Throwing in the towel - World Cup of Trading

I mean that literally!

Wes of Jaybarkerfan / Willinghammer Rising is a legendary trader around the Blogosphere, and this is my second trading event participation with him. It turned out to be pretty incredible- better than I initially thought when I was claiming stuff from him!

What he did in the World Cup of Trading was post a bunch of really great stuff, had you pick out 3 items, and then send him something you think he would enjoy. I sent him three wrestling autographs and 4 wrestling figures, and when I got the package back from him on Saturday, I really think I didn't send enough!

There were two main things I claimed from him, and this towel card of Doug McDermott was the first. It's my first towel relic, and it's not too often I can add an entirely new kind of relic to my collection. (I ended up getting two in two days, but you'll have to wait for a future post to see the other).

The other main card was this triple relic:

From 2016 National Treasures, this is a set that went for about $400 a box- well more than I could afford these days. This set was, in fact, the last one I needed to have every NASCAR set ever in my collection, although since I claimed it 2017 Torque and Select have come out and put me behind again. The fact that one of the three on here is Darrell Wallace Jr. is even better. He's one of my favorites. I think this set was his first to have relics in, definitely one of the sets from 2016. This is actually my first relic from any of these three. All the wording, the border and the stripes on top and bottom are all holofoil, by the way. At 15 this is one of the lower numbered cards in my NASCAR collection as well. A quick check of my records show only 21 cards with a lower print run- and I've got more than 650 numbered NASCAR cards!

I also claimed a Alex Ovechkin relic, from 2015-16 Ultimate Collection (another new set for me)

(Funny aside - my tablet tried to autocorrect his name to Oven Chin!)

and a Refractor from 1998-99 Bowman's Best of Bison Dele.

 What I didn't realize at the time...was that I wasn't just claiming those cards. I was claiming entire stacks of cards, including something Wes described as a "relic cube"....he wasn't kidding!

Holy mackerel! That's a darn fine collection there in and of itself! But wait, there's more.

A patch! I have never even held a patch card from a sport I don't actively collect before Saturday. And a pretty nice one too, three colors. I think it may be from the B in his last name.

And more...this time a picture

Mirror foils and Finest style cards need some extra effort to scan, and scan best when you have a page of all 9 like-style cards. I don't have enough at hand to do a page of them right now, and I don't want to hold up the post while I go and dig some out.

To be honest, I think I claimed some of those NBA relics and possibly the Lidstrom as well, but I don't remember for sure so I am lumping them all in here.

For those keeping count at home, that is, for my collection, baseball relics #1-6 and football #2-11, and Golf relic #1! I'm not sure how many it is for NBA and NASCAR yet, as my records are several months out of date right now, and I'm still a couple of months away from updating them. (depends on how fast I scan stuff) My first CFL card of any sort!

I've always enjoyed seeing the relic cards from other sports, either being posted to blogs, forums or even for sale online. Now I have some of my own!

But STILL that wasn't all! Aside from the Bison Dele refractor, there were these:

An entire page of 2016 Panini Black Friday cards, all of which were new to me...

And finally, a John Stockton base card from 2012-13 Panini Brilliance, which was a duplicate, and a Buddy Hield base card and Russell Westbrook All-Star insert from 2016-17 Donruss Optic which I forgot to photograph. Duh, lol.

All in all, a pretty incredible package from Wes! I think I got a MUCH better end of the bargain, and I'm thrilled to add these cards to my collection! Thank you Wes!