Zistle Trade #83: TNTCardsStg

Next up is a trade with Trevor.  Pretty straightforward trade with some decent stuff traded.

So, we thought Fleer learned their lesson with their 1995 design when they went the simple route for their 1996 design.  Well, it turns out that they just took their crazy and put it under the Metal Universe name.

I guess if you are into comic books, then these Metal Universe cards look cool.  They are definitely different, so that's nice.  I am not sure why Bernard Gilkey needs a falcon on his arm while he bats.  That would seem to be a bit distracting.  It makes sense that Todd Hundley needs an over sized glove since he was a catcher, but does he really need a headset mike?  Do the other players need him to tell them where the ball is going?  Was he trying to earn extra money working a drive-thru?  And what is the deal with the laser?

I guess the Metal Universe is not the worst thing to happen with cards.  It was creative and probably remains one of the most creative sets ever released.  Fleer was definitely doing their own PEDs designing those sets.

Zistle Trade #75: Ryans0625

This Zistle trade was with Ryan.  He reached out with a large trade request.  We both ran into some missing cards, but easily worked it out. 

By happenstance, four of the cards below depict the Mets playing the Cubs at Wrigley Field.  The Todd Hundley and Carlos Baerga cards look like they could be from the same game, but unlikely because those cards are from different release years.  It could be possible for the Baerga and Rey Ordonez cards to be the same game or even the same series.  I wonder if there is a way to find out these things?

I understand that photo shopping is sometimes necessary, but it really should not be used.  The Mo Vaughn card below is a good example of bad photo shopping.  There is nothing that I can think of that relates the Mets to mountains.  I recall Vaughn being a big guy, but something seems off about his body here.

Ryan also sent some nice shiny cards my way.  I dig the Jacob deGrom Future Stars chrome card.  It isn't grammatically correct since it features just one star, but I enjoyed the Future Star cards back in the day.  Sure, Topps was probably wrong more times than right with their choices, but it was a nice feature to the cards.

Topps started the Future Stars card back in the 80's when they would feature multiple players on the card.  Later in the 80's they changed it to just showcasing one player, but kept the plural tense on the cards.  I would think the 1987 Topps Bo Jackson card is the most recognized one.  Topps kept the tradition going, but would correct the cards to show the singular tense.

They changed the design over the years into the 90's and eventually stop it's use after 1996.  Topps eventually brought back the wrong tensed Future Stars in the 2014 flagship release.

Overall, this was an excellent trade.  Thanks for the cards, Ryan!

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 #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!

Zistle Trade #25

Well, those were some great games of baseball!  Three come from behind wins for the Mets and they now have a nice seven game lead in the NL East.  Mets fans do not like to say something is definite until it happens, but things are definitely going our way right now.

Now, back to the trades...

I have traded with user bdlehman18 a couple times now.  Our first trade was only my second one on Zistle.  He was only looking for a couple of cards for our third trade, so it was short and simple.

We did hit a little snag when he went to pull the cards he was going to send me.  Zistle is a great website for keeping your card collection, but it does come with some bugs.  It happens on occasion during trades, but it never has been a big deal.

Being the good trader he is, Brian asked if I wanted to pick a replacement.  I gave a couple of options and asked him to surprise me.  This is what he sent.

I really enjoy the look of these 1998 Pacific Omega cards for some reason.  I only had one Omega card prior to receiving these four cards, but that one card has always been a favorite of mine.  I could have pulled that card and scanned it, but decided it was easier to do a Google Image search.

"Courtesy" of The Snorting Bull

It is not too often you find a card depicting a player on three different teams, especially of a high caliber player like Mike Piazza.  Unfortunately, Piazza missed the Hall of Fame election again this year.  His chances are looking better for next year with only one definite shoo-in (Ken Griffey, Jr.) in front of him.