So Many Cardinals

Another big variety bundle of things from @batcavelv brings the numbers closer to 20,000. 

I am approaching 20,000 unique Cardinals cards in my collection. This is a very cool but also very scary situation. My biggest concern right now is storage space, of course. I am worried that when I get through sorting all of the boxes of cards that I have added to my collection over the past couple of years, I'm going to need to add about eight to ten binders to my shelf.

My shelf has been out of room for years, you see.

The latest culprit is the always generous Tracy's Box Breaks, who regularly hosts extremely affordable and variety-packed box breaks. I hear that there's another one coming up shortly

This recent break included some 2019 Topps Total cards. Any chance to snag something from the usually eyeroll-inducing Topps On Demand group is something worth pouncing on, however. I added four of these cards to my collection, but I'm most excited for my first ever Tyler Webb card. This is fully in the spirit of the original Topps Total concept, spotlighting a relatively unknown reliever. I just wish there were stats on the back.

On the opposite end of the spectrum of notoriety is the legendary Dizzy Dean, on a 150 Years parallel of his 150 Greatest Seasons insert. It's numbered to 150, of course!

I've added a ton of minor league cards to my collection in the past year or so. Apparently, finally putting together that want list has really paid off. This trio of would-be Cardinals from the 2007 Just Rookie set doesn't completely fit in the "minor league" classification since the parent club team name is featured on the front, but these still look minor to me.

I've also added quite a few mid-'00s Donruss cards of late, and a lot of them look really nice. This one looks nice!

And then there's this... thing... which could only have come from the minds at Pacific. Still, I would overpay for a box of Pacific almost anything right now. 

Here's a young Cardinals hurler on one of those classy framed parallels from the 2019 Panini Diamond Kings set.

I always appreciate getting cards that are older than me, but it's even better when said card is of a Cardinals legend like Red here.

Lastly, I believe this Enos Slaughter card from 2018 increased my total Sport Kings collection by about 25%. You don't see these cards every day... or generally ever.

A Box That Rocks

An assist from @INeedNewHobbies turns Goodwill finds into cardboard gold. 

I was able to turn a couple of separate Goodwill purchases last year into productive trades, the largest of which was worked out with I Need New Hobbies. A box showed up at Cards on Cards central that was chock full of baseball (and football) goodness, with a sprinkling of hoops thrown in. It can be a bit intimidating to select cards to scan and post about when getting such a large assortment of cards at once, but I managed to pick a few choice cards for the cut.

With a product that features choice samples of player worn memorabilia (it's even in the brand name!), it's easy to overlook the base cards and parallels of said base cards. For all of the different things I've seen written about Topps Triple Threads over the years (a lot of it is pretty negative), the base design gets lost in the shuffle. I usually like it. These two cards from 2010 are no exception.

A non-Cardinal Jim Edmonds card was added to my collection. Before Jimmy became an MVP threat in St. Louis, he was starting to put up pretty good numbers in Anaheim. Now he's one of the stable of rotating commentators on Cardinals TV broadcasts.

Scott found a ton of weird 1997 Donruss Limited parallels to send me, including this Brian Jordan card (not pictured: Jose Guillen). Normally, the "Limited Exposure" parallels would have a shiny refractor-like finish, but they apparently forgot (?) to do this on a certain grouping of these.

Another (former?) Cardinals commentator here in a 1975 Mad Hungarian card. Al might be retired from the game broadcasts, although I hear he pops up in the studio from time to time. I don't live in the Cardinals broadcast area, so I have to rely on MLB.TV and no actual local programming.

I was just mentioning my love for framed cards the other day to Erin, so it was fun to rediscover this card from the 2003 Donruss Diamond Kings set when I was choosing what to scan. If Topps is going to do any more "art" cards, they really need to consider contacting the guys who used to work for Donruss way back when.

Here's a much younger Albert Pujols in a bit of an unfamiliar position on a card -- baserunning.

As I talk about things I love again for the millionth time, have I mentioned lately how much I love the Fleer/Flair "Greats of the Game" cards? If I could go back in card collecting time (or suddenly become wealthy), it would be really fun to explore these sets that used to heavily feature retired players.

You can't really read the name so well, but this was another great get -- a Kolten Wong rookie refractor. Well, technically it's a "1st Bowman Card", although technically it isn't even that. He was featured as a Team USA member on a previous year's card.

Basketball time! Petteri Koponen was acquired by then-GM Kevin Pritchard during the 2007 NBA Draft (the Oden Draft), but never came over. He's only 31 now and was last seen playing for Bayern Munich (the hoops team?!) according to the always interesting Wikipedia.

Shiny Sheed!

A ton of Eagles cards were also included, several of which were 2008 Topps featuring weird uniforms that all looked like this. I'm guessing this was some sort of throwback they wore in a game back then, but I suppose it also could be a parallel? There isn't a whole lot happening on the field behind Westbrook there, which makes me wonder if this was even from a real game.

DeSean Jackson is back with Philly, which I have mixed feelings about. I wasn't a fan of his at Cal, and I'll never forget his splashy debut with the Eagles where he dropped the ball in celebration prior to entering the end zone on a would-be touchdown, a classic bonehead move. Hopefully he's less of a bonehead now?

Speaking of boneheads... well, this is an interesting insert design from the 2001 Topps Heritage set. I actually really liked McNabb as a player, but he has not impressed me in his post-playing days.

Ahhhhh yes. Action Packed... classic Eagles uniform... Randall! It's tough to get any better than this.

Did anyone ever get these cards signed? I feel like that white space is such a waste of an opportunity.

More #12. This is a wild, shiny Topps insert that makes it look like Cunningham is busting out of some kind of rainstorm.

The pièce de résistance, however, was this Big Mac gold thing. I am not entirely sure what to do with it, so it might end up on the wall near or between some of my unopened Starting Lineup figures for now.

Thanks again to Scott for this huge exchange of cards and such!

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.