Guess Whooo Sent Some Heritage

Got a large quantity of 2023 Heritage from Greg the Night Owl this Saturday.

Yeah, the toughest part of Heritage is the short prints.  I have exactly one from each series.

They came in a pair of packages.  Guess he was out of bigger mailers.

 
Two big bags full. (Editor's note: N.O. is a "back flapper").

All the big names, inserts, All-Stars, etc.

Trout, Alonso, Cole, Ramirez, Swanson, Rutschman, Betts, Witt.  All the current guys I recognize.  (And a lot that I don't, of course.)

Of course, anyone outside of the database is competing with all the trades I've been getting.  And this day wasn't any different.  Got these two sheets worth the same day.  But I don't mind the dupes.  

All of this allowed me to put names by the remaining numbers in my list.  I'm down to 27 regular series base and 33 high series.  All of Greg's were regulars, which meant that list went from twice as big to below the quantity of the high series needs.  I've traded for the entirety of what I have.  Haven't bought a single card from this set. 

Hopefully I can find a good starter batch of the SP's down the line.  Wouldn't mind a couple of the Adley variants as well.  

Thanks Greg! from Greg...

Some Swag Among The Slabs

I made a trade last week on the TCDB with a guy named Eric.  Turns out he lives near Hagerstown, MD which is just about 20 minutes from me.  So we met up about halfway in between to swap packages.  He primarily collects Paul Molitor, Robin Yount and Travis Hafner. We had a good conversation about our collecting habits, etc. before he had to get back.

He texted me later and asked if I knew about the show going on in the Silver Spring Civic Center, which is about an hour to our south.  I knew there were shows that rotated through there, but wasn't planning to go.  I have so much to put away around Hivemind Headquarters, plus the two piles of stuff for sale, I probably didn't need to add to any of it.  But I decided to go anyway. 😀 

So we made plans to meet along the route and made our way down there.  Upon arrival, I realized that I had been there once before.  It's a smaller venue, with a main room in the middle, and two other rooms at each end, plus a hallway between with a few more tables. 

A previous year's show

There was a LOT of slabs.  And several tables - especially in the outer rooms - of Pokèmon.  But I did manage to find some treasures among them.

I should have put this at the end, so as to not give away everything I got, but here you go.  The first thing I found (that I could get into - it was wall to wall people in the narrow aisles) was some vintage singles.  I found four of my '65 commons for a buck a shot (center above).  They're nice, though I left a couple sketchier ones there. 

At the same table, I picked up this set killer / upgrade to finish my '73-74 set.  The top corners are a bit weathered, but it's half the price of similar ones on COMC right now.  I think it's much better than the one I started with.

There were a few hockey-centric tables, though I wasn't looking for much in that realm.  I came across these fancy shiny SP Authentic inserts.  For this price and the presence of a parallel Ovie, I said what the heck.

Lots of tables had rows of toploadered singles sorted by team.  This one corner dealer had some that he hadn't priced, but instead was asking customers to make him an offer.  And he was taking pretty much all of them it seemed.  I figured I'd get these Jordan Addisons for about a buck a shot or slightly less, but it worked out even better - after I also picked out these:

Jayden Daniels was very present in a lot of showcases at this show.  I saw these initially and did a quick bit of market research to see how other dealers compared - or at least one other.  I asked the guy at the table across the room what his prices on the same Mosaics and a different insert were, and he said $10 each.  I immediately went back and pulled these out.  They totaled $20 with another Terry McLaurin card.  I handed them to the dealer and he replied "Just make it an even twenty".  I had to check later to verify that I basically got the Addisons for free.  I should have gotten that guy's business card or contact....  That brings my JD5 total to ten cards so far.

And the grande finale was this, the second set killer of the day.  Mantle/Mays "Managers' Dream" is the last card I need to finish my 1962 Topps set.  I don't usually buy graded cards, but lately they have bucked the trend that I always assumed they cost three crooked numbers just for being graded.  This one was nicer than any of the same grade on COMC and fits my set very well.  For a "4", it's well centered and has nice corners and no major flaws that I can see.  

Eric had a family deadline (that we didn't quite meet), so we left the show after a little over two hours.  That was enough.  We got lucky that the winter weather forecast was wrong, so it was clear sailing all the way there and back.  My thanks to Eric for the invite and ride.

Owl's, O's (and a Jay) On A Mailday

Got a couple trades in the other day that cosmically intersected, so I thought I'd share.  I really should put up more trade posts...but anyway....

These are from a TCDB trade with TSCastle.  Palmer Select and the two Kuhl parallels are for player collections.  While the Heritage base are for my 3rd, 4th and 5th sets.  (I have a 6th building, but probably won't finish it before it gets broken up.)  Though it may be true that everyone else is done with it by now.  The inserts are for my own set.

The same delivery brought these from Night Owl, who was hoping that I regularly go after my local teams.  I really don't, but I do keep their parallels with the base sets (esp. back when I still did flagship.)  So it's cool to have these.  The Sparky is for his PC - it appeared in NO's post back in April when Heritage came out.  You'll notice he's a bit larger than his other '75 looking counterparts.  They're the 2024 minis!

So the (extra copies of the) base cards and the minis showed up on the same day.  

I'll put 'em with the Heritage set and see if I find more of the mini O's later.

Thanks to TSCastle and Night Owl.  Happy trading!

Additional Atypical Arrivals

Yep, more incoming cards.  Because this is all I do now.

I'm pretty sure this was one day's mail, and it's TCDB traders, plus my best trader buddy Stuart's latest contributions.

 
Starting on the left, two bonus packs of this year's Topps Big League.  All of which I put on my available list on the Database.  A couple Carlton Fisks and some other 70's player collection oddballs that I'll show better in a moment.  And a '75 mini upgrade for my completed set. All those came from Stuart.  The Upper Deck Updates are a TCDB trade that I didn't mark as received until the next week.  Oops.

Most of the rest is other Database trades, except for the UD XL & Fleer Team Action football from Stuart in the loose stack.  The Fisk Archives and the Priest Holmes parallels are player collection hits.  The rest is set hits except for Bruce Smith and Lavar Arrington, who go to my Washington football horde. Those GameDays are mostly inserts from '93.  The Gus Johnson was apparently still on my wantlist from when I picked it out from another trader who really didn't have anything I could use.  

Here are all of the Burger Chef Discs. 

And the backs....

Full view of the Golden Age Fisk box topper.

And the Fleer football.  I just love these sets.

And that small silvery bundle in the first picture is actually holograms from the Brockum Rock Cards from 1991.

Here's what they all look like.  Completed my set.  🎸

Thanks again to Stuart (he always likes to be mentioned on here) and the TCDB traders.

More Mixed Mailings

Ugh, I'm slackin' again.  It's just a lot right now...

Ideally, I'd be posting almost every Trading Card Database trade I make like a lot of other blogs, but there have been so many lately that by the time I get the incoming ones marked received, moved to the proper collections, then marked off my want list, and then pack up the half dozen new ones going out, it's close to bedtime.

And on top of that, this week I'm having another go-round with a kidney stone.  I think today I might have passed it, so hopefully that's over.  But Monday and Tuesday were kinda rough, although I packed up nine trades last night.

So anyway, I managed to take some pictures of a mailday from a couple weeks ago now.  I didn't get any blockbuster cards, but it's always fascinating (at least to me) the eclectic mix of stuff that TCDB trades bring in.

So four envelopes showed up.  Not sure if it was on a Monday or not - that's usually when I get the most at one time.

Open each to the first layer - two Christmas cards!  They were really just used as containers, and weren't signed or anything, but it's kinda cool.  

I'm thinking I'll have to turn trades off here soon, I haven't even scratched the surface of Christmas shopping etc. yet....

