A Stellar Swap with Sign Here and Here

Chris, from the fun and unique Sign Here and Here blog, recently sent me a giant batch of Mariners and Griffeys in return for some on-card autos and Brewers. The variety of cards was amazing with plenty of refractors, x-fractors, numbered parallels, etc. Here's a handful of my favorites:

2005 Upper Deck Reflections Wladimir Balentien RC #95/99: A cool looking card even if Balentien never quite panned out with the Mariners (although I don't think they gave him a long enough look--they made the same mistake with Shin-Soo Choo) this comes from a set I've never seen in person before--it's pretty snazzy. I hope Balentien gets a shot with the Reds this season.

2006 Topps Finest Felix Hernandez Blue X-Fractor #140/150: Me gusta mucho! This card comes from one of my favorite sets of Finest and features the 2010 AL Cy Young Award Winner. The blue really works well with the Mariners' uniform.

1996 SPX Ken Griffey Jr: Back in the day Upper Deck was really the frontrunner in bringing cutting edge technology to baseball cards. Case in point, 1996 SPX, which had only one card per pack but darn it all it was one cool card. It looks better in person, but it is a little unnerving as Junior's head moves from side to side (though thankfully not all the way around). I'll miss you Upper Deck...I'll miss you.

2006 Flair Showcase Freddy Garcia Showcase Stitches: I was always a fan of the "Chief" during his tenure with the Mariners, including the 2000 season in which he led the AL in ERA. This card features a swatch of his Team Venezuala jersey, which I think is pretty rad. Garcia is slated to be the #5 starter for the White Sox this year, but I'm not sure he's got much left in the tank.

2010 Topps Throwback Parallel Mariners Team Card: In a word: "awesome". I wasn't a huge fan of this year's Topps base set, but I loved the team celebration cards and this is the one I had to have. Can't wait for Opening Day!

Thanks for the great cards Chris and good luck to the Blue Devils!