A Couple of big trades with a new trading partner

Over a month ago now, I got into something I rarely ever do, and that is a three way trade. Not that I'm not willing to trade with anybody, but the opportunity almost never presents itself. In the 15 years or so that I've been trading online, I think this is only the second time I've been able to pull off a trade involving more than two people.

It started with a message from a frequent trading partner of mine from the Trading Card Database, Mark Z. aka mzentko. He asked me if I had anything on his friend's tradelist, would I be willing to make a trade by sending his friend some cards and he (Mark) would send me some. Sure! This became the first trade I'd ever been involved in where I didn't actually know the other trader, but it worked out very well.

His friend Joel maintains an online wantlist that is set up very well- you can see it here. I liked the way it looked so much that I, with some modification, adapted it for My Own wantlist! (still a work in progress).

So I went through my duplicates box and pulled out all the Topps NBA cards I had that he needed, and packed them up and sent them away. I have been on the receiving end of surprise card mailings in the past, (My PO Box is listed publicly on the NASCAR card forum) but I rarely get to make them, and I did here.

Shortly after, Joel sent me back a thank you package, filled with lots of good stuff. About half of it was NASCAR, but, not knowing what I really collect, he sent me some baseball and some football, too. Since I don't have a lot of either of those, they were all new- not a single duplicate! Since I will accept any card, I was pretty happy with what I got- and that's not even taking the cards themselves into account!

Here is a collage of just some of the baseball cards he sent me. There was one from every set from 1957-77 and a bunch from 1978. Previously, I had one card from 1963 and one from 1978, all the rest were new to me! This was the first time I ever held examples from most of these sets. I did not scan all of the sets/cards but did two pages only.

I can post bigger scans if anyone wants to see them

 They aren't all in perfect shape but I don't care. I may not actively collect baseball but getting these vintage cards was really a thrill! It's really great how you baseball collectors can build a complete (or at least, mostly) history of your sport. My two sports have lots of empty spaces- NASCAR didn't get cards until it's 4th decade, and the NBA has more than a decade without any cards produced at all. As someone who collects mostly to document the sport, you guys have it WAY better than I do. 

The football cards all came from 1993 Topps, and with the shipment I hit #1000 in my football collection. That's pretty amazing because in my life I've purchased exactly 1 football card! The rest all came as gifts, freebies and randomly mixed into the mixed boxes of NBA I like to buy. I don't mind, I will accept any sports cards for my collection.

This was #1000

1993 Topps #108

but this one is my favorite. I think photography wise it's my favorite football card in my whole collection actually. Speaking as a photographer, this one is perfectly timed, if not perfectly cropped.

1993 Topps #8

I mean, just look at the photo. He's flying through the air, getting ready to crush the guy in blue, who appears to be totally oblivious. It's just....spectacular. How could you not like this card? If only they had not cropped out his other foot, so you could see that he's totally in the air....

Since then, Joel and I have chatted on the Database and we ended up doing another big trade. I went through his Fleer/non Topps flagship wantlist and was able to pull a lot of cards for him. I was able to fit them into one of those $5 if it fits-it ships boxes from the USPS and it was full- not any spare space at all, and I didn't even see his Upper Deck wantlist until the box was sealed and ready to go. I didn't bother to count the cards but it was well into the triple digits.

He then sent me another box, with more NASCAR and this time basketball- a large selection of 1995-96 Collector's Choice Portuguese II, a set I had one card from, that I had gotten from COMC during their sale recently. I now have 86 cards from the set!

In just two trades Joel has moved into the top 5 of people who I've gotten the most cards in trade from. Not that I keep actual statistics on that but I can only think of two or three people I've gotten more cards from off the top of my head.

Now, with everything that's been going on lately (See most of my posts in the month of July) the NASCAR cards got mixed together from which shipment was which. I could figure it out- I have it in Excel- but, meh, I'll just post them in any order.

The majority of the cards are Mark Martin and Darrell Waltrip but there are other drivers included as well.

This card really scanned well- you can even tell the gold foil IS gold foil! I've always loved Action Packed. And this paint scheme is the iconic Mark Martin scheme in my opinion.

This latest batch of cards included three Serially numbered parallels. I love serially numbered cards, always have, and am always happy to get them.

 This is my first Badge of Honor Reflector, SN0959/1350. Oddly, the basic version of this insert is die cut, while the parallel is not.

 A Platinum Red from 1997 Totally Certified. And it shows a special paint scheme! This was, in fact, the first special paint scheme of Robby Gordon's career. It is SN1600/2999

This Platinum Blue from the same set scanned really well, and is SN0098/1999.

Something interesting I just noticed when posting these- both Press Pass and Pinnacle used the exact same font and color on their "Peel off" sheet. Hmm...I wonder if there is a connection there. I will do some research.

There were several First Gear parallels from various Wheels High Gear sets. Here's one from 2001 and 2003.

1998 VIP was a 50 card set and Mark got 6 cards in the set. I didn't have any of them before, and now I have 5 of them! For some reason, despite 1998 being my favorite year in NASCAR history, I have very few cards from that season.

This is an insert from 1995 Maxx Series 2 retail. I did not have a single card from the insert- either retail or hobby- before!

This die-cut insert from 1999 Premium is a great set.

Can you tell I favor the cards that show cars? Even though he drove other schemes and for a longer amount of time, the pink and black cars of 1998-99 are the ones I think of when I think of Jeff Burton.

Since I wrote up most of the post I got a gift of 1127 NASCAR cards from a different friend and now I truly am mixed up on which cards came from where, so I am done posting scans in this post.
I will say that I just mailed out another box to Joel today, (Saturday, July 30th) and it cleaned out what I had for him that he needed. I will be getting another package from him shortly, it will probably be waiting in my PO box when it's checked again next Saturday. I have no idea what'll be in it, but I know it'll be good.

Check out his wantlist- he has lists for everything he collects but favors baseball, especially the Red Sox . He's trustworthy to trade with and let him know I sent you! His email is jefreedman1 at gmail.com. He's also on the Trading Card Database.

PS, this also counts as my Trade Recap for both May and June. I have not been able to complete any other trades during the past two months, but I've now done three with Joel.