Let's trade our untradeables!

If you're like me, not all of your cards are in mint condition. Not being a big condition-freak, I don't care about the condition of my own cards, but I do have some dupes that are in bad shape that I wouldn't ordinarily include in a trade. However, I wouldn't care about getting cards like that back to fill needs in my own collection.

I think it would be fun for us baseball card bloggers to trade our untradeables with each other. I see a few different ways of doing it. For example, I could do a blind trade - you send me 100 far-from-mint cards, and I send you back the same number. Or maybe you only want from certain teams or sets. The vast majority of my roughly-used cards come from the junk wax era, but some go back as far as 1979.


And while it is mostly commons, there are some big names that could fill holes in your collection, particularly first cards in a set, like Robin Yount 1993 Topps and Nolan Ryan 1990 Topps [I also have a bunch of mint Ryans if anyone needs].

I would also be willing to take your damaged cards for mint ones of mine. The only caveat in this case is that I wouldn't do a blind trade, I would want to know what cards you are offering and only take ones I don't have already so I don't increase the percentage of really bad ones among my dupes.

So come on! I'm sure you have some misfit cards that could use a good home but you would usually be embarrassed to include in a trade. Now you finally have someone willing to take them off your hands!

Most of the cards I am talking about have dinged corners and/or creases.

However, some have more interesting defects. I have a lot of 1992 Topps with weird stains on them. Some are orange:

But most are black, like they were in a basement with a lot of soot or something. I got those once from a guy at the flea market. The stains are mostly on the borders.

It's not just 1992 Topps but other cards with soot stains as well:

Actually, I have a lot of banged up 1992s:

But plenty from other sets as well!

Some of you may be particularly intrigued by some high-number 1989 Upper Decks with tape damage. Everybody's wantlist seems to have a lot of these. One time I bought a bunch of cards from a guy selling used books and stuff near the UN building. They were 80s and 90s commons, and they were in bricks of 30 or so that were literally wrapped together in packing tape, so the first and last card in the brick ended up being in really bad shape, most notably this headless Mike Aldrete. In all the others you can at least see the player's face.

So come on, trade me your untradeables and I'll send you some of mine, or maybe even some that are mint!