Making a Trade With a 138-Year Old Cubs Hall of Famer

What if I told you I made an in-person trade with a twitter follower that is a former Chicago Cubs great and baseball Hall of Famer? Would you believe he’s a 138-year old zombie? No, Joe Tinker doesn’t spend offseasons on a tropical beach with Elvis. That would just be silly. Tinker spends it at the Cubs Convention!

Fun Fact: that picture was taken by another Twitter trader, @cubbysteph. Twitter world’s colliding!

Mr. Tinker and I made a twitter trade last year and he sent some really sweet cards. I wanted to meet up with him, and he’s not difficult to find among the throng of thousands of Cubs fans. He’s one of only two zombies in full uniform walking around the Sheraton. His buddy Frank Chance takes in the event, also.

As we chatted, Joe said he wanted to add a few more cards to my collection and pulled out the sweet 1989 Topps All-Star Andre Dawson. My favorite set for sentimental reasons as my first real set I collected.

Then he pulled out another Cubs Hall of Famer: Ernie Banks. This is a 2018 Diamond Kings.

How about this vintage?!? A 1972 Topps High Number Rick Monday. Wow! This is a card needed for my collection!

It was great meeting Joe Tinker and Frank Chance. I’ll be sending Joe a sweet Adbert Alzolay this week in return.

Another card added on Saturday was a 2003 Topps Jon Lieber, and it was for autograph reasons. Lieber hung out and talked with fans for about an hour. Since I already have him on a baseball I was looking to see if I brought a card or 8x10, but did not. A fellow Cubs fan nearby came through and gave me this to get signed.

Here's a shot of Joe Tinker, Frank Chance, and Jon Lieber.

Full disclosure: I do count pocket schedules in my card collection. They are typically the same size of trading cards and I like them, so I say they count. Picked up two 2019 Cubs schedules, and one spring training schedule.

Adding the Kerry Wood card that I added at Woody’s Winter Warmup, the total Cubs Convention card count was eight.

One Million Cubs Stats

Cubs Convention Cards: 8 January's Cubs Count: 7,310 Total Trades: 17 Trade States of Origin: Arkansas, California (3), Connecticut, Illinois (2), Massachusetts (2), New Jersey (2), New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas (2), Wisconsin