set_builder39

I trade cards to build baseball, hockey and some miscellaneous sports / non-sport sets. I also PC Felipe Alou, Derek Aucoin, Steve Begin, Jennifer Botterill, Kevin Dineen, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Bob Kudelski, Manon Rheaume, Gabriela Sabatini and P.J. Stock as well. I do not buy cards. I also have a sweet spot for oddball / food issue / regional sets. New cards are regularly added to my FT/S list and all the cards I list here are NRMT or EX unless specified and I expect the same of you.

I don't collect micro-variations (dots, stars, copyright marks, holograms, printing plate codes...), they're not fun to search and I dislike the incessant frequency with which new ones are added. Seriously, what's the point if you gotta need to use a magnifier glass to check out if there's a dot on the back of a 1991 Fleer? However, I do all my best to check all my cards and to keep my lists up to date, but please ask me first, if micro-variations matter to you. The site really needs some way of opting out of micro-variations (just a default / any var. / unverified option for each card).

Besides helping to complete our collections one step closer each time, the opportunity would be nice to have traded with all the states, provinces and territories of North America. On this site only, I traded with members in 46 states, D.C., 9 provinces, N.W.T. and overseas. I can't wait to have a trade in Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, Wyoming, Manitoba, Nunavut and Yukon. However, if you don't live in the above jurisdictions, you're still more than welcome to trade with me. No trade to Russia, Belarus and Iran.

I'm an easy going, helpful and patient guy, but here's now my turn to announce that my NO TRADE LIST is growing due to an increased lack of civility on the forums and the full site. If (1) you nitpick and/or always have an opinion on anything and/or act like you own the site and you're not Admin or (2) you do not respond to counters or decline without expressing a reason or don't PM me to ask more time after several days of wait or (3) you send me ridiculous off-balanced offers or (4) you accept the trade and you can't mail your cards in a timely manner or you send me loose or severly damaged cards or (5) have a brand new (empty) account without info / feedback and ask for valuable cards or (6) you clearly didn't read my profile (ask first, at least) and ask me to buy your cards, then chances are that you just won a place on my NO TRADE LIST regardless of how much I may want what you have.

I am fine with shipping cards in single or multiple PWEs, if the cards are properly packaged. Also, I don't mind large or small transactions, but I currently prefer trades with 10 to 20 cards going each way or at least that the cards carry more value than the postage. I am working 12 hour shifts, but I always try to ship the same or the next business day. Just remember that Canada Post doesn't pick up or deliver on Saturday and Sunday.

International shipping is very easy, but it costs more for BOTH traders (not just from the U.S.). Here are some tips to save on shipping costs to Canada: use PWEs (Plain White Envelopes) and avoid bubble envelopes, plastic boxes and big stacks of cards. Ship as flat as you can (cut 9 pocket pages in 3 rows and insert 4-5 cards in each pocket). The more it looks like a greeting card or documents mailed in a regular letter instead of a package, the more it tends to be cheaper to ship. Current U.S. to Canada first class postage rate (up to 2 oz) is $1.40 and if non-machinable, $1.79. If you don't have Global Forever stamps handy, three regular Forever stamps work as well. There's also no need to pay $14.85 for shipping with international tracking, because it is just too expensive, it will be way slower to arrive and Canada Post won't track your postal item anyway. Overall, postal service tends to be slower in Canada and at times a bit harder to predict, but it is as reliable as in the U. S.. Lastly, no cross-border shipping by Fedex or UPS: they charge $40.00+ custom brokerage on each and every package they handle no matter if it is duty free or not.

A.S.

Dec. 15, 2023 - This past year was an extremely difficult one for me. I logged in just a couple of weeks ago, after a 5 month haitus from life. I'm more or less just trying to catch up on my wantlists and figuring out where I last left off. I think it will be quite a while until I'm back to my old self. If you're interested in a bubble envelope sized trade, please send me a PM. - Happy holidays, Eric

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2024 Goals / Milestones

- 650 transactions

- 600 Ichiro Suzuki cards 537/600

- Complete 1977 Topps Star Wars Stickers - @ 25/55 (45.5%)

- Complete 1980 Topps Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back set @ 301 / 352 (85.5%)

- 300 Albert Pujols cards - I've got a long way to go on this. 196/300

- 300 David Ortiz cards 277/300

- 200 Ken Griffey Jr. 142/200

2023 Goals / Milestones

✓ - 600 transactions

✓ - 400 Ichiro Suzuki cards - A big thank you to BobbyL and OraInPA for their generous gifts! Thank you, guys!

✓ - Complete 1977 Topps Star Wars - @ 330/330 (100%)

- 200 Ken Griffey Jr. - A little tricky, considering my wantlist isn't all that big. 142/200. Thank you, Ora!

2022 Goals / Milestones

✓ - Hit 50% on all Star Wars sets

✓ - 500 Tony Gwynn cards - A huge thanks to OraInPA, who once again, graced me with a tremendous PIF!

2021 Goals / Milestones

✓- 500 Greg Maddux cards - Thanks to OraInPA for a big bump towards the goal, and also BobbyL for getting me over the hump.

✓- 400 Dwight Evans cards - Thanks to Nowhereman317 for getting me to my goal!

Juuse Saros

Update 2023:

I've been inactive last year due to work and family but I am back where I belong trading cards with everyone here =)

Collects: 

• Basketball: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, LeBron James
• Football: Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert
• Gaming: Pokemon, Dragon Ball Super

 Trades:

Always willing to trade and work out deals with members of this cool community. 

Small trades in PWE with penny sleeves into team bags with a card protector.

Larger trades up to 18 cards in 9-page sheet in PWE unless requested otherwise.

Bubble mailer for deals with higher volume and amount $$

Baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball, Soccer and whatever else I think is cool.

Every thing "STORM"

New Jersey Devils cards (up to 1st SC win, 1982-83 to 1995-96)

CITGO Racing (cards & die-cast)

Check out my ebay link to "pazzocow" (store name is "Pazzocow's Pasture")  - lots of Buy It Now items available!

Arizona State University (All Sports and Non-Sports)

Not collecting anymore. Getting rid of all my cards.

If my trading is turned back on, it's only to list what someone wants to get from me, not for trades.

It's been fun, but there comes a time for all good things to come to an end. This is my time.

April 2024 - I've added a lot of Young Gun cards to my FS/Trade list, please don't propose a trade for these cards without being willing to offer Young Guns in return. Response A) Hate being a stickler about this but I'm really focused on wrapping up my Upper deck sets and need Young Guns cards to do so. Response B) I continue to get lopsided trade offers with folks wanting Young Gun cards, expect me to counter. 

March 2024 - I am extremely busy at work right now and have next to no time for card related items. Happy to look at trade offers when I can but the hobby is not a top priority for me right now. 

January 2024 - Over 1400 trades completed and I've owned/traded/moved over a million cards since joining the site 6+ years ago. That being said, the current state of trading on this site is atrocious. Several years back, the traders were all great to deal with but this has changed dramatically in the last few years and there's truly on a handful of traders which I feel any level of comfort dealing with. Trade offers go ignored, are countered with ridiculous offers and petty issues seem to be common anymore. I left out everyone seems to treat their cards like million dollar prized possessions. I started a No Trade list but it seemed like every few days I was adding someone to it, not worth it guys and gals. I'm finding that I can buy cards I want either from Sportlots or eBay with so much less hassle. And cheap too. 

All that said, when my current stash of postage runs out, I'm turning off trading and not sure if I will be returning. Was a fun ride while it lasted. 

November 2023 - Trade Values - I am back to using Beckett to look at card values for trade equality. 

Willing to trade to Canada again. I am though not accepting any responsibility for any losses, etc. once I drop my envelope in the mailbox. Trader beware!

October 2023 - Nothing against any of my Canadian traders but I am no longer trading to Canada due to issues with Canada Post and the USPS destroying envelopes causing loss of cards, cards needing to be resent, issues with postage, etc. It's too much folks. 

To pull, package and ship cards, only to have one of the postal systems destroy the package makes it a fruitless endeavor. It's a waste of both time and money. 

Sadly, Canadian trades make up most of my trades so this is probably the beginning of the end of my trading days.  I will probably beginning selling off most of my collection starting in 2024. It's been a fun ride but thats the way I'm heading right now. 

****1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey VAR's on my For Sale/Trade list - Highly unlikely that I have any of the oddball VAR's. These cards were entered mainly as placeholders meaning I do have one version of a given card but probably not the version you need. If time permits, I may be open to checking VAR versions but it's not something that I enjoy doing nor high on my list of things to do. ****

September 2023 - Continuing to focus on collecting one card of anyone who is the four Hall of Fame's. I'm over 90% complete on Baseball and Football. Basketball is lagging far behind. Haven't updated Hockey but I should be in good shape there as well. 

Supplies:

For anyone close to Denver, I have a large amount of trading supplies that need to find a new home. I have BCW card houses, 5000 and 3200 count boxes and a host of smaller boxes (800, 660, 550, 400, 300, 200 and 100). The latter is a mixture of used and new Collect-Save-Protect or BCW brand. 

Disclaimer on PWE trades

I'm hearing of, and personally experiencing, more and more issues with PWE trades. Mainly postal machines destroying/bending envelopes or envelopes arriving and the cards being missing. I have not seen issues like this in my prior 1100+ PWE trades. That being said, I will continue to send 25 cards or less PWE but once the envelope is dropped in the mailbox, I'm no longer responsible for damage/issues after that point. I'm not sending replacement cards or funds if there's damage once the USPS has my/your envelope or your cards are lost in the mail.

I'm very close to no longer writing "Non-Machinable" on my PWE envelopes. This doesn't seem like a makes a difference to the USPS and the financial costs for doing this quickly add up. 

I hate to take a hard stance on this but short of stopping trading (or doing larger, bubble envelope trades), I have no other options. I'm spending too much time and money on postage to send replacement cards, when the issue arises, to make trading worth it.

Happy to do larger trades (30+ cards) in bubble envelopes.

What I'm collecting for:

1)I'm primarily an Upper Deck flagship hockey collector. I'm working on completing a few remaining base sets and then chasing Young Guns and insert cards. 

2)I'm also collecting RC's (when possible) of all NBA/NHL/NFL/MLB players who have been inducted into their respective Hall of Fames. Also collecting non-players cards as well if they are in the HOF. Basically if the person is in the Hall of Fame for their sport, I'm hunting their RC or if it's a non-player, some type of card for them.

3)Finally, I'm collecting Baseball/Hockey and to a lesser extent, Football sets, of the 1970's/1980's. 

Card condition:

If your cards look like they have been manhandled, I'm not interested in them for my collection. No creases, rounded corners or teeth marks. 

Buying cards:

I've had several folks approach me about buying cards..I will rarely be interested in buying from someone and, odds are, I will reach out to you first..

Trade size:

Make it worth our time..

PWE packaging:

I am no longer using cardboard protection in my PWE trades. Historically, I've done 100's of trades with cards just in 9 pocket pages and then placed in envelopes and have had zero issues. After some issues I have seen lately with including cardboard in my PWE trades, I'm no longer spending the extra money, and time, just to have cardboard protection in an envelope. 

Postage:

Please make sure you have proper postage on whatever you are sending me. Seems to be half the envelopes I get are short on postage. Minimal postage on a PWE envelope is $1.03.

Canada trades:

Has between 9 and 25 cards or less. I can't afford to send big trades unless there's additional cards/value to compensate. Trades less than 9 or so cards don't make a lot of sense either from a cost standpoint.