Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Blind Trading With Spiff

There are risks involved in blind trading. You could end up with 100 copies of a 1989 Donruss Jack McDowell card. You could end up with all cards that you already have. You could be stuck with a pile of crap that's worth $1.00.

Those are all worst case scenarios. The reality of blind trading is that you don't know what you will get. All you really know is the certain parameters that will be followed, such as all the cards will be White Sox, in my case. Usually, you get a good mix of doubles and cards you need. At least that has been my experience with blind trading so far.

So, Spiff and I agreed on a blind trade of 150 cards. 150 Rangers for 150 White Sox. I threw in a couple of extra cards, for no other reason than I do that from time to time. I try to stay away from sending more than one of the same card if possible. This way, my collection of tradable cards stretches further and the other person gets maximum value. It's a win-win situation!

Let's see what arrived in two separate bubble envelopes.

1981 Fleer
357 - Jim Morrison

1982 Fleer
346 - Lamar Johnson

1982 K-Mart
21 - Rich Allen

1983 Donruss
104 - Carlton Fisk

1984 Fleer
58 - Carlton Fisk

1984 Topps
311 - Jerry Koosman
480 - Ron Kittle

1985 Topps
78 - Scott Fletcher
140 - Roy Smalley F&S
286 - Rudy Law
650 - Greg Luzinski

1986 Fleer Limited Edition
15 - Carlton Fisk

1986 Topps
290 - Carlton Fisk

1987 Topps
201 - John Cangelosi
421 - Joe DeLeon
491 - Ron Karkovice
511 - Steve Lyons
718 - Steve Carlton

1988 Donruss
260 - Carlton Fisk
507 - Bob James

1988 Score
592 - Carlton Fisk

1988 Topps
86 - Ron Karkovice
281 - Jerry Hairston
334 - Dave LaPoint

OK, this is the point of every trade where it flies into the danger zone. Why the danger zone? I'm a closet Kenny Loggins fan. But enough about that. The danger zone refers to the least amount of cards that I would need. This period generally starts around 1989 and ends somewhere around 1993. The closer the year is to the center of that time period, the more likely I will already have it. I am missing a few key cards from that period, but generally I keep getting the same cards.

1989 Bowman
63 - Steve Lyons
69 - Ron Kittle

1989 Donruss
148 - Harold Baines
253 - Steve Lyons
573 - Bill Long
606 - Lance Johnson
647 - Barry Lyons

1989 Fleer
498 - Shawn Hillegas
499 - Lance Johnson
500 - Barry Jones

1989 Score
608 - John Davis

1989 Topps
156 - Dave Gallagher
247 - Shawn Hillegas
334 - Steve Lyons (2)
539 - Barry Jones
585 - Harold Baines
656 - Ivan Calderon

1990 Donruss
58 - Carlton Fisk
148 - Ron Kittle (2)
219 - Dave Gallagher
337 - Eric King
413 - Ron Karkovice
503 - Jerry Kutzler
573 - Lance Johnson (2)
619 - Shawn Hillegas
660 - Harold Baines AS
BC-19 - Carlton Fisk MVP

1990 Fleer
529 - Ivan Calderon

1990 Fleer Award Winners
13 - Carlton Fisk

1990 Score
290 - Carlton Fisk

1990 Topps
79 - Ron Kittle
169 - Richard Dotson
243 - Barry Jones
499 - Bill Long
587 - Lance Johnson
751 - Steve Lyons
786 - Eric King (2)

1990 Upper Deck
69 - Ron Karkovice
543 - Greg Hibbard
651 - Eric King

1991 Bowman
345 - Carlton Fisk

1991 Donruss
220 - Ron Karkovice (2)
259 - Lance Johnson
271 - Eric King (2)
589 - Shawn Hillegas

1991 Score
265 - Carlton Fisk
320 - Robin Ventura
421 - Carlton Fisk HL

1991 Topps
33 - Barry Jones
446 - Craig Grebeck
568 - Ron Karkovice

1991 Upper Deck
29 - Carlton Fisk CL
281 - Eric King
643 - Carlton Fisk

1992 Bowman
358 - Jason Bere
614 - Scott Cepicky

1992 Fleer Smoke 'N Heat
2 - Jack McDowell

1992 Leaf
303 - Carlton Fisk

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier
45 - Carlton Fisk

1992 Score
72 - Carlton Fisk

1992 Stadium Club
480 - Carlton Fisk

1992 Topps
153 - Ron Karkovice

1992 Triple Play
149 - Carlton Fisk
261 - Greg Hibbard

1992 Upper Deck
571 - Carlton Fisk
603 - Craig Grebeck

1993 Donruss
697 - Joey Cora
720 - Terry Leach (2)
788 - Michael Huff

1993 Leaf
284 - Carlton Fisk

1993 Topps
94 - Lance Johnson
259 - Craig Grebeck

1993 Triple Play
216 - Ron Karkovice

1993 Upper Deck
207 - Charlie Hough
272 - Carlton Fisk
502 - Rod Bolton
738 - Craig Grebeck
742 - Joey Cora

1994 Fleer
85 - Lance Johnson

1994 Pacific
118 - Wilson Alvarez
119 - Tim Belcher
120 - Jason Bere
121 - Rodney Bolton
123 - Joey Cora
126 - Craig Grebeck
131 - Mike LaValliere

1994 Upper Deck Minors
59 - Ray Durham

1995 Sonic Coke
14 - Minnie Minoso

1997 Leaf
114 - Ray Durham
187 - Mike Cameron

1997 Pinnacle
46 - Roberto Hernandez

1998 Topps
383 - Ray Durham

2004 Upper Deck Vintage
37 - Bartolo Colon

2005 Fleer Showcase
6 - Paul Konerko

2007 Topps
147 - Javier Vazquez
148 - Scott Podsednik
284 - Jerry Owens
445 - Pablo Ozuna
451 - Bobby Jenks

2007 Topps Own The Game
OTG8 - Jim Thome
OTG17 - Jermaine Dye

2007 Topps Red Letter Back
148 - Scott Podsednik

2008 Artifacts/A Piece Of History
24 - Nick Swisher

2008 Baseball Heroes Black
43 - Jermaine Dye

2008 Goudey
40 - Mark Buehrle
42 - Paul Konerko
43 - Jermaine Dye
45 - Nick Swisher

2008 Spectrum
22 - Jermaine Dye
23 - Jim Thome

2008 Topps
224 - Mark Buehrle
248 - Jose Contreras
284 - Lance Broadway
293 - Gavin Floyd
420 - Nick Swisher
508 - John Danks
565 - A.J. Pierzynski
639 - Juan Uribe

2008 Upper Deck
282 - Jon Garland
284 - Matt Thornton

2008 Upper Deck Rookie Debut
5 - Lance Broadway

I haven't checked these cards against my collection yet. I can say that there are a lot that I know that I have, but the ones that stand out as ones that I don't have, are absolute gems!

Thanks so much, Spiff! That was an awesome trade. After I build up my Rangers cards a bit, we'll have to do this again.

5 comments:

night owl said...

Cool! I traded a small-lot of Rangers to Spiff for a small-lot of Dodgers, and the package is en route. This is a nice preview of what I'll get. Looks like you got some good stuff.

Steve Gierman said...

Out of all of those, I think I actually got about 30 that I actually needed, but that's OK by me. I just hope that he can use some of the cards that I sent over.

If you're curious about trading with anyone, click on the "Card Trades" label at the bottom of this post. It will list the posts involving trades since this site started. That way you can get a feel of how some of the other bloggers trade.

We'll have to do a White Sox/Dodgers trade at some point.

night owl said...

Thanks for the info. Yeah, I'd be happy to set up a White Sox-Dodgers trade in a few weeks. Just email me your info at ggay@wdt.net and I'll start stacking White Sox (I do have a bunch from 89-93 but I'm sure I can find some others, too).

Spiff said...

Sorry about the dups and that there were so few you needed. I tried to catch the doubles but obviously didn't get them all. Glad to hear that everything arrived safely though. Thanks again for the trade. I am looking forward to receiving my end and to trading again sometime in the future.

Steve Gierman said...

No problem. I expect a few doubles here and there. :) I'm just happy that there were cards that I needed.

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