Zistle Trade #31

With this trade post, I'm all caught up with Zistle, because I've been extremely inactive there for the last few months.

1992 Fleer #596 Todd Zeile
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #230 Ron Gant
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #231 Brian Jordan
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #232 Ray Lankford
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #234 Tom Pagnozzi
1997 SkyBox Metal Universe #235 Todd Stottlemyre
1998 Fleer Ultra Main Set #295 Todd Zeile

I liked the sparkly set that was 1997 Metal Universe, and bought several packs when it was new. Before this trade I only had one uniformed Cardinal, John Mabry, which came in a prize package. Now I've got 6 with the addition of these 5, leaving me Alan Benes,  Andy Benes, and Dennis Eckersley to complete the team set. I also picked up 2 Todd Zeiles, one featuring his time with the Marlins, where he arrived with a much higher-profile star, Mike Piazza. Piazza of course was quickly sent to the Mets, and Zeile would go to the Rangers at the trade deadline, and the following season, rejoin Piazza on the Mets. I guess I never realized before they played together for both of those teams and Los Angeles.

Zistle Trade #28

While we're all mourning the seemingly inevitable loss of Zistle, I've still got some trades to post from it. This was a pretty small addition for me, but it only cost me 1 card in return.

1982 Donruss #404 Ken Oberkfell
1982 Topps #452 Lee Smith RC
1984 Topps #310 Willie Mcgee
1994 Score - Gold Rush #149 Todd Stottlemyre
1995 Fleer - All-Stars #2 Frank Thomas / Gregg Jefferies

I don't have a whole lot from the early 80s, so two Cardinals, and eventual Cardinal Lee Smith were good to knock off my want list. I've got plenty of 90s cards, but a sparse amount of insert cards, which is where the Stottlemyre and Jefferies come in. The front side of Jefferies shows his 1B counterpart in the American League, Frank Thomas.

eBay Wins #244

I've still got more 1989 Donruss to show. I had a comment on my last eBay post to the effect that he was glad I didn't pay much for these. I definitely am glad about that too. To be clear, I didn't actually go buy a whole bunch of 1989 Donruss from someone, but rather I buy a lot of cards listed as "Random" which I fully understand will be cheap junk wax, which often includes some of these types of cards. Generally there are a few from other sets worth a little more to me, so it all balances out.

1989 Donruss
#452 Rex Hudler
#453 Bob Brenly
#455 Daryl Boston
#456 Mike Fitzgerald
#458 Bruce Sutter
#460 Joe Hesketh
#461 Bobby Witt
#463 Scott Bankhead
#466 Luis Alicea

This post is a lot more dense with Cardinals than the last two. This first scan alone has Rex Hudler, Bruce Sutter, Bobby Witt, and Luis Alicea.

1989 Donruss
#467 John Cerutti
#471 Sid Fernandez
#472 Terry Puhl
#477 Craig Reynolds (x2)
#478 Frank Williams
#482 Eric Show (x2)
#483 Garry Templeton
#486 Tim Crews
#487 Mike Maddux

Garry Templeton was obviously another Cardinal.

1989 Donruss
#493 Jack Armstrong
#499 Zane Smith
#500 Checklist
#505 Doug Jennings
#506 Ken Oberkfell
#512 Mike Bielecki
#516 Larry McWilliams
#520 Craig McMurtry
#521 Ray Hayward

Ken Oberkfell, Larry McWilliams...

1989 Donruss
#523 Mark Lemke
#525 Bryan Harvey
#534 Luis Aquino
#537 Randy Bush
#540 Gene Nelson (x8)
#542 Ken Caminiti
#543 Duane Ward (x2)
#554 Steve Lombardozzi
#559 Dennis Rasmussen

Those 8 Gene Nelson's came in that huge lot of A's I'll be showing forever.

