Twitter Lot

I joined Twitter about 1 year ago.  I had zero intentions about tweeting what is going on in my life.  My sole purpose was to find another outlet for buying baseball cards.  I have seen several other bloggers and traders comment on purchasing cards on Twitter, so I decided to take the dive.

1 year later and I have made about 10 tweets/retweets and follow about 25 different people or groups.  I log in almost everyday with a few keyword searches to see if I can find anything cool for the collection.  Last week I made my 3rd purchase since I joined the site.  

One of the more popular terms I find in the Twitter card world is the stack sale.  It is basically like EBAY combined shipping.  Purchase a few cards from the same seller and pay 1 shipping fee.  I took advantage of a stack sale and bought 5 different Cardinals for $21 delivered.  I was about to type the same price as a blaster, but we all know that is not the case anymore.   Anyway, the cards arrived over the weekend.

These are the first cards I bought.  The seller marked them down 50% a day after posting them.  The Raywave is the first one in my collection.  Cool looking card.  These were $3.

This 2021 Topps Update Carlson is an image variation.  It was not 50% off, but I did get a couple dollars off.  I checked EBAY sales and decided $7 was a good deal for it.

These 2 jersey cards were also $7.  For some reason I love the 2021 Topps Holiday relic cards.  I am also a fan of the red patch cards.    

  

Phillies for Cardinals

With yesterday's doubleheader sweep of the Cubs, the Cardinals have moved into a tie for first place in the NL Central with the Brewers.  Recent trade acquisition Jose Quintana pitched great in the night cap allowing only 1 run on 1 hit in 6 innings.  I hope that trade works out well.  The Brewers trade of closer Josh Hader has not worked out so well for them.  They got swept by the Pirates with the last 2 being walk offs.  

The Cardinals also move into a tie with the Phillies for the last wild card spot.  The Phils were also busy at the trade deadline adding pitchers to their rotation.   Should be a close race until the end.  Speaking of the Phillies, I recently worked out a trade with TCDB member engine614.  I sent him 3 Phillies in exchange for 5 Cardinals. 

I finished my 2011 Bowman Draft Chrome set with these 2 cards.  Always nice to cross another set off the wantlist.

Although the ivy on this 2000 Pacific Invincible base card has a Wrigley Field feel to it, I still like the design.  The blue background really makes McGwire and the wall stand out.  Nice touch adding the logo in the bottom right corner.

I have mentioned quite a few times how much I like the Opening Day blue parallels.  They are not serial numbered like a Topps gold card, but I think they stand out better.  This Flaherty is from the 2020 set.  

I gained quite a few vintage Cardinals from the 1960s during my Cincinnati trip.  This 1964 Topps card may outrank them all.  This card is in great condition and also features a great Hall of Famer in Hank Aaron.  I was not expecting such a near perfect card.    

   

4 Pack from the Bench

Now that I have finished recapping my Cincinnati trip, it is time to get caught up with a few trades.  After sorting entering the trade bait from the card show, I had a few trade proposals come in.  One was from The Bench member ILLRIMESAYA.  I sent him 3 refractors for 4 Cardinals.  

The highlight for me was completing my 2005 Leaf team set with the Molina card.  Almost strange seeing him without the neck tattoo and 20-30 extra pounds.  

My second Molina of the package was a holo blue parallel.  Nice looking card, but the color match Ozzie Smith is a little better even if it does not have logos.

The last card also has a Molina tie.  Ponce de Leon was released last September after a dugout disagreement with Molina during one of his starts.  Since then he has bounced around with the Angels, Mariners, and now the Nationals.   This 2021 Topps green parallel numbered to 499 is likely one of his last Cardinals cards.  

Card Show to Finish Cincy Trip

 After a fun 2 days spent at Great American Ballpark for a 2 games and a tour, our trip was coming to an end Sunday.  Before we left town, we hit up a card show at an American Legion.  The listing on Beckett.com advertised 50 tables, and it was only 10 minutes from our hotel so I thought it was worth the time to check it out.  My hope was to find some Cardinals that I did not have to pay a local premium for.

