Marlins Legend Mike Piazza.

     They say the first step is admitting you have a problem. While I have spent a long time the last decade or so making my collection smaller and more indicative of the things I love, some of the player collections continue to spiral out of control.  Mike Piazza has always been the largest of my hoards and it seems it might never ever cease (not as long as they keep printing old time players that is).

 

     Spring training and a very nice mailing from Night Owl inspired me to tend to a long ignored pile of around 30 Piazza cards that had accumulated but not integrated into the vastness. N.O. had included a few nice Mets inserts and it put me over the edge of having to organize. In that unsorted pile was the die-cut shiny Diamond Immortals card you see in the middle there, which made it nine original Piazza Marlins cards in my collection - that is 4 more than games he played in Florida teal - right in the wheelhouse of this blog. This also gives me an opportunity to fact dump one of my favorite things about Piazza's career: he hit only 8 triples over 16 years but that does include at least one for each team he played for, yup he hit one in the 18 at bats he took in Miami. So dumb, so delicious.

     So now I have almost two full super top loader boxes of worthy Piazza cards. Not the regular two row shoe boxes mind you, the giant long three row ones. You can see the size of the two row boxes on the right of this photo, and compare it to the two behemoths next to it.

The first box is chock full of the Mets (and Marlins!) insert cards plus all the ones post-2008 and his playing career.  There is about 600 cards in here:

The second box has all the relic and encapsulated cards in the left row and all his Dodgers inserts in the middle and right rows.  There is a bit of room left in here, illustrated by the double plastic box spacer in the back, but all it will take is one eBay or Comc binge and that bit will be gone. There is at least 300 cards in this box and maybe closer to four (I did not count as I organized).  That means there's about 1000 inserts SPs and parallels in top loaders here. And you wonder why I've never shown ALL the individual Piazza cards I have.

Oh yeah, and these are just the fancy insert cards.  I have a 3" binder full of his base cards and lesser inserts and parallels.  There's probably 90-100 pages in there as well.

So while Gary Carter will probably always maintain most favorite player status, he only has a single regular shoebox of fancy cards and one 2" binder.  Mike Piazza arrived on the scene as cards started to get silly and my abundance reflects that.  I will never have all of them but someday my heirs will have to figure out what to do with ~2000 Mike Piazza cards. And by then it could be closer to 3000.  I really do have a problem.

Old and New Business on a Pretty Good Good Friday.

   First things first, you will have noticed that the header has changed, I figured the blog could use a spruce and little more color plus the other photo was not a good example of social distancing.  While I am not sure if the new one has the guys 6 feet apart, it is still a better graphic for this day and age. 

A couple packages have come to Starting Nine central recently, one was from a new reader eager to share; Tom from The Angels in Order looked at one of my my wantlists and satisfied some missing base Mets, especially from series 2 of 2018 Topps, from which I purchased exactly zero packs:

One of the last posts I did before I disappeared was a harsh yet fair critique of the 2018 Topps design (and what they could have done about it).  I stand by my thoughts 1000% though I must say, those vertical photos of d'Arnaud and Thor looks great regardless of their borderless nature.  I never did get to say what I thought of the 2019 look, but I liked it more than most; 1982 Topps is one of the first sets I remember and it definitely invokes that look.  Anyway, I have a bunch of Angels stuff to go out to reciprocate these so thanks Tom!

The other came from Nate of The Bucs Stop Here, who read about my glut of 2020 Heritage and wanted to trade.  I sent him the Alvarez/Aquino rookie I had and he sent me some Mets that will be far more appreciated around here:

It may not look it, but that Granderson is shiny foil and rookie cup cards are always appreciated especially when needed. My completed trades column to the right has been updated.  Thanks Nate!   Also in the right column, you will see the "followers" and "blog roll" - if you aren't following me, you may as well click on the button now and rectify that.  Also, if you want to be on the blog roll, just let me know and we'll do the old quid pro quo (and not even get in trouble for it).  I usually don't worry about such things much, but with the blog being dormant for so long, I figure I'd like to see more readers and know who they are, especially if they're new.  Hell, I have now posted more in the last month or so than in any of the last four years.  I am also pleased to see that one of the few bright spots of this current lockdown situation we all find ourselves in is that a few blogs that had gone down have started up again.  Let's hear it for the blogosphere!!!

