A Tale of Two Trades

It was the best of trades, it was the worst of trades.  Well, actually, there was nothing bad about either one of these trades.  I have two more trades to post today, both from TCDB.  But they are quite different from one another.  The first came from user joshthurman and was completely baseball.

Josh helped me out with some of the best names of the Team 2000 checklist.  Here's a quiz for you: Which of these players had the best WAR from 1990-1999?  The answer will be at the end.

I received a pair of cards for my ROY collection.  Bagwell was the NL ROY in 1991, while Knoblauch took home the award for the AL in the same year.  

I got a random assortment of junk wax Cubbies.  I believe this is Gary Woods's first representation in my Cubs collection.  I love the image of Rick Wilkins holding up the ball after the tag.  I wish I could see who else was involved in the play, but I hope he was called out.

I think the oddballs here are the highlight of the trade.  The Mark Grace is a 1990 Starline Long John Silver issue and the bottom three are 1993 Hostess.  I remember eating more Hostess baseballs that summer than I ever have before or since.  

The second trade was football.  It hit my All-Decade collection and gave me some set help.

From 1990 Pro Set Super Bowl, I got some Supermen who also played their way onto the All 80s team.  I have a special affinity for the guys in the trenches, so when I see one of the original Hogs, Joe Jacoby, pulling to get out and block in open space, that card is a winner.

No, I'm not collecting the 1989 Topps set, but all of these cards belong in my collection.  Growing up, I always thought these cards were boring.  Now I really think they're good-looking cards.  My only issue is the random color schemes on the helmet stripes on the side.  1989 was a good year for football sets.  I like all three major releases: Topps and the iconic inaugural sets of Score and Pro Set.  They were all very good looking sets with one of the greatest rookies classes of all-time.  Of course, these players were all well-established by 1989, not the rookies, but it is a good set.

Much like 1989 Topps, I never appreciated 1991 Pro Set Platinum as a kid.  It was kind of Pro Set's "premium" offering, but I always disliked it and tended to view it as not a real set.  It was probably due to the lack of names on the front  of the cards.  Now when I look at it, I'm wholly impressed with the action photography and clean look of the logo.  Look at the shot of Jerry Rice's celebration, for example.  Or great Bill Fralic battling another great John Randle, with two more outstanding players--Chris Doleman and Mike Kenn--on the ground in the background.  What a card!  For those who need a refresher, the players featured are Art Monk and Jerry Rice on the top row, and Mike Munchak, Bill Fralic, and Anthony Munoz on the bottom row.

I got some '88 Topps for my set as well.  My build is going quite nicely.  It seems like a lot of people are just dying to get rid of their extras, and I've been quite happy to take them.  There are some good names here.

I'll end with a couple of individual cards of All 80s players.  First, we have safety Nolan Cromwell in the form of a Topps Sticker.  And as a finale, one of the most interesting cards in my collection.  This Jerry Rice came from 1999 Sports Illustrated for Kids and proudly features its perforations.  But check out the path of the football.  Apparently it is circling Jerry's head until he's ready to catch it.  Or it bounced off his shoulder, paused--in mid-air, mind you--made a left turn, and landed in Rice's hands.  I haven't seen any other cards from that year's SI for Kids.  Do they all have the same type of photo on them?

Well, that does it for those two trades, one baseball, one football.  For those who actually tested themselves on the trivia question, the WAR ranking in the 1990s for the three players above goes as follows:

3.  Juan Gonzalez--30.2
2. David Justice--33.2
and, our winner
1. Bernie Williams--34.4

As you can see, all were pretty good players, and all had similar success.  Thanks for reading!

Topps Redeemed?

Back in 2015, I pulled a sweet redemption card out of a box of Topps Museum.

A Russell Wilson/Marshawn Lynch dual-autograph?  Sweet!  I did a little research on this card and found that it was numbered to 10.  I went online and redeemed this code in February 2015.  And then I waited.

I waited for about 20 months.  When Marshawn Lynch retired, I didn't think he would be be signing much for card companies at that point. I decided to cut bait and ask for a replacement in October 2016.

And then I waited some more.  I'd heard that Topps was fairly quick about replacing redemptions, but I waited about 6 more months before I received my replacement.  Last month, in April 2017 (2 years, 2 months after my original redemption), I received my replacement.

Along with the replacement, Topps sent me one of their "Sorry It Took So Long" letters and a second card to make up for the wait.  The extra was.......

Lee has 115 receptions for 1465 yards and 5 TDs in his three-year career.  Last year was definitely his best, when he recorded 63 catches for over 800 yards.  I'm hoping that his career is hitting an upward trajectory this former 2nd round pick. 

But the star of the show--the main event--was this beauty....

 

A Red Refractor Rookie Auograph of stud running back David Johnson.  This is numbered to 5, and Johnson is one of the hottest players in the NFL right now.

I'm pretty satisfied with the value of the replacement, despite the long wait.  I wasn't sure how Topps would match the value, but I think they did.

What do you think?  Did this sufficiently replace the Wilson/Lynch auto #'d to 10?  Did I come out ahead or get the short end of the stick.  Let me know in the comments below.  I'd like to hear your opinions.

I Think I'm Becoming a Set Builder

And I blame Trading Card Database.  The entire site caters to set builders.  You want to build a wantlist?  Here, you can add players one card at a time, OR you can add a set all at once.  It's so much easier to add a set.  You want to propose a trade?  You can view a list of sets that the other person has cards to offer, OR you can search letter by letter to find a certain player you might want.  TCDB has statistics of how much of the set you have completed, even if it is only one card meant for the PC.  And what about adding cards to your collection?  Well, it is easy find everything on a set checklist.  If you want to find a card by player name, you can see a list, but you can't check the box until you enter the set checklist.

I know it was just a couple of months ago that I thought I was veering away from set collecting, but I use Trading Card Database to track and build my collection and facilitate trades.  And it's sooooo much easier to go by sets.  Plus, I'm starting to see the end of my award-themed projects.  When that wraps up, I would like to collect as a record of players of the times.  I still think that set collecting is more expensive, but I'll figure out how I plan to go about it.  Right now, I'm finding that the satisfaction of completing a set and the aesthetics of displaying a set all together are causing my set needs lists to grow.  Plus, I've figured out some storage and display questions that I've had, and it seems that sets will fit nicely into my plan.

On that note, I've sought trades on TCDB recently that have aided my set-building.  From user ShoTime, I received the Yu Darvish above for my 2016 Archives set.

He brought my 2017 Flagship set eight cards closer to completion, including a couple of Cubs.

I think I mentioned the Whatever Works set in my last post, but I'm now two cards closer.  It's funny that I never knew people called Jim Palmer "Pancakes" before I received this card.

I like the Traditions set from Triple Play.  I would like to build it and share it with my boys as a merging of two traditions I'm trying to cultivate: baseball and card collecting.

1988 Topps football was the first set I ever collected.  I was six years old when my dad brought a pack home for me, and I was forever hooked on cards.  Besides the nostalgia factor, it is a really attractive set.  I've decided it's finally time to go back and build the set.  ShoTime helped me out with a couple of the iconic cards from this set.  At one point I owned both of these--and the Bo Jackson rookie--but I don't anymore.  At least these two are back now.

I'm sure at some point I will turn away from set-building again.  I don't know how many iterations of my card-collecting self I have created, and I sure don't know how many more there will be.  As long as I have some purpose, though, I've found that the hobby is more enjoyable to me.  A big thanks to TCDB user ShoTime for helping me out with these set builds.

More Trades from the Database

I haven't spent much time opening new product as of late, but I have been immersed in the Trading Card Database.  I've completed over a dozen trades that I'm trying to get posted here.

My next trade was with user minibbcards.  I believe that every card I sent him was a parallel, and true to his name, he asked for a few minis.

In return, I got mostley inserts.  All of these cards will go into my mini collections binder as All-Star MVPs, ROYs, or both.

I'm now one card from this Wal-Mart exclusive Cal Ripken insert set.

I'm working on this Whatever Works set.  I'm not in love with the paisley in top corner, but I love hearing about baseball players and their superstitions.  It's a fun little set that I didn't pay much attention to when it was released a couple of years ago.

Also included in the trade was one of the most nonsensical cards I know of: a 2016 Berger's Best reprint of the classic 2015 flagship Kris Bryant rookie.  Really?  Did we need a reprint one year later?  However, I still don't own the original.  I bought so many Series 2 rack packs trying to pull this card that I nearly completed the series twice over.  I saw neither hide nor hair of the Bryant rookie.  So this Berger's Best will have to do for now.

