2025 trade package #19: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Happy American Thanksgiving, friends! As always, I'm thankful for all of you who follow, read, and comment here, trade with me, and post your own content.

And I specified the "American" part above to highlight the sender of tonight's trade package. Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store recently celebrated Canada's version of the event, and now thanks to him I have a ridiculous smorgasbord of cards to feast on! Here's a quick run through them because there's just so many and I know I'll need a nap afterwards:

Part 1 of baseball opens with a Wolverine in Abbott, but the rest are Tigers. Lopez's card is from the '81 Tigers Coke team set, and Skubal's Topps Holiday card is perfectly timed for the season.

Part 2 of baseball offers a Verlander (can't have enough of those!) and a good chunk of the OPC cards in the package (along with a note hoping I liked/didn't mind getting a bunch of that brand. I did indeed like them!). Sparky, Bergman, and Lemon were all '84 Tigers of course so those were my favorites.

HOFer Jack Morris joins that '84 group from above to form a nice quartet from the Canadian brand.

Then we have some cool hits to flip through! Zack Semler was a Michigan IF back in the late 2010s and he joins the collection courtesy of a Leaf Perfect Game signature. Thank you to Doug for going the extra mile and finding a new Wolverine once again!

As for the Tigers, Dylan Smith is a pitcher who made his debut this year and earned a win over 7 solid relief appearances. The 2021 3rd-rounder is here by way of Donruss Elite Extra Edition. Walker ('23 Topps Chrome) was a White Sox 2018 2nd-rounder who bounced to Texas (with whom he enjoyed his only MLB action), San Francisco, then Detroit, and it looks like he's been out of affiliated ball since the Tigers released him in 2023.

Ziomek (2013 Bowman Sterling Orange Refractor auto /75) was also a second-rounder, taken by Detroit in 2013, and he never advanced above the high-A level of the minors. Manning, though, is no stranger to my collection even though the 2016 #9 overall pick was sent to Philly at this year's deadline and is now a free agent after failing to pan out like his rotation-mate Casey Mize did. His Diamond Kings Rookie Expression jersey is one I'm glad to add to Manning's collection even though a return to Detroit is unlikely for now.

Doug went above and beyond again when it came to basketball because not only did he send me the usual excellent selection of players that are generally mainstays, but he also included three newbies in the form of women's hoops alumni Leigha Brown, Naz Hillmon, and Stacey Thomas! Brown transferred from Nebraska and spent three seasons in Ann Arbor, then played a bit for the 2023 Connecticut Sun. Hillmon was a big deal in her four seasons with the Wolverines, being named their first All-American among many other honors. She's now in her fourth season with the Atlanta Dream. Thomas put up four productive college seasons of her own and then spent 2000-05 in the WNBA, winning it all with the 2003 Detroit Shock, the motor city's previous pro team. Many thanks to Doug for this outstanding trio!

As for some of the stalwarts of past envelopes, Howard and Rice are always appreciated. And given the way Michigan Basketball has opened this season, I hope they're celebrating at the end of the season as Rice once did.

Taylor, Vaught, and Webber are also common names to find in these packages and are just as welcome. So are '91-'92 Panini Stickers of the previously seen Rice as well as Gary Grant!

Basketball got its own hit parade as well, opening with my third auto of Calbe Houstan (not "Houston," UD) out of Goodwin Champions. Juwan's kid Jett is up next with his hit collection debut out of '23-'24 Topps Chrome, and he's in his third season with the Orlando Michiganders, who also roster Mo and Franz Wagner plus Colin Castleton. And speaking of Mo, Doug treated me to my first signature of the older Wagner bro, this one thanks to 2019-20 Prizm. As with Houstan, his signature is, uh, not the most detailed, but about par for the course given the stupid amount of cards/stickers these guys have to sign these days.

Numbered inserts of Steve Breaston, Devin Funchess, and Karan Higdon are a great way to segue into the football content just a couple days before The Game. Steve's card is the rarest, numbered to just 25 on the back, while Funch goes for 194 and Higdon's is rarer at 50. Shoe Carnival is an apt sponsor for a card starring Lewan since the nicest thing I can say about him is that he's a clown. CB Ambry Thomas joins the numbers game with a blue Prizm parallel ("No-Huddle" to be specific) that's SN79 on the back. And the hit here is a good omen for Saturday's Ohio State tilt as I fondly Buckeye-killer Hassan Haskins piling up FIVE rushing TDs to lead Michigan over OSU in 2021. That Absolute jersey card above has a swatch just about nice enough to be a patch (or "prime" as they're sometimes calls) and it looks excellent as hit #5 (hey, there's that number again!) in his collection.

On the ice, the Wings have had their ups and downs this year, but generally seem to be better than last year so far. Guys like Chiasson and slightly more recently Franzen and Holmstrom take me back to the joy of watching the team succeed starting in the 90s for a good couple decades.

Kocur, Lidstrom, and McCarty were also key contributors on some of those Cup-winning teams, and I'm happy to see them in any group of cards someone sends me. Larson and Micalef are fun vintage-adjacent throwbacks to before I was old enough to follow hockey.

Seider's a star defenseman for the current team but guys like Zetterberg, Draper, Hull, and Shanahan all realized Cup glory with the Wings. The OPC stickers of Ivan Boldirev (1983), Reed Larson, and Paul Woods (1982) were a fun surprise.

And to close out the Hockeytown content we've got a bevy of hits! There's a nice jersey of Cholowski, one of many failed 2010s first-rounders, though he's still in the NHL (New Jersey) and has an excellent first name. Allure provides a colorful autograph of C Robby Fabbri, who was with Detroit for five seasons and put up decent numbers. Howard was an above-average goalie that was with Detroit for his entire career, and that's a beautiful red jersey swatch above to celebrate an All-Star nod in his penultimate season. And my favorite of the bunch is an SP Game Used jersey of Tomas Holmstrom, the enemy of goalies everywhere as he set up camp in front of the crease and was a pest, often putting back rebounds when not making netminders' lives a living hell otherwise.

A jersey of "Double A" begins the horizontal trio, made during his five-season stint with Detroit to open his career. That's joined by white and red jerseys, respectively, of winger Taro Hirose and D-man Gustav Lindstrom.

The Wings may be looking better than last year but they're nowhere near as hot as the NCAA's current #1 team, Michigan Hockey! They're 13-3-0 with 83 goals (good for 5+ per game!) and absolutely cooking right now. So why not look at some cards of past Michigan icers?

There are some absolute beauties in this first scan, especially thanks to UD brands like Allure and Synergy. The latter remind me a bit of Pacific's Invincible thanks to the circular inset photo. I'm also a big fan of Hyman's Canvas insert thanks to its great design and cool throwback jersey.

This scan includes a couple hockey Mikes, relatively recent G Jack LaFontain (Synergy again!), WolverWing Dylan Larkin, and hey, what's more thanksgiving than John Madden? Ok, it's not the turducken guy, but did the Raiders coach win three Cups like this guy did? I don't think so!

In this scan the Norris and Power (SN699!) cards are great, but I'm choosing to highlight the collection debut of Cristoval "Boo" Nieves. Boo played at Michigan from 2012-13 to 2015-16, and I remember seeing the C with the cool nickname play live a few times. TCDb lists just 34 cards for him and a good chunk of those are 1/1s or local/minor league issues. Therefore I'm grateful to get an NHL uni card of him, and even more thrilled that it's on the great looking Upper Deck Ice design (and numbered /1299 to boot). Cool!

And we'll end tonight's post with a few of the best cards in the whole package. Werenski also gets in on the Synergy fun, but the Pacioretty has even that cool set beat. The former player who joined the coaching staff this year as a special assistant features on a Black Diamond Diamond Might insert that's basically a thin acetate layer sandwiched between four thick cardboard pieces that are held together on each side by the action image. The overall effect is extremely cool and I love having something to enjoy that's an insert and not a hit. Also it's numbered /99 on the back. A winner in every way!

Last up we have two more hits, and more very nice ones at that. First up is a 2023-24 Upper Deck MVP Cyan Plate of WolverWing Andrew Copp where he's even pictured as a member of the Original Six team! That's my first 1/1 of his out of five total hits, and I believe 21st subject in the hockey collection to appear on such a card, plus it's obviously the best card I have of him so far.

He's joined by just my second autograph of D-man Christ Tamer, who was drafted by the Penguins and also suited up for the Rangers briefly, then Atlanta (as pictured above) for his final five seasons. His fairly legible signature and bonus jersey number inscription appear on a 2020-21 SP Signature Legends Gold Spectrum insert, one that has a very nice design.

Oh wait, I'm not actually done because Doug included these surprises as well! Canadian soccer player Shelina Zadorsky is indeed a Michigan alum, having played for the Wolverines from 2010-13, including acting as captain her senior year. Wikipedia says she won bronze (2016) and gold (2020) medals with the Canadian Olympic team, and now I'll have to do some research to see which other Wolverines earned Olympic medals in sports I don't tend to follow.

Thankfully my Canadian friend was aware of Zadorsky's alma mater and sent me this 2018 Goodwin Champions base and auto pair. She's the fifth member of my "other" Michigan sports category collection, and represents IMO the most legitimate "sport" of the bunch (two pro wrestlers, a boxing writer, and an auto racer). What a cool find!

Before I close things out, I also want to note that thanks in part to the cards in this post, I now have more than 2700 Michigan sports hits, so I'll once again express thanks to all who've contributed to that collection. Here's to the run to 3000 and more!

Doug, thanks once again for this feast of cards from August that I'm finally enjoying on Thanksgiving. I appreciate it as always and as is also usually the case, I'm looking forward to returning fire before Christmas.

Next, I'll see what I feel like getting to this weekend depending on how I feel before and after The Game. GO BLUE!

2024 trade package #23: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

My other trade package from November was the typical awesomeness from Doug at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. He actually managed to get it out in time that it wasn't impacted by the Canada Post strike, which was definitely a stroke of luck considering how long that went on and the fact that we're still dealing with the repercussions of the stoppage. As a matter of fact, I've had a package ready to send back his way for a couple weeks now but unfortunately USPS still isn't accepting mail to send across the border, presumably while their Canadian counterparts get caught up. Oh well, it'll just have to wait.

As for what I got in my final mailing from Kitchener, Ontario for 2024:

We'll start with baseball as usual. I remember Damon's brief stint with the Tigers in 2010 and his decent bat but noodle arm. Larkin and Morris are former Wolverines that won baseball's Ultra best prize in 1990. Walewander seems to be a cult favorite of some Tigers fans.

Heading over to football, Tom Brady starts us off with Topps' return to the sport thanks to their Composite product, one that brings to mind its long lost Fusion set that combined multiple brands, and in this case that includes Chrome. DE Len Ford was one of the most accomplished players to come out of the program, winning an NCAA title and then three NFL rings in a HOF pro career. Harbaugh, of course, needs no introduction, but I hope his ability to quickly turn around the fortunes of teams he coaches becomes the narrative around him instead of the stupid "QB whisperer" crap. Jenkins and Wilson were both drafted this year and I happily added a card each to their RC totals, plus a Scorecard parallel for the Bengals DL. And we go all the way back to RB Hassan Haskins' pre-college days with a Team USA jersey that came out when he was a lower-rated recruit and not yet a Buckeye-killing back.

The non-UM Red Wings all fit into this scan and they also serve as a nice transition into the hockey stuff, giving you a bit of an idea of a couple of the brands that were prevalent in this package: UD flagship and MVP. I'm old enough to remember Ogrodnick's name (likely due to video games made late in his career), though he was gone from Detroit by the time I was really paying attention to the sport. It's very cool to add such a relatively old Wings card to my collection!

Now let's take a look at some Wolverines and WolverWings! Young Kraken star Beniers kicks off the group with another example of UD taking advantage of owning Fleer's brand names like Metal. Compher's having a relative down year with the Wings but then again, who isn't at this point? Connor is once again on a great scoring pace and isn't too far from equaling his '23-'24 numbers, actually. Luke Hughes' stats are also down a bit from last season while last season's Norris winner Quinn continues to stack up points.

WolverWing Dylan Larkin continues to be the heart of the team as its captain, and hopefully a new coach will inspire the team to play up to their potential. Norris suits up for Doug's Senators and is among the team leaders in goals in his sixth season (though two of those saw him appear in just 11 games). Rare Wolverine-in-Buffalo Power just played in his 200th NHL game and has a chance to improve on some decent stats from last season. Trouba, of course, finally got out of New York as he was flipped to Anaheim earlier this month. And not-remotely-rare Wolverine/Blue Jacket Werenski has a chance to finally return to the 20-goal mark, his career high from 2019-20, which would be pretty cool for the stud defenseman. While I'm happy with the various base cards here, he appears on one of the best non-hits, a 2019-20 SP Game Used Orange Rainbow parallel that's numbered to just 103(?) copies.

There are just two horizontal cards to look at this time, but they're both worth a look! Beniers is back with a sweet die-cut numbered issue from 2022-23 SPx, which is probably the best of him in my collection besides the Metal Universe RC above. Connor also makes another appearance thanks to a UD insert called Stars of the Rink that has a cool rainbow "dots" pattern.

And then we have the hits, and boy are they nice ones! Number one is my first autograph of yet another Blue Jacket, defenseman Nick Blankenburg. The two-year Wolverine played three seasons with Columbus before signing with Nashville this past July. I absolutely love the look of his uncirculated autographed acetate RC from UD's Clear Cut brand.

The next autograph is somewhat similar with former Jets/current Wings C Andrew Copp signing an SPx card from the previous year's Clear Cut offering. The holographic background makes it a true throwback to SPx's origins and I feel like UD went away from that design aspect to its detriment, so it's a sight for sore eyes here. That's my fourth auto of the WolverWing.

And last up is one more Werenski appearance (hey, there's a reason he's a top-10 guy in my Michigan Hockey PC!). Though I previously claimed four hits to his name, it took #5 here to add my first signature. That comes from the shiny 2022-23 UD Stature Autographs set, one which appears to parallel the base set, which is already fairly high-end itself. I like that his name is fairly legible and as a bonus he even throws in his jersey number, one he has in common with my top baseball PC guy. Needless to say I appreciate Doug chipping away at the list of Wolverines for whom I need certified autographs, one I'm somewhat maintaining over on TCDb.

Doug, thanks so much for this outstanding envelope to end our year of trading. Again, I'm frustrated that I couldn't send a return sooner due to the strike, but I promise it'll be worth the wait, plus at least I have it ready to go at the drop of a hat. In the meantime I'll work on starting a new stack for you at this weekend's show. I hope you and Mischief had a merry Christmas!

I'll be back soon (possibly very soon!) with more trades from December.

2021 trade package #19: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

While I'm continuing to sort the stuff from the boxes I teased in my last post, I'm finally giving myself a break today to make sure I give Doug from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store his due for another generously packed trade envelope stuffed with goodies that I'm excited to share.

Let's start off with some cards of my favorite baseball team, which has turned things around quite a bit in the season's second half (a.k.a. since DFAing Nomar Mazara, just sayin'). My favorite Canadian helped me getting into this decade with a bunch of Tigers out of flagship, Gallery, Stadium Club, and more, and there's some very good current names here (and one from the distant past in Cobb, of course). The Cabrera cards are nice as he zeroes in on 500 HR and eventually 3000 hits as well, but I'm more interested in the pair of Mizes, including a Refractory Bowman's Best insert, as he's done quite well this year after his 2020 cup of coffee went worse than expected.

Rogers was teaming up with the versatile Eric Haase to give the team a surprising boost at C this year before his injury, so maybe someone from the Verlander deal will turn out to be useful after all! Skubal's had some struggles but I'm glad to see him continue to get experience as I can still see him as a useful rotation arm in the future. Jones' card has a typically awesome Stadium Club photo. And JV gets an honorary place with the Tigers here even though his Diamond Kings base there shows him with the Astros.

I believe National Hockey Card Day was around the time I got the envelope that included these legendary Wings, so that was a nice fit as Doug's country celebrated one of its favorite sports. The Pacific and UD cards here look great and are a nice palate cleanser after mostly staring at Topps stuff above. All four of these guys were a blast to watch during the Hockeytown heyday of the mid-90s through the aughts. While I love the Wings uni cards, the numbered Team Canada of Yzerman is awesome too. While we Detroiters wait for the results of the Yzerplan, I highly suggest that y'all head over to Doug's posts on his ultra high-end 2015 Team Canada Master Collection break. Beware: there's some absolutely sick nasty patch and signature cards in that series!

Those guys weren't the only Wings in the package, though. I can't say I wasn't happy to see the Applicator gone after the 2019-20 season--the fewer MSU players on the team, the better! Fischer is a bigtime throwback to the teams starring the guys above. UD's '20-'21 base cards look nice as usual, and I believe all three guys seen here will be back, including another Spartan in Hirose. Svechnikov looks diminutive on an OPC mini but maybe the former first-rounder will have success with another team.

And the big prize here is a sweet jersey/auto of former Slovak prospect Tomas Jurco. The card, which includes a very nice two-color swatch with stitching, would have been found in one of Doug's all-time favorite products, 2013-14 Panini Rookie Anthology. While Jurco is another former prospect that didn't work out for the team--he's since bounced to Chicago, Edmonton, and Vegas--this is a great looking Red Wings hit that I'll be happy to keep!

Moving on to the Michigan stuff, we open things with basketball, and a very appropriate card: a Michigan uniformed Classic issue of current coach Juwan Howard. His Fab Five teammate Chris Webber is next on a Topps base. And lastly we have hit #2 of the package: an autograph of recent Wolverine D.J. Wilson (my first hit of his of any kind) out of 2017-18 Panini Chronicles. This one is the Red version (which you could tell if the foil scanned a bit better) and is numbered /149. Wilson was a three-year Wolverine who went to the Bucks as a 2017 first-rounder, then found himself traded to Houston this past March. Will he become one of the next Michigan Basketball alumni to get paid big time? We'll see!

College football season is approaching fast, much to my excitement, and Doug sent plenty of great stuff to remind me of that fact. Brady and Woodson bookend the top row with some 2021 Score inserts including the base and Purple versions of the Collegiate Champions set. Naturally I love that one since it shows each player before and after they became pros. Yeah, I know Tom played just six games (and 20 pass attempts) between 1996 and '97 as Griese was the starter for the '97 Rose Bowl winners, but he was still part of the team.

Speaking of star QBs, we get player-to-coach #2 with Jim Harbaugh's '91 Fleer base. I wonder if the staff changes he made over the offseason will finally get his team moving in the right direction.

I was a bit surprised to see a Bills card in this package but O'Donnell ('71 Topps RC) was indeed a Wolverine. I can't stop laughing at the cartoon of the lineman next to the team name! A 2021 Score RC of first-round DL Kwity Paye was also a very nice surprise, and I'm glad my first first-year of the future Colts star is a college uni card from that set.

And then we have some very nice hits. The aforementioned Griese gets a new relic added to his collection (24 hits), a 2002 Upper Deck Fourth Quarter Fabrics jersey with a cutout in the shape of a "4". Griese came up with two big fourth quarter plays during the undefeated '97 season: a 2 yard TD pass to TE Jerame Tuman with 2:55 left to defeat Iowa at home, and then a 23 yard score to the same target early in the last period of the Rose Bowl that would keep Michigan on top when Washington State ran out of time.

WR Devin Funchess (who recently put his foot in his mouth big time, but at least did a decent job of apologizing) is the subject of one of the best looking cards of the entire envelope: a 2015 Topps Strata autograph. It's a thick acetate-type card and I can't get enough of those, plus it's a new autograph (and a numbered one at that!) so I'm very excited to add it to his 18 other hits I already had.

Finally, a second signature is part of the bunch in the form of a 2019 Certified auto of RB Karan Higdon. It's the Mirror Teal version and therefore numbered /50. Man, I remember when the Mirror inserts were easy to tell apart! Anyway, I'm not sure if Karan is still hanging around the league after Houston took a chance on him as an UDFA, but he had a pretty nice four seasons in Ann Arbor. This shiny auto is his debut in my football collection, though I have another one to show off soon!

At least we've made it to the hockey content, and as usual there's a lot! Just as you saw with the Wings above there's a good number of '20-'21 UD base here, and a few other recent brands as well, which is much appreciated since I don't really buy much hockey stuff myself. Cammalleri's the winner here with three new cards, keeping him in third place overall in my collection at 78. And the first of two Copps is a '20-'21 OPC Retro Black that's numbered /100 on the back. You'll see one more of those in each of the next couple scans!

I got to see most of the guys in this group play at least one game in Ann Arbor, and hopefully I'll get back to Yost this year to see more future NHLers, such as yet another Hughes brother. The erstwhile Quinn is another subject of that numbered OPC parallel, and I'm happy to see his collection continue to grow, especially thanks to Doug. Larkin, of course, is still my favorite of the bunch as a WolverWing!

The last of the "regular" hockey stuff includes two beautiful Troubas: UD Ice and a Canvas insert, the latter of which continues to be an excellent mainstay for the brand. Turco continues his reign of dominance over the collection at 126 items--the only player currently over 100. And Werenski is the last of the three OPC cards /100, finishing up a very talented trio.

And if for some reason all of that didn't have you thinking that Doug's generosity knows no bounds, how about this trio? The pride of Flower Mound, (clap clap clap clap "DEEP IN THE HEART OF") Texas, Chris Brown stars on an absolutely nasty patch with the relic window cut out to spell his name. Numbered /25, it hails from another of Doug's high-end favorites, National Treasures (also 2013-14). That give him a lucky 13 hits, many of which came from Canada. By the way, he's listed as a member of the Capitals here but I would think that patch came from a jersey when he was with his original team, the Coyotes.

Hit #2 is just my second (also an autograph) of Jets C Andrew Copp, who's slowly increased his production in his six full NHL seasons. This one came out of UD's 2019-20 Overtime product and is from the Gold Foil Autographs set. On my other Copp auto, also a stickergraph, he spaced his name out a little bit more, but that's not uncommon given they were made a few years apart.

And finally, we'll end this evening's post with "Max Patch", or in this case, "max relics", of Max Pacioretty. The dual jersey card you see above, numbered /145, is from Upper Deck's 2020-21 Artifacts Materials Gold set, and it looks like I got a pair of Vegas sweater pieces to represent my eighth hit of the former UM star.

Did I say this was another great envelope or what? Not that my Canadian counterpart has ever sent a dud. I'm slowly accumulating some items for a return in the near future, hopefully one that will live up to the greatness he sends every time! If you want the chance to deal with a trade partner this consistently good, get yourself over to his blog and see what you can do about his wantlist.