Smoothing over a trade with Sport Card Collectors

Friendship. 

I've traded a lot in recent years with my bud who runs the Sport Card Collectors blog, but it's usually swapping blind PWEs... he gets some NY Giants and maybe a couple Yankees or a Griffey.. and I get some Padres and maybe a few PC guys. Once in a while, though, we break out the big guns and negotiate a trade involving better cards.

Sometimes working out a trade like that can be stressful, and under the pressure of year-end work stuff at the time, I overreacted to something and things nearly went off the rails. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and we were able to keep our trading running smoothly.

This sweet Hunter Renfroe autograph was the card that kicked off our deal. It's a nice looking red parallel #'d /50. I really like these 2017 Topps Clearly Authentic cards. I wish the product had a less dumb name, though. Maybe like Topps Translucent? (might be too similar to Topps Transcendent.) Topps Crystalline? Topps Glass? Topps Lucid Edge? Topps Liquid Prime? Even just Topps Clear would be better than Clearly Authentic. I'm still waiting for Topps Clearly Inauthentic which will feature the same cards but with sloppily forged signatures by interns.
But enough of that, it's a nice card. Another thing Topps should do is include a few Tek-like base cards in each pack. The one-card-box approach Topps has been using lately is so risky for the consumer. At least some decent base cards and a parallel could take the sting out of pulling an auto of somebody not worth much.

Here's another uncredited appearance of Austin Hedges. Also a Chris Brown buyback and a gold parallel Christian Friedrich.

I've gone on record as not being much of a fan of the Topps Gallery revival, but I always love seeing Big Dave Winfield in the brown and gold. A tidbit I found for my new @PadresBreakdown Twitter account is that today is the anniversary of Dave's HOF election. Cool.

OTD in 2001, Dave Winfield is elected to the Hall of Fame along with former teammate Kirby Puckett on their first year of eligibility. Dave chose to go in as a Padre, which rankled the Yankees. Here's a Yankees auto card that I made a Padres overlay for. https://t.co/vwwvQ9AjYt pic.twitter.com/htNePVRMU8

— Padres Breakdown (@PadresBreakdown) January 16, 2018

Ha, I used the same photo for my custom overlay as the picture on the Gallery card.

This looks like 5 of the 8 total cards in the Padres team set of 2017 Bowman Draft. Nice. (I'm now just missing Buddy Reed, Fernando Tatis Jr, and Mason House.)

Getting into some good stuff here! Reggie Lawson blue mini, Blake Hunt (careful saying that name out loud!) refractor auto, and a couple numbered Campusano cards sharing the same photo.

More bright young Padres.

The package wasn't all Padres, though, as SCC snuck in a couple Gavins I needed, too. That's the first licensed Sheets card in my collection (I've bid on a few of his Bowman autos but keep getting narrowly outbid at the end), and it's a refractor, to boot.

Finally, this was the card at the heart of our big trade. MacKenzie Gore was the Padres first pick in last year's draft, and he's their #1 prospect right now. This 2017 Bowman's Best green refractor is #'d /99 and makes a great addition to my collection of upcoming Padres. I had recently picked up a Leaf Metal auto of his, but again, licensed cards are always more desirable. Here's hoping this kid is the real deal and makes his way up to Petco in the next couple years.

Thanks again for the trade, SCC! Your return package went out yesterday.. hope you like!

I also just recently mailed out cards to Angels In Order, Jedi Jeff, Tim B., and ARPSmith.

Note for people pulling cards from my wantlists: Adam is kindly supplying many cards from my 1980 Topps needs, as well as big lots from 1978 Topps, 1984 Fleer, 1984 Donruss, 1985 Donruss, 1987 Fleer, 1986 Fleer, 1982 Topps, and 1983 Topps. So you should probably hold off gathering up cards for me from those particular sets until I'm able to update/create my wantlists for them.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

Luuuuuuuuuuises!!!!

I got another COMC order in the order day, taking advantage of a free-shipping scratch-off code from Black Friday that expires at the end of the month. It's the second one I got from that haul, after using one on my previous order around New Year's. Folks tend to think you can only use one, but that's not exactly true. Once you hit a free-shipping code, stop scratching.. save the rest of the scratch-off cards until after you place an order. Then if you hit another free-shipping code, it'll work for ya. But yeah, if you already have an unused free shipping code on your account, you can't add another one (..as is my understanding).

It's also worth noting that the codes are non-transferable. A while back, a friendly cardsphere buddy tried to give me his free shipping code as he had no intention of placing a COMC order until next Black Friday. But once you type in a code to check it out, it's tied to your account.

Among the cards I picked up in this order were some exciting young Padres that are looking to break out this year. San Diego is gonna suck donkey dong this year, don't get me wrong, specifically because of the weak rotation, but at least there are some upcoming bats that should be fun to watch.

One such kid with a lot of eyes on him this spring is Luuuuuuuuuuis!!!

That's right, Luis Urias, a 19-year-old infielder out of Mexico who's hit .317 over 229 minor league games so far. Team Mexico's youngest player in the WBC, he figures to make his way up to San Diego within the next couple years. This 2016 Panini Elite Extra Edition card seems to be his only certified auto out there at the moment. The only pickup of the order to crack double digits, I ponied up a little extra to get a numbered parallel.

But no, the real Luis everyone in camp is excited about is...

Luuuuuuuuuuuuis Sardinas! He's bounced around with 4 teams in the past 3 years, but looks to stick around in San Diego at shortstop after performing well in 34 games up top last year. This 2013 Bowman Chrome auto features a nice big, loopy signature and only set me back $1.50.

There's also this Rule-5 kid picked up off the scrap-pile in Cincinnati hoping to stick around as a backup catcher. Never heard of him before, but hey..

Nah, of course I'm just joking, as we're all familiar with Cardsphere Hero Luuuuuuuuuuis Torrens!

I've bought 2 or 3 Torrens autos in the past, but they all made their way over to his supercollector, Zippy Zappy. These 2 are for me. I'm hoping he sticks with the Padres, but I know there's still a very real possibility he gets returned to the Yanks. He hasn't been hitting much yet this spring, though has looked good behind the plate. We'll see what happens.

Speaking of Padres catchers, this guy isn't named Luis, but we'll close out the post with this trio of shiny Bowman parallels anyways. Austin Hedges has been swinging a hot bat this spring (.474 average and 1.132 OPS over 19 games) and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in his first full season as starting catcher.

Thanks for reading! More from this latest COMC haul soon.

p.s. 2017 Topps Opening Day is out today.. Don't forget to boycott it so Topps finally lets this redundant product die. Low-end sets are great, but stuff like Bunt (physical) or Total (r.i.p.) are miles better than a lazy version of flagship with another logo slapped on it. The fun inserts are nice, but they'd be better in flagship or really any other set. I for one welcome the day this set no longer comes out. Shit, it ain't even MLB opening day yet. If they synced up the release date to actual opening day, I could give it a pass, but nope, guess that's asking too much.