Listia Pickups and New Stickers

Spending more money on cards from home. 

I picked up a couple of cards recently on Listia that I was pretty excited about. I don't focus a ton of my posts on things I've bought/won online, but occasionally something will stick out. This Harrison Bader bronze Donruss Optic autograph seems to have been on the sight for at least six months (possibly longer, because who can keep track of time anymore?) I finally pulled the plug on it in the past week or so, and wasn't disappointed at all.

I don't go seeking out Eagles cards all that often, if at all, but I really liked this card of Nick Foles that commemorates the Eagles thrilling and fulfilling Super Bowl win.

I also bought a brand new blaster of 2020 Topps Stickers from an eBay seller. This year's set once again carries over the full-sized sticker-plus-card back concept from 2019. This time, the card/sticker numbers are printed on both sides of the sticker/card, which makes it even more confusing to figure out which part is the card and which part is the sticker.

Yes, they are still making Albert Pujols Cardinals cards (stickers?) in 2020. No, I am not that upset about this.

I think this might be a stickercard back, because the copyright verbiage is featured below Kolten Won's name. The main base sticker design, which I didn't show off here because I didn't pull any Cardinals, can also be found as an insert (preview) in the 2020 Topps Opening Day set. I'm not sure if those are actually stickers or not.

I'm not sure about any of this, really.

Stats: Advanced Edition

Are you ready for these numbers?

Here's my most recent Listia pickup, and it's super ordinary looking on the face of it. I completely missed it, but in 2019 (at least) Topps extended their idea of card back variations containing advanced stats for players throughout the entire set.

Rather than choosing a handful of cards to create variations for, we get a serial numbered card with different stat categories for each card in the set. Well... maybe. I don't see how this would work for team cards, checklists, or even rookie cards unless they actually have these same stat categories for minor league numbers or did something totally different than usual with the backs. After a brief check of available card images on TCDB, I wasn't able to find any images for RC cards or other non-single player cards with typical backs.

All of this makes me wonder what the print runs were for the earlier stat back variations. I think I only have a couple of those.

Brought to you by the Letter L

Still viable. 

I'm still active on Listia after all these years, after nearly ditching the site this past winter over an auction dispute where their customer service was being completely unreasonable. For the most part, the issues that were prevalent have lessened lately, where I'm no longer seeing a bunch of accounts created by people who either have no idea what they're doing or have no intent on actually following any of the rules. They just launched some sort of tiered bonus rewards program for people who buy certain amounts of credits, although I sell enough on the site that I never actually have had the need to spend any cash money on buying credits. (All my cash money ends up going to stamps, envelopes, tape, and a hobby supplies store. Fun stuff.)

In any case, I continue to find interesting cards as my reward for my hard work at basically getting rid of crap that I don't want, like this Bob Gibson 2014 Panini Hall of Fame auction that I recently won. This is a set that completely escaped me, and it appears to be one of those parallels-upon-parallels sets that any reasonable set collector would avoid like some Listeria-infected frozen vegetables.

The seller was kind enough to throw in a couple of extras, which happened to be Cardinals from the same set. Since I had no idea that this set even existed, these were all new to me. It's not my favorite set in the world (check the no logo sadness), but I got these cards for what feels like Monopoly money, so it's cool with me.

Again, parallels upon parallels. This Dizzy (seriously, a numbered card as a freebie throw-in?) is a "Green Shield" variant apparently, while the Gibby at the top of the post is a "Blue Shield, Red". Because, of course, there has to be red versions of blue shields. Yup, that's how baseball cards work.

In a completely different auction won around the same time, I also snagged an on-card auto of out-of-nowhere-and-back-to-nowhere reliever Josh Kinney from the 2006 championship team. I already had another auto of his for my (so far) undocumented 2006 + 2011 World Series autographs project, but this is clearly superior to what I had before. I'm a sucker for Heritage-esque sets, even if this isn't an actual Topps Heritage card.

Anyway, Listia is still a thing. Sign up if you haven't or check it out again if you've been there before.

Sign This Guy

Fingers crossed.

What you see above is my latest Listia acquisition. Although Jason Heyward arrived in St. Louis as far from the perfect ballplayer, he's very young and was a very good fit with the team. He might be the best defensive outfielder in the National League, and after a slow start at the plate he started hitting the ball well. He's going to command a massive paycheck, but it's not my money!

Sign him.

And, seriously, this is one of the nicest looking autographed cards I've ever owned. My time and effort put into lugging letters with cards in them around the city feels much rewarded after getting my hands on this.

Tempted by '75

Collecting anything this old is rather intimidating.

I've been pondering the idea of collecting the set that came out the year I was born - 1975 - for some time now. I have no connection to the cards or most of the players, since I never opened a pack of 1975 Topps as a kid or even witnessed someone open one. It's not the best design of all-time, but it's not the worst. Unlike a lot of the sets of the '70s and early '80s, I've been able to pick this one out of a lineup for a long time. It helps that it doesn't have white borders, like most sets. It could be really fun, though! I don't think I've ever put together a set that was entirely based on trades and single card acquisitions, so this could actually be the first. I'm going to give it some thought.

In the meantime, strictly for the Cardinals collection comes this Lou Brock card that's in really nice shape aside from the divot that was taken out (and replaced) from the left border. The corners are almost... sharp. That's not very '75 to me. This was another Listia pickup that I spent a fair chunk of credits on.

I also threw down a ton of credits on this Matt Holliday jersey card from the newest Allen & Ginter set. I prefer the framed mini relics, personally, but this is okay. I know that the memorabilia card as we know it has been seriously devalued in recent years, but I still can't keep away from them.

Finally, at this month's card show, there was a table that had nothing but an arrangement of $1 autographed cards in screwdown cases. I don't know if I even have any cards in screwdown cases. I will free this Bo Hart card from it's plastic tomb (and hilarious overpriced price tag) soon, but for now you get this quick and blurry scan of the guy who was famous for a month or two over a decade ago. Well, that's more famous than I'll ever be!

A First Base Problem

It's bigger than life.

Despite having a comfortable lead in their division, the best record overall in MLB and little friction to speak of, the Cardinals aren't completely steady. 1B is a power bat position in this league and it has been for a long time, but the Cardinals have had a Matt Adams-sized hole at the position ever since Big City, seen here on a 2015 Topps Finest on-card auto that I snagged from Listia, went down with a season-ending quad tear.

Mark Reynolds was signed in the offseason to play multiple positions and be a power bat off the bench, but he was thrust into the lineup full time when Adams went down. It hasn't been pretty. For some inexplicable reason, the Cardinals went out and traded one of their better prospects for the left-handed equivalent of Reynolds in Brandon Moss. Two guys who miss far more often that they make contact, whose power is more theoretical than actual at this point in their respective careers, does not make a whole first baseman. This is one of the most unsettling things to me as St. Louis heads down the final stretch of 50 or so games this year. Matt Holliday and Adam Wainwright's injuries may be more impactful, but trying to compete with the best teams out there in the playoffs without a respectable option at 1st is going to be really, really difficult.

Good Things, Small Packages, etc.

Keeping the envelope industry alive since 2008.

I couldn't resist as I found myself on the purchasing end of another card for my collection on Listia. This time, it was a Turkey Red Edmonds relic that I have had a hard time tracking down. My usual go-to for single cards, if I'm in the mood, is COMC who hasn't had this listed for awhile. Edmonds didn't actually have a base card in this set, from his final year in St. Louis, so it's also kind of an unusual one.

Some other folks that I actually have interacted with sent me cards in plain white envelopes recently, and I thought I'd take the time to cover them here. The Lost Collector sent me two more Edmonds cards to bring my unique total up to 486 now. Hopefully, I will remember to commemorate #500. I'd never seen either of these cards before, and they're both cheezily awesome.

At first, all you see is Big Mac...

There it is! This is the quintessential early '00s MLB credo right here. Just grip it and rip it, guys.

From deep in the heart of Cardinal Country came this insert from 2015 Topps, courtesy of Chris N. McGwire's recent re-entry into the Topps-o-sphere makes this an interesting pairing, with one man's tainted legacy (and somewhat lacking Hall of Fame stats) put along side the pristine Stan the Man. I don't think anyone at Topps thinks about these too hard.

