New Cardinals Auto from EBAY

I am one of those weird team collectors who get excited to add an obscure player's autograph to my collection.  I have a list of former Cardinals who have certified autographs which I do not have.  Most cost less than $10, but some do not appear very often.  My latest EBAY purchase is a great example.

This 2004 UD Prosigs cost about $7 delivered.  I have been searching for this card for a long time.  I have seen it at some card shows near St. Louis but I did not like the double-digit price tag.  Calero completes my team set.  The autographs that year were part of the base set.  The throwback uniform is a great look.   

To my knowledge, this is Calero's only certified auto in a Cardinals uniform.  He does have a couple of autos in an A's uniform.  Calero played 2 seasons in St. Louis before being traded to Oakland in the Mark Mulder deal.  He was a pretty good reliever for 3 seasons before getting hurt.  He finished up his career with 1 year as a Marlin.      

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #69

Anybody else notice how slow the post office has been the past month?  Some of my trades take twice as long to reach their destination.  In the past, it took 3-4 days for something to arrive from my house to Denver.  The last 2 times it has taken 5-6 days.  You would think with the increase in stamps service would at least stay the same.  I guess we are talking about the USPS where nothing is really predictable.  At least my packages are still arriving.  This one from member timmy16 arrived on Saturday.

2 Topps Gold cards of former Cardinals.  Back in 2014, Carlos Martinez was a future star.  He was an All Star in 2015 and 2017, but lost his effectiveness shortly after.  He last pitched in the MLB for Boston in 2021.  DeJong has moved on to the White Sox this year.  I still root for him because he was always a nice guy anytime I met him.

I am ashamed to say I have not completed the 2014 Stadium Club team set yet.  After adding Wong, I am left with the Ozzie Smith card on my want list.  I believe Wong is still unsigned.  Makes sense when guys like Matt Chapman are still available.

Second trade envelope arrived a week ago from member danaadk.

I am also working on my 2023 Stadium Club team set.  With any luck it will be finished in a few weeks.

Nice to add one of the short prints from 2023 A&G.  Still have 4 more Cardinals to acquire to finish this one.  

    

  

       

Fourth Lankford of 2024

2023 saw me spend the most money on my Ray Lankford collection in a long time.  Panini included him in Donruss, Chronicles, and Immaculate and cranked out close to 50 new cards.  I have managed to track down most of them other than printing plates and some cards with a print run of less than 5.  

Earlier this month Panini released 2023 Flawless.  I was excited to see Lankford was included in the checklist.  My bank account was not so excited to see all 12 cards autographed and numbered to 25 or less.  I hope 2024 is not more expensive than 2023.  A handful of them have surfaced on EBAY, 2 with a starting price over $50.  That is too rich for my blood.  I was able to buy one for about $25 that arrived on Saturday.

This is the ruby version of the Signatures card.  It looks bronze in this scan, but is much closer to red in person.  Great looking card and very thick.  I will have to track down a version of his Achievements card that highlights his hitting for the cycle during his rookie year.    
      

Monthly Ron B Package

TCDB member and one of my favorite trading partners Ron B sent his seemingly monthly package my way this week.  Even though I know most of the cards that are coming, it is still a thrill to open his packages.  This one did not disappoint.

Starting off with a trio of Pujols cards, including 2 short prints.  The 2008 Heritage card has the black ink variation on the back.  

A couple of regular inserts, one from Gallery and one from Series 1.  I have set a goal to own the Gibson rookie card in 3 years.  By that time, I will have my mortgage paid off and only 1 child in college.  

A 3 pack of A&G minis, including 2 versions of a 2016 Matt Holiday.  If you look closely, you will notice the A&G back is the no number version that has a print run of 50.  

Ron has great luck finding Cardinals refractors in bargain boxes.  

He also found a stash of colored parallels.  Wish I could find Topps gold cards for a dime or quarter.  

Moving to the Panini portion of the trade with 2 Hall of Fame cards and a should be Hall of Famer in Boyer.  

The Panini refractor type portion of the trade was colorful.  Both the Wynn and Coleman cards are beautiful in hand.  

Ron never forgets to include some Altuve cards for my son.  If you happen to be on TCDB, his id is RonSolo1.  Very easy to deal with and a great person to send your unwanted Pirate cards to.

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #68

Almost did not get today's post in.  Left my house at about 4:30 this morning to take my wife to the hospital for a knee scope to clean up a torn meniscus.  We were back home by 9:00.  Amazing how far some medical surgeries have come.  She is resting comfortably with an ice pack right now, so I have some spare time before dinner needs to be fixed.

First trade consisted of 3 cards from member Rooty10.

Edman has been slowed a little from offseason surgery but should be ready to start the season.  Arenado has mentioned coming back strong after a down 2023 season.  I hope so.  

Jordan Montgomery is still unemployed.  I would be thrilled to see him back in St. Louis, but there is little chance the Cardinals will pay up for him.

