2024 COMC purchases: Nine from November

With the finish line now in sight I'm even more motivated to get this post done and call 2024 a wrap! Here's a look at the cards I bought for myself during COMC's Black Friday sale:

First up is hit #1 of another UM WR to wear #8 (besides another guy in this post), Ronnie Bell. The receiver/returner outplayed his practically anonymous recruiting rankings and was a key contributor as the Wolverines marched back to respectability under Jim Harbaugh. The Bowman's Best University card pictures him with the Wolverines (instead of the 49ers who'd eventually draft and then release him) and that's a great start for his hits collection! Sure, it's a sticker auto and he signed with his initials, but at least he added an inscription with his jersey number.

The day's other "first" is my second hit but first signature of LB Devin Bush II, a three-year Wolverine who did some nice work in 2017 and 2018 in Ann Arbor. The Steelers took him in the first round in 2019 and he's since bounced to Seattle and Cleveland, but was good enough to appear in an autograph insert (#d /299) in 2020 Panini Legacy.

In spot #3 is the other WR #8, the sure-handed Jason Avant, who was able to rescue the planted Michigan flag in Columbus this past season after Buckeye Jack Sawyer threw his hissy fit once his OSU team lost to Michigan again. Avant never won a Super Bowl with the Eagles but did have a solid 10-year career mostly spent with them, and I was thrilled to add another Triple Threads jersey/auto of his from his 2006 rookie year. The one you see above is the Sepia version /75 and is hit #66 of #8.

Next, RB Chris Evans appears to be out of the league at this point, but that wasn't going to stop me from picking up a third Michigan uni autograph of his. I may have passed on other brands but usually tend to like the simplicity of Score's rookie autos, so I had no problem ponying up a couple bucks for this one.

Sure, we've already had Devin, but what about second Devin? I paid less than $6.50 total for the cool pair starring former Panthers WR Funchess and I think that was a steal. The card on the left is a 2015 Panini Black Gold Sizeable Signatures Rookie Jerseys prime version, and I'm thinking you'll agree that it lives up to its "sizeable" and "prime" descriptors with ease. The other is a 2015 Panini National Convention VIP manupatch auto, which isn't the kind of thing I'd pay a premium for, but I do like seeing athletes sign things other than stickers. Funch moves up to 34 hits thanks to the pair.

I'll move down one spot horizontally to discuss the next card, a Jake Long 2008 Topps Triple Threads Sepia parallel. This one came with three really nice multi-color Dolphins swatches to go along with his signature (and numbering /75, like the Avant above). It's a great looking card to add to a collection that now stands at a very nice 98 hits, though he remains in third place behind our next two players.

Forever #1 guy Chad Henne continues to outpace the rest by a mile with his 146th hit, which happens to be one of the higher-end items in his collection. The 12th 1/1 I've landed for him, the card you see above is his 2008 Finest Yellow Plate (the non-auto version). It set me back a reasonable $14 which I don't mind paying for a top PC guy like Henne, whose hit collection isn't too far off of that from all-sports leader Rich Hill. As always, I'm a fan of when manufacturers do the border thing with their plates to make it obvious which color you have, especially in this case where the back is otherwise normal.

And last but not least is former blog namesake guy Mario Manningham. The 2008 Leaf Certified Materials auto you see above (#d /100) is everything I love about 2000s-era cards of some of my favorites, but it may be the most significant from this post for an entirely different reason: it puts Super Mario at exactly 100 hits, making him just the second player behind Henne in the football collection (and third overall including Rich Hill) to reach that mark! It actually wasn't 100% intentional as I would have been happy for Jake Long (again, 98) or Braylon Edwards (95) to make it first, but I only found one of the former I liked and none of the latter this time. So it looks like I get to celebrate Too Many Manninghams as my 2024 year of collecting comes to a close! (The football hits collection also surpassed the 1700-mark before the calendar turned, basketball went over 150, and hockey moved up to 350, with baseball very close to 450.)

Once again, thanks to everyone for making 2024 a great year of trading, blogging, reading, comments, shows, and more! I'm looking forward to treating you to recaps of the cards I've picked up since 2025 started including (at this point) seven blogger-related trade packages, two shows, and four TCDb deals. Look for a post covering the first blogger trade of January soon!

2024 trade package #15: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store part 1: everything but hockey

Tonight let's take a look at part of the latest big-ass shipment from Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, received by me in August.

