I got about 50 cards in the mail last week from someone named Lynette who was packing to move and couldn’t bear to throw her nephew’s baseball cards away.  They are junk wax, but I promised to find a good home for the cards if she decided to send them over to me instead of discarding them.  She chose to send them, and true to my word, most of the cards are 1994 Topps that will go towards completing my set.  Other cards included a 1988 Donruss Jose Mesa, a 2002 Nestle Ice Cream Ichiro, and four 2002 Post cereal cards.

You might wonder, what do I do with junk wax?  Well Topps base cards go towards completing sets.  I hope to eventually own complete sets of Topps 1979 to present.  Other cards go into my junk wax boxes where I hope to eventually give them away to whoever will take them.  They also might make good Geocaching treasures (sometimes I put unopened wax packs into geocaches).

Either way, there were quite a few 1994 Topps cards that I needed in this package.  Thanks Lynette!

I just entered 96 cards that I needed to build my sets into my card database.  The cards came courtesy of Crinkly Wrappers.  Since they were all base cards, I won’t bore you with the details, but here’s the breakdown of the new cards in my collection:

7 of 1985 Topps

22 of 2008 Topps

1 of 2008 Topps Update

1 of 2009 Topps

3 of 2009 Topps Update

62 of 2010 Topps

That means I only need 24 more cards to complete my 2010 Topps Series 1 set.  For the record, I’ve never completed a set before, but with the new cards and the 2010 Topps Series 2 jumbo box I bought, 2010 Topps might be my first.  Thanks Crinkly Wrappers for helping me out!

In return, I sent him all 8 of my 2010 Topps Gold cards, a 1987 Topps card he needed to complete a set, and as many Blue Jays as I could muster.

A few weeks ago Mr. Kahn e-mailed me asking me if I wanted a few cards I need to help complete my sets.  I agreed and asked him to pick out a few cards from my collection that I could send him in return.  I ended up sending him 4 cards:

In return, he sent me:

1. 2007 Fleer #23 Brian Schneider
2. 2008 Topps #132 Ramon Vazquez
3. 2009 Topps #333 Jeremy Sowers/Aaron Laffey (Classic Combos)
4. 2009 Topps #541 Jason Bay
5. 2009 Topps #596 Radhames Liz
6. 2009 Upper Deck #474 Cristian Guzman (Team Checklist)
7. 2010 Upper Deck #539 Mike MacDougal

I thought the coolest card in the bunch was the Mike MacDougal — not because of the player or even because he was a National, but because I never thought I would ever own a 2010 Upper Deck card.  It’s a nice clean design that makes me feel some sympathy for Upper Deck’s demise.  Of course the reason for their demise is clear from the card.  That’s obviously a Washington logo on his hat.  Maybe they figured partial logos are okay to display.

Anyways, thanks Mr. Kahn for the cards!  These get me a few cards closer to completing my sets.

John H. contacted me a couple weeks ago about trading some 2009 Topps cards.  We eventually agreed to a trade of inserts, since we are both working on completing the base sets.  He sent me a bunch of cards that will fit nicely in my collection.  Thanks John!

