Tuesday, July 19, 2022

2022 trade package #16: The Collector


Well the draft came and went (and the Tigers actually took a hitter in the first round!) and now we're celebrating the Midsummer Classic. Tonight's a great night to cover the latest bunch of cards Chris of the Collector sent me while I kind of sort of pay attention to the All-Star Game.

Chris sent another PWE my way and it included a note that mentioned he'd found some of the following cards on my TCDB wantlist and hoped I still needed them (which I indeed did!). I always appreciate folks taking the time to do that no matter how many cards they send, so I applaud Chris' effort here:
Card #1 is a '94 Ultra Roberto Alomar (amateur FA 1985, 12x All-Star) that I needed for my second set build of Series 2. That's down to just two cards (and of course set #1 is already complete). Nice!

After him we have two current Tigers and a draft pick bust. Barnhart (10th round 2009, no ASG) has had his ups and downs this year but in a lost year like this I don't really care who they trot out there as we wait for Jake Rogers to return to health. Cale Iorg (6th round 2007, no MLB experience) is the son of Garth (and Cale is actually his middle name--he's also "Garth") and nephew of Dane, though he didn't pan out like they did--nine and 10 years of MLB service time, respectively. I do like the look of his TriStar card, though! And Jimenez was a Detroit amateur FA signing in 2013 who was named to the All-Star team back in 2018, and who's been better than his career numbers so far this year.

And then we have the perfect amount of Grandersons, namely two many! Curtis (3rd round 2002, 3x All-Star) can be seen here on a 2008 Bowman Chrome base plus a '16 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor, the latter of which looks awesome thanks to a great photo choice. Thanks to this PWE Chris upped my total to 232 many Grandersons.

The first two cards of the bottom row take us way back to the 80s and a pair of players I often think of together. Gwynn (3rd round 1981, 15x All-Star) and Ripken (2nd round 1978, 19x All-Star) pretty much played their entire careers at the same time, from 1982-2001 (except for Cal's 23 games in '81). Mr. Padre's card hails from Fleer's 1988 League Leaders box set while the Iron Man's card could be found in packs of 1989 Donruss All-Stars, a set that's very apropos of the evening!

And finally we have another multi-season All-Star who proceeded those two by about five years. Alan Trammell (2nd round 1976, 6x All-Star) often had to compete with Cal for a spot on the team but the Hall-of-Famer certainly held his own. I really like the card that Chris chose here: his 1996 Fleer Tiffany parallel. It's great that Fleer gave collectors the best of both worlds in 1996-97 with matte base cards and shiny parallels that in my opinion are way better than the cards of the same name that were produced by Fleer and Topps' brands in the 80s. For one thing, there's no mistaking these for base cards!

Many thanks to Chris for putting in the time and effort to send these my way. I love trading with him because it's often quite easy to find enough to send him a return package every one to two card shows, and then he's able to return the favor appreciably as you can see from above.

Speaking of trades I'm expecting some more cardboard in my mailbox from a couple sources so I'll show those off when everything's ready. Tonight I'll be chilling and rooting for big moments from a couple favorites, especially Jake Cronenworth, plus Miguel Cabrera. Stay cool!

6 comments:

  1. Gotta wonder how much more hobby love Trammell would receive if he didn't play in Ripken's shadow for all of those years. Then again... the Whitaker/Trammell combo was always on my radar when I was younger.

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    1. True! But yeah, I'll be forever grateful for getting to enjoy the full run of Whitaker/Trammell, and at least the latter got his due in the HOF (though they'd better send Lou to join him next time!)

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  2. The 1996 Fleer Tiffany parallels are definitely a nice contract from the easily rippable base cards. I sent you pretty much everything I could that was on your wantlist; the Iorg and Barnhardt were pulled from a random/repack-type lot from Baseballcardstore.

    I always enjoy sending cards to you, in no small part because you always thank your senders promptly with an email and a blog post. (Plus your return fire care packages are always very thoughtful!)

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    1. I like both the Fleer base and Tiffany so I would have been happy either way. Thanks again for hitting my wants, I really appreciate it! And you must be confusing me with someone else because I do approximately zero of my blogging "promptly"! But I do love sending return packages.

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  3. That Gwynn is really great. The concrete wall really contrasts with the rest of the design.

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    1. Just the kind of fun stuff you could find in boxed sets in the 80s!

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