The best part of card blogging

Wow, it's been a crazy week here on the blog. Five days ago, I was wondering what I was going to post. Then people starting sending me 2010 Topps cards, bippings arrived almost daily, and former major leaguer Jerry Reuss started reading my blog. Suddenly I couldn't keep up with anything.

I haven't written about a trade in over a week, and that's just not right. Because trading is probably the best part of card blogging.

That is a big thing for me to say. I didn't start out this blog with trading as my No. 1 purpose. I love to write and that was my primary objective -- to write about what I love, because I wasn't writing about what I love at work anymore. Then I discovered other great things about card blogging. It was therapeutic. It was informative. It helped me connect with like-minded and very interesting people. And there was the cool stuff, like the Troll turning Mr. Reuss on to my blog.

But finding someone who will take your junk, for lack of a better word, might be the best part of all.

Think back to the way it used to be. You may remember that I recently pulled a Kevin Kouzmanoff SP Authentic autographed card. Now, truthfully, I have no use for a Kouzmanoff autograph card. He's a player I barely know. He's played for teams I don't care about. But just a couple of years ago, I would have had to hang onto that card I didn't care anything for, because it was a "hit." Something that meant nothing to me would be protected in a top loader because "somebody" out there cared about the card. Who that person was, I had no idea.

I would show the Kouzmanoff card to my friends who cared about baseball. They'd say, "Cool. Who's he?" And I'd say, "I don't know, some infielder for the Padres." And back in the storage box it would go. Placed under lock and key by someone who didn't value it at all.

Blogging has changed all that. Most people who blog about cards know there's a Kouzmanoff collector out there. Her name is Sooz, and she now has my Kouzmanoff auto card.

Meanwhile, I have a card I care about, which is the Kershaw-Betances autographed card at the start of the post. It is my fifth Kershaw autographed card. I have little knowledge of Dellin Betances, other than I know he was a touted Yankees pitching prospect who has had injury issues and is still in Single A ball.

But that's no matter. Kershaw is all I see when I look at the card. And good thing, because Betances' auto is half obscured. It looks like one of those envelope windows for when you pay bills, and you can't get the address to line up in the little window. Not the best design concept for this AU card, Upper Deck.

Sooz also sent three other Dodger cards, all of which I needed.

Two Chin-Lung Hu cards from 2008 Timeline. Excellent. That increased my count of 2008 Hu cards to 30. That's crazy.

I also received this nice little item:

It's an Ethier mini from Topps 206.

The numbered Cycle back version. Awesome.

So, there you are, the best part of card blogging is turning trash to treasure.

But give me a day, and the best part will be something else. This week has certainly taught me that.