2022 trade package #5: Scribbled Ink

When Paul (who used to write for Scribbled Ink and can now be found on Twitter @Scribble4Me) sends me stuff I know I'm in for a treat because the boxes he sends--and I do mean boxes--always have a crazy assortment of items. I have to use words like "stuff" and "items" because it's not all cardboard, and that's what makes things extra interesting!

What he does send in terms of cards is always great too because my former fellow Michigander who moved to the northeast (but definitely isn't a Masshole!) is one of the best when it comes to paying attention to who you collect, and I always appreciate that effort.

Here's what he sent this time:

We'll begin with a couple late 90s cards of Mr. Padre. Gwynn is alphabetically second in my big PC quartet that also comprises Griffey, Maddux, and Ripken, so he's not a deep cut, but I appreciate seeing his cards in any package all the same. That and I recognize that he was a star and HOFer so I'm thankful to anyone who sends some of his stuff my way!

The rest of the scan brings some 90s gold of one of my top Michigan and baseball PC guys, Barry Larkin. The '94 Donruss is the Special Edition parallel that also includes a fun photo, and some of the other designs from SP, Select, SPx, Zenith, and Finest are awfully nice to look at too! It's a shame that Larkin wasn't included in the 8x10 and Dufex 8x10 versions of '97 Zenith because that photo would look great hanging on a wall.

Barry was very well represented in this package and this scan doesn't even include the rest of the pile! I love me some 2000 and '01 Pacific flagship designs like the one you see above. The Topps Total Silver parallel was a need since, though I completed the '03 base set, it was enough work just finishing up that huge set without adding inserts to the mix. I love both the design and photo of the 2019 Stadium Club base, featuring Barry about to turn two despite the Cubs' Tyler Houston sliding in hard. The '20 Donruss Holo Blue parallel may be new but it includes an homage to the 1986 design and a pretty old photo as well.

And then we have my 13th Larkin relic (and 22nd hit overall), a totally unexpected 2020 Elite Extra Edition All-Time First Round Materials jersey! The Reds took Barry in the second round out of high school in '92 but he opted to go to Michigan, spurning both Cincy and football coach Bo Schembechler to play baseball there. Three years later the Reds gave him the second highest bonus as the fourth overall pick in one of the better first rounds in draft history. I like both the reminder of Larkin's draft status and the design here, and the fact that it's a relic makes it a big winner as one of the best cards Paul included in this package.

Griffey was left out this time but Maddux and Ripken both made appearances to round out that group. You had to know I wouldn't have either of the 2021 Cal cards--an Archives parallel #d /125(!) and Topps Fire base--so good looking out by Paul there as well. But the extra effort shows here as he also sent a pair of one of my less well known PC guys, Dean Palmer. Those are from the highly reflective '96 UD Special Edition and '97 Donruss Preferred, and I'm happy to get to make more progress on my collection of the former Tiger and 90s masher. Oh, and there's also a colorful card of former Wolverine and Larkin teammate Chris Sabo out of '94 Finest, a set I'm working on building thanks to that collection I bought on Facebook last year. Again, nice work, Paul!

We'll get to the other stuff in this scan in a minute but first we'll go along the right side and cover the rest of the PC cards. Gwynn makes his last appearance, a second '97 Collector's Choice card, this time a base. Then we go higher-end with another lesser known guy, ex-Wolverine OF Ryan LaMarre. That's a 2016 Topps Chrome Sapphire base and you'd better believe I appreciate the blue going on there! And lastly, two more Larkins, from '92 Topps Magazine (how 90s can you get?!) and '95 Ultra's Award Winners insert.

As for the others here, I'm not sure about the McGwire, and maybe Paul can enlighten me. The Puckett was from a live YouTube Prizm break his son did after getting the itch from watching other breaks. And the other three are '96 Topps Profiles inserts that all include the previously seen Gwynn who offers his thoughts on each player.

Paul also managed to hit two other sports, Michigan style. When in doubt, go with Chris Webber, one of the most recognizable former Wolverines on the court, and a recent HOFer as well. That Ultra design and photo are sweet!

On the football side I don't think you could choose two more famous alumni than GOAT QB Tom Brady--who I believe both retired and un-retired since Paul sent this box--and head coach Jim Harbaugh--who flirted with the NFL and then returned in the same span of time.

I'm very happy with the other trio as well since they're all college uniform cards. Nico, who I hope gets a real QB to throw to him someday, is a Gold parallel from last year's Leaf Draft. Evans, who was criminally underused by the Super Bowl-losing Bungles, can be seen on his Score RC from last year. And we even get a rare defense sighting with former LB Cameron McGrone out of last year's SAGE draft product. The Wolverine-loving Pats took him in the fifth round last year but he didn't play so we'll have to wait to see what his NFL future holds.

That's it for the cards portion but definitely not all of the "stuff" I get to show off thanks to Paul's generosity:

First up is an empty retail box of Pacific's 1999 Invincible product, which was a fun inclusion since an example of Tony Gwynn's base card from that very set is up front. I haven't really tended to keep empty boxes but I think I'm gonna have to make an exception here because this is very cool! The set's a typically interesting Pacific offering too, if you've never seen it, with a semi transparent circle inserted with a second image of the player.

Reminder to my mom: this is an "action figure", NOT a "doll"! That said, I don't recall seeing this iteration of the Starting Lineups before despite having a few of Cal (which I have to cover in a future post). The body proportions are a bit goofy (as is the bat) but the likeness is pretty good otherwise, and this version apparently has "real hitting action". It looks like these came out around 1998-99 which is interesting since the "regular" versions were still in production then. Anyway, it's a cool piece and will definitely go up on my Ripken wall with the others!

You know how you're not supposed to open toys and actually play with them or they'll become less valuable? Well I'm gonna do that with this off-the-wall item that's very well known to me. Donruss released these wacky CD-ROM "cards" (as well as actual cards) in a 1997 product called VxP. I love the "1.0" in the name as it's clear they'd hoped it would catch on. It didn't but I did buy a couple packages of these, I believe at a Babbage's before all those various stores became GameStops, at a mall in 1997. Holy hell, that was 25 years ago!

I'm able to keep this sealed for easier display because I already have Ripken's CD-ROM from opening one way back then, and that means this'll look great wherever I decide to put it up.

And the funniest part of the package was this package of 500 penny sleeves. I say "funniest" because I do have a ton of these as I tend to re-use a lot of the ones that come with cards I've bought/traded for, provided they're in good shape. I even have a little drawer filled with them in my card supplies area, even though I tend to throw out used ones for having the smallest flaws. Will I ever need penny sleeves again? Probably not thanks to Paul!

It's a lot more difficult to attend card shows and baseball games since his move but I appreciate that Paul and I can still send cards (and more!) back and forth, especially thanks to packages that feature all the great stuff you see above. Happily, I've been piling up some cool stuff for his own PCs, hopefully putting in the same amount of effort to add stuff of his well known and more obscure collections. Make sure to follow him on Twitter and trade with him on TCDB (username PJDionne12).

As for me, I'll keep trying to catch up on the stacks of trades sitting on my desk. Speaking of which, Barry Larkin will return...