2024 trade package #15: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store part 2: hockey

It's been a nice sports weekend for me as Michigan Football beat a lesser rival plus the Yankees are down two games in the World Series. So with that positivity in mind, let's continue on with the mountain of cards sent to me by Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store back in August. (Reminder: part 1 is here.)

We're in one of the busiest sports months of the year as all four major sports are in action plus some of the college versions. Relevant tonight is that both the Red Wings and Michigan Hockey have dropped the pucks on their seasons. As a matter of fact, I got to enjoy the latter in person last weekend!

Doug sent me a big stack of cards of both teams in this box,

and those are what we'll look at tonight!

Let's start with the local pro team, one which features four players from my alma mater, all of whom appear in this post! But we'll get to the WolverWings later. Datsyuk and Fedorov are both team legends and I'm glad to bump up their collections a bit. Meahwhile, Edvinsson is a former #6 overall pick going into his third season in Motown as a good defenseman prospect.

Next, LaPointe and Lidstrom are the most familiar names here. Marty won a pair of Cups with the Wings after they took him 10th overall in 1991, and he went on to play for the Bruins, Hawks, and Sens before hanging 'em up. Plus his son currently plays for Michigan Hockey! Lidstrom, meanwhile, is a HOF defenseman who won four Stanleys with Detroit, playing his entire career in Hockeytown. He's definitely a top-five team player of mine in franchise history.

Ozzie is the biggest name here for me, another '91 draft pick who went on to success with the team. He backed up vet Mike Vernon in the playoffs in '96-'97 before getting his turn with the repeat champs the following year, then came back in 2007-08 and '08-'09, helping the team win another Cup and then coming up just short the year after. Primeau's also pretty well known as a former #3 overall pick who put up some good numbers for the team but was part of the trade that brought Brendan Shanahan to Detroit, which worked out quite well! Raymond's a much more recent guy, chosen #4 overall in 2020, and he's coming off a 31-goal campaign, so he looks to be a big part of the future. Rutherford's a goalie from way before my time--drafted by Detroit in 1969, he found his way to Pittsburgh before a trade back to Detroit (twice!) and appeared in goal in parts of 10 seasons as a Wing.

German D-man Mo Seider leads off this scan and he comes into his fourth season as a key player on the blue line. I already mentioned how Shanny joined the team, and he was a star on a team filled with them that won three Cups. Soderblom is a Swedish winger chosen in the sixth round back in 2019 who hasn't been up with the parent team since 2022-23 but remains a prospect. Veleno was a late first-rounder way back in 2018 that hasn't yet parlayed amateur success into NHL production just yet.

The last of the Wings are represented with these horizontals and one odd-sized issue. Draper's probably the best player $1 ever bought as he brought plenty of grit along with key goals to four Cup-winners. The previously seen Seider looks good on a shiny UD insert. The Captain's NHL career coincided with some great 90s stuff like Collector's Choice's Stick-Ums. And Shanny gets one more appearance courtesy of a Pacific mini.

Now we switch over to the guys in maize & blue. Boston center Johnny Beecher makes his collection debut here thanks to Doug, and the 2019 first-rounder is in his second year with that team. Beniers and Bordeleau are both relative newcomers to the NHL and it's nice to see their collections get a small bump. Cogliano (who's also seen in the next scan) won a cup with the 21-22 Avalanche and then retired after last season, his 17th in the NHL!

Three-year Wolverine Compher was a teammate of Cogliano's with Colorado and also part of that Cup team, and now I'm happy to say that he's one of four Wolverines on the Red Wings! Jets sniper Kyle Connor has been lighting the lamp since 2016 and looks primed to hit the 30-goal mark for for the seventh time in eight seasons. As for Copp...

...he's another WolverinWing, as seen in the first two cards here. It's fun when the former Ann Arbor guys head to Detroit but even better when it's captured on cardboard. Another Team Canada card of Hobey-winner Adam Fantilli gives me two of him with that team to go with a pair with Columbus. Hagelin, who won a pair of Cups with the Pens, nears the 40-card mark as well as the top-10 of my Michigan Hockey PCs. Sitting 10 cards behind him is

Canucks D-man and last year's Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes, whose six cards here include a very cool playing card-style item from OPC. Defenseman Matt Hunwick is next, and this trio shows him with two of his six career franchises. Then we have former Leafs winger Zach Hyman who

joined the Oilers after six seasons in Toronto and steadily put up career highs until reaching 54 goals last year plus another 16 in the playoffs for runner-up Edmonton (though he's yet to score this year). While there are no Wolverines named Jones in this package, Doug had me keeping up with the Johnsons. One is Jack, another '21-'22 Avalanche Cup-winner who's now back in his second go-round with Columbus in his 19th(!) NHL season. The other is his new teammate Kent, the 2021 fifth overall pick who's in his fourth season in the league, and has five cards to his name in my collection as opposed to almost 60 for his elder fellow Wolverine.

Wings captain Dylan Larkin was one of the most common names in this package and I loved to see that. I'm grateful that the team has his leadership as he's become somewhat similar to the guy currently in charge, Steve Yzerman, so you'll imagine how much I grinned when I noticed that my collection totals for both players are very close! He's posted 31, 32, and 33 goals the past three seasons so we'll see if his incremental improvement continues, though more importantly I'm hoping for a return to the playoffs--something he hasn't experienced since his debut in 2015-16. Madden, meanwhile, won trophies both in college and the NHL, and missed the playoffs just twice in his career, with one occasion being a cup of coffee in his league debut. Oklahoma City native Jon Merrill also played for the Devils like Madden, though their careers didn't overlap. He was a Red Wing for 36 games in 2020-21 and is now in his fourth season with Minnesota.

I don't think I need to say much about Morrison as he's long been a blog favorite and I've talked about him plenty, so I'll just mention that he's #2 in my UM hockey PCs and the only other player besides Marty Turco to hit the century mark. Next, it's fun to have a shared PC with Doug like Nystrom, who's both a Michigan alum and 2/14 baby! A guy that's not too far behind Morrison is Max Pacioretty, a well-traveled winger who's with his fourth different team in as many seasons. 

My collection of Max is what it is because of folks like Doug who send me so many of his cards, like the ones in the previous scan, the few you see here (two of which are numbered!) and even more below. Palushaj barely had an NHL career to speak of but I still happily collect him. '21 #1 overall pick Owen Power is still fairly new to my collection but, again, thanks to Doug my small collection is growing. Tambellini was a favorite of mine while I had student season tickets. And as you'll see between this scan and the next,

My collection of Trouba got a nice bump as well. The sometimes overly aggressive D-man rests comfortably in the top 10 with just shy of 50 cards, in large part thanks to the guy who sent me these. One of the two Turcos helping to keep him #1 by a large margin can be seen here while there's one more below. Next, we have three of six Werenski cards representing yet another ex-Michigan guy that headed down to Columbus as a pro.

The other three sit atop this scan, including a typically excellent UD base plus the usually very cool (no pun intended) UD Ice. Two of the best looking cards in the entire box aren't even hits, but instead super thick cards of young Flyer Cam York. Both are '21-'22 SPx issues, with the first being a Finite inserted #d /399 and the other being a gorgeous Shadow Box card that has to be seen in-person to be appreciated.

We'll close out this scan (but not the post, oddly enough) with some beautiful hits. First is a beautiful RC auto of J.T. Compher, who's had his named called today already and will have the honor one more time. That's out of 2017-18 Ultimate Collection and the signature /399 is my third autograph to go with one relic. Tyler Motte, meanwhile, represents WolverWing #4 in this post, and that SPx Blackhawks jersey (/235) is relic #5 out of nine total hits. The former Chicago center joined Detroit as his 8th NHL team. Well represented PC guy Max Pacioretty is next with an SPx jersey representing one of his four seasons with Vegas. He's up to 12 hits including nine relics like that above average jersey swatch. And last up is a Panini Rookie Anthology card of Travis Turnbull that I swore I already had until I realized Doug had sent me the Patch version that comes with two excellent pieces of a Sabres jersey to go with Turnbull's signature. Besides the swatch upgrade, the card is #d /99, and that becomes my third hit of a Buffalo player who scored a single goal in three NHL games.

Like I said above, we weren't quite done yet because we still have some horizontals and other oddities that I decided to scan after the hits. Compher, Jack Johnson, and Patch all get some cool X-axis cards, and once again I love UD's flagship look. David Oliver isn't as common of a name around here--that's just my fourth card of his--so I appreciate the deep cut. The trio of goalie cards starring two of Michigan's best--Shields and Turco--has me wishing Pacific and its die-cut Crown Royale were still around. I love that he sent a base and two different parallels to give a nice look at the range of colors that set offered. Compher makes one last appearance thanks to a Panini sticker. And then we have one last player: David Shand. Like Oliver, he's not a very common name and actually only has 12 cards catalogued on TCDb. I now own three of those thanks to this 1979 sticker also made by Panini which may be the oldest such issue in my collection.

Once again I hope the fact that I had to give in and split up this package into two posts goes a long way towards indicating just how generous Doug can be when it comes to trading. Not only did he bomb me with quantity, but there was an absolute ton of quality across these two posts, and rest assured that I don't take such effort for granted. Thanks for being one of my favorite trading partners, Doug, and I hope to close out the year with a Christmas package that shows my appreciation!

Stay tuned for another August trade package coming up soon!

2024 trade package #15: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store part 1: everything but hockey

Tonight let's take a look at part of the latest big-ass shipment from Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, received by me in August.

That's right--I said "part of" because he literally sent me this:

I split it into hockey and non-hockey, and you'll be getting the latter tonight. In true SCFtDS form, you'll get to see a large package broken up into multiple posts!

Baseball's up first and my Tigers PCs, some old and many new, were well represented. I don't know if Baez is long for a roster spot but that Bowman's Best is pretty cool. The '72 Gator would be cool enough on its own but this one is a Canadian special: O-Pee-Chee! Miggy makes a few recent-ish appearances here plus one more in the horizontals section. Campos is only 21 and a potential OF prospect to watch. Traded Tiger Canha joins a bunch of others in this post from this year's Heritage.

Cronenworth is of course a favorite. Flaherty is surely happy to be with the NL champion Dodgers while the Tigers got two solid prospects in the deal. Gold is 24 and still in high A while Graham will be that age early next year and seems to be hovering around A+ himself. The Riley Greene playing card is a cool one of a fun player I'm definitely growing to like on the team. And Griffey was pretty good in his day as well.

Jobe is pretty much the franchise's top prospect after going 3rd overall in 2021 and he was though of highly enough to make a late-season MLB debut followed by a couple appearances in the playoffs, which had to be thrilling for a young dude. Jung is another top-100 prospect for the team and while his '24 MLB debut wasn't amazing, it was cool to see the '22 first-rounder get some ABs with the big team. Keith is locked up for a few seasons and could be a key part of a rebuilt offense. Kemp is another OPC Tiger from my Canadian buddy, this one from 1979.

Kinsler's was a bit of a favorite of mine during his Motown tenure so I love the Refractor above. Larkin is of course a longtime personal favorite and PC guy. McGonigle is an intriguing middle IF prospect that the Tigers took 37th overall in '23. Austin didn't work out but his Tigers draftee bro Parker has shown a bit of hitting ability and a flair for web gems in the outfield so we'll probably see plenty more of him next year. Melton's a '22 4th-rounder out of San Diego State, Morris is a team legend and HOFer, and Olson is looking to be an excellent acquisition whose numbers were hampered by a sorry lack of run support (and bad health luck) this season.

I have to say, it's super cool to see a guy like Magglio in products like Panini's '23 Chronicles, including the card numbered /199 above! As with other players you saw today I'm always glad to see cards of Cal in trade packages. Skubal is largely responsible for taking what looked to be another below-average Tigers squad and making it a big story, with a Cy Young-worthy campaign that led his team to a very unlikely playoff berth! Tork recovered a bit after a dismal start and we'll likely get a better idea next year if he'll be part of the club's future. Tram is another team legend appearing courtesy of '23 Panini Select. And Papa Grande and JV had fans plenty excited back when they were starring on perennial playoff teams.

The versatile Vierling is our last standard vertical issue in the baseball group. Miggy gets another Heritage MLB pair card that looks quite cool as a throwback to past Topps designs. The two guys who led the '82 Tigers on the '83 Topps card had an especially good time in '84! A stray '85 OPC half sticker of Lou Whitaker was a very fun surprise. Jung makes a couple more appearances, including one with the also previously-seen Melton. And then we have a card of a former Tiger the likes of which I wouldn't tend to keep, but there's no way I could turn down the Leather & Lumber black gold signature you see here even if it features failed prospect Christin Stewart. Come on, how cool does that look?!

Switching over to basketball, I believe that every player seen here is currently active in the NBA. Injured Hawks G Kobe Bufkin leads all comers with three new cards. THJ had a solid 14 points in Detroit's season-opening loss last night, and the card you see above is numbered /165, which is cool. LeVert's Cavs are actually scheduled to face the Pistons tomorrow. I couldn't find any stats for Washington's Poole yet this season. And then we have the Wagner bros, Franz and Mo who combined for 30 points (23 and 7, respectively) in yesterday's season opener win against the Bulls.

Basketball got a couple new hits too! Brooks is a newcomer to both my basketball hits collection and UM basketball PC in general. He played as a G for five seasons in Ann Arbor, spanning 2017-18 to 2021-22, then went undrafted, so he's prime fodder for a product like Wild Card Alumination that gets signatures of players who probably wouldn't sniff a cardboard appearance otherwise. While he becomes the 36th subject in my basketball hits PC, Wilson gets his second: a Crown Royale jersey/auto (numbered /199). The 2017 Bucks first-rounder is pictured with the team that drafted him though he's since suited up for Houston, Doug's Raptors, and the 76ers.

As we switch over to the gridiron, transfer RB Thomas Rawls is the lone base card out of 10 items (hence splitting the remaining basketball and football into two scans). WR Amara Darboh gets a nice spotlight down the right side of the scan with three beautiful looking auto/relics. #1 is a dual jersey (you might call them "prime" as they aren't far off from patches) and football combo paired up with Darboh's signature, and the Absolute beauty is the Spectrum parallel of that product's RC, limited to "just" 99 copies. Next is Panini Phoenix's Orange parallel of his jersey/auto, clocking in at 150 copies. And finally we have a Rookies & Stars Dress for Success signature and memorabilia pairing that's also numbered /99. Fun news: these additions allowed Darboh to join the 50-hit club in the football PC! He's just the 11th player to reach that milestone.

The above three hits go quite well with this super sextet. Arrington is one of the 10 other 50-hit guys in my collection and the '09 Topps Magic autographs will always be a favorite of mine. Talented defender Devin Bush II joins the collection with his first hit, a Panini Luminance jersey that makes him football collection dude #254 and the fourth with that first name. I now have 11 Butts including the shiny one numbered /99 above, and I'll leave that there for all of you to get your best comments in. Chesson was a college teammate and position mate of Darboh's and he hit the double-digit mark with his 9th card including a signature (the other's a plate) thanks to 2017 Panini Spectra (#d /199). I would assume most of you who've followed me for long enough remember the namesake of my now-retired secondary blog, Mario Manningham, on a sweet Press Pass college uni signature. By the way, he's one hit away from joining Chad Henne in the 100-hit club while Jake Long needs three and Braylon Edwards needs six. Goals!

And last up is one of the biggest surprises in this mailing. Doug's certainly been generous enough to send me plates and other 1/1s before, but I didn't expect this Yellow 2020 Leaf Draft plate of former transfer QB Shea Patterson! The two-year Wolverine went 10-3 and 9-4 in 2018 and 2019, a few seasons before things really turned around for Jim Harbaugh's program. This appears to be my 56th 1/1 in my football PC with Shea being the 34th member to appear on at least one. I really enjoyed finding this among the rest of the loot which was already very high quality.

So as you can see I was quite pleased with the baseball, basketball, and football content. As for the hockey stuff, you'll have to wait until next time, but I promise it's worth a look as that stack was bigger than that of these three sports combined! I look forward to sharing that with you so y'all can get a feeling for just how much Doug stuffed into this box.

Until then, thanks so much for another fantastic package, Doug!

7/5/24 card show report: Bought on the 5th of July

I was able to convince myself to spend a bit putting together a post this evening because I knew there wasn't a ton I had to show off. Tonight you get to see my pickups from July's monthly card show.

This was the usual one in Taylor and I headed over the day after the Fourth to celebrate my freedom the American way: buying stuff! My spending sheet says I threw down $70 at this show and that's as detailed as I'm going to be able to be here, but that's ok: I have a few scans for y'all to enjoy:

We'll start as usual with the trade bait portion. I'm pretty sure the Sowers jersey was a buck because I tend to ignore relics like that most of the time. Sabathia is a 2020 Topps Tribute Green triple jersey and numbered /99, and I'd bet that came out of the $5 (or 5/$20) box. If you're surprised to see a Raptors jersey up for grabs, know that it's because I accidentally bought two, but did make sure to send one across the border. As for the football items, the Shaq Evans auto (2014 Rookies & Stars) and Cadillac Williams jersey (2010 Elite, #d /299) were likely also in the $1-$2 range.

Please claim 'em if you want 'em! I might be a bit pickier in what I want for the Sabathia but we'll see.

And now on to my keepers:

First we have a couple Maddux cards: an insert from my favorite hobby decade, plus a Donruss base from last year. A Prizm of current Tigers hurler Mize is followed up by a franchise great in Morris, also from '23 Donruss, though pictured/listed with Minnesota. A shiny 2002 Donruss Fan Club insert of Ripken finishes off the baseball content.

Moving on to the court (and a team that currently has a brighter season outlook than the football team, unfortunately), THJ got a nice little bump to his collection with a trio of colorful Panini inserts. Houston, who plays in Orlando and not his namesake city, joins Hardaway as one of four Wolverine cagers to appear in this post.

LeVert and Poole--definitely keeping up the shiny/colorful theme, round out the basketball group.

Meanwhile, on the gridiron, transfer RB Charbonnet has been relatively quiet in his sophomore campaign for former Michigan DC Mike Macdonald's Seahawks, but he does have three rushing scores and a TD catch in six games this season as fellow transfer tailback Kenneth Walker III's understudy. Collins was on pace to improve on an impressive 2023 season when he got hurt, and the Texas will surely miss him for the multiple weeks he'll be out, as they did today.

The next two cards form a nice pair as QBs involved with Michigan's most recent national titles. I thought the shiny insert (numbered /500) of Griese, the 1997-98 field general, looked awesome, and Harbaugh, the former UM QB and coach of last season's champs, is also seen on a very cool 90s design with his image and some of the text raised on the insert above. Everything that could fall into place and go right did so in 2023-24 but has since fallen apart this year due to a majority of the coaching staff and a ton of talent leaving. Michigan fans look to be in for some down seasons as new HC Sherrone Moore and his not-ready-for-prime-time assistants try to figure it out, but I'm still basking in that championship and can put up with it.

We'll end things tonight with a pair of talented defenders. Ojabo is an enticing talent if he can stay healthy for a Ravens team known for producing excellent defenses. Here you see him on a Canvas parallel of his '22 Donruss RC. It's hard to tell but it has a bit of a canvas texture to it which is a fun feature. Meanwhile, 2023 Cowboys first-rounder Mazi Smith is in his second season and looking to make a claim for more playing time. I scored my first autograph (or hit of any kind) of the DT in the form of a 2023 Leaf Exotic parallel called "Prismatic Zebra." Leaf gonna Leaf, I guess. It's a Michigan uni-ish card (boo airbrushing) and numbered 9/13, so it's not a bad start to his collection. That makes him member #253 of the football hits collection.

That takes care of this show and I have nothing else from July to post other than one eBay purchase and possibly some TCDb deals, though I'll be grouping those into other posts when I'm caught up on everything else. That means the next time I post you'll probably be getting a look at one of four trade packages that were delivered to me in August, most of which were absolute doozies.

Until then, I hate the Yankees and Michigan State and hope to see both lose one or more upcoming games.

2024 trade package #14: Cards Over Coffee

As it turns out I have just one trade package from July to post, making catching up a bit easier (though I do have quite a few from August and September). Tonight you get to see the latest PWE sent to me by Matt of multiple blogs but most recently Cards Over Coffee.

Matt treats me to these envelopes a few times a year and I can always count on some cool Tigers and Wolverines (if not stuff that hits other PCs). That was most definitely the case here:

It was sad to see Miggy hang up his cleats after last season, but there's no doubt that having a roster spot plus the DH position open for guys like Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter aided in Detroit's stunning second-half turnaround this season. Honestly, it felt more like 1987 than '88, the year the design of those Topps inserts honors.

Manning, meanwhile, had a 2024 season he'd surely like to forget, going 0-1 in just five starts while not faring much better at AAA Toledo. He's only a few years removed from being a top 50 prospect but time may be running out for him to claim a spot in the rotation.

Lastly, Tork also didn't exactly have a season to remember like his 31 HR 2023 campaign, but considering how poorly he started, leading to his own demotion, the fact that he crawled his way back is a positive sign. He still needs to show a lot more in 2025 to earn a role on what appears to be an up-and-coming team, but for now he'll continue to appear on shiny inserts (like Refractors!) while proudly wearing the olde English "D."

If the timing of this post--a couple days after the Tigers were bounced from the playoffs--seems a bit inauspicious, it's nothing compared to the stunning turn of events for the player and team featured on the first few cards here. Aidan Hutchinson was such a massive piece on a defense trying to claw its way from embarrassment to competency, and his gruesome broken leg halts what looked to be a historic season for player and team. Here's hoping he comes back stronger than ever for the '25-'26 season, and in the meantime I hope the Lions don't miss his intimidating presence too much.

Matt obviously decided that one Wolverine great wasn't enough, so he added four nice looking cards of GOAT DB Charles Woodson. I really like that both of his franchises are represented here: the Raiders, with whom he began and finished his career, plus the team that allowed him to add a Super Bowl to his NCAA title trophy and other college/pro accomplishments: the Packers. If the nine-time Pro-Bowler didn't deserve first ballot admission to Canton, who else would? He's indeed a living legend and it's great to see him back in the Big House when doing his job for Fox.

Matt, thanks as always for another great PWE! I've got a pretty nice stack going for you and just need to decide when to pull the trigger on sending it your way. I can promise you at least one card that's seasonally appropriate given the rapidly declining temperature here in the northern part of the country.

I should be back soon with what I expect will be a recap of July's show, so stay tuned for that while watching what's rapidly become an MLB postseason featuring uninteresting/unlikable teams. Who the hell am I supposed to root for now?!

2024 Facebook Marketplace purchase: garage SOLD!

My card room is a mess and I also dragged my feet putting together this post because I kept looking at both, thinking of the amount of work that needed to be done, and went off and did something else. Did I chip away at each a bit at a time to make things easier on myself? HA! Nope, but I finally lowered my standards enough to snap some bad pictures (no scans here!) so I can finally cover my last June pickup (here in early October).

So briefly, a family posted a garage sale in a city not far from me on Facebook, and the amount of card stuff piqued my interest. I couldn't make it out there the first day but the following day I got there mid- or late-morning. The husband saw me eyeballing the card stuff (fortunately a good amount of what I saw in the photos was still there), and told me he'd be happy to take $100 for everything left. I don't think I even pretended to think it over before I said "Yep, let's do it."

The guy helped me fill up my car, and let me tell you, it was a HAUL. As usual I had a blast sorting through everything, and most anything of interest to some of my most common trading buddies has been mailed out. But in this post I'll show you some of my keepers and also leftover stuff to give you a small taste of what I took home here. I'll be leaving a lot out because it was that or pretty much never get to this, and it was holding up the rest of my posting. So here we go.

First, my keepers:

A bit of baseball.

A basketball trio. Campy!

A football foursome.

Lots of Wings, especially the Russian Five.

There was a box of cut up vintage baseball stuff for $10, which I was going to grab regardless of whether or not I took everything home. I'm not counting any of these in my collection because they're so incomplete, but I'm extremely happy to have playing days cards of the likes of Carlton, Clemente, Koufax, and others.

A couple large HOFers I happen to collect.

There were a bunch of factory sets in the lot, and here's two I kept for myself: 1990 Sportflics and 1992 Donruss. That's my first Sportflics complete set, though I do own Pinnacle's 1996 Sportflix (not to be confused with these). The '92 Donruss box has the shrink-wrap removed but the cards themselves are still in their bricks.

See? Also, the Sportflics cards include a bunch of trivia holograms.

Here's some other sets I kept. The discs are particularly fun 80s oddballs, and in one or two cases I believe I own full sets represented here that I'm upgrading to boxed form.

Have you ever seen all 20 Topps Screenplays from 1997? Now you have! This was one of the main draws for me and I was thrilled they were still available.

All of them include the tin, informational disc, packing foam, and cards, and some of the cards (like the Gwynn above) still have the protective peel on them. I may give these their own post in the future, and either way I'll probably peel all of them to enjoy them that way.

Here's a couple near sets. The '92 US Playing Card Co. Tigers Playing Cards set is missing only PC guy Mickey Tettleton (King of Hearts) and Scott Livingstone (3 of Spades). The '21 Topps 1952 Redux set came with a near set of '21 Topps Series 1 that you'll see below, and it was short just Dylan Carlson's card (#T52-33), which I'll likely procure in the near future, and then I'll probably keep the set.

There were a couple tubs of magazines and similar items and these were my keepers. The Legends Sports Memorabilia issues were extremely cool since they included sheets of cards and postcards you could collect. I tore a bunch of them up trying to get those items out safely and then cut them by hand, relatively poorly (as those of you who received some of these from me already know--sorry!). More on those shortly. You'll see more examples of the magazines below, but besides those, sticker books, and Becketts, there were some Topps magazines and I pulled cards (individual and panels) from those as well.

Here's a look inside the two Topps sticker books and the two Legends Sports mags from above.

These are the Legends Sports and Topps magazine sheets I'm keeping intact.

Here are the postcard sheets and individual postcards I opted to hold onto.

I also scored a fun mix of individual (if poorly cut) cards of some of my favorites.

This Cal Ripken Jr. streak newspaper, nicely preserved, was a fun find! Meanwhile the mini pennant is one of a bunch also found in the lot, and some of you were lucky enough to get one of one or more of you favorite teams.

As for stuff I'm less likely to keep and more likely to trade or get rid of somehow:

More factory sets! I left the price stickers on some of these for some reason. The four Topps sets on the left are all pretty much unopened (slightly torn shrink-wrap in some cases), and are from 1988, 1989, 1991, and 1992. I may decide to keep the factory sets I don't have (all but '91) and ditch the hand-collated sets I have, we'll see.

Meanwhile, the 2006 set was opened but it did include the bonus pack of five rookie inserts (the first five in the set, so nobody good). 2008 didn't include any bonuses and a note indicated it was missing Paul Konerko's base card for some reason, which I've since acquired. Lastly, '21 Topps Series 1 was missing a total of four cards; I had two from previous pickups and landed the other two in a recent trade. That's the box that came with the '52 Redux insert set missing a single card. Yeah, I'd pay $3 for that!

Here's the rest of the low-condition vintage stuff, which, as I mentioned, was all of $10 if I bought it by itself. I gave a few of these out but may be willing to donate more depending on interest.

There were a few of this Topps Mini set, and I kept one for myself and included a few in trade packages, but I still have four left.

A box that said "vintage basketball" on it included a mix of 1981-82 Topps cards, with a lot of dupes.

Speaking of vintage, how about some cool old hockey cards?

Here's some other small complete or near complete sets from the lot.

I was able to consolidate the remaining magazines down to one tub after keeping what I wanted, sending some out in trades, and sacrificing some for their card/postcard content. Leftovers include some Sports Illustrateds, Becketts, Legends Sports, and more.

This small stack of Legends Sports mags mostly still have their card sheets and/or postcards intact.

But like I said, I did cut a lot of them up and ended up with some leftover card sheets, postcards, and individual cards.

Here's the baseball mini pennants I didn't send out, plus the tiny selection of football (with way too many outdated Washington flags!) plus a Joe Montana Starting Lineup.

One of the most useful items that came as part of the deal was this beat-up but still fine to use sorting tray. Cool!

Items not pictured include a few albums with empty pages, a random sheet or two of stamps, a few comic books that weren't really notable, and I believe a couple other boxes of random cards.

This is about the best I can do covering enough of what I came home with to give you an idea, but regardless, it was a blast as always and I came away happy that I basically bought out the card portion of the guy's garage sale for $100.

I hope those of you that received some of these items enjoy them as much as I did digging them out for you!

I believe next time I'm back (hopefully much sooner this time) I'll be back to covering trades from July until I catch up on those, then you'll see other pickups from the month.

Until then, EAT 'EM UP, TIGERS!