2025 trade package #9: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's the final day of May and I'm ready to recap the other trade package I received in March. As it turned out, that was the second month in a row I received a crazy nice mailer from Doug across the border at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. I know I say this a lot, especially when it comes to his mailings, but this one was a DOOZY!

Check out the goods:

Baseball scan one of two is highlighted by some needed '25 Topps Tigers--Hurter, Keith, and Malloy. Hurter's been part of a pleasant surprise of a bullpen that's powered some wins for the surging Tigers, Keith's bat has improved since a slow start, and Malloy's chipped in some ABs for a team missing a few OF in the IL. That oddball Ripken, an '84 Topps/Milton Bradley partnership, is especially cool too!

I don't need to tell anyone that Skubal's been on fire since last season, while young SS Trey Sweeney is a work-in-progress, albeit a promising one. Devon Travis is one of a number of talented IF the Tigers gave away in awful trades, though they're doing that much less these days (and that's a pretty cool Refractor to boot). And How cool is that Elite Extra auto of former Wolverine Jordan Nwogu? It's my second of the Cubs OF prospect, with the previous one joining my collection thanks to Doug as well, and now I have a new favorite thanks to the college uni shot. Nice!

The basketball portion was a bit smaller but a big boon to my collections. A Bowman's Best Howard insert throws it back to the more creative days of the hobby, and Poole and Robinson represent slightly more recent Michigan NBA alumni, with the latter getting an especially cool appearance.

Then we have three hits, which is where the real fun begins. That Leaf card is my first autograph of the young Bufkin, on a card with a design that honors the 1990 version of the Leaf brand that isn't sketchy in every single way (and a beautiful John Hancock). The well-traveled Burnett (Michigan/Bama/Texas Tech) makes his autograph overall PC debut thanks to Bowman University Chrome, which combines a great college shot and the player's excellent signature. And lastly, French Wolverine cager does the same with a Donruss Optic autograph that's a bit less legible, but at least the card looks great. I now have 39 different subjects in the basketball hits collection, and only three of them don't have an autograph to their name, largely thanks to the sender of this envelope.

Next, the football assortment was similar--just five cards, but some big adds to my collections. Sainristil, the WR-turned-DB who was a huge, huge part of the championship-winning team a couple years ago, gets his first card in my PC not produced by the school itself, in this case a Prestige RC. And then we have even more firsts thanks to a generous quartet of autographs. Each player you see here previously lacked a signature in my football hits collection, but that's no longer the case! Talented DB Dax Hill gets a Michigan uni card from Panini Legacy, LB Carlo Kemp (first overall card as well) arrives thanks to Leaf Draft, DB Josh Metellus (also a first card) stars on a college-themed Contenders Draft issue, and last up is autograph #1 of Dallas TE Luke Schoonmaker, a shiny numbered card found in Panini's Illusions. I now show 264 different subjects from the sport, so even more growth in addition to the basketball stuff above, which I really appreciate!

A couple (non-Michigan alum) Wings made the trip this time in the form of the late Shawn Burr (a Kitchener Ranger!) and Bob Rouse, who won a pair of Cups with Detroit late in his career.

Of course the real action on the ice here featured the ex-Michigan guys. Jason Bailey's yet another guy debuting tonight, and he's a rarity since the OHL card you see above is just one of eight he has catalogued on TCDb after a pair of seasons in Ann Arbor. Cammalleri is my top-rated hockey Mike in the collection with almost 100 cards, such as that Black Diamond you see in spot #2. Hyman is out for Edmonton's cup rematch vs. Florida but did a lot to help get his team there, and a UD Canvas card is a great reminder of the quality player he is. And the last of the non-hits is a sticker of a guy I always refer to as "Patch" given the way you say his name ("patch-or-EH-ty") but I guess "Pac Man" works as well.

And no, Doug's trademark generosity didn't end with the other three sports--he included his favorite as well. I like what Panini did with the design of Jack Johnson's Crown Royale jersey relic as it makes the swatch look huge. That's hit #15 for JMFJ. Wolverwing Dylan Larkin gets another quality relic added to his PC out of 2019-20 SPx, and the numbered jersey card is his 8th out of 11 total hits in a collection I'm proud to continue to grow. And last but most definitely not least, check out the newest 1/1 in my Michigan collection: a 2016-17 UD Compendium Black plate of Steve Kampfer! The four-year Wolverine D-man played sparingly in the NHL over parts of 11 seasons, but found himself in the Compendium Product after a career-high 47 games with the Panthers the previous year. What a great way to end this post!

Doug, thanks so much as always for the time, effort, thought, and money you put into every envelope you send my way. I continue to be floored by your generosity and the quality of stuff you find for folks like me that are fortunate enough to be able to trade with you. I'm looking forward to your last post covering what I most recently sent you while I try to stock back up once again!

I'm thinking the next post should be my first foray into Facebook Marketplace purchases this year, and that should let me close out March.

3/1/24 card show report: March radness

This evening I'm finishing covering my March hobby goings-on with the only purchase I made that month, which ended up being my usual card show.

I headed over to Taylor on Friday, the first, and happily spent $100 on lots of great stuff. I don't remember most of what I got that wasn't keepers for me, but I don't just spend an amount like that on something like cards if I don't think it's worth it. So I'm sure I picked up some great package-fillers for some of you that follow me here and others I trade with.

Speaking of trade bait, you might have noticed I haven't really had any cards to show off that weren't already ticketed for trade packages in these show reports lately, and that's mainly because I haven't come across anything that seemed worth it. Instead I'm focusing most of my money and effort on stuff I know will be going to one of my regular collecting buddies. That doesn't mean I won't have more to claim again in the future, but that's a much lower priority for me because I already know what most of my usual trade partners might like.

With that out of the way, here's my keepers from the March show:

The Cal on top is from a 2001 Fleer Premium insert called Decade of Excellence. This was a huge 50-card chase set in that product with cards ranging from Ruth and Gehrig (1920s) all the way up to A-Rod/Jeter/Nomar and others in the "2000s," though obviously that decade had just begun. As you can see, Ripken is one of the players representing the 90s, and for very obvious reasons unless you were living under a rock. I like the look of this insert as I often do with Fleer cards from that era, plus it's a new Ripken, so, win-win!

Next, the biggest card I brought home this time was a 2001 SP Legendary Cuts bat relic of Wolverine/Tiger baseballer Charlie Gehringer. This was an especially exciting buy for me because of his connection to both teams, plus it's just a great example of the quality of vintage player relics that Upper Deck put out at the time. I'm also happy to add it to the other three Tigers I have from the Legendary Debut Bats set: Bill Freehan, Alan Trammell, and Lou Whitaker. '68 great Willie Horton is the last Tiger I need to finish up the team set, plus I'm chasing George Sisler for my Michigan PC.

I think the seller had this in his showcase for somewhere between $20-$30 and he gave me a discount on it with the rest of my purchase. I'm glad I didn't leave it for someone else to snag so I'd regret it! That's just my second Gehringer relic to go with 10 autographs and a plate.

The football side of things was mostly inserts with a couple other items of interest thrown in. Darboh's from 2017 Panini Classics' Red Back parallel, and while the back is the main difference, I was more interested in landing another numbered card, plus the college photo is a plus. Speaking of numbered stuff, Devin Funchess got two of those added to his PC (which sits at exactly 100, woo!): a 2015 Panini Clear Vision Blue parallel of his RC (kick acetate!) /99 and 2018 Panini Silver Knight parallel /50.

Then, Dax brings the Rated Rookie goodness from '22 Donruss as my 8th RC of the talented DB. A Michigan-uniformed Charles Woodson is the subject of a rookie year Press Pass insert from 1998 called Triple Threat. He was one of three players (Peyton Manning, Ryan Leaf) to be included in the set, and each player appears on three cards, with the one you see above being Woodson's third. I'd love to get the other two to put them together to celebrate the guy who rightly defeated the other two for the Heisman late in '97.

Last up on the insert side of things I came up with a cool pair of Pacific inserts of two guys I always lump together: David Terrell and Anthony Thomas. I have more of the latter than the former, though that's because A-Train's career lasted longer than Terrell's, leading to Thomas appearing on just about double the number of cards. So it was super cool to find both of them out of this 2001 Private Stock Titanium insert that was numbered /2000 and given out at the 2002 Hawaii Trade Conference. Yep, these two have lived it up better than I have!

And last up is one other hit that I thought would be fun to snag for something like $2 or $3: a 2020 Panini Contenders Blue Foil auto of former Michigan QB Shea Patterson. The guy who famously (allegedly) put more effort into his golf game than football practice still put up some good games for the Maize & Blue in 2018-19 so I didn't mind paying a few bucks for my third autograph of his, and first from a "real" brand (the other two are Leaf). I'd say it was worth it to get the full Michigan uniform experience even if it's a sticker-graph.

And that does it for what was a pretty low-key March for me. Don't worry, though, because there's lots more to see from April on, and I'll be back with a post that starts covering that month's cards soon!

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!

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!