2019 trade package #18: Cards on Cards

Michigan Baseball's magical run to the College World Series ended in defeat after opening the three-game finals with a victory over Vanderbilt.  Still, it was an amazing season with some fun wins over heavily favored teams, and a terrific job by a northern team to exceed expectations.  Here's hoping that momentum carries over next year and beyond!

Speaking of baseball and Michigan, I've got lots of great stuff to show off from Kerry of Cards on Cards, focusing heavily on that sport and the state's MLB team, the Tigers.  Kerry's another of my favorites to deal with as we're fellow MLB/college collectors, so he has a great idea of what to send, and as usual he killed it with a surprise package I finally scanned to show off today:

Miggy gets his own corner here with a 2018 Pink Refractor the star of the group.  Cecil Fielder's '95 Finest insert makes for another strong corner, and his 319 career homers (245 with Detroit) make him a natural fit in a set called "Wrecking Crew".  Chipper definitely outperformed Fryman, who had a solid career of his own, so the pair looks pretty decent on Bowman's Best's '94 debut.  The Fulmer trio will make for nice additions to his collections, including the birthday Refractor.

Iglesias and McCann are hitters starring for other teams now that they don't have Lloyd "hack at everything" McClendon sabotaging their swings, and the former appears on a GQ parallel numbered /250.  Mr. Tiger is more than welcome to hitch a ride in any trade package that heads my way.  Thompson was an interesting prospect that couldn't overcome injury.  The next few youngsters could very well become stars, though:  Cameron (who came over in the Verlander trade), Lugo (J.D. Martinez), to a lesser extent, and 2016 #9 overall pick Manning, plus current LF Christin Stewart, who's certainly had his ups and downs.

Here's a few more prospect types and misc. players.  Jeimer homered twice in the game I made it to with Paul this past Saturday/Sunday (more on that later, probably).  I'd have taken the Juan Gonzalez you see above over the crabby vet any day.  I hope some of you caught Jones' terrific catch on the highlight reels a couple weeks ago.  Zimmermann started that Saturday game I just mentioned, and it went exactly the way you'd expect.

Impending former Tiger and defense-ophobic RF Nicholas Castellanos gets his own scan since Kerry hit me up with so much new stuff of him.  The Archives and Big League stuff is cool, but you can't go wrong with the bookends!  One is a 2018 Refractor (those keep popping up today!) and the other is a new jersey relic from last year's Topps flagship.  I give him plenty of crap but I know I'll miss him when he leaves, especially since he'll immediately start hitting like gangbusters for whoever acquires him.

Now that the Tigers have (mostly) been covered, let's check out the bunch of player collections Kerry hit in this huge stack of cards.  First up is Jim Abbott on a 2011 Panini Limited card (#133/299) and 2013 GQ Black Mini (#070/199).  I actually already have the autographed version of the Limited card so it'll be cool to keep them side-by-side.  By the way, Abbott is quietly marching his way to 300 cards with a new total of 269.

Maybe it's a good thing I took so long to write up this post because it's All-Star week, and who better to represent the Midsummer Classic than Griffey?  The first in this duo is a 1992 Score/Proctor & Gamble dual effort while the other is a surprisingly cool manurelic, a medallion offered in 2015 Topps factory sets (one of several you could find).  Both focus on Junior starring in the '92 AL/NL matchup, in which he was named MVP after going 3-3 with a double and solo homer, off Greg Maddux, no less!  The AL roasted the senior circuit 13-6, and now I have another reminder of Griffey's contribution to that game.

Here's another perennial All-Star and the most well represented guy in the envelope, Cal Ripken Jr.  There's lots of new stuff here for me to enjoy, especially the '95 Score Summit trio up top.  The '98 Fleer subset right down the middle and Topps Gold Label base bring back good memories of some excellent designs.  And that Donruss/Optic trio on the bottom corners looks pretty sharp too!

The pair of 2018 Topps-branded issues here are nice enough, but I absolutely love the two horizontal inserts that were made 20 years apart.  "Etch-a-Sketch" was a fun idea for an insert made up of pieces created on the iconic toy by a very talented (and/or bored) dude, inserted in 1998 flagship.  I think I may have one other card from this set in my collection (Maddux), so this was a direct hit for Kerry.  It's joined by 2018 Stadium Club's return to one of that name's best looks:  Chrome.  I thought the standalone products were amazing and think they need to come back immediately, other than the fact that Topps would continue to price collectors like me out of buying it.  That's ok, I'll enjoy what I have like this one thanks to this package.

Still here?  Great, we're almost done!  The last of the baseball portion is this sextet of this guy I used to watch pitch for the Tigers.  Intentionally or not Kerry gave me a nice split of Panini and Topps, with the former well represented by Diamond Kings and a Red flagship parallel, and the latter helmed by the other relic in this balanced and effective envelope:  a Verlander jersey from 2018 Topps Update.  Coincidentally enough, that one also celebrates the All-Star Game, which Justin will attend tomorrow for the eighth time.  Some quick math has me thinking that's Verlander hit #28 for me, which, while not too many, is a pretty nice number!

I felt like I had to use the word "balanced" to describe this generous envelope of stuff because Kerry already hit both my Tigers collection and other baseball PCs, then piled on some Michigan Football stuff as well.  Better yet, six of these eight are Michigan uniform cards!

Former #1 WR Derrick Alexander stars on a sweet Fleer insert where he appears to be outrunning Armageddon.  DB Leon Hall--who I can't believe is still hanging around the NFL--gets a Stan Lee-like four cameos thanks to Press Pass and Topps Draft, with the last card you see being a Chrome Bronze parallel found in the latter.  Fellow defensive star LaMarr Woodley also appears on a RC courtesy of the same product.  

I was excited to see current coach Jim Harbaugh on a '98 Collector's Edge Masters base because I'll happily take anything of the former gunslinger, but especially a foil-heavy numbered card (#0233/5000) from my favorite decade.  And last but certainly not least is probably my biggest surprise of the bunch:  a Braylon Edwards auto from Panini's 2011 Playbook (#87/99).  That's how you score some major brownie points with me, I'll tell you what.  His 82nd hit (and 15th that includes a signature) puts him back in a tie with Jake Long for third place in my football hits collection, and I'm definitely thrilled to boost the number of autographs in that group!

Kerry, thanks a ton for this spectacular mix of cardboard, fabric, ink, and other assorted materials--it's truly one of the best I've received this year!  Fortunately I found a couple things for you at this past Saturday's show, so maybe I'll be able to respond in kind soon.

Y'all should stay tuned for a few more trade packages (seriously, I can't keep up with them because you're all awesome, plus I'm lazy), plus show pickups and COMC loot.