2025 trade package #16: the Angels in Order

Happy October, all! Though I don't love the decrease in temperature as we head towards fall, at least we get some nice colors...and playoff baseball!

And speaking of my favorite sport, I received a very nice surprise package from Tom of the Angels, In Order, back in July that was all baseball, all the time. And as a nice little bonus, because we're both members of TCDb, he sent me a bunch of wantlist matches I needed, so everything in the envelope was new to me.

Here's the contents from his latest mailing:

Hey, we've got a few playoff teams in this scan, at least for now. One of the two Reds representatives is Griffey out of 2008 Upper Deck X and 2016 Donruss. His most memorable postseason experience was 1995, though his Mariners never made it past the Series-bound Indians. Seattle fell in the '97 ALDS to Baltimore, then he was part of the '08 White Sox that would lose to a pennant-winning Devil Rays team. Here's hoping the Reds pull off an upset of the juggernaut Dodgers!

Gwynn (1986 Fleer Star Stickers and 2012 Gypsy Queen) got to play in the World Series near the beginning and end of his career. Of course the former was a tilt against the magical '84 Tigers, which went five games, and the latter was a sweep at the hands of the '98 Yankees during their dynasty back then. I hope Mr. Padre's team, including Michigan alum Jake Cronenworth, makes a deep playoff push this year.

Inge (2012 Topps Update) is mostly known for 12 seasons with the Tigers, and that includes their surprise Series appearance in '06 (a loss to St. Louis) and a 4-2 2011 ALCS defeat at the hands of Texas, who lost that year's Fall Classic to...St. Louis. Though he's a lower priority PC guy for me I'm happy to track down even base cards of his like this Update issue that notes his 2012 signing with the A's.

With Larkin (1990 Donruss Best of the NL), we start a nice streak of guys that did get to celebrate a Series victory. Though he'd have to take his '95 NL MVP as a consolation prize for losing to the eventual champion Braves in that year's NLCS, the surprising 1990 Reds buzzed through the Pirates (4-2) and swept Oakland to win it all, and with a roster featuring three former Wolverines (Larkin, Hal Morris, and Chris Sabo).

Maddux (2008 Bowman) was no stranger to the playoffs, getting to play October baseball in 13 of his 23 seasons, though none with the Padres. His three World Series appearances were the aforementioned '95 Braves, who defeated Cleveland, then losses to the Yankees in '96 and '99. His playoff record of 11-12 (1-2 in the World Series) isn't as impressive as his regular season numbers, but he was a big part of the reason Atlanta was a mainstay in October between 1995 and 2003.

Morris (1992 Topps Gold Winners) is the guy with the most postseason success of everyone seen here tonight. The ace of the '84 Tigers went 3-0 in that year's playoffs, including a pair of World Series wins. While 1987 proved to be a disappointment for the Tigers, who lost 4-1 in the ALCS to the eventual champion Twins, Morris would return to the Series in '91, with the Twins, and '92, with the Blue Jays, and earn a ring with both, including MVP honors with the Twins (to offset an 0-2 record the following year) bolstered by his legendary game 7 10-inning shutout of the Braves.

And Petry (1986 Leaf) contributed to the '84 Tigers as well with 18 regular season wins, though he didn't earn a decision in the sweep of the Royals and was the pitcher of record in Detroit's lone loss in game 2.

Detroit somehow has a chance to continue in the playoffs tomorrow after needing a superhero effort from Tarik Skubal in game 1 to paper over a left-on-base epidemic that finally caught up to them in game 2 earlier today. I don't expect anything different tomorrow but can hope!

All but one of the players in this scan is a repeat from above but I thought it would be fun to group the 1993 UD Fun Pack cards together since the ones in the first scan formed a perfect group of nine. While Fun Pack was never one of my favorite products, it did include some great photography.

Ripken is the lone player we didn't cover above, and his appearance marks another successful grouping of my big four player collections! His Orioles went all the way in '83, just his second full season. His regular season MVP performance carried over into the 3-1 ALCS victory over the White Sox, though his numbers in the main event were mediocre. He'd have to wait until 1996 for a return to October ball, and that involved a 3-1 ALDS win over Cleveland but a 4-1 ALCS loss to the storied Yankees. The following year they repeated with a 3-1 ALDS win over Griffey's Mariners, but this time Cleveland avenged their loss in six games to earn a matchup with the Marlins, which they hilariously lost.

