Tapping Into the Unwanted

 As mentioned previously on this blog, I've been selling off unwanted cards on eBay the past three months, with an eye towards the future. And when I say an eye on the future, I mean self-funding my hobby when I eventually stop working full-time. But that doesn't mean I've given up on trading off excess cardboard. In fact, I just tapped into a dozen-plus unwanted cards in order to add 16 Heritage cards to the Braves collection. 

TCDB user Balzer reached out to me a couple of weeks ago with a trade offer that was too good to pass up. Before accepting, I did what I so often do on a first trade: I visited his profile to see if there are any expectations etc I needed to be aware of. And while there was nothing that would give me pause before accepting the trade, I did notice the following quote at the bottom of his profile: "It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever” ~ David St. Hubbins & Nigel Tufnel. In case you're not aware of those two names, they are characters from the brilliant and hilarious 1984 mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. Anyone who posts a quote (especially that line) from the movie is alright in my book. I accepted the trade.

Before even glancing at one single card, I knew the trade had my stamp of approval. That's because Balzer used one of the Hank Aaron Forever stamps as postage. I had intended on getting a book of these stamps upon their release but forgot, so this came as a pleasant surprise. Especially when you consider it didn't have any kind of postmark on it. Oh, and sorry for the bad pun.

It seems to be getting more and more difficult to find anything post-junk wax era on TCBD. It's either Topps flagship/Update or Heritage. Not that there's anything wrong with either. Thankfully, a lot of my wants from the past 25 years come from those sets. Inserts, however, are a little more difficult to come by.

I wonder if there's a name for the phenomenon I'm about to explain: today's cards all seem to have the same type of action shots, and I got bored with them years ago. Give me the old throwback bat swings, bat on the back, or barrel shot, and I will be applauding until eternity. 

The only thing that could have made this trade package better: one of the old "here's my splitter grip" photos. Those will never go out of style, either. I'll happily settle for the set position pics. But only if it's from the stands.

All of a sudden I feel compelled to seek a barrel card of each of my all-time favorite players. Maybe a challenge of some sort; like, one barrel card of your 20 most favorite players of all-time. Would one be able to accomplish such a task? Would be interesting.

Thanks again to TCDB user Balzer for a helping me get just that much closer to finishing off each of these team sets.