The Return to Trading (ft. Nachos Grande)

It's very, very hard being a baseball card trader when you're also dealing with anxiety.

There are a ton of unwritten rules and morays and subtle stuff that I never completely got, and I was always fearing that I'd screwed something up in past trades. in reality, this is definitely irrational anxiety, as this is the kind of community where nobody truly thinks that someone's screwed up, and everyone really helps themselves out gladly. But still, being anxious for all that time, I kept thinking that I'd do something wrong. So while I did accept some trades over the past few years, I got a bit too anxious recently in accepting a few.

That is until I swore that, as one of my 2017 blogging resolutions, I'd be more open to trading, and more mindful of the fact that it's insanely hard to screw up. So when I got an email from Chris from Nachos Grande a few weeks back, asking if he could send some card over, I couldn't say no.

There was a nice amount of helpful stuff in here- even the tag card, above, was actually a 1989 Score card I needed. I don't particularly mind the Sharpie-age on there, as it's a Red Sox card and it's not the worst thing that's happened to a Sox card in my house.

The main piece of this trade were a bunch of Archives set needs that Chris had been saving for me for a little while. This 2013 Mike Olt card completes the non-short print extent of the 2013 Archives set for me. Now, I'm gonna have to bulk up on finances if I want to nab the rest of the short prints.

He also knocked out a ton of my 2012 Archives needs, including these two cards of people that aren't really doing too much in baseball this year.

How I still needed the Cutch is absolutely beyond me, but it's still very welcome. These three are still pretty relevant in baseball, even with some comparatively down seasons happening in 2017. The Zo takes me back to a weird era where he didn't have facial hair.

These three, however, are having much better years. Hellickson's been a standout for my Phils, Shields, while injured, is helping the White Sox, and Belt is still on a tear. Belt's is probably my favorite of the three, though.

And then there's this guy, the last non-SP card in the set, and a guy I'd needed, despite being a Yankee fan with access to people who don't like Archives or the Yankees. Even two years before retirement, Jeter was still one of the best.

In addition to set needs, Chris threw in some Yankees he was ready to part with. This CC, which I'm shocked that I hadn't seen before, displays all the joy and merriment of pre-2013 CC. At least he's been doing better this year.

Two Update Yankees I didn't have. Romine had a nice season taking over for Gary Sanchez.

However, the most important development came with a little bundle of Bowman cards. Now, I haven't collected Bowman in 9 years, as I became more and more disillusioned with how little effort Topps was putting into the design of the set. I also didn't really start nabbing 'prospect cards' of players since last year.

It's nice getting these ones, even if Vicente Campos, the other piece of the Michael Pineda trade, is the only one that's still in the majors- Peter O'Brien's still bopping around in, oddly enough, the Reds organization, Caleb Frare is still in AA, and Santana's out of the bigs entirely.

These two I knew a bit more fondly, also from the 2012 Bowman set- Austin had a decent enough debut stretch last season, even if there hasn't been a ton of room for him in the 2017 roster. Ty Hensley was our pitching prospect for a while, and after a few Tommy John surgeries, he's wound up in the Rays' minor league facility.

This guy probably elicited the best reaction from the trade.

Greg Bird, even if he hasn't had the greatest 2017 season so far, is our heir apparent at 1st Base. The guy had an astounding rookie season in 2015, taking over for Mark Teixeira, and now he's got the position to himself. He's been injured and struggling so far, but he's definitely got some power and stamina in him, and I think it's awesome that I have his Rookie Card now.

Thanks to Chris again for a really nice package of cards. I think this one was nice enough to get me back into trading again.