Who Can Turn Down a Free Buffet?

BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet (yes, that's a real blog name and I think it's awesome) held a free group break back in June and I was lucky enough to get in on some Redbirds. The bulk of the break was packs of 2007 Fleer, from which I'm still missing card 396 (the Albert Pujols team checklist) and some of the inserts and parallels. You can see the details over at my General Want List, which is the list I have put the most work into and hope doesn't get lost among all of the sets I'm hopelessly trying to put together.

If I didn't know better, I would say that Tom Henke stopped by a booth at Busch Stadium one day and plunked down $20 to get his picture taken "at the game" to prove he was there. The only problem, though, is that everyone who spend the $20 would end up with a cheesy photo on their wall like this one. My memories of mid-'90s Cardinals games are fuzzy at best; at worst, they're completely non-existent because I just didn't watch a lot of TV back then. Here, however, I have some "evidence" that Tom Henke pitched for the 1995 Cardinals.

Here's one of the 2007 Fleer parallels that I was previously missing. The die cut "borderless" cards are more interesting that changing silver foil to gold foil at least.

Finally, I talked BA Benny out of a Matt Holliday parallel from a box of 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes that he opened last month. This is the tan version, or beige, or kind of a beige-tan. Maybe it's "sandy beaches". I'm not really sure. I wonder if Upper Deck should have provided samples for each color, similar to what people do for carpets and paint. At least we would know what to call some of these things if we want to use their proper names. Meanwhile, I should really dig up something to send away in return.