Zistle Trade #86: royals

Well, this is the end of Zistle trading.  It actually ended last year, but being timely with posts is not my style.

Zistle was fun.  Made contact with a lot of great collectors.  Made contact with one terrible collector.  I sent cards to numerous states and a handful of countries around the world.  Sometimes good things do not work out, but we move on to the next good thing.

Finishing up my Zistle experience is another excellent trade with Josh.  Last time he sent a bunch of extras with our trade.  Like a lot.  I intended to make a post on those because there were so many, but that idea fell with father time.

I tried to offer as many cards as he needed that I had, but Josh is just too generous.  He still sent some extras!

I know some relic cards have small patches of material, but the Phil Seibel relic on the left has to be the smallest I have ever seen.  This isn't a knock on Josh and his generosity.  I guess Upper Deck was just trying to use up all of the jerseys.

Phil Seibel never pitched for the Mets.  His entire MLB playing career took place between 4 days in 2004 with the Boston Red Sox.  He pitched a total of 3.2 innings and struck out one batter (Jason Giambi).  Seibel received a World Series ring for his efforts.  Baseball is weird.

Thanks for another excellent trade, Josh!  Josh also has blog home at Royals and Random.  Check it out!

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.

Zistle Trade #78: mkaz80

Next up is another Mets-centric trade with Mark over at This Way to the Clubhouse.

We all have duplicates.  Sometimes we have multiple duplicates.  Matching up with other Mets collectors is always nice and welcomed.  It is an easy way to get rid of duplicates and clear up some storage space.  Mark and I were able to exchange a nice mix of Mets cards ranging from the 1980's to 2016.

I think the mid 90's had some decent sets.  One of those sets is the Upper Deck release of 1996 SP.  There were five SP sets released from 1993 to 1997.  The set was renamed to SP Authentic starting in 1998 until it's final run in 2009.

I like the 1996 design the most from the original SP sets.  It is not too flashy and looks pretty sharp.  Maybe it is the wood-grain design that brings the nostalgia of 1987 Topps to mind.

The other set I like is 1997 Fleer.  There have been some pretty terrible designs for Fleer.  There was probably an intervention at Fleer HQ after their 1995 set.  Fleer made a radical change in 1996 to the soft finish on the card and continued going border-less.  They must of liked this look because it barely changed from 1996 to 1997.

Continuing on to the 2000's when every card company decided to go over board with releases.  Topps this and Topps that.  Fleer this and Fleer that.  Upper Deck this and Upper Deck that.  They weren't all duds though.  Topps probably had the better releases, but Fleer didn't do too bad either (at least I think).  

By the end of the 2000's it was pretty much down to Topps and Upper Deck.  I can see why MLB went with Topps with their exclusive license.  Upper Deck had some okay sets, but overall not much varied with checklists.

It is long over due, but thanks for another great trade, Mark!  Mark stopped his blog back in October of last year, but keep an eye on it as he might return someday.

It also looks like Mark made the switch over from Zistle to Trading Card Database.  A cool feature at TCDb is that you can see where you rank among other collectors.  There was a short period of time when I was #1 in the Mets collection.  I thought I was safe because I had a decent lead over #2, but then Mark entered his collection and claimed the #1 spot. 

Zistle Trade #69: TheToddFather21

This Zistle trade came in from Josh.  When I saw his username, in my mind, I was thinking Todd Helton.  I believe there is another Blogger out there that goes by something similar.  Josh's request was for some Reds cards, so I thought that was weird.  Then it hit me and I was forgetting about Todd Frazier.

I always find Bobby Bonilla cards from his second stint with the Mets to be funny.  He put up pretty decent numbers during his first go round, but he never lived up to being the highest paid player in baseball.  I am not sure why the owners thought things would be different the second time around.

There is an annual reminder about how the Mets pay him over $1 million a year despite not playing baseball since 2001.  I do not understand why this is a big deal.  A lot of teams have deferred payments for players who are retired, just not as long as Bonilla's runs.  I guess it only gets attention because of the Madoff scandal that made his deferred salary possible.  Just Mets' owners being Mets' owners.

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!

Zistle Trade #54: scottbdoug

Here is another trade with user scottbdoug.  Scott has not been on Zistle very long, but he has settled right into the community.  He is one of the more (maybe even the most) active member on the forum and often times posts useful information for traders.  Also, it looks like he has a blog going on over at Cardboard Collecting.

This time he reached out with a request with some Fleer set needs.  Here are the Mets (along with some post-Mets Gary Carter) I received.

