Cards from The Lost Collector

Our favorite Yankees fan @Lost_Collector sends some Birds 'n Blazers. 

 

I finally busted out my Jack Flaherty shirt that I bought at Busch Stadium last summer yesterday, and Jack and co responded with a 2023 first: a series win. It's been a struggle so far in the young season for St. Louis, but hopefully the win over Colorado was a sign of better things to come.

This seemed like a good opportunity to show off a few things I received from The Lost Collector back around Christmas time. The holiday themed card would have made a seasonally appropriate post back when I first got these cards, but that is definitely a very busy time of the year.

It seems like Steven Matz has only been a Cardinal for a few months, but that's probably because he made 15 appearances with the team last season. He appears here on one of those gold-ish Topps cards that are becoming more and more difficult to come by as print runs spiral out of control.

A good chunk of the package was actually dedicated to basketball cards. I can always use more Bol Bol cards cards.

The Contenders Draft set gives us a throwback look at Dame Lillard.

This retail Absolute card of CJ McCollum gives us another glimpse of that awkward period where teams were playing in front of no fans.

We end things with a quad-pack of Bucks. All of these are Collector's Choice cards. The top two seem identical, but one of them is from the German set. There's also a nice "silver signature" parallel here.

Contest Winners and Cards from Oren

 

If you won something, say something! 

 

As of Monday, another college basketball season is in the books. That also concludes contest season here at Cards on Cards. Here is your big list of winners:

• 1st Place: bivlo (blitmeat)
• 2nd Place: rl16
• 3rd Place (tie): mds2942 (Chaos is a Bracket) and AngelsInOrder
• WoRsT pLaCe: mintxcore and josh.worley (Worley360)
• Championship Game Prediction: Brandon L (UConn 75, SDSU 62 - actual score UConn 76, SDSU 59)

If you are one of the winners (or "winners"), please get in touch with me as soon as possible so I can get your address and discuss your prize(s).

Meanwhile, here's another lovely batch of Cardinals cards from reader Oren. I was able to increase my Topps gold (the real gold) collection by a couple of notches with this package I got back in December.

Jack Flaherty has kept his ERA down over his first two (healthy, we presume) starts of the 2023 season, but he's been walking dudes at an alarming rate. Hopefully that doesn't become a thing.

Along with the tidy J.D. Drew autograph card is this striking blue insert from the 1999 Fleer Mystique set. I like it a lot.

More gold! Mooooore gooooold!

Tim Cooney made it to the big club in 2015, but my memory of this has more to do with remembering he has a card in Topps Update that year than of any recollection of seeing him on the field. Memory is weird that way.

Is this still the Players Weekend logo? Was it ever?

This insert from last year's Topps Chrome set leans a little too close to "Ben Baller" territory for me. It's always nice to get another Yadi insert card, though.

Last, but certainly not least, is this fancy encased Alex Reyes auto-patch card from the 2017 Panini National Treasures set. I wonder if Panini will continue to make sets like this in the future as they only have retired players and (apparently) minor leaguers to draw from now.

Thanks again to Oren and everyone who participated in my contests this year!

Another Contest? Another Contest!

Who is going to win the big game?

 

With no possible points left to score in tomorrow night's championship game, we already have a winning bracket in this year's March Radness contest. (Pre-congratulations to the winning bracket, blitmeat by bivlo!)

I did promise a separate impromptu contest that didn't require filling out a bracket or signing up with ESPN, and I just barely delivered. Tell me in the comments what you think the final score of the game will be tomorrow and how many points will be scored by the leading scorer. (Sample entry: UConn 80, SDSU 67, 24 points.) The winner will receive a new baseball or basketball value card pack of my choosing.

Make sure to get your guesses in before tipoff tomorrow (4/3) at 6:20 PM PDT.