Finally, good ol' P00PSH00TER, a frequent contest participant, sent along a pair of 1970 cards that were in pretty nice shape for this sort of thing. I don't think I've heard of Hilgendorf, who seems like he was just caught doing something awful here.

Dal Maxvill I know, but I'm mostly familiar with his time residing in the front office during some pretty lean years. Back then, we were all excited about Felix Jose. He was the GM when the team won two pennants in the '80s, but sometimes it's the bad stuff that sticks out.

Oddball Listia Find

This is the Eighties-ist.

I know that many have given up on Listia, but I still find it to be an occasional source of interesting finds. Even better (at least for me), I've been able to get rid of thousands of doubles and some junk wax era stars while making the folks at Big Postage Stamp very happy. I can always use more oddball stuff like this.

This is my first Squirt card as far as I know. It's very thin and just slightly more a rectangle than a square. The back is a no frills copy of the 1982 Topps template, squeezed down to fit on the reduced amount of space.

If you're in the mood to check out my '80s-ish want list, feel free to do so at your leisure. It's a bit lacking in the oddball department, though I've got all the main sets and O-Pee-Chee needs identified through 1988 at least.

Most Wanted No More

Another team set is complete.

While it might have been more topical to scan a Kolten Wong or Matt Carpenter card tonight, I thought I'd focus on a guy that pitched in 12 games for the Cardinals 6 years ago, and returned to relative obscurity soon after that. Mike Parisi was called to the rotation in desperation during a season in which little went right.

Yes, Cardinals haters, there once was a time not long ago where the Cardinals missed the playoffs in back to back seasons and didn't exactly inspire anyone. Adam Kennedy got significant playing time. Todd Wellemeyer led the team in ERA. And back in 2008, Parisi made a couple of sloppy starts before retreating to the bullpen, and eventually a couple of other professional organizations in a minor league role. He last pitched in independent ball in 2013.

His card was also the last card I needed to complete my team set in the frustrating 2008 Upper Deck Timeline set. The ratio of David Ortiz (card #30) to Parisi cards must be somewhere near 7000 to 1, so it took me awhile to track this down. Fortunately, a Listia auction came through for me and I can sleep just a tad bit more soundly at night. A new contender has replaced Parisi in the Most Wanted charts. Let me know if you can help out.

Not Airbrushed Friday

It's Friday the 13th! I can do what I want.

I wasn't feeling super inspired to write about a random airbrushed card today, but I was pretty excited about a card I got in the mail from a Listia auction. I decided to post something about it instead. Hey, if you don't like it, get your own blog! They're handing them out on the corner for free.

Wilmer Mizell pitched for the Cardinals for 7 seasons, a tenure interrupted by two years that he served in the Army. He won 90 games, more than he lost, and had respectable all around numbers. He went on to serve in the House of Representatives for 6 years.

1958 Topps has some great cartoons and has a great comic book feel to it when you flip the cards over. This one is a bit of a confusing read unless you realize that Vinegar Bend was Mizell's nickname (apparently nicknames came with first and last names back then). The cartoon features a guy who seems way too obese to have existed in the '50s, pre-KFC Double Down, giving the ol' hotfoot to his sleep deprived teammate. It's even less believable that this mass of a man could have been a professional athlete at the highest level of competition in his chosen sport, but hey, I wasn't born until the '70s.

Listia's Usefulness

Also, it's free, of course.

Listia isn't immensely popular in the real of trading cards, but it has a number of dedicated users. I know they exist because I see some of the same names pop up on bids on my cards with high frequency. It's kind of a ridiculous place to look for or "sell" anything of significant value, but it continues to hold my interest because of auctions like the most recent two that I won.

I spent credits on a Cardinals pocket schedule from this season. Sure, this is a freebie all over Missouri and I'm guessing a few other regions, but I don't get my chance to grab stuff like this unless a kind fan of the blog who happens to be from the area lends me a helping hand. I like pocket schedules, but I wouldn't say I'm a collector. I tend to throw these in my Cardinals binders even though they're all lopsided and puffy and weird.