That's right--I said "part of" because he literally sent me this:

I split it into hockey and non-hockey, and you'll be getting the latter tonight. In true SCFtDS form, you'll get to see a large package broken up into multiple posts!

Baseball's up first and my Tigers PCs, some old and many new, were well represented. I don't know if Baez is long for a roster spot but that Bowman's Best is pretty cool. The '72 Gator would be cool enough on its own but this one is a Canadian special: O-Pee-Chee! Miggy makes a few recent-ish appearances here plus one more in the horizontals section. Campos is only 21 and a potential OF prospect to watch. Traded Tiger Canha joins a bunch of others in this post from this year's Heritage.

Cronenworth is of course a favorite. Flaherty is surely happy to be with the NL champion Dodgers while the Tigers got two solid prospects in the deal. Gold is 24 and still in high A while Graham will be that age early next year and seems to be hovering around A+ himself. The Riley Greene playing card is a cool one of a fun player I'm definitely growing to like on the team. And Griffey was pretty good in his day as well.

Jobe is pretty much the franchise's top prospect after going 3rd overall in 2021 and he was though of highly enough to make a late-season MLB debut followed by a couple appearances in the playoffs, which had to be thrilling for a young dude. Jung is another top-100 prospect for the team and while his '24 MLB debut wasn't amazing, it was cool to see the '22 first-rounder get some ABs with the big team. Keith is locked up for a few seasons and could be a key part of a rebuilt offense. Kemp is another OPC Tiger from my Canadian buddy, this one from 1979.

Kinsler's was a bit of a favorite of mine during his Motown tenure so I love the Refractor above. Larkin is of course a longtime personal favorite and PC guy. McGonigle is an intriguing middle IF prospect that the Tigers took 37th overall in '23. Austin didn't work out but his Tigers draftee bro Parker has shown a bit of hitting ability and a flair for web gems in the outfield so we'll probably see plenty more of him next year. Melton's a '22 4th-rounder out of San Diego State, Morris is a team legend and HOFer, and Olson is looking to be an excellent acquisition whose numbers were hampered by a sorry lack of run support (and bad health luck) this season.

I have to say, it's super cool to see a guy like Magglio in products like Panini's '23 Chronicles, including the card numbered /199 above! As with other players you saw today I'm always glad to see cards of Cal in trade packages. Skubal is largely responsible for taking what looked to be another below-average Tigers squad and making it a big story, with a Cy Young-worthy campaign that led his team to a very unlikely playoff berth! Tork recovered a bit after a dismal start and we'll likely get a better idea next year if he'll be part of the club's future. Tram is another team legend appearing courtesy of '23 Panini Select. And Papa Grande and JV had fans plenty excited back when they were starring on perennial playoff teams.

The versatile Vierling is our last standard vertical issue in the baseball group. Miggy gets another Heritage MLB pair card that looks quite cool as a throwback to past Topps designs. The two guys who led the '82 Tigers on the '83 Topps card had an especially good time in '84! A stray '85 OPC half sticker of Lou Whitaker was a very fun surprise. Jung makes a couple more appearances, including one with the also previously-seen Melton. And then we have a card of a former Tiger the likes of which I wouldn't tend to keep, but there's no way I could turn down the Leather & Lumber black gold signature you see here even if it features failed prospect Christin Stewart. Come on, how cool does that look?!

Switching over to basketball, I believe that every player seen here is currently active in the NBA. Injured Hawks G Kobe Bufkin leads all comers with three new cards. THJ had a solid 14 points in Detroit's season-opening loss last night, and the card you see above is numbered /165, which is cool. LeVert's Cavs are actually scheduled to face the Pistons tomorrow. I couldn't find any stats for Washington's Poole yet this season. And then we have the Wagner bros, Franz and Mo who combined for 30 points (23 and 7, respectively) in yesterday's season opener win against the Bulls.

Basketball got a couple new hits too! Brooks is a newcomer to both my basketball hits collection and UM basketball PC in general. He played as a G for five seasons in Ann Arbor, spanning 2017-18 to 2021-22, then went undrafted, so he's prime fodder for a product like Wild Card Alumination that gets signatures of players who probably wouldn't sniff a cardboard appearance otherwise. While he becomes the 36th subject in my basketball hits PC, Wilson gets his second: a Crown Royale jersey/auto (numbered /199). The 2017 Bucks first-rounder is pictured with the team that drafted him though he's since suited up for Houston, Doug's Raptors, and the 76ers.

