A Season Starting PWE, Part II

Way back in March, Stealing Home sent out some PWEs to celebrate the start of the season. I saw a few others post theirs at the time, but I'm just now getting to mine.

Part I

This isn't one of my giant 40-part series posts, since, after all, it was just a PWE. Today I have the vertical cards, just because that's a nice way to split up the scan.

2014 Topps #157 Matt Adams
2015 Topps #261 Lance Lynn
2015 Topps #286 Trevor Rosenthal
2016 Topps #46 Jhonny Peralta
2016 Topps #106 Jordan Walden
2016 Topps Chrome #132 Stephen Piscotty
2016 Gypsy Queen #215 Matt Adams
2017 Topps #99 Michael Wacha

The danger of waiting too long to post some cards of current players is that if your team hits a swoon, they might not all be there anymore. Matt Adams went to Atlanta when Freddie Freeman got hurt, and Jhonny Peralta was just released. Jordan Walden has been a free agent since November, so he wasn't lost specifically during this season. That shiny chrome Piscotty saves the post, though.

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXX

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE, so I've got to get my prize from last season's Bowl Pick 'Em contest at Cards on Cards posted! My prize for a second place tie was a very generously sized box of cards, so I felt a bit overwhelmed even sorting through them. I finally sorted them out by player, and, as usual, I'll plan to post them all eventually, but I might quit halfway through, we'll see.

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX
XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX

I'm not sure I've ever done a 30 part post before. Oh well, let's keep rolling! Today I've got Kyle Lohse, Matt Holliday, a Matt Carpenter, Trever Miller, and Mark Ellis, and a pair of team cards.

2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars #77 Matt Holliday
2011 Topps - Factory Set Diamond Anniversary #373 Trever Miller
2012 Topps - Gold Sparkle #26 Kyle Lohse
2013 Topps Archives #125 Kyle Lohse
2013 Topps Gypsy Queen #343 Kyle Lohse
2014 Topps - Blue Parallel #44 Matt Carpenter
2014 Topps - Red Hot Foil Parallel #329 Matt Holliday

I'm still a little bummed Matt Holliday won't finish his career in St. Louis, but that's sort of the nature of the game when players who are much better hitters than defenders can go to the American League and squeeze in another season or two.

2012 Topps #233 St. Louis Cardinals
2012 Topps - Gold Sparkle #233 St. Louis Cardinals
2014 Topps Update #US272 Mark Ellis
2016 Topps #254 Matt Holliday

I know Mark Ellis played for the Cardinals, but it felt like I never actually saw him play during his one season in St. Louis. He only started 46 games and played in 73 total, so that may be part of the reason. The team cards here commemorate the game that clinched a World Series appearance for the Cardinals, which they ultimately went on to win for the 11th World Championship.

Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XVII

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE, so I've got to get my prize from last season's Bowl Pick 'Em contest at Cards on Cards posted! My prize for a second place tie was a very generously sized box of cards, so I felt a bit overwhelmed even sorting through them. I finally sorted them out by player, and, as usual, I'll plan to post them all eventually, but I might quit halfway through, we'll see.

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI

2012 Topps Archives #114 Jason Motte
2013 Topps Archives #151 Jason Motte
2013 Topps #130 Jason Motte
2013 Opening Day #202 Jason Motte
2013 Topps Blue Parallel
#96 Edward Mujica
#188 Brian Fuentes
#235 Jake Westbrook
2014 Topps #599 Jason Motte

In addition to a fine collection of Jason Motte base cards, I got a trio of 2013 blue parallels in the prize package too, including Brian Fuentes, who pitched 5 innings over 6 games with the Cardinals to end his career.

2009 Allen and Ginter #157 Jason Motte
2013 Allen and Ginter #283 Jason Motte
2013 Topps #269 St. Louis Cardinals
2013 Gypsy Queen - Mini #322 Jason Motte

Jason Motte had a great 2012, leading the NL with 42 saves, but lost all of 2013 to injury, and never quite made it back to that same level of performance. He's back on the DL in Colorado now, too, with just 20 2/3 innings pitched this year.

Junior Junkie's Generosity, Part X

Part I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

Today's post finishes off the McGwires, and almost finishes the whole box that was sent to me.

1999 Topps #201 Mark McGwire
1999 Upper Deck #518 Mark McGwire(x2)
1999 Upper Deck - Opening Season Superstars #S2
2000 Topps #232 Mark McGwire
2000 Topps #469 Mark McGwire

The card companies were in full "post-homerun photo" mode by 1999, which I'll admit did capture Big Mac's 1998 pretty well.

2000 Topps - Own The Game #OTG6 Mark McGwire
2000 Topps Opening Day #1 Mark McGwire(x2)
2000 Upper Deck Ovation #18 Mark McGwire
2000 Upper Deck #537 Mark McGwire
2001 Fleer Genuine #54 Mark McGwire
2014 Topps - Future Stars That Never Were #FS-13 Mark McGwire
2014 Topps Archives #69 Mark McGwire

It still seems weird that McGwire only played one full season and 2 half seasons after setting the home run record at 70. Finishing off his cards from this package are two from just last year, featuring him back in his Oakland days. I'm glad to see him showing up in current products, even if it does just keep expanding my ever-growing wantlist.

I've got one more post to go in showing off this massive mailing from Junior Junkie.

PWE Time!

Stealing Home, from All Trade Bait, All The Time recently sent me a PWE. If you're sick of seeing Cardinals on my blog, well I'd suggest you don't read it? But this one has more than just Cardinals, have a look.

1991 Studio #235 Joe Magrane
2013 Topps - Chasing History Gold Foil #CH-87 Lance Lynn
2014 Topps - #157 Lance Lynn

OK, I tricked you. the first 3 were Cardinals, including a nice shiny Gold foil parallel I wasn't really aware existed. If not for the rainbow shininess of the card, I probably would have just filed the Lance Lynn away with my other Chasing History cards.

1998 Topps #268 Nomar Garciaparra
2000 Upper Deck MVP - Pure Grit #G9 Nomar Garciaparra
2002 Donruss #12 Nomar Garciaparra
2003 Leaf #23 Nomar Garciaparra
2003 Leaf - Certified Samples #LC-14 Nomar Garciaparra
2004 Topps #200 Nomar Garciaparra

I get lots of Cardinals in various ways, but I don't get as many Nomars, mostly because among players I collect, he's the only one that never played for St. Louis. 5 of the 6 were new cards to my collection. I inexplicably already have 3 copies of that 1998 base card, and a search of my blog doesn't show any of them arriving in the last few years, which means I probably had them all in 1998. I thought I had the 2004 card, but it turns out I have the Opening Day version. My Nomar collection isn't all that big, so these are a nice addition and gives it a relatively large boost.

Thanks for the PWE, Stealing Home!

2014 Topps From The Pack Stash

2014 Topps
#50 Buster Posey
#69 Jhoulys Chacin
#167 Jeremy Guthrie
#176 Alex Cobb
#317 Lonnie Chisenhall

This pack illustrated the downside to the apparent bargains of repacks. I think my box was 10 packs for either $20 or $15, but these 5 card packs of Topps can be had for $1 at Dollar Tree last time I checked. But, they weren't all $1 packs, so overall the repack was still an OK deal. These are my first 2014 Topps cards, for some reason. I guess I just never jumped in last year when they came out, probably because I was still digging through my 3 hobby boxes of 2013 flagship and Update. I did win a contest for a 2014 insert, but that's the only card I have from the set, so here we are, with my first 2014 base cards showing up after my first 2015s.

Three Contests from Chavez Ravining

Alex at Chavez Ravining is running one of his contests again, and you have until Monday evening to go comment to enter. 3 different people will each win one Team USA relic card.

Now for the other two contests, those are in the past. That is to say, I won two consecutive contests at Chavez Ravining. The first contest was an effort to get Dodger Penguin up to 50 followers, which was achieved. I got my pick of Alex's trade bait, and I went with a shiny Pujols.

2013 Topps Chrome
1972 Refractors #72C-AP Albert Pujols

A week later, I won again! This time the prize was a nice relic from 2014 Topps of Ben Zobrist.

2014 Topps
Trajectory Relics #TR-BZ Ben Zobrist

At least Alex saved some postage by sending the two cards together. In both contests, I also won some Chavez Code points, which I'll have to get around to redeeming one of these days.

Also in this package, Alex sent the 4th McGwire card from the Mother's Cookies set. He sent the other 3 in our previous trade.

1988 Mother's Cookies Mark McGwire Set #1/4

As a Midwesterner, these are tough to find locally, since Mother's Cookies never quite made it this far. I'm keeping this one in its original wrapping too, since I can see both sides.

Thanks to Alex for the contests!

Two Contests

There are two contests (that I know of) going on right now, and both will give me a bonus entry for telling you about them, so here we are.

First we have Chavez Ravining returning to his entry-a-day contests, for this brand new 2014 Ben Zobrist Relic.

2014 Topps
Trajectory Relic #TR-BZ Ben Zobrist

Next, at My Cardboard Habit, an accidental purchase of a Lot of 2 instead of a single card means he's got an extra copy of this Bryce Harper to give away.

2013 Panini Black Friday
Panini Collection Checklist #4 Bryce Harper

Go leave a comment on each post to enter, and mention this post on the Harper contest if you'd like to give me a bonus entry.

Two Contests This Week

Play at the Plate is having a year-end contest for a 2014 Topps blaster, and a rack pack for those who shamelessly plug the context, like this. Enter by leaving comments on any of his posts, but here is the contest post. It ends sometime tomorrow so get commenting.

Second is the Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web IV, which I mentioned last week. Pick the Superbowl winner, loser, points scored, and number of turnovers.

And now, for no good reason, here's Steve Harvey again.