***

A few belated thanks need to also be delivered to some altruistic displays of cardboard giving.  Last November, Jeff from 2 by 3 Heroes sent a random email to me verifying my address.  This email had no other information whatsoever but I told him I hadn't budged, address-wise.  A few days later, a package arrived full of goodies:

I am pretty sure it was this long forgotten post that inspired his delivery, but full of Firefly cards it was.  He even gave it an international header card.  There was also a bunch of Mets cards in there too and it is rare that they are relegated to second tier in a scan, yet here we are.  Firefly is streaming on Hulu right now and we all have nothing but time on our hands, so I suggest highly that if you have never seen it to go watch it.  And hell, now is as good a time as any to watch it again if you have seen it.  (belated) Thanks Jeff!

While I was irregularly (then not) blogging, one person I kept trading with was venerable veteran Night Owl Cards.  We have probably sent 40-50 packages to each other in the last 10 years or so and because we know what each other collect so well, we just kept doing it regardless of online status.  At one point last year I scanned this batch:

Matt Harvey?  Sheesh, this is old.  Remember that guy?

These are some fabulous Mets cards and inserts, then there was this vein of oddities (from NO at least):

The note answered my questions when it said "I didn't suddenly become a Bo-Chro collector, the cards just kind of landed in my lap."  It is probably the strangeness of the rookies in there and the gloriously dismissive abbreviation that made me scan them for future use in the first place.  Well, thanks as always Night Owl, I already have plenty in my pile for your next package.  I even looked at your wantlists for a change.

And speaking of piles, lastly I need to clear up a few unresolved trades.  I keep the outgoing cards on my bookshelf close to my mailing stuff and right now there is a bunch of things I need to figure out.

A few, like those Orioles and Blue Jays, I just need to verify addresses before I send them out.  But I also have a rare Barry Larkin insert that I can't recall whom I was going to swap with.  I also have a bunch of blue parallels, do you collect blue parallels?  Let me know, I think those are for you.  I also have a couple of 1990 UD Marquis Grissom rookies that I know there is a blogger who wants to collect 1000 of them or something but I can't remember who it is.  Is it you? Do you know who it is and if he's done collecting his grand of Grissom?  Please leave a comment or drop me a line. 

So now it's back to the grand Spring Cleaning, in between playing with stuff I find of course...

October Fools?

       One of the crazy reasons my blogging has dried up recently is my building anxiety over having so many half-written posts.  Seems more and more, I scan some cards and start writing and for whatever reason(s), I just stop writing.  I don't think it is a mental block, per se, but the more it happens it seems, the easier it is to let happen.  The whole point of starting the blog was to have something simple to accomplish during the day and showcase my collection and writing and now, it would appear, like most things in my life, I am way way overthinking things.  It is a vicious cycle I am now trying to break.

Sitting amongst those 34 drafts are a variety of topics: trade posts, mailbags, clever over-the-top card commentary, design and brand analysis etc. But also, there are some very timely things like player debuts and retirements and the like whose time has come and gone.  You will probably never get to hear what I had to say about the sad goodbye tour of Mariano Rivera (too bad I never got around to Jeets either) or how my hopes and dreams for Travis d'Arnaud compare to the other Mets great catchers.  There are even some holiday themed posts that I could get around to (next year, of course) and I was reminded of one while reading Night Owl's post yesterday.  He misspelled a name - a rarity for a newspaper editor - one Sidd Finch.  I suppose he could be forgiven since Mr. Finch never really existed in the first place except in the mind of George Plimpton and his classic Sports Illustrated piece "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch."  All of this connects through an insert set from last year's Allen and Ginter called Curious Cases.  I remember seeing that set name before the product was released and thinking 'man, Sidd Finch had better be part of that.'  Unfortunately, the checklist is mostly conspiracy theory hokum and mystical mumbo jumbo.  I decided last March to rectify that with my first homemade original card:

While I am no cardboard Picasso (very few are), not to mention that this isn't exactly an original idea, I really like how the card turned out.  It is self evident that if there was anyone ever who needed to be in an insert set, it is Sidd Finch in Curious Cases.

