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.