Vintage and Oz

Kerry mentioned in his Monday post how it is nice to be able to unload your duplicates to other team collectors.  I have lost track how many times we have exchanged Cardinals.  I have discovered a few other Cardinal collectors on TCDB.  Some are frequent trade partners, while others I am just starting to establish a friendship with.  Just before Christmas, I worked out my first trade with member brooks1856.  He has quite a few player collections of Cardinals past and present.  We worked out a friendly exchange with me sending 11 cards his way for 8 much needed Cardinals headed my direction.

I am not picky when it comes to condition of pre 1980 cards.  About my only hang up is writing on the front.  Both of these pass the test.  The Corrales is from 1967, Linzy 1971.

The rest of the trade consisted of Ozzie Smith cards including these stickers from 1993 Panini and 1985 Topps.  I have a little over 700 different Ozzies in my collection.  I really thought that would have been higher given how much Topps loves to put him in current sets.

Smith has a ton of oddball cards to chase after.  Included here are a 1992 Jimmy Dean, 1989 Starting Lineup, and a 1992 Ballstreet.  I like the Busch Stadium backdrop on the Ballstreet card.  I remember that astroturf field and ugly blue wall.

The last card was a 1996 Ultra insert.  This is another card that I have seen hundreds of times, but somehow did not have it in my collection.  One thing I always remember about Smith is his batting helmet without ear flaps.  I guess as a switch hitter he never wanted to mess with 2 helmets, so he did without.