2026 TCDb trades: pair of PIFs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2/6/26 card show report: February fun

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2026 trade package #6: Johnny's Trading Spot

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2026 trade package #5: Batting Out of Order

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2026 trade package #4: My Sports Obsession

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back "soon" with another trade recap!

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!