Series 2

I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July.  Mine was spent mostly inside until 7:00 last night when my family attending a cookout and watched a few fireworks.  Today it is back to the daily grind.  Things are a little slow with the hot weather, so I have some spare time to knock out a trade recap from TCDB member Jquirp001.

I was able to get all but 1 of my Series 2 team set done with this trade.  Best photo goes to the Matt Carpenter card.  I have no idea why Topps included him in the set when he has been with 2 other teams since leaving the Cardinals last November.  It is nice to see him having success again, just wish it was not for the Yankees.  His pull swing was made for that stadium.

These Pujols inserts are from Series 1.  I am ok with the idea of the this insert, just not the overkill with different colors.  

When my son hit 500 different Altuve cards earlier this year, neither one of use thought 600 would happen until 2023.  It seems like he gets 2 or 3 a week now so, he may get there before the new year.  I believe he is around 530 after receiving these 2.

Big League Gold

The onslaught of incoming pwe trades continued yesterday with the arrival of some Cardinals from TCDB member paulie3jobs.  I sent him a few 2021 Big League base and inserts for a 7 different Cardinals.

My 2021 Big League team set is now finished thanks to receiving the Carlson card.  Now to concentrate on the orange parallels like the Wainiwright.  The Goldschmidt blue is from the 2019 set.  

I was able to complete the 2018 and 2019 Gold Label team sets thanks to the Ozuna and Goldscmidt cards.  The 2021 Molina is my first from that set.  

My favorite card from the pwe is this 2014 Topps Update Red Foil parallel.  These are just simply great looking cards.  Wish Topps would bring them pack instead of purple, yellow, or some other plain color.

2 Pair and a Bird

I have had a steady flow of pwe trades coming in the last few days.  Nothing major, but it is always nice to receive cards in the mail.  Even though my informed delivery lets me know what I am getting (or should be getting),  I still get a little thrill of coming home from work and seeing what cards I got.  TCDB member B Goguen sent me a pwe with 5 cards that included 2 cards each of 2 players and 1 card of another type of cardinal.

It is great to see Dylan Carlson having a good month.  After his slow start and injury, he has turned things around in June.  He is the only outfielder from opening day who is healthy right now.  Not sure what the Cardinals will do once everyone returns.  Rookies like Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez, and Brendan Donovan have filled in nicely.  

Speaking of injuries, Flaherty landed back on the DL this week after 3 pretty bad starts.  There has been some reports that the Cardinals wanted him to take a longer rehab assignment, but Jack said he was ready.  Seems like there is always tension between him.  I would hate to see him traded, but it would not shock me if he is not a Cardinal next year.

This guy never has to worry about being traded.  Fredbird has been a mainstay in St. Louis for a long time.  Glad mascots get some hobby love in sets like 2022 Opening Day.  

TCDB 2 for Tuesday #17

Today's recap will be short and sweet with just 1 scan each from the 2 trades.   First up are 4 cards from member Mjprigge.

My 20 card team set from 1994-95 Fleer Excel is now complete.  Fleer did not do a great job of picking the prospects in this set.  Alan Benes, Eli Marrero, and Joe McEwing were the only 3 players who had much of a career.  

The second 4 pack of Cardinals came from member gator32608.  

This was not a high dollar trade at all, but I was still happy with it.  The Arenado finish my 2021 Stadium Club team set minus the variations.  Any Goldschmidt card is a welcome addition, especially with the great season he is having.  Even though Sanchez is no longer with the Cardinals, I am still a sucker for the green GQ parallels.  Finally the Brock card is one of those dreaded minis, but it is hard to turn down a Cardinals Hall of Famer.

Phillies for Cardinals

Happy Friday everyone.  This week I had to show up for work instead of hitting up a card show like last week.  Not nearly as fun, but it pays the bills.  If you have not heard, the bills for card traders will be a little more come early July due to a postage increase.  It is not much, but every little bit adds up.  Time to knock out a few trades before that happens.  Late last week I worked out a team trade with TCDB member johlamb.  9 Phillies went his way in return for 9 Cardinals I added to my collection.

I thought about buying a blaster of 2002 Gypsy Queen, but it has not showed up at my local Walmart yet.  Now I do not have to fight the urge.  With only a handful more base to complete my team set, the money will be saved for something else.  

Cards of pitchers are not highly sought after by most collectors, especially of ones not with the Cardinals anymore or of relievers.  They will have a home in my collection.  The Ponce gold parallel is from 2021 Update, while the Gallegos blue parallel is from 2020 Update.  

 
2022 Heritage black border cards have a print run of 50.  You would think the low print run would make this card serial numbered, but it is not.  Still a great looking card.

I do not recall the last time I added a Molina relic to my collection.  This 2021 Diamond Kings jersey card would have looked great with the photo from the 2021 Big League insert.  

    

Midwest Monster Card Show Part 2

Continuing my recap of last week's Midwest Monster card show with the last of my purchases.  Most of these came from quarter boxes. 

This was our first purchase of the day for $15.  The Altuve game used was $5, the autograph was $3, and the rest were a quarter or 50 cents.  My son was excited to find some nice Altuve cards right off the bat.  I was pleased to find a handful of Cardinals, although the Liberatore mojo refractor is a duplicate.  The 2 Pirates in the bottom scan have been traded, while the Hoskins is trade bait.

These were all quarter cards.  I did better this round on the Cardinals and made sure not to get duplicates.  

The second round of quarter cards was heavy on trade bait.  I even made the mistake of pulling 2 of the same card, but at least 1 is already gone.  Mojo refractors and chrome sapphire cards make great trade bait.

The last of the quarter lots was 12 cards just like the other 2.  The Goldschmidt was by far my favorite of them.  Lots of refractors and red parallels in this lot.

This dealer had a few boxes mark 6 for $1.  I pulled these 24 cards out and he charged me $3.  Pretty good deal for less than 15 cents each.  

Wrapping things up, I will say it was $80 well spent.  There is another show coming in October at the same location.  If it is as big, we may have to skip school on a Friday.  Some life lessons are more important than what can be learned in a classroom.

 

  

Midwest Monster Card Show Part 1

Last Friday I had a rare day off from work.  I scheduled a vacation day a couple of months ago so my son and I could attend the Midwest Monster card show near Indianapolis.  The day started off a little bleak as there was a bad thunderstorm that passed through my area.  It delayed us a little bit, but we managed to arrive at the show about 15 minutes after the doors opened.

The largest show we had been to before this one was 100 tables.  We were a little in awe to see 350 tables under 1 roof.  It was very well laid out, so it made getting around and remembering which tables we had hit up very easy.  We spent about 3.5 hours looking through display cases and countless bargain boxes.  We took a few breaks in between to check wantlists or just catch a breather, but the majority of the time we were hard at it.  We spent a total of $80 at the show, $20 of which was the entry fee.  We bought from 10 different dealers.  Today I will just show off the singles and smaller lots we bought.

I am a sucker for colored quarter cards even if they are from Panini.  Wish I could have found more Cardinals, but at least I came away with a nice Flaherty I needed.  

This dealer had an assortment of card prices ranging from 50 cents up to $25.  I snagged these 3 for $2.  I have quite a few Edmonds game used cards, but for $1 I will not pass up a card with a lot of red on it.  My son already had the Altuve, but it has since been traded.   The Kendall 2003 Flair is a Row 1 parallel numbered to 150 that had also been traded.

I bought this Walker card for $3 from the same dealer.  Hopefully in a few years he will have a game used card in a Cardinals uniform.

One of the last tables we visited had a small box of 5 for $1 cards.  There might have been 200 cards to flip through, but we had great luck finding 2 Cardinals I needed included a short print Goldschmidt and an Altuve my son did not have.  

Our last purchase of the day was this 2019 Heritage High Numbers Altuve autograph.  We saw it earlier in the day, but waited to see if we found another nice Altuve card that my son liked better.  He settled for this one.  Sticker price was $30, but the dealer sold it for $25.