Trade Stack 36: An Allen & Ginter Mini Short Print Begins a New Stack

Here is how this works:

Every so often (i.e. whenever I feel like it), I will add a card to a "Trade Stack".  Whenever the stack becomes appealing enough to someone, that person needs to comment on the post saying they'd like to claim the stack AND tell me which card they are sending off of my want list.  That's all you have to do - trade me ONE card (or more, of course) card from my want list for the entire stack of cards that I'm offering.  Each time, it will be first come, first serve...so act quickly (unless of course you are a gambler and hope to wait it out until there are 10+ cards in the stack that you want in exchange for a single 2004 UD Vintage card that I am looking for)!

The Trade Stack:

Last update:  1/27/12

It's time to begin the 36th edition of the Trade Stack!  As is my custom, I like to try and mix it up a bit with what I feature in my stacks, so how about if we start off with an Allen & Ginter mini short print card from this past year's set?  I don't know who is trying to collect the mini set (or maybe a Royal's collector will jump on this), but I wouldn't be surprised if this is the ?? 1-card trade stack claimed!

2011 Topps Allen & Ginter:
Mini:
Short print:
332.  Luke Hochevar - Royals  

Want the card(s) in the stack?  Act fast - tell me which card you will send me off my want list in the comments below!  You must leave a comment on the trade stack post in order to claim the card - no more claims via email!  If no one claims this card within a reasonable amount of time (a few hours up to a few days, depending) - I'll add another card to the stack and the process will start again!

Previously Claimed Trade Stacks:

Stack 01:  2 cards by dayf
Stack 02:  8 cards by Justin
Stack 03:  17 cards by Cam
Stack 04:  4 cards by Cam
Stack 05:  9 cards by Daily Dimwit
Stack 06:  4 cards by The Lost Collector
Stack 07:  1 card by Baseball Dad
Stack 08:  1 card by M. Spiegel
Stack 09:  6 cards by bwsmith25
Stack 10:  6 cards by Baseball Dad
Stack 11:  1 card by Patrick
Stack 12:  5 cards by Matt B.
Stack 13:  4 cards by Steve G.
Stack 14:  3 cards by ShaneK
Stack 15:  7 cards by Ryan G
Stack 16:  1 card by longlivethewho
Stack 17:  4 cards by hiflew
Stack 18:  4 cards by Potch
Stack 19:  2 cards by Axemanohio
Stack 20:  5 cards by by Play at the Plate
Stack 21:  5 cards by BA Benny
Stack 22:  1 card by IkesCards
Stack 23:  8 cards by Axemanohio
Stack 24:  1 card by BA Benny
Stack 25:  2 cards by Jeff P.
Stack 26:  10 cards by Axemanohio
Stack 27:  1 card by BA Benny
Stack 28:  7 cards by ThingsAreFunnerHere
Stack 29:  3 cards by TheBrooklynMet
Stack 30:  4 cards by Adam C.
Stack 31:  10 cards by Play at the Plate
Stack 32:  8 cards by Josh D.
Stack 33:  6 cards by Baseball Dad
Stack 34:  1 card by Potch
Stack 35:  9 cards by Cool Breeze
Stack 36:  ?? by ?? 

Barry Larkin Collection 117: 1994 Bowman's Best #95 - Mirror Image

Barry Larkin and Derek Jeter
Year:  1994
Brand:  Bowman's Best
Subset:  Mirror Image
Card number:  95

The Mirror Image cards were seeded 1 per pack in Series 1 of the 1994 Bowman's Best set.  Although inserted at a special rate, the cards were numbered as part of the regular base set (which is a confusing base set - two versions, one red and one blue - each number having two different players associated with it, one for each color).  There was only one version of the Mirror Image cards per number at least.

The front of the card features a bit of shiny gloss and a fairly solid design.  The back of the card, however, is horrific.  I don't know what type of drunk monkey thought it would be a good idea to simply slap text down on the card and orient it any which way, but that monkey ought to have been fired long before he or she had access to card development plans.  Yikes!

PWE Week: This Card is Indeed Cool!

I hope PWE week was as much fun for you as it was for me.  Ok, I'm guessing it was a lot more fun for me since I ended up with all the cards - but still, hopefully you enjoyed a slightly new twist on the classic trade post.

For today's post, the final envelope is courtesy of Ryan (This Card is Cool)who is halfway around the world right now.  I'm jealous of that because as you may know (my longtime readers probably remember), I like origami A LOT which is much, much more popular in Japan than it is here.





 One of my goals for the year (that I didn't think to add to my New Year's Resolutions explicitly) is to show off a bit more of my origami.  I'm guessing I won't get a chance to do that before my teaching responsibilities are done for the semester but hopefully during the summer I can make that happen (before Ginter madness preferably)!

Anyhow, back to the PWE.  Ryan found a Jay Bruce Topps Finest refractor #308/399.

As someone who doesn't collect Topps Finest, this is a great addition to my personal collection as it's one that I'm positive I don't already own!

Thanks for the card Ryan, and enjoy your time across the sea!  For anyone else, if you want to trade - check out the want list and make an offer!

PWE Week: How Many Cards Can a Dimwit Fit in a PWE?

First, I think Sam over at The Daily Dimwit has one of the most fun blog titles to work into trade posts.  Anytime I get to use the word dimwit, I'm excited (unless I need to use the word to describe my students' efforts on the latest exam or homework assignment of course).

Today's envelope was actually mailed way back in the year 2011.  Sam and I have completed a number of trades though this one was one of the easier ones since it was a Gypsy Queen for Gypsy Queen swap.  

Here are the cards that Sam sent my way - and all of 'em in a single PWE!

First up, one of the few remaining base cards that I needed.

Actually, I lied - I still need a whole bunch of regular base cards (plus a few of the short prints).  If anyone has any that I need lying around, let me know!

Next, one of the Home Run Heroes cards.

Thanks to Sam, I'm now only missing seven of the Home Run Heroes cards.

That may not sound impressive, but trust me, I'm happy that it's finally down to that number...will I ever finish the set?  I don't honestly know - but it doesn't look promising does it?  In case you are curious but don't feel like clicking on over to my want list, here are the missing Home Run Heroes cards:

 HH-2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 17, 21

Along with those, Sam managed to find five different Great Ones insert cards that I needed!

Of those, I think the Mantle is my favorite - but only because of the sheet amount of flying dirt in the picture!

Finally, the best card in the package!

A Sticky Fingers insert card of Brandon Phillips.

I love, love, LOVE the Sticky Fingers cards - I think the honeybees and the honeycomb put the card design way over the top and I'm happy to acquire the lone Red in the set (at least I think it's the lone Red in the set).

Thanks for the trade Sam - and as always, if anyone else wants to trade check out my want list and make an offer!

The Barry Larkin Card Experiment: Round 2 is Live!

Although Round 1 of the BLCE isn't quite completed, it's time to put the poll up for Round 2.  If I don't stagger the polls a bit we'll be here for much too long before we get to the more interesting rounds (winners versus winners)!  Since I rather arbitrarily decided to "seed" the first round in the exact order that I posted the first 100 cards in my Barry Larkin Collection, there isn't a lot of variety quite yet.  That will change though fairly soon as I quickly gave up on the idea of posting cards in some sort of order and instead started posting whichever card I felt like writing about on that given day.  For now though, the sequential order is maintained - so enjoy four cards from the turn of the 80s-to-90s and then remember to vote for your favorite.

As before, the top two from the group move on to the second round.

1989 Score

The 1989 Score set was fun because it had color photos on both sides of the card (Upper Deck wasn't the only set to do that)!  It was also fun because it was colorful - though those colors weren't always selected with a lot of foresight.  Take this Larkin card for example, green border, baby blue baseball field, yellow and white lettering...and then a Reds player?  It's like someone threw up Crayolas on a baseball card.

1989 Topps

If I were the sole vote in the contest, it would be awfully hard for me to pick against the 1989 Topps card simply because this is one of the first Larkin cards that I remember actually owning.  I didn't get his 1987 Topps rookie card until years later - so for me, this was his "old" card during the early part of collecting years.

1990 Donruss





Cursive names sucked as an eight year old boy...heck, cursive still sucks.  On the bright side, the card features a whole lot of red - and it looks much, much better in that sense (especially compared to the Score card above).

1990 Fleer 
 I have no idea why the 1990 Fleer set doesn't get more credit.  Sure, it's a bit bland and the card stock sucks - but the set design itself is solid!  The front has a nice picture bordered by team colors.  The back has a lot of statistics, plus "vital signs", and an interesting bio.

Unlike the first round in which I was almost 100% certain the 1987 Topps rookie card would reign supreme, I have no idea whatsoever which card will win this round.  Even more mysterious to me - which card will be second and how close will the vote be?  It's in your hand now my dear readers, don't screw it up.