Night Owl Spotted in Rhode Island

I am a very slow trader. While I ultimately try to make the packages I send out worth the wait, it takes me forever it seems to get them out the door. The latest example, a trade with blogger Night Owl, is probably the longest developing trade I've ever had. Here's how it came about. Way back in November of 2009 (yes, you read that correctly!), Night Owl posted this Kevin Youkilis card he had picked up via a box break of Ultimate organized by Dan at Saints of the Cheap Seats:

He indicated that he was open to trade offers on this and I jumped on it. It may not be a nice as the other Ultimate cards in my collection, but I like Youkilis and I'll trade for just about any Red Sox card I don't have. Problem was I did not have any Dodger hits to offer in return. Fast forward 5 months to April of this year...I pulled a Chad Billingsley jersey card from a pack of Masterpieces baseball. You'd think the trade would end there, but there seems to be an unwritten rule that whenever you exchange cards you throw in some surprises. So I took another 5 months before I finally sent the Billingsley and a bunch of other Dodger cards off. Greg also included some bonus cards in his package:

The Ultimate card wasn't the only Youkilis I got. This is my very first (and still only!) 2010 Allen & Ginter. It looks nice enough but I still don't regret skipping out on this set. Very much appreciated were 5 cards that get me closer to completing my 2008 Upper Deck set:

I am getting tantalizingly close to finishing this one off. In fact I now need less than 30 cards to be done with it, if you have any lying around please check my want list!

Here's a Hideo Nomo card from a shiny set I've never heard of before.

A 1976 Topps Rick Burleson. He was definitely before my time but he was known as a scrappy player and I'm sure I would've loved watching him play had I been a fan in the 70's. Finally, perhaps my favorite card of the bunch, a 1972 Topps Rico Petrocelli:

This card showed up in the mail right around the same time I posted my graded '66 Topps Petrocelli card. 1972 was Topps' best design of the 70's in my opinion, and I'm very happy to add this one to my slowly growing collection. This is only my 33rd card, but I do have quite a few of the key Hall of Famers like Yaz, Nolan Ryan, Roberto Clemente, Hank Aaron and Harmon Killebrew, so I'm getting there...

Best of all, I knocked another state off of Night Owl's trade map since I was the first person from Rhode Island to complete a trade with him. Thanks for the great package Greg, it was worth the wait!