Free Stuff Friday: Vol 1

Jumping into the #FreeStuffFriday picture. UPDATED 05/30/2020 7:55 PM PDT

As promised, I have some stuff to disperse today as I'm joining the dozens of others out there who have seen fit to give away their unwanted and unloved trading card related items. My one golden rule here is the same as it's always been - everything here is "free", but by claiming something, you are pledging to send me one card from my want list at some point in the foreseeable future (unless you've already sent me something in the past year or so - feel free to claim away!)

I can fit up to 6 cards in a PWE. Claiming anything bigger than a PWE or two will turn into a larger discussion, so please have your want lists handy! I would much rather mail out a box of cards at this point than 25 or so, considering how shipping prices work these days. (It's like $5 to send a tiny bubble mailer vs. $8 to $9 to send a box.)

Teams must be claimed via comments in this post / via Twitter / via email. I will use timestamps to verify who claimed what first. As long as you can verify who you are with a follow up email or Twitter message, this should be fine. If I don't have a mailing address for you on file, please reach out to me via email or Twitter. If I can't get your address in a timely fashion, I may end up opening up the team you claimed.

Traded Sets

For the latter half of the 1980's, it became an annual tradition to get what I considered at the time to be the best year end/traded set as a birthday present. I still have these for the most part, but they don't really fit in my collection anymore. I am looking to break these up and send the cards to whoever would like them. For now, I am planning on keeping the copies of the big Topps rookies (Bonds, Bo Jackson, Griffey) but would listen to trade offers on these, of course. All Cardinals are available. I think these are in decent shape, but the binder they live in has fallen into disrepair. (I was also just turning 11 years old when I got the 1986 set, so...)

• 1986 Topps Traded - claimed: 4T, 11T, 12T, 17T, 20T, 23T, 34T, 50T, 56T, 63T, 65T, 66T, 74T, 75T, 77T, 79T, 86T, 91T, 95T
• 1987 Donruss The Rookies - claimed: 1, 31, 45, 52, 53
• 1988 Fleer Update - claimed: U-12, U-24, U-38
• 1988 Topps Traded - claimed: 64T, 65T, 68T, 93T, 95T, 113T
• 1989 Topps Traded - claimed: 14T, 41T

Oversized Stuff

I would prefer to send these along with other cards you might need (again, please have your want lists handy!) because they're somewhat awkward to ship. For the individual cards, I took the laziest way out and tried to cram them all onto one scanner bed. They are all unaltered and in decent shape, but I realize here that they look like some sort of screwed up art collage gone wrong.

• 2019 Topps Yankees team set claimed
• Oversized cards pictured below - claimed: Mantle

Junk Wax NBA Sets

Michael Jordan is all the rage these days, apparently, and his cards are individually probably worth about as much as the entire sets here. I put these two sets together by hand when I was in high school, and there's no reason they aren't complete unless I made some sort of error thirty years ago. I have no interest in breaking these up. The Hoops set should include a couple of Jordan cards, plus the one where he appears in the background of Sam Vincent's card wearing a replacement jersey, which seems to be more valuable than the cards that actually feature him. Oh, and there's also that accursed card with the Menendez Brothers. The Fleer set is smaller and can easily be packaged with more cards (again, let me have those want lists!)

(I haven't actually seen these sets in awhile, so hopefully I can find them.)

• 1990-91 Fleer claimed
• 1990-91 Hoops (series 1 + 2) claimed

If there's enough interest, I may return with more next week!

Yep, That's Photoshopped!

Whenever I run across a card like this, I wish I had kept Airbrushed Fridays going.

Wednesday Afternoon Miscellany

A @CrackinWax #CrackinWaxMailDay and @pennysleeves walk into a blog. Plus an announcement. 

It's time to make some room on my desk and take care of a few things at once. First up is last week's box break results from our old pals at Crackin' Wax.

I bought into a few modern Donruss breaks and managed to land my first (ever?) "Carolina Blue" parallel card. It looks sort of weird on a Cardinal, but isn't the worst look overall. I feel like this design would go well with some Charlotte Hornets cards, though.

As one of my random teams, I ended up with a trio of Shock (?) parallels from a 2018 Donruss Optic megabox. I haven't sent Rangers cards to anyone in quite awhile, so feel free to reach out if these strike your fancy.

The big pull of the week was this Christian Yelich Father's Day parallel. It's not in perfect shape as you can probably see by the scan, but it's a decent card overall. It's up for grabs as well, especially since the corner damage is going to keep me from even entertaining the idea of selling it online.

Next up is a pair of cards from our old pal Jon at A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts. (Everyone is my old pal today, apparently.) I claimed a bent-in-half 1969 Ray Washburn from one of his famous Free Stuff Friday posts (more on this later!) awhile back, as my pre-1979 Cardinals needs are as numerous as they are pathetic. Also, I like beat up old cards. Fine.

A wild Gerald Henderson, in considerably better shaped and stamped with some numbers managed to hitch along for the ride. Great stuff, as always, from Jon!

Finally, the announcement... if you've made it this far, that is. Free Stuff Friday is coming to Cards on Cards. Yes, mere months after everyone else on every other blog around the (internet) sun has done it, I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring. The format here will deviate a bit from the usual "scan a few nine pocket pages of cards and let people have at 'em", however. I have a few bigger issues to tackle here and I'm hoping you'll check it out, starting this Friday at some undetermined point during the day.

Chasing Flaherty Again

Another week of @CrackinWax #CrackinWaxMailDay cards. 

I bought into a few more Crackin' Wax breaks, which should come as no surprise to recent readers of the blog. In my new found focus to go after all things Jack Flaherty, I wound up buying something I would normally avoid like the plague - one of those non-MLB college/draft sets. The box was a 2014 Panini Elite Extra Edition one, and while Flaherty isn't in the base set for some reason, he has autographs in this one. He seems to be more prominently featured in the Prizm Draft set from the same year.

I didn't land one of the coveted autos, but I ended up with 75% of the base team set, and did at least wind up with a Flaherty (Elite Expectations insert) as a consolation prize.

Next up were some Panini Chronicles boxes, which are always intriguing to me for their sheer weirdness and variety of designs. From the 2018 box, I ended up with a numbered Harrison Bader Donruss card.

I also finally finished off the 2017 base team set and added this Luke Weaver Donruss card. This confusing insert picks up the card numbering where the regular 2017 Donruss release left off, which threw me for a loop when I first acquired another card (Paul DeJong) from this in a trade. I couldn't find it on the Donruss checklist, you see. It was a weird moment.

My random team in the Chronicles break was the Orioles, which landed me this sticker auto that is headed for the trade box.

Not headed for the trade box is this Carlos Martinez Heritage Chrome card, my lone Cardinals need from a 2017 Topps Heritage High Numbers break. These aren't quite as nice as the refractor versions, but it's still a fairly tough pull.

Finally, there was a free box of 2013 Topps Museum Collection where the spots were distributed randomly to various participants from the week. I ended up with a spot and this Clayton Kershaw card was pulled. I'm sure I'll have no problem finding a home for this card along with all of the other Dodgers cards I seem to constantly pull.

Meanwhile, if you've got any Jack Flaherty cards I need (as in, something not on this list), feel free to reach out! Thanks.

Thumbs Up to Cards

A PWE from @dvdgao hits up some set needs and team needs. 

Fellow Cardinals fan David recently sent me a nice envelope full of cards that hit up several of my want lists. I've been trying to significantly boost the number of envelopes I typically send, so it's always nice when I get one back -- especially from a Cards fan.

Here's a great opportunity for my semi-regular plug for The Junior Junkie. This continues to be my favorite* blog out there, which is surprising considering I've never been a big time Griffey fan. There's certainly more effort put into his weekly posts that I've cumulatively put into my entire year's worth of content, and they're always an entertaining read if you collect cards.

Any time I get a chance to knock off a Heritage insert, it's a big win.

I guess Adalberto really didn't want to be called Raul Mondesi Jr. I'm still missing a bunch of 2019 Heritage, of course.

Cardinals fans always tend to send the best Cardinals cards. It's probably because we always have the most dupes, right? I missed out on a recent Bowman's Best box break, but I opted to pick up some of the base cards instead (much cheaper.) This Goldschmidt refractor is a really nice addition to that small group.

