Stars and Stripes

Set filler needs and patriotic birds from the illustrious @nightowlcardz.bsky.social blog. 

 

I suppose I could have saved this post for a certain holiday that's coming up in a few weeks, but I received this package of cards from Night Owl way back in February, so it probably has sat around long enough. Even though I wouldn't consider myself the biggest flag-waving person around, I've always liked the Independence Day-themed parallel cards, especially the ones that Panini puts out under the Donruss branding. Part of this, I believe, is that the cards usually have more of a heavier "throwback" feel to them, using a different (and likely more expensive) card stock similar to what Topps did with their retail (Target) exclusives from 2009 through 2011.

These two Cardinals Indpendence Day pickups are great, but would you believe that I also have a secret stash of these parallels from players on other teams? I don't usually go out of my way to look for these, but I love it when I pull them from a pack or happen upon one for dirt cheap.

Night Owl sent some red birds on other flavors of cardboard, too, like this interesting insert from the 2022 Topps Gallery set. Arenado's been hitting well of late, but he left today's game after getting hit by a pitch. Injuries always seem to happen to the Cardinals just as soon as someone's bat starts to catch fire -- just look at Willson Contreras, for example. Sheesh.

Mosaic is probably my least favorite Panini brand. I'm not a fan of the way their parallels look at all, and they already have all of the chromium bases covered with Prizm, Optic, Select, and probably some other fringe products that I'm forgetting.

I wish these stamps cards from 2023 Topps Heritage were a super-common, one-per pack type of insert, because it would be really fun to peel these off and stick them on things. Like mail! These count as postage, right?

Among the big names to make their debuts last season with St. Louis, it's Masyn Winn and not Jordan Walker who really feels like the most essential young player in the organization right now. In fact, he already feels like the most important player on the entire team right now. I'm still pretty confident that Walker will put it together at some point, although the Cardinals have been rather dreadful at developing players, particularly outfielders, for quite some time now.

There's a blast from the past. I don't know how I don't have all of these blue Walmart-exclusive parallels yet, but I am sure that I am missing plenty.

Considering that this card (and versions of it like this one) is three years old, I am sure I've mentioned what a weird thing it is that they turned this photo into a horizontal card. Did Flaherty spill some spaghetti on his pants or something?

2022 was such a fun season. I just wish it hadn't ended so abruptly.

We're now onto the set-filler portion of the package. Up first is a pair of high number SPs from the low number portion of the set. Does that make sense? I hope so.

Here's a big block of Allen & Ginter minis. I'm guessing most of these were kicked out of Night Owl's mini binder at some point, although the James McDonald may well have been a Dodgers dupe. Many of these are the slightly rarer A&G back version.

Up next is a pair of cards from the very underrated 2003 Bowman Heritage set. Actually, I feel like Bowman Heritage as a whole is underrated. And no, I'm not talking about the recent Bowman Heritage revival that started with using the modern late '80s/early '90s design templates. These two cards show off three of the base card designs used in the set.

The third 2003 Bowman Heritage card in the package also shows off the third base card design. I believe these were a nod to some old test issues for Bowman that were never officially released. Duke Snider's card is joined by a 2004 Topps Heritage card of Andy Ashby, a name I haven't heard in quite a long time.

A Menagerie of Minis (and More)

Set needs and Cardinals needs in another @nightowlcards delivery. 

I think I've just about made it through July's trade packages to be featured here. The problem is that it's already November somehow. The year is pretty much almost over. I might have to do something I mostly try to avoid and double up on the trade posts (i.e. two packages, two traders, one post.) We'll see how that goes.

In the meantime, look at all of these glorious minis! You can click if you want to see them for real. These, of course, came from super blogger Hall of Famer Night Owl Cards. Most of the ones near the bottom feature the late lamented Old Planter on the back, whose likeness Topps apparently executed and didn't leave a trace of the body sometime back.

Night Owl sent other, larger Ginter set needs as well as this old need from the 2014 Topps Heritage set. I wonder if Topps Heritage 2065 will feature an Election Interference News Flashback card.

In the team collection department was this "cloth" sticker version of Paul Goldschmidt's 2019 Topps Heritage card. I put "cloth" in quotes because the material they use for these is even more suspicious (and possibly caustic?) than the original stuff. I feel like the original cloth sticker cards tend to turn weird colors over time, so it would be creepier if nothing at all happened to their 2019 counterparts.

Finally, here's a short printed Matt Carpenter, on top of the world. He was coming off of a monster second half in 2018 when this photo (presumably) was taken and signed a lucrative contract extension early this year. It did not go well for him in 2019 and it's felt like it's time to move on for awhile now. However, there's that pesky contract to be dealt with, and it's certainly possible Carpenter has some sort of bounceback year... right? Let's hope so.

Minis for Days

So... many... minis... 

The master of minis himself, Night Owl Cards, unloaded a huge lot of minis (and more!) on this unsuspecting part time blogger last month. I do seem to recall reading a post awhile back (possibly this one?) where Night Owl detailed the need to offload a bunch of these cards. Despite my reservations about collecting this year's Allen & Ginter set (I can't do this forever, can I?), I am definitely a super willing recipient of minis of sets past.

This is a lot of minis, folks. This means I'm probably going to have to pony up for some more 15 pocket Ultra Pro pages, and carefully thumb in and out some tiny cards into their plastic shields. Fun times ahead!

This curious group of six is headed for a different set of binders, of course. Only of these guys is a current Cardinal, and though it seems like just yesterday that Yadi was a 22 year old with a rocket arm that couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag... well... it's not 2004 anymore, I guess. That is sad news for all of us.

Other, non-mini Cardinals were included as well. Peter Bourjos popped up on my television in a Rays uniform the other day. Good for him.

I feel bad for Aledmys Diaz, an All-Star just barely more than a year ago. He's been uprooted by Paul DeJong, most likely permanently.

(Not So) Smokin' Joe is in a three-way tie for third place as the oldest card in my collection. I love these. I have no Topps cards prior to 1956 for some dumb reason.

Finally, Night Owl sent over a few needs from the 2017 Topps Heritage set. Here's the world's first mouse... I guess? This is definitely the best News Flashbacks card I've seen in awhile. This looks more like some sort of crazy device that would be used in a lab rat test maze.

Thanks again to Night Owl, and all of the other kind people who have traded with me over the years that make this place possible. And Blogger Google, I guess.