Zistle Trade #57: gasypo

I was browsing the Trade Recommendations section of Zistle when I came across Gabriel's name.  I saw he was a Chicago White Sox collector and knew I could help him out.  I reached out with a trade request for a near complete White Sox team set.

Gabriel did not have too many matches from me to choose from, but that was alright.  Matching the number of cards in a trade is not always the most important factor of a trade.  It is fine as long as both sides are happy with what they receive.

I only received two Mets cards in the trade with the remaining majority being non-Mets needs.  I am happy with Mets I received, though.  The Robles cards is the Rainbow Foil parallel, but the scan does not really show it very well.

Gabriel has his own blog over at White Sox Card Adventures.  It looks like he is big on TTM autos and even got a couple of the cards I sent him signed. 

Zistle Trade #56: paulb

Next up is a Zistle trade with new trade partner Paul.  Paul reached out with a trade request mostly for some Yankees needs.  A small tweak later and we had an agreement.

Paul sent an nice eclectic mix of Mets.  Here are the highlights.

The 2000 Topps Gold Label is definitely the slickest looking card of the bunch.  My favorite card though is probably the 2005 Fleer Tradition Update Mike Piazza (Tale of the Tape).  It is not the best looking design, but I like the color contrast and the turning down of the background color.

Paul, thanks for a nice and easy trade!

Blogger Trade: Bo

Our next trade is a Blogger trade.  This time with Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life.  Bo made a post about obtaining about 40,000 cards from Craigslist. 

Bo sent out a lot of cards to various traders.  I ended up receiving a small USPS Priority box bull of Mets.  The majority of cards were early 1990's releases, but there we still plenty that I still needed for those sets.

Even while getting 40,000 cards, I was still able to send Bo the same sized box back in return.

Some interesting cards in the cards shown above.  First, there is Jeff Kent is letting former Met Mark Carreon smell his armpit.  Second, there is Ryan Thompson suffering from some abdominal discomfort.  Not sure why Pinnacle would chose this for his ball card.  Finally, there is power hitting Carl Everett about to murder bunt a baseball.  Very intense.

I really like receiving Lance Johnson Mets cards.  He only played for the Mets for a season and a half, but he was pretty great for the Mets.  His career year was with the Mets in 1996.  That year he was an All-Star starter and led the National League in hits, singles, and triples.  He had a WAR of 7.2 that year, too (if you are into sabermetrics).

I wish Topps would get him on some Archives releases.  I do not believe there are any auto or relic cards of him out there, Mets or not.  Anyone know an address to send a card to him for a TTM auto?

Zistle Trade #55: Gerry

Not too long after our first trade was completed, Gerry reached out with a second trade request.  Our first trade went down with out a problem, so of course I was down for another.

We have another appearance of a mustached Bartolo Colon during his first stint with the Mets.  This time showing him before he was about to go out a bash a few home runs during Spring Training batting practice.  I also received a nice card of Dave Magadan playing with the Florida Marlins.

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.

Zistle Trade #53: Gerry

Next up is a Zistle trade with new trade partner Gerry.  I think Gerry reached out to me in the past with other requests, but I was either taking a quick hiatus or was dealing with a number of other trades at the time.  It was really just bad timing.  This time though, we got something worked out.

I received a few 1996 Topps Bazooka cards from Gerry.  Bazooka cards were around all throughout the 1960's before disappearing in the early 1970's.  They had brief comebacks in the late 1980's, 1995/1996, and early 2000's.  They have now be relegated to being a subset, most recently as part of the Topps Heritage releases.