Tuesday, April 23, 2019

My first Twitter trade

Twitter... it's a thing. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people love and hate it. Some people can't live without it, some people live just fine without it. Love it or hate it though, it's not going away anytime soon.

Personally speaking, I'm not very good at the social media, and it often makes me feel considerably older than I actually am, which isn't a good thing. Twitter has been good for the blog, and it's allowed me to get to know a few fellow bloggers a little better (in one particular case, a lot better), both of which have been good things. On the flip side though, there's a lot of rabble rousing going on, arguments over extremely trivial things, plenty of name calling, and lots of politics -- and all of the propaganda and misinformation that goes hand-in-hand with politics on social media as well.

Another popular thing on the Twitter, at least amongst card collector's, is trading. There seems to be a lot of good and bad with that as well, more good than bad though (at least from what I've been able to gather). I think I've been using the site for about a year and a half now, and up until two weeks ago, had never used it for trading before. This is mostly because a) formal trading isn't something that I enjoy doing a lot of, and b) most of the stuff I see people wanting to trade away tends to be of the higher end variety, which is something that I don't collect -- and even if I was interested in any of it, I wouldn't have anything to trade for it, as usually folks are looking for other high end stuff in return, which is the kind of stuff that I don't have for trade.

A few weeks ago though, Adam, who goes by the handle Alindz99, tweeted out that he had gotten a binder of 90's basketball cards, all (or least the majority of them) of which were going to be available for trade... 90's?.. Basketball?... My interest was officially piqued!

I don't collect a lot of base cards anymore, even stuff from the 90's, I've already seen it all way too many times, or I already have what I want (for the most part) -- but I do love me some 90's inserts and parallels, so I went ahead and asked if this binder contained any such things.

The binder did contain such things, I have pictures to prove it, speaking of pictures, Adam really went above and beyond by sending me literally dozens of binder page pictures via DM, it seemed like an awful lot of effort considering how small the trade ended up being, but it was an effort that I very much appreciated nonetheless.

Anyways, I got lots of pictures sent to me, most of the inserts were one's that I already had, and didn't really need any duplicates of, but there were two that stood out -- and not because they're crazy rare and valuable or anything, no, in fact they're both cards that can routinely be found in dime boxes. Instead they stood out because I didn't already have one of them, and the other is a card that I'm trying to get an entire pages worth of.

First up is the "new to me" card:


1994-95 Fleer 1st Year Phenom #8
It seems like it's been a lifetime since Big Dog's rookie season! Drafted in the #1 spot, Glenn had a ton of hype coming into the NBA, which I think he did a pretty good of living up to, or at least as good as anyone could playing for Milwaukee at that time.

1994-95 Fleer Super Star #4
Did anyone have more inserts than Fleer during the mid 90's? I don't think so! I have found four copies of this card in dime boxes during the last year or so, which is fine by me, because I absolutely love this card, enough so to chase an entire page's worth. With this latest acquisition, I am now more than halfway towards completing this goal. I feel the need to note too, that the card isn't miscut or anything, it was just a really bad picture by me, the cracked screen on my phone is really making the act of taking well centered pictures quite difficult (I know, first world problem).

So that's it, a two-card trade, certainly not the biggest Twitter trade ever, nothing like the one's that Matt routinely pulls off, but I'm still pretty happy with it, I might even have to try it again sometime.

I only spend about ten minutes a day on the site (there just isn't that much for me), so I'm glad that I saw this trade opportunity during one of those short stints, kind of makes me want to spend a little more time on there, just in case something else similar ever arises (kind of).

Thanks again for the trade, Adam! And to everybody else, go give him a follow, you certainly could do worse :)


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

15 comments:

  1. good for you, Jon! Steppin' out a bit! Twitter allowed me to stay in touch with other bloggers, meet a few new collectors too, and keep up with the hobby when I had considerably less time available. I still peruse it over morning coffee but I love the blog world best. I'm working toward being here more. I don't care for the politics and bickering of Twitter. I've probably blocked or muted a couple hundred twits by now. I long for a world where people are kind and agree to disagree. I'm not someone who needs to be right and don't understand that mindset. Thank you for allowing me to vent. Please bill me for your time.

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    1. I am very loyal to the blogs, and to the folks who write them, this is a mindset that I can't imagine will ever change -- so while Twitter does have it's place, but that place is a very distant second to the blogs.

      "I long for a world where people are kind and agree to disagree. I'm not someone who needs to be right and don't understand that mindset"... This is 100% me as well! I will never understand this whole modern trend of yelling at people just because they don't agree with you. Plus the whole hating people just because they believe in something different than you, is quite foreign to me as well, but of course I don't judge people by their beliefs/politics either, it's just not something that's all that important to me... maybe this why I don't have very many friends?

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    2. I consider myself a person with fewer close friends but those I have are my family. It's not how many you have. If I make a positive difference in their lives, that's what matter's to me. You make a difference Jon, right here on the blogs. You are a great source of empathy and encouragement. Even if you feel you don't have many friends, you are one. Perhaps, you have more than you realize. :)

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    3. You are an absolute saint, Julie! Don't let anybody ever tell you otherwise.

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    4. Oh Jon. No worries. Anyone who would say otherwise is no longer with us. ;)

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  2. Great trade! It is funny how things change. I used to trade via blog only. Now I do 99% of my trading on trading card database and a couple on Twitter here and there. I try to stay very selective and mid to low value cards when I do just to keep myself safe. I don't take scamming lightly.

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    1. I've really got to try and focus more on that TCDB, everybody but me seems to be trading on there, and I'm starting to feel a little left out.

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  3. I don't love or hate Twitter. I just don't truly understand all of its benefits. But based on the number of card bloggers on there, I'm missing out. Right now I'm just trying to keep my head above water with life. Learning a new type of social media isn't high on my priority list. That being said... I'm glad you're able to add some new cards to your collection via it.

    Btw... I second your statement that Fleer released the most basketball inserts in the 90's. They were the king of the one insert per pack philosophy back in the day. Looks like Topps has inherited their philosophy.

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    1. That's okay, I don't understand all of it's benefits either, and I probably never will. There is quite a few of the bloggers on there though, a lot of former bloggers too. And you've had a rough year, so I don't think anyone would blame you for putting off the learning of a new site.

      Topps may have adopted Fleer's philosophy, but their inserts sure suck, which is something that you could rarely say about Fleer's output.

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  4. I mostly try not to trade on Twitter, but I've had a few decent experiences. Glad this was a good one.

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    1. Yeah, I probably won't be trading too often, if only because I don't really have anything that Twitter people want, but after this positive experience I'm certainly not opposed to trying it again.

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  5. I've completed a few trades and made some purchases on Twitter, and each experience has been great. No complaints from me, especially since I was able to acquire some cards from my want list.

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    1. It seems like I see horror stories come across my timeline almost every day, but it's nice to know that everything has worked out well for you. One of these days I'll probably end up buying something off the site too, been tempted a few times, but just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

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  6. Glad to read that your first Twitter trade went well. I'm one of those who enjoy Twitter. Robert parish played for Charlotte? Shows you how little I know about basketball. Like the look of the card though. Reminds me of those Fleer Metal Universe cards from that era.

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    1. Huh, I knew a Marc who used to come around here, haven't heard from him in a while though, it's a crazy thought I know, but I wonder if you and he could possibly be one and the same? :p

      All kidding aside, you're completely right, I had never thought of it before, but the Parish is very Fleer Metal-ish.

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