A Pack Stash Kind of Day

Every now and then I'll buy a box with some old packs, or get a bonus with an online order. Often those will just go into a big pile of "I'll open those when I feel like it". I believe this rack pack of 2010 Topps Series 2 is the former, from a box of 10 packs, though I can't really be sure once something's in the pile.

As I usually do, let's start with some base cards and move on to the inserts.

2010 Topps
#349 Felix Pie
#356 Angels Franchise History
#376 Esmil Rogers
#385 Torii Hunter
#398 Carlos Gonzalez
#405 Dustin McGowan
#416 Ruben Tejada
#431 John Raynor

Is that a cardboard cutout of Esmil Rogers standing in the bullpen? The photo makes him look very flat.

2010 Topps
#435 Nelson Cruz
#445 Miguel Olivo
#475 Johnny Damon
#491 Rafael Furcal
#501 Jake Peavy
#513 Scott Sizemore
#516 Marlon Byrd
#531 Matt Cain

The first Cardinal appears, Rafael Furcal. So far it doesn't appear anyone has picked up the 37-year-old shortstop for 2015 yet.

2010 Topps
#560 Ryan Rowland-Smith
#562 Carlos Quentin
#573 Johan Santana
#591 Fernando Rodney
#597 J.R. Towles
#615 Justin Verlander
#622 Indians Franchise History
#624 Carlos Beltran

Another Cardinal showed up, Carlos Beltran. Like Furcal, he is also 37, but he'll be playing for the Yankees this year, at least until/unless they decide to dump some salary.

2010 Topps
#655 Ryan Madson
Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT85 Eddie Murray
Copper Parallel #590 Ryan Howard #140/399
Peak Performance #PP-61 Hunter Pence
Topps Attax - Lance Berkman
Turkey Red #TR96 Magglio Ordonez

This Lance Berkman Attax code card is just a little expired, but feel free to try to use that code. It wasn't until the second time I flipped through these cards that I noticed that Ryan Howard card wasn't the #/2010 Gold Parallel, but a #/399 Copper Parallel. I might need some better lighting around my desk. I'm also a big fan of the Turkey Red insert set, and this Magglio Ordonez gives me one more card toward completing that.

2010 Topps
#400 Alex Rodriguez
#410 Oakland Athletics
#411 Jack Wilson
#642 Padres Franchise History
#656 Jon Lester
Million Card Giveaway #TMC-20 Carl Yastrzemski

For ease of scanning, here are all the horizontal cards in one shot. I'll bet A-Rod doesn't get one of Topps' "star numbers" like 400 this year, but maybe a good 2015 will earn one for him in 2016. At the end there's yet another expired code card, this time from the Million Card Giveaway, which was lots of fun in 2010. I did a decent job of trading in that promotion, turning large numbers of more common cards into vintage cards and Cardinals I collect.

2013 Topps Jumbo Pack #4

In my ongoing effort to get to my 2013 Series 2 box before 2014 Series 2 hits the stores, here's the 4th pack of Series 1.

2013 Topps
#68 Colby Rasmus
#96 Edward Mujica
#315 Rafael Furcal
The Greats #TG-25 Albert Pujols

There were only 2 uniformed Cardinals in this pack, and one former Cardinal among the base cards. A subset I hadn't yet seen appeared, though. "The Greats" is on needlessly thick cardstock for some reason. I figured I had found a relic when I first opened the pack, and was pretty excited to see Pujols. So there was a slight letdown when I realized it was just a thick card.

2013 Topps
Calling Cards #CC-13 Aroldis Chapman
Chasing History #CH-40 Mike Schmidt
Chasing the Dream #CD-19 Yu Darvish
Emerald Parallel #45 Travis Ishikawa

Here we have the rest of the standard inserts. The more I see the Chasing History set, the more I like it, despite Mike Schmidt's powder blue uniform.

2013 Topps - 1972 Mini
#TM-20 Justin Verlander

And finally, a tiny Tiger.

This pack had 41 base cards in it, and 20 were new to me. I'll need to average a little better than that to complete the set by pack 10. I need 23 2/3 new cards per pack for the next 6 packs to reach 330.

Series 1 Completion: 188/330 (57.0%)

Giant Pile of Prizes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk, Part 3

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

Yesterday included a giant stack of 1981 Topps. Today's stack is decidedly more modern.

2012 Topps
#72 Rex Brothers
#161 Dee Gordon
#280 Ryan Howard
#289 Casey Kotchman
#330 Matt Kemp
#367 Chris Volstad
#381 David DeJesus
#398 Buster Posey
#415 Rafael Furcal

2012 Topps
#424 Vladimir Guerrero Checklist
#428 Jordan Schafer
#438 Juan Uribe
#476 Ramon Hernandez
#288 Nick Swisher
#493 Ryan Madson
#505 Fautino De Los Santos
#513 Gaby Sanchez
#519 Gio Gonzalez

2012 Topps
#520 Ryan Adams
#525 Paul Maholm
#526 Casper Wells
#529 Luke Hughes
#570 Zach McAllister
#571 J.J. Hardy
#572 Hiroki Kuroda
#574 Kerry Wood
#593 Marco Scutaro

2012 Topps
#601 Dan Haren
#610 Cody Ross
#615 Luis Marte
#632 Joe Nathan
#634 Jose Contreras
#635 Brett Gardner
#645 Kyle Seager
#656 Carlos Santana
Gold Futures #GF-37 Jordan Walden

2012 Topps
#347 Craig Gentry
#397 Hector Noesi
#410 Jeff Locke
#460 Thomas Field
#585 Jimmy Paredes
Golden Moments #GM-9 Ryan Howard

I'd hardly call the 2 inserts junk. Though I suppose we'll have to give Jordan Walden a few more years for a final verdict on that card. After all those 2012 Topps, there were also some 2012 Topps Update cards, including Randy Choate, the old man of our extremely young pitching staff.

