3/7/26 card show report: NIRvana

Happy April, friends! Baseball's back, even if warmer temps aren't (at least consistently), and Michigan Basketball is in the NCAA tournament final for the eighth time, six of which have been during my lifetime. It's also Easter, and I hope some of you enjoyed some related treats!

I made it out to my monthly show a couple days ago, but before I cover that we're going to have to go back to early March since I still have some catching up to do.

I actually went on a Saturday for the first time in a while for a couple reasons, but it worked out nicely. Because my usual seller hasn't had much time to add newer stuff, I didn't spend much on items from the boxes I usually buy from. I think it came out to $20 or so worth of dimes, $1s, $2s, and $5s. However, besides grabbing a couple more $5 cards from his showcases, I had a blast looking through one or two of his unsorted/unpriced boxes, as I do from time to time. He takes a bit of time to figure out his asking price, and it's always been very fair as far as what I'm willing to pay, so we both end up happy.

In this case I grabbed a handful of pretty nice stuff, most of which you'll see in this post, and much of which falls under the category of the greatest thing in sports cards: 90s inserts (which, of course, rule). Hence, the title of tonight's post: #NinetiesInsertsRule!

For that stack he wanted just $40, which I was more than willing to throw down, especially considering how much other sellers seem to love to jack up the price of increasingly scarce '90s cards, if not everything. That put me at a solid $70 total with lots to enjoy.

Here are my keepers:

The cheapest cards in scan #1 were the '25 A&G base of Tigers HOFers Cobb and Kell, both of which I believe were in the dime boxes. That's pretty cool since Kell's actually an SP! I can't remember if the Ginter insert of Gibby was in the $1 boxes or the misc. ones, but either way I love seeing a World Series celebration card of my favorite postseason homer celebration of Kirk's; We had him first, Dodgers! And Liranzo's Topps Pro Debut base is my first card of the top-100 catching prospect.

Besides those, let's celebrate some 90s inserts! #1 is a Tony Gwynn 1998 Leaf Fractal Matrix parallel, a set limited to 1600 copies which I think was the inspiration for Leaf's crazy Fractal Materials product. Mr. Padre also appears on one of this post's top cards: a 2000 Paramount Fielder's Choice insert. These die-cut chase cards done up in the style of a glove illustrate the greatness of Pacific, and I love grabbing these when I can.

Going back to "matrix" for a minute, we have HOF Wolverines SS Barry Larkin flying high on 1997 Stadium Club parallel called "TSC Matrix," so named for it's crazy cool background. Then we're back to another of my absolute favorite inserts (and brands): 1996 Studio's Masterstrokes, in this case featuring HOF P Greg Maddux. Like Pacific, Donruss/Leaf cranked out some beauties, like the artistic chase card above, numbered /5000 on the back. And lastly in this scan, the newest Dean Palmer to join my collection is a 2000 Stadium Club Chrome Refractor. SCC was even cooler back then than it is now, and the Refractors still look amazing today. (Also, 2000 is an honorary member of the #90sinsertsrule club.) I'm nearing 500 cards of Palmer, which is crazy to me.

I've got one more baseball scan with some heavy hitters before we get to lower-end stuff from other sports. No Griffey this time, but Gwynn and Maddux were joined by Ripken thanks to my 21st card of the 2007 Ultra Iron Man insert. This one celebrates his first AL MVP in 1983. Next to him is a cheapie 2020 Absolute Spectrum Blue parallel of future HOFer Max Scherzer that I thought looked very cool.

We'll get to the biggest card in this group momentarily, but first I'll cover the horizontal cards. All four of these guys actually appeared in the first scan. Gwynn's third pickup is a '98 Leaf Statistical Standouts insert, a chase set with a bit of a matte texture that was numbered /2500 on the back (and the first 250 were die-cut). Larkin #2 is a shiny 1995 Score Summit Nth Degree parallel with cool rainbow foil line/dot patterns on it. Maddux's second is a Chrome parallel inserted into 1999 Stadium Club, a year before it became its own product, as seen on the Palmer above. And another of my fun gets from the random box was a manurelic of Cobb from 2015 Topps. These "medallions" celebrate each subject's first HR, and for the Georgia Peach that was September 23, 1905, the lone run in a loss at Washington.

