super bowl trades!

So I'm not sure if I remember mentioning before that my local shop (the one I kind of work at) holds an annual Super Bowl trade party. If I haven't, I'm mentioning it now.

What he does is invites customers down to partake in some trading, wax busting and pizza eating. It's a great time and this is the second year I have gone. This year was MILES more successful in terms of cards. In fact, I may deem it the best day I've ever had regarding cards and collecting. I'll explain.

The party starts around noon and ends around five. He holds raffles and springs for pizza and even holds some box and pack specials. Its actually the busiest day in the shop all year, beating out Christmas time shopping. This year was no different, as he had about 40 people there. Lots of trading, some box busting (one guy got a Cam Newton quad relic that was autographed and numbered to 25, an easy $300 card). Another guy did a box (pack) of Tier One and ended up with a Tris Speaker relic and a Matt Kemp auto. Another box of Tier One was busted too but you'll have to keep reading...

Anyway, here is some of the stuff I walked out with after various trades throughout the day:

All that football busting really paid off. Football does HUGE in that store and I did real well in terms of trading pretty much only football for baseball. Yes those are rookie autos of Troy Tulowitzki, Nelson Cruz and Ryan Zimmerman. An Al Kaline auto is mighty fine too, especially on that Sweet Spot. The mini book relic was just interesting, as was the Felix Hernandez auto/relic. Oh and yes, that is a Roy Halladay laundry tag relic, numbered to 15. The biggest card of the day for sure. Remember, these are the highlights of what I picked up. Since we're in Yankee/Red Sox territory, no one collects Jays, so I had a field day. There were some non-Jays trades as well along with some higher end Jays cards (a brilliant Halladay card from Tribute a few years ago, which is a blue parallel, so sweet looking). A good day indeed but wasn't the end of it.


I was good all day and didn't spend a ton of money I didn't have. I decided to do the one box I avoided all year, which was 2011 Tier One. I wasn't too impressed with the boxes I had seen busted but decided to take a chance, namely due that it was one of the specials of the day.

Here are my base cards:

There was another card, Derek Jeter but he was traded away that day. Remember, you get three base, one parallel, two autos and a relic per box (pack).

The autos:

A good Yankee prospect and a Jay numbered to 25? Yes please! I couldn't believe the Cooper, what a pack I thought, until I saw what was behind it...

Base Ruth. Rest assured, I was the center of the shop when this was opened up and once the Ruth surfaced, it was a near explosion of "Oohhhhhh!"s. Crazy to open up something like that in front of so many Yankee fans. This also makes the second Ruth relic I've pulled. Last time it was the one from 2009 T206. I was the first one to bust something, because I kinda wanted to get the ball rolling around the shop. Other purchases followed from others.


Once the day came to a close and the raffle was over (final grand prize was a signed ball, by both Willie Mays and Willie McCovey) and the people shuffled out, a few of us stayed to talk about the day, how trades went and such. When it came down to me, the owner and another guy that works for him and we were about to leave, the owner threw us both a 2012 jumbo pack for the help we did that day. Here is what laid inside:

Unbelievable! What are the chances of getting the auto, let alone a player I've recently come to collect hardcore? A total GREAT cap to a GREAT day for collecting. Already looking forward to next year!