This was the farthest show from home that I have attended.  I like going to new locations, but doubt I would drive 4 hours to a show.  Good thing we were already in the area.  There was a solid 50-60 tables set up.  We spent about 2.5 hours there digging through a variety of bargain boxes.  For the most part we skipped over the showcases as most of them contained non baseball, graded, or mostly Reds cards.  I spent a total of $35 at 5 different tables.  

My first deal was by far the worst.  This dealer had a couple of monster boxes that was sorted by sports and alphabetically.  It was a great set up, but none of the cards were priced.  The dealer said nothing would be over a $1.  He was correct, as he charged $5 for these 6 cards.  While that is not terrible, most of these I would view as $0.25 or $0.50 cards.  I handed over an Abe Lincoln and promised myself not to buy anything else before it was priced.

The next dealer had about the same setup as the first, but his cards were clearly marked in dime boxes.  This was right up my alley.  Lots of nice cards, but I only ended up with 20 for $2.

I did not do a good job of checking my wantlist, as I only needed 2 of the 6 Cardinals.  Not a big deal though as I have plenty of fellow Cardinals fans to trade with.  My son did need the 2021 Finest Altuve.

The rest of the cards I pulled with other traders in mind.  4 cards in the top scan have already been traded, while all the Yankees and Pirates in the bottom scan will be going to Trading Bases member Ron B.

My third purchase came from a dealer with 3 $0.50 boxes.  My son actually pulled all these cards while I was busy at another table.  $3 gained me these cards.

He did a great job pulling 4 Cardinals I needed and 2 Altuves for himself.  The 2004 Tribute Bob Gibson was my favorite.  

While my son was flipping through his boxes, my wife and I were set up at a dealer who was nothing but vintage.  He also had a great setup.  1950s cards were $3, 1960s cards were $1, and 1970s cards were $1 or $0.50.  All cards were sleeved and sorted by number.  I am not usually a vintage guy, but this was too easy to find Cardinals from my want list.  The dealer even gave me a discount.  I bought 19 cards from the 1960s for $15.

                                                                                
                                                                            1966

    

                                                                                1968

                                                                            1969

All of the cards in are great condition.  They are not mint, but are free from creases and for the most part have 4 good corners.  

The last dealer I bought from had 6 1800 count boxes full of quarter cards.  My wife and I dug through them all while my son took a lunch break.  We ended up with 40 cards for $10.

I had a blast going through the boxes.  There were base cards mixed in, but for the most part the cards were inserts or parallels.  I was most excited to find the 2014 blue parallel.  Just need I more card to finish that team set.

There was a ton of yellow parallels from various brands.  I was thrilled to only pay a quarter for the Jordan Walker camo parallel.  Glad he is still with the Cardinals after yesterday's trade deadline.  There was talk he would be included in any deal for Juan Soto.

I managed to find some base card needs.  The 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary set is massive with over 20 Cardinals in it.  Wish I had found a few more, but these are a good start.

Even though he did not help with the search, my son did come away with 5 more new Altuve cards.

More Pirates and Yankees that will shipped off very soon.  Ron B attended the National last week for 3 days and promised me a nice Cardinals package.  Can't wait to see what he found.

I could have pulled a lot of other cards for trade bait, but wanted to stay at $10.  The Mountcastle and Pedroia are already spoken for.

This was one of the better shows I had been to in some time.  I could have spent more time there, but with a 4 hour drive home and a son who wanted more food we decided to hit the road.    

    

TCDB Member Meet Up in Cincinnati

In all my years of trading baseball cards online I have only met 1 trader in person.  That was Trading Bases member Mark Z at a Memphis Redbirds game 8 or 9 years ago.  Mark is from the Memphis area and gave me some pointers on my first visit to the area.  Mark is also a Cardinals collector, so we exchanged some duplicates during the visit.  I have not had a chance to get back there to meet up again, but hope I can before too long.  