As we switch over to the gridiron, transfer RB Thomas Rawls is the lone base card out of 10 items (hence splitting the remaining basketball and football into two scans). WR Amara Darboh gets a nice spotlight down the right side of the scan with three beautiful looking auto/relics. #1 is a dual jersey (you might call them "prime" as they aren't far off from patches) and football combo paired up with Darboh's signature, and the Absolute beauty is the Spectrum parallel of that product's RC, limited to "just" 99 copies. Next is Panini Phoenix's Orange parallel of his jersey/auto, clocking in at 150 copies. And finally we have a Rookies & Stars Dress for Success signature and memorabilia pairing that's also numbered /99. Fun news: these additions allowed Darboh to join the 50-hit club in the football PC! He's just the 11th player to reach that milestone.

The above three hits go quite well with this super sextet. Arrington is one of the 10 other 50-hit guys in my collection and the '09 Topps Magic autographs will always be a favorite of mine. Talented defender Devin Bush II joins the collection with his first hit, a Panini Luminance jersey that makes him football collection dude #254 and the fourth with that first name. I now have 11 Butts including the shiny one numbered /99 above, and I'll leave that there for all of you to get your best comments in. Chesson was a college teammate and position mate of Darboh's and he hit the double-digit mark with his 9th card including a signature (the other's a plate) thanks to 2017 Panini Spectra (#d /199). I would assume most of you who've followed me for long enough remember the namesake of my now-retired secondary blog, Mario Manningham, on a sweet Press Pass college uni signature. By the way, he's one hit away from joining Chad Henne in the 100-hit club while Jake Long needs three and Braylon Edwards needs six. Goals!

And last up is one of the biggest surprises in this mailing. Doug's certainly been generous enough to send me plates and other 1/1s before, but I didn't expect this Yellow 2020 Leaf Draft plate of former transfer QB Shea Patterson! The two-year Wolverine went 10-3 and 9-4 in 2018 and 2019, a few seasons before things really turned around for Jim Harbaugh's program. This appears to be my 56th 1/1 in my football PC with Shea being the 34th member to appear on at least one. I really enjoyed finding this among the rest of the loot which was already very high quality.

So as you can see I was quite pleased with the baseball, basketball, and football content. As for the hockey stuff, you'll have to wait until next time, but I promise it's worth a look as that stack was bigger than that of these three sports combined! I look forward to sharing that with you so y'all can get a feeling for just how much Doug stuffed into this box.

Until then, thanks so much for another fantastic package, Doug!

7/2/21 card show report: dollars, dimes, and quarters, I need them all right now

Nickels? In this economy?! Ain't no nickel boxes around here, but there was plenty to look through when it came to boxes full of dollar, quarter, and dime cards at this month's show in Taylor a few weeks ago. Unlike the past two shows, this time I didn't come home with a box stuffed with absurdly cheap hits and a light wallet, and instead I dropped just $23: $10 worth of dollar items and the rest out of the dime and quarter sections.

It was still reasonably productive, though, not to mention a great way to spend part of my afternoon on the Friday before Independence Day. I achieved my monthly goal of tracking down some trade bait for others, including scoring [pun intended, wait for it] all but one of the non-RCs my Canadian buddy Doug needs for his 2021 Score football set. Everything this time is already earmarked for trade packages (a few of which have already gone out), so I have nothing to show off from that category, but I did bring home two scans' worth of personal pickups:

The baseball group is Tiger-heavy, even if the uniforms pictured don't reflect that. Big Daddy is the lone player in his Detroit duds, representing the team in Donruss' 1992 McDonald's MVP set. Former blog namesake Granderson comes to us from 2012 Bowman Platinum, though as a member of the Yankees. Inge spent part of 2012 with Oakland, then played a 50-game sunset season with the Pirates, as captured on that 2013 Topps Update Blue parallel.

Down the middle we have the three non-Tigers, all of which are from some of my top PCs. I love the photography and design as usual from a Stadium Club release, in this case Larkin's 2020 version. There's no way I'll skip over a new Maddux card, especially if it's in the dime box like that '07 Heritage, even if it's still weird to see him with a team other than the Braves and Cubs. And card #3 here is a double-dip of favorites: Cal Ripken Jr. and Sportflics. The 1987 single you see above is from the "Best in Baseball" subset that goes by league and position, and this one includes Cal along with the late Tony Fernandez of Toronto plus Texas' Scott Fletcher as the top AL SS of 1986.

