Bloomington Card Show - Two Great Trades!

I've been waiting for weeks and weeks for the Bloomington Card Show to arrive. I haven't been to a real card show since I was a kid, so after I found out from this site that there would be a show in my local mall, I was ECSTATIC! I printed out a list of particular needs of mine and for two bloggers for whom I'm making packages, packed up my box of tradeables (this is key), and arrived at the mall at 10:30 (the show started at 10 but I wanted to wait a few just in case people were late). And... WTF? There were two guys selling in the middle of the mall and that was it, and the second guy wasn't even set up yet. Now technically there is a third seller, but that is a permanent seller that used to have a storefront, and I've been through all their stuff. So really for all intents and purposes there was one lot of cards to look at for me. But DAMN was it a lot of cards. Super pricey, which was a bummer, but nice to look at. I was tempted to pick up a random Wladimir Balentien Topps Unique three color patch, but he was selling it for $16. A little much for me. And most of the rest of the table was that - decent singles at $1 a pop or 7 for $5, decent autos/relics for $8-15 a piece, and really nice autos/relics for very very high prices. Feeling rather broke lately, I was worried I wouldn't find anything I needed. But then I spotted a pile of unpriced cards, two of which I really liked! I asked the guy his price and he said $5 each...so I had found the "bargain" pile. One of these cards was accurately priced, the other was $3-4 too expensive. He told me he'd trade as well though, so I headed to the car, picked out my nicest autos/relics/rookies, and it was on. Ended up getting my cards thanks to two mini trades, which I will score for you here: 

Trade 1 

Giving: Santonio Doucheface Holmes JSY RC, he who keeps catching game winning touchdowns against teams that I like. Books for $10. Getting: 1 Josh Cribbs 2010 JSY #'d 177/250. Also books for $10, but is my first jersey card of my second favorite player in the league, who is an absolute beast. His jersey is the jersey I wear on gamedays (unless I go retro and bust out the Kywin Supernaw threads). Verdict: I win! We didn't even talk book value, which was awesome (the seller was actually a super nice guy), but I ended up equaling out here in terms of BV, which is stunning for any buyer/seller trade. I figure the Holmes will probably hold more value 10 years from now than the Cribbs given Holmes' much better performance at WR and penchant for game/super bowl winning catches. But I also probably still won't like Holmes and I love Cribbs, so I did awesome here. 

Trade 2 

Giving: Seneca Wallace 2003 Sage Bronze Two Colored JSY RC #'d 6/75. I have another card in the print run thanks to two cheap auctions I won two days apart. This card is nice, for sure, and easily the best card he got even if it only books for $15. I'll miss it, but like I said, I have another card from the print run that I like even more, so it's all good. A 2008 Topps Finest Topps TV Auto of Alan the Rip Master. Fuji took 2 of my 3 Topps TV Autos...now the third is gone too. Gotta be honest...never thought those 3 would leave my collection as fast as they did. But hey...you get surprised sometimes right? Books for $8. Getting: A 2001 Pacific Private Stock J.R. Redmond JSY card (w/ broken snap case - and those wrinkles are from the crappy sleeve I put the card in, the card is in pristine condition). Books for $8. Dude was an essential part of the Patriots Super Bowl victory over the Rams. Verdict: I WIN AGAIN! Sure I'm biased, but several catches on a Super Bowl winning drive from when I was 15 means a lot more to me than a swatch I don't need and a random auto. More importantly, I now only need a Redmond RC to complete the trifecta since I picked up an auto of his a while back. So two excellent reasons for this second trade. Bummer there aren't any other sellers at my mall - but for just one seller I think I did quite nicely today!