Trading cards is a dying art.
These days, if you're not part of a web forum or if you don't live in a large city, it's hard to find a group to trade with. That was one of the main draws to me of the Topps Million Card Giveaway and the Topps Diamond Card Giveaway. A site where collectors can insert codes, add cards to their collection, and offer trades to a massive group of collectors online.
I'm currently knee-deep in the Topps Diamond Card Giveaway and have made over 300 trades so far. It's a little more difficult to manage my cards this year than last as this time I am dealing with about 190 cards and last year I rarely had more than 30 or 40 cards to trade with. But I love the trading aspect and attempting to make the 80's, 90's, and 00's cards disappear as I add more pre-80's and try to grab some older HOF'ers.
Although my codes resulted in nothing terribly memorable other than a few 2011 die-cuts, I've been able to make many trades and over time acquire two 1952 Topps cards as well as some HOF'ers, vintage, and lots of Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays.
With all of the annoyances in the hockey card hobby lately (Upper Deck trying to battle the internet and Panini using far too many redemptions), it's nice to get back to the simpler days and have some fun.