The best way to get cards

Like last year, I took a few vacation days to walk around the city taking wallet card photos. Those posts are kind of the opposite of my expanded baseball card posts - they are my favorite posts to create, but get probably the least engagement overall. (Not surprising as they are not really on-topic for a baseball card blog. And I do like making the expanded posts.)

Anyway, while in the city I took the time to visit my street vendor buddy Al to exchange some cards. An in-person trade is definitely the best way to get cards. No need to rely on the USPS, not even a purchase or taxes or shipping.

These are some cards I chose just because they seemed unfamiliar. (Turned out I had Braun and McGwire already.)

I found a few shiny cards I liked. Al always has a lot of those silver pack cards.

Finally, a couple of Nolan Ryans. When I saw the gold stamp on the 1993 card I thought it was a parallel like the Marlins or Rockies sets. Turns out it was just part of a 1999 insert set where Topps reprinted all of Ryan's cards. Still, a card I did not have. The other one is really fun, though. It's an unlicensed, shiny, colorful card from a short-lived magazine called Profiles in Sports, and was a promo card for the 1992 National in Atlanta.