Team Collectors Helping Each Other Out

How often to you swap cards with another collector of the same team? Some teams like the Red Sox, Dodgers, Yankees and the Cubs have multiple bloggers and Twitter folk who collect them. Then there are others like the Marlins . . . well, who just don't even have one representative. Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I have a stack of Marlin cards I'd be happy to dump on someone!

I'm lucky to have other Cub fans who look out for me. Some tip me off on neat cards which have just hit the market, others save their duplicates for me and a few pick up cards for me knowing that I'm sure to drool over them.

I never find it difficult to trade with another Cub fan and often I feel like I'm scrambling to find something to send in a supplemental return package to help balance out the score. This is one of those times!

Matt, a like minded Cub fan and author of Once a Cub, just sent me a small card box crammed full of cards I needed in return for a box I sent him a week or so ago.

Boom!  What we have here is a huge stack of 2018 Topps Big League and high quality smattering of inserts and Players Weekend parallels.

 I'm only nine cards away from finishing the Big League master set, which I'm stoked about. Sounds like a Sportlots.com purchase may soon be on the horizon! If you have any of the nine drop me a line and I'll be sure to send something nice your way in return!

Matt sent me a note wondering if buy back cards counted as a new entry into my player collections. I guess he was assuming I had the 2002 Kerry Wood card, which I didn't have. I did a double take when I found I was without one. 

My Kerry Wood collection is over 500 cards and I never would have thought I'd acquire a buy back of the a card with foil stamping before the actually card. It's a crazy collecting world we live in.

BOOM! Three color, numbered parallel VOGELMONSTER relic card!

Tacoma Public Schools Night?  Sounds like a nice idea.  Heck any promotion featuring a smiling VOGELMONSTER is a great idea! Love me some VOGELMONSTER!

Topps Now Home Run Derby cards? 

 Yes, please!

 Schwarber and Baez put on a nice show and represented the Cubs very well in the derby. Matt really looks out for me in the Topps NOW department.

I've always loved the Topps Opening Day blue parallels.

 When I laid these two cards down I liked how the waves on Quintana's card almost matched up with the waves from Lester's. Pretty cool.

Kris Bryant?  Who dat?

 Do you remember working with analogies back in high school language arts classes? Here's a relevant one for Cubs fans...  Wally Pipp is to Lou Gehrig as Kris Bryant is to . . . David Bote. I'm not buying stock in Bote just yet, but he's done more than fill the shoes of Bryant since he went on the DL. Bote's bWAR is only 0.2 less than Bryant's in 40 less games. Just sayin'.

Ooooooh!  Big League Cubs parallels! 

 These are super sweet and a most welcomed addition to my Cubs collection. I only pulled two Cubs parallels in all the packs I opened and they were from the special blue cards found only in blasters. I missed out on the gold parallels altogether.

Lastly, Matt gifted me a Road to Opening Day Topps NOW set.

I chose these two of the fifteen cards to show because I thought they looked very spring training-ish. Check out the fans laying out on the berm in the outfield on Almora's card and the large AZ patch on Q's throwing shoulder. Very cool.

Matt, you've outdone yourself yet again. School is ramping up and I haven't had much time as of late, but I really enjoyed taking a break and going through your package. Lots of fun Cubs mojo in there for sure!

I'll be on the lookout for some fun Cubs stuff at future card shows to help even things out!