Trade me a better card

Welcome.

Ok, So let's start- the goal of this blog is to trade baseball cards. And with that said, I'm asking you is to "trade me a better card". I'm gonna rip you off- there is no way around that. But along with receiving the card I'm about to trade you, you will also receive the peace of mind knowing that you helped an all around good guy (me) help take a step toward an overly ambitious, and utterly unobtainable goal:

The T206 Honus Wagner:

The Holy Grail of baseball cards. That's right, I went Indiana Jones on your rump.

So that is the grand finish- almost. There is a catch- once I acquire Mr. Honus Wagner on Piedmont stock, I will be off to ebay. And this will be the hard part, beacause I love me some baseball cards. I will auction the ultimate goal of all my trades so that I might be able to acquire the one thing that means the most to me (even more than baseball cards, believe it or not!) and my soon-to-be-family: a home in my current hometown of Santa Barbara, California.

The ultimate goal:

And if any of you know anything about home prices, you might realize that the idea of an average shmoo (me again) buying a house in S.B. is about as unlikely as... well trading a 1986 Topps Steve Jeltz for a T206 Honus Wagner.

So that brings us to square one- the cornerstone- the first card that will lead me to 1700 square feet of bliss, a one car garage, and perhaps 2 and a half bathrooms.

I present to you the 1986 Topps Steve Jeltz card:

Okay, a little background on Mr. Jeltz. He is the starting point for many good reasons. I'm a diehard Philly fan, and he was my favorite player while I was growing up. He was my favorite player because he characterized everything about those mid to late-1980's Philadelphia Phillies that I came to love. They were bad. Really bad. And Steve Jeltz was the Honus Wagner of badness. A shortstop who hit a career .210 over 8 seasons (here are the career #s courtesy of baseball-reference.com: http://www.baseball-reference.com/j/jeltzst01.shtml), he was the last MLB player who was born in France, and, perhaps most importantly, man did the guy sport a delicious jericurl.

- Ever see "Coming to America" with Eddie Murphy? One of my all-time favorites. One of the funniest parts of this movie was a comercial that stared Eddie Murphy's romantic interest's fiance (played by the always good Eriq La Salle). This commercial epitomized Steve Jeltz's look- Soul Glo:

Please do yourself a favor and check out Soul Glo on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61DRhl9xyYA

And so the blog has begun. The rules are wide open. Any offer will be considered, the best offer will be accepted, and a trade will occur. Although cards, and baseball cards are preferred, all sports cards, autographs, game used items, etc. will be considered.

All deals will be chronicled here. I will take you step buy step, from Jeltzie to Hans.

Let the offers come pouring in.

E-mail me at trademeabettercard@gmail.com

Trade #3- ARod a "Girlyman" says Amato R. in Santa Barbara, CA

That title up there was part of the stipulation to the deal- Amato R. wants all of cyberspace to know what he thinks of Arod.

Is Amato R. a bitter Yankee fan, distraught from Mr. Alex Rodriguez opting out of his $25 million a year contract? Perhaps. Here's his photo- you make the call:

But here is the deal:



My fellow Santa Barbarian and fantasy baseball rival just hit me with a 1994 Fleer Update Alex Rodriguez graded a solid 8.5 by Beckett.

My thoughts? Fantastic- I just got a premium rookie card of the best player in baseball. That's pretty darn cool, folks.

Love him or hate him- but you know you want him on your fantasy baseball team come spring time.

The real question for me is- Would I like to see Arod at 3B for the Phillies next year, giving them perhaps the greatest infield in baseball history ('06 MVP Ryan Howard at 1B, All-Star Chase Utley at 2B, '07 MVP? Jimmy Rollins, and All-Universe Alex Rodriguez at 3B)? Let me think about that for .00002 seconds- YES- I'd like that (althought it's NOT going to happen- Philly fans/boobirds would eat Arod alive).

Thanks again to Amato for the awesome card- glad to be back to dealing baseball cards! You have one '92 Upper Deck Shaquile O'Neal redemption rookie on it's way to you-enjoy.

So the stakes have been raised again- AROD rookie sitting out there, waiting to be acquired- just give me something better and it's yours.

Until then- Peace I'm out, yo!

Trade #2- A slam dunk!!!

OK, so I just crossed over to basketball for my latest deal- and I'm quite happy to do it!

Abreu is quite popular over at backshegoes.com, and his minor league rookie will be traded for this:

That's right- It's a 1992 Upper Deck Shaq rookie!!! I'm told that this is the special redemption rookie card that you had to send a special "redemption card" to Upper Deck to redeem. Remember back in the old days when you pulled your cards out of a packs and ate a piece of stale gum? In any case, it's very, very nice card.

I cannot believe in two trades I've gone from Steve Jeltz to Shaq Fu. That's like buying a '91 Geo Prizm and trading it up for '00 Toyota Celica (yes, I just shared the past two cars that I have owned with you guys).

Abreu's a great player, don't get me wrong, but Shaq is finishing up a career that will go down as one of the all-time greatest!!! I can remember all the hype that was made when he came into the league back in the early 90's- I'll never forgot the time he literally pulled down the entire backboard during his rookie year. One of the those rare guys that actually lives up to all the hype (unlike this guy: http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/img/bradley0623.jpg)

Thanks to Matt R. from Nesquehoning, PA for the awesome upgrade! Please do enjoy your soon-to-be-received-in-the-mail 1995 Best Bob Abreu rookie.

So we managed to avoid the whole trading Jeltz for an '88 Topps Sam Horn, and then Horn for 1982 Donruss Kent Hrbek, and then Hrbek for a '67 Bob Uecker, and so on. And I'm fine with that- Jeltz for Abreu for Shaq in less than 24 hours!

What a start- let's follow it up with something equally unfair (those are two words that you don't often see paired together, but altogether appropriate for what I'm trying to accomplish here).

Please keep sending in those offers!!!

Trade #1- One Philly fan to another

Jeltz didn't last very long on the open market. The first offer happens to be the first trade of hopefully many.

Here's the deal:

A Graded 9- 1995 Best Bob Abreu Jim M. from Catasauqua, PA, who read about my blog on my favorite Phillies site:

http://www.backshegoes.com/

Comments: This is a HUGE upgrade on the Jeltz. Abreu was possibly one of the three greatest OFers in Phillies franchise history. Richie Ashburn is our all-time CF, probably throw Chuck Klein in LF, and Bobby in RF, if I was putting the team together.

And I just got his 1995 Best minor league rookie card- Graded an impressive 9 by the fine folks of USAsportscards.com, no less. This is a very, very generous offer- one I'm happy to trade on. Thank you Jim!!! Please do enjoy your 1986 Topps Steve Jeltz- it is a special, little worthless piece of cardbord.

And thanks to you for checking out the site- their will be gradual improvements as I learn the art of the blog- please do bear with me.

And keep sending those offers!!!!