TCDB Wrap-Up: Another Great Week (including a Completed Set!)

Another Monday, another week's worth of TCDB trades!  For my money, this was a really good week and let's start with the biggest surprise of all for the week.

The first package I want to highlight comes from user Tonyjord3 (aka Jordan).  He sent me a trade request where we wanted a small handful (5 or so) Allen & Ginter base cards from the couple of years.  In return, he offered me up TWELVE (yes, that's 12) different 2020 Allen & Ginter mini cards that I needed.  

If you've ever traded on TCDB (or similar sites), you might have a red flag go up whenever you receive an offer like this...even more so since Tonyjord3 didn't have a single point of feedback on the site.  With caution, I replied that the trade seemed too lopsided (in my favor) and what else could I offer.  He said he wanted some "lesser known Dodgers" and that he had more than enough minis to spare. 

I admit that I was skeptical yet when I sent off the package...and then even more skeptical when he sent me a tracking number that a few days later showed said package being "delivered" in his home city.  Did he actually send a package to himself with tracking and screw me out of a few base cards?  It wouldn't have been worth it to do in my eyes...and even with the extra Dodgers I threw in it wasn't a huge envelope of cards going his way (maybe 25 or so cards total?).  

Anyhow, this story has a happy ending!  I can't explain the tracking info but early this week the package from Tonyjord3 showed up in my mailbox with all 12 of the promised mini cards!  Hooray - and sorry for the doubt Jordan!

As for the cards, let's begin with the set that Jordan completed for me - and it happened to be the mini set for which I was missing the most cards prior to this trade:  Buggin' Out.  

I mean, just look at all the mini gloriousness.  I'm not much of a bug guy myself but I can admit that these bugs are pretty cool - especially that Spiny Orb Weaver.  The Buggin' Out set is now my second completed set of 2021 - a very nice start to the year since January isn't even over with yet!

The other four minis from Jordan included three of the Citadels & Safeholds and one Safari Sights. 

 

I know that Safari Sights card looks way miscut but basically every single card I own from that particular set (if it's in "landscape mode" for the photo anyhow) appears to be miscut the same way.  Chalk another one up to Topps' crappy product control in 2020 I guess.  

Quite honestly, I probably would have been content with my week on TCDB if this had been the only envelope that I received all week.  However, it wasn't the only envelope so let's see what else I landed!

Next up, from user heattreat is a card I almost definitely "over traded" for...but then again, it was an oddball Barry Larkin card that I haven't seen available all that often so I don't mind!  

That is a 1988 Red Stars Series 1 card of Barry Larkin - it kind of looks like a playing card to me without the suit and rank on it.  I'm definitely going to have to try and do some research on this particular set before I write about it as part of my ongoing Barry Larkin Collection!

Next up, from user Stoob comes another Barry Larkin card...though this one is from 2019 and is definitely a "mainstream" release rather than an oddball card.  Still, any Larkin card that I don't have is one I want!  

Truthfully though, this trade didn't come about for the above Larkin card - no, what I really wanted was these:  

That's three different short prints that I needed from the 2013 Gypsy Queen set.  I must say, that Mike Trout cost me dearly - Stoob nearly cleared me out of Derek Jeter cards in this swap (I sent him 12 cards, 11 were Derek Jeters)!  That said, if I'm trading unwanted cards for wanted cards, I'm happy - and heck, I'd love to actually clear out huge chunks of my unwanted cards so offering up larger trades like this is one way to do it!

I really ought to put more of a focus into completing the 2013 Gypsy Queen set - after all, I only need ten more cards until the base set (with short prints) finished!

Remaining 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Wants:

• Base:  87, 144, 189, 208, 213, 215, 239, 330, 331, 340
• White Paper Parallels:  10, 17, 26, 31, 34, 48, 65, 70, 95, 105, 112, 123, 129, 130, 154, 184, 205, 211, 214, 229, 233, 253, 255, 296, 300, 303, 335

The next trade for the week was with user EvanPugh.  Evan had a few more of the 1999 Pacific base cards that I needed for my set build along with another one of the Team Checklist inserts.  

I still like those Team Checklist cards quite a bit!  I almost decided to ax that particular set from my want list given that I needed so many (and trading for them was nearly impossible) but I'm glad I decided to keep the set on my want list...TCDB has been helpful in acquiring at least a few of the lesser names on the checklist if nothing else!

The next TCDB envelope (from user gpgoodman) wasn't a trade but rather a purchase.  He had a Barry Larkin card that I wanted but I didn't have anything on his want list - so we struck up a simple purchase.  

That's a gorgeous 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection parallel with a stated print run of "only" 6500 copies (the card itself is not serially numbered).  Always nice to acquire a missing Larkin parallel, especially when they look that good!  

My final TCDB trade of the week comes courtesy of user TxRyan.  While this trade was only supposed to net me a single card, I think it was one of my best trades of the week! 

That's one of the two remaining Roman Emperor minis that I need for my 2007 set build.  After putting together the trade for this card, I was inspired to place an order on COMC in order to acquire the final emperor card - so you'll see this one listed under my "completed sets" list soon*.  

*I say "soon" since who knows how long it will take COMC to actually ship my cards.

Anyhow, all in all this was a great week of trading!  In between all the trading, I also managed to get another 1,000 cards or so uploaded to the site as part of my trade bait pile - so hopefully some of those will be turned into more cards I need next week!