1989 Donruss
#560 Pat Borders
#564 Todd Burns (x9)
#566 Darnell Coles
#570 Johnny Paredes
#572 Barry Lyons
#576 Andres Thomas
#579 Chad Kreuter
#583 Andy Hawkins
#586 Van Snider

Pat Borders bounced around a few teams after Toronto, including the Cardinals, before returning to Toronto to finish his career. And I got enough Todd Burns cards to fill a whole binder page.

1989 Donruss
#587 Todd Frohwirth (x2)
#591 Ernie Whitt
#593 Spike Owen
#598 Hipolito Pena
#600 Checklist
#601 Carmelo Martinez
#602 Mike LaCoss
#603 Mike Devereaux
#604 Alex Madrid

1989 Donruss
#607 Terry Clark
#610 Jay Howell
#613 Kevin Brown
#614 Dave Valle
#616 Andy Nezelek
#619 Adam Peterson
#620 Todd Stottlemyre
#625 Ernest Riles
#629 Scott Sanderson

I'll always take another cheap Todd Stottlemyre card, even if I already have several copies.

1989 Donruss
#631 Marvin Freeman (x2)
#632 Mike Young
#636 Scott May

I've got 66 cards shown here, 5 of them had doubles, and one each had 8 and 9 copies! By my reckoning that's 86 total cards, for 43 cents out of my half cent box.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	4635
Total Spent	$59.80
Per Card	1.29 cents
Change	-0.015 cents

Zistle Trade #24

I made another smallish trade on Zistle, for some needs from the overproduction era. A few are base cards, but 6 of the 9 are either from traded sets or inserts, so they're a little harder to track down.

1988 Fleer #276 Jose Canseco
1988 Fleer Update #U-68 Todd Stottlemyre
1989 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-15 Cal Ripken
1989 Score Young Superstars II #20 Todd Stottlemyre
1989 Upper Deck #674 Ozzie Smith
1989 Upper Deck #754 Todd Zeile
1990 Donruss Bonus MVPs #BC-10 Ryne Sandberg
1991 Topps Traded #83T Phil Nevin
1993 Topps Gold #3 Ryne Sandberg

I've long been working on the 1990 Donruss set, and Ryne Sandberg was one of the two Bonus MVPs I didn't have yet. I've got the other on the way in another trade, too, so that insert set is nearly complete along with the base set, which I think is almost complete except for some errors and variations. I have a lot of 1989 Donruss base cards, but not many bonus MVPs, so the Ripken is a good get for me. The two Todd Stottlemyre cards are just because I collect Todd Stottlemyre, much like the Ozzie, Todd Zeile, and Jose Canseco cards. I put the Team USA cards from 1991 Topps Traded on my list after getting a few of them in the past and liking them, and finally there's a 1993 Topps Gold, also of Ryne Sandberg. I've still got over 780 of those to go to complete that set.

Zistle Trade #20

I've now successfully completed 20 trades on Zistle, and this one was with a frequent trading partner, who seems to be a Marlins collector for the most part. Every time I add some relatively common cards to my want list, he's usually got a trade for me within a few weeks. I'm certain most of these were added recently, especially the 1993 Studio cards I added when I got the Gregg Jefferies in my last trade.

1993 Studio #45 Scott Cooper
1993 Studio #62 Todd Zeile
1993 Studio #88 Ron Gant
1992 Donruss #334 Heathcliff Slocumb
1993 Bowman #111 Todd Stottlemyre
1995 Topps #635 Steve Kline / Herb Perry

I like these Studio cards, but I really started collecting Studio in 1997. I liked the design that year and bought a whole box, which was tough to do on the budget of a teenager. Those cards made me appreciate the Studio brand, so through the years I've sought out at least the Cardinals from other years, including those not pictured on the team, as I always do.

The other 3 cards also feature out-of-uniform Cardinals, including rookie cards for Heathcliff Slocumb, who played part of 1999 with the team, and Steve Kline, who played here 2001-2004, and was the league leader in appearances each season 1999-2001. Then there's my long lost cousin, Todd Stottlemyre. I always forget the exact relationship; I think technically it's 2nd cousin once removed. Now I've got to call my mom and maybe grandma tomorrow to sort this out.

Zistle Trade #17

Zistle has allowed me to whittle down my want list bit by bit, while helping others do the same with my doubles. I've got a lot of overproduction-era Cardinals still missing from my collection, so every now and then someone finds me and can knock off quite a few of them. This particular trader just wanted a Joe Carter card in return, and as a Blue Jays fan, had a few Todd Stottlemyre cards for me, too.

1985 Topps #683 Whitey Herzog
1990 Fleer #243 Cris Carpenter
1990 Fleer #251 Ken Hill
1990 Fleer #252 Joe Magrane
1990 Fleer #253 Willie McGee
1990 Fleer #261 Scott Terry
1990 Fleer #263 Denny Walling
1990 Fleer #264 Todd Worrell
1990 Topps #6 Vince Coleman RB

These were the last of the 1990 Fleer Cardinals I needed, so that's one more team set off my list.

1990 Topps #591 Todd Stottlemyre
1991 Topps #348 Todd Stottlemyre
1992 Topps #607 Todd Stottlemyre

As I've mentioned before, Todd Stottlemyre and his father, Mel, are distant cousins of mine, which is why I started collecting his cards in earnest. Now since I've widened my collecting net to anyone who has suited up for the Cardinals, I've got two reasons to collect his cards, so I'm glad to have 3 more off my list. The sender wrote a note saying he figured he'd have more Stottlemyre cards I needed, which caused me to check my list and see my want list was far from containing every card of his I don't have, so I've rectified that now. Thus, the net result of this trade for me was my want list increased by several dozen cards. Hooray progress?

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.

Zistle Trade #11 Part II

[Part I]

Yesterday I showed some cards from a recent Zistle trade, all from the junk wax year of 1990. As you can see, the rest were from about the same era.

I'm not sure why I put the Bill Buckner card on my want list, unless his name just stood out due to the famous play he didn't quite make for the Red Sox, while I was adding some other 1989 Fleer to my want list. Ultimately I hope to complete most of the easy-to-find sets like Donruss, Fleer, and Topps from these years, so I'm glad to have it. The rest of the players were all Cardinals at one time or another. I was sort of surprised I didn't have the 1987 McGwire, but I double checked my sorted cards and sure enough, I didn't.

1987 Topps #366 Mark McGwire
1989 Fleer #278 Bill Buckner
1990 Topps #261 Whitey Herzog
1991 Donruss #155 Todd Stottlemyre
1991 Fleer #635 Ken Hill
1993 Score #241 Ozzie Canseco

When I first started watching baseball, two of my favorite players besides Cardinals were the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. Imagine my surprise in September 1992 when I found out Jose's twin brother was in the minor league system, and came up to the big leagues when rosters expanded. He actually played 9 games in a row that year, from September 2-12 with a few off days, then disappeared for the rest of the year. Then in 1993, he played 6 consecutive games, May 7-13. That was the end of his major league career, though, after 15 games in St. Louis and 9 in Oakland.

eBay Wins #132

Today's eBay pseudo lot is 3 cards from 1989 Score. They're all AL teams, and all pitchers. Coincidence? Of course it is. One of them is Todd Stottlemyre, who was not only a Cardinal, but is my 2nd (I think) cousin.

1989 Score
#122 Dan Petry
#453 Todd Stottlemyre
#547 Don Gordon

Since he last played in 1988, this could be seen as a final-salute type card for Don Gordon, though I'm guessing at age 29 he wasn't really planning on retiring.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	3047
Total Spent	$49.00
Per Card	1.608 cents
Change	-0.001 cents

eBay Wins #113

I won 97 auctions for individual 1991 Leaf cards this time around. The seller couldn't find one of them, and asked if he could replace it with another card from the set, and since I was agreeable to that, he sent me two replacement cards. So this bundle is 98 cards for 97 cents. The cards were just curved enough to make them annoying to scan, so I've trimmed this post down to just the 11 Cardinals in the stack.

