2021 trade package #2: Chronicles of Fuji

I'm back with trade #2 (out of three so far!) from January 2021. This one was slightly larger than the last so it took me a bit of time to put it together and then a bit more to, you know, feel like writing up a post.

Fuji (Chronicles of Fuji) managed to surprise me with a fairly packed bubble mailer, then impressed me even more with what was inside:

Up top are 2020 Ginter cards of a couple slugging 1Bs who starred for Detroit and hit many a longball. My math tells me that Miggy and "Big Daddy" have combined for 594 homers as Tigers (349 and 245, respectively), and Cabrera may very well hit the hallowed 500 mark this season, needing just 13 to get it done (plus 134 hits for the big 3K).

Down the middle are Willie Horton, a newer PC guy for me, out of 1990 Pacific Legends (more on that in a bit) and an '85 Fleer Team Stickers card that includes stickers of a pennant and a jersey starring the Olde English "D". The latter is a cool item as I really don't have many stickers from Fleer or elsewhere from the mid-80s on back. Nice find, Fuji!

And lastly we have probably the coolest and most surprising item in the package. Topps' Pro Debut product in 2018 got just about as creative as the Minor Leagues themselves with these "Fragments of the Farm Relics". Stewart's card here includes a piece of a sign from the outfield fence of UPMC park, home of the Tigers' AA Erie (PA) Seawolves. Other sources of relics include protective netting, bases, pennants, tarps, and more! Stewart could use more time in the Minors but this card definitely gets the call to my collection.

Next is a group of six 1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes oversized cards. I think I've had occasion to show off only one of these here before, but Fuji broke a box of the product that features 2.5x5.25" panels like you see above, done in the style of the 1912 T-202 set (also referred to as "Hassan Triple Folders"). Former Tigers Kell and Lolich each got their own cards (with a left or middle panel image showing them with a different team) while Cobb appears on a bunch of shared cards including the ones you see here with Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, Tris Speaker, and Ted Williams. I'll happily deal with figuring out how to store these to be lucky enough to own this many!

Here's a look at the back of Kell's card to give you an idea of how those look.

And then we come to what was responsible for the bulk of the package. Many of you probably remember how I busted a box of 1988 Pacific Legends last year--I certainly did enough posts teasing the break and covering it--and Fuji opted to buy the other box I'd picked up. He also put in some work collecting the '89 and '90 iterations of these, and apparently had enough extras to send me 94 of the 110 cards in the 1990 set! He even went that extra Fuji mile by including a list of the missing cards, none of which are huge stars, so it's not like he held anything back (if you couldn't tell by old Hammerin' Hank up top). I'm going to grab the rest on Sportlots soon and then I'll just need to track down the '89 set one way or another to complete my run.

Here's a quick look at the other Tigers-related guys in the set, plus a front and two backs of other representative guys, though I should also say it has a Fan Favorites vibe (just like the '88 version) by including guys like Rusty Staub, Don Mossi, and Jesse Barfield.

As much as anything else in this package, this was a very generous gift from Fuji and I really appreciate it!

Mark, once again, thanks for the nice New Year's surprise! I was happy to enjoy the fruits of a couple of your oddball box breaks and I'll have to try to see if I can find something similar you can use. In the meantime I hope you liked the few Christmas cards I sent your way and that you're hanging in there while trying to teach kids during the pandemic. Domo arigato, Mr. Fuji!

2019 trade package #28: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

I'm back today with the third of the three trade packages that I'd mentioned arrived to me this month, meaning this is the "big" one, and in my experience, nobody does big like my #1 trade partner, Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!  This latest bubble mailer was absolutely packed to the gills and I'm impressed that he appears to have maximized the amount of weight he could send without the price skyrocketing.

This is another one of his signature envelopes stuffed with variety plus some heavy hitters, hitting many of my PCs all over the place, and I'm proud to be showing it off this evening:

We'll start with the Tigers content.  Pleasant surprise Niko Goodrum leads off this group with his base card from this year's GQ, and then we go on a five-card run of 2019 Heritage High Numbers' classic design, with only Paul's favorite, JaCoby Jones, still with the team.  This scan concludes with a trio of 2019 Bowman Draft Picks of three of the teams' better recent prospects.  RHP Faedo seems to be the consensus best of the three, with Roger's kid getting some consideration, and 2018 5th-rounder Wolf not as highly thought of for now.  I hope Clemens pans out as the big league club could use all the hitters it can develop!