The last card in this bunch is a Topps mini insert of Maddux where he's appropriately depicted as a member of the Braves. During that 1995-2003 run, he piled up 158 wins, his fourth straight Cy Young (and four other top-five finishes), beginning on a high note with that ring in '95.

I should also mention Griffey's Mariners put together a nice season to earn themselves a first-round bye as they await the winner of the Detroit/Cleveland series.

Tom, thanks again for this great bunch of cards which, again, were all needs, so I extra appreciate it! I'm not sure when I'll be sending you cards next but I do have a little stack going for you.

To everyone else, whether or not your team is in the playoffs, I hope you're enjoying some postseason baseball, and in the meantime I'll be back soon with what I think is my final trade package of July.

A super 2023 TCDb trade roundup, part 2

As is sometimes the case I have a lot of non-card stuff going on right now, hence my posting even less than usual, and that includes needing to temporarily move my collection and other things in my house for carpet installation. Still, I'm trying to sew up my 2023 pickups, so let's blast through the rest of the trades/PIFs I received from TCDb friends last year.

I specifically grouped these together because these items came from four of my closest friends on the site, some of whom I talk to just about every day, discussing checklist updates/fixes, fun new pickups, and anything else we feel like.

First up is Shawn, a.k.a. corky. The former Washington resident (now in Arizona) hangs out on the site once in a while and does great work when he's around, plus he's an excellent trader.

He sent me some very cool Griffeys, including a '96 Ultra promo, plus an oddball of another former Mariner I collect in Putz. And former UM CB Dave Brown is included on a sweet Seahawks card which stars another well-known Seattle guy in Largent.

Thanks, Shawn!

Next, Wisconsinite Brian (firesnbeers) sent me a bunch of stuff throughout the year in PIF form. The 2023 TCDb Member of the Year--and very deservedly so given his hard work and generosity on the site!--went to the National, so some of what you'll see below came from there, plus some came from a card shop not too far from him.

These came from a PIF about a year ago. That Conlon card is Vick's lone cardboard issue listed on TCDb, and it's now part of my Michigan Baseball PC. He played baseball and football for the Wolverines in the late 1910s/early 20s, apparently liking positions starting with a "C": catcher and center. Though his MLB career, 57 games over four seasons with the Cards, was short, he did win a ring with the '26 champion St. Louis squad, though he didn't actually appear in the Fall Classic.

There was a good bit of football content in that mailing as well, including the QB-heavy group above.

I can also often count on Brian to send me a nice bunch of Packers stuff since that comes with his territory, and he's especially reliable for getting oddball-ish stuff like police issues. Hence the additions to my Des and Woodson PCs from the group above.

The next bunch of scans came from a big August '23 mailing that included some National pickups, interesting stuff from his card shop, and lots more. Sweet Miggy cards here!

Gwynn, former Tigers, and a Rich Hill, excellent!

Hell yeah, even more of yesterday's birthday boy Dick Mountain, and in numbered form in a couple cases! More Tigers and another Michigan Baseball alum too.

Former Tigers in the wrong uniforms start off this scan but there's other cool stuff, including even more Hills! And one of the top cards in the whole package is the second oldest George Kell in my collection, out of 1955 Bowman. Wow!

He picked out these Topps Mini Pink parallels from the National after finding a nice deal on them and I thought that was very cool, though I did make sure to send the Jones to Paul as he still collects JaCoby.

A few more very interesting items here. The two columns of '79 Topps cards are from a box or uncut sheet or something, I forget which, but I thought it would be fun to add because of the presence of Bergman, another former Tiger in Corcoran, and of course the Maris/Aaron combo. Northrup is a '71 Topps Super and represents my first piece of that odd but great product's run. And last up is an Al Kaline mini record that was also made in 1971 by Mattel. That quickly became one of the most unique items in my collection!

There was plenty more football in this package as well, and a really nice mix of players to boot.

More football and more recent guys in Michigan unis. SAGE even managed their usual level of QC by calling former Michigan star DB Hill "Draxton" instead of Daxton.

And the last of the football and this package overall. A couple Topps Total multiplayer cards feature ex-Wolverines, a Score Red Siege parallel of former WR Chris Calloway looks great, and backfield bowling ball Leroy Hoard is high-steppin' on an extra tall Fleer GameDay card.

