Trade With The Daily Dimwit

I just recently did something I haven't done for a while: complete a trade with Sam at The Daily Dimwit. He is a big Houston Astros collector, and I haven't really been able to build up any Astros hits because, well, as he has lamented on, there simply aren't any. After all, how many Jose Altuve sticker autos does one man need?

He had a Ryne Sandberg bat relic from Triple Threads numbered to 27 that I needed, but I just simply couldn't come across any Astros for him. Then, one day, I had a brilliant idea. Not only is he an Astros collector, but a Houston Texans collector as well. Hey, I'm a Texans collector, too! So, I opened up my Texans collection to him (minus a few "off-limits" cards) and luckily, he found a few he was interested in, and the trade was made.

The Ryno from 2012 Triple Threads was obviously the centerpiece. He was my favorite player growing up, and although most of my collecting effort is dedicated to my Sidney Crosby collection (Base/Hits), I love to pick anything of Ryno's up whenever I can, especially something like this card, numbered 19/27.This card is also serving as Sandberg's representative in my HOF Relic Project.

I also had a couple of other add-ins from his trade bait, the first being a Pierce Johnson card from 2012 Bowman Sterling. Johnson was a first round draft pick of the Cubs in 2012 and split time in 2012 with the Cubs Rookie League Team and the Class A Boise Hawks. There is also a 2012 Goodwin Champions Wendell Clark relic that I had my eye on for quite some time. I'm not a Clark collector in particular, I just thought that the painting on the card is one of the coolest hockey images I've seen on cardboard in quite some time.

Lastly, Sam also threw in a few 2013 Topps inserts. Anthony Rizzo seems to be this year's Starlin Castro, in that Topps seems to be going for him as the token Cub in almost every insert set. Still, I won't complain about the Cubs having a presence in the set. As Sam would tell you, it could be a lot worse. The one non-Rizzo Cub insert was Kerry Wood from Chasing History, which recognizes his 1998 outing where he threw 20 strikeouts against......the Houston Astros. (Sorry, Sam)

Thanks for a great trade, Sam! I'm really looking forward to the Gypsy Queen case break we have coming up, where I'm sure Topps will be adding many more Anthony Rizzos to my collection.