Straight Dimes

Some cards from a fellow dime box bargain hunter.

Nick from Dime Boxes and I share similar collecting interests, in that we both enjoy a good bargain. Were my collecting interests a little more broad, I could see myself even naming my blog after something similar. I think we both know the pain of being hunched over cardboard boxes full of stuff all afternoon at a card show... either that, or I am just getting old and should probably get my back checked out.

Nick sent over a variety of cards in exchange for a pile of Adam Wainwright cards featured on one of my Cardinalpalooza trade bait posts. (There are still plenty of those Cardinals extras available, by the way.) He hit on a bunch of oddball type cards that I didn't have a lot of, including some of the recent unlicensed Panini stuff and a small stack of 1992 O-Pee-Chee. I'm a huge fan of O-Pee-Chee stuff, but never had occasion to open any packs from the 1992 set. I seem to remember card shops around here not carrying plain old OPC anymore after O-Pee-Chee Premier was launched.

This isn't an oddball, but it's a mini and I can always use lots of those. One for me (the binders) and one for the set (just, uh, one binder.)

My scanner is doing funny things to borders of cards these days. I've owned it for 5 years now (not quite as long as the blog) and it probably should get replaced someday. I don't think I can afford that kind of expense for awhile, though. I tend to run technology into the ground before I get something new. Speaking of run into the ground, Tim McCarver completed his final game as lead FOX MLB analyst at the conclusion of the World Series. It's not accurate to say that he retired from broadcasting, however. If you're a fan of his work in the booth (I'm not) then you might be happy to hear that he's joined up with FOX Sports Midwest to be an analyst for a number of Cardinals broadcasts. I guess I'm never going to be rid of the guy. I'm guessing it won't be quite so bad, though, as Joe Buck used to do play by play for Cardinals broadcasts and was actually quite hilarious. The national broadcasts can be painful to listen to, though.

Here's another one of those recent Panini products in the form of 2013 Cooperstown.

And this looks like it must be the 2012 Panini Cooperstown set. I do really like it when people send me these kinds of cards because there's no way I'm ever going out and buying them myself.

It's a little known fact, but Fernando Valenzuela went out on top -- in St. Louis! I completely missed out on this little slice of Fernandomania in an odd year for the Cardinals. Phil Plantier came over in the trade that brought Fernando to town. (Phil Plantier was a Cardinal? That's something I'm never going to remember unless someone has a baseball card showing him as one.) It was also the year that Big Mac came to town.

Nick was kind enough to also send over some set needs. I'm doing well on the 2003 Topps set now, having completed all of Series 2. I do need 21 more cards from Series 1 and a whole slew of Traded cards. I should buy myself a box of the traded stuff, but I think they included Chrome cards which drives the price up.

Finally, I also received some cards for Erin's PCs. I don't imagine there are a ton of Figgy collectors out there considering how his career turned up post-Anaheim, but his cards are welcome here.

This Week in Small Deals

Some cards from some guys who like to send me cards.

It's another installment of my latest dealings in plain white envelope trades and other single card deals! Huzzah! First off, I'll start with some cards that The Junior Junkie sent. I love getting random envelopes out of the blue, and this one was certainly random.

I have a number of hand-signed cards that other collector's have sent me over the years. I can't verify their authenticity, and I'm guessing in many cases that neither can the person who traded it to me. (If you got something signed in person, you'd probably keep it, right?) But I like to think of myself as an optimist on my good days and treat these cards like I would any so-called certified autograph and slap them into a top loader for safe keeping. I actually didn't have this card from the 1982 Topps Traded set (I only have the expensive Ozzie Smith card) so this is a nice reminder that I should track down a fresh copy for my binders.

Here's Joe Torre, looking a wee bit creepy.

2011 Topps Lineage was an interesting product in hindsight. I don't remember it getting much buzz when it was coming out, but it now seems like the testing grounds for a couple of recently established trends. You see a lot of the stuff they did with this set in the past two Topps Archives sets, and these '75-style minis carried on as a base set insert, paying homage to other years' sets.

Longtime friend of the blog Thoughts and Sox dropped this shiny surprise on me. It's a brilliant serial numbered refractor from the dearly missed All-Time Fan Favorites set. I love it.

Finally, a few of you seem to have noticed my random outburst about NFL Football on Superb Owl Sunday. I became an Eagles fan in the Tecmo Super Bowl era (high school) and still follow the team, though I more or less shunned them when Michael Vick was behind center. Scott Crawford had some tantalizing '80s football trade bait on his blog and I just had to own this Reggie White rookie card. I bought my first packs in 1986 when I was 10 years old, and they were nearly always baseball. I did talk myself into a few football packs and those cards, like the baseball ones from those days, were pretty dog-eared. Even though I seem to remember loving the design, I didn't know nearly enough about the NFL back then to buy more than a few. I'm sure they would have ended up with rounded corners and random blotches on them anyway.

More 2014 Trade Bait

My first blaster of the year resulted in some good trade pieces.

A good number of you contacted me about my 2014 Topps post on Tuesday. I will get back to everyone after I'm done with this in case there are more cards that you all are looking for. In addition to the usual 5 packs, I also picked up a blaster. As usually, I'm game for trading anything in the box that doesn't fit in my Cardinals collection.

I like the rookie reprint patch cards a little better than the other manupatches, but I noticed that there are no Cardinals on the checklist this time around. I was hoping to pull one of the other patches (Allen Craig or Adam Wainwright?) but landed this Robin Yount rookie reprint instead. It's not bad. I'm sure it would make someone happy.

Awkward draft photos!

Here's my first "red hot foil" card, but my scanner makes it look a little closer to last year's pink parallels. This is probably the same color as a Jolly Rancher flavor, maybe watermelon?

Hammerin' Hank.

This is a nice follow-up to last year's amazing Jon Jay card. By the way, is anyone else sick of The Topps Font? This is the third time they've used some version of this font for player names in the past five years.

More Class.

I trashed on '89 Topps in my early post (and some comments elsewhere). I don't think the die cut minis themselves actually look that bad. I just don't really have any desire to remember 1989 Topps. I would love to see '81 Topps minis, though.

Is Puig the Justin Bieber of baseball? (I'm not totally joking!)

I already entered my code, guys, and I didn't win anything. The card is still available, though.

If the future is indeed Now, that sounds good to me. But apparently the future was not in the playoffs, because Shelby was nowhere to be seen. He was on the roster, sure, but there was just a cardboard cutout of his likeness propped up in the bullpen for the bullpen catcher to keep an eye on for some reason.

Another shocking pink foil.

Are there any Extreme Pitching Face collectors out there? I know some of you are into some pretty weird stuff, like turning double plays and all.

Since this was a Target box, I pulled a bunch of these red parallels - 20 in all. I'll list them here:

314 - Hanley Ramirez
315 - Jose Quintana
154 - Chris Iannetta
125 - Joe Mauer
272 - Carlos Villanueva
196 - Cole Hamels
258 - Jon Lester
10 - Junior Lake
289 - Matt Thornton
102 - Matt Lindstrom
141 - Chris Tillman
251 - Sergio Romo
18 - Jurickson Profar
297 - Max Scherzer
327 - Pablo Sandoval
214 - James Shields
79 - Garrett Jones
186 - Onelki Garcia
199 - Matt Davidson
316 - Mike Minor

Blazers from a Raptors Fan

And if you're patient, maybe even a baseball card...

Buckstore Cards is one of the few Basketball Card Club members that has responded in kind with some great Blazers cards, and this package was no exception. Portland is trying to right the ship after struggling lately following a hot start to the season. They will certainly be able to make good use of the All-Star Break, though Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge will be participating in the festivities.

This appears to be some sort of 5th anniversary NBA Hoops parallel if I'm not mistaken. I think I have a few cards from this set and I don't recall any of them having this gold stamp. It's nice. Harvey Grant was a bit disappointing in his stint with the Blazers, but it probably wasn't fair to him that he was one of the first significant pieces acquired after they began dismantling the core of the team that had multiple Finals appearances in the early '90s.

Ah, Prizm, the wannabe Chrome set. I must say that it does look a lot better when they actually have a license for this particular sport. J.J. Hickson was a stat machine in his time with the Blazers, but the team is clearly better off with a true center in the post in Robin Lopez, even though he won't wow anyone with his stat line most nights.

There were two really nice Blazers "hits" in this deal, which is nice because I'm sorely lacking in that department. Aldridge is having what is far and away his finest season, as he finally gets to play alongside a true legit center for the first time since the Greg Oden debacle.

Here's a guy that didn't work out. Elliot Williams had some Odenesque luck with his own health. He showed some flash in a couple dozen games in a Blazers uniform but has now moved on to the Sixers bench.

I said you'd get to see a baseball card if you were patient, and I did not disappoint! This is my first pink baseball card of any kind, unless you count the infamous Mike Laga 1987 Topps. Thanks again to Sportscards From the Dollar Store!

5 on the 5: 2014 Topps Series 1 (Target)

Just 5 packs, like the old days.

For the 7th consecutive year (and 11th out of the past 12th), Topps has issued a white bordered glossy design for its flagship set. I can't say that I will be collecting this set, but like many others, I will probably buy my fair share of packs to look at things that are shiny and new. In the process, I'll work towards finding things for my Cardinals binders and acquiring bits of trade bait. Here are the first five packs that I picked up, all from Target.

Pack 1:

99 - Melky Cabrera - Here's my first card of 2014. I scanned it crooked, just like Melky.

