Claiming My First Trade Stack

I claimed my very first trade stack from Chris of Nachos Grande in exchange for some Topps Archives cards from his want list. I'd never done anything like this ever before, but I really like the whole idea of it. There's a whole stack of cards available to claim in exchange for a minimum of 1 card from his want list. And since I collect so many players, there were quite a few cards in the stack of players that I collect. Like the Ken Griffey Sr. card shown above. 

3 of the 10 cards I claimed were from 1999 Just. These 3 cards included prospects at the time of the sets' release. Ndungidi and Anderson never went on to play in the Majors, while Hector Almonte played a couple of years for a few teams including the Red Sox. If nothing else, I actually really like the set, specifically the Just logo and the faded border design. Not to mention that the color strips on the side are a nice touch.

However, getting cards of players like Tom Seaver and Dave Concepcion is way more my type of thing. These 2 cards are from the inaugural Fleer set back in 1981 which remains my favorite set of that year. To make that even better, Seaver and Concepcion are both players I collect and these cards are cards I don't have, so I'm very pleased to add them to their respective player collections. 

Fast forward 36 years from my favorite set of 1981 to one of my favorites of 2017. Topps Gallery was the most surprising release of 2017 and I ended up purchasing 5 rack packs of the product. The Paul DeJong card ended up being one that I missed out on this year, but this trade pile changed that as now I have the Gallery rookie card of the Cardinals infielder. 

And if you've seen any base cards from the Gallery set you've likely seen the name Mayumi Seto on the card back. She's the artist for the Gallery base set as well as the primary artist for the Topps Museum and Transcendent products. That must be an awesome job.

Speaking of Topps Museum

Perhaps my favorite card of the trade stack was this 2015 Topps Museum Giancarlo Stanton. Despite him joining the rival Yankees, Stanton is still a player I respect and collect. His cards on the Marlins are so colorful and fun to collect, and since there are so many of them out there I doubt I'm going to stop collecting him anytime soon. It will be weird to see him in Yankee pinstripes on March 29th, but it will make for a more fun rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees.

The final card included in the trade stack was a relic of James Shields from 2012 Topps Heritage. I've always liked the designs Topps has done for their Clubhouse Collection relics included in Topps Heritage, and while James Shields is way past his prime, I always enjoy adding relics to my collection so I was quite happy to put this card with my other relics. 

Thanks a lot for trading Chris, I appreciate it a lot.