So for whatever reason, I had this all ready to post for this last April Fools Day but never finished it.  And there it sat, a draft only really appropriate to post on one day of the year and I missed it.  But then today I thought, what better way to fool you fools than to post an April fools post as far from April fools as you can possibly get?  It is this kind of thinking that is gonna get that draft folder emptied in no time. 

Mail Call to End All Mail Calls.

       I was down in PA for a little over two weeks dog sitting for my brother and when I returned to Starting Nine World Headquarters, look at the pile of correspondence that was waiting for me:

The baseball coffee mug on the right is to show scale.  Literally, this is a mountain of mail waiting for me.  I know I like to order stuff from Listia, but it appears I went a little overboard lately.

This pile alone came mostly in plain white envelopes from fellow Listians for the grand total of zero dollars. 

This pile is from ebay:

Funny how most of these came in padded jiffy packs.  Nice how people actually take time and effort when there is actual money involved.  Well, mostly. 

My favorite of the bunch?  The 5 Mr. Turkey Baseball Greats cards complete with the notebook that was available. 

That's an oddball's oddball. 

Plus, I won not one but two contests recently (not shown...yet), and of course there is some trade stuff in there too.

These Ballpark Fun cards come from Night Owl, who put nine of these aside for me after he opened like six(!) blasters of last year's Opening Day.  I think this might be the first pure reader page ever built. 

He included a few other Mets and a lament that he didn't send more.  Trust me, that page alone is worth it, not to mention the Rusty Staub mini.  Thanks, Greg.

I am going to sit here and watch the late West Coast Mets game and try to sort through all these cards.  Needless to say, I have only scratched the surface of what I had waiting for me.  The weekend will write itself.

Night Owl Trade: Part 2. (or The Night Owl Strikes Back)

       Last month Greg of the indefatigable Night Owl Cards sent me what was promised to be "part one" of what is our never-ending volley of trades.  Part two arrived in my mailbox a week or so ago and, you know the old cliche about sequels never living up to the original?  Well, the Owl outdid himself here and sent me the Godfather 2 of trade parts (or it could be The Empire Strikes Back, depending on your level of film geekiness). 

Turns out ol' Greg was playing possum with me on this particular pile.  He knew all along that he had these cards for me but gave me no indication.  I knew it was you, Fredo, except he didn't break my heart this time.  He made it all a-flutter with shiny Mets cards. 

You have to wonder where this cadre of randomly awesome Mets cards came from...seems he was part of some massive group breaks and he chose the Mets as his secondary team for some of them.  This landed me those shiny ones from before and these Archives short prints that I never would have gotten around to acquiring.  Plus it landed me a Kevin McReynolds autograph which will go nicely on my page of 1980's Mets signatures. 

Look, more sparkly shiny Johan goodness!  Though you will also notice which player I chose to cover up with Greg's nice little note.  And I know how it must have pained him to send me minis, much less hall of fame Tom Seavery minis.  In fact, all those cards on the bottom there are tiny.  Those 1980's league leader minis are held in high regard in my world as I vividly remember finding a big lump of change in the cushions of my couch when I was 12 and buying out the Rite Aid of the 1987 variety.  You will also notice he didn't even Bip me this time around.  And to think I was looking forward to making a page of 9 1989 Donruss Lance Blankenships.  Oh well, you can't have everything.  Thanks Greg! 

Everything Old Is New Again.

