Two is Better than Juan

Cheese 'n crackers, I am waaay behind on trade posts!  I was so preoccupied with doing my jersey number countdown to Opening Day that I let every else sit on the back burner.

To all those who were Juan-derful enough to send me cards, please accept my apologies for the tardiness of my 'thank you' posts.  They will all be coming up this week, I promise!

Where to start?  Oh, well how about this brand-spankin' new Juan Lagares autograph from this year's Topps flagship product?  With the ink barely dry on his new contract extension, this reigning Gold Glover is fast becoming one of my favorite Mets not just of this era, but of all time.  The way he plays center field is reminiscent of the mastery that Rey Ordonez--another of my all-time faves--used to display at shortstop.  The extraordinary play seems to become routine when Lagares is on patrol, and I love watching it!

Anyhow, back to this card.  Or should I say cards.  Y'see, because I am now the proud owner of not one Juan...err, sorry....not one, but TWO of these Juan autos thanks to a super coincidence.

My first copy of this brilliant card came courtesy of Jason, a new friend to the Clubhouse who runs a nifty 2015 Topps blog of his own.  (Check it out if you haven't already!)  Jason heard if through the grapevine that I was a Mets guy (a hat tip to Nick of Dime Boxes!) and contacted me about a trade, and the rest is history.

I was now the new owner of a Juan Lagares autograph, which would qualify as my first auto card of Juan.  But, apparently not my last...

A few days later a PWE from my man Pat of Hot Corner Cards arrived bearing three magnificent Mets cards.  I'll give you a stab at guessing what one of those three was.

Guessed it yet?

BANG!!!  Not Juan, but two!!  Talk about rags to riches!

Certainly, this doesn't qualify as an 'issue' or a 'problem' since there is a 15-month old little boy running around my house who will someday (with daddy's help) be cultivating a collection of his own.  And I think he will probably love to have in his collection an autographed card of a guy who helped the Mets win the 2015 World Series (hey, I can dream, can't I??).

Oh, as for the other two cards from Pat's PWE, let's have a look...

Yesss!  The gold parallels from '15 Topps are out of this world.  Probably my favorite yet.  And on a Lagares Future Stars card, the gold looks even more dynamite!

And, finally...

Talk about a show-stopper, this Piazza insert--also from 2015 flagship Topps--is a throwback to the awesome insert sets from the Topps of old, before everything became about sticker autos and pieces of actual grass embedded into super-thick card stock.

Very, very happy to add all of these cards to my Mets collection--and Gabriel's, too!

A big and humble thank you to both Jason and Pat for keeping me in mind!  Thanks, fellas!

MK