Zistle Trade #29

Catching up on some Zistle.com trading. richardsonpilot put a dent in my 2013 Update 1971 mini wantlist. I really need to get some pages for these instead of keeping them in penny sleeves in the keeper box.

Last of the Denver Loot.

Along with catching a few Rockies games while in Denver, I managed to find my way down to Bill's Sports Collectibles, and picked up a few things. The big score for me was a couple Rockies magazines, these are full of photos of old obscure Rockies that make for some good custom card material. With some time to kill I dug through a few boxes of 10 cards for $20 and while probably overpaying at $2.00, it was fun to spend some time in a big store dedicated to something other than hockey.

Zistle Trade #28

Another smaller Zistle trade, In exhcange for some pirates BucCollector sent back a few randoms from the want-list. The Carlos Gonzalez above was the lone Rockies card, a Diamond Star from 2011 Topps.

Flew to Denver and Back (Something, Something, Tired Arms)

Just got back from taking in four Rockies games in Denver against the Reds. The highlight being the Todd Helton jersey retirement ceremony on Sunday. Live baseball is always a treat, but when something special like this happens, it's even better. The Rockies ended up winning 3 of the 4 games I was at, including a walk-off win and a double header sweep after a water line break forced the Saturday night game to be moved to Sunday evening. Good seats, good beer and good baseball, hard to beat that.

Just a Taste: 2014 Platinum (w/ Small Review)

Along with the 5 packs of Gypsy Queen, I picked up 5 packs of 2014 Bowman Platinum. This is a product that I haven't bought much over the years, but have always like the looks of. After seeing the sell-sheet for this years release and really digging the base design, I flirted with buying a box or two, but the low interest and lower resale value scared me off a little. I don't expect to make money off cards, but I have seen way to many bad box breaks of this stuff to drop $120 on a full box. My 5 Packs didn't bring anything special, but the odds were against me with that small of a sample.

Just 5 More Packs: 2014 Gypsy Queen

In a weekend trip to the LCS for supplies, the call of wax was too strong, and seeing packs of 2014 Gypsy Queen in a hockey based store proved to be to tempting to pass up. Even though I have completed the base set I still picked up 5 packs. The first pack I opened had one of the 4 hits in the box, and autograph Jake Odorizzi, not a big card by any means, but it was still nice to pull a hit from a loose pack.

Acetate Appreciation: 2000 Stadium Club Chrome - Clear Shots

 From the same set that had the acetate "Eyes of the Game" inserts is the "Clear Shots" inserts from 2000 Topps Stadium Club Chrome. A 10 card set with both hitters and pitchers all in posed shots. Not a very imaginative way to used the acetate stock, but not the worst I have seen. This post is almost as boring as the photos on the cards as there is not really much to say about these other than they exist.

Biggest Zistle Trade Yet

Completed a while ago, but just getting around to posting, a pretty large stack of cards from mkruger743 on zistle.com. Staring off with a nice bat relic of Vinny Castilla from 2005 bazooka. This is from Vinny's second stint with Colorado when he lead the National League with 131 RBI.

1971 Topps Variations?: Billy Grabarkewitz #85

This falls under the "is it really a variation" file, but I have seen it mentioned as such around the internet, so I felt the need to include it here. I have been waiting to post about this card until I personally got one, and after forgetting for over a year, I found one for cheap and pulled the trigger. On to the variation, you see that little dot to the glove side of Billy's head. One is red and is yellow. Yup, that's it. Not sure if it would be a print error or what the deal is. The "Red Dot" version is by far the most common, and all of the OPC versions I have seen are of the "Red Dot" variety.