Zistle Trade 92- Picked up Some O's

I fear this is turning into a “Look at Justin's trades” blog. Well, so be it. There will be more content in the future (promises, promises). For now, enjoy my quest to 100 (trades, don't thing I'm going to live that long). Here is trade number 92. Yup, skipped one, don't worry about it, we'll get there at some point.

Once again we go to Zistle. I reached out to user bdlehman18 for a quick PWE trade. For those who don't trade cards on the internet with strangers PWE stands for Plain White Envelope. When you're only trading a small amount of cards (usually 6 and under) it doesn't make sense to put them in a padded envelope and waste a bunch of money on shipping. Instead you use a regular envelope, some creative protection (usually cardboard) and hope for the best.

PWE can be frowned upon if you don't let the other guy know ahead of time. Or if you're shipping expensive cards. Luckily I don't any of those and Brian was ok with it. I dropped him a few extras I had (including a Goodwin Champions from a box that I had no valid reason for buying).

In return he sent the following:

2013 Topps Trevor Bauer

When you are putting a set together, not every card is going to be sexy. Sometimes you have to grind out the collecting and pick up cards that elicit exactly zero emotional response. Thus you end up trading for Trevor Bauer base cards.

2010 Topps Nolan Reimold

A double needed card! An Oriole card I didn't have and a card I need for the world's most annoying set – 2010 Topps. This is also, without a doubt, the most tentative fist bump of all time. Anything harder than a gentle whisper of a touch would land Reimold on the DL with a broken wrist.

1994 Topps Cal Ripken

I'm sure I have multiple copies of this card in the Florida vault (i.e. my in-laws house) but I do enjoy this piece of junk era cardboard. It's the perfect use of horizontal framing as it captures Ripken's follow through completely without cutting off an arm or a bat. Well done Topps.

1997 Collectors Choice The BIG Show Eddie Murray

God bless you mid-to-late 90s cards. Foil – check. Random use of sports celebrities to drive an unnecessary insert – check. Random multicolor text on the back of the card – check. Really, look at the back of this thing:

 It took me a few seconds to realize that Upper Deck had mashed two different thoughts together and alternated lines. Why? Why would you do this Upper Deck?

Also, if you look you see that Eddie Murray is rocking the top hand batting glove in this photo. I'm sure this is only interesting to me, but it is the first thing I check out on any Murray card I add to my collection. I am so intrigued I think I'm ready to write him a fan-boy (well fan-middle aged man) letter asking him why the hell he would do that.

I've developed my first theory. Murray was one of the best switch hitters to ever play the game. You could argue that Mickey Mantle is the only one that was better. Even though he was dangerous from both sides it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a manager to call a reliever in to switch him from left to right or right to left. So if Murray went to hit right-handed he only brought a batting glove for his left hand (most hitters if they wear only one batting glove wear it on their bottom “power”hand). If a manager called a right-handed reliever in to switch Murray around, maybe the slugger didn't like going back to switch batting gloves so he just rolled with it.

Seriously, I thought about this for about five minutes straight. I might have even ignored some things my wife told me while I thought about this. Women, this is why you should never ask us what we're thinking about. This is what we think about.

2015 Topps Stadium Club Bo Jackson

Aww yeah. Bo knows Stadium Club. Not the most action-packed shot, but it did make me wonder – Is this the same fence from Bo's slightly more famous 1987 Topps card? 

I will argue that Jackson's rookie card is one of the ten best cards from the mid-to-late 80s. Not quite the Griffey 1989 Upper Deck, but close. Damn close.

That wraps up another trade, just a few more to get to that magical 100 mark.

We're Back With A Trade Post

Alright, time to dust off this piece of the internet with a trade post.  As you, my faithful readers, might remember I gave myself a half-ass goal of getting to 100 Zistle trades by the end of the year.  I knocked out about 3 trades and then stopped.  There was no good reason to stopping other than laziness.  God knows it’s not like I’m buying more cards (because JustinG. Is extra broke now. If you’re interested in a nice two-bedroom condo in lovely Florida drop me a line).

But now, like Slim Shady and the Terminator, I’m back and ready to hit that goal.  Last week I completed a small trade a gentleman who goes by the name halos17, a Marty St. Louis fan living in Indiana of all places.  There aren’t many Lightning collectors circulating on the web so it’s always nice to unload some doubles on a fellow fan.

In return he dropped off a handful of cards that I was looking for.

2010 Topps - John Smoltz and Tim Hudson.

Both pitchers in uniforms that they normally aren’t associated with.  Hudson had a pretty good run with his hometown Braves winning 113 games for Atlanta before injuries set him back. Smoltz - not so much in St. Louis. The Hall of Famer signed with the Cardinals after being released by the Red Sox in 2009. At 42 he didn’t have much left in the tank as he went 1-3 in his 7 starts.

It’s just really, really weird seeing him in a St. Louis uniform.  Like Frank Thomas as an Athletic weird.  Or Andy Van Slyke as an Oriole weird. Stadium Club should show their retired stars in oddball uniforms next year.  I wouldn’t mind pulling a Sammy Sosa as a Ranger or Gary Sheffield as a Met card.

Two cards closer to completing that set (only a couple hundred more to go). I really don’t know why I picked this set to complete.  I’m not really a fan of the design and didn’t collect it when it came out (I was in the process of moving to Chicago).  I guess it doesn’t really matter because I’ve started down the road.

1989 Upper Deck - Team Card and Larry Sheets

Speaking of Orioles uniforms, two cards from Upper Deck’s inaugural set. One of these days I’m going to put this whole thing together, I’ve cobbled probably a third of it through random means.  Of course, that Griffey rookie got a little more expensive with his induction.

Did you know that Larry Sheets hit 31 home runs in 1987? That’s more than Eddie Murray (30) and Cal Ripken, Jr (27). He also only walked 31 times in 508 plate appearances, which may be more impressive than the home runs.

2015 Stadium Club - 8 cards

Once I’m financially solvent again (no really, if you want to move to Florida, Largo is a great place to live) I’m buying another box.  This really is my favorite product from the last two years. I thought I was a lot closer to completing it then I actually am (just over 50%), but it’s fun chasing down the missing cards because they all look so good.

Thank you Rob, and here’s to getting 10 more trades done over the next couple of months.

Also, I’ll get this site up and running again. There won’t be much in the way of Lightning content as you can see everything I write over at Raw Charge so expect more card stuff, some baseball (I swear I have thoughts about this O’s team) and some Chicago stuff.

Thank you, as always, for reading.