Blogger friends come first

Over the past month or so, I've had small trades and purchases arrive from eBay, Sportlots, and TCDB. Logic would indicate that the orders coming from the east coast would arrive first, followed by central/midwest, then west coast, and Canada would take the longest. 

Personal assumption here but I'd expect that eBay shipments would be most reliable, then Sportlots, then TCDB - just based on the visibility and feedback structue, selling cards vs. trading cards, and moderation of each website. 

Naturally, the post office has laughed at this assumption. I've had issues with receiving cards from all three websites, regardless of location. And while the sellers/trading partners have varied in their responses and the sources, locations, and volume of cards in the incomplete transactions have varied, there is one constant.

Blogger friends have come through every time. 

Here's a care package from Night Owl. He offered to help me complete a couple sets and asked for nothing in return. (don't worry, I'll hit him back for the anniversary giveaway) 

This stack of cards took 3-4 days to travel from NY to NJ, as it should. Meanwhile, I made a trade with a TCDB user in Staten Island more than two weeks ago. I sent my cards two Saturdays ago. Did he receive them? I don't know, he hasn't logged in since the 19th. And I still don't have my cards. 

Bookending with another New York-based blogger, Bo sent me a very generous trade offer on the 15th. That trade took about a week to complete. I filed those cards away already but here's a scan of one of them. 

That's just one TCDB user though. Sometimes trade partners disappear, it happens. What about eBay? There's far more mechanisms in place to prevent sellers from ghosting. 

Ah, but those standard envelopes for single card purchases under $20 are always risky. 

I paid under $2 shipped for this Junior which arrived in four days from Las Vegas. It should have completed my 2024 Topps set, but a three-card trade with a west coast TCDB user has not arrived. This trade partner (I'm not going to name names) logs in every day and has been responsive. They sent my three cards on June 2. That small envelope has apparently been lost in the mail. 

While eBay sellers do have more incentive to complete transactions than TCDB traders, this still seems random to me. Not only because the west coast 3-card trade was with a more active trader(with 100% feedback) while the NY trader has far more feedback (but a negative or two). But because an eBay purchase I made two weeks ago was also lost in the mail. And this seller deserves to be mentioned by name.

Another $2 purchase shipped in a standard envelope. Should have arrived roughly the same time as the Caminero - maybe a day earlier since this seller is in the Boston area. But it didn't. The eBay tracking wasn't helpful as it hadn't even been marked as shipped after 11 days. So I sent The Card Pagoda a quick message just to confirm the card was shipped, and he ... immediately apologized, refunded my $2, and offered to send a replacement. 

The replacement has already arrived. 

More value that I had intially expected, plus two Whalers (based on my screen name) and a refund?!? For a two dollar card? The only reason I even thought to ask Gus to confirm the card shipped was because of a Sportlots order I still have not received.

I wanted my 100th Sportlots purchase to be significant. I also wanted to complete some hockey card sets and that is very tough to do on TCDB. So I saved my pennies and purchased large chunks of cards from three different sellers. 

All three were tracked. Two have arrived. Guess which one didn't? That's right, the one with free shipping. I specifically loaded up at TNT because of the $0 shipping for 101+ cards. They are a preferred seller with 100% feedback. So what happened? 

Sorry, I was away for a week helping my mother and had not dropped off the packages to the post office. I will get your order dropped off at the post office today.

Hey, I get it. Moms always come first. I was anxious about this one because I'm going away to see my mom soon, and I didn't want the package sitting on the porch for five days.

Even after this message it still sat in limbo all week with no status update, though TNT was responsive and offered a refund if the cards didn't arrive soon. As I began writing this I checked USPS to screenshot the lack of status and.. apparently it is moving and expected to arrive tomorrow. So that's a relief. If and when it does, I'll need just 15 cards to complete a run of Upper Deck hockey base sets.

Hopefully I will be able to complete those sets through TCDB trades. And that means sending envelopes across the border to Canada, which is tough for several reasons. The envelopes can't have too much weight to them or customs flags them down and charges $500. As noted above, small envelopes within the US get lost all the time, so adding another country to the mix only increases the diffculty. And some TCDB users north of the 49th won't even trade with Americans (can't say I blame them)

But you know who does? Crazie Joe. 

Joe had a mix of everything for me - Devils, Whalers, an Ovi, and a pair of set fillers. These arrived from Ontario in a week. I was blown away. If I can complete a small PWE trade with someone in Canada this fast, there's no reason for any trade or purchase from anywhere in the lower 48 to take longer. 

