A Fine PWE Trade

Before I took a break earlier this month from trading, I was getting frustrated with a recent run of pwe trades.  Lately, traders have been getting lazy and/or cheap with their packaging.  I do 90% of my trades with pwe, so I have seen a variety of methods.  As long as the cards arrive safely, I do not care.  One trader was so lazy he stuck 5 cards into a small thank you card.  No protection, not even a penny sleeve.  4 of them had badly bent corners, including a nice refractor numbered to 499.  When I messaged him, he was shocked that the cards did not arrive okay.  Needless to say, I left him negative feedback.

The handful of trades I have received since then has been great, including one from TCDB member alchapman.  He sent 5 Cardinals in sleeves taped to a thin piece of cardboard.  The perfect way to ship that is still not expensive.      

A fine trade should include some Finest cards.  I am not crazy about the 2022 design.  The random lines going every which direction do not have much eye appeal.

I hope the Cardinals give Jordan Walker a long look next year.  Start him every day and see what happens.  

Panini did well with this 2024 Red and Blue parallel.  No need to airbrush Ozzie's uniform on helmet.

The last card was a mini of former Cardinals great Juan Yepez.  My guess is that the Nationals will trade him to a contending team next year, and he will become a playoff star.  Lane Thomas and Tommy Edman are the latest former Cardinals to have playoff success.      

Cardinals EBAY Auto

I had some spare time last night to clean up a few cards that have been on my desk for about a week.  It was not a large stack, but getting a few things filed away still felt good.  One of the cards was a recent EBAY win.

My first Kyle Leahy auto set me back about $3.50.  This one is numbered to 199.  He appeared in 33 games this year as a reliever with an  ERA of just over 4.  Serviceable, I guess, but nothing outstanding.  Leahy will most likely get a shot to be in the bullpen in 2025 since he is a cheap option.    

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #92

This 2 for Tuesday is over a month since the last one.  I need to get busy working on more trades so this does not happen again.  First up is a 4 pack of Cardinals from member BristolBob.

These are my first cards from 2024 Topps Pro Debut.  There are only 5 Cardinals in the set, so this one should be done quickly.

My 2023 Topps Chrome Platinum team set is slowly coming along.  9 more to acquire in order to finish the 24 card set, not counting the short print variations.  

The second trade was with a newer member, victornegroncards.  I received a couple of Cardinals.  Being a trader with less than 5 feedback, I did not want to invest much into the trade in case something did not work out.  I am happy to say all is well and I would gladly trade with him again.

I love me some gold parallels, whether they are Ultra or Topps.

You almost have to do a double-take to ensure this is a Cardinals card and not Boston.  The lime green distorts the red somewhat.    

    

  

Card Show Recap

Saturday was the first time in 2 months that my son did not have a soccer game and/or a band competition.  Both those activities have come to an end for another season.  What better way to waste a Saturday than to hit up a card show.  Luck was on our side as there was a 100-table show about an hour away in my daughter's college town.  While my wife took her clothes shopping, my son and I spent a couple hours looking at cardboard.

Being my first show in 2 months, I was excited to hit some bargain boxes and add some vintage Cardinals to the collection.  We managed to do a little of both.  Dime boxes were nowhere to be found except for some recent Topps base cards.  Dollar boxes were the norm at this show, but we did manage to find a few quarter boxes.  We pulled 8 cards, 3 of which were Cardinals.

Nothing earth-shattering here, but all welcome additions. 

Our next stop was a dealer from whom we had bought a few vintage cards from before.  He remembered us and produced a newly restocked box of $1 cards.  We found 9 Cardinals from my want list.

Hard to pass up 1959 Topps cards for $1 each.  The Grammas has some surface issues, but overall these are in good shape.  At the very least, they are good placeholders until I find better copies.

I doubt I will upgrade any of these 1960 Topps cards.  Slight fuzzy corners, but I do not mind that at all.

The last 3 include a 1962 Topps, 1965 Topps, and  1975 Hostess.  No upgrades needed here either.  

Our final purchase came from a dealer with some numbered cards in a $1 box.  He cut us a deal by charging $5 for these 8 cards.  

I was thrilled to find the short print rookie cards for $1 each before the discount.  I rarely see these types of cards at shows.  With most being over 20 years old, I doubt many are floating around.  

We spent $20, including admission.  I was looking for a nice vintage Musial, Brock, or Gibson to add, but no luck.  I saw a few graded copies, but I prefer raw.  Maybe next time.

    

    
    

    

Sportlots Order

It has been almost 3 weeks since my last post.  I took a break from almost everything card-related for a few weeks.  I checked the blogs and TCDB daily but did not work out any trades.  Having no pile of cards to scan or file away was refreshing, but I missed the excitement of checking the mail to find what new Cardinals arrived.  Last week, I worked out a handful of trades that have yet arrived.  I also placed my first Sportlots order in almost a year.

I hoped to hit up a card show last Saturday, but my son's soccer game and band competition did not allow it.  After I got home that night, I decided to surf Sportlots for a few cards.  I was lucky to find 1 dealer with a large inventory offering $4 shipping for 40 cards.  I ordered 38 Cardinals and 2 Altuve cards that arrived earlier this week.  

Most of this order consisted of cards to complete team sets released over 20 years ago.  These were the last 4 1990 Topps O-PEE-CHEE cards I needed.  I am one of those weird collectors who wants the team checklist card.

1992 and 1993 Topps Gold team sets are now complete.  

The Oliva is a 1996 Fleer Tiffany parallel.  It did not complete a set, but for 20 cents, I will gladly take it.  The other 3 cards completed team sets.  

I did finish 2 parallel sets.  1997 and 1999 Bowman International cards do not scan well.  Glad to add all of these for less than a quarter each.

I knocked out several Topps Chrome cards from my want list from 1998, 2001, and 2002.  Some of them have the typical curling, but for the most part, they are in perfect condition.  I need 2 more cards to finish 1998, 1 for 2001 ( the Pujols RC), and 7 for 2002.  

I hoped to find a few Ultra Gold Medallion parallels, but this Morris from 2002 was the only one.

Carlton finished my 2004 Upper Deck Timeless Teams set, while the Bottomley 2002 Topps Tribute card was my most expensive purchase for $0.75.  

2006 Finest and 2015 Bowman's Best sets are also done.  The 2005 Donruss Team Heroes lacks 1 more card from being complete.  

I needed 2 more cards to get to the 40 card shipping limit and was tired of searching for Cardinals, so I found a couple of Altuve cards for my son.

Including shipping, my total for the 40 cards was $14.28.  That was most likely much less than I would have spent at the show.

  

    

  
  
          

A Few of the Many From Kerry

2 weeks ago, I received a very nice package from my favorite Cardinals blogger, Kerry .  We completed a large TCDB trade involving 35 Cardinals going in each direction.  Although my stats show this was our fifth trade on the site, there have been quite a few more.  We help each other out by exchanging duplicates.  

Kerry is a great source of cards for my in-person autographing needs.  I often look at his Cardinals trade list when picking out a card to have autographed.  I always like to keep a copy unsigned for my collection.  Of the 35 cards I received, 28 of them were replacements.  Here are the 7 cards new to my collection.

This is my favorite of the bunch.  2011 Topps Cognac Diamond Anniversary parallels have a great design.  They have more of a gold finish in person instead of the bronze look my scanner gave this card.

Despite his down 2024 season, I am still an Arenado fan.  He may not be the same 35 home run, 120 RBI guy, but I think 25 and 100 would still be in reach.  

It is hard to tell from the scan, but the Lester is Metallic parallel.  This is Goldy #345 in my collection.  Not sure I will reach the 400 mark with his unsure future this offseason.  He is another guy I would not mind having back, but it would have to be at a reduced rate.  

