Lots of Gloss

It has been a while since I received a big trade package.  My idea of big is more than 50 cards.  It  could be because of my lack of time the last few months, or the fact that I have not gotten much new trade material.  Sometimes you meet a trader who just loves to trade in bulk.  That was the case with TCDB member alh.  I sent a trade offer for about 30 cards going both ways.  He countered with an offer of  83 cards coming my way and 61 going his direction.  I jumped at the offer.  Nothing better than getting a huge chunk of new Cardinals.  The bulk of the trade consisted of cards from 4 sets.

I had a handful of 1987 Fleer Glossy cards before this trade.  Thanks to the 18 I received, I only need 2 more to complete the set.  It is hard to pick up the glossy finish from the scan, but easy to tell in hand.  Otherwise there is not difference between these cards and the regular set.   

The 1989 Fleer Glossy set is easier to distinguish from the regular set because of the stamp on the back.  Just like the 1987 set, the front is very glossy.  I received 25 of the 26 cards from the set in this trade.  Only need the Ozzie Smith card to complete it.

Moving away from Fleer and the 1980s, I received 23 Cardinals from the 2003 Topps Home Team Advantage set.  Nothing fancy about these other than the stamp.  These mirrored the 720 card regular set.  Still need 11 more to finish this set.

The 4 big chunk of cards came from the 200 Upper Deck Predictor Green set.  I received 12 of the 14 Cardinals, needing the base Pujols and Molina cards to finish it.  These would have been a lot sharper with an all green border.

This is the card that started the trade.  Big Lee Smith was the last card I needed to complete the 1992 Topps Gold Winners team set.  Not a very valuable set, but I love finishing big sets like this one that had 29 Cardinals in it.

The trade was got even better with a couple of oddball minor league cards from 1994 Action Packed.  Barber was in the news last week for being hired as the head of the Phillies scouting department.  Hope that works out better than his pitching career.  He was the Cardinals first round pick in the 1991 draft.  He only pitched in 10 games during the 1995 and 1996 seasons before joining the Royals.  He was out of baseball by 2000.

The icing on the cake was this 1986  Donruss pop up that was included for free.  Another card that is not very valuable, but I really appreciate when a trader sends something extra that I do not have.