It seems so random, right? Some trades arrive fast, others don't. Some small purchases arrive fast, others are lost. Some tracked orders arrive fast, others don't. But Joe here proves that there is a commonality among all the transactions I've completed on time. 

He has a blog. 

So, whether you're buying on eBay or Sportlots, trading on TCDB or elsewhere, don't check a person's feedback rating for peace of mind. Check to see if they have a sports card blog 😁

~

Cards From Bloggers

Lots of cards incoming and lots of posts upcoming, so let's start by thanking YOU the blogosphere for sending so many great cards to Collector HQ!

I offered GCA of the Collective Mind blog (LoQtus on TCDB) a low-numbered parallel of a Washington RC .. but he doesn't collect Nationals. The Collector regrets the error. But! GCA countered with a very generous offer that included some set fillers and PC players:

A sampling of the 40 cards I received, including one of the nine Robin Younts in this trade, a Mattingly I've had my eye on for quite a while, and one of the '96 Score set fillers I needed to complete the near-set Dennis sent to me (more from Dennis in a minute.) 

The 2018 Panini Classics are a huge boost to the base set I decided to build after offloading at least a dozen singles in prior trades. That Kelce guy sounds familiar for some reason....

Gavin of the Baseball Card Breakdown blog sent this to me six years ago. I would never sell it -- it's Gav's IP to begin with -- but I have wondered how much he could sell these for considering another blogger, Gregory of Nine Pockets, has a nice little side business of custom cards and he isn't taking advantage of Taylor mania (yet?)

Gotta throw this in - I guess I understand why Queen Taylor stayed in an enclosed luxury box at Lambeau Field when the Packers beat her man's squad last Sunday... but Simone Biles was out among the crowd, in the elements, cheering on her man Jonathan Owens. I'm just sayin'.

Speaking of gifts... Tom of The Angels in Order blog (calangels on TCDB) has been sending out some BAGs lately. Just a few hours after reading that Jon Penneysleeves received a Blog Appreciation Gift, Tom send me a TCDB offer which included these:

Moar Yountz!!

Jeremy of the Topps Cards That Never Were blog has been breaking some shiny new baseball blasters. As it happened I bought the Rays slot on Nachos Grande's 2023 Topps Archives break and thought I could send a few over to our resident Rays collector. That got the ball rolling on a nice little trade:

He's Karensjer on TCDB and this was his first completed trade there(assuming he received the cards I sent him?)

Next we have Kerry of the Cards on Cards blog (madding on TCDB) who sent a few set fillers my way:

Cards of Cards from Cards on Cards

And finally we have a third care package from Dennis of the Too Many Verlanders blog. The fella known as FreehanSolo already has a Hall of Fame reputation on TCDB. This was not a TCDB trade, just some good ol' generosity from one of my best blogger bros.

Do any of you remember the 'war' between Bob Walk the Plank and Wes/JayBarkerFan? If I had the budget, I'd drop 'bombs' on Dennis like those guys did, cause these are the types of things he sends me:

No big deal, just a Raffy Devers patch relic from a high-end product. Oh, and these:

Glorious Pacific inserts! Super cool die cuts! I have to say the Clemens is my favorite here; even though I dislike the man he has some fantastic cards. The Brodeur McDonalds cards are awesome as well.


I'm very fortunate to have such generous blogger friends, and I hope that what I'm sending out to some of you is half as good as what you've sent to me. Thank you Greg, Kerry, Tom, Jeremy, and Dennis!

And thank you all for reading and supporting this blog! 

Have a great weekend!



~

Big Box of Big Cards

Just a few short years ago - when the blogs were more active and sports cards were cheaper/more accessible - I frequently exchanged cards with several regulars of the card blogging community.

Now I'm down to one regular "trade" partner here, and it's worked out quite well so far. If you're only going to swap cards with one blogger or TCDB user, I can't recommend anyone better than Dennis. 

He's offered up some tradebait spoils from card shows and I've offered up some Free Stuff here and there, but his recent acquisition of a big collection full of big cards launched this mailday from a potential PWE to a full flat rate box!

Some of the items were agreed to in advance but Dennis warned me there would be surprises.

This wasn't one of them. I knew it was coming, but I did not know that I would need it immediately.

Cards of all sizes were sealed within. I had a couple 2- and 4-pocket pages already so I claimed some box toppers and big sized singles. Got a lot more than I was expecting!

