Recent trades

 I’ve been getting a decent stream of mail since the start of the year so I figured I would show them off. 

First up is a package from Rod of Padrographs fame. Rod had a post a while back with some trade bait that he pulled from recent packs that he opened, and I saw 2 cards that fit my collection, both hits of Rays guys. I sent him some 1995 Topps customs of the rest of the Padres replacement players who played in Spring Training in 1995, and I was able to land these 2 cards of guys who I hope will be major players for the Rays in the future (and hopefully we'll get a new owner who will want to actually sign them). 

The first is a Wander Franco 2020 Topps Heritage Minors Clubhouse Collection jersey card. I have 6 cards of him now ('19 Bowman, '19 Bowman Platinum, '20 Bowman Green, '20 Bowman Chrome '90 Anniversary, '20 Topps Heritage Minors Clubhouse Collction, and  '20 Topps Update '89 #1 Prospect), , even though he is a pretty hot guy. I got most of them in trades, which shows the generocity of the blogging community. The 2nd card is a 2019 Leaf Trinity Clear autograph card of Xavier Edwards. The first photo doesn't show the card clearly, so here is a 2nd photo. 

Just a cool looking card. 

Up next is a package from Fuji of The Chronicles of Fuji. Fuji sent some Rays cards from periods where I didn't get a number of packs, which helped me build those parts of my Rays binders. I'm surprised I never got the Opening Day stadium card. The Bowman Platinum Gold card of Price is great, and I'll have to get more cards from that sets. A few inserts from 2013/2014, and a card I would never have a chance of owning with the Museum Collection Cobb. The 2020 Allen & Ginter cards are all new, as I didn't even see those on the shelves this year. The main card from this trade was the 1993 Upper Deck BAT Dave Dravecky card, as Fuji recently opened a box of the product and had a number of doubles. He kindly offered them up, and since he had one of Dave Dravecky, a guy I collect, I commened that I wanted it. He kindly sent it as well as the others. Next time I hit up my LCS, I'll look for some A's guys for you.

Next is a pwe from Kevin, who runs the Diamond King blog. He recently had a contest, and basically you got points for the number of comments you left during the last few months, and you could use your points to bid on 12 different prizes. I decided to use mine on a 2014 Archives Marco Scutaro autographed card. I used to have 5 or 6 binders full of nothing but ip/ttm/pack pulled autographed cards, and even though I don't have them any more, I love picking up autographs when I can. I was able to win the card, and Kevin threw in a nice Bowman Chrome insert of Paul DeJong with it. 

was 

Dennis from Too Many Verlanders sent me a nice package that gave me some cards I don't have very many of at all in my collection, as well as a card that was coveted by me in 2013.

The first 2 cards are a flag patch Topps card of Chris Archer, and a Test Proof Diamond Kings card of Evan Longoria. I don't have that many manu-patch cards in my Rays binder (I think only 1 more), so I was happy to add another one. With the Test Proof card, I didn't even realize that parallel existed, and I've opened a decent amount of Donruss products since 2015 or so. I believe I had the base and Optic card, and now with this Test Proof, I'm closer to some kind of rainbow. The next card is a sweet spot autographed card of Jacob Nix, a guy I collect. The only other card like this I own is from Alejandro Friere. The 2009 Bowman Chrome Matt Moore rookie was pretty hot in 2013 when Moore won 17 games. I thought he was going to be an ace, and was sad to see him traded away, but I guess the Rays front office knew better. I'm still stoked to get this card. Next is a Stat Line card  of Evan Longoria. I wonder if anyone has put together a team set of Stat Line cards. What would be really cool was if someone put together a Stat Line team set with the same serial #. Pinnacle once offered boxes of all of their products if you did that for an insert set in 1997 or 1998. Don't think anyone did.  Got a few '08 Opening Day Rays, a card of one of my favorite Rays pitchers, Tony Saunders, 2 2011 Bowman Blue cards, some more recent Rays, and a 2002 Topps Post card of Greg Vaughn. I like Vaughn. Got his autographs a few times after Rays games, and I remember he had some spinnner rims on his car. Always thought they were fun. One time when getting his autograph, I told him I liked the rims, and he got a kick out of that.

