eBay Wins #247

Here are the rest of the 1989 Fleer cards from my eBay bargain hunting. As you can see, they were mostly from team lots, including Pittsburgh and Atlanta, and LA and Oakland in the last post. Since I usually sort my cards by number, I appreciate a set that keeps teams contiguous.

1989 Fleer
#214 Jose Lind
#215 Junior Ortiz
#216 Vicente Palacios
#217 Tom Prince
#218 Gary Redus
#219 R.J. Reynolds
#220 Jeff Robinson
#221 John Smiley
#222 Andy Van Slyke

Andy Van Slyke started with the Cardinals, and Vicente Palacios nearly finished with them, except he played in Mexico for 3 years after St. Louis and came back to play in San Diego for part of a season.

1989 Fleer
#223 Bob Walk
#224 Glenn Wilson
#283 Mark Gubicza
#385 Dennis Martinez
#421 Jody Davis
#547 Mario Diaz
#584 Milt Thompson
#585 Jose Alvarez (x2)
#586 Paul Assenmacher

1989 Fleer
#587 Bruce Benedict
#588 Jeff Blauser (x2)
#589 Terry Blocker
#590 Ron Gant
#592 Tommy Gregg
#593 Albert Hall
#594 Dion James
#595 Rick Mahler
#596 Dale Murphy

It's hard to believe Ron Gant only played in St. Louis for 3 years, but he was here when they returned to making playoff appearances in 1996.

1989 Fleer
#597 Gerald Perry
#598 Charlie Puleo
#599 Ted Simmons
#600 Pete Smith
#601 Zane Smith
#603 Bruce Sutter
#604 Andres Thomas
#605 Ozzie Virgil
#637 Cannon Arms (Chris Sabo/Bobby Bonilla)

In this photo, Gerald Perry, Ted Simmons, and Bruce Sutter were all Cardinals, as were both of Chris Sabo and Bobby Bonilla.

1989 Fleer
#647 Prospects (Randy Kramer/Miguel Garcia)
#649 Prospects (Jim Corsi/Bob Milacki)
World Series
#4 Dramatic Comeback
#5 Gibson Steals the Show
#10 Series Caps Award-Winning Year
#12 Dodger Blue, World Champs

I'm not sure if the World Series cards were inserts, or were just as common as the base set cards, but I got quite a few of them since two of the lots were LA and Oakland.

1989 Fleer
World Series
#1 Dodgers Secret Weapon
#2 Rookie Starts Series
#6 "Bulldog"
#7 One Swing, Three RBI's
#9 Sax's Speed Wins Game 4
Stickers
Atlanta Braves
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
Pittsburgh Pirates

And it finishes off with the rest of the World Series cards, and some team Stickers. I've got a lot of these around, I should really peel them and put them somewhere around my desk at work or something.

There were only two doubles in this post, which is a good number for my eBay purchases. By my count, that's a total of 53 cards, which rang up 26.5 cents out of the half penny box. See, I told you it would even itself back out.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4765
Total Spent	$60.45
Per Card	1.269 cents
Change	-0.008 cents

eBay Wins #241

Today's eBay post covers the first ever Upper Deck set 1989. As you probably know, this set is widely credited with the shift from brown to white cardstock, which seems to be just slightly thinner and stiffer as well. I can definitely attest that these are easier to line up on a flatbed scanner than other cards of this era I've been scanning, as they still mostly lie flat. There were a handful of duplicates, some from a big lot of Oakland A's I bought awhile back.

1989 Upper Deck
31 Kevin Gross
33 Jeff Calhoun
93 Albert Hall
246 Von Hayes
269 Kevin Elster
316 Scott Bankhead
317 Milt Thompson
337 Mike Campbell
338 Mike Maddux

When I was a kid and the web was relatively devoid of the minutiae you can now find on it, I had to make up my own back story for players with interesting names, especially if they were not Cardinals and thus much less likely to be discussed on a broadcast I would watch. I always figured Von Hayes was Dutch or Scandinavian, just based on his first name. Of course, his card lists his birthplace as California, and I still don't know where the name Von came from.

