5/2/25 card show report: it's gonna be May

With another monthly show coming up in less than a week, tonight I'm recapping my Taylor Town trip from May.

Coming off a show where I'd spent a yearly low of just $55 I almost doubled my spending at a $100 even. Oddly enough I may have come home with fewer cards than April, but that was the result of an increase in quality at the expense of quantity. Hey, whatever works!

First up, I did snag a bit of trade bait to make available here, all of which is a bit higher end than normal:

The Lo Duca auto is numbered /227 while the patch is limited to 100 copies. I know I trade with a bunch of Dodgers collectors but decided I might prefer specific offers of items in trade for these as they're on the nicer side. Meanwhile, the jersey/auto of Stewart is /75, and the Sano manurelic isn't numbered.

Please claim any if you'd like to trade for them here or over on TCDb.

As for my keepers, I can also sum them up in a single scan:

#1 PC guy Cal gets yet another addition in the form of a '21 Topps 70 Years of Topps insert that imagines what he'd look like on the 1978 design. His fellow 2007 Hall of Fame inductee (I was there!) Tony Gwynn is the other baseball representative tonight in the form of a pair of early 2000s relics. The vertical card is from 2002 Topps 206 while its horizontal sibling hails from 2001 Upper Deck. The latter came out just four years after Gwynn was on the small checklist of the ballyhooed debut of UD's Game Jersey cards. It was certainly a different time back then! I now count 12 relics in my collection of Mr. Padre, and I'll happily spend in the $5-$10 range to continue growing that count.

As for football, the lone non-relic I picked up was a 2021 Absolute Blue Diamonds parallel of former UM RB Chris Evans. It's numbered /99 and the color was along the right lines so why not? Next to him we have my first two hits of 2023 National Champ QB J.J. McCarthy, both of which are Vikings jersey relics. On the left is a jersey from '24 Absolute's Rookie Force insert, and that's joined by the same year's Donruss Rookie Phenom Jerseys set. I hope he hits the ground running as Minnesota's QB this season after barely playing during last year's preseason due to injury. For now he becomes subject #265 in my football collection.

Last up is relic #5 (and 6th overall hit) of the electrifying Desmond Howard. He's pictured on the card above with the Lions but this one was actually made by Stadium Club in 2001 to celebrate his appearance earlier that year in the Pro Bowl as a KR for the NFC. That was his lone appearance in the NFL all-star game over his 11 seasons, and he was named to the team on the back of numbers like 457 punt return yards (including a career-high 95-yarder) and TD, plus 1401 kick return yards on 57 tries, including a season-high 70.

That's all for this time but I'll figure out what I'd like to show off next and try to get another post up soon. Until then, if anyone has any solutions for the reeling Tigers, please feel free to share them with the front office in Detroit!

2025 trade package #11: the Collector

The All-Star break has come and gone since I last posted so it's about time I got another one up. Today you're getting a quick recap of a couple PWEs sent to me by Chris, The Collector, back in May.

This was the second time he'd sent some cards my way this year and he's since done it once more. It sure is great to have him back and I continue to try to send supportive and healing thoughts to his family.

Here's what he sent this time, wrapped up in and protected by a printed out copy of this Defector article ("Never put poison in your mouth."):

These worked out nicely as they could be split into three sports each with eight cards. The baseball section was naturally all about the Tigers, who ended a season-long six-game losing streak last night and look to regain the momentum of their excellent start. The three guys right down the middle, all on '25 Topps parallels, oddly enough, are part of that outstanding squad, with Mize the best of the trio. The inserts you see are, from top to bottom, Rainbow Foil, Spring Training, and Diamante Foil.

There's also a nice pair of (a.k.a. too many!) Verlanders, one of which calls into question my scanning abilities. It looks like I'm just a couple away from 700. I wonder how long it'll take to get to 1K?

When it comes to basketball, Chris sent me quite the poker hand: four pairs. Bufkin, Poole, Robinson, and the younger Wagner bro Franz all had me seeing double. Poole is nearing the 50-card mark while Franz recently crossed it, building up a collection that continues to surprise me. I don't hate seeing the Hoops Winter cards right now while we're in my favorite season but I would probably be glaring at them if it was January.

Lastly, on the gridiron I was treated to another two pairs, but first we'll check out the other players represented. The Don races into the first spot with a cool Bowman Chrome U college action card. Defensive beast Rashan Gary and former UM coach Jim Harbaugh get paired up thanks to last year's Prizm. And like Edwards, upcoming second-year Bengal Kris Jenkins appears in the Maize & Blue on his '24 Score RC.

 As for the pairs, it's all about the defense. First is the versatile Jabrill Peppers, who had a trying year in '24 on an awful Pats team while also dealing with some pretty nasty charges, though he's since been acquitted of those. Hopefully he can stay out of trouble. In fact, he should try to be more like Charles Woodson and keep his nose clean off the field while being amazing on it. He should also put in more effort than Panini did, using identical photos cropped slightly differently on cards from 2021 and '24.

That concludes a recap of the only blogger trade cards I received in May, but don't worry, I've still got lots to show y'all.

Many thanks to Chris as always for thinking of me and putting together a couple very nice envelopes! Chris, I hope you continue to find some time and energy to collect and blog because you should be aware that many of us appreciate you.

I'll be back soon once I figure out what to show off next. Until then, go Tigers, and welcome back to MLB, Rich Hill! 

4/4/25 card show report: April foolin' around

Tonight I'm posting what I think is my last recap for April which is that month's show, just a day before I head over to Taylor tomorrow for July's trip (and possibly a meetup with John!). This will be a very short one because I only spent $55 that day, and out of what I bought, only five cards stayed with me.

