2013 Cardinals Winter Warm-Up

[flota89]

It's about time for the annual St. Louis Cardinals Winter Warm-Up, and with the event creeping closer, I decided I'd start a thread.

Who is planning to attend this year? What do you expect of the event?

Hope to hear from some of the St. Louis fans.

-Tyler

[Birdbats]

I'll be there. Haven't missed one yet.

I expect to see a lot of inventory for sale, simply because the team is changing jerseys for 2013 and can't reuse old stock. Also, because the new S100 batting helmets are required in 2013, I'm hoping to see a good amount of Cool Flo and traditional helmets that can't be used next season.

I'm not overly impressed with the auction items -- too many balls and photos, not enough bats -- but there are a few decent jerseys on the block.

Not getting as many autographs this year, so I hope to have more time to attend the various presentations.

[flota89]

I'd love to see some batting helmets for sale.


Jeff and I can't be the only two going. I'd love to hear from everyone else planning to attend as well as their thoughts on the event.

[stlbats]

I'll be there on Sunday and Monday this year. I have to make it a shorter trip than usual. Hopefully it will be a good weekend.

stlbats

[onlyalbert]

Talked to Pat this week at Cardinals Authentics. lots of bats available. They have all of the helmets too but they are not putting them out this year. Lots of jerseys but they are $225 plus tax! Duplicate jerseys of players on roster went to Cardinals Care to be signed and auctioned next season. Also, some jerseys are going on a MLB auction that will run the 17th thru 20th ending at 5pm. Kind of sucks on the timing there!

[cardsfan44]

I am new on this site, but I will be going for my 3rd time. I have just started in collecting GU items, so I will mostly be just looking. If I find something that meets my limited funds I will purchase other than that I will be adding several autographs for my collection as well.

[jscott0688]

Anyone get anything good today?

My day started of pretty bad. I got a room at the hotel so that I would have priority line access to get into the Cardinals Care store. In the past I've never had priority access, but have usually managed to get a few good things out of the store. Not this year.

To my knowledge, the only new items they had this year were batting helmets (probably 2-3 dozen). The jerseys and bats appeared to have been rejects from past years. The helmets would have been great had they not been priced $5 a piece. Needless to say they were all gone by the time I got in there. The first group to get into the store snatched them up pretty fast, hauling them out by the bag-full.

Cardinals Care has too be the most utterly incompetent group of people when it comes to the collector's market. I complain about it every year, but after all these years, you would at least thing they would know a thing or two about what collectors are looking for. I told the non-volunteer at the checkout that they got robbed. No-name player bats and jerseys priced $50-100 and identifiable semi-star player helmets priced $5. Makes perfect sense!

Most of the helmets appeared to be from recent seasons (a lot of Cool Flos). I saw two Jaime Garcia helmets, an Allen Craig, a Tyler Greene, and a standard helmet with the #12 on the back (certainly they would know better than to put a Lance Berkman in there, right?). And those are just the one's that I was able to make out. Very frustrating experience!

It was mostly picked over by the time I got in there. I was able to escape with a Jason Motte road cap with a bunch of what appears to be pine tar on the bill, an Eduardo Sanchez road hat (with some stuff written on the inside), a #8 home cap (Ryan Jackson?), and two 2011 Stars and Stripes caps (Miguel Batista and Tyler Greene) for $5 a piece.

In any case, I still feel pretty good about my day. My favorite pickup is the Mark McGwire 2012 St. Patricks Day jersey (MLB Authenticated) I picked up from one of the vendors for $300. I was skeptical at first because McGwire is known for not wearing his jersey, and I thought I recalled seeing him wear his jacket for this game. So before I bought it I did some research and found a picture of him from that day wearing his jacket, but when I zoomed in, it was obvious that he was wearing the jersey underneath. Definitely seems like a good deal for a McGwire jersey. His 2011 St. Patricks Day shirt went for $611.

I also got my Matt Holliday World Series batting helmet signed and inscribed (game worn 2011 WS). Now if only I could get a damned #7 decal!

My only other goal for the weekend is to pickup a gold jersey. The gold Beltran jersey went for $1500 to the same collector that won most of the gold jerseys auctioned on MLB.com earlier this year. I added it up, and he's spent over $13,000 on 12 of these things now. The Tyler Greene shirt went for $460 to a different collector. I was also really surprised to see a regular Shane Robinson jersey go for $400 in one of the silent auctions. Does anyone know how much the two jerseys in the live auctions went for today?

[cardsfan44]

Would by any chance the Jackson be available for sale?

Thanks

[Birdbats]

Anyone get anything good today?

Does anyone know how much the two jerseys in the live auctions went for today?

Carpenter 2011 WS road: $1,500
Holliday 2011 WS home: $1,000

[jscott0688]

Would by any chance the Jackson be available for sale?

Thanks

I bought a Jackson autograph ticket today. I'm going to ask him if it looks like his and have him sign it. I'll probably stick it up on ebay along with a few other caps in the next week or so. I'll probably put Jackson's St. Patricks Day jersey up as well.