7/4/25 card show report: fireworks on the fourth

I guess Saturday night's alright for blogging after enjoying watching your favorite college football team emerge victorious on a lovely fall day.

But for tonight let's go all the way back to July and the monthly show I made it to on the Fourth! I dropped $130 on some very nice stuff, a high so far this year, and some of that was thanks to the presence of some cards from my favorite decade. I also enjoyed another blogger meetup:

John and his wife made the trip all the way from the western part of the state and it's always great to see him when it's possible. Side note--we may be able to meet up at another show next month, fingers crossed! Anyway, as you can see we were repping our favorite teams.

I've slowed down my acquisitions of unassigned trade bait not destined for specific folks as I have a good amount I still need to move if possible on TCDb, so once again tonight it's all keepers. And yes, the "90s inserts rule" tag is in full effect!

CF Max Clark, the #3 overall pick from 2023, is one of Detroit's absolute top prospects, so I thought to snag a few Bowman Chrome inserts of him. Then I went much older school with Cobb on a GQ Framed parallel, which makes a set I don't otherwise care about look better.

Oh hey, it's the first of our awesome 90s inserts, Griffey-style! #1 is a '97 UD chase card called Long Distance Connection, one that notes Junior socking his 200th career HR the previous season thanks to a then-career high of 49. He'd go off for 56, 56, 48, and 40 bombs over the next four seasons. And speaking of a guy who could flat-out Play, how about a Pinnacle Epix insert, one of the cooler offerings from the 90s, with multiple colors and designs? This one mentions his '95 ALDS-winning run, which was probably the high point of the franchise until 2001, and maybe this season as well.

Maddux's 2008 Topps Gold parallel isn't a 90s insert but I do enjoy a good numbered card like this one numbered to the year it was made. I'll say it again: Gold is a good parallel but we don't need 74 others every year.

Also back when things were simpler, 2001 Bowman Chrome had exactly two parallels: Gold Refractors and X-Fractors, like the Dean-o you see above. I also happen to think modern X-Fractors look very ugly compared to the original ones from the 90s/2000s.

And would you believe I didn't own an '83 Fleer second-year of Junior Ripken? Well, I previously lacked that but can now lay claim to all of his regular issue '83s.

Speaking of the Iron Man, another sweet 90s insert I dug up this time was his '96 Flair Diamond Cuts. Nope, the scan doesn't do it justice at all as this one combines holofoil, a diamond-like background, and a simulated "cut-out" of the player. Sweet!

Next, Pudge isn't one of the guys I put much effort into collecting since his time with the Tigers was relatively brief, but I wasn't going to pass up a Refractor from the original iteration of Stadium Club's Chrome insert back in '99 (before it became its own product the following year).

I do believe the 2001 UD Vintage RC of HOFer Ichiro came from a $5-ish box, and the value was too good to pass up. Besides, I really respect the hell out of his game and still feel like he doesn't get enough credit for how good he was coming over from Japan.

We'll finish up baseball stuff by going back to the 90s one more time. Griffey makes one more appearance on the Radiance parallel of the 100% numbered '98 SPx Finite set. While the base cards were numbered /7000, Radiance came in at 3500, and Spectrum were limited to half that. Hooray for more numbered cards!

And Gwynn closes out the hallowed quartet with a shiny die-cut 1999 insert out of the awkwardly-named HoloGrFX product called Future Fame Gold, a parallel of a relatively easier-to-pull six-card set. Four of the subjects are the big four that I collect so needless to say, I'm a fan.

As for basketball stuff, well I did get some, but my write-ups above went kind of long and I'm not huge into the sport anyway. So I'll just say I nabbed the seven inserts above, probably from dime or quarter boxes. Cool.

Ending with football, here's four guys that were part of the '23-'24 National Champs who beat today's opponent, Washington. Corum (SAGE HIT) was the automatic short-yard back who rewrote the record books. Sainristil (Absolute Retail Red parallel) was the WR-turned-DB who led the defense.

