First Sportlots Order of 2025

While I have not been trading much lately, I have found time to fill in some holes in my collection another way.  I wish it was going to card shows, but I have not been able to hit any up since my run of three weeks in a row in early February.  I have gone the cheap router and placed a Sportlots order.  I buy cards from one seller, making sure to buy the maximum number of cards for $4.50-5.00 shipping.  

My latest order came from a seller who offered 35 cards for $4.50 shipping.  I lost count and ended up with 34.  The total for the lot was just over $13.00.

A large portion of the order was these 1984 Topps Nestle cards.  They are identical to base Topps except for the Nestle logo in the upper right corner.  

These are the two cards that started my order.  These completed my 1988 Fleer Glossy team set.

I also completed 1992 Score Traded team set.

Another completed team set from 2000 SP Top Prospects.  Love the early Ankiel card.

I could not pass up these oddball Baseball Wit cards.  I was surprised to see they had logos on the uniform.

These 2014 GQ minis included 2 photo variations, the Gibson and Musial.

The final two cards include a 2022 Stadium Club Chrome base card and a 2017 Topps Bunt blue parallel.  

Overall, I am pleased with the lot.  It was great to finish three team sets.  I also managed to stay in second place in the Cardinals team collector rankings on TCDB.  Kerry is going to overtake me very soon.  

  

      

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #113

It has been a week since my last post.  As I thought, my card time has decreased with the time change and the start of high school baseball.  Right now, I do not have any ongoing transactions on TCDB.  I do not have any cards incoming from any other trades.  I have a Sportlots order to show off in the next few days.  After that, the well is empty.  I did save two trade recaps for today's post.  The first pair of cards came from member TallestJord. 

I completed one team set and knocked another down to one with this trade.  Kline finished the 2002 Topps Total team set of 32 cards.  Eldred leaves me one shy of the 30-card team set from 2004.  Ironically, the card is also Steve Kline.

The second trade came from member George1369.

Who does not love black and white cards of players who played over 75 years ago.  These are from the 1984 Galasso Glossy Greats sets.

Nothing flashy about the Panini portion of the trade.  I am always happy to add another Pujols to the collection.

     

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #112

Even though I cannot stand the Dodgers or Cubs, I turned on the TV this morning while eating breakfast and watched the game.  It is still over a week before most other teams start, so I had to get my fix somehow.  I have been watching replays of the Cardinals' spring training games, but it is not the same as the regular season.  Although I am not expecting it to be a great season, I still cannot wait for things to get rolling.  At least I will always have some cards to serve as a distraction.

Today's first trade came from member bubbasbums.  

I always try to pick cards of Hall of Famers if the other trader has more cards for me than I do for him.  Hard to go wrong with Brock and Musial.

I also pick cards with great eye appeal.  This 2022 Topps Fire flame parallel looks great.  Another solid color match from the Topps folks.

The second trade package came from member Burnsie42.

Another short print crossed off my list from 2023 A&G.  One more short print and one more base card needed to finish this team set.

One of the Cardinal message boards I read is having a contest to see who can guess when Arenado will be traded this year.  Barring an injury to another team's third baseman, I still guess it will be close to the trade deadline.  

I will be rooting for Goldschmidt to have a good year for the Yankees besides the three games he will play in St. Louis in August.  He is a true professional in my book. 

   

Mets for Cardinals

I always enjoy team trades. They are the easiest to complete, in my opinion. I have cards from your team, and you have cards from my team. What could be simpler?  Last week, I traded six Mets to TCDB member Ghostmancards for six Cardinals.  

Earlier this month, I received my first 2024 Topps blue holofoil.  Now I have two more.  Great looking cards.

There are a ton of Cardinals refractors from 2023 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary.  With over 20 players in the set and over 20 different parallels, there will always be some that I need.  

I have a hard time picking out a favorite between these 2024 Stadium Club cards.  The red Scott card is a great color match, but the green refractor finish makes it appear that Gibson is jumping out of the card.  Both are great examples of the quality photo from Stadium Club.  

    

Cheap EBAY Auto

As I predicted, my trading has slowed down the last few weeks.  I have gone from almost one a day to one or two a week.  The longer days mean I have little spare time until 7 or 8 at night.  Some days, I just want to unwind in front of the TV and watch a game.  

One thing that does not require as much effort as trading is surfing EBAY.  Besides Ray Lankford cards, one of my favorite searches is looking for cheap Cardinals autographs.  My definition of cheap is less than $10 delivered.  I will not find a Pujols or Molina autograph for that price, but plenty of nice cards fit into that category.  My latest win cost me less than $6.

This is my second Bernal auto. Like the first one, it is a nice on-card autograph. Bernal will start the year at Double A Springfield.  It is difficult to tell where he will end up.  2024 Texas League player of the year Jimmy Crooks will be the starting catcher in Triple A.  Unless Ivan Herrera or Pedro Pages gets hurt or traded, I do not see any changes in St. Louis.    
            

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #111

I do not have much spare time today to post, so I will jump right into the first recap from member Berton Russell.

Short print rookies from the early 2000s are not easy to find.  This 2001 Donruss Signature Bill Ortega is numbered to 800.

I thought I had this 2000 MLB Showdown card, but it was the Unlimited parallel.  This one completes my team set.

Any recent Cardinals fan loves a card that shows two of the best in most recent memory.  This Molina is a 2013 Chrome refractor.

The second trade package came from member Robert08.

Two more Cardinals greats, this time of the Hall of Fame variety, from the 2023 Topps A&G silver portrait subset.  The foil finish gives them a refractor like look.

I should have scanned the back of this 2023 Update to show it is an Advanced Stats parallel numbered to 300, but I forgot.  It is nice that Topps used a different image than the one on the base card.

Third Time is a Charm

One of my favorite TCDB features is the ability to track your past trades.  I enjoy seeing how many cards I have sent out and received and with whom I have traded.  One of my newest trading partners is Balzer.  We recently completed our third trade since the end of January.  Each one gets larger in size.  He adds new trade bait often, which I always seem to need.  The latest package arrived over the weekend.

If you look closely, you will see that these 1994 Topps Archives are the gold signature parallel.  I like finding oddball cards like these, even if they are not very valuable.

How can you not like a die cut card of a Hall of Famer?  

Two new refractors to my collection include a nice 2023 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary green wave numbered to 99.  

A handful of random inserts from recent years.  Some people are not crazy for the 2025 Topps 35th Anniversary 1990 cards, but I like them.  It reminds me of my early collecting years when packs were much cheaper.

My son added his first 2025 Altuve cards to his collection. It makes me feel old to think I was about his age when the 1990 set came out.  

  
      

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.