High Tek Yadi! That's... all I've got.

*I mean, besides your blog, of course.

The Turkey Red Quest is 72% Complete

Can I make it to 100 before Series 2 drops? 

My last post was a bit of a downer, so I thought I'd look at some I am much more positive about today. I absolutely love what Topps has done with Turkey Red, and it's the best thing that the flagship series has going for it in 2020. I'm hoping to polish the Series 1 insert set off before the next wave comes around, assuming they are even doing this again. (This is a retail exclusive, which usually means there's little to no information out there about it until it shows up on the shelves.) I'm certainly hoping they make more of these.

Another fresh batch of the Turkey Red stuff came in last month from gcrl of cards as i see them. I think the yellowing sunset background looks best here on Pirate Chris Archer.

I don't know how they choose the backgrounds for these, aside from a casual nod to the original Turkey Red cards, but this works so much better for me than the "art" cards they've released in the past, where they appear to take a digital photo and "art" it up a bit. Panini does this too, of course -- see Diamond Kings, which is apparently in endless limbo this year.

Here's the rest of the bunch: some more colorful backgrounds, and the sun itself making an appearance.

I'm highly interested in finishing off this set if you couldn't tell. If you have any extras, feel free to reach out!

What Topps Has Become

The latest shiny new thing in last week's round of @CrackinWax group breaks. #CrackinWaxMailDay 

The desperation of. I'm having a really hard time writing this post.

First off, I want to give my usual nod to Crackin' Wax, which did its usual solid job of providing group break services to the masses, such as me. They did an excellent job at what they do, and I'm grateful for it.

Along with a few other breaks, I bought into a 2020 Bowman 1st Edition break. This was the thing that crashed all kinds of websites. I'm still having a hard time understanding why.

The story goes that Topps had to delay the regular Bowman product, which is understandable. They apparently have two printing locations, one that is for the masses in a place that is more tightly regulated by current world health situations, and one that is not (because Florida.) The "on demand" (i.e. website only, exclusive cash grab $$$ money place) has been fully operational. So, someone at Topps central had the bright idea to bring back the old 1st Edition logo and put out a special Bowman thing to hold people over until the real thing came out.

None of this is something I have a problem with. And even if I don't like something, I'm not usually going to have a problem with it being put out into the world. After all, it's not like I have to buy it.

But this... Bowman 1st Edition, is incredibly disappointing and ridiculous. It's basically a Bowman "paper" prospects set issued on the same flimsy card stock as all of their regular stuff, and it caught on fire with some ridiculous triple digit prices paid for a few cards -- particularly a 17 year old Yankees signee who sits somewhere in the middle of the top 100 prospect rankings. Again, these look barely indistinguishable from any other plain Bowman Prospect cards issued in the past ten years, aside from the 1st Edition logo, I suppose.

I was able to complete the Cardinals team set from the break, along with a few extras, which is nice. The box break numbers were much larger than the 150 card base set, which means (on average) you should end up with quite a few Jasson (with two S's) Dominguez cards if you open enough of this stuff.

(Don't get me started on Project 2020.)

Let's shift gears to something more enjoyable. Yes, Topps "online" makes some stuff I actually like. It's kind of silly that Allen & Ginter X exists as, basically, Bizarro Ginter (or just "Black" Ginter... yikes), but the cards generally look awesome.

I snagged another Cardinals spot in a break and picked up another set of good looking minis (and base cards -- not pictured.)

I also ended up the randomly selected winner of this limited numbered autographed framed mini card of a guy who is named Burton Rocks. Let that sink in. Burton. Rocks.

I'm told that he is a sports agent and author, which... y'know... that is two things that I am not. If you're a fan of Mr. Rocks or are just casually (or obsessively) interested in this card, feel free to let me know. For now, it's going to slide in to a box next to a Marc "Double Dare" Summers Allen & Ginter relic card that I have.

Sports in Limbo

We still have cards to fill the space. 

Just around the time I was having to get used to staying at home a lot, I got a bubble mailer in the mail chock full of Trail Blazers and Cardinals cards from The Bucs Stop Here. It had been impossible to find basketball cards at reasonable prices even before the pandemic fully hit us, so it was great to get my hands on some new Blazers stuff.

