5/31/24 card show report: May the June be with you

Hi, friends! I've had a pretty busy September largely thanks to work (with the calendar indicating it's time for the new semester) and a bunch of non-blogging card stuff. The latter has mainly included my monthly show, yet another fun Facebook pickup, and some marathon packaging and shipping sessions that should result in some happy traders!

Speaking of shows, I did get out to Taylor for the June event, though the first day of three-day show was actually the 31st of May. Whatever, I'm still counting it as June for posting purposes.

Anyway, I spent $95, though it's been more than three months so I don't remember what the breakdown was. I didn't come home with any unassigned trade bait so let's just take a quick look at my keepers:

The baseball stuff begins with a six-pack of future HOFer Miggy, and technically he appears on one more card you'll see below. The first five cards being Marlins issues made me curious what the team breakdown is of my Cabrera collection. It looks like that works out to 62 Florida cards and 431 with Detroit. Not bad!

A stray Cobb then gives way to two many Grandersons! I still don't have nearly enough of him, just 276, which is less than half my Verlander count and not even in the top 10 of my MLB PCs.

Check out that oddball Griffey! Inge and AJax are a couple other Tigers favorites I was happy to see here. Jobe just got called up to AAA and could be in the mix for a rotation spot next year. I captured Maddux on three of his four MLB clubs (only the Dodgers are left out here) over four cards. Magglio's another guy I'm happy to snag cards of if I see them, even if they're White Sox issues.

Cal continues his PC dominance with three newbies up here and two more you'll see in the next scan, and I'm easily swayed by shininess. Leaf's Passing Through Time subset was a fun feature of mid-2000s Leaf (as in the REAL Leaf, not the sketchy imposter these days) and I have Pudge's 2003 and 2005 versions, the latter of which you see above. You could hardly call Skubal "Up & Coming" at this point as he's got a great shot at the AL Cy Young this season. And Torkelson's thankfully looked a bit better since returning from the minors.

Mickey Cochrane is yet another Tiger who's often seen wearing another team's uniform on cards, but that's never stopped me. Griffey, Maddux, and Ripken all make encore appearances, as does Miggy on a Topps Opening Day insert. And the first of the day's three big pickups is a cool bat card of Alan Trammell, which is my seventh relic (out of 12 hits) of the HOF SS. I own the full 10-card set of Fleer's 2006 Greats of the Game Tigers Greats insert, and now I have my third of the nine Memorabilia versions (Bill Freehan and Kirk Gibson are the others). Hopefully I can track down the rest at some point.

The basketball side of things is sparse as usual but I did track down a pair of numbered Jamal Crawfords to go with my second signature of ex-Wolverine/Piston Isaiah Livers. The shininess plus Rated Rookie logo made it a must-get combo for me, and I think I paid just $5 (likely less with my discount) for the autograph, which is numbered /99.

We'll close things out tonight with a perfect nine-card page of football. Funchess's Stained Glass Prizm insert looks quite cool, even if it doesn't live up to the acetate versions from previous decades. Haskins' green Prizm parallel reminds me that he got picked up by his former coach Jim Harbaugh's Chargers. I was surprised to find the three-spot of Ojabo cards you see above, two of which definitely have a Ravens purple theme going on, though my favorite is naturally the Legacy card of him with the Wolverines. By the way, he picked up a sack in week 1 against KC. A shiny pair of Schoonmakers reminds me that I read the TE might get some playing time this weekend against the Saints. GOAT CB Woodson can be seen on a poorly-scanned Silver parallel from 2023 Panini Mosaic that makes it hard to tell it's got the usual Refractor-ish finish.

And last up is my final big pickup of the show: a 2022 Score Signatures autograph of stud Texans WR Nico Collins. I'd say I landed my fifth auto (nine hits total) of the breakout receiver at a good time--a few months before the start of the season--because he could be on his way to an even better campaign after accumulating almost 1300 yards on 80 receptions with 8 TDs last season. Last week at Indy he went scoreless but did pop for six catches for a whopping 117 yards! Go figure his team ditched their dead weight at QB for the one competent ex-Buckeye QB in the league.

And that's it for this show. I'm thinking my next post will be a look at my big June Facebook purchase, though I'll have to decide how much I want to photograph/scan/write about since it was a LOT. Either way, I hope to have that up soon.

