That kind of year

I traded top loaders for cards. It was that kind of year.

 

I didn't hesitate to do it either. It made perfect sense. There are a lot of things that we've done in 2020 that made perfect sense that would seem ridiculous in any other year. Need I bring up bird brains and toilet paper?

 

So, yes, I was happy to trade cards for top loaders.

 

I've rarely needed top loaders, team bags or penny sleeves. Thanks to all the trades I've made through the blog for a dozen years, I've always enjoyed a healthy stockpile of all of them. I am certain I will never want for penny sleeves for the rest of my life and that loved ones will be finding them five years after I'm gone.

 

I thought I was well off with top loaders, too. I don't store many cards in top loaders, save for autographs and relics. But then I decided to house my growing collection of Kellogg's cards in top loaders because that seems the best way to keep them. That sucked up my supply right quick.

 

And then I started hearing that people were hoarding top loaders and those semi-rigid things that I dislike. What? Really? Yeah, collectors were saying they were going for way too much money. I didn't bother to check this out for myself but I was starting to get concerned as someone who suddenly needed them.

 

I even took almost all of my relics out of top loaders and stuffed the relics in boxes as it's where they deserve to be anyway. That was long overdue.

 

However, many relics require much thicker top loaders and they're too open for things like Kellogg's cards from the '70s. So I was still short.

 

So when Steve on Twitter had some top loaders available, I jumped immediately. All I needed to do was roust up a few card extras from the '70s in exchange!

 

In very 2020 fashion as we were arranging the deal, we discussed our brushes with covid in our own circles, wished each other the best ("be safe" and all that) and then waited to see what the mail system did with our packages. My portion hasn't gone out yet, so Steve's still got that part to handle, but I'm very happy now that my top loaders arrived!

They will take care of the rest of my '78 Kellogg's needs and probably my '82 Kellogg's set. (I'll still have to look up those top loader prices -- I'm pretty sure they've gone down now -- for future Kellogg's quests).

 

Steve also added a few mailers. I have no pressing need for those as I'm still working off my 2019 Christmas mailer haul, but they'll come in handy eventually. 

OK, since this post has featured almost no cards, just plain, utilitarian plastic (actually quite appropriate for the traditionally austere feeling of early January), I have a smattering of cards to show from Adam of Infield Fly Rule.

He pulled a wonderful blue parallel from his box of 2019 Big League and that looked so good with all the Dodger blue in the photo that I just had to have it.

 

Adam also threw in a couple of Buffalo dudes. The football card at the top of the post I have already in my Bills collection but it works for my 1979 Topps football set quest, which I will be tackling in earnest in 2021!

 

The other Buffalo dude is a future Brush With Greatness topic, former Sabres goalie Tom Barrasso. Yeah, yeah, I know the younger folks know him as Penguin. But I associate him with the Sabres. It was a pretty boring meeting with the net minder, but I'll make it interesting for ya.

 

So that's my first post for 2021. Top loaders. We can only go up from here.