Here's a trio of Blazers from this year's Optic set. Blasters of this shot up to $80 before it even hit the shelves, which makes absolutely no sense. Shenanigans! It's my first card of Hassan Whiteside in Blazers gear, as well as Pau Gasol -- who would never suit up officially for the team in any actual competition. Gasol gets this season's Festus Ezeli Award. I hope there isn't a new winner next season.

This is one of the many cool insets in the Donruss Optic set that I will never have an opportunity finding in a pack myself.

Throwing it back a few years, here's a pretty slick looking insert of Drazen Petrovic. Petro didn't enter the Hall based on his time in Portland, however, as the team quickly shipped him out due to concerns over lack of playing time. Playing behind Clyde the Glide will do that to you.

Someone commented recently about a bad Photoshop job in an earlier post on a Nolan Gorman card, which makes me wonder when we'll actually see Gorman on a card in a real Cardinals uniform. (This ain't it.) I wish they would make use of spring training photos more. Some of these prospects have several springs under them at this point.

Finally, we end with a Yadi X-Fractor with a very familiar photo. If I was ever going to chase a rainbow, this might be it. (I just can't deal with the super rare cards and the competitive eBay bidders.) Jon Jay's card from this same year would be another nice one, and probably more affordable.

Mini Group Break Results!

Some teams fared better than others. 

With some assistance from Erin, the packs from the break were opened last night and here are the results. Unfortunately, some teams were completely shut out, but I suppose that was bound to happen. As promised, I'll still send out some bonus cards from your team for those of you who didn't pull anything here (or just to fill the envelope if you did.) I can't completely blame Topps for the collation, though, as these packs were purchased loose without any knowledge of where they may have come from. Should I do something like this again in the near future? What do you guys think?

We did find one of the numbered insert cards, with the Dodgers having the biggest success here. This comes as no surprise to me, because I always pull lots of Dodgers cards.

The cards have a glossy stock similar to flagship, unlike the Big League design this was curbed from. Also, each pack contained a Mookie Betts card with an ad for last year's National Baseball Card Day, which confusingly uses the 2019 Topps Stickers design. I'm assuming Matt, who claimed the Red Sox, doesn't want all twenty copies of these, so if anyone PC's Betts or just wants one, let me know!

Arizona Diamondbacks - Greinke (x2)
Atlanta Braves - Donaldson (x2), Freeman, Swanson
Baltimore Orioles - Mancini (x2)

Boston Red Sox - Benintendi, Martinez (x2), Pedroia
Chicago Cubs - Bryant, Contreras, Schwarber
Chicago White Sox - Abreu, Kopech, Moncada (x2)
Cincinnati Reds - Puig (x2), Votto (x3)
Cleveland Indians - Kluber (x2), Lindor (x5), Ramirez
Colorado Rockies - Story (x5)
Detroit Tigers - none
Miami Marlins - none
Houston Astros - Altuve (x2), Bregman (x2), Correa, Springer
Kansas City Royals - O'Hearn (x2)
Los Angeles Angels - Ohtani (x3), Pujols (x2), Trout (x2)

Los Angeles Dodgers - Bellinger (x4), Buehler (x2), Kershaw TCG-23 insert (252/299)
Milwaukee Brewers - Cain
Minnesota Twins - Berrios (x3)
New York Mets - Conforto, Syndergaard

New York Yankees - Andujar (x3), Judge (x2), Tanaka
Oakland Athletics - Davis (x2)

Philadelphia Phillies - Harper, Hoskins (x4), McCutchen (x2)
Pittsburgh Pirates - none
St. Louis Cardinals - Carpenter (x2), Goldschmidt (x4)
San Diego Padres - Myers (x3)
San Francisco Giants - none
Seattle Mariners - Gordon, Kikuchi (x2)
Tampa Bay Rays - none
Texas Rangers - Gallo (x2)

Toronto Blue Jays - Gurriel Jr. (x2), Stroman
Washington Nationals - Soto (x3)

Should I do something like this again in the near future? What do you guys think?

