You Just Can't Beat Trading

Sometimes you are just not able to find some of the cards you're looking for at a card show or in packs. Since I'm mainly a player collector I don't usually have this problem, but occasionally I want to add cards to my player collections that I may not be able to get.

Unless of course I trade.

I began making trades this year and I was surprised on how easy it was. I would send an email about cards I'm looking for to someone and I would state what cards I can trade them. A little over a week later I'd have new cards. It's the perfect way to upgrade your cards. I can get cards that I'm looking for while the person I'm trading with can do the same.

That's why I reached out to Nick of Dime Boxes to ask him for what cards he had on hand of some of my largest player collections.

Like Chipper Jones and Ryne Sandberg.

Nick was able to send me a card I didn't have of both players. The Gypsy Queen Sandberg is nothing I haven't seen before, but it's still a pretty great card. However, the Pacific of Chipper Jones is a card I've never seen before, and it's just so cool and bizarre that it works.

I was also able to obtain a trio of Nolan Ryan cards. These cards are all just so different that they work. The Jimmy Dean doesn't have licensing, but the colors distract from it. The 1992 Classic Best is a card of Ryan on the Jacksonville Suns. But perhaps the best of them all is the Upper Deck card of the "Ryan Express." Probably one of the weirdest cards I've ever seen, but I still love it.

But more than any other player Nick had a lot of Vladimir Guerrero cards. 

Some nice cards of Vladdy on the Expos which is, in my opinion the best team to get cards of Guerrero on.

Which is why I'm so thankful he had so many of them.

But it wasn't just Guerrero on the Expos.

He had a few cards of Vlad on the Angels which I have to admit look absolutely amazing. They even look better then some of the cards of him on the Expos.

But it wasn't just Angels and Expos. Nick sent me a card of Guerrero during his last season. The 2011 season spent with the Baltimore Orioles.

Pretty great cards right? Well I didn't just trade with Nick.

Greg from Night Owl Cards had an odd amount of Anthony Rizzo relics that he pulled in retail packs. If only I had that kind of luck. I was able to get one of them by trading him a Joc Pederson relic.

Sure I has a crease to the right of the relic and a small one to the left, but I don't really care. It's a relic card which are sadly becoming less common especially this year. But not just any relic it's a relic of my favorite Curren Cub Anthony Rizzo.

Getting these specific cards at the show or in packs would simply be impossible. That's the main reason why trading is so vital.