Trade Post - A Cracked Bat

Before Christmas Julie, who writes the great blog A Cracked Bat,  emailed me for my new address because she wanted to send me some cards.  It was great timing because I had finally gotten to the point were I could find my boxes were all my cards for trade are stored.  I had been picking up Tigers cards specifically for her for a while, but squirreling them away as I worked on moving into our new house.  Now that I have my own space to spread out I was ready to jump into the world of trading again.  Fast forward to late last week and in my mailbox was a nice bubble mailer packed full of cards.  The thing I love about trading is that I can give cards I don't want or collect to someone who will appreciate them and if all goes according to plan they do the same.  Let's have a look at the goodness Julie sent.

First up is a vintage Brewers double rookie card from 1971.  I have the complete 71 Brewer's team set, but my Smith/Kopacz rookie card is at least 2 grades lower than the one Julie sent me.  The scan got cut off and I didn't feel like rescanning it.  I don't find 71's that nice around here.  An easy upgrade for my team set!

I didn't scan everything Julie sent, but I did want to show off some of the highlights from the package. 

The Jenkins is the gold parallel from 2003 Bowman, a pair of 2001 Gallery cards, Braun's Then and Now Bowman insert deceptively from the 2017 Topps Chrome set not Bowman, Braun's Gold Label base card and a nice emerald parallel Lucroy Triple Threads card.

Also included was Braun's 2017 Triple Threads base card, which represents the whole Brewers team set.  His 2017 Topps Fire Golden Grabs base insert, which are harder to find as they are only inserted in the full boxes available at Target.  The 2015 Diamond Kings is the Silver parallel numbered to 99 and a Taylor Jungman 2016 Topps Chrome Prism refractor parallel.

A couple more nicer high end product base cards.  Love'em.

I'm pretty sure I don't have that Braun Spring Fever card and while looking at that cool 2003 Fleer E-X Sexson card I still lament about the lose of competition that created cards like that.  So clear, so neat.

Julie also included a small stack of 2017 HBP cards.  If you don't know the HBP set you're not alone.  I had never seen or heard about these cards.  To the internet and TCDB.  HBP stands for Honus Bonus Partners Fantasy Baseball. So it looks like there were another oddball offering trying to cash in on the fantasy sports craze.  The website featured on the back of the card is already shut down, so I guess there's no plans for a follow up season.  Put out by Rittenhouse Archives or at least somewhat associated with them.  500 cards in the set and the Brewers have a nice team set featured.  There is also a foil parallel, which Julie sent me one of, the Junior Guerra.  I guess each hobby box came with two Career Milestone 1 of 1 cards. But there are literally hundreds of 1/1 cards for each player as each hit, stolen base, strikeout if featured.  Think Topps Milestone and Moments or those Barry Bonds or Mickey Mantle Home Run inserts from the mid 2000's.  Those cards actually look pretty good and are printed on quality card stock. 

Here's what the backs look like.

In the package were also 20 Frank Thomas cards.  And I know Julie took the time to look at my Frank Thomas checklist, because I didn't have a single one she sent.  My scanner also only holds 16 cards so here are my favorite 16.

But the cherry on top of the package was this sweet Carlos Gomez BCA Die-Cut Prism Autograph numbered 25/25.

A very sweet trade indeed.  Thanks Julie!!