Adventures in Trading: All Rise! Judge is Going to California

2025 Topps Update 1990 Chrome Aaron Judge #U90C-44

It's been a week and it's been a quiet one in my Hobby journey. But just because I'm done with the Series 1 set doesn't mean that trading has ceased. 

Even though it's been years Topps produced team-specific factory sets (the Yankees and Red Sox always seemed to be on the short-list), there are still a number of bonus cards that were included in these sets that I am still searching for. When these first came out in 2004 (I believe), nobody was opening factory sets. Auctions and BIN's for the 5-card bonus cards were rare occurrences on the Bay in the early years. So I made the costly...shuddering...mistake of buying full factory sets JUST so that I could get the bonus cards. I still have factory sets from 2004 and 2005. By now the cards are bricked to the point where it would be impossible (unless I want to experiment with a humidifier or steamer) to separate the cards within. Looking back, that was a very costly lesson in how my patience could betray me. 

Now that everybody has no fear in opening full factory sets, bonus cards are a bit more prevalent on auction sites and elsewhere. And while those certainly have been helpful to me to acquire all of the bonus rookie cards over the years, I've managed to put many of the team-specific bonus cards from 2006 through 2010 lower on my priority wantlist. It's not for lack of trying, but it's just focus has been shifted towards the current year's cards and sets. But when an opportunity arises, like one did earlier this week, I thought why not chance it.

With my 2026 Topps wantlist currently at zero on the TCDB, my notifications for new cards appearing in my Recent Matches have been few and far-between. But a gentleman in California added two bonus cards from the 2006 Topps New York Yankees factory set, Wil Nieves and Alex Rodriguez, on his trade/sell list. What he did with the other three cards, I do not know. Funny enough, I did get the Derek Jeter card from this set ages ago, so at least I have something to start with here. The man had 10 cards on his wantlist that I could offer to trade. So I reached out to him, offering a 2025 Topps Update 1990 Chrome Aaron Judge card for both the Nieves and A-Rod bonus cards. He accepted yesterday. The Judge card is now on its way to Cali.

2006 Topps New York Yankees Bonus Wil Nieves #1 of 5 and Alex Rodriguez #2 of 5

With the Jeter card in my possession, I only need the card #'s 4 Mariano Rivera and 5 Randy Johnson and I can add them to the 2006 Topps binder.

It's only been 20 years. I can wait.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Adventures in Trading: The Last Trade for Series 1 Cards

The TCDB well has finally run dry. Not too many people want to do 1 for 1 trades because of postal rate hikes, and I get that. It doesn't mean I'll say no to a simple card-for-card exchange. But with this last trade, my want list for 2026 Topps Series 1 inserts is now in single digits. It is at this stage in the game that I go to Sportlots and look for the last 9 cards I need to put this set into the 6-inch binder (which has been ordered and will arrive hopefully tomorrow).

On Monday, I sent two trade requests for cards through the TCDB, and one person responded right away with a counter-offer. None of the cards I initially offered were requested, but he did find other cards that he needed that he requested in exchange for the pair of insert cards I was asking about. In all of my trade requests, I ask that the potential trade partner look through what I have available and make a counter-offer if they would like to get other cards instead of what I was submitting. This gives the person I'm corresponding with a chance to look and see what else I have available instead of just outright rejecting the trade. So he did.

So instead of the pair of 8-Bit Baller cards I was offering, he asked for a 2025 Topps Update Nick Kurtz card, along with a Titans of the Game Bryce Harper and the last of my Evergreens, the Aaron Judge. In return, he offered a Big Ticket Jacob Misiorowski and a ProFiles Jackie Robinson. Of course, I agreed.

The cards are now on their way to North Carolina after a bit of a delay (weather here has been crazy lately). 

Now with 9 cards left on the wantlist, I made my way to Sportlots. After finding out that a lot of my "loot" was going to expire (since when was this a thing Sportlots??!), I filtered out the sellers that I needed to cash in with and bought them all for under $10.00 (not including the extra $14.00 in shipping costs plus tax...ouch). 

When the binder arrives, I'll start adding pages and will post the final results here on the blog. At least this project will be finished before Celebration goes live. 

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Adventures in Trading: On the Day After the Chicago Sports Spectacular, Pedro is Going to Colorado

2026 Topps 1991 Chrome Purple Refractor Pedro Martinez #91C-41

As soon as I got home from the Chicago Sports Spectacular last night, I received a message through the TCDB regarding a trade request. A gentleman from Colorado was offering five insert cards for the 2026 Topps 1991 Chrome Purple Refractor Pedro Martinez card that I got from the Jumbo Box break late last month.

Of the 5 cards he was offering, I had already purchased two of them earlier at the show. So I needed to counter. Doing a quick trade matching, it turns out that the Pedro card wasn't even on his wantlist. But who am I to say no to a trade that would help my cause. The card would just be sitting in my trade pile. And yes, it's a numbered card. The fact of the matter is that I still needed 14 cards to complete the S1 master set.

So I countered, and explained that I bought two of the five cards he was offering, but I'd still trade for the remaining 3 for the Pedro refractor. A couple of hours later, he agreed.

So going to Colorado is the refractor card. The cards coming my way are listed below.

I will be on my way to the post office shortly to drop off the card, then it's off to meet my sisters for breakfast to continue the birthday festivities. 

If you're going to attend the card show at the convention center, have fun. Good luck with your collecting goals today.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Adventures in Trading: Evergreens Going to Kansas

I planned not to send any trade requests this week because I was planning on going to the Chicagoland Sports Spectacular this weekend at the convention center near home. As of this morning, my goal at the show was to find the 53 remaining cards I need to complete the 2026 Topps Series 1 Master Set of base and basic insert cards. 

Well, that plan has changed.

I received a message from a member of the TCDB that I could not pass up. A simple 8 for 8-card trade. He is offering 7 of the 1991 Topps inserts plus 1 Big Ticket player for some of the extras that I pulled from the Super Box that I opened last week and the Jumbo Hobby Box from the week prior.

With the deal agreed upon, below is the original offer:

One thing I failed to mention was that two of the three 2025 Topps Evergreen cards that I opened during Advent last year will be part of the deal as well. These are nice enough cards, and I had gone back and forth on maybe wanting to complete this set. For now, I'll hold off building this set (I will only have the Aaron Judge card left when I send these two cards out.

 

2025 Topps Holiday Evergreen Joe Morgan #E-19

2025 Topps Holiday Evergreen Juan Soto #E-22

With this trade, my plan for the weekend is searching for 45 cards. Although before writing, I just saw that the 2026 Topps Celebration checklist has been published. I've looked at it and have a few things to say about this another time. 

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Adventures in Trading: Trades to Get the Wantlist Down to 56

Trades through the TCDB have been steady. I was involved in a couple of two-for-two and three-for-three card transactions. 

This first one is a local deal, with a gentleman from Wheaton, IL. I mailed pair of cards to him on Saturday night, and I received his cards today. 

This second trade, also sent out on Saturday night, is on its way to Greenville, NC. Every little trade helps to reduce the number of cards on the wantlist down. While I prefer to do larger trades, it becomes a bigger challenge once I'm down to the final few cards. The well will eventually dry, so I am hoping I can get as many cards from here as I can before starting the next phase of card acquisitions (buying on Sportlots, eBay, and the big Chicagoland Sports Spectacular taking place next week).

There was one trade that occurred earlier in the week that I forgot to post. A two-for-one trade, with me giving up the 2025 Topps Update Juan Soto 1990 Pink that I received by mistake from an earlier transaction. The problem I had with the Update Series 1990 cards were they were printed like the holofoil cards. This makes it hard to tell with some cards if it's the basic card or a colored variation. 

Last week, I sent two large trade requests. One got rejected, because of course it was. The other one, after a few edits due to having cards in other transactions, wound up being a 14-for-10 deal that the other person finally agreed to over the weekend. This morning, I sent 14 Allen & Ginter parallels and mini cards to Pembroke, MA in exchange for 10 S1 insert cards.

This is what I had agreed to send. However, as I was pulling the cards to prepare for mail, I could not find the Rafael Devers mini card. I did contact the trading partner saying as such and offering a different card (a mini A&G N222 Jackson Jobe) to make up for it. Fortunately, he said that was fine. Cards were mailed this morning. 

Finally, through the use of the wantlist manager, I did find a TCDB member with 55 cards that I needed. I offered to buy them from him, and he agreed to sell them for $40.00 plus the other 2026 Topps 2025 All-Topps Team Nick Kurtz card that I had. This deal helps complete the 350-card base set. Cards arrived today as well. Let's see what's in this package.

• 13 base cards
• 2 2025 All-Topps Team cards (Skenes, Judge)
• 5 2026 Greatest Hits cards
• 1 Big Ticket Player card (Bobby Witt Jr)
• 1 First Pitch card (University of Houston Basketball Coach Kelvin Sampson)
• 4 Topps ProFiles cards
• 1 Stars of MLB card (BWJ)
• 1 Titans of the Game (Skenes)
• 27 1991 Topps cards
  

With all the trades that I've done these last two weeks, my wantlist for 2026 Topps insert cards is now down to 56 cards. I'm making great progress before the big card show. I plan on going on Friday, March 13 or Saturday, March 14. But that will all depend if I can find someone to cover for me at the pharmacy.