And then we have two RBs represented on autographs to introduce them to the hits collection. Ben Hall ('24 Leaf Trinity) played a little during the regular season behind the dynamic duo of Corum and Donovan Edwards. He transferred to the dumpster fire in Chapel Hill with bowl star Jordan Marshall returning and stud RB Justice Haynes transferring in from 'Bama. His two TDs this season are hopefully softening the blow of being on a 2-4 Tar Heel squad led by a senile grandpa who's dating a girl that's barely older than a teenager.

Mullings (SAGE HIT), meanwhile, picked up a few carries in the title game as back #3, spelling those two guys after a position switch from LB over the summer. He then became the main guy in '24 and was a bit of a bright spot on a not-so-great team, going for almost 1000 rushing yards and scoring 12 TDs. The Titans grabbed him in the 6th round this year but he's been on IR with an ankle injury and hasn't played yet.

Both of these guys are very welcome to the hits collection which now stands at 269 subjects and growing.

That's it for the July show but I still have more pickups to share. Until then, RIP to the Tigers season and all of its squandered chances, happy belated Yankees Elimination Day, and thanks to John for the meetup!

2025 trade package #17: Night Owl

Somehow the Tigers are still playing this late in October despite their epic second half collapse and some dire playoff game performances, and while I sound pretty crabby about that I'm very grateful because it's fun to have a Detroit team back in the playoffs again.

So let's celebrate the occasion with my final trade package from July, an envelope from Greg, a.k.a. Night Owl, who by the way recently celebrated his legendary blog's 17th anniversary! Greg's consistency and quality remain top-notch and that's really impressive in a hobby that sees people come and go all the time. (By the way, I hit 15 years of Too Many Grandersons/Verlanders a few weeks ago but suck at remembering to note the milestone yearly. Thanks to all of you who still read my sporadic, very occasional posts!)

This was a good package to lead into tonight's game because it's chock full of Tigers, and lots more great stuff:

A good chunk of this envelope was much of the Tigers team set from this year's Topps Heritage, which calls back to Topps' 1976 flagship design. Greg sent me 11 cards representing 10 different players, starting off with key bats like Carpenter (26 HR) and Dingler (3.1 bWAR to lead the offense, and as a catcher no less). Ibanez is a bench bat that I hope gets upgraded for a better chance at a deep run next year.

Jobe's TJ surgery means we may not see him again until the 2027 season. Keith followed up an All-Star Rookie season with fairly similar numbers while moving around the infield (and DH spot) to accommodate Gleyber Torres and a decently improved Javy Baez. RHP Madden, selected after Jobe, remains a good prospect for future rotations but lost the '25 season to a rotator cuff injury during spring training.

Malloy is another OF I hoped would improve the offense but he no longer fields like a playoff caliber player to me so hopefully he gets replaced in the offseason. Rogers was the nominal starter behind the plate but gave way to excellent play by Dingler, and while his bat cratered this year he's at least still valuable for his catching and mentoring skills. And Skubal continues to be Skubal, even if all of his numbers aren't as eye-popping as those from last year. The Tigers are fortunate to have the reigning AL Cy Young winner starting against a tough Seattle lineup tonight.

Skubal was indeed tops in AL strikeouts last year since that's one of the three stats that make up the triple crown he claimed, but what's even more impressive is that he topped that number with 241 in '25 over the same number of games while also improving his ERA and bWAR (wins were a bit harder to come by as he dipped from 18 to 13 thanks to that second half swoon). And the final Heritage card is of new '25 Tiger Gleyber Torres, who proved to be a pretty good FA signing with a 2.9 bWAR season at second in a year that saw regression at SS from the likes of Trey Sweeney and Jace Jung. He allowed the Tigers to slot guys like Baez and Zach McKinstry at SS and get better production there.

A Topps Spring Training parallel of PC guy Jake Cronenworth leads off the non-Heritage stuff and I'm mighty thankful to have a Michigan alum be a big enough name that folks remember I collect him. Team HR leader Riley Greene headlines a group of 2025 Bowman cards that include his base and a Purple parallel numbered /250. Double "J"s Jackson Jobe and Jace Jung follow with base cards of their own plus a couple Chrome inserts of the injured hurler: Rockstar Rookies and Rookie of the Year Favorites. The latter is die-cut to play off the flag motif at the top of the card, so that's fun. While that award is off the table for him, I'm rooting for Jobe to return to health and a second shot at success on the mound.

The final page starts with a couple more '25 Bowman-related items. 2023 first-rounder Kevin McGonigle shot up prospect rankings this year and the middle infielder looks like a potential star in the making for a team that could use more offense. '24's top pick Rainer, a SS, joins him on a Chrome card, and he's got a top-100 prospect pedigree as well.

Top PC guy Cal Ripken joins the previously seen Skubal from 2025 Topps' throwback to the 1990 set, which isn't my favorite design but is still a sight for sore eyes after they beat the dead horse of 1989 last year.

Second place finisher in team HRs Tork brings back '25 Heritage for a curtain call with Chrome Refractor and Silver Sparkle Refractor parallels. His rather successful season was almost as big of a relief to fans as I'm sure it was to him given his struggles last year, and I hope we get to see his powerful bat in the lineup for years.

We'll close out the baseball portion with a fun anomaly in this package: a card that's not from the last couple years. Greg included an '83 OPC of 1984 World Series MVP Alan Trammell, which I'm considering a good omen for tonight even though he sent it months ago.

And our final card tonight is a lone football item: a '23 Score base of Titans WR Nico Collins. Michigan's run-focused offenses have tended to downplay the WRs over the years even with the presence of talented receivers, but once in a while one is able to pop in the league, and that's been Collins, who's gone for 8 and 7 TDs over the past two seasons, plus over 1000 yards in both, and is hopefully on his way to career highs this year.

Greg, thanks again for this outstanding baseball-heavy envelope that you sent back in July which I'm only showing off now. I appreciate the Heritage Tigers and all the other very useful stuff for my PC. I hope my Tigers continue to advance but also that they don't have to face your Dodgers, though if it comes to that I'll happily wish your team well while rooting against them!

I'll be back soon with non-trade stuff from July, and in the meantime, EAT 'EM UP, TIGERS!

2025 trade package #16: the Angels in Order

Happy October, all! Though I don't love the decrease in temperature as we head towards fall, at least we get some nice colors...and playoff baseball!

And speaking of my favorite sport, I received a very nice surprise package from Tom of the Angels, In Order, back in July that was all baseball, all the time. And as a nice little bonus, because we're both members of TCDb, he sent me a bunch of wantlist matches I needed, so everything in the envelope was new to me.

Here's the contents from his latest mailing:

Hey, we've got a few playoff teams in this scan, at least for now. One of the two Reds representatives is Griffey out of 2008 Upper Deck X and 2016 Donruss. His most memorable postseason experience was 1995, though his Mariners never made it past the Series-bound Indians. Seattle fell in the '97 ALDS to Baltimore, then he was part of the '08 White Sox that would lose to a pennant-winning Devil Rays team. Here's hoping the Reds pull off an upset of the juggernaut Dodgers!

Gwynn (1986 Fleer Star Stickers and 2012 Gypsy Queen) got to play in the World Series near the beginning and end of his career. Of course the former was a tilt against the magical '84 Tigers, which went five games, and the latter was a sweep at the hands of the '98 Yankees during their dynasty back then. I hope Mr. Padre's team, including Michigan alum Jake Cronenworth, makes a deep playoff push this year.

Inge (2012 Topps Update) is mostly known for 12 seasons with the Tigers, and that includes their surprise Series appearance in '06 (a loss to St. Louis) and a 4-2 2011 ALCS defeat at the hands of Texas, who lost that year's Fall Classic to...St. Louis. Though he's a lower priority PC guy for me I'm happy to track down even base cards of his like this Update issue that notes his 2012 signing with the A's.

With Larkin (1990 Donruss Best of the NL), we start a nice streak of guys that did get to celebrate a Series victory. Though he'd have to take his '95 NL MVP as a consolation prize for losing to the eventual champion Braves in that year's NLCS, the surprising 1990 Reds buzzed through the Pirates (4-2) and swept Oakland to win it all, and with a roster featuring three former Wolverines (Larkin, Hal Morris, and Chris Sabo).

Maddux (2008 Bowman) was no stranger to the playoffs, getting to play October baseball in 13 of his 23 seasons, though none with the Padres. His three World Series appearances were the aforementioned '95 Braves, who defeated Cleveland, then losses to the Yankees in '96 and '99. His playoff record of 11-12 (1-2 in the World Series) isn't as impressive as his regular season numbers, but he was a big part of the reason Atlanta was a mainstay in October between 1995 and 2003.

Morris (1992 Topps Gold Winners) is the guy with the most postseason success of everyone seen here tonight. The ace of the '84 Tigers went 3-0 in that year's playoffs, including a pair of World Series wins. While 1987 proved to be a disappointment for the Tigers, who lost 4-1 in the ALCS to the eventual champion Twins, Morris would return to the Series in '91, with the Twins, and '92, with the Blue Jays, and earn a ring with both, including MVP honors with the Twins (to offset an 0-2 record the following year) bolstered by his legendary game 7 10-inning shutout of the Braves.

And Petry (1986 Leaf) contributed to the '84 Tigers as well with 18 regular season wins, though he didn't earn a decision in the sweep of the Royals and was the pitcher of record in Detroit's lone loss in game 2.

Detroit somehow has a chance to continue in the playoffs tomorrow after needing a superhero effort from Tarik Skubal in game 1 to paper over a left-on-base epidemic that finally caught up to them in game 2 earlier today. I don't expect anything different tomorrow but can hope!

All but one of the players in this scan is a repeat from above but I thought it would be fun to group the 1993 UD Fun Pack cards together since the ones in the first scan formed a perfect group of nine. While Fun Pack was never one of my favorite products, it did include some great photography.

Ripken is the lone player we didn't cover above, and his appearance marks another successful grouping of my big four player collections! His Orioles went all the way in '83, just his second full season. His regular season MVP performance carried over into the 3-1 ALCS victory over the White Sox, though his numbers in the main event were mediocre. He'd have to wait until 1996 for a return to October ball, and that involved a 3-1 ALDS win over Cleveland but a 4-1 ALCS loss to the storied Yankees. The following year they repeated with a 3-1 ALDS win over Griffey's Mariners, but this time Cleveland avenged their loss in six games to earn a matchup with the Marlins, which they hilariously lost.

The last card in this bunch is a Topps mini insert of Maddux where he's appropriately depicted as a member of the Braves. During that 1995-2003 run, he piled up 158 wins, his fourth straight Cy Young (and four other top-five finishes), beginning on a high note with that ring in '95.

I should also mention Griffey's Mariners put together a nice season to earn themselves a first-round bye as they await the winner of the Detroit/Cleveland series.

Tom, thanks again for this great bunch of cards which, again, were all needs, so I extra appreciate it! I'm not sure when I'll be sending you cards next but I do have a little stack going for you.

To everyone else, whether or not your team is in the playoffs, I hope you're enjoying some postseason baseball, and in the meantime I'll be back soon with what I think is my final trade package of July.

2025 trade package #15: Scribbled Ink

On an afternoon/evening where I'm not stressing over Michigan Football (thanks to a bye) but instead the Tigers, let's take a look at some more cards from July.

Buddy of the blog Paul, formerly of the blog Scribbled Ink, is often the wild card in my collecting circle. I never have any idea what he's going to send and he always keeps it interesting.

Once again he sent me a box, and a rather large one here. Well this certainly has a lot of potential! And as always, Paul came through with some excellent stuff for a bunch of my PCs:

Miggy's always a great way to start, and a photo of his sweet swing is just a nice bonus. Cronenworth is always a safe bet, too, and I hope he and his Padres go far in the playoffs this season. Dingler's been a bright spot at the plate for what's mostly been a toothless Tigers lineup lately. And then there's too many Griffeys! Aside from two others you'll see in a moment, these make up a great selection. The Leaf All-Star insert pairs him up with the Pirates' Andy Van Slyke, which sounds about right for '92/'93. An Upper Deck card highlights his '92 All-Star Game MVP performance. And on the weirder side we have Junior's head on Shaq's body in an SI For Kids "April Fool card" that combined two of the biggest stars of the decade.