 

The last package came from Greg of Night Owl Cards. Greg and I have done a couple of trades recently, consisting of some Allen & Ginter minis and Topps Heritage cards going to New York, and some Rays and Tigers coming back my way to Florida. Now that my Topps Rays run is complete (for about 25 more days), I'm focusing on non-flagship Topps sets, and Greg delivered, sending me some cards from Ultra, Upper Deck MVP, Opening Day, Allen & Ginter, the Christmas Topps set, Stadium Club, the '70's set from this year, and Topps Fire. All of these are needs and much appreciated. 

With the Tigers, the Topps cards are welcome, as I am missing some from recent years, as well as the fact that the franchise has cards from 1951-1997, when no Topps Rays cards existed. I got some early Topps cards ('73, '74, as well as some other cards. I love the Jeff Kaiser '92 Stadium Club card. It has the leftfield bleachers of Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida. I have been to about 100 games in the stadium, and have fond memories there. In those very bleachers, I won 2 quarters from a Pirates fan in a 1992 Spring Training game when I yelled "Go Pirates!" after me and my dad were yelling "Go Tigers" the whole game. I thought I was rich. The next year, we were in those bleachers watching the Tigers and Reds in Spring Training. I noticed Johnny Bench in the bullpen (just to the right of the seats in the photo). I went there to try to get his autograph, and was told he didn't sign during games. I was walking back to my seat disappointed, when Travis Fryman hit a foul ball down the 3rd base line. The Tigers 3rd base coach picked it up right as a was near the area, and threw it to me, and I got my first foul ball. I later got the ball signed by Al Kaline, Alan Trammell, and Chris Gomez. I still have it somewhere. In 1996, I got seats in those bleachers to a Mets game and 2 Royals games during Spring Training, and racked up on autographs. Neither teams were good back then, and I got guys like Bobby Jones, Alberto Castillo, Butch Huskey, Reid Cornelius, Alex Ochoa, and Jay Payton from the Mets, and the Royals were the real catch in my opinion. When they came to Lakeland, I handed my ball to a pitcher in the bullpen to get signed, and he proceded to hand the ball to the rest of the guys in the bullpen, and I got just about a whole ball signed. I got guys like Alan McDill, Jason Jacome, Mendy Lopez, Bob Boone, Guy Hansen, Rusty Meacham, Mike Sweeney, Tom Goodwin, Henry Mercedes, Jeff Grotewold, and Johnny Damon. Not really big names, but I had a full baseball signed. Those were fun times, and any time I see a card with a picture from Joker Marchant Stadium, I always look to see if I can tell where the picture was taken. One of these days I'm going to find a panorama of the stadium and make a post with some cards that showcase the park. 

More recent cards are a '20 Bowman Chrome and '20 Topps Fire card of Matt Boyd, and a Orange Parallel of Isan Diaz from '20 Big League Baseball which will go in my rookie card binder. 

Thanks to Rod, Fuji, Kevin, Dennis, and Greg for the awesome cards and trades!

I am working on putting all of the loose cards in my binders right now. So far, only my Rays, Diamondbacks, Braves, and Cubs cards are up to date, but if I can do 3/4ths of an album a day after work, eventually I'll get there (I have about 3 binders from every team). I have my cards organized by year, so if I can keep from getting cards that are less than 10 years old from teams that aren't Rays or Tigers, I might stand a chance at keeping my binders current as possible. 

With the binder project going, I have less time for customs, but eventually, I'll be back to the 1998 Topps Traded set. I'm about the same place there as I am with my binders, having the Rays, D-Backs, Braves, Cubs, and all but 2 guys on the Reds finished. Like Night Owl said yesterday, patience. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy