Like the old days - a street trade!

With my new job fully remote, I haven't had reason to go into the city during a work day. I did go in this week, and was able to have time for a street trade, just like in the 2010s. I texted Al when I knew I'd be going in and asked him what he wanted. There were several Yankees he wanted cards of and I pulled a few of each. Also, he had asked me for toploaders shortly before the pandemic, and I'd hoarded a whole boxful of them for him; I brought a few dozen in for him. (Anyone else need toploaders? I know they were in short supply for a while.) Finally, I brought him the vintage Willis Reed card I got from Bob Walk the Plank a year or so ago, as I knew vintage Knicks always sold well for him.

Not surprisingly, Al's been doing well with the surge of interest in cards. He actually didn't have a whole lot new to trade, and I noticed quite a few cards on his table and in his boxes that had come from me. Still, I was able to find plenty of fun cards and even have "credit" left over; tentatively I'll be back in the city once or twice next month.

This Bowman's Aaron Judge is a great card, though not the Best one I got.

Same for this Yelich relich.

Most of my "silver pack cards," or whatever they are called, came from street trades over the years. Not the best cards I got though.

These are the best cards I got. I'd never seen these awesome oddballs before. They are seven cards cut from a panel that came from Ritz crackers in 1989. The full panel had eight standard sized cards and one oversized card. They were produced by Topps but were not licensed by MLB, so no Yankee logo. You may notice that '84, '87 and '88 all reproduce the photo that was on Mattingly's Topps card that year.

Here's the rest of the cards I picked up. The top row came from a pack of 2021 Update, he pulled out a couple of Yankees and a Red Sox and I got the rest on the bottom are three cards from a Yankee team set, cards of Shields and Sheffield which I had already, and finally some new-to-me cards of Jones, Jackson, Lindor and Halladay.

It was fun seeing Al again and reliving the good old days when I could trade cards with someone on my lunch hour or on the way home from work.