Another card for the Griffey-centered "Celebration of the Kid" insert I'm building leads off this scan. Jung's regression this year hasn't helped a Tigers team in need of quality bats. A nice trio of Maddux cards makes him the second of the holy quartet of my big baseball PCs to appear here, with cards from 2001, 2005, and 2024--a huge span! Next, Ripken is the third of the big four, so will we see all of them today? The '75 Topps reprint you see above is actually a Topps Magazine insert and not from a more recent mainstream product. And lastly, Vierling's been a combination of injured and ineffective this season, limiting much-needed OF production for Detroit.

Here's where things get even more interesting, partially thanks to a trio of IP/TTM autos. Clark, who signed a minor league issue, was Detroit's 1986 first-rounder, a hitter who played a bit over 250 games over five seasons for Detroit, San Diego, and Boston. Pitcher Brian DuBois (1990 Leaf) threw in 18 games between 1989-90 after coming over from the Orioles in the former of those two seasons, and that was sum of his career. Finally, P Bill Scherrer was a Reds first-rounder who got sent to Detroit late in the magical 1984 season, and he pitched 3.0 innings over three Fall Classic games in the Tigers' victory, then was out of the MLB after 1988. A very interesting trio!

In terms of the horizontal stuff, it's a Reds pair that starts with a Topps Griffey insert from 2005, which notes on the back that Junior was #5 in active career RBI leaders behind Bonds, Palmeiro, Sosa, and Bagwell; He'd end his career behind Bonds (no surprise there) but ahead of the rest, including beating Raffy by one.

He's joined by one-time teammate Barry Larkin on a beautiful bat relic from 2007 SP Legendary Cuts. Upper Deck products from this era didn't miss, especially high-end ones like this one. I don't add Larkin hits to my collection nearly as often as I'd like to so I really appreciate this one, featuring a nice design and numbering /199, from Paul. It's relic #18 of 27 Larkin hits that I own.

And now we get to the items that explain the size of the shipping box. First up is a piece that completes the big 90s PC quartet: a 1997 Zenith 8x10 Dufex parallel of Mr. Padre, Tony Gwynn. Back in the heyday of fun stuff like Donruss's Studio and Pinnacle's Inside cans, Zenith packs came with one oversized 8x10 insert, and some came with Pinnacle's iconic Dufex treatment like this one. I love this shot of one of the most focused hitters in the history of the game probably about to knock another single into RF.

Also adding to the package's size and weight: magazines, five of them. Three of them are Becketts, with the first featuring Big Daddy Cecil Fielder up front and the previously seen Barry Larkin on the back, an excellent twofer. Catching phenom Matt Nokes is next, and I'm sure his 1987 All-Star season made him an easy choice to put up front. Last up is Cal from 1992, a year after his second MVP nod.

As cool as those are, they're easily topped by a pair of Sports Illustrateds from May and October of 1984, which I hear was a pretty memorable season for the Tigers. Alan Trammell more than earned his appearances there, especially after being named World Series MVP in October. 

And here are the last few large items. The three Cal images come from what I'm guessing was some sort of commemorative magazine, and a big one at that since they're bigger than a standard page. That first one comes with a great shot of the HOFer sliding into a base.

And the final item was probably the biggest surprise: a sealed audiobook from 2016 about the legendary partnership between Pats coach Bill Belichick and GOAT QB Tom Brady. According to the box it's approximately 14 hours on 13 CDs. Wow! Of course in the aftermath of Brady's defection to Tampa and New England absolutely cratering without him, it's easy to determine which of the pair was more important to the franchise's dynasty (while the other enjoys his college age girlfriend and cratering another team--North Carolina). I haven't decided yet if I'll crack this open and listen to it all, but it's a very cool conversation piece if nothing else.

Paul, thanks as always for a wild package of random stuff I wasn't expecting but ended up loving! I hope you and the family are doing well and that I can find similarly interesting stuff to send back your way before too long.

And while I'm hoping for things that are reasonably possible, maybe the Tigers could win (they lead Boston 2-1 as I'm writing this) and that I'll be back soon with another trade catch-up post for all of you that enjoy them! 

