All the Series 2 Cardinals

It's a #CrackinWaxMailday with a case-load full of Cardinals from @CrackinWax to pore over. 

Occasionally it pays to think ahead. Since I've stopped buying the Topps flagship product in recent years, collecting the Cardinals stuff from these sets (still a priority) can become a bit of an afterthought. This is one of those rare times that I planned things out in advance, as I bought into a case break over at Crackin' Wax. I think I did pretty well for myself.

Of course, there are base cards. Many, many base cards. I believe I ended up with eleven total team sets. Fortunately, I should be able to dump a few of these on Listia, but if anyone here is interested in one, let me know. I do still need two cards from the (neglected) Series 1 team sets, plus a whole lot of inserts and special stuff.

This time around, there's only one player in the mix that's no longer with the team. We'll get to him in a moment. We also get a team card, some rookies and a rare Greg Garcia card. Seriously rare. This is his fifth season with the big league club and it's just his first Topps card. He also appeared in Bowman products in 2010.

Alex Mejia saw a bit of action late last year, but he's off the 40-man roster and back in the minors with the Cardinals organization. These are his rainbow foil and gold parallels.

It's an SP! I didn't know they were putting "legend" SPs into this set, so this was a nice surprise.

I still need a bunch of the "Topps Salute" cards from Series 1. In fact, I think this might be my first look at this design.

Carlos Martinez was well-represented, with his rainbow foil and vintage stock (numbered to 99!) parallels. The vintage stock card might be my favorite of the whole break. I wish the whole set could be like these. Only, you know, not so rare.

Paul DeJong should be back soon. Hopefully! This whole season feels like it's teetering on the brink of disaster.

Jack Flaherty has looked really good at times. The rotation appears to be pretty set for the future, at least, if the club doesn't end up making any significant moves.

Rainbow and gold Cafecito.

Here's the rainbow Matt Carpenter version.

Today's game seems to be steering back to homers! homers! HOMERS! This card just seems appropriate all of a sudden.

The tribute to the 1983 set continues with these All-Star inserts. I love new Ozzie cards!

Speaking of which, this is super awesome. I have one of these warm-ups (#1, of course) in my closet that I break out for special occasions.

This one had me stumped for a bit, because it's from the "silver pack" promotion. In Series 1, each of these had some fancy pattern on the card. Oh well, so much for continuity!

Great shot of Tommy Pham up against the Wrigley Field ivy. As much as I dislike the Cubs, every good outfield needs a photo like this on a card.

This is my first, er, negative photo parallel. I know these are hobby only, but I don't remember how rare they are.

This is another SP. This time, it's a photo variation.

Here's a Topps Salute card of Tommy Pham in his "Players Weekend" jersey. I feel like this was so hyped last season that it's probably coming back this season.

My collection is sagging under the weight of all of the different Pujols cards that I own, and Topps keeps finding ways to print them up in his old uniform.

I don't "PC" this guy, but I think he's up to #2 or #3 in total unique cards owned in my collection. Yikes.

Are these photos from the actual game they are commemorating? Of course they aren't.

The Pujols parade is over, and there's a new Sherriff in town. And that's the last time I ever make a Ryan Sherriff joke.

As mentioned earlier, Breyvic Valera is the lone Cardinal no longer with the organization that's in the base set. He was flipped to the Dodgers in a roster space crunch move right at the start of the season. Once again, these are the rainbow and gold versions, respectively.

At 15 seasons in the league, Yadi might just be a little tired of posing for dorky photos.

I also snagged Molina's gold parallel. I miss the old gold parallels, as I pretty much say every year now.

Apparently there was only one autograph pulled in the whole case (what?!), but I was lucky enough to snag two game used memorabilia cards. Here's DeJong in his former uniform number, which now belongs once again to Jose Oquendo.

And this is a black parallel (check the serial number!) of a Luke Weaver jersey card. Because everything needs parallels.

Feel free to hit me up if you have any 2018 Topps Cardinals stuff not pictured here. The want list will be updated shortly.