The Back & Forth

One of my best trading partners is Trading Bases member Ron B.  I would guess we traded 15-20 times last year.  Quite a few of those were open ended where one of us sent an unexpected package.  I sent him a small pwe the first week in January hoping to get a jump on him this year.  Before that pwe arrived, he had already sent a big package my way. 

Ron always makes sure my son receives an Altuve or 2.  Is it bad for your 11 year old to know a trading partner's address by heart?  The Mythical insert is gorgeous in hand.

Ron is a retired school teacher who works a few hours a week at a local card shop.  I would consider that a dream job.  Best part is he lives close to Boston where Cardinal cards are easy to find and cheap.  Wish I could find colorful inserts like these for less than a quarter.  The color helps offset the lack of logos.

He even finds Topps brands on the cheap. 10 cents each is not bad.

His shop has quite a few so called treasure hunters who bust boxes for the big pulls and leave everything else at the store.  I will gladly take those scraps.

He can even find a parallel #ed to 229 on the cheap like the Dean card.  The Freese card is my first with the Gold Rush stamp.  I am not familiar with this parallel.  I would guess it was some sort of Topps box set in 2012, or maybe a type of buyback.  At any rate, it is a cool card of the recently retired World Series MVP.