1991 Leaf
#23 Pat Borders
#45 Chuck Finley
#139 Delino DeShields
#193 Mike Morgan 

1991 Leaf
#226 Bryn Smith
#227 Todd Stottlemyre
#234 Mark Whiten
#268 Danny Jackson

Mark Whiten made me want to be an outfielder, because it was simply amazing to see him throw the ball from to the warning track to home plate on the fly. I'm not sure how many runners he actually threw out, but he certainly made runners think twice about tagging up, much like Molina seems to give would-be base-stealers pause.

1991 Leaf
#350 Danny Cox
#376 Ken Hill
#403 Lance Johnson

These cards really aren't curved that badly when I put them in sleeves, but for some reason it took me way too long to line them up on my scanner.

Before these 98, I had 23 cards from the 1991 Leaf set. There were a few duplicates, but now I have 116 cards from the set.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2821
Total Spent	$46.74
Per Card	1.657 cents

eBay Wins #81

The collection of cards in today's eBay lot is very coherent, as opposed to most multicard posts that span multiple decades and brands. I present to you, (some of) the 1990 Upper Deck Toronto Blue Jays, 12 cards for 12 cents.

1990 Upper Deck
#30 David Wells
#95 George Bell (Team Checklist)
#108 Fred McGriff
#113 Pat Borders
#115 Kevin Batiste
#115 Kevin Batiste

I may have a Hall of Famer in this bunch in Fred McGriff, though it's looking pretty tentative. He received just under 21% in the last ballot, which I like to call the Grumpy Old Sportswriters ballot. Mr. Perfect David Wells and former Cardinal Pat Borders make an appearance, too. I didn't notice that there were 2 Kevin Batiste cards in the listing; the seller must have split them up across scans. I also didn't notice I already had a copy of the card, so I'm about halfway to a good Batiste Bipping, or Bastisting.

1990 Upper Deck
#282 Tom Henke
#285 Manny Lee
#421 Lloyd Moseby
#485 John Cerutti
#605 Dave Steib
#692 Todd Stottlemyre

This half would be a little weaker, but there's also former Cardinal Tom Henke, and my favorite MLB-player distant cousin, because his cards are cheaper than his dad's, Todd Stottlemyre.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2429
Total Spent	$43.14
Per Card	1.776 cents

All-Star Winnings, Part 10

Way back in July 2012, I won a contest at Cards On Cards. The premise was to pick the Cardinals player who would have the biggest impact on the game, determined Sabermetrically. I picked the right player, and got a pile of Cardinals for my trouble. They've been sitting in that same pile, haunting me, for quite some time, so now is the time to show them to you.
Part [ I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX ]

The flurry of Cardinals continues with my second cousin, Todd Stottlemyre.

1996 Pinnacle #357 Todd Stottlemyre
1996 Collector's Choice #688 Todd Stottlemyre

1996 Pinnacle Summit #37 Todd Stottlemyre
1997 Collector's Choice #198 Todd Stottlemyre

I'm sure card companies do this to other teams too, but when it's the Cardinals, I really notice how their home uniform seems to show up very rarely. The Cardinals have never worn a red jersey (at least in modern times), so those shots in red are from spring training or pregame warmups.

1991 Topps Archives 1953 Al Schoendienst
2005 Upper Deck Classics #20 Johnny Hopp
2005 Upper Deck Classics #80 Red Schoendienst

Speaking of Red, here are two more Red Schoendiest cards, and Johnny Hopp. Johnny won 4 World Series rings in his career, 2 with the Cardinals, and 2 with the Yankees, but if you had mentioned his name to me before I saw this card, I would have no idea who he was.

182 Packs Giveaway, Part I

When I claimed the Cardinals - and Mark McGwire and Todd Stottlemyre - in the pack-per-day giveaway held at TribeCards, I had no idea just how many cards I'd wind up with, and how many different players. So that I can tag all of the sets and Cardinal players, I've broken this up into a series of who knows how many posts. Thanks for all the cards, David.