       As you know I don't do resolutions, but seeing how today is New Year's Day and this is my 200th post, I figured it might not be a bad idea to do a little State of the Blog address.  Of those two hundred posts, only 71 came last year so I would like to get around to posting a little more often than every 5 days.  I also have about 20 half written posts in the drafts that I would like to try and take care of in the dead time between now and spring training (6 weeks and counting!).  I have added some blogs to the blog list (and removed a few dead ones) and if you would like to be added to that list, drop me a line.  I have some series ideas that my intermittent posting hasn't let me bring to fruition, I would certainly like to get those off the ground and bring them to all six of you who read this blog with regularity.  That said, I have an awesome blog and if you don't read it all the time, you should and if you haven't read all my posts, you should go back and do just that, don't worry, I'll wait.


If we are going to do old and new, tried and true today, let's look at a couple of recent trades - nothing more tried and true than a trade post.  First off is one of my oldest and steadiest trade partners, Night Owl.  A few months ago he wrote a platonic love letter to me about how I get him.  Seriously, that shit made me blush.  Well, I can pretty much say that notion is reciprocal.  As I have pointed out before, we have gotten to the point where we don't even set up formal trades, we just put cards aside for each other and when we point out cards in the comments of posts, those get put aside as well.  Then eventually one of us will email the other and into the mail the piles go.  Honestly, my trade relationship with Greg is better than most of my current face-to-face interpersonal relationships and I have never met the man.  Anyway, this pile came to me at the end of November right after I sent him this pile. 

Oh those David Wrights.  Since the All Star game was held in Citifield this year, it figured all the Topps Update AS cards would be Mets centric, but wow, Topps outdid themselves with the official logos and some great pictures.  That Chrome Wright on top is probably in my top 10 all time favorite David Wrights already.  Zack Wheeler is going to get most of my love this year while poor Matt Harvey is on the shelf so I will probably end up doing a rainbow of his rookie card so that Chrome is a good start.  I am holding out hope that Juan Lagares turns out to be Steve Finley and not Alex Escobar.  Last in this scan is a marvelous little juxtaposition of a 2013 mini 1971 David Wright and an actual 1971 Topps Mets card.  I am not sure if Night Owl planned it to be such a nice contrast, nor could he have known that I did not have that awesome Sadecki card, but it sure as hell worked out well.  Someday, I want to know why Topps has decided to reprint the 1970's designs in mini form with modern players.  I would really like to have been in on that little committee meeting - and it had to be a committee, because only groupthink could have come up with such an odd and misguided idea as that one.

Not only does the Owl take direction well, he also reads my posts and wantlists:

I asked him for that Frazier All Star Rookie card and he threw in the Rosario as well.  I had stated in a recent post that I didn't have a complete nine pocket page of Clayton Kershaw and in an altruistic gesture (or perhaps in a doubles dump) he provided more than I needed to put that complete page together.  I must say, that red bordered Dodger card just pops. 

Oh, and he also bipped me with Strawberrys:

But the joke is on him, I love pages of single cards, even junk wax ones.

Everything was properly packaged as always and he used blue painters tape to hold it together, but I do have one issue...

...he wrote a little note but I am completely puzzled as to its meaning. A little help, Greg?

The "new" part of this presentation is my first unsolicited trade with a reader who does not have his own blog, a man known in the blogiverse as Zippy Zappy. 

He emailed me out of the blue that he had a bunch of Mets cards and that he had looked at my want lists (hey, someone reads my want lists!) and that he had a bunch of those for me too.  You see here in this first scan some of those Mets cards.  I am gonna miss Johan Santana but since he hasn't pitched much the last year and a half, I guess I am already used to it.  I hope one of those three Prizm rookies pans out.  And it's hard to tell, but that Zack Wheeler is purple.

He also looked at my player want list and came up with some great stuff:

I have a weird attachment to Alex Gordon and now I have a page of his cards to accentuate that odd infatuation.  ZZ is a Yankees fan and filled my odd request for horizontal Derek Jeter cards.  I had obtained a Listia lot of Jeter cards that I had earmarked for trades but it turns out that seven of them were horizontal, so of course instead of getting rid of them I decided to make another page of Jeter cards.  With those two, it is now complete and I hate to say it is pretty sweet.  The Trout, Bautista, Bruce, and Votto go towards finishing their pages as well.  That Bautista card is very very blue.

Zippy Zappy collects Yankees cards and in exchange for this pile of booty, I sent him a nice assortment of 40-50 random Bronx Bomber cards.  Since I did not have a want list to go by, I just kind of picked as many oddball and obscure cards I could of players I figure he liked.  He told me I did a pretty good job as he only had 3 or 4 of the cards I sent.  Who knew I had pinstripe instincts?

Here you see some 2013 Topps Update Mets needs and a wonderful Mr. Met insert from Opening Day.  I have never heard of Logan Verrett but I assure you, he is a Mets prospect.  It is so rare to see green on a Mets card that isn't the grass.  Also here are a couple of Gary Carter cards, one of which I didn't have (the white GQ parallel) and one I already had which featured prominently in this snarky post.  And that lower left card is a gold shiny Matt Harvey rookie card.  Wow, I might not have sent ZZ enough for this package, huh?

The last scan covers some junk wax era stuff he sent, 99% I already had.  I believe that Rick Cerone might be the only one I needed but I certainly appreciate the effort.  Those Knight and Strawberry cards are tremendous to look at so I included them here.  The last card in the package blew my mind...

It is a 2007 UD Kellogg's David Wright card that I didn't even know existed, probably because it is Japanese.  Not only did he include this fabulous oddball food issue, he even translated it for me in his little note for me.  Believe me fellow bloggers, if you get an email from Zippy Zappy requesting a trade, answer that thing ASAP.  Thanks Kenny!  You have been proudly added to the trade wall of fame.

***Update*** Turns out right after I posted this, I found out Zippy Zappy started his own blog literally yesterday (thus making a liar out of me;). You should go check it out: http://cervinupcards.blogspot.com/

Mail Call: Instant Gratification.

       When I was a kid, somewhere I heard the old adage that you never know until you ask and picked up the old positive affirmation that if you ask, all someone can say is 'no'.  This makes me one of the most annoying kinds of human beings: the kind that asks a lot of questions.  I think my point got lost in all that, I guess what I am saying is, I am not shy about asking for things, not that I am an insistent pest.  Sorry, my intros are rusty.  

I got a package in the mail from Night Owl HQ yesterday.  Because we are constantly shuffling things back and forth, I have no idea if this is in response to stuff I sent or if I now owe him stuff.  Either way, I have a pile for him.  This particular package was full of wonderful things:

You can't really see it in the scan, but trust me, the Harvey and Dickey cards are quite shiny.  The Wright card is a manu-patch card, but this one works nicely, good colors, very fancy intricate patch.  I used to hate these cards, but I have grown to not only accept them but enjoy the ones that look very good.  I still think they are confusing and ruin the value of actual game-used pieces, but I guess we have also learned those "actual game-used" pieces aren't worth the paper their disclaimers are printed on.  The bottom three cards are the ones I was sort of addressing my awful opening paragraph.  Night Owl recently posted about the new Topps Archives packs he picked up.  I requested he set those cards aside for me and we could work out compensation.  He told me that not only did he have a package ready to go out to me, he would put these inside.  The package got here in two days; in the world of blog transactions, that is the very definition of instant gratification.

In my last post, I snarkily addressed Topps' photo choices on vintage/retro cards.  The cards on this scan perfectly illustrate my point.  On the Gypsy Queen Gooden, that is a picture I am certain I have seen before but it is now in painting form, so I suppose that makes it better (as long as they don't use the same picture next year).  The Archives Gooden is not only a photo I have never seen before, it is a damn nice one - full of nuance and intensity (please do this more, Topps).  Conversely, the Seaver is a photo that has been used so many times, I could probably make an entire page of cards using it. The Ted Williams photo has also been used ad nauseum, but it is so iconic, you can almost forgive it here.  Almost.  Also, I can give the Williams card a slight pass because there are no doubt far fewer images of him in the Topps vault than of Seaver.  Plus, since he is dead, I am sure they have to okay the use of his pictures through his licensing company, which I am certain adds a layer of annoyance.  *steps down off his soapbox*

Night Owl not only sent that pile of Mets goodness, he has been perusing my want list:

