Radness is Coming; A PWE Round-Up for Monday

Look for a new contest sign-up next week! For now, let's check out some cards from plain white envelopes.

It's time to recap a few of the sneaky white envelopes that trickled in over the past few months. I actually have been getting a ton of these in the mail lately, but at least 95% of them are part of TCDB trades. I've made sure to set aside any others that come in so I can show off the cards here. (I'd love to show off all of the TCDB trades, but I can just barely stay on top of getting them logged in and sorted.)

Padrographs sent me one of my first looks at the 2024 Topps Archives set, which was released very late in the year. Topps caught a lot of flack, at least among the online circles I spend time in, for their terrible attempt at the 1970 design. The biggest issue was the player name font, which bears no resemblance to the original design. It's even more silly when you consider that it's essentially the same font used on the 1994 design (which looks fine!) and was featured as recently as 5 years previously when its turn came up in the Heritage set. It was obviously a choice, and people have opinions about that choice, but I've never really heard a definitive, satisfying answer. What I do know is that while they do try to replicate a lot of the design elements for the Heritage sets, Archives often ends up becoming a more cheaply made, fun house mirror version of the original cards they're attempting to emulate.

Nachos Grande is a big Barry Larking collector, and I recently pulled one of Larkin's shiny parallels from the 2024 Panini Prizm set and sent it his way just for fun. I wasn't expecting anything in return, so I was pleasantly surprised when he hooked me up with some of his Allen & Ginter mini extras. The two Luis Castillo cards (black border and Allen & Ginter back) join up with Tyler O'Neill's mini to head to my Ginter set binder.

These two Brendan Donovan minis (A&G back and black border) are headed to my Cardinals binder. Unlike O'Neill's card above, I didn't have a single copy of either of these.

The biggest of the three PWEs came from frequent flyer gcrl, who sent over a fat stack of Cardinals cards and set filling needs. Alec Burleson's second year Topps card is a sparkly purple parallel numbered to 799. Do people still say "second year card"? I'm guessing not, unless you're trying to scam influence someone on eBay or somewhere of the like.

Chrome Sapphire cards are a pricey thing, so I am always thrilled to snag one for my team collection. Most of the ones I do have seem to be of the reliever variety like Gallegos here, but I'll surely take any of them.

This one is a Halloween-ish holiday parallel of Cardinals speedster Victor Scott II. Any time someone insists on going by "II" as a suffix instead of Jr. makes me tempted to call them The Sequel. I know that Topps was thinking "orange and black" when they designed these parallels for the Topps Update set, but they really made it look weird instead of spooky or whatever.

Here's a couple more parallels (rainbow foil and royal blue) from last year's Topps sets. I believe royal blue has been phased out in favor of even more foil this year.

Speaking of foil, here's a parallel of Jordan Hicks' rookie card from the inaugural Topps Big League set from back in 2018. It's numbered to just 100. Hicks finally successfully converted from a reliever to a starting pitcher last year with the Giants after the Cardinals had attempted it a few years back.

The set needs came in various flavors. Here's a couple base cards from the 2004 Topps Heritage set plus an insert from the 2020 set.

Alec Mills is not exactly a household name, but he did notch a no-hitter in that 2020 quasi-season. The Carlton Fisk card is a big get, since I'm very close to finally finishing off the 2014 Allen & Ginter set. This is the last set I haven't completed aside from the first two (and the last two where I decided not to pursue them anymore.)

The last grouping of cards are all from the 2003 Topps Heritage set, one of my personal favorites. I love the logos, the multiple photos and the green card backs. Of course, I like the original 1954s that they represent, but they're not always so affordable.

Contest Results and High Heritage

A Bowl Pick 'Em contest update and a #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax featuring Topps Heritage High Numbers. 

 

With the world turned into a real life game of Dr. Mario, it's amazing that any of our bowl games were pulled off. A few teams turned up as replacements in games, while a handful of others got cancelled. I'm sure the only entity that was truly sad about this was ESPN. It's wreaked havoc over the scoring outcome in our annual contest (the only thing that truly matters), but a few people have made it out okay heading into Monday's championship.

Johnny G is sitting pretty in first place with the most total points and the most total possible points. If he makes the right pick, the crown is his. Peter L and Elliptical Man are sitting right back there as well, and John S is poised to make a big move as well if the right pick is made. Don't forget to fill out you tiebreaker score for the title game if you haven't already.

I should have made this disclaimer earlier, but if 2022 Topps becomes more of a fantasy than a reality, I will ask the winners if they would like a replacement prize. With the MLB lockout in full effect, I'm not sure if new sets in 2022 are getting greenlit by Rob Manfred's minions or not. We shall see.

On that note, a big congratulations is in order to Mr. Haverkamp, who takes this year's Mayo Bowl prize. He doesn't get a 4.5 gallon of mayonnaise dumped on his head, unfortunately.

