In my many hours spent eBaying, I end up picking up cards that I don't really need or that don't really fit into my collection, just because they're interesting and cheap. For example, I can't seem to stop my mouse from clicking a bid for framed Diamond Kings cards from the 2000s sets, especially if they have a hunk of bat or shred of jersey mushed into them. They're just cool-looking cards. Case in point:
I got this for about a buck shipped. It's from the 2004 Diamond Kings set, and it's numbered out of 50. The black frame looks awesome, as do all the details: the foil DK insignia, the amorphous blob of green behind Baker, even the interestingly hexagonal windows used to showcase the bat chunks. It's a sweet-looking card, but I had no idea what to do with it, no real place for it in my collection. I was thinking it would become trade bait someday, and poor old Jeff Baker and his cool black frame would be just so much trade fodder.
But then I found out he just got traded to the Tigers. Well, happy accident! Now he has a place in the collection. I don't really collect random Tigers, am more of a player collector, but I can certainly make an exception here. And Baker's not doing terribly so far. He adds a little more depth to the bench. Also, he's from West Germany, and I can't think of another baseball player from that country. So, Baker's birthplace anomaly adds another element of collectibility to this card.
I end up being more pleased than I thought I'd be to own this card. I guess I shouldn't even be purchasing cards unless I really want them in the first place, but such is the life of an obsessive collector, snagging up every piece of interesting cardboard he sees, and occasionally a random purchase works its way into the collection perfectly. Have you experienced these happy accidents before? Picked up a card you didn't really need and then ended up finding a place for it in the collection?
Those trades just keep on coming. I contacted Spankee at My Cardboard Mistress, offering him a few cards I thought he might be interested in and he sent me some awesome stuff.
Here are a few cards we talked about in the trade. The Perry/Iorg auto is about as shiny as shiny gets. Shiny to the eighth power, to be exact.
We'd also talked about this one:
I'm not really a Gypsy Gueen collector, but I love getting new Kalines, and I'm a sucker for framed cards. This card is just stunning. As classy as the Perry/Iorg card is shiny.
This card was a complete surprise. Spankeea didn't even tell me he was sending it, though it would have been the keystone of our trade, and it just goes to show what a generous trader he is.
Here's some other surprises:
A low-numbered Pudge card and a shiny blue Clete. Clete's a Twin now, but I still dig this card, the ball frozen in mid-air, the fancy blue chrome-ness, and just the fact that "Clete" is a cool damn name.
He also sent some nice Ripkens for the PC. I'm getting closer with this Upper Deck Road to the Hall set, but this is my first Iron Men card, a set I'd also like to complete one day. There sure were a lot of Ripken insert sets in 2007, and a lot of pairings with Ripken.
This was a trade that just kept on giving. Various minis and refractors.
Some more great Cabreras, including a numbered orange parallel from 2012 Bowman. I'm glad to pick up some 2012 Bowmans, since I still haven't, and probably won't, be buying any of this product this year. So I'm glad to snag these cards in trade.
We both collect Verlander, so adding these Verlander cards to the PC was a nice suprise in a trade full of surprises. I especially dig the Heritage duo card with Weaver. Something about that picture looks a little shopped to me, but maybe they really posed together.
Finally, the biggest surprise of all:
Some super creepy, ultra-rare X-Files cards. Not sure how these ended up in there, but I like it. I like the whole thing. Thanks, Spankee, for a great trade.
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