Cards on Cards in Volume

It's easily to get intimated by a large stack of cards that I plan to write something about. Such was the case when I acquired a full 660-ct. box of Cardinals cards from gcrl. I'd been putting it off for awhile, but last night I felt like I needed to do something with my hands during the World Series game and sorting the contents of this box into alphabetized stacks seemed to do the trick. I challenged myself to pull 10 cards... 15 at the most... worth writing about here and ended up with the 19 images you see in front of you. I apologize for my image heavy post and instead will try to keep my comments brief. I should also mention that, not pictured here, is a Ryan Ludwick 2009 A&G jersey card that was a surprise. It's also the second of those that I've received in recent days, but I am not one to thumb my nose at actual (supposed) pieces of clothes worn by Cardinals players. Er, strike that last sentence. It sounds creepy.

Ladies and gentlemen: your 2010 Cardinals hitting coach. It should be an interesting year.

The same dude that requested more Gibby on this blog also made the same request about Lou Brock. This magazine themed set has a lot of nice looking cards from what I've seen so far.

There were a few DK cards and I really wanted to include one, so I did.

Wait, so is this a "manufactured box score" swatch? This is kind of strange. I like the concept, I think, but I still don't know what to make of it.

The 2009 A&G black border minis look a lot better, but that doesn't keep me from wanting to collect all of the ones I don't have from this and previous years.

This one was a surprise. There aren't many Cardinals cards from 1987 to 1992 that I don't own, but this Rich Gedman card was one of them. Even scarier is the fact that I instantly knew I didn't have it because I didn't recognize it at first.

This is one of the earlier, fairly well-known error cards. I'm not sure where they got Jeff from Terry, but here he is anyway. Since this is pre-Billy Ripken, you have to give Donruss the benefit of the doubt here and figure that it was an honest mistake.

I received several 2009 Topps Chrome cards, including Mr. Ankiel here. It hasn't really hit me yet that we may have seen the last of him in a Cardinals uniform, more than a decade after he made his debut.

I just wanted to scan this one to see how crazy it would look. It looks pretty crazy.

I'm stunned whenever I receive a card from the '50s or '60s, no matter what the condition. This is great!

I'm sorely lacking in the 2006 and 2007 Allen & Ginter department, so this Frankie Frisch A&G back mini is much appreciated. Every time I see packs of 2007 I buy them up, and I've yet to ever see a 2006 pack.

Here's Chris Carpenter, 2009 Comeback Player of the Year, owning the game.

As I've finally decided that 2003 Topps is my favorite set of the decade, I was afraid of what the Chrome version would look like. I'm no longer afraid - it's nice.

As a hardcore collector of Score cards for their first several seasons, it's surprising that this is actually my first 1991 Score traded card. (Okay, fine, the packs were really cheap.)

Steely, shiny Ryan Ludwick. I'm hoping he bounces back and has a season more in line with his 2008 levels. He showed flashes of it last season and I still believe he's a pretty useful corner outfielder.

I was fortunate enough to get several more Topps gold parallel cards, including this Izzy card from 2004.

I also received a lot of 2004 Topps base set cards including Yadi's rookie. I wasn't aware that he ever wore #24, which is actually really confusing to me. Rookies and prospects usually get the high uniform number treatment (anywhere from the 50s on up) and I know that Yadi broke in wearing #41. He eventually switched to #4 the same year that Braden Looper came in and took #41. I've never seen him wearing this number on any other card. I guess I'll have to investigate further.

And finally, an unexpected autograph of Brian Barton. I'm disappointed that the club didn't find a way for Barton to stick around. He was at an "advanced age" for a rookie, but I still liked watching him play.

Thanks again to gcrl. Make sure you check out his blog. I am way behind on sending his package, but I promise that it will be out in the mail on Friday.