Zistle Trade #84: paulb

Back to the World Series, but specifically the studio team that Fox delivered.  Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, and Keith Hernandez.  Both Ortiz and Hernandez were new additions this postseason and the four of them seemed to gel together nicely.

Burkhardt and Hernandez worked together for eight years before Burkhardt moved over to Fox.  It was actually Burkhardt himself who called Hernandez asking him if he was interested in the position.  Alex was gushing about Keith even before their first show together.  The gushing is well deserved though.

Keith Hernandez was barely considered for the Hall of Fame when his time came, but he is very much regarded by his peers and current players.  He brought the shows his usual honesty and critiques with his off the cuff wit.  He almost got into some hot water with an off the cuff remark about San Francisco that was taken out of context.  People who brought it up seemed to not know that Keith grew up in San Francisco and was very much entrenched in the Giants-Dodgers feud.  I didn't even realize people took offense until a bit later, but I can see why that would happen and so did Keith.

Anyway, back to the cards!  This trade is another one with Paul.  I recall Paul being a NY team guy, collecting both Mets and Yankees.  This was a nice trade that filled in some missing holes in a number of sets.

I think there are some pretty classic designs here from Donruss, Fleer, and Upper Deck.  It also looks like Fleer decided to tone down their Metal Universe set.  This time players are placed in locations with their home teams, but just look like giants.  Here we see John Olerud playing ball over Central Park.

Finishing up with new World Series champions, Carlos Beltran.  Carlos has had a great career that looks to be wrapped up now with the World Series victory.  He really has no reason to continue except for his love of the game.  I could see him doing one more year with an AL team, though.  He also seems to have enough passion for the game to be doing something (coaching or front office) after retiring.  (Edit - He announced his retirement.)

He probably also wrapped up a Hall of Fame induction with this ring.  He could become the next Met to be inducted since he played his best years in the orange and blue.  That debate is in the future, though.

Blogger Trade: All Cardinals All the Time

Next up is a trade I had completely overlooked!  Not the first time and probably won't be the last. 

I had a stack of cards that I have been trying to figure out who sent them.  Zistle keeps track of trades, so I know it was not from anyone there.  I searched my inbox, but couldn't find anything that wasn't accounted for already.

Well, somewhere in that stack was a note from Ray.  I recall leaving it there to remind when I got around to scanning those cards.  I guess I hid it too well, because it took me long enough to see it again.

Anyway, Ray has a great blog over at All Cardinals All the Time.  It is like my little blog here, but much better written.  Ray reached out via email (I found our emails later) with a list of cards he needed from my Zistle collection.  A little back and forth later and we had a nice trade worked out.

Ray sent over a nice stack with some great cards.  It is always nice to be reminded that the Mets were one of Rickey Henderson's nine teams during his long, Hall of Fame career.  He was voted the Comeback Player of the Year in 1999 for his one full season with the Mets.  He was released the following year just over a month into the 2000 season.     

Ray also sent along a couple of nice throwbacks.  The first one being the above Rey Ordonez wearing a New York Cubans uniform.  The New York Cubans were a Negro League team from 1939 to 1950.  The second one, with Tom Glavine, might be a Cubans throwback, too.  I think Ordonez is in the home uniform and Glavine in the road uniform.  The Mets would wear these throwbacks a couple more times in 2010.

Sorry it took so long to get this trade posted, Ray.  It was a pleasure and I hope you need some more Cardinals!

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!