2025 eBay purchases: go big and GO BLUE!

It's September and Michigan Football will be playing its second game of the season tonight, so let's finish up my pickups from the first half of 2025 with a look at what I bought for myself on eBay.

Purchase #1 was a little more than six months ago when I threw in a low bid on a plate that I was a bit surprised to win, but happy to get:

Braylon Edwards inches closer to the century mark with his 96th hit and fourth 1/1, a 2006 Bowman Chrome cyan plate. Since cyan is the closest you'll get to blue out of the four colors used in printing this is the best possible one for a Michigan collector like me! It joins similar cards from 2009 Topps Mayo (Magenta) and 2011 Topps Inception (Magenta and Yellow) and set me back a bit under $7--a very reasonable price for a plate.

Next, back in March you might recall in a Chronicles of Fuji trade post that I lauded Fuji for his generosity in sending me a $50 eBay gift card in January. I finally used it during my birthday month of May, snagging a huge addition for my football PC:

National champion RB Blake Corum supplanted his former position coach Mike Hart in the program's record books, and at this point I think he's taken over as my favorite to play the position as a Wolverine, so it was about time I found a high-end card of his to start his collection of hits. I don't remember the exact total, but I happily covered a bit more than the $40 cost of this amazing booklet with that gift card, plus I added a bit more to it (more on that in a minute).

 

Sure, I could have gone for some lower-end signature card, maybe the usual low-effort Leaf stuff, or SAGE, or even a pro uni card from one of the plethora of other Panini Brands. But when I saw this one, I knew it was National Treasures all the way. Though they're few and far between in my collection, I think booklets are awesome when done right, and this one counts. The left half comes with a larger Michigan blue jersey swatch with a "WOLVERINES" cutout above it, plus one of those cool acetate signature windows. The right side adds another jumbo swatch from what I would assume is a Wolverines jersey (even if it's "event-worn" or other).

As you can see on the outside of the booklet, it's also numbered to 49 up front, next to a nice, large version of the iconic block "M" logo. Nice!

 

I don't know what the future holds for his NFL career but I'll always appreciate Blake for what he did both on and off the field to represent his school, not the least of which was a storybook season that ended in a national title.

The next card is one of the ones that came along for the ride with the above Corum, along with a couple traders for friends, via the magic of combined shipping and a discount code for paying via eBay's app. In all, I scored four cards from this seller and after using Fuji's gift card, I spent $1.90 of my own money. You could say part of that cost amounted to this:

For basically $1 or so--seriously, the minimum bid--I was able to tack on my third autograph of Jack Blomgren, a former Wolverine and Rockies IF/OF prospect who's now working in Houston's system. While my other two signature cards of him hail from Panini Elite Extra Edition and are therefore use college uni photos (which I of course love), this one is my first of him in an MLB jersey (albeit an airbrushed one, I would assume). It's from 2020 Bowman Draft Chrome and is the Green version numbered /99. Not bad for a buck!

A couple weeks later in May, on my birthday, in fact, I won tonight's last card for just under $10 shipped:

This post's other 1/1 is also a cyan plate, though this time we stick to the diamond (and Bowman) and former pitcher Clayton Richard. My 14th (!) 1/1 of the lefty is the 11th plate I've picked up of him but somehow the first from the 2008 Bowman/Chrome line of sets. While he still can't hold a candle to Rich Hill's 36 cards of the rarest numbering, he's still second in the collection and one of just three with double-digits in that category (J.J. Putz is the other).

As I often say, $10 for a plate of a Michigan player I enjoy collecting is right in my wheelhouse, and given the way prices have gone up a bit over the past few years, I'd probable even go above my usual comfort zone of $15 max if something interests me enough. Fortunately I landed this one right in that affordable range to add to one of my player collections with some nicer rare pieces.

That's it for my personal eBay shopping so far this year, even up to the present, but then again my spending this year has seen a downward trend as I get pickier about what I'm willing to spend on and store. I wouldn't be surprised if found a couple more cool eBay items to recap by December, though.

But way before then, y'all can look forward to a bunch of July-related posts very soon. Stay tuned and GO BLUE! 

2022 Sportlots purchases: the Michigan stuff

We've hit February and I've got a show to get to in a couple days so tonight I've decided to start covering the Sportlots cards I purchased at the end of 2022. I've split them up into three groups so I don't drag out getting them posted for too long, and tonight you get to see the Michigan Baseball and Football PC cards I nabbed from there:

Scan #1 starts with my 12th different Jeff Criswell. You also see four of the six Cronenworths I picked up there (with two way down below), from a few different variations of '21 and '22 Topps. At some point I should compare how many Drew Henson baseball cards I have versus football, out of the 100+ in his collection. And it feels like I pick up lower-end cards of Hill far less often than I should be able to, so these two and the pair in the next scan felt like a win for me.

The other two Hill cards joined the Rainbow Foil parallel out of '20 Update, and those are Royal Blue and Yellow inserts. Also, as you can see, I definitely didn't neglect my Larkin collection (930 cards strong!) with the seven cards you see here to go with three more near the bottom. Sometimes I think '96 Topps Chrome doesn't get as much love as it deserves compared to the initial version of Finest but maybe that's just a nostalgia thing for me. Speaking of loving Chrome, the '21 Stadium Club card looks excellent as a perfect combo of the two.

Sportlots has been a good source for parallel versions that seem overly expensive elsewhere, like the Topps Limited and First Edition cards of Matheny above. Hal Morris demonstrates some fun options we had back in the 90s out of Leaf Fractal Matrix, Pacific Online (Web Card! Yep, the ones with the codes), and the Gold version of '99 Topps Stars, #d /2299. Putz's sickly green parallel came out of the 2014 product. And Clayton Richard gets in on the parallel fun with Rainbow Foil, Limited, and 582 Montgomery Collection cards, plus another one in the next scan.

Another Richard parallel and another team too as the Blue Jay appears in Topps' 150th Anniversary insert. Meanwhile, my collection of Branch Rickey is very small at just eight cards, but it was much smaller before these additions so I was glad to bolster the collection of the former Wolverine and innovator of the game. How could you possibly go wrong with products like SP Legendary Cuts and TCMA?

