Zistle Trade #30

Today's Zistle trade was just a small handful of cards that filled some random needs in my collection. In return, I sent a few Reds, all from 2011.

1989 Topps #224 Tony La Russa
1991 Topps #58 Mel Stottlemyre Jr.
1991 Topps #171 Tony La Russa
2012 Topps Archives #24 Lance Berkman
2012 Topps Update #US44 Jeremy Hermida
2012 Topps Update #US68 Fernando Rodney

Tony La Russa was my favorite non-Cardinals manager as a kid, so I was thrilled when he came to St. Louis. Even when a lot of the local fans turned on him, I was a supporter. Of course, winning 2 World Series helped get him back on everyone's good side, and he left his managerial career on top.

eBay Wins #250

250's sort of milestone type number, right? Well, bad news, I just have the rest of my 1989 Topps cards.

1989 Topps
#686 Scott Terry
#688 Zane Smith
#691 Roberto Kelly
#692 Steve Ontiveros
#697 Franklin Stubbs
#698 Keith Atherton
#701 Storm Davis
#708 Chuck Finley
#712 Bill Swift

Chuck Finley finished his career in St. Louis, coming in the trade that brought Coco Crisp to Cleveland.

1989 Topps
#721 Ron Tingley (x2)
#723 Rafael Belliard (x2)
#724 Jerry Don Gleaton (x2)
#725 Terry Steinbach
#727 Joe Orsulak
#728 Charlie Puleo
#735 Roger McDowell
#736 Jeff Hamilton
#739 Brook Jacoby

1989 Topps
#743 Mike Heath
#749 Rafael Ramirez
#751 Ken Oberkfell
#752 Jim Gott
#755 Mike Scioscia
#756 Scott Medvin
#767 Mike Capel
#769 Junior Ortiz
#778 Bruce Benedict

Mike Heath played just 65 games in St. Louis, before being sent off for Ken Hill and Mike Laga. I don't think I have many Ken Oberkfell cards showing him as a Pirate. Most of them have him on the Cardinals or Braves.

#787 Dave West

I could have sworn when I counted up my cards, it came out to a multiple of 9. Then I got to the end of my scans, and this Dave West card remained.

#141 Cleveland Indians Leaders (x2)
#171 Atlanta Braves Leaders
#201 Toronto Blue Jays Leaders
#321 Boston Red Sox Leaders
#459 Seattle Mariners Leaders
#579 Houston Astros Leaders
#639 Oakland Athletics Leaders (x2)
#669 Los Angeles Dodgers Leaders
#699 Pittsburgh Pirates Leaders

I had 9 unique team leaders cards, but no Cardinals unfortunately.

I've got 37 cards scanned, plus 5 duplicates, for a big 42 cents today.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	5014
Total Spent	$62.51
Per Card	1.247 cents
Change	-0.002 cents

eBay Wins #249

I'm tired today. So here's a wall of cards with no commentary!

1989 Topps
#284 Jim Leyland
#285 John Candelaria
#290 John Franco
#292 Jim Corsi
#293 Glenn Wilson (x2)
#294 Juan Berenguer
#296 Ron Gant
#298 Chris James
#299 Steve Ellsworth (x2)

1989 Topps
#301 Charlie Leibrandt
#303 Felix Fermin
#306 Tracy Woodson
#307 Lance McCullers
#309 Mario Diaz
#316 Walt Weiss
#322 John Smiley
#323 Gary Thurman
#327 Mark Lemke

1989 Topps
#328 Rick Honeycutt (x2)
#337 Calvin Schiraldi
#340 Kirk Gibson
#341 Jim Deshaies
#350 Andy Van Slyke
#357 Jerry Reuss (x2)
#366 Herm Winningham
#368 Brian Holton
#374 John Wathan

1989 Topps
#375 Terry Pendleton (x2)
#379 Tim Flannery
#384 Mark Salas (x2)
#388 Bobby Bonilla
#392 Andy Van Slyke
#398 Julio Franco
#414 Jim Fregosi
#420 Joe Carter
#423 Brian Fisher (x2)

