I miss Christmas

Well, not really, but ain't that purty?

"I miss Christmas" is another way of saying I miss the way things were in the first couple of years of blogging.

I miss getting 5 packages a day. I miss discovering new collectors and new blogs and the excitement of a whole new world that made my old world suddenly vibrant and gave me a reason to get up in the morning. It was "Christmas" every day back then.

Sometimes it seems like it's not that way anymore.

I feel like that most often when I notice another frequent blogger not blogging much anymore. Some of my favorite blogs are either on a really long break or are never coming back. Others are dwindling down to sporadic posting. Remember Dinged Corners? Collective Troll? Those were the days.

Others, like Cardboard Junkie, The Cardboard Don and Play At The Plate, have backed off, hinted at quitting, quit and then come back, or a mixture of all of the above. I sit and wait for them to return with the vigor of a couple years ago.

This is not a criticism.You gotta do what you wanna/gotta do, of course. I'm just saying I miss those days sometimes.

But wallowing in the past is not productive of me and this is really the point that I'd like to address. The bigger, more weighty post on "wallowing" is coming in a day or so. The lesser, breezy aspect is what I'm pointing out now.

And that is: Some people may not be blogging as much anymore, but a lot of other people have moved in to take their place. And the folks who have moved in and the folks who aren't blogging as much ARE ALL STILL TRADING.

There seems to be more trades than ever. What's to lament? Isn't that great?

To illustrate, look again at the two Kershaws at the top. The red one came from Play At The Plate. He's still blogging, but not as much. The green one came from a new trader. He doesn't have a blog, I don't think. But he is on Twitter, and that's where I did the trade. So "old" way or "new" way, I'm still gettin' cards.

I'll mix these two card packages up some more.

Here are some other cards from PATP:

A couple of gold sparklies from last season's Update. They don't hold up as well now that the green/emerald sparklies are out. But we had a hunch that they weren't all that great anyway. Or at least I did.

This guy again. Mini-style. Any chance we see him catching for the Dodgers in another game?

And a gold frame for the best Dodger card of 2012.

Now, here's another card from my new Twitter trading bud, William, aka, @wrudart. It's a pretty good one:

Ain't that snazzy? It's Tier One, something that never ever travels in my neighborhood.

I know the swatch is likely a piece of material from some industry bigwig's ski-lodge sweater. But it's still a nice-looking card and well worth the trade.

Even though I miss the way things were on the blogs, this whole card scene really is as good as ever -- possibly better than ever.

And with that, I will take this general theme to a larger scale with my next post.

Get read to nod your head ... or shake your fist.