Chilly Willie

Despite my recent attempts to get back into trading on the TCDB, I really don't like formal trading; especially formal trading of the online variety.

My biggest problem with formal trading online is that it's virtually (pun intended) impossible to "read" the other person during negotiations. In person, you can detect all manner of feelings from ones inflection, body language, etc. All of that is lost when dealing with a keyboard and a screen; thus making it considerably easier for things to go south at any point during the process.

The possibility of things going awry is why I've really tried to avoid formal trading with fellow bloggers in recent years. Now that there's so few of us left, I feel like we all have to try and stick together as much as possible, sort of a "us against the world" thing, so I try not to upset the apple cart when possible (amongst our kind); hence my not wanting to risk souring any relations with an unsuccessful trade attempt.

All that being said, sometimes a situation arises where a formal trade will be needed to necessitate the acquiring of a desired item. This post is about just such an occasion.

I don't recall exactly when it was, so I'll just say that it was sometime in the last few months that Mike, he of Not Another Baseball Card Blog and In My Own Words fame, offered up some items for trade to any and all interested parties, and one item in particular caught my eye...

Up to this point, I had never had the good fortune to exchange cards with Mike before, so I knew that that, coupled with the nature of the item, would probably necessitate us needing to negotiate a trade of some sort. 

I needn't have worried about trading with Mike though, for he may be the easiest person to conduct a formal trade with... wait, scratch that... he is undoubtedly the easiest person to formally trade with across the entirety of the internet. And that's a hill that I'm willing to die on! I'd say "prove me wrong", but you can't, so I won't.

And you may've noticed that Willie's got a few condition issues, which, had this been his regular old '72 Topps card, might've prevented me from trying to trade for it, but it ain't his regular old '72 Topps card...

As I was telling one of Mike's fellow Canadians just recently, I have had very little luck acquiring vintage OPC over the years. I've only ever come upon it at a show once, and am ALWAYS in the wrong place at the wrong time for desired cards online. So, given all that, and of course who's featured on the card, I didn't mind a few condition issues. Besides, he still presents really well, as there's no creases going through his face, and no paper loss on the stats, so all in all, I'm pretty happy with this card. I'm pretty happy with the trade too, as I was able to find someone who, not only wanted one of my abandoned set builds, but who will now be trying to finish what I started -- and I think that that's really neat.

It's worth mentioning too that as well as this trade turned out, the card itself almost didn't even make it to me.

That's how it arrived, minus the digital blackout, that was me. Look at that big ol' tear on the right side! It's a minor miracle that the toploader didn't fall out, or that it wasn't plucked out by some sticky-fingered postal worker. Needless to say, the USPS did good here, and deserves credit for having done so.

Thanks again for the trade, Mike! Now that we're out of the formal stage, hopefully all future exchanges can just be of the blind variety.

On an unrelated note: I noticed this morning that there's a new blog on the block, Uncle Charlie's Shoebox. So, if anyone has a spare minute or two, and is so inclined to want to do so, it might be nice to pop over and say hi.