I am not sure if it is mandatory or just customary for Canadians to offer O-Pee-Chee cards, but I seem to get them mostly from Canadian traders.  I am sure those cards are just more plentiful up north, but I wonder if anyone feels like they have to throw them into an offer just because, you know?  I am not complaining though, as I can just ask for them to be taken off the trade.  Just wondering.  I will stop now.

Blogger Trade: Hoyle

I believe many of you have traded with Mark before and know how he is a generous trader.  I do not believe he has a blog of his own, but simply reads and comments on blogs.  I saw somewhere that he collects all the Boston teams and I had a stack of Patriots and Celtics cards looking for a good home.  A couple emails back and forth and we were set.

I believe one of things Mark is known for is sending out some vintage goodness.  This package was not short on that at all.

Even with all of those 1972 Topps cards Mark sent my way, I still need about twice as many to complete a Mets team set.  Without looking into it, that year has to be the most Mets base cards found from Topps flagships release.

You can see a contrast here in the photography styles used on vintage cards compared to modern cards.  It seems like most vintage cards used posed shots the majority of the time while modern cards are mostly action shots.  Of the four modern cards shown above, three would be considered action shots.  Of all of the vintage cards, there are only two with action shots.  There is probably a perfectly good reason for this, of course.  Less advanced technology, maybe less on-field access at games, or maybe nobody back then really thought actions were all that interesting.

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)! 

Zistle Trade #48: sam383

This Zistle trade was with user sam383.  Dave sent a trade request during the midst of a number of other trade requests.  Unfortunately, I was a bit slow getting back to Dave, so he eventually moved on.  This happens on occasion.  We all have lives that do not center around cards.  I hope no one takes it personally.

Feeling sorry that I ignored his request, I reached back out to him.  Luckily, Dave was cool about it and got things going again.  He requested some various Topps needs while I received the same in return.

Whenever I see older Topps Heritage cards I get reminded that they exist.  I guess I think Topps Heritage is a newer set that has only been around for maybe 6 or 7 years.  Apparently, it has been around for twice as long.

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 #45 jaysfan46

Here is another Zistle trade to our neighbors of the north.  This time with Leonel.  Most requests I have received are asking for cards of certain teams, players, sets, or brands.  This is the first request specific to Mexican ball players.  Just thought it was strange (in a good way, of course!).

In return, I got a Puerto Rican, a Dominican, and a Floridian.  I will let you figure out who is who.   

Zistle Trade #42: tidalwav90

Here is another Zistle trade with Jesse.  This time he sent a trade request looking for some early 90's card needs.

Filled some set needs with this trade.  Obtained Dave Magadan card showing him with the Mariners.  I enjoyed watching Magadan play for the Mets when I was younger.  He was an excellent hitter for us.  I was bummed to see him go, but kept up with through the rest of his career.

Zistle Trade #41: OrlandoBolts

This Zistle trade was with new trade partner Jason.  Jason reached out with a request for some
Toronto Blue Jays cards.  This was another quick trade with no back and forth.

I only received two Mets cards from this trade, but two pretty decent ones.  I guess this would be considered Jose Reyes' rookie card for Upper Deck, though Topps had already released a few rookie cards in 2001 and 2002.

Zistle Trade #32: Rosenort

Here we are with my first post of 2016.  I have not been reading many blogs recently, but have noticed a trend of "State of the Blog" type posts.  I do not have anything against those posts and those that I did read were well done.  That whole thing is just not for me.

I like my current setup of showing some cards I get via trade or whatever with a little commentary here and there.  I will have better, more well-rounded posts on occasion if the creative juices flow.  For now, though, we keep it nice and simple.

Speaking of nice and simple, here is another trade completed on Zistle with user rosenort.

Not much "Wow!" factor, but still a solid trade to fill some holes in my collection.  

Zistle Trade #31: tidalwav90

It is the end of 2015 with 2016 just a few hours away.  This has been a pretty great year for Mets fans.  We went into Spring Training with a returning Matt Harvey, but then lost Zack Wheeler for the season.  We started the season strong, but then lost a couple of big bats to injuries and stopped scoring runs.  We traded for a big bat then went on a tear to the top of the NL East.  We made it to the World Series then lost it in five games.

I have read a lot of Mets fans being upset at the lack of a big signing this off season, but I think the signings we have made are just fine.  Cespedes would be nice, but not at the cost he is asking.  Zobrist would have been nice and filled many needs, but he wanted to play somewhere else.  Murphy signing with the Nationals hurt a little, but we got a nice replacement in Neil Walker.  We still have a couple more needs to address, but this off season has been good enough so far. 

Now back to the cards!  Here is another Zistle trade completed, this time with Jesse.  He reached out with some Cubs needs and offered up some Mets in return.

