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.

2020 COMC purchases: hockey new year!

I hope everyone had an excellent holiday season, I know I did. After taking a few days off, though, I decided I was ready to get started posting in 2021, and fortunately I happened to have some worthy content handy.

Although I'm still waiting on my original COMC order (which is pretty much all trade bait destined for Christmas packages), a package that's been in limbo since 12/14, the second one I had shipped days later made it to my mailbox before the year was up. All but one of the cards in this one were for me, so at least I've got that going for me!

I ended up doing quite well with the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales so I have a nice fat stack of cards to show off. Because of that I'm going to break them down into (at least) three posts by sport. As you might have guessed by this post's title, hockey is first up:

While this is in now way a huge haul, I'll remind everyone that I don't tend to search out hockey very much, and I largely went after these due to their ridiculously low prices. Here's a bit more about each:

Chris Brown 2013-14 Upper Deck Overtime Autographs auto: once again, ladies and gentlemen, it's the pride of Flower Mound, Texas! $0.90 was all it took to grab this Coyote colored (:chuckles Phoenixly:) signature of Brown, my ninth including an auto of 12 total hits (and 15 cards overall). It's a rare addition to his collection by me since much of what I own is courtesy of The Buckstore Kid, naturally. Fellow Wolverine Jacob Trouba can also be found here so this may not be the last of the set you'll see!

Greg Pateryn 2013-14 Crown Royale auto RC (#450/499): Pateryn is something of an unheralded D-man but he's managed to hang in the league on and off for approaching a decade, which is nice to see. He was originally drafted by the Leafs but made his debut and played his first few seasons with the pictured Canadiens here. Crown Royale's die-cuts just about always look nice, and the fact that this is also a numbered RC is a plus. At just $1.25 I was glad to make it his third hit (two autos and a plate) out of just five total cards.

Jeff Tambellini 2005-06 Parkhurst Signatures auto: the last auto of the group belongs to the son of former Oilers GM Steve. Jeff was a dynamite college player during my school days in Ann Arbor, though his NHL career was nothing special. But, man, could he take over a game and carry the team on his back when they needed it! I had no second thoughts about paying a buck for his signature on such a nice design, not that I was surprised that the classic Parkhurst name offered up a good look like this. Five of my eight Tambellini hits feature his John Hancock (out of just 14 cards overall).

Mike Cammalleri 2008-09 Black Diamond Jerseys Quad quad jersey: only one hockey Mike today so I'm not gonna use the tag, but I am quite happy with the new addition. Everyone knows relics have kind of lost their luster over the years, but it's not because of cool ones like this. The four swatches on my copy resulted in three different colors, which is definitely a win, as was nabbing the card for $1.25. TCDB tells me Cammalleri is #3 in my hockey collection (76 cards) and it's no wonder when I can add cool hits like this, my 18th of the former sniper.

Dylan Larkin 2019-20 SP Game Used Showcase Standouts Jerseys jersey: no, it's not a Wings card, but when you only have to pay $1.05 ("Freedom isn't free!") for a relic of a star like Larkin you go for it. And it looks like instead of being the now infamous "event-worn" crap that involves throwing on a jersey for five seconds to meet the definition, it was at least used in action at that event. Larkin's prices make many of his hits cost-prohibitive so this was a fun, cheap way to grab relic #5 (of seven hits) and card #40 overall. I'm glad the Wolverwing will be back in Motown for at least two more seasons after this one.

Since this was just five cards, plus I needed some back scans for TCDB, here's the backs of everything.

I would expect my next post to cover all my baseball purchases next, but we'll just have to see!

2020 trade package #1: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's February 14 and that means one thing around here: celebrating the birthday of buddy of the blog Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!  I think it's awesome that he collects cards of athletes, celebrities, and more, with whom he shares a birthday, and today's post is a good example of that fun, listing his top 10 2/14 cards from the last year.  I'm happy to announce that he has a few more things from me that he'll be able to show off whenever he feels like it.

Speaking of "whenever he feels like it," unforeseen circumstances delayed me from getting his latest package to me (delivered weeks ago!) scanned and ready so eventually I figured, why not show it off on his big day?  And "big" is appropriate when discussing this latest mailing, one that arrived in what I believe was a 600-ct box, meaning he shelled out good money to get it to me.  Such is the generosity of my Canadian neighbour.  And as I flipped through the cards, I felt that generosity even more!

That Miggy is from a 2014 set that was available (probably in packs?) at that year's National, and it's cool because I hadn't seen it before.  The other three hail from one of Doug's favorites: Panini's Chronicles.  I love the mix of brands/designs it offers, and those are on full display here with a pair of Christin Stewarts and my first auto of young IF Dawel Lugo.  Nice!

The baseball continues here with even more Panini goodness.  Griffey hails from 2012 Prizm, and that sweet shot of his sweet swing is new to me.  The not-so-outspoken-anymore Verlander also cameos with another example of a 2019 Chronicles design, this one from the super thick Spectra.  And then there's two of my favorites in the whole box:  2019 Elite Extras of former Michigan pitchers Tommy Henry and Karl Kauffmann, two guys that were key to the Wolverines' College World Series run last year.  I love that they're both college uni cards plus I was thrilled to get my first of Henry, hopefully card #1 of many.

When it comes to packages from Doug, hockey is always well represented, and this time I was treated not just to cards of my alma mater, but the local pro club as well.  The Wings may be terrible this year but they were fun to watch in the 90s and 2000s when they were like the Braves except they won more than one title.  You'll see O-Pee-Chee's 2019-20 base set quite a bit today, one I think looks quite nice, as is typical for the brand.

Wings content #2 of 3.  The star of the show here is PC guy Dylan Larkin, whom I scanned with both teams just because.  I was happy to need all three because I love growing his collection, and all the cards look nice, too, including the Artifacts red insert called Aurum, which is a bit short on gold, but that's fine for this Red Wings fan!

The last of the Wings stuff comes with a couple more 19-20 OPCs, but of course I'm more interested in cards starring The Captain--and now The GM--Steve Yzerman.  The mix of old and new photos, designs, and uniforms, makes those a fun trio!

On the Michigan side of things, the basketball team has had its highs and lows this year but have been pretty interesting under new coach Juwan Howard.  Representing that team, Doug hit me up with a new base of Rumeal Robinson, a jersey of weed entrepreneur (go figure!) Mitch McGary, and a ridiculously beautiful slide/auto of Robinson's '89 NCAA title teammate Glen Rice.  I believe the Rice is my second such auto from that set and, yes, it looks even better in person!

A very nicely balanced package continues with some excellent football content.  '99 Collector's Edge Masters makes four appearances throughout this scan with base cards (/5000) of PC guy Tim Biakabutuka and former QB Elvis Grbac, plus HoloSilver (with red stamps?) parallels (/3500) of '98 champs Griese and Woodson.  Touchdown Tim is also represented on a super cool '99 UD Retro base, also new to me.  I also loved the nostalgia for 90s inserts with '94 Score Gold Zone parallels of AC and OT John "Jumbo" Elliott.  And then we have my first card of another newbie to my collection, former LB/DL hybrid Craig "Death" Roh, a pretty good recruit who played in Ann Arbor during one of the team's worst eras, 2009-12.  While NFL success eluded him he's since done well for himself in the CFL, and made his way onto this Red parallel from UD's product for that league last year.

These two guys have been associated a bit more with winning, though, in college and/or the pros.  (Future former?) Patriot great Tom Brady features on a very cool horizontal Panini Gridiron base while blog favorite PC guy Chad Henne gets in on the fun with a card I surprisingly didn't have: his 2011 Plates & Patches base (/299).  I recently hit the 300 mark for the latter and can't wait to boost his collection even more this year as I make him my top football PC.

And now we get into the bulk of the package:  Michigan Hockey content!  19-20 OPC makes a solid seven more appearances over the next three scans, proving the Ann Arbor-to-NHL pipeline is as strong as ever.  There's also a couple example of the prior season's factory set blue version of UD's MVP which were also new to me, as was practically everything you'll see in these scans.

There's WolverWing Dylan Larkin again, and I promise my scan of the Aurum insert looks much better than the one used here, getting much closer to the actual red color.  Joining him is a fun AHL card of winger Brad Jones, PC guy Brendan Morrison, and a new 90-91 OPC offering of D-man Jeff Norton.

Before we get to the real fireworks of the box here's the last of the "regular" hockey stuff.  That includes another Norton, two more OPCs, and a card each of D-men Jacob Trouba and Zach Werenski that allowed me to provide scans to TCDB.  I'm noting that because very few cards in the box were missing images there, often thanks to Doug, which was very cool.

And now the part you've probably been expecting considering the source!  Up first is another autograph of the pride of Flower Mound, Texas, Chris Brown, and as usual I'll mention that Doug is almost 100% responsible for my collection of that player.  Next is a couple jersey relics of hockey Mike #1, Cammalleri, from 02-03 Be-a-Player, plus a 2012-13 UD Game Jersey set that was given away at the NHL Hall of Fame back in 2013.  I hadn't seen those before so learning about them was cool, plus I got the set added to the TCDB.

The other hockey Mike is Comrie, and his card happens to be more than just a normal BAP relic (from 03-04) as it got a 1/1 stamp at the 2004 All-Star game.  These aren't your standard 1/1s but I still like to label them that way, and anyway they sometimes make plain cards more interesting.  That'll become my first 1/1 of Comrie.

Another guy with twice the hits today is D-man Jon Merrill, a guy who's been with Vegas for the last three years but was drafted by the Devils, the team pictured above.  The designs of those relic cards are different but the Dominion and Titanium cards came out of Panini's Rookie Anthology, kind of an ancestor of Chronicles.  Doug's also been a major factor in my Merrill collection.

Last up in this scan is yet another defenseman, Jacob Trouba, who finally saw his tenure with the Jets end thanks to a trade to the Rangers, with whom he could possibly tie or best his career-high of 10 goals.  This relic with a fun design should represent hit #10, making him one of a select group of guys in the collection to hit that mark.

Two of the guys on these horizontal cards are also in the 10+ club.  One is Cogliano, whose Upper Deck Ice card is twice as nice thanks to dual swatches!  The other is possibly my favorite card in the whole package is a new Shawn Hunwick--something I haven't been able to say in a while--that includes an autograph plus an enormous Blue Jackets patch, plus, you know, his Wolverines helmet.  Hunwick remains my lone hockey supercollection and it was a nice surprise from Doug that I could finally add to it again.  And last but not least is a cool multi-swatch card of former Michigan star Tyler Motte, a guy that went off for 32 goals and 24 assists in his final year in Ann Arbor, then bounced around from Chicago to Columbus to his current team, Vancouver.  I like when manufacturers make relics more interesting with ideas like swatch windows that spell out something relevant.

Doug, once again, happy birthday and also thanks for all the effort (and money!) you put into this amazing package that was an excellent start to the year.  While I work on getting all of these scans added to my collection and my stats updated I hope you enjoy the little envelope I sent your way to celebrate 2/14, and I'll work on another one as soon as I can.

Everyone please head over to SCFtDS to check out Doug's work and send him some cards of 2/14 babies yourselves.  Then stay tuned for all the other posts I've been promising while I've been slacking this year!