Until then, the chase continues.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Adventures in Trading: You Mean Today Was National Trading Card Day??!

I must have missed this on my calendar today. But February 24 was National Trading Card Day. It's to honor all trading cards, from sports cards to the collectible card games. Today honors the cards of all kinds, and the collectors who fuel the Hobby.

And how did I spend this important day? Working. As usual.

But it doesn't mean that I didn't do anything trading card related.

First, I received a small PWE trade request from a guy that I haven't interacted with since 2022 on the TCDB. It was a small trade back then as well. But today, he wrote that he saw my post and offered to trade a pair of cards for my 2025 Topps Update 1990 Juan Soto pink foil card. Just had to make sure I had it (I did), and I'll be packing it up to mail tomorrow. Details are below:

Also, in my previous AiT post, I mentioned that I made a 61-insert card purchase via the TCDB. These are the transactions I love to see and will make every opportunity to reach out and offer to buy. So for $40.00 (shipping included), 

The 61-card purchase really helped to bring down the number on the wantlist. The cards that arrived today include:

• 11 Stars of MLB cards
• 12 Titans of the Game cards
• 9 Big Ticket Players cards
• 16 1991 Topps cards
• 4 2025 Greatest Hits cards
• 5 Topps ProFiles cards
• 3 First Pitch cards

Wait...that's 60 cards. (Recounting). Yes, I'm missing one. After comparing the list to what's arrived, I'm missing one of the Greatest Hits cards. No big deal. Even with 60 cards, at 40 bucks? That's roughly $0.66 per card. Can't complain when all is said and done.

Now it's time to get this Soto card packed, and the insert cards with their brethren and update a few totals.

Maybe next year, I can celebrate properly. 

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Adventures in Trading: TCDB Trades for 2026 Topps Series 1 Insert Cards

Trading for 2026 Topps insert cards have begun in earnest. And after the trades that have been accepted in the last couple of days, I am now on the hunt for 116 insert cards.

First, a seven-for-seven card trade going to a gentleman in Frankenmuth, MI. Cards were mailed this morning.  

Titans of the Game is a retail-exclusive insert set (which explains why I didn't see any in the Hobby box I bought) to complement the annual Stars of MLB set. Thanks to this trade, along with a major 61-card insert lot purchase on the TCDB (which I will discuss in another post, probably, when the cards arrive), I only need two Stars of MLB cards (Bobby Witt and Mike Trout) and one Titans of the Game card (Paul Skenes).

Today, I made 3 trade offers, two are still pending. But this one was accepted right away:

A three-for-three insert card trade, with each person is getting two cards from a 35th Anniversary set. I'm sending the gentleman, who shares a name with a famous quarterback, a pair from the 2025 Topps Update set in exchange for a pair from this year's edition. A Night Terrors card in exchange for a 2025 Greatest Hits card looks like a fair exchange (to me anyway). 

I even received a trade request. It's rare that someone reaches out to me as I seem to be making most of the inquiries. But if someone sends me a trade request, I'm more than happy to accept. (I'm easy to please, what do you expect?)

For the cost of one 2026 Topps Chrome card (Trea Turner), I'm getting three more insert cards, including a PCA Topps Profiles card. This is going to a guy in York, PA.

The other two trade offers I sent have not been accepted yet. Both are for large quantities, including one that had all 14 of the base cards I need to complete the base set. I'll give both a day or so to allow time for either person to accept the trade or (hopefully) counter-offer. If either one hit, I'll post the trade details here on the blog.

Envelopes have been sealed and will be in the mail tomorrow morning.

Want to help me whittle down my want lists? You can find what I'm looking for here. I'd love to trade, but will buy if the offer is right. You can email me at bdj610@hotmail.com, leave a comment on the blog post, or if you are a member of the Trading Card Database, just send me an offer. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Adventures in Trading: A TCDB Trade to Maryland & A Local Transaction Taking Place Tomorrow

I like to think of myself as a patient person. 

I have waited longer than 45 minutes when going out to eat at popular restaurants, with a wife and two toddlers in tow. I will give people I communicate via email at work and wait at least a day or two for a response before sending out a second email. I have sat through two acts of dance performances before my daughter's group would appear for their lone dance of the show. My patience gets tested when dealing with patients at the pharmacy, whether in person or on the phone (I'd share stories, but HIPPA).

