Trading on Twitter

I've been on Twitter for three weeks now, and I have to say the second time around is going a little better than the first. Twitter can still be annoying as hell, but I think my approach to it is better this time. I've kept to my "rule" of only tweeting about cards -- for the most part -- and I've chosen to emphasize the usefulness of the tool, rather than the crap that's too easy to obsess over.

One thing that Twitter is useful for is trades. That's not the reason I got back on there again. I'm not searching for new trade partners by any means -- I'm perfectly happy with the many that I have now and I can barely keep up with them as it is.

But I've been involved in three or four transactions since my return to Twitter. Two of the fellow tweeters have card blogs. Two don't.

The first Twitter trade (or #TwitterTrade, as the kids are saying) involved @SWLVguy, who charmed me with his friendliness and enthusiasm for cards right away. Before I knew it, we were swapping cards.

I was shocked that he checked my want lists. (I don't know what I was thinking -- that there was this invisible line that prevented Twitter people from crossing over into the blog world, I guess). But he did and found some key Dodgers for me.

First I'll show the 2012 minis he sent:

There are others but I didn't feel like digging out the comparable regular-sized card for all of them. Juan Uribe, especially.

Still need seven more mini Dodgers (and of course all those stupid league leaders cards), but let's move onto some more fun items.

I've pulled a boatload of these WIAN inserts in all of my A&G purchasing, but the Dodgers have been as elusive as ever. Feels good to land these two. The Kemp card back even mentions Steve Kemp, who I still think about periodically when The Bison is mentioned (you had to grow up in the late '70s to remember the phenom mania that enveloped Steve Kemp).

The former "can't miss" Dodger prospect finally gave it up after toiling in independent leagues between 2009-11. I have too many cards of this guy for him to have never gotten past Double A.

The Andy LaRoche cards continue to trickle in -- someday I'll have them all as that guy in Nebraska still listening to the White Stripes will finally realize that all of LaRoche's card mojo disappeared a long time ago.

I stand by my theory that cards from 1990 Leaf are the most difficult to find out of any set during the overproduction era.

But I have no explanation as to why I still needed this card.

Opening Day, back when they used to commemorate the first day of the baseball season by decorating the stadium walls with silver bunting. Wait .... they didn't do that? I thought everything in the late 1990s was silver.

Easily the best card in the whole package (SWLVguy also uses blue tape, by the way). A 1963 Topps Dodger card will keep me on Twitter for a long time.

Perhaps the best part of this trade is that I am able to resurrect my trade map.

Remember the trade map?

It kept track of all my trades by state. All of the states shaded in blue are ones that include a resident with whom I've successfully transacted.

But I haven't shown the trade map since December 2010, nearly two full years ago. Because I couldn't add any new states to the list.

Eventually, I forgot about the map. I even made a trade with someone from Delaware recently and didn't notify anyone about it, even though it was the first time I had ever traded with someone from Delaware.

SWLVguy isn't from Delaware. But he IS from Nevada, and good gosh, it's great to cross that great big state off the list.

So here's the new map, with Delaware and Nevada added.

Forty states down. Only 10 to go.

Anybody from Wyoming want to follow me @nightowlcards?