New Cards from First Pitch Discount Sportscards, My Very Favorite Beckett Store (and it's a trade this time!)

Waaay back in October, when I was still buying cards online on a regular basis, I bought a few cards from a Beckett store called First Pitch Discount Sportscards. I didn't think much of it at the time - the store was cool, the cards were awesome, and I was happy.

The day after I mentioned my buy, however, First Pitch commented on my post. They thanked me for the free advertising, made some small talk about Indiana University (a school we share in common), and said maybe we could deal in the future.

Trade with a card shop? No way - that's like Christmas more than once a year!

But it's true my friends. First Pitch Cards is mostly about selling cards, and I would highly recommend you guys buy from them if you're ever looking to spend on Beckett since their prices are nice and they seem like great people. But thanks to the rare occasion of them having just enough cool McGriff relics, being IU alums, and randomly finding my blog, we made a trade. And boy, what a trade it was! A few of my best football rookies cards for:

Ben Grieve!

Okay, Grieve and the non McGriffs were actually throw ins, but they're really cool cards. This one looks awesome on the front - "live Bats" looks like something out of Space Invaders to me.
And ahhh...the infamous Skybox freestyle. This one cracks me up:

"For a young cat, you're super selective at the plate, walking 85 times in 583 at-bats. And when you do swing, really good (for your team)/really scary (for your opponents) things happen. Like what? 168 hits. What else? 41 doubles. Any more? 89 ribbies. We know, Ben you're just getting started."

As always with Skybox, I have no idea where to start. Whoever wrote for them in the late 90's was insane.

The next card is arguably even better - Superstar Theatre, Tomo Ohka. Wow. And this is AFTER he flamed out in Boston and Montreal. He even looks scared in the picture on this card. Poor dude.

The last throw in, a Rock Solid Foundation Charles Johnson RC. Soooo shiny, and CJ is actually a player I liked a lot as a young kid. I really liked the 1997 Marlins and that was probably most of it, but it didn't hurt that CJ is Fred McGriff's cousin!

Speaking of Fred, it's about time to get to him. The next three cards are what I traded for, and start with this 2002 Upper Deck NL All Star Swatches card. I have very few McGriff jersey cards for some reason, so this was a very welcome addition. Even though it is weird to have a red swatch for a guy who played on the Cubs (ahh All Star Games).

This next card is pretty epic, and the first of its kind in my possession. It's one of those 2002 Upper Deck Quad Bat Cards, and features McGriff, Ken Griffey Jr., "Slammin'" Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro. This was obviously the big card of the trade on my end value wise, and it's really cool for several reasons. For one, everyone loves Junior, so to have a Junior relic that shares with a Fred relic is just amazing. More importantly/awesomely, I like the way that the players are placed on this card. Sosa and Palmeiro are known as steroid guys now while McGriff and Griffey are two of the last clean power hitters of the 90's. Sort of gives this card a left=steroids, right=pure (awesomeness), which I really like.

The last card has two pictures, because it's a tricky one to photograph nicely.

Less shiny but kind of grainy:
Super shiny with camera reflection but clearer:
So cool, and it's my third 2005 Diamond Kings McGriff (but all are different, one base, one jersey+bat, one Diamond Cuts). There are something like 3453487524 variations on the 2005 Diamond Kings cards, and I don't know that I'll ever get them all. But it's nice to get one of each type at least, and this definitely did that. Plus it's serial numbered 005/100 - so that ain't too shabby.

Thanks so much First Pitch Discount Sportscards, you guys have great cards and it's always a pleasure dealing with you! I hope that this post gets you some visits by my readers!