Here's a quick look at what I brought home:

You can see the best stuff right off the bat in the form of the baseball content. My 19th relic of Greg Maddux is a plain white Braves jersey swatch from Upper Deck's 2003 Finite product, a one-and-done offering that's somewhat forgettable. But hey, it's a nice new Maddux for me, and I think it was in the $5-$10 neighborhood so I'm happy!

As for a more recent pitcher I was glad to score a card of, you can see my second autograph of young Tigers starter Casey Mize, out of 2022 Panini Mosaic. It joins a 2021 card from the same product, and this parallel of the autograph set is apparently referred to as "Choice Fusion" for some reason. I was content to continue adding some cheap Mize autos to my collection before the season started, and then all he's done is get off to a great 8-2 start for the AL-best Tigers, so that makes this one even more exciting.

Switching over to basketball, Michigan Wagner bro Franz becomes that sport's 40th different subject in my hits collection thanks to a Hoops sweater card from 2021-22. I know people find these to be pretty goofy and I do myself sometimes, but it was a fun add for maybe $2 while I work on upgrading what I have of him.

Last up is a cheap football pair. On the left is a Red parallel of RB Hassan Haskins' RC from 2022 Panini Rookies & Stars, and Buckeye faces are probably still that color picturing him pouring on five TDs against them in 2021. Joining him is a 2020 Panini Playbook RC of former Pats LB Josh Uche. New England flipped him to the Chiefs last October but he barely played with them, and then signed with KC's Super Bowl opponents in Philly after the season ended. Out of the 14 Uche RCs I'm tracking, I'm now past 50% with eight out of 14.

So, yeah, not much this time, but that's ok because it made for less work in this post! After tomorrow's trip I'll get y'all another show recap once I'm caught up on May and June. Looking at my scanned stuff I think that'll amount to a pair of blogger trades, two more shows, eBay pickups for the first half of the year, a few TCDb deals before I disabled transactions for quite a while, and another fun Dave & Buster's sports-related prize.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th as we get closer to the MLB All-Star break!

Recognizing Extreme Generosity: CardBoredom

I'm sure I've started many posts the same way as this one, but it's always worth mentioning how much this hobby attracts some very generous people who enjoy doing nice things for their fellow collectors. That's one of the biggest reasons I've collected as long as I have, especially thanks to following the example of some fellow bloggers whose examples I've followed over the years. How great it is to receive a surprise envelope containing not a trade, but a gift from someone who isn't expecting anything in return? Or to be the one doing the surprising, knowing you're about to make someone's day?

The reason for the sappy (but heartfelt!) intro tonight is such an unexpected gift that I received back in April thanks to David of CardBoredom. It was "unexpected" in the sense that the card he sent floored me, though I should explain that he first emailed me for my address hoping I'd accept what he sent without arguing about getting something for free. You'll notice I didn't use "trade package" in the title because this wasn't a trade, it was one blogger treating another to a very cool item (which I promise I'll get to soon). As a matter of fact, he and I have never traded before, which makes this experience even more generous on his part.

Not that I should be surprised, given what he says in a FAQ section found in his About page:

Yep, that sounds like a stand-up guy to me! Ok, I'm pretty much out of synonyms for "generosity" here, and I'll show off what he sent in just a second, but first, I want to highlight this:

I'm really not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the nicest things anyone in the hobby has ever done for me, and that's really saying something. Recognizing my blog, sending me something unprompted, and then not worrying whether or not I even keep it (oh, but I'll be keeping it).

By now you must have guessed that David sent me something pretty significant, and you'd be right:

"That sure looks like Al Kaline's 1955 Topps base," some of you are saying, because you're way more educated about vintage sets than I am. That is indeed Mr. Tiger's second ever Topps issue, and now the oldest in my collection of him by a mile (next best is 1958 Topps #304, the card he shared with Harvey Kuenn).

I don't think I can stress enough that this is a 1955 Topps base of a HOFer (and Tigers favorite) which also happens to be in very nice condition given it's 70 years old! Guys, this isn't some kid's card that took a few spins on his bike spokes, was pinned to his wall, or was written on. It's a well-loved gem I'd happily own with creases and tearing galore, but I don't have to slum it with something like that because my copy is a bit rounded with minor stains and creases.

Did the person who originally owned this card have any idea that its bonus baby subject, whose stats in his first full MLB campaign of 1954 were somewhat pedestrian, would go on to become a HOFer and franchise icon? Maybe they expected big things the following year when he won the AL batting title as a 20-year-old and lost a close race with Yogi Berra for the league's MVP.

I don't know, but I have the benefit of knowing the outcome to Al's career and his value to my favorite baseball team, playing all 22 years in Detroit, helping them to the '68 World Series, and being a key voice of experience for the franchise until his death five years ago. That alone would make this card a special addition to my collection, but it's even more gratifying to receive it as a gift from someone as generous (see?) as David.

Before I end this post I want to highlight the fact that David treated a few others I follow to some very nice freebies as well. If you missed them at all, please check out the related posts on:

• Baseball Cards Come to Life
• Cards Over Coffee
• Diamond Jesters

(And possibly others that I missed.)

As for me, please consider your mission accomplished, David. I'm humbled to have received a card I'll certainly treasure for a long, long time, from someone who doesn't want anything in return. That's not to say that I won't ever try to hit you back, but for now I'll at least try to pay it forward to someone else who'll hopefully experience the same joy I did thanks to you!