TCDB trade roundup: five more for fall

No theme today, just five more transactions while I work on covering the ones I haven't shown off yet. Let's go!

First up this evening is abendermsu, who's a fan of that MSU, the team my beloved Wolverines will be taking on a week from this Saturday night. I sent a mix of 1995 and 1996 Donruss baseball base and a couple Spartan cagers in return for this Wolverine bounty:

Cronenworth's 2022 Topps base is the lone baseball entry here, and I'm hoping he continues where he left off in the NLDS, though so far the Phillies are threatening to dominate the series. On the football side of things there's some good offensive firepower with WR Derrick Alexander, TE Devin Asiasi, QB Elvis Grbac (x2), and WR/PR/KR Desmond Howard all represented. The '98 Playoff Prestige SSD Hobby set featured a pretty nice design that lends itself well to multiple colors, even if they aren't maize & blue.

As usual this scan is mostly offensive players as well, though it's nice to get a DL cameo too. College Football HOF G Reggie McKenzie represents the oldest set here with his '81 Topps base, including a photo that makes the then-30-year-old look like he was in his 50s. The awesomely named Kwity Paye gets two new cards for his collection including a Michigan uni action shot of the star DE. Flipping back to offense there's a ton of skill crammed into three last players: RB Biakabutuka, WR DPJ, and RB Wheatley. Not bad!

The smallest deal you'll see today came from BrewerAndy, who took a handful of Brew Crew cards in return for these:

You'll see more of the '84 Tigers like the Big Wheel and Willie pop up again in this post. I keep (the younger version of) Pudge with my Tigers and love me some 90s inserts as well. Andy was a great source for a couple Brewers Police cards of Mike Matheny (1998 above and '95 below with Cirillo). And two more Griffeys from '04 Donruss tied this PWE up in a nice bow.

Next, I sent member capper14 a small baseball/basketball mix and changed things up by going for basketball and hockey in return:

The trio of basketball cards up top all star Franz "Mo's Brother" Wagner, and better yet they're all Michigan uni cards, in this case from 2021 Panini Prizm Draft. There's also a mix of UM Hockey guys in Felsner (a RC), Norton (x4), and WolverWing A-A-Ron Ward (who didn't mess up, and is also a RC). Side note: for probably like 25+ years I owned a little plaque with a signed version of that Ward, but too much sunlight from hanging on a wall faded the signature and card. Oh well.

And why not add to the Wings fun with a sextet of Stevie-Y cardboard? These are some great looking cards from 1993-94, especially the Leaf and Stadium Club offerings, in my opinion. I haven't added all of my Wings to TCDB yet but did so for Yzerman so I count 62 in my collection so far.

Next, though I sometimes avoid trades that have to be shipped to Canada, member Eriqulous, who leaves in nearby-ish Ontario, definitely made it worth my while. For a thick stack of '96 Fleer and a few other cards of guys he PCs, I got this Canuck-themed bunch:

The first seven cards here were all O-Pee-Chee needs, and they put a nice dent in some of my wants of that product. Simmons, Parrish, and Gibby all get a pretty good amount of exposure here, but I was especially excited to add new items of "The Bird" and yesterday's birthday boy Willie Horton. The  Canadian second-year of Ripken was a very nice get too, and I told Erick I was grateful that he included it. To those I added '87 Sportflics Team Preview cards of the Orioles (for Cal, of course) and Oakland (to add to my Tony Phillips PC). It's a very cool set and I think I've said before that I might just try to track down all 26.

Former UM/Twins P Gary Wayne represents the last of the baseball, and that's no ordinary '90 Fleer card you're seeing, but the Canadian version instead. I appear to have eight cards from the set with another 18 cards of PC guys still to locate.

The hockey content brought a really nice mix beginning with a fun new card of former UM player and coach (and Red Wing) Red Berenson from '91-'92 Future Trends. There's some cool inserts as well as some solid base. It's a bit hard to tell but the Morrison UD Choice card is the Reserve version with a cool holographic stamp background going on. Cammalleri's RC is also numbered /1650.