The AFL/NFL merger is one of my favorite topics in sports history.  Back when I was a history major in college, I had to propose and complete a senior thesis on a historical topic of my choice.  I really wanted to write on the merger, but the NFL Hall of Fame is kind of stingy with the primary sources stored there.  The only way to access them is in person, and even then, you have to have some sort of permission to enter the archives.  So I chose a more local topic instead.  When I saw this card, though, I wanted it.

My next was with a guy who calls himself herkojerko. 

I got some great Cubs cards from him, including my first Jason Kendall in Cubby blue.

My Willie Mays page was looking pretty empty, so I picked up some junk wax of one of the greatest "Baseball Heroes" of all-time.

Some new additions to my ROY binder.  I especially love that the Donruss Bagwell denotes him as a Rookie of the Year award winner.

And here is some 80s goodness of a couple of great outfielders.

The third trade I'm posting today comes from dsorek.  He took some of my 2017 flagship inserts in exchange for some flagship base help.

He also sent a couple of my favorite insert set so far this year, Opening Day's Opening Day.

I'll have some more trade posts coming in the near future as I try to catch up with all my incoming trades.  A big thanks to the three traders featured today.

A Couple of Trades Courtesy of TCDB

I'm starting to get into the swing of things on Trading Card Database.  I reviewed the site in my last post and mentioned that my inbox was flooded with lots of trade requests.  I've completed about a dozen so far, and I'll show the highlights as I endeavor to catch up on my posts.

Today's first trade came from user jmiller4.  He was apparently working on some of the many Topps insert sets that have been released in the past few years.  In return for some help on those sets, he helped me with my own insert set build.

Because I'm crazy, I decided to build an 80 card insert set from 25 years ago using only cards I had never pulled from packs.  I had never seen these cards until a few months ago and when I looked at the checklist, I thought, "Hey, why not?"  As illustrated by the cards shown here, there are some pretty good names on the checklist.  Most of them were just beginning to show signs a of a solid career when this set was released, and it makes Pinnacle look like a great prospector.  Most of them were coming to the end of their careers by 2000, but a lot of them had a solid mid-decade run.  I'm 20% done with this collection, with 16 cards so far in my attempt.

Another set I'm slowly going at is the Wrigley Field set.  At first I wasn't sure about collecting it, but when the Cubs won it all last year, I thought that I couldn't pass up a set devoted to Wrigley Field in the very year the curse was broken.  I don't have too many of these yet.

Another set I couldn't pass up is the Marketside set.  Aside from the buzz it created with the return of food issued oddballs, the set is really nice looking.  I'm going slowly on it, as well, because it seems like everybody is working on it and there aren't too many for trade and I don't want to pay the $.99 per card that ebay is asking right now.

This card is probably my favorite of the trade, and it wasn't even included initially.  I got the package with a note telling my the Team 2000 John Olerud had already been traded and he hoped with would work as a substitute.  Bryant for Olerud?  I think I got the better end of the deal here.  This is a Contact Sheet insert from 2016 Stadium Club.  I know that Stadium Club is a favorite around the cardsphere, but none of my local stores carry it, so I had never seen this set before.  It 's a pretty sweet card.

To cap off the trade with jmiller4, I got a great Bryzzo.  I hope these guys remain best buds for a long time to come.

My next trade came from Broadway (the username, not the location).  Broadway wanted Heritage; I wanted Archives.  This is what I got from this deal.

First, some help with my 2016 Archives build.

A nice 1969 Archives insert of Jake Arrieta, looking as intimidating as ever.

A Kris Bryant insert and mini.

And a Heritage rookie of my latest ROY addition, Michael Fulmer.  Fulmer is off to an even better start this year than his award-winning performance of last year.  The Tigers appear to have a good one here.

I still have more TCDB trades to post, but I'll stop here for now.  Thanks for reading!  And thanks to jmiller4 and Broadway for the trades.

Trading Card Database

Just last year I discovered Zistle.  It was great; I got all of my cards uploaded into my collection, created wantlists, and pulled off a bunch of trades.  Then Beckett came along and took over the site.  Apparently, the plan was just to let it die out.  I had to jump ship.  The site is still alive, and there is some activity happening in the Zistle community, but no new cards are being added to the site.  Anything beyond 2016 (and most 2016 sets, for football) is not available on Zistle.  So I migrated over to Trading Card Database.

