2018 Trading Card Database Trade #11 - Abacks

It seems like the post office is doing everything that they can to screw over consumers and make a few extra bucks.  My trading partner sent this in a PWE with bubble wrap one time around the card.  He sent with one stamp and I received a "postage due" of $3.  It's getting a bit out of hand and soon trades like this will go the way of the dodo bird.  I'm not paying $3.50 to ship a few cards when I wouldn't spend that much on the card I'm receiving back. 

Anyway, the cards I received...

In hindsight, this was probably a foolish trade.  I've decided not to go forward attempting to complete either of these sets.  

I do wish I could make up my mind.  One day I make up my mind that I want to be 90% vintage.  Then a few weeks later, "a little more new stuff won't hurt."  A few weeks later I realize that I could have picked up some great vintage card with what I spent on the modern and I'm back to square one.  The struggle is most definitely real.  

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year.  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

2018 Trading Card Database Trade #1 - parsley24

This trade isn't random.  Even though it was set up through Trading Card Database, it was a trade with a co-worker.  I actually got him to sign up for TCDB and it's been good for him.  He's made a lot of trades and is making great progress on his 2017 Heritage and 1969 Topps sets.  He's been on the site since early October and as of this writing, has 46 feedback comments, all positive.

We'd already traded a couple of times and I just had one card that he needed.  I gave him that and cash, and the pic below is what I received back.

• A huge stack of 2016-17 Upper Deck Series 1.  I had both base sets completed and had probably 2/3 of the Young Guns before selling off the set.  I was trying to come up with the final amount of cash I needed to buy an engagement ring and sold it all off.  It's one of the biggest regrets I've had in my 30 years in the hobby.  I'm back to square one working on the set. 
• He had two of the Young Guns - Trevor Carrick and the checklist with Auston Matthews.  
• Also some 2016-17 UD Canvas cards.  I love these cards and plan to try and build some of the old sets.  I'll probably never complete them because of the Young Guns, but it's at least something to work on. 
• A handful of 2017-18 base and UD Canvas for my sets.  Also, he had the Andrew Shaw jersey card.  I'm not actively searching for Shaw cards anymore but when I can come into them, I snag them.  

If you're on Trading Card Database, take a look and see if there's a trade to be made with Steven.  I can vouch for him and he's one of the guys in the hobby truly for fun.  

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year (including $15 back on one Black Friday purchase last week).  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

So Close

Yesterday the Auston Matthews Canvas Young Guns that I submitted to BGS came back.  While I'm thrilled it came back a 10, I can't help feeling just a little disappointed.

It came back three 10 subgrades and the fourth is a 9.5.  Just one small, minor point away from the black label.  Ah well.  Now I just need to find a buyer.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

COMC Mail - Somewhere Over the (Gold) Rainbow

To be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of what ePack was during the 2015-16 hockey card year.  They GREATLY improved things this year, with the gold rainbow foils.

In the 2015-16 flagship product you could combine ten of the cards to form a silver foil board, physical card.  That was it, though.  For 2016-17 they added the gold rainbow level.  If you combine ten silver foils, you can create the gold rainbow foil cards.

Last season's silver foil boards can be had for just a few cents on COMC and there are hundreds of them just sitting there that may never leave that facility.  The creation of the gold parallel hasn't raised the "value" of the silvers, but it has decreased the supply.  I searched John Klingberg's silver versions from the last two seasons.  There are 490 copies of the 2015-16 version on the site with a lowest asking price of six cents.  You can get the 2016-17 version for five cents, but there are "only" 141 copies of it available.  There are 11 of the gold versions available.  If the gold wasn't an option, it would likely close to double the amount of silvers available.

My hope is that next year Upper Deck will make a third level, as they have with their Compendium set.  You can combine base to make blue, red and gold versions.  It's possible that there are players that have less than a handful of gold cards.  People are quick to get blue versions (that only require ten base cards) and flip them to COMC.  Every one of those creates ten less cards that can be combined for red and golds, unfortunately.

Anyway, on to the cards...

The scans don't show how beautiful the gold foils really are.  I decided to take a picture of one under light to get you a better idea.  It still doesn't do them justice, but it's a bit better than the scans.

2016-17 Upper Deck Gold Rainbow Foil #61 Jamie Benn

One of my common complaints about modern sports cards is how every photo is pretty much the same.  I give Upper Deck a lot of credit for using shots that aren't your run-of-the-photos more than the other companies.

2016-17 Upper Deck Gold Rainbow Foil #62 Jason Spezza

2016-17 Upper Deck Gold Rainbow Foil #63 John Klingberg

2016-17 Upper Deck Gold Rainbow Foil #311 Tyler Seguin 

2016-17 Upper Deck Gold Rainbow Foil #314 Antoine Roussel

2016-17 Upper Deck Gold Rainbow Foil #348 Andrew Shaw

2016-17 Upper Deck Gold Rainbow Foil #481 Stephen Johns

I will probably only keep the Andrew Shaw and Stephen Johns cards.  The rest I'm going to put into the box for the next time I set up at a card show.  Well, maybe I only keep two of the three Johns that I have.

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $100 in about seven months.  FREE CARDS!  If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  Happy collecting!

Guns of the Young Variety

Love ePack or hate it, it has some advantages if you're working on sets.  I was able to pick up a bunch of the ones I needed for my set as well as Blackhawks for my collection.  I could have waited.  Prices are even cheaper now (it's a great time to buy on COMC) and then there's the whole part where I'm not looking to finish off the set any longer.  OOPS!

Nonetheless, I figured I'd scan 'em and make a post out of them.

 I picked up nine copies of Tyler Motte at good prices.

I thought I'd picked up a few more of these than I had.  Right before putting this post together I picked up three more.

What I'll likely do is put most of these into the set and look to sell of the almost complete set the next time that I set up at a show.

Happy collecting!

A Work RAOK that Completes a Set

The "area" I work in for my company takes two levels of my company's building.  Due to the nature of our business, those two floors are probably 80-85% female.  I have no problem with this and actually enjoy it.  However, there's not much sports talk.  It's a drastic change from the near-decade I spent working in the Lids corporate office.

I do actually have one co-worker in my area that collects cards.  After a long weekend, I came back to work Monday to find this sitting on my keyboard.

2016-17 Upper Deck #78 Leon Draisaitl

It's not a "big" card or a Blackhawks card, but it was the last one that I needed to complete the 2016-17 Upper Deck Series 1 base set.  I still need about ten Young Guns, but I'm thrilled to have the base set completed.  He had picked up a few packs here and there and this was one that he had.  He will probably read this at some point, so thank you, Steven!

Upper Deck, Parkies and Reds, Oh My!

In effort to complete two sets (2016-17 Parkhurst and Upper Deck Series 1), I posted a thread on Sports Card Forum in attempt to make some trades.

Once we had exchanged info on what we each had and needed, it turned out that Billy needed a few more than I did and he mentioned that he had some Young Guns if we needed it to even out.  I asked if he had any of the 2016-17 Parkhurst Red parallels since I'm acquiring cards for a set.  So I took those on, along with a Tyler Motte Young Guns and we both came out a lot closer to our sets!

Now that either SCF has added the "Set Building" areas in each sport, I feel that it's much easier to work on trades for sets.  Or, if I have a lot of cards from a set that I don't want to complete, I can look to find someone that needs them on there.  Well done, SCF!