1989 Topps
#424 Luis Polonia
#425 Jay Howell
#430 Mark Gubicza
#433 Albert Hall
#440 Bobby Bonilla (x2)
#446 Rob Murphy
#448 Eric Plunk
#453 Tom Prince
#454 Paul Assenmacher (x2)

1989 Topps
#456 Tim Belcher
#462 Jose Guzman
#474 Bob Rodgers
#475 Dave Parker
#477 Dick Schofield
#478 Doug Drabek
#482 Steve Peters
#483 Mickey Hatcher
#488 Kevin Coffman (x2)

1989 Topps
#504 Bob Walk
#512 Donnie Hill (x2)
#513 Jesse Orosco
#514 Chet Lemon
#522 Randy Kramer
#523 Andres Thomas
#527 Dave Henderson
#537 Pete Smith
#547 Mark McLemore

1989 Topps
#551 Randy Ready (x2)
#552 Greg Cadaret
#564 Russ Nixon
#566 Al Pedrique
#569 German Jimenez
#571 Billy Ripken (x2)
#575 Juan Samuel
#576 Greg Minton
#580 Harold Reynolds

1989 Topps
#581 Gene Nelson (x3)
#582 Mike Marshall
#586 Joe Boever
#588 Luis Alicea (x2)
#592 John Cangelosi (x3)
#598 Ken Gerhart
#599 Tom Candiotti
#605 Bob Welch
#606 Rick Dempsey

1989 Topps
#607 Willie Ansley
#621 Rick Mahler
#622 Stan Javier (x2)
#634 Marvin Freeman
#641 Curt Young (x2)
#653 Tommy Barrett
#658 R.J. Reynolds
#678 Dion James (x2)
#681 Jeff Robinson

I scanned 90 cards, and there were 19 duplicates and 2 triplicates, for a total of 111 cards. For you math whizzes out there, at a penny each that's  $1.11.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4972
Total Spent	$62.09
Per Card	1.249 cents
Change	-0.005 cents

eBay Wins #248

I left probably the biggest pile of 1989s for last, Topps. I'd guess there were more Donruss cards, but the thicker Topps cardboard made these stack a bit higher and look more daunting.

1989 Topps
#6 Doug Jones (x2)
#11 Bruce Sutter
#13 Doug Sisk
#15 Robby Thompson
#18 Rick Rhoden
#20 Steve Bedrosian
#22 Tim Crews
#27 Orestes Destrade
#35 John Tudor

Sutter and Tudor were both Cardinals, and would make a good name for a comedy duo.

1989 Topps
#38 Paul Runge
#40 Steve Sax (x2)
#47 Carney Lansford
#52 Bob Brenly (x4)
#54 Steve Trout
#56 Pat Tabler
#57 Alejandro Pena
#62 Alfredo Griffin
#64 Alex Trevino

Somehow I had 4 Bob Brenly cards in there.

1989 Topps
#68 Darrell Miller
#76 Terry Blocker
#79 Scott Bankhead (x2)
#83 Jeff Blauser
#84 Bill Bene
#89 Dave LaPoint
#92 Jeff Kunkel
#93 Ken Howell
#94 Chris Speier

Bill Bene was the only player Baseball-Reference's linker couldn't find. It would  appear he never made it to the majors, despite being a high first round pick.

1989 Topps
#102 Mike Gallego
#105 Ron Darling
#113 Lloyd Moseby
#114 Bob Kipper
#117 Dave Anderson
#121 Garry Templeton
#126 Sid Bream
#130 Gerald Perry
#131 Dave Otto

Maybe it's just confirmation bias, but  I seem to be picking up a lot of Garry Templeton cards lately.

1989 Topps
#132 Curt Ford
#133 Bill Long
#142 Mike Diaz
#144 Jay Bell
#145 Dave Stewart (x2)
#154 Don Carman
#158 Mike Aldrete
#160 Jeffrey Leonard
#165 Mike Dunne

Curt Ford was the only uniformed Cardinal in this first batch, a player I used to confuse with Curt Flood as a kid.

