Current Cards and Some Turkeys

A heap of fancy Cardinals and more additions to my Turkey Red collection. 

 

The last package I received in the mail that was postmarked with a 2020 date stamp was from Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were. This was another excellent bunch that included several numbered cards, the highlight of which was a 2017 Topps Heritage Minors parallel of early NL Rookie of the Year candidate Dylan Carlson. I'm not sure what kind of parallel this is (it's quite a bit paler than the base card), but it's numbered to just 25. I've been avoiding looking at the 2021 rookie card market of late, but I wonder if there's been any interest in Carlson, who won't turn 23 until after this season is over.

Tommy Edman has been the Cardinals leadoff guy all season, the first to start at that slot in the first 20 games or so since David Eckstein. Although he's locked in as the starter at second base, he's also played quite a bit of outfield in the early going due to some injuries out there.

In an interesting twist, Jack Flaherty has been getting tons of run support. He's off to a 3-0 start to the season, although pitching wins only really matter in fantasy baseball. I really like these "Carolina Blue" parallels from Donruss Optic, and would have a hard time staying away from the mega boxes they come in if I could actually find any.

Paul goes Purple Parallel on this Chrome refractor numbered to 299. Unfortunately, Goldschmidt seems to be off to his now typical slow start to the season. Hopefully warmer weather brings a warmer bat. He still is excellent in the field, as the infield defense has actually taken a step forward with Edman fully replacing Gold Glover Kolten Wong and fellow Gold Glover Nolan Arenado replacing glove owner Matt Carpenter.

I really expected Junior Fernandez to make the opening day roster considering how the team had been using him since he first was called up. He didn't, but maybe he'll get a shot later on down the road. This die cut parallel from one of Panini's prospect offerings is numbered to just 99.

Even in a pitching rotation with a couple of my favorites (Wainwright, Flaherty) in it, I'm always excited to see KK pitch. He looked really good in his second outing of the season and is a rare lefty Cardinals pitching threat.

Along with some killer Cardinals, Jeremy also sent over a huge pile of Turkey Red needs from the various 2020 Topps sets. Click or tap to view them in their full glory. If anyone has any extras of these, I still need a bunch-- mostly from Series 2.

A Gallery of Horrors

Topps Gallery, Allen & Ginter X and more in a #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax of course. 

 

Online box breaks continue to be my primary source of new cards with retail purchases no longer an option, although I have been known to sprinkle in a purchase of a batch of singles or two every now and then. I've been meaning to check out that "online dime box" site that a lot of people have been raving about. Hopefully it won't be all cleared out by the time I get there, like the card shows used to be. In the meantime, here's some more break stuff that I picked up from Crackin' Wax.

I picked up a healthy amount of Allen & Ginter X team needs this time around. The weirdest thing about this set this time around is that about half the set is colored in a much darker shade than the rest. I haven't personally opened packs or boxes to confirm that this isn't just an inconsistent printing process, though. Does anyone have a more lightly colored Kolten Wong?
 

In contrast, has anyone seen a darker KK card? It's weird, and not in the usual way that Topps is weird/inconsistent.

Here's one I needed from a set that I remember fondly from purchases from The Loot Locker (RIP). It's 2015 Bowman's Best. I just really like the design. If you're going to crop a player out of the background, it's nice when they put something else behind the player besides a blank void.

While it's true that I finished off the base team set in this year's Topps 206 set, I still need about 928434 parallels. This Piedmont backed-Big Mac reduces that unsightly number by 1. I would have scanned the back, but it just has the Piedmont ad on it with no other identifying info. These are unnumbered as well.

Now it's time to talk about the set from where this post gets its title. Topps Gallery is one of my least favorite sets every year in its current state as a Walmart exclusive. I have to give my usual disclaimer about not being an art person of any sort, so it really feels wrong for me to be too critical of others' work. I just can't handle some of this stuff, though.

Several different artists are used for this set, so you're bound to like certain cards more than others. Topps Gallery used to look like this, though!

I believe this one is a short print. Topps really went for the Stranger Things font with this set.

Again, some of these work better than others. This one almost looks like a photograph. It's cropped a bit weirdly, though.

There are Heritage inserts in this product to be found, and I was fortunate enough to snag one of them. Sometimes these are listed in auctions simply as "Topps Heritage" cards, which always throws me off for a bit by making me think it's a card I'm missing from my actual Topps Heritage collection. These are drawn, or "arted" as I like to say.

There was a hit to be found in the form of a sticker auto from Junior Fernandez. I'm now up to four of his autographs at this point, which is kind of a lot considering I only own 20 unique cards of the young Cardinals reliever.

Going for Gold

Chasing more framed autographs with @midwestboxbreak and Topps Gold Label. 

  

I don't usually get sucked into any particular product all too often, but I apparently can't help myself when it comes to Topps Gold Label. After scoring a couple of the framed autographs for my team collection in previous breaks, I bought into an 8 box PYT (Pick Your Team) break from Midwest Box Breaks for a very reasonable price.