One of these things is not like the others!  Three of this four are recent Panini issues, with an Optic variation of Cabrera and pair of 2019 cards of happy Cub Castellanos, with the Leather & Lumber die-cut a particular highlight for me.  The scan makes it difficult to tell but not only are these cut--they're much thicker than the base cards.  I'm definitely a fan!  I'm always happy to see Mr. Tiger in a trade package, even another reprint from Topps.  I really need to get me a copy of the original!

And we conclude the Tigers stuff with this beautiful Leather & Lumber auto of OF Christin Stewart, signed on a manu-lumber piece.  Doug broke a box of the product back in July and was generous enough to set this one aside from me.  It takes me back to the fun days of Fleer, Panini, and UD having players sign various pieces inserted into cards that simulated bats, balls, gloves, and more.  Stewart has an interesting signature and he's plenty young enough to remain an interesting prospect with potential to star in Detroit's outfield for years to come.  If that doesn't work out it's still a very cool card.

The baseball portion concludes with this pair of Michigan Baseball alumni, which is definitely a tale of two PCs.  Ignasiak's career was a short one and I have all 15 of his regular issues, plus this fun minor league offering.  Meanwhile, Larkin's Hall of Fame career led to plenty of cardboard appearances, and I own more than 750 of them!

We now go back to Motown for a minute, specifically Hockeytown.  The Alfredsson that leads off this scan calls to mind that recent Twitter post that was going around, asking people what clue they'd use to indicate they were being held against their will.  Doug giving away an Alfredsson?  Blink twice if you're being held hostage, buddy!

This first of two Wings scans is chock full of franchise royalty, especially Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Yzerman, and Zetterberg.  Pavel's second appearance is a very cool throwback to fun looks Score produced way back in the early 90s.  And the Yzerman has me excited to see what the Captain can do to rebuild a team that's fallen on hard times lately.

And even more Wings.  Gallant had some nice years as a player and went on to become head coach of Columbus, Florida, and currently Vegas.  McCourt was the #1 overall pick in '77 and put up four-plus very good seasons with the team, averaging around 30 goals.  The three cards of Mantha, especially the two higher-end ones (Ice rules!) are very nice gets of the 2013 first-rounder who looks like he'll be a solid contributor again this year.  Russo also stars on an Ice card, and a numbered one at that, and we'll see if the former Notre Dame D gets another chance after limited action in the NHL.

The basketball content was limited but very effective, which is great since it's my least favorite of the four major sports.  The Grant was new to me and I especially liked the pair of Chronicles cards of recent Michigan guys LeVert and Wagner.  LeVert just got paid, a three-year, $52.5 million extension with Brooklyn, and I'm happy to see him succeeding.

After a short break from hits in this post, here comes a fantastic one-two punch from the hardwood.  Old man Jamal Crawford, going into his 20th(!) season, appears here from his rookie year on a 2000-01 SP Authentic Sign of the Times auto, giving me hit #7 of the former Bull but also my first signature!  He's joined by a beautiful 2010-11 Absolute Memorabilia Spectrum Signatures Gold auto (#76/99) of the doubly-nicknamed Campy "Mr. Moves" Russell (who, again, wasn't related to Cazzie).  Michael Campanella Russell signs his first initial and nickname here which is very cool, and I loved getting this as my first hit of the former Cav/Knick!

The Michigan portion this time was excellent as always.  Doug hit me with my second RC of tackling machine junior (David Harris will be #1 in my heart for a long time) Devin Bush II, from 2019 Panini Legacy, plus the only checklisted rookie of former UM DB Jarrod Wilson that I could find out of Panini's Unparalleled.  I owe him a special thanks for the latter since it doesn't appear on Beckett's OPG as a RC for whatever reason.

Joining those are a fun trio of inserts.  He added to my limited collections of these two players with an Orange parallel from Legacy of Rashan Gary (#129/199), who picked up his first NFL sack today, plus a Scorecard parallel of RB Karan Higdon from this year's Score, a couple more college uni cards, which are the tops!  A very shiny horizontal 2019 Score insert called Signal Callers of QB Tom Brady caps things off here.

And at last we've made it to Doug's specialty:  Michigan Hockey content!  Almost everything in this scan was new for me, including three of the four Dylan Larkins, which I happily added to his PC, getting him up to 26 items.  I wasn't aware until receiving this envelope that last year's MVP product had a blue factory set version, so now I'm glad to know about them so I don't toss out others thinking they're dupes.

The rest of the "regular" hockey stuff includes a player you'll see again in a minute, a pair of Max cards, a brand new Turco, and a cool horizontal Ebbett that goes towards his very small collection.  Like the MVP Larkin above, I thought this Turco was a dupe until I noticed the gold foil at the bottom, making this the base version of 2002-03 Titanium, and the one I already owned the retail version.  I've since updated my collection to reflect those and am glad for the second cardboard lesson of this post!

And here's the rest of the hockey with the big finish.  O-Pee-Chee's Platinum is another one of those products that looks outstanding when it gets chrome-ified, and Compher's auto (my second) above from 2017-18 looks even better in person, naturally.  I don't think anybody has sent me as many Aaron Palushaj hits (or any, for that matter) as Doug, and he upped the count with this 2011-12 SP Authentic auto/RC #d 693/999, making it the 11th hit (10 including signatures) in AP's collection.  

And the star of the show is the previously-mentioned Merrill, another guy I'm constantly fed by my Canadian counterpart.  Hit #9 is this flat out stunning 2013-14 Panini National Treasures Icy Inscriptions auto.  I enjoy cards featuring acetate as much as the next person, if not more, and am not bothered when players sign a piece of something instead of the card itself (like the Stewart above), so this is another design that reminds me why I love collecting, and getting envelopes from Doug.  The number of times he's sent me cards like this is off the charts as he continues to be a boon to my hockey PC.

Doug, not that you could tell at all by reading this post, I thoroughly enjoyed yet another mailer from you and have to thank you for continuing to send me great stuff.  I plan on hitting you back at least once more, maybe after going on a Black Friday/Cyber Monday COMC shopping spree to bulk up on some quality content for a return.  Until then, good luck to your Sens!

2019 trade package #23: The Collector

I've traded with a number of collector-bloggers named Chris.  I've traded with a number of folks with some form of the word "collect" in their blog's name.  But only one of those is Chris of The Collector, lover of Devils and Red Sox and sender of my latest trade package:  a PWE that arrived at the end of July.

Chris stuffed this envelope--seriously, it included 18 cards!--with some very recent Tigers, many of whom are currently on the roster.  Let's take a look:

With the trade deadline having come and gone since this envelope hit my mailbox, the guy on the top corners, Nick Castellanos, has departed for greener (and smaller) pastures with the Cubs, and I'll definitely wish him well.  Nick shares that Donruss card leading things off with Miguel Cabrera, who's been anything but a masher since 2016.  Jeimer, a former Cubs prospect, has at least shown a little promise, though he'll have to show lots more to stick in the bigs.  Cespedes (2015 Donruss) was a Motown Masher until being flipped for Fulmer (also pictured), who could have turned into a major franchise cornerstone if GM Al Avila wasn't completely clueless.  Niko's at least turned into a very shrewd pickup as a utility guy who can actually hit.  His 1.9 fWAR (as of this post) towers over the rest of the offense, and I hope he sticks around.

Greiner (nice throwback to 80s Donruss!) doesn't seem like the future behind the plate like McCann, below him, could have been, but at least Jake Rogers (who came over in the Verlander deal) could make things interesting.  The Dixon Tigers fans are interested in right now is IF Brandon, not the offensively challenged Machado, who of course is doing quite well at AAA for the Cubs.  Mahtook's at least doing the same at Toledo for Detroit, though his MLB track record is iffy.  Stewart is another guy not performing well this year but it's not for lack of talent, and a real MLB hitting coach (and fielding coach, for that matter) could do wonders for him.  Zimmermann is a cause and symptom of a squad that seems dead set on losing a record number of games, but at least he'll finally be gone in...2021?!  Paws has at least been a constant during good times and bad, and is a solid mascot that actually represents the team's nickname, so we've got that going for us!

The Tigers may suck this year, and maybe even for a while longer--Al Avila got a contract extension?!--but there's still some bright spots if you know where to look, and that includes many of the keepers Chris was nice enough to send me here out of the blue.  Many thanks, Collector dude, and I look forward to hitting you back soon with a little return that's so clean you might just call it...pristine!

2019 trade package #10: Base Card Hero

I'm happy to announce that my recent return to picking up cheap but interesting hits at my monthly show resulted in a deal with a new trade partner:  Ryan of Base Card Hero.  The fan of Minnesota teams expressed interest in a Glen Perkins manuletter auto I nabbed back in February, and eventually we swapped addresses and some cards.  I hadn't had anybody busting down my door for Twins so the deal was more than welcome, plus I love trading with new folks, and I found Ryan easy to work with.

And I should probably also describe him as generous.  Witness the plethora of Tigers that arrived in my mailbox in late April:

Here's some Tigers A-G, all of which I like to collect.  Of this group, Cobb is the only one I've cataloged on TCDB but I hope to get the others added soon.  The Diamond Kings cards are the easy highlights for me here, especially given the players (plus that framed Hank is sweet!) but I was happy to see a couple more Fulmers as I wish him a speedy return to health.

I'd be happy enough with base Kinslers, but shiny Kinslers are even better!  Traders like Ryan have sent me some very nice stuff of his over the years and he's another guy whose collection will likely look quite nice for me on TCDB.  McCann is a guy Detroit is clearly missing behind and at the plate now that he's away from Lloyd McClendon's nefarious influence.  Seriously--send Lloyd west to the Angels and see if Mike Trout turns into Steve Trout at the dish.  I might have more cards of Magglio than any other non-player collection Tiger.  And it's still nice to think about the days when Scherzer turn his turns in Detroit's rotation.

Here's some interesting stuff of guys who aren't currently sorted by name in my Detroit box.  Ordinarily lackluster RP Joba is notable here as an SP from 2014 Topps update.  Maybe I'll eventually have enough cards of Sam "Wahoo" Crawford to give him his own spot in the box!  Stewart brings back the Diamond Kings love and a reminder of a couple big games he had earlier this season.  The two Bowman guys don't rank highly in the system, but you never know.

And to those I can add some inserts, mostly of the parallel variety.  Niko's a current Tiger while Smyly and Price are both long gone.  The back of the Wal-Mart Blue team parallel notes that in 2012 the Tigers swept the Yankees in the ALCS with OF Delmon Young picking up the game-winning RBI in each contest, an MLB first (which I hadn't remembered!).

There were three players in this envelope with enough cards to split them into separate scans, and first up is Miggy.  The 1B/DH is in the midst of a power outage and his best days are likely behind him, but there's lots of cardboard to like here, especially if you enjoy parallels.  Also:  Diamond Kings once again!  TCDB tells me I have 288 Cabrera cards, so we'll eventually see how Magglio stacks up to that number.

Mr. Tiger is next up, and again I'm thrilled with the DK base card, though another reprint of his Topps RC, which is as close to the real thing as I'll get for a while, is a nice touch too.  And I'm always glad seeing vintage photos of guys like Kaline such as the Topps 150 insert.  Looks like I have 88 cards of the HOFer, and I'm hoping to add more vintage to that count this year.

Ryan may be new to trading with me but he already was well aware of how to get on my good side:  send Verlanders.  Many, many Verlanders.  He sent me nine, or exactly one page worth, and I needed seven of them, which is a great ratio for me considering I have over 350 cards of my favorite Tigers pitcher.  Everything but the first two cards you see in the image is brand new, and I continue having no problem accumulating cards of JV as an Astro.  Topps made the easy decision to pair him with Nolan Ryan in this year's Greatness Returns insert, and the Heritage New Age Players looks pretty nice as well.

Ryan, once again I'll say thanks for a fantastic first trade!  I'll be following your blog as I work on picking up more Minnesota trade bait to send your way.

Everyone else can look forward to more trade package goodness soon.