Trades can bring you some nice surprises

It felt like it was too good to be true.  I looked at a trade recently and thought to myself, "there's just no way I'm getting these cards".  I waited a couple of days, looked at the trade again and looked at the feedback.  100%.  I was sending 5 cards for 4, not a bad trade on my part.  I hit the button, and some great cards headed my way in the mail.   They arrived last night and brought a smile to my face.   

I've collected Fleer Ultra cards over the years, but I can't recall ever seeing a Follow the Leader insert come from any of those sets.  Especially one featuring Jim Thome.  The design is simple, and the card has a short bio on the back recounting the 2003 Phillies falling short of the playoffs despite Jim's 10HR/30 RBI September.  

The next three cards were thought to have to be purchased to add them to my 84-85 OPC set.  Wrong.

The Chris Chelios rookie card has come down slightly in price over the past few years, but still is a quality addition to any collection.  Still need the Neely and Yzerman rookie cards, but having this one in hand is a great feeling.

A pair of Gretzky cards round out the trade, bringing the want list for the 84-85 OPC set down to just 24 cards.  6 of them are RC's, 6 of them are Gretzky cards (!) and 5 others are Edmonton Oilers (no commons in the bunch).  

To finish the set is going to cost probably $100 or so (Steve Yzerman rookies aren't cheap), and this parallels with 2 football sets that I'm down to a dozen or so cards remaining.  My 81 Topps set needs the Joe Montana rookie, and the 82 Topps still needs Lawrence Taylor and Ronnie Lott rookie cards.  

I'm wandering a little off topic here.  Even though most of my trades have featured a few cards here and there with nothing major going through the mail, sometimes you get a nice surprise like this one and remember that there are a lot of great people out there in the card community.  

Robert