Mucho Mets!

I've had the real pleasure recently of striking up a few cardboard exchanges with bloggers I've never traded with before.  I love my regular trading buddies, but it's also nice to expand one's horizons from time to time.

And, boy, did I strike gold in this particular instance.  Howard of Wanted: Baseball Cards mentioned something about wanting to trim down his collection, specifically cards from such sets as Leaf, Pinnacle and Pacific.  My fingers couldn't move fast enough to type in, "Mets, please!" since those are brands I didn't buy much of back in the day.  I was particularly intrigued by the idea of getting some more Pacific cards for my Mets collection.  Those things aren't easy to come by, after all.  At least I've found.

Anyhow, Howard delivered in a big-time way.  A flat-rate box stuffed full of cards.  Four big stacks, to be exact.  I'd estimate there were  200+ cards in there, and possibly as many as 300.  Whatever the count, it was way more than I had expected.  And, everything I had hoped or anticipated from the variety of cards was met to the fullest and beyond.

Keep in mind, what I'm about to share is just a fraction of the total picture.

The assortment from Howard wasn't limited to just the three brands named above.  There was a pretty good amount of Bowman cards from various years.

I like that Preston Wilson rookie in the top right corner.  That could be an All-Time Mets Project entry.  The horizontal Burnitz is pretty great, as well.

The box o' Mets also included some Upper Deck goodies.

A trio of snazzy Piazzas and a duo of Wrights highlight this particular grouping.

More from Upper Deck.  I've never heard of the two jamokes in the top row next to Bonilla, but I like their cards!

Okay, let's get down to business.  Here are a few pages of Leaf cards from various years.

And then there's Pinnacle.  Lots of great looking designs from this brand over the years.

Okay, and the best was saved for last -- Pacific!!  Oodles and oodles of Pacific cards that I didn't have and barely knew existed!!

At long last, a card of Alberto Castillo (bottom right corner of above page)!  He was the Mets opening day catcher in 1998 (Hundley hurt, Piazza still a Dodger), and a player I've been trying to hunt down for quite some time for the ATMP.

Another Alberto!  And even a Brent Mayne card (top right).  It's like a backup catcher reunion up in here!

Only my second card of Orel Hershiser as a Met (middle row).

Wow, just amazin' stuff!  And that's just a sampling of it all!

And here a few of my individual favorites of the lot.  These cards deserve their own image...

Woo!  Butch Huskey rookies always get a spotlight.

So do awesome horizontal cards of big Butch.  Is that a game face or what?

Maybe this was the best photo out of all the cards I received.  What an unusual choice of photos, no?  If I were Ryan Thompson, I don't know how I"d feel about this one.  But, since I'm not Ryan Thompson, I enjoy this one immensely.

Looks like Pinnacle just plucked Carl's jumbotron slide for this card.

A preview of Collector's Choice?  Okay, if you insist.  This also happens to be a great horizontal shot of B-Mac.

And, for the grand finale...

Yes, indeed!  A true Bowman rookie of the Mets captain!  This card has been eluding me for way too long.  What a fantastic surprise it was to find this one in the box!

Howard, thanks a million for all these tremendous Mets cards!  You've certainly made this collector's day/week/month/year!

MK