But when it comes to collecting baseball cards?

If there is a card or two that I need to complete a set, I must have that card..NOW!!! 

As of yesterday, I needed 56 insert cards to finish my master set for 2025 Topps Update Series. Thinking I could at least finish the 2025 Topps Update 1990 set (I just needed one card...figures it's Shohei Ohtani), I put out a couple of trade offers to people on TCDB for this one card. I padded both of the requests, believing that the number of cards I was offering for just this one would be enough. 

2025 Topps Update 1990 Shohei Ohtani #U90-33

However...

both trade requests were...

REJECTED!!!

Why??!

One person said he just traded his Ohtani card off to someone else. I understand that. It happens. I can accept this.

The other person? Said he was valuing the card higher than the 5 cards I was offering in exchange. Granted, four of those cards were Stars of MLB (which even I don't think have much monetary value, seeing that every retail pack, blaster, box, etc, have anywhere from 1-4 of these cards IN EVERY PACK!!!). But even still, I guess the quantity wasn't enough.

And that's when I snapped.

I wound up going on the Bay at lunch and bought this card, and 12 other insert cards (10 from the same seller.) Then, I went onto Sportlots and bought 31 more cards (26 from the same seller...love the site, but it is always best to buy multiple cards from one or two dealers instead of buying 1 card from more then 10 sellers...shipping charges are brutal). In one 30-minute frenzy, I bought 44 of the 56 I needed to finish the master set.

Patience is a virtue, but I guess self-control is something I need to work on as well, especially when it comes to the Hobby.

So after I recovered, I find myself down to 12 cards. I managed to finish the aforementioned 1990 Topps set, Bleacher Reachers, Most Valuable, and Night Terrors in my shopping spree. This leaves the First Pitch (2 cards to go), Mystical (2), and Topps Black Gold Sets (8) needing to be completed. (If you're wondering why I didn't mention the 50-card All-Star Game set, it's because I managed to complete the set through trades. It was done before all of this happened).

Well...

I sent one trade request earlier today through TCDB. A simple two-card-for-two-card offer. I was requesting two First Pitch cards: #FPU-4 Ethan Levine and #FPU-8 Derek Jeter, in exchange for a 1990 #U90-46 Dylan Crews and All-Star #ASG-48 Logan Webb card. He accepted the transaction. The trade information (with the member's name covered for privacy) is below:

When I came home from work today, I reached out to another TCDB member who had one of the 8 Black Gold cards I still need, #BG-20 Nick Kurtz. During the final minutes of my spending spree, I saw this card on Sportlots, prices ranging from $6.00 to $9.00. I passed on it then, and I'm thankful that I did. The gentleman who I reached out to this afternoon lives in the Chicago area, and is actually a few minutes away from the bulding where I work. We've completed about 7 trades since July, 2024. Each time, he would come to the office building I'd work at, and we'd exchange cards in the lobby. Saves on postage, and I really appreciate him making the trip. 

The last time I saw him was in December. I gave him a number of 2024-25 Topps Cubs parallel cards (he's a Cub team collector) for a couple of 2025 Topps Update insert cards. This time, I offered a couple of extra Cub cards, just to get something in the transaction. He responds very quickly and accepts the trade. Knowing I'll see him tomorrow, I'll have to make sure to bring the cards I offered. If this was a cash transaction, I definitely over-paid. But I've always been of the trading mindset of, "I will trade whatever I have on your wantlist for whatever you have on mine, even if it looks lopsided on my end." And when you see the cards involved in this trade, you may think so too. So when I meet him tomorrow, this is what we're exchanging:

After all of this, I am now down to these final 9 cards to complete the 2025 Topps Binder:

• Topps Mystical #MYS-6 Jacob Wilson (Athletics)
• Topps Mystical #MYS-9 Shohei Ohtani (Dodgers)
• Topps Black Gold #BG-3 James Wood (Nationals)
• Topps Black Gold #BG-6 Paul Skenes (Pirates)
• Topps Black Gold #BG-14 Hyeseong Kim (Dodgers)
• Topps Black Gold #BG-18 Aaron Judge (Yankees)
• Topps Black Gold #BG-19 Shohei Ohtani (Dodgers)
• Topps Black Gold #BG-24 Roki Sasaki (Dodgers)
• Topps Black Gold #BG-25 Jacob Wilson (Athletics)
  

If anyone has any of these cards and would like to trade or sell them to me, please reach out to me at bdj610@hotmail.com and make an offer. My trade/sell list is here. If you don't see anything you need there, just let me know what you're looking for. I'm sure I have something.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Adventures in Trading: A TCDB Trade to the Bronx

As I mentioned in my return to this humble, little blog, I have become an active trader at the Trading Card Database. I've been a member of the site since (checking my profile...) November 14, 2011. This was back when what you could call Hobby "outsiders" with enough tech savvy started making their own websites dedicated to card collecting, cataloging, and eventually, creating a virtual environment where collectors from across the country (and around the world) could trade sport cards with each other.

