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!