2025 trade package #14: My Sports Obsession

It took a bit after the clock finally hit zeroes for me to be able to function normally again, but now that I'm done enjoying Michigan's third victory of the season (over Nebraska), I can spend a bit of time on another trade post.

July package #2 arrived courtesy of fellow Michigan fan Jeff of My Sports Obsession. As he's done in the past, he sent me a straight-up BOX stuffed with cards, and so many of them were new that I decided to save myself a bit of effort by not scanning the dupes.

There's a ton of great content from the top three major US sports, so let's get into it:

Scan #1 includes Tigers favorites Miggy and Big Daddy, with the latter being represented on some very cool oddballs, two of which are playing cards. The highlight for me, though, is the quartet of Cronenworths. I still love that Jeff and I take turns bolstering each other's PC of the Michigan alum, and this time he sent me some great looking items, two of which are nice parallels. We're currently the #s 3 and 4 collectors of Cronenworth on TCDb, by the way.

Scan #2 begins with two more Fielder cards including another fun oddball. A guy who hit 300+ HR including 258 over a seven-year span of 1990-96 most definitely has the power to hang in a set made in conjunction with Duracell. A single Griffey, featuring what appears to be Junior in an older style Mariners uni, gives way to a nice little bunch of Gwynns, with an oddball and some Stadium Club beauties in the mix. The latter applies to another of our shared PC guys in Barry Larkin, and that card brings back great memories of watching him play, plus the original Stadium Club Chrome products. 2021 2nd-round IF Izaac Pacheco provided some nice pop for the Midwest League champion West Michigan Whitecaps as he works his way through Detroit's system.

Oh hey, it's another one of the players Jeff and I both PC--Cal Ripken Jr.! He's the #1 guy whose cards we send back and forth and #1 in my collection (second to Frank Thomas in his). Topps Chrome Platinum and Stadium Club Chrome both have pleasing designs. The less I say about Tork's team and their division lead-choking ways right now, the better, though I do appreciate getting his cards. And including the next scan, you get to see 11 Many Verlanders that Jeff sent my way, with some nice looking Topps designs leading the way.

See? Even more Verlanders! Even a card of him with his latest team, the Giants, who've all of a sudden helped lead him to the fountain of youth, apparently. It would be awesome if he felt like pitching next season.

He's joined by another Tigers Topps parallel like in the first scan, plus a pair of interesting 80s issues: a Fleer Mini of catcher Matt Nokes, and a 7-11 coin of HOFer Jack Morris. Sweet!

I'll say it until I'm blue (and maize?) in the face, but thank you to those who send me Michigan Basketball cards I don't have so I can spend my money on the sports I prefer! Jeff sent me a couple recent-ish stars in LeVert and Franz Wagner, the latter of which is, appropriately enough, blue!

On the football side of things, my collection of transfer RB Zach Charbonnet (UCLA) got a nice little three-card boost that included a RC and cool multi-color die-cut of the same. Stud WR Nico Collins pops up once, as does former UM coach and current Chargers leader Jim Harbaugh. Buckeye-killers Haskins and Hutch join in the fun in airbrushed form thanks to Wild Card Matte.

Hutch has been pretty quiet early this season, though I'll attribute some of that to rust after an injury derailed what was going to be a special 2024 season for him. Jenkins is in his second season with Cincy and hopefully will improve on his 3.0 sacks from last year while I continue to chase his RCs like the ones above. Law is a deserving HOFer and I'm glad he continues to appear in lots of post-career products just like Charles Woodson. Former blog namesake Manningham is another guy who comes up pretty often despite his relatively short career, likely due to helping Eli Manning's gumpy ass win a Super Bowl. The SAGE card above is my first of UM DB Rod Moore, a guy who made some big plays for the '23-'24 champs, then was out all of last season and the start of this one. Ojabo's another example of what you get with the current "Wild Card" name these days. And I love adding to my collection of the championship team's defensive MVP, Mike Sainristil, who's been solid in the league so far.

This last scan begins with a couple more RCs in a post stuffed with them. Mazi hasn't lived up to his college and draft hype but was fun as an amateur, and Wilson was even more of a blast as a high-scoring WR for the '23 champs, though he's been slow to get going in the NFL due to injuries.

