Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Winnings, Part XXXIV

College football will be here again before we know it IS HERE IS OVER, 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 XXX
XXXI XXXII XXXIII

I'll never spend less than 5 minutes figuring out which subset a Bowman Draft card belongs to.

2007 Fleer Ultra #150 Chris Carpenter
2007 Topps Updates and Highlights #UH320 Troy Percival
2007 Upper Deck Artifacts #68 Chris Carpenter (x2)
2008 Topps Stadium Club #130 Brian Barton
2009 Bowman Draft - Prospects #BDPP4 Virgil Hill

At first I thought I already that Brian Barton card, but take a look at my other copy. One of those is a variation, and from reading BaseballCardPedia's page on 2008 Stadium Club, I believe it's the one in today's post.

A Trade With Mr. Haverkamp

Thanks to a post I made about Turkey Red a few weeks ago, a reader by the name of Mr. Haverkamp contacted me with some more Turkey Reds from my wantlist. You've probably seen his name a few times on other blogs, as he's a pretty active trader. 

2005 Topps Turkey Red
#54 Chris Carpenter
#94 Mark Buehrle
#129 Kip Wells
#156 Jake Westbrook
#229 Dmitri Young
#309 Wade Boggs

2005 isn't the main Turkey Red set I'm focused on right now, so my wantlist is only the Cardinals and retired players, hence why I've got 5 players who played for the Cardinals, and Wade Boggs.

2010 Topps - Turkey Red
#TR13 Yovani Gallardo
#TR20 CC Sabathia
#TR29 Gordon Beckham
#TR35 Stephen Drew
#TR38 Rick Porcello
#TR55 Aaron Hill

2010 Topps' Turkey Red insert set is my big target, and I knocked 6 more off that list. I still need 76 of the 150 total cards in flagship and update, so I'm almost at 50%.

2011 Topps Lineage
1975 Mini #9 Matt Holliday

This was a nice surprise thrown in with all the Turkey Red, also off my want list. Lineage is a set I really liked but didn't seem to be a big hit, only lasting a single year. I have the entire mini parallel set on my wantlist, but I'll likely never finish it. This Matt Holliday brings me up to just 15 out of the 200 cards.

Thanks for the trade, Mr. Haverkamp!

Zistle Trade #21

This trade was proposed through Zistle, but was with a fellow blogger, Mark Kaz, of This Way to the Clubhouse. Here's his post on my half (or I guess it's now his half) of the trade.

I put a lot of cards on my wantlist. I probably shouldn't do that, because I'll never acquire all of them unless I come into enough money to buy them all, and also enough money to quit my job to focus on tracking them all down full time. But at least it gives traders a wide swath the choose from in order to snag some of my duplicates. This small trade covered some set fillers and some Cardinals-specific wants as well.

1986 Topps Traded #82T Jose Oquendo
1990 K-Mart #12 Joe Magrane
2011 Topps Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations #SC-12 Matt Garza
2012 Topps Update #US185 Donovan Solano
2012 Topps Update #US285 Ian Kinsler
2012 Topps Update #US319 A.J. Pollock RC
2012 Topps Update #US322 Jordan Danks RC
2012 Topps Archives #134 Chris Carpenter
2012 Topps Opening Day - Elite Skills #ES-2 Alex Gordon

The old cards in the trade were a 1986 Topps Traded of Jose Oquendo, the secret weapon, who also played for Mark's New York Mets. The regular 1986 cards seem fairly easy to come by, but the traded sets, as usual, are a bit less common to find. The only other card from that set on my wantlist is Todd Worrell, though a quick look tells me I never went through and exhaustively added all the Cardinals. That would cover the two in uniform, but I collect all Cardinals in any uniform, so I'll be adding Will Clark, Dane Iorg, Joaquin Andujar, and more to my want list. You can see how it balloons so easily.

The full 33-card 1990 K-Mart set is on my want list, and Joe Magrane leaves me with 12 cards to go. I'll bet Nolan Ryan is the last one I'm able to acquire.

Opening Day is a set so cheap that I often decide I'm going to try to acquire every insert among the more common sets, basically everything but autographs/relics/printing plates, and the Alex Gordon and sideways Matt Garza cards are two of those inserts from 2011 and 2012.

I think I completed 2010, 2011, and 2013 Update, but never 2012 for some reason. But, I'm now 4 cards closer on that quest, too.

Finally there's Chris Carpenter from 2012 Archives. I really haven't jumped into Archives with both feet, but I do like getting the Cardinals from the sets. It's a level of restraint rarely seen from me when making my want lists.

Thanks for the trade, Mark! You knocked 9 cards off my want list, but thanks to the attention I paid to 1986 Topps traded, I added 12 more to it.

A Repack Hit From 2010 Topps

I spoiled the end a bit in the title, but let's see a 2010 Topps Series 2 pack I pulled from my pack stash, originally from a repack box.

2010 Topps
#361 Washington Nationals
#372 Phillies Franchise History
#545 Fred Lewis
#558 Ronny Paulino
#652 Chipper Jones

I don't hate horizontal cards. I just don't like how they mess with my scanning groups. Also, even though it's been a few years, it's still weird to think that Chipper Jones is retired.

2010 Topps
#345 Chris Volstad
#355 James Russell
#386 Dan Haren
#413 J.J. Hardy
#424 David Herndon
#440 Willie Harris
#450 Omir Santos
#479 Chris Carpenter

Chris Carpenter represents the lone uniformed Cardinal from the pack, but I also got a Dan Haren, whose cards haunt me and remind me we traded him away for 55 games of Mark Mulder.

2010 Topps
#514 Rafael Soriano
#515 Mariners Franchise History
#520 Randy Wells
#523 Phil Coke
#525 David Huff
#532 Hunter Pence
#561 Ryan Zimmerman
#571 Brandon Lyon

Those Franchise History cards would look good in a binder, if they were all consistently vertical or horizontal.

2010 Topps
#592 Brian Roberts
#595 Mike Lowell
#610 Alex Gordon
#614 Kelly Johnson
#632 Daric Barton
#650 Dustin Pedroia
#654 Collin Balester
#657 Chris Young
#659 Nick Blackburn

Call me an anarchist if you want, but I really hope Alex Gordon and 6 or 7 more Royals start in the All-Star game. Frankly I hope they get all 9 fan-voted slots, and Ned Yost brings in a Royals pitcher before he replaces the first position player.

2010 Topps
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT66 Warren Spahn
History of the World Series #HWS18 Paul Molitor
Topps Attax #JM Justin Morneau
Turkey Red #TR97 Chase Headley
Peak Performance #PP-52 Lance Berkman
Peak Performance Autos #PPA-DS Daniel Stange

I got another Cardinal with Lance Berkman, but the big hit is the last card, of Daniel Stange. Now he's certainly no superstar, but I'm always happy to add another autograph to my collection. Just because I have his card, I looked up his stats, and it appears he's now out of baseball, last playing in the 2014 Venezuelan Winter league. Still, I'm surprised to get this out of a repack, and glad to see that not every rack pack is apparently searched.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part XIII

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 III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII

It rolled all the way into March thanks to some days I was too busy to post, but I've finally reached the end of this prize package, after 13 posts. Today is the remainder of the box, and it's all 2011 Allen and Ginter.

2011 Allen and Ginter
Baseball Highlight Sketches #BHS-23 Mark Teixeira
Floating Fortresses #FF1 HMS Victory Hometown Heroes #HH22 John Danks
Hometown Heroes #HH49 Danny Valencia
Hometown Heroes #HH66 Derek Lowe
Hometown Heroes #HH75 Carl Crawford
Hometown Heroes #HH79 Derek Jeter
Hometown Heroes #HH92 Mike Napoli

My sampling here includes two guys from Florida, two from Texas, and two from Michigan. Coincidence? Probably!

2011 Allen and Ginter
Ascent of Man #AOM 13 Eutherians
Ascent of Man #AOM 19 Hominini
Ascent of Man #AOM 20 Hominina
#295 Chris Carpenter

Here we see the Ascent of man. It's missing a few steps as you can see from the numbering, but I like the smooth transitions from one card to the next, as you can see between card 19 and 20. Later in the chain we have Chris Carpenter, clearly confused and angered by the world around him. To complete the chain, there should probably be a Nuke Laloosh, Rick Vaughn, and finally Chet Steadman.



There were about 60 more base cards, but none were Cardinals, and I got tired of scanning, so I'll go out on top with that gag.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part XI

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 III IV V VI VII VIII IX X

You can tell from my ordering by year that we're getting close to the end, considering how long ago this prize was sent. This post spans 2009-2011.

2009 Goodwin Champions #75 Carlton Fisk
2010 Topps Attax - Silver Foil "Hot Streak" #39 Victor Martinez
2010 Topps #483 Daisuke Matsuzaka
2010 Topps - Turkey Red #TR4 Albert Pujols
2011 Topps Heritage #101 Jacoby Ellsbury
2011 Topps Heritage #336 John Lackey
2011 Topps Attax #178 Robinson Cano
2011 Topps - Gold #448 Colby Rasmus #1947/2011
2011 Topps - Walmart Black #610 Josh Beckett

I've never purchased any Goodwin Champions or Topps Attax directly, though I've acquired a few through trades. I didn't have the Pujols or Rasmus cards yet, so those are nice to knock off my want list.

2011 Bowman Platinum #31 Adrian Gonzalez
2011 Lineage
#32 Jon Lester
#38 Chris Carpenter
#48 Carlton Fisk
#90 Tris Speaker
#122 Paul O'Neill
#175 CC Sabathia
#178 Albert Pujols

I really like the 2011 Lineage set, but I think I'm one of the few, as evidenced by Topps' decision not to have it return in 2012. I still need 7 cards to complete the base set, but these were not those 7, and they'll go into my trade list.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part IX

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 III IV V VI VII VIII

More Cardinals, Red Sox, and Yankees!

2007 Bowman Heritage #250 Daisuke Matsuzaka
2007 Upper Deck First Edition #289 Juan Encarnacion
2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #92 Jon Lester
2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces #14 Daisuke Matsuzaka
2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces #85 Chris Carpenter
2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces #66 Robinson Cano

The 2008 Masterpieces set is one I really like, and I even have a full set of 2007 thanks to a contest on Play at the Plate.

2008 Upper Deck
#588 Wilson Betemit
#592 Shelly Duncan
#773 Josh Beckett (x2)
#229 Manny Ramirez

I just realized this whole post would have been Upper Deck if not for the Bowman Heritage interloper up above. I got a few cards from the 2008 flagship product, and naturally we have an example of Manny being Manny, having the only horizontal card and forcing me to make and awkward scan. Shelly Duncan has 2 connections to the Cardinals: his brother is Chris Duncan, who played for the team and is now a local radio host, and his dad is Dave Duncan, Tony La Russa's longtime pitching coach, including his years in St. Louis.

2013 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack #8

Here's where I'd make a terrible Crazy 8s pun if I could think of one.

2013 Topps
#480 Lance Berkman
#603 Chris Perez
#631 Chris Carpenter
Chasing History #CH-63 Jordan Zimmerman
Gold Parallel #334 Derek Norris #0272/2013
Making Their Mark #MM-1 Yoenis Cespedes

This pack yielded 3 Cardinals, 2 of them who moved on, and one who is now retired. I've long lamented the Chris Perez trade that brought us Mark DeRosa (and we even threw in a player to be named later!), though his recent slide has lessened that sting a little bit.

2013 Topps
Chase It Down #CD-12 Carlos Gonzalez
Emerald Parallel #332 Cole Hamels
1972 Topps Mini #TM-77 Fred Lynn

Can we petition Boston to bring back the red batting helmets?

2013 Topps
Chasing History Autographs #CHA-BH Brock Holt

Speaking of Boston, here's a nice shiny Brock Holt autograph. It's not the flashiest name on the checklist, but I feel like I've seen his name in the sports reports a bit more this year. That could be the alleged New York/Boston bias, or maybe he's really that impressive. One thing is for certain, though: he writes his capital B funny.

Since the big insert of the pack was the regular-thickness autograph, there were the standard 42 base cards in the pack. Of those, 38 were new, pushing me even closer to completing the set. I now need just 45 new base cards in the final 2 packs.

Series 2 Completion: 285/330 (86.4%)

eBay Wins #105

I won 34 cards from 2006 Upper Deck, and they were all inserts from the Player Highlights set. There were some doubles since I bid on multiple auctions, but here are the 22 unique cards.

2006 Upper Deck - Player Highlights
#PH-2 Manny Ramirez
#PH-4 Johnny Damon
#PH-6 Chris Carpenter (x3)
#PH-7 Derrek Lee (x2)
#PH-8 Jason Bay
#PH-9 Jason Varitek
#PH-10 Ryan Howard (x2)
#PH-11 Mark Teixeira

2006 Upper Deck - Player Highlights
#PH-12 Carlos Delgado (x4)
#PH-13 Bartolo Colon
#PH-14 David Wright
#PH-15 Miguel Tejada (x2)
#PH-17 Paul Konerko
#PH-18 Jermaine Dye (x3)
#PH-19 Ichiro
#PH-20 Brad Wilkerson

2006 Upper Deck - Player Highlights
#PH-21 Hideki Matsui
#PH-23 Chris Burke
#PH-25 Brian Roberts
#PH-26 David Ortiz
#PH-28 Ken Griffey, Jr. (x3)
#PH-34 Scott Podsednik

At a penny each, that's 34 cards for 34 cents. Not bad for some big stars.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2608
Total Spent	$44.74
Per Card	1.715 cents

Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Part 4

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

First up today is pile of 2010 Allen & Ginter.

2010 Allen & Ginter
#70 Joey Votto
#72 Erick Aybar
#77 Ricky Romero
#82 Justin Upton
#84 Elvis Andrus
#87 Alexei Ramirez
#90 Kevin Kouzmanoff
#182 Chris Carpenter
#183 Tommy Manzella

2010 Allen & Ginter
#185 X-Rays
#187 Jair Jurrjens
#191 Justin Morneau
#197 Johnny Damon (x2)
#198 A.J. Pierzynski
#200 Lance Berkman
#204 Russell Martin
#219 Adam Wainwright

2010 Allen & Ginter
#188 Jason Bartlett
#189 Howie Kendrick

I used to lament small sets that only had the star players, vs the 800ish-card sets of early 90s Topps. But it sure is nice to get a pile of "random junk" cards and have them all be recognizable stars.

2011 Allen & Ginter #40 John McEnroe
2013 Allen & Ginter - Martial Mastery #MM-AP Apache

There were also 2 Allen & Ginter singles from other years, but neither one featuring baseball players. I wonder if Jimmy Connors will ever make it to an A&G card.

1996 Fleer Update
#U61 Dwight Gooden
#U78 Russ Davis
#U146 Israel Alcantara
#U154 Juan Acevedo
#U161 Kevin Roberson
#U190 Aaron Holbert

I didn't recognize the guy in the Cardinals uniform, Aaron Holbert, and looking him up online, that's no surprise. Aaron Holbert played 1 game for us in 1996, then 22 games in 2005 for the Reds. The back of his card says he was set to be our SS of the future after Ozzie Smith retired, but then he got hurt in 1994 and 1995. The look on his face on the card makes me thing we might have caught the very moment of the aforementioned injury.

