Apparently A Trade With Fuji.

       This one has been in the queue for a while, but it is important for me to both empty this damn draft folder and highlight the giving nature of the card blogosphere.  This time it is the fine altruism of Mark, aka Mr. Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji, one of the finest blogs that doesn't get nearly enough love - I blame east coast bias.  A little while ago, he posted about picking up a near complete 1984 Donruss set at his infamous flea market that was missing like five common cards.  I immediately looked and realized I had for of them (three of them were Diamond Kings, a subset I am known to hoard) and sent them off to him, expecting nothing in return.  Well, in early January (yup, I am way behind on my posts) these cards arrived in the mail for me:

The man is a scholar and a gentleman as he looked at my want lists and sent me five awesome cards I needed, all either inserts, shiny parallels, or oddballs I have extolled my everlasting love for.  So thank you Fuji for paying it forward; in the grand scheme of things I seem to have gotten the better of this trade - including a second personalized card that has a different autograph from the first (are these little Japanese affirmations or are you cursing at me in another language?;)

Trade with Mark of The Chronicles of Fuji.

        I have a soft spot for player collectors.  I know from the madness they suffer.  I have dozens of player collections, in various shapes and sizes, and they are the last thing I have pared from my collection (the ones I am permanently and  psychotically attached to are listed in my Gotlist, take a look and let me know of there is anything you have I might want).

       When I see someone who has a white whale they are looking for and I can fill that need in my other areas of downsizing, it makes me very happy (ask Night Owl).  So, I came across the blog The Chronicles of Fuji about a year ago and recently saw that he had just three Steve Carlton cards he needed for The "Lefty" Project.  One of the cards was his 1965 rookie card and wouldn't you know it, I had recently come across a slightly off condition Carlton rookie in my piles of piles.  So, I scanned it and emailed him and we hammered out a deal.  I picked some cards from a list he maintains of trade bait (he is very organized; I am, um, not...) and we came to a fast understanding.  The following pictures shows the bounty I harvested:

The Nomar goes immediately into my player collection.  The Dewey Evans joins a page of Red Sox game used cards.  The Eli and Janssen will find nice spots in their respective team collections.  And the Mets, oh, those Mets.  I have a black Ventura from that Pacific set and now it has a dance partner.  And finally, with that Dotel Auto, I now only need the Piazza to have all the Mets from the 1999 SP Signature Edition - a seminal set if there ever was one.  That Piazza, however, is probably the highest priced of all his rare certified autographs and will remain in my white whale dreamland probably forever.

Oh, but Mark wasn't done.  He noticed my love of food issues and the Mets and included some awesome oddballs as well:


For working blind, he only got one card I already had (the Bobby Bo Hostess) and found one (the Hojo) I didn't even know existed.  Those Texas League minor league all star cards are a wonderful epitaph for the once mighty mid 80's Mets. That game used card in the corner? It was part of the original trade, it is of Max Sapp.  Yes, on top of all this, I am a Max collector as well. 

Like I said before, Mark is very well organized.  Our trade got a coversheet, for crying outloud:

and look at that...he has his own personalized baseball card! Let's see it up close:
Wow.  Pretty frickin' sweet. I will certainly find a place of honor for that badboy.

Thanks Mark!