2020 trade package #17: Cards on Cards

Would you believe I'm capable of same-day service? I used to get trade packages posted within a day or two, but laziness and other stuff have caused me to get out of that habit. Fortunately today I'm showing off a new envelope hot out of the mailbox. This one comes from Kerry over at Cards on Cards, and just a month after the last one he sent me! The Cardinals/Ducks fan had some Tigers group break loot along with a few odds and ends for me, and I'm definitely glad he was nice enough to send them all the way across the country.

The biggest bunch of cards, about one-and-a-half scans worth, came out of 2019 Bowman Heritage. I remember older versions of the brand but I'll be honest, I didn't realize they were made in 2019. They look quite nice, though, even sans names up front. Kerry sent me one member of the veterans/rookies portion of the set, IF Dawel Lugo, who you see right down the middle. Surrounding him are seven of the eight Tigers found in the prospects set, with only OF Daz Cameron missing (we'll get to him in a minute). They include, in order: P Beau Burrows, OF Jose De La Cruz, P Alex Faedo, P Matt Manning, P Casey Mize, P Franklin Perez, and P Joey Wentz.

All of those guys appear on MLB's list of Detroit's top 30 prospects, and I was familiar with each except De La Cruz, who appears to have been an international signing. The system can use all the bats it can get right now, though the draft seems to have gone a long way towards that goal. Mize and Manning are pretty much 1a and 1b right now, and I hope both eventually slot in toward the top of the rotation. Speaking of Mize, the last card in this scan is his Black and White parallel, the only non-Chrome parallel I saw listed on TCDB.

Here's the back of Burrows' card to give you a better feel for the design. It's a fairly classic vintage Topps back. You'll notice that the cards in this group are numbered "53P-#" while the vets/rookies go with "53VR-#".

Here we finish off the Heritage run with some Chrome goodness. Pitchers Manning, Mize, and Wentz return in base Chrome form (numbered "53CP-#", take a guess what the "C" is for), and then we finally get to Cameron on a beautiful Yellow Chrome Refractor (#10/75). Given Topps' recent flagship designs it appears I was wrong to complain about borders because they make Refractors so much nicer looking and easier to distinguish. The mirror finish on this Refractor is great and the yellow border really stands out.

Moving on to the other group break cards we have a quintet of '20 Gypsy Queen. Kerry indicated that he ended up with these by accident so I think he scored some good karma by sending them to a Tigers fan. Lugo makes another appearance and he's flanked by IF prospect Willi Castro, potential closer Joe Jimenez, Rule 5 OF Victor Reyes, and young C Jake Rogers. These represent just under half of the non-SPed team set.

The last group of this perfect three scan package is a mix of Tigers and a few other guys I collect. John's guy Boyd's from the very shiny 2020 version of Select, and I happen to know he's got a few colorful parallels from this beauty of a set. All three Miggy cards from from 2019 Donruss products: a flagship pink parallel and a couple die-cut cards from Leather & Lumber which really look sharp! Paul's guy JaCoby hails from another Panini product--2017 Absolute (it's a blue parallel). Griffey's actually on the back of a 2020 Donruss card, and you'll see the front in just a second. Cal's a super shiny 2005 Leaf Certified Materials base that I'm excited to have. And JV represents the Trashtros on one of his 2019 Donruss base variations and a 2020 Topps Sticker where he's also the back side.

Allen's the front man on the Griffey card, and I had to flip through TCDB before figuring out that this is a 2020 Donruss insert called American Pride, and that this exact version is a parallel called "Rapture." Panini, I love you, but WTF is up with the names of your parallels, which you often don't even distinguish with serial numbering? Anyway, Niko being up front on the Topps Sticker he shares with Verlander was a nice little bonus.

Kerry, thanks for this cool surprise package stocked with a bunch of all-new stuff for me! I have a fat stack of stuff to send back your way and I'm pretty excited about a few items, so I may have to get that out on the Oregon trail very soon.