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The Last Trade Stack of 2017

Happy new year? 

We've already seen some more sets released in 2018, so it's high time I get caught up with trades and other things from the previous year. Here's a leftover bundle I received in person from Gavin before I escaped Portland for the holidays, the highlight of which was this awesome low numbered copper parallel of ex-Blazer Allen Crabbe. It's a Panini card, of course, but it still looks awfully similar to Topps's X-Fractor (or is that xfractor?) design.

Panini isn't throwing fake snowflakes on cards... yet, anyway. I am still missing a lot of these Topps Holiday cards from the past two years, but they are a Walmart concoction so it makes sense.

One of the nice stories of Spring Training 2018 has been the return of Jason Motte in a Cardinals uniform. He's in camp on a minor league deal, but is gunning for a major league spot. That would be a cool story, indeed. I never get tired of seeing him celebrate with Yadi and the rest of the 2011 team.

Michael Wacha seems to be in line for a rotation spot, despite some outside speculation that he could be better utilized in a bullpen role.

There's a new Donruss set on the shelves, or so I hear. Following in line with the previous two sets paying tribute to 1982 and 1983 designs, this year has a pretty decent looking 1984 homage. This, of course, is the Yadi '82 tribute card. There's now a copy for Erin and a copy for me, which is nice.

March Radness Reminder!

There are multiple blasters to win! Participate! 

March Radness X (as in tenth, but also EXTREME) is nearly upon us. Fill out a bracket and you might win some baseball cards.

Happy Thigh-Day!

Want List Unlocked

Is anyone putting together 2018 Topps Heritage? 

I got an early start on my want list for this year's Topps Heritage set, which means my want list is nearly the whole set. I think that's okay, though. It's always good to know what you're taking on.

Out of the five short printed cards that I've pulled so far, two of them were dupes. This really shouldn't happen when there's one hundred of them out there, but such is life. This awkward pair is up for grabs for anyone who is trying to put this thing together.

Cardinals and Ducks, Ducks and Cardinals

Both are birds. 

Well, we're well into March and I'm still cleaning up last year's mess. Dennis from Too Many Verlanders / Manninghams has been sending me great stuff for years, and I'm always excited about what he sends. What I'm not always excited about is scanning cards, but you know the drill.

Dion Jordan came back last season to play his first meaningful football in a really long time. He's had a lot of off-field battles to get back to football. While he's likely never going to live up to his lofty draft selection (3rd overall), I'm excited about his future. (Also, these triangular quasi-3D cards are weird. If it was orange, it would almost be a traffic cone!

I'm a hypocrite. I'm always leading the call for preserving the sanctity of old card designs and card stock, and I think things like the Topps Heritage Chrome parallels are pointless and unnecessary. And yet, why do Topps Archives Reserve cards look so good to me?

Fleer/Flair Showcase was one of those fancy multi-tiered products, and as you can see by the serial number, this isn't your run of the mill base card. (The base cards generally look great, too.)

Speaking of shiny and fancy, this is a refractor parallel of a Haloti Ngata rookie year card that I already owned. I mean, I didn't own this particular card, just the non-refractor version of it. Now I have the shiny version. Clear? Good.

As I continue to catalog my entire Cardinals collection on TCDB, I am starting to realize that I will probably end up with more Pujols cards than any other player. I was already disappointed in Mark McGwire's status as the (temporary) No. 1 in my collection, but now that I realize I think I have enough unique Pujols cards to fill an entire standard binder without even going through all of the fancy/serial-numbered/whatever cards of his in shoeboxes, I am betting that he's going to end up on top over Ozzie. And yet, I've never really made much of an effort to collect him. In any case, this is just a simple base card but it filled a need. I just can't wait until I have two dedicated Albert Pujols binders...

March Radness: The 10th Anniversary

Celebrating ten years of March Radness with the biggest contest yet. #MarchRadness 

For the tenth year (seriously?!) of this contest, I am going to step it up a bit with the prizes. If you've participated before, you know the drill. Fill out a bracket, compete with others, and maybe win a prize. If you've never played before, it's as easy as logging into a corporately-owned website and filling out a bracket!

This shindig is open to all Cards on Cards readers, lurkers, and friends of friends. It's conference tournament week, so there are still games to be played before the field is set, but you can sign up whenever you like. Selection Sunday is a week from tonight, and the games that count for the contest begin on March 15th.

