It Came from eBay! - Cardinals Lot Edition or: How My Long National Nightmare Is Over

One of my favorite things to do when I have free time is perusing eBay for cards, and my favorite search is looking for lots involving the St. Louis Cardinals.

When looking through these listings, you learn a lot of things, most importantly - two things really - people vastly over value cards or have no idea what they have.

As I'm typing this now, I'm looking at listings that were newly listed under the Cardinals lot search and this popped up...

A three card lot of Ozzie Smith relics, a little over $5 a card and most importantly, Free Shipping. While I do enjoy a good relic card, the price is too much for my blood.

Then you have old cards like these above. Dirt cheap (shipping is$2.50). I'm really not into the vintage phase, I'm sure I'll get there at some point in my collecting lifetime, but I still like shiny things and am easily distracted, so these don't really do it for me. Plus I know these will go for much higher than a quarter. The condition of the cards are terrible, by the way, I have much worse looking old cards in my collection than these.

Terry Pendleton was great, but who needs that many cards of him?

I love Ozzie and it's probably meant for dealers, but come on. $3.50 shipping to boot.

See what I mean about over value? You could get the whole team set in a bubble pack for $7 with free shipping.

Now that's just a few examples of what you see in eBay's little corner of baseball lots. Everyone in a while a gem is posted and should be pounced upon.

And one such lot was posted last week and I jumped on it. Let me pull a screen up...

 That's a picture of cards in the lot from the auction I won.

This lot was fantastic. 221 cards, mostly cards from 2015, it included sets that I hadn't bought like Diamond Kings, Finest, Allen & Ginter just to name a few.

Out of the lot, I counted about 41 doubles I had, which for a Cardinals collector isn't too bad. About 181 fresh cards, and I'm going to show a few of them off...Lets start with the oldest...

1990 Swell Baseball Greats

 These were the oldest of the bunch. I only have one of these in my entire collection, of Bob Gibson, but the seven of these that were in that lot will be welcomes with open arms. I would have much rather got these than say some '90s Topps or Donruss.

  

2005 Topps Total

 We jumped ahead 15 years later to the next oldest cards, a time when I wasn't collecting at all and I shake out 13 cards from this set, including the two above.

2006 Flair Showcase

 It's shiny and may be worth the price of the lot itself, this and a Chris Carpenter

2006 Ovation

I was/am such a sucker for Ovation cards.

2009 Topps 206

The scans I've seen of these never made the set too appealing to me, but in hand they're pretty cool.

 

2012 Topps Allen & Ginter

 

2013 Bowman Platinum

Shiny Card. I like this set a lot.

2013 Topps Finest

 A Wacha Rookie, a shiny one to boot.

 2013 Topps Allen & Ginter

As I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of the A&G cards, I find them too plain, but I'll glad take them in a lot.

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So, in the middle of writing this entry, a huge windstorm started here in the Midwest and I was without power for roughly 14 hours and it basically took all the excitement I had writing this. lol if that makes sense.

In summary of the lot, it was awesome, I went back to the eBay seller and bought two more off of him, this time Dodgers and Angels and to help bolster my Puig, Trout and Pujols collections. Between the three lots, over 600 cards for about $23, that's roughly the price of a blaster with about 10x as many cards.

There are great lots on eBay, you just have to be diligent.

And to top off this weird entry, I finally bought me a new TV after weeks of not having one. Best Buy had a preview of their Black Friday sale yesterday online, so I nabbed a 40 inch for $150 which was right in my price range. I will get it on Friday, I had the option to pick it up Saturday at my local Best Buy or sent by UPS and get Friday, so a day early sounded good to me.

Come back this weekend for ListiaMania IV, I've already forgot what I have got, some decent stuff if I remember correctly. I'm not sure, I'm dead tired right now.

ListiaMania III

Another week nearly in the books and the weekend brings me talking about my Listia haul, which seems pretty light this week, I have no idea why though, none the less there are some to talk about so lets start...

Chris Carpenter, 2010 Bowman Chrome Refractor. God my scan of this card sucks badly, I don't know what it is, its all washed out. My scans are either really good or washed out to f*ck. Ugh. Great looking card though for 499.

Mike Piazza, 1994 Donruss MVP. I have five copies of this card now. Um, for trade bait, even though I've never actually traded one. Don't use logic with me. 560 points.

Jimmy Key, 1994 Donruss Special Edition Gold. Another card I already have, got this if I ever start up the whole TTM gimmick again. 

