My first OBC cards

What is OBC? A while back, I traded with a guy named Andy Huntoon who has a card site, Cobb Spiked Me. Andy is a member of a trading group called Old Baseball Cards and he convinced me to go through the process to join the group. 

OBC goes back to the early days of the internet, founded in 1991. There are two main ways that OBC is different from other trading groups. One is that the members generally have little or no concern about card condition. That was the biggest draw for me, as most of my vintage trade bait is in varying degrees of roughness, and I have no condition requirements myself. The other is that, while there is plenty of regular trading in the group, many or most cards trade hands by RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness). I will try to do my part with my meager trade reserves, but it is understood that new members don't have a lot to trade at the beginning.

I applied a couple of weeks ago (the process is not difficult), and was formally accepted today. However, this week I already was a recipient of a RAK PWE, and one that was loaded with some fantastic cards. The sender was Greg Henthorn, who has been an OBC member for eight years. He saw my application and sent me some cards before I was even voted in.

I always say, I know a blind card package is going to be great when I see oversized vintage. These two were in a card-saver taped behind the typical three-pocket page.

Here are six of the nine cards in the PWE. All but the Knoop are high numbers. I love getting a card of Podres on the Padres (yes, he really did pitch for them!).

The middle card in each pocket was a big time Hall of Famer. Here are two fantastic late 60s card.

However, this was by far the best card in this RAK PWE. 1968 Willie Mays! Pulling this out was one of the biggest surprises I've ever had in a card package. I'm very very happy to have this card.

I did send Greg a return package, with what little I had on his wantlists, nothing at this caliber but it's the best I have right now. I've also got a couple of other, more traditional, trades in the works with OBC'ers who reached out to me when I submitted my application. This should be a fun way to build my vintage collection, while actually finding takers for my rough conditioned vintage extras.