cardinals.  The first arrived from EBAY earlier this week.

Scott played in the Rickwood game as a defensive replacement.  After meeting him twice in January, this was a must have.  I may consider going after all the Cardinals in the set.  Other than Masyn Winn, the rest of the cards should not be very expensive once the newness wears off.  
  

Large Cardinals for Cardinals Trade

Usually, when I make a larger Cardinals for Cardinals trade, it is with TCDB members timriess or madding (aka Kerry from Cards on Cards).  A couple of weeks ago, I saw a post on The Bench website from a member who had not been active for a few years wanting to catch up on his Cardinals team sets.  Member bigwallastlye and I completed one of my largest trades in a long time.  I sent him over 100 duplicates in exchange for close to 60 new Cardinals.  Most of the cards I sent him were base cards from 2015 to 2024.  He sent me a great lot of inserts and premium base cards.      

I will show the cards in chronological order, starting with a 1999 Fleer Brillants blue parallel and 3 2000 Topps Tek cards.  There are 20 different patterns to chase from the 2000 set.  A far cry from the 81 in 1998.

Two Hall of Famers from 2002 Topps Tribute and a short print from 2002 Donruss Classics numbered to 1500.

4 cards from 2003 Topps Pristine.  The Haren is numbered to 1499.

Jumping to 2004 with a Lou Brock Showdown card and a Topps Traded gold parallel.  I love the Loui Brock photo.  The bottom three are base cards from 2005.

2007 includes 2 more gold parallels, a couple of refractors, and a Triple Threads sepia parallel numbered to 525.  

2009 had the most cards with 8.  The three Triple Threads cards are numbered to 1350.  Nice looking cards, but the Musial Tribute really stands out.

2011 Triple Threads are numbered to 1500.  The Gibson Tier One is numbered to 799, while the 2010 Triple Threads emerald parallel is numbered to 240.

2012 Chrome Xfractors do not scan the best.  The Wainwright mini is a straight cut back parallel.  

2014 Topps Chrome refractors are not noted on the back, but the scans show them off well.  The Prizm camo parallels scan well also.

If you look closely, you can tell these 2015 Topps Chrome refractors are the prism variety.  

Finishing up with two Wacha cards from 2016.  I have all 3 Stadium Club Triumvirate Luminous cards now.  I plan to scan them together when I file the Wacha away.

I also received 12 2007 Topps Cardinals from the team set.  They look identical to the regular Topps, so I did not scan them.  Only difference is the team set is numbered STL1-14.  Overall  I was thrilled with the trade.  I gained a lot of sweet cards and reduced the clutter in my duplicate box.  

  

It Pays to Give

I have been a blood donor for over 30 years.  Most of my immediate family are, too, so it was natural for me to also give.  I have given over 18 gallons of blood in my lifetime.  Depending on your type of donation, it only takes about an hour every three months.  That small amount of time can make a big difference in someone else's life.  I highly encourage anyone to donate, or at least try to donate when possible.

So, what does donating blood have to do with baseball cards.  A few years ago, the American Red Cross started rewarding donors for giving blood by sending them an e-gift card for $10.  If you donate every time you are eligible, that is $60 per year.  I usually redeem mine for restaurant cards, but last month I chose to redeem $20 on an EBAY gift card.  After much surfing, I settled on three cards.

This is the last card I needed to finish the 1999 Fleer Tradition Musial ten-card set.  I am glad to finally finish this one.

This shortprint finishes my 1971 Topps team set. It is off-center from left to right, but not quite as bad as my scanner made it appear to be.  I have been looking for this one at card shows for a couple of years with no luck.  

Last but not least is this 2000 Paramount Holo Green Lankford card numbered to 99.  Usually, I save Lankford cards for their own post.  My want list showed I needed this card, but when I put the card away in my binders, I discovered I made a mistake.  I mistook this card for the Paramount Platinum Blue, numbered 67.  Now I have two Holo Green cards and need the Platinum Blue.  This one will have a new home quickly.      
   
  
             

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #108

The two trade recaps today feature 11 cards, five of which belong to my son.  I did not have much luck finding Altuve cards he needed at the recent card shows, so it was nice TCDB member Calyanksfan had a handful he needed.

This is a nice assortment of premium cards, inserts, and parallels.  My son liked the Iconic insert the best.

I added a couple of base cards and a nice pink refractor.  I guess I may have another year of Arenado Cardinals cards to chase.  He reported to spring training on Sunday and is ready to go. Maybe if he has a good first half some team will want him at the deadline.

The second trade came from member robglessner.

I finally finished the 2023 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary team set.  After adding the Brian Jordan card, I need the Ozzie Smith to finish the 1995 Upper Deck Special Edition.    

  
 

3 Weeks in a Row

Saturday, I did something I had never been able to do since I started collecting baseball cards about 40 years ago.  I attended a card show for the third straight week.  I did not plan on this happening.  For the first show, I traveled about 40 minutes.  It was the only one I planned to attend.  The second show happened to take place on parent's weekend in the city where my daughter attends college.  That was about a 1.5 hour drive.  Perfect timing.  The third show was about 2 hours away in Champaign, IL.  My wife and I had tickets to the Illini basketball game Saturday night.  As luck would have it, there was a small 50-table show in town.  

I spent a combined $30 at the first two shows, so I still had plenty of money left in my monthly card budget for show number three.  I only had about 45 minutes of free time to take a quick lap around the show.  I bought cards from two different dealers.  The first one had a couple of boxes of recent cards that were not marked.  Usually, I do not like to buy from dealers who do not price cards, but he made two sales while I was looking through the boxes, which seemed fair, so I pulled out a small stack of Cardinals.

He had a lot of 2024 Prizm cards, which included many parallels.  The top row are base cards, while the bottom Chase Davis cards include a silver prism and a pulsar prizm numbered to 499.

I found some 2023 Select Cardinals I needed.

The boxes were loaded with 2024 Panini inserts.  As much as I love Ozzie, the Cho Crusade is the best card in this bunch.

The dealer did not have very many Topps brands.  I did manage to find these purple refractors from the 2022 Chrome Update.  I also pulled four refractors from 2024 Bowman's Best for trade bait that included Judge, Soto, and Freeman.  My total was $10.

The second dealer was an older husband and wife team that had two display cases of cards from the 1950s and 1960s.  Most were in near-mint shape and ungraded.  It is getting harder to find nice vintage that is not graded.  This gentleman collected Cardinal vintage sets and was selling off his duplicates.  He had quite a few I needed, but I settled on four for $67.

1958 was the first year Musial had a Topps card.  Besides being off-center from top to bottom, this one is in perfect condition.

I also added 1962 and 1959 Musial highlight cards.  Both in great shape.

Finishing up with a 1965 Topps Bob Gibson highlights card.  This one would easily grade an 8 or higher.  I exchanged contact information with this dealer and hope to work more deals out with him in the future.  Show number three was by far the best.