Zistle Trade #4

More Zistle trades to post, more cards off the want list. Jeff Frye and Rolando Arrojo add two more to the one of every Rockies collection putting me over 90% complete. As always more Rockies, this time with Chris Iannetta and Brent Mayne catcher cards and Roberto's nephew Edgard Clemente.  Also more random catchers, my highlight being the 1992 Score Jeff Reed either just after getting steamrolled at home plate, or just before a baby alien pops out of this guts.

Tyler Seguin: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

Tyler Seguin 2011-12 Ultimate Collection Ultimate Signatures

This is one that has eluded me for a while due to Seguin autos going for high prices, but this one was reasonable (30 bucks shipped) so I jumped on it. The Bruins drafted Tyler Seguin 2nd overall in the 2010 entry draft with a pick acquired in the Phil Kessel trade. He spent his rookie season with the Bruins and finished with 11 goals and 11 assists. After being a healthy scratch in the first two round of the 2011 playoffs, he earned his place in Boston Bruins lore by scoring a goal in his playoff debut, game one of the Eastern Conference finals, then scoring 2 goals and finishing with 4 points in his second game. Seguin would only pick one more point in the playoffs, an assist in Boston's game 4 win against Vancouver, but would end his rookie season by raising the Cup above his head. In 2012 Seguin would lead the Bruins in goals with 29 and points with 67 and looks to be a star for Boston when the NHL eventually resumes.

Zistle Trade #3

Another Zistle trade completed, this time a small one bringing me my first 2012 Allen and Ginter card as well as finishing off my 1995 Upper Deck Rockies team set. I really like the Ginter design from this year, but wish they would dump the gimmicky crap. The Nolan Ryan brings me one card closer to finishing 1992 Pinnacle and the John Buck with the painted goalie style mask is for the catcher collection.

2013 Gypsy Queen First Look

Topps has now unveiled the design for next year Gypsy Queen set. I again love the base cards, the sharp corners at the top of the design give the brand a more modern look than the first two years, but the design on the bottom with the Norse/Celtic style knotwork still give a bit of a retro look. The painted photoshop filter is back on the photos as expected. My biggest problem with Gypsy Queen is the inserts tend to be ugly and the playing card look of the "Dealing Aces" inserts look a little over the top. I for one am excited that GQ is returns and look forward to the product release in the spring.

More info at the Beckett article.

A Quick Study of Batting Helmet Facemasks

1981 Topps #445 Ellis Valentine

Inspired by yesterdays Charlie Hayes card featuring a football style mask on his batting helmet, further research led to finding a few more cards with a similar theme. The first instance is probably the most famous, but was never captured on cardbaord, Dave Parker in the middle of his 1978 MVP season fractured his jaw and cheekbone in a collision at the plate. That lead him experiment with a Jason Voorhes style goalie mask before switching to mounting a football face-mask onto his helmet. This is already covered at Uni-Watch and Dick Allen Hall of Fame including a sweet custom card.

The first actual cards I have found with batting helmet masks is 1981 Topps with Ellis Valentine and Ron Roenicke using football masks cut in half and bolted on the batting helmet.

Charlie Hayes: One of Every Rockie

Not so much a tribute to Charlie Hayes, but more of an excuse to feature one of my favorite cards from my youth, a 1995 Upper Deck #172 Charlie Hayes. I love the 1995 Upper Deck set, great photography, full bleed photos and a nice simple design allowing the photo to be the star of the card. The unique thing about this card is the mask that Hayes wore in 1994 after being hit with a pitch and breaking his jaw. The Football style model shown on this card is also pictured on his 1995 Pinnacle and 1995 Sportflix cards. The other model he wore is pictured on the back of this Upper Deck card as well as on his 1995 Collector's Choice SE #207 card. He is also pictured with the more conventional cheek guard with the Yankees later in his career.

Hayes came to the Rockies with the 3rd pick of the 1992 Expansion draft and held down the starting 3B job for the teams first two seasons. In 1993 he lead the National League with 45 doubles as well as leading the Rockies with 25 home runs and tying for the club lead with 98 RBI, all career highs. He probably would have been the first Colorado All-Star if it wasn't for Andres Galarraga who would go on to win the batting title with a .370 average. Hayes would leave Colorado as a free agent after the 1994 season, signing with the Phillies. He would end up playing for 7 MLB teams (BR link), including two stops with the Phillies, Giants and Yankees and would win a World Series Title with the 1996 Yankees.

Zistle Trade #2

Another Zistle trade completed with a fellow blogger at LV's TTM autographs and Baseball Cards. In exchange for player collection needs I got to cross off some cards from the wantlist. First off some 2012 archives, I was not sold on this set even though I am a huge fan of the 1971 design. I think it losses something with the modern day players. Also some Rockies, comparing the Opening Day Pomeranz with the base card further instills my dislike of foil printed names on cards. A couple 2011 Gypsy Queens to cross off the list and a 1992 Pinnacle Damon Berryhill for the catchers collection.

Trade with BA Benny

In response to my 2011 Gypsy Queen want list going up the fine fellow behind BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet contacted me about a trade, going his way was some set needs and assorted teams he collects. Coming back was around 50 Gypsy Queens I needed including some much needed short prints. He also threw in some Rockies I didn't have with two Chris Nelson's I needed for the "One of every Rockies" Collection and Seattle Seahawks starting QB Russell Wilson from when he was in the Rockies farm system. Finished out by a pile of Redskins cards, none of which I already had, which is impressive because I have around 1,500 different 'Skins cards. A small sampling of cards below. As always thanks for the great trade.

Acetate Appreciation: 2003 E-X

E-X was a brand released by Fleer that dabbled in clear plastic cards. The 2003 offering of E-X was made up of 102 base cards with cards 1-72 being veterans, 73-82 being short printed veterans and cards 83-102 being rookies designated by a small letter "R" in the bottom left corner, while only cards from 87-102 being actual rookie cards. The base set was paralleled with "Essential Credentials Now" with the cards tinted blue and serial numbered to the card number meaning card number 1 in set was limited to 1 and card number 102 was limited to 102. The "Essential Credentials Future" was tinted yellow with the serial number reversed meaning card number 1 was limited to 102 and card number 102 was limited to 1.

Zistle Trade #1

I don't think I really profess my love for www.zistle.com enough on this blog, but I do love the site for organizing collections and want-lists. I recently completed my first trade on Zistle, and really love how easy it is to start a trade with the want-list/trade-list capabilities on the site. Coming my way was the usual trade package, some 1992 Pinnacle needs including the Dibble to the right and some random catchers for the "Tools of Ignorance" collection. What could me more awesome than an Expo catcher with a goalie style mask. The 2009 John Baker is a personal favorite card of mine and some additions to the Ron Hassey collection.

Milan Lucic: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

2008-09 Upper Deck Trilogy Young Star Scripts Milan Lucic

While 2010-11 was a breakout regular season for Lucic with 30 goals and 62 points, his playoff stats are a little underwhelming. Playing in all 25 playoff games he only scored 5 times with 12 points, but did finish second in the playoffs with 63 penalty minutes including 4 misconduct penalties. While with the Vancouver Giants, Lucic helped the Giants to win the 2007 Memorial Cup winning the tournaments MVP award.