Weird Card Wednesday: Why Aren't You Blogging!

Hi everyone,

I know it's been several weeks since I've posted anything significant, and I hope my fellow bloggers won't kick me off their blogrolls for inactivity. I'm trying to put parts of my life together--more on that later--and I just haven't had time to think about my card collection in a while. Thank you so much to my 26 loyal followers and I promise to start posting again soon.

Meanwhile, since I missed last week's Weird Card Wednesday segment, I thought I'd pull another card from my childhood E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial collection for your amusement: #26 "Time for a Snack." (I feel like this card looks lately!)

Speaking of my E.T. cards, I really should sort through them and see which ones I'm missing, just to have a complete set. I remember when it was a big deal for me to walk a few miles to the local convenience store (Q-Mart or Smith's Grocery) with a handful of quarters and buy several packs at once. That was a big deal for me to buy more than one at a time! Ah, childhood memories.

Sorry for the Absence

If only we could collect cards for a living (sigh).

Real life has a way of interfering with our hobbies, and mine has been no exception over the past two weeks. It's nothing that a lot of folks in America aren't battling right now but when it happens to you, everything else stops for a while.

Anyway, Greg over at Night Owl Cards sent me a great little bubble mailer stuffed with Cardinals goodness--Allen & Ginter's, Topps Heritage, regular Topps--which I promise to repay soon. (Thanks so much, Greg!) I'll also post some pics and details about what he sent in a few days.

A few folks have emailed me about possible trades, and I apologize profusely for not responding to you yet. I'll try to do that this week.

I'm also sorry I haven't posted as regularly as I had planned--I even missed a Weird Card Wednesday--for all my loyal readers. I'll do my best to get back in the swing of things soon.

Weird Card Wednesday: The Tipsy Alien #32

OK, this one's not a baseball card, but it's still weird all the same.

Before I collected baseball cards, I saved my quarters and bought packs of Star Wars, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial cards at Smith's Grocery on North Royal in Jackson, Tennessee in the early 80s. (Sometime I need to complete some of those sets.)

This week, while looking for some cards to trade, I came across one of the E.T. cards (#32) and thought it would be an excellent candidate for Weird Card Wednesday honors.

Trade Bait: 1995-96 Upper Deck NBA Basketball Factory Set

Here's some trade bait for anyone interested in basketball cards:

I have a boxed factory set of the 1995-96 Upper Deck NBA cards I'd be willing to trade for Cardinals cards from my want lists. Just email me or post a comment below if you'd be interested in a trade.

Trades with Crackin' Wax, Foul Bunt, Get the Bat Off Your Shoulder, and $30 a Week Habit

The past two weeks have been good for cards in the mail!

Crackin' Wax sent me a package of Cardinals cards--but I'm ashamed to say I can't remember which ones. (I really need to start keeping track of my trades--sorry about that.)

William at Foul Bunt sent me three cards I needed for my 1990 and 1991 Topps and 1982 Donruss team sets, even though I had no cards he needed. Thanks so much, William!

I sent Anthony at Get the Bat Off Your Shoulder a few 2012 Topps cards to help him complete Series I and he sent me a few Cardinals to help fill my team set--thanks, Anthony!

Today, I received a bubble mailer filled with recent Cardinals cards from Robert at $30 a Week Habit. Almost all of them were ones I needed (the ones I didn't had just been bought at a card shop last weekend). Needless to say, I now have a head start on a few sets I didn't even know about.

Let's start with a new favorite of mine--and many other fellow bloggers, I've learned: Allen & Ginter's. Robert sent me four cards to start my 2011 set: #188 Daniel Descalso, #132 Colby Rasmus, #BHS-5 Albert Pujols (Baseball Highlight Sketches), and #HH9 Adam Wainwright (Hometown Heroes).

Another favorite set is the Topps Heritage, of which I received a 2009 #507 John Smoltz (my first Cardinal card of him) and 2011 #223 Ryan Theriot. (I also received several other 2011's, though they were the ones I just got at the aforementioned card show.)

There were four 2009 O-Pee-Chee cards for #493 Yadier Molina, #568 Jason Motte, #215 Ryan Ludwick, and #587 Colby Rasmus. Call me old fashioned, but I like these cards: no gold, no gloss, no stamping of any kind. A baseball card like it was meant to be. These give me a great start on this Cardinals set!

Robert gave me a great start on a few sets, especially the 2011 Topps set, with nine cards--including this cool #121 of Chris Carpenter.

There were even a couple of the recently departed Albert Pujols.

My take on the whole Pujols defection is: I was upset on the day it happened--because he could have ended his career in St. Louis, held many of the career batting records, and become a one-team franchise icon like Stan Musial and Bob Gibson. But then I was OK with it because he was given way too many years and way overpaid; he basically took the money and left. Still, he is arguably the greatest player of his generation and I can say I had a chance to interview him in his only season in the minor leagues before he became Albert Pujols. (I'll have to tell that story one of these days.) These were two nice cards!

One odd card Robert sent me was a 2011 Topps #57 Mark Trumbo. Who plays for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The team Pujols left St. Louis for.

I'll take this as an honest mistake--both the Cardinals and Angels wear red, after all--and not a jab at a very sensitive spot in this Cardinal fan's heart. (wink)

Thank you to everyone for the trades! I've been writing this blog for less than a month and I already have several trades under my belt. If anyone would like to trade with me, please check out my want lists in the top left column of the blog. Thanks!

Weird Card Wednesday: Bernie Carbo

In this installment of Weird Card Wednesday, we look at Bernie Carbo's 1973 Topps #171 card.

It looks like the Topps photographer failed to take a photo of Carbo down in Florida during spring training. So he shows up at Busch Stadium, walks into the Cardinals clubhouse, and asks Carbo if he would pose for a quick picture. Not having time to tuck his shirt into his pants, Carbo strikes a menacing batting pose beside the dugout. Surely the graphic designer back at Topps corporate will crop the photo above the waist, he thinks.

Nope.

My Weekend: First Card Show in 20+ Years and Visit to Cards-R-Fun

On Saturday, I went to the Middle Tennessee Sports Card Show in Nashville, my first show in over 20 years. It wasn't a large show--only nine dealers, I think--held in a small gymnasium, but I did come away with some Cardinals cards and a great start on 2010 and 2011 Topps Heritage team sets. I also discovered some cards I'd really like to start collecting: the 2010 Topps Vintage Legends.

I love these cards! Jackie Robinson on a 1976 Topps design...Thurman Munson as a '59 card...Jimmie Foxx on an '86 card! I think they're really cool and even though they're not Cardinals, I'd like to finish the set.

I did OK on my spending at the show ($24)...but then I stopped by Cards-R-Fun about five minutes down the road. What started out as "just a few minutes" became four hours! (If you've ever been to this store, you'll know why.) It's a great place to find tons of commons, but man, it's disorganized! I went with the intention of finding some Topps Heritage Cardinals--and a found a few from different years--but you have to search through boxes that contain multiple years and sets. You pretty much have to dive in and find whatever cards you've never seen before. When it was over, I had 150+ cards and a $33 bill. Yikes! There goes my card budget for March.

Overall, it was great to go to the show and one dealer from whom I bought most of my cards said he would bring more Cardinals for the March show. I only wish there had been more dealers to choose from.

Weird Card Wednesday: Bob Forsch

Every Wednesday, I'll feature a card from my collection that has something unusual or weird about it.

This week's Weird Card Wednesday candidate is 1981 Fleer #537 Bob Forsch.

The Fleer Corporation of Dubble Bubble gum fame broke Topp's monopoly of the baseball card industry and produced its own set of cards in 1981. Among them was #537, which shows Forsch sporting a perm. Up to this time, his Topps cards always showed him with straight, longish hair. It's weird because I'm not used to seeing him look that way!

Apparently at some point during the season, Bob abandoned the curly look and went back to his natural look as his 1981 Donruss #69 card shows.

One of the all-time great Cardinals pitchers, Forsch passed away suddenly on November 3, 2011.

2012 Topps Trade Bait and Want List Updated

Just a quick post to let everyone know I've updated my want list for Cardinals cards I need for 2012 Topps Series I and my trade bait list for the same.

I'm also still on the lookout for 1974 Topps cards to complete my set. I have several in the mail right now, which should reduce the number of cards I need to 107.

If anyone can help me out, please comment or email me through my Google profile. Thanks!

2010 Topps Heritage Cardinals Team Set

OK, maybe I'm getting a little greedy with my expanding want lists.

In addition to filling my standard Cardinals team set needs, I'm already working on the 2012 Topps Series 1 and 1974 Topps sets. But I have a few more followers now and blogs that have kindly added mine to their blog rolls, so I'm going to just throw this out there to anyone who may have some duplicates of the 2010 Topps Heritage set.

I love the vintage card designs incorporated with today's players. Unfortunately, I've not been lucky enough to find a lot of them at the card shop I frequent. I have a few 2004 and 2006 cards, but none for any of the other years.

I'd like to start a Cardinals team set for the 2010 Topps Heritage: I've always liked the 1961 design, and a few of the cards I've seen look pretty sharp. I'm starting from scratch and don't have a single card. If anyone has any Cardinals cards from this set--base cards, inserts, etc.--I'd love to trade for them. Thanks!!