Exchanges for Affinity

If I use a Gold or Diamond player for Affinity exchanges, they're not "gone forever" from inventory right? I'd rather ask something stupid, than DO something stupid!

Yes they are gone forever, "exchange" means you lost the cards completely

Yes it’s gone. Anything you exchange leaves your inventory. Only things you “collect” stays

This is reminiscent of back in the day of quick selling program cards in 17...

Your exchanging those cards for TA points. It's basically like a trade for goods. It's not a awful idea if you don't want to do showdown or MTO and you have the stubs to exchange players for. It normally takes 5 golds to get 1 exchange done. I'm saving my stubs now but I did get Nolan Gorman last week by doing this.