30 Year Old Stickers and More!

Things seem to have slowed a bit on the group break front, but that's okay with me. I admire how much effort that the break hosts must undertake to put on something that in spirit is more of a labor of love than something designed to be profitable. I do have a couple of breaks that I still need to post about, and one of them was absolutely perfect for me - a break of a box of 1983 Fleer Stickers. I'd much rather fill some Cardinals binder needs than go chasing for the big hits, and host Garvey Cey Russell Lopes was exceptionally cool about purchasing extras for people when it was suspected that there might have been a bit of foul play involving the distribution of the stickers and lack of certain stars. Thanks to GCRL, I now have the full 1983 Fleer Stickers team set, with plenty of doubles to trade to friends or stick on my Trapper Keepers.

The sticker images may be closer than they appear. Or larger. Something like that.

One of the scandalously missing stickers from the box break was Willie McGee. I don't know if someone thought they might get rich off of a rookie year McGee sticker with a "book value" of 30 cents, but whatever.

Any Ozzie for the Ozzie binder is a good thing. When it's an '80s Ozzie, it's a great thing!

I didn't know that the stickers were distributed in strips, such that you actually have to separate the perforated things if you want to have individual stickers. I'm guessing that no significant devaluing happens here, unlike the old '80-81 Topps basketball cards when they are pulled apart.

We also set up a trade that crossed paths with the mailing of my group break loot. (I still need to send my end of the deal. Oops.) GCRL has a spinoff O-Pee-Chee blog that completed its run awhile back. I am always fond of seeing variations on the standard issue Topps cards, so it was a must-read for me. That being said, I must have forgotten that the "In Action" cards from the 1982 Topps set made it to its northern counterpart.

I'm pretty sure this is the first 2003 Donruss Studio card that I own.

Another one of the assorted Cardinals that I received was a Scrabble Target parallel. I really want to focus on getting all of the retail variations of the base (Cardinal) cards from the last 5 years, and every little bit helps.

Here is probably the highlight of the Cardinals portion of the trade. I don't know why I'm such a sucker for serial numbers. You don't see this style of printed serial numbers on cards anymore, not that anyone is complaining.

Finally, I received a whole stack of 2003 Topps cards for my ongoing set project. I didn't want to detract from the awesome array of Cardinals I snagged, though, so I decided to keep it to one scan. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Manuel Ramirez!

Up For Grabs Cardinalpalooza: Matt Holliday

The next batch of Cardinals cards that I'm pushing out the door are of a guy in both my and Erin's personal collections. This means that at any given time there could be three copies of a Matt Holliday card in this household (if it's a set I collect) which is kind of ridiculous. Holliday has only been on the team since 2009, and what I have in the way of extras is fairly limited for a guy who has as many cards as he does.

The list follows at the end of the post. Please see previous "Up For Grabs" posts here with many cards still available. Unclaimed cards will likely end up on Listia or something similar.

Holliday wore #15 for only part of a season with the Cardinals, but it took card designers quite awhile to catch on to that fact. 15 on a Cards uniform still means Jim Edmonds to me, even though Jon Jay and Rafael Furcal have also worn it in recent days.

With a contract like Holliday's, no one will be wearing #7 for St. Louis for a long time.

The list:

2010 Topps #140 [4 available]
2010 Topps Update (Home Run Derby) #US-56 [2 available]
2010 Topps Update (All-Star) #US-161 [4 available]
2010 Topps Attax Code [2 available]
2011 Bowman #122
2011 Topps #490
2011 Topps Update (All-Star) #US260
2011 Topps Lineage #9 [2 available]
2012 Bowman #99
2012 Bowman Platinum #97
2012 Topps #320 [3 available]
2012 Topps Archives #85
2012 Topps Opening Day #78 [2 available]
2013 Topps #207
2013 Topps (Wild Card) #125

Trade Bait - Updated 06/17/13

Welcome to the Cards on Cards Trade Bait Bonanza. There's nothing very earth-shattering here, but each card is at least worth talking about, in my opinion. I will keep this post permanently linked on the sidebar, and will bump it to the top of the blog every time I add new cards. The most recently added cards will be at the top of the post. If you're interested in anything you see here (or anything else among my "Up For Grabs" posts or set doubles) please send me an email and we will talk.