I always like to get 1988 cards since they show Mets players in their 1987 uniforms.  The 1987 season was the only time they wore those New York script uniforms.  Here's to hoping they bring it back for some games in the future.

Finally, here is nice Jeff Kent card depicting him about to make a play at second base.  Kent had a great career and showed a lot of promise with the Mets, but played his greatest elsewhere.  For Mets fans, at least for me anyway, it feels like there are a number of players we can look back on in the same regard.

Zistle Trade #30: hpennington22

The last time I posted the Mets and Royals were going into Game 4 of the World Series.  Well, we all know how that turned out.  I was not heartbroken with the lost.  The Royals played great baseball, but ultimately I think the Mets beat themselves.  They had every chance to maintain the lead or take it, but failed to hold on in the end.

Even with this lost, there was a lot gained by the young Mets players like Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, and Michael Conforto.  They each made their MLB debut this season and ended up playing in the World Series.  There are a lot of great players who never even got that chance.  Ken Griffey, Jr., Ichiro, and Ernie Banks are some of the first to come to my mind.  No doubt that this experience will help each of those players out tremendously.

All things consider, the 2015 season was an enormous success for the Mets.  Most people probably thought the Mets were a fringe playoff team at best.  The Mets exceed all expectations, in my opinion.

Now, back to some trades.  This is my second trade with Henry.  He reached out to me with a rather large trade offer.  I believe it was, and still is, the most cards I have traded and received via Zistle.  Here are just some of the cards that I received.

I enjoy these 1996 Upper Deck cards.  I like how each card is game dated to the photo depicted.  It really puts the photo into context more than today's cards.

Later Upper Deck releases didn't really do much for me.  I think the only thing Upper Deck had going for them in their later years was that they were able to get more players on cards, but that came at the expense of large, massive sets.

And we finish up with another player who never played in the World Series and one who was a big part of the 1969 World Series champions.

Zistle Trade #26

The Mets keep rolling with another series sweep this weekend over the Atlanta Braves.  There were a couple of unfortunate errors in Sunday's game, but they redeemed those with three runs in the ninth and tenth innings to complete the four game sweep.  The Mets return to Queens to start a homestead against the Marlins, Yankees, and Braves.  It is only a matter of time now until the Mets clinched their division.

Moving along with another Zistle trade.  This time with user reyoung68.  He reached out to me requesting some of his Topps needs and countered with these Mets cards along with some of my other various needs.

Not a bad selection of Mets cards.  I was looking to get Rickey Henderson's first Topps card as a Met for a while at the time of this trade.  I also enjoy the Upper Deck Oviation Mike Piazza I received.  The card is made to look and feel like a baseball.  Of course, they do not feel like an actual baseball, but Upper Deck made an interesting card with that set.

Zistle Trade #24

We are now into September with the Mets in first place.  They look to continue their forward momentum into a playoff run.  Due to the Cardinals, Pirates, and Cubs playing great ball, but being in the same division, the Mets must win their division to make the playoffs.

The Mets and Nationals started a crucial series on Labor Day.  The first game was exciting with the Mets giving up the lead, but then coming back for the win.  The entire team looked ready for this game and did not seem distracted by the recent media hoopla.  Now, it is the person at the center of the hoopla to make his start to continue the Mets path to the playoffs.

Moving along with another Zistle trade with user SDre31.  Steve was one of the first few trades I completed on Zistle a couple of years ago.  This was our second trade.

Those 1987 Topps cards that you can find literally from anyone.  These are from the Topps Traded set which I believe finishes off that 1987 set for me.

The bottom-right card is a rookie card of Kelly Stinnett.  I know he is not one of those players you trade for, but I was glad to get this card.  

I have been to over 20 MLB games, so far, in my life.  I have always wanted to catch a foul or home run ball, but have not done so yet.  The closest was when Kelly threw me a ball after batting practice.  I was maybe 11 or 12 years old and pretty far away from what I recall.  I was waving my glove and he threw the ball up to me.

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 #21: Hockey Edition

I am getting closer to finding good homes for all of my non-baseball cards.  This Zistle trade pretty much wiped out all of my hockey cards.

I found user opierocks forum post about wanting any hockey cards for any of his non-hockey cards.  It seemed like a perfect match, but I thought I might have missed the boat.  I found his post at least a month, maybe two, after he posted.  I still sent him a trade request.  He did not seem too active on the site, so I figured the request would go unnoticed.

Of course, he got back to me.  Why else would I be writing this post?  These are the Mets received from the trade:

Currently, I am down to just two hockey cards.  If anyone reading this is (or knows) a hockey fan or Florida Panthers fan, let me know if you (or they) want my last two hockey cards.  Both are auto cards that were obtained in person during a preseason many years ago.