My First Pack Of 2011 Ginter: A Retail Rack Pack

My mom bought me my first pack of 2011 Allen & Ginter at Target last week. No Cardinals, but there was this:


Not just any mini. A Bazooka mini hand numbered 16 of 25!

I’ll trade this for a Cardinals Bazooka mini if anyone has one.

A Few For The Mini Binder

 
Never really got too excited about the Goodwin set or its corresonding mini’s. We’ve picked up a few of the Cardinal mini’s here and there. The black bordered versions are nice but the Gypsy Queen back looks unfinished.to me. A little bit of everything in this one. One for Ikes Cardinal HOF binder, one for his favorite players binder, and two for the random mini binder.

Red Back / Blue Back Retros

Love the Topps 2010 Red & Blue Back retail inserts this year and have picked up a few recent retros of the same lineage… ok two. I’m looking at the 1951 checklist to see if I can put together a Cardinal team set for a reasonable sum. We’ll see….

1968 Orlando Cepeda Game Insert

2005 Albert Pujols Bowman Heritage Mini

2010 Stan Musial Wal-mart Blue Back Insert

The non-Cardinals 2010 inserts. These are up for trade for the Dizzy Dean, Rogers Hornsby, George Sisler, or Albert Pujols inserts.

T206 Pujols Mini SP

I can’t remember who mentioned how to check for the mini SP’s by stacking them up and looking for the white card stock (probably dayf?) but we tried it and found two including this Pujols… almost like Christmas.

March Card Show Love

I’m still not comfortable letting Isaac loose at a card show, particularly one infested by Missouri Tiger fans as yesterday’s was. Still, if I have one piece of advice for anyone going to the St. Louis monthly show, its “Bring A Kid.” This was our third show and the same guy always calls Isaac over, asks him what his favorite sport is, and hands him a freebie. The first time it was a Longoria X die cut card. This time, he reached into a stack of top loaders and handed three cards to Isaac: a ‘61 Nuxhall, a ‘63 Torre, and an 07 Goudey. Isaac’s reaction? A "Thanks!” followed by “One hall of famer and one future hall of famer!” Kids today…

Isaac also finished off his 2009 Series One set and most of Series Two. He left U & H for a later date. I picked up a few cheap mini’s while he was set building.

We made one last stop and I bought Isaac a 2009 Series 2 jumbo pack and a 2010 Series 1 jumbo to open on the ride home. His hot streak continues... he ended up pulling these:

Retro Mini’s

As Isaac builds sets, hoards Cardinals, and fills his favorite player binder, I’ve been gravitating towards vintage Cardinals and mini’s of any flavor, though lately just Cardinals. Here are a few of my latest additions from a newly discovered local shop with a huge, well sorted selection.

1975 Topps Mini's of Gibby and Brock

2003 Topps 206 Sweet Caporal

A trio of 2006 Bowman Heritage mini's including Wainwright's "rookie" in mini form.

The 2009 A&G Conor Jackson 6/10 silk card I mentioned a while back.

Straggler Packs

What do you do when you see the last few packs in the box? Do you impulsively pick them up even if they weren’t on your radar? I’m guilty. I pick them up knowing that they’re just like any other pack in the box but I can’t resist the urge to empty that box out *just in case* something in those packs are special. I’ve been lucky enough to perpetuate the myth and did so again last night. I stopped by the hobby shop to pick up a 10 pack of tobacco top loaders & sleeves and four, count ‘em – four, binder pages for a few oddball cards Isaac and I have picked up recently. Total expected cost: $2.50. At the counter, I spy two last packs in the T206 box and one pack in the Ginter box instinctively grab them and instantly more than quadruple my bill. Once again, nothing fancy but enough to perpetuate the impulse.

Cy Young SP Piedmont Mini

The second card didn't scan well at all but was a Conor Jackson x/ 10 silk card!

Helmar Brewing Series Three Set

Unlike the first series (I do not have the second and cannot comment on it), this series focuses exclusively on baseball subjects. Players and managers from the Negro Leagues, the Majors, and Japan, among others, are featured in the set. Sorry for the fuzzy thumbnails - they're not resizing correctly in blogger. Click on each image for the larger high resolution scan.

Helmar Series Three

I finally had a chance to open the box of Helmar Series 3 cards last week. As in my posts about Helmar Series 1 (here and here), I’ll follow up this St. Louis centric post with one displaying the entire set.

While the first series was available in packs, Series 2 (release in 2006) and 3 (2008) were only available as complete sets with Series 2 being short printed by comparison. I’m trying to track down a Series 2 set now that I have the others. Unlike the first series, this one focuses exclusively on baseball.

The Box

Contents

St. Louis related cards:

Nice to see the folks at Helmar have a sense of humor. They’ve included a “corrected” card for an error from the first series.

Pics of the complete third series coming soon...

Follow Up: Helmar Brewing Series 1 Set

Here are the promised Helmar pics. Click on the images to view the larger versions (average size of 1.5MB each so they may take a few seconds to load). I grouped them as much as possible. I didn’t realize the copier was cutting off the edges on card in the leftt and top rows until the last scan and didn’t feel like rescanning everything.

Negro League & Japanese Players

Japanese, House of David & various North American Players


North American Players

Boxers

Flea Market Mini's

Made our monthly visit to the local flea market yesterday. Isaac was disappointed the $1 pack guy didn't have any 09's but he picked up a few Pujols' at another booth. We also picked up these Cardinals for the mini binder (not sure what to do with non-T205/206 sized cards yet though). I liked how the dealer framed the 08 A&G's in red cardboard.

Note to self: Next time, take the cards out of the toploaders before scanning. I didn't realize how scuffed up the plastic was until I saw the scans!

1999 Pacific - Rick Ankiel

2001 Bowman Heritage - Red Schoendienst

2001 Bowman Heritage - Stan Musial

2001 Bowman Heritage - Enos Slaughter

2005 Heritage Play Ball - Albert Pujols

2006 A&G Black Border w/ A&G Back - Frankie Frisch

2006 A&G Black Border - Bob Gibson

2006 A&G Base w/A&G Back - Bob Gibson

2007 A&G Black Border - Albert Pujols

2008 A&G w/A&G Back - Rick Ankiel

2008 A&G w/A&G Back - Troy Glaus

2008 A&G w/A&G Back - Adam Wainwright