TCDB trade: randylaw

While I haven't made a ton of deals yet in my time on TCDB, I've definitely made up for it in the sizes of the trades I've completed. That was once again the case with fellow Michigander Randy (randylaw), with whom I completed my second transaction a few weeks ago.

I showed off the results of our first deal last year (part 1, 2, 3) and it's funny looking back it at since my end this time was fairly similar: a nice amount of vintage, plenty of oddball, lots of Tigers, and multiple sports.

The similarities don't end there, either, since this was another instance where I sent him way more cards than I received--around 700 vs. 200--because I was so excited to clear out some space filled by commons/traders and to receive useful stuff in return. A nice chunk of that stuff is trade bait that'll be heading out in some packages at some point this year, but the vast majority will be staying with me.

Please enjoy this scan-heavy post where I prove once again how great it is to trade with one of the most reliable folks on the site:

Like I said, I was excited to get even more vintage Tigers, like this bunch here. The first five are '61 Topps with Cash being the biggest name, though the Dumbo-eared Don Mossi is a fan favorite as well. Jones is from '62, Fox and notable SS McAuliffe are '63s, and then we jump way ahead to '72 for a Billy Martin manager card.

And I still have a few more vintage pieces to show off! Pitcher Tom Morgan's '60 Topps represents the oldest one I acquired for myself though I did end up with a '52 that I'll be sending elsewhere. The photos on team cards from '61 and '62 look remarkably similar. And I was super happy to add another vintage Sparky to his collection, with the one you see above hailing from 1973 Topps, made a year after he led the Reds to the NL pennant for the second time.

Besides vintage I picked up a variety of oddball stuff like this quartet of Topps stickers. Evans shares his '88 sticker with Cards P Joe Magrane, and future Brewers stalwart B.J. Surhoff graces the "Super Star" back. Morris features on an '82 foil piece that celebrates his first of five All-Star nods. Nokes is another Super Star back and I'm much happier to show that than the guy on the sticker up front, the execrable Ozzie Guillen. Sweet Lou's version from 1990 includes a way more respectable guy who earned himself a foil sticker: Eric Davis.

There's nothing vintage about these cards but the subjects are. An early 90s Score base shows old Tiger Stadium, where I witnessed plenty of games in my younger days (mostly losses!). HOFer Jim Bunning is represented twice, in each case as a Tiger, I believe. Detroit legend Ty Cobb pops up twice, including another Score base, this one showing off his Hall items. And I appreciate when modern products remember guys like Kuenn and not just the obvious MLB legends.

Speaking of Cobb, he was the star of Donruss' puzzle inserts way back in '83, the year I was born. I'd take these over some crappy gum any day! It's made up of 21 pieces and Randy only had 20 of them available, but I'm sure it won't be a problem getting the last one to finish it up.

Here we have the first of seven scans of guys associated with the Tigers. '84 champs Bergman and Brookes hail from sets 10 years apart. I added a bunch of stuff of Miggy, and while not enough to equal his 500+ homers, I'm not far off the number he's hit as a Tiger. Tony Clark is a former top prospect who panned out reasonably well even if he didn't turn into a big star.

Another Clark reminds me of how much I love '96 and '97 Upper Deck, and then it's on to a five-spot of Big Daddy cards. Besides his Tigers tenure, I think most folks know he was with the Jays before the trip to Japan that preceded the seasons he spent in Detroit. However, after being flipped to the Yanks in '96, he spent the bulk of '98 with the Angels (as captured on that Ultra base), then got picked up by Cleveland for a couple weeks' worth of games later that year, his sunset season. I often tend to associate Fielder with Fryman since they manned the corners together for a few seasons, and you can see three of the four early/mid-90s base I snagged of him as well.

After another Fryman appearance we get one of a slightly more recent guy from the left side of Detroit's infield, Carlos Guillen. Henneman was a quality closer in the 90s for some bad Tigers teams while Hernandez enjoyed a highly decorated '84 season with the champs. And how cool would it have been if Herndon, A-Jax, and Lemon could have formed an outfield together at some point?

We're looking at mostly 80s stuff here, starting with another Lemon, but rising star Casey Mize makes the first of a pair of appearances too. Morris pops up on a pair, including a food issue from Chef Boyardee. And there's a pair of catchers back-to-back in Nokes, a late 80s favorite of mine, and the "Big Wheel" Lance Parrish, the type of catcher I'd love to see backstopping the Tigers again.

Noticing a lot of '84 Tigers? I basically checked Randy's trade list for anybody I collected, and a good number of those guys were on Detroit's most recent title-winning squad, like Petry, seen here on cards made around that year. I also added a whole mess of stuff to my Pudge collection, mostly Rangers cards since a lot of what I have was made during his time in Detroit. There's a nice range of '93-'97 stuff here, including some good looks from UD and Stadium Club.

The rest of the Pudge haul can be seen here, and what's fun is that all of them are shots of him wearing his tools of ignorance excellence. There's even one card each repping him with the Tigers and Astros, two more of his six career franchises. Sheridan and Tanana were post-'84 guys that made some contributions to Detroit but had to live through that playoff drought. And Thompson, who was traded to my annoyance in the deal for malcontent Juan Gonzalez, arrives on his card from Pinnacle's goofy-but-fun Inside product.

Miggy leads off the horizontal stuff with a pair, including a retail version of his '07 Ultra base (which you can tell since the foil around his name is silver and not rainbow). Fryman (cool shot!), Guillen, and Mize (along with rotation mate Skubal) each get another appearance. And Tram is the last of the vertical Tigers but those didn't divide up nicely into groups of nine. I love me some DKs, and I wonder if Topps will ever come up with something that spurs that kind of nostalgia in me, because rookie cups don't do it for me.

And now we're moving on to the non-Tigers PCs. Abbott, who tossed his amazing no-hitter 18 years ago today, makes three oddball appearances, including another food issue I don't see very often in Wonderbread. Griffey, meanwhile, adds three to his collection, including the not terribly interesting Topps Fire, to get within 30 items of the 1000-card mark.

Next, the designs on Gwynn's two early 90s items aren't anything to write home about, but the photos are pretty cool! Larkin joins a few other guys today out of '21 Donruss, and I even ended up with a few more to trade. Lata is the newest member of my Michigan Baseball PC. He was drafted in the latter rounds back in '89 by St. Louis and never reached the Majors, but he still managed to pop up on seven cards, including the 1990 Best above. Maddux joins Griffey and Larkin out of this year's Donruss, a throwback to the '87 design that doesn't look as nice with all that white space. Cal maintains his PC lead with two new pieces, including a variation of an '87 Sportflics card, plus a '92 Ultra base I can't believe I didn't have.

Yep, I grabbed some UM Basketball guys too. Fab Fivers Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose are joined by recent guy LeVert (check out Jeff's post filled with cards of Caris here), plus '89 champs Glen Rice and Loy Vaught. Rice continues to lead my collection of hoopers and is nearing 200 cards!

These football Wolverines seem plenty appropriate as Michigan opened its season with a convincing win this afternoon. Biakabutuka's and Grbac's shiny cards came out of 2000 Collector's Edge Odyssey. Take a wild guess as to which Brady card I was more excited about. And three WRs finish off the group: Heisman-winner Howard, DPJ on a 2000 Absolute Retail RC, and Streets, who scored a single TD for the Lions in his sunset 2004 campaign.

And finally, although I don't want to be thinking about the weather typically associated with the sport, we have a few hockey items. Wings legends Lidstrom (Black Diamond!) and Yzerman (Flair Showcase!) flank a pair of former Wolverine Jeff Norton, a guy who often shows up in trade packages from Canada, so I'm surprised I didn't have those.

Whew, that was a lot of stuff to cover! Again, I very much recommend trading with Randy as long as you're willing to be patient with him given some medical issues that sometimes hold him up. He's fair, responsive, and has a nice selection to choose from, so if you go the TCDB route, please consider PMing him about a deal!

As for me, I'll either be showing off my eBay pickups from the last couple months or be doing a recap of yesterday's monthly show whenever I post next. I hope everyone enjoys their long weekends!