I never thought I'd fine a virtually pristine Willie McGee O-Pee-Chee (!) rookie card on the site for next to nothing, however. This is the sort of random win that keeps me coming back to the site. It was poorly listed as the auction owner determined that this card was from 1986 for some reason, so it's possible that it helped. In any case, this immediately becomes one of the best cards in my collection. I actually need a ton of 1983 O-Pee-Chee cards for some reason, but it's nice to get the Willie rookie out of the way.

In Defense of Listia

This is not an ad, but you're welcome to sign up with my referral link!

I'll just get this out of the way. I don't think Listia is the greatest thing ever, but I do spend a fair amount of time with it every week. And why would I do that? For the cards I've received, of course! I've read some critical things about it since I first became aware of the site about a year and a half ago. Much of it is warranted. But I still feel like it's worth my time. I'm coming up on about 500 completed seller auctions in the near future, nearly all of which have been single card sales for low amounts of credits. Slow and steady has won the race for me, though, as I've managed to take in piles of "hits" and other fun things for my collection. This Yadier Molina serial numbered jersey card is just the latest. I've also snagged a pretty healthy amount of base cards from sets that are somewhat difficult for me to come by, like 2006-2007 Allen & Ginter and 2001 Topps Heritage.

I've also picked up cards from other sports that I usually don't touch, because my interests are very narrow. I don't care about the NFL all that much, though I'm finally becoming comfortable with the Eagles again. But plenty of people have cards of former Duck Dion Jordan on offer as he was recently a high draft pick. I wouldn't dare try to buy these overpriced things in a local store, but I am comfortable with trading my earned credits for them.

For the most part, I pretty much break even on the majority of the auctions I list once you factor in the rising cost of envelopes and stamps. There's never going to be a 100% success rate with PWE's, which means I've had to eat credits a couple of times due to people never apparently getting what I've sent them. And a couple of dozen times I've had people fail to send me their mailing address properly, which certainly seems annoying. But I get to keep those credits and relist the item, so it's hardly a problem. I realize the site doesn't fit everyone's needs, but if you stick to the "slow & steady" plan, I think it has a lot to offer fellow card collectors. And I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more cards on the site.

I don't think I mentioned that this card is weird. You can scan the code with your smartphone and get (supposedly updated) video highlights of that player's work. Fun.

I don't know. It's something to do. You can sign up here and I'll get some extra credits. And you apparently get a lot more credits for signing up these days than I did when I did it.

Don't Walk

Adam Wainwright finally walked a batter. After striking out 35 batters without a walk this season, he finally felt generous enough to give up a free pass to Bryce Harper tonight in the 6th inning for his first walk of the season. I'll celebrate the occasion, which resulted in an MLB record, by showing off his 2003 Topps Gold card that I picked up while doing a little COMC shopping last week. Wainwright is virtually unrecognizable here and it's not even the Braves uniform that I'm talking about. Still, I have very few cards of Wainwright as a Brave, so it was a nice get.

I picked up a few more cards for myself for around $1. This Chris Carpenter insert from the post-legit Upper Deck era would have me totally confused for the regular version of this card were it not for the serial numbering on the front. I don't see how this card is any more "gold" than his regular Portraits card.

I've had a hard time filling 2012 Topps Mini team set, probably because these cards just aren't all that plentiful. I just have to face the fact that I don't like cards that aren't Cardinals enough to justify spending big money on boxes.

Does this garden variety 1989 Topps Ozzie Smith card look bright to you? Does it have a little bit of a glow?

Because it's Tiffany! ... okay, fine, you knew that all along, didn't you? Who would bother to show off a card from this set if there wasn't something extra fancy about it?

I thought I'd tack on a couple of scans of recent Listia wins as well. I had never seen this design (well, not exactly this design) before, but it's some subset from the 2002 Fleer Tradition set. I like it.

Here's an example of something I would never pay cash for, but I pounced on it when all it cost me was some cybercurrency. Seriously, though, who really needs a high school portrait of Ozzie Smith... assuming this is even high school? I don't know what this is. It will get its share of eyerolls near the back of my Ozzie binder, but it's home to roost just the same.

Paintball, Anyone?

What's up with Ozzie's eyewear here?