There ends the regular sized vertical stuff but I added a few oddball items as well, and I'm happy to report you'll see similar items scattered across the other two posts. To Larkin's collection I added an '89 Panini Sticker, which I probably pulled from a pack and stuck in the album when I was about six, plus a couple tiny Topps Micro cards. Then I got full-on oddball with a 1984 7-11 Coin of Ted "Simba" Simmons. While I'm much more familiar with the most recent offerings from the convenience store, namely the 2000 set, I have just a few of the coins from the 80s so I love adding fun pieces like this one!

The baseball group is complete with this six-pack of horizontals. My tiny collection of Bourque increases by one thanks to another Rainbow Foil parallel. A shared Padres card that includes Cronenworth gets a couple appearances thanks to 582 Club and Star versions. My Tommy Henry PC nears double digits with a Heritage Minors issue from 2020. It's pretty rare to find new items of Ryan LaMarre that I need right now, but I did track down a '17 Topps All-Star Game factory set version. And Rickey gets one last look on a classic UD card depicting him with recent birthday boy and monumental baseball innovator Jackie Robinson.

To those I added nine football cards, all of which are rookies except for the Collins, which I must have added by mistake since his '22 Prestige card would be a second-year (but is still much appreciated). Other than that, let's pretend I scanned the rest in order. QB Scott Dreisbach has four RCs I'm chasing and I picked up my first two out of '99 Leaf Rookies & Stars and Score Supplemental, so I'm happy to welcome him to the Rookie Blue project. Floyd's Playoff Momentum Retail is the 10th card in his collection and seventh of eight first-years that I need. Fellow '98 guy Griese is down to just five missing rookies out of 39 with the addition of the shiny Upper Deck Encore you see above.

Bengals rookie DB Dax Hill is the first of two Michigan uni cards, and his '22 Panini Legacy RC is my second such card of a guy who just missed out on a rookie-year Super Bowl appearance. Transfer RB Jon Ritchie is yet another '98 guy and I'm chasing four of his 12 rookies after picking up his '98 UD base. Saints OL Ruiz is the other college uni guy tonight, and the '20 Playoff of #51 is the third of seven cards I need, which is actually a decent number for an offensive lineman! Finally, Pats LB Josh Uche, who had two three-sack games this season, sees a '20 Donruss Optic RC added to his bunch, number five of the 13 I need to complete his run.

I'm quite happy with the variety I picked up that you see before you this evening and I'm looking forward to seeing what people think of the other two groups as well, so watch for those soon!

2022 COMC purchases: check out who's back!

It's 2023 but I still have some 2022 content to cover before getting to some great adds already this year.

Tonight you'll get to see the entirety of my first COMC order since late 2020. A number of factors, some pandemic-related, made the site a lot less attractive for a while as their processing speed for adding and shipping cards dipped below acceptable standards. After seeing that things were closer to normal late last year, I once again dove in during their big Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.

About $160 later, I had a nice stack of cards for myself and some Christmas card packages to boot (some of which still need to go out once my oft-mentioned Sportlots box ships!). Here are the items I scored for my own collections:

Baseball part 1. God do I love me some 90s inserts, and few could compare to Upper Deck's Amazing Greats in 1997 and '98. Both versions look stunning, and the Maddux you see above is from the former. Its wood grain design and clear inset player image look great, plus I love the punny name of the insert. From the same year you also get a look at another GOAT insert technology: Pinnacle's Dufex. I nabbed PC guy Dean Palmer's Museum Collection parallel for under a buck, and boy does it look nice in its own right.

To those I added a five-pack of ex-UM pitcher autos, all of which I believe were less than $2.50. Bourque's is a Refractor of the only other hit I owned of him, and that's numbered /499. New Rockie Jeff Criswell gets a nice trio added to his total out of Bowman Chrome, Elite, and Topps Pro Debut, and of course the middle card is my favorite since it features a college uniform photo. He now has four such cards to his name in my collection. And I ended up with a single card, but a spiffy one, of Criswell's potential Colorado teammate, Karl Kauffmann, also from Elite. It's a Status die-cut parallel numbered /99 and gives him four autos also out of six total hits.

The other two baseball items deserved their own scans. I thought the 2013 Panini America's Pastime booklet of former Tigers (and Yankees) A-Jax and Granderson was just too cool to pass up, especially for just $6.45. I don't have many booklet cards in my collection and getting one with large relic swatches from two of my favorite Tigers OF was a coup in my book. The one you see above is the Gold version numbered /49. The Granderson pinstripe is a nice bonus!

Card number two here was I believe the most expensive one I landed for myself, but well within my price range for a card of its type. My purchase history says I dropped $8.34 for Clayton Richard's 2018 Topps Cyan plate, one of five 1/1s I bought this time (but the only one for myself). That gives the former QB/P 13 total 1/1s to his name, 10 of which are plates.

Switching over to football, it was easy to split these into vertical and horizontal scans. A couple players got the most love this time but I also added a pair of new names and lots of college action cards so I spent my money well.

My first autograph of stud WR Nico Collins was one of my biggest steals at just $3, and I couldn't complete the purchase of it fast enough at that price given they usually go for more (plus the whole Michigan uni thing). Darboh got four new additions to his count (two more below) including a sweet triple jersey/auto and a green parallel of his 2017 Prestige autograph (/150) seen here. I love the latter's use of an action shot from a home game in the Big House.

Chris Evans made his debut in my hits collection thanks to the crazy cool 1/1 Matt sent me, and now I have a college uni autograph to go with that, also courtesy of Prestige. Talented DB Lavert Hill is making his first appearance with a 2020 Prizm autograph, and so is the guy on the last card of this scan, outstanding C (and current New Orleans Saint) Cesar Ruiz out of the same year's Playbook product. I'm making a more concerted effort to add hits of players missing in my collection and that work paid off here with some great looking cards of two recent Wolverines, both in their alma mater's duds.

And who could forget the namesake of my former other blog, Mario Manningham? I scored three verticals and one horizontal card (in the next scan) of the Super Bowl hero. One's from '08 Absolute and it comes with a football chunk plus jersey swatches in the shape of his number. The second is one of his two appearances in 2008 SP Rookie Edition and is done in the style of SP's '93 product. And the last one seen here is 2010 Prestige auto limited to a somewhat strange 113 copies.

