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!

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.