And now we're into the last PIF Brian sent me which was back in October. The first of two baseball scans offers more Miggy, three quarters of my Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken quartet (don't worry--Cal's included in the next scan), and, oh yeah, just another vintage HOF card: Al Kaline's '71 Topps. Awesome!

There's the Ripken I was referring to, along with Gwynns big and, uh, normal, and another Maddux.

And lastly, Brian made a big trade with another member and arranged to acquire cards for a few folks, which was very nice of him. I took advantage of his offer by picking up all of these needs for my '94 Finest and Pinnacle and '95 Finest sets.

Thanks again for a bunch of amazing PIF cards, especially the vintage and oddball stuff, Brian!

Next we have my fellow Michigander Jason (jasongerman9), the first of this group that I've met in-person, which I'll detail more in a future show recap. Jason's a baseball coach at a college near where he lives close to the Michigan/Indiana border, and it's easy to find stuff he can use as he has a huge wantlist of Reds and other PCs. He sent me a few nice sized PIFs last year broken down like this:

PIF #1 last February included a fun mix of baseball, basketball, and football stuff. If that Mosaic Kaline isn't emblematic of today's Panini, I don't know what is! I knew Jason was sending me the two IP/TTM autos of NCAA champ Glen Rice but they were still fun to get all the same.

There was even more football to enjoy but the top highlights by far were the super vintage mini RCs of Albert "Ox" Wistert and John Greene out of 1948 and '50 Bowman, respectively:

Albert was one of three brothers (Francis, a.k.a. "Whitey," and Alvin a.k.a. "Moose") to suit up for Michigan (but not at the same time) and all of them were OTs. This one played in Ann Arbor from 1940-42, then was selected by the Eagles, with whom he earned a selection to the first ever Pro Bowl plus a pair of pre-Super Bowl Championships. His #11, worn by all three of the brothers, is one of six to be retired by Michigan. He joins a few other ex-Wolverines in the '48 Bowman and/or Leaf sets as a rookie and represents a tie with Bob Nussbaumer from the same set as the oldest card in my Michigan PC!

Meanwhile, the '50 Bowman RC of ex QB/OL/other and wrestler Greene is just one of two cards in his name cataloged on TCDb, with the other being a 1986 reprint of this exact card, which hails from the same set as that of HOFer Elroy Hirsch's first year. He played in Ann Arbor in the early 40s before being drafted by the nearby Lions where he was basically a TE from 1944-50.

These two very early RCs are incredible and I can't thank Jason enough, probably because I owe him even more thanks for...

...this super cool custom jersey of my favorite former Michigan RB...

...Mike Hart! It turns out that Jason had a connection that could make something like this and asked me what name/number combo I'd want if such a thing was possible. I thanked him profusely for getting this made for me and was glad to wear it a few times last season during the team's national championship run with Hart guiding the running backs. Sadly, Hart is no longer with the team apparently for personal reasons, but I'll always be thankful for his contributions on the field and the sidelines (and to Jason for my favorite Michigan jersey in my entire wardrobe!).

Moving ahead to July, he sent me a Tigers-filled PWE with some great looking stuff in it. I was especially happy to get more Miggy stuff during his sunset season, but the Orange Refractor of Castro is quite cool as well.

These are limited to just 25 copies and this one was fairly close to being a Christmas card!

And here's the rest of the Tigers from that envelope highlighted by two guys I hope to see remain in the rotation throughout 2024 without any injuries, Manning and Skubal.

And finally in December he sent me some really nice Christmas cards. This scan features a lot of shiny stuff which I'm always a sucker for, and it's mostly Tigers plus a Cronenworth I didn't have. Sparky's Topps Chrome Platinum parallel is called a Platinum Toile Cream/Fuchsia Atomic Refractor (Topps and Panini parallels have long since jumped the shark) and is numbered /100. Meanwhile, I'm still a fan of Topps Tribute base cards I can get on the cheap or in trades because they look so premium.

TCP pops up in scan #2 as well and we're not even done yet after these! Remember when Grossman was a Tiger for a minute there? The two parallels you see of him are a Blue Mini-Diamond Refractor (/199) and a Black and White Mini Diamond Refractor. IF prospect Jack Lopez looks to appear on a similar version to the first Grossman but that's actually a Platinum Toile White/Blue Refractor numbered /199. OBVIOUSLY. Anyway, they look cool and that's a plus. Also, I've received so many copies of that Heritage Hill I don't know what to do with all of them!

