eBay Wins #205

Today I've got a single 1986 Donruss card I got on eBay for a penny. You know the drill by now.

1986 Donruss #348 Carlos Diaz

I don't know anything about Carlos Diaz, but I like to use baseball-reference.com to see what kind of insights I can infer from a player's stats. For starters, his last season was 1986, and he was never a Cardinal, hence why I never heard of him. The stat that jumps out at me is that over 179 appearances, he never started, but he finished the game 77 times. Of those, only 4 were saves. That tells me he was likely a middle-reliever, as much as there was such a thing in the early 80s, and "got some work in" or was sent out to eat up some innings at the end of the game when his team was losing. Of course, I could be wrong and the stats may belie his real role. If that's the case and you're a Dodgers or Mets fan who remembers him from especially 1983-85, let me know why he finished nearly 60 games in those years with just 3 saves.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3407
Total Spent	$52.54
Per Card	1.542 cents
Change	0 cents

Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot, Part VI

Several weeks ago, I read a post at Johnny's Trading Spot titled Instant mini collections up for grabs. "Up for Grabs" always gets my attention, so I threw my name into the mix. They were supposed to be randomly assigned, but through a lucky draw and one trade, each of the winners wound up with exactly what they originally wanted most. For me, that was cards with batting donuts.

Part I II III IV V

Last one!

1977 Topps #126 Rod Gilbreath
1979 Topps #165 Frank Taveras
1981 Fleer #545 Keith Hernandez
1981 Topps
#319 Rowland Office
#445 Ellis Valentine
#465 Bill Russell
#558 Barry Bonnell
#723 Bruce Bochte
1982 Fleer #209 Chris Speier

These cards were all "First Row" cards in my collection. I keep my cards stored in bpxes with 3 rows each, sorted by year and set. I always take notice when I acquire a card that is old enough to go in the first row. Right now that's anything 1984 or earlier, though 1984 Topps is getting close to being pushed into row 2. So, in total I've got 12 first row cards here.

1984 Donruss #285 Greg Gross
1984 Fleer #20 John Shelby
1984 Fleer #299 Tim Flannery
1985 Topps #496 Donnie Scott
1985 Topps #647 Rafael Ramirez
1986 Donruss #401 Terry Francona
1986 Fleer #270 Rich Dauer
1986 Fleer #278 Fred Lynn

Thanks again to Johnny's Trading Spot for the kickstart to my batting donut collection.

eBay Wins #121

Marching inexorably forward, I'm now at 1986 in my eBay pseudo-lots.

1986 Donruss
#20 Gary Ward
#104 Jerry Reuss
#159 Toby Harrah
#211 Bill Schroeder
#180 Harold Baines
#347 Don Baylor
#378 Dave Schmidt
#379 Bob James

While Don Baylor was never a Cardinal player, he was the first hitting coach I remember. And kid-me figured he must have been pretty good to have been hired away as the Rockies first manager. Also in this first bunch is Cardinal and St. Louis native Jerry Reuss.

1986 Donruss
#403 Bill Stein
#417 Dan Pasqua
#435 Ivan Calderon
#446 Jerry Royster
#458 Bob Shirley
#488 Juan Agosto
#544 Steve Buechele
#601 Joe Niekro

1986 is still a bit before I really started watching baseball, so I still have to look up each non-All-Star player on baseball-reference if I want to know for sure if he ever played for the Cardinals. One guy I found that way was Bill Stein, who only has Rangers stats on his 1986 card, but started out with the Cardinals in 1972-1973. Bob Shirley did have some Cardinals stats on his card, otherwise he would have been another one I didn't know played for my favorite team. I was previously aware of Juan Agosto, since he was in St. Louis in 1992.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2901
Total Spent	$47.54
Per Card	1.639 cents

Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Part 7

Sometimes when I win a contest, I set the prize aside until I have time to fully rummage through all of it. In this case I won a contest back in late September, and I think the "Small Flat Rate Box" arrived by early October. I opened it immediately, but it's been sitting on my desk, too daunting of task to sort, since then. I finally felt the need to dive into it, and give jaybarkerfan his proper thank you post.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

I'm finally at the end of the box. It's been quite fun digging through all the cards from different sets.

1979 Topps #666 Rich Dauer
1980 Topps #224 Willie Montanez
1986 Donruss #240 Mike Moore
1989 Donruss All Stars #3 Paul Molitor
1991 Topps #339 Larry Walker
1993 Stadium Club #299 Larry Walker

My collection doesn't include very many cards from before the mid-80s, so those top 3 cards are definitely in the first box (I sort them chronologically). At the bottom, we have Hall of Famer Paul Molitor - his second card in the box - and 2 cards of former Cardinal Larry Walker.

1980 Topps #244 Cardinals Team Checklist

No, this isn't a giant card, I just thought I'd zoom in a bit. I'm assuming this photo was taken in Spring Training, because that stadium overhang doesn't look like anything I know in St. Louis. 1979-1980 wasn't the strongest time in Cardinals history, and in fact the best player on this card is probably Keith Hernandez, possibly after Ken Boyer.

2008 Heritage (High Numbers)
#502 Jamey Wright
#517 Brian Burres
Black Back #549 Jeremy Sower

I don't know how rare the black-back cards are, or what the print run of the high number set is, but the Jeremy Sowers card is both, so presumably rarer than a run of the mill 2008 Heritage card.

2008 Heritage (High Numbers)
#537 Toronto Blue Jays (Checklist)

Unlike the 1980 card above, this checklist isn't only for Toronto Blue Jays. If it was, there'd only be a few cards on it, or Topps would have had to mix regular and high number cards onto the checklist.

1988 Donruss Pack (x2)
1989 Topps Pack
1985 Fleer Stickers Pack
1986 Fleer Stickers Pack
1989 Baseball's Greatest Grossouts Pack

To top the prize off, it even included a few unopened packs. For now I'm going to wait to open these, though this is the 25th anniversary of 1989 Topps, and everyone loves arbitrary milestones. But no, I'll wait. That's gotta be some stale gum by now.

That's it! That's the whole box. A big Thank You again to jaybarkerfan (Jay Barker Fan? I never know the right spacing and capitalization in the blogging world) for the awesome prize.