Second trade came from member Tastybrisket10.

It is nice to be able to add a Walker card via trade.  This one is a factory set rookie variation.  The Libby is a nice 1988 insert.  

Ozzie Smith has been spending the last few days in spring training working with the Cardinals infielders, especially shortstop Masyn Winn.  Maybe Topps can create a Then & Now Heritage insert of them in the next year or two.  This 2023 A&G mini is an ad back.

This is one of those cards I swore my son already had, but somehow never picked up.  Another reason why I always check his list before completing a trade.

  

Something Old, Something New, Something Lou

TCDB member DukeyDevil is a very busy man.  A look at his trade activity shows almost 3200 completed deals in close to 6 years.  That is almost 1.5 trades per day.  Crazy to think about the time he spends pulling cards and also the amount of postage he pays.  We completed our 6th trade last week, which brought me a nice variety of Cardinals.

The older cards in the trade feature 2 1982 Cramer Legends, a 1978 TMCA, and a 1984 Topps Rubdown.  All cool additions despite not being from mainstream sets.

The new portion features 4 shiny cards.  My 2023 Finest set is down to 1 short print.  My favorite of the bunch is the 2023 Topps silver pack Herrera.  I really hope he does well as the backup catcher this year with his first real chance of playing time.  

This is Lou Brock #250 in my collection.  This 2000 Upper Deck Hitter's Club insert is not the greatest design, but it is hard to go wrong with 2 Hall of Famers on the same card.

My son was not left out, adding this 2021 Bowman's Best base card.  It looks nice next to the refractor and atomic refractor he already has. 

Seeing Stars

One of my larger trade envelopes arrived a couple of days ago.  It contained 22 new Cardinals for my collection, all arriving in a single pwe.  I was a little hesitant to open the envelope for fear that I would find some damaged cards, but all arrived in great shape.  Kudos to TCDB member cjswinko for the careful packaging.  All but 2 of the cards featured stars.

Mulder was a very good pitcher for the As, but could not stay healthy during his time with the Cardinals.  He did manage to get a World Series ring, though.  I was thrilled to cross this 2006 Finest off my wantlist.  
 

O'Neill was another player who could not stay healthy.  When he did, he played great.  Best of luck to him in Boston.  

The final 20 cards did include some star players on star bordered cards.  These 2023 Topps cards were released by Fanatics in factory set form.  All 660 cards from Series 1 and 2 are included.  I have 7 more Cardinals to find to finish the set.  

2023 Stadium Club Box Break

Last week I bought into a hobby box break of 2023 Stadium Club.  The cost was $13 for 2 teams, 1 of which was random.  I ended up with the White Sox as my second team.  I will spare the scans of those cards as I ended up with 5 base cards and a red foil Dylan Cease.  Nobody comes here to see White Sox cards anyway.  I did ok with the Cardinals part of the break.

The break started off well with the Arendado box topper.  This card measures close to 4"x 6".  

Also received a nice Goldschmidt insert.  I believe this was in the second or third pack.  

The rest of the break netted me 6 base cards.  As always the photos are great.  I have never seen the Musial image before.  Nice to get some big names out of the way.

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #67

Anyone else getting excited for the start of spring training?  The Cardinals first official day for pitchers and catchers is tomorrow, but I have seen plenty of social media posts with a lot of players already in camp.  Games will start before you know it.  

Tomorrow also happens to be the release date for 2024 Topps, although there have been some already out.  I will most likely skip the pack busting and either join a group break, or trade for the team set.  You may see some in a 2 for Tuesday post in the future.  Until then, here are a couple of trades from last week.  First up is a 4 pack of Cardinals from member Ballantine.

I love adding these oddball cards like this 1988 Starting Lineup to my collection.  Other than the 3 Ray Lankford figures I bought years after release on EBAY, the only figure I ever purchased was a 1989 Vince Coleman.  The SLU figures were hard to find in my area.

A trio of 2023 Topps Chrome cards.  Yepez is now a National, while Gorman should see plenty of time at second base and DH this year.  If he stays healthy, 30 home runs should be an attainable goal.

Second trade came from frequent partner Orry04.

It is easy to work out a trade with him because he is an Astros fan who always has some duplicate Altuve cards my son needs.

I also managed to find a handful of Cardinals I can use.  Nice to add another Topps Gold parallel to the collection.

Big First for My Collection

My Cardinals collection is a rather large one, coming in just under 27,000 cards.  I am currently #1 on the TCDB list, but I know some collectors who have more cards than me; just have not entered them on the website.  There are also some collectors who have a more impressive collection than mine.  One Cardinals fan from Indiana has the best autograph collection I have seen.  He has most of the SP Legendary Cuts autographs of Cardinals who played before 1950.  Very impressive.