Let's look at some cards while we're here! Crackin' Wax had the overdue 2021 Topps Heritage High Numbers set available in breaks and I picked up the Cardinals as I often do. This Rookie Performers design is one of my favorites that Topps has come up with over the years.

I managed to get copies of the base team set a few times over, plus a single copy of the lone short printed card - Andrew Knizner. With Yadier Molina returning for one more season (assuming there is one), it looks like Knizner will have one more chance to prove that he's up to the task of taking over full time. That's a tough thing to do without actually playing regularly.

Here's a rookie pitcher and possibly one of the last cards of Matt Carpenter in a Cardinals uniform. I would think that he would certainly get opportunities with other teams, but will he be able to land anything more than a minor league deal?

Another longtime Cardinal in his swan song with the team and the guy that ate a lizard.

Seth Elledge is the other rookie card in the team set. Paul DeJong is hoping to win back his job full-time for next season.

Even more so than most years, the High Numbers portion of the Heritage set seems like an afterthought. I do have a hobby box on the way because the price was hard to turn down ($61 shipped!)

The King of Kings

A late spring trade package included some low numbered Cardinals and Topps Heritage fun. 

 

Happy Friday, everyone! Here's a few cards I got back around the end of May from The Diamond King. I am in the midst of wrapping up the last few packages from my so-called Spring Cleaning feature, which will include a massive box headed up north to the King himself.

There were not one, but two Donruss Elite Matt Carpenter numbered parallels.

The card design is pretty hideous, but look at that... rarity! Carp is likely in the middle of playing his last games for St. Louis at the moment, but at his peak he was an outstanding player. (It also took me, weirdly, until this very year before I started calling him Carp. To me, "Carp" is always going to be Chris Carpenter. And not Cris Carpenter. Or the other, lesser Chris Carpenters.)

Adam Wainwright will be back next season, however, as announced today. This is exciting news, though thoroughly expected at this point.

In another much anticipated move, Waino will be tapped to start the play-in game on Wednesday against the dreaded Dodgers or Giants. At this point, I really don't care who they play, but I do hope the Dodgers catch the Giants so they're forced to play an extra game. (I really don't want to see Max Scherzer in a win-or-go-home game, basically.)

The Diamond King also sent a stack of 2021 Topps Heritage cards for my set build. Look at this trio of short printers!

To top it off, I also picked up this New Age Performers insert of the guy they make fun of because his last name is like that other guy that people make fun of.

Thanks again to The Diamond King and everyone else who has sent me cards this year!

Clearing the Deck

Recapping a few weeks' worth of #CrackinWaxMailDay breaks from @CrackinWax 

 

I took a vacation week at the beginning of the month and have another one coming up next week, so the cards have been piling up. (Literally, in fact, because I have a lot of piles of cards to mail out still.) I'll run quickly through some stuff I got from Crackin' Wax recently, which covers a few weeks of box breaks.

Panini Select is back for another year, and it pretty much looks the same as ever. I'm not sure how many years of life this has in it, but the cards do like nice for an unlicensed set. Don't let the scans fool you.

This is my first proper card of Johan Oviedo, who been in the rotation more often than not since about midway through last (abbreviated) season. Unfortunately, he has yet to really put together a single notable start, but the staff must see something in him because he keeps getting opportunities. Let's hope for the best tonight!

The big highlight of this one was a low numbered (to 35) "Carolina Blue" parallel of Paul Goldschmidt. Goldy has been a slow starter since arriving in St. Louis, but now that we're in the second half of the season his bat has been heating up.

I don't have a lot to say about this year's Stadium Club set and its minimalistic design. It's fine. I am glad to finally own a non-Photoshopped Nolan Arenado Cardinals card, however. (Yes, I checked. It's from a February 28th spring game against the Nationals.)

Ditto 2021 Topps Heritage, which managed to survive the COVID-and-capitalism fueled price gouging relatively unscathed. Although I had to resort to mostly online purchases, I was able to buy up all I really cared for without breaking the bank. Here's a couple of new short print additions to my set, with the Cards/Cubs rivalry coincidentally in progress right now.

Contenders is one of the least exciting products Panini has to offer, with its base set pretty much being a throwaway. I did manage to get the Blazers base team set out of the deal, but that was it.

Every year, the set design uses the same ticket motif, with just a few minor variances from year to year. I like tickets and I like sporting events, but it just does not make an attractive looking card.

CW also included a nice bonus pack of 1991 Leaf Series 1 baseball in one of the mailers, which I'll be saving for a rainy day (or may end up paying forward to someone else.)

Crackin' More Heritage

A recent #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax with another look at Topps Heritage. 

 

While I'm not thrilled about this year's Heritage set, especially when compared to previous years, I'm still going to end up collecting as much of it as time (and money) allows. I also have a team set to put together, and I made a serious dent in that effort with some Crackin' Wax breaks. Along with a pile of Cardinals came a road uniform swatch from former Cardinal Kolten Wong. Wong was with the team for seven seasons, starting most of the games at second base. Rarely has their ever been such stability at the keystone position in the team's franchise history. As luck would have it, Wong was there to lead off against the Cards for the home opener at Busch and understandably got a huge ovation. (Well, that's to say as huge of an ovation as a crowd of 10,000 or so can provide.)

As always, there's a ton of short prints in the set. I did land this short printed card of Harrison Bader, who began the season on the injured list. Unlike previous years, I feel that a good chunk of the 100 card short printed portion of the set is dedicated to regular everyday guys like Bader instead of stars and rookies. That's often been a complaint in the past. There's also been grumblings about certain starts being held out of the checklist this time, most likely for inclusion in the High Numbers set. At least from Topps' perspective, that strategy makes sense. The High Numbers checklist is usually full of relievers, players who changed teams in the offseason and were DFA'd by May, and maybe one or two top rookies.

Speaking of top rookies, I ended up with a pair of Dylan Carlson cards. The prices for his cards have been kind of all over the place, with collectors investors not entirely sure whether to give him the star rookie treatment or not.

Dylan Carlson played a lot last year even though he still enjoys his rookie status. That means his "In Action" card is pretty legit.

One of the boxes must have been a hot one, as I also ended up with this purple Chrome Jack Flaherty card.

Kodi Whitley was on the taxi squad last year and it looks like that will be his role this year, at least until minor league action is underway. People close to the ballclub seem to be excited about him. Roel Ramirez, on the other hand, is more of a "minor league depth" guy who was entirely out of his element last season when the Cards were down a ton of players due to a certain coronavirus as he made one appearance, allowing 6 runs while recording only 2 outs. Rough stuff.

If this is Yadi's last season, he seems determined to go out on top. He's been one of the team's best hitters coming out of the gate.

We'll end with a quad pack of Cards cards from photo day at Roger Dean Stadium.

Should we do some spring cleaning soon? Does anyone still like cards?

It's Fine, I Guess

A first (for me) look at 2021 Topps Heritage. 

 

I have to admit that I'm not very excited about this year's Topps Heritage set. I may have mentioned this before, but I think it's my least favorite of the annual Topps brand since the 2013 set which used typical Allen & Ginter card stock to apparently emulate the lighter backs of the original 1964 set. Now that we're a few years into the 1970's, I'm just not that excited about this. It's starting to feel more like the more recent Topps Archives efforts than a true Topps Heritage set.

It also doesn't help that of all of the Topps designs from before my time, so to speak, the 1972 set stands out to me as one of the worst ones. It's just not for me. I'm sure this set evokes nostalgia for people of a certain age, but it does nothing for me. In any case, I still leapt at the chance to buy some blasters (online, because this is 2021.) I bought three blasters in total, saving one for my recent contest winner. I am sure I bought these from a "flipper", but by my calculations, after the cost of shipping is included, the seller only made a total of 41 cents on this transaction. Great job?

I'm not sure that the Boyhood Photos of the Stars treatment works very well when a significant portion of these are dedicated to rookies and younger players. This picture was probably taken on a digital camera in 2005 and not from some sort of ancient time when black and white photos were the only affordable option.

Roberto Clemente gets his own dedicated insert set in this one, which makes the Pirates a somewhat more valuable commodity in group breaks.

The New Age Performers inserts look decent enough, or at least they're appropriate for the set as a whole. They've become even more scarce of a pull in this set, going from a 1:11 ratio to a 1:25.

There were a number of dupes across both blasters, but I was lucky enough to pull a New Age Performers card in each box. Ke'Bryan Hayes is probably underrated as a rookie as far as getting attention goes these days, most likely because he's on a team that has been stripped bare.

It definitely looks like Matt Kemp's team name is Rookies. I have no recollection of him playing for Colorado. It seems like there's a lot of these weird 2020 oddities on the 2021 checklist, as Topps continues to lag far behind reality in terms of producing their sets.

Normally, Topps Heritage is the first set of the year that has players in their new uniforms -- Photoshopped or otherwise. Tyler Naquin should be with the Reds here, but again, this still feels like a 2020 set as much as most of the sets released last year felt like 2019 sets.

Albert Pujols inaction.

Mike Trout is up to something, it seems.

I know that it's surprising that we got this far without a Cardinals card, so here we go. Like most of his teammates, Waino is posing at the Cardinals shared spring training site Roger Dean Stadium, home of the Marlins as well as the Redbirds.
 

My favorite card of the two boxes I opened ended up being this one. Of course, there's a lot of uncertainty with Tatis right now, but it was nice to pull another 1:25 insert card that actually fits into my team collection here. If you're wondering about print runs (I definitely am), it looks like the serial numbered (to 999) Chrome cards jumped from a 1:60 pull in 2020 to a 1:92 pull this year, which suggests that the print run for this set increased by more than 50% this time around. That seems like a lot (and it is), but it's far less than the jump the flagship set made. Just sayin' is all.