2026 trade package #10: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

At long last (my fault) it's time to take a look at the most recent package sent to me by Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!

This one made its way to me back in April. Since then I've actually sent a response his way, only for him to have to return it because he was asked to pay something like $700 in taxes/duties. I'm still trying to figure out what category of goods to use on the customs form to avoid that ridiculousness.

Anyway, here's the mailer in all its glory. (Maybe I should try a quantity of "1" as well? I typically use a number like 50 or 100 to go along with ~$40ish in value, and only recently has it turned into a big issue.) And here's a look at all the fantastic stuff therein:

The baseball content leads off with some cards representing the much-improved Tigers, then a guy making his collection debut in style. Danny Zimmerman was primarily an OF from 2018-21 at Michigan before heading west to San Jose State (what's up, Fuji?) for 2022. He did pitch in a couple games during his freshman season and a few more during summer college ball. You see him here on a 2016 Leaf Perfect Game card, a Purple auto that's a 1/1, marking quite the first appearance in my collection!

The basketball stuff ended up containing some very nice items as well. French forward Moussa Diabate played one year in Ann Arbor before the Clippers snagged him in 2022's 2nd round. That THJ is one of the two big highlights, a 2018-19 Panini Impeccable parallel numbered to just 25! LeVert and Wagner are both trade package stalwarts that I'm glad to see here while women's star Syla Swords gets her second card in my PC and first that isn't team/NIL-issued. And lastly, Mitch McGary (who just celebrated his birthday Saturday, as noted by Jeff) gets an especially cool add to his pile: a 2013-14 Panini Signatures Draft X-Change card that features an embedded piece like a slide. Cool!

The football content was very, very high quality as you'll see over the next few scans, including a pile of serial numbered insanity that Robert would appreciate! (Apparently it's "other blogger call-out" day!) Tackling machine Devin Bush stars on another very low-numbered insert, and his Contenders chase offering is limited to just 25 copies. Former Michigan TE and current TV guy Jake Butt appears on a colorful Panini Father's Day issue numbered /499. One of my favorite recent WRs Jehu Chesson adds a 2017 Panini Phoenix Orange parallel (SN99) to his RC that I have. Similarly, I have LB Shawn Crable's 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear RC but not the super-rare Platinum Holofoil O's version limited to just 25 copies (that's three that rare so far if you're counting!). Darboh was Chesson's teammate and another one of my favorites of that time, and up above you see the Blue Wave Prizm version of his 2017 Panini Prizm RC, numbered to 149. Lastly (from this scan, at least), you see the rarest of the bunch (not including 1/1s) in the form of RB Chris Evans' 2021 Panini Spectra Neon Orange Die Cut. The color match serves it very well and I'm a big fan of die-cuts, but the best part here is that this one is numbered to just 10 copies. Whoa!

Blog favorite RB Mike Hart is the first highlight of this group, and the Artist's Proof parallel of his 2008 Select RC is numbered to just 32, once again giving you an idea of the quantity of quality numbered cards Doug sent this time. Mo Hurst's 2018 Rookies & Stars Longevity parallel isn't that much more common at just 75 copies made. One of OSU's least favorite defenders, David Ojabo, is seen here on a 2022 Donruss Optic parallel of his RC called Wave, and that's SN300. And talented wideout DPJ's 2020 Absolute rookie parallel, a Spectrum Blue, goes to just 50 copies while LB Josh Uche feature's in the same product's Spectrum Red insert, doubly common at 100.

And then we have some especially big hits. Doug treated me to not one but TWO autographed 1/1s, which is kind of insane, but that's the kind of stuff I'm grateful we're able to send back and forth sometimes. In this case it's my first signed plate of WR Devin Funchess. The yellow plate was used to produce his 2018 Panini Luminance card, then was subsequently inserted into 2018 Plates & Patches with a sticker auto affixed. What a great card that's now the centerpiece of his collection!

Jack-of-all-trades guy Jabrill Peppers is next with his largest relic swatch in my collection yet. Relic #3 (to go with an autograph) hails from 2018 Panini XR's Maximal Materials, an insert that certainly lives up to its name. It's a huge piece of a Browns jersey from his time with that team and numbered to just 49 copies.

Last up for football is one more TE (to go with Butt and Funchess, who played the position a bit in college, at least) and a guy who's moving his way up the coaching ladder in the NFL (currently coaching that position for the Falcons). Kevin Koger appeared on a solid number of autographed inserts back in 2012, and this Blue version is my second from that year's Press Pass product. I've long owned the unnumbered Silver card but this Blue one is numbered /50 up front, making it the only numbered signature card of his I own.

Next up is the hockey content, and we'll start with the Red Wings. The highlights of the base cards are franchise legends Fedorov and Yzerman (the embattled GM--more on that later), plus star D Moritz Seider. And then there's a surprise Be a Player signature of F Mike Krushelnyski. Krusher finished his career with Detroit over the '94-'95 season after signing as a FA in '94, but he's probably best known for another transaction. He joined Marty McSorley in the deal that sent their teammate Wayne Gretzky to the Kings in 1988, forever altering the futures of both franchises.

There's plenty more hockey to enjoy thanks to a pile of cards of Wolverines icers. Like the Wings, none of these guys made it to the Cup finals this year, but fortunately that's pretty rare. I love seeing the Wolverwings pop up in these packages and Copp is a good example. The Jackets continue to be a common NHL stop for drafted Michigan guys (including two different Johnsons). And that Herr was a nice inclusion here since it's just my second card of his, and this one is a '98-'99 SP Authentic Power Shift parallel numbered /500.

My favorite Wolverwing Larkin is the star of this scan, though how much longer he'll be with the team is unknown after he recently requested a trade. That divorce may be ugly due to a reported poor relationship between him and GM Steve Yzerman. The latter's tenure has unfortunately been a disaster, and I don't blame a talented guy like Larkin from moving on after 10 years of nothing. I'll continue to collect him either way, but his potential departure will be bittersweet. Meanwhile, though Larkin is in my top 10 of hockey PCs, longtime player Brendan Morrison is second (to Marty Turco), and I'm happy to see even more new stuff of the former national champ here.

Norton and Sloan join the previously seen Herr as players you don't see here too often. Meanwhile, Werenski, this year's Norris winner, is yet another Jackets guy. I really like the OPC playing card-style inserts like Zach's above. Johnson's horizontal insert with interior die-cuts is quite nice as well.

Speaking of Wolverwings and Kent Johnson, the hockey hits portion was most certainly as nice as the others. The SPx Super Scripts auto of Compher is his 4th signed card in my collection, but man does it look nice in-hand. The shiny foil background really makes it pop, plus I'm excited to have my first auto of his as a member of the Red Wings.

Meanwhile, the previously-seen Johnson joins the hit collection with a very cool auto/relic pair. The signed card hails from 2023-24 Upper Deck Credentials' Main Stage Signatures insert, and the design provides for a well integrated window for the sticker. Meanwhile, the relic sports the eponymous blue of his team's nickname in the form of a jersey swatch out of 2024-25 SP Game Used. These make for a quality ending to some top-notch hockey items.

And last but not least, these two UM other sports figures are making repeat performances, both after joining my collection thanks to this package's sender.

Rhodes (born Brandi Reed) hitched along for the trip in a January package I posted early in November, and that was on a Leaf signature card. This time she's back in relic form out of the 2021 Upper Deck Spectrum AEW product. The card doesn't specify what the swatch came from, but in any case it's a cool item to add to a collection (other and non-sports) I plan to put more effort into.

Canadian-born soccer player Shelina Zadorsky also debuted in my collection thanks to a SCFtDS trade package. In her case it was a two-fer that I posted last November: a Goudey base card plus a Goodwin Champions auto. Now I own the latter's memorabilia version, making for a perfect pair! I'm guessing she's more on Doug's radar as she played for his hometown's youth women's club (plus, you know, I don't really follow soccer).

Doug, thanks once again for another mailer stuffed with flat-out quality. As always I appreciate your generosity and how much effort you must be putting into finding this stuff. I'm looking forward to getting a package to you--one that doesn't involve almost $1000 in taxes--as soon as I can, especially once that current envelope gets returned.

As for what's next, I'm not sure if I'll take a quick break from trade packages to show off other stuff, but I have a few of those from May and June, two shows, one eBay purchase, and lots of TCDb stuff, so there's no shortage of content--just effort getting it written up and posted. Until then, I'll probably be outside enjoying some of my favorite weather!

2026 trade package #9: Topps Cards That Never Were

My next April trade package came courtesy of Jeremy from Topps Cards That Never Were. He's primarily a fan of a couple teams: the Rays and Tigers. His Rays are currently sitting atop the American League with 34 wins. Meanwhile, the Tigers are...not. They're tied in dead last with the Angels, whom they're somehow leading in tonight's game as I write this. To describe the quality of this year's team as "cheeks" is probably being kind.

That's frustrating as a fan, but then again it's not entirely new to me. I was born in 1983 and between then and last season they made the playoffs just nine times, winning one title in three tries (in '84, of course). Other than that, they've finished below .500 in 24 of those 43 seasons, losing 100+ games five times. in 2002 and '03 they earned a combined 98-225 record. And they're well on their way to another one of those seasons that feels like it time traveled straight from the 90s. These guys SUCK.

But that hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for collecting cards of Tigers new and old. Because of that, I'm thankful to Jeremy for the Tigers-centric mailer he treated me to last month, one that also included some other fun items for my collections:

Baez is one of a few Tigers who've been on the shelf for a good part of this season, though the streaky IF/OF wasn't playing well before going on the IL, and his All-Star '25 campaign looks like another random positive season for the enigmatic "El Mago." Bondo was part of Detroit's historically terrible 2003 campaign but I'd still take him over Jack Flaherty right now. In his prime Miggy would have led this team to maybe a few more wins, but it's largely a AAAA roster right now, and things will need to change for the record to improve significantly. I don't know that OF prospect Roberto Campos will be part of that growth, but top-10 CF prospect Max Clark, the 3rd overall pick in 2023, has the makings of a potential star, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do whenever he gets called up.

Former Wolverine Jake Cronenworth is one of the non-Tigers who made the trip up north to my mailbox. The former Ray appeared four times thanks to a pair of Topps Rainbow Foils, a Padres team set card, and a Heritage parallel. The foils look great, but especially appreciate the team card because those are sometimes harder to find than they should be.

Heading back to the past for a moment, we have a cool pair of former 1B/DH types. Darrell Evans' '85 OPC contains his stats from the 1984 World Series season, while my newest card of Cecil "Big Daddy" Fielder is from last year's Panini Prizm set.

Then we're back to a current guy in Riley Greene, who has a tendency to be a bit streaky, but has been one of the top three or four hitters on this year's team. The Archives card is a nice throwback to the 2005 Topps set, one with a design I appreciate a bit more in throwback form.

The late Hernandez takes us back to that same '85 OPC set as Evans above, and man was he a beast in 1984. Jobe, Jung, and Keith are all current Tigers, though the pitcher's still recovering from injury, Jung's spent most of the season in AAA, and Keith's scuffling a bit trying to repeat his solid past two seasons.

Larkin is another ex-Wolverine in this package and I love his Purple Holo Donruss card.

Speaking of parallels, former Tigers IF Scott Livingstone features on a Stadium Club Golden Rainbow insert from 1994. He played his first 3+ seasons in Detroit before being one of many Tigers flipped to the Padres in that decade. Utility guy Zach McKinstry is unfortunately hitting about as well as Livingstone did back then after an All-Star 2025. Montero's been one of the not-as-bad rotation options this year, though that's not saying a lot. And 2024 11th overall pick Bryce Rainer, a SS, is another very intriguing prospect that I hope gets called up in the next couple years in place of washed up FA signings.

It's nice to see three instances of ace P Tarik Skubal here as he chases his 3rd straight AL Cy Young, though between injuries and the team's lost season, it feels less likely that he'll win, and if so, he may not do so with the Tigers. I'll just enjoy his talents as long as he's here. Sweeney hasn't been with the big club since a rough '25 season. And JV's return hasn't been what fans had hoped as he's appeared in a single game: a loss in which he allowed 5 ER in 3.2 innings. At 43, his chances of getting to 300 wins are on life support. But if he can come back and pitch a bit more, it'll be a nice enough story. The trio of cards Jeremy sent of him look great, including an All-Star throwback.

One last scan concludes my recap of the goods, though I should note that I only scanned what was new to me. I'm mentioning that to give Jeremy credit for even more generosity as I'm showing off about half of what he actually sent.

A couple recent Tigers team cards close out the baseball content. When it came to basketball, a couple Fab-Fivers were natural fodder for this package. Jimmy King stars on a Signature Rookies issue that pictures him with this year's national champs, while HOFer Chris Webber appears on a shiny foil Hoops insert celebrating 1993-94's top rookies. His inclusion makes sense since he was the league's ROY over Penny Hardaway and Jamal Mashburn.

In terms of football, Jeremy sent me a nice bunch of Charles Woodsons (speaking of HOFers), several of which were rookie year cards like the above '98 UD Choice. That's a subset card while his RC (which I do own) can be found earlier in the set. That was joined by what I'd consider the most exciting card in the package: a TTM/IP-signed 1999 Bowman of school legend RB Tim Biakabutuka. This was an exciting card to pull out of the stack and I already expressed my thanks to Jeremy for sending it back up to Ann Arbor.

Jeremy, thanks once again for thinking of me with this latest envelope--I obviously enjoyed all of these new PC additions! I'm not sure when I'll be sending a stack back your way, but I will say I'm at least working on it.

I'll try to be back soon once again with my final April trade package, one that had a distinct Canadian flavo(u)r!

2026 trade package #8: Cards on Cards

May is steadily ticking away so before I let it pass by too quickly, let's start looking at the blogger trade packages I received last month. #1 was from Kerry over at Cards on Cards.

This was yet another excellent envelope from my Big Ten buddy in Oregon, and this time he managed to hit all four major sports with at least one card:

The baseball content fits into one scan but comprises lots of goodness. That Select Miggy card is a Prizm parallel called "Green Flash," and I'm always grateful when they aren't the worst to tell apart. Malloy's no longer in the Tigers' system, but his '25 Topps Archives Black Foilboard is still a keeper. Tigers it-guy of the season Kevin McGonigle is a particular highlight here with a '25 Select Pink & Purple Prizm parallel, numbered /199 on the back. He's pretty much been the most valuable player on an otherwise highly disappointing team, and I'm excited to see if Detroit extending him this early pays off.

SS Bryce Rainer keeps the Select party going with a base card and Silver Prizm parallel to give me seven cards of the #11 overall pick in '24. He entered 2025 as a consensus top-100 prospect and moved into the 30s to start 2026, so he could be following in McGonigle's footsteps before all is said and done. Cal's the lone non-Tiger in this bunch, and one of the nearly 1400 items I have for him is the above '26 Topps 1991 Topps Crackle Foil insert. '91 is a pretty good season to remember for Ripken as he won his second AL MVP with his career-best 11.5 bWAR season. Finally, we're back to Tigers, in '25 Ginter mini form, with a Chrome of on-the-shelf pitcher Jackson Jobe and a Black Border of SS Jace Jung, who's trying to work his way back to the big club.

Next, there was enough basketball stuff to split into a couple images. Kobe Bufkin gets a pair added to his collection, including a very reflective '25-'26 Topps 1980-81 insert which is actually silver foil, not black. Magic youngster Jett Howard earns a solo appearance from Haunted Hoops plus a Topps Chrome insert that pairs him up with his dad and former coach/NBAer himself, Juwan. And then you see the first two of a four-spot of Jordan Pooles, including another Haunted Hoops issue.

Poole's other two cards are from Panini's Revolution brand and Topps Holiday. From the latter, he's joined by Magic star Franz Wagner both in SSP Photo Variation form and a Glitter Holiday parallel, the latter of which has the same raised effect as the baseball product. Lastly, Kerry treated me to my first relic of ex-Heat guy and current Piston Duncan Robinson, also out of Topps Holiday. That's just my second hit (along with an autograph) of the three-point sharpshooter, and I hope his Pistons can complete another playoff comeback against the Cavs tonight.

One last scan closes things out with football and hockey. The former begins with a SAGE card of RB Blake Corum, putting me at 42 cards of my favorite recent Wolverines back. A RC of DL Mason Graham out of this year's Absolute Retail product is next, and that gives me three first-years for the first-rounder. Speaking of Absolute and first-round Michigan defenders, Aidan Hutchinson is next with a Green parallel from the '24 version of that brand. I now own more than 60 cards of the EDGE terror.

Bears star TE Colston Loveland brings us back to the offense with his '25 Score RC that pictures him with the Maize & Blue. That marks just my second RC of the future star. Loveland was a favorite target of QB JJ McCarthy, who's represented here on three 2025 issues: Absolute Retail, Donruss base, and a Donruss Retro insert. My collection of the national champ signal-caller is slowly growing with 26 cards to-date.

And lastly, Kerry tossed in a lone hockey card: a '23-'24 UD base of the Flyers' Cam York. The D-man in his sixth season after a pair in Ann Arbor scored just once during this season's playoffs, but he made it count with a game 7 OT winner against the Penguins.

Kerry, thanks once again for a fun envelope full of goodies that you know I love to collect! I currently have just a small stack of stuff intended for you so I'm not sure when I'll be returning the favor, but when I do, you can look forward the usual array of Cards, Ducks, and Eagles on cards!

I'll be back soon with the second of the three trade packages from last month. Maybe the Tigers can actually string a couple of wins together by then!

4/3/26 card show report: $25, no foolin'

Well this should be a pretty quick one, even if it took me too long as usual to get to.

I headed over to my usual monthly show in early April only to find that my favorite seller hadn't had much time to sort stuff into his sale boxes, meaning there wasn't much new for me to flip through. I ended up spending a year-low $25 because I'm not the type to throw down cash just for the sake of it. And it worked out well because I certainly made up for it this month. More on that in a few posts.

Anyway, that $25 was easily split between 100 dime cards and a trio for which he wanted $15. Here's a look at the loot:

The juniors Griffey and Ripken came from the dime boxes and those cards hail from last year's Topps Archives. Griffey's is from the '64 Topps portion while Cal's is done up in the style of the then-20-year-old '05 Topps set; '96's design can also be found in this product.

And then we come to the day's biggest pickups that account for the three-for-$15 portion: a trio of beautiful 90s Pacific die-cut inserts of Ivan Rodriguez! I noticed these in the guy's showcase and happily accepted the price. In order, above you can see 1999 Pacific Crown Collection's In the Cage followed by 1999 and 2000 Paramount's Fielder's Choice.

Both of these insert sets are among my favorites from the decade--one whose chase cards obviously rule--and are part of the fantastic history of the Pacific brand. The In the Cage cards simulated batting cages, though other versions also replicated foul poles in more examples of the manufacturer's ingenuity. Better yet are the glove-themed Fielder's Choice die-cuts, which are not only cut to conform to the shape of a fielder's most important equipment, but even simulate the webbing! Pudge is a natural fit in these sets as won 13 gold gloves, good for first place among catchers and three better than second-place star Johnny Bench.

The Cage card is my first from that set while the '99 glove joins Greg Maddux and the 2000 card gets added to the Ripken and Gwynn I previously snagged. I can't wait to add more of these, especially if I can find them at these outstanding prices.

We'll finish up with some basketball and football dime cards. Bufkin, LeVert, Robinson, and Wagner are all examples of some colorful inserts of hoopers I was glad to snag for 10 cents each. LeVert's Pistons are actually battling his former team, the Cavs, as I write this, and that's because they managed to overcome a big deficit against Mo's Magic.

As for football stuff, I turned up last year's Score base of former Packer/new Cowboy Rashan Gary to go with a pair of '25 base of national champion QB JJ McCarthy out of Donruss and Panini's Mosaic.

This could have been a bit of a downer of a show but I was able to turn that around with some "90s inserts rule!" goodness, plus I didn't regret having a bigger budget available this month, so once again, it was a good show.

I'm anticipating that my next three posts will be blogger trade packages, followed by the May show recap, a May trade, and my first TCDb deals of the year. I certainly have plenty to recap, even if I'm slow and lazy about doing so. I'll try to get motivated to at least show off the trades soon to thank the senders for their generosity.

2026 Facebook Marketplace purchase: on it with ONIT

Sometimes I take so long to post about something that it manages to become relevant again. Such is the case with my first Facebook Marketplace purchase of the year.

Back in March I found someone nearby offering a big random lot of cards from ONIT's 2025 Michigan Football team cards. As it turns out, these differ from the ones Jeff previously sent me, which look like this. The ones I'm posting about this evening are kind of the "regular" team set version while Jeff's monthly box cards are a slightly different version called "Timeless." And there's a few others besides that. Welcome to the world of NIL cards.

Anyway, I contacted the seller, and after a bit of back-and-forth, he determined that he could put together two complete 79-card sets, and wanted $25 each. That sounded reasonable to me, so I grabbed one for me and the other for Jeff.

So how are these cards relevant right now? Well, the NFL draft concluded on Saturday and some of the Wolverines who were selected can be found in this set representing the 2025 team. (Also, spring practice just ended and there was plenty of local talk about the team. But, yeah, mostly the draft.)

I scanned all of the cards for the corrected TCDb checklist (after we cleared up the "Timeless" product confusion) so I figured I'd show them off here, even if only a few of my readers might be interested. If not, maybe I'll see you in the next post!

Anyway, the guy gave me each set in one of the boxes, so I have that to show off first:

I'm not sure how much these boxes were, but I know the seller did decently well on the autographs in his case. With a number of other inserts available too, I wonder if two boxes would be enough to guarantee a set.

Unless I'm mistaken, the four players seen here are S Rod Moore up top followed by (L to R) QB Davis Warren, WR Semaj Morgan, and QB Bryce Underwood.

And now, on to the cards themselves. I'll drop a few notes under some of the front scans, but I'll let the images speak for themselves in terms of the design.

This is a pretty strong group starting with big LT prospect Babalola, wunderkind (with a lot of work to do!) QB Underwood (making his collection debut), and third-string back Kuzdzal, who acquitted himself very well when duty called last season.

Some of these guys will be playing in Ann Arbor next year, but one who won't is former walk-on QB Davis Warren, who somehow beat OSU 13-10 a couple seasons ago, and that was actually less impressive than his biggest accomplishment: overcoming leukemia. He headed out west to Stanford with the Bryce Underwood era in full effect, and I can guarantee everyone's rooting for Warren to succeed.

This group is one of the more newsworthy relative to the other scans. EDGE Derrick Moore was the first Wolverine selected in this draft, and better yet, he's staying at home with the Lions, who took him #44 overall (2nd round). K Zvada couldn't repeat his outstanding 2024 season but signed as a UDFA with the Giants. QB-turned-WR McCulley came over from Indiana and didn't have as big of an impact as it seemed he might, but he was decent enough to sign with Miami after the draft. And Hausmann's story, which included him stepping away from the team near the end of the season, is now known, and worth a read as it touches on mental illness and the pressures athletes face.

There are a few likely '26 contributors here but nobody I'll bore you with in terms of details.

QB Jaydn Davis unfortunately didn't pan out, but I join my fellow Michigan fans in wishing him well as he transfers to East Tennessee State. Meanwhile, LB Jaishawn Barham, who joined the Wolverines for two seasons after a pair with Maryland, was Michigan guy #3 taken in the draft, #92 overall to the Cowboys (3rd round). 

This is another pretty good group. LB Jimmy Rolder was the fourth Wolverine taken in the draft at #118 overall (4th round) by...the Lions again! The team's leading tackler could maybe help a team with lots of needs on defense. RB Jordan Marshall is a guy lots of fans were looking forward to seeing last year, and he lived up to the hype with 10 rushing TDs and 900+ yards, limited only by some late injuries. He formed an outstanding tandem with Bama transfer Justice Haynes, who popped for 10 scores of his own and a crazy 7.1 Y/A on just 121 rushes in seven games. The injury bug got him too, unfortunately, and that stalled what may have been a Heisman-caliber campaign. Justice is off to Georgia Tech for the '26 season and I wish him happy trails.

Hey, we've got a couple more draft picks here! TE Marlin Klein's decision to leave early seemed strange but he did decently well for himself, getting taken by the Texans at #59 overall (2nd round), surprisingly high, and before some other well-regarded players at the position. Still, he was Wolverine #2 selected, and will surely form a fearsome matchup along with ex-Michigan star Nico Collins. We also have "TE" Max Bredeson, who was pretty much a FB, and a very successful one at that. His blocking was top-notch and he was often found in the endzone ahead of his RBs as they piled up TDs. Max was the fifth Wolverine selected in this draft at #159 overall (5th round) by the Vikings, which means he'll happily join ex-teammate JJ McCarthy.

Another few guys to discuss here. Ka'Apana is unfortunately already out for the season due to injury. DT Benny was the sixth and final Michigan guy selected this time, going to the Wolverine-friendly Ravens at #250 overall (7th round). S Rod Moore, one of the cover guys, will hopefully be back to health during the next season as a key part of the defense, and one who made some big plays for the '23 champs. And WR Morgan (another cover guy) transferred to UCLA after showing some flashes of brilliance overshadowed by frustrating drops. I still hope he lives up to his potential there and gets his shot at the NFL.

In this last group I can note that EDGE TJ Guy also signed as a UDFA, and he'll be joining Benny above, plus former DC Jesse Minter, Baltimore's new HC. Speaking of HCs, the less said about former guy Sherrone at this point the better.

The seller also included a copy of a header-type card, one that mirrors the front of the box. I decided to keep it (and scan it) as that makes this a nice even 80.

With all that said, congrats to the 2026 draftees (and UDFAs), and here's to the success of the '26 team in a few short months. GO BLUE!

I believe I'll be back next with my April show cards, then we'll see how long it takes me to cover two trade packages before my May show recap, with the event happening this Friday.

2026 eBay purchases: rare cards and a coin

Well at least I didn't let the entire remainder of April pass before I posted again! It's been a lazy month for me hobby-wise and as usual I wasn't dying to put the effort into posting, but now I have some motivation to catch up thanks to a couple trade packages that arrived this month.

It was an interesting one for Michigan fans: the highs of the basketball Wolverines winning just their second national title followed by the even more favored hockey team falling once again in the semis of the Frozen Four to the hated Denver Pioneers, who've lapped Michigan in hockey titles, much to my chagrin.

But I can hardly complain about the results, along with football spring practice in the books that has me looking forward to the fall (but not until I've enjoyed some warm weather for more than a few days at a time, please!).

So apropos of almost nothing, here's a look at my four eBay pickups from the first third of 2026:

My first eBay purchase of any type this year, way back in February, was my second 1/1 of beastly Super Bowl-winning LB LaMarr Woodley. For a hair under $9 I'm now the proud owner of this 2007 SAGE HIT black plate of the 46th overall pick way back in '07. It's from the era when a brand like SAGE was allowed to use full team logos, names, and uniforms, and that makes the Michigan uni aspect a bonus.

Here's the base card for comparison:

Not bad at all. Like I said, that's 1/1 #2 to go along with a plate from 2009 Topps, and it marks hit #12 of the big hitter who piled up 58.0 total sacks, 319 tackles, and nine forced fumbles.

A few weeks later in March I scored one of my biggest cards so far of the young year. For whatever reason, my collection of WR Amara Darboh boasts some of the best looking items in my Michigan Football collection, and the rich got richer here. I was willing to go all the way up to almost $20 for this National Treasures plate/prime jersey/auto combo. Why? Once again, there's the Wolverine-ness of the thing: a Michigan uni shot, the logo on the back, and most of all, the fantastically large maize/blue/white jersey swatch. It's a thing of beauty!

Darboh's 51st hit marks his first 1/1 in the collection (surprisingly enough, given the overall quality of his PC), and one I was thrilled to add for sure.

Just a few days later I was finally able to rectify a small issue from a purchase from the February show. As I noted here, I grabbed what I thought were three 7-11 Slurpee Coin sets, but one of them--the 1986 Central Region version--was missing probably the biggest coin: Carlton/Ryan/Seaver. A bit over $6 shipped was enough to snag me two copies of this coin along with a couple dupes of another. And that's one more set knocked off the wantlist!

I was glad to catch the note at the bottom that states, "Nolan holds the all-time mark for K's, followed by Steve and Tom." That was indeed the case at the time, but the list looks a bit different some 40 years later. Ryan still stands along with a crazy 5714 over a crazier 27 seasons, but Randy Johnson (4875) and Roger Clemens (4672) topped Carlton's 4136, and Bert Blyleven (3701) snuck above Seaver's 3640. Those are your top 6, with Justin Verlander hoping to return to health to pitch enough to take over 7th place, currently held by Don Sutton. Only 20 K's separate the two!

And finally we have my most recent pickup. For a penny under $12 I scored my latest Manningham of (too) many just last week. This here is a black plate from Upper Deck's 2009 Heroes product, specifically for the Blue Retail Jerseys insert. Do I happen to own that card like I do with the base of the Woodley above? Could I claim I have "too many" Manninghams otherwise?

While I don't like the 2009 set as much as the 2008 version, which included RCs of Manningham and a bunch of his other teammates that are favorites of mine, it's still a cool looking set, and, I mean, since when am I not gonna chase a rare Mario I need?

Since I threw out numbers for the others I'll note that this is my second 1/1 of Manningham (the other is a National Treasures auto/plate that I showed off on TMM almost EIGHT years ago) and hit #103 of the namesake of my former sister blog.

As always, money well spent, I'd say!

And now I'll try to get back to work on a couple other posts before getting back to trade package action. In the meantime, bring on the warmer weather and more baseball!