Zistle Trade #81: mtavares

Marcelo sent me a trade request for some 2014 Topps needs and I was more than happy to make some space in my collection.

A downside to Zistle (and perhaps it's downfall) was that there were inaccuracies in the database.  It has happened before in trades when what was requested (i.e. red parallel) turned out to be something different (i.e. orange parallel).  Nobody is perfect and sometimes colors can be deceiving.  Fun fact: 8% of males and 1% of females have color vision problems.

I kind of expected that with the pink David Wright card.  I wasn't giving up too much in the trade, so I set my expectations low.  Marcelo didn't disappoint and sure enough the Wright card showed up being pink and numbered to 50.  Thanks, Marcelo!

Oh, and I also received another Tom Seaver reprint.  I can't recall from which year this one was from.  Maybe 2010?  Maybe 2011?  Maybe 2014?  It probably doesn't really matter.  Another one will be out soon enough.  Topps, thanks? 

COMC: #1

I have tried various routes of procuring cards over the last few years.  Zistle trades has by far been my favorite way as you only have to pay postage to send out packages.  eBay is easy enough to find good deals, but shipping costs add up.  Just Commons is an easy way to find a lot of base cards for cheap.  It is pretty easy to find enough cards to get free shipping.  Blowout Cards is a good place to find decent prices on hobby boxes and packs.

Check Out My Cards was the one place I had yet to try.  I am sure if you are reading this blog, then you know of COMC and what it has to offer.  I decided to give it a try last year for their annual Thanksgiving sale.

I went into this venture without a game plan.  I figured I would browse around, put a watch on some cards, or just buy if I liked the price enough.  It was a bit overwhelming at times, but overall a pleasant experience.

I thought I ended up with some decent cards without having a true game plan.  The above 1999 E-X Century cards of John Olerud and Robin Ventura are printed on thick acetate stock and look pretty cool.  Also, I don't see many Todd Zeile relic cards available, so it was nice to see one with the Mets. 

There are not too many Richard Hildago and Marlon Byrd Mets relic cards out there either, so I had to grab both when I saw them for real cheap.  Even better, they both had a pinstripe!  I also found a great David Wright photo variation for less than $2.

I recall seeing the Travis d'Arnaud card (below in the middle spot) on another blog.  I can't remember where I saw it, though.  Apologies to that Blogger.  I do not keep up with Bowman releases very much, so I never saw it before that post, but I recall really liking the card's design.  Also, got some other shiny cards to match.

Rounding out this COMC purchase is one of my favorite photo variations.  It is a fitting send-off card for Bobby Abreu.  PNC Park, where this photo was taken, really gives some great imagery for baseball cards.  Maybe someone at Topps saw this and thought they could make an insert set out of it?

Overall, I can't really complain about COMC.  It is pretty simple to navigate and make purchases.  If you are entrepreneurial spirited, then you can take to card flipping and probably make a decent return.

We are not too far away from Thanksgiving now.  Maybe I should start making a game plan?

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!

Blogger Trade: Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown

Next up is a trade with Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown.  I hope every one reading this is already following his blog, and if you are not the please do so.

Gavin posted some trade bait cards awhile back and I saw something I liked.  Apparently, there was another time even a little further back where he did this and I responded about being interested in something.  I did not remember the first time, but Gavin did and still had that card on hand.  Kudos to you, sir.

We were able to work out a larger trade as I had some cards for his set needs and his various player collections.

I was probably most intrigued by the Ron Swoboda card below.  It is from the 2004 Topps Retired Signature set.  I believe that this set was a high-end version of Topps Archives.  While Topps Archives uses old card designs for current and retired players, Topps Retired used that year's design for retired players.  I would not mind if Topps continued with this type of release.  Maybe leave retired players out of the Topps Archives release and put out a set just of retired players using the current Topps design? 

All said and done, this was a great trade and very much appreciated!  Thanks Gavin!

Blogger Trade: Brandon

I have been trying to catch up on my Zistle trade posts that I have neglected the trades I have completed off of Zistle.  With that, let us get a few of those in over the weekend.
 
Brandon is a fellow card collector who reached out via email.  He's done a some trading with a bunch of other, more caught up, Bloggers.  He looked over my Zistle trade and want lists and put together a nice trade package.

Here is what I received from Brandon.  Not a bad mix of parallels, relics, and an auto card.

I think this trade was completed just about a year ago.  Brandon, sorry for the slow turnaround!  Thanks for the trade (and your patience)! 

eBay - 2015 Topps Archives and more

I missed out on Brent's Mets team sets for 2015 Topps Archives.  I ended up finding a seller that had a decent price and was able to combine it with some other listings, too.  I ended up with some 2014 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects and 2015 Bowman.

First card up is Michael Conforto.  He was drafted by the Mets in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft being just the 10th overall pick.  He made his MLB debut over one year later.  He is also only the third player to play in the Little League, College, and Major League World Series.  He already has a 2 home run World Series game under his belt.  This is one of his first Mets cards.  It is badly photo shopped.

Next up are the 2015 Topps Archives cards.  Not a bad looking card in the bunch.  I like the first four cards with the 1957 Topps design.  I think it is cool to see Mets players on card designs from a time when they didn't exist as a team.  Overall, though, I think David Wright's card shown below is the best looking card.  It has such a great mixture of different shades of blue.

eBay - 2015 Topps Series 2 and more

2016 Topps is already out and I will get to that post, hopefully sooner than later.  But, for now, we catch up and finish the 2015 Topps flagship release.

With my happiness of dealing with Brent for the Gypsy Queen release, I decided to stick with him for Topps Series 2 instead of purchasing a hobby box. 

The Mets in series are pretty basic looking.  None of them really stand out.  Jon Niese's card show him in an old Mets black hat for some reason.  My favorite base card here would probably be either Jacob deGrom or Wilmer Flores shown above. 

In addition to Series 2, I also purchased some 2015 Topps Archives inserts and parallels.  The first few were from Brent to take advantage of some combined shipping.  He also had some really good pricing on a bunch of silver parallels that I could not pass up.

At the same time of the above purchases I was looking to fill a missing hole in my Mets collection.  By this point, I had cards that are base, parallels, numbered, autos, relics, mini, over-sized, etc.  One thing I was missing was a 1 of 1 card.  I found the above Curtis Granderson printing plate auction with a low number of bids and kept watch.  I am not one to really spend a lot of money on a single card, but the auction was not really getting a whole lot of attention and the price remained pretty low for a printing plate (at least for what I think).  Of course, I ended up winning the auction and getting a printing plate.  Below is the back of the printing plate, if you are into that kind of thing.

Group Break: Crackin' Wax - 2015 Topps Finest

I participated in another group break with Topher over at Crackin' Wax.  This was my second group break with him and was for the 20015 Topps Finest release.

I like the look and design of this Finest release.  The cards look even better in hand versus image scans.  There are only 111 cards in the set (11 being short prints) and the Mets got four of those slots.  Kind of surprised not to see Matt Harvey anywhere in this set. 

I did not get much more than a team set with this break.  Not a big deal as that is how group breaks go sometimes.  This was a charity break, so the proceeds went to good cause. 

Zistle Trade #36: Olerud363

This Zistle trade is with Rodrick from the Great White North.  Rodrick reached out with a request from some various Topps needs.  I know some US-based traders are concerned about doing trades to other countries, but trading with those up in Canada has been pretty easy going.

Rodrick has probably the most complete John Olerud collection (at least that I know of).  Check out his collection at Cardboard Corner.   Not one John Olerud card was traded during this trade, though.

Hey!  It looks like Olerud does make a cameo appearance in this trade!

It looks like to me Donruss stopped caring right around the time they were putting together their 2004 set. 

Apparently, a stray Bryce Harper got in with these scans.

This was my third or maybe fourth trade to Canada.  Since then I have done another five or six and once or twice over to Europe.  There are some great traders outside of the U.S. that have a hard time finding good trade partners for whatever reason.  There is not that many hobby shops left here, but there is probably even less outside of the U.S.  Give these collectors another look.

Zistle Trade #35: MiJohn

Let's squeeze out a third post for today.  Trying to burn through these drafts to catch up with more recent trades.

Next up was a quick trade with John.  He requested some various Topps Archives cards with me getting some various Mets in return.  These are the highlights from that trade.

Nothing too special here.  Some set needs filled.  Still a solid trade!

Group Break at Crackin' Wax: 2015 Topps Heritage

Let us pause the trade posts and check out a group break.  This break was a number of months ago, but at least I am now in the current year with my posts.

I have known of Topher over at Crackin' Wax for a while now.  I read his blog, follow him on Twitter, and like how he does his group breaks for charity.  He always comes off as a good dude.

I decided to join one of his group breaks.  The spots in his breaks go fast with the Mets spot being among the fastest to get claimed.  I was able to claim a spot in the 2015 Topps Heritge group break as you can see below.

It was a fun break.  Topher makes his breaks enjoyable as he and his wife discuss things while he is crackin' the wax.  I generally do not watch breaks because they get boring for me (probably because I would rather be the one opening the packs).

As you can see, I ended up with a complete Mets team set (including the deGrom, Harvey, and Wright short prints), a deGrom insert, and a deGrom chrome parallel.  I did not get a hit, but still enjoyed what I got during this break.  I also like the look of this year's Heritage release.  The blue sky background works very well with the Mets uniforms and the shots are mixed up well enough to keep each card looking fresh.

Zistle Trade #27

Tonight is the final game of the Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees.  The Mets won game one on Friday while the Yankees won game two with a shutout on Saturday.  The Mets still have a comfortable lead in the division, but could use the series win here to keep their momentum going forward.

Tonight's game is also a continuation of the Matt Harvey story.  Harvey did not pitch very well during his last outing almost two weeks ago against the Nationals.  He is trying to stay sharp for his first playoff run.  He likes to pitch against the Yankees, too.  Hopefully, Harvey will have a good outing and put this whole media mess further behind him.

Now, back to the trades with this one with Zistle user rbarone5.  He is a fellow Mets fan (or at least I think it he is as his avatar is the Mets logo).  This was a short and simple trade with us exchanging a few cards.

Nothing great here with this trade, but it does fill a couple of needs.

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.

Trade with an Underdog

I have been actively seeking good homes for all of my non-baseball cards.  I have pretty much taken care of hockey (only 3 more cards to go!) and have made some progress with the football and basketball cards.

I had a small stack of San Diego Chargers that I was looking for a nice home.  I used Zistle to look for some potential trade partners when I found Zach of The Underdog Collector.  He was more than happy to take these cards off my hands and sent along some nice Mets cards in return.

Zach also sent over this oversized Dwight Gooden.  It was a nice suprise and my first oversized Mets card!  Thanks Zach!

Zach blogged about our trade back in October.  You can really see how far behind from current time I am on these posts.  

Let me know if you would like some football and basketball cards.  I saw a couple other blogs offering their unwanted non-baseball cards.  I will hopefully be reaching out to those that commented on those posts soon.

Zistle Trade #15

Here is another trade completed through Zistle.  This one with user pb68.  I sent him some Cleveland Cavaliers and Oakland Raiders for some Mets.

Here are the cards I received in return:

Nicko Riesgo is an interesting card (and a name that rhymes!).  He never appeared in an MLB game as a Met, but had one decent season playing for their single-A Florida league team.  I think that this 1991 Bowman card is noting that accomplishment.

He would make it to the majors with the Montreal Expos in 1991.  His first of only four game appearances was a contest between the Expos and the Mets.  He recorded his only MLB hit off Frank Viola that game.  He would go hit-less in his other three appearances and after that he was pretty much bounced from team to team.  He would never reach the big leagues again.  He would later become a replacement player with the Boston Red Sox in 1995 during spring training while the players were on strike.  

2014 Topps Chrome Group Break

With 2015 Topps Series One being released next month, I thought what a better time to put up a post featuring some 2014 product.

Alex over at Chavez Ravining held a group break for 2014 Topps Chrome.  This was my second group break I have participated in, so far.  Of course, I selected the Mets, but was also randomly given the Yankees.  I fared a little better with the Yankees, as far as inserts and refractors go.  I am not complaining about the Mets cards that I received, though.

Alex was kind enough to throw in a few extra cards, too.

I also participated in a fantasy league that Alex started last season.  It was my first time doing fantasy baseball since something like 2006.  I was not any good then, so I expected something similar.  Well, I ended in a tie with Alex for first place!  He was kind enough to send some Mets my way for my finish that I will show off in a future post, so thank you Alex for the cards!  I still have to get a package back out to you for hosting the league and allowing me to participate.

eBay Summer Purchases Continued: Franchise Edition

Another edition of my summer eBay purchases.  Well, I do not see another one of these in my drafts, so I guess this is the last edition.  It only took a couple of seasons...

This time we have the "Franchise Edition" and look at Tom Seaver and David Wright.

Tom Seaver really needs no introduction to Mets fans.  His accomplishments are well known among baseball fans:

1967 National League Rookie of the Year

3-time NL Cy Young Award (1969, 1973, 1975)

1969 World Series champion

Elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992 (highest first ballot vote percentage)

Seaver has quite of few modern cards, but not a whole lot of variety of photos.  Not complaining, just an observation.

The current face of the franchise is, of course, David Wright.  While the 2014 season will hopefully go down as an off-year for him, he still ranks among the best Mets player of all-time.  He currently is the all-time Mets career leader in runs, hits, doubles, and RBIs.  

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 #10

Another Zistle trade in the books!  This one with user AUTaxMan.  This is my second trade with him and both have been very pleasant.

He was looking for some 2013 Topps Update cards and offered some in return along with some 2014 Topps.

Here are the Mets I received in the trade:

I have been looking to get an Eric Young, Jr. Mets card for a little bit now.  I moved on from buying 2013 packs, so I had to wait for someone to offer it in a trade.  Both of his Topps cards (this 2013 Topps Update and his 2014 Topps) are a couple of good looking cards.

BONUS CARD:  I didn't receive the Carlos Delgado bat card in this trade.  I got this from Wes over at Jaybarkerfan's Junk.  He was doing a World Cup of Trading and I decided to participate.  It was a simple concept.  Claim a card and then send him something in return.

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!