To tell the truth, I really miss Zistle.  It's interface was so easy to use.  It was more aesthetically pleasing.  It gave you the ability to export your collection to a spreadsheet.  But it was a bit disorganized and had its share of maddening errors in the database.  TCDB is going to work for me, but it's not ideal.  For those who aren't sure how to keep track of your collection, it's a great option, but it does take quite a bit of time and work to enter the collection initially, but I think it beats typing or handwriting everything out.

So, judging from my experience thus far with TCDB, here is a brief review of its features:

PROS:

The Organization

Unlike Zistle, pretty much everything on TCDB is well-regulated.  Zistle had giant holes in its checklists and duplicate sets because allowed anybody to add sets and checklists.  TCDB is far stricter in its checklists; therefore, it is far easier to find the exact set you are looking for.  You don't have to wonder if the set will be there or if you are actually entering the card into the correct set.  It's also so thorough that I never doubt whether I'll be able to find a card on the database.  I think I only own one or two cards that I couldn't find.

Set Building

Trading Card Database is a set builder's dream.  Organization by set is the default and the easiest way to find anything.  Every time you enter a card from a set into your collection, you get statistics telling you how many cards you have, how many are in the set, and a percentage of the set complete.  The wantlist feature is is created for the ease of set builders.  I'll discuss this more in a future post, but TCDB may well turn me into a set builder mere months after I went on record saying that it wasn't my preferred way to collect.

The Community

In just over a year on Zistle, I completed 40 trades.  That's quite a few, I think.  On TCDB, I receive trade offers daily.  Multiple trade offers.  To the point where I can't keep up and respond to all of them.  As far as I can see, there are more TCDB users and they are more active than Zistle users were.  I don't think I'll have trouble finding trading partners again.

CONS:

The Search Function

With Zistle I could do something as simple as search for "Aaron Rodgers base 5" and it would bring up a list of all Aaron Rodgers base cards numbered 5.  It was great for adding odds and ends to my collection, say from a COMC order or blog trade that only included one Aaron Rodgers and one from that particular set.  TCDB doesn't do that.  With TCDB, I would either need to search out the set, bring up the entire checklist, and select the Aaron Rodgers #5.  Or I could bring up every Aaron Rodgers card, find the right card, and select it.  Everything I want to find is there; it's just harder to narrow it down to a specific card.  Plus, there is an extra click to get from the checklist to the update collection function for the checklist.  I don't understand why I can't edit my collection from the checklist. 

Creating Wantlists

Let's say I want to collect Brett Favre.  But I only want Brett Favre as a Packer, none of that icky Viking purple.  So I bring up every Brett Favre card, filter it out to the Packers, and click "Add Missing Cards to Wantlist."  BOOM, every single Brett Favre card in existence is added to my wantlist.  Apparently the filter means nothing.  The inability to add mass cards at once might not be that big of a deal if it were easier to add individual cards.  But that process is not as simple as checking a box.  It requires a drop down menu and selecting "Add to Wantlist" for every individual card.  It's a time-consuming process that involves too many clicks for my liking.  To be fair, wantlists for sets are really easy to do.  It just doesn't work to select certain cards of a certain player.  Again, TCDB caters to set builders, not player collectors.

Drop-Down Menus

This is my biggest issue with TCDB.  Zistle was so easy with a checkbox or an icon to click and the card was added to your collection, tradelist, or wantlist.  Changing quantities was a simple click of an up or down arrow.  TCDB has a checkbox for adding to a personal collection, but requires a drop-down to do anything else with the card.  Often, the page refreshes after you add a card to your tradelist, or move it from your wantlist to your collection.  This causes some unnecessary delay and frustration for me.

There are more pros and cons to be discovered, I'm sure.  These are just the few I've come across in my first few months on the site.  I really do miss Zistle, but it is nice to know that when I have a card in hand, I should have no trouble adding it to my collection.  TCDB may be require clicks than I would like for adding my existing collection, but it sure beats not keeping track at all.  Once I get everything entered in, I expect adding as I go will be no problem.  I hope this site doesn't shut down just as I do, like Zistle did.

If you've read this far, you deserve to see some cards.  Allow me to share the spoils of my first trade on Trading Card Database, which was proposed to me by user Kaline6.  We worked out a small baseball trade.

A couple of ROYs from different eras.

Some BYU alumni.

This card brings me one closer to completing this Wal-Mart exclusive insert tribute to Cal.

Finally, we have some favorite Cubs.  The little leaguer in the middle is Mark Grace.

Flagship Hobby Box: The End (With a Hit)

It's time for my 2017 Topps Hobby Box to make its curtain call.  I'm down to the final nine packs, and we still have a hit in there.  I love it when I break a box and the hit comes toward the end.  The excitement stays around a little bit longer.  In this particular break, the hit came in pack #33 of 36.  What was it?  I'll reveal that later.  First let's take a look at the best base cards of this round.

I haven't done the 30 Day Challenge set out by Tony at Off-Hiatus.  I just don't post enough to keep up with it.  But Day 1 was a card from the current year that you like the photo.  I think this would be my choice.  I love the angle of the photography that makes Hahn look larger than life and the blue sky in the background.  It looks like a perfect day for baseball.

My other favorite base cards feature a trio of slick-fielding infielders and a great play at the plate.  I'm still not used to identifying Lucroy as a Ranger, but it's a great card, nevertheless.

Got a couple more parallels in this round.

My lone 1987 insert of the final nine is a good prospect card: Alex Bregman.  Bregman hasn't torn the league up at the Major League level, but his career OPS in the minors was .891.  Not too shabby.  I think he'll be a great player someday.

One more First Pitch card, and it's a pretty good one.  It's at least somebody that I've heard of.  Shatner looks pretty good for an octogenarian on the mound here.

My final 5-Tool card is Kyle Seager.  Of the Seager brothers, I like Kyle more than I like Corey.  I think it's an underdog mentality.  Corey was expected to be a star from the beginning, while Kyle has quietly become one of the top third basemen in the league.  I don't think I remember a time in my lifetime when third base was so stacked with talent throughout the league.  Bryant, Arenado, Seager, Donaldson, Machado, Beltre.  And if the aforementioned Bregman pans out, we can see there is still some elite talent in the pipeline.

Two more Then & Now cards.  I don't have much to say about these.

More Topps Salute.  Hammel is definitely a keeper for me.  Benintendi is also a keeper, just because I think there is a good chance I'll be adding him to my ROY collection this year.  I was certainly impressed with him against the Cubs this past weekend.  The Braves blue Father's Day uniform looks pretty cool, I think.  Some solid cards here.

I "rediscovered" 1989 Topps here.  With a Cardinal.  I'm overjoyed.  I'm setting this card aside for Cards on Cards unless Kerry indicates he doesn't want it.

My final ad reprint is a pretty good one.  I will probably never own the original of this iconic card, so I will keep this one in my collection.

And now for the one promised hit in my box.   I have to admit, one of the reasons I broke down for hobby box of flagship is the sheer number Cubs hits available.  I figured if I could build the set and have a good chance to pick up a good Cubs hit, I would be happy.  So, what did I score?

A Dustin Pedroia relic.  Not too bad, I have to say.  This card presents a bit of a dilemma for me, though.  I collect Pedroia as a former ROY, but I'm not too into relics unless they are from my team or a player that I really love to collect.  Pedroia is neither.  So do I keep this or pass it on to someone who will appreciate it more?  Right now I'm leaning toward keeping this one.  Who knows, maybe someday it will become trade bait, but I think for now it stays with me.  It's not everyday that I get one promised hit from a box and that one hit actually does have a spot in my collection.

I've already put these cards in my Trading Card Database and have a couple of trades in the works. 

After the trades, I have 329/350 Series 1 cards, good for 94%.  Here is my need list: 41, 66, 84, 100, 108, 126, 135, 181, 219, 225, 241, 242, 245, 250, 268, 280, 289, 297, 311, 330.

Some of the inserts have been traded, but here are the ones I still have available for trade bait:

1987: Yu Darvish
Bowman Then & Now: Manny Machado, Robinson Cano
First Pitch: Leslie Jordan (Nationals), Lou Ferrigno (White Sox)
Gold: Teoscar Hernandez
MLB Network: Lauren Shehadi
Negative: Chad Pinder
Rainbow Foil: Jordan Zimmerman, Scooter Gennett, Noah Syndergaard
Salute: Noah Syndergaard, Andrew McCutchen
Buybacks: Jose DeLeon (1989), Yankees Team Leaders (1987), Juan Nieves (1989), Jeff Musselman (1989), Charlie Hayes (1993), Mets Future Stars-Juan Berenguer, Hubie Brooks, Mookie Wilson (1981)

If you have any of those cards on my wantlist, or if you want one of the inserts I have available, let me know.