2024 TCDb trade roundup part 1: the goods

It's about time I get an actual card post up this month so I'm able to put more stuff away.

My TCDb transactions stats tell me I completed 41 deals last year (not including PIFs), which is my second best so far (76 in 2022) and a couple better than '23. Tonight I'm highlighting a few of those for various reasons--favorite members, interesting cards, or whatever else. I'll have a part 2 up soon that covers "the rest" with probably very little commentary.

So without further ado, here's some cool cardboard I made deals for in '24:

BaltOrioles:

This is mostly here because of the Sparky relic--my second of old George--but the minors cards of some of my more obscure Michigan Baseball PCs and the oddballs are quite cool too!

cynicalbuddha:

I worked out a deal with Mark of Collector's Crack late in the year because we had a lot of matches including some items I could use for Christmas packages, plus he's always been a good dude. Since some of it indeed made it into holiday envelopes, this isn't nearly everything I got from him, to give you a good idea of how fun this deal was. The auto of the late Mallett is my fifth while I accidentally grabbed the rookie auto of DT Mike Martin because I apparently hadn't logged it on the site. Oh well, more trade bait! Thank you to Mark for an awesome deal.

firesnbeers (trade):

Brian's one of my closest friends on the site so the stuff I got from him would have been here regardless, but this was a super fun swap. The Action Packed cards aren't the standard ones you usually see as they have a little (I'm assuming fake) diamond in them. He found a couple partial sets of those at an antique store-type place, I believe. I also loved getting all of the former Wolverines/Brewers from the beer set, and there's lots more to love here too.

firesnbeers (PIF, 1/24):

Yeah, no big deal at all, just a trio of VINTAGE KALINES! The '58 he shares with slugger Harvey Kuenn and the '59 solo card are now the oldest cards of Mr. Tiger in my collection, and the '64 League Leaders card that includes Yaz was a great treat as well. You'll see more of ex-Wolverine Paciorek in a bit but he's one of a number of Brewers and Packers police cards I've acquired thanks to Brian.

firesnbeers (PIF, 11/24):

I think I may have asked him for the Miggy you see here but the other two were HUGE surprises. The Maddux jersey looks terrific, and boy is that Daz Cameron jersey number piece sweet! WOW!

firesnbeers (PIF, 12/24):

I knew these other Pacioreks were coming at some point but had no idea the rest would be included in this Christmas gift! We already had Mr. Tiger, so why not Mr. Padre on a nice relic? And speak of the devil, there's a beautiful Kaline relic (piece of pants) from one of Upper Deck's superlative Baseball Heroes sets. Last up in this very generous mailing to close out a year in generosity is a Topps Archives Purple auto of Alan Trammell, numbered to 150 on the back. Whoa! Tram has a gorgeous signature and fits in well on a design used during his playing career: 1993 Topps.

Thanks so much, Brian!

HamPstr88:

Speaking of Brian, I was glad to be introduced to one of his friends and fellow Wisconsinites on the site, Jeff. Though I handsomely rewarded him later, Jeff sent me the items above in a deal that was heavily in my favor. It starts with a '71 Topps RC of HOF Michigan alum Ted Simmons, a huge get for me. The 2020 Heritage Buyback of another Michigan Ted, Sizemore, also from the '71 Topps set, is next. And how about just my second Simba auto from '22 Heritage's Real Ones Autographs set? Oh, and the jumbo of Riley Greene ('23 Update Oversized Combo Box Topper) was a pretty slick throw-in.

This kind of deal only assures that I'll continue trading with Jeff in the future!

jasongerman9:

Jason, a fellow Michigander and another of my best buddies on the site, is no stranger to these posts as we've dealt a few times, often in blind trade form, though I think in this case I mostly picked out stuff I wanted. He was nice enough to grab the top three cards for me on COMC to finish up the 2008 Topps and '21 Topps Series 1 near sets I grabbed at a garage sale last summer. I think he may have had the rest of these in his port as well and shipped back to himself. Among the great stuff you see is a minors card of former Michigan icer Milan Gajic, a guy I enjoyed watching play in Ann Arbor. The Burnaby, BC native's four years with the Wolverines matched mine and I liked seeing his skills on display, which led to the saying "Gajic is Magic."

Thanks, Jason!

Mjprigge:

It definitely feels like there's a Wisconsin bias to this post but that's unintentional. Matt's always been a fun Twitter follow and my trades with him have always gone well. This time I got more help with my '95 Finest set (22 more to go!), a cool trio of Tigers, and a full set of the cards that were a bonus addition to his book Opening Day in Milwaukee. It's very cool to know collectors that have produced content like this, and I'll be reading that at some point.

Puckfiend (Secret Santa):

I once again participated in TCDb's Secret Santa event late last year (run by Dan/vrooomed, mentioned below) and the person who drew my name was an LA Kings fan named Paul. He did a nice job by sending me a card of a player I collect, a 2024 Topps Pristine Green Refractor of Ripken, then made things more interesting by including David Wells' book and the note you see above. I'll be reading it at some point and then passing it along as requested (though I'm not sure that I'll do the picture thing).

Rayeveryplayerand76e:

Ray in Philadelphia was super easy to work with as we had no problems making a one-for-one basketball auto swap. My prize was my first hit, an autograph, of former Wolverine Tariq Abdul-Wahad. The French SG was born Olivier Sant-Jean and played college ball for Michigan in 1993-94 and 94-95, then transferred to San Jose State for his final two seasons. He was the 11th overall pick by Sacramento in 1997 and played parts of six seasons with the Kings, Magic, Nuggets, and Mavs. Fleer included him in their cross-brand Autographics signed insert in 1998-99 and now I can add another name to my list of Wolverines for whom I own a certified auto!

tucha:

Way before Canada Post went on strike I made a fun PWE trade with Al in Langley, BC. To absolutely nobody's surprise, my return included OPC and hockey! The Bird and Simba cards are great and I love the look of both of the Larkins, but I really appreciated getting the buyback of Michigan icer Jeff Norton limited to "just" 25 copies. It probably doesn't seem like a big thing but I made sure to thank him for including it without asking a lot.

vrooomed (PIF):

Five-time member-of-the-year (including 2024!) Dan is another TCDber I count as a close friend on the site which is why you see his name along with Brian's and Jason's here a lot. When he's not efficiently running something like a fantasy league, giveaway, or Secret Santa, or working on inaccuracy reports to correct things on the site, he sometimes finds time to trade as well. We've sent lots back and forth, and this time he mailed me a few things I asked him about (most of the stuff in the first scan) plus a couple nice stacks of cards from 1987 Hygrade. Thanks to what he sent I now own 51 of the 114-card set and will likely chip away at it slowly. It's definitely a classic product that you still see all over the place.

Thanks, Dan!

Ymmat (PIF, 4/24):

Ymmat (PIF, 8/24):

Joe and I flip stuff back and forth quite a bit too, so even if we're not formally trading we're sending each other PIFs. This is one of two occasions last year where he played on my TCDb username of FreehanSolo. He covered the first part of the name with a pair of Tigers catcher Bill: his '63 Topps RC plus an SP Legendary Cuts jersey. Wow! I already had my own copy of the rookie, which is of course also a favorite of John's, so I passed this one on to fellow Tigers fan Paul to enjoy. I'll be keeping the relic, though, because it was new to me!

In terms of the "Solo" portion, well, Han's Star Wars card is obvious but I had to look up the other. From a 1965 set covering the TV series it's Napoleon Solo ("...and 2 beautiful women," which, yep!) from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He was played by Robert Vaughn on the 60s spy show and Henry Cavill in the 2015 movie remake. Very clever of Joe!

Ymmat (trade #1):

For our first trade of the year, closed out last July, I got some 123 items from him in return for just 49 (though I threw in some extras, namely Legends Sports Memorabilia card sheets and a few magazines to even things out). A large chunk of my end went to Brian, Dan, and Jason, especially a bunch of '86 Topps football for Brian's set build, but I got some fun stuff for myself too as you can see above.

Ymmat (trade #2 + PIF):

If I recall correctly, the contents of this trade arrived in three PWEs. The first two included the items that were part of the transaction while a third contained what you see in the last scan, which I'm treating as a PIF as they were a nice surprise! The main deal included some fun new stuff including my first card of recent Wolverine pitcher Connor O'Halloran, a 2023 fifth-round selection of the Blue Jays who was born in nearby Mississauga, Ontario.

As you can see, the second group includes another Freehan/Solo pairing, a couple more vintage Tigers, a Dingler and pair of Greenes, and lastly, two surprise autos. The first is a Blue Topps Chrome of pitching prospect Sawyer Gipson-Long, the guy Detroit got for Michael Fulmer from the Twins at the '22 trade deadline. His signature looks cool, the parallel color is nice, and this one's numbered /150 to boot. It's joined by a Stadium Club auto of another guy with a sweet sig, SS Zack Short. He came to Motown at the 2020 deadline for Cameron Maybin (after his second stint with the Tigers) and played parts of the 2021-23 seasons. He's since bounced around to the Mets, Red Sox, Braves, and most recently, Astros.

Obviously Joe is a very generous guy and I can assure you we'll be hitting each other's mailboxes again this year!

Thank you to everyone in this post for continuing to make TCDb the best place to organize your collection and trade, and here's to more of the same in 2025! I'll be back soon with part 2, though I haven't decided if I'll mix it up with content from somewhere else first. We'll see!

In Memory of Oscar Martinez

(Content warning: death, plus this will probably be a downer and rambling, so I won't be offended if you skip this one)

Happy New Year, friends. This post isn't how I wanted to kick of 2025, but that's what I get for procrastinating post-holidays when it came to get back to writing. Sure, I could put this off for a bit longer and throw up some card content, but this has been on my mind since Sunday evening and it's important to me that I get it done.

The year didn't start out particularly well for folks in the LA area due to the out-of-control fires that spread there a week ago. That became clear to me when a member of the collecting/blogging/TCDb community, Andy of Stadium Fantasium, created a post on the TCDb forum titled "Putting my TCDb activity on hold." He was unfortunate enough to lose his entire house in Altadena and most of his possessions including his collection.

I'll give Andy a ton of credit for coming across with a good attitude given the situation, taking stock of the fact that he and his girlfriend are alive and safe when others out there weren't so lucky. It's obviously a huge life disruption that comes with challenges like looking for new housing, reacquiring the essentials, dealing with corrupt insurance companies (sorry being redundant), and much more, before even beginning to spare a few seconds to think about rebuilding a collection built over a lifetime.

I also want to note that today, a week later, he posted a very encouraging update that mentioned a huge group of volunteers enthusiastically stuffing his SUV with way more supplies than he expected thanks to some very generous folks. He's got a long road ahead of him but it's nice to see the occasional ray of hope.

And now that slowly brings me to the main point of my post. Having read of Andy's troubles I immediately thought of old blog friend Oscar (former blogger at All Trade Bait, All the Time), who I happily praised late last month for a card/art package he sent me last September. He and I sometimes DMed back and forth on Twitter, especially after I sent him some cards and posted that trade recap I just mentioned, and I thought to check in on him since I hadn't heard from him in a few days. That wasn't out of the ordinary at all, but I wanted to make sure he was fine given that his address wasn't all that far from Andy's.

That was last Thursday, the 9th. I mentioned Andy's TCDb post and told him I figured his area was fine but was asking just in case. Again, I wasn't too surprised when I didn't hear back. I also noticed this post from a mutual, @chaysonjayson, but didn't really think much of it:

Oscar would have really dug this. He loved the Tattoo You album. @omsports42 💔 https://t.co/4zkAtgV4We

— chaysonjayson (@ChaysonJayson) January 12, 2025

But later in the evening I thought to search his Twitter handle just in case, and my stomach dropped when I read this:

Oscar Martinez Memorial Tribute-Close Friend And Colleague Will Be Sorely Missed https://t.co/91XmRENZz2 via @Ladodgerreport

— Ladodgerreport (@Ladodgerreport) January 10, 2025

To say it was a shock, a gut punch, or something worse would be an understatement. It hadn't been that long since I'd talked to him and I had no idea he was sick (for how long, even?) and now one of my closest friends in the hobby is gone. Worse, he'd passed away a few days earlier and I had no idea.

I'm fortunate to have met a lot of amazing people through collecting, and though I've only been able to talk to a few in person, it doesn't make them any less important to me.

I think this also hit me hard because I'd really come to respect him as a fellow sports fan and music enthusiast, an artist, a teacher, a father/grandfather, and politically-aware person. We called each other "hermano" and I can promise you there was no hint of irony, teasing, or pandering there. He was my brother and I value the time I had with him, sad that I may be that it was cut short.

Having explained my shock at reading about Oscar's death, and maybe having made some of you who also didn't know about this aware, I want to dedicate the rest of this post in memory of him. I don't know how many of you who follow me or read TMV sometimes were familiar with him, especially after he left the blogging game and mostly stopped actively collecting, but whether you knew him or not, I hope you enjoy some of my memories of and thoughts about the man.

From ladodgerreport

First, I highly encourage all of you to read Scott Andes' LA Dodger Report tribute to Oscar which I thought was beautifully done. It was nice getting a perspective of Oscar from one of his fellow writers: a friend who's also (obviously) a fan of the Dodgers and was honored to be part of his Last Chip poker games. This is an excellent eulogy for a guy that naturally drew people to him.

As for me, I'll start with what comes most naturally here: collecting. The first time I posted a trade recap from him was almost 10 years ago now, at the end of May 2015. He was still blogging at the time and went by "Stealing Home," and he sent me a fun PWE of Tigers (including an autograph of Curtis Pride) plus a Barry Larkin RC.

Later that year in December I was one of a solid group of people gifted another envelope of cards by him just in time for the holidays. He called it "Operation PWE" and I certainly enjoyed the contents of mine, including more Tigers and a couple Griffeys to go with them. (By the way, note the updated logo from that point, starring a quartet of his Dodger favorites!) I can't say this for sure but it may have been part of the inspiration for my yearly Christmas cards.

Jumping forward a year, I received a very similar PWE that included some Tigers greats like Fryman, Gibby, Kaline, Tram, and Sweet Lou. Perfection.

In April of 2017 I posted the contents of yet another PWE. This may have been the first time I knew his name and referred to him as Oscar instead of just "Stealing Home." (Speaking of which, that would be the fourth different blog header so far.) I threw in a mention of LA Dodger Report which he appreciated. As for the cards, a Marketside Miggy joined the famed double-play pairing in this one.

Given that he stopped posting at ATBAtT in 2020, I'm guessing he was winding down collecting then, but that year he bucked the trend with a bubble mailer in September. What didn't change was the quality of the players included: besides Miggy, Tram, and Whitaker, this one added Ty Cobb, Curtis Granderson, Jack Morris, Ivan Rodriguez, and more. And he tossed in a trio of oversized '86 Donruss Action All-Stars (including "free agent" Wade Boggs, which got a laugh out of me).

And of course the last time I received a couple envelopes from him was this past September, when he sent me a generous mix of cards and then went above and beyond with a full set of signed prints of his "Tromperia" series. I think the latter was the result of some very good political discussions we had over Twitter messages, talks that made it clear we both cared more about people than the tribalism of political parties.

Next, I want to highlight something I always appreciated about him when he received cards. Oscar's Youtube channel, Netchuc Arts, was an eclectic mix of his many interests, but one of the things he was best at was expressing his appreciation for anything sent to him in his videos. Nothing was staged about it--he'd rip the envelope for the first time after hitting the record button, carefully go through each item, talk about his favorites, and really go out of his way to thank you. I loved his calm demeanor and standard opening of "Well, hello everybody" and peace sign.

In flipping through his channel to find the videos I wanted to share here, I just realized that the first one he uploaded after creating that channel in 2019 discusses an envelope I sent his way. I don't remember that being the case and now I'm honored to find that out. It was his first foray into separating his Dodgers/baseball opinion content (for LA Dodger Report) and other stuff, which ended up being beer reviews, cards, music, record collecting, and of course, his art.

Here's that video:

I'm not sure if I'm missing any but I was able to find these as well:
January 2020
July 2020 (part 1) (part 2)

January 2022

September 2022

October 2023

May 2024

December 2024

Oddly enough, a package from me was the subject of his final video as well. But in between, he showed the same amount of appreciation and thanks to many others who sent him cards, and I hope they value those videos as much as I do.

Outside of the hobby, I'll forever remember Oscar as a friend, and many other things. He was a teacher before retiring, and of course that's a very important and difficult profession. I wish I could have talked to him more about that, and many other things. He didn't go into too many details (understandably), but he was a proud dad and grandfather, and if you followed him on Twitter you'd see the occasional picture of his son's daughter, taken by a proud grandfather.

He loved music, and besides record collecting you could expect to hear him talking about seeing his favorites like the Rolling Stones in concert. There was a summer in the past couple years (I forget exactly when) when Los Lobos was playing a free daytime concert in Ann Arbor and I managed to swing by for a bit on my lunch at work. I grabbed a couple videos knowing that they were another one of his favorites and shared them to him, happy to have made his day.

Art is obviously a very personal thing and also something I'm not remotely qualified to judge, but I admire the bravery of someone creating something and sharing it with the public, not to mention expressing yourself creatively. That's why I'm grateful he sent me those prints, which I still plan to frame and hang prominently in my house so I can tell visitors about the artist.

He was a baseball fan, giving us some very easy common ground to be friends. It didn't matter that we rooted for different teams, especially when we could share complaints about Dave Roberts screwing with Rich Hill's chances at history, or rage at the cheating bastard Astros. I'm happy he got to enjoy his Dodgers winning it all multiple times during his life, including two recent titles, most prominently this past season. I'd like to think he's out there somewhere rubbing elbows with Jackie, Campy, Vin Scully, Tommy Lasorda, and of course, Fernando Valenzuela.

And lastly, he was an hermano to many. I hope he wouldn't be mad if I shared his final words to me via Twitter messages. He sent these after being touched by my trade recap that largely discussed and praised the art he sent me. It was the morning of New Year's Eve:

If you read this far, thank you for taking the time to look over my rambling tribute to Oscar. I'll remember him for many things, in and out of the hobby, and for being my friend and hermano. I'll miss him terribly and know others that knew him will as well. May he be eternally at peace and may his memory warm the hearts of everyone that cared about him.

2024 trade package #27: Baseball Cards Come to Life

And now we've come to my final trade package of 2024. This one arrived just after Christmas and was a fun surprise from Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life. He and I had previously made a trade via TCDb a couple years ago but this was our first "blogger" trade outside that site. Bo asked for some of the beat-up vintage I made available a few weeks ago and I came up with a pretty solid group of those for him in addition to some other stuff that I found on his wantlists.

He was nice enough to return the favor with some extremely cool stuff he must have pulled straight from my own wants as all were new to me:

The top group here represent my favorite items in the entire package. I wasn't familiar with the 1969 MLB PhotoStamps because their combination of vintage and oddball-ness made me unlikely to notice them. So I'm grateful to Bo for gifting me four of the Tigers that could be found: PC favorite Bill Freehan and fellow Detroit greats Willie Horton, Denny McLain, and Jim Northrup. I love the fact that these came out the year after that team won it all, and receiving these inspired me to add the others to my wants: Kaline, Cash, Stanley, McAuliffe, and Lolich.

The vintage action didn't stop there, though, as he included two '72 Topps base that I needed: Ted Simmons plus Darrell Evans' In Action subset appearance. That's a second-year of Simba and it puts me very close to his full Topps base run. Technically it's a second-year of Evans as well; His RC came out two years earlier instead, then he got consecutive base sports in '72.

Going back to oddball-ish stuff, the bottom row includes a Superstar back of Mr. Padre, a Topps Sticker of Willie Hernandez (shared with HOFer Steve Carlton), and a UK Mini of Jack Morris. There's enough of these one-offs that despite being common still represent holes in my collection, though not if someone like Bo can help it!

Next, he included a trio of Brandon Inge needs. Though I've long since had the '07 Topps base, I did indeed lack the Red Back seen above (I didn't scan the reverse, so trust me, bro). From that same year I was also treated to a horizontal photo of him attempting to make a crazy diving play in the stands (found in that year's Upper Deck product), and then Brandon's appearance in Topps' throwback 206 product released in 2010.

The last of the baseball content was one of a number of 2001 UD Vintage team checklists I've been chasing for a while because they include one or more guys I collect. In this case, Cal's the lone Oriole in my PC, but I do remember this team well, one that included ex-Cleveland star Albert Belle, Jeff Conine, Brady Anderson, and more.

Did Bo's generosity end there? Most definitely not! Also tucked into this envelope were three former Wolverines I needed from 1975 Topps football: longtime NFL O-linemen Dan Dierdorf and Reggie McKenzie, plus 10-year NFL CB John Rowser, who suited up for Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and the pictured Broncos. I now have 12 cards from this set, partially thanks to Bo, and just need #s 203 (an All-Pro card that includes HOF G Tom Mack) and 395, which is Giants RB Ron Johnson.

Bo, thanks for sending all of these needed cards my way! I hope we can increase the frequency of our trading in the new year and fortunately that shouldn't be too difficult with you making your wants available on my favorite trading site!

And once again thank you to everyone who contributed to TMV as a reader, commenter, and trade partner. I appreciate you all and will keep going in 2025--as long as none of you try to hold me to a three-post-per-day pace. I can't promise I'll put up six posts in a single month! But please do keep in mind that I still have a good amount of 2024 content to cover in the form of pickups from Facebook, TCDb, eBay, and shows, plus at least one other surprise source.

I'm not sure how long it'll take to catch up on those, so for now, I'll wish a happy new year to everyone who took the time to read this. May your 2025 be filled with good news, good friends, good food, good health, and everything you could want!