12/1/23 card show report: December dimes and more

I'll probably do the other half of my TCDb trade recap next time, but to break things up a bit I'm finally covering what I brought home from December's monthly show.

I headed to Taylor on the first of December last year and threw down $80 for some nice stuff, though it's been long enough that I can't remember the breakdown. So just assume it was the usual combination of dimes, $1/$2/$5, and everything in-between!

First up as always is the trade bait:

Belt /250; Grieve /1995; Loney /520; Manny /150; Blackmon /499; Burleson /600

Carricker /2249; Cole /2000; Cotchery /2007; Curtis /999; Cutler /999; Delhomme /250; Farmer /1999; Henderson /500; Holiday /599

Johnson/ 175; Leftwich /750; Okoye /999; Pumphrey /175; Salaam is a promo; Shenault /399; Williams /2010

Claim 'em in the comments or make me an offer on TCDb!

And now for my keepers:

I was surprised to find this complete and still shrink-wrapped 1989 Donruss the Rookies set in the $5 or 5/$20 box and I immediately grabbed it. Not only does the set contain quality players (though not true RCs) like Sheffield, Deion Sanders, Edgar Martinez, and Randy Johnson, plus guys in my PC like Jim Abbott and Gary Wayne, but there's also a reasonably big deal rookie year guy:

Junior! You're probably much more likely to be paying in the neighborhood of $10 for just this Griffey than getting the whole set (albeit minus the box and Spahn puzzle) for just $4. So I was pretty happy about this one.

The mix of dimes & more starts with a couple nice Tony Clarks. The ex-Tiger and current MLBPA prez stars on a couple mid/late 90s issues. The Stadium Club Onyx Extreme of Griffey may have been another $5 box card, but then, this isn't just the "regular" version of that insert--it's an even cooler die-cut parallel that I don't think I'd ever seen before. Looks like I paid around a half or even third of the going rate for this, and earned this post my coveted "90s inserts rule" tag.

That makes a couple nice Griffey cards, and Gwynn and Maddux are next with some dime box gems, mostly of the Pacific variety, though Mad Dog also gets a cool UD Fun Pack card as well, plus a '99 Bowman International parallel.

And a couple more of the HOF P while we're at it, from 2005 UD and 2012 Prizm. Just one Cal this time but he completes the big four PC quartet with a standard 2017 Ginter base. Scherzer's non-die-cut die-cut looked pretty cool as did the actually-die-cut Verlander, both of which offer a Refractor finish, and I met my recommended daily dose of two many Verlanders with a Gallery Printer Proof from 2022.

Meanwhile, the basketball group was relatively tiny with a couple shiny dimes of THJ and LeVert, but I did manage to snag myself hit #10 of college star Trey Burke: a 2013-14 Totally Certified jersey card (probably from the $2 box?).

And we'll finish with football. Nico is a shiny/laser-y Xtra Points parallel of his '22 Prestige base. 2022 rookies Haskins and Ojabo are seen on first-years from that season's Donruss Optic, and the Ravens defender gets a Select RC to boot. Lewan adds a Leaf card that's fun for the Michigan uniform aspect and not much else. Colts edge Paye adds another RC to his total as well out of '21 Mosaic. And lastly, I added yet another Braylon to his stack in the form of a 2011 Prestige Prestigious Pros Red horizontal card, one that looks more suited to Christmastime thanks to its colors.

I was pretty happy with how this show went, especially with the way it helped me bulk up some of the Christmas packages I sent out a couple weeks after.

And if any of you enjoy show recaps, you'll be quite happy when I start covering my 2024 stuff because I've already got three shows' worth of content, including a much-hyped blogger/TCDb meetup in Kalamazoo!

But before then I believe I'm left with one TCDb trade recap and my COMC loot for the big finish.

8/4/23 card show report: dozens of dimes

A couple Fridays ago I headed back to Taylor for my favorite monthly show and as usual I wasn't sure what to expect. Sometimes the guy whose tables I spend about 98% of my time at has lots of great dime stuff and on other occasions the $1 and $2 stuff ends up being more worth my effort.

This time the more expensive boxes were a bit crowded so I joined a few guys on the other end by the dime boxes. There were tons to look through and as usual I passed on the stacks of more recent base from all sports plus most of the basketball. But I started having luck finding card after card for myself or others and quickly amassed a healthy stack.

