Up Over 110 Trades for 2021!

My 2021 has been super busy on the baseball card front (and, to be honest, on pretty much all fronts)!  For baseball cards, this past week saw me surpass 110 trades - which means I'm on track for over 200 trades for the year if I keep up the same pace!  I probably won't keep up that pace because with every trade that comes in, my want list shrinks, which makes it that much harder to do the next trade but even so, 100+ trades in 5 months is nothing to sneeze at!

This week on TCDB, I made some more progress on some set builds - in particular I had success with the recently added 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set.  I haven't even had a chance to get my want list posted to my blog...and with the way trading is going over at TCDB I might be able to finish off my base set over there within a week or two from now!

Sending help my way was user Rest173.

That's cards #13 and #14 in the set - always nice to get low-numbered cards since it makes the front of the set binder feel more complete!  

Also helping my 2005 Fan Favorites set build was user Godzilla8you:

As the set title suggests, the 2005 Fan Favorites set is full of, well, favorites but not necessarily stars.  Thus, it was nice to be able to grab the Cal Ripken, Jr. card in this trade was the Iron Man was one of the few true stars in the set that I was still missing.  

My next trade was with user paulie3jobs.  Like the first two trades, this one also involved 2005 Fan Favorites (in the form of a single card):

However, in addition to the Fan Favorites, I was also able to land one more of the Topps Gold Label cards from the 2001 set that I needed (serially numbered out of 999) AND a new (to me) Barry Larkin card from a more modern rendition of Topps Gold Label (2018).

My 2001 Topps Gold Label want list is down to only needing the assorted serially numbered base cards.  I kind of hate when sets include serially numbered cards within a base set - and with the 2001 Gold Label set it's even worse since those cards are scattered throughout the base set (meaning if you ignore them you have lots of empty holes in your binder pages)!

2001 Topps Gold Label Wants:  (All are serially numbered out of 999):  41, 61, 62, 93, 97, 106, 108, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115

Next, from user Mets86Champs comes a Topps Heritage short print!

That's a 2009 Topps Heritage short print - a set that I still need quite a few cards from overall.  This trade ended up being a simple one-for-one trade of Heritage short prints.  Quick and easy - and now I'm one card closer to completing another Heritage set.  I'll take that.

Next, from user CoachBarry is a Barry Larkin card that I (somehow?!) didn't own up until now.

That's a 1997 Fleer Ultra base card.  Nothing special or fancy about it but somehow it eluded me for all these years.  Nice to have it in hand now!

My next swap of the week was with user NippyJones.

That's a (ugly) 2010 Topps National Chicle short print of Henry Rodriguez.  I've mentioned a number of times that if I ever decide to simply cut sets from my want list without ever finishing them, then a set like the 2010 National Chicle set is likely to go.  The artistic concept was unique to me back in 2010 when the set was released but vintage/artsy stuff has been done to death by now (and, frankly, done much better by many other sets).  For now though, if I can trade away unwanted stuff and still make slow progress on this set, I'll leave it on my want list.

2010 Topps National Chicle Wants:
Base:  276, 278, 287, 295, 296, 299, 302, 303, 308, 311, 317

Finally, from user HamPstr88 comes my largest trade of the week (in terms of incoming cards at least):

In this swap, I received 9 cards from the 2005 Fan Favorites set along with five cards from the 1999 Pacific set.  I scanned some of my favorites from the trade.

This past week was definitely a solid week of TCDB trading!  If I can keep up a similar pace for the remainder of the year, not only will I hit 200+ trades but I'll also almost assuredly complete 30+ sets for the year!  Wouldn't that be something?!