Swap Stories: 1910-11 Flags Of Nations (T59) Hurricane Warning

When I first started the Time Travel Trading Project, I initially had the idea of keeping a "family tree" of all the trades, allowing myself and others to see which original card led to each card I currently have. That proved to be too difficult, in thanks partially to the generosity of my trading partners. With over 300 cards in the trade stack, my card/family tree looks more like the ivy-covered wall at Wrigley at this point. It's quite tangled, my friends!

After receiving the oldest card in Time Travel stack, I thought it would be fun to at least take a moment and relive the journey of how this card ended up in my possession.

It took 4 trades, but I essentially did this:

Traded For

How I Did It

The First Trade

As with most of the cards in the project, it all began with that initial pack of 2018 Topps. Braun was one of the last cards remaining from that first pack. A month after I first showed off the pack, Ryan Braun was sent in a trade through the TCDB. In return, I received 3 basketball cards, including a great looking card of one of the sport's all-time greats.

2018 Topps #180 Ryan Braun

Traded For

1981-82 Topps #20 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

The Second Trade

This card of Abdul-Jabbar quickly became the first card outside of the 2018 Topps pack to be traded. AJ (The Lost Collector) generously gifted me 10 cards in exchange for just this one. Most of the cards were from the 70's , but there were also a few newer cards as well. One of those newer cards was a rather green insert of baseball Hall Of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter.

1981-82 Topps #20 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Traded For

2008 Upper Deck First Edition - Starburst Common #SQ-42 Derek Jeter

The Third Trade

That lone Jeter was enough for another  TCDB member named Gary. I sent Jeter off to Baltimore and Gary blew me away with a generous bounty of 13 cards, all of them from 1974 or earlier. Among the bunch was a great 50's football card. (This is probably a good place to post a disclaimer - I didn't have the foresight to take pictures of each card individually, so what you see here in this post are images from the TCDB. My copy of Joe Perry had a stamp of the word "TRADED" on the front)

2008 Upper Deck First Edition - Starburst Common #SQ-42 Derek Jeter

Traded For

1959 Topps #80 Joe Perry

The Fourth Trade

All of these trades so far occurred in the first few months after I launched the Time Travel Trading Project. The Perry card had sat, unclaimed, since April 2018. Almost 3 years in the trade box, until this year. Another TCDB member named Chad rescued him, and in the process made Time Travel history!

 

1959 Topps #80 Joe Perry

Traded For

1910-11 Flags of Nations (T59) #NNO Hurricane Warning

So there you have it! It took 4 trades involving 28 cards over the course of roughly 3 years, but one card from the 2018 pack netted me a card 108 years it's senior. There is no way I could have pulled this off without the generosity of my fellow traders - thanks again to Pete, AJ, Gary, and Chad!