Over on the X-axis we start with the other two Darboh cards. The current iteration of Leaf is pretty sketchy but you still get some extremely cool cards from them sometimes, like Amara's inscription-laden Trinity auto seen above. The jersey/auto/RC next to it from Panini's Illusions was also pretty cheap and further enhances one of my quieter quality collections, which now stands at 47 cards!

I occasionally chase cards of some of the guys that transferred out such as QB Ryan Mallett and found a good price on the slightly flawed (bit of a crease between his first and last names) auto/jersey from 2011 Timeless Treasures. That kind of thing doesn't pop up much in the other places I tend to look, so why not drop $2 for a solid hit?

The final Manningham card--though four is NOT "too many"--is from the hit-laded 2008 SPx product, and this one's a dual jersey with the swatch windows also in the shape of his jersey number. Mario's just one hit away from joining the 100-club in this collection, which currently includes Chad Henne and nobody else! (Jake Long remains at 97 and Braylon Edwards is chilling nearby with 93.)

One of my most interesting pieces I scored this time is the Denard Robinson 2013 Panini Black Rookie Shadowbox auto you see above. I thought the card enclosed a small mini jersey but it turns out it's just a flat image in a shadowbox-type design. That's still extremely cool, plus it's a new autograph of Shoelace for my collection, and it was just $2.25, so I'm very happy with it. That appears to be hit #54 of the dual-threat QB.

And this evening's final addition is my fifth hit and third autograph of DT Chris Wormley, a Ravens draftee who now suits up for the Steelers. He's the final recipient of a college uni auto for his collection, in this case out of 2017 Elite Draft, a product that was made for collectors like me. He's got a very good signature, especially with how low standards have gotten, and this one wasn't even $2, so it happily found a home in my football collection.

I was glad to be able to take another ride on the COMC train in 2022 and score some nice cards at great prices, plus they even arrived in time for me to send some out before Christmas! I hope those of you who follow the folks I sent them to (and will be doing so soon) enjoy seeing even more spoils on other blogs and social media.

As for me, while I wait for Sportlots to send me my now-ready-to-ship box cards, I get to show off some fun early 2023 items thanks to two fantastic trade partners plus some spoils from last weekend's show. It was a great start to the year in collecting and I'm looking forward to another enjoyable one with all of you. Happy new year!

2022 eBay purchases: remembering the -embers

While I'm trying to keep up some relatively positive posting momentum, here's a look at my personal eBay wins from the months of November and December:

When talking about sets that are important in the hobby's history, 1996 Leaf Signature's one-auto-per-pack product ranks way up there. Thanks to eBay I scored my 10th from that iconic set, and second of PC guy Dean Palmer. In this case it's the Silver version (which you can kind of tell by the stamp), and those were generally limited to 1000 copies (Bronze were 3500, Golds were 500). I already own the Bronze and just need the Gold to round out Dean-o's run of mainstream certified autos. The clean look and relatively low print run meant I didn't think twice about paying not quite $3.25 for this.

Would it be an eBay roundup without something purchased from my favorite seller, markaguirre22? Back around Thanksgiving I won the pair of Zach Putnam Topps Mini parallels you see above. Again, I don't put much thought or money into the on-demand stuff, but the Blue /10 was just $2 and the Orange /25 half that, so I was cool plunking down $3 plus tax (and free shipping) to add those.

And once again he was super nice to throw in some extras of guys he knows I collect! The Hill minis are from 2008 Ginter and are the A&G Back and Black Border versions. Meanwhile, Larkin's cards hail from 2001 Pacific Private Stock and 2011 Topps mini inserts. I already owned all four but will be happy to use these as trade bait.

Switching over to football briefly, here's a not-quite-maize plate repping my team that will be continuing its playoff quest this Saturday. Standout CB Marlin Jackson appeared on a number of cards in Topps' 2005 Draft Picks & Prospects product back when Topps was able to produce those (and actually did a nice job!). What you see here isn't a base card plate, but one used for printing his Senior Standouts Relics jersey insert. A slight twist is that this is one of those products where you could find both the front and back plates, and in this case we have the latter. Here's the back of that jersey card (which I own) for comparison:

I believe this is just my second back printing plate card to go along with a Topps Mayo of Adrian Arrington. As you can see, the color yellow didn't factor much into the rear of this card, but it's a different story on the front with Jackson seen in Michigan's iconic uniform.

For under $8.50 delivered I scored my first Jackson 1/1 and his 23rd hit overall. The seller took a page out of markaguirre22's book and threw in some cool UM-specific extras:

That's three RCs of former TE/WR Devin Funchess plus a Topps Magic Mini of WR great Braylon Edwards. Once again I have all of these but the gesture was very nice, plus I happen to know someone who could use the Braylon!

Back to baseball. We're coming up on almost seven years since Doug sent me what was my first card of UM pitcher Karl Kauffmann, a player who wasn't even on my radar at the time. Kauffmann had only recently signed with the Wolverines, and even if he'd been with the team for a year or two, it was rare for players who hadn't been drafted yet to appear on cards. But thanks to Leaf's Perfect Game product, I had the start of my PC of the future Rockies prospect.

Flash forward to a couple weeks ago and I snagged my second plate from this same set on eBay. Like the one above, the one Doug sent me (a yellow version) isn't a 1/1, but one of two made instead. I'm not sure how that works with these All-American Classic plates--fronts and backs? Maybe something having to do with these saying "Base - Common"? Still, while not true 1/1s, they're fun cards to find and can still join my plate/1-1 collection. And would you believe that I paid just a bit over $2 to get this in my mailbox? Not bad, eh?

To close things out this evening I have a pair of Bowman Draft plates of pitcher Clayton Richard from two different years and separate auctions. Up top is the Magenta plate from the base 2005 product, which featured Richard's first MLB cards. He definitely looks extra creepy and possessed with his eyeballs looking like they're 100% white in the scan!

The other is from the 2009 product, though I'll mention that Clayton did appear in the 2008 version as well. The 2009 base card included stats from his 2008 MLB debut campaign with the White Sox, though he'd only be with them for part of the season when that card was produced, getting sent to San Diego in July of '09 in the deal that brought Jake Peavy to the South Side.

