Ball Cards, Baseball, and Bobblehead

My son and I arrived home early yesterday afternoon from our St. Louis trip.  If you would have told me the Cardinals would win a game Christopher Sanchez started, then beat Zach Wheeler the next day I would have laughed in your face.  That is what happened though.  We managed the heat both games.  Thankfully they last about 2.5 hours each.  Yesterday's afternoon game had feel like temperatures close to 105.  We moved around quite a bit to stay in the shade.  With attendance less than 20,000 , it was easy to find an empty seat.  

We had some time to kill yesterday morning after we checked out of our hotel, so we made a 15 minute drive to a local card shop that we visited 2 years ago.  The shop posted on Facebook a couple of pictures of restocked quarter and dime boxes.  We spent about an hour going through the boxes and about 10 binders of Cardinals sorted by year and brand.  We pulled 40 cards, most of them coming from the binders.

Most people do not get excited to find a 2002 Topps Chrome base card.  When it is a Cardinals from my wantlist, I do.

Not too long ago it would be insane to think you could buy a Carlson rookie card parallel and two short prints for a quarter each.  Shows how quickly things can change.

There were plenty of former Cardinals in the binders.  Speaking of the past, the Goldy pink refractor was once a $40 card after he was named 2022 MVP.  

Nice to find some premium brands in the quarter binders.  The cards were even sorted by number.  Makes me wonder if the shop bought out a collection.

It was awesome finding some 2012 Heritage Minors I needed, especially the Jenkins short print.

There were even some numbered cards.  Glad to finish off my 2009 Topps Unique team set with the Greene card.  I already had the Rasmus and Carpenter cards, but I know plenty of other Cardinals collectors who might be able to use them.

The binders had some parallels also, like these Opening Day blue foil cards.

I finished off the entire 2018 Topps Rainbow foil team set along with a couple from the Series 1 and 2.

My son found a couple of Altuve cards he needed in the quarter boxes.  

To round things out to an even $10, we pulled these from the quarter boxes.  

After a quick lunch, we headed to the game.  Our first stop was the Cardinals Authentics shop to purchase a game used ball from Tuesday night.

This was ball one to Jordan Walker in the bottom of the 7th inning.  He would walk, steal a base, then score the winning run.  Normally I would have Walker autograph this at Winter Warm Up in January, but with the impending strike will cancel the event.

I also met up with someone from a Facebook group and traded for this great bobblehead that was given out last Friday.  It plays a sound clip from Jack Buck calling the last out of the 1982 World Series and Joe Buck calling David Freese's home run in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series.  

It was a great day and a half that hopefully my son will remember for a few years.  We might have to make this an annual trip.  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #151

Quick post today before my son and I leave for St. Louis for a father son trip.  He moves to college next week, so this is our last opportunity to watch a game together for awhile.  We will be sweating our you know whats off tonight and tomorrow in the bleachers during the Cardinals Phillies games.  Not expecting much Cardinals offense with Christopher Sanchez and Zach Wheeler pitching.

Today's first trade came from member grim25.

Only two cards for this trade, but a Pujols insert and a 1990s parallel makes it worth the postage to me.  

The second trade came from member NY2NC01!

A couple of shiny cards from 2025 Chrome Platinum and 2025 A&G.  This is card number 839 in my Ozzie collection.  I would guess that total was higher.

Two pitchers whose time in St. Louis was too short.  Despite his attitude, I always rooted for Flaherty.  His 2021 season was great, but he has bounced around since then.  

I have a small stack of Altuve cards my son needs to put in his binders before he leaves.  I do not want them collecting dust on my table until Thanksgiving.  

  

Larger Trading Bases Trade

After working out a small trade in the Trading Bases group, I decided to surf a few pages to see if I could work out a larger one.  My search led me to Mark N's page.  He collects any card of Hall of Famers.  I had of stack of 20 or so cards, some being numbered that I exchanged for a great lot of Cardinals that arrived last weekend.  

I am a sucker for 1990s parallel cards.  These 1996 Summit Foil cards do not scan well, but look great in hand.

More 1990s goodness with Donruss Team Set and a Pennant  Edition parallel, a Score team card, and a Pinnacle Museum Collection .

Going back to 1980 to complete my Kellog's 3D team set.  There is a slight crack close to the catcher banner, but it is not very noticable.

2000 Topps Tek only had 20 versions.  A far cry from the 99 versions in the original 1998 set.

Always nice to trade for some premium brands.  I love the 2002 Pristine Musial.

Some nice Wainwright cards including a 2018 Heritage jersey card.

Speaking of Heritage, a few Chrome parallels along with a Winn insert.

The last of the Topps brands including another nice Musial card.

Finally a couple of Panini cards highlighted by a 2025 Donruss Statue of Liberty Ozzie Smith.  

