Trade Week: Golfslocum

This is the first pre-post that I've written after all the professional sports leagues have cancelled/postponed their seasons, so I hope that this week's posts have at least given you a moment or two away from the insanity that is going on right now.

I also hope that you and your families are doing well and not stricken down by the virus.  Praying for you all...

OK, onto cards.  I have found another Robert on the TCDB site, and we've already completed 3 trades, this one being the 2nd.  Robert is quite easy going and great to deal with, and this trade netted me 5 cards for some Turkey Reds.

I love the Gallery cards, and while I'm not chasing the set, I'll take any of them that fit into my PC's.  Cutch's card looks great, and the detail is wonderful.   If anyone has the wood bordered version of this, I'd love to have it so please drop me a line.

The Ichiro on the left is the 2nd card I have of him that features the '65T design (the other coincidentally is a Gallery SP), and is from this year's Topps flagship release.   Yes, Ichiro played for the Yankees and Marlins, both neither uniform suits him more than the Mariners.

I haven't kept an accurate tally so far, and I'm writing this before I'll decide to look on the TCDB site, but I believe I'm in the teens now for the '85 Topps inserts from this years set.  Glad to get 3 more big names off the list, although I imagine that the entire list will probably be big names (I haven't taken a good look at it as of yet).  I'm going to try and get a want list up on the blog sometime while I'm away so maybe someone will spot something extra they have and let me know.  

Thank you for the trade(s) Robert, the cards are always appreciated!  Looking forward to the next one.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Trade Week: CardsThatTimeForgot

One of the more interesting screen names I've come across on TCDB is Jim's CardsThatTimeForgot.  In addition, Jim is probably the friendliest person I've come across when it comes to trading for the first time on the site, sending a 4 line intro/trade proposal/I was down in Florida not too long ago to me as part of the trade.  I thought it was awesome, and it made me wonder how many people on the site are really nervous about approaching new trade partners.

Jim knocked off 33 cards from my dwindling 2020 Topps want list, and they got here quickly.

Love the 70's retro Pirates duds.

Oven mitt on Gurriel, just in case he has to take a cake out of the oven

One good thing about cards with no borders?  Don't have to worry about scanning them and cutting off part of the card!!  Honestly, I'm pretty confident now with the scanner/new computer combo, and it's been a breeze getting things scanned the past few weeks.

My favorite card so far from 2020 Topps?  The big hair of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. right at the bottom of the last scan.  Reminds me a bit of the hair that Bryce Harper showed off I think it was on this year's card as well (maybe last year, I'm not 100% sure).

My want list is quickly down into the 70's, and I'm hoping that I can get the set done by the end of April so I don't have to worry about it when Series 2 rolls around.

Thank you for the cards Jim, they are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Trade Week: tenlbpain

We're already half way through trade week and it seems like just a blur.  I'm sure that my liver is working overtime to keep up with the extra alcohol intake that is sure to be happening.

This I believe is my third trade with Nick, and it happened quite quickly as I had notice he had listed some Donruss 2019 FB for trade.  I've found very few trade partners for football on the TCDB site, which for me has been quite surprising.

I do like this set and hope to complete it in the not too distant future, but with the (lack of) speed in which this is happening, I might have to dip into my pocket to finish this up, which I was hoping wouldn't be the case.  I still need 126 out of the 350 card set, so if anyone has any extra cards floating around out there, please check out my want list on the TCDB.

The bigger part of the trade was the hockey portion, specifically a 30 card dent into the 2015-16 OPC set.

It was interesting as I scanned the cards how many players since that year have either moved on to other teams or are out of the NHL already.  Dougie Hamilton has been traded twice already since he started his career in Boston.

Matt Moulson's career hit the brakes when he moved from the Islanders to Buffalo.  It was almost as if the sticks he took with him didn't have any goals in them.  I had no idea he signed as a free agent with the Capitals this past summer, but I haven't seen or heard from him since the season began so I guess that he didn't make the club.

My goodness I had no idea that Nick Bonino was a Canuck!  One season was all it was though, as he left for Pittsburgh for the 15-16 season, and became part of one of the most famous goal calls ever made in the playoffs for his goal against the Sharks.

Last up, I snagged one of the few Mitch Marner cards I have in that PC, the 2019-20 MVP short print.  His cards are going to be crazy expensive because of the crest he wears, so anything I can grab trade wise will be a bonus.

Thank you Nick for the great trade, the cards are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Trade Week: RabinFW

This trade was the first time I was fortunate enough to trade with Allen, who PC's Adrian Beltre.  I've had a Allen & Ginter Relic from 2012 sitting in my trade box for quite a while, and Allen was good enough to make me a 4 card offer for it, with a nice mix of vintage of new stuff.

I can honestly tell you that I hadn't heard of Abraham Toro before this trade took place.  You might think that's a lot of bull, but it's the truth.

These sets I like to call the "forgotten 3" of my vintage set building run.  I really haven't added anything of consequence to these 3 sets in the longest time, so whenever I can get anything in trade from these sets, it's always great!  The Matty Alou card has a bit of character to it, some minor creases on the left hand border, and you can see a faded tape stain on the Bill Denehy card with some close inspection, but to me all 3 are great, and they knock each of their respective want lists down by 1.  

Thank you for the trade Allen, hope you enjoy the Adrian Beltre relic!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Trade Week: Sandd0522

Another pre-posted trade for Trade Week today, this time with Steve.  I believe this is the 2nd time I've traded with Steve, both times the trade has gone off really smooth.   I sent Steve 4 Mets cards from the 2016 Gypsy Queen set, including the Michael Conforto RC.  

This is the first trade for me in which I've received cards from the 2020 flagship set, and similar to yesterday's post, I have a full page of cards to show...

I really haven't sat down and decided to write any thoughts about the set this year, so here's my opportunity.   I don't mind it.  So far what I've seen is good, but the feel I get is more of a Bowman kind of look, sort of "Bowmanesque" for lack of a better word.

I like that the old school Milwaukee Brewers logo is being used.  I like that the "bars" with the player's first name and the team name are in the team colors.  The back seems fine; I'm glad that it doesn't contain the players twitter name because I thought that was a little unnecessary even though it fits with the modern social media needs of a lot of fans.

I bought a blaster and maybe 6-7 rack packs of cards, and called it a day for Series 1.  I'm a little over 2/3 of the way complete, needing just over 100 cards to finish off the first half of the set.  I'll trade for the rest of those and probably collect series 2 to go along with it.  It will be the first time I finish the set by hand since 2017, and I'm ok with that.

Thanks for the trade Steve, the cards are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Trade Week: Firemedic1242

While I'm out of town for a week taking a much needed vacation, I'm pre-posting a few trades that I've received over the past couple of weeks.  Today's post is 9 cards from Mike who took a page worth of Braves cards off of my hands and got me a nice start on the 2020 Topps '85 inserts.

I didn't notice at the time of the trade, but the split on the '85s is even, 4 current major leaguers and 4 retired players.   Maybe some time in the future I'll sit down and find the original '85 cards of the retired players and compare them to the current photo.

Just to make sure the page was complete, I also received a 2012 Jim Thome Wal Mart blue parallel to add to that PC, which is up to 567 cards.   I'm sure that there's a ton of base cards and minor parallels on the want list still so hopefully someone can knock a bunch of them off for me and get me to the 600 card plateau.  Almost time to start a 2nd binder!

Thank you for the cards Mike, they really are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Serial Saturday #33: Poaching

I was going through some of my various boxes of cards and started digging through the Blue Jays collection that I have.  I came upon a couple of cards that fit the #'d/99 collection and decided to poach one collection for another.

The Brett Lawrie rookie throwback refractor goes all the way back to the 2011 Bowman Chrome set, and comes out of the Lawrie collection that I've had for a while...

A little hard to see on the scan, but it's #'d 53/99 and features his stats with Huntsville, which was part of the Milwaukee organization at that time.  Huntsville, AL was the Brewers AA affiliate from 1999-2014, then moved to Biloxi, MS.

Next up I grabbed this 2014 Topps Tribute blue parallel of R.A. Dickey.  I never noticed the diamonds in the background before, but they came out quite nicely on the scan.

The Lawrie and Dickey are cards #40 and 41 in this little collection, which is coming along quite nicely.  I just finished a trade with Gavin that is going to net me a few more.  I honestly thought when I started this project that I'd be limited to hunting these cards down on COMC or at shows.  It amazes me that this will be the 2nd blogger that has sent me cards for this little side collection, and just reinforces my belief that the card blogger community that I'm so thankful to be a part of is incredible.
I have posts automatically set up for the next week while I'm on vacation (at least as of this writing I hope to still be going), so enjoy the trades that have come in for me for the next 7 days.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert