2023 trade package #26: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been a few weeks since I last posted about receiving cards from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, and that means two things: another envelope arrived since then that I need to cover, and then another one joined it yesterday. These got to me in August, October, and December, so the roughly two month cadence means I have only myself to blame for being behind.

Anyway, here's a look at all the great stuff that arrived this time:

1981 Donruss Tigers. I don't think anyone looking at the 1980 squad would have predicted the franchise would win it all just a few seasons later. Alan Trammell, Lance Parrish, and Steve Kemp had the makings of a good core, but guys like Kirk Gibson and Lou Whitaker weren't quite there yet. Some of the guys above did have an impact on the Wire-to-Wire champs, though. Corcoran, Cowens, and Dyer were gone by the time the '81 season ended. However, swingman Rozema and #3 starter Wilcox were key pitchers in '84. And Kemp and Wockenfuss were traded in deals that brought back important players for the same team, the former for White Sox OF Chet Lemon in '81 and the latter as part of the famous swap where the Phillies sent Dave Bergman and Cy Young/MVP closer Willie Hernandez to Motown. And the rest is history.

Speaking of Guillermo, he leads off scan #2 in OPC form, along with teammates Terrell and Tram. I recall my brother and I mocking him as Walt "Terrible" but when I go back and look at his numbers, he was 47-32 from 1985-88, so it was mainly his 7-16 record in '88 for an otherwise solid team that earned him the nickname, I'm sure. Also, we weren't terribly happy that the guy the Tigers gave up to get him, Howard Johnson, had some big years for the Mets.

Meanwhile, Miggy is a guy Detroit traded for 16 years and 10 days ago, and nobody has any regrets about that, even before taking into account that the only guy the Marlins got that panned out was Andrew Miller, and even he only had a few years of success, out of the 'pen of all things.

Verlander's trade to the Astros felt like a catastrophe at the time and it still mostly feels like that with Jake Rogers being the only player of any value the Tigers got back, but at least we got to enjoy him for 13 seasons. Josh Johnson's entire career didn't last that long, but I guess two very good campaigns in a row tricked Topps into pairing him up with the future HOFer on that Diamond Duos insert.

And now over to football. I haven't totally warmed up to '23 Score's scoreboard design quite yet, but I also don't have that many cards from the product so it's still growing on me. I do appreciate getting more college photos, though! Brady may be gone (for good this time, I assume), but transfer RB Charbonnet, who finished his college career with a pair of strong years at UCLA, finally picked up his first NFL TD in week 13 against Dallas, which is great.

Nico and DPJ, in Prizm form, are two recent-ish WRs the generally run-heavy Wolverines have put in the league, and Peoples-Jones joined the Lions at the trade deadline, which is very cool, though his numbers are way down this season and he doesn't have a score out of his nine catches.

Here's where things get especially interesting and another reason why I love trading with someone like Doug. Not only does he have access to stuff like CFL cards, he also puts in the research to find out which Michigan guys appeared on them! The late Coode was an OT for Michigan in the early 70s, then Atlanta drafted him in '74, but so did the briefly active World Football League's Detroit Wheels. Coode then opted for the CFL and seven seasons with the Ottawa Rough Riders, peaking with a Grey Cup win in '76 over Saskatchewan's Roughriders, whose lack of spacing in their nickname was obviously the difference in the 23-20 loss. Coode sadly passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 1987. You see him above on one of just three cards that feature him, all made by JOGO. This one was made in 1993 and is from the Missing Years set.

Art Walker's career trajectory is surprisingly similar. He was also an OL (who sometimes flipped to defense), in his case in the early 50s, and he also ignored the NFL's interest (Green Bay) for the CFL's (or WIFU until 1961) Edmonton Eskimos. In his (also) 7 seasons his team appeared in three Grey Cups and won two (his first two seasons). And sadly he also died at an early age, just 39. TCDb lists six cards for him, all CFL-related of course, and the 1961 Topps CFL above is his second to last cardboard appearance.

Thank you again to Doug for going the extra mile and finding cards of these two Michigan alumni so I could learn about them!

And let's close things out with some very impressive hits. Bookending this scan are my first two such cards of Buckeye-killing RB Hassan Haskins (oops, he just scored on Ohio State again!). His signature may not be much to look at, and I suppose it belongs in the bucket of such guys as Rashan Gary who tend to disappoint with their autos, it's still an autograph of a new player in my collection and I'm happy with that. Also, Donruss's answer to Chrome, Optic, looks pretty cool with the Contenders design. I love that Doug added a jersey relic as well of the now ex-Titans RB to double up the fun.

Former Raider and one-year Niner Big Mo Hurst, playing for the Browns in his fifth season, is unfortunately out for the year with a torn pec but hopefully will return to full strength by next season. As another fairly recent Michigan defender I enjoyed wreaking havoc in the backfield, I love getting new cards of his like the 2018 Donruss Elite auto you see above. His signature is also not the most intricate, but "Mo H." isn't the worst. And that auto, numbered /299, is my fifth of the big DL. Nice!

Sticking with defense--arguably Michigan's strength recently--how about a guy who's having a very nice third year in Indy, Kwity Paye? His '21 Absolute Signature Rookies Green Waves auto is limited to just 25 copies and if you know what you're looking for, "K. Paye" or something like that can be seen. As with Hurst, all of my Paye hits are autos and I now have four of those thanks to this package.

And now we'll end with what I'd say is my favorite design of the package. I'm quite happy getting any new signatures of star WR Nico Collins (this is number four of eight total hits), but I'm also a sucker for stuff like the '21 Panini Elements Rookie Neon Signs card above. This one is actually the Orange parallel, numbered /125, and sometimes it's not all about the on-card signature when you get a fun design element like you see here with the acetate/shadowbox thing. While most recent designs don't stack up to those of the 90s for me, once in a while I'll see a gem like this and just think, "cool!"

So that's another Buckstorecards package in the books! I'll be back with the newest one later this month but I still have others to catch up on before I even get there, and even more after it. Knowing me, it's likely I'll still be posting 2023 stuff in January but that's not that big of a deal since I also won't have my personal COMC pickups until then.

So I'll be back at it again soon with the next trade envelope whenever I feel like it. Until then, thanks to Doug for another banger!