So much for getting my next post done before the February show, but that's ok because I still haven't been overwhelmed with new stuff coming in this year...yet. Tonight I'm back with another January trade package: a bubble mailer from Canadian friend Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. Speaking of his country, I hope they have a fantastic Winter Olympics as I root for the Americans as well!
Here's what he sent last month:
Both baseball and basketball fit into one scan so I put them together here. The latter includes Jamal Crawford (whose son the team just offered) from the 2020 Topps Seattle Children's Heroes set, which was made to benefit that hospital and includes lots of area subjects. It uses the '84 Topps design but is much glossier and looks great. Next is the collection debut of Pollyanna Johns, a native of the Bahamas who was with Michigan in the late 90s and played for Charlotte, Cleveland, Miami, and Houston in the WNBA. Her 2001 Fleer Tradition WNBA card seen here is her RC and lone card listed on TCDb, so this was a great find by Doug. And lastly we have a '25-'26 Topps of Magic star Franz Wagner, whose collection has grown nicely thanks to trade packages like this one.The football content could easily be labeled "numbered and new guys." Big Mo Hurst kicks off this section with a very bold blue Leaf Certified parallel that's numbered 46/50 up front and very on theme for a former Wolverine. Former WR DPJ is even more colorful--not a surprise when it comes to the Prizm brand--on a Red and Yellow Prizm parallel that's limited even more: #42/44 on the back.
Next we have the first of two new guys. DL/LB Josaiah Stewart put up great sack numbers during his 2021 freshman season with Coastal Carolina, then transferred to Michigan before the '23 season, helping the Wolverines to a national title. The Rams took him in the 2025 third round and he put up 3.0 sacks in 17 games. He's seen above on a Pink parallel from Donruss Elite, and I hope to add more of his cards--especially RCs and autographs--soon.
The other new guy is here thanks to the CFL-focused JOGO brand. He was also a DL who won a championship, in his case with the '97 team, and he was in Ann Arbor through the 2000 season before going undrafted. The Lions gave him a shot but it was in Canada that he would enjoy his pro football career. That included time with Winnipeg (with a couple year hiatus in the Dolphins org), Saskatchewan, and finally Montreal, with whom he won Grey Cups in 2009 and 2010. Thank you again to Doug for tracking this down and getting his name in my collection.
The last football item is a 2021 Leaf Flash autograph of former Wolverines RB Chris Evans. It's got the usual Leaf craziness going on, and this is the Platinum Blue version of a signed insert called Flash Photography Autographs. Naturally I love the combo of a signed card of a player in a Michigan uni, plus this one's numbered /35 on the back, and it's my fourth auto of a guy who didn't play Superman but who was quite good at times in college.I mentioned the Olympics which means the NHL's on a break, but that doesn't mean we can't look at some hockey cards. We'll start with the non-Wolverines Red Wings, who are looking good for a playoff spot for the first time since 2016. D-man Ben Chiarot is the one guy in this scan who's currently with the team while Howe, Kozlov, Probert, and Sheppard are all players I know well from the team's history.The Michigan Hockey stack starts off with defenseman Jack Johnson, who retired last year after 19 seasons, and that makes me feel super old. A pair of UD cards of WolverWing and Olympian Dylan Larkin is next, and I have to say that the first, a 2023-24 SPx Radiance FX Blue die-cut insert, is totally sick. What a great looking design that really calls back to the glory years of the SPx brand, plus it's blue and numbered to 299! D-man Zach Werenski joins Larkin here both from the UD base set and in this year's Olympics, and fellow Wolverines Kyle Connor and Quinn Hughes are also in Milan for Team USA. Go (red, white, and) blue!The rest of the hockey content arrived in the form of these stickers, and there were lots! Most were made by Panini and released in the last 15-ish years, including those of Cammalleri, Cogliano, Johnson, Knuble, and Komisarek. The tiny Knuble is a bit of an exception as it's from 2003-04 Topps Mini Stickers, my first example of that product. I see other Wolverines in that set and will have to try to track down their minuscule counterparts. Jeff Norton, a much older Michigan/NHL alum, joins from the '91-'92 and '93-'94 Panini sticker sets.Ordinarily we'd be done by now having covered hockey, but Doug had one more surprise in store for me. I do have a small collection of Michigan alumni from other sports (including Olympians) and non-sports, and that collection got a new member thanks to this card. Brandi Rhodes (born Brandi Reed) indeed graduated from my alma mater, chose to go into broadcasting and modeling, and eventually joined the WWE, mainly as a ring announcer. She spent time with a few pro wrestling organizations and also married fellow wrestler Cody Runnels, a.k.a. Cody Rhodes, son of Dusty Rhodes, a WWF wrestler from my time as a fan.
Doug found the above 2023 Leaf Heroes of Wrestling green autograph and sent it my way, and thanks to him she's now the sixth member of my other/non-sports Michigan collection. Cool!
Doug, many thanks for this great envelope, especially the thoughtful new additions to three sports! I'm still working on putting together a return for you and it may take a while, but in the meantime I wish good luck to your country's Olympic team as well as a great week leading up to your birthday!
I'll be back again soon-ish with my third and final January trade package, then you'll get a January show recap, first February trade package, and a show recap from yesterday.






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