Trade Time: BA Benny Never Disappoints

I'd recently finished my first trade with BA Benny, when he commented on some of my trade bait, and, thus, another great trade was born. I thought he would have been tapped out of cards off my want lists after our last trade, but he had more to send.

First off, some 2007 Bowman Heritage cards off my set want lists:

No signatures here, which makes them short prints. For a while I was considering just finishing the set without these, but with BA Benny's help, I'm one step closer to finishing the whole set including the short prints.

Next up, he sent these:

I'm always happy to add another Inge rookie to the collection, and I didn't have this Don Kelly rookie. Leyland said a few nights ago that Donnie will never win a batting title, never win a gold glove (ouch), but he's a crucial part of the success of the Tigers. He's been great this year. And some nice shiny Miggy cards here for the player collection.

The hits:

In our last trade, he sent me some Bonderman game-used cards and now here are more. Where the hell did he get all these Bondermans? Jeremy hasn't pitched this season, since the Tigers decided to take a different direction with their pitching staff. And now that they've added Fister I couldn't be happier with how strong our rotation looks. Still, I hope Bonderman gets picked up next year. I couldn't believe no one picked him up as a free agent. Even if Bonderman is taking up quilting and taxidermy hobbies while watching the Tigers on TV this year, I'm still glad to pick up a few more of his cards.

The best part of our trade was this card:

A great-looking game-used card, because it's Pudge's game-used swatch. The expression on his face is priceless. He looks disappointed or maybe concerned. It's a face made just after a long fly hit at the foul pole. Upon which side will the ball plunk?

Thanks for another great trade, man. Check out BA Benny's blog and send him some Mets or American flags. We miss your posts, man, and hope to see you writing again soon.

Trade Fodder and New and Improved Want Lists

I've made some changes to the want lists, making them a bit easier to search with links to my set and player collections, rather than one unruly list. Check it out and see for yourself, and let me know if my simplifying has only made things more complicated.

I thought I'd celebrate the new want lists by posting some trade bait.

Joe Koshansky: 2008 Finest Blue Refractor, numbered to 399

Jamie D'Antonia: 2008 Bowman Draft Prospects Jersey

Keith Hernandez: 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Refractor, numbered to 299

Vladimir Guerrero: 2005 Topps Heritage Chrome, numbered to 1956

Gaby Sanchez: 2011 Topps 60 Auto

Johnny Bench: 1974 and 1975 Kellog's, of the well-loved variety

Scott Podsednik: 2006 Bowman Heritage Pieces of Greatness, game-used bat

Gary Sheffield: 2002 UD Authentics Stars of '89 Jersey

Bruce Sutter: UD Legendary Icons Jersey

If you see anything you like, make me an offer. Leave a comment or send me an email.

Trade Post: I Took the Shot Not Taken

I was wasting away a listless 2:00 AM hour by looking over some fellow bloggers trade bait pages. The problem with this frequent activity is that I try to compile all the trades I want in my head, and then once I get to pulling cards and sending trade requests I forget everything. Well, that was not the case when I saw the clean, organized "for trade" page at Shot Not Taken. Plus, he had two cards I really wanted.

The trade went smashingly smooth, and now I'm the owner of this:

I prefer to see Miggy in a Tigers uniform, but I'm happy to add his Marlins cards to the player collection, too. I always like a piece of black jersey, rather than a gray or white one. There's just something cooler about black, and this card has black all over it. It's a simple design with nice solid-color framing and a pic of Miggy giving the peace sign after knocking in a home run.

Here's the other card I got from the trade:

This is the card I was really excited to pick up from the trade. It's pretty much a perfect card for my Pudge collection. Swatch of jersey, full catcher get-up, Tigers uniform, and the old-timey theme of this set just tops off a great card.

It was great to do a simple trade for two cards I really wanted. Now, go over to Shot Not Taken and make Ray an offer. You won't be disappointed.

The Card Show: Vintage Scrounging, Part Two

I spent a good part of my time going through one dealer's vintage table at the last card show I attended. I posted a few of my key pick-ups yesterday. Today, here's the rest of it. Lots of far-from-mint cards, but still vintage and still cooler than most modern cards.

A 1959 Coot Veal was the first vintage card I ever added to my collection, so I have a soft spot in my collecting heart for this set. For 90 percent off BV, I picked up some all-stars and some catchers. I was looking up player stats, which is always something fun to do with vintage, and was a bit surprised Wally Post never went to an all-star game when he had some really fantastic seasons in the mid '50s. In 1955 he hit 40 home runs, 109 RBIs, and had 186 hits with a .309 average. Of course, he also struck out like a mofo, with 102 in '55 and 124 in '56.

So does anyone know why some '59 card backs are green and some beige-ish? Different series? A serious mystery indeed.

The Carl Furillo card in the top left corner is in horrendous condition, but I think it was a quarter. I'm not a huge fan of this set, but I love the World Series subset. The actions shots are great and the photos are grainy in a way that makes them look even older. The others are in pretty nice shape.

Here we have Mr. World-Series-Perfect-Game Don Larsen. The bright orange background must have tricked some disappointed mouse into thinking it was a piece of cheddar cheese. However, apparently these mice don't like bright yellow cheese, because Jerry Lynch is safe.

Here's the last '58 card I picked up and my favorite of this bunch. Like 1960 Topps, I'm not much of an appreciator of this design. Sometimes the big bright background colors works, but most of the time they just hurt my eyes and make me want to bite them. But Vic's blue background soothes me, along with his intense batter's stare.

The dealer gave me the Bob Schmidt card as a freebie for picking up the others. I had a few to choose from, and of course I chose this one because of the cool old catcher's gear. Bill Taylor never did much in the majors, but he got a free ride into my collection just for wearing a Tigers cap.

That's it for the card show, or at least all that's really worth showing. Let me know if you're interested in any of these. All but a few are up for trade.