What's it worth to ya?

I received this card in the mail on Friday from Chris of the always interesting Project '62 blog. It's a black-bordered UD Masterpieces card of James Loney. It's quite nice. The bordered cards are a good reason to chase Masterpieces, because the base cards alone would never make me buy more than a single blaster of the stuff (and that's exactly what I did in '08. I bought one blaster and a handful of packs).

It's the first bordered Masterpieces card of a Dodger that I've owned.

But some of you may be disgusted by the fact that I'm sending this card to Chris in return:

You're saying: Cal Ripken for James Loney???? A Hall of Famer and legend for a guy who is just starting out and was a semi-constant topic of trade rumors this offseason???? Are you out of your mind? Are you lucid? And can I trade with you because you obviously don't have a clue????

Well, listen.

I went through that whole "what's it worth?" and "I'll only trade for equal value" crap for too many years. I would hold on to cards like this Ripken and others that I didn't really care about because they were "valuable" players, and I'd almost live in fear of giving up a card that would skyrocket in value or that my trade partner would turn around and deal for a 1914 Cracker Jack Shoeless Joe Jackson card.

Then, somewhere along the way, only within the last year or two, I exhaled.

I decided, I will collect what I want to collect and discard what I am not interested in (and by "discard" I mean "trade," not throw out. Don't get nervous). When I pulled the Ripken card, I knew I wouldn't keep it. But I also knew it'd get me something I wanted.

Chris was kind of enough to step in and not only send me the Loney card, but some other Dodgers I needed, too. I'll be happy to send him some Cubs in return, along with that nice Ripken card, of course.

Here are a few cards he sent:

A 2008 Documentary Deception card of Manny Ramirez. Doc is up to his old tricks on this card, which features Manny but mentions Greg Maddux on the front and the back. Maddux also lost this game and the only Dodger hitter mentioned is Pablo Ozuna who knocked in the Dodgers' lone run with a homer. Baseball Reference says that Ramirez was 2-for-3 with a double in this game.

Gary Sheffield, 2000 Topps. The Yankees really got their money's worth with Sheffield and Giambi and A-Rod, didn't they? What a botch job by Cashman. And what does he do? Toss away ungodly amounts of money to fetch more big names like Sabathia and Teixeira. Pssssst, Bri. It's not working.

Andre Ethier, 2008 Topps All-Star Rookie Team insert. Ethier will always have a spot in Dodgers fans' hearts for driving the big tub of goo, Andruw, out of the village.

SPORTSFLICS!!! 1986 style! I think Chris is the king of Sportsflics. Or one of them anyway. He sent me key cards of Mike Marshall, Mike Scioscia and Bill Madlock.

Fernando Valenzuela, 1991 Score. Look at the frames that Fernando is wearing. That earns him at least an honorable mention spot on the Best Glasses in the History of Baseball countdown. I will be updating that countdown periodically by the way. Because I'll be adding more glasses cards.

J.R. Towles, 2008 Topps Stadium Club. This is the only non-Dodger card Chris sent. It's to help me complete my Stadium Club set. I fear that my SC quest will get forgotten now that the 2009 cards are out. That's why I picked up a pack of '08 Heritage on Saturday when I bought yet a few more packs of '09 Topps (I'm hooked!). The Heritage looked so lonely. And guess what? I actually found a couple Heritage cards I needed.

Finally, a 2008 Upper Deck card of Hiroki Kuroda. I've ragged on UD a little bit the last couple of days. UD will never replace Topps in my eyes, but they do make good cards.

I didn't collect much '08 Upper Deck, but received a ton of UD Dodgers from that year in trades and blogger giveaways. I received so much that I figured I had the whole team set. But I didn't have this card. After going over the checklist, I realized I still need three other Dodgers to complete the set! They have officially been added to my want list.

Great cards, Chris. They are well worth the Ripken and those Cubs I'll be sending off.