The Baker

I couldn't find a card of a Butcher (although Garth Butcher comes to mind) and a candlestick maker (Chandler is the proper term, anyone have any cards of Matthew Perry?), but I did get a card from a TCDB trade recently from Ed Sekula (been a long time since trades) that features a Baker...

This was a rare one for one trade.  Normally most people don't partake in something so small but a couple of $2-3 cards went each way, so I thought it was a well thought out trade.  

Good luck Baker in Tampa Bay this year.  You're only following a legend in the Big Sombrero. 

636 transactions completed now.  With the run I'm on, should hit 650 very soon.

Robert

TCDB Trade Week: Clay

This trade, my first one with TCDB ID Clay (my apologies, I didn't write your name down...) netted me a page worth of football cards.   I traded away a handful of Steelers cards and gained 8 cards towards my 2018 Panini Prestige FB set

A few stars showed up, along with a trio of Rookie cards that depict players that I don't know much about.  I still kind of regret starting this set, but I blame it on myself for not researching more before taking the plunge.  I found a few of these on Sportlots recently for cheap, so there is light at the end of the tunnel with just 32 cards left on the want list. 

Filling out the page is a T.Y. Hilton card from the same year but a different brand.  It's from the Panini Playoff set, and I decided to take a quick look at the parallel sets to see what colors they were.

I was wrong, they're actually named by situations, 1st down, 2nd down, 3rd down, 4th down, Goal Line, Kick Off, Red Zone and Touchdown.  The "downs" are serial #'d starting at 99 and work their way down to 10.  The Touchdown's are 1 of 1s.  Goal Line, Kick Off and Red Zone aren't numbered, and have just the moniker stamped on the card to differentiate.   Not very inspiring for me.

None the less, the cards plug a few holes and the trade was completed in both directions in less than a week, so I certainly cannot complain.

Thank you for the cards Clay, they are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby, Robert

Two racing legends add to the chase

It's actually one person that added cards via a trade, but the screen name was quite interesting if you're a racing fan.  A big thanks to Rusty (TCDB ID: rustypetty) for putting a big dent into a couple football set want lists with this trade.

2018 Panini Prestige was my punishment.  Yes, I decided to put it together before looking at the set breakdown; not figuring out that there were 100 SPs out of the 300 card set taught me a valuable lesson in collecting modern sets, look before you leap.

These 8 knock my want list down to 42 cards, just 6 of them are part of the base set.  Ugh, 36 SPs, there are some big names among that list and it may take me some time to finish this off, but this set will be part of the next wave of sets to be completed.

This was the big part of the trade, 32 cards from the Donruss 2019 set.  This will also be part of the next group of sets to be finished, as this is down to 60 cards.  Similar to 2018 Prestige, this set has just 1 card remaining that isn't a rookie card.  That's right, 59 RCs to go....yikes!

To finish off the trade, I received 4 cards from my WR collections, mostly of T.Y. Hilton.

It was funny, when I looked at the 2018 Absolute card in the lower right corner, something just didn't seem right.  The guy was too tall and too slender to be T.Y. Hilton.  Sure enough, the photos both front and back are of Donte Moncrief, another Indianapolis WR.  In this age where everything is scrutinized with a fine tooth comb, it's surprising that this card got through the quality check process at Panini.

A big thanks to Rusty for knocking down these want lists, it is appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

A few sets that aren't anywhere near complete

Early 80's hockey is easily one of my favorite eras, and I'll be glad for the day when I can say that I own all the OPC sets from 80-81 through 85-86.  My latest TCDB trade netted me some more cards from that era, courtesy of a repeat trader.

I believe that this is the 3rd trade I've completed with Kevin (TCDB ID: kdinthejaw), and I was fortunate enough to knock off a dozen cards from various want lists.

I don't know what it is about the 85-86 OPC set, but it is probably my favorite design, both front and back, of the front half of the 80's OPC releases.  Unlike yesterday's 4 card post, these 4 players played a lot of games in the NHL, with Sylvain Turgeon having the lowest number of games at 669.  These 4 cards finally put me over the 10% mark with 27 cards in hand out of the 264 card set.

Fortunate enough to get a lot of star power in this trade, as the 82-83 portion features Mark Messier and Paul Coffey, and Middleton gets a 2nd appearance here in the 84-85 set.

What's great for me having Canadian trade partners is they have cards that I'd never see down here in the deep south, such as the Felix Potvin 17-18 Upper Deck Canadian Tire release in the upper left corner of this last scan.

The 93-94 Ultra Mats Sundin is probably one of the final releases that featured him in a Nordiques jersey before he was traded to Toronto.  Kevin even snuck in a Mark Ingram card that I needed from '18 Prestige football as an added bonus.

Sadly, none of the three 80's hockey sets featured here are anywhere near complete; 2 of them are barely off the ground (82-83 and 85-86) while the 84-85 set is a little over half done.  There's probably a couple dozen sets ahead of them in line for completion before these will be tackled.

Thank you for the trade Kevin, the cards are really appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

A trio of shorties

This doesn't happen two days in a row on this blog often, another post featuring football cards!  This time it's 3 cards from the 2018 Panini Prestige set from new trade partner Bill (TCDB ID: brodiescomics).

Upon entering the trade as completed on my end I decided to look at what I have left to finish this 300 card set.  Eighty three cards remain, 53 of them SPs.  A lot of big names as well on the list, Allen, Mayfield, Barkley, Fitzpatrick, Chubb and Michel to give you a quick half dozen names of rookies on that list.

It's nice to get some cards off the list for sure, but with as many SPs as I need, there's certainly no hurry to finish this off.

When I took a quick look at the Denzel Ward card, I immediately thought I saw Denzel Washington.  I guess that's how the brain works when you get older!

Just a little note on the side, I've been trying to keep posting, as I have a goal of getting to 2000 posts by the time my birthday hits in late October.  When this drops, I'll need 95 more to get to the milestone.  There was a time a year or two ago when I thought that 2K was never going to happen.

Now it's something I'm looking forward to.   Thank you for the trade Bill!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

One of the best in the west

Growing up, one of my favorite towns to hear about in the news or weather reports was Moose Jaw, SK.  Just saying "Moose Jaw" was always entertaining for me, and just imagining what it would be like to live there in the middle of the Canadian prairies always fascinated me.  Now, I'm able to get a few cards from there.

I've just completed my 2nd trade with a great trade partner, Kevin (TCDB ID: kdinthejaw), who is great at hitting multiple and varied want lists for me.

Let's start with some set help.  2018-19 OPC has 5 cards removed from the list, including the Maple Leafs rock steady Freddie Andersen.  That set is doing quite well now as it's over 500 out of the 600 cards needed.

Bill Guerin on the lower right of the scan is from the 2007-08 OPC set, which I'm miles away from finishing (I've just over half of the set in hand), and this may be only the 2nd or 3rd card I've received in trades.

Half a dozen cards from another slow set build, 2018 Playoff Prestige.  Still need another 86 cards to finish this set, including a bunch of short printed rookies.  Once I did some digging and found out that the Prestige set is released pretty much with the same amount of cards (300) and Short Printed rookies (100) you can better believe that I stayed away from it in 2019.  It still surprises me that I don't have a lot of trades for football on TCDB, even with a decent want list for my player collections on the site.

Leave it to my Canadian hockey brethren to help me out with some player collections, including a 04-05 Pacific Sakic, leaving me just 11 cards short of the 800 mark for the Sakic PC.  As a contrast, the Mitch Marner collection doesn't even take up 2 pages yet.  He's still quite young, and expensive, so there's a lot of time for him yet...

Pat Flatley RC!  84-85 OPC is still a set that I regret letting get away, and so it will be very sweet when I have this completed.  This card took me over the 50% mark by one, and the next card I receive will be the 200th for the set.  Still need a couple of the big RC's, including Steve Yzerman, so it'll be a while before this is done.

Thank you for the trade Kevin, the cards are appreciated.   Look forward to the next trade with you!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

A little bit here, a little bit there

I received a couple more trades this week in the mail, 1 PWE and 1 bubble mailer.   More set needs by the wayside...

The first trade was a quick PWE trade, 4 for 3, with a new trade partner Barry (TCDB ID: CoachBarry).   As I have mentioned several times over the past few months, it has been great trading off inserts that I don't normally collect for cards towards the sets that I need.

Strike 4 more off the 2018 A&G want list.

The Sloane Stephens card on the lower right is the first non-baseball player card that I've received in quite a while.  Taking a quick look at the scan, I see a different logo on the sleeve of the Honus Wagner card that's new to me.  I imagine the "PBC" stands for Pittsburgh Baseball Club, but I don't ever remember seeing that logo anywhere else.   Artistic license maybe?  Or can anyone point me to another image/photo that features the PBC.

Now the bubble mailer kind of surprised me, as it is one of 3 mailers that I was awaiting from the Great White North.  I actually tweeted earlier this month that I was waiting for 3 Canadian mailers for probably the first time ever, and joked that I hope they arrive by April. 

Well, here's the first one...

Another new trade partner, Kari (TCDB ID:  karsal) sent quite a few goodies my way, starting with some additions to my player collections.  It's always nice filling in some of the gaps from the mid to late 90's of both Sundin and Tkachuk, and there's plenty of John Olerud cards that I need so hitting that want list shouldn't be hard for anyone...

Set fillers.   Blue Jays from Canada, you don't say?  The more cards I get from the 09-10 OPC set, the more I can't wait to complete it.  That's a long way off as these 4 bring the total to 113, well shy of the 600 total. 

What really surprised me about Kari's offer was the big batch of 2018 Panini Prestige football cards.  28 total ( I was lazy and only scanned 27 of them ) but some pretty big names in here such as Brady, Wilson, Luck and Terrell Suggs.  Kari also sent a few of the rookies as well, putting a small dent into what might be a larger task than I thought.  The last 100 of the 300 card set are all RC's, including Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Saquon Barkley.  I still need about 70 of them, but there's no hurry as I don't expect to finish the set anytime soon.

I'm up to 22 trades completed so far this year, and three more are halfway done.  Having 25 trades complete by the end of March will have me right where I need to be, 1/4 of the way to my goal of 100 trades in 2019.

Keep them coming guys (and ladies)...

Thanks for reading!

Robert