Face to Face

I've been buying some cards regularly (about once a month or so) from a seller on Facebook, and it's been working out pretty well for me. I was skeptical at first, but now I've purchased cards from this same seller 5 or 6 times now and the cards have always arrived, and the prices are competitive with what I find for Twins at my local card shops and card shows. I can probably get better deals if I hustled for these same cards on eBay, but to be honest, I'm paying as much for the leg work as anything else.

This seller will contact me and send a bunch of photos. I pick out the cards that I like, we negotiate a fair price, and that's all. By finding a short stack of Twins for me, I generally can get a good deal by buying several at once. No drama if a card is not for me, I just politely decline and we move on.

This Pinto card was tossed in as an extra this time around, even though he was up front about when he was shipping, he still felt that it took longer than usual to get the cards to me.

I also asked about Ichiro and Beltre cards, as I was looking to add a few more to my collection.

A game used base!

I think it is right to be a little wary of these. Playoff went so far as to show a photo of the actual base, as well as a blurb about the game in which the base appeared. The game was at Dodger Stadium, Ichiro went 1-4 with his 20th double of his rookie season. He was hit by a pitch as well, and scored a run. That means he spent a little time at every base in the game. The Mariners won 9-2.

If At First You Don't Succeed . . .

. . . buy it online. So I dragged myself to two Walmarts this week, hoping to score some Bowman Platinum. Both places were sold out, but I had a back up plan already in place. My good friend, the Internet! I have been buying small lots of Twins from a seller on Facebook, and he let me know that he had a bunch of Bowman looking for a home.

Here's what the back of base cards look like, for those curious, nothing groundbreaking here. Similar to Finest.

Twins! Everybody wants the hits, but the base cards are all I was really looking to get.

Fernando! He's going to be called up soon to get his shot, I can feel it!

In addition to Bowman Platinum, there were some Twins-centric goods available. Max Kepler isn't a superstar, but he's speedy. He's a plus defender and has a sweet line drive swing that is still developing.

Miguel has continued to hit the ball hard after finishing second in the Home Run Derby, smashing two homers against the Yankees in the three game series at Target Field.

A Starter turned reliever, Tyler Duffey has been solid, eating up lots of needed innings for the Twins when their regular starters falter (which has been often this season).

And one more Romero for the road! This last one was found on eBay, it's serial numbered to 99 on the back.

What's On Your Mind?

For the first time, I've made a card purchase via Facebook. I joined a few Facebook groups for trading / selling / etc. - my ultimate goal is to find that elusive Kennys Vargas Clear parallel, but in the meantime I will scope out other deals and opportunities as they come up.

 So, here's what I bought - small to start, it's a Kirby Puckett Don't-Call-It-A-Refractor "Prizm"

 Seller tossed in the base card too - Prizm on the left, base on the right.

And here's the card that got me interested in the first place, a Miguel Sano auto from 2014 Bowman Sterling. Pre-rookie, post "1st Bowman," but a nice pick up nonetheless. I had to check to see if I already had this one before buying, but it turns out it's new to me! Local MN sellers at the shows want top dollar for Sano autos, which is understandable.

Pretty easy sale, the seller used PayPal, so I felt o.k. if I lost the money or the cards on this first deal, both were small enough investments to be worth taking a tiny risk.

Do you buy or trade over Facebook? Wanna invite me to your super cool trading group? Let me know in comments or send me an e-mail.