2025 trade package #20: the Collective Mind

I've been blogging here since the last week of August of 2010. That's 15 years that have included lots and lots of trades with fellow bloggers. Still, in all that time there are some folks I haven't traded with for whatever reason.

Happily, I was able to cross Greg of the Collective Mind's name off that list in September after we made a jumbo-sized deal via TCDb. You can find him there under his username of LoQtus, which is a nice reference to a huge story line from Star Trek: the Next Generation.

Back in June he'd commented on one of my Facebook purchase recaps where I mentioned that the pile included a nice stack of a number of recent football base, especially from 2024. Greg mentioned he'd be interested in a starter lot of '24 Prestige, and I could certainly make that happen.

In total I sent him almost 400 cards between 2024 Prestige and Zenith retail, plus a few other baseball and football items, and in return I chose around 90 baseball and football cards that I could use. Win/win!

Here's what Greg sent my way:

I almost always sort things to scan alphabetically so it was a happy coincidence that scan #1 is a bunch of Tigers legends. Sparky and "Wahoo" Sam Crawford have the best looking cards thanks to the might of Topps' Gallery HOF product, and Crawford sees his same photo used on UD's also fantastic SP Legendary Cuts set. Miggy stars on a Stadium Club card representing a product that deserves to be in the HOF. Cobb and Gehringer (All-Star MVP ring) join in thanks to Panini's Hall-focused Cooperstown product. Gibby was still managing Arizona in the fourth of his five seasons there when his Panini Hometown Heroes card above was made, but he's known more as a Tiger (and to some degree, as a Dodger, but just for one very significant moment!). And of course there's another of my favorites in Grandy. Let's count: one many, two many...

...three many Grandersons! And this one is the best looking of the trio, but that's not much of a competition with UD Documentary and GQ being the other options anyway.

After Grandy there's a nice little run of Griffeys that extends into scan #3. The brands and years are all over the place and that's something I never fail to enjoy. I'd have to say my favorite overall here is the Ultra card because we get lots and lots of views of Griffey's sweet swing but not as many of his fielding prowess.

Occasional deals like this one help me to have a player like Griffey chase overall collection leader Cal Ripken Jr., whom we'll see in a bit in a smaller quantity. Ken's less than 100 cards short of Cal's 1360 as of this posting, and that's not bad!

Mr. Padre Tony Gwynn is next and the second of the big four PC guys in this bunch. I managed to get him over the 1000-card mark at some point this year which is super exciting, and I look forward to having all four over that milestone soon. You'll see more of him in the next scan plus another below, and again there's a fun mix of designs. I can't easily pick a favorite look here but I do really like the photo on the Topps Opening Day base.

There are just three more Gwynns to choose from here but I love that the Pros & Prospects card makes him look like he's breaking the sound barrier thanks to those lines in the middle.

The guys I already mentioned got nice boosts to their collections but I think Maddux, #3 of the four big PCs, got the nicest bump in this trade, both in terms of quality and quantity. '97 Zenith is a particularly nice looking set but the others aren't exactly chopped liver either.

Numberwise Maddux is behind Barry Larkin (994) with 968 on the way to 1000, but the best part is that I don't care who hits it first because I win either way! It's great that he gets an entire scan to himself here, not to mention some more very nice designs like Fleer Genuine/Insider, Leaf, and Sweet Spot. The Topps Moments & Milestones numbered card is apparently my 26th from that voluminous product, and I seem to have way more of this card (#15) than the others (12, 13, and 14) from the 2007 set combined.

Maddux even encroaches on this scan with one more vertical card, but we'll be seeing him again momentarily.

Before getting to the 4th big PC guy I did come up with a couple other Tigers stars. 3x WS winner Jack Morris made the cut with cards from '88 Donruss All-Stars (the oldest card in the deal) and 2004 Donruss World Series Heroes. The latter is actually a Blue Holofoil parallel and numbered /100, and the color works very well for the team it's celebrating. Magglio joins Gibson in Tigers lore with a big playoffs homer of his own, plus you see him here on a 2008 Topps Chrome Trading Card History insert, one of the manufacturer's fun chase cards from back when they gave a shit about them.

Lastly, I "only" ended up with two Cals, but one of them is a '97 Burger King card, which gives me five of the eight in a set I'll eventually complete. And while I'm not much of a Ginter fan, I do like the insert celebrating his record consecutive games played streak.

Moving over to the horizontals, Panini's Cooperstown pops up a few more times for Detroit/Philly HOFer Mickey Cochrane, Gwynn, and Mr. Tiger Al Kaline. That quote on Kaline's card from Ted Williams is very high praise, no? Meanwhile, Griffey gets one more appearance, Gwynn gets a few more, including a pair from the excellent Donruss Champions product, and Mad Dog returns. He indeed won his third Cy in '94, and would finish with a consecutive quartet thanks to an insane 19-2 1995 campaign that included 10 complete games, plus of course a World Series ring.

At last we approach the end of the Maddux cards. The Classic Clippings base is quite nice but it stands no chance against the 2005 Elite Face2Face insert that pairs him up with Bagwell and is numbered /1500. Speaking of numbered cards, I thought the 2008 UD Piece of History Cut From the Same Cloth Silver insert /149 was cool as it pairs up Carlos Guillen with the previously seen Ordonez. Those two were instrumental in the Tigers surprising everyone by making it to the '06 World Series.

Lastly, minis of Gwynn, Maddux, and Verlander (just one many!) from GQ and Ginter close out the baseball items. I did, however, include Michigan Football coach Fielding Yost in this scan since he didn't fit in nicely with the rest of the stuff from that sport. The West Virginia alum was a pioneer and innovator of the sport, winning six national championships and lots of games in Ann Arbor and getting his name all over the place, including the current hockey arena on campus (formerly a field house).

The first of three football scans mostly focuses on star WR Braylon Edwards and transfer RB Justin Fargas, but TE Devin Funchess and QB/HC Jim Harbaugh make cameos as well, with the latter being almost literal on a card that includes journeyman QB Mitchell Trubisky.

Things get pretty exciting for me in this scan as I love picking up anything new of RB and former position coach Mike Hart, especially numbered inserts. The Playoff Contenders Round Numbers Gold (/1000) pairs him up with Thomas Brown while the other is a Press Pass Reflectors parallel numbered /500 (and featuring a college action photo!).

I wouldn't usually pick up a card celebrating a Tom Brady interception but that was Michigan-on-Michigan crime thanks to CB Marlin Jackson. He's joined by another star Michigan defender in Jabrill Peppers. The we get a nice little bunch of cards of Denard Robinson, one of which includes The Good Place favorite Blake Bortles.

Last up is this very nice octet of horizontals, all but one of which are college cards, to my great joy. Braylon makes one more appearance from one of his brief tenures with the Jets, and Funchess adds a couple SAGE HIT cards to his collection.

The rest here represent a bunch of my favorites from the draft class I still love the most from 2008. WRs Adrian Arrington and Mario "Too Many" Manningham(s) are joined by RB Mike Hart and QB Chad Henne on some Press Pass and Reflector cards (also /500 like the one from earlier) while Henne gets a solo card from 2008 SAGE Aspire's 5 Star insert, very apropos for today being the first day of the early signing period. I really love the look of the rainbow foil, numbered Reflectors paired with Press Pass's design from back then.

Once again, many thanks to Greg for making this huge trade! It was awesome working with him and I hope to do so again, but until then, keep following him at the Collective Mind as he gets settled in from his recent move and reestablishes his card room.

I believe I'll be back soon, possibly as early as tomorrow if possible, to cover September's show before attending the December version to close out the year. Stay warm, stay safe, and try to enjoy some stress-free holiday planning!