I've recently completed two trades on Zistle (my username is Bubbasbums on there) this past week. I'm beginning to enjoy the site more and more as I continue to use it. The entire idea behind an online database where you can personally control your card collection and mark certain cards for trade/want is genius, and with a bit more work, I don't know why everyone wouldn't use this site in the future.
I suppose right now the issue is that there are simply too many options out there (each with their individual ups and downs). When I started collecting cards in middle school, the main way to get people to trade with you online was through the use of forums, usually sponsored by the creators of the cards themselves. In the baseball card world we also have Beckett and other third party sources that attempt to tell us how much our collections are worth. People also flock to these sites (and thus their forums as well).
I've been to many of these sites and forums and Zistle still remains my favorite because of its focus on the collector. Instead of simply providing content (like Beckett with its price guide, or other sites with a constant flow of opinionated articles), Zistle simply provides a hub to catalog your own collection, at your own pace. The downfall of this site would be the lack of a constant stream of steady activity. Unsurprisingly, the Zistle forums are completely dead with almost zero chatter. The only way to communicate on the site is through offering trades... but I tend to be perfectly okay with this.
On to the first trade!
I found a Phillies fan that needed a few of my mini parallels from various years. I certainly didn't want them so off they went Virginia for the following:
Here's three of the 8 minis Dean sent me (all of which I was missing). Minis from 2009 are always appreciated... I barely have any, and these were no exception. The single card from the World's Greatest Military Leaders set puts my count at a measly 8 out of 20 cards... yuck. Perhaps the next Zistle trade will help me out there... In any case, these all went straight into the binder!
Dean also sent 4 regular minis from 2009 and 2010 that I needed. No huge standouts or SP's there. My favorite was probably a card of Mr. Louis Braille... a purple suit with a purple background. Awesome.
But the main reason I jumped on this trade was for the final card below. This card is from a COMPLETELY OBNOXIOUS set Topps released in 2010. It is a 25 card set that is retail only. The first 5 cards of the set can be found in any retail product. The remaining 20 cards (i.e. this one!) can only be found in gravity feed retail packs... Wouldn't you know that I actually bought a fair amount of retail from 2010, but I tend to buy blasters. I actually have 17 cards of this set in my collection but all of them are numbered 1-5. Grrrrrr....
But now I have 18! ...and this one is numbered WB14!!! Only 19 obnoxiously hard to find cards to go!!!
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