The new way of trading for 2023

 

In many ways it seems like the years are speeding up and 2023 has only been three months long. But sometimes I think back to something and say to myself "was that still in this year?"

 

I knew I wanted to review my trades for the year on Trading Card Database but I could've sworn that I started trading in 2022. That's just my fading brain. I wrote vigorously about my first TCDB trades and they were in February of this year.

 

Before TCDB trading I didn't think I needed it. I was trading plenty through the blogs and the thought of taking extra time for another trading avenue was not appealing or seemed doable. I was wrong about that, although it does seem like extra work sometimes. I still trade through the blogs, on a much more smaller scale (because everyone's doing the TCDB thing), and sometimes I mix things up. I list a card available for trade on TCDB but then ship it off in a non-TCDB deal and forget to update its status on TCDB (in TCDB trades, the status is updated automatically). This happens ALL THE TIME -- it just did today -- and I feel like a doofus when it does.

So I need to get that straightened out before I feel like I'm truly in sync with TCDB trading. Also it would be nice if I found time to initiate trades once in a while. I made 44 trades in 2023 (three more are in progress) and I initiated one. Life (and this blog) is really a killer.

TCDB is super handy with cataloging your collection and spinning all your numbers. This is my favorite part of the site and I use it for blog ideas and just my own information all the time. It files all your trades, too, and I was easily able to calculate which sets benefited the most from my trading this year.

I can even give a progress timeline through the year.

Feb. 8: My first trade, for six 2005 Topps baseball cards.

Feb. 22: 1979 Topps football jumps into the lead with a trade for 33 cards.

March 17: 1979 Topps football - up to 45 cards.

March 19: 1979 Topps football - 57 cards

April 10: 1979 Topps football - 62 cards

April 29: 1979 Topps football - 79 cards

July 20: 1985 Donruss baseball vaults into the lead with 84 cards in one shot.

July 26: 1985 Donruss - 86 cards

Aug. 5: 1985 Donruss - 103 cards

Aug. 7: 1985 Donruss - 104 cards

Aug. 29: 1985 Donruss - 117 cards

Aug. 30: 1985 Donruss - 118 cards

Aug. 31: 1985 Donruss - 136 cards

Aug. 31: 1985 Donruss - 233 cards

Sept. 16: 1985 Donruss - 372 cards

Oct. 31: 1985 Donruss - 373 cards

Nov. 2: 1985 Donruss - 374 cards

Nov. 10: 1985 Donruss - 375 cards

Dec. 1: 1985 Donruss - 390 cards

Dec. 2: 1985 Donruss - 392 cards

Dec. 6: 1985 Donruss - 395 cards

Dec. 6: 1985 Donruss - 398 cards

 

Obviously people noticed when I posted my 1985 Donruss want list.

 

That set is still not complete, I have just over 200 cards to go, but it's easily the champion of TCDB trades for me in my first year of TCDB trading. Here are the top five:

 

1985 Donruss: 398 cards

 

 

1979 Topps football: 79 cards

2005 Topps: 43 cards

1988 Pacific - 28 cards

2023 Topps Heritage: 17 cards

After that it's 1990 Pacific with 14, 1990 Swell with 13 (set complete!) and 1991 Swell with 10.

All of these cards are very much appreciated, but I have my favorites. Topps Heritage is my darling set of the year and I'm super pleased I could land 17 cards from my wants. I also like that I made good progress on the 1979 Topps football set.

Some of these sets were kind of low-hanging fruit for traders I'm guessing, but I'm a low-end collector so that's no problemo for me. I mean there was all kinds of good "overlooked" stuff I got this year, 1981 Fleer Star Stickers, 1975 Hostess, even 1989 Pro Set football.

The Pro Set cards came from Chris of The Collector after I answered his call to initiate a trade on the site (yeah, that's the one I initiated). I'm not collecting this set, but the cards do speak to me. Ronnie Harmon is a Bills need from that time I was covering the team. My selection of Brian Sochia's card will become apparent in a future post. Warren Moon is an old fantasy football favorite and Jerry Rice is Jerry Rice.

 

The Angels In Order has been sending Blogger Appreciation cards out through TCDB recently and this is my selection. Six winged figures here, four Angels, a future Angel and a Byrd.

 

The oldest card I received in a TCDB trade this year was a 1967 Topps Hoyt Wilhelm. I haven't experienced a ton of vintage trades, maybe because I don't have a lot of vintage for trade on there (though I do have some).

I really like how enthusiastic the TCDB traders are and how accessible they are to making deals. If an offer doesn't work out (and that's happened only a time or two), they'll jump at the chance to make a new offer. It reminds me of the old blog days when people sent out cards just because to other bloggers.

I recently finished off a deal with Pennsylvania Tiger, who has been a commenter on here in the past. He sent me some key cards:

A nice mix of sets I've made a lot of progress on this year, particularly through TCDB.

 

 

 Some big names in 1985 Donruss arrived, too (Blogger decided to freak out about uploading photos around this time, it took about 10 tries to get this image on here).

 These were unexpected, three key ones from 1987 Fleer, although I think Penn Tiger did tell me that some 1987 Fleer was coming.

 

Yeah, he wouldn't drop all that on me without warning, would he?

1987 Fleer is the only main Fleer set of the '80s that I haven't completed and I haven't checked (i.e. updated TCDB) to see how far off I'm from completing the set now.

I love little surprises like that.

So, yeah, TCDB trading has been a success in 2023. It's interesting to see how people use it. Some trade strictly through TCDB while others (bloggers) use it as kind of a go-between, I'm assuming because it's easier to track than just doing it yourself.

Once you get into it, it's difficult to believe you kept track of all this yourself. Although I still do the old-fashioned way out of habit (and a back-up as well).

Here's to finishing up some of these sets in 2024!