Lenticulartastic!

My first trade with Scott Crawford on Cards went off without a hitch, and I'm still here to tell about it. Scott claimed some "Up For Grabs" Reggie Jackson cards and a bunch of cards from the 2012 Topps Archives set. Meanwhile, I helped myself to some Cardinals and a few other goodies. (By the way, I had to put the whole "Up For Grabs" thing on hold for a little bit as I was having a hard time keeping up with trades, but it will be back very soon.)

Scott sent me a bunch of bling, 1992 style, in the form of some Gold Winners. I don't think the term "bling" was a thing back then, but let's just say that Juan Agosto is looking pretty fly, dope, and phat. Phat indeed.

I believe this was a hobby shop promotion that was a cross-promotion involving the MLB Network. I don't get to hobby shops too often as they're strangely even less convenient than card shows around here, so I usually miss out on all of the hobby exclusives. This is a fantastic looking card of the former Cardinal great.

The contributions of Allen Craig (and Lance Berkman for that matter) are greatly overlooked in all of the other amazing things that happened during the 2011 World Series. Also, I love gold parallels and serial numbered cards. Have I mentioned that lately?

Scott dropped in a couple of lenticulartastic Opening Day Stars inserts from a couple of years ago. I am collecting all of these inserts and am glad to see that Topps brought them back for a third straight year. I did some work on the sidebar to my want lists recently, which consolidates some of the sets into sub-pages. Things look more tidy, and it also makes me feel like I'm not trying to put together 45 sets at once. Because I'm not. I swear!

Trading with Jon from Community Gum

I can always appreciate a trader with a well-organized want list. I completed a trade with Jon from Community Gum, one of the best sports cards blogs in the business, and suggest that you go on over there and check out said want list. I'm quite certain that I will be making a return trip.

For my part, I got a bunch of needs from sets I've been working on. I thought collecting all of the Black retail inserts from 2011 Heritage would be nearly impossible considering how quickly the jumbo packs disappeared from the big box store racks. However, I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that no one likes these cards but me.

I seem to be a huge sucker for anything that is Sportflics-esque these days. Maybe someday when I feel better about the progress I've made on other more serious efforts I'll go back and take a look at collecting actual Sportflics.

This is still my favorite Heritage set and Topps design. When you throw the High Numbers and variations on the pile, it also becomes the daunting. I will be working on this until I reach the grave.

I'm no down to needing just 8 base cards, 8 sketch cards and the Albert Pujols National Pride card to bring my 2009 Allen & Ginter experience to a close. Well, that's not to say it will be a complete close. After all, there are the endless amounts of minis to look forward to.

I usually like posting these sketch cards to make fun of how they look, but I've seen worse than this. I'm not sure I can vouch for the whereabouts of Randy's right arm, however.

It seems like Sheff retired 10 years ago to me for some reason. This 2009 Heritage high numbered short print seems to say otherwise.

As is often the case around here, a good group of Cardinals made their way into the deal. What is this "Big League Challenge" that is being commemorated here? Was someone too cheap to own the rights to the name Home Run Derby? Come on, Donruss, fess up... er... I guess there is no Donruss anymore.

Minis are always appreciated. Cardinals minis, doubly so.

2011 Topps Opening Day Stars

Want List:

ODS-8 Joey Votto

[updated 1/31/15]