15 - Paul Goldschmidt - So the big change to the still-sideways card backs this year is that Topps has gone and added WAR to the stat line. I'm a fan of the stat and am always interested in advanced stats, but I have to say that it's a bit of a curious step for them. Whose WAR is it, anyway? There is still no uniform formula for it, and while there are some popular ones out there (the one Baseball-Reference.com uses, Fangraphs, etc) it's not clear to me what formula Topps is using. The first player I looked up (Mike Minor) seemed to match B-Ref's numbers, but Goldie has a 7.0 WAR for 2013 on the back of his card. The website says 7.1. Hmm. At any rate, it's still fun because you can see just how terrible of a player Ryan Howard really is, juxtaposed with all of the allocades he (used to) gets.
116 - Hiroki Kuroda
261 - Michael Brantley
192 - Pedro Alvarez

UC-22 - Matt Cain Upper Class - Classy. This is a good time to remind you that pretty much everything in this post is up for grabs aside from the Cardinals cards.

101 - Chris Nelson Target Red - Exclusive Target red parallels are back! Exclusive Target... okay, yeah, not so exciting.
238 - Alberto Callaspo
216 - Ubaldo Jimenez
26 - Josh Phegley - I expect the players I've never heard of to come with RC logos, but this isn't always the case.

181 - Jim Henderson - First Rookie Cup of the year. This is one of those unis that should only be brought out once or twice a year.
30 - Mark Buehrle

Pack 2:
235 - Jason Kipnis

25 - Troy Tulowitzki - This is one of Erin's guys.

157 - Matt Adams - First Cardinal! Nice! Adams had a nice year last year as the Rookie Cup shows, but I'm not quite convinced he's an everyday player. Yet.
104 - Kurt Suzuki
38 - NL Home Run Leaders Alvarez, Goldschmidt, Bruce

FN-5 - Jurickson Profar The Future Is Now - Jurk for short? His card made me think I actually won something for a second.
260 - Zoilo Almonte
3 - Jarrod Dyson
310 - Neftali Feliz
81 - Anibal Sanchez
280 - Everth Cabrera - Time to scan the back of the card to see if there's any mention of his drug suspension last year... nope. Good job, only and only licensee of the MLB!

171 - Trevor Rosenthal - Bad things seem to happen to anointed Cardinals closers, so let's cross our fingers for Rosie here.

Pack 3:
208 - Dayan Viciedo
324 - Elvis Andrus
142 - Zack Greinke
274 - Jonny Gomes
42 - Mariano Rivera

TM-32 - Chris Davis '89 Mini - This one is creased all the way through the middle, just like a lot of crappy '80s cards. Seriously, who was the genius that decided to pay tribute to the design of one of the crappiest sets that ever crapped?
151 - Bruce Chen
1 - Mike Trout
176 - Alex Cobb
275 - Nolan Arenado
303 - Andres Torres

169 - Nick Franklin - Night Owl had a nice write-up about the history of Topps Future Stars today.

Pack 4:
51 - Kyle Lohse
105 - Ryan Howard
320 - Hector Santiago
98 - Edwin Encarnacion
253 - Todd Helton Highlights Checklist
193 - Ricky Nolasco

SV-7 - Carlos Beltran Super Veteran - This is my (admittedly early) favorite insert. It's a throwback to 1983 Topps among others.

 

273 - Mark DeRosa - And then sometimes you get Mark DeRosa catching a football.
87 - Tyson Ross
40 - Hyun-Jin Ryu
144 - Joakim Soria
311 - Chris Young

Pack 5:
300 - Yu Darvish
70 - Marcell Ozuna
239 - Jeff Samardzija
47 - Chris Davis Highlights Checklist
218 - Matt Dominguez

SV-13 - CC Sabathia Super Veteran
296 - Domonic Brown
243 - Ryan Cook
69 - Jhoulys Chacin
167 - Jeremy Guthrie
11 - Mike Carp
137 - Boone Logan

My Cardinals wants for 2014 should be up to date by the time you read this. Now excuse me while I go look for stupid sparkles on my baseball cards.

Football!

Got any Eagles cards? I might want 'em.

I've been an NFL fan in limbo for the past several years, held hostage by the repugnant Michael Vick era as a so-called Eagles fan. Now that it seems like Vick is mostly behind us, I decided I'm finally free to accept Eagles cards in my life.

I'll add the them to my wants formally in the coming days, but the lowdown is this: I'm fine with any Eagles cards you have to trade EXCEPT Vick. Most of my NFL cards are from 1990-1991, though, so if you send me any 1990 Pro Set Andre Waters cards I might just kill you. (Those sets had really great photography, however. It helped being the official card of NFL Properties and having access to all of those vaults.)

Enjoy the game, folks. Go Seahawks!