$15 Twitter Lot

Happy Halloween everyone!  Both of my kids are in high school, so this holiday is pretty quiet around our house.  Living about 10 miles outside town does not lead to many trick or treaters coming by.  That is ok, though as I can just relax tonight, watch Game 3, and file away some cards I bought on Twitter.  A while back Frontz Crew Cardboard Collection was running a sale.  I bought a $15 Cardinals lot of mostly 2022 Topps Chrome cards and a handful of other inserts.  His well packaged lot arrived Saturday.

The $35 price tag for a blaster box will keep me from buying any 2022 Topps Chrome.  For less than half that price I got a nice variety of cards including these 3 Sepia refractors and 2 regular refractors.

The Carlson is a Magenta sparkle refractor numbered to 350.  Great looking card.  The Molina Pinstriped insert is very similar minus the color.  Lester started my chase for the pink refractors.

The other cards included a 2020 Negative refractor, a 2021 Optic pink, and 2 Gypsy Queen short prints.  Brock is from 2021, Musial from 2022.  These 12 cards are what I paid for, but the seller was very generous and included quiet a few more cards.  Along with a stack of 2022 base cards and some inserts I already had, he included 5 more cards.

Another 2022 pink refractor and a 2020 Sepia card added to the refractor count.  

More short prints, but this time from 2022 Topps Heritage along with a Goldschmidt insert.  Overall great value in this lot.  If you are on Twitter, make sure to check Frontz Crew out.

   

Unexpected Birthday Present

Today is my birthday.  I am north of 45 but still south of 50.  After I turned 40, they all seem the same.  Less hair on my head each year, with what is left turning grayer.  At least my waistline has not suffered a midlife crisis.  Thanks to trying to keep up with my son, I am still close to the weight I was when I graduated high school.  

Even at this age, I still get a few presents.  Some I know about, and others are unexpected.  One such surprise arrived on Monday from TCDB member OPADK Hokie.  He is a fellow Cardinals fan that I have traded with a couple times.  He took the time to look at my wantlists and sent 3 nice vintage cards.

First up is a 1960 Topps rookie of Cardinals great Duke Carmel.  He only played parts of 3 seasons in St. Louis with 70 total at bats.  This is my first card of his.  It has a small crease close to his cap, but otherwise is in good condition.  I am not picky about condition anyway, so this fits great into my collection.  

This 1965 Topps Buchek is my second card of his.  This one has a couple of soft corners and a tiny crease, but once again in overall good shape.  Bucheck played 7 years for the Cardinals and was a member of the 1964 and 1967 World Series teams.  

You should recognize the Cardinal on this 1969 Topps card.  I cannot say I have heard of the other 2 guys.  Gibson led the league in ERA during 1968 with a 1.12.  MLB lowered the pitching mound before the 1969 season to improve scoring.  This card is in great condition.  No creases and only 1 corner that is a little soft.  Overall a great package from a very generous trader.

  

  
  

Topps Gallery Blaster Box Break

Friday night my son and I made a Walmart run to pick up a few things I needed for some Saturday projects.  I let him talk me into going down the card aisle and picking out a blaster.  I was hoping to find Topps Archives, but no luck.  Instead we settled on a box of  Topps Gallery.  There were plenty of Topps Chrome blasters on the shelf, but the $10 difference in price made Gallery the easy choice.  With 7 packs of 4 cards each, the $24.99 price almost made the cards $1 each.  

We each pulled 1 Cardinal.  It is nice to see Pujols back in a Cardinals uniform on cardboard.

There was a nice mix of current and retired players.  From what I can tell, the current players have a blue corner while the retired greats have a brown one.

I forget the odds on the rainbow foil inserts.  It was either 1 in 2 or 3 packs.  Either way we hit it about right.

Each box contains 4 printer proof parallels.  Got some better names here compared to the rainbow foils.

We received 2 different inserts.  I believe these are roughly 1 per box.  Both of these will be easily traded for Cardinals.

Overall not a bad break.  Did I get my $25 worth of cards?  No, but I expect that when opening packs.  It is more about the fun and thrill of opening packs with my son.  

    

Completed Set

A little over a month ago, I wrote about my last trip to a  Cardinals game this year.  It was a fun day full of autographs and this bobblehead giveway.

The Pujols bobblehead is still selling for crazy money on EBAY a month later.  There are 25,000 of these floating around.  Not really scarce in my opinion.  The bid draw for most collectors is the other 2 bobbleheads that connect to Pujols.  I was unable to attend either game they were given out but managed to trade my extra Pujols for them.

Molina was given out on October 1.  I really like how the helmet can be raised or completely taken off.  I received this one a couple of weeks ago.

 
Wainwright was given out on September 30.  Someone on Facebook drove 2 hours on Saturday to trade me this and $20 for a Pujols.  I tried to tell him they could be mailed safely for around $10, but he chose to make the drive instead.  

The 3 of them make a neat scene when put together.  Glad I was able to complete my set without having to pay EBAY prices.  Completed auctions for the 3 of them are at least $300.  Mine is staying in my display case for a long time.  

$8 EBAY lot

It has been close to 2 months since I last showed off some cards from EBAY.  The cheapskate in me does not win too many auctions.  I bid on a handful of lots or box breaks but did not get lucky.  I also forgot to bid on a Ray Lankford card I needed.  It went for less than my max bid, but I am not sure how high the winning bidder may have gone.  

I did win 1 auction on October 11 for $8.00.  Paid the same day but did not receive the cards until October 22.  The seller is about 3 hours from me but did not mail them until October 19.  I docked his feedback for slow shipping and excessive shipping cost.  I paid $3 shipping for a standard envelope that cost him $1.05 to ship.  Even adding $1 for supplies did not justify the charge.  At least the 3 cards arrived safely.  

This 2016 Triple Threads Wainwright card was the main reason I bid.  I love getting bat relics of pitchers.  It is hard to see, but this one is numbered to 36.  Wainwright has already made up his mind about his status for next year, but will wait until the World Series is over to announce it.  My money is on him coming back for 1 more year.

This jumbo jersey piece is from 2018 Immaculate.  Yes, it is just a plain white swatch, but a nice card anyway.  I really hope Flaherty returns to his 2019 or 2021 form.  An injury-free winter should help.  

The final card and 3rd different pitcher of the group was this 2019 Dakota Hudson autograph.  It will be interesting to see where the Cardinals use him next year.  He walks too many people to be a good starter.  That leads to a high pitch count and plenty of people on base.  I can see him starting the year in the bullpen, then moving into the rotations once a started gets injured.      

      

6 Pack from the Devil

I have traded with TCDB member DukeyDevil 3 times this year.  He has a very large wantlist that is easy to hit.  Recently he has added quite a few cards for trade included some Cardinals that I needed.  I waited until he had 6 I needed to make the trade worth the postage.  His pwe arrived at my mailbox yesterday.  

My first cards from the 1991 Line Drive set were these 3 Hall of Famers.  I love the simple design and color off these cards.  The Line Drive logo is pretty sharp also.

Ozzie Smith has a ton of oddball cards from the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Being a Hall of Famer and about the only big name player on those Cardinals teams would be the cause of that.  This 1992 Post Canada Superstar card has a pull tab top that I did not want to try.  It looks like it reveals a mini card.

My 2005 Sweet Spot team set is now complete thanks to this Edmonds card.  I always considered Sweet Spot one of the first premium brands.  

Last card is from 2021 Bowman Sterling.  The card would look a lot better with just a simple team logo in the corner instead of the big X.  Liberatore had a taste of the majors this year, but had problems with his control.  Hopefully next year he can be more consistent.  I can see him being in the bullpen for a bit before joining the rotation.  

Forgot About One

Just before the regular season ended, I worked out a trade with TCDB member timriess.  This is our 12th trade on the site.  I have mentioned numerous times about trading my Cardinal duplicates to him.  When we started trading, I had over 400 cards he needed.  That number is now less than 50.  Somehow the latest cards I received from him where almost filed away without scanning them.  Better give them a proper send off.

Wainwright is now sitting at home watching the playoffs like the rest of the Cardinals.  The big difference is he may not be coming back.  My gut says he will pitch 1 more year.  If not, I am sure Topps will still make plenty of cards of him like this 2022 Series 2 silverpack card.   

Reyes is another pitcher with an uncertain future for the Cardinals.  His is more due to injuries.  I hope he gets 1 more shot next year.  Unlike Wainwright, I doubt Topps will continue to crank out his cards.

Carlson had a very down year.  Barring a trade or the Cardinals signing a big-name free agent, he will still be a starting outfielder in 2023.  I hope with a little more seasoning, he will be a more consistent hitter.  Since he is still young,  there will be no shortage of his cards being made.  Panini put out a ton of them in the 2021 Chronicles set, like this Holo Phoenix insert.  

Gyorko had nothing to do with the 2022 Cardinals.  He has not played in the majors since the 2020 season.  I still have a few of his cards to chase down for some team sets.  Most of them are parallels like this 2018 Topps Gold.  I love the action shot on this card.

 

$5 Twitter Lot

Last week I participated in a Twitter stack sale.  It happened each day from 3-5, so I was able to watch most of it from work.  It looked very promising on Monday.  I bought 4 different Cardinals.  Things slowed down, though, as I only added 1 more for the rest of the week.  These 5 Cardinals ended up being $5 delivered.  

I am a sucker for Bowman refractors.  Carlson and Gorman did not have great seasons, but I still believe they will be solid regulars before too long.

Winn is currently playing in the Arizona Fall League.  He should start next year at shortstop for Triple A Memphis.  He does not have very many cards yet, so I did not mind grabbing a nice colored parallel from Panini for $1.  

If you asked me before September whos the NL MVP would be, I would have said Goldschmidt no doubt.  After a really bad month,  I would say it is a 3 way race between him, Arenado, and Machado.

I usually do not like paying $1 for Topps Gold cards, but these are getting harder to find.  The overproduction of flagship Topps makes these harder to pull than what they should be.