Alex Gordon 2007 Upper Deck #504
Gordon may not be The Man That Saved Royals Baseball, much to Keith Olbermann's dismay, but he's become a fairly reliable outfielder who has at least shed the dreaded "flop" label.

Don Mattingly 2010 Topps The Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT157
There's plenty more Mattingly's where this came from.

Buster Posey 2010 Topps #2
I think this card started the run of base Topps rookie cards with actual value. I wonder if Trout's card from 2011 Topps Update and recent stuff like Manny Machado's base rookie cards will continue to have actual value years from now.

Jean Segura 2012 Bowman Platinum Top Prospects #TP-JS
Jean Segura, who had just three ABs with the Angels before he was traded, has been carrying the Brewers this year. He leads the league in hits and triple as of this writing.

Joey Votto 2008 Topps Stadium Club 1st Day Issue Retail #112
2008 Stadium Club was a confusing beast, sort of a throw back to the Topps Tek days of a set that nobody could really understand how to complete even if they wanted to.

Jeff Bagwell 1990 CMC #739 - CLAIMED
The Bagwell for Larry Andersen trade still stands as one of the worst of all-time. One of the original Killer Bees, Bagwell spent his entire big league career with the Astros. I realize that the further that we distance ourselves from the '90s, the less impressed we are with the whole thing. I could see that turning around eventually.

Brandon Beachy 2011 Topps Chrome #176
Tommy John surgery is becoming a rite of passage for young pitchers. People were excited about this guy before he went under the knife last year and they will, presumably, be excited once again if he returns to peak levels in another year or so.

Robinson Cano 2012 Topps Heritage New Age Performers #NAP-RC
Cano is one of the best players in baseball at a position where stars are slim-to-none.

Carlos Gonzalez 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDP19
Sometimes I have a hard time differentiating between fantasy value and baseball card value. CarGo is a terrific young outfielder and someone anyone would love to have on their team, fake or otherwise. No one seems to give a crap about his baseball cards, rookie or otherwise. I would like to see that change.

Carlos Gonzalez 2008 Topps Stadium Club #128 [5 available]

Bob Feller / Pedro Martinez 2001 Topps Heritage Then and Now #TH8 - CLAIMED
One of the things that motivates me to go to card shows is that it seems to be the only way I have a chance in hell of acquiring 2001 Topps Heritage cards.

Matt Holliday / Jeff Winchester 1999 Topps #442
Poor Jeff Winchester. I wonder if he hangs out in bars telling people that Matt Holliday was on his rookie card.

Greg Maddux 1994 Church's Chicken Hometown Stars #4
Nothin' says lovin' like a regional food issue superstar card. The strange thing about this card, aside from the fact that it is officially a Chicken Card, is that it was produced by Pinnacle and basically looks like a Score card on the back. Yet, there is no MLB license for some reason.

Carlos Quentin 2004 Bowman Chrome #202
It's a true rookie card of the guy who fought that guy for some reason.

Pablo Sandoval 2006 Bowman Heritage Prospects #BHP36 [3 available]
Sandoval is probably best described as the Big Papi of the west. It's surprising to see that he's just 26 and that his power is probably still developing.

Curt Schilling 1989 Donruss #635
It's hard to make a convincing argument that anything from 1989 that doesn't have Griffey in the name somewhere is actually trade bait, but if you take this home you can gaze into the smarmy eyes of a young Curt Schilling. I am pretty sure I have a few of these, but this one is pack fresh!

Starling Marte 2011 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP178
Marte is putting together a really nice season as the Pirates are still very much in contention. If you're reading this, keep in mind that I am writing this in May.

Troy Tulowitzki 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces #34
Tulo is one of the best shortstops in the game and has his own chant. What's not to like?

Joey Votto 2008 Topps Heritage #146
I love the 1959 Topps design.

