Anyone else wonder about the explosive growth of the site in membership numbers and the lack of an increase in your trading activity?

Just wondering since I am.

Sunshine today, time to get outside and enjoy some of it.

Gotta love it when a neighbor who never gave you the time of day moves out, and someone you know moves in.

I buy toploaders in 55pt, cause that's how I roll.

So I'm just about to head over to the card shop with some hard earned funds, when I decide to stop and check my PMs at various locales. Glad I did, as there was an offer of a decent lot of Avs cards at a nice price. Needless to say, the money went there instead of the card shop. Even tho I guess I need to stop by there for supplies as well...

Can't wait to share what hits the mailbox.

So after a stop at the shop for supplies I realize that I just can't spend $3 a pack for the new UD2 release that for me is no better than the release 12 years ago that I paid $1.25 a pack for, and was more excited about.

Okay, so this is worth an entry...

Post up an offer to buy cards at a site, note that anyone who wants to needs to include a list and asking price, get the usual minimal replies. One guys says he has 100+ of what I need, but that I will have to look at a few pics in his bucket.

Insert "should just skip it and save my time" here...

Okay I figure, might find something I can use. So I look at the pics, not singles of course, but 9 cards to a scan, so that some I can't even make out. But I find a few in the mix that I don't have so I express interest...

Insert "should've known better" here...

Get a reply that "he just wants to move the whole lot and is not going to take the time to list 100+ inserts". No price for the lot, no indication of how many of other players is in said lot.

Insert "No Sale" here.

Seriously, to make a sale some people won't even take the time to tell me what exactly they are selling?!

Waiting for mail stinks

Knowing those bad boys are out there just slowly making their way toward you.

"A bubble mailer in hand is worth ten in the mail"

Oh well, as long as they get here

It's not often I complain about the officiating of a game. But really yesterdays Av's/dingalings game was a travesty in terms of it.

Did they give this dingalings fan a ref's outfit right before the game?

The way he waved that goal off like some meth-fueled windmill spoke volumes about his level of professionalism. There is no way he could have been that certain about the call he made from that far out. Lack of allowing a replay review on missed calls by an on-ice ref really hurts the game.

It's the first time I can say I've considered not watching NHL games for a time to boycott garbage like this, and anyone who knows me knows that I have to be pretty upset to make that kind of statement.

Actually making some progress on some of the older sets I've been tracking down a few cards at a time. Taking about 4 months so far on them, but progress is progress I guess.

Still haven't gotten a single reply on the 2000-01 Gold Label set, which is a bit bothersome...

Got a good laugh on another forum today (not even worth mentioning the name) when asking about the must send first for the first 20 trades (laughable garbage in my opinion). Was told other feedback might be taken into consideration for removing that...so I asked how one could have feedback considered and from where...but since there is a prohibition on the site about even mentioning another trade site, and a prohibition about PMing other site information to someone...I could not figure out how anyone would have been able to take advantage of this without being banned per their regulations.

Only (literally) a handful of the members there seem to have any idea what's worth collecting...judging from my trade count there over the course of a full year...

Another big stack of adds for Avalanche base came in the other day. Also got a good stack of cards to add to the Bruins collection, as well as plenty of stuff to reward my son with for his grades this last term.

Always love to get a nice big box full of stuff to sort thru for singles I can add to the collection.

Love those trades.

Put up a request in the Show and Tell for the 01-02 UD Stanley Cup Champs Avalanche sub-set I put together. Nice to get a request once in a while.

That set was distributed in three card packs found in multiple products in 01-02 issues. Rather hard to come by a full set from my understanding. Heck, took long enough just to scrape together the singles for that 17 card sub-set.

I just noticed - There isn't a single steal in the Steals forums

That's it for today I guess.

Some of the best days I've ever had, and most excellent things I've ever done didn't cost me a cent.

If it was all about the money, rich people would never die.

Picked up a couple of the new rookies for the Avalanche this last week.

Got the Artifacts for Finger.

Picked up the Black Diamond and Young Guns for Hlinka.

Didn't really like the look of any of the other issues with RC's in them so far - the OPC, Trilogy and SPx issues just weren't visually appealing to me. I might pick them up later just since I'll need a few cards of these guys, but not chasing them down right out of the pack...

If you don't collect hockey, you should.

Before starting a new thread, run a search to see if there is already a topic on it first. I'd rather see a 3 year old thread revived than see an identical topic started, particularly if it was a thread topic of mine. Just a respect thing I guess for me...

If you don't have a tradelist, make a resolution to get one together before making any more trade threads. Don't listen to what anybody else says in conflict with this statement. When we trade, I want to see a full up-to-date list of what you have.

Enjoy what you collect, and don't let it be about the money, because in the end, it won't be.

Bottoms up!!

Whenever someone makes me a sandwich in 2008 I will memorialize them here:

(you could be the first)

Whenever someone sends me free cards for my collection in 2008 I will memorialize them here:

habslover (SCF) Aubin - sent the last UD Stanley Cup Champs card I needed to finish up my Avalanche subset for that issue!!

wacards (Beckett) Wes - sent 4 cards for my 99-00 Gold Label set

satellitejack (HI) Rob - sent me 8 cards I needed for my 99-00 Gold Label set

A huge Thank You to everyone on this list. Sometimes those last few are the toughest to get put in the books

Some simple advice:

If you are posing a question, put a question mark at the end of the sentence.

If someone replies to your question, make sure to thank them for their contribution.

Send free cards with no strings attached to other traders once in a while.

Make a trade for something new once in a while.

Flush and wash after using the restroom.

I just want some base and inserts after all - mostly from the 90's at that.

Today's funny story - saw some cards I liked so contacted a guy.
He says "make me an offer" so I made an offer on some base and inserts, okay and a couple RC's (that go for $1 each on the high end) - I made a solid offer shipped based on what they were going for.

Get a reply back that the guy wants $3 more shipping and supplies on top of my offer. (Leaving me to think, no matter what my offer was he was going to add this amount...)

What was the point in asking me to make an offer if he already had a price in mind?...so I mull it over for a day...

Send a reply back that I am going to pass as I have other stuff I'd rather spend that amount on at present. Thank him for his time. (Privately I think to myself - the cards just didn't appeal to me that much with a 30% increase in the asking price, and I can pick up 13 cards I really like at that price at the next show or whatnot)

I get a reply back today..."$3?? wow"

Okay, so he wanted more, I have no problem with that, but, if $3 (or, as I saw it a 30% increase) was "no big deal", then why was he asking for it in the first place??

So thanks to this (and previous efforts with make an offer) - As of today I will no longer respond to those who ask me to "make an offer" - put a price on it, if I like it I'll pay it, if I don't I will make one counteroffer. If it doesn't work out, that's okay, I won't drag you about over it.

Well, here I am with 450+ Avalanche cards to trade. So for the foreseeable future that's all I'm going to be posting on my tradelist.

That number is just too high for duplicates to be sitting around.

So I've put together a a list of them of them - Avalanche traders feel free to drop me PM on what we can do to reduce our tradelist loads.

The good news is that there is no duplication in the cards - there are 450+ unique Avalanche player cards from 2007 back to 1990. (Those from 1995 to 1990 are obviously Nordiques cards)

So let's get to it!!

Going to add a few new cards to the collection today. I just have a feeling...