2025 trade package #22: Sport Card Collectors

Hooray, I'm now only about a month behind! And my first November trade package came courtesy of the person who sent the final one in October, Matt of Sport Card Collectors. While he sends me PWEs throughout the year, he tends to put together a larger package around the holidays, and that was the case here as these constitute my Christmas present from a person who really values that occasion.

And a very nice gift it was! Here's the contents of the bubble mailer:

First up: a nearly full set of 1989 ProCards London Tigers. Minor league affiliates can change decently often and that was the case for Detroit's AA club, the Glens Falls Tigers, who moved from that city to London, Ontario, a couple hours away from Motown, for the 1989 season. They'd remain there until 1993, switch to Trenton (NJ) in '94, Jacksonville from 1995-2000, and ultimately their current location in Erie, PA. I'll show off the biggest name of this bunch in the next image (plus another guy I collect) but I'll also mention that the group includes 1986 first-rounder (18th overall) Phil Clark, a catching prospect that never panned out.

For those interested, the full team set appears to be 32 cards strong and Matt sent me 25 of those, including the two I would have wanted the most.

Miggy leads off this scan in festive form that's perfect for the upcoming holiday, and also in a 1989 disguise, back when I was celebrating my seventh Christmas.

Greg Everson is one of the two '89 Procards cards I'm highlighting because he's a Michigan alum who was also born in my hometown of Livonia, Michigan, so that's about as good as it gets. TCDb has nine cards listed for him (all minors issues) and this is my 6th. Not bad! I'll skip over one card to talk about the other '89 London Tigers base which stars the most successful guy in the set: Travis Fryman. Detroit chose the well know left-side infielder with the 30th overall pick in '87 and he rewarded them with eight productive seasons, half of which saw him get selected for the All-Star game. After the '97 season he was dealt to the brand new Diamondbacks, who then flipped him to Cleveland a couple weeks later for Matt Williams.

And now we have some cool inserts to look at. Those start with a Bowman Gold parallel of pitcher Luke French, a guy whose career wasn't really notable. The next card is, though: a '23 Topps Heritage '74 Topps Stamps card that includes Mr. Tiger Al Kaline plus recent guys Tork, Baez, and Greene. I'd actually traded for this card in a TCDb deal but got sent the wrong one, and thanks to Matt I didn't need to go back and get that fixed to land a card I really wanted! Rotation stalwart Mize's card is a '21 Topps 1952 Topps Redux Chrome in all its Refractor-y glory. Franklin Perez, a headliner in the Verlander deal, also pops up on a nice looking Refractor from 2020, numbered /150. And Tork makes his second of three appearances, this one from Topps Heritage's long-running New Age Performers insert.

Tork #3 is a '24 Topps Royal Blue parallel, one of the ones that are mercifully easy to ID. And he's joined by a trio of--or should I say "three many"--Verlanders. Two of those are Topps Holiday cards like the Miggy so that makes them perfect for the season as well.

The rest of this scan is a good time to ask the question, "Do you really like looking at cards of Ken Griffey Jr.?" If the answer is "Yes!" then you're in luck. If not, you'll want to scroll down quite a bit. Also, you all know I collect Griffey and have over 1000 cards of him, so why would you not expect to see these here?

Anyway, Matt and I are very close in age and both loved watching Griffey play throughout the 90s. And so he devoted quite a bit of space in this envelope to cards of George Jr., which I was very happy to accept!

The horizontal group that kicks off the pile includes a couple mid/late 90s base, a 2001 Fleer Triple Crown insert called "Future Threats," and a 2023 UD Goodwin Champions base, the latter of which includes a much more recent photo of the retired superstar.

(Vertical) Griffey group #1 starts with the early 90s and zooms into 1996. My favorites are the Stadium Club Charter Member card with Junior and Senior, the UD superhero card (we all thought he was a superhero back then), and the '95 Stadium Club base showing off his sweet swing.

Here a couple more '96s give way to six checklists from the 1997 Collector's Choice set. Griffey was a UD spokesman for a few years back then so they featured him prominently in a number of products. In this case the lower-end kid-friendly set gave collecting tips for younger folks in the hobby.

Now we're heading into the late 90s and early/mid-2000s with this bunch. For me I don't think it gets better than that 1996-2001 run UD had, including the '98 design you see above. The Fleer Update card marking his 400th homer is a nice addition, and of course he'd sock another 230 before all was said and done. The fourth card is an UD entry from a multi-product effort celebrating opening day in 2000 and it turned out great. The rest are quite nice too, especially 2001 SP Game Used, and unfortunately my scanning went off the rails with the last card, but I didn't notice until I was putting this post together and didn't feel like re-scanning!

Now we're into the late career and post-career stuff, a lot of which is also fun. I'll take UD's Masterpieces over Ginter any day, but now I don't have to choose! Recent Donruss Preferred doesn't hold a candle to the original, but I do like the callback, just like I do with the Donruss base (though the last card in the scan looks much better than the couple from '21). A Topps '86 throwback insert increases my count of Griffey on the Reds, we get one more Goodwin Champions base, and then there's probably the best photo in the bunch courtesy of--who else?--Stadium Club, and a Home Run Derby moment.

Junior does sneak one last card into this scan as well! I'm working on the '24 Topps Celebration of the Kid insert and this one gives me a total of 8 of the 24, so I'm making decent progress there.

Matt threw in one basketball card and it was a bit of a surprise: a relic of THJ, out of 2018-19 Prizm. He's out in Denver after spending last year with the Pistons, and he's putting up decent PPG as a bench guy.

And we'll close things out with Michigan Football. As I write this post the big news in Ann Arbor is coach Sherrone Moore getting fired for an inappropriate relationship with an employee. I'm sure lots more info will come out over the next couple days, but in the meantime I'm mainly thinking of his wife and three daughters and hoping they can get through this heartbreaking situation. UM will find a new coach at some point and life will go on, but may their lives not be made a million times worse by his awful decisions.

That aside, I have a few more cards from Matt to enjoy. The first is Panini Zenith No Huddle red parallel of RB Blake Corum's RC. He just had himself a game, piling up 128 yards on 12 carries and two TDs including a 48-yarder as his Rams thumped the Cardinals. Hutch is always welcome in a trade envelope, be it on his own cards or on those that include other fantastic college/NFL defenders like Paye and Gary.Ojabo still hasn't found his footing in the NFL and I don't know if he will, but I love college-themed cards that remind me of him helping take down Ohio State. And DPJ may be out of the league but he had some memorable moments in Ann Arbor wearing the maize & blue, like he's doing on a Panini Legacy card above.

Matt, thank you once again for this awesome stack of cards, headlined by the Griffeys but supported by lots more of my favorite PCs. I appreciate the warm Christmas wishes and promise I'll return the favor pretty soon so you have something to put under your tree!

I'll be back pretty soon with another trade package recap!

2025 trade package #12: Sport Card Collectors

Tonight's trade package cards came from the lone blogger envelope(s) I received in June, and none other than Matt of the Sport Card Collectors family of blogs. (Don't worry about me being starved for cards--July ended up being a doozy!) As summer kicked off he sent me a nice little bunch of Tigers and Wolverines:

Who knew back in Spring Training that Riley would be an All-Star? It's no surprise that he continues to make highlight reel plays night after night, though! Jobe's unfortunately on the shelf due to the dreaded TJ surgery, but he's certainly earned his Rated Rookie logo. I believe Keith's '25 Topps parallel above is called "Silver Crackle Foilboard," not that I'd have any clue if I couldn't look it up somewhere. The number of parallels is too damn high!

Moving to the second row, Mize no longer pitches for the Erie Seawolves (or Moon Mammoths, if you prefer, thanks to the wonderful John Oliver), but that's because he's 10-4 for the Motor City Kitties this season! Olson ('25 Topps Holo Foil, apparently? I dunno, I see that and want to call it Sand Glitter, another parallel offering) is also on the shelf for at least the rest of the regular season, but he has an outside shot at a return for the playoffs. Perez (2020 Bowman Chrome Prospects Refractors) was supposed to be the centerpiece in the Verlander-to-the-Astros trade, but that didn't work out--JV's still pitching and Perez hasn't pitched in '25 that I can see.

The last regular sized card is a '24 Topps Update Gold (#d /2024) of short term Tiger Gio Urshela, who appeared in just under 100 games with the 2024 Tigers and then was released. There may be way too many parallels but Topps's Gold is still a solid yearly offering. And last up is a '21 Ginter A&G Back Mini of Daz Cameron, another promising young player that came over in the Verlander trade but didn't work out. He's still active, at least, having caught on with the A's in '24 and Milwaukee this season.

As we head over to the gridiron I'm reminded that Michigan kicks off its season in just three weeks! Unfortunately it's a night game, but whatever. Anyway, the cards Matt sent are a nice lead-in to the season.

From last year's Prestige product he sent me two of Michigan's best recent defenders. Hutch is of course very well known by now, and meanwhile DL Kris Jenkins will head into his sophomore NFL campaign with the Bengals.As with most draftees of the past five-plus years, I still need a lot of the latter's RCs like the one above (not to mention Hutchinson's!).

The second row is even more colorful. First up is a '24 Prizm Draft Red Ice parallel of Michigan DB and NFL HOFer Ty Law. While it's not a color match card, the shade of red plus ice pattern look terrific together, along with a great college action shot. And speaking of colors not matching on a card that still looks great, how about a 2022 Bowman U Chrome Pink Refractor of QB Cade McNamara, a guy who managed to beat OSU before heading off to browner pastures in Iowa?

Matt, thanks again for these fun Tigers and Wolverines additions! I haven't picked up much for you since the last package I sent, but I'm sure before long I'll have another mailer's worth of Giants and 90s inserts to send out east for your enjoyment.

I've got a few ideas for my next post but haven't decided what it'll be just yet--June's show, my eBay pickups from the first half of '25, or a quick recap of some TCDb deals from earlier this year. Either way, you'll see all three of those at some point in the next week or two, so stay tuned for those!

2025 trade package #10: Sport Card Collectors

We're in mid-June and the MLB season is getting close to the halfway point, but things were just getting started for my Tigers and the other clubs back in April when Matt of the Sport Card Collectors family of blogs sent me a cool pair of PWEs mostly featuring that team.

Here's what Matt sent me this time:

Bowman is often the home of prospects you've never heard of (and likely won't ever hear from again), and Ardoin's no exception--he pitched just three years of Minor League ball. Miggy and I were both six years old when the '89 Topps set the insert above is based on came out, and one of us went on to a storied MLB career. '24 World Series winner Flaherty is back in Detroit's rotation, and the results have been somewhat mixed, but he's still a solid guy I'm glad is on the team (plus, who'd say no to a Refractor?).

When it comes to infielder Colt Keith, he wouldn't be born for another 12 years after '89 Topps' release, and he made his MLB debut a total of 35 years after the abundant firestarter was found in packs, as seen on a cool Topps parallel. While '25 has been a bit of a down year for Keith, Torkelson has reversed his fortunes and is playing like a Star of the MLB, on pace to exceed the 31 bombs he totaled two years ago.

'84 World Series champ Trammell looks regal on a recent Panini Crusade design, and though he was famously screwed out of the '87 AL MVP, he does have a better crown to wear: MVP of the previously mentioned World Series. Verlander, meanwhile, has a trophy case absolutely stuffed thanks to a ROY, MVP, three Cy Youngs, and two World Series rings, not to mention an ALCS MVP. Autumn wasn't kind to him until 2017 with the Astros, and the third time was the charm for Mr. Kate Upton. As always he also looks great in Refractor form.

There were two more baseball items in these envelopes, both of diminutive stature. The first is a Mini Miggy, not to be confused with erstwhile Tiger Avisail Garcia, and the second is a Ginter Mini of 2008-09 and 2012 Tigers OF Clete Thomas, who ended his brief MLB career with the Twins in 2013.

Matt's also one of my more consistent sources of Michigan Football stuff, which I always appreciate, and he included a couple recent defensive guys here. First is a '24 Score RC of LB Junior Colson, who was drafted by his former college coach Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers, for whom he played 11 games last season. As always, hell yeah to the occasional college action RC! The other is a Panini Mosaic base of Aidan Hutchinson, the beastly edge player whose return to health could portend even more success than last year's Lions. My collection of the Lions' best player is growing nicely and is nearing the 50-card mark thanks to envelopes like this one.

Matt, as always, thank you for more of your trademark PWEs as they always include some of my PC favorites. Pretty soon I should also be able to cover the newest pair you sent this month, though I have a bit more catching up to do. In the meantime I look forward to any post(s) you put together on the envelope I just sent your way.

As this was my lone trade package from April I don't have too much more to show off from that month, but I'll be back soon with an outstanding showing of generosity. 

2024 trade package #25: My Sports Obsession

I'm fresh off watching Michigan's hilarious bowl victory over an Alabama team that claimed they belonged in the Playoff and then did that against basically the Wolverines bench. Now I've got three more December trade packages to cover this afternoon/evening to meet my goal of getting them all done before the new year.

Fortunately for me I'm able to front-load the work as the largest remaining package is the one that got to me next. This was a roughly 200+-count box from buddy of the blog and fellow Michigan fan Jeff of My Sports Obsession. Jeff, I hope you enjoy reading this post in the afterglow of one of our more unlikely bowl victories in team history!

This one took a whole bunch of scans to recap, so settle in for lots of cards to eyeball:

Well damn, a sweet Sparky trio is a great way to start out strong! I remain grateful that the most important manager of my lifetime still gets the odd cardboard appearance. Miggy's count climbs with a high-quality three-spot of his own. And a third franchise legend joins the scan in Ty Cobb, who you'll see in two more scans in this post, including the next one. Stadium Club and Diamond Kings are products with designs that will always appeal to me more than plainer fare such as flagship Topps.

Two more Cobbs to start this scan look Georgia peachy to me thanks to Topps Chrome Platinum and an era-appropriate Sepia parallel from Stadium Club. Cronenworth is one of a bunch of guys in this post that both Jeff and I collect and I'm happy we can keep sending them back and forth, especially when I get beauties like a Holo and another eye-popping Stadium Club look. Elliott, a 2022 2nd-rounder out of Michigan, is probably another guy I found out about thanks to following Jeff's posts as he's often better at catching the newer guys than I am. Griffey stars on one of a number of instances of the fantastic Topps Museum product. And my Gwynn PC got a very nice boost in this package--including one of my favorites in Stadium Club Chrome--with a bunch more in the next scan too!

See? Lots more Gwynn, lots of fantastic designs! Museum, Stadium Club, Chrome Platinum, Gold Label, and some inserts too. Lots of great additions to his collection. The crazy Prizm parallel represents another PC guy we share in P Steven Hajjar on a Michigan uni card. And he's followed by a Retail version of a Mr. Tiger Panini Absolute base.

No suspense here as the Griffey/Gwynn pairing above joins Maddux and Ripken in this scan to complete the big four PC group. Cal's probably the player we trade back and forth the most in terms of our shared PCs, though a few guys probably do come close. I loved seeing Tram join Sparky above from the Purple Donruss parallel. Then, counting the next scan, we have four many Verlanders, which is twice as good as two, especially when they're this shiny.

With those three Chrome parallels I'm starting to approach JV rainbow territory. Baez's second appearance also gets the Chrome treatment. Cobb (Black Foil parallel) gets in on the action one more time with a flat-out classic shot of his baserunning skills. One of two last Gwynns serves as a reminder of one of Topps' recent-ish gimmicks, and then baseball goes out on top with Stadium Club base of two of my favorites--who retired and also entered Cooperstown in the same seasons--getting feted in fantastic horizontal shots.

Jeff also sent me a huge group of basketball Wolverines which I always appreciate since I don't put much money towards the sport. There was a fun mix of brands and designs with a few that popped up multiple times. A Premium Iggy tips things off, and then in a fun twist, I just looked on TCDb and found out that I now own as many cards of Kobe Bufkin as his namesake Mr. Bryant! THJ's in my top five with the four above him all over the 100-card mark. Houstan's a bit newer to the collection but the college card and shiny parallel here are great additions.

Young Jett Howard plays for the NBA's version of the Columbus Blue Jackets, a.k.a. Ann Arbor South, and his dad's fourth in my PC with 123 cards. LeVert is #7 and one of eight players who've reached the 50-card milestone. Livers may not be with the Pistons anymore but Cracked Ice parallels often look cool. McGary's college and pro careers were both far too short.

With the number of Jordan Poole cards I've received this year I'm somewhat surprised he's not ranked higher, but he's still just one card shy of joining my top 10 cagers thanks to hauls like this one. Remember when that Prizm Monopoly product was a huge thing for a minute? Just one card for Rice but the NCAA champ remains top dog with 206 cards, still the only player to eclipse the double century mark.

If Robinson's parents had any foresight they would have named him "Three-Point" instead of Duncan since he was responsible for way more of the former than the latter. Rose is the last of my top four over the 100-card mark and grouped nicely with two of his Fab Five teammates. Sauce Castillo was a fun guy to watch in college and the pros, and as the UD card captures, he indeed helped Michigan to the NCAA tourney final in 2013, a six-point loss to champion Louisville. Wagner bro Franz closes out the basketball group, and the young star's card count has absolutely exploded in my collection, climbing up to 47 for the 9th spot.

Now we switch over to the sport of the day: football. Believe it or not, Brady's not my top football guy--that distinction belongs to his fellow QB Brian Griese--and Tom Terrific ranks only #7, the last guy in my football 300-club. That's probably because I really don't put money into a guy like him since his prices tend to be overinflated. Still, you can always count on the kindness of strangers friends, and I appreciate this six-pack from Jeff! He also sent me a nice bunch of five cards of transfer RB Zach Charbonnet, who's had his ups and downs with Seattle.

I'm not quite a quarter of the way through the RCs of Charbonnet I'm chasing but it does help when someone's nice enough to send them to me! Charlton was a fun player with a cool nickname. Collins is two TDs away from matching his career high of 8 set last year, and maybe he can come up with a big pair in Sunday's game. Speaking of a big pair, actually, let's make that a three-of-a-kind with RBs Corum, Edwards, and Haskins here. I need as many as I can get of the first two, with Corum in his first year and the Don headed for the draft.

Meanwhile, Hutch continues to climb the leaderboards thanks to days like this one, and I hope the former Hot Rookie gets a chance to return in a big way for a Lions playoff game. The Bowman Chrome U love continues in this scan with a pair of champs in Johnson, an upcoming first-rounder, and McCarthy, who was anything but unexpected to Michigan fans, but most definitely a delight thanks to his calm leadership. I don't wish transfer QB McNamara anything but good health (and maybe a better head) next season. The Prestige card of the former "Money" kicker is the highlight of two Moody cards, though he's going through a nightmare season for the Niners and clearly isn't right after an injury. And Ojabo has quietly put up a couple sacks this season for Baltimore, though I don't get the impression that his playing time has been growing.

If you could pick a color for a parallel on a DPJ Browns card, why would you go with anything other than orange? Schoonmaker has one game left to try to equal his rookie season total of 2 TDs while his teammate Mazi has been slightly better during his own sophomore campaign. I love Donruss' Rated Rookies cards and the Optic of defensive back DJ Turner looks sweet! WR Roman Wilson joins a few of his other title teammates in this post on another excellent card. And GOAT DB Charles Woodson gets three more for his own collection, enough to secure him the #3 spot by that many cards over Braylon Edwards.

We're not quite done yet because there were two cool Prizm relics of recent Wolverines in this package. Charbonnet makes his second hits PC appearance with a Neon Green Pulsar parallel of his jersey card, and that's joined by my first relic of Lions terrorizer Aidan Hutchinson: a beautiful Honolulu blue swatch!

And even then we're still not quite done because Jeff included a rare hockey card, though given the photo it was an obvious inclusion. Shields was an excellent netminder in the early 90s, winning 111 games before suiting up for the Sabres, Sharks, Ducks, Bruins, Panthers, and Thrashers in parts of 10 NHL seasons. The photo of him in action at what I'm guessing is Yost Ice Arena is as Classic as the card's brand.

Jeff, thank you once again for this absolutely ridiculous stack of cards that hit so many of my PCs! I hope you enjoyed your own Christmas package, and I can promise plenty more White Sox, Michigan, and other PC cards will be heading back your way in 2025, when I hope we can also meet up at a few shows.

Stay tuned this evening for two more (much shorter) trade recaps to close out the year!

2024 trade package #24: Cards on Cards

Continuing with my marathon posting of trade packages this evening, here's #1 from earlier this month: a basketball-heavy mailer thanks to Kerry from Cards on Cards. Maybe this is something he can read as he nervously awaits his Oregon team's Wednesday Rose Bowl matchup with the hated Buckeyes. My suggestion: the Ducks wear crazy-ass jerseys all the time anyway so why not make an Oregon version of the iconic winged helmet and wait for Ryan Day to poop his pants like he usually does? Oh, and I happen to know that he has another envelope from me that may include one or more Ducks whenever he gets a chance to open it.

Anyway, here's what Kerry sent me earlier this month:

Most of the baseball fit in this one scan. Like his cards above, Baddoo may be feeling Blue after being DFAed so new pitcher Alex Cobb could join the roster. Greene, whose roster spot is secure, looks groovy on the Big League card, and he also offers my first look at this year's Stadium Club Chrome insert (not to be confused with the separate base issue). I wonder if Jung will get a chance to stick with the club now that Gleyber Torres has been signed and other moves may be in the works. Donruss' recent products are geared toward folks like me who love collecting classics like Sisler. Skubal, who's going to be very, very rich within a couple years, was an All-Star this year, as the above Topps insert reminded me. Verlander comprises the rest of the baseball content, and the shiny version of his Attax card makes the all-too-common regular versions seem even uglier than they are, if that's even possible.

Topps' flagship design has always been hit or miss with me, mostly the latter, but Stadium Club is rock solid when it comes to looks. I love the horizontal Verlander photo of him finishing his pitching motion, and the Sepia parallel looks quite nice as well.

Most (but not all!) of the rest of the content is basketball, and Hoops-related products are well represented. That works for me since I needed practically everything here! As with football, Panini released a Halloween-themed product called Haunted Hoops, and Bufkin and the younger Howard are two of the former Wolverines you can find in it. Burke is "just" a regular Hoops RC (nice!) and former UM coach Howard gets just his second card from the past decade to join my collection thanks to 2023-24 Topps Chrome, with Topps having to do the logoless thing like Panini does with baseball.

LeVert, Poole, Robinson, and both Wagner brothers also get the Haunted Hoops treatment here. Every card you've seen has been a base except for the two Orange parallels--Bufkin above and Poole here. Poole also gets a new Panini Flux for his PC, Robinson joins Bufkin above from the apparently-difficult-to-scan Hoops Premium Stock product, and Franz adds appearances from Panini Illusions and the most recent Topps Chrome.

Remember a bunch of the guys we just saw? Well they're back--in sticker form! These are all 2023-24 Panini Stickers, and four of them are standard versions while Poole gets a cool holofoil entry and Franz appears in the Global Icons subset representing his native Germany. I hope both Wagner brothers heal up in time to run it back next season!

Lastly, I can always count on a fellow college collector like Kerry to send some Wolverines my way. Better yet, half of these are college uni photos! Hutchinson's season ended too soon earlier this year but with the injury luck the Lions have had in 2024 there's no doubt he wouldn't have made it through the season anyway. That doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for collecting him, and I continue to root for his team to keep winning to make my friends who are Lions fans happy.

His former teammate J.J. McCarthy suffered his own injury before even making it through the preseason, and I hope he returns to health next year as well. For now I'll keep collecting him, especially Michigan cards like the above pair of Score inserts which remind me of happier memories earlier this year when JJ led Michigan to a national championship.

And lastly, I guess the theme of this section is injured recent Wolverines because Wilson also dealt with similar issues in the preseason and has barely played so far in 2024. His pro debut may be done prematurely but boy did he come up big time and time again for last year's title-winners catching 12 TDs including the one that tied the Rose Bowl against Alabama with under 2:00 to go in the eventual OT win for the Maize & Blue. While I tend to favor Score's RC design, Prestige does sometimes have its moments, and I've always appreciated them using college shots as well.

Kerry, thanks again for this envelope stuffed with Tigers and Wolverines! I'll continue my full-throated support for your team especially as a matchup looms with a team with possibly the most toxic fans in the nation. GOOD LUCK, DUCKS!

Well that's three posts I've done today and that leaves three for New Year's Eve, giving me something to do as I watch Michigan's noon bowl game against Alabama (again). Most of the impact players will be gone due to the draft or transferring, and it was already looking like a mismatch before taking that into account, so I won't be expecting a win, but regardless I'll be thankful for one last 2024 Michigan Football game after the calendar year began on the best note possible. LET'S GO BLUE!

2024 trade package #18: the Lost Collector

Happy December! Tonight I'm finishing off my trade packages from August, and this one was a fun surprise envelope from A.J., the Lost Collector.

He and I don't trade a ton as this is just the fifth bunch of cards I've received from him according to my stats, but I think that's mostly because his collection is a bit more specific and I haven't always had great luck finding cards he needs, especially for his signature Tino Martinez PC. But that's totally fine as it makes it more special when we can send cards back and forth.

Here's a look at what he sent this time:

HOF pitcher Jim Bunning is more often associated with the Phillies, and it's their cap that he wears on his plaque in Cooperstown, but he spent a very productive first nine seasons of his career with Detroit. That means I was happy to see him wearing the Olde English "D" on that 2019 Topps Archives Silver parallel, which is numbered /99 on the back. Fellow former Tiger Nick Castellanos also gets the serial treatment on a 2019 card out of that year's Bowman: a Sky Blue parallel limited to just 499 copies as stated on the front. That's a nice numbered pair!

The other cards in this package represent Michigan Football guys, who I might have mentioned beat Ohio State for the fourth year in a row yesterday (just making sure nobody forgot). These cards bring to mind the ones A.J. sent me last December (which I finally covered this past February) as those were 100% Wolverines gridiron guys.

A Score RC of WR/PR Ronnie Bell (who was recently waived by the Niners) leads off this group. Another star WR comes next in the form of Nico Collins, who's back and starring for the Texans after a few weeks off due to injury. DB Brad Hawkins follows on one of just 12 cards he has to his name, and that reminds me that I need to grab one of his signed cards from that '22 SAGE product. Injured difference-maker edge Aidan Hutchinson comes next with a cool pair from 2023 Donruss Elite and Score (Celebration insert). It would be amazing if the Lions could make an improbable run to the Super Bowl with Hutch returning from his injury to lead the team to their first ring. And lastly, we have one more WR in Donovan Peoples-Jones, who doesn't seem to have played anywhere during what would be his fifth NFL season after being cut by the Lions in the preseason. He's represented on a great looking Score Red parallel (pictured in a Wolverines uni!) from his 2020 rookie season.

A.J., thanks so much for this fun surprise PWE and the goodies therein! I appreciate it as always, and I'm happy to get to say that you'll also be getting at least a little something Christmas cards-wise from me at some point this month, likely before the big holiday.

As for the next few posts, I count five more trades I still need to cover, plus I'm aware of at least one more on the way, so I'll likely keep these recaps going before seeing how I want to tackle my remaining 2024 pickups (Facebook Marketplace, shows, eBay, TCDb deals, and COMC once they arrive). My priority remains thanking folks for their generosity that's 100% in the spirit of this holiday season!

2024 trade package #14: Sport Card Collectors

As it turns out I have just one trade package from July to post, making catching up a bit easier (though I do have quite a few from August and September). Tonight you get to see the latest PWE sent to me by Matt of multiple blogs but most recently Cards Over Coffee.

Matt treats me to these envelopes a few times a year and I can always count on some cool Tigers and Wolverines (if not stuff that hits other PCs). That was most definitely the case here:

It was sad to see Miggy hang up his cleats after last season, but there's no doubt that having a roster spot plus the DH position open for guys like Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter aided in Detroit's stunning second-half turnaround this season. Honestly, it felt more like 1987 than '88, the year the design of those Topps inserts honors.

Manning, meanwhile, had a 2024 season he'd surely like to forget, going 0-1 in just five starts while not faring much better at AAA Toledo. He's only a few years removed from being a top 50 prospect but time may be running out for him to claim a spot in the rotation.

Lastly, Tork also didn't exactly have a season to remember like his 31 HR 2023 campaign, but considering how poorly he started, leading to his own demotion, the fact that he crawled his way back is a positive sign. He still needs to show a lot more in 2025 to earn a role on what appears to be an up-and-coming team, but for now he'll continue to appear on shiny inserts (like Refractors!) while proudly wearing the olde English "D."

If the timing of this post--a couple days after the Tigers were bounced from the playoffs--seems a bit inauspicious, it's nothing compared to the stunning turn of events for the player and team featured on the first few cards here. Aidan Hutchinson was such a massive piece on a defense trying to claw its way from embarrassment to competency, and his gruesome broken leg halts what looked to be a historic season for player and team. Here's hoping he comes back stronger than ever for the '25-'26 season, and in the meantime I hope the Lions don't miss his intimidating presence too much.

Matt obviously decided that one Wolverine great wasn't enough, so he added four nice looking cards of GOAT DB Charles Woodson. I really like that both of his franchises are represented here: the Raiders, with whom he began and finished his career, plus the team that allowed him to add a Super Bowl to his NCAA title trophy and other college/pro accomplishments: the Packers. If the nine-time Pro-Bowler didn't deserve first ballot admission to Canton, who else would? He's indeed a living legend and it's great to see him back in the Big House when doing his job for Fox.

Matt, thanks as always for another great PWE! I've got a pretty nice stack going for you and just need to decide when to pull the trigger on sending it your way. I can promise you at least one card that's seasonally appropriate given the rapidly declining temperature here in the northern part of the country.

I should be back soon with what I expect will be a recap of July's show, so stay tuned for that while watching what's rapidly become an MLB postseason featuring uninteresting/unlikable teams. Who the hell am I supposed to root for now?!