Belated Trade Posts: Trade Bait Ate My Brain

I completed two trades recently. Well, not so recently. These awesome traders will have to forgive me for taking so damn long to say thanks, but the thanks is of the utmost sincerity. First off, Oscar at All Trade Bait, All The Time and I had been discussing a trade since before he got his blog up and running like the well-greased trade bait machine it is. We eventually got our trade going, and finally I'm getting caught up on posting it.

Oscar sent some sweet Lous I needed. The card on the right may have been Lou's most foily card. Lucky for him that he just missed the foily madness of the late '90s.

Here's a less over-produced Trammell from the junk wax era. Only 5000 of these babies.

Two key Ripkens for the player collection.

This Cabrera GU was much-needed.  I'm not a huge fan of this jersey set, but Cabby can always make a mediocre set cool.

If you haven't checked out his blog yet, and you're looking for another Dodgers trader, be sure to check it out. You have to love the purity of his blog's theme, just like the title proclaims: All Trade Bait, All The Time.

The other trade I'm catching up with was with Sports Cards Ate My Brain. This blog may be one of the best-kept secrets in the Blogosphere. If you haven't stopped over there before, be sure to do so. Scott's a great writer, and an insanely generous trader, as you'll soon see.

We talked about trading for a few GU cards for my player collection.

I never bought much Unique. I picked up a few base cards and parallels, but I never saw any of their GU insert sets. I dig all the baseball thematics thrown in here, with the stitches and the base-shaped swatch. And it's kind of nice to see Cabby fielding for a change. Let's hope he doesn't become a gaping whole at third base this season.

Always great to add some more Verlander fabric to the collection.

So these two cards would have been perfect for a trade, but, like the generous trader he is, Scott threw in a slew of extras.

Some very cool numbered Tigers inserts here. I especially dig the Gomez with the bastardized Mondrian background. The Porcello rookie is great, too.

The highlight of this trade was in the extras. Scott didn't even mention he was sending Verlander rookies, and a huge batch of them at that. These rookies doubled what I previously had for 2005 Verlander rookies, and I'm just blown away. I've always loved rookies, since I came from the generation of collecting that was pre-GU and inserts mania. I especially love the Prestige rookie. Verlander's upper lip is frighteningly clean-shaven and he's wearing some mysterious purple uniform with stirrups.

Thanks again, Scott, and thanks, Oscar. Great trades from two generous bloggers.