Trade with Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across the blog Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary. While reading some posts and getting familiar with the blog, I came on a Free Stuff Friday post that had a nice Enny Romero auto/jersey card. Can you imagine that? Someone wanting to get rid of a Rays hit? I immedeately sent Brian an e-mail and we got a trade going. Brian was extremely fast at getting the cards to me, and I was able to put his package in today. I recieved a bunch of Rays cards, a good selection of cards from the early Rays years and current Rays guys. 

The first card is from the '97 Topps set, which was the first year Rays got cards in a set. The '98 Bowman Chrome Yan is a card I wished I had about 15 year ago, as I would've been able to get it signed multiple times, as Yan bounced back and forth between the Rays and Tigers, 2 teams I've ssen in person around a hundred times. The '00 Opening Day Martinez is a kind of interesting card. I thought that only stars got cards in Opening Day, and Dave was ok, but I'm really surprised that he got cards in '98-'01 Topps sets, let alone the '00 Opening Day one. The card next to it, the '00 UD Ultimate Victory Greg Vaughn, was a card that I once had, got signed, and then ended up selling when I dumped a bunch of my autographs. The rest of the picture feature such Rays stars as Randy Winn, Joe Kennedy, Vinny Castilla, Ben Grieve, Carl Crawford, and Delmon Young. Guys who (except for Crawford) played with the team a bit to early to see the fruits of their labor in the postseason.

Next photo, we get to the era of where I didn't purchase too many cards from. Many of these are new to me, and some of my favorites are the Riley Unroe '14 Bowman Sterling autograph, the David Price Target Red parallel, the Crawford Signature Skills card, the Price Draft insert, and of course, the Romero that got this whole trade started. The jersey is really textured, and I've never got a relic card like it.

This photo is highlighted by a ton of '15 Heritage, and a bunch of '17 Topps horizontal cards. When I finally redo my wantlist page, I think many sets, including the '15 Heritage one, will either be completed or really close to being finished. The '17 Cobb and Team card are All-Star Game parallels, the Longo is a Chrome, and the DeLeon is a Holiday card. 

Lastly, we get a '19 Walgreens Yellow of Yandy Diaz, a '94 Topps Future Star Flashback of Austin Meadows (amazing!), and some cool Chrome cards. I really like the Rays future. With guys like Willy Adames (with a Future Star adn base refractor), Charlie Morton (Chrome), Kevin Kiermaier (Fish-Fractor), the aforementioned Meadows, pitchers like Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Brett Honeywell, dual guy Brendan McKay, and others, I think the Rays have a solid pitching staff and some good young hitters who will hopefully help them beat out the tough AL East and get to the World Series again. Unlike my other favorite team Detroit, who only has their pitching staff set up for the future, the Rays also have young hitters. Let's hope the Yankees, Red Sox, and other AL teams get old.
The last 5 cards are guys for my Favorite Player binders, in Rolando Arrojo, John Jaso, Quinton McCracken, Bubba Trammell, and Doug Waechter.

I hope everyone is staying put (as much as they can), and is being able to stay healthy as well as make ends meet, whether they are working outside the house or at home. Thanks to everyone who has traded with me during these times. It is helping me keep my mind of all of the madness.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy