It's a new month--we're already in June!--so let's look at more trade package cards that arrived in May. This evening's cards came in this large envelope,
I'd piled up quite a few things for Paul thanks to some recent shows and some good luck adding some of his PC guys in my TCDB deals over the past few months. Paul had done the same, and then we both added a few things on each end from our TCDB tradelists. These tweets (1, 2, 3, 4) show most of what I sent northeast, and now you'll get a look at all the great stuff that came back my way:Paul's packaging style is never boring! This time he packed my cards in that envelope inside this empty blaster of 2021 Chronicles Draft basketball. That ended up being somewhat appropriate since this deal did include a few cards from that sport, plus one of the cover boys, Cunningham, is a Piston.
As for the cards themselves,
First up is a seven-spot of 2021 Topps UK Tigers. Aside from Paredes, who was flipped for Austin Meadows just before Opening Day, everyone here is still in the organization, though of course Baddoo was sent down to AAA. So far the stories of the season have been a pretty resurgent Cabrera, who reached the 3,000 hit mark, and potential new ace starter Tarik Skubal, who's gone 3-0 since May and lowered his ERA and other numbers to excellent levels. Hell, the Tigers are even winning some games here and there!
Starting here we have the mix of stuff Paul had set aside for me plus what I picked from his stuff for trade. Two tickets to the CroneZone, please! I happily collect Cochrane even though is A's days outnumber his games with the Tigers. Encarnacion's not a keeper for me anymore because he's a monster (look it up if you haven't heard about it, and if you have the stomach for it) but three of my favorite "G" collections in Grandy, Griffey, and Gwynn are always more than welcome. AJax suited up for six teams after his Tigers tenure and one of them was Cleveland in 2017, a year after he spent a season with the ChiSox. He never did complete the full run of the division.
Tigers legends Kell and Morris plus my top PC guy Ripken all get the Panini chrome treatment in three different products--Mosaic, Prizm, and Donruss Optic, and happily all three of those guys are HOFers! So are Larkin (Topps Gallery) and Maddux (Topps insert). Bubba (not Alan) Trammell never turned into a star but his potential was interesting until the Tigers left him unprotected in the '97 expansion draft and Tampa took him. And JV is most definitely going to Cooperstown when he decides to hang 'em up, but if this year's any indication he's in no hurry (or condition) to have to leave the game.
The last of the baseball stuff starts with four horizontal cards. Sparky's '80 Topps base shows him with his first of 17 Tigers squads he skippered. Then we go back to the CroneZone (shiny!) and see Maddux and the Iron Man represented once more each.
First up is a seven-spot of 2021 Topps UK Tigers. Aside from Paredes, who was flipped for Austin Meadows just before Opening Day, everyone here is still in the organization, though of course Baddoo was sent down to AAA. So far the stories of the season have been a pretty resurgent Cabrera, who reached the 3,000 hit mark, and potential new ace starter Tarik Skubal, who's gone 3-0 since May and lowered his ERA and other numbers to excellent levels. Hell, the Tigers are even winning some games here and there!
Starting here we have the mix of stuff Paul had set aside for me plus what I picked from his stuff for trade. Two tickets to the CroneZone, please! I happily collect Cochrane even though is A's days outnumber his games with the Tigers. Encarnacion's not a keeper for me anymore because he's a monster (look it up if you haven't heard about it, and if you have the stomach for it) but three of my favorite "G" collections in Grandy, Griffey, and Gwynn are always more than welcome. AJax suited up for six teams after his Tigers tenure and one of them was Cleveland in 2017, a year after he spent a season with the ChiSox. He never did complete the full run of the division.
Tigers legends Kell and Morris plus my top PC guy Ripken all get the Panini chrome treatment in three different products--Mosaic, Prizm, and Donruss Optic, and happily all three of those guys are HOFers! So are Larkin (Topps Gallery) and Maddux (Topps insert). Bubba (not Alan) Trammell never turned into a star but his potential was interesting until the Tigers left him unprotected in the '97 expansion draft and Tampa took him. And JV is most definitely going to Cooperstown when he decides to hang 'em up, but if this year's any indication he's in no hurry (or condition) to have to leave the game.