And now we have my co-favorite card of the show (that Fielder's Choice Gwynn, tho!) in my newest Gibby relic. Also part of the $40 assortment of cards, this is a 2005 Donruss Prime Patches Portraits Quad Swatch that comes with two jersey swatches plus pieces of a bat and hat. It's numbered /150 on the back and offers a design typical of Donruss/Leaf/Playoff back in the day, one I still miss. The presentation here is great, with an 80s photo of Kirk atop the four relic pieces, which are arranged nicely (even if they aren't terribly large). I now count 13 Gibby hits in my collection, including four autographs to go with this, my ninth relic.

And we'll close things out with some Wolverines. As I mentioned, men's basketball will be playing for a second title tomorrow night, plus the women's team also made it to the Elite 8 over the course of a fantastic season of their own. (AND Michigan Hockey's in the Frozen Four this weekend, but I've got no hockey cards to talk about this time.)

Basketball is represented by some colorful parallels of Trey Burke along with Pistons teammates Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson. Detroit's show quite the improvement this year to rocket to the top of the Eastern Conference, and maybe they can throw it back to the late 80s (and the Bad Boys teams) like Michigan's doing. Meanwhile, I scored some cool football inserts as well, starting with a die-cut Prizm of David Ojabo (now of the Dolphins). DPJ and Nico Collins are WRs depicted in chase cards from Mozaic and Prizm, which are so similar I often don't notice a difference. And last up is LB Josh Uche on a blue(!) Donruss Optic parallel, another brand that falls into the Panini version of Chrome cards. As it turns out, Uche just signed with Miami as well so he'll be joining Ojabo as a Dolphin.

This was obviously a fantastic show and I'm excited to add even more cool 90s chase cards to my collection. I know I can count on comments from at least a couple of my regular readers who'll appreciate some of these!

Next time I think I'll be doing a recap of a few eBay purchases I made in the first quarter of 2026, then it should be Facebook Marketplace purchase #1 followed by this month's show. Go Tigers, go Blue, and go spring!

2026 trade package #7: the Collector

This is not a drill: we have real actual regular season baseball coming up this week! My Tigers open up the '26 season on Thursday afternoon in San Diego (what's up, Fuji?) in a sign that we're almost over the utter bullshit that is winter.

So what better time to show off a diamond-heavy trade package from Sox fan Chris of the Collector? This is an envelope he sent me earlier this month after he finally got some new Tigers in over the holidays, according to his note.

Here's what he sent:

A few products dominated this envelope, starting with '25 Topps Holiday. In this scan alone you see three of the four cards Chris sent from that product, including slugger Kerry Carpenter, injured pitcher Jackson Jobe, and his fellow "JJ"in IF Jace Jung. Each of the latter two make multiple appearances too. Jobe can be seen on a '25 Topps Archives insert that reuses the 1987 Topps Boardwalk and Baseball design (hey, I remember those!) as well as a Chrome parallel from the same year's Heritage. Jung's other appearance is another '25 Heritage insert, this one called "1976 Redefined" that offers another take on the look of the now 50 year old set.

The bottom row starts with a '25 Update Diamante Foil of pitcher Chase Lee, which serves as a great reminder of how quickly transactions can happen (and how slowly cards are made)--the '25 rookie was flipped to Toronto in December. Speaker of pitchers that debuted for Detroit last season, that's Tyler Owens' '25 Update RC, and he's still with the team after re-signing (minors deal) last year. And then we have the best of the best Tigers pitchers in Tarik Skubal. His first of two issues today is done up in the style of a 1990 Topps base, and the two-time defending AL Cy Young winner wasn't even born until six years later! He also leads off the next scan with the final example of '25 Topps Holiday.

One of the more interesting cards of this mailing is that of IF Trey Sweeney. This is my first example of the '25 Topps Flagship Collection insert, one that apparently could be found in packs included only in Costco's Super Boxes. I find that design more appealing than the base set's for some reason.

Our last baseball item here stars--who else?--Justin Verlander, who thrilled many a Tigers fan upon returning to Detroit for 2026. I think he may even be lined up to start the team's home opener, though I could be wrong. Either way, you can see him above on a '25 Heritage Chrome Refractor that represents card #717 in my collection of this blog's namesake. I'm glad he's no longer with the pictured Giants and back where he belongs, with an outside shot to hit 300 wins if he sticks around beyond this season.

Just one football cards came along for the ride but it was much appreciated: a 2025 Panini Phoenix RC of Dolphins DL Kenneth Grant. It's my seventh total card of the national champ and fourth first-year.

Next, the Wings have scuffled a bit lately due to dropping some tough games and suffering injuries, but they're currently still clinging to a wild card spot. One guy who was no stranger to the playoffs during his time in Hockeytown is HOFer Pavel Datsyuk, who played postseason hockey in all 14 of his NHL seasons, winning two Cups (2001-02 and 2007-08). His 2013-14 Score card above was made when he was winding down his outstanding career.

Last up tonight is a pair of hockey Wolverines, whom I'm posting the day Michigan was officially named the #1 overall seed of the NCAA hockey tournament. Will this be the year they go all the way for the first time since the late 90s? Tonight they're represented by a couple former players, the first of whom is John Beecher (2019-20 to 2021-22). The C is pictured (2025-26 Upper Deck) with Boston, his drafting team, but he was grabbed off waivers by Calgary last November. He's joined by fellow C Luke Glendening, a former Wolverwing from 2013-14 to 2020-21. The four year Wolverine (2008-09 to 2011-12) has since bounced to Dallas, Tampa, New Jersey, and Philly, but was with Detroit when the above 2017-18 Upper Deck base card was released.

Chris, thanks very much for this great package that has me fired up for baseball season to start (not to mention the NCAA hockey tourney)! I'll see if I can't find a few new cards to fit in the increasingly small spaces of your collection, and in the meantime I look forward to new posts in your latest feature covering the top 10 at every position in each sport. Keep up the great work!

As for me, my expected upcoming posts include the March show, a Facebook Marketplace purchase, and some eBay pickups, if one of them ever arrives.

2026 TCDb trades: pair of PIFs

It's been a pretty nice Saturday for Wolverines fans: the basketball team held off Wisconsin to advance to the conference tournament final (after cruising to a regular season title), the hockey team handled Penn State and will also be heading to the final round of their conference tourney, and the women's basketball team was announced as a top-16 seed and spot as a host next weekend. GO BLUE!

So to celebrate, tonight I'm going to show off a trio of cards of my fellow UM alumni that I received in two PIFs (pay-it-forwards) from TCDb members last month.

First up is a '22 Topps Padres team set card of Jake Cronenworth, who's pretty much the most prominent Michigan guy in MLB right now, especially with Rich Hill retiring. There are two ways to tell that this is actually a team set card: it's numbered "SD-3" on the back, plus it's missing the "Future Stars" logo on the front of the flagship card. These can be tough for me to track down since they're often sold regionally, so I'm glad to check it off Jake's list. It's my 149th of Cronenworth and was sent to my by longtime site friend Jason, a.k.a. jasongerman9, whom I mention here often. I hope his Lake Michigan College team has a great season!

The other two cards were a bit of a mystery to me when they arrived, one at a time, from two different eBay sellers. I know Ann B. Davis well enough that I'm aware that the actress who played Alice on "The Brady Bunch" also attended UM--I just didn't know who'd sent these to me. Eventually I figured out it was Chuck, a.k.a. C2Cigars, after he commented one one of my TCDb lists I use to show off a card of each Michigan alum I collect. In retrospect I shouldn't have been surprised because he's messaged me a few times asking if I collect certain subjects as he's aware of one of my favorite PCs.

