TCDB 2 for Tuesday #141

I had the day off work today.  I had a dentist appointment an hour before work that involved pulling a tooth.  I had no idea it would require gauze remaining in my mouth for 3 hours and the left side of my face being numb for about the same amount of time.  That makes it very difficult to talk on the phone, so it was an unplanned vacation day for me.  What better way to spend a day off then to scan the last 2 trades on my desk.  First one came from member jamestagli.

There are plenty of low value Pujols inserts I do not have.  Always nice to add some to the collection.

Numbered cards are nice to add also, even if it is of a player who never made the big leagues.  This 2013 Bowman Draft blue is numbered to 500.

The second trade came from member Sharpie0226.

No more base cards needed from 2026 Heritage.  Now time to trade for the 5 shortprints.

I forgot about the 2025 Topps Chrome Update set before this trade.  Only 3 Cardinals in the set.  I wonder if the 2 cards are from the same game, or even the same pitch delivery.

It is a mini Mac from 2025 A&G.  McGwire ranks 4th in my collection with 817 different cards, trailing Lankford, Pujols, and Ozzie Smith.

My son need quite a few Altuve base cards from the last few years.  These make easy additions to trades.

    

EBAY Auto

It has been awhile since I added a new Cardinals player to my certified autographed collection.  I still had some leftover money on a gift card, so last week I did some shopping.  Found a great deal for less than $10 delivered.  

I have seen plenty of copies of this 2001 Topps Archives card before, but did not want to pay close to $20 for it.  McDaniel was a sneaky good reliever most people do not know about.  He played 21 years in the majors starting in 1955.  He spent his first 8 years as a Cardinal mostly as a reliever.  In 1960 he led the NL in saves with 27 and become the first winner of the Fireman of the Year award.  That year he became the first relief pitcher to ever receive a Cy Young Award vote.  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #140

 I managed to work out a few trades last week, so today I have plenty of cards to show off from 2 trades.  The first package came from member b14rebel.

The young collector in me loves finding older parallels I need like the 1996 Ultra Gold Medallion.  

I did not know Topps made a 1st Edition set in 2023 until I saw these cards on a trade list.

Almost done with the non sp portion of 2025 Heritage.

It feels a little strange picking up Altuve cards right now for my son's collection.  He started a job in October that requires him to work most weekends, making it almost impossible for him to attend shows with me.  He is also going away to college in August.  Not sure how much he will be into collecting, but for now he wants to keep adding to his collection.

The second package came from member NY2NC01!

The last non sp Heritage I need along with a dandy 2022 A&G gold border mini.

Another base card to mark off the wantlist, this one from 2025 Prizm.  Arenado is not really tearing this season in Arizona.  He is hitting .205 with 3 home runs.  It is crazy to see how quickly he has declined.

Another Altuve base card for my son.  If for some reason he decides to stop collecting, I will most likely just set the cards aside.  By the time he graduates college, Altuve should be close to entering the Hall of Fame.  That should make it easy to move the collection if my son has no more interest in it.

Graphing in Peoria

Over the weekend my wife and I attended two minor league baseball games.  Saturday night we traveled to Indianapolis to watch the Indians play the Louisville Bats.  It was team autograph night, and I always try to help out good trading partner Ron B add to his Pirates collection.  We managed to get 10 cards and a program signed for him.  I forgot to take pictures of them before I mailed them off Monday morning.

Sunday afternoon we traveled to Peoria to watch the Chief play the South Bend Cubs.  The game was not as intense as a Cardinals Cubs game, but still fun to watch.  The Chiefs gave up a 2 run home run in the ninth inning to lose by 1 run.  The game went by fast in a little over 2 hours.  As in years past, some of the team signs autographs after the game.  I did not have very many cards for the current roster, but did not come away empty handed.

I picked up a 2025 team set at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up in January.  Many players were either promoted or released.  

Tanner Franklin is the Cardinals #11 prospects.  In his 3 starts he has been dominant.  I doubt he will be in Peoria very long.  I watched him sign 16 copies of this card for someone in front of me.  I joked I only had one.  He laughed and said it is all good.  

Rainiel Rodriguez is a 19 year old catcher who is the Cardinals #3 prospect.  He is one of those players who when he makes contact, the ball sounds different off his bat.  He hit a double in the 8th inning that appeared to clear the wall, but neither umpire saw it well, and there are no challenges in Single A.  I was disappointed he was not in the autograph line after the game.  As I was walking out, another collector said Rodriguez would sign outside the player entrance.  After a 15 minute wait, he appeared and signed for me and 2 other collectors.  He appeared very shy and soft spoken, but signed quite a few cards for the other 2 people and posed for pictures.  He is another player I doubt will remain in Peoria very long.

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #139

It has been over a month since my last 2 for Tuesday post.   Shows you how slow my trading has been.  Over the weekend I received a trade that finally made two that I have not shown off yet.  That pwe came from member alan nyc.

I has been a while since I picked up some needed Cardinals Topps gold cards.  These from 2012 and 2014 are more of the bronze years in my opinion.

The second trade package from member Chemo has been sitting on my desk since March 8.  

Here is a 5 pack of former Cardinals prospects from 1992 Pro Cards Tomorrow Heroes.  1991 first round pick Brian Barber is the only one who played for the Cardinals.  He pitched in 10 games in 1995 and 1996.

Three of a Kind

 At the end of March I donated blood.  Once again the Red Cross was offering a $15 online gift card with each donation.  Of course I chose an EBAY card.  I knew exactly what to spend most of it on.

These three Scott parallels are from 2024 Topps Archives.  Achrives foil, purple foil, and green foil numbered to 99.  Total was a close to $10.  Not counting the press plates, there are 12 variations of this card.  I now have 6.  The rest are all numbered to 50 or less.  

2026 Card Show #3 Recap

March was about as slow of a card month as I can remember.  I only completed 4 trade on TCDB, bought nothing on EBAY, and did not attend a card show.  Some of this was due to lack of time, while some was also watching my budget.  My daughter is getting married in June.  The groom's parents have agreed to split the bill, but with a guest list close to 300 it will not be a cheap wedding.  We have been paying ahead on some things, so I have a better idea what the final cost will be.  Being somewhat caught up until paying the caterer in May, I decided to attend a local show on Saturday.  This quarterly show always has a good mix of vintage and modern value boxes.  Saturday was no different.

They may not be current Cardinals anymore, but I still need a lot of their cards.  Hard to pass up premium brands and refractors priced 5 for $1.

Another dealer had some 5 for $1 boxes than I pulled a few cards out for trade bait.  He also had some $1 boxes where I found this Scott card.  

I only found 2 dealers with dime boxes.  One table was so busy, I did not have a chance to go through it in the 2 hours I was there.  I did find another dealer who had some nice dime cards.  I pulled about 20 2018 Aaron Judge Topps Highlights cards along with this 2012 GQ mini variation Holliday I needed.  

The show was so big they opened up another room for the dealers.  I found an older gentleman in the new room with some very nice ungraded vintage cards.  Both these league leaders from 1961 and 1967 are almost perfect.  At $15 each, I could not pass them up.

The final table I bought from were 2 older gentlemen with more ungraded vintage.  They had a box of Cardinals sorted by year and number.  I found these 2 1959 high number cards and a 1965 from my wantlist.

I also bought these 2 1962 cards.  Somehow I forgot to cross the McCarver rookie card off my list last year, so now I have 2.  I am sure another Cardinals collector will need it.  All 5 cards are in great condition.  I paid $50 total.

  
  

First New Ray Lankford of 2026

 Here it is April 1 already.  The first quarter of this year has flown by.  Nothing big to show off today, just my first new Ray Lankford card of 2026.

This is a Hero Decks card from either 2012 or 2020.  There was a Cardinals set produced in both years, but no way of telling what year this is from without the box.  That is ok with me.  I have been watching this card for awhile hoping it would fall below $10.  It never did, so I waited until I had an EBAY gift card to buy it.

Opening Day

Yesterday was the first time I attended a Cardinals home opener.  My wife's cousin had 2 extra tickets down the right field line just past the netting.  These were great seats to see the players as they entered the stadium for the pre game parade.

JJ Wetherholt had a great debut, hitting a home run in his second at bat and adding a sacrifice fly later.

Masyn Winn had one hit in five at bats.  At the old age of 24 with a little over two full seasons of experience, he is looked upon as one of the leaders of the team.

Victor Scott had a great game with 3 hits and 2 stolen bases.  I thought he could have stolen third base in the eighth inning, but for some reason he never tried.  One of his hits was a beautiful bunt down the third base line with runners on first and second.  Even with the third baseman in on the grass, he easily beat it out.

The game had a bit of everything with home runs, big scoring innings, and a Cardinals bullpen that looks to be weak.  The Rays had the bases loaded to end the game.  It was a long day, as we arrived for the pregame pep rally at 10:30.  We watched batting practice for both teams at noon, then waited for the pregame parade at 2:30 before the first pitch at 3:15.  After experiencing everything, I believe opening day is a little overhyped.  It was fun, but the premium paid for food and parking was a little crazy.  Lots that were $40 last year were $60 yesterday.  Crazy to pay that to park for a few hours.

