Coast to coast

 I've completed my Dodger cards giveaway, unless anyone else wants to jump in and claim some cards. I feel bad that I can't find the '92 Topps golds that Crocodile Cards claimed, so if he wants to send me an email with his address, I'll find something to send him.

There's another giveaway coming up soon. Even though I'm happy to get some cards out of the house, I'm not sure how healthy these rapid giveaways are for my collection. What I should be doing is drumming up some trades, because, whoa buddy, have trades dropped off over the past several months.

It seems like I'm dealing with the same trade people, Bo, Nick, Kerry and a handful of others, over and over. Everyone else seems to have left for TCDB or, I don't know, just don't do trades.

March isn't the best time to add another project, but expect to see some random card sends from me in the coming weeks/months.

Meanwhile, speaking of Bo of Baseball Cards Come to Life!, he sent a smattering of cards my way for no reason at all as far as I can tell.

 

A Cubs card. Why is he sending me a Cubs card?

 

Well, it's Sportflics, so you know there is a Dodger hiding somewhere in the card.

I'm not a fan of how Sportflics did this, intermingling players from different teams on the same card. It makes for some awkward explaining when the binder cops come to my home wondering what the Cubs and Yankees are doing in my Dodgers binder.

 

But then I'm including stuff like this in those same Dodgers binders.

 

My rule is that if these minor league players wound up playing for the Dodgers then they go in the binders (all others are banished to a box). Mike Busch was the first replacement player called up to the majors after the 1994 strike.

 

Young completes my 1991 Classic Best set for the Dodgers portion. Busch's arrival leaves me just a Michael Moore card away from finishing 1992. I don't know how Bo knew all this because I don't have want lists up for these (maybe I mentioned it in a post or a comment?).

 

But that's a sign of a professional trade partner right there. Always on the look-out.

 

Here is another great trade gesture, as I whip all the way to the opposite coast from Bo for this arrival.

 

I sent a bunch of Dodgers to Chad of @dodgers_cards. He has a lot of Dodgers cards. But so do I and I'm happy to say I found some that were new to his collection.

 

Suitably impressed, he sent the following book my way:

 

 I know this book well. I've owned the original version in paperback for several years. But now I'm eager to compare this one with that one and find out what new stories are to be found!

But the most interesting part of the book is two pages in.

Carl Erskine signed the book ... to ME!

Well, maybe not to me exactly, but to somebody named "Greg" and that's good enough! 

That's a nice gesture by Chad and sometimes that's what happens when you run a giveaway, although it's never anything I expect.

I'm down to just one other recently-received card package right now. Fortunately I don't need trade packages to keep the blog running. But I don't like boring mail -- I've become accustomed to a certain mailbox lifestyle. So I've got some work to do.