Ozzie Smith, 1985 Topps Tiffany. You can't tell by the picture, you have to tell by the glossy in person (or touch). With online auctions, I'm always weary of going after Tiffany cards, because if you've seen as many eBay auctions as I have where people got everything wrong, you'd understand. But I digress, a parallel to a card I already have. Ha! 3 out of the first 4 cards, I already have or a counterpart of. What the hell? 2,999 points.

Chris Carpenter, 2011 Gypsy Queen. The first year Topps started with Gypsy Queen and in my opinion, the best looking of all the sets (says the guy with 2 cards out of it - Hey, you shut up now). 503 points.

Chris Carpenter, 2012 Topps Archives. I like the idea of the Archives cards, but outside of a blaster box, they're too expensive some $200 for a hobby box? Wow. I'll stick with just the Cardinal cards and the handful of players I like. 299 points.

Michael Wacha, 2014 Donruss. Strictly because it was a Cardinal card. Although, not really because I don't see any birds. 499 points.

Fernando Valenzuela, 2015 Gypsy Queen Short Print. My philosophy on the 2015 Gypsy Queen short prints have changed radically, from a being a hippie and "Oh, man. They'll get done when they get done." to an overzealous a**hole politician "I want these motherf*ckers done now!" Which is strange, because politicians don't get anything done. Wait, where was I? Oh, short prints. I'm about 15 away, I think. 596 points.

Tom Seaver, 2015 Gypsy Queen Short Print. Did I mention my philosophy on these have changed? 4,966 points.

Now...Save the last dance for me. No, rewind...Save the best for last. It's my Listia Haul Card of the Week.

Barry Bonds, 2003 Upper Deck Play Ball Red Backs. I'm not really a Barry Bonds collector, but I like this card, its kind of like Topps redoing Turkey Red, although the art style here is real person, cartoon background, whereas Turkey Red is reversed. I have no idea what this significance of a red back is, in the form of this set, judging  by a checklist I just looked at, a simple parallel? I don't know. 775 points.

I thought this week was going to be light, but 10 cards to rant about wasn't too bad. Looking ahead to next and LMIV. A card I should have already got might be here, the auction ended 2 weeks ago, a slew of Chris Carpenter cards, a few modern day Chrome cards in the '52 Topps design and a card that nearly broke my f*cking Listia bank.

All that stuff better come, or I'm going to look like an ass (you mean a bigger ass, right?- I told you to shut it!)

A Look at 2016 Gypsy Queen

A new year, means a new release of Gypsy Queen from Topps. Since getting back into the hobby, Gypsy Queen has been my card of choice. The art/picture style is what hammers it home for me, I find it much more palatable than Topps other "old fashioned" release with Allen & Ginter who's watercolor style seems to be less appealing year after year, and I know Gypsy Queen suffers from the same draw backs that Allen & Ginter does.

Taking a look at the base card first (pictured above), Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins, unsure if he'll be the poster boy, it's possible as it seems like Topps like to alternate years between retired/current players, last year was Ozzie Smith and it's sensible to think that Stanton could be the cover boy.

Now for the card itself, the design I think the border takes up too much room from the card and really doesn't allow for the picture on the card to breathe at all, it's a problem that they had with 2012 and 2014 where the border just chews up too much scenery. Of course 2 things, this may not be the final product and they may look better in hand than on a monitor, so I'm talking out of my ass.

350 cards in the set, 50 of them short printed. Parallels are included for 100 of the cards, all serial numbered if that's your sort of thing, they include a Purple Paper, Green Paper and a hobby only 1/1 Black Paper, which I'm sure looks very sexy.

2016 Gypsy Queen Black Paper

 

2016 Gypsy Queen Mini

The Minis make their return one of all 350 of the full set, as well as hobby boxes featuring a 10 card box loader of Mini variations with 100 in total.

Parallels for the Minis include Purple, Gold and Red which are numbered out of 5 as well as 1/1 Leather and Clear Minis.

 

2016 Gypsy Queen Mini Purple

For inserts, Glove Stories and Walk Off Winners return to the fold in 2016 and Gypsy Queen introduces a new insert Power Alley, I would suppose looking at home run hitters.

2016 Gypsy Queen Power Alley

Also a new insert for 2016 MVP Minis, Autographed versions as well.

 2016 Gypsy Queen MVP Minis 

2016 Gypsy Queen MVP Minis Autograph

On card autographs also make a return and with parallels for each including a Green Border, Gold Border, Red Border which are /5 and Black Border which are 1/1.

2016 Gypsy Queen Autograph

2016 Gypsy Queen Gold Autograph

Mini Autographs and their Black 1/1 parallels are exclusive to box loaders found in hobby boxes.