You just saw two of these three guys in the last scan, and they're back (along with Turco) in 2003-04 Pacific Atomic McDonald's form. Die-cuts plus food issues (I guess McDonald's is sort of food just like Denny's is, like, approximately food?) are awesome!

Finally this evening you get to see one of the biggest deals (in more ways than one) that I've made recently. Rockies fan mgratton proposed a deal to me on the first of September and after a week or two of counterproposals we came up with a trade I think we both really liked. I gave up a mix of some of the Colorado Refractors and other inserts from my Facebook collection purchase, a few hits I didn't care about (again, mostly Rox), and some other miscellany, and got this smorgasbord of amazingness:

The Abbott and pair of Frymans--Gold Rush and Sportflics!--are fun mid-90s entries. Griffey's only represented once this time but I'm plenty happy to let some of the others catch up to him. Gwynn was the big winner (Gwynner?) here with an outstanding 17 new items, many of which can be seen in the first two scans. I was glad to add food issues like the Post card and some lower-end but still cool inserts too.

Out of this bunch I think the Stadium Club Never Compromise insert is my favorite but the matte '96 Fleer base is a great piece. The last of his cards here is a 2011 Topps 60 Years of Topps insert that reprints his base from 1997, a set I've long admired, especially in the face of the poor base looks of the past 15-ish years. I also snuck a trio of new Larkin items in this deal, and the first of those is a 1990 boxed set issue.

Meanwhile this scan opens with his base from 1998 Zenith, the year with the "dare to tear" 5x7 inserts. I also grabbed five cool 90s inserts of Maddux, and you see four in this scan. The first is a '93 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle card pairing him with Mike Mussina from the AL. The way his '93 Ultra Award Winner scanned makes it look like a Panini Absolute card. And the reprint-ish item that ends his group here is a 2014 Topps Future Stars That Never Were, the most recently printed card in the bunch. I also snuck in a new Dean Palmer from 2003 Topps' HTA set. And then we have the first three out of nine Ripkens found in the package. He joins Gwynn in that Post set and I also added a total of four of his 1997 Burger King-issued cards. That set includes eight regular cards and the header so I'm on my way there.

This scan begins and ends with the other two BK Ripkens. Pudge gets another appearance thanks to 2003 Studio's beautiful die-cut/acetate Studio Stars set. The rest of the Gwynns include mid-90s goodness featuring a Bowman's Best base pairing him with speedster Brian Hunter for some reason. And Maddux's last appearance is a '95 UD Checklist.

Here's what I meant about the deal being "big" in more than one way. I knew the 1989 Topps Baseball Talk/LJN piece of Gibby was pretty large but when I added the '93 Donruss Masters of the Game Ripken to the trade--a set I didn't know much about--I didn't know what I was getting into. An oversized Dick Perez art piece? Yes, please!

I shouldn't leave out the smaller stuff, though. That includes four new 1990 Topps Doubleheaders of Abbott, Larkin, Tram, and Sweet Lou. All of them are in pretty reasonable condition including their plastic holders/stands, and of course I love any representations of the latter two players' '78 Topps RCs.

I also landed Topps coins of Gwynn (1988), Ripken ('87 and '88), and Tram ('88) to continue the oddball theme.

Since I still had a few more cards to show off, why not include the other sides of the Doubleheaders, all of which are the '90 Topps appearances of those players?

Finally, we'll end the post with four cards that went toward my set wants for '94 and '95 Finest. Thomas, Molitor, and Boggs are all HOFers so I consider them solid additions here. Those wantlists now sit at 18 and 39 cards missing, respectively.

Well, that was definitely a lot to cover from "just" five trades, but sometimes that's the kind of quantity and quality you can get with your TCDB deals! I'll try to be back with more soon.