Small Zistle Trade

That's right, there are a few stubborn zistlers still around, and a few trades being made. If zistle does indeed one day go to that big web server in the sky, these are the trades I will miss. Random stuff that wasn't really even on my wantlist but found browsing peoples tradelists. Weird stuff like 1991 Leaf catchers, the veteran Jamie Quirk who has a Rockies connection as a former coach and even more veteran Rick Dempsey with a very oddly cropped card.

2016 Stadium Club - Rockies Custom Card Re-Do

Since rebooting in 2014, Stadium Club has been about the photos, full bleed, gloss stock with high quality photos. But for Rockies fans, it has been kind of boring. Sure we got a nice Todd Helton in 2014 and another winner in 2015 Drew Stubbs, but other than that, pretty much straight forward baseball card photos. So this year I decided to make the set my way, with my pictures, for the most part, while keeping the blatantly ripped off 1997 Fleer design.

The above Trevor Story photo is from opening day and while not a great action photo, it works with what he did on that day. A case where the tale the picture tells is more important than the actually picture.

Acetate Appreciation: 1998 Upper Deck Amazing Greats

These seemed pretty hard to find for cards limited to 2,000 copies, but were worth the search. Nice looking cards, a little busy but not over the top. Fairly large set for inserts at 30 cards they also come in a die-cut version limited to 25.

 All I can think of when I see this is the Orioles "This is Birdland" gif.

Acetate Appreciation: 1995 Stadium Club - Clear Cut

A rare case of a card that scans better than it looks in real life. The weird bluey-greenish-teal dominates the card while the color wheel thing in middle doesn't really add much either. Stadium Club is usually know for quality stuff, but this one leaves a lot to be desired.

Check Out My Tek (Acetate Appreciation)

I was pretty excited when my order from COMC.com arrived, it had been a long time since I got my stash shipping and it included all my mailbox service cards, including all my Topps Tek. I was excited to post them until I saw how crappy my scanner makes them look, but I felt the need to show them off anyway. The one that did show up was the "Disco-fractor" auto of Carlos Gonzalez, numbered to 50 and on card.

Acetate Appreciation: 1994 Studio Editor's Choice

The oldest baseball acetate card in my collection comes from the 1994 Donruss Studio line. These were inserted at a rate of 1:36 packs, or one per box. The 8 card set is designed to look like a film strip, a pretty obvious idea for acetate cards, but one not widely used. These cards scan very nicely, but don't look as good in person, the whole card is clear as opposed to the player photo being solid like on most acetate cards. This leads to a really washed out look on the card and make it really dull. It adds to the feel of being a photo negative, but makes for a pretty boring card.

Acetate Appreciation: 1997 Metal Universe Blast Furnace

Another post dedicated to clear plastic baseball cards, this time an insert from 1997 Metal Universe. One of the most bizarre sets I have ever seen, 1997 Metal Universe features player photos on a heavily foiled background with dragons, space ships and paratroopers among other random and nonsensical things. 

I will limit this post to the Blast Furnace insert set, 12 cards featuring power hitters of the day. A subtle design compared to the base set with the clear part having a red/orange tint to look like fire, despite not being really flashy, these rank pretty high on my list of acetate cards.

COMC Black Friday Order Part III: Rockies

On to the Rockies portion of the COMC order, leading it off with a 2008 Finest Jeff Francis, so far this is one of two Rockies card I have found to show the World Series patch on the jersey making this photo from Game 1 of the 2007 World Series. More cards for the recently traded Alex White collection, I expected big things from him as a Rockie no such luck there as he was just traded to the Astros. I usually don't collection jersey cards, but I needed a Pomeranz, the Nolan Arenado was more for the auto and the Iannetta was more for the fu manchu. Finished up with a Charlie Hayes card with his football style mask, a Scott Elarton for "One of every Rockie", a Pomeranz Platinum National promo numbered to 499 and a couple Andres Galarraga cards printed on wood.

Top 30 Colorado Rockies Cards (14-8)

After taking a day to express my disgust with the Topps Heritage High Number checklist we are back to the list with part 3 of 4.

 

14. Vinny Castilla - 1998 Score #97

Denver weather isn't always baseball friendly, especially in April, this card reflects that. Either that or Vinny is about to pull a gun out of his jersey and rob a bank, in that case hiding your face is a good start, but a jersey with your name on the back might be a mistake.

Trade With All The Way To The Backstop

What could be better than turning cards from a division rival into cards of your team. A recently completed trade with All The Way To The Backstop, a kindred spirit in that we both collect catchers and 1992 Pinnacle, and being that he is a Padres fan we probably share a dislike of all things Dodgers and Giants, turned some old Padres cards into Rockies with a few other goodies mixed in. For the Rockies cards everything from 1993's to 2012's. I completely skipped out on this years Bowman so this group is a nice sample with a Pacheco gold and a Tyler Gagnon numbered to 199. Also a few Expos yet to become Rockies in Larry Walker and Andres Galarraga. Finishing it off with some 1992 Pinnacle bringing me to within 46 cards of finishing the set.