The Panini portion of the package features a nice Wainwright Prizm and one of the many brands from 2022 Panini Chronicles.  Recon is not a bad design.  The photo choice helped to hide the lack of logos.  

  

          

Card Shop Quarters

I spent yesterday afternoon scanning the remaining cards on my desk and filing them away in my team boxes.  Every time I accomplish this feat, it is bittersweet.  I love being able to say I am all caught up, but I do not like the fact I do not have any trades coming in.  

When I was filing cards away, I realized I had a stack of cards I had forgotten about.  On September 1, my son and I had the chance to visit a new card shop.  My wife and daughter wanted to shop, so we found a shop a few miles from the mall.  The shop was well organized, with showcases organized by sport.  Vintage and modern cards were also separated.  I did not spend much time looking at those, but I did notice a stack of 5000 count boxes.  The owner informed us everything was a quarter, and they were all organized by sport.  That was music to my ears.  We spent close to an hour going through 4 of the boxes.  We pulled 20 cards, most of which were former Cardinals.

There was almost a full box of Donruss parallels.  Not very many that I needed, though.

 

There were quite a few other Panini parallels.  The Mosaic red Edman is a great looking card.

We managed to find a few needs for a small run of Topps Chrome refractors.

A few Topps parallels, including the only current Cardinal Goldschmidt.  

My favorite card was this 1997 Flair Showcase.  I found a few older premium cards from Showcase, Upper Deck Encore, and SP Legendary Cuts, but only this Young that I needed.

The $5 we spent was cheap entertainment for an hour.  We will most likely visit again, as the shop is in the same town as my daughter's college.  

 

  

Shiny Trade

Happy Friday!  Only a few games left in the season for the Cardinals.  They will be eliminated from the wild card with their next loss or a Mets win.  At this point, I prefer that they finish as badly as possible to get a better draft pick.  It does not matter if they finish third or last.  

I plan on listening to the game tonight while I file away some recent trades.  Some of the cards are from today's recap of a trade from TCDB member Sandycoach.

I am slowly plugging away at my 2024 Topps Chrome team set.  4 more to add before this set is complete.

My 2023 Platinum Anniversary team set is a lot farther behind.  I need another 10 cards for this one.

This card makes 785 Ozzie cards in my collection.  I thought I would be closer to 1,000 with as many cards as Topps and Panini put out every year.  I will have to make one of my 2025 resolutions to reach at least 850.    

         

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #91

My trading picked up last week, as I completed four trades on TCDB.  I'm not sure I will have time to scan them all this week, but I will get my customary two small ones out of the way today.  First up are a couple of cards from user JEGoethe.  He also sent a few 2019 Topps Busch Stadium cards I use for autographs, but I have already shown them off plenty of times. 

This is the last non-variation I needed for my 2023 Stadium Club team set.  Flaherty has pitched well for the Dodgers except for his last start.  It will be interesting to see where he signs this winter.

This card shows what a crazy team collector I am.  I am not a big fan of mini cards, and I am even a lesser fan of Heyward.  After being traded, he only spent one season in St. Louis, then left in free agency to sign with the Cubs.  No explanation needed.

The second trade came from member williams3b.

The 1993 Stadium Club Murphy set consists of draft picks and players who made the 1992 All-Star Game. Despite a third-place finish that year, the Cardinals sent four players to the All-Star Game: the three players pictured in the top row along with Ozzie Smith.

That is an extreme close-up of Luis Ordaz on his 1997 Bowman International parallel.  This is another parallel set that I will struggle to finish, just like Topps Gold and Ultra Gold Medallion.    
    

      

2 EBAY Pickups including 15th New Lankford of 2024

Last week was a big EBAY week for me, but not in terms of items bought, as I only made two purchases.  I bought 2 cards, one being a Topps Now card from a game I attended earlier this year, the second a new Ray Lankford card.

I will be the first to admit I am not a Topps Now fan. It seems like another money grab. If they are cheap, I will buy one from the games I attended.  Goldschmidt hit a walk-off home run on July 28 this year.  For less than $5, I thought this was a good buy.  

My newest Lankford card is another autograph from 2023 Panini Flawless.  This is my fourth version of this card.  I still need two more, one numbered to 5 and the 1 of 1.  It was ironic this card was delivered on Saturday, as the back of the card celebrates Lankford hitting for the cycle on September 15, 1991.    
      
  

Topps Hobby Rip Night

Starting yesterday, my next five Saturdays will consist of driving my son back and forth between soccer and band competitions.  It is amazing there are no time conflicts yet, but we still do not know the schedule for the last weekend.  Yesterday the two locations were two hours apart.  After winning his game 5-0 in the morning, we made the drive north.  He arrived 1.5 hours before the band performed, so my wife and I had time to drive another 20 minutes to a card shop.

We had been to this shop back in August  on National Trading Card Day.  This time it was Topps Hobby Rip Night.  This day also involved customers receiving a free pack of cards.  My wife opened hers first and did pretty well.

Always nice to pull a Pujols card I do not have.  The Holliday is a red or orange parallel.  Not sure the odds on pulling one, but it is a nice color match.

My pack was not as good, but still some nice cards.

The Jeter already has a home, while the Will should not be very hard to trade.  Everything in the shop was 10% off.  I passed on all the wax packs and dug through 2 $1 boxes to find 4 cards.

I have the Goldschmidt card, but I was not going to pass up a photo variation for less than $1.  I did need the Crooks sapphire card.

There was a small stack of 2024 Chrome refractors.  I pulled the Williams for another trader on TCDB, while the Butler was an impulse buy.  The A's are not doing well, but Butler is quietly having a good season.  The raywave cards look cool in person.  

   

2024 American Cancer Society Day At Busch Stadium #2

The second ACS day at Busch was this past Sunday.  It followed the same format as the first one, with autographs before the game being the main draw.  The pregame crowd was larger this time, but we were still able to get most of the autographs we wanted.

While my wife held our place in another line, my son and I got 2 other players.  Fermin has not played much this year, nor does he have much of a future with the Cardinals, but he is someone I do not have an autograph from.  He has several certified autographs this year that I also need to get a copy of.

Politte was at the same table as Fermin.  I have gotten his autograph a few other times, but not on these.  He liked the SP Top Prospect card.  

We joined our wife in the Victor Scott line next.  His line was by far the longest.  He had not seen the 2024 Pristine card yet.  I was lucky to find an EBAY seller with one for sale a couple hours north of me.  He also commented on the Peoria card and wanted to know if we had his bobblehead from there ( I do).

I was a little selfish and double-dipped Scott. Although autographs are advertised as one per person, I saw numerous people in front of us getting two or three cards signed.  This ball turned out great.

Former reliever Mike Crudale was our next autograph.  We had wanted to get in the Luken Baker and Al Hrabosky line first, but I do not think we would have made it to the front before time was up.  That is ok, as I have not gotten Crudale before.

I have lost track of how many times we have met John Costello.  It must be at the last five or six.  I am running out of different cards for him to sign.

Kyle Leahy was scheduled to sign, but he was demoted to Triple A on Saturday.  His replacement, Chris Roycroft, signed instead.  He signed a Busch Stadium card for me on the other ACS day, so he signed one of the generic postcards that was available on the tables. 

The game itself was a stinker.  Miles Mikolas gave up 7 runs in 2 innings, making it difficult for the Cardinals to come back.  We left after the 8th inning to beat some traffic.  Final score was 10-4 in favor of the Mariners.  The highlight for me was watching Julio Rodriguez interact with the crowd in between innings.  He would also throw a ball into the stands after warming up but made the crowd work for it.