^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^
Jack Squirek (RIP) is my profile picture only because he is my cousin!
Hi All,
I have a 20+ year history of trading in various online groups since the early 2000s including the former sportscardfun, tradingcardfools, Trading Bases, TheBench, Beckett, and the amazingly-difficult-to-navigate Facebook. My spreadsheet indicates that I've completed just under 4,000 trades with over 1500 different trading partners in 12 countries and all 50 states. I hadn't checked that in a while... that's nuts!. With one trader (not here), I've completed 100+ trades and there are 20 other traders with over 25 trades... it's been like having the old neighborhood back together.
I'm still adding cards to the database to improve my trade options and increase the size of trades to take advantage of postage costs. It's a HUGE undertaking with inventory dating back to the 60s and I'm limiting my trades here to some degree. At the bottom of this message you can find my baseball and football websites for my wants (these represent the cards I'm loading into the TCDb wantlist database).
I currently have a handful of active trades and 30+ offers in the backlog with most having cards tied up in other trades. I will follow up as soon as I can. If you need to withdraw, no worries and please no hard feelings. I'll save your offer and try to complete something down the road as we obviously had something to offer each other.
This is my hobby and "free time to play" is precious as I have a busy career, family life, and too much yard work. Appreciate your patience... I will get back to you!
I'm open to any and all trades, but particularly motivated to move my non-baseball for baseball in an effort to focus my overall collection a bit. I have a dozen 3200-count boxes sorted by NFL team, year, so if you are a team collector, I can very likely fill some holes.
If you are trying to move your baseball for either football, hockey, or basketball... I'll drop everything to make that happen next.
If you are football only, I'd look at Steelers and Panthers in return. Tell me your team and I'll let you know what I have, then get the best stuff listed here.
For hockey, I primarily have a Penguins collection that I'd like to move, with a spattering of singles for other teams. For basketball, I primarily have a Cavaliers collection to move, with a mix of other teams. Yes, I have Lebron RCs available. Hockey and basketball collections are not in my future... please take it all!
My favorite trades are the ones that include a fat envelope/box of hits and are at least $50 in BV to take advantage of postage. This is why my focus is on getting the 50+ years of inventory updated here. The expectation is that these are sent in padded mailers with tracking both directions.
Quick, smaller PWE trades can work well, too, and this is the majority of what I've completed on this site thus far. I've sent 500+ trades via PWEs (most not from this site) and have had very few issues. Using top album plastic pages, trades of around 27 cards seems to be the safe maximum. To be successful with PWE trades, you cannot use top-loaders, so GU/relics and similarly thick items are out of consideration for PWE. Stiff, cardboard mailers are required at a minimum but the post office is trying to make these "packages" if too thick.
Also, if you put a layer of clear shipping tape around the paper envelope it helps with anything that goes through the machines. It doesn't stop the occasional crumple, but generally will allow for a delivery in a postal body bag. Choose the "rigid" option and pay the extra quarter to get the hand cancel and sortation. USPS is a mixed world of technology, so none of this is an exact science or guarantee.
Let's trade our unwanted singles for better homes!
Michael
=====================================================-====================
My TCDb player collection rankings...
Jim Thome (#2)
Robin Yount (#14)
Dean Palmer (#1)
Jake Peavy (#1)
Brook Jacoby (#1)
Jimmie Foxx (#2)
Adam Wolf (#1) - local kid
Buddy Bell (#1)
Dave Dravecky (#4)
Larry Fitzgerald (#1)
Tony Gonzalez (#1)
Steve Largent (#7)
Donovan McNabb (#1)
Richmond Webb (#2) - born the exact same day as me and I'm three hours older than him (yes, I asked him!).
Ben Watson (#1)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baseball: Tribe HQ (google.com)
Jim Thome, Robin Yount, Jimmie Foxx... see my players collections for more local favorites.
Cleveland Indians Team Sets, parallels, everything....
Football: Steelers HQ (google.com)
Not as strong or organized collection as baseball, but chasing my Steelers and favorite players: Larry Fitzgerald, Ben Watson, Tony Gonzalez, Steve Largent,... others.
