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!

Blogger Trade: All Cardinals All the Time

Next up is a trade I had completely overlooked!  Not the first time and probably won't be the last. 

I had a stack of cards that I have been trying to figure out who sent them.  Zistle keeps track of trades, so I know it was not from anyone there.  I searched my inbox, but couldn't find anything that wasn't accounted for already.

Well, somewhere in that stack was a note from Ray.  I recall leaving it there to remind when I got around to scanning those cards.  I guess I hid it too well, because it took me long enough to see it again.

Anyway, Ray has a great blog over at All Cardinals All the Time.  It is like my little blog here, but much better written.  Ray reached out via email (I found our emails later) with a list of cards he needed from my Zistle collection.  A little back and forth later and we had a nice trade worked out.

Ray sent over a nice stack with some great cards.  It is always nice to be reminded that the Mets were one of Rickey Henderson's nine teams during his long, Hall of Fame career.  He was voted the Comeback Player of the Year in 1999 for his one full season with the Mets.  He was released the following year just over a month into the 2000 season.     

Ray also sent along a couple of nice throwbacks.  The first one being the above Rey Ordonez wearing a New York Cubans uniform.  The New York Cubans were a Negro League team from 1939 to 1950.  The second one, with Tom Glavine, might be a Cubans throwback, too.  I think Ordonez is in the home uniform and Glavine in the road uniform.  The Mets would wear these throwbacks a couple more times in 2010.

Sorry it took so long to get this trade posted, Ray.  It was a pleasure and I hope you need some more Cardinals!

Zistle Trade #63: jtcrawfordcr (Goodbye Zistle?)

Well, we will continue clearing out my draft posts with another Zistle trade.  Sadly, it looks like Zistle will be coming to an end at some point.  Some may know and some may not, but Zistle was sued by Beckett, which shall be known henceforth as Dickett.  I know, not very creative.  Anyway, Dickett thought Zistle infringed on their copyrights by allegedly using their checklists.  My guess is that the owners of Zistle had to let it go due to legal fees.

It is a pretty shitty move by Dickett.  I purchased their price guides back in the day, but I have not used them for much of anything since then, so I can't really boycott them.  I hope anyone who used Zistle or, at the very least, cares about having options in a marketplace decides to boycott. 

Back to the trade.  This one was another with John.  He reached out with an offer.  I did not have a problem with said offer, so a quick deal was made.

Matt Reynolds made an interesting piece of history last season.  He spent the entire 2015 season in Triple A with the Las Vegas 51's and had yet to make an appearance in the big leagues.  We all recall the hoopla of Ruben Tejada, Chase Utley, and the slide which resulted in a broken leg for Tejada.

With an infielder short, the Mets called up Matt Reynolds making him the first modern player to be added in the middle of a series without having major league experience.  He didn't get to play in the playoffs and was dropped off the roster for the World Series.  He eventually made his MLB debut the following season on May 17, 2016 in place of a scratched David Wright.

COMC: #1

I have tried various routes of procuring cards over the last few years.  Zistle trades has by far been my favorite way as you only have to pay postage to send out packages.  eBay is easy enough to find good deals, but shipping costs add up.  Just Commons is an easy way to find a lot of base cards for cheap.  It is pretty easy to find enough cards to get free shipping.  Blowout Cards is a good place to find decent prices on hobby boxes and packs.

Check Out My Cards was the one place I had yet to try.  I am sure if you are reading this blog, then you know of COMC and what it has to offer.  I decided to give it a try last year for their annual Thanksgiving sale.

I went into this venture without a game plan.  I figured I would browse around, put a watch on some cards, or just buy if I liked the price enough.  It was a bit overwhelming at times, but overall a pleasant experience.

I thought I ended up with some decent cards without having a true game plan.  The above 1999 E-X Century cards of John Olerud and Robin Ventura are printed on thick acetate stock and look pretty cool.  Also, I don't see many Todd Zeile relic cards available, so it was nice to see one with the Mets. 

There are not too many Richard Hildago and Marlon Byrd Mets relic cards out there either, so I had to grab both when I saw them for real cheap.  Even better, they both had a pinstripe!  I also found a great David Wright photo variation for less than $2.

I recall seeing the Travis d'Arnaud card (below in the middle spot) on another blog.  I can't remember where I saw it, though.  Apologies to that Blogger.  I do not keep up with Bowman releases very much, so I never saw it before that post, but I recall really liking the card's design.  Also, got some other shiny cards to match.

Rounding out this COMC purchase is one of my favorite photo variations.  It is a fitting send-off card for Bobby Abreu.  PNC Park, where this photo was taken, really gives some great imagery for baseball cards.  Maybe someone at Topps saw this and thought they could make an insert set out of it?

Overall, I can't really complain about COMC.  It is pretty simple to navigate and make purchases.  If you are entrepreneurial spirited, then you can take to card flipping and probably make a decent return.

We are not too far away from Thanksgiving now.  Maybe I should start making a game plan?

Zistle Trade #62: sam383

Next up is another Zistle trade with Dave.  This time he reached out looking for a bunch of commons and was patient waiting for my acceptance.

I think the most interesting card, besides Ramon Castro hamming it up on his card, is that Doc Gooden Bowman card.  Gooden is shown wearing number 64, but we all know him for his number 16 during his Mets tenure.  Gooden did wear number 64 during his first big league camp, but changed over to number 16 once called up, but this card was in 1993.  My best guess is that he is either in Spring Training or doing a rehab stint somewhere in the minors on this card.

Like a lot of ball players and their chosen uniform numbers, Gooden was no different in his choices.  Along with 16, the occasional 64 with the Mets, and 11 with the Yankees, Gooden chose his uniform numbers based on his birthday (11-16-64).

Blogger Trade: gcrl

Up next is a Blogger trade with Jim at garvey cey russell lopes.  This was a trade that started way early last year and took a few months to complete.  It did not take us a few months to agree to a trade, but rather put together a trade package to send to each other.  It was probably more my procrastination than his, but we eventually got this trade done.

I find Blogger trades make me more nervous than Zistle trades.  You can see what cards you get and what cards you are sending with both sides agreeing to a Zistle trade.  Blogger trades seem to be rather blind in most cases.  You might know some of the cards ahead of time, but generally not every thing you get.  I believe this trade was blind.

Jim sent along a rather interesting card.  The above 1999 Topps Stars n' Steel Mike Piazza.  The set is a pretty basic 44 card set with just two parallel versions.  The interesting part is the cards are printed on 0.25 gauge metal.  It was rather surprising to look through a bunch of cardboard and come across one that was metal.

I received some pretty great cards from Jim in this trade.  Some cards finished some team sets and some cards started some team sets.  

Jim finished up his blog last year with a nice "goodbye" post.  He is still collecting and trade, though, which is always nice to see.  Thanks for the wonderful trade, Jim!

Zistle Trade #61: scottbdoug

Up next is another Zistle trade to our neighbors of the north.  Scott reached out with a request for our third trade.  He requested a stack of set needs and sent out a bunch for me.

I think the most interesting card received was the 2002 Topps prospects card featuring Brian Cole.  Cole was an up-and-coming prospect in the Mets minor league system and was showing great promise.  He was one of the players, along with David Wright and Jose Reyes, the Mets were going to build around.  Tragically, his life were cut short after a car accident. 

Sports Illustrated ran a wonderful 2013 article entitled "The Best Player You Never Saw."  The article is a great read for baseball fans that discusses Cole's impact on a number of players who played with and against him, including CC Sabathia and Albert Pujols.