Michael Bourn - 2005 Topps Chrome #471
Bourn is a valuable fantasy player and two-time All-Star, but is not exactly a household name. This card is a true rookie card, as far as I know.

Chipper Jones 2002 Fleer Tradition Diamond Tributes #12
A house Chipper owns apparently exploded recently, but no one was hurt. Everyone knows Larry, and this is an odd looking insert from a decade or so ago.

Mark Grace / Darrin Jackson 1988 Fleer #641
I don't remember owning this card as a kid. I had his less desired Donruss rookie card, but no Fleer. I bought this at a card show a couple of days ago for 5 cents for some reason. (I also bought a 1984 Donruss Tony Fernandez for the same price, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that.)

Derek Jeter 2003 Upper Deck Victory Orange #54
This set seems to have been a colossal failure, but it has a brightly colored multi-tiered parallels, and that's alright with me. Orange is apparently "Tier 2", with 1 being the most common parallel (green) and 5 being the least common.

Jack Morris 1979 Topps # 251
My scanner apparently hates vintage cards and other cards with thin white borders these days. This card actually has a thin border on the top, not that you could tell by the scan.

Fred McGriff 1993 Topps Finest #106
The inaugural Finest set is revered as if a priceless work of art, a gem of a limited set in an era of vast overproduction. When I look at the "all-stars" design, I sort of get what the hype is about.

Juan Marichal / Justin Verlander 2012 Topps Heritage Then and Now #TN-MV
Topps Heritage has done the Then & Now thing every year since its inception. Sometimes the pairings are odd, and sometimes it's just two great pitchers like this one.

Mike Mussina 1997 Topps Stadium Club Matrix #21 
I know almost nothing about this card, other than that it's some sort of shiny parallel. It's very shiny. Mussina isn't quite the household name he was during the '90s and early '00s, but he was an undeniably great pitcher.

Phil Niekro 1979 Topps #595
Another card that was artificially trimmed by my scanner. This Knuckle Brother looks absolutely thrilled to be taking part in this photo op.

Bruce Sutter 1979 Topps #457
Blah blah blah cropped image blah. I have no recollection of Sutter as a Cub, but history and Topps tell me otherwise. He looks silly without a beard, which is exactly the opposite of how I feel about 98% of guys I encounter on the streets of Portland every day.

Mike Trout 2012 Topps #446
This is just a lowly non-rookie Topps base card, but Mike Trout's card prices have inflated to the point of absolutely absurdity. He's off to a slow star. I don't really feel one way or another about him, but I am taking a little bit of solace in the fact that the Angels have not dominated the league since Pujols arrived.

1993 Topps Finest Dave Winfield #162
In contrast to the McGriff card above, this just doesn't look all that exciting. I'm sure I'd feel different if I had the coveted refractor version in hand instead.

Mike Trout 2012 Topps Heritage #207
Here's one last Trout. This is his first (major league) Topps Heritage card, but not a rookie card. If it was a rookie card, it would literally be worth $7,136,549.

More Junkie's Discards

Stay tuned to this station because later in the week I will be giving away something in honor of a blog milestone. It's not going to be much, but I want to give it a good home and figured this would be as good of a time as any to do it. In the meantime, here's some cards that The Junior Junkie sent to me last month for my and Erin's player collections.

Adam Wainwright has walked just 9 batters this season while striking out 97. He might be a wizard or, possibly, some sort of robot.

Timmy Lincecum hasn't fared so well this season. He's failed to prove so far that last season's off year was simply an off year. Maybe he needs to bring the hair back?

Larry Walker never knew what an off year was like. After he hit his peak, his worst (!) season was probably his very final season, when he was still putting up an .886 OPS and providing plenty of power, with 15 HRs and 52 RBI in 315 ABs.

I've never quite solved the Finest protector coating dilemma. They obviously look much nicer with the coating peeled away, but I can't seem to bring myself to do it.

Tulo is once again having a hard time staying healthy, as he recently was diagnosed with a broken rib and sent back to the DL. It must be frustrating for Rockies fans, considering how great he is when he is healthy enough to play.