Trade with Tom of The Angels in Order

Within the last month I completed another trade with Tom of The Angels, In Order.  He sent out a sort of APB in a post that he was collecting the 2009 Upper Deck base set and I answered the call.  I  had just cleaned out a bunch of cards from my commons boxes and a large chunk of '09 UD happened to be one of the stacks.  I was able to help him out with his set and also scored some O's cards for my collection too!  Here's just a small sample of the cards he sent:

This pair of 2014 Topps cards goes into the team set binder for this year.  I haven't been keeping up with the new releases this year as much this year but I think I'll be able to get back into it full force over the next few months.  

I was very happy to see these 2 cards in the package.  They are going as upgrades in my "One Card of Every Oriole" binder.  There aren't bunches of cards of these guys in Orioles duds so tracking down cards of these guys wasn't as easy as you'd think!

These 2 Orioles farmhands from 2002 Bowman have the unfortunate pleasure of being added to my "Failed Orioles Prospects" mini-collection.  Not a knock on these guys but they just never were able to put it all together and make it to the majors.  Teams draft roughly 50 players each year and usually only 4 or 5 make it all the way to the big leagues.

Speaking of failed prospects, this guy totally fell of the face of the earth a few years back.  He had a pretty decent debut with the parent club, was sent down to the minors again and hasn't really been heard from since.  I think he got suspended for either PEDs or something and that's why the O's cut bait with him.  With Jonathan Schoop at 2nd Base now, Ryan Adams has become a faint memory with most O's fans.

Here's a Scope-fractor of a guy who's always in the front of most Orioles fan's minds. I guess this is an appropriate card to show him making a great catch when he just took home another Gold Glove this past week.

Thanks a bunch for the cards Tom and I'm glad I could help you with your set!

Trade with Tom of Waiting 'til Next Year

As I'm slowly getting back into the swing of blogging, I'm remembering all of the good people/bloggers that I've met over the last couple of years.  Trading is something I miss the most about blogging as it's a great way to network with other collectors.

Tom from Waiting 'til Next Year is one of the aforementioned good people/bloggers that I've traded with a couple times over the last few years.  He sent out a cry for help to complete the 1987 Topps set over the blogosphere and I was happy to help out.  I was able to help him with a couple of his other set projects too.

He always seems to find some good cards for me.  He knocked off a few cards from my 2013 Topps set as well as a few Cubs extras that will fit nicely into my 1979 Topps set.  But that's not all he sent.

For my One Card of Every Oriole binder he sent me this 1956 Chuck Diering.  If you aren't familiar with my OCoEO binder, I'm working on getting a card of every Oriole to ever play a game for the Orioles.  I'm probably about 75% (rough estimate) of the way there but I still need (mostly vintage) help!

I do have a small Boog Powell PC.  This 1970 Topps All-star will fit nicely into that collection.  Boog doesn't get that many cards these days so most were from when he was an active player.

Finally, We have a Matt Wieters card from panini.  I'm going to let Tom off the hook here since he is correct that Matty Ice doesn't have a lot of cards.  Maybe panini will grow on me in time like the late 80's/early 90's oddball unlicensed food issues but I doubt it.  I just think overall panini is a waste of paper.  I was at Target the other day in the card aisle and there were several boxes of panini packs sitting there on the shelf.  Out of 5 boxes (Hometown Heroes, Pinnacle, USA Baseball Legends, Prism, and Cooperstown) not a single pack was missing.  I think that says something about how the general public feels about unlicensed product.

Thanks Tom for the trade!

Trade with Nick of Dime Boxes

I've been picking up a bunch of Gypsy Queen lately for my Orioles team sets recently and when I saw that Nick from Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey pulled a Ripken mini, I had to have it.  We turned this into a full blown trade.  Here's a couple of the cards he sent.

Here's the aforementioned Ripken mini.  It's just a regular back mini but that's fine by me.  It will fit nicely into the mini team set that I have going.  The only other that I've gotten is JJ Hardy, so if anybody has any other regular back minis of Orioles, you know who to contact.
Being a team collector and a Ripken collector, I will need another one of these regular minis along with any of the parallels.

I know I haven't said much about my One Card of Every Oriole collection but Nick was able to help me out with a few I needed.  Some Orioles players didn't have any cards featuring them in O's duds but luckily for me Mike Kinkade was featured on a couple that I know of.  He didn't spend long in Charm City but apparently was there when BJ Surhoff took a few year sabbatical playing for the Braves.  I only know this because Mike is wearing #17, BJ's number.

This Josh Towers card also goes into the binder with Kinkade.  I chose this specific card just because its orange.  Fleer Maximum did a great job of making the borders of each player's card the same as the team's primary color.    It's an underrated set for sure.
In making my list of wants for my One Card for Every Oriole collection I looked up each player that ever played for the Orioles on COMC, Ebay, Beckett Marketplace, and Google images and picked my favorite card of each player considering if it was an Oriole card overall, followed by the design, photo, other team (not many Yanks or Red Sox), cost effectiveness, and availability among other factors.  So every card that goes into this binder was painstakingly handpicked by me as a favorite. Yeah, I probably have too much time on my hands during the winter months.

So thanks Nick for the great cards.  I hope we can trade again soon!