An Exceedingly Rare In-Person Trade

Unlike some, my online collecting presence doesn't extend very far outside of our beloved card blogging community. To be exact, I am a member of a single Facebook group that is comprised of folks mostly local to my general geographic location. Since joining said group, I have traded with a few of the members, but not as many as I'd like. That's probably a function of many of us having similar collecting preferences(or my trade reserves being depleted by the great trades I've made with many of you). Recently, I saw a card that caught my eye and I decided to take a run at it. After a few weeks and countless messages back and forth with one of the other guys in the group, we were able to agree on a deal.

There were quite a few 2016 Topps inserts thrown in. My Pressed into Service set was completed, First Pitch was narrowed down to two more needs, and Perspectives was brought down to three remaining. As happy as I was with that, there was some additional set needs assistance addressed in this trade.

This Chrome Update leaves me just six shy of completing the 50 card set. It's been a slow process, but I'll get there.

I needed this Lorenzo Cain also. I love this retail-only insert set specifically because it contains photos like this that show a side of MLB All-Stars that we don't often get to see.

I was also able to snag this auto of youngster, Archie Bradley. I'm not sure if this is going to stay in my collection or if this is just a temporary stop for it, but it's a pretty nice card for a sticker-graph. He's got some pretty good upside! That leaves me with the card that started it all.

I had seen a bunch of these Strata cards floating around and I'm intrigued by the hologram tracking system utilized in them. Souza is on the short list of favorite non-Yankee players in the league right now and the fact that there is a nice stripe in this relic made it all the more worthwhile to go after. In the grand scheme of things, I'm sure that I gave up too much to get these. I'm not talking book value, but strictly potential upside on the cards themselves, but I figured I would rather have these cards in my collection instead of sitting on the ones I gave up hoping that their value might go up some day. The older I get, the more I realize that this is what makes collecting fun for me, not the prospecting or investing aspect. Thanks for reading!

The Art of Making a Deal

In the few months since joining the blogosphere, I've been spoiled. There, I said it. I've added all sorts of new cards to my collection just by sending cards that I didn't want to other collectors. Most of the time, this has been done with little more than the exchange of an address and the knowledge of that other person's favorite team(s), players, or types of cards. Rarely, in my experience, has there been much specific discussion of what would be sent or received. It's been close to 15 years since I've traded with anyone face to face, so needless to say the art of negotiating the trade has gotten quite rusty for me. That was until this past week.

In addition to writing this blog, I belong to a Facebook group of mostly local folks that trade, discuss, and show off their collections. I haven't posted much within the group, but when post started showing up highlighting Archives hits, I reached out to a few group members. I figured it might be a good way to put a dent into my Will Ferrell and Topps Game insert set needs. Turns out I was right. It just took way more work than I've been used to. In the long run, I only had to part with one card that even made me remotely think twice. The rest have been sitting in various boxes since I pulled them out of packs. Let's check out the new additions from my first completed FB group trade.

Here are the ones that started it all! Not too bad to check off Trout and Miggy in the same trade. Heck, I even knocked out The Yankee from the set in that Ellsbury! This wasn't all for this trade though. The cards that I had to offer in return outweighed the value of these Game inserts alone and this trade partner wasn't willing to part with any Ferrell cards, so I expanded my interests a bit.

I was able to secure this Gehrig gold parallel numbered 43/50. It's a bit strange seeing The Iron Horse on the 1983 design, but I still like this card quite a bit.

Next, I took the dive on Michael Taylor. I'm still not 100% sure that I'm going to start collecting him, but adding this auto has me leaning that way. I didn't realize until I received this that it is numbered on the back.

I think this is a silver parallel auto /199. Whatever it's officially called, doesn't really matter to me. It's a nice new auto.

This was the final piece to this trading puzzle. I hadn't held one of these Championship Ring manu-relic cards before, but this Yogi was offered and I jumped at the chance to bring it home.

Just a few days after securing these in my first group trade, I finalized my second. This one happened to be with a group member that happens to be a fellow blogger as well. The following cards came to me courtesy of Eric from the great blog The Snorting Bull. As an aside, this happens to be one of the first blogs that I discovered and read regularly prior to starting my own.

Eric was kind enough to send me three more Game needs. It was pretty nice to be able to cross off the Puig and Goldschmidt as well. We had actually agreed on the trade for these three when I decided to ask about the availability of his Ferrell playing for the Reds. Shortly thereafter, we finalized this one. You can see what I sent Eric's way here. When I opened the envelope, this is what I saw:

He had sent me both of the Ferrell cards that he had posted. I already had the Dodgers card, but I'm pretty sure that I can find someone that needs it out there. Thanks for the trade Eric! If I come across any other Cardinals, I'll be sure to let you know!

Anyway, that wraps up my first two Facebook group trades. While hey sure did require a lot more work than the 'blind trades' that I've grown accustomed to, the effort was sure worth it to come those few steps closer to completing two more insert sets. Heck, I was even able to acquire a few other cards for the collection too. I guess the old trading skills weren't too rusty after all.