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.

  

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.