Trading a 1988 Astros Team Leaders for a 1952 Mickey Mantle, Part I
March 9th, 2010 by slangon

(Well, I’m not really going for a 1952 Mickey Mantle, but I thought it made for a catchy title.)

I mentioned in past posts my plan for this, but let me just give you a quick recap. One of the very first cards I redeemed at the old Million Card Giveaway was a 1988 Astros Team Leaders card. Can’t get much lower than that card, can you? I immediately wanted it out of my collection. I don’t know why it was bugging me so much. I mean, I could’ve very easily chalked it up to a bad redemption and just never had it shipped out when it was time to claim my cardboard booty, right?

Wrong. Every time I would look at my virtual collection and I saw Kevin Bass and his mustache smiling back at me, it would make me mad. I needed to get that card out of there. I didn’t care what the hell I got in return. Even if it was a 1988 Expos Team Leaders card, somehow that would be better. I know, it makes no sense, but it just irked me.

As I was wracking my brain trying to figure out a card that someone in their right mind would theoretically trade me, I happened to remember this website. If you’re feeling lazy and don’t care to actually look at that link, it’s a blog run by a feller that wanted to trade a paper clip for a house. Of course no one would want to trade a house for a paper clip, but someone might trade a pen for a paperclip. And then someone might trade a doorknob for a paperclip. And then someone might trade a doorknob for a camp stove. So on and so forth until next thing you know, you have a house.

I figured if someone could trade a paperclip for a house, why can’t I trade my anger-inducing Astros Team Leaders card for something really cool. Not necessarily a 1952 Mickey Mantle, but how about a 1965 Bill Mazeroski? Or even a common from any of the ’60’s sets? I decided to see how far I could get.

So far, I’ve made three trades:

As you can see, the biggest step so far was actually getting rid of that horrible card. I was lucky enough to have someone trade a Jim Rice Turn Back the Clock card for it. The only thing I can think is that whatever kind soul accepted that trade wasn’t planning on actually redeeming that Jim Rice anyway and figured why not not redeem an Astros Team Leaders card. After that, I was able to move up to an ’86 Frank Robinson TBC. I figured now that I was in Hall of Famer territory,  I’d better try and stay there. On the third trade, I was able to keep that goal by trading for an ’85 Carlton Fisk Record Breaker.

That’s where I stand. So far, I’ve been able to make some pretty good forward progress, moving from 1988 to 1985. Hopefully I can keep that up.

Just as an aside, I had seen a few scans of 2010 Topps Heritage Buyback cards here and there, and I couldn’t help but notice that Topps had plopped that giant stamp on the face of the card. Has anyone out there heard anything about that happening with these Million Card Giveaway cards?

5 Responses to “Trading a 1988 Astros Team Leaders for a 1952 Mickey Mantle, Part I”

  1. I love this idea, and am actually trying something similar with my only card. I had a 2000 Matt Clement and offered it up to a bunch of different people. A fellow blogger actually bit (out of niceness I think) and that 2000 Clement is now a 1978 Pete LaCock. Whadyaknow?

    No progress from there yet though, sadly. I really like the LaCock so I wouldn’t be sad if I ended up with it. Right now I’m hoping someone trades me two decent cards for it, so I can then try the paper clip thing with those two cards instead of just my one.

  2. Awesome. I was hoping someone would do something like this.

  3. HeHe, He said he likes the LaCock.

  4. I recently requested trades for LaCock, Dick Pole, and Rusty Kuntz… Hope my girlfriend doesn’t log in.

  5. My favorite card is Rich Yett. Get it?

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