Eventually the other end freed up and I picked up some fun stuff there, then headed back to the dimes to finish up my day, until I found one last big item in his "as-priced" box that I didn't want to pass up.

Here's what I believe the breakdown was this time:

• 190 dime cards = $19
• 8 "dime" cards in toploaders @ 8/$1 = $1
• 6 $1 cards = $6
• 8 $2 cards = $16
• 1 card priced at $20 minus a $7 overall discount = $13

That's a total of $55, right in my usual range; this year I've spent as low as $40, as much as $85, and an average of about $66, so this was a pretty average day for me, though the variety made it very interesting.

And now here's what you came to see: the stuff I'm showing off today (trade bait and personal stuff).

First up is trade bait, starting with baseball. As usual, please comment/email/propose something on TCDb if you see anything you like.

The Bonds insert was a solid dime box find. The Abreu manu/auto was $2 and is numbered /99. The large Jones jersey was #d /299 but has been traded already on TCDb.

(Mostly) numbered football 1/2: lots more fun finds in the dime box! Anderson and Filani are /999. Evans is just a cool die-cut. Forte is /199. Hardman is /460. Jackson is /250. Lundy is /699. McGary is /199. Milloy is /400.

Numbered football 2/2: Rice is /249. Rogers, Switzer, and Thomas are /299. Willis is /1000. And Gates is /1250.

And now my keepers:

Baseball 1/3: just about everything here was a dime, though I think the Braves insert may have been a buck, I forget. Griffey, Gwynn, and Maddux? Check. New Cronenworth? Check. The Cash was a fun find, and I happily snapped up a BInge Bowman Chrome RC too.

Baseball 2/3: it was obviously a great day for dime box Ripkens (and check for him as well)! I think this seller tends to put cards in those boxes when they don't sell for $0.50 or a quarter and this time I benefitted from that nicely. The newest stuff is mostly boring as usual but I'm happy with the '83 reprint and Gallery card, and the '94 Donruss parallel was a fun throwback.

Baseball 3/3: lots to like here! The front of Posey's Team Pinnacle insert is Dufex and I grabbed it for the guy on the back:

Meanwhile, Skubal joined Mize is current rotation guys in the dime boxes. A Verlander base plus a parallel rep the guy whose name's on the blog. Gwynn and Ripken come back from encores. Pudge gets another very cool multiplayer insert add, this time from the 90s. Piazza and Daulton were both very good company, plus 90s inserts rule!

And then we have the card that was marked as $20. I thought it would be very cool to have a card with such a nice looking patch plus autograph of one of the better recent Tigers catchers in Jake Rogers, a.k.a. the only guy left from the Verlander deal (much less J.D. Martinez and Justin Wilson/Alex Avila). $20 felt like too much but I decided that if he came down closer to $10 I'd go for it. As I mentioned above, he knocked $7 off my total of $62 including everything else to make it $55 and I felt like that was fair. So there's my first hit of the guy keeping the team afloat behind the plate!

Football 1/2: and now we're down to the final 11 cards, which of course I had to split up into two scans because 11 > 9. I was thrilled to find more Michigan RC help for Collins and Ojabo, both of which I think could be in for big seasons this year (Collins with a potentially functional QB, Ojabo if he's 100% healthy). As usual Panini reused the same Ojabo photo in at least two products, but that's nothing new. Finding these in the dime box was great news as far as I'm concerned.

Football 2/2: parallels and a hit. I found the Rookies & Stars parallels of Paye, (transfer guy) St-Just, and Thomas among a stack of them in the dimes, and they were eventually joined by a Blue (what other color could be better?) Donruss Press Proof of DPJ.

And last up for today is my 94th hit of former stud WR Braylon Edwards. I can't remember if I paid $1 or $2 for this numbered 2007 UD Artifacts jersey, which is the usual plain white swatch, but I'm always up for a new item for the collection so I was happy to snag it.

Another nice show day in the books! And with that I need to get back to logging, scanning, and posting so much more stuff that came in, including a simply incredible trade package (among several other really good ones), eBay stuff, and a quick recap of a garage sale I hit up yesterday that ended up being fruitful.

I hope everyone enjoys the last bit of their weekends and is looking to the return of college football in a few weeks as much as I am!

2023 trade package #17: Sport Card Collectors (The Blogger National 2023)

It's August and the National has come and gone. No, I didn't go--that kind of thing would be wasted on me since I don't like to travel much and barely have patience to spend two hours at my favorite monthly show. I'm happy for everyone who made it out to Chicago this year and had a blast, though.