#16 Stand Up Double (Checklist)
#38 Tim Hudson

2007 Turkey Red
#122 Roy Oswalt
#154 Travis Buck

Finally - for today - here are some Turkey Reds from 2007, which is one of my favorite sets I missed from the years I wasn't collecting (2000-2010). That still hasn't convinced me to buy the super-expensive online exclusive versions of the last few years though. As for 2007, I now have 39 of the approximately 199 cards in the set including short prints, thanks mostly to a group break last year. Perhaps it's time to add the rest to my want list.


We're nowhere near finished with this box...

Contest Winnings, Part II

A good friend of mine likes to say - jokingly, I think - that second place is the first loser. When Daniel of It's like having my own Card Shop, opened up a contest to help Pack War reach 100 followers, I joined in, and the Randomizer put me in 6th for 4 prizes. But, since 2 people won the top 4 prizes, he was kind enough to throw some cards to the 5th and 6th position to still have 4 people as winners. Consequently, I got some cool stuff for being the 5th loser.

Part I

The cards in this portion of my prize cover the years I wasn't collecting, which means it's quite probable any card will be a card I didn't have.

2002 Fleer Tradition
Glossy #462 Bill Ortega #057/200

Hmm. Bill Ortega. Doesn't ring a bell. According to baseball-reference he had 5 ABs in 5 games in 2001, likely as a PH, but no further MLB stats. Such is the risk with prospect cards. This one's a glossy parallel of the base set, and numbered to just 200.

2002 Fleer Ultra #251 Bud Smith

Here we have the 4th most popular Smith to play for the Cardinals, after Ozzie, Lee, and Lonnie, but probably ahead of Bryn. Bud Smith caused an uproar when the Cardinals assigned him recently-retired Willie McGee's number 51, and they actually switched him to 52 mid-season because of it. People get a little number-retirement-happy here, and there's still a movement to retire #51 for Willie.

2006 Upper Deck
Star Attractions #SA-AR Anthony Reyes

Anthony Reyes wasn't a big star at the time this set was printed, so I'm curious about the Star Attraction title. Maybe it was speculative, like Mr. Ortega up top. This one turned out a little better though, as Reyes played a few years for the Cardinals.

2007 Topps
Own The Game #OTG22 Chris Carpenter

I can't quite tell what patch is on Chris Carpenter's hat here. It could be from the 2006 All Star Game, but I think it's from game 3 the World Series, which he won 5-0.

2008 Upper Deck Documentary
All Star Game #ASG-RL Ryan Ludwick

2010 T206
Mini Old Mill Back
#150 Ryan Ludwick

Finally, for today, here are 2 Ryan Ludwick inserts. For some reason there was no controversy around him getting Lee Smith's number, likely because 7 other players had it in between. We love handing out #47 for some reason, though John Mabry may have a claim to it now that he's coaching for us after 3(!) playing stints. I can't help but root for former Cardinals like Ryan Ludwick, even though he played for division rivals Pittsburgh and now Cincinnati. And everyone loves minis, right?

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 15

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 ]

2006 Fleer
#86 Tyler Johnson
#91 Mark Mulder

I didn't own a single card from 2006 Fleer before these two. Now, my want list has had a net gain because I've added all Cardinals from the set.

2006 Fleer Ultra #40 Mark Mulder

I also didn't own any 2006 Fleer Ultra, but that one only added 5 Cardinals to my want list. Now, look at this card, then look at Mulder's Fleer card above. They look suspiciously similar, don't they? I'm pretty sure these were taken from the same game. How can I be so sure? I can't be 100% positive, but here is my evidence:

• Those are the Cardinals Home Sunday caps. They don't mess around and wear them on special days; they're for Home Sundays.
• Mulder had no relief appearances in 2005, narrowing my search to his starts.
• He only started 1 Sunday game at Busch Stadium in 2005, on July 3.

Mulder was actually healthy in 2005, with 32 starts. It looks like he got a few extended breaks between starts down the stretch, but that may have just been because the Cardinals had a sizable lead and won 100 games. But I suppose 32 chances is many fewer than 150-162 a photographer would have to get a shot of a position player, making something like this slightly more palatable.

2006 Upper Deck #808 Gary Bennett

Gary Bennett was a solid, dependable backup to Molina for 2 years, but he wasn't near the character Jason LaRue was.

2005 Opening Day
#32 Chris Carpenter
#65 Woody Williams (x2)
#154 Scott Rolen
#156 Edgar Renteria
#157 Larry Walker

2005 Opening Day #17 Jim Edmonds

The Cardinals seem to pick up a lot of aging stars for their final years, but they seem to work out to be productive years. When Larry Walker came to St. Louis, I enjoyed getting to see a player I had known to be a superstar for a long time, and he did quite well in his final year and a half with us. 2005 Opening Day is another new set for me, despite my fondness for the current Opening Day sets.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 14

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 ]

2007 Topps
#127 Chris Duncan
#249 Tony La Russa

If not for the different uniforms, I'd like to think these are 2 shots from the same play, and Tony's taking Chris Duncan out for a defensive replacement. Sorry, Chris, I like you on the radio though.

2007 Topps Updates and Highlights
#UH44 Scott Spiezio

Spiezio might be responsible for the silliest Cardinals phenomenon until the Rally Squirrel. He had very long facial hair growing under his lip, and at times he dyed it Cardinal red. Of course, people cut up red fabric and made their own faux hair, and I think there may have even been an official promotion night around it.

2007 Turkey Red
#72 Chris Carpenter
#87 David Eckstein
#172 Kelvin Jimenez

Zoom in really far on that David Eckstein card. He's got quite the zombie eyes in that drawing.

2007 Turkey Red
#48 Prince Albert

I'd love to know what happened on this pitch, if this is based on a real photo. It could be a home run, a fly out, or even just strike 2. It looks like Albert might be swinging a little low for the ball.

2006 Topps
#36 Jeff Suppan
#228 David Eckstein

Here's Eckstein looking much less Zombiefied, and journeyman extraordinaire Jeff Suppan. He wore my favorite number (37), so I almost bought a jersey when we won the World Series in 2006. Luckily I didn't because he quickly left for Milwaukee. One day I may get one anyway, along with Todd Wellemeyer and Kent Bottenfield.

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 12

For the 2012-2013 College Football season, I entered the College Football Pick 'Em contest hosted by madding of Cards on Cards. I've won several of his contests over the years, and he always dumps a ton of Cardinals on me when I do. Yet, I think this time he may have outdone himself. I may have to work hard to get them all posted before the 2013-14 College Football season starts August 29, and I start posting my Power Rankings again.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 ]

2008 Allen and Ginter
#287 Chris Carpenter
#326 Adam Kennedy

2008 Allen and Ginter
#44 Adam Wainwright
United States #US29 Chris Carpenter

Has anyone heard if 2013 Allen and Ginter is out yet? That United States insert is needlessly thick. At first I thought maybe it was a relic, but no, it's just a very thick slide of cardboard. I'm guessing this set contained each state's most famous native ballplayer.

2008 Topps
#244 Adam Wainwright
#272 Anthony Reyes
#285 Tony La Russa
#353 Brendan Ryan

2008 Topps is a set I have a decent chunk of, by virtue of finding a lot of cheap packs at one point. Consequently, I'm chasing its completion in my mind, though I haven't gone so far as to put the missing cards on my want list yet.

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces
#83 Ozzie Smith
#85 Chris Carpenter

I could come up with any number of excuses for putting the Ozzie in the wrong orientation, but you know the real reason. I wasn't paying attention. And I'm not going to go de-sleeve and re-scan it. Carpenter knocked a card off my want list, so I just have a few Cardinals to go in this set.

2007 Topps Co-Signers #67 Anthony Reyes

I feel like I've heard of Co-Signers many times, but this is the first card of it I own. That's probably because I'm not a huge autograph seeker, except those I acquire from an in-person meeting, and autographed inserts were the big gimmick of this set.