This is one of my recent Listia wins, and while it's a nice idea, I probably won't be using it as a bookmark at any point. Barry Colla cards always seemed to fall into a grey area between unlicensed cards and flat out bootleggery, but it at least appears that they got the big time consent to make these Bookmarkers. I don't have many Colla Collection cards in my collection - in fact, I can't think of any right off the top of my head.

If you haven't signed up for Listia yet, you must hate getting things for free. It's not amazing and it does require a few minutes of your time, sort of like a virtual garage sale, but it's the laziest and cheapest way to get free cards that I know of. I've actually put together a healthy chunk of the 2007 Allen & Ginter set from Listia alone, which is a good thing because I never see unopened packs of that stuff.

Monday Night Miscellany

Sure, it's November, but I'm still working on my Allen & Ginter set. Well, there's a lot of sets that I'm working on, to be perfectly honest. I received a few cards of the good stuff (A&G) from waxcaptain's Dugout a couple of weeks ago, which just goes to show that I'm a little behind on trading and blogging. I don't think I formally addressed how I feel about the whole Triple Crown thing. The gist of it is, I think it's pretty cool. I'm just not much of a Miguel Cabrera fan, but I'm glad someone did it. (At least, someone that's not Barry Bonds or something.)

Here's a non-baseball subject. I hope the old red-white-and-blue basketballs never completely disappear. They're fun. Fun like behind-the-back-alley-oops and spinning the ball on the tip of your finger.

Verlander has had a spotty playoff record, but I have a feeling he will be fine. Detroit just ran into a buzzsaw this year. I can't even really explain how the Giants did what they did.

I thought I'd sneak in a little Listia win while you weren't paying attention. Ha! I don't often get a chance to purchase Pacific cards, let alone serial numbered Pacific cards of guys in Cardinal uniforms. In fact, you could even say that I didn't purchase it at all. It was free, thanks to Listia.

I hope you enjoyed that little commercial break. Meanwhile, there's the matter of this Ozzie Smith 2002 Sweet Spot jersey card that Erin gave me for my birthday (Halloween, guys.) It's a pretty ridiculously awesome card, but I am not sure where the swatch is supposed to be from. I think it's Padres brown, but there's no mention of them anywhere on the card.

Oh, Richard P. McWilliam, can I dare believe you? Anyway, it's a pretty awesome card no matter where its origins may lie. If anyone out there is completely throwing a tantrum over relic cards, you can always send them to me. I'll take them all. You know where I live.

(Yikes.)

Listiamania

Before I get into my own thing here, I just wanted to congratulate Miguel Cabrera on pulling off one of the rarest of feats in today's game. There hasn't been a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime and I think it's cool that someone pulled it off. I'm no particular fan of Miggy's, but better him than... I don't know... A-Rod or something.

Anyway, this post is about a few things I've won for free from Listia recently. I try not to post everything that I get from this website or get too crazy about it, but I figure that it doesn't hurt to occasionally pop in with a few images when I'm short on time. I'm already used to receiving multiple little plain white envelopes every day at this point, and I bet my mail carrier thinks I'm engaged in some sort of old school chain letter scheme right now or something. The first image is a Stan Musial card from the 60 Years of Topps Lost Cards insert thingo. I now have all of the Lost Cards, but none of the "original back" versions which I think would be fun to look at since the cards did not really exist.

I also won a few Jiffy Pop cards (discs?) from the '80s, of which I previously had none. I have a second, slightly worn Vince Coleman and a Buddy Bell (Reds) from this set that are up for grabs.

Finally, this might be the best card I've pulled off of the site. Tyler Johnson was a key member of the bullpen on the championship 2006 Cardinals club, even though he's shown wielding a bat here. He disappeared almost as quickly as he arrived in a heap of arm problems, but I'll always remember his lefty sidearm slider fondly. This is from the 2003 Finest set. I've also won a few Heritage SPs and that Glaus jersey card that I posted awhile back, and will continue to occasionally chase the under-the-radar hits when I can.

Wild Card game is up next on Friday... at 2:00pm my time... while I'm at work. Shh, no one ruin it for me. I'm going to have to DVR it.