2020 trade package #23: Wes Moore, the Pancake King

Wes, formerly of Jaybarkerfan's Junk and Willinghammer Rising (not sure if I'm missing any others) is most definitely one of the all-time greats of the trading community. His trade packages are the stuff of legend, and I remember being floored by his undefeated record in trade "wars" with some of the bloggers I love to follow. That kind of generosity is exactly what trading is all about and my favorite part of the blogging experience.

That said, I've never traded with Wes myself. Given his propensity to trade in your favor to the extreme, that might be a good thing for me, since I usually try to make an effort to send more than I'm receiving. I already do a bit of higher-end trading with a couple folks, so that would have been a war on at least three fronts that I couldn't have managed.

Thankfully Wes's trademark generosity is still on display, but in much more manageable form. After he revealed himself to be the famed Pancake King, filling up mailboxes once again, he started on a new effort, sending out mass amounts of PWEs. That's a great, affordable way to get cards in the hands of collectors that will appreciate them, which is pretty much his M.O. Maybe his constant resupply of stamps will help offset the deliberate sabotage of the USPS by Trump and his lackeys.

Anyway, since I was aware of all of the above, I was excited to pop open such an envelope a week or two ago and see the above calling card, easily one of the best things to come out of the blogging/trading world lately. I can now say that I've joined the club of those who've been stacked!

Here's the card Wes included:

Very cool of a fellow college collector to be aware of one of my team's alumni since he's pictured with the pro team that snagged him in the draft. What you see above is Michigan/Jets RB/FB B.J. Askew's RC from 2003 SPx (#0653/1500). It only took a few years for Upper Deck to go away from the die-cut/hologram parallel from its first couple products, but as this card makes abundantly clear, UD was very intent on distinguishing this set one way or another!

Askew was fun to watch in Ann Arbor during his 1999-2002 tenure, with most of his action coming over his last two seasons due to playing in the shadow of all-time back Anthony Thomas. 2001 (my freshman year) was his best as he went off for over 1000 rushing yards on the way to 11 TDs (10 on the ground). He then took a back seat to another star in Chris Perry the year he graduated, but was still fairly productive, enough so that the Jets snagged him in the third round. His limited pro career was nothing to write home about, but as always I love picking up cards of the less heralded guys, much less anything any everything of former UM football players.

Wes, thanks for including me in your latest pancake stacking! I'll have to see if I can't return the favor, or at least try to pay it forward in your honor.