2023 trade packages #19 and 20: It's Like Having My Own Card Shop and Cardboard Collections

It's been a busy few weeks for me card-wise. I think I mentioned the garage sale I hit up not too long ago, plus there was my usual monthly show. I scored another fun small collection via Facebook a couple Fridays ago, then headed out to the western part of the state this past weekend to meet up with Jeff and his cousin Sluggo along with John (more on that in a future post) for another show. Oh, and between all of that I also made a few more TCDb and blogger trades and eBay buys. I've got cards that need to be posted coming out of my ears!

So let's try to start catching up a little by covering a couple more blogger trades this evening. First up is Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. Waaay back in July he sent me a nice envelope of mostly Tigers that I really appreciated:

What better parallel could there be for Tigers cards but orange? Pretty much everything here is a parallel in some way, shape, or form, which is pretty cool, even if there's only one current (and soon-to-be-former!) Tiger. The low numbering on Garcia's Refractor is very impressive but my favorite card here has to be Mr. Tiger's Stadium Club Chrome Refractor. It doesn't show up in the scan but it looks beautiful in hand. Maddux was the lone non-Tiger today but I always appreciate getting new stuff of him.

Most of what's left here is also of the parallel or insert variety. Mazara's stint was short (thankfully) but the younger Meadows is an intriguing prospect, though it's hard to say if he'll get to appear in a game with his brother, who hopefully gets some help with his various issues. Verlander's always been a lights out kind of pitcher and I'm thankful I got to see him in person a number of times with the Tigers. And lastly there was a surprise autograph of former prospect Ronnie Bourquin. Detroit took him in the 2nd round of the '06 draft out of Ohio State (no wonder he never amounted to anything!) and he never rose above the AA level before spending a few years in indy ball. He at least had a nice signature as seen on the Bowman Sterling card above, though.

Daniel, thank you again for an excellent envelope of my Motown baseballers (plus Maddux!), I appreciate it, even if it took way longer than it should have to show these off.

Not too long after the cards above hit my mailbox I got a nice little PWE from Colbey, the man whose wheels are fly like the honeys, and who blogs oat Cardboard Collections. For the second time this year he sent me some fodder for my Michigan Football PC:

Yeah, I guess if Colbey's gonna be familiar with any Michigan alumni it would be one who played for his favorite NFL team. On the back of his business card I included above he expressed hope that I needed this 1997 Fleer Goudey mini of Buckeye-killer RB Tim Biakabutuka, who played 50 games for Colbey's Panthers. Good news: I did indeed need it! That's not bad since I'm getting pretty close to 250 cards of Touchdown Tim.

And here's the back for completeness because it's the least I can do when I only have to scan one card!

Thanks to you as well for thinking of my and my favorite team to collect, Colbey! I may be hitting you back at least once before it's time to send Christmas cards.

Readers, please stay tuned for more as I try to dig out of this pile of stuff to post that I keep allowing to grow. I'll likely prioritize blogger trades for a bit more until I'm caught up on them.

2023 trade package #3: Cardboard Collections

Things sure can change in a hurry! I had just a few things in-hand late last week before the weekend hit and I got a huge pile of stuff in just a couple days. All of a sudden I have lots I need to show off from TCDB, trades, this past weekend's show, and eBay.

Fortunately I've got a nice quick trade package to cover this evening thanks to Colbey of Cardboard Collections. He hit my mailbox with an unexpected PWE this weekend and I was very happy with the contents:

Here you see former UM #1 WR Derrick Anderson on two versions of his cards from 1994 Superior Rookies. On the left is the base version while the Gold parallel sits to its right. As always I love to see the college action photo up front. Captured here is gameplay from Michigan visiting Penn State in its Big Ten debut season, October 16, 1993. The Nittany Lions took a 10-0 lead but Alexander brought the Wolverines back within a score before halftime with a 48-yard punt return TD. The Maize and Blue would tack on two Todd Collins pass TDs in the second half while PSU managed just a 4th quarter field goal, leading to a 21-13 UM victory. Alexander would pace his squad with 48 receiving yards in the win.

