The first time I traded cards was back in 1981. I'm not one of those guys who can remember the details, but I'm guessing it was either on my porch or one of my friend's porches. I'd continue to make trades here and there over the next thirty-plus years.
Between the card shop trades in the late 80's and early 90's, AOL Message Board trades in the mid to late 90's, and SCF/CCW forum trades in the late 2000's... I've probably pulled off more than 500 trades with fellow collectors.
But then a few years ago... it just got to be too much. My trade bait was outdated and I couldn't keep track of where certain cards were. Plus I'm not the biggest fan of standing in post office lines.
That's when I made the decision to no longer make trades involving specific cards.
Then two weeks ago, I saw three Tony Gwynn rookie cards available for trade over at over at Dion's IP Autos only. After going back and forth in my head, I left him a comment and offered to create a list of autographs I had laying around.
I'm not going to lie... sitting down and listing out autographs was not fun. But after going back and forth, he picked out 17 autographs from my list and sent me these three cards:
1983 Donruss #598
1983 Fleer #360
1983 Topps #482
The cards weren't in the best condition, but I wasn't planning on sending them into PSA to get graded. I specifically wanted them for my Tony Gwynn binder.
As I was scanning the cards, I was pleasantly surprised to see a wax stain on the back of the Topps rookie card:
Some of you may have read a post I wrote three weeks ago where I mentioned wanting to own a 1983 Topps Tony Gwynn rookie card with a big fat wax stain. This one isn't exactly big and fat, but it's a start.
Thanks for the trade Dion! It's my first trade in years... and probably my last for now. I'm much more into sending and receiving care packages like these PWE's I received last week from a pair of bloggers:
These nine Oakland A's cards are from Marc over at Remember the Astrodome, who I recently discovered has been writing posts. Unfortunately, they haven't been showing up on my Blogger reading list. But I promise to make the effort to check in every now and then.
The other PWE came from Chris over at The Collector:
Chris was the author of an amazing series that featured MLB's All-Time Teams. The posts were very well researched and highly anticipated by his readers. He rewarded a bunch of us with some free cards. I chose the four you see above.
Thank you Dion for my first trade in years... and thanks Marc and Chris for these very generous care packages. I should be sending out some PWE's after I finish sorting the collection of cards from my mystery bags and I'll make sure you guys are included.
Oh... and if you stopped by hoping to see something Star Wars related, I actually celebrated May the 4th a couple of days early. If you're interested, click here.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
Gwynn's Topps RC is such a solid one.
ReplyDeleteHah, I knew from the post title and from reading your comment a couple of weeks ago that it was a wax-stained Gwynn RC. That is just too awesome, what are the chances of that coming together so quickly?
ReplyDeleteIs that the OPC Dryden card? I have the Topps but it has an All-Star designation on it.
ReplyDeleteNice when things work out....................
ReplyDeleteI need to land myself a Topps Gwynn rookie in general, hopefully without a stain first lol
ReplyDeleteThanks for the trade! When cards are 37 years old sometimes you find what you have and some even have wax or gum stains on them. Back when it was a different era and not everything need to be gradable or a 10 lol. Glad they arrived safe and enjoy them.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dion
Nice to see a little wax stain on the Gwynn RC, it gives your collection a little more character. I was celebrating my second birthday during one of Tony's highlights.
ReplyDeleteI need to get a Fleer rookie of Mr Padre to have the full set. The DonrRuss one is the best.
ReplyDeletethe lost collector - for years it was my favorite card. it may have passed the torch to my 56t robinson, but it's still up there overall
ReplyDeleteshoeboxlegends - i know, right? it totally wasn't planned... but i really worked out and i'm stoked
sascards67 - i honestly didn't notice it was an opc card until you pointed it out. but yeah... it's opc
johnnys trading spot - the baseball card gods work in mysterious ways
sport card collectors - they're plentiful and very affordable. i'm guessing you can land all three for the price of a blaster
dion's ip autos only - thanks for the trade! not sure why it's taken me so long to find a wax stained gwynn rookie, but i'm happy to cross it off my list
chris - i already have a high grade version of the card. this one definitely adds a little character to the collection.
jongudmund - i like the topps card the best, just because it's one of my favorite designs of all-time. as for the donruss... sometimes i prefer it over the fleer. sometimes i don't.