2024 trade package #13: Topps Cards That Never Were

Happy September, y'all! We're quickly approaching fall, which means college football is back, and the defending national champion Wolverines opened up their 2024 season with a win this past weekend. And somehow the Tigers haven't even been eliminated yet. So it's a great month for sports around here.

Both of those teams and more popped up in the latest trade package I received from fellow Tigers fan Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were back in June. In fact, "more" is a good description for this absolutely stuffed package full of players I collect:

Hey, how about Rich "Dick Mountain" Hill joining the Red Sox to pitch in his 20th MLB season at the age of 44? Jeremy sent me three Topps parallels picturing Hill with three different teams, though none of them are the Sox, a team he's pitched for in four stints (in parts of six seasons). His fellow ex-Wolverine Barry Larkin is another of the school's most well known alumni, and he did indeed dominate at times over his HOF career. Dean Palmer is probably not as common of a PC outside of fans of Detroit, Texas, and maybe KC, so I appreciate folks like Jeremy including him when sending me cards. Meanwhile, Cal's my biggest player collection by far with nearly 1300 cards, like the Topps offerings you see above--my favorite being the die-cut--and a couple more below.

This doesn't happen too often but I prefer the Topps insert to the Panini/Donruss one in this case, both because of the design and photo choice. Tork's had a nice few weeks back with the big team and actually homered off of Rich Hill today! And I can never have too many Verlanders, like my first 2024 issue of him from Bowman.

Jeremy also included lots of basketball stuff. That begins with a three-pack of Hoops-related cards, including the Winter version. Former coach Juwan Howard is next with a pair of college issues, but these are just two of a larger bunch from the package.

If those Howard cards don't scream "1990s" I don't know what does! Meanwhile, LeVert is a top-10 guy in my basketball collection and one of just seven with 50+ cards. Like THJ he got in on the Hoops action too.

Though they don't all look it, all of LeVert's cards are different because they're either regular or Winter versions, or parallels with small color foil differences. Caris gives way to Glen Rice, my top basketball guy with over 200, currently the only member of that club. A single Duncan Robinson has him tied for third in my collection of players with that last name (according to TCDb) behind David and Rumeal, and tied with Glenn. Jalen Rose is another Fab Fiver to get some love here thanks to eight total cards, three of which you see here.

That many different cards means we get to see Rose on a number of teams and designs, which is always great. And that's also true of his Fab Five teammate Chris Webber, #2 in my collection and nearing 200 (Howard and Rose are 3 and 4, the only others above 100). He was the most popular player in this mailer with 27 cards by my count!

Lots of Webber means lots more 90s stuff, and these definitely take me back to my teenage years. Out of all of these, the Upper Deck base feels a lot more timeless to me than the other designs that are more a product of their time (though still fun).

As we approach the end of the 90s and get into the aughts we get into some designs that appeal more to me. UD3 was a very cool product in multiple sports, Ultra was a perennial favorite, UD continued a streak of quality, Bowman's Best was superior to its recent baseball efforts, and even Topps Tipoff looked solid. Fleer's Premium was pretty nice as well, but the weird Topps Chrome design here feels like a rare miss.

Here's the last of the Webbers including a cool UD trio from later in his Sacramento tenure, then a couple horizontal issues from Ultra nd Stadium Club. The Award Winner card refers of course to his '93-'94 Rookie of the Year nod in a close vote against Penny Hardaway, another guy who went on to a very nice career.

And we'll finish up with football. Jeremy hit a whole bunch of names here too, which I loved. Brooks and Cooper are kind of deeper cuts for folks that aren't fans of the program like I am, but Brady, Calloway, Carter, Edwards, Henne, and Hutch are all pretty well known, I'd say, especially the GOAT and the biggest reason the Lions have returned to respectability. (By the way, this isn't the last time you'll see Aidan in this post!)

If you thought that first scan had a lot of talent then feast your eyes on this one. Kenn was a five-time Pro Bowler at LT for the Falcons. Long was a fantastic LT in his own right, and a former #1 overall pick. Owens spent nine years in the league at linebacker as a Rams first-rounder. Wheatley's storied Michigan career led to 10 NFL seasons--not bad for a running back! Fearsome LB/DE LaMarr Woodley won a ring with the Steelers. And Woodson is simply an all-time great in both the college and pro games. The Select insert that includes Hutch and Nico is especially cool as it features talent from all aspects of the game: offense, defense, and special teams.