Thanks to these purchases--$6.64 for the '05 card and $7.63 for the other--I now count 12 different 1/1s in his PC, second only to Rich Hill's ~26 (still TBD) and one better than J.J. Putz's 11. Those are also my earliest plates of his as the oldest I previously owned were three of his four from 2011 Topps flagship.

So once again without spending a crazy amount I added some very nice stuff to a few of my PCs thanks to eBay. I look forward to showing off more additions in the form of the rest of my TCDB deals from this year before the end of the week!

2022 eBay purchases: Go Blue! (and magenta and black)

It's been a while since I've had some eBay pickups to show off--it looks like the last purchase I made for myself there was in July--but I picked up a fun pair earlier this month, and as they're both former Michigan guys, why not show them off tonight to celebrate the Wolverines' win over the gutless Spartans last night?

Item #1 is a new 1/1 for one of my smallest player collections for now:

You've seen Braves draftee Jesse Franklin's name pop up a bit here (and on Jeff's blog too!) and now he's back with what will likely be the centerpiece of his PC for quite a while. For around $15 shipped I snagged this signed magenta plate of his 2020 Donruss Elite base. I've long been a fan of Elite Extra Edition and naturally love that this is a full college uni card with the old block "M" clear as day. It's extra cool that these plates are signed, and Franklin has an outstanding signature to boot. Oh yeah, and now I finally own a printing plate with a fully colorized metallic back, something I've been wanting for quite a while. What a great item to add as just my third hit of Franklin's (the other two are also signed) out of 10 cards!

My other score, purchased a bit more recently, is from a seller who should be well known around here since he's my favorite: markaguirre22. He's currently my only saved seller and I tend to check his listings for Michigan stuff weekly to try to snag some great deals, plus take advantage of his free shipping. I don't always end up with the winning bid as I do have my limits, but sometimes I come out on top.

This time I was able to land Clayton Richard's 2014 Topps Mini Black parallel, the card you see on the left. It set me back $4.50 which I thought was fairly reasonable for a card numbered 5/5. Yep, if you thought the flagship product's Black cards were tough, you have no idea what you're getting into with the Minis! I now have all of Richard's non-1/1 versions from the product except for the Pink /25.

Along for the ride as a freebie (another reason to go bid on this seller's auctions!) is Clayton's 2017 Topps Mini base version. This isn't one I was hot after myself because 2017 was the first year Topps made these "on-demand" which I'm not a huge fan of. That means I'll happily take them in trades (or as freebies, of course) but I'm unlikely to want to pay anything for them.

This pair of cards of the former UM QB-turned-pitcher got his collection over a semi-milestone to 151 cards. TCDB tells me he's the #26 overall player in my group of PC guys I'm actively chasing (e.g. ignoring guys like Clemens, Bonds, Jeter, et al who are part of my complete sets). And as you might guess, I'm his top collector on the site by a mile:

Since I had very little to scan, here's the backs of the two cards you just saw:

That's it for tonight but I should be back relatively soon with the last TCDB swap I haven't posted plus a PIF I recently received from another very cool member there. Until then, GO BLUE!

2022 eBay purchase: I've got Wood

I'm back this evening with a lazy Sunday post as I enjoy the last day of my vacation before heading back to work tomorrow. As such I decided to make it a quick one, and my latest eBay pickup seemed like a reasonable choice to show off.

As is often the case when I buy something for myself on eBay, tonight's card was sold by my favorite member on the site at the moment, markaguirre22. Gary continues to list former Michigan athletes mixed in with newer stuff, and once in a while I see if I can snag anything I like at a reasonable price to go with his free shipping.

I was happy to win this one on the cheap about a week ago:

Former UM dual-sport athlete Clayton Richard, who switched to baseball after it was clear he wouldn't unseat Chad Henne as Michigan's QB, is pictured here on his 2013 GQ Wood Mini. In terms of that type of insert/parallel, the Wood cards are probably the most highly regarded after the 1/1 versions since they're also extremely rare, limited to just five copies. I'm fortunate to be the owner of #1/5 here, which is fun, though I'm generally not the type to put a lot into specific serial numbers.

Though I don't generally rate sets like GQs' designs highly, the Wood cards do have a pretty cool look to them. I think my scanner did a reasonable job of picking up the coloring used on the front, so you should have a good idea of what you're getting if you ever have interest in scoring one yourself.

Besides the low numbering the best part about this purchase for me was the price. Gary tends to start his auctions at around $1 (unless it's higher-end stuff) and while I wasn't the first to bid, my late maximum bid of something like $5 was more than enough--I paid just $1.55 plus a bit more for tax purposes. For a card #d /5? Yes, please!

TCDB tells me I now have 149 of his 436 listed cards, so I'm about to hit a fun little milestone with his collection the next time I add something.

After getting this great pickup filed away I'll be working on covering the next most recent trade envelope I received with a few more on the way via TCDB and other sources, so I still have plenty of incoming cards to show off soon!

Until then, have any of you scored any really great deals for your collections lately? Feel free to share in the comments!

2022 trade package #3: Bob Walk the Plank

This evening's trade package comes from a guy who blogs maybe slightly less than I do--I mean, come on, it's March already! Matt, who used to blog at Bob Walk the Plank, and now can be found more commonly on Twitter, hit me back in our longstanding back-and-forth dealing by directly shipping a package of goodies from COMC. They even arrived in the same year he requested his shipment! (Seriously, they do seem to be getting better on that front.)

Matt surprised me with some quality stuff (as usual) including a couple deep cuts that show how much he pays attention to the players I collect.

Here's two pages of some outstanding additions to my collections!:

Scan #1 opens with six cards from Brett Adcock's 2016 Bowman/Chrome Draft rainbow. Adcock, a P drafted by Houston in 2016, never made it beyond AA and was seen pitching in indy ball last year. He has just 31 cards to collect according to TCDB (making him today's deepest cut), with five of those being minor league issues and 10 more that are 1/1s, so my collection of 11 is pretty solid (#1 on TCDB, baby!). Up here you can see the Blue Border /150; Chrome Gold /50, Green /99, and Purple /250; and Gold Border /50 and Green Border /99. The remaining five I need for the rainbow are #d /150, /25 (x2), and /5 (x2). Well done, Matt!

