Trader’s Backlog: MZentko Returns!

What’s this, you say? Another trade post from TCDB member Mark, aka MZentko? That guy must be pretty swell!

He is indeed! I don’t have a record of this one in the Transactions list, so this must have been a blind swap (the other one was as well, but there’s a proposal saying such). This was a nice little package with things from all over my want list, such as these 1982 Topps Stickers. Ashby and Nolan were two of the last three I needed – now I just have to find a Terry Puhl.

There was some mid-00s goodness in there as well, including a nice 2004 Fleer Tradition design I’d never seen. I’ll take that for a base card layout any day. The Berkman is a SI For Kids card from 2006 – I had no idea the magazine was still around, much less that they still put the perforated cards in it! I noticed a copy on the supermarket shelves the other day, but I forgot to see if the cards are still around now. That was definitely one of the coolest cards in the package.

We’ll close out this post with a pair of die-cut parallels: a 2002 Donruss Fan Club die-cut of Moises Alou, and a 2004 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion parallel of Richard Hidalgo, for which they decided to lop off a corner. These guys both had some excellent seasons patrolling the outfield for Houston, and put up some nice batting numbers. Moises was an excellent hitter who ran into injury problems frequently throughout his career, and missed the entire 1999 season due to an offseason ACL tear. By the time this Donruss card had come out, the Astros had non-tendered him and Alou had signed a 3-year, $27 million contract with the Cubs.

Thanks for another trade Mark! This was a great package. We’ll have to do it again.

 – Marc