TCDB 2 for Tuesday #142

It has been an exhausting past few days in my house.  Saturday night my daughter graduated from college with her Bachelor's Degree.  Sunday was Mother's Day and my wife's birthday.  Yesterday my son's baseball team won their game and the conference title. Needless to say I have had little time for baseball cards.  Good thing I had some already scanned for today's post.  First up is a pwe full of Cardinals from member millrat99.

It is crazy how difficult in can be to trade for MLB Showdown cards.  They are not the easiest to find, and when you do, some traders put a premium on them.  Glad to knock out these 4 from 2000.

Funny how I always need one card to finish a set that is of a player most people have never heard of.  My 2006 Bowman Chrome team set is now complete.

The second package came from member JustinBobo77.

Miura is my first card from 2025 Bowman Draft Chrome.  I have lost track how many times I thought I had all the non shortprints from 2026 Heritage.  This is definitely the last one.  

McGreevy has been the Cardinals best starter so far this season.  He is a poor man's Greg Maddux.  Does not throw overly hard, but throws a ton of strikes.  Mathews will most likely be the first starter called up this season if someone gets hurt.  He would be up already if he did not walk so many batters.

  

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.