2015 trade package #10: Cards on Cards sends Tigers cards and PC cards

Recently I received another great two-part trade package from a fellow baseball/college collector, Kerry of Cards on Cards.  Kerry is a bird enthusiast that chases Cardinals of the St. Louis variety as well as Ducks native to Oregon, and that means our collecting mindsets are similar enough to make trading go very smoothly between us.  You might even say we're birds of a feather!  (Ok, I'll quit with the bird stuff now.)

Please don't forget to take a gander at the Wolverines Kerry sent my way on this evening's TMM post.  Meanwhile, here's the excellent baseball portion:

First up is what looks like a team set of 2015 Topps Tigers:

There were 10 cards so I gave the team card its own scan.  I'm curious if this image is from either of the games I attended this year, one where the pictured Davis defeated Oakland with a walk-off slam, or the season finale when Detroit beat Minnesota to win the AL Central.

I do like the player selection here on the assumption that guys like Verlander, Avila, J.D. Martinez, and a couple of the offseason additions appear in Series II.  The inclusion of prospects McCann and Farmer was nice.  That design still melts my eyeballs, though!

It's time to get EXTREME with Topps Chipz!  Market research has determined that "Z" is way more extreme than "S" when making a word plural.  Kidz will definitely Facetweet their Chipz on their InstaTunez and MyTube accountz!  I did speak to a guy at a show recently who said his young kids do enjoy playing with these, though, so kudos to Topps for making something youth-friendly in an adult-heavy hobby.

Here's a bunch of Tigers favorites, including another Miggy from 2015 Topps (yay Triple Crown!) and a Cobb insert from the same product.  The Fryman card takes me back almost 20 years to the 1996 thorn-in-my-side Bazooka set (and the 90s Tigers).  Next up is a couple pairs of former Detroiters in Carlos Guillen from UD and Austin Jackson from Chrome products, including a Refractor, one of the best inserts known to man.  Then we head further in the past with two of three Kalines Kerry sent my way, including a 2013 Topps sticker, which reminds me of the fun I had filling up my Panini sticker books of the early 90s.

More Tigers, picking up where we left off with Kaline, this time an Archives reprint that includes Elston Howard, Jimmy Piersall, and former teammate "Stormin'" Norman Cash.  From a newer Archives product, 2013, comes 30-game winner Denny McLain in the form of an SP from that set.  This trade adds a couple more pairs of recent Tigers in Magglio Ordonez, including a Sweet Spot numbered insert, and 2B Placido Polanco, a couple guys that helped bring the Tigers back to respectability.  Finally, we end with a couple members of the last few seasons' rotations that moved on, Porcello and Scherzer.

I split up everyone else in the package as they go towards my PCs.  Kerry was very generous here and certainly didn't disappoint.  He hit four of my Tigers guys, starting with Gibby, Granderson and Trammell.  The Granderson is one I was close to picking up online recently until I landed it here, and it's from 2002 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres, making it one of his earliest issues.  Tram comes from the 1995 SP set and includes a very nice photo.

Four many Verlanders!  Kerry managed to spit in the face of the Toppsopoly with a sticker from Panini's kid-focused Triple Play sticker set.  Everything else was Topps, including JV's 2014 flagship base card, a 2014 Heritage Chrome (still love those!) numbered to 999, and the third Topps Chipz of the package!

He didn't forget my non-Tigers PCs, either!  Here's a pair of Gwynns from 1995 Sportflix and 1998 Fleer SI.  While I have the '96 Sportflix set, I never chased the previous year's reboot so I loved getting this one.  The SI card is one of a few Gwynn has in the cool glossy set Fleer produced a few teams in the late 90s.

Keeping with the HOF theme is Greg Maddux with one of his more notable clubs--his second stop with the Cubs--plus a more obscure short-term stop with the Dodgers.  The 2005 Opening Day card was new to me while the '07 flagship saved me from having to scan one from my complete set!

Finally, eight is the correct number of cards of #8 to send in a given package, unless you'd like to send more, in which case that number is also correct.  These Ripkens are, in order:  1989 Fleer Heroes of Baseball, 1995 Sportflix, 1996 Zenith, 1997 Donruss Update info card (more below), 1997 Stadium Club, 1999 Pacific, 2000 Fleer Focus, and 2001 Fleer Game Time.

Here's a closer look at the Donruss Update card:

Unlike normal card stock this is very thin, but the front still shares the image of one of Cal's cards in that set while the back talks a bit about the set, one I enjoyed busting quite a bit almost 20 years ago!

Thanks a ton for the amazing package, Kerry, and I'm happy to report that I've got a nice start on a little envelope to send back your way before much longer!

2015 trade package #6: 50 years of Tigers from $30 a Week Habit

Thanks to Robert of $30 a Week Habit I now have my first trade of February to show off!  In return for a nice stack of cards for his unique SNI project I'll send eastward to Pennsylvania once COMC gets them to me, I got the following bounty:

Rick Porcello 2015 Topps Black (#58/64)

From his 12 hobby pack break of 2015 Topps, Robert sent me this nice Black parallel of former Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello.  I have to say it's nice to get one last card of Rick in a Tigers uniform.  I wish him luck for a great 2015 season that's sure to lead to a nice big payday in his first run at free agency!

I'll save my 2015 Topps ranting for a different post so I can focus on the positives here.  The main one is that I continue to like collecting Topps' Gold and Black parallels; anything beyond that starts to turn into overkill, but those two are the standard for me, and they give you both ends of the scarcity spectrum.  That and they look good to boot.  Cards numbered to something as low as 64 would have blown collectors' minds in the past but now they're fun and reasonable challenges to collect.

By the way, I think this is my first 2015 baseball card of any type, though I could easily be forgetting something.

Jim Delsing 1956 Topps

Billy Hoeft 1956 Topps

Well these certainly came out of nowhere!  I knew he was setting aside the Porcello for me but this pair of '56 Topps cards was a fun surprise to say the least.  I've never really been the type to chase vintage stuff, especially cards from the 50s, since it's often out of my price range if not my wheelhouse.  In that case, I really appreciate it when people send me older stuff, especially Tigers.  As far as the 1956 set goes, the only other card I can claim in my vintage collection is an Elston Howard I picked up at a show.  But I've always considered it to be a cool set whose design lives up to its legacy.

Since I don't know a ton about either guy--though I've at least heard of Hoeft!--it's off to baseball-reference for a history lesson:

Delsing was an outfielder that suited up for the White Sox, Yanks, Browns, Tigers, and K.C. A's over his 10-year career, and he spent five of those in Detroit.  His transactions list is fairly typical of the era's Wild West situation, and he spent time in a few other leagues before debuting with the White Sox, then traveled quite a bit in the bigs as well.  He doesn't look to have had a very potent bat, but I like that the majority of his games were with the Tigers.

Hoeft, a pitcher, also spent more of his career in Detroit than in any other city.  In fact, his first seven-plus seasons took place in Motown, and they would be the best of his career, including an All-Star appearance in 1955 and a 20-win season the following year.  Overall he'd finish with a win percentage south of .500, which is not surprising since he earned double-digit wins just three times over his 15-year career.  After Detroit he would play for Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco, the Milwaukee Braves, the Cubs, and the Giants again, before hanging 'em up.  One interesting note:  Hoeft was buried in a cemetery in my hometown of Livonia, MI, and it's apparently the same one in which 1919 Black Sox pitcher Ed Cicotte is interred.

Thanks again for the terrific Tigers trio, Robert, and I promise I'll get those cards out to you as soon as I have them!  Readers, check on his SNI progress and other collecting news over at $30 a Week Habit.