Trade Bait, Updates and a Trade With The Hamiltonian!!!

Today was another cool and crazy mail day at the Troll box. 4 packages total, 2 from Canada and 2 contained my first two (different) Brian Roberts relics cards. Thanks to Roll Out the Barrel, Beardy, Captain Canuck and The Hamiltonian! Of course I am still way behind on my posting, but I did get a bunch of packages out yesterday, so I at least I am caught up on my trading! Trade bait has come and gone and with the dust settled very little remains. The Curtis Granderson and Magglio Ordonez cards are still awaiting a Tigers fan to claim them. The rarest card of the bunch, serial number 1 of 10, autographed Rickie Weeks card is still here. Current Rockies closer, Huston Street and his patch card, numbered 33/50 is also still here. A new hit, an Upper Deck Masterpieces Captured on Canvas card of Red Sox starter Josh Beckett is here. I really like the look of this card and I would prefer to trade this one for a Crawford or Kazmir from the same set. The Joakim Soria dual swatch, number 60/75 is still unbelievable unclaimed. Every time I do a trade bait post I include this card, then people write to me about it, but no one offers anything in return, then if I offer to just send it, they won’t send me their address. What’s up Soria fans? That is it, everything else is GONE! I have shipped out over 30 relics in two weeks and I have already got some beautiful Rays cards in return. My want lists are getting smaller for the Heritage sets and SotCS and reader GreggG have knocked 200 cards off of my 1978 Topps list between the two of them. That list (and all of them for that matter) are updated. Every set is above 90% complete and I would really love to finish one of these! For 1978, I am still missing the Murray, Nolan Ryan and Paul Molitor, so I may never finish the set, but if I can complete it minus those 3, I would be a happy Troll! If you want any of the cards that I listed above, please check out my want lists and drop me a line at bacontowne at yahoo dot comm. I have one hour to leave for work and I feel rushed already. The package from the Hamiltonian had the elusive Carlos Zambrano sketch card I have been hunting for the last two months in it. That means the Allen and Ginter, Baseball Highlights, Kong sketch cards set is complete. The very first blaster I opened I got the David Price card and I was hooked! I made a few trades, including one with Mike of JDs Wild Cardz, he sent me 17 of these bad boys! I though the set would be a breeze to finish with that big head start, but a few blasters and boxes later and I had 3 partial sets, and all of three of them were missing cards 2, 3 and 4. Those eluded me for a while. I have had good luck trading away my dupes and I finally found the last remaining card. I had promised to not post any of these until it was done and now it is, so my next post will be the complete sketch set. I’ve heard mixed reviews on this one. I like them. I don’t love their choice of highlights, but the cards are beautiful. I was disappointed that some of them already appeared on UD Masterpieces, but since I didn’t rip much of that (up till last week!) they were brand new to me. Tricia didn’t send just one card either, she hooked it up. I will show just a few cards before getting into the set. Aside from Mike-I think I got a card or two along the way from Beardy, Brian/Play at the Plate and Nachos Grande, so thank you guys! For a while, Nachos, Beardy and me were all looking for the same cards to finish our sets. I hate Topps collation. Anyway, here are just a few of the highlights of the Hamiltonian trade. This card is easily the coolest part of the O-Pee-Chee set. It is the Face of the Franchise, card # FF22 of Evan Longoria. Sweet. I pulled the Lincecum on my box and sent it to JD Wild and he is a total OPC hater, but he liked that card. I have been looking for this Longo for as long as I knew that he was in it. Thanks Hamiltonian!!! My OPC set is now missing just the regular Longo card, JP Howell and Gabe Gross and I am done!!! She also included a bunch of Ginter minis that I needed. I still don’t have a list yet for the regular set. I plan on doing what several other bloggers have done and fill the set (1-350) with cards from various years. The wrinkle that I have added is my set will be baseball players only…. Anyone with a stack of old minis that needs a new home hit me up!
I am only going to show a few of the minis because I want to make sure I have time to post the highlights set. Here are two Negro League minis I needed, Frank Evans and Art “Superman” Pennington, she also heeded my call and sent some full sized Negro League cards, too. I love the Creatures of Myth and Terror set even though I had no luck pulling these. I now have two cards, the Unicorn and the Dragon, which she sent me. Thanks to Tricia and Duane from Democratic Roadkill, my Hoaxes set is nearly complete. If any one has Hoaxes card #5, PLEASE, please think of your friend the Troll! Okay, back to the trade…she sent a few including this one of Victor Lustig, the man who sold the Eiffel Tower. I love Ginter! A history lesson in every pack! I am going to end this post now, but a huge and hearty thank you to Tricia from the Hamiltonian blog for this trade!!! I am so glad to be done with this set and the extras you sent are awesome!!! Thank you, thank you so very much! I look forward to trading again with you soon! A few endnotes... Minesota Twins, you guys are gonna need a lot more than a few card bloggers rooting for you to get past the New York Yankees, good luck! This is a pic from the Sunshine Skate State Championship in February 2009 that I just got. Seven very geeky derby announcers from all over the country, all in the same place at the same time... Captain Canuck, a package is heading your way, be on the lookout for it in the next month or so. The Chipper sketch I promised in there along with some very cool stuff that you very well may enjoy...Go Rays!! Troll out.