2020 trade package #28: Sport Card Collectors

It's PWE time once again here at TMV, and as is often the case when that acronym for cheap and easy mailing is invoked, it's Matt of Sport Card Collectors who's responsible. According to my trade log this is the 25th time I've posted cards from him, and I believe all but one of those trades came in the plainest and whitest of envelopes. Way to hit the quarter century mark, Matt! Oh, and good news: this didn't take weeks to arrive, which is consistent with the better mail service I've had overall lately.

Here's what he sent this time:

I can't say I smile as much when Miggy comes up to hit these days, but after a rough August he's had a few good games as he continues his climb toward the 3000 hit/500 HR club. He's 144 and 17 short, respectively, and his overall career has been a Masterpiece, just like that 2019 Topps Gallery insert.

The next card, a 2019 Topps Archives base, brings two iconic looks together: the colorful design of 1975 Topps and the man of the 90s, Ken Griffey Jr., with his hat backwards. This is a great new piece in my collection of Junior, which is 950+ items and counting as he races Cal (the likely winner) to be the first member of my 1000-card PC.

Speaking of good looking Topps stuff, how can you go wrong when combining cards with magazine covers? This Barry Larkin insert also came out of last year's Archives and looks like it could have been a reprint of the real thing, though that doesn't appear to be the case. The magazine look worked very well for Fleer and Sports Illustrated (back before the latter became a parody of itself as it is now) and I'd say that Topps succeeded as well.

Matt managed to hit both the Griffey collection we share as well as my blog title guy, and in this case he even sent me two many Verlanders. The first one sticks with the 2019 Topps Theme, in this case a GQ Fortune Teller mini insert. "Mini" is somewhat the opposite of both Verlander and the card thanks to its standard height, as opposed to other inserts of that type. The back predicts that he'll reach the 3000 strikeout mark in 2019, which he did about a year ago. That's joined by a 2020 Panini Prizm Purple Prizm parallel, which looks quite nice in general but annoys me a bit because there's so many different versions that are difficult to tell apart (and some that have ridiculous and/or vague titles). Still, ooooooh, shiny!

Last up today is a somewhat surprising football addition. Devin Bush (Jr. or II, whichever you prefer) was an absolute terror as a sideline-to-sideline LB in Ann Arbor, and the Steelers wisely chose him 10th overall last year. His jersey number on the 2019 Rookies & Stars RC you see above is one off of the 56 worn by another Michigan/Pittsburgh great at the position, LaMarr Woodley, while the rate at which he compiles a certain stat may have me comparing him to former Wolverines/Jets tackling machine David Harris. I count some 20 rookie cards of his I'll need to chase--not too surprising for a first-rounder, even if he plays defense--with this one giving me a total of five.

As I've begun to do with easy-to-scan PWEs, here are the card backs for your enjoyment.

Matt, thanks for trade package 25 and more great cards for me, all of which were new! As I think you're well aware of you have a return from me already on the way, a Giant one with a Michigan twist to it, plus a detour to the Hamptons....