Mailday: Sweet Listia Find

1987 M&Ms #24 Ozzie Smith

     We've been purging unwanted items via Listia over the last month. As a result, we've been looking to use our credits to bring in needed items for our collection. When it comes to Ozzie Smith, our largest player collection, it's becoming more and more difficult to find items other than autographed and memorabilia cards. When we came across the lot containing this card, we had to have it, but we didn't really want the other cards in the lot. Luckily, our plan panned out. Rather than taking a shot at winning the lot or bidding the lot up to our maximum ability, we backed off and let the user Fischman win it for half of what we were willing to bid. After it ended, we contacted him and proceeded to make an offer that he couldn't refuse. We generously offered roughly four times the credits than the card is valued. Our viewpoint: we saved a ton of credits by not going after the lot and a ton of time by not having to individually list the cards that were in it. Not to mention, the time to get an oddball card is when you finally find it. We aren't sure how we missed this sweet oddball the first time around. 1987 was the first year we collected on a serious level and food issue promos have always been favorite additions to the collection.

     When the envelope came, we quickly realized that Fischman evened out the deal a bit by throwing in a couple extras. The first of which was a 2015 Donruss Mark McGwire card. Since we haven't been purchasing many new issues other than the obligatory box of birthday Topps, this card was a welcome addition to the collection.

2015 Donruss #184 Mark McGwire

          And he didn't stop there. Fischman also threw in this beautiful offering from 2016 Diamond Kings. The vibrant colors make this an outstanding card and it's even textured like an oil on canvas. It ended up being our favorite card in the bunch.

2016 Diamond Kings #52 Adam Wainwright

     All in all, we're very happy with the new additions. We leave you with these thoughts: Go after what you want, but be smart, honest, and fair. Everything else will work itself out.

Collect Hard!

Card of the Day: 3/26/16

2016 Topps Gold #319 Adam Wainwright 1995/2016

I felt good out there. I've still got to sharpen just a bit, but things are falling into place. -Adam Wainwright

2016 Topps Series 1 Jumbo Break: The Cardinals

     2016 Topps released on Wednesday. We have to admit that after seeing the mock-ups we were pretty excited about its release. Full-bleed layout, plenty of parallels and inserts, buybacks, and quality relic and autograph checklists, what's not to like? We'll be publishing a review of the full box, but as with any product, we're mostly concerned with the Cardinals inclusions.

Cardinals Base

     We managed to pull the entire Cardinals team set. This year's Topps Series One includes: Matt Carpenter, Yadi, Waino, Lance Lynn, Stephen Piscotty RC, Jordan Walden, Kevin Siegrist, Peralta, and Holliday. It was nice to knock out all the base in one box. Now we just need to round up the parallels and inserts.

Gold Parallel #/2016

     We only snagged one of the Cardinals parallels: Topps Gold Adam Wainwright. This particular card is numbered 1995/2016. With only receiving this one parallel, it leaves us needing a whole lot more. Any help is appreciated.

Berger's Best

     The are sixty-five different Berger's Best inserts. Out of those sixty-five cards, three feature Cardinals players, We were lucky to find this 67 Topps Steve Carlton reprint. Once we find the Pujols and Molina inserts that lurk within this set, we can mark it finished,

Back-To-Back

     This is the first of two Musial inserts we received from the box. It features Stan and Red and is the only card in the Back-To-Back insert set that includes Cardinals players.

Pressed Into Service

     Here is the second Musial that we received in the break. Pressed Into Service cards feature position players who were called to the mound. Musial is the only Cardinal in this ten-card insert offering.

Perspectives

     Perspectives are the nicest inserts in the product. They feature stunning photography and three-dimensional effects. Peralta was a good warm-up to the second Perspectives Cardinal that we pulled:

     The Wizard went straight onto the Wall of Cards. It's the only card from the box that made the cut. Yadi is the only Cardinal that we didn't get from the Perspectives set.

     We didn't get any Cardinals hits from the box, but that isn't too surprising. Pulling Cardinals from packs and boxes is usually like pulling teeth for us. As a result we're thrilled with all the Cardinals base and inserts that we did receive. 

     We'll have a full product review posted tomorrow and we'll see how the overall box shaped up. In the meantime, Collect Hard!

Card of the Day: 2/5/16

2010 Tops 206 Bronze #255 Adam Wainwright

Bad barbecue makes me want to fight somebody. When I have a really bad rib or a really bad pulled pork, it just makes me angry. -Adam Wainwright

Card of the Day: 12/27/15

2006 Upper Deck F/X Special Endorsements Adam Wainwright

To be in the World Series as a closer is every kid's dream. -Adam Wainwright