The Small Trade Parade, Vol. VI

Ooof, missed again. Let’s start this thing over, shall we? I have a sneaky suspicion I might actually be able to maintain a posting streak this time.

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Rusty (rustypetty) and I pulled off our first trade recently. He needed some help with Archives (one of the only products I managed to find around here this year, thanks flippers), and had a PWE full of Astros for me, including these members of our Cuban Coalition. Armenteros got hurt in spring training and had surgery that effectively sidelined him for all of what turned out to be the 2020 season. Yordan’s arrival was delayed by COVID-19, and he only got into two games before a knee injury put him out for the year. Here’s hoping they both come back strong in 2021, because there is a lot of talent in these two.

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Rusty’s envelope also brought with it my first taste of Fire for the year. After being thoroughly unimpressed with the 2018 version and then reversing that completely for a stellar 2019 version, this set is back to a big fat “meh.” Last year’s was clean, the font looked great, the parallels shined, and the uniform look was perfect. These? They’re fine, I suppose. The Bagwell is the most appealing to me, the other two look like the players are emerging from the Phantom Zone. There was also a sweet Alvarez insert from Chrome. I’m wayyyy beyond over these anniversary design redux cards, but seeing as how 2020 Yordans are all rookies, I’m grateful for any sweet Yordan card that comes my way.

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Another first time trade partner, Joey (CrimsonTider), sent me another PWE full of sweet 90s Astros. He needed Ginter help (the other product I managed to find this year). I landed a handful of these Gold Rush parallels from 1995 Score. Scans don’t do these justice, of course, but these sing. They’re almost enough to make you forget the wretched design.

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Also among the ‘Stros were the final two cards I needed to polish off the 1999 Metal Universe team set – a Mike Hampton card and this Randy Johnson from the Caught on the Fly subset. Mike also showed up in the handful of Topps Chrome cards that finished up this trade, riding along with Operation Shutdown, who is seen taking it easy.

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Joe (Tjernst2) and I put together a little swap – there have been lots of little swaps lately, if you haven’t caught on yet. That’s why this is called the Small Trade Parade, after all. This one brought in a couple of Astros pitchers. That Lyles is from the 2008 Razor set, which focuses on draft picks. Joe also had a few cards for sets I’m building – a Chipper for 1993 Upper Deck, a Miggy for last year’s Heritage Scratch-Offs, and one of the Buggin’ Out minis from this year’s Ginter set. I suppose I need to get a want list up for that last one. By the way, this photo of Larry Wayne Jones is goofy as hell.

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Phillip (Phumphries) asked me for a few HAWT ROOKIES, and asked me to dig through his trade list to see what I could come up with for equal value. I found a couple needs from 2020 Chrome – an Urquidy base card and a 2020 Update Preview insert of our boy Yordan. In a prescient move, I rounded out this trade with a rookie card of AL ROY Kyle Lewis. Not a bad call!

Welp, I thought I scanned more from this little trade with Marti (glassnickels), but apparently I, uh, didn’t. Whoops. There was a yellow parallel Springer from 2019 Topps as well as this 150th Anniversary McHugh, and a few more Astros.

Alright, I thought about throwing the small hauls from the latest three PWEs to arrive, but then I’d probably stall out. I’ll just start a new draft and try and prep this streak. There’s some big news on the horizon – some of you already know – but until it’s officially official I don’t want to announce it here yet. Y’all stay safe – and home! And please, for the love of everything – mask up if you have to go out.