Last up we have a group of seven cards of players Jeff sent that I'll hold onto but won't count towards those players' collections as they're pictured in other college unis. First is a quartet of TE Erick All, who bailed for offensively-challenged Iowa and made room for Colston Loveland to be a star in Ann Arbor. Charbonnet, as I mentioned, headed out west to UCLA and put up good enough numbers to get himself drafted by Seattle, where he's made some nice plays. And WR/KR AJ Henning remained in the conference like All, heading to Northwestern where he put up some solid numbers with the benefit of more playing time he might not have received in Ann Arbor.

Jeff, thanks a ton for this generous box of stuff that really had a nice effect on a bunch of my favorite collections! I need to start a new stack for you since sending that last one but I'm looking forward to treating you to some Wolverines while we celebrate our team's 3-1 start. GO BLUE!

I should be back soon with even more July trade content. Until then, Tigers, would it kill you to win a game every now and then and not lose the division in embarrassing fashion?

2025 trade package #13: the Collector

Hey all, I'm finally back to cover the first trade envelope I received in July, a month that ended up being super busy collecting-wise. This one came from Chris, The Collector, a couple months before his family experienced a heartbreaking loss. Please head his way and show him some support--he's one of the best and most generous members of the blogosphere and deserves all the love people have shown him.

True to his history of generosity and the effort he puts into finding great stuff for the collections of folks he trades with, he sent me a pair of PWEs containing some much-appreciated cards from all four major sports:

Encarnacion turned out to be an awful person off the field but at least Flair Showcase is a GOAT product. IF prospect Graham is still in Detroit's system after being selected in 2022's second round and he helped the team to the 2025 Midwest League championship after a dominant regular season. Jobe unfortunately had to undergo TJ surgery but if healthy could be a big part of what will probably be a Skubal-less rotation in a couple years. Kell's Topps Tribute card is probably the best looking in the bunch (with some great options) and I'd love to add more from that product. Keider's had some ups and downs as a spot starter for a team hoping to cling to a division title. And I'm not sorry that Wentz and his absurd ERA stats are gone!

As for basketball stuff, Dickinson was a star in Ann Arbor before transferring to Kansas for his final two seasons and going undrafted. THJ stuck it out for three Michigan seasons and became a first round pick who's still in the league. And a nice little run of Juwan Howard cards begins with the outstanding EX2001 product.

Juwan may not be Michigan's coach anymore but I'm still happy to collect any new cards of him like the very interesting bunch above. Those include some cool UD and Fleer stuff and even a post-career Finest issue from four years ago. He's joined by Fab Five teammate Chris Webber on another of my favorite designs from a Topps Chrome set.

Football wasn't as well represented this time but that's fine since it dominates my Michigan PCs anyway. In this case it's a Michigan uni card of RB Donovan Edwards out of Bowman Chrome U. In some ways he didn't live up to lofty expectations, especially in his final college season in 2024, but he supplied plenty of big runs as a runner, receiver, and even trick play QB, for teams that beat OSU, won conference titles, reached the playoff, and ultimately won it all in 2023-24. I don't know if we'll get many cards of the NFL UDFA but anything that gets sent my way is very welcome here.

Lastly, we have a five spot of Michigan Hockey cards from the erstwhile hockeydude. Four of those are O-Pee-Chees from a fat pack he got at Target, and his note mentions a fifth that he kept for himself and replaced with a UD Artifacts base of Luke Hughes, a guy from his team, the Devils. I like all of these but Beecher's a nice addition to a tiny-but-growing collection, and of course I'm a fan of Wolverwing cards like Compher's, which is also a Retro parallel. You'll be happy to know that Doug hadn't sent me any of these (yet, anyway), Chris.

As always I'd like to thank my buddy from New Jersey for all of these goodies and being so talented when it comes to finding quality fodder for trade packages. Chris, I know things are very difficult for you and your family right now and I hope any time you spend with them processing your grief gets you to a better place. I always mean it when I say I'm here to help with anything and that you have so many friends in the hobby. Thank you for thinking of me here as you were going through a terrible situation.

I hope to be back with more trade package coverage soon as I owe many other great folks similar thanks. 

2025 eBay purchases: go big and GO BLUE!

It's September and Michigan Football will be playing its second game of the season tonight, so let's finish up my pickups from the first half of 2025 with a look at what I bought for myself on eBay.

Purchase #1 was a little more than six months ago when I threw in a low bid on a plate that I was a bit surprised to win, but happy to get:

Braylon Edwards inches closer to the century mark with his 96th hit and fourth 1/1, a 2006 Bowman Chrome cyan plate. Since cyan is the closest you'll get to blue out of the four colors used in printing this is the best possible one for a Michigan collector like me! It joins similar cards from 2009 Topps Mayo (Magenta) and 2011 Topps Inception (Magenta and Yellow) and set me back a bit under $7--a very reasonable price for a plate.

Next, back in March you might recall in a Chronicles of Fuji trade post that I lauded Fuji for his generosity in sending me a $50 eBay gift card in January. I finally used it during my birthday month of May, snagging a huge addition for my football PC:

National champion RB Blake Corum supplanted his former position coach Mike Hart in the program's record books, and at this point I think he's taken over as my favorite to play the position as a Wolverine, so it was about time I found a high-end card of his to start his collection of hits. I don't remember the exact total, but I happily covered a bit more than the $40 cost of this amazing booklet with that gift card, plus I added a bit more to it (more on that in a minute).

 

Sure, I could have gone for some lower-end signature card, maybe the usual low-effort Leaf stuff, or SAGE, or even a pro uni card from one of the plethora of other Panini Brands. But when I saw this one, I knew it was National Treasures all the way. Though they're few and far between in my collection, I think booklets are awesome when done right, and this one counts. The left half comes with a larger Michigan blue jersey swatch with a "WOLVERINES" cutout above it, plus one of those cool acetate signature windows. The right side adds another jumbo swatch from what I would assume is a Wolverines jersey (even if it's "event-worn" or other).

As you can see on the outside of the booklet, it's also numbered to 49 up front, next to a nice, large version of the iconic block "M" logo. Nice!

 

I don't know what the future holds for his NFL career but I'll always appreciate Blake for what he did both on and off the field to represent his school, not the least of which was a storybook season that ended in a national title.

The next card is one of the ones that came along for the ride with the above Corum, along with a couple traders for friends, via the magic of combined shipping and a discount code for paying via eBay's app. In all, I scored four cards from this seller and after using Fuji's gift card, I spent $1.90 of my own money. You could say part of that cost amounted to this:

For basically $1 or so--seriously, the minimum bid--I was able to tack on my third autograph of Jack Blomgren, a former Wolverine and Rockies IF/OF prospect who's now working in Houston's system. While my other two signature cards of him hail from Panini Elite Extra Edition and are therefore use college uni photos (which I of course love), this one is my first of him in an MLB jersey (albeit an airbrushed one, I would assume). It's from 2020 Bowman Draft Chrome and is the Green version numbered /99. Not bad for a buck!

A couple weeks later in May, on my birthday, in fact, I won tonight's last card for just under $10 shipped:

This post's other 1/1 is also a cyan plate, though this time we stick to the diamond (and Bowman) and former pitcher Clayton Richard. My 14th (!) 1/1 of the lefty is the 11th plate I've picked up of him but somehow the first from the 2008 Bowman/Chrome line of sets. While he still can't hold a candle to Rich Hill's 36 cards of the rarest numbering, he's still second in the collection and one of just three with double-digits in that category (J.J. Putz is the other).

As I often say, $10 for a plate of a Michigan player I enjoy collecting is right in my wheelhouse, and given the way prices have gone up a bit over the past few years, I'd probable even go above my usual comfort zone of $15 max if something interests me enough. Fortunately I landed this one right in that affordable range to add to one of my player collections with some nicer rare pieces.

That's it for my personal eBay shopping so far this year, even up to the present, but then again my spending this year has seen a downward trend as I get pickier about what I'm willing to spend on and store. I wouldn't be surprised if found a couple more cool eBay items to recap by December, though.

But way before then, y'all can look forward to a bunch of July-related posts very soon. Stay tuned and GO BLUE!