Zistle Trade #58: mkaz80

I had a good run of posts there for a hot minute.  I figured out how to schedule posts, so I got a bunch of draft posts published.  I made a pretty good jump in catching up to present day.  Then the Summer came with beach trips, yard work, and going to some baseball games.  Now, I am sort of back where I was wanting to get closer to present day.  So, let us start to catch up, again.


This next trade was completed at the start of the year and was a real New York Mets trade.  Mark is Mets fan with a healthy collection of Mets cards of his own.  He has his own blog over at This Way to the Clubhouse.  It is fine read not only for Mets fans, but card collectors in general.

I have been meaning to work out a trade with Mark for a while now.  It sounds like he was doing the same.  We are essentially the perfect trade partners.  We both have plenty of duplicates that the other needs in their collection.  Even after this trade, I still have over a hundred Mets cards Mark still needs according to our Zistle matches.

This was one of the larger trades I have completed on Zistle.  It would take me a while to scan all of the great cards I received, so there are some of the highlights.
 

The cool thing about these large trades is that you can see the changes to the team over time.  Starting above, George Foster represents the early 80's Mets.  Gary Carter arrives from the Montreal Expos and we go into the mid to late 80's Mets with Dwight Gooden, Howard Johnson, and Lenny Dykstra.  The 1990's start with some veterans hitting their declining years and young players just starting their Major League careers.

During the mid-90's, the new crop of players takes full effect with Jeff Kent, Rey Ordonez, Todd Hundley, John Franco, and Rico Brogna.

Towards the late-90's, some younger players were traded and established players like Bernard Gilkey, Carlos Baerga, Robin Ventura, John Olerud, and Mike Piazza were added to the team.

The early to mid-2000's saw the arrival of David Wright and Jose Reyes.  The highlight play from those years is depicted by the center card above.  The Catch.  Then we have our first no hitter from Johan Santana.

This was a fantastic trade with Mark.  Look forward to the next one!

Zistle Trade #51: Bumfan

Here we are with a second Zistle trade with Adam.  I reached out to this Northwestener to see if he wanted my Seahawks and Sonics cards, along with some other football cards.  I had a decent stack to send, but since we already traded there was not much he had in terms of matches.  Of course, he was doing me a solid by taking those basketball and football cards off my hands, so I had no problem with the number of cards involved.  

I received some nice Mets cards along with some great options for my potential former/former future Mets players collection.  I should probably come up with a better name for the collection.

Zistle Trade #46: dmk250

Here is another Zistle trade with user dmk250.  Dean was looking for some Phillies cards and sent back some Mets cards in return.  There were quite a few interesting odd ball cards that I received in this trade.

The above Howard Johnson and Darryl Strawberry cards are from Baseball Cards Magazine.  They apparently provided cards (those that you had to cut up yourself) in their magazine?  I have gotten a couple of others in box purchases on eBay, but never gave much thought to them.  I like the look of these two cards, though.

Remember those 7-11 coins?  I had a bunch as a kid and wish I held on to them.

These set of next cards have given me an idea to expand my Mets collecting a bit.  There are a handful of Mets players I enjoyed watching, both currently and growing up.  I am thinking of starting a binder of these players that show them throughout their career.  Not trying to collect every card, but maybe a favorite card or two from each year.

Zistle Trade #22

Zistle user, BucCollector, reached out to me with a trade looking for some various Pirates and some basketball cards.  I generally can not turn down a trade that gets rid of my basketball cards.

I do not mind getting some junk wax oddball cards. We all know what the main sets look like and these are a nice change of pace when dealing with junk wax cards.

Finally, a card that can pretty much sum up the Mets from 1992 to 1995.  I guess you can expand that up until 2035 as the Mets will be paying Bonilla a little over $1 million dollars per year due to a contract negotiation with his release before the 2000 season.

Fun fact:  the "V. Wells" you see on the above card is the father of former MLB player Vernon Wells.  The artist Wells has done numerous pieces of art for many players over the years.

Zistle Trade #14

Another trade in the books with Zistle user neckababy1.  He offered a handful of Mets for a few cards in return.  He has been a good source for Darryl Strawberry cards thus far.

