The first part of the madness

Over the past couple of weeks, including last weeks manic run, I hit up a dozen trades on the TCDB site.  Don't know why, but apparently when I'm in the mood to trade, it just comes flowing out.  I actually mailed out 6 trades in one day; I had to carry them all on a walk to the post office in a Barnes and Noble book bag (there were 2 bubble mailers).  

I made a trade with Richard, 5 for 5.  It came from Canada in less than 2 weeks, which has been the norm lately.  

Another John Olerud card starts the trade off:

Don't know if I've ever seen or picked up an Oh Henry release from 1995, but this card was very light and the picture looks as if it was added to the card after production.  If you look at the card at a different angle. it almost looks as if it is photoshopped.  Card #335 for the Olerud collection is in hand, just 28 more and I'll have the same total as his 1993 batting average....

A pair of 2014 A&G needs knocked off the list.  More Blue Jays no less!  Both of them are now part of the Blue Jays Level of Excellence after Bautista was added to the group last weekend.  Coming along slowly, this set still isn't 60% done.  Not getting a whole lot of trade offers with cards from the set as part of them.

Two more to finish it off, Andrew McCutchen's base card from the 2017 Bunt set, and a rarely seen on this blog a 2007-08 OPC Card featuring Chuck Kobasew of the Bruins.  Still 90 something to go from this set, which has been in the works since I bought packs of it back when it was released in 2007.  No big hurry.  

Thank you for the trade Richard.  Part of the reason that the writing fire has been rekindled a bit in me the last few days.  

Robert

Trades 607 & 608: Colorado from Canada, and my first trade to SD

I spent my morning off today working on the mess of cards that I had acquired over the past couple of months.  I'd been procrastinating putting them away to their rightful places, and this morning was spent taking care of that.

Now, I have a pair of trades that I've removed from the acquired pile, scanned them both, and now I've started building up a new pile of cards to put away.  Nothing serious mind you, but it's a start.

Curtis from up in Canada came through with several cards I needed for A&G sets, especially hitting the oldest two, 2006 & 2007.  Curtis is a Rockies collector and I hope he only dipped into some duplicates here to help me on my set building pursuits.   Thank you Curtis, especially for your patience with me on this deal!

1984 Topps football is only a recent addition to my football set pursuits.  I looked at my TCDB page to see how many I have in hand so far, the total was better than I thought.  92 cards out of the 528 in hand.  

Nabbing these three was via a trade with Carl in South Dakota, my first foray into that state.  One day I'll have to check and see just how many States I can cross of the list for having traded with.  

The trades are coming along really nice, I have 4 more in the hopper, one of them heading to Sweden (first trade there as well).  

I've hit double digits for posts in a month for the first time in 2 years.  Trying to keep it going!!

Robert

Trade 605: Spoiled with this one

A nice bit of trades have happened lately on the TCDB website for me.  I have a pair that I'm going over in the next 2 posts, which includes this evening's courtesy of Bill, a long time trade partner.

Bill hit a few of my want lists.  Set wants and player wants.  Simple.  Great stuff.  Needed.

2013 & 2014 A&G.  If it isn't short printed in this scan, it's a star card.  NICE!  The 2013 set is right at 80%, well within range of being completed sometime soon.  2014?  Well that one isn't so close; I just hit the 200-card mark with this lot so there is a ways to go.  I've been trying to get some cards from these 2 sets, along with the 06 & 07 original Allen & Ginter sets in trades on the site.  

Lots of blue and white in this scan.  Sundin and Potvin collections, 3 more each.  The Marner's will go into the Leafs collection.  Even though they are down 3-0 against the Panthers, I'll always cheer on the team.  I hope that they at least get one win from this series tonight; a 4-game sweep after the 19-year drought was broken will probably tarnish the accomplishment.  

Thank you for the trade Bill, it is appreciated!

Next trade post, it won't be pedestrian.

Robert

Pick, pick, pick

I kind of feel bad when I see a note inside an envelope sent to me that apologizes for the fact that there weren't more cards.

The way I look at it is, somebody sent me cards!  There were 7 in the envelope I received today, but they all picked off a piece of a want list.

Let's have a look at what Tony from the Off Hiatus Blog sent me.

Knock off 2 cards from the '14 A&G want list.  I had to look twice at the Halladay card to make sure it was from 2014.  Dig the fact that he was pictured in the old style Jays uniform and hat.  No airbrushing here...

I think Upper Deck printed about 980 million cards in 1991, so I'm wondering how before today I still needed 2 cards to finish the Blue Jays team set from that year.  Kenny Williams, #89, is the only card remaining to finally put this team set to bed.

Kevin Pillar is the final card of my 2014 Topps Blue Jays want list to be removed.  Only 28 walks in 628 plate appearances is the one thing I'd like to see Kevin improve upon this year.   With his speed, I can see him stealing 40+ base with an increase in his OBP.

Not a whole lot can be said about Triple Play, but at least there's one more of these off the want list.

Now after a weekend of picking up some nice '59 Topps cards, these two remind me of how older cards normally look after 55+ years.  The Harvey Kuenn was a need, so that was picked off of the list.   I have to check and see if the Hitters Foes is an upgrade from my current copy.

Only 7 cards total, but they sure packed a punch.  Thank you very much for the cards Tony, they are appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Keep one, rip one: 2014 Allen & Ginter

Normally, I'm a person that doesn't like to be late for anything.   I hated being late for school when I was a kid (don't everyone scream DORK all at once...), I don't like being late for work (I enjoy getting paid), and I hate being late for sporting events (I pay for the whole game, not just a few innings).

To say that I'm late to the A&G party this year is an understatement.  But, to be honest, I don't mind opening a rack pack and showing off what I get well after everyone else.

I may not open any more than this anyhow.   A&G just doesn't have my attention any more.  There's nothing wrong with the set, it's just something that I don't need to have.  There has been some positive reviews for this year's release, so I wanted to take a look for myself.

There's a healthy dose of Blue Jays in the set this year, 6 in the base set and 1 SP (Brett Lawrie).  I didn't pull any, so I'm relying on others to get me my Jays fix.  I'm glad to see that the numbering system hasn't changed, so I can recognize the SPs right away (Cliff Lee, middle 2nd row is #307).

The top half of the pack was all right; it's good to see the Crime Dog in the set, and getting a King Felix card is always good.

The bottom half of the rack pack was where things started to fall out of place.   Literally.  I pulled the bottom 7 cards out, and had the minis doing their best greased pig impersonation by falling out of the opening very quickly.  I had to be quick to catch them so they didn't hit the floor. 

I was hoping to pull one of the Pastime's Pastimes to see what everyone has been talking about.  Sure enough I got a Jean Segura.  I didn't get the same thrill that everyone else has over this insert.   It's all right, but it's not an insert set that I'd run out and try to complete. 

Festivals and Fairs is a standard A&G insert, same with the World's Deadliest Predators mini.  The Salazar mini is a regular back.

There you have it folks, 14 cards ready for trade.  If you need any of these, just let me know in the comments.  The keep one, rip one series is something I'm going to try and keep rolling over the course of time.  I want to build a small collection of unopened packs for myself, something of a rainy day thing where I just want something to rip open that's in hand. 

Convenience is always good....

thanks for reading, Robert