12 months of Trading baseball cards

One of the more regular trading buddies I have is fellow Red Sox collector Adam. His blog Thoughts and Sox puts mine in the shade. However, he is willing to clear some numbers from my wants list if I am able to clear some from his. A great stack of about 60 Red Sox cards arrived a few weeks ago reducing the list.
Then I realised as I was writing this post that it would mark the 12month anniversary of my first trade with a US resident.
Tribecards posted about our trade on the 4th October 2008 and he was the first collector to sent cards back. I had posted off cards to Thorzul and Steve at White Sox cards and soccer cards to readers of 'A Pack a Day'. These blogs would quench my thirst for baseball cards and I wanted to contribute somehow. At the time I thought there would be no interest in 'swapping' cards with a Gent from Kent. How wrong I was to be.
The trade with Tribecards was quickly followed by ones with NightOwl, Orioles card 'O' the day and then Steve at White Sox Cards. Many, MANY more were to follow. I have posted an abundance of card packages and acquired a multitude of cards. This wasn't, however the most important outcome of trading.
Besides getting to know our postman on first name terms and becoming friends with the ladies who work in the post office, I have made some good friends in the US. I will probably never meet any of them face to face but the generosity and kindness they have shown a fellow collector in the UK cannot be faulted.
And this is what card collecting and trading is all about.
Thank you, all of you who have taken the time to send a package to the UK.