Anyway, that doesn't mean I can't have National-related fun. For one thing, I hit up said show this past Friday, and I'll get a recap up soon. Also, multi-blog guy Matt started up a blog bat-around called The Blogger National 2023 late last month, an idea where you "[show] off your coolest cards or your most favorite cards or a recent mail day you hadn't posted yet." Why don't I go ahead and participate by posting the great package I received from the Sport Card Collectors man himself back in late June?

I'm aware that Matt doesn't do a ton of blog trading these days and he mostly sends out PWEs, so trust me when I say I appreciate him sending me this big envelope of goodness that could have easily come from a quality table at the National:

Baez continues to do Baez things for better or for worse, but either way, these cards look great, especially the DK and Chrome Pink Refractor offerings. Miggy was the star of this package in more ways than one as you'll see additional cards of the future first-ballot HOFer below. I don't care if they aren't rare like they used to be, Artist Proofs are still cool, and so is Topps Gallery when Topps deigns to treat us to its most artistic set. Detroit sure could use a bat like Blastellanos right now, though nobody misses his glove. That's indeed a Refractor of his Topps Chrome RC from 2014, a fine card to add to his collection.

Topps still occasionally puts out shiny die-cuts that appeal to me, and I was happy to see the Cobb peeking through the rest of this stack. My Mize collection has grown to 65 cards thanks to envelopes like these, and Matt treated me to some very cool inserts like the Donruss parallels and Chrome/GQ chase cards. The Yankees' Domingo German recently joined Turnbull in the "worst human beings to throw a no-hitter" cub. Blog namesake guy JV's Gallery Private Issue parallel takes me back to one of the tougher inserts back in the 90s, and you know I'm thrilled to add a new numbered card (/250) of Mr. Kate Upton!

I grouped four guys together that I don't tend to collect much of these days, but they're all inserts that I like. Barnhart's a foil, Candyman is a shiny purple, and Brieske and Peralta are both Golds /2022. Then we have three more cards of Miggy, two of which are big highlights. The first is a Heritage base celebrating his 500th HR, the second anniversary of which is coming up in a couple weeks. The other is also courtesy of Heritage, and is a comic card celebrating a few of his biggest moments. He of course collected his 3000th hit last April, adding another amazing accomplishment to his storied career.

Matt not only sent a bunch of Tigers my way but gifted me a couple scans worth of Wolverines too! Brady is the oldest one you'll see in this post (his age, not the card's!) and in this scan he's joined by youngsters Chris Evans, Dax Hill, and Aidan Hutchinson. The pair of Michigan uni Dax cards was a fun surprise, especially the parallel numbered /299, and I'm grateful for the help chasing first-years of him and some of the others you see here. Hutchinson is probably the biggest star outside of Brady, and I'm sure a lot of Lions fans went wild when the local NFL team chose him #2 overall.

Matt sent a huge group of EIGHT cards of the top pick, half of which feature college shots, so I really liked the mix he sent. I currently own three of his RCs so I have a long way to go. Speaking of Michigan uni cards, all of the remainders are just that, including a numbered LeSueur (/1250) from 2004, a couple 2022s of future star David Ojabo, and a 2020 Absolute Retail of Pats LB Josh Uche. Now that's how you close out a trade package!

Matt, once again, thanks for your generosity, both in the quality and number of cards you sent and also packaging them up all at once! I have a few things set aside for you thanks to my recent show day and will try to add a bit more to it before firing back.

And that's my entry for the Blogger National 2023!

2023 trade package #15: the Collector

Well we're more than halfway through the year and I still have a lot to catch up on in terms of cards to show off on my desk, though it's getting a bit better. It certainly helps when I actually post them and can get on to the next pile!

Tonight's envelope was yet another from one of my favorite trade partners (I have a lot of favorites), Chris of the Collector. We send stuff back and forth all the time, often without any warning, and I'm pretty sure that's what happened here because I don't remember him letting me know something was on the way.

Here's all the cardboard goodness he hit me with this time:

Now that's a nice pair of Miggy cards! I'm still partial to the 2001 Topps set so the Archives parallel is especially cool to me. Also, this is a great time to chastise MLB for not giving Cabrera the kind of send-off he deserves as much as guys like Pujols, Ortiz, and Jeter. Whatever, just another ball dropped under Rob Manfred's watch.