Those 2010 Upper Deck now complete my page of these cards.  I hope I never have to mention this set again.  The next row has not one but two Rookie All-Stars I can scratch off the list, a pair of parallels at that.  The Opening Day Tavaras card has been especially elusive for me for such a recent card.  I wanted that one greatly because his Topps base card omitted the trophy, and that little cup is the whole point of the collection.  Night Owl's love of 1975 minis is well documented, so for him to give up a couple is surprising.  I have this vision of him in my head hoarding them by the thousands in a bunker under his house.  The Nomo will go on my 1997 Upper Deck page, one that has also been difficult to fill (odd, too, that N.O. would give up a Nomo card).  I never bought any of that set and for some reason I also never see them around.  Four down, five to go. 

Also from the want list:

Three Mets of varying importance, from nothing to everything.  I am praying that a stint in the minors will do Ike some good, considering I could hit .165 in the majors.  The 1964 design this year on the Heritage seems to really do the modern player justice.  They just look good to me, better than the last few years, at least.  And I do so prefer the old school trophy on these cards. 

Final batch from Night Owl:

The top three cards finish my Mets Topps set from 2013 Series 1.  I am slightly disappointed the Opening Day set has white borders, I was so hoping they would give it a green border to differentiate it from the flagship set.  I think the abstract ball field design cries out for green - and not the crazy shiny Emerald pattern they used as a parallel, but a nice muted kelly green.  As always, Night Owl wisely includes a little note in his package.  Each and every one of these cards is of use to me, in case you were wondering.  Thanks Greg!

Also in the mail was an odd thing for me, Yankees cards:

I realized I did not own a single Robinson Cano card and I have a feeling he is not going to be on the Yankees next year, so I won't have to automatically hate him, so when I saw a very cheap lot of 11 cards, I snagged it on eBay. That is a rare sight indeed, a current Yankee with his own 9-pocket page.

I was on a roll and scanned all the cards I got in the mail Tuesday, so here are the rest:

Those top three cards are a lot from Listia I picked up literally for nothing.  I got it just for the Reggie Bush, the other two will end up in a box to be forgotten.  I am slowly but surely becoming a user of that site.  The bottom two are the other 2 Cano cards, which I might actually list on Listia since I have no need for them (unless someone wants them).  The last card there in the middle is a mini refractor of Zack Wheeler.  The Mets have threatened to actually let him pitch in the majors next week, I'll believe it when I see it.  But I figure I should grab his cards now while I can.  I am not sure what the purpose of making that card mini is, though, but I do like the shiny.  Shiny > mini.

Ask and ye shall receive! I think that is what I was going for with the opening.  Sheesh, my brain is so sluggish and tired lately.

Traders on the Storm.

       The Night Owl and I have been trading back and forth for so long that we are like neighbors on an old sitcom - no need to knock, just come on in - but we had only spoken of a few random cards recently and nothing seemed pending, so it was a pleasant surprise to come back from New Orleans last week to see a package from upstate New York.  It contained the usual put-aside Mets and some cards I had forgotten I had asked for.  I am glad he pays attention to the stuff I say.  Let's take a look:

David Wright cards are always appreciated, especially now that he is not going anywhere.  The Triple Play sticker is especially cool.  There is also a mini Santana and some other random 2012 things here.  Also an older Mo Vaughn card.  There is a rumor that Mo's old black jerseys were sewn together to make the infield tarp for Citi Field.  I can neither confirm nor deny this. 

Stack #2 is even better (I have no idea if it was accidental or on purpose that he sent me exactly 18 cards):

You will see a 1977 Topps cloth sticker Ron Cey here and he like, huh?  Cey is Owl's guy. Well, he is also one of my guys (why? I am fond of Penguins and Cey's nickname is The Penguin - simple as that).  And since he had an extra one of these oddballs, he was nice enough to set it aside for me.  I also requested the Mantle because I have a soft spot for those dreadful Moments and Milestones sets and I needed a center for a page of black parallels.  And hey, Mantle is Mantle, right?  I have most of vintage 1960's Mets cards.  One day, I might even sit down and put the ones I need on a wantlist.  Somehow, Night Owl found not one but two early 60's cards I needed.  I am sure he just randomly sent these.  He is the man.  Rounding this pile out is some 2008 cards with long gone Mets and a couple of Topps Fan Favorites.  I am certain I have the 2008 cards, but I am pretty sure I do not have the FF cards.  Nice stuff all round.  I know I have a pile of Dodgers for Night Owl; I will try to drop them in the mail when he least expects it.

