I love trade days!

Got three - count 'em, one, two, three! - packages in the mail today. One from Ryan at Trader Crack, one from Chris H. at Stale Gum, and one from Gellman at Sports Cards Uncensored.

First, lets start with the star of the show: the Tulo autogamer that I won on SCU's Exquisite Baseball Rookies box break.

Now, THIS is a cool card. When my son saw it, he walked around saying "AWESOME!" for ten minutes. He had never seen anything like this (in my collection, at least) before. Well, I agree with him. It is slick-looking, with a nice pinstripe in the 0, a nice signature, and a rookie card to boot.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next up, Chris sent me some cards from a trade. I had sent him about 50 or so cards from his extensive list of sets that he is looking to complete. I think I sent him some from the 80's all the way up to the present. Glad I can help. He said he didn't have enough from my trade list, so he sent me a great surprise in addition to the Heritage and Goudey: two shiny inserts of Omar Vizquel ("ooooooohhhhh, shiny!!!!!!!), which I will post later, and this gem:

This is also a great card, and my son wholeheartedly agrees. "Awesome!" was the response to this one as well. He likes Chipper, and so do I. The back of the card is even more interesting, going over the details of his 1999 MVP season:

If you can't read it, I'll transcribe:

He just may be baseball's most perfect player. In 1999, Jones hit for average (.319) and power (45 home runs), drew walks (126) and stole bases (25). He excelled at third base, was a clubhouse leader and fan favorite, belted game-winning homers during the pennant race and led Atlanta to the World Series. Those are the quintessential MVP credentials.

I'll bet you never thought you'd see the word " quintessential" on a baseball card before, didja?

And last, but certainly not least, Ryan sent me a large package of '07 Goudey that his put a major dent in my collection. I must have filled out eight or nine more pages. And like dayf said, it is very cool to see a page completed.

Thanks Ryan, Chris and Gellman.

What would you pay?

So, you walk into Target, and they have opened a new box of the $1.59 packs. You could care less about the Pokemon, Bella Sara, Webkinz, anime, and wrestling cards. Only a passing interest in the Football, Basketball and Hockey cards.

Bingo!

There is a whole column of 05 Leaf, 06 Upper Deck, 07 Upper Deck, 08 Upper Deck (Series 1!), 07 Upper Deck Masterpieces, 04 Fleer Platinum, 05 Fleer Platinum, 06 Fleer. 54 packs in all, about $90.

What do you do?

a) Say, "No thanks, I've already got too many cards," and walk out.

b) Pick a few of each and hope that you find the relic/auto/super-rare parallel/fantastic insert in each pack?

c) Take the whole friggin' lot?

Well?

(tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...)

Yeah, me too. "c" all the way.

I did get a few nice collectibles out of all of them, such as a Jeter Rare Starquest, one relic, and a Fleer Platinum fold-out of Piazza. Not great, but OK.

I guess that is why I should be buying Hobby Boxes of this stuff if I want to finish sets. I've been sucked into

The Swirling Vortex of Desparation in Trying to Find the Autogamers!

(cue the dark music: DUH-DUH-DUH-DUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHH!)

I've gotten away from the reason I got back into the hobby: set collecting, specifically Topps sets. I have finished the base 08 set, and I'm close to finishing the 08 Heritage. But what have I gotten myself into!??!!? I now have complete common sets of Ultra and UD in many flavors!

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!

(cue the Charlie Brown-kicking-the-football-while-Lucy-pulls-it-away clip)

So, how do I save myself? Do I altruistically give away all my Brewers to Thorzul and all my Braves to dayf? All my Phillies to Chris Harris? All my (pre-2007) Devil Rays to my son?

Do I sell it all on eBay for the low, low starting price of $9.99?

Do I roll them all into cardboard logs and use it to start fires in my fireplace this winter so I don't have to heat my house? (I guess that would depend on how far a cardboard log would go, and whether the cost of the natural gas to heat the house would be more than the equivalent thermodynamic blah-blah-blah....)

I think I'll keep things around for a while. I'm kinda having fun with it again, tearing open pack upon pack, hoping for that elusive Derek Jeter auto.

In the meantime, I'll see if I can make a few trades....