  
My best find of the day was this ticket stub laying in the seats after the game.  Like most clubs, the Cardinals do not print many tickets.  It is not in the best shape, but it will be a great memento of opening day and Wetherholt's debut.

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #138

Just like last Tuesday's post, today's recap will feature mostly cards from one brand.  This time it is 2025 Stadium Club.  The first lot of cards came from member Geoff2568.

Nice to hit four of the six Cardinals base cards in one trade.  Despite him being in Arizona now and playing for Puerto Rico in the WBC (how strange is that after he was with the USA in 2023), the Arenado card is my favorite.

Cannot forget to add the Altuve base card for my son.

The second trade came from member SMSiegell.

Team set complete in two trades.

I also completed my 2025 A&G team set with this last short print.  This is Schoendienst card #101 in my collection.  Topps goes through a cycle of putting him in a lot of products for a year or two, then leaving him out for the next few years.  I was guessing my total would be higher.  He is one of 57 different Cardinals I have at least 100 different cards of.  I love being able to find collection stats on TCDB.

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #137

Today's post will be a lot about 2026 Topps.  First batch of cards came from ShellGuy97.  He is a newer member that must have opened a box or two.

A great start to my team set with seven of the ten Cardinals.  Sad to say the bottom for players are gone.

Great to add the Altuve to my son's collection in the same trade.

The second package came from member TnTitan1.  

With two trades my team set is finished.  Glad that did not take long.

I also added a 2025 sandglitter parallel of my favorite current Cardinals.  I am almost afraid to say that, as it always seem the player will be traded away in a year or two.

McGreevy would be close behind Scott as my favorite.  A nice guy I have met a few times that never has a bad word to say.  I doubt he will ever become an ace pitcher, but he should be a durable #3 starter.

Clearing out Some Duplicates

Like most collectors, I do not collect duplicates.  I cannot think of anyone who enjoys opening a box of cards and getting a bunch of doubles.  I have seen quite a few collectors opening 2026 Topps hobby boxes and getting two or three packs worth.  That is one of the big reasons I do not opening packs anymore, besides the value not being there most of the time.

Being a team collector, I have accumulated my my share of duplicates.  Over 20% of my trade list is Cardinals cards that I already have.  Any time I can send out a small chunk of those, I jump on it.  In early February I sent a trade proposal to TCDB member cchstove involving six Cardinals going each direction.  After a little back and forth, the trade was expanded to me sending out 18 cards and receiving 19 new Cardinals.  Perfect trade in my book.  

Starting off with a 1989 Cadaco game disc.  I love oddball, even if they look a little bland.  

The base cards included a nice 2024 Finest Arenado and a 2022 Topps Archives Snapshots Nootbaar.

Some recent inserts and parallels.  The A&G mini Masyn Winn is a rookie design variation.

Plenty of retired players including some Hall of Famers.  If you look closely at the 1993 Topps Gold Winner card, you will see Cardinals Lee Smith and Ozzie Smith on it.

Finishing things up with two cards of recent Cardinals Hall of Fame inductee Edgar Renteria.  Fans elect one or two players each year.  Renteria was voted in over Steve Carlton. Renteria had a nice career as a Cardinal, but nothing compared to Carlton.  Since voting is done online, the results usually favor those who played most recently.  This year's ballot includes George Hendrick, Brian Jordan, Yadier Molina, and Albert Pujols.  Not much guessing on who will get in.

    

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #136

It has been great to wake up to my news feed the last few mornings and find box scores for the Cardinals spring training games.  Even though the games do not count, it is one step closer to opening day.  A lot of Cardinals fans are predicting a bad year.  I am too, but I do not think their record will be much worse than 2025.  Problem is the other four teams in the division appear to have gotten better.  I am still a fan, and will continue to collect Cardinals.  My fandom is like a marriage, in good times and in bad times.  Maybe with the rough times it will be easier to trade for some of the cards.  

Today's first package came from member brando7288.

1976 SSPC is a very simple set featuring mostly posed photos.  I like it because you find cards of obscure players like Dick Billings on the top left and Ken Reynolds on the bottom left.  Ted Sizemore and Jerry Mumphrey have plenty of cards.  

After finding a 2018 High Tek Edmonds at the Saturday card show, here is another version.  This one is pattern 4.

I love trading for premium brands like 2019 Topps Inception.  Along with Triple Threads and Tribute, these brands do not show up often in trade or bargain boxes.

The second trade came from member stephen54scc.

These are 11 of the 17 cards in the Cardinals 2025 Topps team set.  You can see the number difference on the Graceffo card.  Ivan Herrera is the only card with a different photo than the base Topps card.