Here are the backs, which show the relative scarcity of these cards back in the day. The base is "limited" to 26,730 copies while the Gold saw just 4,455 made. The other versions that exist are an Autograph (SN5000, and which I own), an insert called "Deep Threat" (1000 copies), and samples of both that insert and the base.

You can see by his stats here that Alexander was one of Michigan's best WRs in program history, though of course those numbers pale in comparison to today's much more pass-happy game (which I do enjoy myself). A 1991 ACL injury cut his junior season short but he returned the following year to put up career best numbers. Besides his 22 TD catches he rushed for one score and returned four punts for touchdowns over his career.

The Browns would draft him at #29 in 1994 and he'd compile 40 reception scores, one rushing TD, and one punt return touchdown over nine seasons with the Browns, Ravens, Chiefs, and Vikings.

Obviously I'm a fan of this pair and happy to add them to my collection of Alexander, which is 197 cards strong and growing. Many thanks to Colbey for thinking of me and sending them my way!

Christmas Eve trade envelopes!

Did I have to post this evening on Christmas Eve? Maybe not. But last night after I noticed my total post count for this blog I realized it would be fun to get #1224 up on 12/24. Also, the stuff below became early Christmas presents for me, so why not?

I don't do this very often but you're getting a combined trade package post from me because I thought it made sense given the contents. Here are the last three trade envelopes I received in 2022 (pending any that sneak under the wire next week):

First up is a "real" Christmas card from a person whose generosity earns him the right to be called a cardboard Santa. Wes often went beyond the limits of reason and economy to give joy to collectors all over, and I'm glad he's still around the hobby world in whatever form he chooses. So I was grateful to receive this greeting card from him, which I unfortunately ripped a bit after having difficulty with the envelope. The real treasure was inside, though:

Thank you to Wes and Amy for this very cool custom! I hope both of you have a fantastic holiday as well, and I'll happily be keeping this with the other cool customs I've received over the years, which I really will show off in an album or something at some point.

Speaking of customs, I was thrilled to be included on someone's nice list:

Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown is probably the best producer of customs I know, and he really puts those skills to good use at this time of year (which happens to be his birthday, by the way!). I've been the recipient of some very cool Christmas-themed productions of his and this year was no different. You've probably seen a bunch of these around the blogs and Twitter so far, and I'm happy to present my Ripken card. How cool is this? I included Gavin's note explaining a bit of the process where he took the classic but offensive-to-the-eyes yellow of '91 Fleer cards and solar bleached them to something easier to look at, then added a separate clear overlay with holiday themes and messages:

Thanks again for including me when sharing the fruits of your creative labor, Gavin! I hope you have an amazing birthday/Christmas, and I promise you'll be getting a few little gifts from me as well whenever I can get my Sportlots box shipped!

Finally, a day or two ago I received a surprise PWE from Colbey at Cardboard Collections. The busy breaker was nice enough to send me a pair of cards to celebrate the upcoming holiday:

And they're both Michigan uni autographs! On the left is DL Mike Martin, a guy who didn't care how much you double-teamed him because he was getting to your QB or RB on matter what. That's from 2012 SP Authentic, back when you could enjoy Upper Deck's efforts, which were often good when it came to college-related cards.

That's very apparent on the other card from Colbey, an autograph of WR Roy Roundtree out of 2013 Upper Deck. Martin's teammate of three years was exciting to watch at the position, especially while Denard Robinson was at QB, such as his game-winning catch in the legendary 2011 night game against Notre Dame. I love the horizontal action shot of Roy about to record another reception, possibly against Air Force in 2012, a game Jeff and I actually attended (a too-close 31-25 win).

Thank you for thinking of me just before Christmas, Colbey, I appreciate it!

May all of you reading this have wonderful holidays no matter what you celebrate and with whom. Thank you to all who've been generous with their time, money, and cards for another year. Merry Christmas!

2022 trade package #21: Cardboard Collections

The other recent TCDB-aided trade post I have for you this evening is thanks to collector of Braves, Panthers, and toys, and Affordable Group Break-er Colbey of Cardboard Collections. This will be just the fifth trade I've done with him on this blog, but given how active he is on TCDB, with more than 300 deals in the books, we could easily increase that count but taking advantage of that site's trade-enhancing features.

