2018 trade package #23: Sport Card Collectors

I'm thrilled to have a pair of trade packages to show off today.  You can find one of those, an in-person deal with Jeff of My Sports Obsession in which he handed me a card before we headed to the Michigan/Maryland game, on TMM this evening.

And the other is the star of this post, which is another PWE party thanks to that type of envelope arriving from buddy of the blog Matt of Sport Card Collectors.  This is the sixth time he's been nice enough to surprise me with a PWE, one that included some Tigers and more:

A PWE doesn't offer enough room to go from "A" to "Z", but "B" to "G" isn't bad when it's a group like this!  Bondo appears on a 2004 Topps Cracker Jack Mini, one that rightly explains that he was "rushed into action in 2003", something that definitely explains his 19 losses that season.  The team screwed him out of quality development while injuries shortened his career, but at least he got to enjoy that magical 2006 season.

Moving on to pitchers still in the franchise's system, we have 2017 first-rounder (#18 overall) Alex Faedo.  The righty for Florida recovered from knee surgery to earn the MVP of the CWS, which his Gators won.  My first card of his is this 2018 Bowman High Tek, and I'll guess the pattern is "Dots Bow-Tie", maybe?

Meanwhile Fulmer had a season to forget on a terrible 2018 team, going 3-12 over 24 starts during a year when his health didn't exactly help his results.  You won't see me giving up on him anytime soon, though, and I hope he comes back en fuego in 2019 like his 2017 Topps Fire Gold Minted parallel.

Last up for the Tigers is 2018 playoff participant Curtis Granderson.  I couldn't be happier for the Grandyman that he's back in the postseason for the eighth time after heading to the Brewers from the Jays.  With the Yankees happily eliminated the only team I'll generally be rooting against is Boston (though they do have a few former Tigers too), so I wouldn't mind seeing this here blog's former namesake get a third shot at a ring after missing out on two others.  That would be a Piece of History, like the UD brand of the Stadium Scenes insert above (#495/999).

And as if that wasn't good enough Matt did more damage to my Clayton Richard checklist in a repeat of the cards he sent me in August.  In both cases I ended up with cards from 2018 Gypsy Queen and flagship parallels, and that means SCC is responsible for all four of the Richard cards I currently own from this year.

This time the GQ card is an Indigo parallel (#201/250), and that ends up being a fairly nice color to use.  Of course, I would have called it "blue", but that's my limited color vocabulary for you.  Meanwhile the new flagship card is the Rainbow Foil parallel, which pairs nicely with the Factory Set Foilboard card he was nice enough to flip me a couple months ago.

Counting new releases my latest Richard checklist comprises 199 cards and this duo gets me up to 118 of those (and 128 overall), including four of 31 so far in 2018.

Once again thanks a ton, Matt, for a fun and productive surprise PWE!  I've got a few things in-hand for you from recent shows and when I can fill out an envelope a bit more I'll be returning the favor; Giants and Griffeys may be involved....