1989 Upper Deck
392 Curt Young (x2)
393 Jeff Treadway
409 Don Carman (x2)
412 Pete Smith
430 Jackie Gutierrez
433 Jerry Royster
443 Glenn Davis
474 Randy Ready
476 Kelly Downs

I think I've said it before, but to me Randy Ready sounds like a professional wrestler or some sort of local TV commercial mascot name. Wait no, last time I went with Superhero in a low budget Syfy movie.

1989 Upper Deck
478 Shawn Hillegas
492 Mark Parent
501 Chuck Crim
510 Kevin Seitzer
531 Greg Mathews
539 Jim Gott
544 Atlee Hammaker
550 Mickey Brantley
583 Mike Gallego (x2)

Finally, a uniformed Cardinal, Greg Matthews. Mike Gallego also finished up his career with the Cardinals, presumably coming here because of Walt Jocketty and Tony La Russa's experience with him in Oakland. Milt Thompson above was also a Cardinal.

1989 Upper Deck
585 Doug Jennings (x2)
623 Bill Swift
637 Charlie Leibrandt
640 Danny Jackson
641 Greg Booker
642 Jim Presley
679 Cory Snyder/Cleveland Checklist
688 Eric Davis/Cincinnati Checklist
758 Mike Moore (x2)

Finally there are two more Cardinals before they were Cardinals, Eric Davis and Danny Jackson. Eric Davis was signed pretty late in his career, but actually played here two seasons, and one more in San Francisco. Danny Jackson was traded away during his final season and finished in San Diego. When I look at that trade, it's not immediately obvious to me who was buying and who was selling, and it wasn't even a deadline deal; it happened June 13. The Cardinals traded Jackson, Rich Batchelor, and Mark Sweeney, and got Scott Livingstone, Phil Plantier, and Fernando Valenzuela. I guess Sweeney was the big piece in that trade, because Jackson, Plantier, Batchelor, and Valenzuela were finished in 1997, and Livingstone in 1998. Sweeney was 27 and played through 2008. At the deadline in 1997 the Cardinals picked up Mark McGwire, so maybe they were trying to clear some salary space. I really have no idea what they were thinking.

I added 41 total cards (the 36 pictured plus the 5 duplicates noted), for 41 cents.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4327
Total Spent	$58.26
Per Card	1.346 cents
Change	-0.004 cents

eBay Wins #223

Continuing with 1988 Donruss, I've got 122 more cards today from my half-cent box. Only 90 are unique. so again I haven't scanned the duplicates and the one triplicate. The Cardinals were a little less dense in this bunch, allowing me to post more before running out of tag space.

1988 Donruss
#233 Dick Schofield (x2)
#234 Jose Oquendo
#235 Bill Doran
#236 Milt Thompson (x2)
#238 Bobby Bonilla
#243 Phil Bradley (x2)
#253 Bob Welch
#257 Mitch Webster (x2)
#258 Brian Downing

Although, there are 3 Cardinals in this first scan; Jose Oquendo, obviously, along with Milt Thompson and Bobby Bonilla.

1988 Donruss
#260 Carlton Fisk
#261 Billy Hatcher
#264 Randy Ready (x2)
#265 Kurt Stillwell (x2)
#266 David Palmer
#267 Mike Diaz
#268 Rob Thompson
#270 Lee Guetterman
#278 Pedro Guerrero

Pedro Guerrero is another former Cardinal. I remember having this specific card, or at least seeing it, when I was very young, and thinking he must be wearing football pads for some reason. Now, I'm just assuming his arms are slightly raised, like maybe he's leaning against the batting cage.

1988 Donruss
#280 Kevin Seitzer (x2)
#281 Mike Davis (x2)
#283 Devon White
#284 Pete O'Brien
#286 Kevin Bass
#287 Carmelo Martinez
#288 Juan Samuel
#289 Kal Daniels (x2)
#290 Albert Hall (x2)

1988 Donruss
#291 Andy Van Slyke
#299 Mickey Hatcher
#304 Pete Incaviglia
#306 Bill Long
#309 Darren Daulton (x2)
#310 Tracy Jones (x2)
#312 Mike LaValliere (x3)
#314 Glenn Hubbard
#320 Kent Hrbek

Andy Van Slyke makes another appearance in this set, along with the catcher he was traded with, Mike LaValliere, whose card had 3 copies in my bargain box.

1988 Donruss
#325 Jeff Dedmon (x2)
#327 Jeffrey Leonard (x2)
#332 Larry Anderson
#333 Jack Howell
#334 Ken Williams
#335 Bryn Smith
#339 Mike Greenwell
#340 Claudell Washington (x2)
#341 Jose Gonzalez (x2)

I only know Bryn Smith as a Cardinal from the several cards I've had of him for a long time showing him in a Cardinals uniform, but I don't really remember him as an active player.

1988 Donruss
#342 Mel Hall
#344 Tony Bernazard
#348 Thad Bosley
#352 John Shelby
#356 Gus Polidor
#358 Danny Darwin (x2)
#359 Lance Parrish
#360 James Steels
#361 Al Pedrique

Al Pedrique would be an important part of a mini collection of mine if I ever had the time to put it together. He was the NL All Star at SS in RBI Baseball, because Ozzie Smith was already on the Cardinals. He wasn't actually an All-Star at all during his career, so I'm not sure why he was chosen.

1988 Donruss
#362 Mike Aldrete
#364 Len Dykstra
#365 Luis Quinones
#366 Jim Presley
#367 Lloyd Moseby
#371 Dave Schmidt
#372 Mark Clear
#373 Dave Bergman (x2)
#374 Charles Hudson (x2)

Mike Aldrete is another case, like Carney Lansford in the last post, of a player who would one day put on the Cardinal uniform, but never actually played for the team. He was a bench coach from 2012-2014.

1988 Donruss
#375 Calvin Schiraldi
#376 Alex Trevino (x2)
#379 Mike Gallego
#385 Don Carman
#389 Rick Mahler (x2)
#390 Mike Dunne (x2)
#402 Brian Holton
#405 Dwayne Murphy (x2)
#406 Jeff Parrett

Mike Gallego and Jeff Parrett both came to the Cardinals later in their careers, oddly enough right as the Cardinals started getting good again.

1988 Donruss
#410 Dave Smith (x2)
#413 Nick Esasky
#414 Damaso Garcia
#415 Brian Fisher (x2)
#423 Matt Young
#424 Steve Balboni (x2)
#425 Luis Polonia (x2)
#431 Gerald Young
#432 Rick Schu

Gerald Young was briefly a Cardinal in 1994, brief enough I've apparently never posted one of his cards before.

1988 Donruss
#435 John Cangelosi
#437 Gerald Perry (x2)
#441 Greg Gagne
#442 Jesse Barfield
#445 Ed Nunez
#448 Rafael Ramirez (x2)
#449 John Smiley
#450 Atlee Hammaker (x2)
#451 Lance McCullers

And we finish with Gerald Perry, the player who caused me to learn what a platoon was, and to realize you can't play every "good" player every day, but it's good to have a serviceable backup. As I recall he was used pretty often as a pinch hitter, and would sub in at first base from time to time.

Those 122 cards cost me 61 cents, bringing my bargain hunting average down just a little more again. I'm nearing 1.4 cents per card, and also nearing 4000 total cards.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3963
Total Spent	$55.73
Per Card	1.406 cents
Change	-0.029 cents

Zistle Trade #16 Part II

My Zistle trading binge continues, and this time I got enough Cardinals that I had to split into two posts just to tag them all. In return, I sent off some 2011 Topps Lineage cards, several of which were triples and quadruples, because I bought several discounted packs and blasters of that set.

Part I

1983 Fleer #613 Gary Gaetti
1990 Upper Deck
#225 Ozzie Smith
#278 Milt Thompson
1992 Donruss
#116 Kent Mercker
#163 Brian Hunter
#208 Tony Pena
#424 Chris Sabo
1993 Hostess
#18 Andres Galarraga
#25 Ken Griffey, Jr.

Since I made these trades at the same time, I wound up trading for the Chris Sabo card twice. But, I'm not too upset about it. The main draw in this trade was the Hostess cards. I'm not sure how many Hostess Baseballs I ate in the summer of 1993, but I feel like it was on the order of dozens. Before these two, I had 25 unique cards from the set, and 9 duplicates. A quick blog search indicates I've received 4 in trade, and sent off a few, so that probably means I got at least 30 from eating the baseball cakes. Most importantly, I now need only 5 more to finish the set.

I found it surprising that these are the first cards I'm posting of Andres Galarraga, Brian Hunter, and Kent Mercker. I'd especially expect a card of Galarraga to have come up by now.

Another nice card in the trade is the Gary Gaetti rookie card. He first played a few games in the majors in 1981, and in an era before the modern Bowman, he didn't get a rookie card until he completed his first full season in 1982.

Zistle Trade #16 Part I

My Zistle trading binge continues, and this time I got enough Cardinals that I had to split into two posts just to tag them all. In return, I sent off some 2011 Topps Lineage cards, several of which were triples and quadruples, because I bought several discounted packs and blasters of that set.

1989 Bowman
#242 Todd Stottlemyre
#429 Todd Worrell
#437 Terry Pendleton
#440 Pedro Guerrero
#444 Tom Brunansky

Ah 1989 Bowman, the cards that don't quite fit in standard sleeves and boxes, and often get bent up when mailed in a stack of standard cards. Luckily with 5 of them they stayed pretty safe in the envelope. I didn't have very many of these, so I've still got 12 Cardinals on my want list.

1990 Fleer
#250 Pedro Guerrero
#262 Milt Thompson
1990 Topps
#82 Scott Terry
#688 Milt Thompson
#788 Frank DiPino

I still need 7 more Fleer cards, and 17 more Topps cards (including some Tony La Russa and a Derek Lilliquist) to complete my current Cardinals wantlists for these two sets. If I ever get ridiculously flush with free time, a PC I would start would be guys wearing #37, so that Scott Terry card has great things ahead of it in my theoretical future.

Tis The Season Winnings, Part IV

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

Today I've got some more of the miscellaneous Cardinals, Red Sox, and Yankees from the prize package.

1990 Donruss #82 Milt Thompson
1990 Leaf #499 Greg Harris
1991 Topps - All Stars #16 Ozzie Smith
1992 Fleer #44 Phil Plantier
1992 Donruss #628 Greg Cadaret
1992 Donruss Rookies #34 Mike Draper

The Topps Glossy All Stars are definitely cards I should have in my collection, so this Ozzie along with yesterday's Vince Coleman were good additions. Guys like Phil Plantier are the reason I always look up players before assuming they weren't Cardinals. He apparently played for the Cardinals in the second half of 1997, coming over in the trade for Fernando Valenzuela. He played in the outfield in 32 games, and yet I had no memory of him.