E-Rod's looking good in blue and I wonder if he'll be wearing a new jersey with that color (or any others) in just a few weeks. When I saw the Sabo I hoped it was one of those annoying to track down Gold Hologram versions, and it was! With the MLB draft all wrapped up I'm sure some fans are already giving up on Tork and looking ahead to some of the bats and arms the team took this week. Verlander was one of those arms way back, a rare good draft choice for the franchise. And underrated SS Carlos Guillen represents a trade that went in the Tigers favor plus a guy whose talent I appreciated during his eight years in Motown.

Sure, we've had some normal sized cards, but why not oversized? Back when Finest still looked like its own premium product, like 2000, you could snag a box topper like Mr. Padre above (and even a Refractor version!). Gwynn is #17 in the set so he would have been pulled from a Series 2 box while #s 1-10 were found in Series 1. It's a beauty and one I'll happily add to his collection.

Sticking with oversized stuff but going even more oddball, how about this thing? I'm sure those of you familiar with 90s stuff remember Stadium Club's Master Photo pieces, but did you know Topps collaborated with Toys'R'Us to produce a 100 card set that came with a bonus 12-card insert set that included the 5x7 above? Sure, just about any Tigers "prospect" they picked back then would have sucked, but it's still a very cool piece. Thanks, Chris!

One last scan will take care of the other three sports that made it into the package. The Fab-Fivers go well together, but while Webber's has the cooler design, King happens to be the subject of a recent feel-good story, returning to Michigan to finish up his degree in time to graduate with his daughter!

Heading over to football, Brady and Collins are notable guys from recent Panini Products, but Ojabo may be less well-known to non-Michigan fans (unless you're an Ohio State fan!), and of course you don't hear as much about SAGE as the major brands. Still, that's a very cool card of a guy who could be making some major noise in the league when he's fully healthy.

Lastly, we move onto the ice where Michigan just had another guy drafted in the Top 5, with Hobey-winner Adam Fantilli joining the Wolverine contingent in Columbus at #3 overall. The photography on the UD cards Chris sent me looks excellent as always, and I'm grateful that Larkin will continue to captain the Wings for years to come (with a pair of fellow ex-Wolverines to boot!). I wouldn't mind seeing another former top-10-er, Jacob Trouba, on Detroit's blue line. And lastly, I realized later when I had finished scanning everything that the Ultra Gold Medallion of front-of-the-net-maestro Tomas Holmstrom had fallen behind the scanner so I made sure to add it to this group.

Chris, thanks again for such a fun surprise envelope with some especially cool oversized items! I'm not sure when I'll be returning fire but best believe when I do you'll be getting the same quality coming back your way!

2022 trade package #27: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

(Quick Christmas cards note: as of this post I'm waiting on one of the envelopes I shipped earlier this week to be delivered, plus I'm awaiting one eBay order and three orders to my Sportlots box--before I even get to ship it--so the last six packages will be delayed until after Christmas. They'll go out ASAP!)

This evening's trade package doesn't have a Christmas theme but was the first one I received in December so I feel justified calling them Christmas cards. In this case it was yet another bubble mailer from my Canadian buddy Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. He had more goodies to send my way courtesy of his trademark repacks, group breaks, and his own box/pack rips, and got them out to me in plenty of time for the holiday season.

Here's what he treated me to this time:

On the baseball side of things I got Panini Chronicles cards of a couple Tigers in Manning and Tork. Manning's from the Obsidian portion while Torkelson's cards hail from Contenders Optic and Pinnacle. I've said it before but I'll reiterate that I join Doug in being a fan of the multitude of designs found in that product, so I always like seeing the results of his group and personal breaks of those!

Switching over to basketball a solid total of six (out of seven; see next scan) players are represented here. THJ, LeVert, and Livers are from the more recent draft classes, Crawford's kind of in-between, and Mills and Vaught go back to the teams of my youth. It's fun having a Wolverine like Livers on the local NBA team!

A Franz (Mo's brother!) Wagner from Chronicles' Rookies & Stars subset last year rounds out the basketball stuff.

Today's last sport I need to cover (that's right, no hockey!) is football, with the Wolverines a bit more than a week away from their College Football Playoff semifinal tilt with TCU. The majority of these came from this year's much-delayed Score product, though there's a few other sources too, like cards starring #1 WR Derrick Alexander and QB Elvis Grbac.