2012 Topps Update
#US21 Buster Posey
#US50 C.J. Wilson
#US77 Miguel Batista
#US100 Ryan Dempster

2012 Topps Update
#US101 Casey McGehee
#US107 Randy Choate
#US293 Shane Victorino

And to finish off today, here's another sampling from the cards with no set-mates in the box.

1997 Collector's Choice - All Star Connection #39 Vinny Castilla
1996 Collector's Choice #538 Quinton McCracken
1999 Skybox Premium #246 A.J. Burnett
1995 Bowman's Best #B63 Alex Ochoa

There's still so much left in the box...

College Bowl Game Contest Win, Part 2

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.
[Part I]

2013 Topps
#190 Daniel Descalso
#193 Matt Carpenter
#315 Rafael Furcal
#321 Allen Craig

2013 Topps
#4 Yadier Molina
#269 St. Louis Cardinals
Emerald Green #207 Matt Holliday
Chasing History #CH-16 Lance Berkman

I feel torn when I see all the cards Topps gives to the Cardinals when they're winning. On one hand, it's nice that there are 9 pitcher cards (or maybe more) picturing players I collect among the 330 cards of Series 1, and at least 6 batters seen here, and a team card. On the other hand, I know teams like the Astros and Marlins get shortchanged, and that MLB can turn around quickly. St. Louis could be the team with almost no base cards and no inserts by 2015.

2013 Topps Heritage
#40 Carlos Beltran
#406 Jaime Garcia

These are my first two 2013 Heritage cards. Together these two have far-off stares like roommates who don't get along in a bad sitcom. Come to think of is, Carlos and Jaime would probably make for an entertaining pair in a sitcom. The grizzled old (in baseball terms) veteran rooming with the young hotshot; each one learns from the other at the end of each 30 minute episode. It'll be great!

2012 Topps Chrome #91 Allen Craig

2012 Topps Chrome #119 Jaime Garcia

Oh, Topps Chrome. Why do you look so good on the table and so bad in scans? That throwback uniform on Jaime looks great when I hold the card in my hand.

2012 Topps Archives
#85 Matt Holliday
#197 Allen Craig

I never jumped into 2012 Archives like many bloggers seemed to. When I pulled the Holliday card out of the pack I immediately became confused and disoriented. A 2007 Matt Holliday? We haven't had him that long have we? No wait, that's not the 2007 design, that's...1971? Where am I? Then I remembered Archives existed, and the copyright date on the back brought me back to my happy place. I do think there may be much confusion in coming years, with sets masquerading as earlier years tripping me up, because I won't remember exactly which years some of our role players and short-term players played for us.

2012 Opening Day Rack Pack #5

My 5th Target Rack Pack of Opening Day was my most Cardinal-heavy to date, with 3 current and 1 former Cardinal among the 21 base cards. That's not bad considering there are only 7 current Cardinals in the whole 220-card set.

2012 Opening Day #60 Adam Wainwright

I cheated and re-used this Waino scan from Pack 3.

2012 Opening Day #64 Dan Haren

I also cheated and re-used the Haren scan from Pack 1. Some might say I'm cheating by counting him among Cardinals, but it's my blog, my collection, my rules. He's a Cardinal!

2012 Opening Day #96 Chris Carpenter

Finally, a fresh card, and it's a Chris Carpenter to boot.

2012 Opening Day #154 Yadier Molina

Arguably even better than Carpenter is Yadier Molina.

2012 Opening Day - Elite Skills #ES-4 Ian Kinsler

At first I scanned this because it was an insert, but then I noticed who's being doubled-up in the play. It's none other than our own Rafael Furcal. I'm counting it as a half, so that's 4 and a half Cardinals in this pack. Oddly enough, this is the very first Rafael Furcal card I've tagged on my blog.

2012 Opening Day - Opening Day Stars #ODS-24 Dustin Pedroia

These 3D cards lose a lot of the effect when they're put in sleeves, but I'm not sure how else to protect them. Presumably pages would have the same problem.

2012 Opening Day - Superstar Celebrations #SC-20 Martin Prado

Didn't we just see this guy? Hopefully another Opening Day collector (are they any among the adults in the blogosphere?) will come along and pluck some of these duplicates from my collection.

As always, the base cards:
9 Chris Young
11 Michael Morse
19 Mat Latos
28 Michael Young
39 Michael Cuddyer
40 Domonic Brown
45 Mark Melancon
46 Chris Sale
60 Adam Wainwright
62 Ervin Santana
64 Dan Haren
69 Tim Lincecum
88 John Axford
91 Jayson Werth
96 Chris Carpenter
138 Russell Martin
141 Drew Storen
149 Adrian Gonzalez
154 Yadier Molina
174 Brian McCann
191 Ivan Nova