So it begins...

Opening Day 2014 is here!  It is one of my favorite times of the year.  Every team is in a position of some sort to win it all.  Some will take more work than others.  Some will cruise right to the playoffs.  As of now, though, everyone has a chance.

The New York Mets are no exception.  Most have ruled out post-season play for them, and rightfully so.  They have gone from worst to first before.  I feel they will find success this year, but probably not World Series success (hope I am wrong!)  While I don't think they will be punting this season, they are heading in the right direction.  To me, this is just as exciting to being the favorite to win it all.

2015 is where most Mets fans eyes are looking toward, but this season is looking to be pretty exciting!

New Donruss and Donruss Originals Trade

One of the recent releases that everyone seems to have already posted about is the reintroduction of Donruss.  They brought back the Diamond Kings and Rated Rookies, of course.  They also throw in all of the parallels that are common place in the hobby.  Donruss were some of the first set of cards I had, but I can't get past the lack of logos.  I do not plan on purchasing any of these, so my thoughts really come from pictures I have seen of the product.  

If we get the right shot...

...then we don't have to airbrush as much...

I like the base card design and the return of the middle names on the back of the cards.  Diamond Kings could be considered the most well known name associated within Donruss' history.  They seem to have dropped the artwork for Photoshop/filtering, so that is a bit disappointing.

I received some 2002 Donruss Originals as part of another trade completed on Zistle.  I find these to be very similar in execution to the recent release - bringing back the old using the new.  The 2002 set brings back designs from 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1988, but with year 2002 players.

My favorites have to be the '82 Piazza and '84 Alomar, both in their pinstripes.  Both cards seem to embody the throwback feel of the set.

A few others received from the same trade:

There is that Diamond King artwork...

I still like Ike!

eBay

During my younger days of collecting, there was no eBay.  I bought my packs at LCS, card shows, or traded with my friends.  I never really thought about a card as being a must have card.  I ended up with my cards mostly due to the randomness of packs.

eBay is a good and bad thing to me.  I enjoy browsing through listings and seeing ridiculous starting bids, weird lots, and unknown (to me) cards.

This one seems a bit unnecessary...

The bad thing is when I get lost in it.  I have only used eBay twice since I started back with the hobby.  Both times they ended with me thinking to myself, "why I am doing this when I have a mortgage and student loans to pay off?"  Luckily, I have been able to keep myself in check before things get too out of hand.

My second round with eBay ended last week.  I ended up with most of the things I was watching while only missing out on a couple.  I should have enough yellow padded envelopes and boxes to go through soon to keep me busy for a bit.

Zistle Trade

I completed a trade on Zistle recently.  If you are not familiar with Zistle, then I highly encourage you to check it out.

This trade was a rather quick one.  Sorry for the quality of the photos.  I do not have a scanner, so I had to use a potato...

Part of the trade included some 2010 Topps National Chicle.  I usually enjoy nostalgic cards like these, Topps Archives, and Topps Heritage.  These cards are also from the period when I did not collect, so they were new to me.  I think it was the art work that intrigued me the most about these set of cards.

The card set design is based on the 1935 National Chicle Football cards.  Apparently, this was the first nationally released set to feature only football players.  

Topps used a handful of different artists to create their all-painted baseball card set.  Some of the art work is a little bland, like those pictured above.  Tom Seaver looks like he wants to take over Gotham.  Some of the artists did a great job, though.  The best looking of the cards I received are pictured below. 

I read a number of reviews from when these were originally released.  Most reviews were pretty negative in terms of value, but most complemented the art work.  It is a bit weird to have baseball cards inspired by football cards (or vice versa), but I think, for the most part, it works here.