Celebrating Opening Day with a Big Purchase

The second best holiday of the year is finally here.  After Christmas, I consider MLB Opening Day to be the best holiday.  Nothing sums up the offseason better for a baseball fan than this quote from Rogers Hornsby "People ask what I do in winter when there's no baseball.  I'll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window and wait for spring."  No more waiting now.  

If the rain holds off in St. Louis, it should be a historic opening day.  Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina will start their 306th game together.  They need 20 starts to break the all time battery mark.  Molina has already said this will be his final season.  I will believe that when he does not report for spring training next year.  Wainwright has not decided yet, but how many more season does a 40 year old starting pitcher have left/

This will also be the first time since 2011 that Albert Pujols will be in a Cardinals uniform.  Thanks to the universal DH rule he gets to play his final year in St. Louis.  This will be his 22nd straight opening day start, tying him for second all time with Hank Aaron and Carl Yastrzemski and 1 behind Pete Rose.  Pujols is also chasing history this season, needing 21 home runs to reach 700.  I have my doubts whether he will make it, but it should be fun watching him try.

One of the major cards that I have been missing in my Cardinals collection is a Pujols autograph.  Once the Cardinals Winter Warm Up was cancelled this year, I told myself that I would take the money saved and buy a nice Pujols.  I searched EBAY off and on the last few months, but did not find anything I liked or at the price I wanted to spend.  Last week a large autograph collector on The Bench decided to sell most of his collection.  Luck was with me as I was the first to claim this card.

This 2004 Fleer Showcase Sweet Sigs autograph numbered to 150 met 2 of the 3 requirements for a Pujols autograph.  It is blue and is on card.  I would have preferred a Topps card, but this one will do.  It is in perfect shape and looks awesome.  The $165 delivered price I paid for it is by far the most I have ever spent on a single card.  Here is to a great baseball season, and go Cardinals!

EBAY Chromed Me

I will be the first to admit I am not a big EBAY spender.  I think last year I spent about $200 buying cards from the auction giant.   Sure I spend a lot of time looking for various Cardinals, but I try to limit my purchases to Ray Lankford items I need, Cardinals autos that are less than $5 shipped, or nice sized Cardinals lots.

Two weeks ago I was searching for Cardinals lots when I found a 7 card lot that had an auto and a few chrome parallels.  Starting bid was $0.99, so I saved it and waited until the Wednesday night it ended to check on the status.  The auction was at $2.00 with about 15 minutes left, so I decided to check out the seller's other auctions.  Most of the auctions had a vague title that did not list every card.  The front of the cards were the only scans.  The seller offered $3 shipping for 1 lot, then a discount based on how many cards were shipped with it.  I ended up winning 8 different lots from him.  The cards arrived last week.

 I was pleasantly surprised how well the cards were packaged.  Each lot came in its own team bag with most of the cards being in top loaders.  Here are the lots with the winning bid

St. Louis Cardinals $3.06

2013 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor 112 Jaime Garcia 13/50

2013 Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor 126 David Freese 18/25

2014 Bowman Chrome 12 Oscar Taveras

2014 Bowman Chrome Green Refractor BCP82 Rafael Medina 3/75

2014 Bowman Chrome Bubbles Refractor BCP69 Breyvic Valera 39/99

2014 Bowman Chrome Silver Wave BCP42 Tim Cooney 7/15

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph Tim Cooney

Tampa Rays $1.56

2014 Bowman Chrome Refractor BCP76 Jeff Ames

2014 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor  BCP76 Jeff Ames 70/250

2014 Bowman Chrome Green Refractor BCP2 Kean Wong 43/75

2014 Bowman Chrome Red Wave Refractor BCP2 Kean Wong 5/25

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph Johnny Field

 Atlanta Braves $0.99

2014 Bowman Chrome Purple Refractor 15 Ervin Santana 36/150

2014 Bowman Chrome Red Ice BP1 Jason Hursh 3/25

2014 Bowman Chrome Draft Autograph Chad Sobotka

Baltimore Orioles $1.29

2014 Bowman Chrome Green Refractor BCP74 Tim Berry 25/75

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph Adrian Marin (2)

Milwaukee Brewers $1.04

2014 Bowman Chrome Purple Refractor 119 Khris Davis 80/150

2014 Bowman Draft Chrome Red Ice DP39 Jacob Gatewood 132/150

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph Devin Williams

New York Mets $0.99

2014 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor 100 Curtis Granderson 36/250

2014 Bowman Chrome Silver Wave BCP92 LJ Mazzilli 19/25

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph Jeff McNeil

 

Cleveland Indians $2.75

2014 Bowman Chrome Refractor BCP41 Joe Wendle 243/500

2014 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor CDP36 Mike Papi 356/399

2014 Bowman Chrome Gold Refractor CTP-88 Tyler Naquin 46/50

2014 Bowman Chrome Red Ice BP110 Joe Wendle 6/25

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph Matt Whitehouse

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph Luigi Rodriguez

2014 Bowman Chrome Autograph Anthony Santander

The Cardinals lot was the last one to end, so I had to make sure I won it.  I did lose out on a couple of other auctions, but was pretty happy with the results.  I did win another auction after the Cardinals lot.

2013 Topps Triple Threads Amethyst $0.99

5 Albert Pujols 598/650 Angels

6 Justin Verlander 303/650 Tigers

7 Ozzie Smith 78/650 Cardinals

15 RA Dickey 293/650 Blue Jays

26 Ryan Braun 465/650 Brewers

28 Greg Maddux 262/650 Braves

33 Yogi Berra 292/650 Yankees

34 Tony Gwynn 612/650 Padres

39 Harmon Killebrew 391/650 Twins

40 Tom Glavine 113/650 Braves

43 John Smoltz 489/650 Braves

54 Tim Lincecum 432/650 Giants

57 Yu Darvish 636/650 Rangers

61 Buster Posey 34/650 Giants

65 Troy Tulowitzki 126/650 Rockies

73 CJ Wilson 120/650 Angels

74 Josh Hamilton 218/650 Angels

76 Justin Morneau 622/650 Twins

It was not chrome, but a nice lot for 99 cents.  Including the $6.50 shipping cost, I paid $19.17 for this 49 card lot.  Not bad for less than the price of a blaster.  Some cards have already been traded, but feel free to lmk if you are interested in any of the non Cardinals.