TCDB Member Meet Up in Cincinnati

In all my years of trading baseball cards online I have only met 1 trader in person.  That was Trading Bases member Mark Z at a Memphis Redbirds game 8 or 9 years ago.  Mark is from the Memphis area and gave me some pointers on my first visit to the area.  Mark is also a Cardinals collector, so we exchanged some duplicates during the visit.  I have not had a chance to get back there to meet up again, but hope I can before too long.  

Last weekend during my Cincinnati trip I had the pleasure of meeting my second trader.  TCDB member PartagasX is another Cardinals collector from the St. Louis area.  He started a forum post in early July about planning a Cincy trip.  At the time I did not think my schedule would work out, but things changed and we were able to watch both games on Friday and Saturday night together.  We also did the stadium tour and lunch on Saturday.

I have traded with PartagasX a couple of times with great luck.  He has a massive Cardinals collection that he is still in the process of organizing on the site.  His wantlist is current through 2006, so I pulled the 15-20 cards I had from his wantlist and brought them along.  I gave him his package on Saturday morning.  He beat me to the punch, and gave me quite the package at Friday night's game.  

The package had quite a few cards from 2005 included some Rookie Cup orange parallels numbered to 399.  The Renteria is a shortprint, while the Edmonds knocks my Donruss Champions team set needs to 1.

3 more cards from 2005 sets featured a couple of Cardinals Hall of Famers.  I miss the Upper Deck sets that featured the retired greats.

These 5 cards completed my 2006 Topps team set.  This is the set found at retail stores, not distributed in packs.  All the cards from 2005 and 2006 were great, but the next batch were even better.  

    

3 cards from the 1968 and 1969 sets.  These are in great condition.  Not perfect mint, but free of creases and writing.  I am not very picky with the condition of my vintage cards, so these fit great in my collection.  

These cards were far more that what I gave him, but PartagasX was not done.  On our way to lunch on Saturday, he gave me a nice stadium give away.

This is my first Funko Pop.  These were given away at Busch Stadium back in May.  It will have a place next to my Ozzie bobbleheads.  It was a fun weekend spent talking baseball and cards.  We talked like we have known each other for years.

  This was after the Cardinals won Saturday's game.  I am the one who does not look like Santa Claus.