Roll Out the (Card) Barrel

The expression on Jose Rijo's face pretty much equals my expression when I received my first order from Card Barrel.

With with whole pandemic going on, I was having the itch to get some cards from 2020 so I could get caught up on what I missed out on while I was on my card hiatus. 

A while back, everyone was touting the Baseballcardstore.ca site so I looked there. I just couldn't get past how difficult the site was to use, so that wasn't for me. Then, I remembered that Dimebox Nick always mentioned the site Card Barrel. So I checked them out. 

And ... WOW!

Suffice to say they checked every box I was looking for ... good selection? Yes. Easy to use site? Yes. Low prices? Yes. Fast shipping? Yes. 

My goal was to put together and order over $25 to qualify for free shipping. I ended up spending more than that. Just over a week later my cards arrived and I was very happy with the end result.

The first thing I had to start digging for was 2020 Topps. I'm definitely more of a "visual buyer" meaning I have to see what the card looks like in order for me to determine if I want to buy it, that's the one downside to Card Barrel, there are no images. But, I figured out a way around that buy having COMC open in a separate window and once I saw a card I liked, I dropped it into my Card Barrel cart.

The prices on Card Barrel are very reasonable. Most of the 2020 singles I bought were less than a dollar a piece, with many of them hovering at around 20 to 30 cents each. For less than the cost of several hanger packs or even a blaster from Target, I managed to get a ton of 2020 Series 1 singles I wanted.

I tried to run the gamut of different things as you can tell by the previous scans. Yes, I went for the Reds cards but I also grabbed some of players I like, some throwback uniform cards, and just some generally fun cards.

Horizontal cards are always really cool. So cool, in fact, I made the collage of horizontal cards my new iPad background.

I tried to get a little bit from every 2020 set released so far. Opening Day cards are really my thing but I do dig the mascot cards and the "Opening Day" card of Great American Ball Park last year is just awesome.

When I placed my order a while back, Big League had just come out and Series 2 was on it's way. I nabbed a few Big League cards and I'm definitely planning on going back for more. The Mike Moustakas card is my first of him in a Reds uniform. I had to get the David Price Dodgers card as well. 

My main draw for wanting to buy cards was to pick up Heritage singles. I grabbed 15 Heritage singles I wanted, again for less than the price of a hobby pack.

Obligatory Reds cards. 

Here's a sunset card of C.C. Sabathia and Jurickson Profar sporting the new Padres threads.

Here's a number of Stadium Club singles from last year that I missed out on. I'm a sucker for old ballparks so my favorites of these are the Nolan Ryan and the Hank Aaron.

Last bit of the 2020 cards I ordered were a few singles from the Donruss release this year. I don't mind the design all that much but they just look "meh" without logos. The Rated Rookie cards are really nice though.

This years "throwback" design was the 1986 set. I'm guessing this will be a recurring trend in the Panini products, kind of like Donruss version of Heritage. These are fine and it's nice to see Kevin Mitchell on a 2020 card. But they're nothing like the real thing from 1986. 

Speaking of which ...

I loaded up on 1986 Donruss. Why 1986 Donruss you ask? I have no earthly idea. It was just one of those 80s sets that popped in my head when I was browsing around. I will never complain of getting an Andres Galarraga Rated Rookie card for less than a dollar.

Diamond Kings? Yes please.

Random cards of random guys. One of these days I'm planning on a Donruss appreciation post. Stay tuned for that.

Whenever I try a new card site, I always like to try out their vintage selection. I meant to order a bunch of Pilots cards but I mistakenly ordered this Jim Weaver card. 

The rest of the vintage cards I ordered were actually Pilots cards. I can cross these three off my want list. Skip Lockwood was the most expensive card in my order at $2.49. All four of these cards (including the Jim Weaver card) were categorized as EX/MT on the site and I have to say I was very impressed at the condition.

I didn't just cherry pick cards from sets. Oh no, I attacked my COMC watch list too. I found several cards from there on Card Barrel for a nominal fee, such as this Bronson Arroyo card.

And these "short term stop" cards of Eddie Mathews and Scott Williamson.

And Orioles cards of ... Chris Sabo? Gosh, he looks weird in any uniform other than a Reds uniform.

And here's the Jose Rijo card from the beginning again. This isn't quite his sunset card (that's in the 2003 Topps set) but it's close. Rijo retired for good after the 2002 season after making a triumphant return to the Reds after being out with shoulder injuries for six years. It was a bright spot on some otherwise dismal teams.

My card collection has a gaping hole in it from the late 90s up through 2012. I attacked some of that as well and went after some 2001 Topps. This is a set I always liked for the neat design both front and back (of which I forgot to scan). Of course I grabbed a few Reds cards.

And some former Reds with some very strange teams ... Eric Davis with the Cardinals? Joe Oliver with the Mariners? Willie Greene played for the Cubs?

More random cards of random guys. These are cards I just couldn't pass up at all.

Remember when the Devil Rays went out and tried to purchase their way to a title by signing heavy hitters like Greg Vaughn and Fred McGriff? Yeah, that didn't work out too well did it.

Ok, finally, I also got a few cards from the 2002 Upper Deck Vintage set. I haven't fully committed to putting this set together but I am grabbing cards from it when I can so I can eventually have a starter set for if/when I commit to it. I'm also going to put this into a blog post I'm planning about 1971 Topps and all the sets that have used that design since.

So, that's my first order from Card Barrel. I'm very, very pleased with how it turned out and I'll definitely be going back and ordering again here soon. 

Goodies from Across the Atlantic

In case you missed it a while back, I participated in an interview with Ryan of the Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards blog. It was a very fun experience and if you haven't read it yet, please check it out here.

Anyway, as a thank you for participating in the interview he send me a wonderful package that arrived all the way from across the Atlantic Ocean.

As you can see there was a lot of wild stuff to be had in there! I'll briefly go over the items. Most of these will be saved in detail for their own posts.

First off, European chocolate ... and who doesn't love chocolate! These were immediately snatched up by my wife, since of course, she's from England and claims European chocolate is better than American chocolate.

Next, a hanger box of 2018 High Number Heritage. I haven't opened this yet but I will soon.

I'm a fan of all things spooky and weird. I watched the first season of Stranger Things on Netflix and while I enjoyed it, I think it suffered from a bit of overhype. That being said, I had no idea there were cards of the show being issued. I'll add these to my Halloween stash for the coming fall so it'll be a while before you see these being torn into (or maybe these will be my "halfway to Halloween" post for this year, not sure yet).

A couple packs of 2017 BBM Baseball cards. I've never opened any Japanese cards before so these will be quite the treat once I get to tear into them.

A couple random packs ... some LOL Surprise cards (which I gave to my six-year-old son) and a pack of handball stickers. I don't know much about handball and Ryan already wrote about these on his blog. I'm still curious about them though.

Oh yeah, there were cards also. First, old sumo cards ...

... then new sumo cards ...

... and a giant stack of miscellaneous cards.

Expect to see future blog posts on pretty much everything here, except the LOL cards as my son already claimed those. 

Thanks to Ryan for sending this awesome package from overseas. I appreciate it. Also, if you haven't signed up to do an interview with Ryan, I strongly suggest it. Besides, you might get some cool stuff like this for participating!

You've Got Mail #25: Cards on Cards

Being involved with the #Supertraders group is a wonderful thing as random packages from people I've never traded with before just show up on my doorstep. That was the case with this package from Kerry over at Cards on Cards, he dropped a huge flat rate mailer of Reds on me that amounted to a stack of cards about 3-4 inches tall.

I'll start with these cards from 2014 ... or is it 2013? I think it's 2014 but I can never keep it straight since the 2013 and 2014 cards look nearly identical. I think I've shown the Frazier card before but I'll show it again here as it's definitely one of my favorite cards of his. I like the Cingrani "Future Stars" card and it's from the Opening Day series. My one gripe with that series is that they're the same cards as the flagship set, just with an Opening Day stamp on them.

More Arroyo cards for my growing PC of his. Pretty sure this is the 850th time (ok, I may be exaggerating there) that I've shown that 2014 Heritage card but, wow, do I really like that design!

More Heritage cards! I've been completely unimpressed by 2016 Heritage so I'll be on the lookout for older Heritage cards for now.

Something tells me that Kerry opened a lot of Heritage over the past few years. 2012 Heritage is one of the packs I bought when I first got back into collecting so I've got a soft spot for it. I enjoyed last year's version more than I thought I would.

Hey! There's some Joey Votto cards! He's gotten off to a miserable start this year (then again pretty much every hitter in the Reds line-up has) but I have faith he'll turn in around.

I'm really hoping that Mesoraco has a nice rebound year, perhaps he could be an All-Star again like he was in 2014. I'll have to admit, that All-Star card is pretty awesome.

Robert Stephenson is the top pitching prospect the Reds have and has made a few spots starts so far this year as the Reds have tried to put together a rotation consisting of duct tape and chicken wire right now. In the two starts he's had, he's won both and looked incredibly sharp just the other night against the Rockies.

As much as I love newer cards, nothing makes me happier than getting cards from the 80s and 90s in trade packages. Going backwards in chronological order we've got the mid-90s, followed by 1989/1990 and finally some 1989 Score. I saw a box of 1989 Score stuffed on a 2 for 15 junk wax shelf at the local card shop and I'm half tempted to take them up on that deal.

Here's a few random Reds. Jesse Winker is the top outfield prospect for the Reds and is currently at Triple-A Louisville honing his craft, although at the rate the Reds are hitting and pit of awfulness that has been left field the past few years, I wouldn't be surprised to see him called up sometime in the summer. Hopefully, he'll be able to provide some stability to that spot. Speaking of stability, Hal Morris held that spot down for about 8 years and provided solid hitting and good defense. After he left, then there was a gaping hole there until Joey Votto took over.

Here's a few discs and circular items that were sent over. The Buddy Bell Jiffy Pop disc suddenly makes me want some popcorn.

Finally, there are these First Home Run insert cards. I'm not sure what the white version is but I think these cards are pretty cool and commemorate a nice moment in a players career. It also reminds people of teams that players used to be with, for example, I don't think a lot of people realize that Encarnacion used to be with the Reds.

Thanks Kerry for the awesome cards! You're on my list for returns so I'll get something out to you when I get some more sorting done.