Zistle Trade #23

This Zistle trade is my second trade with user dvdgao.  He is a St. Louis Cardinals fan and requested some more Cardinals cards in this trade.  Here is what he sent my way.  Not a bad assortment of Mets cards with a nice auto card of Ike Davis.

One of my earliest posts here was about Ike getting traded to the Pirates.  I was with Team Ike instead Team Duda at the time, but later realized that the Mets made the right decision.

Ike is currently playing first base for the Oakland A's in a platoon situation.  Lucas Duda was third in the National League in home runs in 2014.  Duda has been struggling at the plate this year, but he has       turned into one of the top defensive first basemen in baseball.

2014 Topps Stadium Club Group Break at Nachos Grande

The 2015 Topps Stadium Club was released last week.  In honor of the release, I figured I would go ahead and finally post about my 2014 Topps Stadium Club experience (because I am a procrastinator and that is how I roll).

Back in October, Nachos Grande hosted a group break for 2014 Topps Stadium Club.  If you happen to look at the pictures before reading this post, you may notice a lack of the headlining product.  Well, that is because there was not a single Met pulled.  This was my first skunk in three tries with group breaks.

I did not walk away empty handed, though.  Mr. Grande was nice enough to make up for the skunk by sending some Mets my way.  I must say he did a great job with a good mixture of old and new.  He also threw in some custom Allen & Ginter cards.

He also threw in this nice auto card of Lee Mazzilli.

I would eventually get my hands on the Mets cards from the 2014 release.  Decent cards, but it sounded like the release was poorly executed by Topps.  From what I have read and seen, so far, it seems like Topps has improved on this year's release.

I am on the lookout for the 2015 Topps Stadium Club Mets cards.  I will keep you all posted...eventually.

2015 Topps Mets

The 2015 season is in full swing.  The Mets are playing well, but have run into a few bumps.  The most concerning being David Wright's hamstring injury (let's see how this plays out before freaking out Mets fans!).  Despite the bumps, they appear to be staying focused.  The fans at Citi Field seem to be more excited, too.  Well, except that douche who threw his beer at Grady Sizemore.

To celebrate (albeit, belated) the season, let us take a look at some new 2015 Topps Mets cards (again, belated).

In the past, I would buy my cards from Target since I do not have a true LCS.  I would buy a box here and there.  End up with a mostly complete Mets team set and a bunch of duplicates.  This year, I decided to change things up a bit.

I purchased a jumbo hobby box from Blowout Cards.  This was my second order ever from them, but my first for a new release product.  Luckily, I live in the one day zone for their shipping times, so it got to me pretty quick.

Overall, I am pretty happy with this new Topps release.  It is a nice change from the last few releases.  I was a little skeptical when I first saw the border designs.  Now that I have seen them up close, I have to say that they are not bad.

The best looking Mets card goes to the team card.  I am not sure why they would only put Travis d'Arnaud on a team card though.  It seems like a weird choice.  Anyway, I like the return of the team card.  I also like the return of the Future Stars cards and Topps could not have picked better Mets than Jacob deGrom and Juan Lagares.  Jacob appears to be building on his Rookie of the Year season, so far in his two outings this season.  Juan is still playing centerfield-plus and is making some improvements at the plate.

It looks like Topps could not find any great shots for these Mets cards.  Pretty standard in the photography category.  Regardless, I still like them!

Here are the Mets related inserts I received from my box:

It sounds like the Gallery of Greats is this year's favorite insert.  I would have to agree with the praise the insert has been getting thus far.  I also like the rainbow foil cards.  This card did not scan very well, but it is a nice change of pace as far as parallels go from the past few years.  I might try to put together a Mets team set of these foil cards. 

The hit of the box goes to...

Nice!  This was the first Mets hit I have ever pulled!  From now on, I expect to get more Mets hits from my Blowout Cards purchases!

eBay Summer Purchases Continued

It has been a little while since my last post.  I went on vacation with the wife then started back to work full steam.  Things do not really settle down for me during flu season (protip: get your flu shot people!), but I have some more posts to put out there.  I have completed some more recent trades and box breaks that I will get to at some point in the near future.

In the mean time, here are some more of my summer eBay purchases.  This time we will focus on the hits.

Here are some relic cards I received.