One area of my collection that I tried to focus on last year was vintage.  I added quite a few Cardinals from the 1950s and 1960s.  I should complete a few sets this year.  Some of them only need short prints or a Hall of Famer like Lou Brock or Bob Gibson to finish.  Maybe I will be able to complete one tomorrow at a card show.  

One Hall of Famer who has been absent from my vintage collection is Stan Musial.  Up until a trade last week with TCDB member jsteved, the oldest Musial card in my collection was from 1980.  I traded a duplicate 1963 Topps Bob Gibson for this:

My first vintage Musial is from 1962 Topps.  It is off-centered, but not as bad as my scanner made it out to be.  It does have some of the wood border showing on the right side.  Some soft corners but no major creases.  I am very thankful to this member, as the Gibson I sent his way was not in this good of shape.    
      

Third Lankford of 2024 ... Sort Of

Any player collector who is a member of TCDB has their opinion on what constitutes a new card when there is a slight variation.  Donruss sets from the early 1990s are notorious for missing periods or having slight border differences.  For the most part, I did not actively seek the Ray Lankford variations.  I was lucky enough to find another Cardinals collector who had most of them, and we worked out a trade last fall.

Topps was not exempt from the craze.  1991 flagship had some glow backs and dark logos, while Stadium Club had cards with 1 or 2 * on the back.  Topps took things to the next level with 1993 Topps Gold contest cards.  Collectors can chase after cards with contest backs, checklists backs, and A, B , C, D versions.  Very confusing.  Lankford has 8 different versions.  My 5th different card arrived from EBAY earlier this week. 

You almost have to get out a magnifying glass to make out the players.  Lankford is the last card on the second row.

An up close scan is not much better.  At least you can make out the Cardinals uniform.  This treasure cost me about $2.  One of the other versions is more rare and goes fro $10-15.  I am not quite ready to pay that price for this type of card.  My player collecting insanity does have its limits.  
        

Better than a Blaster EBAY Lot

Like quite a few other collectors, I have all but sworn off buying packs.  I believe last year I purchased 2 blasters.  I was never looking for the big hit.  My son and I just enjoyed the thrill of opening cards.  Now that he is a little older, we find more enjoyment in digging through boxes at card shows.  It lasts longer and certainly is a better return on investment.  

The money I save from buying packs goes into my card show and EBAY budget.  Since the last show I went to was a dud, I had some money left over from my January budget to go EBAY shopping.  Last week, I found a great 10-card Cardinals lot for a little less than the price of a blaster.

I have another copy of this Walker, but his cards are easy to trade to other Cardinals fans.  

The top 2 minis are the base version, while the bottom 2 are the rookie design variations.  These are all new to my collection.

This is my first Tommy Edman relic.  Nothing fancy, but I always try to get 1 autograph and 1 relic of a player.  

The 4 cards include my first certified autographs of Winn, Levenson, and DeLuzio.  The Levenson is numbered to 250.  The Winn card alone usually sells for what I gave for the lot.  It is a sticker auto, but I am a sucker for autographs showing Cardinals in minor league uniforms.

Overall the lot was a great buy.  The seller did a wonderful job packaging each card in its own sleeve and top loader, then sealed them in a team bag.  Hopefully he he will have more lots in the future.  

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #66

I had plenty of small trades to choose from for today's 2 for Tuesday post.  I believe there were 8 stacks of cards on my deck waiting to be scanned.  I will eventually get to them all, but for now you get the usual 2 small TCDB trades.  First up is my 18th trade with fellow Cardinals fan timriess.

My 2023 Bowman Platinum team set is now complete.  It was very helpful Tim was in a box break and received a few duplicates.

Second trade was with another Cardinals collector, cchstove.

The 2 cards finished my 2014 Panini Classics team set of 10 cards.  It is nice to complete an older set every now and then.

Topps should try to use a consistent color for its Gold parallels.  There is a big difference between the 2021 Miller card and the 2022 O'Neill card.  They should get back to using the same border from the mid to late 2000s.  Those were true gold cards.  

  

$14 Cardinals Lot from The Bench

 After coming home from the card show disappointment a week ago Saturday, I was surfing my usual card sites looking to make some trades.  I managed to complete a few, but I also found a nice Cardinals lot for sale on The Bench that was too good to pass up.  I spent $14 on a 12 card lot that included a handful of pass cards and these highlights.

  

I doubt Rodriguez will ever see St. Louis, but he is a player I did not have an autograph of.  I also saw him play a few times last year in Peoria.

2 Chrome Sapphire parallels numbered to 50, but of different colors.  The yellow Mejia really stands out in person.  I doubt he will make it to Peoria this year, but maybe in 2025, I will see him.  Good luck to O'Neill in Boston this year.  If he can stay healthy, he should have a big year.

Another card numbered to 50 is this 2023 Tribute purple Contreras.  The other card is the base.  

A couple of nice Goldschmidt cards including my 6th game used card of his.  1987 borders and baby blue jersey make a great combination.  The sepia refractor is sharp also.