TCDB 2 for Tuesday #154

It has been almost a month in between my Tuesday posts.  Some of that is my lack of trading, but some is also the continuing decline of the post office.  I have a couple of trades that I have been waiting over three weeks for the cards to arrive.  So far this year I have not had any trades go missing, but sooner or later it will happen.  Today's first trade from member ILLRIMESAYA only took four days to arrive.

Did Topps need to produce a set with an All Star Game background?  No, but they knew collectors like me would buy/trade for them.

Even Allen & Ginter is getting away from the traditional base cards and minis.  Now we get silver portrait and chrome parallels.  

Neither of these JD Drew cards scanned the greatest, but they are very cool.  The 2000 Ultra Crunch Time insert has a fuzzy feel to it.  Older inserts like this of Griffey Jr., Ripken, Gwynn, etc. are becoming very popular.  The 2002 Donruss Production Line insert is numbered to 1027, but only has a print run of 927.  Not sure what is behind that logic.

The second trade came from member Mrwhite1978.  

2026 Topps Holiday went on presale yesterday.  Hard to believe that time of year is getting closer.  My 2025 base set is complete, but I need a lot of the parallels.

These are my first 2026 Topps Chrome cards besides a Wetherholt base card I won on EBAY.

Speaking of Wetherholt, here is a nice refractor.  His chance of winning Rookie of the Year are very slim following his injury.  Sal Stewart should have it wrapped up.

And finally one more 2026 Chrome card.  The Perspectives inserts are very sharp.  Hard to go wrong with a Pujols card.  

Saturday at the Cardinals Museum

I have been a member of the Cardinals Museum since 2019.  Besides being able to visit anytime I want, there are other benefits.  Every year there are 2 exclusive bobbleheads that are very well made.  Members also receive a discount at the Cardinals Authentics store and a restaurant in Ballpark Village.  The Museum also holds autograph signings with former players on select Saturdays, along with a question and answer session about an artifact from the player's career the Friday evening before.  I have blogged about some of them in the past.    

Living over two hours away I do not attend as many Museum events as I would like. This year in fact I did not make it to any except for this past Saturday.  The last Museum event is always member appreciation day.  I have attended this day once since I have been a member.  It always seemed like one of my children had a high school band competition the day it was held since then.  Now that both of them have graduated, I should hopefully not miss this day again.  

Saturday's event starting at 1:00 with a short recap of the year followed by some trivia.  Light snacks were served during the presentation.  At the end 20 random numbers were drawn for door prizes to be given out after the autograph signing.  I was lucky enough to have my number chosen.  My wife was close, but with over 120 people in attendance I was not expecting either one of us to win.  

Brian Jordan was the autograph guest.  I have met him twice before, but am always happy to get a free autograph or two.  Museum member and their guests each received two autograph tickets.  My wife handled these two cards while I got something else signed.

I forgot I had a copy of this old scorecard.  I should be able to get Lankford and Gaetti to sign it without much trouble.  Ron Gant may be a challenge.

Before leaving the Museum , we each received a Whitey Herzog bobblehead.  I already have one, so these will either be sold or traded.  

Our last stop was claiming my door prize.  The prizes were various autographed items from former players who signed at the Museum this season.  I did not get to pick, the item was given out according to your number.

How ironic is it that a Ray Lankford super fan received a ball autographed by the player he was traded for.  Even though Woody Williams had 3 good seasons with the Cardinals including being an All Star in 2003, I had a hard time rooting for him for obvious reasons.  The Padres could have traded Tony Gwynn to the Cardinals in 2001 and I still would have been mad.  This ball will be a neat conversation piece in my Lankford display case.

Overall it was a great experience at the Museum.  We found some $10 tickets for the game that night.  The stadium giveaway was a nice hooded sweatshirt.  The game itself was not so great.  Besides being the hottest temperature at first pitch all year, the Cardinals lost in 11 innings in a game that lasted almost four hours.  They had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the 9th.  Bases loaded with the winning run on third and one out.  Jordan Walker struck out and Leo Bernal grounded out.  The teams traded runs in the 10th, but the Nationals scored four in the top of the 11th.  We left before the Cardinals came to bat.  They put up a come back but fell short again.  Down 8-5 with the bases loaded and one out, Walker struck out again and Bernal popped out.    

2026 American Cancer Society Day at Busch

On Sunday my wife, son, and I attended the annual American Cancer Society Day at Busch Stadium.  This is our fifth consecutive year and sixth overall attending this event.  The format has remained the same.  The day features autographs from current and former players, pictures with the 2006 and 2011 World Series trophies, tours of the home dugout, and a chance to walk the warning track.  We stick to the autograph lines, as we have done the other activities multiple times.  There were six current and five former players signing at five different locations throughout the lower level of the stadium.  Current players signed for one hour, while the former players signed for one hour and fifteen minutes. 

Quinn Mathews was our first stop.  The current players are usually rookies or players with less than three years of experience.  

Our next stop was Nathan Church and Anthony Reyes.  Church signed at the event last year, but did not have any MLB cards yet.  This was our first time getting Reyes.  He was in town for a reunion of the 2006 World Series championship team.  He beat Justin Verlander in Game 1 of that series.

Graceffo also signed last year.  Thompson has signed at a lot of events since his retirement.  

Our final autograph was Gary Bennett.  He was also a member of the 2006 team.  He was wearing his World Series ring that was huge.  

The Cardinals beat the White Sox 3-1 in a game that took a little over two hours.  During the game, I met up with another Cardinals collector from a Facebook group and traded for this sweet bobblehead.

I love dual bobbleheads.  This one was given out in 2022, but I never found one that was in good shape.  For some reason the two I previously bought had an arm or two broken off.  I was able to return those.    Overall is was a great day.  It was nice to spend a day with our son for the first time since he went to college.    

Vintage EBAY Win

Well the first game of the battle of the birds did not go well.  The Cardinals lost 13-1 to the Orioles. For the second time in three games catcher Pedro Pages pitched the last inning.  It looks to be a long final month of the season.  I did not have many cards to keep my mind off the game, as the only incoming mail was a couple of cards from an EBAY purchase.

These 1962 Topps cards in about as close to mint as you can get.  I was thrilled to get these for less than $10 delivered.  Both of these are from Series 7, making them short prints.
   

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #153

Tonight starts the battle of the birds as the Orioles come to St. Louis for three games.  After a horrible ending to Sunday's game, it will be nice to see someone other than the Phillies.  As I am watching the game, I plan to file away a stack of cards from today's post.  The first batch came from member bobrogers42.

My 2017 Heritage Minors set is complete after adding this short print.  I lost track of Hicks the last few years.  Seems like he has found a nice home in the White Sox bullpen.

Funny to receive a yellow border Matt Adams card after he suited up for the Savannah Bananas over the weekend in St. Louis.

Very rare to received four much needed Topps Gold parallels in one trade.  Still trying to complete a team set from any year.

Hard to say no to a nice Molina refractor.

The second batch of cards came from member Phillphan.

I am not a big fan of the diamante parallels.  Topps should have stuck with the Bowman cracked ice look.  The Molina Opening Day parallel is a lot better.  

I am still not a huge mini fan, but you cannot beat this trio of Cardinal legends.  Brock is a gold border, Dean is an A&G back, and Wainwright is a black border.

 

  

2026 Card Show #6 Recap

Saturday morning I woke up knowing I was headed to a card show.  I just had to decide which one.  There was a local show about 45 minutes away with 100 tables that I have attended with good luck the last few years, or there was a new show about 2 hours away with 250 tables.  I chose the closer show, as the wife had a list of things to do in the yard later that day.  Since my son is now away from college, she decided to make the trip with me.

We arrived a few minutes after the doors opened.  I headed straight for one of my favorite dealers who always brings multiple dime boxes.  It took about 1.5 hours to go through 4 monster boxes.  I also went through a quarter and fifty cent. I spent $7 on the following cards.

Not very many Cardinals in the boxes, but I did find four I needed.

Nice to find some Altuves in the dime box.  My son already had the Bowman's Best refractor.

This 2026 insert was fifty cents.  Great looking card.  

Everything else I pulled is for trade bait.

A few numbered cards including a 2020 Topps Pro Debut gold numbered to 50.

Refractors, most of which will be headed to Pirate collector Ron B.

Assorted Topps parallels.

A lot of Hall of Fame players, most from 2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame artist's proof parallels.

Finishing up with a handful of premium issues.

We walked the rest of the floor and was a little discouraged to find so many Pokemon tables.  In the past this show was 75-80% sports cards.   This time I would guess it was closer to 50%.  I did make one more purchase.

I found these Cardinals in a quarter box.  I needed the 2015 GQ Cepeda short print.  I grabbed the other three just to make an even $1.  I did need the Molina.

Despite not finding many cards, we had fun.  I will most likely attend the next show in November.

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #152

It was a fun weekend to be a Cardinals fan.  Not only did they win 2 of 3 games against the Cubs, they also had one of the greatest MLB debuts in history from Joshua Baez.  I was not home on Saturday to watch the game, but did follow along on my phone.  I was not shocked to check EBAY on Sunday and see all the crazy prices people were wanting, then actually getting for his cards.  Hats off to anyone who made a quick buck.  I do not have any Baez cards to show off today, just some other Cardinal goodies.  The first batch of cards came from member cynicalbuddha.

Hard to go wrong with cards of gold glove shortstops.  While the 2 Finest Winn cards are nice, I love the 1995 Denny's Ozzie Smith.  I was surprised I did not already have a copy.

After a good few games, Arenado appears to have a major injury.  Hence was DFAd earlier this month, but was not picked up by another team so he is back Florida working at the Cardinals complex to regain some of his velocity.  Hard to believe he was a top 100 prospect and #3 in the Cardinals system a few years ago.

This is the last Altuve my son needs to file away before leaving for college tomorrow.  There will be a pile waiting for him when he comes home later this fall.

The second package came from member stdolan1.

While other collectors are hot after 2026 Chrome, I will pick up older refractors for a lot cheaper.

The colorful part of the trade included orange, pink, and black.  Walker is by far the best player, but the Saggese card looks the best.