Postscript:  Greg always puts a little note in with his cards.  I suggest doing this with all your trades and eBay sales so that the recipient knows who sent the package.  He was also nice enough to even wish me well after my displacement from Hurricane Sandy; I assume he sent these cards along to further my recovery.  What a nice guy.  My second suggestion is to always use team bags and easily removable tape.  Here you see blue painter's tape, which is preferable, but masking tape also works well.  Never ever ever put scotch tape on a toploader.  I wish I could spread this as gospel. Scotch tape and toploaders do NOT mix, yet so many eBay sellers and even a few traders have used it on them.  If this blog teaches one person to never put scotch tape on a toploader again, I will feel it has been helpful to mankind.

Hey Everyone...

...who wants to see my new shiny Dickey?

Uhhhh...yeah.

This marvelous little pile came from the Night Owl, who when he pulled the R.A. Bowman card not only earmarked it for me right away, but somehow resisted the urge to make the obvious lame joke I did.  That is why Night Owl is a better man than me (and most of us).  In my defense, dick jokes are much easier than college residence assistant jokes.  Also included are an awesome 3-D David Wright from this years Opening Day.  I was quite fond of the 2010 3D inserts and these are equally nifty.  I may have to find a lot of these to make a page.  I have also grown to enjoy the sheen on this year's gold Topps parallels; I already have a page of those, though.  That Mr. Turkey Dwight Gooden card combines my favorite failed Met and oddball food issues...what's not to love?  I also must give a shout out to the Topps Fan Favorites cards he included, Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan cards are always appreciated, that but sticking out there belongs (fittingly) to Sid Fernandez - who may have been the widest pitcher I have ever seen, and I had never known that Ron Swoboda card existed, and now I need a second one for my Rookie All Stars collection.  Finally, I must say the 1984 Fleer set is not my favorite, I find it a little too minimalist, but I do find the blue stripe works well for teams with blue as a main color and, since the 1983 Mets spent a lot of time in blue 80's style pull overs, the team looks great in this set.  I don't have many of the 1984 Fleer Mets for some odd reason, but now I have two more, including the OG Brian Giles.  Thanks Night Owl!

Manic Monday.

        I have been trying for a few days to sit down and write an answer to the pretty awful story CBS ran last weekend about the "decline" of the hobby.  Here it is, in case you haven't seen it.  There are so many things wrong with this story, I cannot begin to describe them.  Finding that start was part of my problem; I had just a non-stop busy weekend and I have an equally busy week ahead of me (including some actual paid work!).  So, while this might reek of the laziness shown in the CBS story, I am going to pass you off to Night Owl who wrote a better breakdown of this story than I ever could have hoped to do.  I should leave journalism to the actual journalists.  Oh, and here are some awesome 1974 All Star cards, since this is a card blog after all.

I promise some better posts later in the week, but I think that page should hold you over for now.

Joy of a Completed Page (or two).

       Someone reads my wantlists! Someone reads my wantlists! I mean, some of you have emailed me saying "nice collection" or "hey! let's trade" but I got some cards in the mail today directly off of my want list.  The system works!

       The package came from old reliable, Night Owl.  This was one of our smaller swaps, as I had sent him a few random Dodgers cards I had found to test a new envelope system.  He reciprocated by sending me a few current Mets (always appreciated) and the following:

Joy of a Completed Page™ #1 2011 Topps Heritage.

