Trade Post - Play at the Plate

A little over a month ago (still working on catching up on the trade posts), Brian from Play at the Plate dropped me a note with some interest in a Ginter Mitch Moreland relic I pulled from Allen and Ginter.  Once again some interest in one card blossomed into a pretty big trade.  This is easily one of the better trade packages I have received and I had no idea what was coming when I opened it up.

Check out all these goodies and you will see why I was so pleasantly surprised.

 First up are some cards from two of my favorite sets, Ultra and Topps Total.  The Rod Beck picture with him dumping balls into a pitching machine is very cool.  I received a nice Double Up insert of Barry Lamar Bonds. A couple Total Silver parallels, a very nice collection of cards.

 These 8 cards all represented the first card in my collection from each of the sets.  I was shocked to find so many sets that weren't yet represented.  This means new pages in my binders and new team sets to pursue!

 These are some nice horizontal cards.  I am a big fan of the Stadium Club and Flair sets, very cool photography in very different ways.  I am shocked how few Collector's Choice cards I actually have.  For such an inexpensive set, they really aren't as common as I would think.

 Here are some nice cards of retired Giants.  Some good represenation of Barry.  I also scored a nice Sports Royalty Juan Marichal.  I love last year's Gypsy Queen framed cards, I still need 1 Green (Posey) and 1 of the Goldish color (Mathewson).  Two great pickups of old time Giants greats.  Finally a Conlon Collection card. I rememeber years ago seeing sets and boxes of this stuff for what I recall was a reasonable price.  I have picked up a few Giants in trades and would love to get more.  While the design isn't too flashy, the old photos and the information on the cards is outstanding.

A few more random base cards that fit nicely into the Giants collection as well.  I like the Donruss Originals cards but have never opened a pack of them.  I wonder if there are still boxes available and what they might set me back?

 The package went on and on and included these cool minor league releases.  I have received a very small number of these in trades but always enjoy checking them out.

Some McCovey's as well.  The Triple Play went straight to the player collection, still need another for the set.  The National Chicle is a duplicate but one I desired as I wanted another for the Giants binder.  Another framed Gypsy Queen card, this time from the 2012 set and of my favorite player!

 Some awesome Chrome goodness!!!  Check out the trio of Brian Wilson cards, the beard in all its glory.  I think the Orange border of the Wilson and Lincecum cards looks great on Giant cards.  So cool to score two of them in one trade.  That Matt Cain you are looking at is the Gold Refractor, serial numbered out of 50!  Last year I was trying to hunt down the Giants rainbows from the Chrome set but this one reinspired me to go after it again.  I couldn't believe this card was part of the trade.

The final card was another huge surprise, a 2011 Gypsy Queen Pablo Sandoval auto.  I really enjoy the Gypsy Queen design and this card is great.  It appears the Panda is circling the bases after a homer at AT&T Park and has a nice on card signature.  Pablo's signature is pretty consistent and appears to consist of only his last name.  Even without the first name, I like how you can still make out a majority of the name in his scribble.

I am sure you will agree that this was an amazing Giants trade package.  Thank you so much Brian, I hope the package of Rangers came close to living up to this great trade package.