Those of you who know Colbey are probably fairly familiar with his username on a number of sites, "flywheels", and that's exactly his alias on the DB. After I recently loaded up more cards to my trade list and ran a trade matching report he came up near the top, and we ended up with a deal in which we each got 70+ cards. Everything went great, and I was happy with my own haul, which included some fun trade items for others which have since gone out to them in the mail.

Here's what I landed for myself from my longtime blogging pal:

Up front we have some classy looking throwback looks at Tigers HOFer Tyrus Raymond Cobb. In all I ended up with six items (you'll see another below) made in roughly the last decade of the Georgia Peach, and I'd say the shiny 3000 Hits Club insert is my favorite here. Jake from St. Clair (think that nickname could stick like the State Farm guy?) is next with yet another RC for my growing collection of the young Padres star (and one of two appearances this evening as well). After him is a trio of a duo that manned the corners at Tiger Stadium in the 90s: Cecil Fielder and Travis Fryman. While I don't prioritize those guys in deals I'll always add them in to bulk up a trade when it makes sense.

Also sometimes guys like those two star on one of the best cards of the package, as is the case with Fryman and his '94 Select Skills insert. It's a beautiful looking rainbow foil card that reminds me how grateful I am that other brands made great looking cards and eventually forced Topps to up their game. The double-take of Grandy's 2015 GQ card with its White Bordered parallel makes it easier to appreciate how much better the latter version looks. Greenberg joins Cobb as a Detroit HOF blast from the past, and in Hank's case he arrives courtesy of Topps' 2011 CMG Reprints insert (and you'll see him one more time in a bit). I managed to sneak Griffey and Gwynn into the package thanks to their 2018 Donruss base appearances. And who could resist a Toys R Us/Topps collab of a young Henneman?

I won't be renaming this blog after Austin Jackson--I don't even have 100 of his cards yet--but I was glad to make him part of this deal with the pair above. Mr. Tiger makes a well deserved cameo with two cards here and one below, and did you know he was just the fourth AL player to hit two homers in an inning? Three more recent Larkins help me continue his march to 1K, and I'm over 900 so I'm happy with the progress I'm making. And Mize may be on the shelf (honestly, which pitcher for the Tigers isn't at this point?) but my pursuit of his cards isn't, so there's a nice pair of his items to round out this scan.

If I had to have the Toys R Us Henneman, why not 1987 AL ROY second runner up Matt Nokes? I don't think people realize just how many cards of Magglio--Tigers and White Sox--I have in my collection, but TCDB tells me it's 234 and when I look at his stack in my Tigers box I believe it! I really liked the nice mix I got of Pudge (with one still to go below) even with only one Tigers card in the bunch, and the Marlins card is a nice reminder that he helped Florida to the '03 World Series in his only season with them before helping bring Detroit back to respectability. Tork's been...not great this year, but I'm nowhere near ready to give up on a kid that just turned 23 and obviously gets zero good feedback from a failure of a coaching staff. And hey, how about the season JV is having? Dude's a few months older than I am and he's a ridiculous 16-3.

How about even more Verlanders? No such thing as too many, I always say! The Morris/Avery card is a fun French's food issue. Magglio looks even better with the Tigers on his '11 Topps Diamond Anniversary parallel. And THJ was the lone basketballer to appear here, but one more sport will feature in the final scan below.

All those "you'll see x more in a few" comments were about this scan full of minis. It's largely a Ginter party but there's a few other sets repped as well. Tram is the only baseball player that wasn't seen earlier, and I happily added something new of him. Clark is nobody's idea of a role model but I collect plenty of terrible people so here's a sticker of him to add to the pile.

And finally I enjoy when folks make up their own promotional stuff like business cards, for their blogs/breaks/other. In Colbey's case it's an extra great idea because he also left a spot to write down the TCDB transaction number, a great thing to include in one or more places when you package up your deals there.