Next up is a lone Hal Morris, but given that I'm at 302 of his 469 (#1 on TCDB, baby!), anything new is a good find. Better yet, this is a numbered '90s insert: 1997 Circa's Rave parallel, which is limited /150 copies, quite rare for the time!

Right after him is another pitcher, though one that's not quite as obscure as Adcock. Murray pitched for the Padres, Tigers, and Indians, and trades like this one keep me inching toward his 39 cards. Thanks to these I have 29 (#1 on TCDB, baby!), including his '97 Bowman Blue Ink auto and '98 Bowman Chrome International Refractor. The latter's especially nice as, besides being a Refractor, it's a somewhat tougher find given the era. I need to track down two more of his '97 Bowman signatures and another '98 Refractor /5 to sew up his non-minors (and others, including a buyback) collection, which is pretty cool.

Scan #2 beings with a bit more baseball before veering off into other sports. First up is card #218 in my collection of former Mariners/D-Backs closer J.J. Putz (#1 on TCDB, baby!) a surprisingly rare 2014 Topps 1st Edition. Hit the link to see how those were inserted and you'll see that just 10 copies were made of each card! They're not serial-numbered but at least have the obvious logo up front. This is a very rare card I was unlikely to get myself so it was perfect for this envelope.

Speaking of rare and former Michigan pitchers, next is a numbered pair of Clayton Richard, who's near a milestone at 147 cards (#1 on TCDB, baby!) out of his 437. On the left is a beautiful 2008 Bowman Draft Chrome Gold Refractor /50, and its diminutive partner is the Pink parallel /25 from 2019 Topps Mini. Very cool cards of the former QB-turned-pitcher.

Speaking of QBs, heading over to the gridiron I was very happy to see a new Chad Henne for one of my larger football PCs. I currently count 313 cards of the former UM gunslinger in my collection (#2 on TCDB...CRAP!) and few are as rare as the 2014 Rookies & Stars Longevity Black (#d /10) parallel you see above. Then again, I do have a cyan plate to go with that. Well, I did say "few", didn't I? This is certainly a nice addition to one of my favorite PCs.

And next we have a pair of talented college wideouts in David Terrell and Amani Toomer. The Terrell is card #157 in his collection (also #2 on TCDB...for now), a 2002 Pacific Adrenaline base with a "Pacific Nights Special Edition" stamp and digital serial numbering /10, making it one of the rarest cards in his bunch. I don't know much about that promotion that looks to have appeared across a number of Pacific's products, but I love the rarity and am happy to have the card.

Meanwhile, Toomer's card, #318 (good for a distant 3rd on TCDB, maybe I should stick to baseball) is somewhat similar, from a set called 2002 Playoff Honors Player of the Week Panelists. The backs are numbered, also to just 10 copies, and the write-up about each player's qualifications is pretty nice, if Amani's card is any indication:

Hail, hail, indeed!

And we'll finish up on the ice as Michigan Hockey heads into conference tournament play before hopefully securing a #1 seed and eventual Frozen Four appearance. One guy who was no stranger to those was former WolverWing and head coach Red Berenson. My 39 cards (tied for second on TCDB by just one card!) of the Wolverines legend include this amazing pair. On the left is a 2004-05 In the Game Franchises US East card depicting him with the Rangers, one of his four NHL teams, albeit the one he spent the least time with. It's #d /10 with a Chicago National Convention stamp that seems to be more accepted than some of the random ones you'll see pop up at times. That's joined by a card from one of the cooler hockey products in recent memory: 2012-13 In the Game Motown Madness. The Gold parallel you see of the five-year Red Wing isn't numbered but is said to be limited to just 10 copies. Sweet!

Last up this evening is a technical Michigan uni card of a goalie who almost took the team all the way to the top in 2011. Shawn Hunwick was out of his mind that year and eventually made an emergency appearance for Columbus in the pros, leading to a few cardboard appearances. I own 37 of them (hey, #1 on TCDB, baby!), and the one you're seeing today is a Sapphire parallel #d /85 of his 2012-13 Upper Deck Artifacts RC. It's been tough sledding finding his cards at reasonable prices so I really, really appreciate Matt including this one as much as anything else in this envelope.

Matt, thank you once again for a very thoughtful mailer that clearly shows how much effort you put into finding some great cards for my Michigan PCs, even chipping in towards the ones where I'm clearly #1 on TCDB (baby!). I always love our deals because we both value sending some top notch stuff to each other, and I promise that'll continue from my end after I build up enough to send a package your way.

Up ahead: lots more trade packages and eventually cards from TCDB deals!

2022 trade package #1: Baseball Card Breakdown

That's right, it's February, but at least I'm done covering blogger trade packages from 2021! I still have to go back and recap my TCDB trades from the end of the year once I'm caught up on the other stuff but, hey, it's a start!

So my first trade package of 2022 arrived a few days after the new year from not-quite Christmas baby Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown. Because the anniversary of his birth falls right around that major holiday I try to make sure to include him in my annual Christmas cards mailings, and last year was no different (see his post here where what I sent is part of a roundup). As he often does at various points throughout the year, Gavin hit me back because he's a good dude.

Here's what the BMWT from Oregon contained this time:

Six many Verlanders! I mean, it's in the name of my blog so you can't go wrong sending me some and I'm always happy to add to his collection. He's so well represented in the envelopes I receive that I've put much less focus and money into collecting him because I don't have to.

With one exception these are all from the past 2-3 years so you mostly see him as an Astro, which I've pretty much gotten used to. Still, I'm happy there's one exception: a Tigers card in the form of his 2016 Bowman base. Looking at TCDB that was his final appearance in the brand with Detroit, and he wouldn't be back in the base set until 2019, which you can see as the third card in the scan.

These break up nicely into three pairs, and the second duo includes the fairly similar 2018 Topps Archives (#2 in the scan) and 2021 Topps Heritage (right below it). Maybe Topps will flip flop the designs on each product once again and I'll have two more similar cards!

Last up are two 2019 cards that have similar designs, which makes sense since Opening Day and flagship/Update don't really deviate from the main look. JV threw seven innings of one-run ball with 9 Ks in a 5-1 win over the Rays on Opening Day 2019. He also started the All-Star Game, his appearance of which is noted on his Update card, and struck out two of the batters he faced in his inning: Javier Baez and Freddie Freeman. Not bad!

