2019 trade package #37: Baseball Card Breakdown

I'm back today with another Christmas package after having acquired a ton of new stuff since the last time I posted.  That's thanks to hitting up my second show of the month with Paul that included cards from him, more from a TCDB member we met up with there, plus my purchases.  I'll have no shortage of content going into the new year so who knows when I'll be caught up on 2019 pickups?

Well, one post at a time, anyway.  Today's is your yearly reminder that it wouldn't be Christmas without 12/24 birthday boy Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown.  The holiday enthusiast really makes the season special with his collection of cards numbered 12/24 and 12/25, fun customs, and more, plus he embodies the spirit of Christmas with all the great stuff he includes in each package.

Here's what I got in this Christmas envelope:

Custom ornament!  This one is so subtle I bet you'd be hard pressed to tell Gavin did anything to it.  I love it when he numbers his creations like this one (1/9!), and the choice of player was certainly inspired.  At some point I'm going to create an album for all the custom stuff he's sent me since his hard work deserves to be shown off somehow.

This was mostly a Tigers package which, despite their records the last few years, was a good thing.  The first two cards you see here appear to be from a 1990 Star team set of the Lakeland Tigers (now the Flying Tigers!), Detroit's A+ squad.  Cruz got cups of coffee with three teams in the late 90s/early 2000s while Hurst seems to have washed out of pro ball after 1993.  My collection of Tigers Minor League stuff is paltry so I'll likely keep these.

Then we have a nice bonanza of colorful inserts, some of them numbered.  Gillies' is a 2012 Bowman Draft Orange /250; Jones is a Bowman Prospects Orange from the previous year; Kivett appears on a 2014 Prizm Draft Prizms Blue Mojo parallel /75; Rodland's last pro season was 2006, when his Bowman Gold parallel was released; Sanchez comes from Gavin's beloved 2004 Topps Chrome Black Refractor set; the well-traveled Turner is here by way of a 2011 Bowman Chrome Prospects Green X-Fractor; and the most notable guy here is Joel "Zoom-Zoom" Zumaya on a 2004 Topps Traded Gold parallel /2004.  Cool!

And more Tigers, of the star variety.  I thought I might have nabbed Kell's beautiful 2009 Topps Tribute base from Sportlots earlier this year but was happy to find that I needed it, so thanks to Gavin for that!  J.D. is still mashing dingers elsewhere but I continue to appreciate his career resurgence in Detroit.  And then there's five many Verlanders, three of which were new to me:  2007 Topps All-Star Rookie Team, 2009 UD Signature Stars Blue (#039/170) and 2018 Donruss Dominators (#372/999).  The Topps card is a design I actually like and of course I'm a big fan of the Donruss insert as a throwback to one of its old chase cards.  Plus it's very cool getting a pair of new numbered JVs while also pushing his collection a bit closer to 400.

Now here's a nice stocking stuffer!  If you follow Gavin at all you know he's big on Topps Retired Signature autos, especially the 2004 version of which he has an incredible collection.  He's been generous enough to send me a few cards from around then and this time was nice enough to include this 2005 autograph of '68 Tiger great Denny McLain.  These uncirculated autos look terrific on that Chrome design and I love adding them when I can.  Better yet, this is just my second McLain auto, and the better of the two, so I really appreciate Gavin including it here.

We started this post with a custom and we'll finish with one.  I love to laud his creative abilities because the quality speaks for itself, and here's a great example.  I was floored to see this handmade card of Michigan Football DC Don Brown among the rest of the cards.  Honestly, who else would make their own card of the defensive coordinator of a college they don't care about?  The design is great and Gavin did a great job with the write-up on the back.  The only minor flaw is Don's name being misspelled "Dan" on the front and back which I totally understand since, as I pointed out to Gavin, who can name the DC on some random college team?

Thanks again, Gavin, for a great way to celebrate Christmas.  I'm glad you liked the package I sent you and love that you picked up a huge white whale of a card for your yearly big purchase!

Lots more to come from the mailbox and elsewhere soon!