Trading with Texas Rangers Cards

I'm still loving the blind trades. I'm getting tons of Cardinals for my collection that I never had, plus plenty of doubles to trade to other Cardinals fans (I know you're out there) and the chance to get to know other like-minded card bloggers. This healthy-sized Cardinals for Rangers trade comes courtesy of Spiff from Texas Rangers Cards, of course. I didn't know how to restrain myself from posting tons of cards on here, so I'll try to keep the blabbing to a minimum.

2004 Upper Deck Power Up - Scott Rolen (What's the best way to make trading cards more appealing to kids? Give everyone big heads! And for kicks, assign points to each card - this one is 10 points - for no explainable reason.)

2006 Upper Deck - Adam Wainwright (This was the first year of the official "Rookie Card", though Wainwright had appeared on plenty of Braves cards prior to this year. I love Wainwright and I loved getting this card, so I'll pretend it's a rookie card anyway.)

1998 Metal Universe - Gary Gaetti (What kind of universe would produce cards like these? A Metal Universe, obviously! By the way, I hated the couple of years where the Cardinals didn't wear their uniform numbers on the front. It just looks wrong.)

1998 Score - Alan Benes (I am amazed at the sheer volume of Alan and Andy Benes cards produced in the 90s. Score is like the dollar store version of baseball cards, but we love it anyway.)

1994 Pacific - Paul Kilgus (Pacific cards are so hideous that they're awesome. There were three of these cards in the huge stack that I got. Check out the knockoff rookie cup logo. I'm pretty sure Kilgus was on no one's all-star team.)

1981 Fleer - Ken Reitz (I got a nice healthy stack of '81 Fleers including Mr. Reitz here. He's one of the more frequently referenced former Cardinals by the current television broadcast team.)

2006 Upper Deck - Chris Duncan (Like the Wainwright, there's no way this is his rookie card, but it doesn't prevent it from being awesome to me. I would love for this guy to get his career back on track, even with the current glut of Cardinal outfielders.)

2006 Fleer Tradition Black and White - Chris Carpenter (Speaking of needing to get his career back on track, he's a parallel of Carp. I'm crossing my fingers but not holding my breath. By the way, every pack I've purchased of this stuff has promised an insert card of either a sepia or black and white parallel, but this card is the first I've ever seen like that. Serves me right for getting repacked junk.)

Fleer Ultra - Jeff Brantley (Quick, name the year that this Ultra card is from right off the top of your head. No cheating! I bet you can't do it, though. Brantley is a loudmouthed Reds announcer these days after spending a number of years on ESPN's Baseball Tonight. I believe this is my first Cardinals card of him.)

1998 Bowman's Best - Braden Looper (The image does not do the shiny justice. This is my first card from Looper's first stint as a Cardinal, before he became the Marlins' closer.)

1992 Fleer Smoke 'n Heat - Lee Smith (This is probably the best card of the lot. Smoke 'n Heat was an insert set available exclusively in Christmas factory sets of 1992 Fleer, and this is the lone Cardinal in the group of 12. This is exactly the kind of obscure card I go crazy over.)

1985 Donruss - Tom Nieto (Cards from this set have always been hard to find for me for some reason. I was fortunate enough to get a few in this package.)

1984 Fleer - Jamie Quirk (I got a ton of 1984 Fleer from Spiff. My brother's old band was obsessed with this guy. I think he might have even inspired a song or at least influenced the direction of their music and how much reverb they used.)

1985 Fleer - Kurt Kepshire (I'm pretty sure I have this card, but I just wanted to talk about '85 Fleer. It was my favorite set growing up and I nearly always refused any trades that involved me losing any of the cards from it. Someday I will put together this set or at least buy a box. I'm hoping someday the Clemens card will be worthless so buying a box will actually be affordable.)

2004 Studio - Jim Edmonds (Most of the cards I've seen from this set look really awkward.)

2004 Bowman Heritage - Yadier Molina (Yadi is stuck in a TV set! Here is a bonafide rookie card, which for once actually kind of works out because Yadi even played some games in 2004. Congrats on the Gold Glove, by the way, even though the award is becoming more and more of a joke every year. Yadi deserved to at least be recognized at some point.)

2008 Goudey - Vince Coleman (I knew I had to have this card as soon as I saw someone post it on their blog. Thanks to trades like these, little effort was needed to obtain it. Nice! I also got a Lou Brock and Troy Glaus from this set, so I think I'm probably mostly lacking the SPs to get the whole team.)

Thanks again to Spiff, who does a lot better job than I at keeping the focus of his blog onto his team.