I Did It Again - Anyone Want To Trade

 For the last six years I have just bought all the Red Sox Team sets rather than try to build them.  At first I felt kind of weird about just buying them rather than building the team sets but I have come to really enjoy it.  I buy the previous years sets right before spring training.  I like it because when I get them all and binder them, it is like a refresher on the previous season right before the new season starts.  

This is my haul this year.  I didn't buy Heritage yet because High Numbers wasn't out when I bought them all and I haven't found a complete 2024 Finest team set yet.  (I have Heritage on the way now and I'm about to just purchase the whole Finest team set separately on COMC to get the thing done.) I didn't buy that auto card on the middle right.  It and a bunch of other Red Sox inserts were a freebie I got for buying multiple sets from someone.

Buying them outright really cuts down on my spending and it also cuts out on doubles.  However every year I screw up and buy a set twice.  You would think it would be hard to accidently buy a set twice but it isn't.  When trying to get each set for the lowest amount possible, it is always cheaper to combine shipping.  Without fail each year I end up with double team sets because I was trying to save shipping and ended up buying something twice.  This year I told myself I was going to be more careful and I wasn't going to screw up, and I didn't, but here I am with double team sets.  One of the first team sets I bought was Bowman's Best, only 4 cards and I gave $3.99 for it and combined shipping with some others.  A couple days later I was ready to buy a few team sets from another person when I saw they had a Bowman's Best team set with the Refractors for 4.99 plus free shipping because I was buying multiple team sets.  I knew I already bought the base team set but I figured it was worth it for the refractors and I would only end up with four base doubles, so I bought it again.  A few days later my first Bowman's Best Team set came in the mail and low and behold the guy threw in the refractors for free. 

 So now I have two 2024 Bowman's Best team sets both with refractors.  Anybody want to trade for it?  I have multiple complete team sets from the last few years I can trade off too.  

All the above are complete team sets I have to trade if anyone wants them. That one is a Montgomery 592 parallel set.  Yeah, I can't believe I screwed up that many times too.  

Newest Additions

 When I received Tribecards 12 Days of Christmas box I realized it was time for me to do something.  

This isn't really the newest additions I was talking about but yeah, it is a new addition.  I went out and bought Readers and a magnifying glass.  I just couldn't make out the little baby dates on the backs of cards and David sent a lot of cards.  I am officially that age.

What David sent was mostly 2013 to 2017 which I didn't buy much of those years because I was sticking to all vintage.  In all I needed 205 of the cards he sent me.  I don't think I have ever got a package before with over 200 Red Sox cards I needed.

That isn't the only thing I have got lately.  I joined a group break.  It was my first group break in I don't know how long, probably at least 15 years.  It was 20 Fanatics Hobby boxes of 2025 Topps.  This was my haul.

The top left is all the doubles.  Crazily I only got one team set out of the whole 20 boxes.  I was two cards short of a second team set, though I got 9 of some other cards.  

That is what a complete 2025 Topps Series 1 Red Sox Team set looks like. 

I was four cards short of the foil team set and a Boggs short of the 1990 35th Anniversary cards.  

I found someone on eBay with all four of the Foil Parallels and I bought them, twice.  Not really twice I accidently bought the Diamonte Foil the first time instead of the Pattern Foil.  As soon as I saw them I knew they were wrong and off to eBay again to fix my error.  The Pattern Foil set is now complete and I am now 8 cards short of the Diamonte Foil parallel set that I never intended to collect in the first place.  

 I am not chasing down every parallel and insert but going am after the following:

35th Anniversary Wade Boggs  I got zero of the Chrome 35th Anniversary cards so I am not officially chasing them but if they happen to show up in a trade package...

Homefield Advantage Rafael Devers

Call to the Hall Ted Williams

Stars of Japan Yoshida

Tokyo Nights Yoshida

Diamonte parallels begrudgingly

I also completed a blogger trade recently.  It was with a trade partner from 13 years ago.  More on that later.