At the Trade Deadline 49: Jaybarkerfan's Holiday Tradeathon

I participated in the recent Holiday Tradeathon at Jaybarkerfan's Junk. Throughout the month of November, jaybarkerfan put various trade bait up for readers to claim, with the condition that anyone claiming cards would send him a trade package in return. I believe his plan is to open all of the return packages on Christmas. I already knew what I had claimed, so I didn't feel compelled to hold onto the package until the holiday, but I guess this post is scheduled for the 25th anyway. I hope he finds my return package acceptable.

This first card in this post is this Peyton Manning Noodle Golden Arms insert from 2015 Panini Black Gold Football. The Broncos were able to win the Super Bowl in spite of his arm last year, but the team's offensive woes combined with a surge from the Raiders and Chiefs means they are on the brink of elimination this year. I guess he deserved to be carried by his team at least once in return for all the years he spent carrying the Colts around. This is a cool shadowbox-style card, and it is serially-numbered # 085 / 199. Going back and looking at the Holiday Tradeathon posts, it looks like there was another Peyton Manning card offered up that I failed to claim, but this was the one I really wanted anyway.

The second card I claimed actually was a bit of a surprise, as jaybarkerfan just posted a picture of a box of 2016 Topps Archives Signature Series with the caption, "Not just an empty box here.  If you select this prize you will receive the same O Shucks card I did but it's a mystery." That was enough mystery for me to jump in and claim it. There are plenty of guys in that set who I would be excited to get an autograph from.

Well, it does pretty well match the description that jaybarkerfan gave it. It is a decent-looking autograph of a pretty good player. This buyback autograph of Darren Daulton's 1993 Topps Stadium Club card is numbered # 09 / 38. He had some decent years and won a World Series ring. I learned from his Wikipedia page that he had a couple of DUI's and wrote a book on occultism.

That was my haul from the Jaybarkerfan's Junk Holiday Tradeathon. I had a good time watching for his posts to pop up so I could see if there was anything I wanted to claim, and it was exciting to wait and see what the mystery autograph would be.

Black November, Act III - 2016 Topps Archives Signature Series

The second and final lottery ticket item in my order from the Blowout Cards Black November sale was a box of 2016 Topps Archives Signature Series. I bought a few singles from the 2015 iteration of this product, but I hadn't sampled the 2016 product at all, and I have never tried an unopened box of it.

Each box has one encased buyback card enclosed, with an on-card signature. I think the 2016 version added some relic cards and stuff, but I haven't researched that at all. The breaks of this stuff I've seen online have been all over the place, so I wasn't sure what to expect with it. The most likely scenario, especially given how these breaks have gone so far, was that I would pull a $5-$15 card and feel terrible about buying this box.

Well, that's not an awful pull. It's an on-card autograph of Cal Ripken Jr., numbered # 1 / 1. It's a nice-looking card, too, being a buyback of Ripken's Baseball Highlight Sketches insert from 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter. The problem with this card is that it reinforces bad behavior. I can probably recoup most of the cost of this order from the sale of this card, which might encourage me to make similar orders in the future. I still haven't decided on what to do with it, though. I remember when he broke the consecutive games record. I think I even clipped a page from the newspaper when it happened, but Cal Ripken Jr. was really my cousin's favorite player, not mine. I could probably get something I like even more in exchange for this card.

Either way, this one card saved the whole break for me. It's a really neat card, but the possibilities it opens up for my collection might be more exciting than the card itself. For now I think I will just bask in the glory of pulling a rare and valuable card, made even better because it saved a break that was going down fast.