The last of the baseball stuff starts with four horizontal cards. Sparky's '80 Topps base shows him with his first of 17 Tigers squads he skippered. Then we go back to the CroneZone (shiny!) and see Maddux and the Iron Man represented once more each.
Besides those I asked Paul for the six 1994 cards you see at the bottom of the scan. Those came from Finest and Ultra and will go toward my set builds from each that I started thanks to the huge Facebook collection I purchased last year that I'll never shut up about because of how much it's impacted my collection!
Wow, a whole scan's worth of basketball stuff! I believe I picked out most of these from Paul's TCDB list. The THJs look great, 05-06 UD Hardcourt looked pretty good, and I'm really liking that shiny Chronicles Michigan uni card of Wagner.
My football and hockey loot was much smaller but that's fine since I've got other sources for those sports, plus these were fun additions. Harbaugh and Woodson are two of the best to ever put cleats to grass at the Big House and Pinnacle Mint is a product I still appreciate 25 years later. Turco's one of my top five Wolverine hockey players ever, and Compher and Werenski (Topps Stickers) are recent stars, with the former being part of a formidable Avs playoff squad.
It wouldn't be a package from Paul without a pocket schedule from his local Minor League team, would it? Man, I really need to get to another Minors game this summer, and maybe I'll finally head down to Toledo this year after saying I would do that for years.
Closing things out was this Mosaic bunch that I think Paul included on purpose? Not sure if he and his son decided to do another group break. Anyway, there's some good traders in here including some White Sox I'll be happy to send Jeff's way if Paul doesn't need 'em back.
Wow, a whole scan's worth of basketball stuff! I believe I picked out most of these from Paul's TCDB list. The THJs look great, 05-06 UD Hardcourt looked pretty good, and I'm really liking that shiny Chronicles Michigan uni card of Wagner.
My football and hockey loot was much smaller but that's fine since I've got other sources for those sports, plus these were fun additions. Harbaugh and Woodson are two of the best to ever put cleats to grass at the Big House and Pinnacle Mint is a product I still appreciate 25 years later. Turco's one of my top five Wolverine hockey players ever, and Compher and Werenski (Topps Stickers) are recent stars, with the former being part of a formidable Avs playoff squad.
It wouldn't be a package from Paul without a pocket schedule from his local Minor League team, would it? Man, I really need to get to another Minors game this summer, and maybe I'll finally head down to Toledo this year after saying I would do that for years.
Closing things out was this Mosaic bunch that I think Paul included on purpose? Not sure if he and his son decided to do another group break. Anyway, there's some good traders in here including some White Sox I'll be happy to send Jeff's way if Paul doesn't need 'em back.
Paul, thanks again for a fun trade that's already package #2 from you this year! I hope you and the kiddo have fun collecting, hanging with the Fisher Cats, and playing in games of your own this summer, and I look forward to hitting you back when I pile up more stuff!
I like that '86 style Maddux.
ReplyDeletePaul's minor league team used to be my minor league team: the Fisher Cats were the New Haven Ravens before moving to Manchester :(
Not a bad choice! Sorry all the moving around in the minors cost you that team :(
DeleteThat Jeff guy will definitely take those White Sox if Paul doesn't want them back. And the Cronenworth's, and the Ripken's, and the Larkin's, and the .... LOL!
ReplyDeleteThe Sox will be in your next package! The others...not so much, but I've still got a few things for you again already!
DeleteI've seen them on the blogs a few times, but those UK cards still seem strange to me. I get the cash grab aspect of them, I just don't get who they were being marketed to, it's certainly not the Brits, as by-and-large they don't really cotton to baseball... or any of the other real sports for that matter :)
ReplyDeleteI dunno, you've got me, but cash grab is Topps' MO so there's that.
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