Big Bench Trade

Before the holiday rush set in, I was able to complete a large trade on The Bench with member Brad M.  I sent him 3 insert sets from 2002 Studio in exchange for a little cash and a large Cardinals lot.  I reduced some clutter, made a little spending money, and adding some great Cardinals to my collection.  

Who does not love oddball discs?  Ozzie is a 1988 Fantastic Sam's disc, while Coleman is from the 1991 Cadaco board game.  I count the Coleman as a Cardinal because he is pictured as one, although the back lists him as a Met.  

Another oddball Ozzie, this one from 1994 Churchs Hometown Stars.  Ozzie turns 71 today.  Clayton is a silver parallel from 1998 Pacific, while the bottom 2 are 1999 Fleer Tradition warning track parallels.  

The last 2 base cards are from 2002 Topps Super Teams and 1999 Just.  I love the Super Teams set, wish Topps would bring that brand back.

The Panini portion featured mostly colored parallels.  The pink ice Molina and blue ice Smith from 2024 Prizm are very sharp.

The was a nice variety of Topps inserts, ranging from 2005-2025.

Chrome cards were also well represented.

Two minis from 2023 Allen & Ginter.

Two more Pujols inserts. The card on the left is a 2005 Topps Rookie Cup reprint.

I added to my game used collection with this 2007 Bowman Heritage card.

My son also added a game used card to his Altuve collection, along with a Prism refractor.

My favorite card of the trade is this 2025 Topps Black parallel numbered to 74.  2026 will most likely be a make or break year for Walker.  Fingers crossed he breaks through.

  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #130

Just two short days until Christmas.  I hope you have all your shopping done.  Mine was pretty easy this year, as the wife took both of my children on a shopping trip.  It takes away the surprise, but at 18 and 21 years old, they do not mind.  Enough of my rambling, time to show off a few cards.  First up are a couple of cards from member cdsforme.

It is hard to pass up a great looking Molina card.  This one is from 2019 Topps X Lindor set.  

My son added a nice 2017 Topps On Demand Altuve card.  This one has a print run of 1,129.

The second trade package came from member jamestagli.

A little bit of color with a 2007 Bowman gold parallel and a 2019 Topps Update 1984 blue insert.  

Here are 3 cards that have nothing in common, but I did not want to scan each separately.  Carpenter is a 2011 Topps Lineage insert, Pujols is a 2025 Donruss Optic parallel, and Flaherty is a 2020 Topps Sticker back.  Most collectors would show the front of the card picturing Aaron Judge, but not this Cardinals collector.    
 

Third Time is a Charm

I have a handful of traders I try to find some bargains for at card shows.  Most of them are team traders who always seem to have cards I need.  TCDB member bdhrbob is one of those guys.  He is a Cubs fan who would loves dumping  his Cardinals on me.  I have been asked a few times at shows why a Cardinals fan is buying a bunch of Cubs.  It is easy finding good deals for his collection when I am close to St. Louis.  We recently completed our third trade of 2026.  I am certain I owe him after this trade.  I sent him 2 inserts in exchange for these 11 Cardinals.

My 2025 Topps Update team set is now complete.  

2025 Prizm is a rather boring looking set, but the team collector in me still chases after the Cardinals.  The OCD in me just cannot let them go.

My first 2025 Allen & Ginter cards includes a nice Bruce Sutter short print.  I am not sure why Topps game a non playoff team like the Cardinals 18 cards in this set.  That is 2 more than the Dodgers.

The highlight of the package was this 2025 A&G Saggese autograph, my first certified autograph of his.  It is not much of an auto, but it is consistent with his in person autographs.  

    

$20 Cardinals Lot

One of my favorite things to surf EBAY for is a good deal on Cardinals lots.  There has not been any that have jumped out at me lately, so I decided to look elsewhere.  Trading Bases member William M. post on the group board about trimming down his collection.  He has a nice website that is easy to find cards which is sorted by team or player with his sale prices listed.  I found 15 different Cardinals from my wantlist that cost me $20 delivered.  

Heritage short print seem to be easier to pull, but are still difficult to find a deal on.  Glad to cross off a couple of older one like the 2008 Looper and 2002 Drew.  The 2024 Yepez leaves me one short of the team set.  Of course it is the Jordan Walker short print.

I completed my 2013 Topps Tribute team set by adding the Molina and Smith cards.  

Speaking of Ozzie, these 2 cards completed my 1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection team set.  I love the top card showing Ozzie in the early stages of his flip.

I completed another team set by adding the 2013 Wal Mart blue Joe Kelly.  It will be an interesting week or two for Brendan Donovan.  He is a hot trade target for many teams, but the Cardinals asking price is rumored to be high.  I love him as a player and he is an even better person off the field, but the Cardinals do not appear to be going anywhere the next few years, so it may be best to trade him.

Two more short print cards, one from 2003 Sweet Spot and the other from 1997 Finest.

My Topps Gold quest continues with two Update cards.  

Finishing up with two numbered short prints.  The 2005 Classics Musial is numbered to 1,000, while the 2003 Fleer Avant Hart is numbered to 699.  

I was very pleased with the average cost of $1.33 for each card including postage.  Once my Christmas bills are paid off, I may have to place another order.  

  

    

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #129

 My first 2 for Tuesday in December will be short and sweet.  Both pwe trades arrived with 3 cards. First came from member emw362.

It is rare for my son to get more cards for his collection in a trade than me.  He did this time.

The Erick Fedde signing did not work out too well for the Cardinals.  I hope this week's signing of Dustin May goes better.

The second trade came from member bdhrbob.

Only one more card left to finish my 2025 Topps Chrome team set.  Maybe I will get it finished before Update comes out.

A couple of nice refractors finish things up.  Rodriguez is the Cardinals #3 prospect.  He should spend most of 2026 in Peoria.  Not sure how much he will advance, as The #4 and #6 prospects are also catchers.  The Winn Raywave refractor looks great.  Love the rookie cup logo.

  

#1000

I was going to post a couple of trades yesterday for a 2 for Tuesday post, but ran out of time.  Instead, I will show off a few cards from TCDB member JustinBobo77 that completed my 1,000 trade on the site.

Only 4 Cardinals in this year's Pro Debut set.  Glad to get them all in one trade.

I never like the idea of Chrome cards being included in Bowman flagship, then Bowman Chrome having its own release later in the year.  It can be confusing trying to figure out which set a card is from.  Thankfully TCDB checklist makes it easy to figure out where a card belongs.  

I joined TCDB in early 2017, so I have averaged a little over 100 trades a year.  My highest total was 147 in 2020, thanks to COVID-19.  I have sent out close to 12,000 cards, while receiving close to 8,300.  I have traded with 469 different people.  My most frequent trading partner is fellow Cardinals fan timriess with 21 completed trades.  It has been a fun 9 years.

  

Two of a Kind from EBAY

Some how I forgot I had a few dollars remaining on an EBAY gift certificate, so last week I went shopping.  I managed to find a couple variations of one of my favorite cards from 2024 Topps Archives.

The black and yellow foilboard cards are not tough to find, but it was nice to get both for less than $2 delivered apiece.  Usually I prefer action photos over poses, but there is something about the bat over the shoulder pose that I like.  After getting the red version a few weeks ago, I decided it would be fun to see how many of these I can track down.  Scott is my favorite current Cardinals player.  He reminds me a lot of Vince Coleman, my first player collection.  If he could somehow manage to hit .250 next year, 50 stolen bases should be very attainable.  This season he was 34 for 38 while hitting .216.  

2025 Lot

It is already December.  2025 has really flown by.  I guess when you get older time can get away from you a lot quicker.  Before the calendar turns to a new year, I hope to finish up some 2025 team sets.  A TCDB trade that arrived over the weekend helped me cross off a few cards.

This is the complete 2025 Topps Holiday team set.  Glad to get them all in one trade.

3 of the 5 Cardinals from Panini Crusade.  Some of the colored parallels look great this year.  

These 3 started my Prizm team set.  Only 9 more to go.

2025 Topps Chrome is almost done.  Only 1 more to go.  Seems like I have been working on this one for months.  Hope to get it done before Chrome Update comes out.

I was glad to see Topps used a different photo for Winn's 2025 All Star Game card.  Only 2 Cardinals in the 100 card set, Winn and Michael McGreevy.  The only insert in the package was this 2024 Archives yellow foilboard.

The final card was from 2021 Panini Chronicles.  There are too many brands to figure out how close I am to completing this set.

I was happy to add all these cards to my collection, but you may notice I did not name the member.  He waited until 3 days after he received his cards before mailing mine.  If he would have communicated with me, I would have been fine with a delay.  He also shipped all 16 cards in a single pwe.  If any of the cards arrived damaged, I would have left him negative feedback.  Instead I did not leave any, and added him to my no trade list.