The late Davis was born in New York and went to high school in Erie, PA, before heading to Ann Arbor, where she became another famous alum to go into acting. Of course she's mainly known for her role as Alice in multiple "Brady Bunch" shows and movies, but she made way more appearances than that in front of the camera. Also, I see her 100th birthday is coming up in less than two months.

Chuck was generous enough to send me two cards of Davis. The first is from the 250-card 1991 Starline Hollywood Walk of Fame set, one that's chock full of stars of the stage and screen on a relatively simple but nice design. The back is done up well with career highlights and a trivia game. The other was made in 1998 by Inkworks, a brand known for producing lots of pop culture sets, and this product was called TV's Coolest Classics. The 90-card set has a retro theme and appears to focus on "The Brady Bunch," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Get Smart!," and "Hogan's Heroes." I count nine card appearances for Davis in the base set.

Many thanks to both Jason and Chuck for these additions to my collections! I always appreciate people who contribute to my collections, but it means even more to me when they put in the effort to bulk up my Michigan PCs, whether it's one of the many athletes or even a non-sports Wolverine.

I'll try to be back soon with the one trade package I received in March and then catch up on other additions.

2/6/26 card show report: February fun

I did end up going to my monthly show yesterday (as opposed to Friday) which was kind of a nice change of pace. You'll get to hear all about that eventually, but before then I'll be giving you a look at what I brought home earlier in February.

My total spending on that Friday was $98, split almost down the middle between my usual seller ($50) and one I've checked out a few times lately for some more oddball stuff ($48), especially the 6/$5 tubs.

Speaking of the latter, I picked up a lot of 14 of the 1967 Topps Posters for $23:

This isn't all of them as I set a few aside for other collectors, but I do have these available for trade. If it isn't obvious, there are dupes of Campaneris and Wagner. If you'd like to claim these, please do so and we'll work out a trade!

Next up is the baseball bunch from the usual guy. I believe the Briceno came from his box of cards that are $1 each or 6 for $5, and though it's not a RC, I thought it might be a good time to pick up something of one of Detroit's better catching prospects. The Bunnings all came from the dime box, and I didn't mind that all four picture him with the Phillies instead of the Tigers. There's three great brands plus Gypsy Queen in the quartet. Speaking of HOF pitchers, the Red Prizm of Maddux is a bit of a color match for his Braves.

And then there's the biggest card I scored for myself this time: a Jack Morris auto from 2004 Upper Deck Etchings. Numbered to 375 up front, it's obviously a sticker-graph, but a cool one in my opinion since it's not the boring old clear sticker that often gets signed. The card itself looks great too, not that I'm surprised given UD's output of classic looking vintage-themed products during that decade. I'm also happy to keep up a streak of autos of Morris with the Tigers instead of his other well-known teams (Minnesota and Toronto), with that count now at five. This was a great way to round out my purchase at that seller's tables for a reasonable $10.

Before we go back to my loot from that seller in football form I'm going to show you my other keepers from the second seller. Once again I scored some of the previously mentioned 6/$5 bin items, and you'll get to see one in a minute, but in addition to that and the Topps Posters above, I grabbed these:

For a combined $20 I scored a trio of 7-11 Slurpee coin sets. These lenticular "coins" are among my favorite oddball collectibles and I couldn't pass them up! Also, I know I'll definitely be getting a comment from Fuji on this post!

Scan #1 shows off the complete 1984 Central Region set. Per TCDb, these have an "E" suffix for the card numbers (which are Roman numerals) as opposed to "H" for the East and "K" for the South. There are 24 total and you see each of those above, with plenty of stars mixed in with other favorites. Lou Whitaker and Ted Simmons are my PC guys here but I'm happy to have the whole set!

The second scan starts with 15 of the 16 coins from the 1986 set (also the Central Region, which you can tell since the fronts have blue borders and the backs are yellow). I didn't realize until I got home that while what I bought came with 16 coins, one of them was a dupe and I was missing probably the best one: Steve Carlton/Nolan Ryan/Tom Seaver. No biggie, I may be able to score that on eBay soon. Anyway, this set is even more reminiscent of the very similar Sportflics cards as it opts for trios (except for the Dwight Gooden that leads the set). Those obviously work well on this style of card and I like how they look. PC guys for me include Cal Ripken Jr. (on an MVPs coin with Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly), Jack Morris ("Ace Pitchers" with Bert Blyleven and Rick Sutcliffe), Lance Parrish ("All-Star Catchers" with Carlton Fisk and Tony Pena), Chet Lemon ("Star Outfielders" with Brett Butler and Willie Wilson), Darrell Evans ("Home Run Hitters" with Tom Brunansky and Cecil Cooper), and Kirk Gibson ("Big Hitters" with Paul Molitor and Greg Walker).

The last set here is the Detroit Region version made in 1987. From what I can see, Detroit is the only area that had its own team represented by itself. Chicago got a 16-coin Cubs/Sox split, the East got Mets/Red Sox/Yankees, Mideast got Orioles/Red Sox/Cubs/Mets, and West got Angels/Dodgers. This set was made close enough to the '84 World Series team that the biggest stars are still present, and there are only two players (Darnell Coles and Dwight Lowry) that I don't collect. Gibby, Tram, Sweet Lou, and others are all there, plus relative newcomer Frank Tanana, in the 12-coin set. Cool!

Before getting to the final item from this seller I thought I'd grab an image of an example back of each coin.

Besides those, like I said, I kept one of the 6/$5 items for myself. That was the complete 12-card set of 2015 Topps Update's Pride and Perseverance. Thought it wasn't in the greatest of shape since its team bag got bounced around in the tub plenty, I thought it was worth it for less than a buck. While the design is typically fairly boring in the usual Topps way, the idea was a great one: examples of players who overcame adversity. It's inspiring to read about how these guys defeated obstacles that could have prevented them from playing. Former Detroit Tiger Curtis Pride and Jim Abbott feature in this set, and I'm glad to have it in my collection.

And now we'll close things out with some football, mostly from I believe the dime and quarter boxes. Score-A-Treat and Donruss feature heavily, but I did manage to find a colorful Absolute parallel of Corum, a Mosaic of Moody, and Topps Resurgence base of Woodson as well.

This could have been a decent trip if I'd stuck to my usual guy's tables, but the 7-11 coins definitely upped the experience to an excellent one. And I'm glad to say I had an enjoyable time yesterday as well, but like I said, you'll have to wait a bit for that. I still need to show off a couple TCDb PIFs, a pair of eBay purchases (with one on the way), and at least one March trade envelope. Until then, may the weather continue going in the right direction as we get deeper into spring training!

2026 trade package #6: Johnny's Trading Spot

I skipped going to my monthly show today in favor of going tomorrow, mostly out of laziness, but the weather's not exactly cooperating either (lots of fog and rain). Instead, I'll put that time towards showing off my final February trade package.

As it happens, that came to me courtesy of John of Johnny's Trading Spot. This was the first time we swapped cards, and that started when I threw some John Elways into a package Angus brought across the border for me to send John's way to make shipping easier. John was nice enough to return the favor with a package that looks pretty similar to others I've seen across some blogs (in a good way!), but with a distinctly Detroit flavor.

I'm starting off with these 1990 Panini Stickers since they're the oldest items from the mailer, and also because everything else comes from one manufacturer, making for a very nice sampler. I can still remember ripping packs of these stickers as a kid and filling up my album, hoping for the Tigers and nicer items, such as that foil helmet card. Henneman and Lemon are also PC guys and are most definitely welcome here.

Everything else you'll see here is a Fleer brand, largely from the 90s but with some aughts thrown in as well. This group represents all of the Ultra cards he sent my way. Fleer's first "premium" brand debuted in 1991 but started using its more typical full-bleed photo/foil combo the following year. The product's run from 1997-2001 has some of my favorite design elements I associate with the set, especially the neon lettering look.

This group includes single cards from 1995 (Fryman) and '96 (Williams), four from 2000, and a trio from 2006. Fryman, Palmer, Bondo, and BInge are all PC guys, plus like I said, I really favor a certain era of these, so those 2000s look amazing to me. 

A 90s Fleer product that was even higher-end than Ultra was Flair. These cards were released on thicker stock with even more gold foil elements, and they retained the full-bleed photo greatness of other products like Topps's Stadium Club.

The set made its debut in 1993 and is represented here by the complete first scan plus first two cards of the second image. It's awesome for me to see PC favorites like Fielder, Fryman, Gibby, Henneman, Phillips, Froot Loops, and Sweet Lou. Still, for as bad as that decade's teams were, I've deployed the "1990s Tickers SUCKED" tag tonight.

The remaining seven cards from the second scan represent the '94 set, one that was fairly similar in design to the previous year's, including dual front images, while adding lots more gold foil in the form of the larger player name plus team. Gibby and Phillips are the highlights of these for me, as is one of the inserts added in '94: Hot Gloves.

Up next is a quartet from 1995's E-Motion, a product under the SkyBox name. These are very 90s Fleer-coded with an experimental design that's kind of busy, one that's most noteworthy for the "emotion" on each card. I don't think anyone's ever associated the word "delighted" with the ultra-competitive Gibson, but I'm still happy to see guys like him and Whitaker in this set. It may be weird, but it's of its time.

Keeping that word "experimental" in mind, another fun 90s Fleer offering was Metal Universe. This fusion of metallic elements and comic books debuted in 1996, and the first five cards you see here were found in that set. There's a big emphasis on crazy foil backgrounds that highlight the crazy imagery. Fryman represents my PC guys from the '96 set while Tony Clark (who recently resigned as MLBPA chief) and malcontent Bobby Higginson's cards were inserted into the '98 version.

I kind of mashed up a bunch of products in these two images, and we'll start with 2000 Skybox Dominion. Those feel like fairly textbook examples of a a Skybox product from around then, and I recall busting a decent amount of packs of those chasing some fun inserts. E-X always looked great, including the 2000 product represented here by another malcontent, Juan Gonzalez. And Encarnacion's a huge creep who's a great candidate for Chris's "Bad Guys in Sports Tier List" post, but Gamers was a fun rip back in 2000 thanks to the chase for relics.

Leading off the second scan, I suppose I could have included Weaver's beautiful 2001 Flair Showcase card with the earlier Flair items, but I think Showcase was in a league of its own and really showed how nice cards could look. Then, a couple years after Fleer released a pretty nice product called "Focus," they put out a "Jersey Edition" of the same name, chasing the hot trend of relics. Dean-O highlights the group for me, and well-known collector Dmitri Young is also among the group. Lastly, a lone example of 2004's Sweet Sigs stars Pudge, a Tiger for parts of five seasons who made his debut with the team that same year and helped bring the franchise back to the playoffs on 2006. The base set looks great and the relic and autograph cards are top-notch as well.

And now we've come to the final pair of images, ones that feature some of Fleer's best efforts over its storied but relatively brief existence. The manufacturer did a fantastic job of highlighting some of the game's HOFs, legends, and fan favorites in a number of products, but I think the product most synonymous with the idea is Greats of the Game. These always had beautiful, artistic designs with classic photos, and like Topps's Fan Favorites, they didn't limit admission to HOFers, which I've always appreciated.

A few Greats products are represented in these two scans. The recently deceased Lolich plus Jack Morris, a couple World Series heroes, start us off with the debut 2000 set, one I love for its amazing aesthetics. HOFers Cobb and Kell show off the 2002 design, one with an even simpler retro look that suits the photography well. Cochrane (listed as a Tiger!) is our third Mickey of this post, and he joins Mr. Tiger from Flair Greats, released in 2003 as a great fusion between the two brands. And lastly, Cochrane makes a repeat (including photo) appearance in the 2004 Greats set along with the previously seen Morris, plus Wolverines/Tigers Freehan and Gehringer, as the product went back to a very cool framed look. What a great collection of, well, greats, on great designs!

John, thanks for sending these to complete our first trade, I really appreciate it! I'm sure anyone reading here knows your blog well so I'll just mention that they should also find you over on TCDb. Good luck to your Braves this year and also to you making some headway on your wants of your favorite team!