Some autos from various Mets, some who made it to the majors, some who did not, and one who has yet to get the call.

Wilmer Flores is projected to be the Mets starting shortstop Opening Day 2015 if no deals are made.  There has been a lot of talk about the Mets pursuit (or lack thereof) of a shortstop this offseason.  There were more options available earlier in the offseason and now there are less options.

Is Flores the worst option?  No.  Should the Mets give up top prospects for someone with a large contract who has been injury prone?  Probably not.  I see Flores as a fine option with most other options being not much of an upgrade.  His defensive skills need to improve, but he can provide some offense that the team lacks at a much cheaper cost.

eBay Summer Purchases Continued: Catcher Edition

Here are more of my summer purchases off of eBay.  This is what we will call the "Catcher Edition" and focus on two of the Mets well known catchers plus a cameo from a rising star catcher.

First, Gary Carter.  Gary was traded to the Mets from the Montreal Expos after the 1984 season.  In his first season with the Mets, Gary hit a career high 32 home runs and helped lead the team to a 98 win season.  The following year the Mets went on to win 108 games and the World Series.

Next up is Mike Piazza.  Mike came to the team in 1998 via trade with the Florida Marlins.  He immediately made the Mets a better team and reached the World Series in 2000.

The Mets' current catcher does not want to be left out.  Here is Travis d'Arnaud, who arrived from the Toronto Blue Jays via the R.A. Dickey trade.  It looks like Topps used some of Travis' minor league jerseys for these cards.

eBay Summer Purchases (plus a contest pimp)

I had another round with eBay this summer.  I decided to change things up this time around.  Instead of watching the auctions until the end, I decided to just place one or two bids and see what would happen.  Well, when all was said and done, I ended up with a nice stack of Mets cards.

First, lets start with some vintage Mets.

Next up are some modern cards.

The two auto cards are Juan Urbina and Fernando Martinez.

Urbina is one of the young Mets pitching prospects who has been playing in the rookie and low A leagues for the past few years.  He turned 21 years old this year and is the son of former All-Star closer Ugueth Urbina.  The older Urbina, a 2003 World Series champion with the Florida Marlins, has had an interesting post-career life.

Mets fans will remember Fernando Martinez as a promising prospect that eventually went bust.  He was highly ranked amongst multiple publications as the top Mets prospect.  He played very well in the minors, but just never materialized in the majors.  He also played briefly for the Houston Astros who ended up trading him to the New York Yankees.  He was suspended in August 2013 as part of the Biogenesis scandal.

To close out this post is a little contest pimping.  CaptKirk42's Trading Card Blog is having a contest celebrating the fifth anniversary of his blog.  Check it out and join in!

More from eBay

Here are some more cards from my last eBay run.  I have auto cards for both David Wright and Zack Wheeler, so I needed some game used relics to complement the auto cards.

A couple more autos...one of the Mets lone 2014 All-Star selection, Daniel Murphy.  I still think David Wright was snubbed since his numbers are similar to Aramis Ramirez.  Either way, Daniel Murphy deserves to be there.

  

 

This card was probably the one I looked forward to receiving the most.  With a little copy-and-paste magic, you can see the front and back.  The relics are a bit on the small size, but I am not complaining about a Willie Mays relic.

  

These are my first attempts at scanning cards.  A little crooked, but I am getting there.

Goodbye Ike and some auto cards...

We are a few weeks into the 2014 season now.  I think the Mets are playing better than what most expected out of them.  They are playing .500 ball now, so I am happy!  There are still improvements to be made, of course.  Like, maybe playing all of their games on the road?

Ike Davis is now gone.  I was always a fan of his, so I am a little sad to see him go.  However, it just never worked out for him in New York.  Playing in New York may have been the problem all along as there have been many former Mets players to play better once leaving.  I really hope Ike finds his way with the Pirates.

I have been working my way through those recent eBay purchases.  The two cards above were part of one purchase that included a handful of various Mets cards.  Probably my favorite purchase were the following three auto cards.  These three players have bright futures ahead of them.

Noah Syndergaard should be arriving sometime in June and is poised to be part of the Mets future pitching powerhouse.  Zack Wheeler has already shown he has the stuff to pitch quite well.  

Dominic Smith is just 18 years old, so he has a few years until being MLB-ready, but this first round draft pick could be our first baseman of the future.