But the real stars here are the base and RCs out of Score. Looking over the checklist I believe Doug gifted me a full team set out of his break(s), including three vets in Brady, Clark, and Collins. I was very happy he also included four (see next scan) first-years of some up-and-comers. In this scan you see my second rookie of the heart of last year's squad, RB Hassan Haskins. Next to him is my first card of any type of star CB Dax Hill, the Bengals' first rounder this year at #31 overall who was a huge recruiting win for the Wolverines. Joining that pair is the well known Aidan Hutchinson, this year's #2 overall who's helped change the garbage fire culture in Detroit as much as one rookie can. That's my second RC of his as well.

This last scan includes the rest of the football, and Hutch comes back for seconds with the Red version of an insert called PROtential. Since the base cards disappointingly (for me) feature pro unis instead of college duds, I'm glad to see a chase card like this one that shows amateur action. His partner in crime, David Ojabo, is next, both with a RC--my first!--and a Gold Zone parallel of the same, #d /50. The injured LB had to sit out to start the season but is now back in action and will hopefully get some love with game photos in next year's products.

Former WR Tai Streets gives us a quick break from the Scorefest, and if I can't get a true Michigan uni card I'll happily roll with a Senior Bowl shot which maintains the sport's most iconic helmet (and maize pants too).

And then we have the biggest and best card in the whole bunch: a Hutchinson Red Zone Autograph #d 20/20. That's right, not only did I win a Hutch autograph from Matt (Sport Card Collectors), but now I have a second one thanks to more generosity from a blogging friend. Doug let me know when he pulled this and I'm grateful to know folks that are willing to set stuff like this aside for me knowing I'll get them back with something just as nice. Who would have thought earlier this year that I'd finish 2022 with a pair of signatures of the #2 overall pick that was drafted by the local team, and I wouldn't have bought either of them?

Big thanks to Doug for the fifth time this year. As always he boosted the quality of my collection with some great stuff and I'm feeling the holiday love. He's one of the folks for whom I'm waiting on some Sportlots items, but both he and his readers should look forward to an embarrassment of presents once I can finally ship something back his way!

Christmas Eve is tomorrow and depending on how things go I may put together a quick multiple trade recap to pretty much close out the year of those kinds of posts (though there's still next week) and then I'll be back with my show spoils for December, eBay pickups, COMC loot, and eventually a few more TCDB trades.

Until then I hope everyone is staying merry, jolly, and warm!

2022 trade package #25: Sport Card Collectors

Christmas cards are coming! Both incoming and outgoing, as it turns out. I'll have more details on the outgoing items when I have a bit more clarity on my COMC and Sportlots shipping situations, but the good news is that there will be a Too Many Verlanders Christmas Cards 2022, which means lots of you will be getting presents from me!

As for items going the other direction, I have lots to show off thanks to multiple blogger trades, eBay purchases, TCDB deals, last weekend's show, plus the aforementioned Sportlots and COMC buys.

Today's trade package is a terrific combo of "stuff I set aside for you", Christmas cards, and a giveaway, all from Matt of Sport Card Collectors. My not-so-secret Santa let me know to expect a rare bubble mailer from him and that's exactly what I got just before the calendar flipped over to December. This thing was absolutely stuffed with goodies, so here's a quick rundown on what he included:

A big stack of current and past Tigers dominated most of the envelope. Baez (a very quality Museum base) and the returning Boyd (shout out to John!) are the current guys here. The team very recently cut bait with Candy, who had a good amount of potential but was trending in the wrong direction for what he'd cost. Washington signed him and I'm interested in seeing how he does. I can't say no to a Prizm Refractor and numbered Donruss parallel! Cobb looks great on his Gallery card as well.

Check out the killer G's to start this scan! I love the Grandy '07 Chrome Refractor which was new to me, as was Hammerin' Hank's Diamond Kings Artist Proof (and Kuenn's too!). Infante was a quality middle infielder for some of the Tigers' more successful teams in the 2000s and 2010s. Kaline is always, and I mean always welcome in envelopes heading my way! As is young pitcher Matt Manning, for whom you see two items here before another one that somehow got lumped into the next scan. V-Mart had some big moments before his bat waned late in his career.

