Trade Me Anything XVIII: #1

It's a beautifully cold November Saturday, there are lots of sports to watch, and tonight I'll be eating barbecue and watching wrestling with my cousin.  The only thing that could make it better is a good trade.  Longtime trader Tim supplied the one I'm about to cover.

 

Giving:

#ASG-36 Rafael Devers All-Star, #AT-26 Albert Pujols Autumn Tales

Getting:

 #US240 and #US155 Jackson Chourio

How do I feel about the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers?  Regular-season success beyond expectations is great, but losing in the first round of the playoffs is getting old.  We're in the longest sustained period of success this ballclub has ever known, but it hasn't hit the same as used to.  I have long bemoaned that my team has never won a playoff series against a real team.  Sure, we've popped champagne against the likes of a couple of franchises that were born in the 1990s, but those aren't real baseball teams.  We almost got the monkey off our backs, but those last few outs proved to be too difficult.  It's an awful feeling knowing that your team isn't ever going to play in a World Series, much less win one.

Over a month removed from such deflation, I now have the perspective to reframe my thoughts on the Brewers' future.  Having Jackson Chourio on our team is a great comfort.  There is no young player I would rather build a team around.  The Brewers will forever be required to do more with less, and although he will never play in a World Series as a Brewer, he will someday get to celebrate in a locker room after the deciding game against a team that was actually around when 1986 Topps was on drugstore shelves.  I am reliably certain on this.

#AC-23 Jackson Chourio All Class

I'm probably done building player collections of any specific Brewers, but this is the start of a nice little Chourio PC.  (Boy, does my Ryan Braun-dedicated binder look dumb now.)

#SMLB-84 Jackson Chourio Stars of MLB

That is a dynamite-looking card.

#US17 Elvis Peguero Gold Parallel (1206/2024)

How long will Topps Keep numbering their gold cards to the year of release?  How sustainable is this?  And how come even though there are more of them out there, you don't get as many golds as you used to?  Yes, I know this is all overproduced junk, but why is it more expensive than ever?  Why do you get fewer cards per box. Why?  Why??  WHY???

 These are all great cards, Tim, thank you so much for saving these Brewers and sending them my way.

Trade Me Anything XVIII: The Keepers

As you probably know, not every card from my annual Update box is available for trade.  It's been a while since getting anything really good (remembering a Kolten Wong 1/1 letter patch a few years ago), and this year continued the usual mediocrity, but there were a few things worth holding on to.

 

#89AU-VSC Victor Scott II 1989 Topps 35th Anniversary AUTO Black Border Parallel (022/199)

Here's the deal with this card.  If you know anything about me, you know that the Cardinals are my most hated team.  This card is better than your standard All-Star Game warmup jersey card, but not something I would choose for myself.  I am faced with a conundrum.  If I were to put the card up for trade, it basically guarantees that Scott becomes the second coming of Albert Pujols.  This turns into a $10,000 card, and Scott's batting average against the Brewers over the next 20 years will be .687.  I can't let that happen.  So, I choose to keep it, and Scott has an unremarkable career, and I sell this card for a dollar to a sketchy looking guy under the Gateway Arch.  Sorry, Victor, I am in control of your future, and it is looking bleak.

#89US-15 Rhys Hoskins 1989 Topps 35th Anniversary

Hey, I actually got a Brewer insert!  The best news of the off season came a couple of weeks ago when it became official that Hoskins would return to the Brew Crew in 2025.  He's someone who actually underperformed last year and has the potential to do great things.

 #89US-44 Jackson Chourio 1989 Topps 35th Anniversary

Chourio is the real deal.  For those of you who don't know much about the Brewers, he's the first in-house prospect to get really excited about since guys like Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun.  And this card looks great, too.  I'm usually not a big fan of the navy jersey, but put it in a combo with the new yellow-accented design and you start to have something.  The '89 design also gets a glow-up, favoring a lighter yellow for the team name and ribbon, a vast upgrade over the original mustardy yellow of 35-year-old Brewers cards.

Well, those are the keepers, a couple of Brewers and an on-card auto.  Calling this box a win.

Trade Me Anything XVIII Has Arrived!

Eighteen?!?!?!  That's right, Trade Me Anything is old enough buy smokes and porno mags.  I guess I often use this space to give a yearly life update.  Simply put, things suck.  I'll skip any talk of Tuesday in favor of more immediate hardship.  First of all, my family has been down to a single vehicle since May.  Back then, we bought (well, ordered) a new car, the first of my lifetime.  Everything was in place for a brand new Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid.  But about a week after picking out our package, Toyota put a stop production order on all Grand Highlanders because of an airbag flaw.  Production reportedly got back underway in later October, but we still don't have a car.  Luckily, I walk to work every day.  Unluckily, our secondary vehicle had to go into much heavier use than we wanted, and the long-in-the-tooth Murano is suffering for it.  A few weeks ago we broke down driving between Milwaukee and Madison for a soccer tournament.  The other team families were super helpful in getting us where we needed to be that weekend, but it ended up costing us over two grand in the end.

 

Speaking of expensive shit, what's the deal with Topps Update this year?  Last year I went the jumbo box route, but 2024 Update jumbos were going for over $300.  So what, I can actually complete a set worth $40 from a single box?  Nah.  I just bought a hobby box this year, but that gets you barely half of the base set.  You used to be able to complete the set from a hobby box.  Why is everything always getting worse?  Today's bags of Doritos are only slightly larger than those 1990s 99-cent Big Grab bags, and now you don't even get a Star Wars lenticular!  This country isn't going straight to hell, because we're already there.

In any case, I have a huge base card want list for this set.  They even had the nerve to slip me a bunch of base card doubles, an absolute travesty.  

So as to end on a positive note before I copy and paste the standard TMA instructions, I'll share that my children and I are very close to obtaining dual citizenship in Luxembourg, but that's another story for another day.

Here we go.

1. Check out the list of available cards below. Select one (or a few) you want. Just remember, the more you claim, the better your trade material should be.

2. Send me an email with your choice of card(s) at bill13boehm@yahoo.com 

Please don't leave a request comment on the blog. This just confuses people, so don't do it, it will just be deleted and will not count.

3. I will reply to you as to the card's availability. First come, first serve. I will include my mailing address.

4. When I confirm the card of your choice, pick out one or more of your own cards or anything else you want to send me. A few guidelines about what you can't send: Nothing that should really be in the garbage, nothing perishable, and nothing illegal. (Notice I didn't say nothing immoral.) I've got a want list you can check out, too!

5. Send me whatever is was you picked out. Don't tell me what it is before you send it, I'd like to have it be a surprise! Include a SASE or you won't be getting your card.

6. When I receive your item, I will take a picture of the trade materials and post the happy couple on my blog, and then I will send you the card. Here are the cards you may choose from. Cards that have officially been claimed are in BOLD. 

Base Cards

5 Mitchell Parker - Nationals

28 Mitch Spence - A's

44 Combos Adley Rutschman / Craig Kimbrel - Orioles

49 Jared Jones - Pirates - Daniel

58 Evan Carter - Rangers

90 Adam Duvall - Braves

97 Jackson Holliday - Orioles - gcrl

124 Jon Berti - Yankees - Daniel

129 Tanner Banks - White Sox

131 Zack Gelof - A's

134 Cade Smith - Guardians - Daniel

156 Jack Leiter - Rangers

163 Combos Clayton Andrews / Josh Maciejewski - Yankees - Daniel

186 Landen Roupp - Giants

220 Max Schuemann - A's

227 Combos Mason McCoy / Chandler Seagle - Padres

310 Oliver Dunn - Brewers

All-Star Game

5 Gunnar Henderson - Orioles - gcrl

12 Ketel Marte - Diamondbacks - gcrl

19 Corbin Burnes - Orioles - gcrl

21 Garrett Crochet - White Sox - gcrl

23 Mason Miller - A's - gcrl

36 Rafael Devers - Red Sox - Tim

37 Josh Naylor - Guardians - gcrl

Rainbow Foil

194 Jurickson Profar - Padres - Morgan

251 Tony Kemp - Reds

Gold (#/2024)

54 Trevor Rogers - Marlins

156 Jack Leiter - Rangers - David

 

All Class

6 Willie Mays - Giants

Autumn Tales

26 Albert Pujols - Cardinals - Tim

35 Stephen Strasburg - Nationals - Zpop

Mystical

9 Juan Soto - Yankees - Morgan

19 Jung Hoo Lee - Giants - David

1989 Topps 35th Anniversary

2 Ozzie Albies - Braves - gcrl

21 Connor Phillips - Reds

30 Mickey Mantle - Yankees - gcrl

1989 Topps 35th Anniversary Refractors

16 Darell Hernaiz - A's

50 Ketel Marte - Diamondbacks - Morgan

60 Pedro Martinez - Red Sox - Zpop

65 Jordan Beck - Rockies

***Please note, I will be going out of town for much of the weekend, so I will probably not be responding to requests made on Friday or Saturday until Sunday.  Of course I will be responding to email in the order they are received.

Alright, make your claim and go find some anything!