What the heck are you DOING? Sketchy or Classy?

Whenever you book a hotel online in a strange city, you never really know if it is going to be a gem or if it is gonna be super-sketchy.  You might be right by the museums, shopping, and fine restaurants -- or you might be by the all-night liquor store with a view of the sewage treatment plant and the red-light district.  

It's the same with card trading.  Whenever you get a trade package, it's tough to know if it is going to be a high-class trade, or a super-sketchy trade...or both.

I just made another zistle.com trade -- this time with a user named jkgrice.  In exchange for a bunch of Tom Glavine cards and some miscellaneous Ginter, let's take a look at what I got.

1996 Pinnacle Bob Hamelin

WHY ARE YOU STARING AT ME OVER THAT SIGN, BOB HAMELIN????  Could you BE any more creepy about it?  And why do you even need a sign?  Anyone should know that that is Bob "The Hammer" Hamelin.  They should just give him a hammer to take to all photo shoots and then he could carry that around, and he wouldn't need to look up and show his chubby, bespectacled face to the rest of us.*

Maybe we can find someone else to make this a little less sketchy.  You there!  Good sir!  Ahoy!  Please let us see if you are a distinguished gentleman...

1982 Fleer Dennis Lamp

Biker 'stache......check.
Tinted Aviator sunglasses.....check.
Satin Jacket....check.
Van behind the drugstore where he offers kids free candy.....check.
 I love Dennis Lamp quite a bit....but if we're looking for "classy," he ain't it.

What about this young man?  Just a Rookie!  Surely he is not yet jaded by the world. 

1996 Score Mike Sweeney Rookie

I love the baby-face there...so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  Speaking of babies, Mike Sweeney's newest baby fits inside a baseball glove:  Nothing says highbrow like a baby in a baseball glove.

Well....we're definitely getting more classy as we go along.  Is there anything else we can add to spruce this place up?  Add a little glitz?

Yes.  ROYALTY.

2011 Allen and Ginter - Royal Wedding - Price William and Kate Middleton

All of a sudden I find myself craving crumpets, listening to the BBC, and wanting to invade the Falklands.  WE JUST GOT CLASSY UP IN HERE.  Despite Kate's recent troubles with the French media...everything around here just got fancy-fied.  I guess I have jkgrice to thank for that!  :-)

* I can say things like this because I am chubby and bespectacled.