A Online Trade with Garvey Cey Russell Lopes

I am rediscovering a joy I last experienced as a child.

Recently, I completed a online trade with the proprietor of the Garvey Cey Russell Lopes Blog. He was working on completing a 1989 Upper Deck set and had a long list of cards needed for completion. Fortunately, I have a giant box filled with commons from that set- easily some 4500 cards total. So, I traded any and all cards I had from his list and he passed along some Dodger cards to add to my collection. As I've written in the past, my current collection consist of mostly older/ vintage Baseball cards, so I have very few modern issued cards of Dodger players.

Below is a sample of the bounty GCRL passed along. Thanks Bro!

BTW, anybody else wanna trade? I have tons of cards, mostly from 1986 to 1993, some much older vintage items, unopened boxes, sets and a bunch of oddball oddities.

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Here are 3 vintage players that were pass along. On the left is a 2001 Upper Deck Cooperstown Collection card of Pee Wee Reese. My favorite, though, is the Carl Erskine in the middle. It's a modern card made after the vintage 1955 Topps set.

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If you are interested in knowing what the 2009 Topps cards look like for this season, well, here they are above. I'm not entirely impressed with the design. On the other hand, the card of Pierre making the diving catch is pretty nice.

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Now that you've had a chance to see this years Topps card, now check out Upper Deck's 2009 Baseball cards above. Here is Jeff Kent's last card, Chin-Lung Hu and a Juan Pierre in a well worn uniform.

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Stadium Club has always been one of my favorite card sets because of their outstanding photography. The Devon White and Kevin Brown 2000 Stadium Club versions do not disappoint.

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Above are 2001 Topps Heritage cards of Darren Dreifort and Chan Ho Park. These cards borrow the vintage design from the 1952 Topps set. Below, the Eric Karros and Todd Hollandsworth cards are from Fleer's 2000 Tradition set that borrow its design from Topps 1954 set.

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Rehashing old designs for modern sets is quite popular. Below is Upper Deck's 2008 Goudey cards of Hu, Chad Billingsley and the outfielder who I refuse to ever think about again. The original Goudey sets were made in the 1930's.

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Below are 2 examples from Topps 2009 Heritage card set that borrow it's design from the Topps 1960 set.

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Last but not least are two cards of Karros and Chan Ho Park from the 2001 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia set. Until recently, I had never heard of this card company.

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My First Online Trade, Part 3

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I absolutely love these cards. I will definitely be looking into putting together a set of these. They are Topps Turkey Red cards that borrow their design from the old 19th Century set card called T3 Turkey Reds. The coolest thing about these cards is the texture. It has an almost leather feel to them, much like the original vintage set. Unfortunately, it appears they made sets from 2005 to today, so I've got my hands full when it comes to deciding what to chase. Thanks again to Ike's Cards for the awesome trade.

My First Online Trade, Part 2

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This is a great set. It is from 2008 and is designed after the 1888 N28 Allen & Ginter set. For nearly a decade I've been working on putting together the complete set of these. I'm only 8 cards shy, but I'm missing some of the more expensive cards from the set. Considering the economy it might take another decade for me to complete it. Ike's Cards was kind enough to send me a whole bunch of Dodgers from the set. He even included a group of mini inserts (the 3 cards above) that are of the same size as the original vintage set.

My First Online Trade, Part 1

I can be such a procrastinating moron. A couple of months ago I completed my very first online trade with the proprietor of Ike's Cards. We put together a kind of gentleman's trade where I grouped together a large lot of Cardinals cards for some Dodger cards. No specific players were discussed. I guess you can say that we figured the surprise of each others package would be pleasure enough. I will add, though, that I did specifically request modern issued cards since there are so many sets and cards I have no familiarity with. Go here for some of the cards I sent his way.

My package was better than I had hoped. In fact, it was so good I've decided to break up the bounty into several post to highlight my favorites. Check out my first series of scans below.

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Most of the cards received were from issues totally foreign to me. For instance, the three cards on the top row in the photo above are 2006 Bazooka cards. I had no idea Topps made a Bazooka set. Not only that, I am totally fascinated by the Gagne card. Remember when McCourt took the players names off the back of the uniforms? That's a bit of recent Dodger past I'm glad is over. The best card of the group of 6 is on the bottom right. This is my first Greg Maddux card with him in a Dodger uniform. Awesome!
The group of 9 cards above include some old friends. There are 2 Ramon Martinez's. That man could pitch. Nomo, Belcher and Grissom round out the other old Dodgers. The Matt Kemp card is absolutely wonderful. It is from a set I've seen before, but have not really searched for. It is designed after the vintage 1952 Topps set and looks great. I think it came out in 2006. I've got to get more Dodgers from that set.
The nine above include Russell Martin, Jeff Kent and Chad Billingsley. The best card of the group, though, is Nomar Garciaparra. This is my first card with Nomar in a Dodger uniform.
I love those Heritage cards of Saito and Furcal. The use of vintage designs with modern players was a good call by Topps. I might be forced to complete an entire set of these. At center is should-be Hall of Famer Maury Wills. Thanks you Ike's Cards.