Now we'll switch over from a former Tiger to Tigers parallels (of mostly former Tigers). Shelton and Urbina are Refractors from 2005 Topps Chrome. While the flagship version that year wasn't one of my favorites, it did lend itself nicely to the Chrome product, and I think these Refractors look terrific. Shelton was a Rule 5 pick from the Pirates who came out of nowhere to hit 34 HR between 2005 and 2006 (and what a difference between those two teams!), though that would end his run with the franchise.

Urbina was a pretty good closer in the early 2000s and won a ring with the '03 Marlins, then signed with Detroit before the '05 season. I fondly remember him only because he brought back 2B Placido Polanco in a deal with the Phillies, and I think even less fondly of him now that he's out of prison after 14 years for attempted murder. Yeesh.

Thompson's card from 2012 Bowman Draft didn't scan as nicely as its fellow Refractors but it is indeed that type of parallel. Jake was Detroit's 2nd-rounder that year as a high school pitcher out of Texas. He returned to his home state in a deal with the Rangers two years later that brought RP Joakim Soria to Detroit, and then a year later he was flipped to Philly in a deal headlined by Cole Hamels. He was considered a pretty good prospect for a while but appeared in just 42 games between 2016-18 and after bouncing around a bit more (including a return to the Tigers system) he hasn't been affiliated with a Major League team.

Last up in this group is a 2021 Topps Royal Blue parallel of former top prospect starter-turned-reliever Michael Fulmer. That color is blue enough for this Michigan fan to give it a nod of approval, and I still like collecting Fulmer, whom I hope has another good run out of the 'pen this season if we end up having one.

Those two scans include some nice new cards for me but would hardly justify a bubble mailer by themselves. It turns out they were just along for the ride with this:

Much to my surprise I'm now the owner of former Wolverine Clayton Richard's 2018 Topps Big League Topps Vault Blank Back 1/1! For those of you not in the know Topps will occasionally make these available to consumers, usually via eBay, and they come with a hologram sticker on the back and a separate certificate of authenticity. Above you see the cert and here's the (otherwise) blank back:

It's kind of a fun way to acquire a 1/1 if you don't feel like chasing down printing plates and similar items.

This actually isn't my first Topps Vault item as I have three similar cards that were sent to me by Matt (Bob Walk the Plank) a few years ago, along with a couple signed Topps contracts also sent to me by Matt.

Richard's card here came in a stickered magnetic one-touch which I opened to grab a scan for my collection and then reassembled so it'll be easier to tell apart as a special card. As you can see the other three came in Beckett slabs and I may crack the cards out of them to make storage simpler.

I tip my cap to Gavin for sending me such a nice card of a guy not everyone thinks of when they think of me (or in general, I guess). Others may consider him a forgettable low-end guy but I love acquiring new items of any of the former Wolverines I collect so this is great. By the way, it happens to be my 10th plate/1-of-1 and 15th hit overall (yep, two-thirds of them are 1/1s!). That 10-spot places him third behind J.J. Putz's 11 and Rich Hill's ~26 (with more to properly identify).

Gavin, thanks a lot of thinking of me and sending such a cool package of Verlanders, Tigers parallels, and a surprise big UM Baseball hit! As soon as I can get back to shows and other sources of cardboard acquisition I'll be working on another envelope to send to the other side of the country, hopefully filled with Gavins, Black Refractors, #12/24 cards, and other stuff you like.

Look for more trade recaps coming whenever I feel like it!

2021 trade package #6: Baseball Card Breakdown

Happy baseball games are back day! The Tigers won and the sport we all love is gearing up to return as the weather (hopefully) warms up. Let's celebrate with some cards of that very sport.

About two months after his Christmas Eve birthday I happened to find a pair of PWEs from Gavin of Baseball Card breakdown in my mailbox earlier this week. That was a fun surprise for sure, and it sounds like he was grateful that I included him in my recent tradition of sending out Christmas cards:

HEY, IT'S ENRICO PALLAZZO! Is it really a trade package from Gavin if there isn't some sort of custom action going on? This Naked Gun-inspired card of Leslie Nielsen's most iconic character isn't printed on regular card stock since he just used it for a brief note, but I'll keep it with the other customs I've accumulated from him and others over the years regardless.

And on a somewhat related note, here's what was in the pair of envelopes (spoiler alert, I needed most of them!):

First up is a corrected version of a very cool custom Gavin sent me for Christmas 2019 starring former UM defensive coordinator Don Brown. He was nice enough to fix it after accidentally spelling Brown's first name "Dan" a couple times and send it to me now. The Wolverines ended up letting Brown go after the 2020 "season" due to increasingly bad defenses, but he was still fairly successful at the school, not to mention a fun personality, and I wish him luck in his new role at Arizona. Thanks again for this, Gavin!

Former Tigers prospect Wakeland's 2000 SPx card is a fun reminder of how much I love that year's iteration (up there with the '96 and '97 versions for sure), even if chasing numbered RCs wasn't for me (as in buying them--I'm happy to get them in trades!). I own the non-numbered Update cards and might try to grab the main base at some point because they're nice to look at.

Gavin managed to hit three of my PCs with new cards in the form of an oddball Keebler Rangers of Howe, Topps Rainbow Foil of Richard, and Starting Lineup card of Tettleton. All three are great as they knock off needs, and I think I'm most excited about the Tettleton since those SLU cards don't tend to be cheap, plus it's got a great looking photo of Fruit Loops wearing the tools of ignorance.

There's also a couple interesting Panini Golden Age minis here. PC guy Bill Freehan is the 2013 American Caramels Blue back which I already had, but that will find a happy home with John who's likely excited to receive another item of a guy we both collect. Meanwhile, the other is of Nate Colbert, a guy whose name you may have seen a few times on Card Hemorrhage. His 2012 Broad Leaf Brown back doesn't list a team but some seem to think he's shown as a Tiger and I'm glad to accept that. Colbert came to Detroit in a four-player trade in late '74 and then played 45 games there before being bought by the Expos, bouncing to Oakland, and retiring. His count of Tigers cards is minuscule so this is a pretty cool way to add him to my collection!

The theme of the rest of this post is, creatively enough, "Too Many Verlanders!" The BCB dude sent me 11 cards and I needed 10 of them, with the lone dupe being card #2 above, a 2019 Bowman base I snagged from Baseballcardstore.ca and haven't posted yet. That, too, will find a good home.

Everything is from 2018-2020, which means Astros cards, and that's great because I have a lot fewer of JV's cards from those years at this point, meaning they're great fodder for trade packages heading my way. Brands here include Topps Archives, Donruss, Gypsy Queen, flagship Topps, and Opening Day. I don't get Topps' recent thing with cards featuring images of other cards, but that's Topps for you.

The horizontals look quite nice, as cards often do in that orientation. These include Big League (2018 and 2020) bookending Update and flagship. The Update card is the 2019 150th Anniversary stamped parallel and the second Big League issue includes 2019 teammate Gerritt Cole and rising star Shane Bieber. That '19 Astros team was crazy successful (for reasons that are now apparent) and still managed to lose the Series to the Nats.

The healthy stack you see here got me up to a solid 465 cards (second place on TCDB!) of the former Tigers ace in my never-ending quest to own too many.

Thanks for the double dose of PWEs and customs, not to mention the other great stuff, Gavin! I appreciate you hitting multiple PCs including a bunch of the guy in my blog's title, not to mention some really useful stuff of the other guys. I'm not sure when I'll have cards for you next but as always I'll work on a pile until it makes sense to ship it out west to you.

2020 COMC purchases: Dean-o and more new cards you haven't seen-o

Before I get to today's cards I just wanted to highlight a minor miracle that occurred since I last posted: last week my first COMC shipment containing the items I purchased for Christmas card packages finally rematerialized and appeared in Detroit, then Ann Arbor. I've since managed to put together all but one of those envelopes and send them out, so you may see some belated Christmas card posts soon!

Besides getting those done I've been hard at work ordering buttloads of cards from Sportlots (almost done!) and my first try with baseballcardstore.ca (ordered!), so I'll be showing those off in due time.

Ok, onward to tonight's content, which is 100% baseball:

Former slugging 3B Dean Palmer was one of two big winners today, and the guy who got the most new items added to his collection (now 160 cards strong). I'll get to the two most prominent items in a minute, but first, it's "90s inserts rule" time! The '94 Pinnacle Museum Collection design isn't nearly as good as '95's in my opinion, but it's still a great looking parallel. A year after the Preferred brand debuted as a Leaf name, it switched over to Donruss and was responsible for some very nice looking inserts, such as that Cut to the Chase die-cut parallel.

A Silver base card from '97 Finest gives me both of Dean's entries in the regular set, with the only two Rangers earning spots in the rare Gold versions the exact two you'd expect--Pudge Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez. And '99 Black Diamond has some very fine parallels that are nicely differentiated both in coloring and numbering. Above you see the Double (/3000) and Triple (/1500) versions, meaning I still need the Quadruple (/150) to complete the mini rainbow.

As if 90s insert greatness wasn't enough, I managed to score my second relic (also a bat) and first autograph for my Palmer PC. The signature hails from the well known auto-per-pack 1996 Leaf Signature product and is the most common Bronze version, limited to 3500 copies. The writing is a bit squished but fairly legible otherwise. And speaking of hit-per-pack products, the bat was found in 2001 Private Stock packs I remember quite well, busting many back when relics were more novel. Both of these make for a nice boost to that growing collection.

This next group is a bit of a mix, comprising two former Tigers and another favorite PC. It may not have been too many© but I did find two new Granderson jerseys from 2008--SP Legendary Cuts and Topps Heritage--getting me to the 10 hit mark, for just $1.50 and $1.25, respectively. I also came up with a 2016 Donruss Stat Line insert for under $0.50 which was exciting since I've loved the parallel since it first appeared in 2001. This one's numbered to 263 for his career HR total through 2015, and he's put up 81 more in his final four seasons for a solid total of 344. And after all that we're not quite done yet with Curtis....

First let's have a look at the other cards here. Gwynn was one of the two subjects (Griffey's the other) I wanted to track down from Leaf's 1997 insert called Knothole Gang. Leaf took the motif seriously and came up with a super cool design. These are numbered /5000, which you should remember was pretty tough back then! 90s inserts rule and this was an easy purchase for me. Would you believe it was a "Freedom Isn't Free" special at just a buck-oh-five?

Former versatile Tiger (and player for five other teams) Tony Phillips, like Palmer, is another PC I've been starting to build up in the last year, and this '97 Refractor was the cherry on top of this order, the last card I snagged with my dwindling credit before seeing about shipping my two groups of purchases (trade bait and personal). 1997's design happens to be one of my favorites of the brand so I didn't mind paying $0.75 for this shiny 90s gem.

I said I'd get back to Grandy, didn't I? After naming this here blog after him more than 10 years ago I was finally able to add a plate to his collection. As you can see, this one's from 2017 Donruss and is of the yellow variety, and it was right in my $5-10 wheelhouse at around $8. I'm super excited to add another 1/1 of a favorite player, and I may have to put together a display for whatever "-fecta" I end up with. Right now I could do a RC, relic, auto, 1/1, and manurelic, which is a pretty nice group!

Switching over to the Michigan guys, here's today's last group. Leading off is the Mechanical Man and a 2012 Panini Cooperstown Crystal Collection parallel. This is the regular version, numbered /299, and it completes the trio for me as I already had the Red and Blue versions--a trifecta rainbow!

Next, I was ecstatic to score my first UM uniform autos of 2019 draft picks Tommy Henry (D-Backs, 2nd round) and Karl Kauffmann (Rockies, 2nd round). Elite Extra is perfect for collectors like me because of just such cards. In each case it's also my second auto but obviously my favorite for both given the college photos.

Staying relatively recent, I continued my slow progress towards P Clayton Richard's collection with a 2019 Topps Walgreens Yellow parallel. While the hues aren't quite right, combined with the blue of his team's uniform, it makes for a very appropriate card for a Wolverine!

I'm pretty sure buddy of the blog John, who's definitely already enthused by this group, will like this next card the most. My fellow Freehan collector would be all over this 2005 SP Legendary Cuts Glory Days jersey, one that was surprisingly new to me as I got down to my last few bucks of credit. I already owned the Gold (/75) version of this but not the unnumbered regular one you see above. $3 was a small price to pay for my 25th hit of one of the franchise's best all-time catchers.

And last but not least is the end of my baseball gets, namely a Getz. Hailing from 2008 Just Minors' Just Autographs set, this is a Gold autograph that's numbered on the back (digitally, on a foil stamp), which set me back $1.33. I ended up snagging it instead of the paradoxically more costly (on COMC, anyway) base version. This one getz (sorry, not sorry) his hit total up to 16, with all but two of those (a couple of plates) featuring his signature.

This is quite a nice haul to look at and I haven't even gotten to my football stuff yet! I haven't even scanned that yet, much less figured out if I'm going to break it up into multiple posts, but between the card stuff I mentioned above that's been keeping me busy and putting together this post, I've neglected a couple really nice trade packages I need to show off, so look for those to be my next two posts before I possibly get back to the rest of my COMC loot.

Until then, please enjoy looking at these pickups while we all wait for pitchers and catchers to report!

2019 COMC purchases: the 12 cards of COMChristmas

I'm going through another one of those periods where I want to get some posts up, especially so I can catch up to new stuff from this month, but I don't feel like writing.  It also doesn't help that work's been stressful lately, plus there was the tragedy of the helicopter crash yesterday that cost Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and other families their lives.

Solution:  don't write much and just get posts up!  Pictures something something thousand words, right?  So here's the baseball loot from my latest COMC shipment, mostly comprising purchases from the Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotions:

Today's only autograph is my first card of Nationals pitching prospect James Bourque, an Ann Arbor native with a pretty strong mustache game who pitched for Michigan in 2013 and 2014.  He got a one-game cup of coffee (Shot of coffee?  Drip of coffee?) last season five years after the team drafted him in the 14th round.  He's got lots more Bowman Chrome autos (like this one from 2019) to chase as well as a 2019 Topps Update base and its 50,000 parallels, and is the 27th member of my baseball hits PC.

2001 marked my first year of college and it was also an excellent year for collecting, falling right in the middle of that '95-'05 decade that I love so much.  Upper Deck was still around and they obliged relic-hungry collectors back when that was still quite a novelty.  For just a few bucks each I scored three such cards of Tony Gwynn, all from products I'm very familiar with:  SP Game Bat Edition, SPx, and UD Legends.  I believe I now own 10 relics (plus an autograph) of Mr. Padre, and I'll happily add more of these whenever the price is right.

Although he's known better as a Yankee during his brief (failed) foray into baseball, Drew Henson was a Red for a bit before being flipped back to the Bronx.  That makes the color of this Mirror Red parallel of his 2003 Leaf Certified Materials bat relic somewhat appropriate.  Donruss/Leaf/Panini/Playoff/whoever made some beautiful cards like this in the aughts and the price was low enough to add another Henson relic (#074/250), giving him 15 in the baseball collection.

Don't worry, I'm not boring you today with a post that's just hits, which I'm guessing a number of you would ignore as they're not your taste.  Looking for something else?  I got you, fam!  The "90s inserts rule" tag makes another heralded appearance today in part because if this amazing '97 Leaf chase card called Knothole Gang (#1046/5000).  Leaf layered a thin, wood-like material die-cut in the shape of a fence with a large hole in the middle over a photo, in this case Barry Larkin doubling up Braves stalwart Jeff Blauser.  These are too cool and I believe I'm chasing a few other PC guys, so I hope I'll have more to show off soon!

It's been long enough since I finished up my purchases on COMC that I can't remember for sure (and don't feel like doing the work to verify this), but I believe I came out of those sales with 19 printing plates/one-of-ones intended for my PCs and Christmas Cards packages.  Something like eight of those stayed with me, including this 2019 Topps Update Black plate of PC dude Clayton Richard, who appears with the Blue Jays for the first time.  Richard is now one of three Michigan Baseball guys with nine or more such cards in his collection, joining J.J. Putz (10) and Rich Hill (23) with nobody else above four.  Also, this marks my 130th plate and/or 1/1, though I may revise that collection a bit in the near future.  Anyway, I'll be casually on the lookout for the other three plates to go with this one!

The three jerseys of Gwynn above are awesome but this trio of Ripken inserts might be my preferred group of the two.  Up top is the '97 version of UD's amazing, um...Amazing Greats insert.  These also have a bit of a wood grain texture with a diamond shaped slide/cel insert on the right.  The '98 iteration is beautiful in its own right, and they're so different that I'm happy to appreciate both.  Oddly enough, Cal's my only example from '97 while his '98 card is the only one I lack of the Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken group.

The other two get me a bit closer to the fun 2000 Fleer Gamers Cal to Greatness set.  #s 6 and 9 here give me the full run of 1-10 while I'll now have to track down the rarest ones, #s 11-15.  Those were a tough 1:144 while the first five were 1:9 and the others 1:25.  This might take a bit of time and money.

I don't harp too much on HOFer "Gorgeous" George Sisler having played at Michigan, do I?  Nah, I'm sure I don't.  In case you forgot, here's a great photo of him courtesy of Panini's 2015 National Treasures Collegiate Multi-sport product.  It's a numbered base card (#74/99) and I initially balked at the price of more than a buck for such a card, but I eventually relented, especially as I'm trying to get him past the 100-card mark.  Hopefully the next time I add some they'll be this nice!

I'm happy to end today's post with a pretty nifty card of recent HOFer Alan Trammell.  Back in the early 2000s the Playoff brand was responsible for a product called Absolute Memorabilia, and boy did they make some great looking cards.  One of their most notable issues was the Tools of the Trade insert, one that came in autograph, memorabilia, and combo versions.  And when I say "combo" I mean you could get six-plus game-used pieces and maybe even a signature!  No matter what you got, the design looked great, like this here 2004 card of Tram (#088/250).  This bat/jersey duo appears to give me a nice split of five each of autos and relics of the Tigers legend.

Hopefully I'll get the next post in this series up a bit sooner.  For now I'm planning a combo basketball/football post, then more football for the big finish.  That way I can finally get around to covering a huge trade package, a show or two (the next one's this weekend!), and one eBay card, and get to where I'm somewhat caught up.