Some standard-sized cards, too. Hundreds of 'em. In addition to the completed (series 1) set of 1996 Score in the binder pages, Dennis used these as box filler - a complete (series 2) set of 1994 Ultra, plus all the base common bronze singles from (series 2) 1996 Finest.

Here they are, set free and stacked high. The cards in front are random claims from his card show purchases. The stack on the right (with Jimmie Foxx on top) contains 83 Red Sox base, insert, and relic cards.

This will keep me busy for a couple weeks - right up until my COMC shipment arrives. I'll be sure to share the wealth and offer up a few freebies next Friday, along with some new cards to claim.


Dennis, thank you very much for the hundreds of neat cards!!



Have a great weekend everyone!



~

p.s. I am slowly chipping away at the "best players who didn't have a Starting Lineup figure" list. Hope to have that done in early November :)

Smarch Swaps

One good thing about being home every day is that I don't have to wait until the evening to open my mail. Three PWE trades and a box from COMC arrived at Collector HQ last week.

The first trade in was from TCDB user gatorsportscardart:

I sent 18 basketball dupes (17 from 1990-91 SkyBox) out to Gator and got 12 cards in return, including two Lance Parrish issues and Mark Belanger's sunset card. I knew he was a very light-hitting shortstop but I had no idea his all-time great fielding was enough for him to stick around into the '80s.

The Francona card was not in the initial trade; I'd asked for a 1982 Topps Al Oliver but Gator couldn't find it so I asked for Tito instead. No, I'm not building the 1983 Topps set. Even after this trade I've only got 29 of the 792 cards.

Got a couple basketball cards in return for the 18 basketball cards. Also an off-center Jim Zorn and a couple newer cards in Porzingis and Kershaw - which is from the National League All-Star team set, though it looks exactly like the base card. Whatever.. different card number, different card I guess.

Here's a minor trade I made with JDStinz, sort of a 'bottom-pair defenseman for future 4th rounder' deal:

I sent three Stranger Things base cards and two 2015-16 Donruss basketball dupes to JD for these four. Classic Images is not one of my favorite sets at all, but I can't pass up a Brodeur, a Pronger(listed as a Whalers card on TCDB) and an Arnott. Wasn't easy finding an active user who needed my Stranger Things dupes, so I took what I could get. Lucas definitely jumped to the forefront in the most recent ST season. I really enjoyed his character arc and relationship with Max.

Do any of you watch Quantum Leap? Did you watch the original? My wife and I have been watching the reboot, which is funny to me since she had Quantum Leap nights at her college dorm back in the day.
 

I mention this show because the spoils of my most recent Time Travel Trade arrived last Thursday. It had been a while since I swapped cards with Matt, and I'm already preparing for the next one.

Royals and Red Sox here. Tazawa and Hanrahan are extras for my Red Sox binder.

You probably can't read the names on most of these (except for Hubie Brooks) so I'll list them for you: Jim Abbott, Roberto Alomar, and Gary Sheffield are pretty recognizable by photo. Then we have Brooks, Will Clark(also a familiar face), and Marcell Ozuna. Then at the bottom we have Charles Johnson and Josh Bell.

Clark reminds me that there was a Quantum Leap episode where Ben leaps back to the Bay Area right before the 1989 Earthquake.

 

 

And we'll finish with some football Hall of Famers. I was a little too slow on claiming a Scott Rolen card, so I added Moon as a substitute. He's joined by a 2019 Donruss Dan Marino I had to grab quickly because anyone could have offered anything 2018 or older. Michael Strahan rounds out the swap. I'm sure Matt will cover what he received in a future post at Diamond Jesters.

On the same day these arrived, I received my latest COMC order. Here's a preview:

 

I'll show off the rest of my order after the 100 Greatest Non-Hall of Famers Countdown concludes later this week.



Thanks for reading!



~

Reds Ox

I couldn't decide if I wanted to do something special for my 396th post - something that would tie in to the size of certain sports card sets. The post I wanted to write would have been another long one, and I already had a backlog of new cards to discuss so I scrapped the epic "396" idea in favor of an old fashioned "lookit my new cards" post.

It's been a long time since I opened a pack of cards, and an unlikely source surprised me with not one but two packs of 2020 baseball cards. My mother in-law gave me the cards included with her Utz potato chip purchase.

In the first pack I pulled Joey Votto, Yoan Moncada, and Mike Soroka. My daughter watched and asked if I got any Red Sox. I told her "not quite".. and then decided to make my own Red Sox card:

Close enough.. right?

As a result the last card in the second pack made me laugh out loud:

It's an actual Red Sox card! Probably the most excitement this team has brought me all year. This poor excuse of a baseball season was such a disappointment that I found myself rooting for the Red Sox to lose so that they could land the #1 pick in next year's draft and (hopefully) take Vanderbilt pitcher Kumar Rocker. The Red Sox have never had a #1 overall pick, and haven't drafted higher than #7 overall since the first three years of the amateur draft.

Anyway, as soon as I started to imagine a pitching staff of Chris Sale, Eddie Rodriguez, and Rocker.. Boston started winning. Figures. :/

I made a handful of trades on TCDB including one with Nate (The Bucs Stop Here) and one with Robert ($30 A Week Habit). Unfortunately I put those cards away before scanning them. Nate finished off my Stranger Things set (season 1) while Robert sent some Red Sox, a pair of Brett Fave cards I didn't have, and a Topps Game insert from 2017 Topps Heritage. Both bloggers boosted my 2016 Donruss Football set build.

This would be a good time to mention that my want list tabs have been updated and returned to the top of the blog :)

One of the cards I traded to Nate was this Francisco Liriano pink refractor card. Even though it's no longer in my possession I'm using it to promote Collecting Cutch's Save Second Base event because I don't have any other pink cards scanned. 

I made a trade with a female collector of Detroit Tigers cards.. and it wasn't Julie.

Rebecca (Tgrs_4_me on TCDB) sent me a dozen cards in exchange for a dozen Motor City men and dupes from my Leaf and Ultra sets.

Setfillers_4_me, hah.  I'm down to just two needs for the 2019 Opening Day set (Yusei Kikuchi is making the slooow journey from COMC.) I also received two 1990 Pro Set Packers cards and a half-dozen hockey singles.

I don't think anyone mentioned the Tampa Bay Lightning winning the Stanley Cup earlier this week. Maybe I missed it. (I could swear there was a Lightning fan on the blogs somewhere?) I was happy to see the Bolts win; Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman are two of my favorite non-Devils. 

 

This is getting long so I'll save the rest of the care packages and trades for another post. 

 

Thanks for reading!


~

 

Catching up on trades

So... how about that NHL trade deadline? 

I'm kidding. Though it is tempting to dive into the Devils completely tearing down their roster or the other deals that went down today, I've got to catch up on some trade/care packages before I resume the All-Time Teams series.


As you probably know Fuji was very busy catching up on his care packages. I was fortunate enough to be added to - and crossed off of - his 'hit' list. His mailer arrived in my inbox today:

A pair of vintage Packers - both Hall of Famers - and a pair of relics. The Stranger Things card is one of 19 set fillers Fuji included. I'm now at 78% completion of the 100-card set.


Jon's "Free Stuff Friday" kicked off a bit of a trend, which spread to Brian's Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary blog. I claimed three cards from Brian and he filled a PWE with some flagship singles I needed:

I'm still a sucker for all things 2017 Topps Heritage. Betts is no longer the face of this franchise :/ I've got one last TCDB trade incoming, and then I will finally have completed the 2019 Topps set.


Just after New Year's Day Rod offered to send me some cards in response to my Blog Update post. I had no idea what he was sending, but about a week ago I received over 100 cards - mostly Milwaukee Brewers:

Rod's mailer arrived the Day I published my Brewers All-Time Team. If I'd waited just a little longer I would have used some of these cards. 

'Y' was I happy to receive so many Brewers cards? Because Yount and Yelich have made me a bit of a Brewers fan over the years. (I'd say they're my fourth favorite team.)

These Topps Total singles are the first of the online-only reboot I've had in my collection (there was one in the Secret Santa gift I sent out, but we're not going to talk about that...) I was surprised that they're so glossy. I wouldn't say they're worth a buck apiece, but they are quite nice.

Some shiny here including a couple refractors, a rainbow parallel, and a Mike Moustakas All-Star relic - which is actually from the All-Star workout, not the actual game. But it's better than the "..not from any specific game/season/event" disclaimer I've seen all too often lately.

Fuji, Brian, Rod.. thank you very much for these great cards! I'm now at nearly 98,000 cards - just 2,000 shy of my 100K goal. I'm still cooking up a return package for Rod (and Nick, whom I've owed for at least a month) but I did send some PWEs out and I plan to be all caught up by Friday (I have a day off due to an A.M. Dr. appt.)

Thanks for reading!



~