An Order of Nachos, Please

I’ve been very remiss when it comes to revisiting some of the gang of card collecting bloggers, and decided to remedy that a bit. I noticed that there were a few Twins I needed on the trade page at Nachos Grande, and interrupted Chris’ Gint-a-Cuffs posts to put together a trade with him. It had been over five years since our last trade (?!) which does not really seem possible.

You can tell that someone went to a lot of work looking through their cards by the variety of cards in the trade, and besides the handful of Twins A&G minis from his trade page, here are some examples of what else he found:

clockwise, from top left: 2018 Panini Donruss Signature Series #SS-MG Mitch Garver; 2018 Topps Gypsy Queen Missing Blackplate #88 Byron Buxton; 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter #348 Trevor Plouffe; 2009 Topps Target Retro #212 Denard Span; 2003 Topps Heritage #293 Cristan Guzman; 2003 Fleer Box Score #121 Lew Ford; 2017 Topps Rediscover Topps Silver 1993 Topps #363 John Smiley; 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter #78 Jose Berrios; 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter #74 Brian Dozier

Meanwhile, I took his wantlist webpage and visited the friendly neighborhood LCS to roust up some cards he was looking for — scavenger hunt! It was good to get back to my roots, so to speak, and flip a trade with a blogger instead of off of a board like The Bench. Thanks for the swap, Chris!

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And as usual, a few more additional pickups:

clockwise, from top left: 2015 Topps Chrome Refractor Purple #AR-TM Trevor May [147/250] (auto); 2008 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Sweet Swatch Dual Memorabilia #DHM Justin Morneau w/Hafner (dual jersey); 2003 Donruss Team Heroes #290 Michael Cuddyer (auto); 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Materials Framed Red B&W #132 Lew Ford [63/100] (jersey/bat)

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A Brass Reprise

Since I do the majority of my trading The Bench I am not good at checking up on any of the neighborhood gang of card collecting bloggers, but just like over a year ago I rang the doorbell over at Tomahawk Chop. The Trumpet Man had three nice Twins cards that I needed in exchange for some of my Braves trade bait.

clockwise, from top left: 2016 Topps Chrome #RA-JOS Jose Berrios (auto); 2016 Topps Triple Threads Gold #ARC-JBE Jose Berrios [67/99] (auto); 2016 Topps Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Red Ice #BDPP85 Derrick Penilla [03/25]

Interestingly enough, the Derrick Penilla red ice was the only one I already had from that set! It’s nice having go-to people that collect Braves cards that I can strike up a trade with now and then. Thanks again!

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In other baseball collecting news, I found an eBay seller that had several By The Letter cards that I needed (all within my price point), which allowed me to complete my first set — the By The Letters Rookie Signature autographed set of Alexi Casilla, numbered 1-of-50 or 1-of-75:

2007 Upper Deck SP Authentic By The Letter Rookie Signatures #188 Alexi Casilla (auto)

A Brassy Trade

I’ve been doing trades on The Bench almost exclusively for the past few months, so it’d been a while since I’ve traded with any of the neighborhood gang of card collecting bloggers. After finishing a trade with my Good Trading Buddy™ at Peggy’s, I had quite a few Braves cards left on my Tradebait webpage, so I contacted The Trumpet Man at Tomahawk Chop. Not only did he find some cards he could use, but he had some nice Twins cards I needed, cards like:

clockwise, from top left: 2008 Upper Deck SP^x Winning Materials Position #WM-JN Joe Nathan [27/75] (jersey); 2014 Topps Chrome Refractor Gold #144 Joe Mauer [14/50]; 2015 Bowman Chrome Refractor Purple #4 Byron Buxton [218/250]; 2014 Topps Finest Refractor Green #60 Joe Mauer [028/199]

I need to frequent the websites of the old gang again. Thanks once more for a great trade — trombone 7^th position salute to you, sir!

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A few others I’ve picked up:

clockwise, from top left: 2015 Topps Update All-Star Stitches #STIT-GP Glen Perkins (jersey); 2004 Fleer Hot Prospects #83 Trevor Plouffe [139/299] (auto); 2004 Fleer Hot Prospects #99 Matt Fox [120/299] (auto); 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Memorabilia Series #GCM-MO Justin Morneau (jersey); 2015 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCAP-AM Amaurys Minier (auto); 2009 Upper Deck UD X #UDXJ-JM Joe Mauer (jersey); 2005 Donruss Prime Patches #45 Justin Morneau [148/150] (bat); 2004 Fleer Hot Prospects #89 Kyle Waldrop [159/299] (auto)

Good News / Bad News / Good News Trade

The good news? I was offered a true 1/1 Twins card in trade. The bad news: it was a Delmon Young card. The good news, though — we were able to strike up an amicable trade, and I made a new trade partner out of the deal. Special thanks to Topher for pointing The Trumpet Man in my direction.

The 1/1 is a 2009 Topps Platinum, my first true 1/1 besides a few printing plates. The Trumpet Man also did the favor of digging through his other cards, and he came up with about a dozen cards I needed, most being 1990’s cards I hadn’t caught up with yet. Here’s a sampling:

clockwise, from top left: 2009 Topps Platinum #656 Delmon Young [1/1]; 1996 Topps Laser Bright Spots #B10 Marty Cordova; 2004 Fleer Ultra Colby Miller #364; 1995 Upper Deck Electric Diamond #431 Dave Stevens; 1995 Upper Deck SP Championship Series #169 Chuck Knoblauch; 1990 Pacific Legends #17 Rod Carew

I’ve suggested The Trumpet Man reach out to others of the neighborhood of blogging collectors and to consider creating his own blog someday; if you do get an email from him, he has my glowing reference. Thanks again for the trade!

[EDIT: He did it!]

Additionally, here are a few more recent pickups from The Bay and from trades:

clockwise, from top left: 2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Special Endorsements #SE-FL Francisco Liriano (auto); 2005 Donruss Diamond Kings Materials Bronze #129 Jacque Jones [136/200] (jersey&bat); 2005 Leaf Prospects Red #224 Jesse Crain [011/100] (auto); 2006 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection Ultimate Tandem Patches #UT-HK Jason Kubel w/Hermida [24/35] (dual jersey); 2003 Topps Finest #104 J.D. Durbin (auto)