1996 Leaf
#2 Dennis Eckersley
#70 David Bell
#98 Sandy Alomar, Jr.

I guess the Eckersley and Alomar were randomly assigned to me as duplicates, or no one claimed the A's and Indians. Even so, Eck is definitely a player I liked even before he got to the Cardinals, so that's a great card to me.

1996 Leaf
#142 Brian Jordan
#212 Alan Benes

Two more from 1996 Leaf, Brian Jordan, and the middle Benes brother, Alan. The Cardinals once had all 3 Benes brothers in their system, but Adam only made it up to AA Arkansas.

1997 Pinnacle
#41 Brian Jordan
#81 Ron Gant
#122 Ozzie Smith

1997 Pinnacle
#136 Gary Gaetti
#185 Dmitri Young

1997 cards bring me good memories of the Cardinals resurgence from mediocrity in the mid 90s, to make the playoffs in Tony LaRussa's first year in 1996.

1998 Stadium Club
#114 Alan Benes
#232 Gary Gaetti
Checklist 2 of 2

Here's another Alan Benes and Gary Gaetti from 1998, as well as...

1998 Stadium Club #74 Todd Stottlemyre

Todd Stottlemyre! Of course, I would have gotten this card even if I only claimed the Cardinals, but I wanted to be covered in case any of his Blue Jays or A's cards came up.

1998 Stadium Club - Royal Court #RC5 Mark McGwire

And here's another of my favorites, Mark McGwire, in an extra sparkly Stadium Club insert. Since he's a Cardinal, I double-claimed this one too.

That's it for now, look for this series to end sometime in mid-2015.

eBay Wins #50

This win is actually from two auctions. A seller had a bunch of 1992 Donruss team sets, and I won two of them at 19 cents each for 15 cards each.  Since I started collecting in 1992, but definitely saw Topps as the best card company, these cards used to represent some kind of "Evil Empire" to me, by their very existence. It's funny how things can turn around in 20 years; I'd love to see some Donruss out there now in addition to Topps. Let's see which Phillies and Blue Jays had cards in '92.

1992 Donruss
#8 Eddie Zosky
#11 Andy Ashby
#28 Roberto Alomar
#57 Lenny Dykstra
#58 Roberto Alomar
#65 Kelly Gruber

Two Hall-of-Fame cards in the first bunch, though they're both Roberto Alomar.

1992 Donruss
#76 Pat Combs
#92 John Morris
#94 Tommy Greene
#98 John Olerud
#109 Tommy Greene
#141 Tom Henke

This bunch has a duplicate player again, Tommy Greene's base card, and one commemorating his No-Hitter. There are also the first two former cardinals, in John Morris and Tom Henke.

1992 Donruss
#146 Dale Murphy
#179 Randy Ready
#180 Devon White
#187 Ed Sprague
#198 Darren Daulton
#219 Jimmy Key

I only recently learned that Dale Murphy played anywhere but Atlanta. I think of him as a player from the 70s and 80s, but apparently he even played a year for the Rockies in 1993. Speaking of learning, thanks to Donruss's policy of putting full names on the back, I learned that Randy Ready, whose name already makes him sound like a superhero, has an action-hero middle name too: Max. Randy Max Ready. Tell me that's not the hero in a cheap SyFy movie.

1992 Donruss
#230 John Kruk
#263 Todd Stottlemyre
#268 Terry Mulholland
#274 Rene Gonzales
#300 Jose DeJesus
#301 Mike Timlin

I think John Kruk was one of my favorite players when I started watching baseball in 1992. He seemed to have a big personality. It probably didn't hurt that as a kid I was carrying a few extra pounds and could identify with him a bit more. Next to him is one of my current favorite players, Todd Stottlemyre. Mike Timlin, on the bottom right, was also a former Cardinal.