Autographed Relic cards return and have parallels of Red which are /5 and Black Button which are 1/1

2016 Gypsy Queen Autographed Relic Black Button

 

Also returning are the Mini Auto Patch Books, again they are exclusive to the box loaders found in hobby boxes and also have a 1/1 Black parallel

 2016 Gypsy Queen Autographed Patch Book

Relics and Framed Mini Relics are also in the mix again, both featuring parallels of Gold, Red number to /5 and Black numbered to /1. Jumbo Patch Relics are number to /10, they feature no parallel. The new relic type from Gypsy Queen is Laces Around the League that contains a piece of a game used baseball.

2016 Gypsy Queen Relic

 

2016 Gypsy Queen Laces Around the League

And then finally, a few 1/1 items for those interested, they include Prime Bat Relics, Original Art Patch and Ancient Era Remnants.

Hobby boxes include 24 packs, 10 cards per pack. A total of 240 cards. 2 relic hits and 2 auto hits per  hobby box, so that's 4 total and a Mini Box topper.

2016 Gypsy Queen releases April 6th.

Come back Saturday for ListiaMania III.

ListiaMania 2

Welcome to this week's installment of my Listia haul from the week. First off, want to explain a a few things, the points behind each card is basically how many points I gave for them. There are many ways to get these points, you can do stupid things on their website, post your own stuff or buy them, personally I would never buy them. A typical week, I put up three cards that I think will do marginally well, a couple thousand points, and post items on the weekend for bonus points, usually post "junk era" cards then, because they typically get no interest. Around 4,000 points equal a dollar to give some context.

Long winded explanation over with, lets get into the cards...

Chris Carpenter, 2006 Ultra Strikeout Kings. A good looking insert set, I love the Cardinals and Ultra, so this was a no brainer. 2,242 points, a little high, but oh well.

Ryan Ludwick, 2010 Topps Heritage. Not a Heritage set I'm going to go full on with, getting the Cardinal cards will satisfy me enough.101 points, my cheapest win.

Yogi Berra, 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Framed Gold. Going for the full 100 card set, only 97 to go. Never going to happen. 3,363 points. The seller also threw in this bonus card...

Lou Gehrig, 2012 Topps Gypsy King Hallmark Heroes. Always cool to get a bonus.

 

Barry Bonds, 1996 Ultra Call to the Hall. Another Call to the Hall insert knocked out via Listia, a set I wouldn't be opposed to finishing, they're excellent looking cards. 2,689 points, not bad at all with a card that has a $12 book value.

 

Yadier Molina, 2014 Topps Triple Threads. Such a thick card (that's what she said), wow. It's Yadi, why wouldn't I get it? 2,242 points.

Giancarlo Stanton, 2015 Topps Chrome. Just because. 202 points.

Ron Gant, 1998 Circa Thunder. So, this came out of a Cardinals lot I got, the seller did a terrible job at packing the cards, 15 in total. The envelope was ripped on three of the four side, looks like it might have got stuck in a processing machine. lol Some of the cards were badly damaged, probably because of the machine and that's not a big deal, they're going into my collection, I didn't plan on trading them. The Ron Gant card piqued my interest in the lot, because it was colorful and I had no idea what it was, so I bid. Curiosity killed the cat on this one. lol 563 points, luckily not that much.

 

Albert Pujols, 2006 Topps. It was also in the above stated lot, but damaged. lol

Yadier Molina, 2008 Topps Allen & Ginter. Yadi has been my favorite Cardinal player for probably close to decade now, he's the backbone of the team, so is it unimaginable that I want every Yadi card ever made? lol 1,669 points

And now, my favorite Listia card from the week..

Albert Pujols, 2010 Topps Heritage All-Star Short Print. When I saw this card, I thought I'd watch it and would see what happened with it, I thought this was something that would draw in a lot of interest, literally only 2 bids, For comparison a few weeks ago, I put up a 2015 Topps base card of Pujols, 7 bids and over 1,000 points. So maybe this card isn't all that special or I got very lucky. Overall I like the design of the All-Star cards, with the players bursting through a newspaper, it was one of the few good things that I like with the original '61 Topps design and then the '10 Heritage. Only 2,021 points.

Looking ahead to next week, Tuesday I have story about a bad morning I had, that lead to baseball cards. Thursday? No idea. Then next Saturday, ListiaMania III, looking ahead to that and what hasn't come in yet...I would say nothing spectacular, some cool things, nothing amazing though. I go for the low hanging fruit.