Big Trade

A few years ago, when I got my internet access through America Online, I got in the habit of trading baseball cards online. AOL had a message board set aside for the purpose of discussing and making trades through the mail. I had good luck with this. It was an easy way to find people from around the country who wanted things I considered junk and had things I wanted. For an example, I found someone who actually wanted a Hideo Nomo card, and was willing to send me a whole pile of Nomar Garciaparra cards for it. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, when I decided that AOL was too expensive and slow for my liking, I lost this little ability. Since then I had been looking for a new place to make trades, with no luck. Until, that is, a couple weeks ago.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the internet is full of people blogging about baseball cards. If you look around enough, you’ll find all sorts of people talking about the hobby, or their collections, or both. From what I’ve found, the best one out there is called “A Cardboard Problem.” It’s the best for a couple reasons. It’s updated regularly. It’s usually at least once a day that I find a new post. It helps that it’s actually a couple girls that contribute to it, so it increases the frequency a bit. It also doesn’t take itself too seriously. A lot of baseball card bloggers think they’re the only “real” collectors because they appreciate the “little” things. They’re not bandwagon fans, they’re real fans. (Sort of like the annoying members of SOSH) Instead, they get excited about their collections. They just enjoy talking about cards. It’s usually the first website I go to every day.

As it turns out, even the one glaring flaw with the site is actually good thing. As it happens, both girls are Yankees fans. (It’s OK, they’re the good kind) Ordinarily, this might be a problem. But, not when it comes to making a baseball card trade. As you may guess, I have little to no use for baseball cards featuring the Evil Empire. Oddly, they have little to no use for cards of Red Sox players. It’s a match made in heaven. One man’s trash is another’s treasure. I was able to purge a bunch of Yankees cards like from my collection. In return, I got a shipment full of Pedroia, Papelbon, Ortiz, Ramirez, and Youkilis. I certainly plan on taking advantage of this arrangement as often as I can.

So, if you’re a baseball card collector, or even if you’re not, I strongly suggest you check out the girls at “A Cardboard Problem.” It’s a must read, and will be at the top of my “favorite links” list once I get around to writing it down.

Just don’t let the interlocking “NY” scare you off.