One more reminder: not pictured are a few more very nice inserts and hits that went to some of my other favorite trade partners. I want to emphasize that because just the stuff you see above was a nice haul as far as I was concerned. Colbey continues to be a great guy to trade with and I'm glad we were able to complete such a large deal thanks to my current favorite card site. Thanks, Colbey!

Up next you'll probably see my spoils from the Labor Day weekend show featuring a cameo by someone I mention quite often around these parts. Until then, I have more TCDB deals in the works!

2022 trade package #6 and 7: Sport Card Collectors and Cardboard Collections

I meant it when I said the break from trade posts would be short, and this evening I'm back with two small envelopes I thought I could cover in one recap. Once again, good things do come in small packages.

First up is my first 2022 PWE from multi-blog guy Matt whom I most associate with Sport Card Collectors, though as a reminder you can also find him at Big Blue Cardboard and Cards Over Coffee. Matt sent me a six-card mailer and before I get to the five for me I'm going to shout out his generosity for the sixth card which was quite a nice one that I snagged for a trade package going out in the near future. Not that the stuff below is chopped liver, but this is one of the nicest items I've gotten from him and he didn't even hesitate to include it. I'll try to make sure to give him another shout-out when that person receives it, at least on Twitter if not here.

Anyway, on to the PWE!:

Matt and I both love collecting inserts so I wasn't too surprised to see a few Detroit-related items of that variety. Card #1 is a 2021 Topps Update Gold parallel of pitcher Rony Garcia. His name rang a bell but I'll admit that I had to head over to Baseball Reference to recall that the Tigers grabbed him from the Yankees in the 2019 Rule 5 draft. He's appeared in 17 games over the past two seasons, mostly out of the pen, and we'll see if he ends up factoring in there or the rotation at some point, though the odds remain long for a guy like him.

Next up is a guy with a bit more fanfare in top prospect Casey Mize. After a pretty solid first full season last year I'm dying to see how he performs for what should be an improving Tigers squad. Short of the Ben Baller logo I'm a fan of the Refractor-y insert of the future star on an '86 Topps throwback design, or pretty much any card that features Mize at this point since my collection of him is still fairly limited.

And then we have a 2021 Topps Chrome Prizm Refractor of the man himself, Justin Verlander. JV re-signed with the Astros this offseason after a long injury layoff that saw him pitch just once in 2020 and not since. As much as a loathe the Astros, the current incarnation of which won't escape the stink of their cheating scandal, I'm glad to see Justin continuing to succeed as long as his health holds up.

On the football end of things it's a tale of two Michigan QBs: the NFL's GOAT and one of my favorite college field generals. Brady's back (tell a friend) for another shot at glory, and he's back on TMV as well in the form of the 2015 Certified Gold Team insert you see above. The gold plus the foil make for a pretty good looking card, and I've often been a fan of Certified throughout its existence, though of course nothing will ever compare to the pre-Panini heyday of Donruss.

He's joined by a 2008 Topps Rookie Progression RC of gunslinger Chad Henne, a guy who put up almost 10000 passing yards plus 87 TDs in his four years in Ann Arbor, then went out with a bang thanks to a dramatic bowl win against Tim Tebow's Gators. I've always thought the set name was a bit awkward but other than that I think Topps generally did pretty well with designs back when they had the license to use NCAA unis.

Once again thanks for thinking of me, Matt, and especially for that nice addition for someone else's trade package that I think might just make their day! I appreciate your generosity as always and look forward to hitting you back soon.

The other envelope I'm showing off this evening came from busy box breaker/blogger Colbey of Cardboard Collections. Every now and then I'm able to send a package with a few Braves/Panthers/other items he collects, and recently he sent something back up my way:

Along with a nice note, Colbey gifted me this 2021 Panini Chronicles card of JV. Honestly, Verlander's almost the gift card of players you can send me. Not sure who I collect? Verlander's name is in the blog title! Don't have anything else handy? You know I'll like a Verlander card! (I say all of this in the most positive of ways as I'm also a fan of gift cards!)

What you're looking at is the Holo Gold parallel of Verlander's appearance in the America's Pastime portion of Chronicles. Those of you who've seen these in-person know they're pretty thick--this one just about matches up the six card stack from Matt above--so you know I've gotta bust out the Milhouse GIF:

I think these are quite cool since besides the thickness they have an acetate-type layer on the front, along with an interesting background. I think these are considered the "base" set (at least on TCDB) and then you can find lots of other designs/products inserted as well. As I mentioned, the one Colbey sent my way is the Holo Gold parallel so his name is spelled out with that type of foil plus the card is numbered to 49, putting it somewhat in the middle of the seven parallels. I like numbered cards, acetate, cool designs, and any Verlanders I don't have so this one is definitely a winner.

Thanks again for thinking of me with this cool new JV, Colbey! I hope I can find more goodies to send your way, and in the meantime I hope you have fun keeping the breaking business going!

Looking over at my desk I currently have two more decently large packages to cover so I'll try to get to those next, one at a time. In the meantime, please check out the blogs of both of today's trade partners.

2020 purchases: affordable group breaks with Colbey

I'm in another one of those funks where I don't really feel like writing but have lots of cards to show off, so I'm going to try to let the images do most of the talking and see if that helps.

Today's post is a recap of all the fun I had over the last couple months participating in group breaks run by Colbey of Cardboard Collections. He calls them Affordable Group Breaks and that's a very apt title--nobody's gonna be accusing him of false advertising anytime soon! Colbey offers a nice variety of modern and older boxes with team slots going for reasonable prices, especially as you get closer to the breaks and some remain available, at which point he'll discount them. The fact that he lets you pile up your stacks until you want them shipped is also a nice touch. I paid about $7.50 for everything, most of which you'll see here.

Here's a quick rundown of what I ended up with:

2020 Diamond Kings--Orioles: Cal Ripken Jr. base (a great looking card!)
1996 Topps Laser--Reds: Reggie Sanders and Hal Morris base, plus Colbey was nice enough to toss in a Tony Phillips I needed for my PC, and a Frank Thomas too
1997 Pinnacle XPress--Blue Jays, Expos, A's, and Mets (see below)

Here's a look at each of the base cards (not including dupes) from the XPress break.

And here's the inserts: two Swing for the Fences cards plus a pair of parallels: Men of Summer, with a great gold look to them.

I also jumped into a number of football breaks at low prices partially for trade bait, a bit in the hopes of landing a few cards I'd like, and also to encourage Colbey to continue including the sport in his breaks.

Seen here are team stacks from those breaks: 2006 Bowman, 1999 Collector's Edge First Place, and 1996 Pacific Litho-Cel (see what I mean about the variety?). I won't go into too much detail about these but I'll show off the more notable stuff below. For my fellow Wolverines fans, I'll mention that I ended up with Collector's Edge base cards of Woodson and Harbaugh (who's seen above).

2006 Bowman: Bengals, Ravens, Giants, Raiders, Eagles, Bucs
1999 Collector's Edge 1st Place: Cardinals, Saints, Giants, Raiders, Eagles, Chargers
1996 Pacific Litho-Cel: Bills, Giants, Raiders

Here you see the non-base from '06 Bowman. Those packs included some Chrome prospect cards and these are the ones I landed. I also ended up with a pair of Orange parallels of the regular base set (I hate when people say "paper"): Randy Moss and Reggie Brown.

And now the best stuff from Collector's Edge: a Donovan McNabb RC, Ricky Williams Future Legends insert, plus a bunch of parallels. Gold Ingots include James Jett, Rich Gannon, Junior Seau, Jim Harbaugh(!), and Freddie Jones. I also got two of the numbered /500 Galvanized cards: Natrone Means and Bryan Still. Obviously the Chargers were a good investment!

Finally, I jumped into the '96 Litho-Cel break hoping for an Amani Toomer RC (one of just two I still need), and Colbey delivered, along with a Game Time insert to boot! Hopefully I can add a Cel card of his to complete the full image. Speaking of those, I landed Jim Kelly, Rodney Hampton, and Dave Brown.

All in all I had a good time without spending that much, and it's cool to have the option of watching the breaks live or on your own time on Youtube. Oh, and I have one more card to show off that came from a break in which I didn't participate.

Buddy of the blog Paul claimed the Pats for all of $2 in Colbey's 2003 Fleer Avant break and promised me any Brady cards he got, which would likely just be a base card (New England's only one in the small set). Colbey had a hot hand, though, pulling three very nice hits: a Jeremy Shockey patch, a Joey Harrington relic for Paul's Lions, and this guy:

Well damn, now that's nice--a beautiful blue jersey swatch of the GOAT, and numbered /250 too! I don't think any of us had any idea that many hits were coming out of this box, so I think all of us were fairly pleased by the result. Many thanks to Paul for being generous enough to think of me and keep his word when such a nice hit got pulled.

I also want to thank Colbey for putting in the time and effort to run such affordable and entertaining breaks. Everyone should consider this my endorsement of them, though anybody that's dealt with him at all already knows he's one of the good guys of the blogosphere. If you've got some extra card money from the lack of shows and retail stuff (the latter being a huge blessing in disguise, in my opinion), keep an eye on his blog where he announces his breaks most weekends and get in on the fun!

2019 trade package #16: Cardboard Collections

Braves/Panthers/Hornets fan Colbey of Cardboard Collections was nice enough to hit my mailbox with a little envelope earlier this month, a surprise that mailing that happened before the package I sent his way more recently.  He's always been an easy guy to trade with and I never have problems finding stuff for a team collector like him.

I'm excited to emphasize the "little" aspect of the envelope not as a slight toward Colbey--the quality was excellent--but because I love it when traders cause me a small amount of work, like what you see here:

The marquee piece this time is a Verlander 2019 Donruss jersey relic done up to look like the 1985 design.  I'm getting nostalgic in my old age so I often like these throwbacks to 80s sets, some of which came out before or not long after I was born.  And I also trend toward liking relic cards where the swatch area is simply added to a base design, though I know that's not for everyone.  Anyway, all that's to say that I'm a fan of this fun design even before taking into account that it's a new JV for my collection, not to mention a relic--#15 out of 25 hits now!--and Colbey did a great job of finding something I'd enjoy that's also 100% on-brand.

And to keep things balanced he even sent me this Wolverines hockey pair for my Michigan collections.  D-men Jack Johnson and Zach Werenski can be seen here on their base cards from 2018-19 UD, and one other thing they have in common is opposing fans in the shot behind them--Canadiens against Johnson's Pens, and Blackhawks as opponents for Werenski's Blue Jackets.  The design is a typically strong Upper Deck offering and I'm glad they're at least still around to produce great looking hockey cards, if not the baseball and football stuff I enjoyed for so long.

Thanks again for the surprise envelope, Colbey!  I hope you liked the stuff I sent your way and I'll work on filling out another package for you before you know it.

2013 trade package #21: Cardboard Connections adds to my Verlander collection

The other day I was treated to a surprise trade package from Colbey of Cardboard Collections.  The bulk of it can be seen over at TMM, but he did manage to include a few baseball items as well.  Check it out!:

Cardboard Collections!  F$%k yeah!

I'm not sure why he included this 2012 Panini Cooperstown card of Buck Ewing but I'll take it, though I'll happily offer it in trade to anyone who can use it.

There we go, a brand new JV insert, and a mini at that!  This one's from 2012 A&G and it's actually the A&G back.  This reminds me that I really need to work on scanning my Verlander PC.  I'll get around to that...eventually!

Speaking of brand new inserts, here's Verlander's 2013 Opening Day Superstar Celebrations card, celebrating his 2012 ALDS game 5 triumph over Oakland in which he struck out 11 hitters (just like he did in game 1) while allowing just a walk and four hits in a complete game.  I see my former Detroit nemesis Gerald Larid behind him, but he's no longer around to cripple the Tigers at the plate, which is cause enough for celebration for ME.  That's a pretty cool insert!

Thanks again, Colby, for making these appear out of the blue.  I'll make sure to get you back soon when my piles of your teams call for a package of their own!

Meanwhile, I hope y'all head over to Cardboard Connections for some excellent blogging/breaking action.