1990 Topps #206 Nick Esasky
1990 Topps #409 Tom Brunansky
1990 Upper Deck #191 Don Mattingly
1990 Upper Deck #782 Billy Jo Robidoux
1992 Fleer Ultra #12 Tom Brunansky
1992 Fleer Ultra #15 Roger Clemens

Not only did I get two different Tom Brunansky cards, but as Red Sox and Yankees go, Clemens and Mattingly are two all time greats. A few years ago, I figured Mattingly would continue climbing up the Hall of Fame balloting and eventually make it in, but he's finally officially off the ballot. I suspect Clemens will eventually make it, once the fervor over PEDs dies down a bit, which may already be starting to happen now that Andy Pettitte is getting his number retired with the Yankees.

eBay Wins #115

Today I've got cards from 2 of Donruss's more garish 90s sets, which look even worse next to each other. But, these are the cards I grew up with, so they make me happy. It also doesn't hurt that they only cost me a penny each.

1990 Donruss
#82 Milt Thompson
#359 Larry Andersen
1991 Donruss
#461 Ernest Riles
#511 Wally Whitehurst
#525 Kent Anderson
#563 John Shelby
#678 Danny Jackson
#670 Ken Hill
#735 Ken Dayley

That makes 3 Danny Jackson cards in my last 10 eBay posts. That stat sounded like much more of an outlier before I typed it. Nonetheless, he counts as a Cardinal in my book, due to his 2 and a half seasons in St. Louis, so the lot netted 4 Cardinals out of 9 cards.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2837
Total Spent	$46.90
Per Card	1.653 cents

Baseball Cards from Bo, Part I

Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life contacted me about a trade, and he even did all the work picking cards from both my wantlist and tradelist to set up the swap. Here's the first part of my haul.

1990 Bowman
#187 Frank DiPino
#189 Howard Hilton
#192 Ray Lankford
#193 Todd Zeile
#196 Milt Thompson
#198 Vince Coleman

So a funny thing happened, I negotiated this trade while madding was putting together a prize package he obviously pulled mostly from my wantlist, so you may have just seen some of these cards.

1990 Kmart
#10 Doc Gooden
#17 Don Mattingly
#20 Cal Ripken
#21 Jose Canseco
#23 Rickey Henderson
#26 Bret Saberhagen
#27 Jeff Ballard
#31  Fred McGriff
#32 Mark McGwire

1990 Kmart
#33 Tony LaRussa and Roger Craig

Bo knocked out 10 of the 28 I still need for the K-mart set. It's a little cheesey, but I like it. This set sort of borders on oddball, but it does have the familiar little Topps logo there. Of course it doesn't hurt that the set is entirely stars.

1998 Score Rookie and Traded
#RT207 Jeff Suppan

Sometimes I browse Zistle.com for random Cardinal players, and tick the wantlist icon on any of their cards I don't have. I'm sure that's the reason this Suppan showed up on my list. I never even knew he was a Diamondback.

That's all for this round; I'm out of tag space!

March Radness Win, Part VI

[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]
[Part IV]
[Part V]

I "won" a prize, in that I managed to have the worst bracket of all in Cards on Cards March Radness contest. I legitimately tried to win, in fact I didn't even realize there was this consolation prize until the contest was over, because I stopped scoreboard watching about 2 rounds into the tournament because I did so poorly to start off. The good thing about winning cards from a fellow Cardinals fan is that he can't resist dumping a whole bunch of his Cardinal duplicates on me, which I'm more than happy to take.

We're up to part 6 for you non-Romans out there.

1990 Bowman
#187 Frank DiPino
#188 John Tudor
#189 Howard Hilton
#192 Ray Lankford
#193 Todd Zeile
#195 Ozzie Smith
#196 Milt Thompson
197 Terry Pendleton
#198 Vince Coleman

There is a good mix of relative unknowns - i.e., Frank DiPino and Howard Hilton - and big stars in this group. Notice Todd Zeile has a catcher's mitt there; this was before his move to 3B due to his hitting and speed.

1990 Donruss
#279 Vince Coleman
#418 Scott Terry
#710 Ozzie Smith

Here are 3 more 1990 Donruss towards my set. I love those late 80s Cardinals uniforms.

There's just one more part to this win, which will be revealed tomorrow night.