1/2/26 card show report: jumping back in in January

Tonight I'm back with my first show recap of the year, which was incidentally my first card spending of 2026. The first day of January's event was Friday, the 2nd, and I took that day off of work because, why wouldn't I?

I spent a pretty solid total of $90, with most of that going to my favorite seller, and a few bucks at a different table I've been to a few times. More on that later.

First up is some trade bait. I've got tons of relics and autos available on my TCDb sale/trade list, but these were cheap enough--generally $2 or $1 or less--that I decided to add them.

Baseball:

Football:

You know the drill: claim 'em if you want 'em!

As for my keepers, they had a bit of a 90s bias to them:

The Rainbow parallel of Criswell is obviously newer, but otherwise, the gang's all here! Yes, it's the quartet of Griffey, Gwynn, Maddux, and Ripken, though Maddux's cards are a tad newer. With the "90s inserts rule" tag in full effect once again, we'll begin with Griffey's inserts. The first is from 1997 Pinnacle XPress and is called "Far and Away." The other is one of my all-time favorites from back when Topps actually tried, and it's called "Clout Nine." That's a hell of a squad right there.

The lone Gwynn is actually a promo for one of Fleer's typically excellent Ultra inserts: an acetate 1996 chase card called "Season Crowns." Yes, this one looks even better in-person.

Mad Dog gets a new pair of parallels from last year's Donruss product, the first of which is one of a ton of Optic versions.

Lastly, there's three new Ripkens. The first is actually one of two cards you'll see that came from a purchase from the other seller I mentioned. I previously noted buying from them when I went for a second trip to the November show with Angus and found some cool stuff in their $1 or 6/$5 bin stuffed with miscellany. One of the things I found this time was a small package of 1991 Stadium Club Members Only cards, which I broke up to keep the pair I wanted then trade the rest.

The two beautiful inserts you see here are from a single-card 1996 Pinnacle offering called "Cal Ripken Jr. Tribute," a shiny and relatively tough 1:150 pack pull, plus 1998 Ultra's "Notables." I love anything that highlights Ripken's streak and that Pinnacle issue is flat out beautiful.

The final Ripken is an Elite Series insert from the previously mentioned '25 Donruss product. You can tell it's not from the heyday of inserts because it's got a plain white border along with the lack of logos. No, it doesn't hold a candle to the insert that originally claimed the name, but nothing is these days, and it's still a new Cal I needed, so I'll take it.

The Fielder/Canseco was my other keeper from the '91 Stadium Club Members Only cards, and it serves to note that those two led the AL in homers that season, tied with 44. That came a year after Big Daddy put up 51 bombs to get Motown rocking.

The final baseball single here is a 2005 Topps Total RC of once-again relevant guy Justin Verlander. HEY, THAT'S THE GUY WHAT I COLLECT! Of course, I grabbed this first-year of the future HOFer before the Tigers boosted their rotation by having him come home. Sanchez, the pitcher he shares the card with, was one of three players flipped to the Yanks for Gary Sheffield in November of 2006, by the way.

The final single period is a lone football card: a Donruss Optic parallel of Jake "Money" Moody that's the right color for a former Wolverine. His NFL performance has unfortunately been anything but "money," which is the way it can go for specialists, unfortunately. I hope he lands on his feet (unintentional kicker pun?) next season.

Finally, I have two more items from the oddball stuff found at that second table:

Back at that November show I grabbed the first box (#s 1-12) of these 1990 Collect-a-Books, and I was excited to find the next dozen in the exact same place! Gwynn is my lone PC guy from this one but the player selection is excellent, even if the QA isn't (former Giants slugger Kevin Mitchell is missing an "L" in his last name). Will I find the last box to round out the trio? Stay tuned (spoiler alert: no luck in February so the search continues).

The last item tonight is the oddest of all: a 1982 McDonald's placemat starring four Tigers from that era: John Wockenfuss, Rick Leach, Chet Lemon, and Alan Trammell. This thing is relatively large--about 17"x11"--when it comes to the type of items I tend to store, but for less than a buck I couldn't pass it up. Who knows, maybe I'll even eventually find the other three!

Obviously February continues to fly by so this month's show has already come and gone. I'll recap that somewhat soon (maybe) but first need to thank a couple very cool bloggers for trade cards they sent me this month. I also have a couple TCDb PIFs in hand and my first eBay pickup of the year on the way.

Until then, I hope everyone's had as nice of a start to collecting in 2026 as I have!

2026 trade package #3: Night Owl

Pitchers and catchers have reported! For most teams, anyway--a few will apparently be waiting until tomorrow, but close enough.

Let's celebrate with the final blogger trade package I received in January. Greg of perennial favorite blog Night Owl Cards sent me a nice envelope with a note hoping I was looking forward to baseball season, which I indeed am!

Here's a look at what he sent:

This was another nice mix of old and new. I still collect Bondo a bit, and this pair put me over the 70-card mark. Clark and Higginson feature on the beautiful UD Gold Glove set, which was unfortunately a one-and-done product. Flaherty's still in the rotation this season but may be the fourth best starter behind three current and former aces, including the (hopefully) triumphant return of JV. Bring on Too Many More Verlanders! And the Griffey quartet here presented me with my first Project 2020 card plus three of the '24 Topps Celebration of the Kid inserts I needed. I'm a card away from being half done with the 24-card set thanks to these, and they're my favorite part of the package.

Monroe, Pena, Sparks, and Young are guys I don't think about very often these days, though at least C-Mo was part of the '06 World Series squad (and Young is or at least was a fellow collector). Keider's unlikely to claim a spot in a star-studded rotation but I'm sure he'll get some spot starts especially when (and not if) injuries strike. Tork was only six years old when 2005 Topps (whose design appears in this year's Archives) was released, and that's the set that includes the RC of his new teammate, Verlander. Gleyber's another Heritage Tiger seen in this post, and Greg also included a Chrome Pink Sparkle Refractor of the 2025 All-Star.

Man, Topps will slap that "RC" logo on literally anything, won't they? Fellow '25 All-Star Riley Greene was often money last year, so the '23 Bowman Platinum New Money insert was wise to include him. Former top prospect pitcher Manning can be seen on his '24 Topps Gold, the reliable standby that's reasonably easy to identify, looks nice, and is numbered to the year it was printed. And last up is another Heritage insert of another '25 All-Star Tiger. Skubal appears in '25 Heritage's 1976 Player Icons insert as well as the Holographic parallel of that set, the latter of which you see above. It's a nice tribute to the '76 set's position icons seen on the cards' fronts. I don't know if "holographic" is the best name since there's not really any kind of rainbow effect to these, but the metallic look is still quite nice.

Greg's a Buffalo fan so he also knows his football. The Super Bowl was played a few days before I'm posting this and a bunch of Wolverines--four former players and three coaches--won the big game with Seattle, which was very cool. Two of the players in this scan--WR Jason Avant and LB David Harris--never won an NFL ring, but the other two guys, both of whom are among the GOATs of their positions, sure did. Brady and Woodson actually both celebrated winning it all in college AND the NFL, though Tom obviously wasn't the starter for the '97 Wolverines. '23 champ AJ Barner, a TE who transferred from Indiana, repeated that feat with Seattle this season, and he even scored the Hawks' lone offensive TD on a very nice route.

Greg, many thanks for this great baseball/football combo which closes the door nicely on the NFL season and has me itching for some Spring Training baseball!

I'll see if I can get myself motivated enough to post my January show spoils this weekend and then get going on February's cards. In the meantime, I hope the rest of you are as excited as I am for baseball and non-sucky weather to return! 

2026 trade package #2: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

So much for getting my next post done before the February show, but that's ok because I still haven't been overwhelmed with new stuff coming in this year...yet. Tonight I'm back with another January trade package: a bubble mailer from Canadian friend Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. Speaking of his country, I hope they have a fantastic Winter Olympics as I root for the Americans as well!

Here's what he sent last month:

Baseball opens the proceedings with a current and former Tiger, Donruss style. The Topps Holiday of Verlander--the Metallic Snowflake version--arrived not long after the Christmas season, but I'm hoping people have finally put away their decorations as of the time I'm posting this. And we have our first hit in the form of a Bowman Sterling auto of OF prospect Daniel Cabrera. Not to be confused with the pitcher from the 2000s, this Daniel was a 2nd round pick by the Tigers out of LSU in 2020, but he hasn't played since 2024 and I couldn't find a reason why he's on the organization's restricted list.

Both baseball and basketball fit into one scan so I put them together here. The latter includes Jamal Crawford (whose son the team just offered) from the 2020 Topps Seattle Children's Heroes set, which was made to benefit that hospital and includes lots of area subjects. It uses the '84 Topps design but is much glossier and looks great. Next is the collection debut of Pollyanna Johns, a native of the Bahamas who was with Michigan in the late 90s and played for Charlotte, Cleveland, Miami, and Houston in the WNBA. Her 2001 Fleer Tradition WNBA card seen here is her RC and lone card listed on TCDb, so this was a great find by Doug. And lastly we have a '25-'26 Topps of Magic star Franz Wagner, whose collection has grown nicely thanks to trade packages like this one.

The football content could easily be labeled "numbered and new guys." Big Mo Hurst kicks off this section with a very bold blue Leaf Certified parallel that's numbered 46/50 up front and very on theme for a former Wolverine. Former WR DPJ is even more colorful--not a surprise when it comes to the Prizm brand--on a Red and Yellow Prizm parallel that's limited even more: #42/44 on the back.

Next we have the first of two new guys. DL/LB Josaiah Stewart put up great sack numbers during his 2021 freshman season with Coastal Carolina, then transferred to Michigan before the '23 season, helping the Wolverines to a national title. The Rams took him in the 2025 third round and he put up 3.0 sacks in 17 games. He's seen above on a Pink parallel from Donruss Elite, and I hope to add more of his cards--especially RCs and autographs--soon.

The other new guy is here thanks to the CFL-focused JOGO brand. He was also a DL who won a championship, in his case with the '97 team, and he was in Ann Arbor through the 2000 season before going undrafted. The Lions gave him a shot but it was in Canada that he would enjoy his pro football career. That included time with Winnipeg (with a couple year hiatus in the Dolphins org), Saskatchewan, and finally Montreal, with whom he won Grey Cups in 2009 and 2010. Thank you again to Doug for tracking this down and getting his name in my collection.

The last football item is a 2021 Leaf Flash autograph of former Wolverines RB Chris Evans. It's got the usual Leaf craziness going on, and this is the Platinum Blue version of a signed insert called Flash Photography Autographs. Naturally I love the combo of a signed card of a player in a Michigan uni, plus this one's numbered /35 on the back, and it's my fourth auto of a guy who didn't play Superman but who was quite good at times in college.

I mentioned the Olympics which means the NHL's on a break, but that doesn't mean we can't look at some hockey cards. We'll start with the non-Wolverines Red Wings, who are looking good for a playoff spot for the first time since 2016. D-man Ben Chiarot is the one guy in this scan who's currently with the team while Howe, Kozlov, Probert, and Sheppard are all players I know well from the team's history.

The Michigan Hockey stack starts off with defenseman Jack Johnson, who retired last year after 19 seasons, and that makes me feel super old. A pair of UD cards of WolverWing and Olympian Dylan Larkin is next, and I have to say that the first, a 2023-24 SPx Radiance FX Blue die-cut insert, is totally sick. What a great looking design that really calls back to the glory years of the SPx brand, plus it's blue and numbered to 299! D-man Zach Werenski joins Larkin here both from the UD base set and in this year's Olympics, and fellow Wolverines Kyle Connor and Quinn Hughes are also in Milan for Team USA. Go (red, white, and) blue!

The rest of the hockey content arrived in the form of these stickers, and there were lots! Most were made by Panini and released in the last 15-ish years, including those of Cammalleri, Cogliano, Johnson, Knuble, and Komisarek. The tiny Knuble is a bit of an exception as it's from 2003-04 Topps Mini Stickers, my first example of that product. I see other Wolverines in that set and will have to try to track down their minuscule counterparts. Jeff Norton, a much older Michigan/NHL alum, joins from the '91-'92 and '93-'94 Panini sticker sets.

Ordinarily we'd be done by now having covered hockey, but Doug had one more surprise in store for me. I do have a small collection of Michigan alumni from other sports (including Olympians) and non-sports, and that collection got a new member thanks to this card. Brandi Rhodes (born Brandi Reed) indeed graduated from my alma mater, chose to go into broadcasting and modeling, and eventually joined the WWE, mainly as a ring announcer. She spent time with a few pro wrestling organizations and also married fellow wrestler Cody Runnels, a.k.a. Cody Rhodes, son of Dusty Rhodes, a WWF wrestler from my time as a fan.

Doug found the above 2023 Leaf Heroes of Wrestling green autograph and sent it my way, and thanks to him she's now the sixth member of my other/non-sports Michigan collection. Cool!

Doug, many thanks for this great envelope, especially the thoughtful new additions to three sports! I'm still working on putting together a return for you and it may take a while, but in the meantime I wish good luck to your country's Olympic team as well as a great week leading up to your birthday!

I'll be back again soon-ish with my third and final January trade package, then you'll get a January show recap, first February trade package, and a show recap from yesterday.

2026 trade package #1: Chronicles of Fuji

Tonight let's party like it's 2026 since, you know, it is, by taking a look at my first trade package of the year before the calendar flips to February.

Sender #1 this year was one of the blogosphere's favorite people: Mark of the Chronicles of Fuji. Just after the start of the new year I got this envelope in my mailbox:

Oooooh, this is big enough to hold some interesting items! Side note: do yourself a favor and buy postage on a site like PirateShip so you don't have to pay nearly this much when you're already being very generous in sending cards and paying to ship stuff.

Ok, well this is a good sign--that's my name. This portends good things!

And good things were indeed within! That's the January 1991 issue of Beckett Baseball with that year's sensation Cecil Fielder grading the cover, not to mention 1990 World Series champ Barry Larkin on the back, a hell of a two-fer. There's also a very nice Christmas card from my "blogger buddy" that was a nice touch. And then we have a couple taped up things of cards to open up.

The old nine-pocket page: a tried and true method for shipping cards, especially in PWE format. Fuji picked some very nice stuff and also packaged these in expert fashion. Let's have a better look:

Baseball begins with Tigers old and new. Baez is a Sepia Refractor and the Miggy pair is quite nice: a Triple Threads base and manu-"medallion." Carp's Topps Holiday card is a Green Plaid parallel that still feels appropriate for the season. The two Clarks bring me back to when cards were more fun, especially the Black Diamond parallel numbered /1500 on the back. Evans is a box bottom card and you actually just saw the whole bottom in my TCDb recap post.  And there's Big Daddy again, on a playing card (naturally he's a king in that set).

Card #1 in this scan is great since I'd say I share Fuji's love for collecting Mr. Padre and 80s boxed sets. I wasn't familiar with Jimenez but see that he's the player Detroit flipped to Minnesota for pitchers Chris Paddack and Randy Dobnak during their lackluster trade deadline last year. Lipcius and Meadows are both good old regular Refractors, though given how briefly the former was with Detroit I have no idea why Topps bothered putting him in their sets. Finest isn't what it once was but I won't say no to a RC of Mize! Nunez has been out of affiliated ball for years now but is still kicking in a few indy and foreign leagues, which is very cool. Cal joins Miggy above with a gorgeous Triple Threads card. If I'm not turning down Mize RCs I'm definitely happily accepting any Skubal RCs that come my way! And that Tork is a very nice Bowman Draft Invicta insert I don't think I'd seen before.

And we've still got plenty of baseball items left. York, a '45 Series champ as the team's starting 1B (though as the card implies, he did catch more than 200 games early in his career) appears on a card from the fantastic Conlon product distributed in the 90s. We'll get to the hits in a minute but first we have some other interesting stuff including horizontal cards of Miggy (a Topps Golden Giveaway code card), Colt Keith, and a Heritage team checklist. Then there's a cool five-pack of minis. The first two are from 1993 Humpty Dumpty and both Jim Abbott's and Jack Morris' cards are still in the plastic wrap. Nice! The other Minis, meanwhile, are from 2006 A&G. World Series guys Bondo and Polanco are regular backs and Chris "Red Pop" Shelton is a Black Border.

Fuji also treated me to a trio of Chrome autographs. 2015 Tigers first-round pitcher Beau Burrows' signature is from '21 Topps Chrome, and it remains to be seen if he can work his way back to health and a spot with an MLB team. Kubitza, also a pitcher, was a 2013 4th-rounder out of Rice who apparently flamed out a couple years after his 2015 Bowman Chrome auto was packed out. Lastly, Lugo's name is probably the most infamous to Tigers fans as he was half of the deplorable return for JD Martinez in a 2017 deal with Arizona. Here you see Dawel's 2019 Topps Chrome autograph, signed by a guy I actually got to see play in single-A ball for Lansing way back in 2015 when he was still in Toronto's system.

The final baseball items, which you saw way back in the first image of all the stuff together, are these 1977 Dover reprints. I actually snagged the book they came in (as panels) at some point, but it's very nice to have the singles as well. Both of these are reprints of 1912 Hassan Triple Folders, also known as T202 cards. The top one is "Ty Cobb Steals Third" starring the Georgia Peach and manager Hughie Jennings while the bottom is "Jim Delahanty at Bat" which includes that former Tiger (among other teams) from a big baseball family, and OF Davy Jones (get your "locker" jokes out of your system now), who appeared in parts of eight seasons with the Tigers. This is the only way I'll ever be able to afford anything that looks like one of these cards so they were a fun inclusion here.

The basketball content included RCs of two very notable Michigan hoopers, Juwan Howard and Glen Rice. I hope this year's squad can repeat the latter's heroics and win it all to cap a season that's going extremely well so far! Joining them is another big name, literally and figuratively. The late Robert "Tractor" Traylor was another Detroiter that starred at the program and went on to the NBA, resulting in some cool cards around the end of the 90s. Besides a very of-its-time UD Ionix RC, the '98-'99 Fleer Brilliants Illuminators insert looks fantastic, and believe you me, this scan does not do it justice!

And we'll close things out with football. Corum's Rams put up a good fight, but Fuji's Seahawks prevailed with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Not that I'm complaining since Seattle has a bunch of Michigan Football connections as well, and I'll be rooting for them in the Big Game in less than a couple weeks. As for the new card of Blake, it has a nice shot of him on his way to score again with the Wolverines so I love it.

He's joined by a guy Fuji knows quite well due to his time with the Packers: Charles Woodson. I believe Mark actually commented on a recent post of mine that he had some of these piled up with plans to send them my way, so that's likely what happened here, much to my benefit. I love the mix of designs and years, and of course that two of them (Panini Contenders Draft Picks) picture him with the '97 champs.

Fuji, thanks so much for this early year treat which I obviously enjoyed very much. I hope your return to the classroom has gone well and that you still manage to find some time to blog--you know I love those flea market recaps! And while we're at it, good luck to your Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

I should be back relatively soon with my second of three January trade posts. That's right, I received a third today just before the calendar flips! After that I'll cover my January show purchases, and then maybe I'll be caught up in time for next Friday's show. Wait, caught up? Is that even possible?

2025 TCDb trade roundup: July through December

Hi all, and welcome to what should be my final post for 2025! Or at least for now. I may go back and do a recap of my spending or something, but this post is the last one recapping cards I acquired last year.

As promised, I'm giving you a look at my TCDb trades and PIFs (pay-it-forwards) for the second half of the year. Back in August I ran through the ones I completed between January and April, and now you'll see those I got done starting in July after a bit of a trading hiatus.

There's a ton of images here representing something like 46 transactions so I'll be keeping my comments to a minimum. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments and sound off on your favorites, though.

Here we go!

158cf946-8d68-483a (TCDb Secret Santa):

This member may have a cryptic username that means nothing by me but his real name is Ross. He was the sender of my Secret Santa package last year and did an amazing job by picking out this six-pack of numbered Dean Palmers. Hailing from 2000 and 2001, the highest print run is just 99 and the lowest is 52. Wow! It was certainly a Merry Christmas for me and I had a blast participating in the event once again.

ablox (PIF):

 

 

avsbruins65 (PIF):

avsbruins65 (PIF--his own Secret Santa):

Mark is one of the best guys on the site especially when it comes to PIFs, and this second one was right around Christmas, as you probably guessed from the note. The Playoff chips are very cool and I was grateful to receive my 29th Griese hit in the form of a Topps Pristine jersey.

Barbeque Chicken:

bcmeeker:

1B Nate Holdren, a Michigan alum, joins the collection with one of the just nine to his name. The Rockies drafted him in 1993 but he never made it above AA.

Bigdaddymac25:

bigfocus:

Bob Warnell:

brad456:

budler:

chris_from_md:

deadhead11:

John from Minnesota, who's oddly enough a big Saints fan, is my top trade partner on the site as this was our sixth deal since I joined.

DeckedKey86:

Eggbert60:

Ericd3043:

There are lots of beautiful cards here but the one that needs some explanation is the 1986 Slurpee coin since you can only see Carlton Fisk in the image. He's joined by fellow catchers Tony Pena and, relevant for me, Lance Parrish. While I'm at it, Tram's DK card is a sample, and Kaline's Refractor is numbered /299.

greg_fantom:

hawkking:

Joe's another one of my site favorites. I needed to make a quick deal with him to acquire a few cards to add to a separate deal and scored these four for myself. I don't really collect Pistons cards but did need the 1980-81 leaders card you see as it's my first of Michigan guy Phil Hubbard.

heattreat:

horfin:

Another Michigan baseball guy joins the collection here in 2010 Reds draftee Chris Berset, a Wolverines catcher with just six minor league cards to chase. I also snagged my first relic (to go with a pair of autos) of All-Star Riley Greene.

imthegrinch:

jambieyes:

Lazy Amish:

LMCards17:

marcbrubaker:

Bru! Marc and I worked out a 65-for-55 deal, one of my biggest of the year, over the summer, and it went very well. He no longer blogs at Remember the Astrodome but I'm glad he's pretty active on TCDb because it was a blast trading with him.

mastodon:

In this deal the Carlson finished up the 2021 Topps '52 Topps Redux set that was nearly complete when I picked it up as part of a Facebook Marketplace lot, plus I nabbed a relic of Michigan/Rams RB Blake Corum, whose team is playing for a Super Bowl berth tomorrow.

Monkeyfeetmd:

myrke:

The item in the second scan here is a 1988 Topps box bottom which includes a pair of PC guys: Darrell Evans and Tony Gwynn. It's kind of a cool piece as it includes players from both 1984 pennant winners.

njavgjoe:

OfficerZero:

ravensray52:

This one kind of ended up being two deals in one shipment for us as I contacted this member, John, about the Sainristil auto after we agreed to the first transaction. I was glad we were able to work out a second one for my first hit of the '23 national champ, out of Topps Resurgence.

Revmrzac:

Ronsolo1:

Rooty10:

Royals417:

sgill08:

smitha1:

sparkchaser 41:

A couple quick notes here. First, the red Conlon card of the Killefer brothers added another Michigan Baseball guy to my collection: Wade, a.k.a. "Red," who played for both Purdue and the Wolverines in college. He appeared in seven MLB seasons with Detroit, Washington, Cincinnati, and the NY Giants. As for the last three items, they're fun oversized Coke/Kroger Tigers team cards.

Spinmove:

sues2blame (PIF):

Before the apparently retiring Hill was chosen for 2025 Topps Chrome Update and Heritage, this minor league card was his lone issue last year. It was snagged from a team set representing KC's AAA affiliate and sent to me very generously by Thomas from--you guessed it--Omaha. Hill did manage to appear in a couple games for the Royals, unfortunately losses for him, as he marked his 21st MLB campaign with his 14th team. If he's truly hanging 'em up, may the ageless wonder look back on his long career with pride.

TallestJord:

triplecrown:

Fellow Michigander (Muskegon) Matthew and I were able to put together a fun deal that would benefit us both since he was in need of the extra 2017 Tigers SGA team set I had, and he had some good matches for me. He even worked in a pair of autographs: an IP/TTM of current Piston Duncan Robinson plus a Leaf Metal high school card of now-former Michigan QB prospect Jadyn Davis. The latter came in as a fairly well regarded four-star but barely played despite a number of opportunities, and it seems like the scouting on him was a bit too optimistic. Still, I'm glad to add him to my football collection!

Wax_Nostalgic:

wayneh59:

woodmangb:

ymmat:

I've mentioned a few other favorites in this post so I'll call out this Joe as well. We've done a few transactions and PIFs and I'm always glad when we can do so. Here you see a mix of what I picked plus a few surprises, like the Norris auto and Keith Primeau at the end. There's a reason the dude has 3300+ trades and 100% feedback!

That was definitely a huge stack of cards that I got to show off, though I've long since put them away. Before I sign off on this post, just a quick update on some of the baseball sets I'm working on that you saw throughout this post:

• 1990 Swell Greats: need 7 more
• 1991 Swell Greats: need 14 more
• 1995 Finest: need 19 more
• 1996 Flair (both Silver and Gold): need 11 more
• 2015 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. 2632: need 1 more
• 2024 Topps Celebration of the Kid: need 16 more

Besides those I was happy to add to a bunch of my player collections in multiple sports, including Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken, Barry Larkin, Rich Hill, and yes, too many Grandersons and Verlanders! I knocked off some more cards in my never-ending chase for Michigan Football RCs and added a few hits as well. And as I continue my foray into player collecting, I added a bunch of new subjects to my collection, with a project focusing on that possibly upcoming. It was another productive and entertaining year of trading as I crossed the 200-mark and made 55 deals (not including PIFs and the like), good for my second best year after 76 in 2022.

Hopefully I'll be back at it again in 2026 soon with an updated tradelist and renewed energy.

Thanks again to everyone for a fantastic 2025 in the hobby and on this blog, and I'll be back soon to kick off 2026!