1989 Topps
#166 Doug Jennings (x14)
#169 Mike Jackson
#174 Todd Burns(x2)
#175 John Shelby
#179 Ozzie Virgil
#186 Pat Perry
#198 Danny Heep
#210 Dale Murphy
#212 Scott Sanderson

There were 14 of those Doug Jennings cards. 14!

1989 Topps
#217 Joe Price
#218 Mike LaValliere
#219 Jim Clancy
#225 Ramon Martinez
#232 Ricky Horton (x2)
#236 Charles Hudson
#237 Glenn Hubbard (x2)
#241 Brett Butler
#244 Jim Acker

I need more Rick Horton cards, and more importantly, I've got to track him down for an autograph one of these days, since he's in town doing Cardinals broadcasts.

1989 Topps
#248 Tony Phillips (x2)
#249 Tim Leary
#252 Billy Hatcher
#253 Jose Alvarez
#272 Ron Hassey
#273 Jose Lind
#277 Mike Davis
#280 Bob Knepper
#281 Gary Redus

As with the other 1989 posts, there are more of these, but  I'm out of tag space for Cardinals players 86 of these cards were in my half-cent box, which is cleared out for now. Along with all the duplicates, there were 96 total, for a purchase total of 53 cents. The empty half-cent box means I can only asymptotically approach 1 penny per card in the below chart by continuing to buy cards for cent each.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4861
Total Spent	$60.98
Per Card	1.254 cents
Change	-0.015 cents

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part IV

Part I II III

The cards from the giant box continue. I've got mostly McGwires left. And this is going to take me awhile.

1988 Donruss #1 Mark McGwire (x5)
1988 Donruss #256 Mark McGwire
1988 Donruss - Bonus Cards #BC-23 Mark McGwire
1988 Topps #759 Athletics Leaders (x2)

Yes, there's a few duplicates, but with cards like Diamond Kings, who cares?

1988 Score #5 Mark McGwire
1988 Score #659 Mark McGwire
1989 Classic Travel Purple #190 Mark McGwire
1989 Topps #70 Mark McGwire
1989 Upper Deck #300 Mark McGwire
1990 Classic Update #T33 Mark McGwire
1990 Donruss #185 Mark McGwire
1990 Donruss #697 Mark McGwire

I was glad to see a few of the slightly harder-to-find cards, like the 89 and 90 Classic cards. Not that those are impossible, but there are certainly more 1990 Donruss or 1989 Topps around.

1989 Fleer #634 Jose Canseco/Terry Steinbach/Mark McGwire (X3)
1988 Score #648 Mark McGwire/Matt Nokes
1990 Fleer #638 Don Mattingly/Mark McGwire
1990 Upper Deck #36 Oakland A's Checklist
1989 Topps Big #34 Mark McGwire

I wonder how many cards featuring both McGwire and Canseco are out there. I got two different examples in this bunch, counting the one with Terry Steinbach. Don Mattingly and Matt Nokes also made appearances. I think my favorite cards of this post is the Topps Big, although now I've got even more of a need to figure out how exactly to store cards from that set. I'd be glad to hear any good ideas anyone has.

Donuts from Johnny's Trading Spot, Part V

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

Sunday's a good Donut Day, too.

1986 Topps
#25 Willie Wilson
#62 Bob Boone
#128 John Wathan
#271 Dave Collins
#407 Sal Butera
#740 Lance Parrish

With just a bit more cropping, Lance Parrish's card would never have been in this donut collection.

1988 Fleer League Leaders #8 Eric Davis
1988 Topps
#67 Ken Oberkfell
#466 Jerry Mumphrey
1989 Topps
#19 Greg Gagne
#53 Ruben Sierra
#356 Kevin Elster
#553 Luis Salazar
#577 Randy Bush

1989 Upper Deck
#53 Steve Sax
#329 Danny Tartabull
#485 Brian Downing
#522 Juan Castillo
#527 Donnie Hill
#750 Ray Quinones

1989 Upper Deck feels like one of those historic sets that I should complete. These will put me a little closer, but I still only have about 30 unique cards from the set.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part III

Sometimes, I procrastinate posting and sorting some cards. Normally I don't pay too much attention to how long a particular item has been sitting on my desk, but given that this one was the Tis the Season contest from 2013, I've probably had it in my possession for a little over a year now. But, even with the long delay, I still want to throw Jeff at 2 by 3 Heroes some referral traffic while I show off my prize.
Part I II

In addition to some Allen and Ginter cards, the prize included some Cardinals, as well as some Red Sox and Yankees. Today I've got some of those to show.

1986 Donruss Highlights #47 Bruce Hurst
1988 Fleer #350 Steve Crawford
1988 Fleer #353 Rich Gedman
1988 Score #384 Tim Controy
1989 Donruss #37 Carlos Quintana
1989 Donruss #311 Jack Clark
1989 Donruss #516 Larry McWilliams
1989 Donruss #630 Dale Mohorcic
1989 Donruss #633 Dennis Lamp

Besides the obvious Cardinals that I collect, some of the Red Sox and Yankees are players I collect too, since they once played for the Cardinals, like Jack Clark and Rich Gedman. That's not to say I don't like the other cards. One of my long-term, low-priority goals is to complete all of the relatively cheap and abundant sets from about 1987-1993

1989 Topps #402 Mike Greenwell
1989 Topps - All Stars #17 Vince Coleman
1990 Kmart #4 Ozzie Smith
1990 Bowman #427 Don Heinkel

This Vince Coleman card is one I needed, so that's nice to knock off my massive wantlist. Just for fun, I found all three posts of my previous copies of the Ozzie Smith card, since I get a lot of random piles of Cardinals, much like this prize. I really like that set, though, so at the very least, perhaps it will help me eventually trade to complete the 1990 Kmart set.

eBay Wins #140

Today I have the set I generally consider the ultimate Topps junk wax set, 1989. This might not beat 88 or 89 Donruss for the overall junk set champion. But, with the 25th anniversary parallels in 2014 flagship bearing the 1989 design, maybe now is the best time to sell. I bet I could get twice my money back! "My money" was just 60 cents for 60 cards, of course.

1989 Topps
#5 Orel Hershiser
#8 Dave Eiland
#30 Doc Gooden
#42 Jim Eppard
#44 Jim Snyder
#45 Kal Daniels
#80 Cory Snyder
#89 Dave LaPoint (x2)

Two Daves don't make a right, right? At least that's what I always told my two friends named Dave in college.

1989 Topps
#105 Ron Darling
#110 Paul Monitor
#129 Terry Clark
#131 Dave Otto
#139 Mike Flanagan
#190 Mike Witt
#196 Denny Walling
#197 Neal Heaton
#200 George Brett

Fun fact, which is only relevant to this particular arrangement of cards: George Brett's first Hall of Fame Ballot was also Mike Witt's. Brett got 98.2% of the vote. Witt got 0.

1989 Topps
#206 Roberto Alomar
#209 Jeff Bittiger
#210 Dale Murphy
#253 Jose Alvarez
#267 Jeff Robinson
#275 Danny Tartabull (x2)
#330 Eric Davis
#339 Scott Bailes

1989 Topps
#340 Kirk Gibson
#367 Johnny Paredes (x2)
#387 Ryne Sandberg (x3)
#390 Darryl Strawberry
#408 Greg Walker (x3)

As a Cardinals fan, I feel like I'm supposed to have this hatred for the Cubs, but I just can't muster it. I think part of the reason is that when I was first starting to watch baseball, the daycare I attended would let us turn on WGN in the afternoons and watch the Cubs day games. I got to know several of their players well, especially Ryne Sandberg. So this Three-of-a-kind of Sandberg isn't cringe inducing to me, as it might be to some St. Louis fans.

1989 Topps
#410 Jack Clark
#427 Eric Show
#449 Carmelo Martinez
#485 Hubie Brooks
#488 Kevin Coffman
#502 Duane Ward
#527 Dave Henderson
#531 Dave Hengel
#536 Joel Skinner

Jack Clark is all over these late 80s/early 90s posts.

1989 Topps
#571 Billy Ripken (x2)
#584 Randy Velarde
#588 Luis Alicea
#604 Paul O'Neill
#624 Jack McKeon
#651 Tom Niedenfuer
#693 Pat Borders
#704 Carlos Quintana

Here we have a decidedly unfamous Billy Ripken card, relatively speaking, and a Jack McKeon's magnificent mustache. Also a former, current, and future Cardinal as of the printing time of these cards, Tom Niedenfuer, Luis Alicea, and Pat Borders.

1989 Topps
#736 Jeff Hamilton
#744 Roger Craig
#750 Bret Saberhagen
#751 Ken Oberkfell
#579 Astros Leaders
#669 Dodgers Leaders

This last scan is brought to you by laziness and miscounting, but it worked out alright in the end. I thought I only had 59 cards and thus would have a row of vertical and a row of horizontal cards for the last scan. Thanks to the miscount, I discovered my scanner is almost exactly (2 card widths + 1 card length) wide.

Right now I would need about 2000 cards for $1.47 to get my average to 1 cent per card. That's not a particular goal of mine, but that is an interesting round number to help put the change values into perspective.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3194
Total Spent	$50.47
Per Card	1.58 cents
Change	-0.011 cents

Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Bonus Round!

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, 7

I honestly had no intention of opening these packs, but they sat in a nice pile on my desk, taunting me. I started by opening 1, and in a few minutes had opened the rest. So, why not, here's the content of the packs from part 7.

1988 Donruss
#654 Ron Gant
#626 Pat Perry
#602 Don August
#523 Al Nipper
#432 Rick Schu
#421 Jon Marzano
#411 Shane Mack
#375 Calvin Schiraldi

1988 Donruss
#320 Kent Hrbek
#243 Phil Bradley
#209 Craig Reynolds
#131 Brook Jacoby
#130 Ken Howell
#97 Curt Young
#42 John Farrell
Puzzle Pieces 13, 14, and 15

1988 Donruss
#60 Danny Cox
#65 R.J. Reynolds
#182 Ivan Calderon
#187 Stan Jefferson
#305 Bob Boone
#310 Tracy Jones
#314 Glenn Hubbard
#427 Greg Harris

1988 Donruss
#432 Rick Schu
#436 Mike LaCoss
#437 Gerald Perry
#550 Mike Loynd
#554 Rocky Childress
#558 Jeff Robinson
#559 Jose Uribe
Puzzle Pieces #43, 44, and 45

2 packs of 1988 Donruss yielded just 2 Cardinals, and only one actually in the St. Louis uniform, Danny Cox. Ron Gant is the other. 

1989 Topps
#9 Tim Teufel
#186 Pat Perry
#195 Ozzie Guillen
#275 Danny Tartabull
#346 Rex Hudler
#388 Bobby Bonilla
#450 Roger Clemens
#457 Mackey Sasser

1989 Topps
#565 Jeff Russell
#584 Randy Velarde
#616 Steve Rosenberg
#635 Willie Randolph
#677 Dave Schmidt
#702 Jamie Quirk
#706 Pete Incaviglia
Contest Card

The 89 Topps pack also had 2 Cardinals, but this time neither was in uniform. They're Rex Hudler and Bobby Bonilla.

1985 Fleer Stickers
#52 Kevin Bass
#77 Mike Schmidt
#87 Dwight Gooden
#97 Rick Rhoden
#110 Dave Steib
#114 Fernando Valenzuela

1985 Fleer Stickers
Logos - Orioles

I didn't have any 1985 stickers, so the size of these surprised me. The long edge is just about as long as the short edge of a full-sized baseball card.

1986 Fleer Stickers
#4 Juan Beniquez
#10 Phil Bradley
#14 Tom Browning
#21 Steve Carlton
#76 Paul Molitor
Logos - Cardinals

The 86 stickers are back to full card size. I got a nice Cardinals "hipster bird" logo (that's what the Busch Stadium tour guide called it), and Steve Carlton, who is probably more famous for playing in Philadelphia, but started out as a Cardinal, and even got his personal catcher Tim McCarver traded to the Phillies with him.

Ok, that's really it now. There won't be anything else out of the box. Thanks again, jaybarkerfan.

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.