A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some cards I needed for a set on the blog: The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame. I left a comment and was contacted immediately by the blog's author. Within a day, Tim and I hammered out a trade. It was sort of a half-blind trade in the sense that I knew of a couple of the cards I was going to get. The rest was a surprise... and a sweet one at that.
I'll break down the trade into two parts: The Surprises & The Booty
Part 1: The Surprises
I'll start off with cards Tim threw in that will go straight into my personal collection. The first card is a 2010 Topps A&G Highlights card of Ichiro Suzuki. As soon as I saw this one, I knew it was going straight into my Ichiro PC. I love A&G's old school feel and this painting captures a classic pose by one of my favorite players.
Next up, Tim sent me another addition to my Japanese PC... a 2008 Topps Chrome "Refractor" of Hideki Okajima. Anyone who knows me... knows that I love refractors.
The third card is an autograph for my San Diego Padres PC. It's my second 1997 Donruss Signature autograph of Rafael Medina, however the first one is the Millennium version (green)... Now, I have the regular version sitting right next to it. Does anyone out there have the Century version, #'d to 100? It's the blue one. If so, I'm interested in finishing off the rainbow.
The next package of cards have been set aside for my students, who collect Giants and 49er's. They're going to be stoked about the Matt Cain jersey card and the Willis & Crabtree rookies. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Roger Craig (1990 Pro Set Collect-A-Book). I have a few of the basketball ones, but had never seen the football version until now. The Craig might be staying with me.
He also sent me more PC additions: a couple of Favres, a few Jordans, and he must know that I love "acetate", because he sent me E-X2001 cards. I don't understand why card companies don't put out more sweet looking acetate base sets like those EX products from the 90's.
By now... you should realize that Tim is pretty awesome. At this point, he more than fulfilled his end of the deal... but I haven't even showed you the best stuff yet. My favorite "surprise card" is from 1997. I think these cards were inserted into a magazine called Sports Card Magazine and Price Guide, which was published by Krause Publications. I'm not an expert on vintage cards, but this reprint reminds me of the 1935 National Chicle set.
Tim sent me the card uncut... but I took out my paper cutter and sliced it up. Now it looks like this:
So today's question of the day is...
If you were me, what would you have done with the McGwire? Keep it (in original un-cut form) or Cut it?
I decided to cut it, because it's not leaving my collection anyways... and I thought it would look nicer if I sliced it.
Okay... now for the grand finale.
Part 2: The Booty (as in pirate's booty... as in treasure... c'mon guys... this is a G-rated blog!)
The main cards I was interested in were these two (actually three) autographs from the 2008 Finest "Topps TV Autograph" set. Don't laugh... but I'm actually building this set. I have no idea why... it's probably one of the dumbest ideas in the history of sports cards. In fact, had I pulled one of these and it counted as one of my "hits", I would have been ticked off. But... I didn't pull them... I traded for them... so I'm not upset... instead I'm pumped.
My question is... how many more of these are there? If anyone has any that I don't have, email me... I'll trade you for them.
By the way, if you're interested in seeing what I sent Tim, you'll have to check out his blog: The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame. Even if you don't care what I sent, I encourage you all to head on over there... he collects some of the coolest names in sports history.
Thanks again Tim... for this great trade. I look forward to working out another deal in the future.
Have a great weekend everyone!
2 comments:
I would have done the same with Mark. I almost did it myself, but figured maybe you'd want the sides too. I actually got that in my Baseball Cards Come to Life trade as a blind card - it simply said 1997 Krause on his trade list, so I asked for it, and I'm glad you like it!
That's really cool on the Medina Rainbow - Burbank has a Century version on Beckett, but it's $35. Bummer lol.
And as for your Topps TV collection, there's one more card of a Rip Girl named Rachel. She's only $4.90 on Beckett - much more reasonable price than Medina's!
Anyway, glad you liked the trade, as my end was very nice as well! Someday I'll get that Staley hahaha.
I think I would leave it intact if it were still in the book, but I would cut it out if it were loose. I still have a ton of the Legends and Baseball Cards magazines that were all of the rage in the 90s with sheets of uncut cards in them. They had some nice looking cards in there.
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