2018 trade package #13: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Some of you may recall that one of the packages that hit my mailbox in April was a pre-Expo envelope from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store.  With that event now in the books he sent another salvo across the Detroit River to yours truly, and I'm happy to report that it packs a lot of firepower, as usual!

You'll really want to head over to TMM this evening, especially if you're a hockey fan, because the vast majority of the fireworks are over there (again, as usual).  However, I do have a few baseball and hockey entries before sending you over there:

With the NBA and NHL playoffs having concluded baseball once again rules the roost, making this my favorite time of year until college football season begins.  We'll mark the occasion with three cards of former Wolverines Barry Larkin and Chris Sabo.  The two up top hail from 1990 Score and '91 UD while the 2018 Donruss card--pairing up Barry with prolific slugger and asshole Gary Sheffield, who appears to be wearing a trash bag--is new to me.  Those of you who are younger than I am may not remember that Sheffield began his career as a SS and 3B for the Brewers and Padres before spending the rest of his career in the outfield.

And then we have a trio of Wings with a pair of goalies bookending a defenseman.  Crozier had some good seasons with Detroit in the '60s while Osgood is better known around Motown these days thanks to leaded the team to a pair of Cups.  Green was a 10-year vet of the Caps when the Wings signed him a few seasons ago and he's been a steady presence in the lineup since.

Don't miss out on the TMM portion of this package--it's another great one!

Thanks again for another fun envelope as I continue piecing together a big return, Doug!

2018 trade package #11: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Now that I'm back and rested from a much-needed vacation to visit friends I have one from a pair of trade envelopes to show off to you before I get back to the eBay goodness.  Today's is a two-parter, naturally, as it's from Canadian good guy (as if that wasn't redundant) Doug of Spourts Cards Froum the Doullar Stoure.  As is tradition he sent me a great pre-Expo package, which I'm guessing will soon be followed up by a post-Expo package, though I wouldn't be surprised if I received a "while I'm at the Expo!" package from him as well.  Dude's awesome, is what I'm saying.

So make sure to check out the great goods on TMM this evening after you peruse these nice additions:

We'll start with this pair of Michigan baseballers, Jim Abbott and Chris Sabo.  These guys never got to play together in college--they missed each other by about three years due to their age difference--or in the pros, but I'm happy to have them side-by-side here!

Doug also sent a bunch of Wings stuff, a nice assortment that I have to imagine he accumulated through his trademark repacks.  This first scan includes a few fan favorites in Datsyuk, Franzen, Holmstrom, and Lidstrom.  Those Score cards that dominate the scan are mostly from the 12-13 set, and I think they look great.  I hope you do too because there's more where that came from!

Alongside a few other players the clear star of the show here is The Captain, Steve Yzerman.  I'm not sure what's going on with the photo on the Zenith card, especially the coloring, but it's an otherwise great shot of the Detroit legend.  Meanwhile a Parkhurst issue from 92-93 offers a cool landscape shot of "Stevie Y" in action.  That playing card starring the whole team is a great way to wrap up most of the base.

I said "most" because of this nice pile featuring a pair of notable Wings goalies: Jimmy Howard and Chris Osgood.  I've probably mentioned a million times that I got to see my Wolverines defeat Howard and his Maine teammates in the NCAA regionals years ago, and he's served as a solid if unspectacular netminder in Motown.  Osgood, of course, won three cups, two as a starter, in Hockeytown, and I especially like his selection here.

The first of the three hockey hits going into my Wings collection is this jersey relic of Wolverwing Luke Glendening from 2016-17 SP Game Used's Stadium Series Fabrics offering.  It highlights Detroit's victory over the Avalanche in a game played at Coors Field on February 27, 2016.  Five different wings scored in the 5-3 win, and Glendening (on just my second hit of him), pictured here, picked up an assist.  The slightly larger than average jersey swatch is a beautiful red straight out of the team's colors.

Wings hit #2 is this jersey relic of former grinder Tomas Holmstrom from 2010-11 Zenith Winter Warriors Materials.  The Swede was part of four Cup-winners in Detroit, and "warrior" certainly describes his style of play, a fearless force in front of the net who never gave a goalie a moment of peace and was often in the right place to bang home a rebound.  He left as a fan-favorite and I'm happy to have something of his for my collection.

Last up is my third card of Wolverwing wunderkind Dylan Larkin from 2015-16 Upper Deck Champ's, with all three coming courtesy of Doug.  This time I got a Rookie Jerseys relic to go with the autograph and insert he'd already sent.  Here's the pair of hits side-by-side:

At some point I'll track down the base RC to go with it and make it a proper trifecta.

Once again Doug, thanks a ton for your generosity!  Not everybody gives up hits of young stars like you do, or puts in the time to hit my favorite PCs.  I hope you had a great Expo and I look forward to hitting you back at some point, but for now I'll sit here and complain to myself about how this country's shipping rates are higher than yours for no reason!

2017 trade package #17: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Pal of the blog Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store just finished showing off the most recent package I sent his way, so I'd say it's high time I get to the one that traveled from his great white north to my mailbox last month.  As is almost always the case this one's a two-parter with the bulk of the envelope posted on TMM this evening and some Detroit/MLB-related content right here:

Miggy came into the 2014 season needing just five hits to reach the milestone on the front of this Topps Update checklist (a Gold parallel, numbered 0668/2014), and a year after earning his second consecutive AL MVP award, he piled up 191 to blow past the mark.  As a matter of fact, as of the day I'm posting this, he's compiled exactly 600 hits since the start of 2014!  This card is also a fun reminder of Torii Hunter's two-year stint in Motown.

Hockey content on this blog?  It happens occasionally, especially when we're talking a (former) Red Wing like Osgood.  Although the three-time Cup-winner (twice as a starter) isn't pictured with Detroit on this 2014 Goodwin Champions Mini--UD appears to have gone with the team he spent the least amount of time with in his career, the Blues, in a move that's very Topps-ian--I'm happy to show this off and remember Ozzie's two separate and successful stints in Hockeytown.

I just showed off a bunch of new Griffeys, so why not one more?  This 2016 Topps flagship insert highlights the start of Junior's amazing 1997 season, with the back pointing out that he socked a pair of homers off the '96 Champion Yankees' David Cone to kick things off.  As a reminder of just how good the (unanimous!) AL MVP was in '97, let me remind you of the numbers:  second in the league (and fourth in MLB) in bWAR at 9.1;  tops in the game with 147 RBI;  best in the AL with .646 SLG, 125 runs, 393 total bases, 56 HR, and 93 XBH.  Oh yeah, and he was named an All-Star and Gold Glover (for the eighth straight season) and won his fifth Silver Slugger award.  So, uh, yeah, he was pretty good!

Thanks for the great TMV throw-ins, Doug!

Folks, please head on over to Too Many Manninghams after reading this so you can catch up on some Michigan Basketball, Football, and Hockey, plus a big surprise too!

2016 trade package #17: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store gives you Wiiiiings

Lots of red but no bull in this post!  Well, just a bit--despite being as useful as the USPS, Canada's mail system decided to work for a bit, so I was fortunate enough to be one of the recipients of another trade package from Doug over at SCFtDS!  Hopefully the American version will be functioning whenever Canada's gets back to some semblance of normalcy.

Anyway, Doug provided plenty of goodies--in fact, enough for a two-part trade post, which means there's even more to see over at TMM this evening.

But that's for after this post.  Here's the TMV content you're here to see:

Cleary was the first Newfie to win a Cup thanks to Detroit's last win in 2008.  Datsyuk was a team stalwart for 14 seasons before understandably heading back home after this year.  Draper was an often underappreciated key cog of four Cup teams.  Ellis played parts of two seasons with the Wings before heading to the Kings, then seven more seasons with Buffalo.  Filppula put up eight solid seasons with the Wings, good enough to earn a free agent contract with Steve Yzerman's Lightning.  Lidstrom needs no introduction as he's one of the greatest players in franchise history.  And Osgood was also underappreciated by many fans, but was part of three Cup-winners, starting most of the games for two of those squads.

And Hank gets his own scan thanks to this five-card bounty.  Zetterberg has put up more than 300 goals in his 13-year career and was also part of the 2008 Cup-winning squad.  The Ultra insert celebrates his feat of scoring 13 goals in the playoffs that year as the Wings defeated the Penguins.  He put up double-digit playoff goals--11--the following year as well as Detroit fell to the Pens in a rematch.

This bunch of Wings brings back some nice memories of some of Detroit's best recent teams and players, so thanks for sending them my way, Doug!  I'll respond in kind whenever you give me the go-ahead.

Please make sure to head over to TMM this evening for the rest of the loot!