Friday, January 22, 2021

Wheelin' and dealin'

I can never remember the name of the site, but back when I first started reading the blogs, I often saw people mention a site that they used to track their collections. Then at some point, something happened to the site (unless I'm getting my wires crossed, I believe that Beckett had a hand in their demise), and people were sad. The sadness didn't seem to last though, as a new site (new for users, not new to existence) began to be mentioned shortly afterwards, this being the Trading Card Database.

References on the blogs to the TCDB were few and far between at first, but have grown steadily in recent years, so much so that it's now virtually impossible to go a single week without seeing mention of it. 

I didn't have much use for, or interest in, the TCDB when people first started extolling it's virtues, for I was still a set collector then, and had no trouble keeping track of my haves/needs via pen and paper. Things change however, and I switched from set collecting, to player collecting. All of a sudden pen and paper became useless as tools for making checklists, or maybe not useless, but were considerably more difficult to use, especially when a player hundreds of cards to track. I knew that I now needed something new for checklist making, and whether I liked it or not, there was really only one option, the TCDB.

My first couple of foray's onto the site didn't go well, but only because I couldn't figure out how to do anything (this is what happens when you're part luddite on your father's side). Towards of the end of last year I did finally start to figure things out though, and have been using it off and on for about two months now. The checklist part of the site seems to work well enough, but like many others, I find myself being drawn to the possibility of trading more than the checklists. Despite never being a huge fan of formal trading, I'm starting to get the hang of it, and have completed a few in recent weeks. 

I'm not sure yet if I'll be recapping every single future trade on here or not, but did want to show off this first batch, if only for the sake of posterity. 

Before I get to the trades, I wanted to first acknowledge a RAK from Randy, aka RefsInTheBack, who I have exchanged cards with via Twitter (you can find him on there by adding an @ to his handle) before, and am quite familiar with his collection. He offered up a couple of cards right after I started adding a want list to the site, and wasn't looking for anything in return. That's a hard deal to pass up!

I've probably owned a dozen+ copies of this 1991-92 Fleer Uncle Cliffy over the years, but with my propensity for giving cards away, I didn't hang on to any, and I found myself needing one for the first time in almost 30 years. 

This 1993-94 Franz  may look a bit gunky, but it's still in it's original wrapper, so that bread residue is thankfully on the outside. At one time I had almost the complete Franz Blazers run, but it, along with most of the rest of my collection, was donated to a charity auction in the early 2000's. Since I didn't think that I was ever coming back to card collecting, the donation seemed like a good thing at the time, and I guess it still was, but in retrospect I do kind of wish that I had held a few more things out, my Franz cards being one of them.

Thanks again to Randy for the RAK, it was a really nice gesture.

Next up is my first official trade on the site, this coming courtesy of budler, who I already knew from his participation in the Secret Santa two years ago. This was a 1-3 deal, which included a pair of Classic bruisers (my first cards ever from this set too btw), and...

... the destroyer of worlds himself, this time on a playing card! They may not be anything fancy these days, but I really dig these three cards, many thanks to Jim for making it happen.

A 3-13 trade with ravensray52 brought this next group. If you've been following along with the blog for any length of time, you had to know that there would be some Reggie's in this post somewhere.

It'll never not be weird to see Ronnie as a Jet.

I've probably owned more than a few copies of the Pro Set and Score cards here, but I wasn't collecting Dennis at the time, and big surprise, got a rid of them all.

Having never seen a 1996 Gilt Edge before, I never knew that their dimensions were slightly smaller than your average sized card. It would be curious to know the reasoning behind that move on Topps part?

Even with his shoulder problems, Steve was still dropping them until the very end. Love this sunset card, the refractor of which I currently have sitting in my COMC account.

This was a good trade too, as I was able to add cards of the my four main footballers. Thanks, John!

A 12-2 deal with AUTOGRAPHS2000 netted bunch of Cliff's, unfortunately four of them came unstowed at some point during their journey, which must've triggered some postal workers Spidey-sense, because that just had to be the corner of the envelope that got mushed. All four were base cards so it's not like it's the end of the world or nothing, but it still was a little disappointing.

This pair of Bruise Brothers completed the envelope. Now that I know what his entire checklist looks like, I think it'll be possible to complete Dennis Smith's entire run, this is due in large part to Panini not getting their hooks in him yet. Unfortunately the same can't be said about Steve Atwater, now that he's a HOFer, Panini is cranking out cards of him like there's no tomorrow. In fact if nothing changes by the end of this year, Panini is on track to have produced more cards of him in the last four years than he had during ten years of playing. Because of this, I'm really only focusing on cards from his playing days.

I can't remember the name behind the handle on this trade (and TCDB isn't showing the address details anymore), so I'll just have to say thank you to AUTOGRAPHS2000.

