Zistle Trade #76: The_Sandlot

I had not tried many different websites for card cataloging.  I found Zistle and settled right in because of how simple and intuitive it was to catalog my cards.  The best feature, to me, is by far the Trade Manager.  It was not with out it issues, but it kept things fairly organized.

Once word came out about Zistle's "sale" I knew I had to work out some large trades.  This trade was with Joe, who is a "Dog trainer by day, Mets super collector by night."

Joe sent along some nice vintage needs which is never a bad thing.

A lot of teams like to keep things in the family when it comes to their broadcast announcers.  The Mets are no different here.  Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling make up two-thirds of the Mets TV announcing team along with Gary Cohen.  They get a lot of high praise for their work, too.  They even have their own Instagram account @garykeithron.

I watch a lot of Mets games on the MLB At Bat app which allows you to select which TV feed you want to watch.  I typically watch the home feed when I watch other, non-Mets, games.  There is a distinct difference I hear from the announcers.  Some are good.  Some are boring.   It tells me how lucky Mets fans are to have such a great announcing team.

The highlight of the trade for me is the Daniel Murphy card below.  I was always a fan of Murphy and felt he always had the skills to be an All-star (except in the outfield).   It is nice to see Murphy being among the best players in the league.  It sucks to see that happen with the Nationals.

Another highlight of this trade for me was the Luis Ayala card.  Nothing special about this card except the image used.  It is a fitting choice since this card completed that Topps base set for me.

Zistle Trade #74: mattdamick

This was a quick trade with Matt.  He reached out with a simple request.  One PWE later and I received some nice cards.

Seeing Keith Hernandez in an Indians uniform is quite strange.  He isn't too fond of his time there either.  He batted right at a .200 average which was a career worst.  He retired after his one season in Cleveland.  He rarely mentions it during Mets broadcasts and pretty much changes the subject when it is brought up.  I also read something somewhere that he won't sign anything featuring him on the Indians, but I think there are some Leaf Buybacks out there that he has signed.

Seeing Gary Carter in a Giants uniform is also strange.  He only played one season with the Giants and mostly as a platoon player.  His best playing days were behind him at that point, but he did reach a catching milestone while playing with the Giants.  He became the all-time NL leader in games caught as 1,862.  He added to that total by playing a couple more years, but I believe he still holds the NL record.

Zistle Trade #72: SDre31

This next Zistle trade is with Steve.  He was one of my first trades completed on Zistle.  He reached out with a nice trade offer, but I offered back with a nice stack back to him.

I received a bunch of oddball cards from Steve.  Oddball cards can be a little frustrating at times.  Some look cheap and are airbrushed of logos.  Some are nice looking and sometimes beat their flagship release counterpart.  I would say the most interesting one here is the Topps Magazine card.  Although, the cards showing off Keith Hernandez's mustache are pretty sweet.

Topps released a magazine for a few years in the early 1990's.  One would think that there would 9 cards attached in the magazine (you know, since 9 cards fit to a page), but for Topps reasons there were usually just 8 cards.  Towards the end of its run it was decreased down to 4 cards plus one jumbo card.

 

A couple more oddballs I received were these Denny's cards.  I enjoyed getting these cards as a kid because of the cool holograms.  The cards still hold up well today and always fun to revisit.  

Overall, this was an excellent trade with Steve.  I recall our first trade being pretty cool as well, so it is nice to things have not changed.

Zistle Trade #70: scottbdoug

We head back north to Canada for our next trade.  This one again with Scott.  We have traded a few other times and so far so good.
Scott sent a couple cards that will be going into my in-progress FFM binder.  That is Former & Future Mets.  I am still working on that name, but FFM is a decent abbreviation, right?  F&FM? 

Anyway, the 1983 Topps Keith Hernandez and Bud Harrelson should be nice additions.  I believe this is my first Hernandez in a Cardinals uniform from his playing days.

Bud Harrelson was the Mets' shortstop for 13 years.  He played with an excellent glove and poor bat, but that was pretty standard for his position at the time.  At one time he held the Mets single season record for walks, so he must have had a pretty decent eye at the plate.  Guess who broke that single season walk record?  Keith Hernandez.  That's right, we went full circle.  

  

Also received in this trade were some 1991 Score Traded.  Something I learned from this trade was that there was a Traded release for Score.  I guess Score thought their rather large sets needed to be larger.  The cards I received are not too bad, though.  Some have some pretty decent photos.

Pretty solid trade!  Thanks, Scott!

Zistle Trade #66: The_Sandlot

Our next trade is from Joe.  He reached out with a trade offer around the time I was starting to get a bit burned out on trades.  Props to Joe, who was patient enough to wait for things to settle.

Joe sent along some nice cards to fill out my collection.  A few well known players in their pre- or post-Met days.  He also sent along a couple of micro cards which are terrible to store.

The last card is probably my favorite.  It is of Michael Fulmer, who never threw a single pitch for the Mets.  He was sent to the Detroit Tigers for Yoenis Cespedes at the 2015 trade deadline.  Fulmer was another young Mets pitching prospect that had some good upside.  Turns out he had Rookie of Year upside as he was given the year-end award for his stellar 2016 season.  This trade might be one of the best examples of a trade working out for both teams.  

Zistle Trade #64: bbronzan

Well, the San Francisco Giants were eliminated from the postseason earlier this week.  It ended the ridiculous even year streak the Giants were on (#BeliEVEN).  I am not sure "streak" is an accurate description, though.

Fittingly, my next Zistle trade included a bunch of Giants.  I reached out with a trade offer to Brandon, who collects Giants.  We made a pretty quick trade and sent off our cards.
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I received a bunch of Jeff Kent cards in this trade which makes sense as Kent had his best playing years with the Giants.  I always think of Kent as a big loss for the Mets.  He played well for the Mets, but the team was pretty terrible.  He also wasn't known to have the best clubhouse reputation.  Maybe he was bitter for being traded from the Blue Jays during the start of their back-to-back World Series wins.

Furthering the Giants connection, Edgardo Alfonzo also played for the Giants.  His case is a bit different than Kent's.  Alfonzo had his best years for the Mets and is beloved by Mets fans.  He played pretty lousy for the Giants.

Marco Scutaro is another Giants connection from this trade.  Marco made his MLB debut with the Mets in 2002.  He spent some time with the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers before that, but never reached the big leagues with either team.  Scutaro bounced around from the Mets to the A's, Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Rockies.  In 2012, he was traded to the Giants mid-season and helped the Giants win the NL West title.  He went on to hit .500 in the NLCS, win NLCS MVP honors, and drive in the winning run in Game 4 of the World Series as the Giants swept the Detroit Tigers.  Some may remember this image from the NLCS.

Overall, this was a solid trade!  Thanks again, Brandon!

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.

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 #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."

Zistle Trade #3

Here is another trade completed on Zistle.  This one I initiated with user shoebox.  I had some L.A. Kings and he had some Mets.  Among them were these:

When I was younger I despised the 1989 Bowman set.  I did not like how the cards were larger than the rest of my cards.  They would not fit in any of the (few) card boxes I had, so I had to waste extra space for them.  Now that I am better equipped to store them I can look into getting those Mets players I missed out on years ago.