One of the requirements is having an ESPN account. ESPN should hopefully not ask you for any invasive information as part of the conditions for signing up. If they do, please tell me immediately and I'll consider other options. If you absolutely, positively refuse to sign up for one of those things, go ahead and send me your bracket before the deadline in some sort of legible form and I'll send you a prize if you manage to pick a lot of winners.

ESPN's default scoring rules apply. "Play-in" games (i.e. the games before the first Thursday of the tournament) do not count. Should you choose one of the play-in winners to advance in the real part of the tournament, not only do you do so at your own peril but you also have the advantage of showing success no matter which play-in team makes it in. PLEASE make sure you fill out the entire bracket, including the tie-breaking final score of the final game. I hate to disqualify people for not filling everything out, but it seems to happen every year. 

Along with bragging rights, the first prize winner will receive a 2018 Topps Heritage, 2018 Topps Gypsy Queen or 2018 Panini Diamond Kings baseball retail blaster box (your choice! *subject to availability because Ohtani-mania) AND a second baseball blaster of my choosing. Three runners-up (runner-ups?) will receive prize packs for their MLB or NBA team of their choice including no less than one certified autograph or memorabilia card (or both?!). A random, valid bracket will also be awarded a baseball blaster of my choosing. Worst place will receive something truly terrible. You will close your mailbox for good and leave no forwarding address. 

If you'd like to participate, click here and click on the "Create a Bracket Now!" button (password = marchradness). The deadline is the morning prior to the first real (non play-in) tournament game on Thursday, March 15th, though I would suggest getting your bracket done by the night before just to be safe. Leave a comment here or send me an email if the invite link doesn't work or if you are otherwise having trouble joining up so I can send you a direct invitation. 

Don't forget to pick the tiebreaker score for the final game!

Doing This Heritage Thing Again

Baseball Card Partying like it's 1969. 

Topps Heritage has landed, which means it's a new baseball card year for me, now that I'm trying my best to ignore the flagship set. I was a little hesitant to dive right in this year, as Ohtani-mania is threatening to devour everything in its path. Topps was apparently willing to bend the rules as far as they can possibly go to include the Angels new international signee into this set, despite not yet achieving official "RC" status. Personally, I will continue to be skeptical of any player until he's actually accrued some MLB time.

I haven't been able to find any blasters yet, but I did pick up two hanger packs and a (retail) jumbo pack. Let's take a look at some of the cards I pulled.

Stats! Oh, glorious stats on the back! Suck it, Regular Topps.

I always look forward to the Baseball Flashbacks inserts, and this looks like a good design despite the baby blue ribbon taking up a lot of space.

Checklists are a thing now, so that's cool, I guess. I am sure this falls in line with the 1969 set, although I know at times they've done these as unnumbered filler cards and other times they've been left out altogether. I guess the fact that the card includes a small player photo makes these more crucial.

100 short prints to collect, you guys! Can I do it? (It's doubtful.)

The Blue Jays are quickly turning into the ex-Cardinals, which is appropriate for another bird team. I don't mind as I've always liked the Blue Jays a bit. Grichik joins Jaime Garcia (2008-2016), Aledmys Diaz and now Seung-hwan Oh in Toronto. Or he will, I guess, when Spring Training is done.

Rhys Hoskins is one of the biggest rookie names. This is some sort of Target exclusive insert, and I have no idea what it's based on. It's very yellow, which is pretty fun.

It won't be long before Topps Heritage leaves the Mad Men era, and the News Flashbacks probably won't be so fun anymore.

These All-Stars cards look great.

This was in the jumbo pack, which was the first thing that I opened, and I originally blew this off as some sort of one-per-pack gold stamped nonsense parallel. Well, it turns out that these things only have a print run of 25 per copy. Still, I feel like these would be worth more to people if they were numbered. I could probably be convinced to part with this card for the right deal, although I'm not sure what the market is for rare cards of a middle reliever.

Matt Harvey is a short print guy, and it's starting to feel like his career may be short printed.

Luis Perdomo is another SP. He was a Cardinals product that was lost in a Rule V draft if I'm not mistaken.

Both hanger packs had the Target exclusive card in them.

We're now a few years removed from any Cardinals leading the league in anything notable, which kind of bums me out.

These newspaper style World Series cards are pretty great. I was first exposed to them by way of the early '00s Topps Archives sets. George Springer is definitely one of the players I would collect if I had more time and effort to focus on such things.

I actually picked up two copies of the Rhys Hoskins (and some other guy) Rookie Stars card. Yes, there were dupes, even though I only bought 3 things (and at the same store, no less.)

Kolten Wong is ready for the new season!