And here's an exciting way to close out this group. Tram's sweet looking issue is a regular old (but plenty appreciated) Refractor. Charley Maxwell's 1962 Post Cereal card, just my third item of his, was one of two huge surprises in this envelope. The other was a 2009 SAGE HIT Cyan Plate of ex-Wolverine Tim Jamison! The Michigan DE played between 2005-08 and therefore saw the end of the Carr era and the beginning of the RichRod experience. He put up a reasonable 18.0 sacks and 28.5 TFL before appearing in a solid 56 games over six seasons with the Texans as an UDFA. I'm excited to have such a nice piece for my small collection of him!

Thanks for your generosity last year, Jason--that was some really impressive stuff you sent my way, and I look forward to more trading and hopefully meet-ups this year!

And last up tonight is a nice stack of stuff I got from longtime member Dan (vrooomed) to go with all of the other great items he sent me earlier in the year that I already covered. This was kind of a combination of a trade with a few surprises thrown in.

Dan threw in some newer Tigers to go with some Fielders I picked out, plus he included a cool STAR promo (and a shiny Miggy too). For those that don't know, he worked for the STAR company back in the 80s and therefore knows a good amount of what goes into producing cards. Also he had quite a few extras from those sets over the years to clear out, which you'll see more of in a bit.

Big and small, I trade for them all! Former Wolverine Ignasiak is another STAR card I'm sure I wouldn't have found otherwise. Keller joins my '91 Swell Greats set chase. And the minis of Bergman, Henneman, and Parrish join others in all three PCs!

I mentioned that Dan had lots of STAR cards to offer, and that included these nine minor league team sets that all included at least one PC guy I collect. Here's a quick list of the sets:

• 1988 Charlotte Rangers, Florida State League All-Stars, Ft. Lauderdale Yankees, Lakeland Tigers
• 1989 Burlington Braves (missing a few at the end of the checklist), Cedar Rapids Reds, Hamilton Redbirds (Cardinals)
• 1990 Elizabethtown Twins, Memphis Chicks (Royals)

I ended up with 10 player collection needs which was great, including two new Dean Palmers. Wolverines P Greg Everson got three new cards added to his total (including one in the next scan where he's referred to as "Chuck" on the front) and I now have five of his eight issues. Kamieniecki's well known enough, I think, and I've mentioned the late Powell a few times. However Karasinski (Braves P who didn't make the bigs) and Morse (Twins 2B, same) are making their collection debuts; Lata also gets a second card to his name.

I'm going to keep all of the sets intact because why not? Since I needed to scan the third Everson as the 10th card in the bunch, I thought I'd pull a few other stars that caught my eye. Juan Gon and Sosa joined Palmer in a star-studded '88 Charlotte set, Felipe Alou was a coach for the '88 FSL All-Star Game, and Conine was the best card found in the '90 Memphis Chicks set featuring future Royals.

Dan, once again, thank you for some super fun trading throughout 2023 and your generosity in sending some very useful items my way!

And thank you once again to all four of these guys for being awesome friends and fellow TCDb members! The site is better with all of you actively trading, handling IRs, and providing advice, and I appreciate all that you do!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who doesn't care that I post like once a month sometimes. I'll be back at some point with my final 2023 post recapping my COMC Black Friday pickups.

TCDb trade roundup: vrooomed

Here's a great way to get another big staff of stuff off of my desk! Over the past few months I've made a few deals and received a couple PIFs from Dan (a.k.a. vrooomed), one of hardest working members of TCDb and one of my earliest friends there. I received so many cards from him that it made sense to just devote one post to what he sent in March, June, and whenever he sent other envelopes.

Check out all these great additions to my collections:

Lots and lots of Tigers today. Miggy and Pudge will feature quite a bit but it's fun seeing others too like  Heilmann and V-Mart. 

This isn't nearly what I was referring to with the Rodriguez cards, by the way. You'll see! Sweet Lou and the Iron Man are always welcome sites in trade packages. Did anyone ever refer to Cal as "the Ripper" at any point?

Lots of inserts/shiny/both here with a bit of numbering too. Funkhouser's from the higher-end Sapphire set. Seeing Cabrera being applauded by fans is always fun, especially in Refractor form. And Pudge's Ultra insert makes me miss Fleer once again.

Though Dan lives in New York he's got some pretty nice Red Wings PCs and I was glad to grab some of his dupes for my way-too-small Yzerman collection (currently just 66 cards). It's fun seeing this group of various years and designs from his long and storied career.