Mazara has discoed off to other teams that aren't Detroit and that's fine by me. I wonder if Meadows will be healthy enough to appear in 100 games this year? Looks like one of Manning's cards got grouped in with fellow injured and talented Detroit P Casey Mize on some nice looking cardboard. Morris makes as much sense as anyone on an insert throwing it back to the '87 set. Nathan was a Tiger for all of 63 games over two seasons--almost entirely a nice 2014 campaign--but that was long enough to get on a team-appropriate Chrome Orange Refractor.

A few of these guys are active but only the guy in the middle--Tork--is currently with the team as they're hopefully cutting out the dead weight to bring in some quality players to pair with the youngsters. I appreciate the card of Spencer since I don't have many yet, and I still have high hopes that he'll adjust to the bigs after a rough 2022. Norris and new White Sox OF Victor Reyes look good in Topps' Royal Blue parallel here too.

Here's the rest of the baseball stuff, starting with a six-pack of A&G Minis. Bunning and Morris are HOF pitchers that began their careers with Detroit so it's fun to see them here together. Each appears on two different versions as you can tell by these backs:

The Topps Heritage Minors auto of former OF prospect (who retired due to injury) Brock Deatherage was a fun surprise! It's numbered /100 and the guy had one of the most metal names in the minors. Just don't look at his social media if you don't want to further lower your opinion of the education level of pro athletes. I love the autograph, though!

And to finish off the sport, why not include a wax pack of '88 Donruss? I haven't decided what to do with this yet but at least for now I'm keeping it sealed.

And now we get to the football content, much of which is made up of my giveaway winnings. The RC/rookie-related cards of Collins and disruptive Detroit Lion Aidan Hutchinson are much appreciated, especially the latter as I work on building a collection of this year's #2 overall pick who's been a "bust" to Spartan and Buckeye fans only.

But I'm most excited about the autographs of Hutchinson and his fellow 2021 partner in crime off the edge, David Ojabo. Hutch's auto came from 2022 Prestige and features a nice shot of him on draft night when his home state team took him #2 overall. He's been worthy of the pick ever since overall, even with a few quiet games. While his signature leaves something to be desired, that's nothing new for athletes these days!

Ojabo's card is terrific as well. He thrived on the other side of the defense that Hutch played, coming up with huge moments himself. The Nigerian-born defensive stud moved with his family to Scotland when he was young, and rewarded Michigan's interest in him with 11 sacks in his one season as a starter, the last of which led to the iconic "O-ja-BO!" call by Gus Johnson in the Wolverines' romp over Ohio State. An ill-timed injury after the season hurt his draft stock but he was still selected in the second round by coach Jim Harbaugh's brother's team, the Ravens. I love having my first autograph of the future defensive star be a Michigan uni card from a Panini Origins autograph set available in this year's Chronicles product.

One last card in this image was a total surprise for me: a Chris Evans 1/1 proof card from 2021 Leaf Metal Draft. It's a Crystal Blue version of the State Pride insert, which ends up being the perfect color for a Michigan guy like the current Bengals RB/WR/KR. Part of the design obscures Michigan's state motto, "Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice" ("If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you") because that's where the autograph would go. The current incarnation of Leaf has been pretty shady, but these state flag cards still look amazing. I'll happily add this as my first hit of Evans, an out-of-the-blue (pun intended!) Michigan uni 1/1 in a very generous trade package!

Here's the back of the proof card for completeness, and because it's fun to stare at.

The three new players here bump the unique subject total count of my UM football collection to 236, and the overall count is a minor milestone of 1600!

We're not quite done just yet because the giveaway included a few other cards courtesy of Panini. Three are from Panini Chronicles like the Ojabo above. The Chubb, numbered /49, is a Purple parallel from the Donruss Retro insert. Goodson's auto is a Contenders College Ticket Autographs Red version. Hall's signature is from the Donruss Rated Rookie Autographs insert. And finally, the parallel of Fant was inserted into 2022 Prestige packs and is an Xtra Points Premium Gold version numbered /99. Many thanks again to Panini and to Matt for giving these away. I've since put them up for trade on TCDB but will happily offer them here as well to those interested in working out a trade.

Matt, thanks so much again for this ridiculously stacked envelope. I'm grateful to be one of the folks you trade with and I appreciate your holiday season generosity here. I can also promise you'll be quite happy with your return envelope once everything I ordered gets shipped my way, so you should look forward to a merry Christmas yourself!

Stay tuned for more great Christmas cards coming soon.