2021 trade package #2: Chronicles of Fuji

I'm back with trade #2 (out of three so far!) from January 2021. This one was slightly larger than the last so it took me a bit of time to put it together and then a bit more to, you know, feel like writing up a post.

Fuji (Chronicles of Fuji) managed to surprise me with a fairly packed bubble mailer, then impressed me even more with what was inside:

Up top are 2020 Ginter cards of a couple slugging 1Bs who starred for Detroit and hit many a longball. My math tells me that Miggy and "Big Daddy" have combined for 594 homers as Tigers (349 and 245, respectively), and Cabrera may very well hit the hallowed 500 mark this season, needing just 13 to get it done (plus 134 hits for the big 3K).

Down the middle are Willie Horton, a newer PC guy for me, out of 1990 Pacific Legends (more on that in a bit) and an '85 Fleer Team Stickers card that includes stickers of a pennant and a jersey starring the Olde English "D". The latter is a cool item as I really don't have many stickers from Fleer or elsewhere from the mid-80s on back. Nice find, Fuji!

And lastly we have probably the coolest and most surprising item in the package. Topps' Pro Debut product in 2018 got just about as creative as the Minor Leagues themselves with these "Fragments of the Farm Relics". Stewart's card here includes a piece of a sign from the outfield fence of UPMC park, home of the Tigers' AA Erie (PA) Seawolves. Other sources of relics include protective netting, bases, pennants, tarps, and more! Stewart could use more time in the Minors but this card definitely gets the call to my collection.

Next is a group of six 1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes oversized cards. I think I've had occasion to show off only one of these here before, but Fuji broke a box of the product that features 2.5x5.25" panels like you see above, done in the style of the 1912 T-202 set (also referred to as "Hassan Triple Folders"). Former Tigers Kell and Lolich each got their own cards (with a left or middle panel image showing them with a different team) while Cobb appears on a bunch of shared cards including the ones you see here with Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Tris Speaker, and Ted Williams. I'll happily deal with figuring out how to store these to be lucky enough to own this many!

Here's a look at the back of Kell's card to give you an idea of how those look.

And then we come to what was responsible for the bulk of the package. Many of you probably remember how I busted a box of 1988 Pacific Legends last year--I certainly did enough posts teasing the break and covering it--and Fuji opted to buy the other box I'd picked up. He also put in some work collecting the '89 and '90 iterations of these, and apparently had enough extras to send me 94 of the 110 cards in the 1990 set! He even went that extra Fuji mile by including a list of the missing cards, none of which are huge stars, so it's not like he held anything back (if you couldn't tell by old Hammerin' Hank up top). I'm going to grab the rest on Sportlots soon and then I'll just need to track down the '89 set one way or another to complete my run.

Here's a quick look at the other Tigers-related guys in the set, plus a front and two backs of other representative guys, though I should also say it has a Fan Favorites vibe (just like the '88 version) by including guys like Rusty Staub, Don Mossi, and Jesse Barfield.

As much as anything else in this package, this was a very generous gift from Fuji and I really appreciate it!

Mark, once again, thanks for the nice New Year's surprise! I was happy to enjoy the fruits of a couple of your oddball box breaks and I'll have to try to see if I can find something similar you can use. In the meantime I hope you liked the few Christmas cards I sent your way and that you're hanging in there while trying to teach kids during the pandemic. Domo arigato, Mr. Fuji!