Getting back to Detroit-related cards, first is a 2020 Heritage League Leaders subset starring current blog namesake Justin Verlander, who went 1-2 with teammate Gerrit Cole in wins by AL pitchers (21 and 20). Joining him is a pre-Tigers uniform card of 3B Dean Palmer, a 1999 Fleer Tradition Warning Track parallel. That means the base card's foil (including the note that Detroit signed him) along with the insert's logo are red instead of gold.

And the Michigan stuff all fit nicely into one scan as well. I added to my small but growing Caris LeVert collection with a shiny 2019-20 Panini Illusions base--an easy snag from the dime box. He's joined in the top row by a pair of Michigan Football Devins from the past decade (we had a few!): LB (and birthday boy!) Bush from 2020 Panini Playbook (my first from that set) and WR Funchess out of 2018 Panini Certified. Side note: Funch recently caught a record-setting "pass" of a football dropped 750 feet from a helicopter, so he's got that going for him.

Three of the next four guys played for the '97-'98 national champs so I'll cover them all at once. Griese's card is a '99 Collector's Edge Fury Gold Ingot parallel, which you'd be able to tell better if the shiny "Gold Ingot" logo near the bottom-right of the photo didn't look like golden static. Heisman winner Woodson makes two appearances by way of 2020 Panini Playoff and 2021 Score, and I love that the latter included a vet like him. And lastly, the A-Train's back in diminutive form thanks to a 2004 Bazooka Mini--a little card that bolsters a big collection of mine.

And to finish things off we segue nicely to our last player of the day, another RB: transfer RB Thomas Rawls. In keeping with my collecting rules, I'll collect any cards of players who transferred in and out of Ann Arbor as long as they aren't depicted with a college team other than Michigan. That wasn't even an issue here with two pro uni inserts: 2017 Panini Classics Record Breakers and 2017 Panini Unparalleled Perfect Pairs. The former discusses a team record Rawls set for rushing yards in a playoff game: 161 in their 2016-2017 wild card tilt against the hapless Lions. Meanwhile, the latter pair is less than "perfect" since both players would be gone from the team after 2017, with Lacy out of the league and Rawls playing just one more season himself. It's a cool looking shiny card, though!

So, yeah, not much to show off or brag about, but I had fun digging through boxes, and the money I saved can always be available the next time my favorite seller has a blowout sale.

More posts to come soon as I continue to try to catch up on cards in-hand and chilling on my desk, plus stuff that's still due to arrive!

2020 trade package #35: Sport Card Collectors

Well if I wasn't in the Christmas spirit before, I sure am now! I'm the proud owner of a few cool Christmas card packages that have arrived over the past couple weeks, and today's post features a big one (in every sense of the work) thanks to Matt over at Sport Card Collectors.

He'd let me know to expect this bountiful bubble mailer--special for the occasion since he's a big fan of PWEs, so don't think that went unnoticed!--and I was happy to see it safely arrive. First, the note:

See what I said about Christmas spirit? As Matt mentioned, he sent me both a bit of stuff I was sort of expecting trade-wise and lots more that I'll certainly consider a generous gift.

Here's what was inside:

One of my surprises right off the bat was this 2001 Pacific Private Stock Game Gear 2018 Topps Major League Material Relics jersey of former Tiger V-Mart. I do love making fun of Topps for cribbing this design from a product released more than 15 years prior, but it's one I recall fondly so I'll allow it! This is just my second hit of Victor with the Tigers so it was a fun addition I didn't see coming.

I'll paraphrase the overused joke here and say that someone once asked me which Verlanders I wanted. My response: "Yes." Matt happily obliged here with TOO MANY VERLANDERS, and in this case "too many" equals a perfect page of nine. Better yet, everything here is new to me. I love the two Panini cards--a Diamond Kings Artists Proof (hard to see the logo in the bottom right) and an Optic Prizm--and the Chrome Sepia Refractor is extremely cool as well. TCDB tells me that I'm right at 450 cards of Mr. Upton after this haul, so many thanks to Matt for some really nice JVs to bump up that total.

And speak of the devil, here's one item I did know was coming. A couple months ago a reasonably priced plate of one of his favorite PCs, Rodney Hampton, came up for sale on eBay. I snagged it so Matt wouldn't miss out on it and traded it to him for future considerations. We eventually agreed on a 2005 Topps RC of Verlander, which is worth a lot more than it used to be. I don't remotely understand how flagship rookies that exist in abundance are worth so much but other people can spend their money however they want. As for me, I already have one of these, but now I have something nice to send to fellow Verlander collector Paul who could definitely use one; Merry Christmas to him!

The rest of the package was absolutely stuffed with Michigan Football stuff, which was a blast to go through. I decided to separate these into three scans worth of stuff that's new to me and one large image of the rest so I didn't have to do something like 11 or 12 scans here.

While not every single card featured a college photo it sure feels like the majority of them did, which is 100% awesome. This scan includes four new RCs for my Rookie Blue project, half of which are maize & blue cards: two of injured sideline-to-sideline LB Devin Bush plus Classics cards of Jake Butt and Mo Hurst. They wouldn't be the only first-years in this package....

Besides them, we have a Butt insert (huh-huh, huh-huh /Butthead voice), numbered Braylon, and Gold Press Pass parallels of Hart and Bennie Joppru, and a SAGE IHT base of former DE Tim Jamison. I initially had Hart in the dupes pile until the light hit it correctly and I was able to note that it had gold foil, which meant I could happily add another card to his PC!

I'm designating the top row here as not quite RC status. 2020 Cowboys TE draftee Sean McKeon appears on Panini Chronicles cards with Donruss and Optic designs--cool how they used photos from two different games--and a Scorecard parallel. I believe the Chronicles cards are technically considered inserts, so for now they won't go towards the RC project, but I'm still very glad to have them.

Former QB Navarre makes an increasingly rare cameo (his stuff is just harder to find for some reason) on a Press Pass parallel of his own, this one appropriately Blue, while handing off the ball to a guy we'll see in the next scan.

Do-everything defender Jabrill Peppers also gets a nice trio of his own. Shiny Optic and Prizm parallels bookend another Classics RC appearance, and those inserts represent just a couple more pro uni cards. It's been nice watching him make some plays this season for the hapless Giants!

Last up are a couple 2004 inserts of that RB I just mentioned, Chris Perry (Hot Prospects and Topps), a sweet Elite base of Mr. Heisman Charles Woodson, and a double-the-fun duo of '08 draftees Jake Long and Mike Hart that I somehow didn't have. Woodson and Tom Brady have pretty much become staples of Panini's yearly college themed sets and that's totally fine by me, though I'd be happy to see even more past Michigan legends.

That was the last of the "new" stuff but this huge surprise also counts, in a way. I already owned Terrell's "raw" 2001 Pacific Dynagon Retail RC but I surely won't say no to a PSA 10! I will say that if I didn't already have a copy I probably would have cracked this, but now it'll be fun to keep one slabbed like this.

Lastly, if my words didn't convey how many Michigan Football cards were in this package, hopefully this picture will help you. There's even more maize & blue here, and besides a number of guys you already saw, plenty of my favorites like Arrington, Henne, and Shoelace. Michigan cards never go to waste here, and I'm glad to say that Paul's not the only one (besides me) getting something out of this gift that keeps on giving, as Jeff will be the proud owner of a few new cards himself! Hooray for the season of giving.

Matt, thanks again for this amazing mailer full of Tigers and Wolverines (which sounds way more dangerous when I say it that way!). I really appreciate your generosity, including going outside of your comfort zone to send a package this large all at once. I've had another great year of trading with you and you can bet I'll be back at it in 2021!

Next time, even more giving! Stay tuned while you're decking those halls....

2020 trade package #28: Sport Card Collectors

It's PWE time once again here at TMV, and as is often the case when that acronym for cheap and easy mailing is invoked, it's Matt of Sport Card Collectors who's responsible. According to my trade log this is the 25th time I've posted cards from him, and I believe all but one of those trades came in the plainest and whitest of envelopes. Way to hit the quarter century mark, Matt! Oh, and good news: this didn't take weeks to arrive, which is consistent with the better mail service I've had overall lately.

Here's what he sent this time:

I can't say I smile as much when Miggy comes up to hit these days, but after a rough August he's had a few good games as he continues his climb toward the 3000 hit/500 HR club. He's 144 and 17 short, respectively, and his overall career has been a Masterpiece, just like that 2019 Topps Gallery insert.

