Speaking of 2020 let's open up the year with a trade post as I continue to catch up on 2019 acquisitions. I'm going chronologically--in the order these envelopes arrived--and I love that I get to start 2020 off with a bang. Kerry of Cards on Cards sent me one of the finest packages I've ever received, which is saying something considering some of the gems that made their way to me from some of the greats of blogging.
As Kerry celebrates Oregon's thrilling Rose Bowl win, enjoy this celebration of some of my favorite collections!
We'll open things today with an eight pack of future Tigers. These hail from 2019 Topps Pro Debut and pretty much every guy is in the team's 20 prospect rankings. Pitchers Manning and Mize are the jewels of the organization and could form a killer 1-2 in the rotation if both beat the odds and reach their potential. It's also nice that a few offensive prospects are rated highly since the team could use them ASAP, such as outfielders Cameron and Meadows.
And some more Tigers of the near future and/or now. Boyd may not be long for Detroit if they can get a good haul for him (sorry, John!), and Greiner hasn't shown much, but we should see a good amount of the others, such as Paul's dude JaCoby Jones. Kerry tossed in another Mize to bolster his tiny collection.
Speaking of current Tigers, here's a nice five-pack of LF Christin Stewart, who hopefully has a better season this year because he could be a mainstay here for years. Between what Kerry sent me and what I already had I finally felt like I had enough Stewarts to enter them on TCDB and came up with a total of 15 thus far. Not bad! My favorite is the Panini Chronicles card that reuses an older Certified look that I've always loved.
I was able to pair up most of Miggy's cards with those of free agent Nicholas Castellanos in one scan, and that made me think I should look up how well they did as teammates. From 2013 until Nick was traded last season, they combined for 260 HR, 995 RBI, and 27.9 bWAR. This bunch of (mostly) 2019 cards is a great reminder of how much fun they were together. The Cabreras also pushed him past the 300-card mark, which is awesome. Donruss' Optic is a highlight here multiple times.
I challenge you to find one boring scan in this post, just one. Can't do it, can you? This one includes some nice base of some important Tigers from the aughts, Ty Cobb, a numbered Torii Hunter, and two fun McLain inserts. 2013 Hometown Heroes is one of Panini's best products of the last decade and I liked both cards you see here: the stamped States parallel, and even more so, the round Sportdiscs lenticular insert. I've had my eye on Jim Abbott's card from the latter and now I really want it having seen this McLain in-hand.
Here we'll finish up with the non-PC Tigers. The Miggy is from 2015 Prizm and is numbered /100 which is pretty sweet. I also checked J.D.'s and V-Mart's combined Tigers stats and came up with 214 HR, 825 RBI, and 21 bWAR (though as opposed to Miggy and Nick, I combined their entire Tigers careers, not just the years they coincided). Soto is another potential future piece and I'm not sure why I didn't include him in one of the earlier scans. And lastly, Kerry surprised me with a pair of Miggy jersey relics from 2017 Topps flagship--one from each series. It looks like these give me 15 hits of one of the greats of the past decade, broken down into three autos, 10 relics, and a manurelic. Not bad at all!
The Tigers half was outstanding but where things got really interesting for me was how well Kerry hit my player collections. I'm not sure if he took the time to check my wants via my PCs page, or on TCDB, or what, but he managed to hit a ton of players with new stuff, and I needed every last card you'll see, starting with this bunch.
The Abbott is the same Hometown Heroes States parallel you saw above, and I really like it, though it would have been fun, as I usually say, for "hometown" to refer to that player's birthplace, meaning Abbott could have had a Michigan stamp himself. All three cards of Astros pitching prospect Adcock from 2016 Bowman Draft/Chrome are new--Refractor, Sky Blue Refractor, and Silver (/499)--and give him a nice bump. Granderson and Griffey appear on 2019 Topps-branded base, with Junior a single card away from 900! I claimed the 2019 Topps Walgreens Yellow parallel of Hill after Kerry pulled one back in November because I'm your friendly neighborhood Hill supercollector! And the LaMarre 2016 Topps Gold parallel is the first of his I've added in a long, long time, getting me up to 30 of 54 cards I've got checklisted for now.
I can't emphasize enough how impressed I am with what Kerry picked out here because not only did I need everything in these scans, but they're also not just a handful of common base cards I can check off of a list. This group is a great example, beginning with a trio of Hal Morris issues: an '89 minors card, '95 Pinnacle Nth Degree parallel, and an oddly named '98 Pacific variation called Red Threatt (the extra "T" is for "threat!"). Putnam finally gets a new addition thanks to the beautiful 2017 Topps Chrome Sapphire Edition and its beautiful blue background. Putz gets an insanely nice triple play of 2005 Prestige Xtra Bases Red (/150), 2006 Upper Deck Gold (/299), and 2007 Upper Deck Predictor Blue (the last of the Predictor versions I needed!). And lastly in this scan is a 2009 Topps 206 base of George Sisler that I thought I had until I found out this was a short print--wow!
With this scan we're almost done with the baseball stuff in the package. The first six star PC leader Cal Ripken Jr., who stands alone in consecutive games played and cards in my collection (the latter number: 946). I have to say that the Gallery Preview up top looks quite nice, even if much of the artwork in the final product wasn't really up to par. The other three cards here are of blog namesake guy Justin Verlander-Upton. While the 2019 issues are nice enough I'm oddly a fan of the 2009 Topps card since it's the Target parallel with the cool retro back texture. I don't like the idea of retail exclusives at all but at least once in a while the execution is good. Justin gets up to an almost milestone-worth 396 items.
I saved the best of the baseball stuff for last because I was floored to find these two cards in the package. On the left is a 2009 Topps 206 Mini Framed auto of former blog namesake guy Curtis Granderson. As I always say, these mini framed cards look terrific and Grandy's is no exception. The artwork does a great job of capturing his enthusiasm and joy for the game, and I would love to see him return to Motown to mentor some of the young players on the team. Anyway, well done by Kerry to surprise me with my 10th Granderson hit and third auto. In case you were wondering, I still don't have too many!
The other card is one I'm also very excited about as it's just my second of Michigan pitcher Karl Kauffmann, and this one's even cooler as it's a Wolverines uni shot. A few different Michigan draftees made it into several Panini-branded products in 2019 and I'm looking forward to capitalizing on those, though fortunately I didn't have to wait thanks to Kerry's generosity. This 2019 Prizm Draft auto looks great, and if it's a sign of things to come then I think I'm going to enjoy chasing more of the 2019 College World Series runners-up!
That's right, we're still not done because there's still football stuff to get to! The '95 Finest Everitt is the other card in this post that I asked Kerry about and again he was nice enough to send it my way. Few Michigan fans can top his level of intensity in supporting the maize & blue, I'll tell you that much. As for Jake Ryan's card, the 2015 Crown Royale base is his lone RC that qualifies for my Rookie Blue project (his other rookie is an autograph), so I can cross his name off the list and continue hoping that he can stay healthy long enough to earn himself a good shot in the league.
Everything else in the scan features one of my larger football PCs, especially in terms of hits, Jake Long. The first two are 2008 Panini brand inserts from Rookies & Stars and Contenders, and they both bring that signature Panini shininess (and numbering-- /1000 and /500, respectively) from the late aughts that gets me every time. Blue is a great color for a parallel version of an insert, such as the Icons card, also numbered (/250). And my favorite Oregon fan even threw in a relic I could have sworn I had (but didn't) out of 2008 Bowman, highlighting that year's #1 overall pick. That brings him up to 84 hits, good for fourth behind Henne, Manningham, and Braylon.
I was able to give our last subject of the day his own scan, even if I noticed later that I didn't remotely put these on the scanner in any sort of order (and didn't feel like fixing it). WR Amani Toomer's career spanned a good run in the hobby meaning he earned a ton of cardboard appearances, and Kerry didn't disappoint with these six. There's Ultra Gold Medallion parallels from 2006 (the die-cut one) and 2006, plus numbered parallels in the form of a 2001 Pacific Impressions Hobby Red Backs (/280) and 2008 Bowman Blue (/500). Yep, the former is pretty much as described with all text and effects on the back in red. And after a 2006 Turkey Red base we get to the day's final surprise, a 2004 Prestige Game Day jersey of the Super Bowl-winning wideout. It's pretty much right in my wheelhouse in terms of the kind of thing I'd be chasing on COMC and it marks his 25th hit, making him the 16th football player to reach that mark.
Kerry, I can't thank you enough for the obvious effort you put into such an incredible trade package other than to say that you more than earned the last couple envelopes I sent your way! Enjoy the afterglow of your guys' Rose Bowl win as you await St. Louis' Spring Training date and I'll work on putting together a return when I can.
The rest of you can stay tuned for two more trade packages (one in-person!) plus a larger than expected show haul from the end of last month, and possibly another show report from my usual monthly location I'll likely hit up on Saturday.
A lot of these were actually in my collection, but it was definitely supplemented with some key purchases since you have sent me so many great Ducks cards lately. The Sisler SP was sent to me by someone with good intentions, of course, because it says "ST. LOUIS NAT'L" on the front for some weird reason. The non-SP correctly lists his team as the AL one.
ReplyDeleteWell thanks again! That works for me. I'm looking forward to seeing your post on the stuff I sent for Christmas (unless you're saving it for next football season!).
DeleteMan I enjoyed pulling cards of Toomer back in the late 90's. I stocked up on him right up until I dumped my collection in 2001.
ReplyDeleteFun name, fun player (if a bit too overcritical of Michigan these days). That was a great time to be collecting and pulling his cards!
DeleteI was just hoping we'd make a game out of it, which we did, in the 1st half.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to look up those prizm draft cards.
Yeah, the game plan was good for a while. Maybe we'll be hanging with teams like them before long. Do check out this year's Prizm Draft and Elite products for Michigan uni cards!
DeleteI never realized they used the same pic for those two Stewie cards.
ReplyDeleteApparently so! What, you want Topps putting effort into their products now?
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