1992 Donruss
#308 Duane Ward
#319 Darrin Fletcher
#342 Greg Myers
#353 Mitch Williams
#379 Pat Borders
#384 Wes Chamberlain

The last group features 3 catchers, showing a nice juxtaposition of different ways their cards can be executed. I think Darrin Fletcher is the best of the 3, having an action shot in full gear. I don't know much about Pat Borders, except that he served as Tom Pagnozzi's backup for about half of 1996 on the Cardinals, but unless he was known as a big power hitter (or even a high-average hitter), the batting pose seems like a wasted opportunity. Finally there's Greg Myers, who was just walking around and a lazy photographer asked him to squat. He's got a forward cap, no gear, and is in grass. That's no way to do a catcher card, Donruss.

Despite that Greg Myers pose, this seemed like pretty good purchase. After all, Toronto won the World Series in 1992 and 1993, and most of these Phillies helped them to win the NL in 1993.

eBay Bargain Tracker
Total Cards Bought	2064
Total Spent	$39.13
Per Card	1.896 cents

Baseball Cards from Bo, Part III

[Part I]
[Part II]


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 rest of my haul.

1989 Fleer
#5 Jose Canseco
#245 Todd Stottlemyre
#457 Willie McGee
#462 Steve Peters
#463 Ozzie Smith

Jose Canseco was one of my favorites as a kid, so I still collect his cards when the opportunity comes up. I now only need 1 card, Curt Flood, to complete the 1989 Fleer Cardinals. And Todd Stottlemyre, as I've stated many times, is a distant cousin. I got a few more of him in this deal too.

1988 Donruss #658 Todd Stottlemyre

1989 Donruss #620 Todd Stottlemyre

1989 Score #453 Todd Stottlemyre

1989 Topps #722 Todd Stottlemyre

1989 Upper Deck #362 Todd Stottlemyre

1993 Topps #23 Todd Stottlemyre

1993 Topps - Gold
#7 Pete Incaviglia
#29 Dwayne Henry
#43 Ruben Amaro
#77 Junior Felix
#89 Eric Anthony
#103 Jody Reed

I learned a valuable lesson with these Topps Golds. Keep your wantlist up to date! Apparently I started adding 1993 Topps Gold to my wantlist, but got bored after 103 and just stopped. Who knows how many more I might have gotten in this trade or others if that had been corrected.

All in all, I got a lot of neat stuff in this trade. A big thanks to Bo, and as I always implore you when I make a trade, go follow Baseball Cards Come to Life.

A Rookie Contest Win, Part 2

[Part 1]

In Mid-June I won a contest at all the way to backstop by going 3 for 3 in guessing the Rookie cards in his big stack. My prize: the stack, and some other cool stuff he picked out for me.

I can tell my wantlist was well-searched, because I also received 7 cards of one of my favorite players, and a distant cousin, Todd Stottlemyre.

1991 Score #39 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Donruss #263 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Fleer #342 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Pinnacle #240 Todd Stottlemyre

1992 Fleer Ultra #153 Todd Stottlemyre

1993 Fleer Ultra #293 Todd Stottlemyre

1994 Collector's Choice #269 Todd Stottlemyre 

Also from my wantlist, 1993 Topps Gold cards. And some base cards to boot.

1993 Topps #425 Joe Girardi

I've gotta show former Cardinals, no matter how brief a stint they had in St. Louis. Here are the rest of the base cards:

425 Joe Girardi
562 Bob Zupcic
598 Rico Brogna
606 J. Owens
613 Joel Adamson
622 Ben Rivera
699 Chad Curtis
732 Travis Buckley
747 Carl Willis
773 Cliff Brantley
790 George Bell

1993 Topps - Gold #483 Brian Griffiths

Not to be confused with Brian Griffin

1993 Topps - Gold #787 Mike Matthews

I'm trying to complete a set of 1992 and 1993 Topps Gold, and maybe 1994 as well. I haven't organized them all into my have and want list, but I don't have too many so there's a good chance any I get are unique for now, and a quick check of my "to enter in Zistle" box says these two bring me 2 cards closer to the 825 card set.

Once again, thanks to all the way to the backstop for the great cards.