It's Break Time! Sign Up Here

2019 Topps of the Class -- Mini Group Break 

It's been a couple of years since I've hosted a break here, but I managed to acquire 20 packs of this promotional set released by Topps last year, intended to be distributed to students as part of their rebooted "Topps of the Class" program. This is a 100 card set which uses the same design as 2019 Topps Big League, but instead features the Topps of the Class logo and different card numbers. There are also limited inserts (numbered to 299), although there were all loose packs so you have to assume they may have been subject to pack searching. Each pack contains 5 cards.

In typical Cards on Cards fashion, this break will not require a traditional form of payment. By signing up for the break, you are pledging to -- at some point in the future -- send me one card from my want list. It doesn't have to be today, or next month even. We all know how things are in the world right now. These packs won't be opened on video, but I'll do a post after the break is full to show off some of the highlights if you'd like, unless you want to be surprised.

All cards will ship in the popular PWE format. With my methods, I can send up to 6 cards in an envelope this way, so I will plan on including bonus cards whenever possible.

If the break doesn't fill within a couple of days, I will open this up for anyone who has signed up to choose a second team.

Teams must be claimed via comments in this post. You should be able to do this anonymously even if you don't have a Google account. As long as you can verify who you are with a follow up email or Twitter message, this should be fine. If I don't have a mailing address for you on file, please reach out to me via email or Twitter. If I can't get your address in a timely fashion, I may end up opening up the team you claimed.

Enjoy!

Arizona Diamondbacks - 
Atlanta Braves - Tim B
Baltimore Orioles - Ryan H
Boston Red Sox - Matt (Diamond Jesters)
Chicago Cubs - Nick
Chicago White Sox - defgav
Cincinnati Reds - Nachos Grande
Cleveland Indians - OhioTim
Colorado Rockies - Tracy's Box Breaks
Detroit Tigers - Dennis
Miami Marlins - 
Houston Astros - Bru
Kansas City Royals - Josh D
Los Angeles Angels - The Angels in Order
Los Angeles Dodgers - bbcardz
Milwaukee Brewers - Matt (Summer of '74)
Minnesota Twins - gcrl
New York Mets - Mike
New York Yankees - Bo
Oakland Athletics - Fuji
Philadelphia Phillies - Scott Crawford
Pittsburgh Pirates - Bob Walk the Plank
St. Louis Cardinals - Cards on Cards
San Diego Padres - Rod (Padrographs)
San Francisco Giants - Nick Vossbrink
Seattle Mariners - David G
Tampa Bay Rays - Jeremya1um
Texas Rangers - 
Toronto Blue Jays - Captain Canuck
Washington Nationals - defgav

A Missed Opportunity

A #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax shows what a great set 2019 Bowman Heritage could have been. 

I'm not thoroughly against the idea of Topps or other card companies creating sets to sell exclusively online, but many of them are not my thing. My thing does happen to be Heritage cards, so when I heard that Topps had revived Bowman Heritage as an online exclusive I wasn't sure what to think. I entered into a couple of box breaks over at Crackin' Wax once again that featured this online exclusive and was blown away at how much I liked it.

If only this set had gotten a wider release. Since this isn't a widely available product, I can't afford to go after the whole set, but I can still enjoy the cards I got for my team collection. I was able to complete the basics, though, so I'm just looking for parallels at this point.

Much like previous Bowman offerings, the set is broken up into two categories - rookies/veterans and prospects. Both feature the same basic design, which is modeled after 1953 Bowman. It's great.

I'm always curious about the card stock that Topps uses for each set, and this one did not disappoint. This feels like cardboard! Why can't (most) modern products actually feel like... you know... cards? And those card backs look fantastic.

Topps even got the rookie backup catcher into the mix.

Of course, Topps being Topps, there are parallels of a Chrome and non-Chrome variety. I actually like the Chrome cards in this one, even if they veer away from the basic appeal that Heritage cards have to me. This is a classy Genesis Cabrera card.

My big pull, if you will, was another card of the Large Lad Luken Baker, on a blue Chrome refractor numbered to 99.

I also bought into a 2014 Bowman Draft break, hoping for some Flaherty magic as this set features his "1st Bowman" card, something people are starting to care more and more about these days. I didn't luck out in the magic department, but I did pick up this needed Chrome version.