Why Monday's Don't Suck.

Today is the "official" first day of work for me for the new academic year.  I say "official" because today's the day classes begin...of course, I had to do quite a bit of work earlier this summer to prepare for today's lessons but still, it certainly feels like today's the first day of work!

Luckily, Monday's aren't all bad for me because I've been dedicating the Monday of each week lately to be my "TCDB Trade Recap" day - the day where I get to go through all of the previous week's TCDB mail and show off my goods!

Today, we begin with another trade with user NYMHall.  This particular trader lives less than an hour from my house - probably the closest person (in terms of where they live) that I've traded with (not counting people I know that live in my own town).  

This swap consisted of one new Barry Larkin card for me, one needed SI card from 1998, and a Billy Hamilton Topps Archives card that I owned...and then had to trade away in a different TCDB trade last week when I mistakenly thought I had two of the card!  I ended up having to raid my set binder for my copy of Hamilton to mail off and then promptly went back to TCDB to try and find a replacement copy for myself.  Whoops!  Luckily, NYMHall had a couple of other cards that I needed so the swap wasn't a complete waste for me!

Next up, from user TrapDoor comes a fairly large PWE trade full of 2021 Allen & Ginter needs!

I've been as active as I can be over on TCDB lately as I've been trying desperately to track down as many of the 2021 A&G minis as possible.  Oh, and if you were wondering, that "Mascots in Real Life" card of the baseball is for the New York Met's mascot!

Sticking with the 2021 A&G theme, my next PWE is from user SJensen.

That's a 2021 A&G ad back mini of Barry Larkin.  Yep, Larkin has a base card in this year's Allen & Ginter set (once again) which means there are a bunch of minis that I need to try and track down!  This wasn't the only trade I made with SJensen this week...

We also exchange another pair of envelopes, this time I received more 2021 A&G mini inserts:

That Mascots card of the baseball this time?  It's for the Cincinnati Reds' mascot!  I do appreciate that Topps chose a different picture for both baseball mascots.  

Leaving the land of 2021 A&G now, let's look at a trade that netted me a bunch of great new Barry Larkin cards - all courtesy of user Redsfan (good user name)!

Like I said, a lot of great new Larkin cards here!  For me, the highlight has to be that Donruss Studio Hard Hats card.  Once I learned that Barry was in that particular insert set I knew that was a card I needed to track down sooner or later.  Luckily for me, I didn't have to wait too long before one was made available on TCDB!  I'm a sucker for neat die-cuts and clear acetate!

And last but not least, one more Larkin-centric trade. This time it's with user madams30.

The one non-Larkin card in that pile is the lone short print from the 1998 Sports Illustrated presented by Fleer set.  I'm nearly done with that set, only five more cards to locate:

1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated Wants:
Base:  53, 88, 111, 131, 148

That does it for this past week on TCDB.  I'd say this was a banner week for myself and it certainly eased the sting of having to get back to the work grind!

Like I said, with a TCDB mail recap each Monday, Monday's no longer suck!