Zistle Trade #60

My 60th Zistle trade, way more that I thought, as I didn't really keep track for a while. Starting off with an acetate of Greg Maddux from 1994 Studio, the oldest acetate MLB card in my collection.

A catching up on 2015 Trade

With the 2016 products already on the market, this nice little trade knocked off some 2015 base cards of the want-list before the new season starts. My first Tulo with the Blue Jays card. A quick Getty search confirms by first thought that this photo is taken after he hit a home run in his Blue Jays debut against the Phillies. Still weird to see him not in a Rockies uniform, and even weirder that he is still sour enough to rip his old organization.

Some words on Troy Tulowitzki

Last night when the alert about the trade came up on my phone, shortly after the Rockies lost a walk-off game against the Cubs, I didn't believe it. It was dark, and raining, setting the mood perfectly. I had trouble actually saying the words to my Blue Jays fan soon to be wife. This surprised me because Troy Tulowitzki was never really my favorite player. I always loved watching him play and appreciated that when he was healthy, I was watching a generational HOF type talent. I was shocked, I thought Carlos Gonzalez would go, but Tulo moving, with no warning, still a few days away from the trade deadline, to the Blue Jays, shocked. I cried when Cam Neely retired. I cried when Sean Taylor died, and cried again watching the Sean Taylor "A Football Life". This was close.

When Todd Helton retired, we were all ready for it, it was time. When Ray Bourque was traded it made sense, and was validated when he finally lifted the cup. Even thought he didn't do it as a Bruin, every Bruins fan shared in his joy. Even when Ubaldo Jimenez was traded you knew it was coming, weeks were spent on internet forums on what the return for Ubaldo would be and what teams what to offer. I drooled over Drew Pomeranz and Alex White, and the return softened the blow. This was different. There was talk of the Mets stable of young pitching, but the feeling was the Rockies wanted too much, and no one had enough to pry Tulo and his long term, team friendly contract. Enter the Blue Jays. And Jose Reyes. Gone is the homegrown, last link to Rocktober, unassisted triple play turning, cycle hitting for, Gold Glove winning, Silver Slugger having, All-Star, carrier of Todd Helton's face of the franchise torch, does everything and does it better than everyone else Short Stop.

Jose Reyes will be the lightning rod that will allow Trevor Story or Christian Adames to not be the guy that replaces The Guy. Every time Reyes boots a ball, or just doesn't have the range or arm to complete a play, we will miss Tulo. Every time he makes a highlight on sportscenter with a blue and white jersey, we will miss him. But that is the beauty in it, he will still be there, not here, but somewhere. He will be Matt Holliday, he will make All-Star games, possibly postseasons, and eventually, he will come back to Coors, and we will be glad he is there.

Now there are prospects to follow. More trades to come, CarGo, Jose Reyes, Nick Hundley, Drew Stubbs, maybe Jorge del Rosa. None of these will surprise anyone, the first brick has been knocked out, the rest of the wall will follow. It had to happen, Tulo was here for 10 years and reached the playoffs twice, once with Carlos Gonzalez. I wasn't working. They define insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. This is something different. It had to happen.

This was not was I indented to write. I was gonna list stats from bbref and try to explain with numbers the player Tulo was. This is different.

A Gintery Zistle Trade

For the most part, I don't like Allen & Ginter's, but I won't get into that here, because my most recent trade is heavy on the Ginter. Sometimes I question what I collect, usually when looking for Trenidad Hubbard or Jayhawk Owens cards, but these guys were at least Rockies, members of the 1995 playoff team, and players that have some nostalgia factor from my youth. But Chef cards, that's just weird. Two new additions to that collection with Anthony Bourdain and Daniel Boulud, you probably either know who they are, or don't care, so I will move on.

Dollar Store Trading

Another trade with fellow Canadian, Sportscards From the Dollar Store, a sweet orange swatch from an "Event Worn workout jersey", and as weird as it is seeing Tulo in an orange jersey, it sounds like seeing him in a different jersey might be a permanent thing sooner than later.

COMRockies

Time to show off some Rockies from the recent COMC package, which included some bigger cards from the mailbox system. First off, a nice on-card auto of Todd Helton from 1998, or the pre-goatee era. Only my second Helton autograph, a part of my collection that is severely lacking.

Why I am Still Watching My Team Being Terrible

It been a tough year to be a Rockies fan. After losing 7 straight, and going 6-25 over their last 31 games Colorado is a league worst 40-100 (tied with Texas). Injuries have played a part including using 13 different starting pitchers, and losing Carlos Gonzalez, Nolan Arenado, Micheal Cuddyer and now Troy Tulowitzki to stints on the DL. The bullpen is on pace to be historically bad, and things don't look like they will be getting better. Time to look for silver lining, and I came up with six reasons to turn the game on a sit through the mess that is the Rockies 2014 season.

Trade from Japan

A recent trade scoring me some Japanese Sega Card-Gen Rockies from This Card is Cool. (his side here). Starting off with some 2013's. A new one for the Pomeranz collection, a guy that looks to be resurrecting his career in Oakland. One of the things I like about Card-Gen is the large set size giving you cards of relievers like Belisle and Betancourt.

Mini Mailday

It took me a while to jump aboard the mini bandwagon, and while I am not fully obsessed with them, I jump at the chance to add certain tobacco size cards. First up is a 2011 Gypsy Queen photo variation of Troy Tulowitzki, the first 100 card in the Gypsy Queen set have mini versions with different photos, and are very hard to find.

Tulowitzki 1/1 Addition

While not an active collector of printing plates, the odd one shows up that I feel the need to add to my PC, the most recent being a Troy Tulowitzki Magenta plate from 2012 Gypsy Queen, only my seventh printing plate and my first from 2012 Gypsy Queen.

Acetate Appreciation: 2007 UD Elements

A very weird and confusing set released by Upper Deck in 2007, the cards were released with 3 mini-boxes per box, 5 packs per mini box, 3 cards per pack, with what was advertised as "3 unique Technology Cards" with Relic and Auto cards mixed in as well.

Box 1 contained cards 1-42 and 127-168 on "Foil Board" (Think Chrome Refractors)
Box 2 contained cards 43-84 and 169-210 on "Lt Fx" (Think Fleer Metal)
Box 3 contained cards 85-126 and 211-252) on "PETG" (Think thicker than average acetate)

The first 126 cards were of veteran players, with one card per "Technology" and cards 127-252 being all rookies limited to 550, meaning each player has 3 different cards in the set. The PETG (or Polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified) are clear plastic cards that fit into the "acetate" part of my collection. The "Technology" is pretty much wasted on these as only the top portion of the card is clear, and the back containing a bio and stats shows though to the card front. The photos used on the PETG cards look to all be posed studio shots, making my dislike for these cards even greater.

Seriously Topps?

Not an April Fools joke, although I wish it was, here we have 2012 and 2013 Gypsy Queen Yogi Berra. I noticed Topps used the same couple photos for a bunch of 2012 Drew Pomeranz cards, but they at least were cropped a little different, but using the same photo of the same player in the same brand is seriously ridiculous. I also noticed the Tulowitzki card looked familiar.WTF.

Contest Winnings

Just getting around to post a mystery package that came in the mail, and judging by the address must be contest winnings from the "card back contest" over at Cardboard Heaven. Pretty nice bunch of cards with a my first Tulowitzki relic showing a little bit of a pinstripe. Gypsy Queens are always appreciated are here, but even more so when it's an photo variant I need, and this Votto brings me up to 38 of 50. Among the Rockies we have a Cargo mini and blue framed out of 599, some serial numbered Helton cards, a high ranking prospect in Trevor Story and a gorgeous Wal-Mart Black Eric Young, Jr.
Thanks for the cards!

Top 30 Colorado Rockies Cards (21-15)

Part two of what will be a four part series, over the long weekend there were a few autograph cards that I though of that could make the list, but I am sticking with base cards to keep things simple.

21. Ben Petrick - 2002 Fleer Ultra #109

Ben Petrick making his second appearance on the list, a shot of a catcher from the pitchers point of view, with Petrick focused in on the ball, nothing groundbreaking just a good photo of a catcher with a photo friendly card design.

Rockies from JABO

Not much going on for me card related right now, so far Topps Series 2 is getting a "meh" response from me other than Rafael Betancourt finally getting a Rockies card, so in the interest of keeping up to my at least 3 posts a week goal I have a chance to show off some Rockies from Jabo's Blogarage Team Lot Clearance. He sent about 80 cards with only around 15 I already had. I am pretty high on Jordan Pacheco so his cards are always appreciated, and a couple more guys I collect in Chris Iannetta, Kaz Matsui and Larry Walker. He still has some teams available if you are looking for some cheap cards. Also if anyone knows why mt thumbnails would not be showing up in the reading list please let me know how to fix this.

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Trade w/ Ryan's Pitch

The best part of blogging here, trades. Package from Ryan's Pitch arrived today with some good stuff, just scanned a few highlights. The traded focused on some of his needs for '91 Fleer, and I got one I needed in return. I saw Berryhill catch for the Giants in my first Coors Field pilgrimage in 1997, he hit a 2 run home run in a Rockies loss, and this is a sweet catcher in action card. Among other good stuff a Thomas Field floating head I needed for the one of every Rockies collection. A couple 2011 GQ including an awesome Green Framed Tulo and a Ubaldo mini. And my first Iannetta with the Angels. Great trade, thanks.

2012 Heritage Group Break Results

I recently joined in my first group break, 4 boxes of 2012 Heritage with 2 packs of 2012 Topps Tribute thrown in as a bonus. I picked the Rockies without realizing that there were no Rockies in the Chrome parallels. The highlight is the Tulo image swap, but other than that I got my ass kicked, ending up with one floating head Chrome (HP100), a Tulowitzki regular short print and a Carlos Gonzalez SP along with the base set and 3 floating head cards. The Rockies were shut out on the Tribute packs. Fairly disappointing results considering the Rockies are heavily featured in the short prints, maybe its karma for making fun of Heritage when it came out.