A Chilly December Afternoon PWE Round-Up

 

Good things in small envelopes from @nightowlcardz.bsky.social and more. 

 

It's that stupid season where everyone is trying to sell you something, all the time. I can't seem to manage to get away from the onslaught of emails right now. 25% off this, BOGO that... you know the deal. Fortunately, I have a few envelopes of cards to recap that cost me nothing beyond my ability to (hopefully) be a good blind trading partner once in awhile.

The first batch of cards came from Dodgers fan gcrl (check out cards as i see them when you get a chance), where every day it must feel like Christmas.

I think I've seen this photo of So Taguchi holding up his new jersey at a press conference used on a bunch of cards, which shows how much of an enigma he must have been when he arrived on the scene. While the Ichiro signing a season earlier was certainly noteworthy, I feel like player signings from NPB get a lot more attention these days.

Here's Stan Musial (in refractor form!) from that AI set a couple of years ago. I wonder how long Topps will keep doing these Chrome tributes to sets from the '50s. Well, I suppose there are only so many years in that decade to choose from.

Shelby Miller makes an appearance here in a flashy "red hot foil" second-year parallel card. Luke Weaver's emergence as the Yankees closer down the stretch reminded me a bit of another former top prospect hurler in Miller, who is still kicking around the league, spending last season in Detroit's bullpen. Well, I suppose there are worse places you could be in life.

The bulk of the envelope was comprised of an array of Topps Heritage cards (inserts and one short print) from various years. Giancarlo "Don't Call Me Mike" Stanton's floating head anchors this bunch.

Next up is an all-Cardinals edition PWE from the famous Night Owl. I'll link to his blog, though I'm sure you already have it bookmarked. (If not, what exactly are you doing here?!)

These days, the Topps flagship hobby-exclusive gold parallels usually look better than the serial numbered "gold" parallels you can find in most every configuration. It makes me wish these would just become the regular gold parallels by default, because they (the numbered ones) just look terrible now.

I also like the royal blue parallels quite a bit more than, say, the hard to find purple ones. (Don't get me started on aqua.)

This is my first stamped buyback from the 1975 set... or at least my first one specifically from 2024 Topps Heritage. I'm guessing Night Owl had an extra one of these or something similar, since he's the 1975 guy and all. I know they've done stamped buybacks from this set before, but in what form and product I can't even recall anymore. Sometimes it feels like Topps is the drunk guy who won't stop telling you the same rambling story over and over again.

Here we have a mini 2024 Topps Heritage Kyle Gibson card, along with a shiny foil parallel of Jordan Walker for scale. Seeing Walker's position as "3B OF" on this year's flagship cards makes me ponder if the Cards will ever consider moving him back to third if a Nolan Arenado trade comes to pass. Considering that they've invested a couple of years in teaching him how to play the outfield, I'm guessing they won't, especially considering how baseball organizations do not like to admit to making mistakes. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. (If it sounds like I'm being harsh on Walker, I'm not trying to be. I'm still optimistic about him as a player wherever he ends up.)

I believe this version of Sonny Gray's 1989 tribute insert is from one of those monster box configurations. It has the familiar cracked ice-style pattern on it.

Speaking of patterns, well, guess what? Topps came up with a new refractor pattern! I believe they're calling this ray wave. I actually like these better than the prism (aka "fishfractor") look, but we really probably don't need so many different kinds of these things. All of the different colors are more than enough as it is.

Last up is an all-CFL envelope from buckstorecards. I've received quite a few cards from up north there this year, though it remains to be seen when that might resume again with the Canada Post strike happening now. Unfortunately, I had recently sent out a few PWE's back his way that are probably sitting in an endless pit of undelivered mail for the foreseeable future. Hopefully there's a good place where this stuff is being stored instead of being, I don't know, set ablaze or something.

Of course, all of these CFL cards are of Ducks players like Dakota Prukop. The Austin native is best known for being the starting QB for just part of a season before Justin Herbert took over, but I did get to see him play in person.

Bralon Addison was a speedy received with Oregon for four years, although he was lost for the entirety of their season that saw them land in the national title game. (Let's hope for a better result this season.)

Boseko Lokombo goes all the way back to the Chip Kelly days at Oregon, so it's nice to see he's still kicking around the pros.

A couple of wrappers were included with the envelope, which was a nice surprise because I use these to decorate binders when they feature players I collect. This one features Vernon Adams Jr., who seems to have become something of a star in Canada lately.

A big thanks to everyone who has sent stuff to me lately! If you're interested in an envelope like this, just let me know what you collect and maybe we can work out an exchange.

Not Quite Junk

No junk here. 

It's pretty amusing that Jaybarkerfan's Junk is named the way it is, because I'm pretty sure that no one who has ever received a package from him has ever found anything resembling junk. The SuperTrader founder who has, apparently, temporarily given up on the Atlanta squadron sent along a package that was basically 90% serial-numbered, shiny, gold-plated, etc. Quality.

Before I knew that 2002 Upper Deck Plus was ever a set, I discovered that there are both hobby and retail versions, each serial numbered to a baffling 1125 total. Did Upper Deck decide that there are exactly 2250 baseball card fans out in the world?

David Freese has a lot of baseball cards commensurate to the grand total of his contributions on the field in his MLB career, but he earned them. He really did. For a period of time where things really count the most, he was a monster on the field.

HELLO, I AM RANDAL WITH ONE L! I AM ON A BASEBALL CARD! HOW ARE YOU?!

This is our second Mullinax appearance in as many months on this blog, which is exciting business!

Stephen Piscotty, professional hitter.

I received a trio of these fancy blue 2005 Donruss Craftsmen Rolen cards, all numbered to 2000. As I've mentioned a few times, serial numbered cards are something I'll never consider a true duplicate, so... basically I'm a Cardinals hoarder.

As I'm edging closer to my return to Safeco Field to watch the Cardinals, here's another So Taguchi card from his MLB rookie season. It'll be the first time since So's debut that I've seen the Cardinals in person on the west coast.

Finally, here's a Yadi card that will be added to Erin's collection. It's a ghostly card. It's a card of dubious distinction. Panini is trying to call this a "test proof", but I'm pretty sure they weren't testing anything other than their gold plated stamp machine when they decided to crank out 49 of these.

Giant Trade

A huge box of goodies arrived in my mailbox earlier this month from ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession. While I had promised to send him "all of the Giants" or something close to that, I think I fell a bit short on my end. I'm still hopeful he found some of the stuff useful, as it was doing me no good to hang on to it.

This was the first pure Cardinals package I'd received in quite awhile. I am always working on various sets and sometimes I get cards from said sets, but with this trade I saw nothing but dudes on my favorite team. Not bad.

I may have got an entire team set of this 2002 Donruss Fan Club "Best Of" set. I had never seen these before, and they are the exact kind of card that doesn't scan well at all.

Who knew that Pete Kozma would suddenly become the Cardinals every day shortstop? I'm sure Jeff Luhnow was thinking that was a real possibility back in 2007 when he was drafted, but Luhnow is in Houston and Kozma hasn't proven to be very effective at anything in the minors. Yet, somehow Ryan Jackson's backup in Memphis this season is starting everyday in place of Furcal even with Jackson on the big league roster. He's getting some hits, too.

I don't really go for the unlicensed MLB-ish stuff, which is why you won't see Goodwin Champions on my want list any longer in the post-licensed era of Upper Deck. However, that doesn't mean I don't like to get these in trades. I just consider them oddballs in a way.

Go crazy folks! This isn't just a garden variety Ozzie mini, it's a Gypsy Queen back. You'll, er, have to trust me on that one.

Here's a much needed varation of the Colby Rasmus Topps 206 rookie card where he tries not to look too interested in much of anything.

They didn't leave much space for a photo on this card.

I got a pair of Bowman flashback style Shelby Miller cards. Miller was called up late in the season and so far has played the role of a low leverage reliever and potential long man.

Miller had a really rough first half to his season but seemed to straighten things out later in the summer. Hopefully he will be a staple in the rotation for years to come.

I don't think I have any of these white serial numbered parallels from the 2008 Opening Day set. I couldn't have even told you what they looked like before I received this card. It's kind of weird seeing the 2008 base design without the circles.

I actually liked the Topps Unique set, which made its lone appearance in 2009. I did have a bit of luck with it in a group break once upon a time, so there's that.

Here's one of those Yer Mom cards that I didn't already have. I'm actually still missing a ton of these, which is sad for a 2010 Topps product.

Finally, there were some nice bat cards in the box. Bat cards are still worth something, right? Or has everyone lost confidence in their authenticity as well? Personally, I always found bat carts to be a bit more fun as they seem to be a little more scarce.

There was also a pair of 2004 Bazooka Blasts bat cards, this one featuring Scott Rolen. I think it's awesome that Rolen is still in the league. I just wish he didn't play for those dreaded Reds.

So Taguchi retired from professional baseball this year at the end of July at age 43. I can always say that I his first MLB game in person, even though the game itself was very forgettable and So's presence in the lineup meant that I was denied seeing Jim Edmonds on the field. (I never got to see Edmonds play unless you count minor league games that occurred before I really knew who he was.)

The Quest For Jamie Moyer

I have a mission, and it starts with Jamie Moyer. Yes, that's right, Jamie Moyer, the quintessential soft-tossing lefty. He's 45 years old and still going strong, with numbers that are probably better than 2 or 3 of the starters in the rotation of your favorite team. It seems like he's led several lives throughout his career. He came up as a stuggling Cub of the 80s, was out of the big leagues by 1992, only to be reborn as an all-star and two-time 20-game winner in the early 2000s. He's now a rock-solid member of the Phillies rotation.

Jamie Moyer was also a Cardinal at one point, as evidenced by the blurry, Beckett-pilfered 1991 Bowman card photo above. I would have been in high school at the time and in the prime of my card-collecting days, but until sometime last season I had no recollection of him ever being on the team. I also did not have any cards of him in Cardinals uniform, which is the most important thing of all. From a look at Beckett's checklist, it appears he is only depicted in a Cards' uni in the 1991 Stadium Club set as well as the aforementioned Bowman of the same year. There also appears to be a 1991 O-Pee-Chee "Now With Cardinals" card where they took the same card as Topps, as per usual, and most likely added his new team status as a footnote in the corner somewhere on the front. I also need to own this card. He also appears to have made it into the 1991 Lousiville Redbirds team set. He would be released by the end of the year, having spent a good portion of it in AAA, not to return to the majors (for good) until 1993.

Moyer also was the starting pitcher for Seattle in the first Cardinals game I ever attended, a 10-0 trouncing of the Redbirds at Safeco Field. It would be notable for being So Taguchi's major league debut and not much else. But he isn't really the mission here. What I really am looking for is to accumulate as many unique Cardinals baseball cards as cheaply as possible. But it's best to start small and break things down into small, attainable goals, isn't it?