Here is what I received:

The Hall of Fame ballots were made official yesterday.  Mike Piazza will have to wait another year to be elected.  It was a pretty stacked list this year with those getting elected being very deserving.  Piazza will be the top holdover next year and will only have one sure thing in Ken Griffey, Jr. in front of him.

I think the biggest oversight on this year's ballot was Carlos Delgado.  He did not receive enough votes to remain on the ballot next year.  Oh, and this was just his first year of eligibility.  He definitely had an amazing career.  Some might say he was not quite a Hall of Famer, while others will say different.  He does deserve, at the least, to be on the ballot longer than one year.  I feel it is another reason to throw amongst the many others to reevaluate the voting process for the Hall of Fame.

Zistle Trade #12

Here are more cards received through another Zistle trade.

This trade was with user clutchcity52.  I saw he had a number of basketball cards on his want list that I had on my trade list.  I sent him what was probably my largest trade offer that I have sent on Zistle, so far.  Every thing went smoothly with the trade and I received a number of Mets cards in return.

I like how the Carlos Beltran in a throwback uniform blends right in with the older cards that precede it.

Here is Eric Young, Jr.'s second Mets Topps card.  This card is quite good looking that has so much going on, but not too much to distract from the player.  Well done, Topps!  Young was non-tendered this off season, so he is now a free agent.

The 2009 O-Pee-Chee set is a nice looking set with some decently good photography.  It features both action shots along with studio shots.  I feel like if I was buying packs in 2009, I would have been buying these.

Zistle Trade #11

Here is another trade completed through Zistle.  This one with user richardsonpilot.

He initiated the trade mainly looking for some Donruss Diamond Kings.  He offered some Mets and a handful of other cards I was looking for to complete some PCs I am working on. 

Here are the Mets I received:

Zistle Trade #9

This trade was with user neckababy1.  I reached out to him because it looked like he would be a good trade partner, since he is also a Mets fan.  I targeted the Panini products because I still can not bring myself to buy a pack.  Maybe one day...

Here are the Mets I received:

Zistle Trade #7

Another post.  Another Zistle trade.  This time I traded with user bjbernier78.  He was featured on the Zistle blog as he is out serving in Kuwait.

I believe he initiated this trade looking for some 2013 Topps for his set needs.  Among the Mets I received included:

That is another Keith Hernandez (and that stache) with the Cleveland Indians.  This trade was actually started after the previous Zistle trade, but I received these cards all the way from Kuwait first.

Here are a couple more modern cards I received as well.  Not pictured are a few 2013 Topps Chrome cards.

Juan Lagares was one of the bright spots for the Mets this season.  He leads the majors in awesome catches* and deserves some Gold Glove recognition this off-season.  He ranks among the top defensive outfielders in the National League and has been earning the praise of many players and coaches throughout MLB.  Oh, and that is without having played in as many games as the other top ranking outfielders.

*not an actual statistic

Zistle Trade #6

I am still working through my Zistle trades.  Here is one with user ToppsTradeKing.

This trade was not as smooth as all of my other trades I have completed on Zistle.  Not being truthful about what you sent, saying you sent the cards out when you really did not, and not following through to correct things is a not cool.

Anyway, I mostly received some junk wax cards.  The cards were mostly ones that I used to have back in the day and wanted back in my collection.  The Mets related cards I received in this trade were:

It is a little strange that three different Gary Carter cards look so similar.

Getting Chuck Carr in a Mets uniform was something that eluded me.  I saw Chuck play quite a bit when I lived in South Florida and he played for the then Florida Marlins.  He played quite well for the expansion Marlins team and even led the National League in stolen bases.  He pretty much started to regress after that 1993 season.

I learned of him playing for the Mets (only 16 games, though, from 1990-1991) while he was playing with the Houston Astros in what turned out to be his final year in the majors.  He started that 1997 season playing for the Brewers, but was released after he popped out on 2-0 pitch.  He missed a take sign which upset the Brewers manager Phil Garner.  When confronted, Chuck seemed to channel his inner Rickey Henderson by replying "Chuckie don't play that game.  Chuckie hacks on 2-0."