2024 trade package #27: Baseball Cards Come to Life

And now we've come to my final trade package of 2024. This one arrived just after Christmas and was a fun surprise from Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life. He and I had previously made a trade via TCDb a couple years ago but this was our first "blogger" trade outside that site. Bo asked for some of the beat-up vintage I made available a few weeks ago and I came up with a pretty solid group of those for him in addition to some other stuff that I found on his wantlists.

He was nice enough to return the favor with some extremely cool stuff he must have pulled straight from my own wants as all were new to me:

The top group here represent my favorite items in the entire package. I wasn't familiar with the 1969 MLB PhotoStamps because their combination of vintage and oddball-ness made me unlikely to notice them. So I'm grateful to Bo for gifting me four of the Tigers that could be found: PC favorite Bill Freehan and fellow Detroit greats Willie Horton, Denny McLain, and Jim Northrup. I love the fact that these came out the year after that team won it all, and receiving these inspired me to add the others to my wants: Kaline, Cash, Stanley, McAuliffe, and Lolich.

The vintage action didn't stop there, though, as he included two '72 Topps base that I needed: Ted Simmons plus Darrell Evans' In Action subset appearance. That's a second-year of Simba and it puts me very close to his full Topps base run. Technically it's a second-year of Evans as well; His RC came out two years earlier instead, then he got consecutive base sports in '72.

Going back to oddball-ish stuff, the bottom row includes a Superstar back of Mr. Padre, a Topps Sticker of Willie Hernandez (shared with HOFer Steve Carlton), and a UK Mini of Jack Morris. There's enough of these one-offs that despite being common still represent holes in my collection, though not if someone like Bo can help it!

Next, he included a trio of Brandon Inge needs. Though I've long since had the '07 Topps base, I did indeed lack the Red Back seen above (I didn't scan the reverse, so trust me, bro). From that same year I was also treated to a horizontal photo of him attempting to make a crazy diving play in the stands (found in that year's Upper Deck product), and then Brandon's appearance in Topps' throwback 206 product released in 2010.

The last of the baseball content was one of a number of 2001 UD Vintage team checklists I've been chasing for a while because they include one or more guys I collect. In this case, Cal's the lone Oriole in my PC, but I do remember this team well, one that included ex-Cleveland star Albert Belle, Jeff Conine, Brady Anderson, and more.

Did Bo's generosity end there? Most definitely not! Also tucked into this envelope were three former Wolverines I needed from 1975 Topps football: longtime NFL O-linemen Dan Dierdorf and Reggie McKenzie, plus 10-year NFL CB John Rowser, who suited up for Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and the pictured Broncos. I now have 12 cards from this set, partially thanks to Bo, and just need #s 203 (an All-Pro card that includes HOF G Tom Mack) and 395, which is Giants RB Ron Johnson.

Bo, thanks for sending all of these needed cards my way! I hope we can increase the frequency of our trading in the new year and fortunately that shouldn't be too difficult with you making your wants available on my favorite trading site!

And once again thank you to everyone who contributed to TMV as a reader, commenter, and trade partner. I appreciate you all and will keep going in 2025--as long as none of you try to hold me to a three-post-per-day pace. I can't promise I'll put up six posts in a single month! But please do keep in mind that I still have a good amount of 2024 content to cover in the form of pickups from Facebook, TCDb, eBay, and shows, plus at least one other surprise source.

I'm not sure how long it'll take to catch up on those, so for now, I'll wish a happy new year to everyone who took the time to read this. May your 2025 be filled with good news, good friends, good food, good health, and everything you could want!

TCDB trade roundup: cards from C2Cigars and BKim

I haven't done much trading on TCDB at this point, having made just one deal with someone other than Paul, but in the last few weeks I got cards from a pair of members there anyway, which was a great development for me.

First up is Chuck, a.k.a. C2Cigars.  If you're not a TCDBer but the name sounds familiar, that's because he's the member Paul and I met at Paul's local show late last year.  An older school collector that looks for vintage Mets, Raiders, and Sabres, plus Syracuse alumni, he followed up the vintage Michigan Football item he brought to that show with a bigger bunch of the same, almost all of which I needed:

Though none of these guys are new to my collection, it's generally been limited to their RCs, so this is certainly a bunch I can appreciate.  WR Doughty (card #2) and OG Mack (4) are from 1975 Topps on a design that's miles away from the baseball version.  RB Lytle (a dupe), OG McKenzie (3), and TE Seymour (3) feature on the '78 design that I think has a bit more going for it.  TE Mandich's (4) second-year '76 Topps photo is very similar to the one seen on his RC.  McRae's '69 Topps probably looks familiar since Jon sent it to me first and I showed it off in my last post.  And LB Nunley (3) and CB Rowser (2) both make appearances in '73 Topps, which was their second-year set.

This next group begins with a card I don't really consider vintage, an '84 Topps USFL of WR Jim Smith (3), but that doesn't make me like it any less, especially since it's a cool piece of history.  Then we return to 1973 for OT Steve Smith's RC plus S Rick Volk (5).  I somehow missed Smith on my RC checklist so I'm glad Chuck alerted me to that, especially since he appears to have only one other card to his name.  By the way, the colors used for the '73 set confuse me, so maybe someone can tell me if there's a rhyme or reason to what was used or if they're just random.  Anyway, I was also treated to a second card of Volk, in this case from the '75 set you saw above.  That gives me Rick's cards from '71, '73, '75, and '76, which is pretty good!

This last scan shows the other two cards from Chuck's package.  On the left is a '91 Pro Set of former QB and current HC Jim Harbaugh, but it's not just any card.  Instead it's from the Spanish version of the set, as indicated by some of the text you can see up front.  That's a fun addition to his PC (142 cards).  He's joined by recent DB Channing Stribling from Topps' coverage of the defunct AAF, the final dupe in the package.

Chuck's a great guy to deal with, as is pretty obvious considering the above, so don't hesitate to trade with him if you're on the site!

The other envelope that arrived was what the site calls a PIF, or "pay it forward."  It's kind of the site's equivalent blog trading's blind trades with the idea that you pick someone and send them something they'd probably like.  Member Robert (BKim), who seems like a good dude from what I've seen on the site, was nice enough to surprise me with this:

As I'm now actively collecting HOFer Ted Simmons--it took me a while to confirm he's a Michigan alum, though he didn't actually play baseball for the school, though that doesn't disqualify him for my collection--I'd updated my wantlist for the catching great, and Robert picked one of those needs and sent it my way.  This is Ted's card from Fleer's 1981 debut, another appearance where he looks high but at least doesn't have long hair like a hippie.  I'm glad to add it as the first Simmons in my collection that isn't included in one of my complete sets, giving me 14 overall.

I made sure to thank BKim in the forum's PIF thread and I already know to whom I'll be paying it forward very soon.  Thanks to both him and Chuck for making TCDB a cooler place to be!

With lots of cards in-hand still to be covered and the likelihood of working from home starting next week you may actually see more of me!  Stay safe and healthy, everyone.