The next card, a 2019 Topps Archives base, brings two iconic looks together: the colorful design of 1975 Topps and the man of the 90s, Ken Griffey Jr., with his hat backwards. This is a great new piece in my collection of Junior, which is 950+ items and counting as he races Cal (the likely winner) to be the first member of my 1000-card PC.

Speaking of good looking Topps stuff, how can you go wrong when combining cards with magazine covers? This Barry Larkin insert also came out of last year's Archives and looks like it could have been a reprint of the real thing, though that doesn't appear to be the case. The magazine look worked very well for Fleer and Sports Illustrated (back before the latter became a parody of itself as it is now) and I'd say that Topps succeeded as well.

Matt managed to hit both the Griffey collection we share as well as my blog title guy, and in this case he even sent me two many Verlanders. The first one sticks with the 2019 Topps Theme, in this case a GQ Fortune Teller mini insert. "Mini" is somewhat the opposite of both Verlander and the card thanks to its standard height, as opposed to other inserts of that type. The back predicts that he'll reach the 3000 strikeout mark in 2019, which he did about a year ago. That's joined by a 2020 Panini Prizm Purple Prizm parallel, which looks quite nice in general but annoys me a bit because there's so many different versions that are difficult to tell apart (and some that have ridiculous and/or vague titles). Still, ooooooh, shiny!

Last up today is a somewhat surprising football addition. Devin Bush (Jr. or II, whichever you prefer) was an absolute terror as a sideline-to-sideline LB in Ann Arbor, and the Steelers wisely chose him 10th overall last year. His jersey number on the 2019 Rookies & Stars RC you see above is one off of the 56 worn by another Michigan/Pittsburgh great at the position, LaMarr Woodley, while the rate at which he compiles a certain stat may have me comparing him to former Wolverines/Jets tackling machine David Harris. I count some 20 rookie cards of his I'll need to chase--not too surprising for a first-rounder, even if he plays defense--with this one giving me a total of five.

As I've begun to do with easy-to-scan PWEs, here are the card backs for your enjoyment.

Matt, thanks for trade package 25 and more great cards for me, all of which were new! As I think you're well aware of you have a return from me already on the way, a Giant one with a Michigan twist to it, plus a detour to the Hamptons....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2019 trade package #17: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been quite the nice weekend here in Ann Arbor.  The weather finally turned from rain 24/7 to sunny and 70s.  Michigan Baseball blew through its opponents to reach the College World Series finals for the first time since 1962, gaining the team a ton of new fans (maybe more on that soon!).  And I got to take in my second viewing of the terrific Spiderman:  Into the Spiderverse at the Big House last night.

So why not celebrate the good times with the most recent trade package I got from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store?  The one he sent me back in May was awesome, but I'd venture to say that this one was a cut above.  This June mailer certainly puts a nice bow on a great weekend in June:

Let's start with a nice bunch of Wings.  The numbered '12-'13 Dominion base cards--which are dummy thicc!--are the highlights for me as they star two of the best players in team history in Datsyuk and new GM Yzerman.  The late Dineen (NHLer Kevin's dad) spent most of his five NHL seasons in Detroit and won a pair of Cups in the 50s before becoming a pretty successful coach.  Kelly was an even bigger star in Detroit and Toronto and won a crazy four cups for each franchise!  The HOFer passed away just a couple months ago, but he and Dineen look great from their playing days on Parkhurst cards from 12 years ago.  Kozlov and McCarty were of course mainstays on multiple Cup-winners.

This group of rookies is headlined by a trio of cards from UD's Synergy brand, one I wasn't familiar with until now.  The blue cards are #d /799 and the back of the red (excellent choice!) has a scratch-off code that I believe you'd redeem as a full set for an upgraded version.  I know little of these four guys but they all appear to be in the organization still, and hopefully one or more of them will join some of Yzerman's draftees to make the team competitive again.

Moving on to basketball, we'll start with a 2010-11 Limited card that doesn't star former Michigan legend Cazzie Russell, but instead Michael Campanella "Campy" Russell (no relation, just an error here).  Then we can move on to one of this post's seven delicious hits:  a jersey/auto/RC of Caris LeVert from 2016 National Treasures (#24/49).  It takes a lot for a relic swatch to have any effect on me these days but this tri-color maize & blue jersey more than does the trick!  Pair that with an autograph that includes an inscription and you've got a beast of a card.  Not a bad way to start my collection of the young Brooklyn Nets SF!

Doug let me know in advance that he had my back when it came to some RCs from probably my favorite yearly football release, Score, but I wasn't expecting some useful veteran base as well.  I love the throwback design here, and the backs look quite nice as well, especially the super colorful reverses on printing plates:

I realize plenty of collectors dislike having the same photo appear on the front and back but that doesn't matter at all to me.  And more importantly I'm happy to have some new cards of Michigan's NFL stars of the gridiron, including PC guy Tom Brady.  If Clark ever stops acting like a dumbass maybe I'll enjoy collecting him as well (and Lewan has had his moments, too).  Peppers' card includes a great photo, though I'll soon see him on cardboard in a different uniform.

Then there's the fun trio of college-uniformed RCs:  Bush, Gary, and Higdon.  All three were a blast to watch with the Wolverines and I hope they add to Michigan's count of successful pro players.

I mentioned Lewan when pointing out his base card above and he also made a second appearance in this envelope on a 2014 Leaf Metal Draft Prismatic Blue auto (#39/50).  Again, nice choice of color.  The airbrushing is annoying as usual but when getting past that this is a fun second version of Lewan's auto in this product (I own the base) and my 14th overall hit of the Titans OT.

As usual hockey is the star of the post, starting with this base/insert mix, which includes the return of the Hockey Mikes (oops, no room for the tag!):  Cammalleri, Comrie, Knuble (Wolverwing RC!), and Komisarek.  Madden's card is one of the coolest of the bunch, an artistic piece that surprisingly doesn't come from Topps Gallery or UD Masterpieces.  We'll see familiar guys Montoya and Patch again in just a minute.  And the Turco Game Breakers insert (from 2006-07 UD Victory) is a new entry for his PC.

And the rest of the hit parade, of the sick/nasty variety.  Seriously this is some bad-ass hockey cardboard (and other materials).

#1 is an eye-popping patch of C Andrew Ebbett.  This one hails from 2007-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects' Emblems, and it's pretty obvious that we're seeing parts of the "A" and "T" from the Binghamton Senators jersey he's wearing.  I took a quick look at the team's history and found that they were affiliated with Doug's Sens until 2017.  That was his first team out of college before moving on to Anaheim and elsewhere.  What a sick patch for hit #7!

Second up is my favorite somewhat recent Michigan guy in the NHL, Wolverwing Dylan Larkin.  My fifth hit of his out of just 23 cards--with Doug responsible for four of those five, I believe--is a beautiful red jersey swatch from 2018-19 Upper Deck Trilogy's Green parallel, #d /242 to match his career number of games played in at that point.  That included 80 each in his first two campaigns and 82 more in '17-'18.  More Larkin stuff, please!

You probably don't hear much about Oklahoma-born defenseman Jon Merrill outside of my blogs, but the autograph you see above, from UD's 2015-16 Artifacts, is actually my 8th hit of his (again, largely thanks to Doug's generosity).  He's spent the last two seasons with Vegas after his first four with the pictured Devils.

I promised more of Montoya and now I'll deliver on that, thanks to Doug's delivery!  After a much hyped college career he was a pretty good prospect so it's no surprise to see Inigo's cousin in a product like ITG's Between the Pipes from 2006-07.  One of the relics is obviously a jersey swatch but the other is unique to the sport:  a goalie's catching glove.  It's fun getting different pieces like this thanks to collecting multiple sports (and knowing a guy who can fill up your hockey box like whoa).  Alvaro is now up to seven hits and he appears on enough that I don't think I'll have a problem growing that number.

While that Ebbett we just talked about is super cool, I don't think anything else tops the final card today, a Max Pacioretty 2016-17 UD Black Lustrous INK auto (#075/175).  The Black brand is one of UD's higher-end offerings and it certainly takes its name to heart, which results in some stunning cards when paired with autos like you see here (and I'll also note that the signature is in much better shape than the scan would indicate).  This is a super thick issue that includes three little windows around the Upper Deck logo:  a see-through image and two pieces designed to look like parts of a sweater.  That thickness makes it tough to get a completely clear scan, but I don't have to care about that because I can look at the card in person whenever I want to, which I may just do more often than any other card of Max in my collection (six of which are now hits).

Doug, thanks again for this outstanding follow-up to your kick-ass May envelope.  I'm looking forward to hitting you back in a few weeks when I have a few eBay purchases and likely show adds in-hand and ready to send over the border!