The next bunch of scans (including this one) represent my own haul of a large deal we made after Dan got a massive amount of extras added to his trade list from the 70s-90s. I grabbed a huge chunk of stuff to help Jeff with his 80s set wants plus some White Sox and other PCs as well. But I also filled in some PC and team gaps of my own. Northrup and Cochrane were fun vintage adds, and I also picked up the remaining '81 Topps Coke Tigers I needed to finish up that set (except for Alan Trammell, who I still need to find).

A couple of playing days cards of Evans get me near the century mark for his PC, just two shy. You'll find more of Fielder below as well to go with this pair, the highlight being a '96 Fleer Update base. It's not always easy finding Kirk Gibsons I need but it's no surprise when he pops up on an '88 World Series-related item. Talented player and broadcaster Curtis Granderson is another guy you'll see a bit more of as you scroll down, and this pair of inserts looks great. Speaking of chase cards, how about big four PC guy Griffey and his sweet swing?

After seeing the Juniors Ripken and Griffey already, we get a quartet of big four guy Mr. Padre, with that top row being 100% inserts. View to a Thrill combined a very cool name and design back when card manufacturers that cared about such things still existed. Herndon and Hernandez (out of order which I realized after scanning, as usual!) are two more key '84 Tigers you'll see here, and both get pre-Detroit additions to their PCs. Thanks again for the Hernandez deal, Phillies! (Oops, I shouldn't play that up too much, that's Dan's team!)

Lemon and Morris were of course teammates of those two guys in '84, and Lemon joins the group that gets pre-Tigers adds to their piles. There's more Morris goodness in a bit. Late 80s slugging catcher sensation Matt Nokes came along for the ride with a Sportflics base being a favorite of mine.

The catcher he took over for was the "Big Wheel" Lance Parrish, who was certainly a Diamond King, and then a cheap-ass owner caused him to leave for Philadelphia in '87 (and he was then traded to the Angels the following year). Peaches was a great #2 on that '84 squad, and he's actually signing at my monthly show next weekend, but I don't know if I'll make the extra trip out to get him on Saturday. Local boy Pat Sheridan (born in Ann Arbor, went to Eastern Michigan in nearby Ypsilanti) joined the Tigers in '86, too late to win a ring with a bunch of the guys I've mentioned today, but he did get his own with the Royals in '85.

A couple more Sheridans, Detroit-style, give way to a fun group of Frank Tanana, a well-travelled guy who had pitched in California, Boston, and Texas before heading to Detroit. The Angels aren't represented here because the earliest card is from '81 but I do have a few of him with California, plus all of his other teams besides the Yankees. Something like three different options exist for those and I'm sure I'll snag at least one at some point.

Here we have some horizontal stuff and a few odd-sized items. I'd say Big Daddy (RC) enjoyed a better career than fellow prospect Cory Snyder, who started out hot and fizzled out quickly. If I have to see Grandy with a NY team I'd rather it be with the Mets. Griffey's paired up on that Stadium Club insert with Darryl Strawberry, a cool combo at the time. Morris' sticker is a fun one, and if you like those you're going to love a particular pair of scans coming up shortly. And Kinsler and Maddux are from the 2010s Topps insert size of die-cut minis that replicate the '89 Topps look.

Closing out this group is a huge chunk of Pudge cards. Looks like I soared past 300 to 351 cards of him thanks in large part to this deal. Most of what you see is Texas stuff, which is to be expected, but there's a couple other teams mixed in there. As is the case whenever I get a bunch like this, I really enjoy looking through the various designs and getting a sense of what the style was each year. There's some pretty solid inserts mixed in there too! See if you can spot any you're a fan of.

The latest envelope was headlined by these two items: a Silver Slate parallel of Granderson and a Denny's Grand Slam hologram of Cal that I somehow didn't have.

At some point after he got everything else updated in terms of his trade list, Dan added a bunch of 80s Topps and OPC stickers, and he was nice enough to send me all that I needed, which amounted to a Ripken and a whole bunch of '84 Tigers, including a few Series-related stickers.

And here's the rest of them, all of which feature your 1984 champions.

Many thanks to Dan for our formal and blind trades/PIFs that have been lots of fun to keep going. A lot of these items were ones I was glad to get but wouldn't have wanted to pay for, especially the 80s stuff, so it was a perfect way for me to acquire them to fill in some gaps. And here's to our next deal, whenever that is!