Shipping Baseball Cards and Learning Something New
I’ve been selling on eBay for 21 years, and sending and receiving boxes of baseball cards through the USPS since the mid-1990’s beginning with bulk team trades as a teenager from classified ads in the back of Tuff Stuff magazines.
Still today I learn things all the time about shipping. Of course, technology has rapidly changed in the past two decades which has been a majority of my learning experience.
A new one was learned this week after a package was failed to deliver to my PO Box. It was sent via UPS, and the tracking note stated unable to deliver to PO Box. That’s odd, I thought as I’ve received dozens and dozens of packages at my PO Box.
The box was sent by Paul in Lisle, Illinois, and I was unable to intercept the package and it was returned. When I asked my local post office clerk why a package would not be delivered, she stated that UPS packages addressed to a PO Box must have the street address of the post office for delivery. It's not often that trades are shipped via UPS, so this was a new one to me.
Inside Paul's PWE was a 1987 Topps Gene Michael. Michael, mostly known for his long-time stint with the Yankees as a player, manager, and later general manager. His Cubs managerial career lasted just 238 games over parts of the 1986 and 1987 seasons.
Rafael Palmeiro's 1989 Upper Deck was the other card included. Palmeiro appeared as a Chicago Cub in the 1989 baseball card sets despite being traded months before the season began (December 5, 1988 to be exact).
My second package arrived from Painesville, Ohio courtesy @mike_machete, which is a great handle for the month of October as we approach Halloween. Fifty-five cards were inside dating back to some 1970's Topps cards including a 1972 Topps Bill Hands.
And a batch of 1975 Topps with the likes of Ray Burris, Jim Todd, Pete LaCock, and Chris Ward.
Topps Heritage will be running the 1972 Topps design in 2021, and the 1975 Topps design in 2024. That's because the 2019 Topps Heritage set was in the 1970 Topps design. A few of those cards were also here including Kyle Hendricks, Ian Happ, Kyle Schwarber, Cubs Rookie Stars of Duane Underwood and James Norwood, Yu Darvish, Steve Cishek, Jose Quintana, and Brandon Morrow.
One Million Cubs Project Stats Tuesday's (10/15/2019) Cards: 57
Tuesday's (10/15/2019) Packages: 2
January's Cubs Count: 9,343
February's Cubs Count: 8,980
March's Cubs Count: 15,704
April's Cubs Count: 11,651
May's Cubs Count: 7,273
June's Cubs Count: 7,690
July's Cubs Count: 10,803
August's Cubs Count: 11,929
September's Cubs Count: 9,127
October's Cubs Count: 6,084
Total Trades/Donations: 264
Trade States of Origin: Arizona (4) Alabama (5)
Arkansas California (20)
Colorado (5) Connecticut (14)
Delaware
Florida (10)
Georgia (3)
Idaho (3) Illinois (21) Indiana (5)
Iowa (2)
Kansas
Kentucky (2)
Louisiana Maryland (12) Massachusetts (10)
Michigan Minnesota (3)
Mississippi
Missouri (4)
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire (2) New Jersey (13)
New Mexico (3) New York (26) North Carolina (6) Ohio (16)
Oregon (3) Pennsylvania (7)
Rhode Island (2)
South Carolina (2)
South Dakota Tennessee (8) Texas (7)
Utah
Vermont (3)
Virginia (2) Washington (5)
West Virginia (7) Wisconsin (12)
Countries of Origin
Canada (1)
Korea (2)