Card Show Report: Minor Sucess

I always make it a point to attend the December card show at Orlando Gardens in St. Louis.  Even though it is a 2.5 hour drive, it is well worth the trip.  The last 2 years I have found some great deals.  This year's show was Sunday with over 100 dealer tables.  My son and I spent 2 hours there while the wife and daughter did some Christmas shopping.  I will split my recap into 2 posts.  Today I will highlight the first half hour of the show.  I usually try to walk the entire floor before buying anything, but one of the first dealers I ran into had old minor league sets for $2 each. 

By old I mean over 30 years old.  This Louisville Redbirds set is from 1983.  The 30 card set featured a nice mix of players and coaches.  Some of the bigger names who later became Cardinals are pictured.  I have never seen Horton with a mustache.  Not his best look.

The 1984 Redbirds set was much like the 1983 one.  30 card set with white borders.  A few bigger names in this set like Coleman and Pendleton.  Nieto is pictured because he shares my birthday.  I remember reading the back of his 1985 Topps card and thought it was so cool a Cardinals player had the same birthday as I did.

The 1985 set saw a change to blue borders.  Worrell returned to the set after not being in the 1984 one.  1985 was the Secret Weapon's first season in the Cardinals system after coming over in a trade with the Mets. 

I have quite a few Peoria Chiefs set, but none during their first stint as a Cardinals team.  This set is from 2004, the last year as a Cardinals farm team.  The Chiefs were a Cubs team from 2005-2012 before returning from the dark side and joining the Cardinals in 2013.  Not a lot of big names on the team.  McClellan and Ryan both had a handful of decent years in St. Louis.  Warner will be the Cardinals third base coach in 2019.

There were about 10 other minor league sets from the 1990s that I left behind.  Maybe the same vendor will be back at a future show.  After browsing a few more tables, I ran into a vendor I have bought from before at shows in Evansville and St. Louis.  I always hit up his quarter boxes that are full of players no longer with the Cardinals.  I did not find any I needed this time, but picked 6 cards out for trade bait.

The top 3 are photo variations from 2018 Topps.  The Stanton is a 2018 Update Negative Black & White, the Tailion 2018 Topps Father's Day blue #ed to 50, and the Crawford is a 2018 Topps Chrome Negative refractor.  Not a bad lot for $1.  Not sure why he gave me a 50 cent deal.  The bottom 3 are pending, but the photo variations are all available.

Making Some Progress

With a little over a month left in this year, I am slowly making some progress towards finishing some 2018 team sets.  Over the weekend a package arrived from Trading Bases member Jack D that helped out quite a bit. 

Jack finished my 2018 Allen & Ginter set with these 4 base cards and the Carlos Martinez sp.  These were not the only A & G cards included.

Jack had a pile of these he needed to thin out, so he included a couple.  I have no need for these if someone wants to work out a trade.

Getting back to the Cardinals, I also received the last 7 base cards from 2018 Archives.  I am still needing 3 Turn Back the Clock sps.  Maybe I will have some luck finding them this weekend at a card show.
 

Second New Set in a Week

Just when I start to make progress on some team sets, I start some new ones.  A trade last week brought my first 1982 TCMA Greatest Hitters cards.  Another trade with TCDB member nozzlemaster gained me another card from the set and started a new one.

I hate to call this a Cardinals card.  At first I saw it and thought I was sent the wrong card. 

But flip it over and he is listed as a Cardinal.  Why not show him in the uniform he played the majority of his career in? 

My newest set is 1981 Topps Scratchoffs.  These were issued in three card panels.  American League cards were red, National League green.  From what I have read, the scratch off part is some type of game.  If I ever find more, I may have to find out what type of game.

Black Friday Shopping

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I stuffed myself at noon and again at 6.  Good thing we planned a Black Friday shopping trip to walk a few of those extra pounds off.  I did most of my shopping online early Thursday morning.  The only baseball related items were a few posters from Topps.com that I hope to get autographed in January at the Cardinals Winter Warm Up.  Friday we hit up Menards which was a total zoo.  It opened at 6 in the morning, but was still packed at 10 when we arrived.  Parking was non existent and the check out lines were long, but we managed to be in and out in about an hour.  That left plenty of time to hit up the local card shop.  After I dropped the wife and daughter off at Bed & Body, my son and I headed to the card shop

This card shop posted a few of their card deals on Facebook the day before, so I had a good idea of what I planned on getting.  The best deal for my budget was buy 2 packs of 2018 Topps Update and get a third one free.  Sure the packs were a little overpriced at $3.50, put with the free one the 9 packs were got were about the same price as a blaster.  I will spare you the base and just show the inserts.

The only Cardinal I needed from the break was this Lou Brock.  It almost looks like a Donruss card with the missing logo on the helmet.

The 1983 inserts were nice with a blue Kinsler and World Series champ Martinez.  Both are available for trade.

I have never heard of Bieber, but the Acuna was a nice find.  Both of these are also available.

The box we picked the packs from was a Bieber hot box as I got 2 base cards to go along with the Salute and this foil card.

I like the looks of these.  Shame I pulled a Cub, but the Betts is nice.  Both are up for grabs.

I already trade the gold card, but Cal is still available.

I chose the 6 picks in order to get 2 free packs of  Bowman Holiday.  We only pulled base cards, but did get some nice ones.

 

Judge and Soto were nice to see.  All of these are for trade.  I also have a large stack of base cards if anyone is working on the set.


 

 

I Finished One

In a lot of my recent posts I have mentioned how many 2018 teams sets I have yet to complete.  Sure I could hop online and complete sets quick, but that takes away the fun of trading for me.  Half of the thrill is the hunt.  Last week I was thrilled to work out a trade with TCDB member 860502 that brought the last 10 cards I needed (minus the dreaded photo variations) from the 2018 Topps Update set. 

Before the trade I only had 1 Cardinal from the set, so it was great to get 10 in one trade.The Ozuna is my favorite card of this group.

Strange how I needed 5 vertical and 5 horizontal cards.  The O'Neill is my favorite of this bunch.  Both O'Neill and Mikolas have 3 different variations in the set.  Thanks Topps

Since I finished one set, I might as well start another.  These 3 cards are from the 1982 TCMA Greatest Hitters set.  Not sure why Musial is red border and the other 2 are green.  Maybe there are variations in this set also.    

McDonalds Anyone?

Every team has a number of corporate sponsors that pump a lot of money into marketing their products at the team's stadium.  Two that come to mind for the Cardinals are Anheuser Busch and McDonalds.  Busch has long been associated with the Cardinals since Gussie Busch bought the team in 1953.  There is also a brewery within a few blocks south of the stadium.  McDonalds also has a long standing relationship with the Cardinals.  They have put out numerous promotional items in the St. Louis area including a baseball card legends set in 1992, a set of glasses in 1998, and four bobbleheads in 2002.

McDonalds really came to the forefront during the Mark McGwire era.  In 1998, a portion of the left field upper deck was renamed Big Mac Land.  If a Cardinals player hit a home run in that area during a game, everyone would win a free Big Mac.  If a Cardinals player hit a home run into that area, everyone at the game would win a free Big Mac.  The promotion was so popular the Cardinals included the area in the new Busch Stadium that opened in 2006.  I have never sat in those seats, but I have heard the view is not terrible for being in the upper deck.    

To go along with the McGwire craze of the late 1990s, McDonalds put out a card set in 1999.  Packs were given out at local restaurants with the purchase of a value meal.  Up until the weekend, the only card I had from the set was Ray Lankford.  Last week I worked out a trade for 10 packs from TCDB member Gapporin.  The set consists of 15 base cards, a checklist, and a 9 card McGwire insert set.

Of course McGwire would be on the wrapper.  There are 4 base cards and 2 McGwire inserts in every pack.

The design is the same as the 1999 Upper Deck MVP set.  I was able to pull a complete set with plenty of doubles.  There is a nice mix of the usually names like McGwire, Drew, and Lankford to go along with a few lesser know guys like Darren Bragg, Ricky Bottalico, and Darren Oliver.   

The back is also the same with the small addition of the McDonalds logo.

I was little disappointed to not complete the insert set.  I still need 2 of them to finish.  I also did not pull the checklist card.  I should be able to trade my doubles for the ones I need with another Cardinals collector on TCDB. 
   

Something Old for Something New

When I think of vintage cards, I tend to think of cards that are older than me.  In my case, that is anything before 1976.  I do collect vintage Cardinals for my team sets, but it is not a high priority right now.  I am not that well schooled on the various short prints of certain years.  The money factor also comes into play. What vintage I do have is far from mint, but even the beaters can be pricey at times.  I have managed to accumulate a few doubles along the way that are in pretty poor condition.  It can be hard trading these sometimes, but I was lucky to find The Bench member dragonslayer913 working on a 1971 Topps set that could be in any condition.  I set him my Cardinals doubles in exchange for quite a few hits to some recent sets.

Topps put out a number of different factory sets in 2011.  These are from the Diamond Anniversary version. 

These may look like regular 2013 Topps cards, but they are the mini version.  These cards were only available for purchase through the Topps website. 

Donruss Elite was one of my favorite brands back when they had logos.  The 2015 version leaves a lot to be desired. 

 

I prefer the 2017 Bowman Platinum design on the bottom over the 2018 design.  The colorful wave against the black background is not good.  The 2017 Carpenter finished up a team set.

This trade brought my first 2018 Panini Chronicles and Topps Update cards.  Chronicles will be a tough set to finish, but I have seen a ton of Update breaks so that one should not be very difficult.  I am done to needing 5 more 2018 Allen & Ginter Cardinals.  

I still need 10 more 2018 Archives Cardinals.  I love the big team set that also includes greats like Cepeda.  

Finishing out the package are a couple of 2018 inserts.  I have read on numerous sites that Hicks could be the Cardinals closer next year.  I would be shocked if they gave that role to a 22 year old with only one season of experience above Double A.  A few blown saves in a short period of time could destroy his confidence.  Bader has a very good chance of being the starting center fielder next season barring a trade.  I love his all out style of play in the outfield and on the bases.  He has an old school quality about him, just with more flare.