Trade with The Collective Mind

Recently, Greg from The Collective Mind purchased a pretty big collection, and has been trying to disperse what he didn't need for his collection. I asked him if he would be willing to part with the Rays he had in it, and he was happy to oblige. I was able to find some SPs in my collection to help him with some sets, and he sent me back a nice box of over 100 Rays I didn't have. 

I was hoping there would be a nice chunk of late '90's and early '00's Rays represented, and the package Greg sent didn't disappoint. I love the Chrome cards ('98 Topps Flaherty and Saunders, '01 Bowman Kelly, and '02 Topps Riggans), the '00 Opening Day duo (Boggs and Canseco), and the '01 Fleer Focus Kelly was a parallel I have never heard of. On the way home from my senior prom, we stopped at a gas station, and I picked up a Fleer Focus pack and pulled a Chris Richard rookie. Rookies in that set were serial #d to 2,000, and it was my first ever serial #d card. This was was #d to 500, I believe, and the lettering is green instead of red, which leads me to believe it's a parallel.

The next photo is full of names and cards I remember. I always wanted to pull a Rays Joey Gomes card, but never did. Now I have 2. I believe I had each Pete LaForest card signed at some point. They got sold when I sold a bunch of my autographs, but I still have a lineup card signed by Pete where he hit a game-winning walkoff RBI 2B in the bottom of the 11th for the Orlando Rays against the Moblie Bay Bears in 2002, I believe. The '04 Topps Gold Crawford is new to me, as I don't even have the base version, surprisingly. 

A number of these sets I don't have many cards from, including the SP Authentic, and Topps Co-Signers ones. I plan on going through my want lists as soon as I get the remaining 5-6 missing player checklists done and also make a list of every sunset card. Once I update the page, I have a feeling a number of these new sets I have cards from will be completed. 

I purchased packs from each of these sets (besides the Co-Signers one), but all of these guys are new to me. It's kind of surprising I didn't have any from '11 Heritage, as I purchased a blaster and a good number of packs from that set. 

Here are some of the more recent sets and Guys I Collect. Although the Wells isn't a Rays card, it is a cool Serial #d parallel, so I will happily add it to my shiny card binder.
Greg was able to boost my Joey Gathright collection by 1 and my Aubrey Huff collection by 4. Thanks again for a great trade Greg!

I'm off tomorrow, so I'll probably try to spend some time going through binders in search of cards for some trades I'm in the midst of doing, but probably the majority of my day will be spent doing puzzles with my 3-year old. Here in Florida, the governor shut the schools down through the end of the school year. With my wife being in the medical field and her knowledge of the subject and with her compromised immune system, I think it's the right decision, although I'm as ready as anyone for this thing to be over with. I would think this would mean that all of the businesses will stay closed until then as well.
I feel lucky since both my wife and I have jobs that won't be shutting down anytime soon. Although I usually lean towards the republican side of things, I really applaud the left for coming up with the hero bill, which would give a lot of money to people in the front lines. I think it's a good idea, as they all need to be applauded. However, my only thing is that most families that have 1 (or more) people working on the 'front lines' won't really need the money to survive while everything is shut down. Why not use the money they have allocated for the 'hero bill' and give it to people who need it to make mortgage payments/food purchases due to not having a job? Why not use it to help small business owners pay the rent on their business? You can always issue some kind of check to people on the front lines whenever everything is all better again. I'm hoping that if we do end up with some kind of extra money out of all of this that we can use it to help someone who really needs it. Makes you realize how important things are and that as much relaxation as collecting can bring, that it is just a hobby. Hopefully everyone in the blogosphere and in the hobby makes it through ok.
Stay tuned in the next few days, and I'll try to pull a page or so of cards to give away, kind of in the style Rod from Padrographs and others are doing.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy