New Era of Trading

Although I can't remember the first trade I ever made, I'm 100% certain it involved my neighborhood friends back in the early 80's.  If I were to guess, I'd say it took place on one of our porches and involved some 1981 Fleer or Donruss and some guys with silly mustaches or crazy facial hair.

Trading back then was simple.  I had a stack of cards that contained cards deemed untouchable and everything else was up for trade.  My friends and I would sift through each others' stacks looking for something we wanted.  There were no penny sleeves or top loaders... only rubber bands and shoe boxes.

A decade later... in the early 90's... trading was completely different.  There were price guides, card protectors, and a whole new community of trading partners.  None of my neighbors collected anymore, but I still did.  I started working at a card shop and began attending card shows.  Both venues allowed me to meet other collectors who shared the same interest in collecting and exchanging cardboard.

By the mid 90's, people began trading online using sites like the AOL Message Boards.  This allowed me to trade with others around the country.  I would even chat online with fellow collectors.  By then Beckett had established itself as the number one price guide in my neck of the woods and I'll admit... their prices were sacred and I lived by them.

This trend continued until I left the hobby in 2001.  When I reentered the hobby in 2008, I immediately started buying Beckett again.  I also began meeting fellow collectors on sites like: Sports Card Forum, Sports Card Radio, and Card Collector's World.

Some of these websites were using feedback ratings and my goal was to meet as many people as I could... and trade as often as possible.  Most of the time... I still used Beckett as a resource.  However... I eventually started seeing the light.

I discovered that an insert with a book value of $50... might sell on eBay for only $5.  Whereas... my memorabilia card with a book value of $50... might sell for $20.  In short... I'd be a fool to trade that memorabilia card straight up for the other guy's insert.

The problem was different collectors traded using different standards.  Some used eBay completed sales... while others used Beckett values.  As for me... I pretty much stopped trading specific cards for specific cards.  These days 99% of the trades I complete are blog related... and the majority of those are "blind trades".

In other words... whenever I have some extra Los Angeles Dodgers laying around... I'll divvy them up between bloggers like Night Owl Cards, GCRL, and Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle... and ship them out.  Sometimes it's because I owe them packages.  Other times it's because my Dodgers stack is overflowing and I need to tidy things up.

Either way... I don't expect anything in return, so there's no need to look at a price guide.  On the flipside... if I owe a person a package, I'll try my best to send them an equivalent amount in card value... if not even more.

Thankfully... this system has worked well for me the past few years.  In fact... I can't even remember the last time I set up a trade that involved one specific card for another and I'm 100% okay with that.

Speaking of blind trades... Mr. Night Owl sent me a package last month and I finally got around to cracking it open.  He included a stack of cards for me and my students.  My personal favorite was this hand cut 1991 Baseball Card Magazine Dennis Eckersley:

I'm a sucker for oddballs... especially those from 80's and 90's price guide magazines.  In addition to the Eck, he sent me a bunch of Oakland A's cards, including these sweet Canseco's:

My scans make these two cards seem like they're equivalent in size, but the 1987 Donruss All-Stars card is actually three times bigger than the 2014 Archives Deckle insert.  But the tiniest card in the lot was this 2009 Goodwin Champions Laird Hamilton:

The rest of the cards were your standard 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of cardboard.

Some of them were new additions to my inserts and oddballs binders... while others were cards that I already have.  But don't worry... they're not headed for the trash.  Some of them will go to my students, while others will go into teams stacks which will be shipped off to other bloggers around the world.

Thanks for the package Greg!  You know the deal... as soon as I get some more Dodgers, I'll get a bubble mailer out to you.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Patience is a Virtue

There are those who can't stand redemption cards.  There are those who accept them as part of our hobby.  And believe it or not... there are those who don't mind pulling them at all... because they actually tell themselves they get rewarded twice.

The first time is when they pull the redemption card and get excited about pulling a hit (I mean... a redemption for a hit).  And the second time when they receive the card in the mail from the company.

