Dime Box Heroes: Dime cards for all

2003 Leaf "Hard Hats" #10 Shawn Green

This is the first card I've posted during this series of posts that isn't a "hero" of mine.

I'm hoping it'll become someone else's "Dime Box Hero".

The blogosphere has had an impact on almost every aspect of how I go about collecting cards. It's even affected the way I dig through dime boxes, much to my surprise.

Before I started this blog, my card show finds would be about 99 percent "keepers", one percent "tradebait". The cards that fit into that one percent weren't even for anyone specific. They were just cards that I hoped might get me some good stuff somewhere down the road.

While I still shop mostly for myself at card shows, I've kept a keen eye out for cards others might like. This time, however, I have certain people in mind whenever I see a neat Dodgers card, or perhaps a cool Orioles card.

I've already received stacks upon stacks of great cards from other bloggers ever since I started this blog over eight months ago. 

Dime boxes can be a great way to "repay" people for their generosity. I've already developed informal "back and forth" types of trades with a couple bloggers, where they'll randomly send me something, then I'll send them something. Back and forth it goes.

Some dime cards can be great cards to set aside for those collectors as well.

Remember that gargantuan dime box from the card show I attended a few weeks ago? I snagged exactly 500 dime cards from that great table. 

In the past, almost every card I found would've been for my own collection. One or maybe two of the cards would've been "tradebait" material.

This time, over 70 of the cards I purchased were intended for others I had in mind. As was the case with this snazzy Shawn Green insert, which has already been dealt to Mr. Spiegel, noted Dodger and Shawn Green collector. (Hopefully he doesn't have it already.)

I've found that it can be fun to shop for others as well. Sometimes, it's like my little way of bringing a dime box to someone who has never had the opportunity to look through any of them. (For whatever reason, they don't seem to exist on the east coast.)

Having that rewarding feeling of, "Wow, I bet so-and-so is really going to like this one!", is one that I never would've experienced had it not been for the blogosphere.

It's one that I'll carry with me at all the future card shows I attend.