Group Break at Waiting 'til Next Year

There were some "new" aspects of the hobby I had to experience when I started back collecting.  Group breaks were one of those aspects.  

Thanks to Tom over at Waiting 'til Next Year I was able to participate in my first group break.  The break took place over the summer and included 1989 Swell, 1990 Swell, 1991 Swell, and 1990 Pacific Legends.  Sure, it is not the high-end product that most seem to like participate in for group breaks, but it was perfect for me to test the waters of group breaks.

I, of course, chose the Mets for my team in the break.

1990 Pacific Legends and 1991 Swell

1990 Swell

1990 Swell cont. and 1989 Swell

From this break I learned that Harvey Haddix was a pitching coach for the Mets from 1966-1967.  You may have heard of Mr. Haddix as having pitched an unprecedented 12 perfect innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Milwaukee Braves in 1959.  His perfect game was ultimately stopped in the 13th inning as the Pittsburgh Pirates lost 1-0.

Tom also threw in a stack of SSPC that I will show in a future post.  Thanks for the extras and for hosting this group break!

eBay Summer Purchases (plus a contest pimp)

I had another round with eBay this summer.  I decided to change things up this time around.  Instead of watching the auctions until the end, I decided to just place one or two bids and see what would happen.  Well, when all was said and done, I ended up with a nice stack of Mets cards.

First, lets start with some vintage Mets.

Next up are some modern cards.

The two auto cards are Juan Urbina and Fernando Martinez.

Urbina is one of the young Mets pitching prospects who has been playing in the rookie and low A leagues for the past few years.  He turned 21 years old this year and is the son of former All-Star closer Ugueth Urbina.  The older Urbina, a 2003 World Series champion with the Florida Marlins, has had an interesting post-career life.

Mets fans will remember Fernando Martinez as a promising prospect that eventually went bust.  He was highly ranked amongst multiple publications as the top Mets prospect.  He played very well in the minors, but just never materialized in the majors.  He also played briefly for the Houston Astros who ended up trading him to the New York Yankees.  He was suspended in August 2013 as part of the Biogenesis scandal.

To close out this post is a little contest pimping.  CaptKirk42's Trading Card Blog is having a contest celebrating the fifth anniversary of his blog.  Check it out and join in!

Zistle Trade #8

Here is another trade completed on Zistle this summer.  This one was with user dvdgao.  He reached out to me for some Cardinals and offered some Mets.  We reached an agreement after a couple exchanges.

Here is what I received:

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."

Reddit Trade

I completed a trade on reddit recently.  Someone was looking to get rid of some 2007-2008 products.  We worked out a trade for a handful of Mets cards for some Angels cards.  I think this was my third or fourth trade on reddit and things have gone smoothly so far.

Most of what I received were Upper Deck products, but there were some 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter and 2007 Topps Update.

The majority of the cards I received were of various Upper Deck releases.  Upper Deck had some pretty decent card designs for their main set releases.  Some of their secondary releases were hit-and-miss, in my opinion.  I really enjoy the Masterpieces set, though.

 

I am trying to find a good and efficient way to scan cards.  I like this method of using a 9-card page to keep things more neat looking.

Zistle Trade #5

Another Zistle trade in the books.  This one with user hpennington22.  He has completed the most trades on the site and the only user with over 100 trades completed.

He initiated this trade for some of my 2014 Topps Heritage duplicates.  This time the Mets cards were not the majority of what I received.  Since I show my Mets cards here, though, these are the Mets that I received:

The scan does not do justice to the R.A. Dickey card.  It is so much better looking in person! 

Only one current Met of the bunch.  As much as I like Ike Davis, it looks like the Mets made the right choice by trading him and giving Lucas Duda more playing time.  Duda has really turned into a respectable player and has shown he can handle being an every day player at first base.  He hit his 22nd home run of the season in today's lost to the Cubs.