Paul Goldschmidt is the guy whose autograph continues to elude me, although it still makes me wonder why I decided to be into collecting signatures of dudes in the first place. It's really not my thing. I did snag a couple of unsigned Goldschmidt needs, with a Class 2 and a Class 3 Black entering my collection.

After previously getting a KK auto and a Junior Fernandez auto, this Rangel Ravelo was new to me. There's 4 Cardinals in the set in total, so you now know who exactly I'm missing.

Hey, it's... another Rangel Ravelo? Not bad. His signature is a little bit different here as compared to the previous card.

And for good measure, I ended up with another Junior Fernandez framed auto. Three Cardinals autographs out of eight boxes? That's definitely beating the odds, especially when this is a set with only one expected auto per box.

Midwest Box Breaks throws in some bonuses for new people, which is really nice (and probably encourages people to come back!) I had actually bought into at least one of their breaks in the past, but the only one I could find in my records was from back in August 2019. In any case, it's really nice when you get something extra that you weren't expecting.

These two Twins cards (they're not actual twins, that would be weird) will be heading to the trade box, which is looking more like a box and a pile these days. I should probably get a little more reorganizing done around here.

A Breakdown Holiday and a Contest Winner

From @breakdowncards come more greetings of the season, plus a Belking winner announcement. 

The last of the holiday posts comes from cards received from Santa Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown. Along with this very limited ornament that would look fantastic on any Christmas tree, Gavin sent over some wonderful additions to my Cardinals team collection.

This seasonally appropriate card will end up in Erin's binder. Erin was a little more enthusiastic about the card stuff when I started up the blog thing, but she still wants all of your Yadis (and Altuves).

Here's a snazzy (yes, I just used that word) pair of refractors from the 2018 Topps Chrome set. I think I'm in the camp that hopes that Ozuna will end up back with the Birds, warts and all. I just don't see anyone else out there in the market or coming up from the minor league ranks who could immediately replace the offensive production Ozuna is capable of.

You can probably tell by the clarity of this scan (from my budget priced scanner purchased at a Circuit City going-out-of-business sale) that this is also a refractor. Descalso was mostly a utility/bench guy for the Cards, but he has turned out to have a pretty lengthy and productive career overall.

I should start calling these ska cards. They have that checkerboard pattern, although they're not quite black and white.

I didn't get a chance to purchase any Topps Finest this year (do I ever?), so I am always happy to find Cardinal needs from this set.

Shortly after receiving the holiday envelope, Gavin and I also met up for another in-person card exchange, which netted me a few primo serial numbered cards. Junior Fernandez is someone I'm pretty excited about, with this blue "paper" Bowman card coming off of my theoretical needs list.

I think I own entirely too many Michael Swinson cards for a guy who topped out at A ball and left the game six years ago. That being said, I didn't own this blue refractor of his... but now I do!

The last card from Gavin was this fancy Leather & Lumber thing from the adventurous set that Panini put out this year. You only get 10 cards, but I kind of want to break another blaster of this stuff. This die cut Miles Mikolas card is numbered to just 25 copies. Fantastic.

Now, if you've made it this far, you're probably here for a contest update. We didn't have all that many entries for the Belk Bowl mini-contest, and probably not coincidentally, no one was all that close. Only a few folks picked Kentucky (correctly) to win, and The Bucs Stop Here was the closest with a score differential of 29. Congrats!

Group Break Results and a Contest Update

And a Merry Christmas Eve to everyone. 

I'm a sucker for an affordable group break with a guaranteed team spot, and Tracy's Box Breaks pops up now and again with just the thing that I seek. This time around, boxes of 2016 Bowman Chrome and 2008 Tristar PROjections High Series were opened and distributed. While the output was small in number, I ended up with a couple of nice cards for my collection.

Junior Fernandez is an up and coming prospect out of the Dominican Republic that should be turning some big league heads in a few years. A lot of nice things have been written about him, and it was great to get an on card auto of him even on a badly Photoshopped card.

Tyler Herron is, however, not an up and coming prospect in the Cardinals system. He is, however, a minor league soldier, and assuming he keeps the ball rolling he will be entering his 12th season of professional baseball next year. This particular card is a low numbered parallel, 8 out of 25.

Tracy was kind enough to throw a bunch of extra Cardinals my way, which is never expected and always appreciated. The Rolen/Walker card that heads this post was my favorite of the bunch, but I was also intrigued by this Big Mac card from 2014 Panini Classics, a set which seems to have completely escaped my radar.

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And now, your Bowl Pick 'Em Contest Update Report. Heading into today's light action, Wilson is the overall leader in total points, while there's currently a 3-way tie for most number of correct picks (Raz, AJ!, thepeavine). Raz is the overall leader in possible points, which can sometimes be the best indicator of who has the best shot at winning. If you're all watching the Yule Log on television right now instead of a meaningless college football game, 6-7 Hawaii is currently stomping on Middle Tennesse State.