2023 trade package #18: Night Owl

 

Greg who runs Night Owl Cards needs no introduction so I'll just lead off by saying I made a deal with him recently and now I'm here to show off my end of the deal. I became aware that he was slowly working on the 1988 Pacific Legends set and I happened to have a good chunk of dupes left from my box break, so I sent him something like 19 of his needs plus a couple other Dodgers. Because I know Greg's on TCDb I thought I'd make it fun and easy for both of us by sending him a trade proposal so the cards would automatically go into his collection, and then I picked out a few cards I hoped to get in return if he thought it would be fair. He did!

So here's what I ended up with:

I know some folks find those 1990 Swell cards too low-end for their tastes, but I enjoy them plenty, especially since they include appearances of some guys that don't have enough, like the Bird (who, by the way, was in '88 Pacific Legends too!). It's not like Fidrych collectors are spoiled for choice, and anyway the colorful look here is pleasing to my eye at least, so I was happy to add it.

Seeing Maddux on a team other than the Cubs and Braves is always a bit jarring, so his stints with the Dodgers and Padres captured on cardboard still throw me off sometimes. But I'll happily take anything I can get of one of my favorite player collections, especially a Topps Gold parallel numbered /2007.

Considering the relatively low quality of most of what I sent to Greg I wouldn't have blamed him if he didn't want to include the '75 Topps Denny McLain base you see there that pairs him up with '68 rival Bob Gibson. But he's a generous guy so he did just that and now I have another fun piece in my McLain collection, now 25 cards strong.

Here's where I'll probably lose a lot of you as I'm sure many who read this blog don't collect football or at least not Wolverines specifically. But these additions are just as fun for me as the baseball ones.

First up is my first (and probably only for a while) card of former UM RB Ty Isaac. Isaac was a highly recruited back from nearby Illinois who opted for USC over Michigan in 2013, then transferred to Ann Arbor a season later and had to sit out a year under the old rules. He put up some decent numbers for the Wolverines in 2015-2017, if not stats that would correspond to his recruiting ranking, then went undrafted and played briefly for the fly-by-night Alliance of American Football league, as captured on the card you see above from Topps. The product includes 10 total cards (including three autographs) for me to chase and I'd love to add more if I can.

And then we head back into Greg's wheelhouse: vintage. Randy Logan was a safety for some very good Michigan teams at the beginning of the 70s, then was drafted by Philly in 1973's third round. He spent 11 years suiting up for the Eagles and compiled 23 interceptions. What you see above is his 1979 Topps base, which marks just my fourth card of his, and the oldest besides his '76 Topps RC.

From the same set I also snagged my fifth card of College Football HOF RB Rob Lytle. The late Lytle was a Wolverine from 1973-76, selected by Denver in 1977's second round, and put up 14 total TDs over 87 NFL games in his seven seasons. He has just 12 cards to his name on TCDb and I now have four from his playing days (including his '78 Topps RC) to go with an autograph.

Here are the backs for those that enjoy them:

Greg, thanks once again for another fun deal! I'm always glad when we can swap cards despite the large differences in our collecting philosophies.

More trade recaps and other stuff to come!