The last I have of the football stuff is these horizontal cards. All guys were mentioned above except new Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh. The Brady/Woodson insert is fun given their notable playoff history that will forever link the '97 champion teammates.

Jeremy, thanks again for this huge amount of great cards that'll benefit many of my collections! I have some interesting stuff set aside for you and may be shipping them out within the next week or two depending on how things go.

As for posting over here, I think next up will be another show recap, or I may get to eBay or Facebook Marketplace purchases, whatever I feel like. Until then, eat 'em up, Tigers, and GO BLUE!

2023 trade package #11: Scribbled Ink

This evening's trade package comes from buddy of the blog Paul, a Michigan transplant living in New Hampshire. Throughout the year I can pretty much count on Paul sending me a few oddly shaped packages containing stuff I've never seen or heard of, and that's exactly what happened here. This one included cards, sure, and we'll look at those first, but those of you who don't skip the rest of the post will be rewarded with some very cool collectibles!

The cards portion opens open with a pair of Cronenworths, which is a great way to start. Jake and Rich Hill are Michigan's two main alumni in MLB right now, though Hill's fellow lefty Tommy Henry's been pitching a bit for Arizona as well. And out of the trio, Cronenworth isn't a pitcher while also being a young-ish semistar, so he's made a good number of cardboard appearances. Thank you to Paul for including him here, especially that cool Refractor!

Griffey's next and he gets three additions to his collection: a Fleer/SI base issue which is a collaboration I've always enjoyed, a fold-out mini-poster from the same product, and a numbered (/299) parallel of a 2022 Topps insert celebrating big postseason moments. If you're too young to remember Ken Griffey Jr.'s winning run in the '95 ALDS against the Yankees (plus his five homers in the series), well check it out!

Fellow PC guys and co-HOF entrants Gwynn and Ripken also made appearances in this package. Mr. Padre is seen on 2022 Topps diamond-themed insert that treats him as the baseball royalty he is. Meanwhile, Junior Ripken's cameo is a 2018 Storybook Endings insert that talks about his 2001 retirement.

Paul doubled up on the ex-UM players with a basketball representative in Chris Webber. One of the most famous to play in Ann Arbor, the NBA HOFer appears on a card that almost literally screams 90s in its design (Fleer's Skybox Z-Force).

I thought it would be fun to scan the fully folded out Griffey mini poster and also include the pair of stickers Paul sent me from the fine folks who produce his bats (and I believe his son's as well?) for his adult league, the Walter Bat Company. Based on the interaction I've seen between them on Twitter they seem very communicative and easy to work with which is awesome when you're paying for someone to make something you're comfortable with. Kudos to them for great customer service!

And now we get to the first of the non-card items, and what a fantastic one it is! Apparently a company named Spectra Star sold these marbles with player images embedded in them in the early 90s. This group is "Set #2" and includes HOFers Yount, Ripken, and McGriff, certified star Fielder, and Cory Snyder, who was kind of decent in 1988.

The back gives you some stats of the players plus the flip side of the marbles, which contain team logos. Up top you can see the groupings from the other three sets, and now I kind of want at least two of the others if not the rest, as one includes Jim Abbott and Ken Griffey Jr. (plus Paul's PC guys Canseco and Ryan), and another has ex-Wolverine Chris Sabo.

I love the oddball 90s-ness of these and like the idea of keeping them in the packaging for display purposes. If I end up picking up the rest I'll make sure to show them off here, and I'll give another hat tip to Paul for introducing them to me.

Here's something I definitely didn't expect either: a book written by "Al Kaline's last bat boy," Dennis Clotworthy. It was released around 2014 and considering the number of great stories I have to imagine the author has about Kaline and his teammates from that era, this should be a very interesting read I'll be sure to check out once I'm caught up on a couple other books.

Oh, and it happens to be signed by the impeccably-named author, too! I'm a fan of the "Go Tigers!" inscription and love that he abbreviates his former title as "L.B.B." Rest assured I'll let my fellow Tigers fans know how this was once I've read it.

Last up is a 20-year-old Fleer-produced team truck. I think I was at least vaguely aware of these or something like them from the team (when discussing them with others the name White Rose came up too). While that terrible 43-119 squad led by an overmatched Alan Trammell is one I'd rather not remember, this is a very cool item that I'll be happy to display somewhere in my card room or on my living room bookshelves with similar collectibles that show off my pride in the team I continue to root for no matter what.

Here's a quick look at the bottom of the box which shows that these were apparently limited to 1500 made, making me wonder how much they were distributed regionally as opposed to nationally.

And one last shot of the top of the packaging to give you a bit more detail.

Paul, thanks for some great cards and even cooler surprise oddball stuff! I appreciate you always keeping me on my toes as I never know what you're going to send and what rabbit holes you'll send me down (seriously, those marbles are too cool!).

Looking over at my card desk I think I'm down to just two more blogger trades but that can always change quickly so maybe I'll try to get to them soon so those generous folks can get their due. Until then, go get 'em, Tigers!

2022 trade package #17: the Diamond King

You all know I love trading, possibly as my favorite part of the hobby. Pair that up with shows and you've got a one-two punch of collecting fun!

A few weeks ago I posted my recap of July's show and that included the usual array of trade bait. One of those items was a '91 Topps Desert Shield of Twins P Scott Erickson that I scored for just a buck. Not long after, Kevin, who blogs as the Diamond King, let me know he wanted to make a deal for it. Great!

I looked through his posts from earlier this year to get an idea of what I might like for it and found something that would be perfect: Derek Jeter's bronze base card from 1996 Finest. It would be the last one I needed to complete the 220-card bronze part of the set (I'm not chasing the rarer Silvers and Golds), and was something I couldn't find a reasonable deal for online, buying or trading. So that was perfect!

Here's everything Kevin sent my way:

I would have been perfectly happy with just the Jeter but Kevin was nice enough to include a few Verlanders I know about and some other cards that were nice surprises! Of the Verlanders (four many!) my favorite is easily the 2015 Elite Inspirations parallel. It's shiny, die-cut, and numbered (/65) so what's not to love? The others are parallels as well: 2017 Topps Gallery's Canvas, 2019 Topps Fire's Flamethrowers Gold Minted, and 2020 Donruss's Highlights Rapture. Seriously, Panini and Topps have so many color/pattern variations I can't keep them all straight! These are some great looking cards, though.

And from basketball we continue the parallel them. Three point machine Duncan Robinson can be seen on 2019-20 Hoops Premium Stock's regular Prizms version, which I believe is sometimes referred to as "Silver" if not just "Prizms." And recent HOFer Chris Webber shares his 1999-00 Finest Double Feature insert with former three-year teammate Jason "White Chocolate" Williams. These cards could be Refractor-ized either in full or on either side, and in this case you might be able to tell that Williams' side gets the coveted bending of light, but I think it's a cool Webber card either way.

Kevin, many thanks for reaching out to make this deal, finishing my '96 Finest (bronze) set, and sending me some other great stuff with it! It looks like this was just our second trade since I've been blogging, and first since June of 2013, so I hope we don't wait so long to make the next one!

Up next is another blogger trade I'm excited to show off with a very cool surprise hidden inside.

2022 trade package #2: Chronicles of Fuji

It looks like it's been exactly two weeks since I last posted and they've definitely been busy ones! We all got to enjoy a pretty exciting Super Bowl with yet another former Wolverine (DB David Long) winning a ring. And my activity on TCDB has only increased with lots more trade bait posted and many deals completed or in-progress. In fact, looking over on my card desk right now I have 12 TCDB trades to cover at some point, plus six other blog deals to recap after this one!

And speaking of "this one", it's one of the bigger stacks I get to enjoy! And enjoy it I will, even if I'm extremely jealous of the weather the sender gets to enjoy. While it got briefly warm enough here to melt the many inches of snow we've dealt with, we're once again in the middle of a storm that'll bring another 6-9". Meanwhile it's sunny and high 60s in San Jose, home to blogging/trading legend Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji.

