Happy 34th Birthday Yadi!

Today is Yadi's 34th Birthday so St. Louis Cardinals Cardboard wishes Yadi a fantastic birthday!

Now a selection of Yadi Rookie cards.

Roll the Dice Card show in a box part 2

Well, after tearing through the box and “processing” the cards we may have needed. Processed is just my fancy term for checking against our database of Redbird cards to see if needed or not. I haven’t checked how many Redbird cards we have in part because I am terrified to think how MANY we actually have! Once I determine if needed I place in either a Topps or Non Topps 250 count boxes to be filed, eventually. Still have Topps from the last two years I need to file. If not needed I try to determine is I have already put aside a copy for a fellow collector-whom I swear I am sending them to.

After rolling the dice on the 1800 count box to open after our cruise because I was going to miss the thrice annual Serramonte Card and Toy Show. Well what did the box yield you ask? Well, first of all it came from Canada-which was interesting.  The seller had put each card in penny sleeves then in team bags-well done my fiend, well done! The box ended up containing 1354 cards. If we needed them all we would have paid about 5.2 cents per-I deducted $30 from the cost of the lot to approximate the cost of breakfast and gas I would have spent if I could have attended the show. Love this place at Serramonte Mall for my pre Card Show pick me up.

So what was the final tally? We added 550 to our collection, or 12.7 cents per card. As the lot description indicated there were very few base cards in the lot, very few. The lot consisted mostly of parallels, #rd, and chrome refractors of various flavors. Most cards were from the 2000s and no surprise Topps/Bowman dominated. Wish there were more Upper Deck, etc.

I am happy with the lot-no B.S from the seller-no over exaggeration.

So here are some of the highlights.

Two McGwire 1999 Topps Super Chrome

2008, 2011, and 2012 Topps Heritage Advertising Panels

Finally a Yadi added to our collection. 2010 Topps 206 Mini American Carmel (odds 1:4)

Some low # Bowman & Topps Chrome Refractors

Mark Mulder 2006 Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor #23/25

Jason Motte 2012 Topps Chrome Red Refractor #19/25
Kolten Wong 2015 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor #37/50

Some misc. Topps

2011 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Lance Berkman SP (odds 1:13)
2003 Topps 205 Mini Sovereign Edgar Renteria Black Back (Odds?)

2003 Topps 205 Mini Polar Bear Tony LaRussa MGR (common)
2003 Topps 205 Mini Sweet Caporal Jason Simontacchi
2012 Topps Allen & Ginter David Freese Used Rip Code #30/50 What did you have inside you?

1998 Topps Cooperstown parallel Brent Butler

Then there is this guy-no this wasn't in the box, but I came across him when trolling for some Heritage Real One Autos-he is here simply 'cause of his cool a$& stash. 

Next post we will review the other brands in the box.

UPDATE My, how the mighty have fallen

As some of you may know the Redbird's All-Star 3rd Baseman Matt Carpenter is in the DL for an oblique injury. So, Marp's replacement is Rookie infielder Aledmys Díaz  who through 77 games, has had 279 ABs, scored 54 runs,  has 89 hits, 12 HRs and 3 SB  with a .319 BA . Though he has 15 errors!  Congrats my good man!

7th Blogging Anniversary Contest

Corky over at Pack War is having a fantastic contest to celebrate his 7th year of blogging. We offer him a hearty congrats on 7 years!

My, how the mighty have fallen

The Redbirds are not so good this year and as a result they will be sending just one representative to the 2016 All-Star Game in San Diego-that one lucky guy is Matt Carpenter. Congrats Marp! This marks only the 10th time since the Mid-Year Classic started in 1933 this has happened and not since 2007 when Albert Pujols was the lone Redbird Rep.

Ahoy! Card show in a box part 1.

It has been a little while friends but I am now back from a watery get away. We went on an early 10th Anniversary (August) 10 day cruise roundtrip from San Francisco to Alaska and we got back on Thursday. A few pictures from the trip-the view from our balcony before leaving SF. We saw about 6 whales and dolphins before leaving the Bay.

 

The view from above Juneau, Alaska and the Mendenhall Glacier outside Juneau,

Beer at the Skagway Brewing Company in Skagway-they were OK, and German night Buffett on the ship the same night-this speaks to either my German Heritage or my hunger.

Random day at sea view, and cruising through Glacier Bay National Park in style both from our balcony,

if you ever get to Ketchikan you must, you must stop here for the best ever Fish and Chips, period. Please note I already ate once piece BEFORE taking the picture!

One card related item. We stopped in Victoria, BC which I have been to a few times and during this trip we came across a Militaria store with a large number of non-sports cigarette cards-I didn't get any I don't need to go down that rabbit hole. The Saturday before the cruise we went to our fourth and final Copa America Soccer match between Mexico and Chile. We left when it was 6 nil Chile, and before we got to the light rail outside the stadium it was 7 nil. 

So what does this have to do with baseball or baseball cards you may ask? Good question, a few weeks before I left I picked up a 1500 card Cardinals lot from the Bay. Knowing I would miss the much anticipated Serramonte Mall show that only comes around three times a year I thought this would be my card show in a box. It set me back about what I would spend between driving to the show, having wonderful baked goods and coffee at the Danish bakery at the Mall prior to the show, then what I would spend on the cards themselves. Plus, I didn't open it until today so I had some anticipation. Here is what it looked like before and after I opened it,

 and what it looked like after a prelim sort out in to two groups-what we might need,

and what we might not need-I will go through these again.

To Grade or not to Grade this is the Question

As we sit here watching Bolivia get ripped by a bad call against Chile in the Copa America I wanted to get a post in as I will be out of touch for a little while.

During my most recent episode of great card filing of 2016 I examined our existing Vintage Redbirds and I noted those that we need to upgrade to higher grades and ones we were missing-just to double check. So recently there have been some good auctions of high quality cards at decent prices, well most of the time, on the Bay. So, I have been reviewing the PSA Price Guide to see what those cards would set us back. What I have been trying to figure out is why would someone grade a card that is worth less than the cost of grading ($15 or so?). I thought I might have each team set graded as I complete them. However, at $15 a pop and say 15-20 cards a team set-well you get the  idea.

So what my logic has been is to bid graded cards based on their PSA graded value plus a few extra dollars that would allow for the cost of grading.

A card graded as NM-7 (lowest grade I will pick up, generally) with a value of $8 would be a negative $7 since the cost to grade the NM 7 is $15. Math has never been my strong suit but I know that $15-$8 = loss of $7.

As an example I purchased the following PSA Graded 1963 Topps; #49 Dal Maxvill graded a 7 NM for $10.50 and the card is valued at $8-so "loss" of $2.50.

#267 Carl Sawatski is a 7 put me back $6.50 and PSA gives it a value of $8 and this results in a "gain" of $1.50.

#336 Ed Bauta also a 7 which I won for $8.50 and PSA says I paid 50 cents more than its value.

Last but not least, #533 Bobby Shantz Graded an 8 (NM-MT) for $9.54. This card is valued at $22, so a gain of $12.

So why would I pay $15 to grade any of these? The answer is I wouldn't. There are some heavy hitter Redbirds I need and these I will pick up nice graded copies but I am not sending the others in just yet.