It's not talked about much on the blogs, but if you look around, you'll find some real horror stories involving trades on the TCDB. Having read a number of these cautionary tales, I've been extra cautious with who I'll trade with. 49ants is a user name that I seen many times on the blogs, so when he proposed a trade, I had absolutely no concern about making the exchange; what's good enough for my fellow bloggers, is certainly good enough for me!

I had been planning on adding a most wanted list for each of the sports to the blog, and even started to fill out those lists, but eventually thought better of it and scrapped the idea. I mention this only because Dennis Smith's rookie had been #2 on the football list, as it turns out a most wanted list wasn't even necessary to acquire this particular card.

As far as scanning cards goes, Topps' 1994-95 Embossed Golden Idols suffer the same fate as their 1965 Embossed set, no matter how nice the card is, the scans always come out looking like someone had been using the card to sand something. For the record though, despite it's poor showing, this card arrived minty fresh.

1996-97 Stadium Club Matrix is one of my all time favorite parallel sets, it's just too bad that the 3D-ish effect doesn't show up in the scans, and has proven quite difficult to photograph as well.

I couldn't resist! This was #100 and something. I really need to put a counter on the side of the blog, that way I wouldn't have to keep re-counting this collection every single time I add new card to it.

Thanks to 49ants for the great group of cards, I couldn't have asked for a better quartet.

So there you have it, my first three trades (with a RAK tossed in for good measure), dare I pull an Ed Koch, and ask how'm I doin'? That's rhetorical by the way, as I already know how I did with these :)


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

18 comments:

  1. The site was Zistle. I still miss it for trading, even if the TCDB is a little more complete. I like your Atwater pick-ups.

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    1. Thank you for supplying the name, though I'll probably forget it again before I even get done typing this reply.

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  2. I chatted with Lott's limo driver back in the day.

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    1. Sounds like the start of an interesting story?

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  3. That Stars 'n Stripes Roby is a great looking card. Heard and read lots of great things about TCDB... but I feel like by the time I make my way over there... there will be an even hotter trend.

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    1. There's always going to be new trends, but I don't know if they'll ever be another site for collector's like that one. Some may pop up for the flipper/investor crowd, but that definitely wouldn't be the same.

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  4. I can't get most to even reply to me on TCDB and the only way they trade there is uploading your trade bait. I domt have the years it would take for me to do that. Hence no luck in trading there.

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    1. I'm adding stuff very slowly, and would imagine that you could spend 30 minutes a day or less uploading things if you wanted to, less Twitter, more TCDB! If you start with things that people might actually want, which is what I'm trying to do too, I'm sure that you'd get some hits.

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  5. I'm not going to lie, I like both 1990 and 1991 Fleer Basketball! Haven't traded on TCDB yet, but I know several people that do. Glad you found it worthwhile.

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    1. I loved both of those sets as a child, and still do now :)

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  6. You and I have different uses for the Database, but I'm so glad you finally joined it. I don't trade too much on there but for the most part I haven't seen too many bad seeds on there. A few but I figure any site have members who burn you. one idea you could do in terms of keeping track of cards you got traded to you is starting a second collection for just those cards, or even starting a user list. The user list you could organize in order of how the cards came, so that would be a smarter move.
    Overall you got some really nice cards, and maybe one day I might try to work out a trade with you. I'll have to see what you need.

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    1. A second collection to track? That sounds like a lot of work! As far as the bad traders go, I've come across a few names with absolutely terrible feedback, and can't help but wonder a) Why anyone would risk trading with them? And b) Why they're even allowed to still trade on the site?

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  7. Nice cards, though I kept on wondering when they're would be any baseball cards :)

    I've never traded on the TCDB, after 2 years, so I'm glad to see that you didn't wait as long.

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    1. The answer to that is pretty simple actually, I don't have any want lists up for baseball yet. I find making want lists to be terribly boring, so it's taking me a while to get to them. Right now, I've got 5-6 player want lists up, and don't know how soon I'm going to get around to doing more. For what's worth though, I am currently trying to work out a deal for a couple of vintage baseball cards, and if does end up working out, I will most definitely be showing those off here on the blog.

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  8. Love the Cliff Robinson and Steve Atwater cards. I really need to get on TCDB. I have an account, just haven't done anything with it. I think it's on my to-do list, it just never escapes the bottom of the list.

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    1. With your schedule, it's quite understandable. If you were ever to start using it, I'd imagine that you'd have to wait until the summer break, but then you'd probably have a million other things that you'd want to catch up on.

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  9. Embossed Cliffy - all I see is someone going for his booty. He's pushing out like "back off man." Never cared for Embossed baseball. Hope it's not destined for a return engagement.

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    1. I've heard more than a few collectors espouse their dislike for the '95 Topps Embossed sets in recent years, which has been an eye-opener, as I had been under the impression that they had gone over well with folks, but I guess not.

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