Although I try my best to stay positive... I won't waste your time trying to convince you that I'm one of those optimists.  I'm one of the in-betweeners.  I don't like redemption cards, but I understand their place in our hobby.

With that being said... I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled this out of a bubble mailer yesterday:

Eight months earlier... I pulled this 2014 Topps Chrome redemption card:

The first few months, I'd check every now and then to see the status of my redemption.  However... I've probably only checked once or twice since January.  With so many other cards to focus on, I sort of let this redemption slip my mind.

So maybe there is a little truth to being rewarded twice when you pull a redemption card.  That's assuming you're either patient or forgetful.

Speaking of being patient... I appreciate all of the bloggers out there who have sent me packages in the past six weeks or so and are patiently waiting for me to open them up:

Like I've mentioned in previous posts... life has been a little crazy and I'm a little backed up in terms of scanning and updating my collection.  That being said... I love going to the stack and grabbing an envelope in my spare time.

Last night, I set up my new scanner and decided to celebrate by opening up a package from Tony over at Off Hiatus Baseball Cards.

Back in March, he made one of the greatest card show purchases in hobby history... when he bought a complete box of 1991 Topps Superstar Standups for one dollar.  Now that's the kind of deal I'm always on the lookout for.

The two of us share a deep appreciation for oddball issues.  That's why I want to assure him that I'll give this Tony Gwynn candy dispenser a warm and loving home.

He'll be welcomed by close to 1,000 other Gwynn collectibles, including this 1988 Starting Lineup Talking Baseball card:

Tony actually sent me the entire San Diego Padres set that includes Garry, Goose, Benny, and a very early issue of Sandy Alomar:

Thank you Tony for this awesome package of San Diego Padres oddballs.  As soon as things settle down, I'll send some Milwaukee Brewers for your collection.  I'm just asking for a little more patience.  I promise to make it worth the wait.

I'll try to get to at least one or two more packages this weekend.  As of right now, I have a stack of bubble mailers from Bob Walk the Plank, Night Owl Cards, Too Many Verlanders, The Home Run Apple, and of course... Jaybarkerfan's Junk.  Plus there's a pair of boxes from Johnny's Trading Spot and This Card is Cool that have been sitting in my office for at least a month.  But those will probably need to wait until my summer break when I have a little more free time to sift through their treasured boxes.

Thanks again to all of you for being patient... including those who are waiting for return packages.  Like the people at Topps say... "better late, than never".

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Temporarily Out of Order

My scanner is on its last legs, so today's post and possibly the next few posts will be featuring either old scans or photographs taken with my phone.  But thanks to Amazon Prime, I should be back to scanning by this weekend.

Until then... I'll share some photographs from the San Francisco Giants' game on Sunday vs. the Miami Marlins.

This is my wallet card's first trip to AT&T Park and it was a pretty decent game between two teams I have very little interest in.

And even though neither Buster Posey or Giancarlo Stanton started... I was able to cheer on some personal favorites:  Ichiro Suzuki and Norichika Aoki.  Here's a look at Ichiro's iconic samurai stance at the plate:

Unfortunately... Ichiro failed to get a hit, but he walked in the 8th and stole second base.  And in the bottom of the ninth he showed fans that he's still a valuable asset to baseball with intelligent plays like this:

If that play seems familiar... it's because he's done it before and has slowly perfected the art of deceiving runners:

As for Aoki... he had a great game at the plate.  He led off the bottom of the sixth with a single, then stole second base... which prevented the Marlins from turning a double play on back to back groundouts.  Later in the inning he got the Giants on the score board when Brandon Belt drove him in.

And in the bottom of the ninth, he walked with the bases loaded to drive in the tying run.  San Francisco won on the next play when some guy I had never heard of drove in the winning run.

It's a shame I missed all of the bottom of the ninth game heroics... since my friend and I left during the top of the inning to avoid the after-game traffic jam.

Oh well... the tickets were free.  And like I stated earlier... I had little invested in either team playing.

How about you?  When you go to games... do you always stay for the entire game?  Or do you sometimes leave early?

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Wax... but not Junk Wax

I'm captivated by comics.  I'm obsessed with oddball issues.  And I'm totally bewitched by bubble gum and baseball.

That's why I'm such a huge fan of 1979 Topps Comics, which were issued as wax wrappers for individual pieces of 5¢ bubble gum.

Topps issued a total of thirty-three different players with a mixture of minor stars, stars, and super stars representing at least one player from each of the twenty-six MLB teams.

Some of the larger market teams like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants had two players on the checklist.

Thirty-six years after its release... over a third of the set has players with plaques hanging in Cooperstown.  But the best part of this set isn't the checklist... it's the comics themselves.  

Each one features the player's name, position, and has an interesting career highlight.  Topps also included random baseball facts or rules in the bottom righthand corners of the comics.  

The piece de resistance are the colorful and beautifully drawn comics that are reminiscent of the Bazooka Joe comics I read when I was a kid.  Yup... they even feature MLB logos!  Take that Panini and Leaf.

Now they're far from perfect.  These oddballs are definitely oddball sized.  They're approximately 3" x 3.25", so storage issues may arise.  Plus they're pretty flimsy, which means they're often torn.  And remember... they were once gum wrappers, so unless you find unused sheets... they're bound to have creases.

But I'm willing to overlook these flaws due to their budget collector price point.  Complete sets sell for around $10 on eBay... but if you're patient you can find them in the $5 to $8 range.  That's less than a quarter each.

I picked up a lot of three sets on eBay for $19.99 (+ $2.99 shipping), which means that I'll be giving a set away in a future contest... probably held sometime this summer.

In the meantime...

What are your thoughts on these?  Thumbs up?  Down?

Happy Monday and sayonara!

The Impossible Task

At times... life can be so simple.  For example... choosing my favorite baseball card of all-time.  It's a no-brainer:

1956 Topps #30

It's vintage.  It's gorgeous.  And it features an iconic athlete that literally changed the sport.

On the other hand... life can be complex too.  For example... choosing two more baseball cards to round out my three favorite of all-time.

I immediately had two cards pop into my head, but then I sat down to write this post and thought about it.  Different cards from different categories started popping up.  Should it be a rookie card?  How about an autograph?  Maybe a relic or an oddball issue?

The more I though about it... the more overwhelmed this task of choosing my all-time favorite baseball cards became.  It evolved into the impossible task.

That's why I've decided to simplify Frankie's Simple Contest and focus on my three favorite rookie cards.  But before I begin, if you're interested in seeing other bloggers' responses, head over to his blog:  My Life In The Sports Card Hobby.  So far, I've seen responses from Mr. Zakwin, Mr. Underdog, Mr. Lost Collector, and The Commish.

I'm a huge fan of contests that involve blogger participation.  So what are you waiting for?  Go write about your three favorite baseball cards!  But before you do... check out mine:

#1 Favorite Rookie Card

1983 Topps #482

Are you surprised?  C'mon... Gwynn is my favorite player of all-time and 1983 Topps is one of my favorite sets.  If you're not impressed with this short response... I've explained my love for this card in the past.  Just click here.

#2 Favorite Rookie Card

1980 Topps #482

Rickey loves Rickey... and I do too.  Another Favorite Player + Solid Design + Great Action Shot = Second Favorite Rookie Card.  By the way... I can't believe it took me thirty-something years to realize my two favorite rookie cards share the same card number.

#3 Favorite Rookie Card

1990 Leaf #300

By now you should be seeing a pattern with my selections.  Great design?  Check.  One of my favorite players?  Hai.  Nice action shot?  Yup.  Third favorite rookie card?  You are correct, sir.

So there you have it.  My three favorite rookie cards.  One of these days I'll list my favorite autographs, memorabilia cards, inserts, oddballs, vintage cards, and parallels.  But for now... that's all folks.

Thanks for the cool contest Frankie!  It's been fun reading everyone's responses.  I look forward to reading more.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!