I've been extremely active on the cardboard battlelines this month. By my count, I've made two COMC purchases, three eBay purchases, and have made multiple trades over a variety of platforms (three on Zistle, two on TheBench, and four via this blog). That number of transactions may not be a lot for some people, but I feel like I set some kind of record for myself. I felt like I was getting a new package everyday!
Kerry, from Cards on Cards was one of the first to shoot me an envelope near the beginning of September. While the trade itself wasn't massive, it was inspiring.
Kerry and I have traded a few times now, and I think a lot of the reason why is because our collection interests are fairly similar. Both of us seem to chase the Allen & Ginter set each year which helps us both come up with trade bait. In addition, Kerry has always chased the Topps Heritage set, and this year, I finally decided to do the same. Kerry kindly sent me his duplicate short prints which are super annoying to find.
The actual inspiration for the trade came when I commented on his blog asking for this card. In general, I would call myself a fan of country music. I'm pretty much a fan of any music in which the singer is good and I can understand the words. Tim McGraw was actually one of my first concerts, so he brings back enough memories that I was willing to trade for this card.
From the McGraw card, Kerry had obviously opened some Topps Chrome from this year. He's opened some from the past as well, helping me inch closer to my 2014 Topps Chrome set build with this card.
The last card in the package was the above card of Julio Teheran. Pretty much on its own, this card inspired me to do two things. One of them I've already mentioned in a past post... and that was to start a PC of Braves pitcher Julio Teheran. This was the first card that went into that PC!
The second was to go and make a senseless purchase off eBay. After I saw the Teheran card (the first 2016 Chrome card I had seen), I immediately went to eBay and bought the lowest Buy It Now complete set of 2016 Topps Chrome that I could find.
I had $20 in PayPal credit stored up so I rationalized this purchase as a $35 one. Shhhh, don't argue with my brain.
I almost never do this kind of thing, because I like chasing a set and the thrill that the chase brings. The problem was that I really liked 2016 Chrome... and I would've had to chase it. I already have enough on my plate right now with Ginter and the silly Heritage SP's, so I decided just to outright buy the set so I wouldn't be tempted by any hobby boxes of the product.
I think it was a good choice. I got the inserts too! Thanks Kerry for the trade and boo you for making me spend $55.
That McGraw is pretty cool and, speaking of country music and baseball, I wish there were some kind of cardboard commemoration of Garth Brooks' spring training stint from way back when. Also, I think I speak for a lot of bloggers when I say that the 2016 design looks much better on Chrome than standard card stock.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what it is about Country music, but it seems to have an innate connection to baseball. I live in Connecticut, where country music is almost frowned upon, but it still gets played heavily during warm-ups for all the baseball games I play and umpire.
Delete...and yes, I didn't touch 2016 flagship on standard stock, and now I have the complete set of Chrome. I would say I agree.