Trade with Fellow Blogger : Frankie of My Life in the Sports Card Hobby

Another successful trade with Frankie which was born from a failed one nets me the return of a favorite and an acquisition of a top prospect plus some bonus cards.

Frankie is the 3rd separate blogger to send me a trade package with their own business card. I really am missing the boat on this. I need to look into doing up some Penguin cards.

Frankie as always send some extra cards in the trade package and this time was no different as he sent me a nice handful. Won't show them all but here are a couple of my favorites.

A Jose Bautista manufactured relic card from Topps. Frankie was nice enough to throw in an autograph of him from our last trade and now I have yet another Jose card to pare it up with.

A Mr. Hu autograph from a way back. I forgot I never had an autograph of his as I was never in search for one. Still not a fan of sticker autographs but being as this is the only one of Hu I have I welcome it into the fold.

Now onto the main 2 cards that this trade was about.

Frankie originally had a 2015 Topps Finest card of Kris Bryant that he pulled in a pack and I wanted that and was trying to work a trade focused around it but we couldn't come to an agreement but Frankie was still interested in my/his old Strata Gwynn card that he traded to me last year. I wanted to have a Gwynn autograph though still in my collection so what did we do? Why I had him trade back my/his Gwynn that I traded him for the Strata. Ha Ha.

Mr. Padre

.5 from gem mint

I think Frankie and I are happier with the Gwynns going back to their original homes. He loves his Strata and I knew for a fact that it would not be gradable by BGS (which I wanted to do) due to it being too thick and I like the fact that this one is already graded by BGS so I can file it away with all the rest of my graded cards. With it back in hand though when Beckett comes back out in October I will be trying to get a bump on this to get a gold banner. You never know.

Along with Mr. Gwynn I will be adding another card to "hope I can get a bump to a gem mint grade" pile which was the other big card of this trade :

also only .5 from gem mint

I have wanted an autograph of Buxton for some time now but the right opportunity hadn't presented itself to me that is until now. Frankie recently received this back from Beckett and even though it is "only" a 9 it's still a great card and I am lucky to finally call it my own. I am hoping lady luck will be on my side when I submit both of these for a re grade.

Another successful completed trade with Frankie is in the books. Thank you again and looking forward to the next one.

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

Trade with Fellow Blogger : Frankie of My Life in the Sports Card Hobby

It's been awhile but I was finally able to complete a trade as Frankie of My Life in the Sports Card Hobby finished up our second transaction. As with the 1st one this one went smooth with no issues. The trade would have been completed sooner but I was dealing with my grandfather's passing (R.I.P.) so my concentration was a tad lacking. Thank you again to Frankie for being patient and understanding in this matter.

He will probably put up his own post about this trade but what I ended up sending him were these 4 cards :

• Tony Gwynn Five Star autograph BGS 9
• Craig Biggio Five Star autograph BGS 9
• Nolan Ryan Mini Frame autograph BGS 9
• Bo Jackson Five Star autograph BGS 9

The top 3 cards were part of a group of throw ins that Frankie was kind enough to include in the package. I already have the Brigham so that will go into the trade pile or I will pay it forward in another trade with someone else but the Urias and Seager are new additions to the collection so thank you for those.

Corey Seager Bowman Chrome refractor

Another Seager throw in but like with the Brigham I already have this BUT since I am doing the rainbow collection for Seager I am going to put this under the microscope to see if it might grade out to gem mint. Either way, I can't get enough Seager cards.

Brandon Trinkwon Bowman Chrome autograph

The trade for me was centered around 2 autographs with 1 being the more important one but Frankie was nice enough to throw in a couple more. 1st up is this base Bowman Chrome of Trinkwon. I already have this one as well but it's always a good day when you get to add an autograph to the collection.

Jose Bautista Five Star autograph

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Now this card is the best of the throw ins. I have had Jose Bautista's autograph on my to acquire list for quite sometime and even had a different copy of this Five Star on my eBay watch list but I never pulled the trigger on it as my resources went to more pressing "needs". Well, Frankie did me a solid and sent me this beauty. This was a great and unexpected bonus.

Now onto the main event of the trade . . .

Strata autograph of Padre great Tony Gwynn

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This card while very nice was not what I was after when this whole process started. Frankie ended up wanting my BGS 9 of Gwynn but if that was to happen then I would want this one to replace Gwynn. Since Tony has passed on there obviously will be no more on card autographs coming from him. Even when alive there were not that many to chose from as the Five Star the Frankie received was the 1st one that I found acceptable. While they are both on card autographs this one is at least twice the value of my BGS 9 one that I sent so there was the back and forth between us in trying to make sure we both received equal value and were happy with the trade. With that said that is why is was a 4 for 2 swap.

And now for, literally, the big card of the trade . . .

Over sized Bowman purple ice Julio Urias autograph

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You probably can't tell from the photo but this is one massive card of the Dodger's phenom Julio Urias. With only 25 copies in existence I never expected to acquire this card. Other than this copy I have only seen 2 others out there. One from a fellow blogger and another that sold on eBay, I never approached Frankie about this card as I never expected he would let it go since he mentioned he really liked it in one of his posts but it just goes to show you that you never know unless you ask. On top of my rainbow project of Urias I am trying to pick up as many autographs as I can before the prices really get out of control which they border on already. 

So that concludes my 2nd ever trade with Frankie. Some of you might say I overpaid for the two cards I received but that is the beauty of trades, it is what you think is equal and not what others might think. I was able to replace my Gwynn with another, I already have picked up another Biggio autograph so that BGS one was okay to let go and the Bo Jackson and Nolan Ryan while a lot to let go was about equal to the Urias card and value difference between the 2 Gwynn cards. I am happy and I hope Frankie is also happy with our trade. I do feel that he gave me a little more than I sent over in extras so I am already trying to find some other cards to compensate a little. 

In addition both the Gwynn and Urias look to be in great condition and are ear marked for BGS grading. I expect the Urias to come back a gem mint and the Gwynn also has a chance at that grade but a 9 on a thick card like that is fine as well. 

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin