2020 trade package #5: My Sports Obsession

It's certainly been an interesting couple of weeks, to say the least, but I'm finally back today with a new post after once again using a lot of my card time on TCDB (with positive results!).

Today's post is brought to you by buddy of the blog Jeff who runs My Sports Obsession.  He's another one of those guys that's great to trade with since we have a bunch of PCs in common, including Jim Abbott, Barry Larkin, Cal Ripken Jr., and all Michigan Wolverines--all of which you'll get to see in this here post!

Jeff sent me a nice bubble mailer stuffed with goodies a couple weeks ago, hitting three of the major sports and multiple collections:

I mean, I said Abbott, Larkin, and Ripken, right?  The '97 Pacific of Barry in the middle of the top row brings me back to buying a few packs of that product back then, so while the design isn't one of my favorites I like it for the nostalgia factor.  And I was surprised to find that I needed all four Cal cards you see up there, with my favorite being the '93 Ultra.  That gives you a good look at the beginnings of some manufacturers dragging themselves out of the dark ages of junk wax designs.

Moving over to basketball we get our first Michigan uni card thanks to a sweet insert of of program legend Trey Burke out of Contenders, followed by a Prizm parallel of him.  Panini's also responsible for a great overhead shot of THJ going to the rim.  Speaking of Junior Hardaway, Jeff was nice enough to toss in a 2018-19 Prizm jersey relic of him (just my fourth, and 7th hit overall), plus a cool purple Kings swatch of Sauce Castillo (4th, 9th) from Hoops.  He's skilled at finding good deals and doesn't mind ending up with dupes as he can often send them to me (and vice versa) which, again, makes him an ideal trade partner for me.

Football part 1 is this great looking bunch with even more Wolverines uniform love.  Crable didn't end up on a ton of cards but the lesser-known '08 draftee did make it to an Upper Deck Starquest insert that year.  Former #1 Devin Funchess looks just fine in Refractor form with Orange and original flavors of his '15 Topps Chrome RC.  RB Karan Higdon went undrafted and doesn't have much cardboard either so that 2019 Contenders Draft insert is much appreciated.  Big Mo Hurst's 2018 Prestige base is a sight for sore eyes as it knocks another RC off his list, plus it's yet another nice college action card.  Talented jackass LT Taylor Lewan makes two 2014 Bowman insert appearances with a Black parallel and '50 Bowman card.  And do-everything dude Peppers comes in with a pair of cards I accidentally scanned in reverse:  '18 Contenders Draft (awesome design and college uniform!) and '17 Donruss RC, another one I can cross off the list!

This nice little blowout ends things with a bang.  First is a great Shoelace four-pack, including his 2013 Select RC--which leaves me chasing just the retail version of his Absolute RC--plus one of his two SAGE HIT base cards I somehow didn't have.  SAGE has its ups and downs but that one looks good in my book partly because I don't think anything got airbrushed.

Then we move on to even more hits.  I'll start with the super cool Channing Stribling Elite auto as it worked well scanning it next to Denard's horizontal offering.  I came home from a show last May with my first signature of the DB, but this Elite Draft Status Die Cut Purple is undoubtedly cooler, so I really have to thank Jeff for sending it my way.  Next is a nice jersey relic of WR Amara Darboh from 2017 Certified on a design that's fairly typical of the brand--which I say as a positive.  I believe both of our Darboh collections skew heavily toward the hit side, which is a cool situation.

If that 2017 Contenders Draft Ryan Glasgow auto looks familiar, that's because Fuji sent me the Blue Foil parallel that I posted earlier this month, and now I've got the base version to add, which is outstanding.  I really value brands like this (and the occasional SAGE and Leaf product) for producing autos of guys that likely wouldn't get any, especially when it comes to those who play defense.  A higher drafted DL that did appear on a nice number of hits his rookie year and then pretty much nothing else, Mike Martin, closes out the post with a 2012 Gridiron Rookie Autographs X's signature /499.  It's definitely been a good while since I called his name on either of my blogs, but this does give him a solid 14 hits (all autos) to his name.

Speaking of numbers, before I end things today so I can get to the growing backlog of things to be posted, I want to thank Jeff for sending me the Michigan Football hits that put me over the 1500-card milestone!  According to the Google Sheet I use to track everything, I now count 1501 different relics/autos/plates/more of 225 total players in that collection, numbers that continue to boggle my mind as they grow.  As I like to do whenever I announce these marks, I want to say thank you to all who have contributed to that collection through the generosity of your trades, making this experience even more rewarding (not to mention more affordable)!

And again, a big thanks to Jeff for sending another kick-ass trade package my way.  Jeff I have a very nice stack of stuff to send you at some point so I'm looking forward to returning the favor.

I'm also hoping to cover all the new stuff that's ended up on my card desk over the last few weeks before it gets overwhelming, so stay tuned!