Last weekend during my Cincinnati trip I had the pleasure of meeting my second trader.  TCDB member PartagasX is another Cardinals collector from the St. Louis area.  He started a forum post in early July about planning a Cincy trip.  At the time I did not think my schedule would work out, but things changed and we were able to watch both games on Friday and Saturday night together.  We also did the stadium tour and lunch on Saturday.

I have traded with PartagasX a couple of times with great luck.  He has a massive Cardinals collection that he is still in the process of organizing on the site.  His wantlist is current through 2006, so I pulled the 15-20 cards I had from his wantlist and brought them along.  I gave him his package on Saturday morning.  He beat me to the punch, and gave me quite the package at Friday night's game.  

The package had quite a few cards from 2005 included some Rookie Cup orange parallels numbered to 399.  The Renteria is a shortprint, while the Edmonds knocks my Donruss Champions team set needs to 1.

3 more cards from 2005 sets featured a couple of Cardinals Hall of Famers.  I miss the Upper Deck sets that featured the retired greats.

These 5 cards completed my 2006 Topps team set.  This is the set found at retail stores, not distributed in packs.  All the cards from 2005 and 2006 were great, but the next batch were even better.  

    

3 cards from the 1968 and 1969 sets.  These are in great condition.  Not perfect mint, but free of creases and writing.  I am not very picky with the condition of my vintage cards, so these fit great in my collection.  

These cards were far more that what I gave him, but PartagasX was not done.  On our way to lunch on Saturday, he gave me a nice stadium give away.

This is my first Funko Pop.  These were given away at Busch Stadium back in May.  It will have a place next to my Ozzie bobbleheads.  It was a fun weekend spent talking baseball and cards.  We talked like we have known each other for years.

  This was after the Cardinals won Saturday's game.  I am the one who does not look like Santa Claus.  

Cincinnati Day 2: Ballpark Tour, Museum, & Second Cardinals Game

Our second day in Cincinnati was not as rushed as the first.  My only definite plan was attending the game that night.  After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we decided to head back to the ballpark to visit the Reds Hall of Fame Museum before taking a stadium tour.  The cost was $22 to do both for an adult, or $20 for my son.  Seemed like a good deal, so we bought tickets for the noon tour.  That left about 90 minutes to walk through the museum.  

The Museum consisted of 2 floors on the first and third floors.  The first floor started with a exhibit about Latin players.  This was not just Reds players, but other MLB Latinos as well.

How appropriate to find a display that featured my son's favorite player and a Cardinals legend all in one.  

A closer look at the Molina helmet from his rookie season in 2004.  I was a little surprised to see anything Molina related based on how unpopular he is in  Reds country.  

After watching a short 10 minute film, we made our way through a hallway with various pictures of Negro League players.  That lead to a room full of statues.  

These bronze statues depict the Great 8 players from the 1970s Big Red Machine.  It was hard to get a group picture because the statues were so big.  From there we took the stairs you see on the right to the third floor.

There were 4256 baseballs that lined the staircase.  The balls represent all the hits in Pete Rose's career.  None are the actual hit balls.  They were from batting practice or other game used balls.  Pretty awesome to see that many baseballs in 1 display.

The third floor had the majority of the artifacts and displays.

There were 4 life like statues of John Vander Meer, Ted Kluszewski, Johnny Bench, and Barry Larkin.  The Bench was the most accurate depiction.  Across the room from the statues was a wall dedicated to baseball cards.

The cards ranged from 1869 to present day.  The pull out cabinets displays worked great.  I doubt some of the pre 1900 cards were real.  Some of them were in too pristine condition to be that old.

The next room was dedicated to broadcasting.  You could put on one of Marty Brennaman's jackets and sit at the announcers booth.  My son chose to sit at the pregame desk instead.

The next room had artifacts from the Reds World Series teams.  This is the 1975 trophy.  Pretty cool to see one of these up close.

The corner of that room had some old jerseys.  I found this Cardinals jersey with a zipper in front pretty odd.  

Upon leaving the museum, each of us received a Marion Soto bobblehead.  Each month a different bobblehead is given away to anyone visiting on Saturday or Sunday.  We ended up selling one of ours later in the day for $15.  

We had about a 10 minute wait for the ballpark tour that went by fairly quick.  The tour itself lasted about 90 minutes.  We saw various areas of the ballpark like suites, umpire room, and the hallway leading to the locker rooms.

We also got to visit both dugouts.  This is in the visitor's dugout.

We walked behind home plate on our way to the Reds dugout.  There was a light sprinkle going on at the time, thus the tarp on the field.  The sun was still shining though as you can see from the shadows in our picture.

After the tour we had lunch at LaRosa's Pizza.  Since the Reds struck out 11 Cardinals on Friday night, anyone with a ticket from that game receive a free personal pan pizza.  That was the only positive from the Cardinals Friday night loss.  

We went back to our hotel for a short rest before heading to the stadium for the game.  I did not get the batting practice package this time, so we had to wait in line for the gates to open.

The giveaway that night was a Mr. Redlegs bobblehead.  This little man is pretty heavy.  If anyone is interested in this or a Soto bobblehead, shoot me an email or leave a comment.  Would be happy to sell or trade for a few Cardinals.

The game went a lot better on Saturday.  The Cardinals won 6 to 3 thanks to back to back home runs by Tyler O'Neill and Paul Goldschmidt.  We also got to see Ryan Helsley throw 2 103 mph fastballs like he did in the All Star Game.  There was a fireworks show again, but we opted to avoid traffic and head back to the hotel.  

That ends the baseball part of our trip.  I still have a couple of other posts about the trip.  One about a card show we attended on Sunday morning.  The other about some cards I received on the trip.  

   

    

Cardinals Reds Game 1 Batting Practice

After leaving Louisville, we headed straight to Cincinnati.  We had a little spare time to check into our hotel before we headed to the ballpark.  We arrived with 5 minutes to spare.  The Reds offer a special ticket to watch both teams take batting practice for $22.  Since we never get to see the Cardinals take bp in St. Louis, I figured it was a good deal. 

Until the gates opened for everyone, we were confined to the right and centerfield bleachers.  My wife and I stayed close to centerfield while my son stayed in right.  Tyler O'Neill is getting some fielding practice here.

Dylan Carlson is waiting his turn.  Shortly after this picture he tossed up a ball to my wife.

We received 2 others besides the Carlson toss up.  My son got a toss up from a Reds pithcer.  The third ball landed in the battter's eye during the Reds BP.  A member of the grounds crew tossed it to my son.  We were never really close to any of the home runs, but it was still fun.  Only downside was it was hot for the 2 hours we watched.

After BP we hit up the concession stand.  Behind our seats in the right field bleachers was stand that offered a $25 deal that included 5 hot dogs, unlimited chips, peanuts, and soda.  That was a great investment for the 3 of us.  

Our seats were next to the Cardinals bullpen down the right field line.  Pretty good view of the bullpen and the field.  I failed to get any pictures of Adam Wainwright while he was warming up, but did get Jordan Hicks before he entered the game in the 6th inning.

A big difference between the bullpen at Great American Ballpark and Busch Stadium is the net over the top.  At Busch the relievers toss up quite a few balls, but the net makes it impossible in Cincy.  As for the game it did not turn out well for Cardinals fans.  Wainwright gave up 2 home runs and took the loss in a 9-5 final.  We did get to see Paul Goldschmidt hit a home run.  A big thumbs up for the fireworks show after the game.  They looked great going off over the Ohio River.  

Next post will highlight our second day at the ballpark.