Tomorrow I plan on heading to my usual show and then I'll probably put in some work readying my next post which should cover last month's show.

2026 trade package #5: Batting Out of Order

Many of you may have heard the phrase "many happy returns" before. It's usually said in the context of celebrating something like a birthday or anniversary. But in this case I'm using it literally to express my happiness that Tom, who formerly blogged as "The Angels, in Order" is back at it with his new blog, "Batting Out of Order." I love the blogosphere and the people that make it fun, and Tom is most definitely one of the collectors I've enjoyed following over the years. So here's to your return, Angels/Patriots guy!

As for how that relates to tonight's post, well, I actually received cards from Tom in February thanks to posts he'd put up. This ended up being two PWEs but I felt like just combining them into one trade recap. You guys still get to see how generous he is and what he was nice enough to send my way, both earlier in the month and on the final day of February:

The football cards were actually the ones that inspired these PWEs but I'll start with baseball first as usual. Card #1 is Riley Greene's base from '24 Heritage, and he looks great on the classic '75 Topps design. The second is a great example of the tomfoolery you'd find in Upper Deck Fun Pack: a '93 All-Star Scratch-Off card that folds out to let kids play out an All-Star matchup. Gwynn and Puckett make for a terrific pair! After that, we return to Heritage with Brandon Inge's 2009 base card, which increases my count of the versatile Tiger to 81. And last up is a card that initially looked to be a double, but I should have known better since Tom and I are friends on TCDb. While the front appears to be a '99 Topps base card that includes Mike Piazza and Jason Kendall along with Pudge, it's actually a 2011 Topps 60 Years of Topps insert. Nice!

As for football, I asked for each of these cards in the comments of Tom's posts and he was nice enough to send them right away, which he definitely didn't need to do! I appreciate that he did, though, while also including the cool baseball stuff above.

The most recent two were the result of him breaking a fat pack of 2025 Absolute Retail Football. I noticed that he'd pulled two of my Michigan guys: Dolphins rookie DL Kenneth Grant and Vikings QB JJ McCarthy. You can tell these are retail because Grant's card doesn't include a serial number and JJ's doesn't have a holofoil front. I'm pointing that out here because lots of people mislabel these on TCDb and I have to get the incorrect images removed. Anyway, retail or hobby, I collect 'em all, and I was happy to get this pair from Tom, with Grant's card arriving as my third RC of the big man.

And then we have the card he sent me earlier in the month. Tom found some cheap Uno Elite Core Edition football cards at Target and was willing to send me the blue version of kicker Jake Moody that he pulled. Jake's the only Wolverine I've seen pulled so far but Charbonnet and Hutchinson are out there as well. Maybe I'll find them in a quarter (or cheaper) box at a show while I also see if I can help Tom fill out his Patriots team set in the various colors.

Tom, thanks once again for the PWE times two! I'm also always happy when you have something I can use (and vice versa) and thank YOU for always being cool too! I really appreciate you going the extra mile to send these out after I asked about them even though you didn't have to. Hopefully I'll find some stuff at the next show to return the favor. Until then, I'll be continuing to enjoy your new blog. Welcome back!

2026 trade package #4: My Sports Obsession

There's not much left of this short month so I better get gettin' and start covering cards I received/bought in February!

Trade package #1 for this month was a nice little box courtesy of longtime buddy of the blog Jeff of My Sports Obsession. Jeff absolutely packed a 200-count box with some outstanding cardboard goodies:

Appropriately enough we'll start with baseball now that spring training is in full swing, and not a moment too soon. Happily, a few Tigers old and new lead things off. Baez looks great on designs from Stadium Club and Gold Label, and it's always great to see future HOFer Miggy. Big Daddy's card is another fine example of Stadium Club's top-notch designs paired up with some older photos. And Riley is indeed one of Detroit's Finest.

As for some non-Tigers, Griffey's '24 Archives card looks nice, Mr. Padre is a throwback to 1985, and it's really nice to see a newer Tommy Henry card. The pride of Portage Northern High School is still with the Diamondbacks and that Blue (what else?) Sparkle Chrome Refractor from '24 Heritage makes a nice addition to his PC.