  

  

Trading Bases Trade

The Trading Bases message group is one that I check every day, but rarely work out a trade on.  Other than member Ron B and a handful of others who also have a TCDB page, I have not traded with many members.  I guess I am too lazy to check out webpages for potential trades.  TCDB has me spoiled with the trade matching feature.  Recently member Bee B posted a list of 2026 Bowman cards for trade, including the last three I needed for my team set.  After a little work, we worked out a larger trade.

The above mentioned Bowman cards including a nice Wetherholt and Cardinals #1 prospect Rainiel Rodriguez.

My first 2025 Cosmic Chrome card is a former Cardinal.   I can say that with a lot of cards from the last two or three years since the Cardinals have moved toward a rebuilding stage.  

My son will be going away to college later this month.  I asked him if I should continue trading for Altuve cards.  His answer was of course.  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #150

Yesterday was a fun day to be a Cardinals fan.  2 trades brought 4 new prospects into the system.  The Cardinals managed to hit 5 home runs against the Yankees in a victory despite the bullpen's best effort to lose the game.  I really wish the team could have found a taker for Ryne Stanek.  Maybe he will get DFAed if he continues to give up home runs at a high rate.  I was scanning cards for today's post when he gave up 2 dingers on his first 3 pitches.  At least I had a distraction.  The first batch of cards came from member Ericd3043.

What better way to start than with a couple of Stadium Club parallels of 2 Hall of Famers.  

Panini did a good job with the 2025 Crusade cards.  You can almost overlook the lack of logos.

Walker has not hit a home run since the All Star break, but at least he is getting base hits.  There are plenty of Cardinals fans worried about the long term effects of winning the derby will have on his swing.

The second trade package came from member JoshSamBob.

This trade was suppose to be for 5 base cards from 2025 Chrome Platinum Anniversary.  When I was scanning the cards, I discovered the Maris and Gray cards are refractors.  The other trader did not mind the mistake.  

2026 Card Show #5 Recap

Saturday brought an unexpected trip to a card show.  I had plans to do some yard work, but it starting raining about 6 in the morning, and the forecast called for off an on showers all day.  For once the weatherman was right on that prediction.  My nephew also wanted to attend a show before he goes back to college in a couple of weeks.  We found one about an hour and half drive south of us that I had been to before.  I checked the show's Facebook page to make sure it was still being held since the National was also going on.  It was, although half the tables were Pokemon.  We did managed to find a few cards in the two hours we spent wandering the aisles.  I will add the promoter did a great job of dividing the room into sports and non sports.  Saved us a lot of time.

My first purchase of $2 added 3 Altuve cards to my son's collection including the first 2025 Topps Flagship card I have seen.

My second $2 purchase was for a needed 1965 Topps card.  There is a slight ding in the upper right corner, but otherwise it is in great shape.  I spent about 15 minutes talking to this older dealer about the current trends in the hobby.  Both of us shared a distaste for grading and flippers who have seem to overtaken the hobby.

My last purchase came from a dealer with nothing but $1 boxes.  I started with a 2026 Bowman insert of Cardinals #1 prospect Rainiel Rodriguez and a nice Pujols die cut that will be trade bait.  

Hard to pas up autographs for $1.  There are plenty of team collectors on TCDB who will gladly take these.

Last are a couple of 2026 Bowman Chrome parallels and a 2016 Topps Chrome purple refractor numbered to 275.  

This is my first show with my nephew.  Although he is 21 years old, he is just getting into cards.  He plays Division 2 baseball for a small school in Wichita, KS.  Last year his roommates busted packs on road trips and got him hooked.  I forgot how much fun it is teaching someone about the hobby.

  

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #149

Things did not start well for the Cardinals in their four game series against the Cubs last night.  After a 90 minute rain delay, they forgot how to pitch and lost 7-3 and dropped to .500 for the first time since April.  I said at the beginning of the season they would do well to finish .500, but the early season success left me more optimistic.  The overuse of the bullpen is finally catching up and the top four hitters have cooled off.  Maybe they can salvage a split this series.  

At least I had some cards to scan last night while I was watching the game.  First package came from member Geoff2568.  Despite the post office's best effort, the cards arrived 6 week after they were mailed.

I would like these 2026 Donruss cards more if the images were not so zoomed in.  Give me a little background with the picture.

I was really happy the package arrived with this 2002 Elite short print.  It is rare to find these at shows.

Doyle has turned in a few good outings recently in Double A.  He might get a late season promotion to Triple A.  On the outside chance the Cardinals are still fighting for a playoff berth, he might get a call up as a reliever.

The second package came from member oodrivero.

Funny how long it takes to get the last base card to complete a set without short prints.  I can now cross 1998 SP Authentic off my wantlist.

Some of the late 1980s and early 1990s minor league cards had two versions.  One that came in packs, and another that was a stadium giveaway.  These 1989 ProCards are the latter, as they have a Field company logo on the back.