The first card revealed is a 2006 UD Rookie Debut insert of DeShaun Foster.  The trader - tinyzinterfere - listed his address as Israel.  But this envelope showed up with a return address in NYC.  I've seen that before.  Not sure how that works.  But hopefully he and his are not affected by the ugly stuff going on over there.

Opening the greeting cards and paper sleeve reveals the contents of the other packages.  

This is what trader AbeBauman sent me.  A Super Teams Kranepool, a "no hash marks" (the vertical lines in the lower blue band) 1990 Topps football LL card, and a Ginter mini insert.  He also contributed on of the Louis Oliver cards that you'll see in a bit.

CoachMoore sent me a Topps Micro Piniella, completing all the Micros for my player collections, a Gold Medallion Ultra Terry Allen, and a SI for Kids Liut for my casual Capitals collection.  He had a lot of those SI's but this was the only one I could use.  Was glad to get it in such nice condition.  Usually you see those crumpled in dime boxes since they're so flimsy.

A nice group of more Washington football in Pacific Paramount and Collector's Choice Player's Club from Nashino.

And finally, all three Louis Olivers for my co-worker's collection.  Oliver played for the Dolphins most of his career.  My co-worker said Oliver was his favorite Dolphin and off I went.  Messiers Bauman and Moore sent these, including the '94 Select, which is the goofiest photo I think I've seen on a football card.  Has to be pre-game workout.  

So there's another sample mailday from TCDB trades.  

Also shout out to Nachos Grande for a trade on there as well.  Not sure I'll pull off posting about it though...

Monday Mega Mail Day

The post office tends to save up packages for Monday deliveries around here.  Which works out for me because I don't tend to plan much for Monday evenings otherwise, (#old guy, #mondayssuck) so it's nice to come home and have some new cards to check off.

Last week on the 6th of November, I got the mother lode.  My constant trade friend in Michigan sent me the latest batch, and it came with several TCDB friends.

Addresses blurred for internet protection.

First up, Stuart's offerings....

About half player collection and half set needs, starting with the Heritage box topper of Vida Blue.  The '72 is a regular Topps for Manny Sanguillen.  I have trouble keeping track of those extra cameo appearances, so I end up searching for extra copies of '70s subset cards years after completing the set and filling in my PC guys' regular issue.  The '75s are all O-Pee-Chee for PCs, but I had most of them already.   The Hernandez is such a cool shot, and I've been able to snag the regular, red foil, and now shiny version of that Heritage card.  The rest are set hits - 2013 Cooperstown, 2006 Heritage, 2005 UD All-Star Classics, 2003 XL Football, and a complete set of the round-corner glossies from 1977-78 Topps hockey.

And now, in no particular order, are the Database trades.  First up, from GoldenEagles555, a few non-uniformed Redskin players, and a couple '97 Stadium Club hits.  That SClub set is one of several that have been pounded by TCDB traders.  I'm so happy to move extra stuff to build sets like that, even though they would be cheap to buy, sending (in as many cases as possible) more cards than I'm getting is just awesome.

And the diversity of some of these trades (and traders) is great too.  Check out that red foil Spider-Man!  And continuing the theme of strong guys in red outfits, Tony Gonzalez Upper Deck rookie, and three Ultras of more Washington players.  Thanks to Hector, aka HDZLV.

Another nice mix from BCMeeker.  I'm down to about a half dozen on this 1990-91 Skybox basketball set.  Stuart started me off with a lot of about 1000 cards that I dug my set out of and then entered the extras for trade, and then I put my remaining wants on the database and two out of every three trades have had some of them in it.

And these two might look familiar.  This happens sometimes when two trades hit at the same time.  But I've killed off so many Washington needs that they've probably surpassed set hits in my trades on the site.  Which is just incredible, because digging out two to ten singles from each product in shops and at shows would take forever, and I know there are tons of collectors who have them and don't need them.  It's a win-win.

More stuff from the sports spectrum from CraigB56.  Late 90's hockey, and one of those Donruss game cards that are pretty easy to come by on TCDB.  The Dotson Score is for the Washington collection, but the Addison is my latest player collection.  The Vikings WR went through the school system that I work for.  I've got a co-worker that coached him in middle school.

The other bubble mailer was from JFCard.  I didn't spread these out too far.  There's the Jordan from the Skybox set, along with an '84 Fleer Update Darling for that set, and a SportFlics Keith Hernandez for his PC.  The stack is mostly 1997-98 Score hockey, a few other newer set hits, pretty much all of the first year Capital O-Pee-Chees for that team binder, and some other odd PC needs.

I got one more package the next day from sfurukawa, which was bigger than any of these.  I just didn't take a picture of it.  It was a 300 count box full of mostly Washington football, but also a complete set of 1988 Sportflics Gamewinners, and a handful of baseball PC cards.  That was an unusual trade where I actually got more volume than I sent - but his end was all 1975 Topps baseball minis.

I combined that shipment into the stacks of all the above inventory and sorted by sport.

Here's a lower angle so you can see the quantities.  Not bad for a week of trading...

I've completed 11 trades and have that many still in progress (in transit) for the month of November so far.  And we're not even halfway through!

I also did 11 last month - starting with one on the 11th and the others on the 18th and beyond - after turning them off for August and September to try to recover from the National and Michigan hauls.  (Which I really haven't.)

In October, those trades added 185 baseball, 20 hoops, 73 football, and 5 hockey.  283 total.

And this month has brought 50 baseball, 54 hoops, 416(!) football, and 121 hockey.  641 total.

I bet I've moved a lot more than that to good homes too.  Gotta love Database trading!

Blog Bat Around: No Words.

 

A Century of Swaps

Just hit a landmark in my TCDB trades.  Completed my 100th trade in total on the site.  About 70 of which have happened coninuously since the first of May.

Most of them have been the typical PWE with somewhere from 6 to 15 cards each.  The extremes have been....

...as small as two for one.  (This burns up stamps a bit too fast.  I'd rather wait until we have at least a half dozen or so.  You know, fill the envelope to some degree)...

...to the massive exchange.  This one was very lopsided too.  That's how I like 'em.  I get a bunch of cool stuff, but still manage to move out a big pile.

I won't bore you with the large batches of base cards for sets like 2020 Prestige & 2019 Score football, or 2003 Upper Deck baseball that I've dwindled down from multiple deals.  But here are some other highlights to my recent exchanges.

The most fun ones are the diverse batches.  A little bit of everything.  Mulitple sports, inserts, sets that you don't see any more, and on and on.  These are from a dozen sent by GeoGeo.

Doing well on some of the serial numbered inserts in sets like Donruss Classics and Playoff Honors.  A pair here from 49ants, who is probably the leader in most trades so far with six.

Mike also contributed to the marble flavor of these 1996 Ultra Sensations...

...and even one of the last five 1971 Topps Game football I had left to find.  Mike is also in my original trading group from Yahoo!, Trading Bases.

These look like more old-school-ish football, but these two sets of Members Only Stadium Club are actually listed under Multi-Sport.  Took me a while to find them.  Thanks to 49ants, I don't have to worry about them any more.

Trader Midnight112x also pitched in to the Washington football effort with these two serial numbered beauties.  Gotta love acetate die-cuts especially.

Speaking of beauties, CH34 added this one in at the end of a line of 2020 Prestige football.  I had a couple parallels, but not the horizontal base card.

And finally, Oldschoolcards sent a trade that included this Hostess Hernandez, and a genuine '78 Andre Dawson, which I'm glad I bypassed paying a lot of cash for at a show earlier this year.  I was almost more excited about the nine 1980 Fleer logo stickers that I picked out...

...because they completed (until I found I was missing 1952) my World Series back set.  They run from 1940 until 1979 on the backs of these stickers.  They are reprints of the '71 cards.  I might have to go back to him to get the last one.

Thanks to all the traders on the Database, and to all my readers for checking in.