Speaking of former UM pitchers in Refractor form, how about ex-Pirate (among 14 clubs) Rich Hill, who seems ready to call it a career? We had Mr. Padre, and now it's Mr. Tiger on an '85 Topps throwback, plus the always shiny Topps Chrome Platinum. His fellow HOFer Maddux shows up on two different Donruss Optic cards, and then it's back to Topps Chrome Platinum for another HOFer in Jack Morris. And then we have a pair of '21 Topps parallels of Paredes, the prospect Detroit foolishly traded away for about 40 worthless games from Austin Meadows.

And then what do we have here? Could it be...TOO MANY VERLANDERS! This package was very, very low on dupes, and that goes for this whole scan. Impressively, he managed to capture all four of JV's franchises here, including his stints with the Mets and Giants. It sure is awesome to have him back in Detroit!

That '98 Crown Royale of Maddux is also new to me and makes me long for the fun of the '90s when Pacific was riding high.

Jeff also threw in these Tigers cards that are Christian-themed on the back. Because that's not really my thing and Matt Boyd pops up twice, I'm choosing to thank Jeff for his generosity and then pass them on to John, who I'm sure will love them.

When it comes to college basketball, Michigan's men's team is no longer #1 but it still looks like a threat to make a deep run in March. LeVert and Wagner are examples of past stars, appropriately surrounded by blue on their cards. Meanwhile, Jeff sent me some dupes from the ONIT cards he's been getting, giving me my first cards of junior F Harrison Hochberg, plus star sophomore G Syla Swords and sophomore G/F Te'Yala Delfosse. The latter pair is a good reminder that the women's team has been cooking at times this year too, with an excellent 22-5 record, as they look to make a deeper March run themselves.

Football season may be over but that doesn't mean college collectors like Jeff and me stop thinking about it! This scan starts strong at the RB position with a couple playoff guys in Charbonnet and Corum, with the former winning a ring, though having to miss the Super Bowl. Buckeye-killer Hassan Haskins also makes an appearance. Then we have my first non-NIL-issued cards of DB Jyaire "Sugar" Hill and EDGE Derrick Moore. Hill won it all with the '23 title team in his freshman season and will be back to hopefully lead the defense. Moore was a sophomore in '23 and his TFL and sack numbers increased nicely into his senior season last year, which could lead to a decent draft ranking. Going back to the '25 Score RC of the talented Will Johnson, you all know I love that brand and its college first-years. This scan concludes with one more RB in Thomas Rawls, out of 2016 Prizm.

The basketball items weren't the only ONIT cards in this package by far, and I'm very happy that Jeff included an even larger pile of the gridiron guys than he did last time. There were a few repeats but almost everything was new, with a bunch of these guys due to be back in '26.

Thanks to Jeff I now own 19 of the 79 cards, which feels great since I haven't paid for a single one. I do hope to find more and see if I can help him with his own set chase, though.

Oh, and there's one last card for me to enjoy, the biggest one of the package. It's a callback to the now-shuttered sister blog here as I continue my quest for TOO MANY MANNINGHAMS! I don't know if Super Mario keeps signing stickers for Panini or if they're sitting on a stockpile of them, but either way I'm happy if it means more autographs like this one from 2024 Panini Prizm Deca.

The Super Bowl-winning WR is seen here on the 34th card I own with his signature, out of 102 hits overall (a distant second behind Chad Henne's 146). If you're wondering if the card actually looks that black, well, it doesn't--that's just how the reflective silver Prizm cards tend to scan. As always, this one looks better in person. And it'll look even better in my collection with the 100+ other hits of the pass-catcher who was as smooth as his middle name: Cashmere.

Jeff, thanks so much for this box of greatness (as always), and I look forward to getting you back whenever I have enough to send something you way. I also hope we get a chance to meet up at at least one show this year, but rest assured I'll be treating you to some new stuff either way.

Back "soon" with another trade recap!