He sent eight different cards, but I only needed four. The Ramos, Baily, Konerko, and King Felix found their spots and this page is done.  I now have a page representing every year of Topps Heritage from the beginning.  I built the entire 2001 and 2002 sets back in the day, but sold them long ago.  Those short prints were a real pain in the ass and, from what I have read, they continue to be.  I find this method far more relaxing.  The other ones he sent, Matt Kemp, Whitey Ford, Jon Lester, and Ryan Braun, will all find spots in their respective player collections as I had gaps in each page.  And dig that Konerko card, I believe he is staring into my soul...

Joy of a Completed Page™ #2 1983 Donruss.

This page is nearly 30 years in the making.  Well, to be more precise, about six weeks.  When I decided to organize some of my more basic binders by manufacturer rather than strictly by year, I noticed that I had all the Donruss sets of the 80's represented except for 1982 and 1983.  Most of my cards from this era had long been consolidated (most with extreme prejudice) so I scrambled around to find nine to properly fill the pages.  I only found seven of each.  Enter Greg.  He sent me a pair of '83s, Steve Garvey and George Foster.  I made an executive decision and brought over the Howard Johnson from the Mets binder and replaced him with the Foster.  Now Hojo and Eddie Murray will be in a staring contest for all eternity.

Night Owl also sent over a 2009 Topps Denard Span from my Rookie All Star list, thus completing my 2009 rookie cup needs.  You made my night last night - if only you were a curvy redhead - thanks Greg!

Trade with Greg the Night Owl.

      Turns out blogger uses the European calendar and because I can't read simple letters at the top of a page, we went a few days without posts.  And here I thought I was being all organized by having a few new posts prepared ahead of time and scheduled to post by themselves.  Oh well...so, welcome back.

       While my first online trade was with Kevin over at The Great 1965 Topps Project (and he remains a steady partner), the most prolific of all my blogging traders has been Greg at Night Owl Cards.  He has been good enough to send me all his excess Mets cards and in turn, I segregate all his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers, to which I am ambivalent. We basically have a nonstop shuttle of padded envelopes to each others mailboxes full of our mutual teams.  He has been very generous over the years and this time was no different. 

     My most recent package to upstate New York wasn't very impressive (so I thought) but it contained a card that hit a nostalgic nerve with old Night Owl.  I have certainly sent larger and more valuable packages.  It is, I think, the collective that led to the final two cards shown here.  First, the fun:
 
I am not buying much new product, so any 2012 cards are greatly appreciated.  Seeing that the Justin Turner celebration is his regular card (not a ridiculous short print) makes me genuinely happy, since the Mets usually dole out joy in such a miserly manner and this card shows a rare moment of Metropolitan exuberance.  The Seaver cards from this year make it only two left that I need from the bloated Golden Moments inserts and the 1962 Seaver from last year is one I have been meaning to snap up for a while.  And the Johan?  OOoooooo.....shiny....Good stuff.

The next group is a sad tribute to what the Mets have become:

Where once we signed big ticket free agents like Beltran and Delgado, this time around we wouldn't pony up the money to keep our own homegrown hero Reyes.  The bottom three are various rookies, one of whom has a future, two of which only have pasts.

Also included were some early 90s gems, O-Pee-Chee and minor leaguers and some Classic board game cards; there was a whole rainbow in 1991 - Blue, Red, Yellow, Pink - but somehow the green stayed under my radar until now.  I'll have to check out if there are more Mets in the Green set.  The Panini stickers I have plenty of, but how can you go wrong with Kid and Mex in any incarnation?

I always write a little note to my trade partner, usually on a post-it or something, just so people know where and when the cards came from, since my biggest fear is that most people are as organized as I am (read: not very).  Greg included this little blurb explaining the best two cards in this package:

The Bonilla signature is perfect for my Mets autograph collection.  Plus, the 1993 Topps card of Bobby Bo was so optimistic of his stay in the Big Apple, until the horrible truth of the whole situation became abundantly clear later on.  The A&G mini is from 2008 and it is what you think it is, a wood 1/1.  It is my first Mets 1 of 1 card.  It doesn't even matter that it is of Ryan Church, it is damn cool. 

And he even welcomed me to the wonderful world of blogging.  Once I learn how to read the calendar, I'm sure I'll have a ball.  Thanks Greg!