In January Mark sent me another typically generous package out of the blue, which is a color I'm happy to picture as I see nothing but white outside! I had no idea he was sending what he did and was surprised about the variety found within among three of the major sports. Continue reading to see what I mean:

2017 Honus Bonus, a collectible card/fantasy game product, was a bit of an odd duck for sure. But it's a fun one to collect as well for a number of reasons. One of them is the abundance of 1/1s, with multiples made to represent different significant stats. In the two examples here for Ian Kinsler and Justin Upton, that would be their career HR up to that point. Through 2016, his third of four seasons with Detroit after eight in Texas, Kinsler had clubbed 212 of his 257 career bombs. Upton, snagged as a FA before the 2016 season, finished that campaign at 221 after 10 years, then was flipped to the Angels, still his current squad, and he's added 128 taters over his past five.

I like the game-dated aspect of these cards and they're a fun addition to my collection even if the true "rarity" isn't there. Very cool of Fuji to send them my way!

Basketball was very well represented this time, enough that I decided to make it easy on myself and just take a group photo. After all, there was lots worth showing off here, with the 90s and inserts offering lots of creativity and shine.

Player #1 in the pile is Tariq Abdul-Wahad, a relative newbie to my collection in terms of cards that aren't part of complete sets. Previously named Olivier Saint-Jean, he was born in France to two basketball-playing parents, and played at Michigan in 93-94 before transferring to Fuji's San Jose State. Sacramento chose him 11th overall in 1997, the same year he converted to Islam and took on a new name. He's very welcome to the basketball collection! Nice catch, Fuji.

Other players that are part of this bunch include Jamal Crawford, coach Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Mo Taylor, Robert Traylor, Loy Vaught, and Chris Webber. As you can see, there's a nice bunch of Michigan uni cards, which makes sense giving how popular the program was for a bit in the early 90s. Taylor and Webber got the most new additions with eight and nine, respectively. And I'm absolutely digging a bunch of the inserts, like Howard's hologram (upper-right corner), the die-cuts, and the plethora of shininess.

One such card I decided to highlight was this 1998-99 Ultra Unstoppable insert of Taylor. The booklet-like card folds open so I put together this three-part (somewhat cut-off) look at it:

I don't recall seeing these before so I thought it was cool!

The football side more than lives up to its courtside companion with lots of great names and designs. Touchdown Timmy is a blast to collect since his cards largely fall in the super creative era of the 90s, and that's on full display here. I especially love the Leaf slide card and SP HoloView insert, which bring to mind my favorite tag, "90s inserts rule"! His last card is actually a '96 Bowman reprint, not the original, by the way.

National champ QB Brian Griese was the most common player found in the bunch, as you'll see between this scan and the next one. The Collector's Edge card is numbered /3500, the Fleer Showcase Air to the Throne insert is a reminder that he didn't quite follow in Elway's footsteps (though he did have a respectable career), and the 2000 Leaf Certified base is one of the higher-end ones you'll see here that wouldn't be out of place in an insert set.

See? More Griese (but not greasy) goodness! I wonder if anyone else remembers Upper Deck's short-lived UD Graded product, which I mainly know about due to having to track down some annoying RCs. The inserts from UD, Ultra, and even Topps (it was long enough ago, when they were still trying) are great. Absolute Memorabilia's hobby base cards were way better than the bland retail versions that never should have been made. And the Griese/Terrell pairing never happened in college or the NFL, unfortunately, but would have been a dynamic duo!

Speaking of QBs, newly-extended coach Jim Harbaugh makes an appearance here out of a baseball insert: Topps' 2016 First Pitch set, naturally showing him at Comerica Park. And Fuji even somehow found a Chad Henne I didn't have: a 2008 Prestige Prestigious Picks insert numbered /500, with the young Henne seen in his maize & blue uni. Those two are joined by another UM great, Desmond Howard, on a 1992 All World issue.

Incredibly, there's still more 90s/early 2000s greatness left to cover. It's awesome to see Terrell and Thomas together as nature intended: the WR on a numbered UD Finite base and the A-Train on one of Donruss's greatest inserts: Elite's Passing the Torch. For those of you who are curious, he was paired with former Bears back Gale Sayers. Hey, they can't all be winners, but damn is that set a beauty!

Former WRs Amani Toomer and Marquise Walker are next. Super Bowl champ Toomer can be seen on high-end offerings from 2000 Topps Gold Label (Class 3) and the previously seen Absolute Memorabilia. Walker's card is another throwback to quality Topps inserts: 2002 Topps Debut's Collegiate Classics. This foil chase card with a great college photo honors his 7 catches for 134 yards and a TD (one of his 11 that year) in a 24-10 win over Purdue in 2001, my freshman year.

Last up here us new Broncos RBs coach Tyrone Wheatley, someone who knows just a bit about the position. The Michigan great is seen on 1995's Metal Silver Flashers, Skybox Prime Time Rookie, and  Upper Deck Predictor inserts, plus a 2001 Topps Combos that pairs him up with the already seen Thomas. Those two are the #4 and 5 career rushers at the school, combining for 8276 yards, 96 rushing TDs, and 103 overall scores!

We're not quite done with inserts yet since Fuji also included this large item in the package: a graded 2003 Topps Chrome Refractor of transfer RB Justin Fargas, numbered /100. The beautiful shiny Refractory-ness is enhanced by a bold black border that I'm sure Gavin would admire. This is a gorgeous addition to my collection of Huggy Bear's kid, and I'll think about whether or not I feel like cracking it out of the slab to admire it more.

Ok, now we're closing in on the end with just a couple cards left to cover. The first is a great looking jersey card of former QB/WR Devin Gardner out of Panini's 2015 collegiate product focusing on the school, one of a number they made. DG was an athletic competitor and leader and those skills seem to be translating well to his potential next career in analysis/broadcasting. I'm looking forward to seeing him advance in that career!

And last up today is this throwback to fun Pacific products and their leading efforts when memorabilia cards were still novelties. Griese was paired up with HOF RB teammate Terrell Davis on this Titanium dual jersey, a double-sided card that in retrospect definitely got it right with the star up front. For me, though, it's a nice new jersey card to add to my Griese collection, now at 25 hits strong, making him the 18th player to reach that mark.

Thanks again for this whopper of a trade package, Fuji! Sending 1/1s, 90s inserts, and lots of Wolverines is a great way to keep yourself in my top tier of favorite trading partners, that's for sure. I hope your school year is going well, and I look forward to hitting you back as always whenever I can pile up some more trade bait. Until then, you know I'll keep following your blog, easily one of the best out there!

2021 trade package #8: Cards on Cards

Not too long after receiving an envelope from one of my older college-collecting trade partners on one coast, I was surprised with a fun package from another. Adam of My Cardboard Mistress was responsible for the 10th trade I recorded 10+ here years ago on TMV (TMG at the time!) and just a couple deals later came Kerry of Cards on Cards.

It's always been easy to deal with Kerry since he collects an MLB team plus a university (go Ducks!), and I've kept trading with him for more than a decade because he always sends great stuff my way. This time, that included three of the four major sports and some very cool cardboard (and cardboard-adjacent materials)!:

Let's start things off with the guys who'll be back in regular season action soon. Miggy's probably in line for another back end of his career-type season but that doesn't dim my excitement of adding new stuff of him, like a Donruss Optic Pink Prizm, a couple 2020 Topps Update base items (of course he's an active leader in a number of hitting stats!), and a 2021 insert in the style of '52 Topps, because the manufacturer is celebrating its 69th anniversary this year, right? I can't wait to see the latter in Archives, Heritage, Archives Heritage X Ben Baller, and the Chrome versions of all of the above.

As for the other Tigers guys, first we have Miggy's teammates Matt Boyd and Joe Jimenez bringing color to the proceedings, with John's favorite non-Freehan Tiger Boyd, Detroit's opening day starter, a Pink Chrome Refractor, and bullpen guy Jimenez a Red parallel. Then there's one of my favorite recent former Tigers, Kinsler, on a Topps Fire base, and Castellanos on a card I figured I had until I flipped it over and found that it was from a team set. Those aren't always that easy to track down so I surely appreciate them in trade packages!

And here are the rest of the Tigers Kerry sent, mostly Topps stuff. Agrazal was grabbed from the Pirates late in 2019 but never pitched for Detroit before being let go a year later. OF prospect Cameron is a Camo Bowman parallel and I hope we get to see him make some Daz-ling plays at Comerica Park in the future! Cron provided some nice pop last year before an injury made his short campaign even shorter, and I was surprised Detroit didn't make more of an effort to keep him. McKay pitched a bit for Detroit the past two seasons and Schwindel never suited up for the team; both are now gone. And Greiner is a Don Kelly-level automatic out that's gonna need his defense to shine if he wants to sniff playing time.

Hey, get a load of these too many Verlanders! I was excited to discover that I needed every single item you see here. A good chunk of the scan is Topps Update and Big League cards, but I was treated to some other items as well, like my first 2021 Topps base example, which just so happens to be an SP! Kerry also included a '52 insert for my blog's namesake as well. And there's a pair of smaller items as well: a 2020 Topps 206 mini, plus a 2015 Topps Sticker (the lone Tiger of the bunch).

Oh, you were wondering why I hadn't mentioned this one? It's because I knew it needed its own scan! I was a big fan of Stadium Club Chrome during its initial release around 20 years ago so I'm happy to see that it lives on in name and quality. Better yet, this guy's a Refractor! This is easily my favorite card in the package and I can't thank Kerry enough for it.

He also hit one of my non-Tigers PCs in Junior Ripken with this five-pack of 2020s. #1 is a Donruss Optic insert called Retro '86--not a surprise given the use of that year's design--and the rest are from 2020 Topps/Chrome Update. The latter had different checklists which means that even though the cards look exactly the same, the numbering is different. I guess I can't complain too much about that bloated checklist if it means more items of my guys like the players above and Cal, highlighted here for his performances in the '01 All-Star Game and '91 HR Derby.

College collecting protip: trade with others that collect a college team because when you send them cards of their college, they'll send back some of yours! Like Howard, LeVert, Rose, and Webber here. What coach of the year Juwan has done this season can't be understated. He and the other guys here were no strangers to March Madness, and I hope Howard's team can continue this year's success after defying all expectations and reaching the Sweet 16 as a 1-seed. (Side note: good luck to Kerry's Ducks as well, unless they play Michigan, in which case NOPE!)

And last but not least is this cool Michigan Football trio, all of which are new to my collection. Collins is from Donruss' purdy Preferred brand, and I was surprised I didn't have it yet. The other current coach in this post, Harbaugh, is from the 2000 version of Topps' Collection set, which got somewhat confusing in future years, but in this case featured a nice clear stamp to distinguish it from flagship. And we'll end the day with a Michigan uni card: super talented Pats rookie Josh Uche, out of 2020 Absolute. The latter is a bit confusing as there are hobby and retail versions, and after some deliberation I'm thinking this is retail since hobby is supposed to have more of a holofoil finish. If that's the case, I'm glad retail buyers didn't get stuck with lower-end versions, and either way I'm glad to add a new Uche, just my second!

Kerry, thanks again for another great surprise envelope! Whether you knew it or not, everything here was new to me except for one of the Topps Update Ripkens, quite the feat when you consider how large my collections of some of the players are. As I've been saying to everyone lately, I'll hit you back when it gets easier to acquire stuff for trade bait. Until then, good luck to your favorite teams with bird mascots!

The TCDB Michigan Box part 1: basketball

Although my Cardbarrel order arrived today I knew it was going to be delayed a bit from its original ETA so I finally got to work on something I'd been putting off for a bit.

As some of you may remember, last May I completed a TCDB deal with fellow Wolverines collector Chris (cjjt) in which I flipped him some dupe Michigan Football hits and maybe a few other things for a 5000-count monster box of his UM football and basketball extras. The not-quite-full box added 1600+ football cards to my collection and more than 350 basketball items to boot! Plus I came into possession to a bunch of extras I could use as traders, some of which have long since made their way to mailboxes around the country. In short, it was a huge boon to my collection and a blast making my largest TCDB deal by far.

So this past weekend I finally decided to start making a bit of progress on covering the contents. This evening, in honor of the UM basketball team going dancing as a #1 seed(!), albeit with a key injury or two, here's a quick look at the basketball content:

I took this shot to give you an idea of the sizes of the stacks for all 23 guys represented here. Glen Rice's pile (124 cards) led the way by far, with Juwan Howard (46), Loy Vaught (39), Jalen Rose and Terry Mills (26), and Chris Webber (25), the next highest. Gary Grant (18) and Rumeal Robinson (14) were the other two to hit double-digits.

In this scan and the next two I decided to grab one card to represent each player in the bunch, and in all but five cases (where I only received a single new card of a player) I had a choice, so I often opted for Michigan uniform cards where I could. Bullock, Burke, Calip, and Hughes were four of the five single-card guys, and I can't say Calip's name was familiar to me. The long-tenured Crawford added four new cards, Green got six, and Higgins five. Given the wide range of years represented here you won't be surprised that I got to enjoy a huge variety of brands and designs!

Here we have Jimmy King (2 cards), Mills, and Rose from some college-themed sets. McCormick (three), Riley (four), and Tarpley and Taylor (eight each) are guys I hadn't mentioned yet. I was absolutely spoiled with choice for Rice (don't worry, you'll see more soon) but had to go with the E-X Century card here. Flair and UD's Black Diamond were a couple brands I was happy to see plenty of, especially the version graced by Taylor.

Rudy T.! I had a pair to pick from for him and skipped the boring junk wax item for an SP Authentic base featuring a cool college shot. Traylor's Focus base was one of three to choose from, and since I like the baseball and football iterations of that design, why not go with that? Vaught's Flair insert was a natural choice for me, a basketball-appropriate set called Hardwood Leaders. Wade's another guy I wasn't familiar with and the Wild Card you see above (more familiar to me on the football side of things) was it. And of Webber's nice stack I thought the mid-90s Ultra insert pairing him up with a Lion was fun.

As I said a good amount of the stuff was somewhat boring base from the early 90s so I didn't have any desire to show off everything (and therefore need to resort to my terrible card photography skills), but still managed to come up with some very cool items to highlight. Take this nine-spot of Sporting News coach of the year Juwan Howard. Because he had 46 cards to choose from I easily came up with a page worth, starring some fun inserts and interesting base from products such as Topps Finest and Chrome plus UD's Black Diamond and SPx.

And then there's '89 champ Rice and his 124 cards, meaning I couldn't stick to just nine! Chris had each player sorted by brand and then year, which was weird for me as I was flipping through everything to determine what was new, and that's why you see things sort of grouped that way here. It's kind of fun seeing a trio of Bowman's Best designs with a three-peat, though, or a couple Flair Showcases bringing the shininess.

Look at the Topps and Upper Deck greatness on display here! The former includes Stadium Club, Finest times three, and Gallery while the latter brings it with SP, flagship, Black Diamond, and Encore. And I didn't even include the E-X Century card you already saw! The 1997 and '98 Upper Deck flagship baseball products are among my favorites and the hoops version lives up to the hype with interesting game-dated photos.

These four guys combined for 116 new cards, fewer than Rice by himself, but I didn't want to give them the short end of the stick. Rose leads the way with another Stadium Club look I've always appreciated plus the usually cool Ultimate Victory. Platinum's throwback designs can be fun but not as much as Taylor's resting dunk face. Mystique was another shiny brand I liked to collect, as was Topps Chrome in its older iterations, and here Vaught brings his own intense dunk face. Lastly, I threw in a retro Webber (one of several from that set) and a very representative 90s insert.

As a result of all this craziness Rice became the leader in my basketball PC with 187 cards, making him the second to hit the century mark after Webber, now at 136. Howard (84), Rose (63), and Vaught (53) all eclipsed the 50-card mark, and I count 11 players with at least 20 items. Not bad at all!

And now I can enjoy putting them away before moving on to my Cardbarrel cards, then possibly returning with the massive football side of this deal, which will probably take several posts. Until then, good luck to my Wolverines in the NCAA tournament!