Another Treasure Trove

Another fantastic assortment of eclectic Cardinals cards (and a few Blazers!) 

 

I've been doing this thing, whatever you want to call it, for more than a dozen years now. It's getting tough to pick out new titles for posts and new superlatives to describe bundles of cards. I try to switch up the verbiage every so often. It's the least I can do, especially when you're getting hammered with "trade post" this and "trade post" that.

This latest batch of truly exceptional cards came to the Pacific Northwest (which is not entirely on fire at this point) from Bob of The Best Bubble. Bob really likes his fun oddball cards and bubble gum-related photos, and I encourage you to send some stuff his way if you have anything like that. I often struggle to find things for collectors who have collections that extend beyond the tradition team, player or set territory, but I will try to find what I can.

Most of the cards in the package were of the Redbird variety, but there were a few nice Trail Blazers cards as well. For some reason I like these weird Donruss starburst green and yellow parallels (not the official name, of course.) They do clash with the Blazers color scheme quite a bit, but that's okay.

Inserts and numbered cards from the '00s are almost always a success with me, and this Timeless Treasures Scott Rolen card certainly fits that caterogry. I just wish they could have dedicated a little more retail space for the photo here.

Wacha Wacha Wacha! I've... got nothin'.

Bob sent some interesting unlicensed Todd Zeile cards that I'd never seen before. The prospect hype was pretty big with Zeile at the time, though not in the same category as Todd Van Poppel or Ben McDonald. These days, graded Bowman Zeile cards would be tearing up the online auctions before he ever played a meaningful game. Back in 1990, we got what they used to call "Broders". They would usually cost something like a dollar a pop.
 

Also in the package was a healthy chunk of the 1989 Star St. Petersburg Cardinals team set. I decided to pick this guy to scan, because he's kind of goofy looking. I think I might have seen him at one of my dad's company picnics back in the day.

Soup's on, Suppan! This is from the short-lived (?) Upper Deck Epic set.

Back to the Blazers here with a die cut Scottie Pippen insert. I think Pippen's cards got a bit of a bump over the summer from the whole Jordan documentary thing, but I doubt that did anything to his non-Bulls cards. That's okay, though. You can give them all to me. Except the Rockets ones. Nobody wants those.

This set is always one of the best examples of where to pick up a signed card on a budget. It's also a great example of how well autographs work on matte finish cards.

This one is even better looking than the plain white/grey look of that previous Leaf set. I think they may have even instructed the players to sign in a certain place on the card. What do you think? I am pretty certain this is my first signed card of Ray Lankford, one of the Cardinals biggest stars of the '90s. It was a nice little shock to see this one.

I always appreciate the vintage cards that come my way, no matter what the condition may be. I love how you can still see remants of his original Cincinnati cap behind the weird airbrushing there. Even weirder is the fact that Grammas didn't play in the majors with the Redlegs until after he was traded back to Cincinnati the year this card was issued. I'm not sure if this is some weird scouting photo or what, but he had already completed two seasons with St. Louis at this point. (Feel free to let me know if I'm missing something here.)

Before the Memphis Redbirds were the long term Cardinals AAA affiliate, there was the Louisville Redbirds. Unsurprisingly, the uniform is pretty similar to their then-parent club.

Here's another one of those numbered cards from that Epic set, this time featuring an even more familiar face in the former Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter.

Note to self: Chrome cards from this set do not scan all that well.

We finish things up with a couple of signed cards from Signature Rookies. I wonder how many signed cards Brian Barber himself owns.

The last one is another signed card. It's the lesser known Benes brother. If I had to sign 2100 cards, I would lose my mind. I don't know how these guys do it. (Of course, some of them don't... do it.) Was Brian Barber's playing career shortened because he signed nearly ten thousand cards and his hand nearly fell off?

The Rest of It

The rest of the good stuff from @forgotaboutblay -- non-Ducks edition. 

Last time out, I featured a bunch of Oregon Ducks cards sent to me from Dennis of Too Many Verlanders. I wanted to give some space here to the non-Ducks cards. Everything I was sent from Dennis was divided up pretty evenly amongst a few of the different teams that I collect.

This means Cardinals, of course, like the lenticular Allen Watson that heads up this post and an autographed 1993 Bowman Brian Barber card. I'd love to know the story behind this card. Did he hand-number it himself or was it part of some sort of promotion? Ink aside, it appears that there's nothing else to distinguish it from his regular base card. 

Next up is a really nice looking dual memorabilia Scott Rolen card from 2004 Donruss Diamond Kings. The Diamond Kings sets from this period are chock full of impressive looking cards... like this one!

 

No big deal here, just a short print from the list of a hundred short prints that Topps Heritage cranks out every year. I only probably need something like eighty-five of these to finish it off.

There was one Ducks card that I left out of last post, and it was a basketball Ducks card. Terrell Brandon was an All-Star and had a really nice NBA career. He's also a Portland native and has had his own barber shop here for decades.

A healthy amount of the package was full of Eagles cards, several of which were of Jason Avant. Avant is a Michigan alum, which means Dennis likely has ample amounts of his cards that aren't needed. He came into the league when I was still following the Eagles quite a bit (the McNabb days), but I didn't follow all of his career as the unfortunate Michael Vick era was ushered in.

One of my favorite eras of Eagles football (or NFL football in general, for that matter) was the early '90s. The Pro Set brand is synonymous with junk wax, but I barely ever saw 1992's edition, so these cards were a welcome addition to my collection. As always with Pro Set, the photography is top notch.

For the last card of the bunch, we head back to Jason Avant's rookie year (2006) again with this card of Jevon Kearse. It was big news when the team signed The Freak, whose first season with the team resulted in a Super Bowl appearance. I'm not sure he quite lived up to his days with the Titans, however, but he wasn't bad.