1. 2005 Topps Update Washington Nationals Inaugural Lineup #NI-BW Brad Wilkerson (2.00)
2. 2005 Topps Update Washington Nationals Inaugural Lineup #NI-NJ Nick Johnson (2.00)
3. 2008 Topps Year in Review #YR52 Felipe Lopez (0.75)
4. 2008 Topps Update #UH266 Rob Mackowiak (0.30)
5. 2009 Topps Legends of the Game #LG9 Rogers Hornsby (1.25)
6. 2009 Topps Legends of the Game #LG13 Jackie Robinson (2.00)
7. 2009 Topps Legends of the Game #LG17 Ted Williams (5.00)
8. 2009 Topps Legends of the Game #LG22 Thurman Munson (2.00)
9. 2009 Topps Legends of the Game #LG24 Nolan Ryan (6.00)
10. 2009 Topps Legends of the Game #LG-FR Frank Robinson (0.75)
11. 2009 Topps Legends of the Game #LG-JS John Smoltz (2.00)
12. 2009 Topps Legends of the Game #LG-RY Robin Yount (2.00)
13. 2009 Topps Ring of Honor #RH11 Ivan Rodriguez (1.50)
14. 2009 Topps Ring of Honor #RH15 Don Zimmer (1.00)
15. 2009 Topps Ring of Honor #RH17 Gary Sheffield (1.00)
16. 2009 Topps Ring of Honor #RH21 Johnny Podres (1.00)
17. 2009 Topps Ring of Honor #RH23 Mariano Rivera (2.50)
18. 2009 Topps Ring of Honor #RH25 Lou Piniella (1.00)
19. 2009 Topps Ring of Honor #RH29 Francisco Rodriguez (1.00)
20. 2009 Topps Ring of Honor #RH33 Brad Lidge (1.00)
21. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR22 Cliff Lee (1.00)
22. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR23 Garrett Atkins (1.00)
23. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR34 Kelly Johnson (1.00)
24. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR54 Alex Gordon (2.50)
25. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR59 Mel Ott (2.50)
26. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR70 Jon Lester (1.00)
27. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR78 Matt Cain (1.00)
28. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR80 Rogers Hornsby (1.50)
29. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR88 Michael Young (1.00)
30. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR89 Todd Helton (1.00)
31. 2009 Topps Turkey Red #TR100 Honus Wagner (2.50)
32. 2009 Topps WBC Stars #BCS17 Alex Rios (1.00)
33. 2009 Topps WBC Stars #BCS18 Luke Hughes (1.00)

Chris from On Card Autos contacted me a couple weeks ago and we arranged a Cubs-for-Nationals trade.  He sent me an impressive collection of over two hundred 2005-2009 Nationals cards (with a couple 2004 Expos thrown in for good measure).  Since I almost exclusively buy Topps flagship, I probably would have never seen any of these brands of cards if it weren’t for Chris.  Thanks Chris!

Now since there are quite a few cards here and I like to have my cards neatly organized in my database, I’m going to take my time integrating these cards into my collection.  What I’ve come up with is the “25 Years of Baseball Nationals Countdown to Opening Day”.  Each day from today until Nationals Opening Day on April 5, I’ll introduce some of the new Nationals cards I acquired from this trade.

With 58 days left ’til Nationals Opening Day, here’s the first selection of Nats:

2004 Ultra #250 Nick Johnson

2005 National Pastime #23 Brad Wilkerson

2006 SP Authentic #24 Austin Kearns

2007 UD Masterpieces #67 Ryan Zimmerman

2008 UD A Piece of History #150 Justin Maxwell (Rookie)

2009 Topps Allen and Ginter #174 John Lannan

I’ve just received a package from Stats on the Back, completing a trade for the Nick Evans Red Hot Rookies redemption card I received last week.  This is the first card trade I’ve done since, well, maybe 6th grade (for me, that was in the early 90′s).  Time and time again, I’m finding that card collectors these days are some of the most generous people around.

In exchange for the Nick Evans Red Hot Rookie, this is what Stats on the Back sent me:

1985 Topps #401 Mark McGwire (USA) (Rookie)

And being a humble (and yes, we here in Washington are constantly humbled…) Nationals fan,

2008 Topps Retail Relics #RR-LM Blastings Thrillage (…I mean, Lastings Milledge)

2008 Topps Allen and Ginter #292 Elijah Dukes

2007 Topps Allen and Ginter #144 Manny Acta (Fired Manager)

2006 Topps Allen and Ginter #180 Jose Guillen

Thanks again Stats on the Back for for making my first trade a great experience.  I only wish I could find more from my collection to send you because you are too generous.  Maybe next trade…