Trading Cards

One of the best parts about collecting cards when I was a kid was trading cards with two of my friends who also collected.  We were constantly sorting through each others collections, finding cards we needed and wanted, and offering up trades.  There were offers, counter offers, and counter-counter offers.  It was a great way to spend countless hours in our boring little town.

Now that I've decided to reenter the card collecting game, I find it's the experience I miss the most.  There is a comradery that develops between card collectors who trade with each other.  By getting most of my cards on eBay and Check Out My Cards.com, I find myself alone on a card collecting island.

So imagine my excitement when I discovered that Night Owl of the blog "Night Owl's Cards" was trying to make a through-the-mail trade with a person from each of the 50 states in the Union, and Nebraska was one of the states with which he'd yet to trade.

Since I've been out of the card collecting game for so long, I don't really have many cards that anyone would want.  But I do have a giant box of old cardboard from the 1980s and 90s.  I spent an evening sorting through my piles of cards looking for Dodgers.  I then compared the Dodgers cards that I had with Night Owl's check list of cards he wants and needs (I should totally get one of those), and found five cards that Night Owl did not already have.  Score!

To make it a trade, both parties need to send cards and since I only collect Hochevar cards at this moment, I asked that Night Owl send any Hochevar cards he had my way.  Here is what he sent:

The top four cards were card I already had in my collection (but I am also working on a set of duplicate cards that I hope to one day get personally autographed).  Of the one hundred plus Hochevar cards that I have, the bottom card ended up being a base card that was missing from my collection. 

While neither of us hit the motherload with this trade, both of us filled a gap in our collections.  More than anything, I wanted to do this trade not for the cards (although I'm very glad to have a new card and am even happier to have helped Night Owl out with his personal collection), but as a way to network within the card collecting community.  I wanted to make connections with people who have the same hobby as me, and I've taken an important step in that direction.  I was also hoping to get a plug for my blog on his blog which has a nice following of trading card enthusiasts, and did I ever get a plug.  Night Owl chose his second year anniversary post to write about our trade.  I'm sure his post will get a few newbies to my blog, which is awesome. 

This trade with Night Owl has inspired me to find more people with which to trade and create a list of the cards that I want/need in my collection.  So, if there are any baseball card enthusiasts out there who would like to get rid of some Luke Hochevar baseball cards (or John Stockton basketball cards for that matter) let me know with an email to brodie.dog87@gmail.com.

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SONG:  "Settle for a Slowdown" by Dierks Bentley.  My aunt-in-law sent me an Amazon.com gift card for my birthday.  If there is anything that I enjoy more than searching for cards on eBay, it's searching for music on Amazon.  My computer runs at about half speed because it is bogged down with more music then I'll ever need.  One of the albums I bought was Dierks Bentley's Greatest Hits.  I've been eyeballing this collection of song for a long while, and, as luck would have it, Amazon had it on sale for $5.    

LETDOWN:  A day after I finally tracked down a box of 2010 Topps T-206 baseball cards on eBay, I got an email from the eBay authorities stating "to help protect you, we removed this listing so we can confirm that the seller is not putting you or other eBay members at risk."  They also told me that I needed to open a case against the seller so that I could get my money back.  I will have to wait 7 days for the case to be closed and I can get my money back.  Bummer.

LOOKING FORWARD TO:  Playing in a four-man scramble with my former coworker Brandon this Saturday.  We'll be playing at one of Nebraska's finest courses, Quarry Oaks.  Apparently the other two guys are good golfers, so hopefully we'll win our flight.