Trade Post.... One deal and three sets are completed

I primarily consider  myself a set collector. The only problem with that - I'm horrible at actually finishing off sets. My attention is usually diverted by something else roughly 85% of the way through any given set. One of my goals this year is to clean some sets up and finish them off, especially any set that I'm at least 90% of the way through.

With that in mind I made an offer on TCDB to user mfeik for a 2003 Topps Ichiro Award Winner card which was the last one I needed to complete that wonderfully blue-bordered set. While building the trade I noticed he also had the one last 1990 Donruss card (it's always been one more card with that damn set).  I had some random Tigers cards he needed so we worked out a deal.

Yesterday they showed up in the mail.

I appreciate any Ichiro card that I can add to my collection. He may not have been the best baseball player I've ever watched live, but he is definitely the most graceful. Everything he did had a casual elegant smoothness to it. He never seemed hurried or our of sorts. God damn, he was fun to watch.

A card I didn't even know I didn't have until I started paging up The Red Menace. That was not a great collecting day. There are over 2500 1990 Donruss cards under my roof right now and not one of them was of the first (only?) man to strike out 5,000 major league hitters. It's quite satisfying to finally put that set to rest.

Wait...the title said three sets were completed? Which one was the third?

Well, mfeik was gracious enough to throw in a few extras. Along with three 2006 Topps cards I needed he knocked off the last three 1988 Topps cards I needed. Yup, that one only took 32 years to finish/ Along with Julio Franco (#683) and Jim Acker (#678) came this card:

The Bash Brothers in their prime bashing years. Twelve-year-old Justin would have been stoked to pull this card out off a pack. 

Thank you mfeik for helping out. According to TCDB I have 17 more sets that are over 90% complete.  Hopefully I can focus on them for a bit and knock that list down a bit more.

Trade Post...and a return to a more active site?

Well now. It seems it's been a month of Sundays* since I last posted. Time just kind of gets away from folks from time to time I guess. The good news is, as a member of the hospitality trade, I'm gearing up for a bunch of free time. That's bad for my bank account, but good for those of you who enjoy rambling trade posts and other random things.

We'll get back into the swing of things with a nice basic trade post. Things have been going well in that department as I'm shuffling cards around on a consistent basis. I usually have two or three trades in the works at a time which makes checking the mail a fun event. It's also helping with that goal of getting 2,020 cards out of the door.

Let's check in with the card-o-meter:

-443

That's 443 more cards out than in so far in 2,020. It seems like a good number, right? Unfortunately at the beginning of the month it was at -870. Then Heritage was released (had to get a box of that, right?). And along with that box, Dave and Adam's had a really good deal on 2002 Upper Deck Vintage - the original 1971 throwback set. So had to buy a box of that.

It's a process. 

On to the trade!

A few weeks ago I sent a blind trade request to user 3bCollection at the Trading Card Database. He saw some additional Braves inserts that weren't on my trade list. Being that I had no need for them, we reswizzeled things a bit and came to an agreement. The inserts and a pile of 2001 Topps dupes went to Georgia and in return came these cards:

1982 Orioles Team Leaders

Yup, another Eddie Murray card for the personal collection. That makes for 284 different Murray cards or 6.8% of the listed cards on TCDB. 10% or bust!

The best part of the card was the back. I love it when checklist cards were actually used for checking off cards in the collection. I'm also in the middle of adding my regular 1982 collection to the database and noticed all the checklist cards I had marked up back when I was a little kid.  Ahhhh memories.

1985 Baltimore Orioles Topps

The 1985 design has really grown on me lately. I'm not sure I'm going to start building it, but I'll at least finish off the Orioles that I need. Lowenstein's combination of sunglasses and mustache is peak level 1980's baseball while Cruz magnificent quaff of hair should never have had to have been contained by a hat or helmet.  

 

2019 Bowman Prospect Hall and Mountcastle

We don't know when baseball will start in 2020, but when it does, it'll be that much closer to the next generation of Orioles taking the field. Mountcastle and Hall are hopefully a big part of that. 

 

2019 Topps

I'm never going to finish this set. TCDB tells me I'm 99.4% complete. I don't believe it. Every time I get a card, the set size will increase by one card. I know that's what is happening.

Thanks 3bCollection!