Other Goodies #1: Trade with All Pro Sportscards of Cuyahoga Falls, OH

Since I lack a true LCS, I always stop by All Pro Sportscards in Cuyahoga Falls, OH when I visit my girlfriend's parents. The prices are nice, the guy that works there is cool, and the singles go on forever - it's a perfect place to waste a few hours when my girlfriend and her Mom are shopping at Kohl's.

This Christmas time I returned back with a box of my finest trade bait, plus all my Seneca doubles, Indians cards, and Browns cards that I didn't want. I figured I would probably have to trade most everything (and still offer cash) to get anything from All Pro, but that wasn't the case at all. He saw I had a lot of Topps Total and pulled out all of the double and triple player cards, as those often feature guys with very few cards (Hannibal Navies and Rogers Beckett are two examples I own), making them a must have for those player collectors. In other words, they'll probably sell. He also took the Senecas in case something crazy happens and he leads the Browns to the Super Bowl next year. And I donated my Browns and Indians since no one on the blogs needs them and I'd like the space in my collection. So this was a straight up trade - no money changing hands, which was nice.

In return, I did VERY well, particularly when you consider that I traded a ton of base cards, 6 high serial #'d cards, and 2 relic cards for the following:

A 2001 Duce Staley Relic:
Possibly the coup of the trade, as I've been looking to add to my Staley collection and he had one of these in his $5 (or 5 for $20) relic/auto box. I really didn't think I'd get anything from that box with a bunch of commons, so I was especially shocked to get the Staley, which looks especially nice in person.


14 Duce Staley commons:
I went in looking for Duce and made out pretty well, boosting my collection by 33% in one stop. Duce has some real nice looking cards, so I'm glad I collect him. I especially like the middle row here, what with the diving Duce and the shot of him outrunning some douchebag G-Men.


A Chansi Stuckey College Relic:
Say WHAAATTT? I've been eying this card on various websites for the longest time and nearly bought it for $5 dlvd recently. So to get it here, for free, was awesome to me. It looks great and I was shocked the shop owner would trade it since Chansi is a Brown now. But to be fair, I guess 39 catches for 342 yards (an 8.8 YPC average) and no touchdowns isn't much to write home about. I could care less about the stats though - Chansi is, to date, the only great name who has acknowledged the existence of my blog (he re tweeted an all call to his followers to vote for him on a past ballot). So he gets major kudos for that in my book, and I'm extremely happy to be a rookie card away from his trifecta.


Speaking of trifectas, this Shyrone Stith Auto sealed one for me:
I LOVE this auto, as it's in black pen, which you rarely see in a certified auto (Usually it's nice marker or something). Stith is a guy I liked for his Madden play, which is odd since he was the worst player in the game. But I liked that underdog status and made him my short yardage guy, and he scored me a lot of touchdowns. I never expected to complete his trifecta, but I slowly picked up a rookie card, relic card, and auto over the past year and a half. As usual this will lead to a Trifecta post for Stith, though that'll likely come in a few days.


No more relics or autos, just sweet base-y goodness. This next card made me real excited since it fit a random need of mine - a Brian Daubach card:
I don't expect anyone outside of Boston to know Daubach, but he was a fan favorite while he was here. The late 90's-early 00's Sox were always a scrappy bunch, and Daubach was one of the scrappiest. I think/hope he got a ring when we won the 2004 World Series, as his 2004 contributions weren't much (30 games), but his four other years in Boston were definitely great ones.


A Terrence Long RC, complete with goofy face protector:
I saw Terrence Long play as a kid and grew to like the guy, even though he didn't amount to much. That coupled with his goofy facial gear (which also includes glasses) made this card a must have.


An 88 Topps Randall Cunningham
When you see a third year card of a former NFL Superstar in the quarter boxes you do not pass it up, and the shop owner actually asked me if there were any more of these in there (there was, surprisingly). 87 was actually Cunningham's first real good year, so this is a cool card to own. Besides that this I thought this was just a really nice shot for a card.


A lesser Eagles QB, Bobby Hoying:
I have no real affinity for Hoying beyond the fact that he was my first Video Game QB (I used the Eagles a lot in late 90's NFL games, and their QB was either Hoying or Ty Detmer). I mostly just really liked the look of this card and its shininess. Hoying's future looked bright when this card was made, as he had gone 11:6 in TD:INT with an 83.8 QB rating the year before. But in 98 he went 0:9 with a 1-6 record and a 45.6 rating, sealing his release from the Eagles along with the start of the Donovon McNabb era.


Last but now least, a few lowly Lions:
Do any of the rest of you have an affinity for the Lions? If you're like me, you watch them every Thanksgiving, even though they always lose. But when they put up a good fight I remember them, and that's how I remember these guys. Bryson was always scrappy for the Bills and Lions, so I wanted a card of his. Hill's card is funny because a typo on the back gives him 46 touchdowns in 1998 - which is just insane (and would be a record by, oh, 20 or so).

As for McMahon, I loved him for his scrambling and his gusto, particularly in a 2001 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Packers. Charlie Batch started but was gone by the third quarter, leaving McMahon to face a 24-10 deficit. A safety and field goal made it 29-10 and all seemed lost, but McMahon led a furious comeback behind a Lamont Warren TD run and a TD pass to Scotty Anderson. Unfortunately the 2 point conversation following the TD pass failed, resulting in a 2 point loss. But it's games like that that get a guy remembered, even if he did finish with a lifetime 3-11 record and 55.1 QB rating.


And that's everything I picked up a trade with my "LCS." I loved being able to pick up a bunch of stuff I liked for free, but I guess that's what happens when you have weird collecting tastes like me!