My first TCDB trade?

According to those in the know, when it comes to trading cards, the Trading Card Database is the be-all-end-all of, well, all things trading cards. I've already documented my attempt(s), and subsequent failure(s), to try and use the site in any sort of meaningful way, so I won't be going into that again here today. I'll figure out how to properly use it someday, it just won't likely be anytime soon. In the meantime though, I am still a member of the site, and seeing as how it's been very good to the blogs, I'd always be available to assist it if I were ever to be called upon to help (I can't imagine a scenario where the site would ever need me in any capacity, but I'm just saying that if they did...).

Obviously there are tons of bloggers who use the site, many of whom I've had contact with over the years, but for someone who's never used the site to do any sort of trading, I've had a surprising number of interactions with it's non-blogging members as well, and even received some cards from one them earlier this year (which was a first).

Most of my interactions with the non-blogging members have been Secret Santa (is that even going to be doable this year?) related, or Free Stuff Friday related, but I've also received a few emails about things that were seen on the blog, and once even received an offer to buy something that was seen on the blog -- which was declined, but I certainly didn't mind being asked. One of those people in the first group would be, Kari (user ID: karsal), who joined us for last year's Secret Santa, and just so happened to claim a few cards from my first FSF. I always say that I'm not looking for anything in return when it comes to the FSF stuff, but am not about to turn up my nose to things being sent back my way, which was exactly what happened with Kari; I wasn't looking for anything in return from him, but wasn't going to not open up, and gleefully accept, the PWE that showed up in my mailbox.

Having never received anything from Kari before, I had no idea what to expect from this envelope, but ended up being very pleased with it's contents.

The bulk of the envelope consisted of inserts from the 1998-99 Topps Chrome Season's Best set. If memory serves, Topps introduced Season's Best with their 1996-97 flagship, and Chrome, sets, which without looking it up, I know ran at least through to the 1999-00 sets. The appeal of SB, at least in this humble bloggers opinion, was that it was usually at least 20 cards deep, and was made up of multiple different designs, so it was like getting multiple different sets in one.

The SB inserts are considered to be low-end these days, which is unfortunate, because they still look really good, regular and chromed, even today -- well, except for some of the 1997-98 Chrome's, as though are prone to greening.

Depending on which day of the week you were to ask me, I'd flip-flop between which year was my favorite for the Season's Best, some days it would be 1998-99 edition, and others it would be the original 1996-97 release, which are like night-and-day when compared to these.

It goes without saying, but as with all things shiny, my scans do not do these cards any justice, especially on the Newcomers design.

Kari also snuck in another insert from the 1998-99 Chrome set as well...

I don't think that I'm covering any new ground when I say this, but 1998-99 was a good year for basketball inserts/parallels. Some my say that there were too many that year, but I'm not one of them, I never get tired of seeing them, and can really never have too many of them. Surprisingly, most of these were new to me, although I did have 1 Duncan and 3 Robinson's already, but I don't mind, duplicates of these are more than welcome, and with 4 Robinson's now, I can't help but wonder if I should try to go for an entire pages worth?

Despite today's title, this obviously wasn't a trade per se, more of an exchange, and it wasn't done through the TCDB, but it was with a non-blogging member of the site, so I guess it was more like my first... TCDB related exchange?

Thank you again, Kari, the selection here was top notch, and the cards were very much appreciated. Hopefully one of these days I'll have more cards that I can send back across the border, as I think that these were considerably better than what you claimed from that first FSF way back when.


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COMC Shuffle #29

Another week, another ten seven randomly selected cards from last year's COMC hoard!


1971 Milk Duds

I was surprised to see some reasonably priced Milk Duds boxes at last weekends card show, first time I had ever seen any at a show. I saw them almost right after I got there, and they were still there four later when I left. I observed many (at least to me) interesting things at this show, which I'll cover in future recap posts, but given the condition and price, I don't know how those boxes didn't sell while I was there -- I believe they were below eBay prices, and even the many flippers that were in attendance didn't touch them. Makes me wonder if these boxes are even more of a niche item than I previously thought?


1999-00 Upper Deck HoloGrFX AuSOME #37AU

I liked Tony Battie, but that is some weak-ass defense!


1960 Topps #259

I don't have a lot of want to send out TTM requests anymore, but it might be nice to add a couple of autographs to my "Telstar Four" collection, and from everything I've read, George is quite generous with his signature (this card would look great signed). It's certainly something to think about.


2013 Panini Golden Age Playing Cards #2D

New additions to my Golden Age insert sets have really slowed down this year, which is okay, because I'm not entirely sure that I'll be trying to finish those anymore. I still like most of them quite a lot, but once I lost the want to build sets... I really lost it!


1997-98 NBA Hoops Frequent Flyer #6

I wouldn't say that this one of the best 90's insert sets, but I still like it quite a bit... maybe in my top 25?


1972-73 Topps #175

This was for the total rebounds on the season, not rebounds per game. If it had been rpg, Wes would've been #2, as he averaged 17.6 to Kareem's 16.6, but Kareem played five more games than Wes, and therefor was able to best him by just 10 total rebounds.


2014-15 Panini Prizm Blue and Green Mosaic Prizms #173

Hey, it's Kareem from the same era as the previous card, but with more shine!

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the reason that there's only seven cards in today's post, is because that's all that was left in the Shuffle folder -- meaning that the post ended earlier than usual, and that the series has come to an end as well. It was a fun series, and I still like the concept for it, but I think it's run it's course. It was a good way to show off my COMC cards, but creatively, it's been a lot more limiting than I had anticipated, so with that in mind, I'll be coming up with a new way to show this this year's cards... good thing I've got about two months until their arrival (I'm gonna need it)!


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Slam dump!

The miniscule amount of creativity that I possess seems to still be on vacation, so this is probably as good a time as any to dump another batch of scanned stuff from February's card show.

Everything this time will be of the basketball variety, which is basically just more cards that didn't fit into this post, or this post.

Being a card show post, there is of course going to be some shiny! Focus Pocus is one of those sets that I didn't ever see during my original card collecting run, but have grown quite fond of them since coming back.

What the Buck?

It's no secret that a lot of basketball inserts from the 90's have gone up in price over the last few years, however a few have also gone down, 1994-95's The Center Stage being one of them. It's a good thing that I don't care about such things though, I was still very much happy to find this new to me kissy faced Pippen.

Off the top of my head, I could probably only rattle off the names of around a dozen horizontal insert sets, two out of the three here would be amongst those listed. I know that there are a few more than that, but I just don't see them enough to remember them by name. I don't usually go for a lot of modern inserts, but I can make an exception for Dr. J, who had to of course go and scan poorly, so...

... here's a slightly better look at him.

 A couple of base cards from sets that I don't come across very often.

I love getting inserts of guys like Robert Horry and Jim Jackson, I just wish they would've been included in more sets. And Jim is from one of those mythical Hot Packs, which were made up of an entire insert set. It would've been so cool to open one of those way back when, the only person that I know of who did hit one of those packs, on the baseball side, is Oscar.

Game Breakers ('96-97 or '97-98) are not something that I would expect to find for fifteen cents, although I don't know how much actual demand there is for this particular pairing, as it's not like there's a ton of Jerry Stackhouse and Clarence Weatherspoon collector's out there.

Hobby Masters was, and still is, one of my favorite sets of all-time, easily in the top three. I am still just as enamored with them as I was when they first came out, maybe even more so -- especially when they're found in a dime box, or in this case, a 6/$1 box.

In a (or my) perfect world all three of these guys would have played out their careers with their respective original teams.

Look Wahad my scanner did to Tariq's Zebut card!

Another trio that should've stayed where they started!

This photo was supposed to go in one of the previous posts, but I stuck it in the wrong folder, and forgot all about it. Oh, and here's a pro tip, if you ever come across a Frequent Flyer in a dime box, buy it! You'll thank me later :)

It's only taken four months, but I'm very happy to say that this was the last of the stuff from February's card show!!! This too could be the last card show post in general for a little while longer. I haven't felt like going to Nashville, and I really haven't felt like getting up at 3am on a Saturday, hence the no shows for four months and counting. Plus there's whole lack of money thing, that doesn't help either. I'm sort of thinking now that the next one that I go to will be September's super mega show, and then that might be it for the rest of the year... such a strange year!


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