2023 trade package #2: a Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts

Jon of a Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts was the sender of my second trade package of 2023, and I'd say the contents are worth coining the phrase "small things come in good packages." Check out all the cool stuff, some of which is of diminutive stature, in this envelope:

I teased the tiny stuff but I'm starting with standard sized cards. Gwynn is a Refractory Chrome insert from 2019. Mr. Tiger's shiny parallel was inserted into Topps' solid 2011 Lineage product. His longtime teammate Mickey Lolich's item in spot #3 is from 2001 Topps Archives Reserve, a beautiful Chrome Refractor version of the excellent base set.

Below those are a pair of 2014 Panini Golden Age sticker cards, each with four players. The first is awesome since it includes Kaline and another '68 teammate, Willie Horton, who's gotten a bit of love in some of these throwback sets (plus the excellent Catfish Hunter and Yaz). The big draw for me on the second is Michigan Heisman-winner Tom Harmon, but Detroit boxer Joe Louis is a huge plus. Naturally I'm happy to see The Man as the third subject, and the youngest DiMaggio is no slouch either. Ty Cobb (who won a car for splitting the batting average crown with Nap Lajoie, sort of) wraps up the baseball content in the scan.

The last regular sized card in the bunch is a rookie year insert of Charles Woodson out of 1998 Skybox Premium. The reigning Heisman winner made the D'Stroyers set by obliterating offenses with his ball-hawking ways first in college, then the pros. As a reminder, he accumulated 65 INTs (with 11 leading to TDs) and forced 33 fumbles (and returned a couple of those for scores as well).

Ah yes, the much-hyped small stuff! Let's start with a nice stack of Minis. The first three are 1999 Pacific Private Stock PS-206 cards featuring PC guys Tony Gwynn, Greg Maddux, and Dean Palmer. Yes, that's a funny combination, but I have lots of player collections! These look nice though I tend to think of the 2001 set more often.

The others are from Panini Golden Age products. Gehringer is from 2012 and is the Red Candy back. Fellow Wolverine and to a lesser degree ex-president Gerry Ford is from the 2013 set's Carolina Brights backs. Also from the UM football team we have Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch and a double-dose of the previously-seen Harmon from 2014. Hirsch and the first Harmon are Hindu backs while the other Harmon is a Mono back.

And all by himself from 2014 Ginter's Black Bordered set is Sparky Anderson. It sure is fun adding stuff of him since managers don't appear on nearly as many cards as their players do, understandably. I love the image of the pensive skipper, probably wondering if he should live up to his nickname of "Captain Hook" or leave Jack Morris in.

Everything else in this scan and the next one is a sticker, and boy is there some great variety here! The first two you see, Chet Lemon and Larry Herndon, hail from 1981 Topps Stickers, and those of course are pre-Tigers items but still 100% welcome for me. Everything else with the exception of the 1983 Ripken seen in the final image is from the '82 set, and there you see Lance Parrish, Herndon again, Jack Morris, Darrell Evans, Lemon again, and Morris along with Denny Martinez/Steve McCatty/Pete Vuckovich. The rookie-year sticker of Cal is very cool, and it's one of his two appearances in that set.

And here we have the final six stickers, once again with a mostly Tigers lean broken up by another Ripken cameo, which happens to be the second '83 sticker I just mentioned. That's because these are all also from that very set. Evans makes his second Giants appearance, Herndon makes his first as a Tiger, and Dan "Peaches" Petry joins in the fun. After the Ripken we have a pair of Lance Parrishes that form a full image of the apparently disinterested subject.

This was a very fun and diverse group of new additions to my collections and I have to thank Jon for all the effort he put into identifying and sending cards I could use, especially mini and sticker types that I often don't tend to buy for myself for various reasons. I also appreciate when folks like him go the extra mile to send items of, say, Tigers players in different uniforms, and especially Wolverines of any type. So this was a fantastic second package that kept up the momentum from the first one I showed off earlier.

I'm happy to report that Jon has already been handsomely rewarded for this bounty with a fat stack of cards of some of his own player collections that I had fun rounding up on Sportlots, and I look forward to his reaction to those when he has time!

As for me, I'll likely try to recap this month's show before January is over, both because not doing so would be pretty lazy, plus the February one is right around the corner. Until then, go check out Jon at http://pennysleevethoughts.blogspot.com!