The TCDB doesn't claim to be solely a trading site. The word "Database" should be the first clue about it's mission statement. The main focus of the site is maintaining checklists of trading card sets, from the main 4 sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey) and beyond (soccer, racing, non-sports). It's managed by collectors, lists populated by collectors, images provided by...you get the idea. Since about 2020, I've finally gotten more involved. I've added images, created checklists after years of emailing somebody about sets that I had that wasn't on there (like this one), and eventually dove head-first into the "trading" portion of the site.

I've built a lot of insert sets from the last few years from trades with over 300 members of the site. I've even manage to build the last two editions of the Gypsy Queen sets (with inserts) thanks to trading my extras and insert cards on the site as well (supplemented by buying cards at shows, on the Bay, Sportlots). Before, I'd just buy full sets, but that is starting to become such an expensive endeavor. Now, I'll start a set by buying a Hobby box (or two...if I can afford it), and then after building the base set (which is even more of a challenge now), begin to scour the TCDB for trading partners for cards I'm missing. This site really helps match collectors together. The "Trade Matching" feature provides lists of collectors who have cards that I have on my wantlist and have cards they need that I have in my trade/sell list. It's a great system. Not perfect, but I've found many members who've agreed to trade opportunities.

Now that I'm back, I'm going to start posting trades that were accepted, whether I reached out and made an offer or vice versa (the former happens more often than not). Today, I'll talk about the first trade the that was accepted in 2026.

At the last Chicagoland Sports Spectacular held this past November in Rosemont, IL, I purchased a 2025 Topps Holiday Advent Calendar. For those not familiar with the concept, Advent calendars are these boxes that contain 24 numbered doors that hold a surprise behind them. Most Advent calendars are given to children to help count the number of days before Christmas by opening a door to reveal a piece of holiday-shaped chocolate or candy of some kind. For years, my wife and I bought one for each of the kids. As the years went on and the children got older, we would still buy them just for fun. Seeing one with baseball cards made me go up to the seller and say, "take my money." While Topps has done Holiday sets for years now, this is the first time I decided to buy a product with them. 

On to the point.

The 2025 Topps Holiday Advent Calendar

The Topps Holiday Advent Calendar had 24 doors that revealed twenty five-card packs of 2025 Topps Holiday baseball cards, one three-card pack of Topps Evergreen, two one-card packs that featured "buybacks" (mine were Bowman cards for some reason), and one unopened pack of Topps cards from years past (mine was a 1991 Topps Traded pack...Yay!!!) Each five-card pack included 3 base cards, one parallel card (all of mine were Green Holiday Plaid, an Advent Calendar Exclusive) and one insert card from a set called "The Nice List." It's a 25-card insert set featuring players that did something so amazing during the 2024 MLB season that they managed to get onto Santa's nice list. See below for an example.

2025 Topps Holiday The Nice List Paul Skenes #MNL-11

Fortunately for me none of the 20 cards I got from opening the packs are duplicates. I am missing 5 cards. At this time, while I don't plan on going out of my way to buy or trade for cards to complete the 200-card base set, I thought I could find someone who had the five cards I need to complete this set. 

And I did.

On January 3, 2026, I sent a trade request to a member who had all five cards I needed, offering her five cards that I had on her wantlist. She responded today with a counter-offer which is a great feature...allowing someone to make changes to the trade request if they find a better card that they like and take out cards that they may no longer need. When people counter a trade offer I propose, I almost always accept. In this case, she found a card that she wanted and removed a card she says she just received in another trade. So I accepted and let her know I'll be mailing the cards out within the next couple of days.

Here is the transaction. I am not asking for judgment, or if it's a fair trade. That doesn't matter. My main goal is to get the cards I want in exchange for the cards she needs. Values be darned (this is a family blog...have to keep it PG). For privacy's sake (and because I didn't ask her if I could post this trade on the blog), I am blocking her member name below:

The cards will be going out tomorrow. 

I'm hoping to make this a regular feature on the blog in 2026. If you want to know what I am looking for, please click here. You don't have to be a member of the site to access the list. If you have something I need, please email me at bdj610@hotmail.com. 

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama