2024 trade package #20: Baseball Card Breakdown

Christmas is just a few days away but tonight I'll be showing off cards I received from someone born the day before the big holiday. Longtime friend Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown sent me some cool stuff back in September and it's about time I posted it:

Scan #1 includes two things I associate Gavin with more than pretty much anyone else. First is one of his trademark customs. His creativity has resulted in him using many different methods to create them, and one of them is sun bleaching. While I think he debuted that technique with the eye-blindingly yellow 1991 Fleer set, you can see he also gave it a try with 1988 Topps, and I was treated to Tram's All-Star subset appearance in that product.

Here's a look at the back which also includes a cool custom feature:

I really like the stamp Gavin uses as a calling card, and that he also signs his initials. What a treat these are! One of these days I really will try to show off the various customs he's (and maybe others) sent me in the long time that I've known him.

A dogged pursuit of a number of Topps' extremely cool Retired/Fan Favorites base and autograph sets is another thing I associate with Gavin. His accumulation of some of the tougher cards, especially from Archives Reserve and Retired Chrome Refractors really is impressive. If you don't believe me for some strange reason, head over to his blog and check them out.

As for me, I was super happy to receive the five-spot of '03 Topps Retired base you see above. The product used that year's flagship design but went with white instead of blue borders, and somehow that made them look even classier in combination with their great vintage photos. Gavin gifted me Sparky, '84 Tigers Evans and Gibby, phenomenon Fidrych, and HOFer Kell, which gave me six from that set (to go with the Tram I already had). I just updated my wantlist and appear to need Kaline, Gwynn, Ripken, and former Phillie/Tiger Jim Bunning. Again, I can't overstate how much I like the looks of these, made back in the days when Topps actually cared about design.

That's not all he sent, though, as I have one more scan of goodies. A Rainbow Foil of John's favorite guy (and new Cubs P) Matt Boyd leads off. That's followed by a Ginter X base of one of my personal faves, former blog namesake Curtis Granderson. Do I have too many? The answer is still no, but I'm proud to be in the lead on TCDb, at least for now.

Another former Tigers P on a Topps parallel is up next with ex-RP Shane Greene out of 2018 Update's Gold insert, which is naturally numbered to that year. Then we jump to another classy design in the form of Topps' Heritage Minors (2011), and a surprise autograph of former prospect Francisco Martinez, an IF/OF that played a couple stints in Detroit's system but never reached the Majors. His rather interesting signature graces a card numbered /861 on the back.

Former ROY Michael Fulmer is the final pitcher in today's post, and maybe from the scale of his card compared to the others you can tell it's from Topps Mini's 2019 version. He didn't pitch in the Majors this year but rumors exist that the Red Sox may try to shift him back to the rotation, and regardless, I hope he gets to enjoy a healthy season.

And the last card is one that brings to mind base-stealing king Rickey Henderson, who sadly passed away yesterday. Nobody's ever going to do it better than him, but back in 1997 the Tigers had an OF by the name of Brian Hunter, and he led the Majors in steals with 74, which is exactly what Rickey averaged per 162 games in his 25-year career. In '98 Topps's Stadium Club brand included a parallel called One of a Kind that was limited to 150 copies, not quite living up to the name, but they looked cool. Hunter's card appropriately shows him zooming in the direction of the next base on a beautiful foil parallel I'm now proud to have in my collection.

Gavin, thanks so much for these cards from about three months ago, and happy early birthday! There's a chance you'll get a small envelope from me this week in time to celebrate because I'd never leave a Christmas Eve baby/collecting friend out of my Christmas cards!

As for gifts that have hit my mailbox, I currently have one envelope left from September to cover, then two each from November and December, as long as no others decide to appear before the end of the month. Stay tuned for the September cards next!

2024 trade package #19: the Collector

Will I at least get all of my trade package recaps done before the calendar flips to a new year? Probably not, but I'll keep posting these as I feel like it.

Tonight's cool pile of stuff comes from Chris, the Collector, who was a longtime friend of mine here (and of many of you as well). Unfortunately I can no longer link to his blog since it's gone, plus he appears to have deactivated the email address I always used to contact him. Needless to say I'm plenty worried about how he and his family are doing, but for now I'll just wait and hope that everything's fine. Chris, if you're reading this, I'm always here for you!

Anyway, back in September he sent me a surprisingly large package of stuff, and I'll get to why it was so physically large at the end, but first we'll start with the cards:

Baseball part 1 starts of strong with a Jim Abbott and besides a RC of short-term star Brennan Boesch and a Miggy insert, the rest of the scan includes a bunch of '24 Topps Chromes of current Tigers Javy Baez and Kerry Carpenter. You'll see the same product and team pop up a few more times in this post so I have to imagine Chris was part of a group break at some point. I really appreciate him treating me to these as I haven't seen them at shows yet (not that I've looked, to be fair), and I'm liking having a good number of the base and parallels, which include Prism and standard Refractors. I'm also thankful for a trio of new Carpenter cards as my Kerry Bonds collection is still small for now.

"Wahoo" Sam Crawford is always welcome in trade packages sent my way. Davis was a Tiger for 60 games between 1993 and '94, as 1994 Fleer reminds us. 2017 first-rounder Faedo hasn't done much for Detroit but Flaherty worked out nicely in a win-win deal that brought the Tigers two very good players and the Dodgers another ring. And I hope to see Riley in HR celebration mode even more in 2025.

Greene and Higginson are former Tigers while Keith is a potentially exciting part of the future in the infield (and another '24 Chrome entry). Kinsler remains a short-time favorite of mine for his three-plus seasons in Detroit and helping the team dump Prince Fielder. Lipcius has 35 ABs to his name, all with the Tigers in '23, but was grabbed by the Dodgers before the '24 season, so I don't know what Topps was thinking (not that I mind another Refractor). Mikie's career was brief but Parker looks like he could be a mainstay in the outfield for years to come. And Olson could bolster a good young rotation if he can stay healthy.

Hey, it's blog favorite Dean Palmer! Peralta was very solid in Detroit and part of the 2012 AL Pennant winner. Multi ring-winner Scherzer is from one of Topps' All-Star Game-stamped sets, which are cards I don't generally seek out but do like to add. Check out make-or-break '25 guy Tork on three different Chrome cards: base, Prizm Refractor, and Refractor. More-than-0%-chance-'25-Tiger Verlander also appears on 2/3 of those. Worth proved to not be worth the 2nd round pick Detroit used on him in the 2007 draft, though at least guys like Giancarlo Stanton and Freddie Freeman were selected before him and not after.

The unfortunately recently injured Wagner is the only basketball representative here but despite his injury it's been quite a season for him. Former UM coach Harbaugh's done decently well leading the Chargers this year. The fact that Hutch could return for a hypothetical Lions Super Bowl appearance is still a crazy sentence to type. Another ex-UM QB, Patterson looks great on an appropriately blue Score Artist's Proof card that's numbered to just 35 copies! And lastly, Mazi and (also somewhat recently injured) Turner are draft picks from last year on some shiny Donruss Optic parallels, with the Bengals DB getting a second card in the form of a Green Hyper insert to go with his own Holo issue.

As you can see the cards hit a bunch of my collections and I would have been more than happy with this package if they made up the entire contents, but then Chris threw this in as well:

I was still buying Starting Lineups back in 2000 and already had this Classic Duos combo of Cal with Chipper, but then Chris sent it my way noting that it was a throw-in in a recent purchase of his, and I was excited to get it because not only is it in better condition than the one I already had (the packaging suffered wear and tear due to several house moves), but it also comes in a protective display case that should keep it that way! Oh, and as a bonus, I can pass on my extra to fellow Cal collector Jeff. Bonus!

Chris, thank you once again for your generosity a few months ago and all the great stuff you've sent me over the years. Again, I don't know if you're even reading blogs anymore, but if you are, please know I appreciate our friendship and I'm lucky to have been able to trade with you. According to tracking info, the Christmas cards I sent your way should have been delivered today and I hope you enjoy them and have a great holiday.

With some much-needed downtime coming up I'll work on finishing up trade recaps for this year as best as I can in the next couple weeks.

2024 trade package #18: the Lost Collector

Happy December! Tonight I'm finishing off my trade packages from August, and this one was a fun surprise envelope from A.J., the Lost Collector.

He and I don't trade a ton as this is just the fifth bunch of cards I've received from him according to my stats, but I think that's mostly because his collection is a bit more specific and I haven't always had great luck finding cards he needs, especially for his signature Tino Martinez PC. But that's totally fine as it makes it more special when we can send cards back and forth.

Here's a look at what he sent this time:

HOF pitcher Jim Bunning is more often associated with the Phillies, and it's their cap that he wears on his plaque in Cooperstown, but he spent a very productive first nine seasons of his career with Detroit. That means I was happy to see him wearing the Olde English "D" on that 2019 Topps Archives Silver parallel, which is numbered /99 on the back. Fellow former Tiger Nick Castellanos also gets the serial treatment on a 2019 card out of that year's Bowman: a Sky Blue parallel limited to just 499 copies as stated on the front. That's a nice numbered pair!

The other cards in this package represent Michigan Football guys, who I might have mentioned beat Ohio State for the fourth year in a row yesterday (just making sure nobody forgot). These cards bring to mind the ones A.J. sent me last December (which I finally covered this past February) as those were 100% Wolverines gridiron guys.

A Score RC of WR/PR Ronnie Bell (who was recently waived by the Niners) leads off this group. Another star WR comes next in the form of Nico Collins, who's back and starring for the Texans after a few weeks off due to injury. DB Brad Hawkins follows on one of just 12 cards he has to his name, and that reminds me that I need to grab one of his signed cards from that '22 SAGE product. Injured difference-maker edge Aidan Hutchinson comes next with a cool pair from 2023 Donruss Elite and Score (Celebration insert). It would be amazing if the Lions could make an improbable run to the Super Bowl with Hutch returning from his injury to lead the team to their first ring. And lastly, we have one more WR in Donovan Peoples-Jones, who doesn't seem to have played anywhere during what would be his fifth NFL season after being cut by the Lions in the preseason. He's represented on a great looking Score Red parallel (pictured in a Wolverines uni!) from his 2020 rookie season.

A.J., thanks so much for this fun surprise PWE and the goodies therein! I appreciate it as always, and I'm happy to get to say that you'll also be getting at least a little something Christmas cards-wise from me at some point this month, likely before the big holiday.

As for the next few posts, I count five more trades I still need to cover, plus I'm aware of at least one more on the way, so I'll likely keep these recaps going before seeing how I want to tackle my remaining 2024 pickups (Facebook Marketplace, shows, eBay, TCDb deals, and COMC once they arrive). My priority remains thanking folks for their generosity that's 100% in the spirit of this holiday season!

2024 trade package #17: Cards on Cards

I'm in a very thankful mood as I write this post, and not just because this past Thursday was turkey day. I'm grateful I still have family around as I get older, and friends to hang out with, a secure job, enough money to live my lifestyle, and a home.

And more specifically, today I'm very thankful that my Michigan Wolverines beat Ohio State for the fourth straight year despite breaking in a first-year coach, weathering injuries, having one of the worst QB room/offensive coordinator combos in program history, and having nothing to play for but pride, But they did it anyway!

And even more specifically to the hobby and this blog, I'm extremely grateful to everyone I have the privilege of trading with and talking to about cards, plus those who read and even comment over here despite my relative lack of posts.

In a similar vein, I'm very thankful for old blog friends I go way back with, like Kerry of Cards on Cards. Kerry's my college team/pro teams collecting doppelganger in the northwest, and he was one of the earlier folks I traded with waaaay back in 2010 not long after I started Too Many Grandersons. He sent me a fairly large envelope of stuff back in August, and I'm thankful that folks like him don't mind me taking until it's a hair before December to recap it!

Here's what he sent:

Some big names I collect to start things off with Miggy, Cronenworth, Greenberg, Greene, and Junior Griffey. Jake was born eight years after Topps originally used that design in 1986.

That's Griffey and now Gwynn and Maddux; Will the quartet be completed? Read on to find out. But first, check out these super nice additions to my collection of Matt Manning. My favorite: the 3D card, easily. We need more of these and fewer Refractor patterns (colors are fine). The Clearly Donruss acetate card is a close second, though!

His fellow high draft pick Mize also gets in on the action to a lesser degree. Morris and a few other '84 Tigers popped up in that Pinnacle Limited set much to the benefit of Detroit collectors like myself. Oh, and the short wait is over: Kerry did indeed complete the group by including four Ripkens, including a cool Red (I think?) parallel numbered /2023. Cy Young-winner Skubal is next, and while I fully expect our cheap-ass owners not to make a reasonable attempt to sign him, I'll enjoy him wearing the Olde English "D" as long as I can.

Next, Tork is definitely facing a make-or-break season as a former top guy who'll need to earn a spot on a team that should be contending in the AL Central. I really like the mix of Panini designs Kerry included here. The Sport Kings card you see of Tram is my first of the HOF SS from 2024, and that's another one of those products than can be useful for finding players you don't necessarily see much elsewhere. Hopping back to present players, could Verlander return to the Tigers? It's not out of the question, but locating that cool gold playing card-type issue on TCDb was as I'll need to do research on a checklist. Finishing out the baseball stuff, Griffey and Cronenworth make repeat appearances while a John Denny Swell card from 1990 puts me down to just nine short of that set.

While Michigan Football's overall record this year has been pretty disappointing (though wins over the two rivals on the schedule sure helped!), the basketball team is looking pretty nice under new coach Dusty May. I know I said that in my last post but that continues to be the case. None of the guys in this scan played for him but they've all since played in the NBA so that's cool. Bufkin's in his second season with Atlanta, THJ is putting up some minutes with the Pistons, and Houstan and Howard are both with Ann Arbor's pro franchise in the south, Orlando (more on that below).

The former coach's son is getting increased minutes for the Magic in his second season, which is nice to see. Speaking of familiar names, I think most people know Jordan Poole and Duncan Robinson, whether or not they know about their Ann Arbor connection.

I haven't seen this many Duncans at once since Kerry's Cardinals employed father & son duo Dave and Chris! Rose is one of a couple Fab-Fivers you'll see tonight. And as for Franz Wagner...

...the budding Magic star is yet another Orlando player represented here. It may be too late for me to get an autograph of Mo's younger brother at a reasonable price but I really appreciate Kerry passing along this many cards of Franz in one package. Meanwhile, THJ makes one more appearance in sticker form and then we have Jett's dad on a phone card, which is such a 1990s thing I think I just teleported to the mall to go to a music store after watching an episode of TRL when I got home from school. A very cool addition indeed!

And now the team of the day: the football Wolverines! My (new) Big Ten buddy is familiar with how to identify who played for my school just like I'm more than happy to look up guys from his. Transfer TE Erick All makes his collection debut out of '23 SAGE HIT, appearing in a Michigan uni despite having transferred to Iowa. Brady's about the most well-known Wolverines guy in the business but I really have to talk up fellow QB-turned-broadcaster Devin Gardner, who did an outstanding job calling Michigan's game last week after having done a very insightful podcast for a few years. Speaking of successful QBs, I was very happy to see a couple rookie-adjacent cards of '97-'98 champ Brian Griese out of Fleer Brilliants and Upper Deck UD3. Buckeye-killer Haskins is back in the NFL with Jim Harbaugh's Chargers while blog favorite QB Chad Henne rode off into the sunset after carrying the clipboard for another Chiefs title team. Turner is sadly out for the season for the Bengals but hopefully the DB will come back stronger than ever next year.

And last up tonight are these two former Wolverines receivers, both pictured wearing the Maize & Blue on Leaf autographed cards even though they each transferred out! Black was a fairly highly touted WR recruit who produced very little in three seasons before transferring to Texas for the doomed 2020 COVID season. This marks my third signature of the 4* from Connecticut.

Henning, who's also making his collection debut tonight, appeared over the 2020-22 seasons for the Wolverines, rushing for a pair of scores in 2021, with none bigger than the opening score of that year's edition of The Game. Ohio State has yet to beat its hated rival ever since. Meanwhile, Henning remained in the conference and headed to Northwestern, where he picked up five total TDs (four catches and a run) in '23. This season he caught four more and that'll do it as the Wildcats won't be bowling with a 4-8 record. We'll always have that TD in the inspiring '21 OSU win, though!

Kerry, thanks so much again for all of this great stuff! I really appreciate how well you hit so many of my various collections, and it remains a pleasure trading with you for going on 15 years. I'll be gladly including you in this year's Christmas cards and already have a few things set aside for you.

Up next will be one more August envelope, and then we'll see if I pivot to wrapping up the rest of the year's trades before I get to everything else because I always feel like those should get priority.

2024 trade package #16: Chronicles of Fuji

It's certainly been an interesting couple of weeks since I started drafting this post, including an embarrassing election that will make the lives of almost all Americans worse for at least the next four years. As it pertains to the hobby, I hope the upcoming economic fallout doesn't cause anyone in the hobby to be priced out.

In better news, fortunately there are still plenty of good people in the card collecting community, such as Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji. Right now more than ever we need teachers like him who do the underappreciated job of teaching kids in a society that offers his vocation insults and insane conspiracy theories about the "woke mindset" instead of the resources and recognition they should get. I've heard a lot about how the recent generation of students is harder to reach due to their phone addictions, an attitude of not trying, and parents that aren't involved. What I'm trying to emphasize is that it obviously takes a person with a ton of patience, perseverance, and pride in their job to do what Mark does.

With all that in mind, I'm always grateful for (but never surprised by) the effort and care he puts into the trade packages he sends my way. That was the case when he sent me the following back in August:

Mr. Tiger's Topps Pristine base is a beautiful example of a cool vintage photo on a modern design. Joining him are a bunch of really vintage Tigers from the 1977 Dover Publications Classic Baseball Cards Reprints set. These came in an album--apparently compiled by Michigan grad and sportswriter (largely known for boxing) Bert Sugar--in detachable perforated form. A number of of totally classic early designs, including the three seen above, are represented, and while I do own an intact album, I didn't have any singles. Now I do, thanks to Fuji, and they give some great looks at classic Tigers stars!

Switching over to basketball, things seem to be looking up a bit for the Wolverines after Juwan Howard's tenure ended in failure, with new coach Dusty May bringing in some solid talent and a new culture. Howard's early coaching days plus his days as a player are still some good memories, though, and he's joined here by well known Fab Five teammates Rose and Webber. Rice brings to mind the program's national championship and another of their most notable alumni. And the late Robert "Tractor" Traylor was exciting in Ann Arbor in the late 90s.

Things have been less rosy for the football team in coach Sherrone Moore's first season due to a number of factors, though he's also due to bring in a pretty impressive first recruiting class if everyone signs. One of the team's past stars is Buckey-killing RB Tim Biakabutuka, and here Fuji provided me with some very cool base and inserts of the Congo-born back. Please bring back designs like these, Panini!

You want more former Michigan stars? Fuji's got your back! Bunch spent four years in the NFL after that many years as a solid FB in Ann Arbor. Collins has been the key to finally making an OSU QB look good in the pros. Crable was a pretty good LB in college. Griese and Harbaugh both enjoyed success in college and the pros, and of course Jim's back in the NFL chasing his Super Bowl dreams, even if he did leave his alma mater in a terrible spot in terms of recruiting, bringing in transfers, and hiring coaches when he left. Hart has been my favorite Michigan RB since his very successful four years here though the very similar Blake Corum may take over soon enough.

The numbered LeSueur at position #3 here is quite cool as is the foil card of HOFer and Super Bowl-winner (times three!) Ty Law, but otherwise the story of this scan is star WRs. Howard of course won the Heisman and then had a very memorable moment winning a Super Bowl. Super Mario is a big reason Eli Manning won one if his rings and Manningham remains a blog favorite (obviously) to this day. And Terrell is one of the best receivers to come out of Ann Arbor, even if his NFL career doesn't bear that out. The former #1 jersey-wearer is one of several guys to appear on numbered cards in this post, with his Ultra RC at spot #8 being a highlight.

I supposed you could have one without the other, but I always like getting A-Train cards when Terrell's included because they're forever linked for me. Thomas joins Terrell from the serial numbered Ultra set and adds a Pros & Prospects #d card to boot. Toomer is another Ann Arbor star that lined up wide for the Wolverines and then won a Super Bowl with Eli Manning. Walker didn't pan out in the NFL but was excellent in college. And Wheatley is one of a number of Michigan RBs to have a solid NFL career. Better yet, he played back when card designs looked their best, especially inserts!

The rest of the football content, including some horizontal items, features familiar names from above along with GOAT DB Charles Woodson. The Score Wheatley is an especially cool card while the die-cut Playoff helmet design is, to borrow from the 90s, radical! I also really miss brands like Fleer's Showcase and Leaf's Certified Materials (referring to the real Leaf, not the garbage knockoff that's sullying the name these days).

There was more than just cards in this envelope this time as Fuji included a couple issues of a collecting magazine I was previously completely ignorant of: the Trader Speaks. More on the magazine itself in a minute, but first, here's a great look at Mr. Tiger as the cover star from November 1974, literally 50 years ago! Mr. Tiger had recently finished up his 22nd and final season in the MLB, all with Detroit, and he went out as an All-Star (for the 18th time) while finishing just one homer shy of the 400-mark. He'd be enshrined in Cooperstown six years later.

Meanwhile, this issue from the following May stars eight Tigers from a post-WWII set that's not Topps or Bowman. Instead, they were distributed (regionally) by Tip Top Bread. The black & white, 2 1/4 x 3" set is 163 cards strong, and while not every star of the time is included, many are. 15 Tigers made the cut, and more than half of them can be see here, including former Wolverine Dick Wakefield and HOFer George Kell. I also wasn't familiar with this set at all so this was an educational double whammy for me!

As for the magazines themselves, they're black and white (except for the red borders on the fronts) and measure about 7 x 8.5". They include various card news stories, addresses for TTM autographs, and letters, with the bulk of the pages devoted to auctions and classified ads for buying/selling/trading. The well known Keith Olbermann, who's certainly not secretive about his collecting habit, answers mailed-in questions in the May edition. These are an extremely cool look at the hobby from that time, about a decade before I was born, and it's fun to see the ridiculously low asking prices for items that are now super expensive, if not practically priceless.

Fuji, thanks again for all you do and for another exciting package of stuff that's a nice boost to my collection and my education! I plan on getting you back by the end of the year as I work on Christmas cards for 2024. But first, I need to continue catching up on everything I haven't covered yet, so more to come soon!

Free for the taking: well-loved vintage!

I'll be back soonish with more trade posts, but for now I'm in a fall cleaning mode getting ready to dump a lot of unwanted stuff on Facebook Marketplace (while also listing a ton of stuff for trade on TCDb). While I was going through everything I decided to do something fun with some cards I bet a lot of you will enjoy.

Some of you may remember that when I covered my super fun June garage sale purchase about a month ago, one of the items was a box of very well-loved and highly incomplete vintage cards

Well I've kept the few I wanted and thrown a few into trade piles (some sent out already), plus set aside some for Bo. What should I do with the rest? Why not give them away? That includes everything left from that box plus some '75 Topps Minis that are in better shape.

The cards in the following nine scans are available 100% free to anyone who follows my completely reasonable instructions and claims them below.

Rules:

1. Please feel free to claim multiple cards but don't get greedy and ask for half of them, at least not until plenty of people have had a chance to request what they want

2. If multiple people claim a single card I reserve the right to award it to the person I choose in an effort to balance things out

3. Please leave a comment below listing the cards you want as described below. If you comment anonymously, plus leave your name and email address so I can contact you for your address if I need it (please also feel free to drop your blog name and/or Twitter name if you'd like, but that's optional)

4. For the first eight scans, please claim the cards in the form of [scan #]-[card letter] with the card letter going A through I, top to bottom, left to right. e.g. the Jim Fregosi card in the first scan would be "1-E." That'll make it easier for me to find the cards you choose

5. For the last scan, the cards down the first column are A-D, the next four are E & F, G & H, and the last card is I. I'll note that below the scan as well

6. Once I've determined who gets what, cards will be PWEd out, either soon after I determine time's up, or with Christmas cards, or whenever I want

7. With the exception of my most common Canadian trade partner, I'm limiting this to US addresses only

8. I won't chase after anyone who doesn't follow the rules above so for example if you claim cards as an anonymous account and don't leave your email, I'm not coming after you to send it to me--it's on you to make sure to do that. Same thing goes for when I reach out for addresses I don't have--if you don't respond in a reasonable amount of time you get nothing!

Other than that, I think it should be pretty straightforward. Please keep in mind that besides having been cut or torn up as seen in the scans, they may have other defects on them such as pen or pencil and torn backs. I doubt that'll matter to anyone that would claim cards in this state, but I at least wanted to point that out.

With all that in mind, please get to claiming!

Scan 1:

Scan 2:

Scan 3:

Scan 4:

Scan 5:

Scan 6:

Scan 7:

Scan 8:

Scan 9:

A  E  F

B  

C G  H

D   I

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!