Two Trades, Passing in the Night

Two trade posts are better than one, right? I guess if you do the math on that, trying to cram two trade packages into one post means you're only getting half of the word out, but I'm honestly near the breaking point as far as being able to keep up with the number of trade packages I've received while trying to acknowledge them all publicly. I always try to give every trade its due on the blog, but I am going to be forced to double or triple them up on occasion. I promise that I won't feel so bad about this when they involve people I've traded with in the past.

I pulled off one such swap with the venerable Thorzul Will Rule. If sports card blogging was an artistic movement, or at the very least something akin to music history, Thorzul's blog would definitely be First Wave Ska or something. His blog was one of the few that was around when I first dipped my toe in the pond, and I am always curious about what he's up to.

He sent over a few goldies, including this fine Anthony Reyes card that will fit nicely into someone else's collection, ahem, ahem.

I have to admit to being mildly confused when confronted with a card that is sealed shut. What am I supposed to do? Who exactly am I letting down if I pop the top? Are the tiny little dudes playing baseball beneath Gibson's mug going to kick my face in if I break the seal?

In other trade news, fellow Portland-area resident Guy from the Basketball Card Blog expressed a common interest in the 2012 Heritage set and recently sent me some goodies that he couldn't find a place for. While he likes the original 1964 Topps set a ton, he couldn't find a place for the buyback cards and I completely understand. On the other hand, I have a weird time not turning my back on these cards and have happily accepted them into my collection.

I can't envision a situation where I would actually spend money on one of the Heritage buyback cards (unless it was a Cardinal, of course!), but I still like these just the same.

Guy is also a Blazers fan, and more importantly, one of the biggest Nicolas Batum fans around. Batum is a player I get really dorkily excited about as well, and it came to me as a surprise when I found out that some of his rookie stash were going up for purchase.

These two serial-numbered Batum rookie cards pretty much immediately launched themselves to the upper echelon of my Blazers collection because, let's face it, I have a ton of Blazers cards yet 99.5% of them aren't really worth a whole lot. I will probably try to change that someday and pursue some nicer cards, but I've been jaded since I was an early teenager about the price of Blazers cards in my hometown.