2026 Facebook Marketplace purchases: half-year haul

It took a bit but in June I was finally able to grab a couple random card lots on Facebook Marketplace, one of my favorite things to do for the combination of entertainment value and potential for my collection plus trade bait. Although I technically made my first Facebook purchase back in March, these two buys were the first miscellaneous lots I was able to secure in 2026.

First, on Saturday, the 27th, I headed to a city not too far from my mom's house, and I spent $50 on a trio of not-quite-full 5000-card monster boxes. This was a fun one since the sports, years, and brands varied wildly. I'd say the majority was baseball, followed by football, with other stuff like basketball, hockey, and non-sports lagging behind. Although a decent chunk of stuff in the boxes was junk wax (and/or junk quality), I was very pleased with the amount of 90s and 2000s stacks.

Some of those have made it to my TCDb inventory or will do so soon, and others have been included in trade packages. And then of course there are my keepers, which you'll get to see right here:

Former Tiger (and MLBPA prez) Tony Clark was one of the most well represented players in the group with enough cards to fill out more than one scan. This one gives you a good idea of the makeup of a number of the bigger stacks. The Pinnacle Inside and Topps inserts look excellent and will make nice additions to his PC.

Clark, Fielder, and Fryman certainly weren't surprises in these boxes given the era, but the Heritage parallel of All-Star C Dillon Dingler definitely shocked me, though obviously in a good way!

Guillen was one of those random astute pickups the Tigers made in the 2000s to get back to respectability, and his 2004-2008 seasons in Detroit made him a guy I'm still happy to collect. While I didn't land any new Tigers cards, I did end up with six of him with his original club, the Mariners, including a few Pacific items. 

You saw a random Griffey insert above, and Gwynn, Larkin, and Maddux all appear in this one at least once, which made my 90s collector heart happy. Meanwhile, Magglio is another guy the Tigers picked up who helped them win more than they had in a long time, then retired as a fan favorite. Once again, anything I found of him was with his original team, the White Sox, which is totally fine. And that includes more Pacific goodness!

A random Parrish as a Pirate? Why not? He can join the club with Gibby and his two appearances with Pittsburgh ('92 Pinnacle and Stadium Club). Ripken completes the big four (or five, if you include Larkin) group with another nice Pacific pairing. And then we have a solid run of Pudge, who's seen his total in my collection climb quite a bit recently.

That includes a Pinnacle Inside Stand-Up Guys insert that he shares with former teammates Rusty Greer, Will Clark, and Juan Gonzalez. And no, I don't currently have the second card in the pair. Speaking of Juan Gone, Former Tigers P Justin Thompson, who was dealt to Texas in the ill-fated trade for that malcontent whiner, also got a nice little bump to his collection. I was very happy to see a pair of Score Showcase parallels of him, even if he isn't one of my top Tigers to collect.

Here's a bit of miscellany before I get to the horizontally oriented cards. Jim Abbott (plus Griffey, in one case) pops up in Comic Ball form, Gibby's big Series HR led to a Big Topps card, and Big Daddy gets the odd-est-ball card, a disc from 1994 Innovative Confections.

Last up from baseball, everybody here already made an appearance earlier, but this scan does give us a look at a few products we hadn't already seen.

Last up from this purchase is a football trio. WRs Chris Calloway and Nico Collins appear courtesy of Stadium Club and Panini Illusions, and QB/coach Jim Harbaugh is one of three Colts on a Collector's Choice team card.

As always this was a blast to flip through and I'm still working through what I want to keep for trade bait vs. dumping back into a lot I'll ultimately sell on the same site to free up some space.

Next, as in the very next day, a Sunday, I meet a woman at a nearby store to pick up a mostly recent football lot for which she was asking just $20. I can always use newer trade bait from that sport plus there's lots of newer Wolverines to collect, and the sample images looked promising. If anything, the real deal exceeded my expectations, including a couple relics, WAY more inserts than I figured, and some solid RCs too.

Though my keepers pile was fairly small, it was quite nice, plus the aforementioned stuff has already proved useful in my TCDb trading. Those keepers were the following:

Scan one of two includes a new Blake Corum base from Topps Chrome followed by some colorful parallels (and two RCs) of stud Browns DT Mason Graham.

Meanwhile, the second group is only slightly more diverse, comprising three players instead of two. Graham's college partner-in-mayhem, DT Kenneth Grant, joins Corum from Topps Chrome, and his trio includes a RC and two parallels, one of which is the very cool Football Leather Refractor. Young Bears (or whatever they'll be called when they're in Indiana) star TE Colston Loveland adds another RC to his pile, this one out of Mosaic. And RB Kalel Mullings also gets a colorful '25 parallel pair thanks to Donruss Optic and the same Football Refractor as Grant.

Like I said, I was happy to get back to nabbing a couple of these lots because they're so much fun when I can find them. And I'm happy to say that I was able to pick up more cards through FBM the following month, though that recap will have to wait a bit until I catch up on a couple other things.

Until then, may the weather remain as hot as the Tigers as we get tantalizingly close to college football season!

2026 Facebook Marketplace purchase: on it with ONIT

Sometimes I take so long to post about something that it manages to become relevant again. Such is the case with my first Facebook Marketplace purchase of the year.

Back in March I found someone nearby offering a big random lot of cards from ONIT's 2025 Michigan Football team cards. As it turns out, these differ from the ones Jeff previously sent me, which look like this. The ones I'm posting about this evening are kind of the "regular" team set version while Jeff's monthly box cards are a slightly different version called "Timeless." And there's a few others besides that. Welcome to the world of NIL cards.

Anyway, I contacted the seller, and after a bit of back-and-forth, he determined that he could put together two complete 79-card sets, and wanted $25 each. That sounded reasonable to me, so I grabbed one for me and the other for Jeff.

So how are these cards relevant right now? Well, the NFL draft concluded on Saturday and some of the Wolverines who were selected can be found in this set representing the 2025 team. (Also, spring practice just ended and there was plenty of local talk about the team. But, yeah, mostly the draft.)

I scanned all of the cards for the corrected TCDb checklist (after we cleared up the "Timeless" product confusion) so I figured I'd show them off here, even if only a few of my readers might be interested. If not, maybe I'll see you in the next post!

Anyway, the guy gave me each set in one of the boxes, so I have that to show off first:

I'm not sure how much these boxes were, but I know the seller did decently well on the autographs in his case. With a number of other inserts available too, I wonder if two boxes would be enough to guarantee a set.

Unless I'm mistaken, the four players seen here are S Rod Moore up top followed by (L to R) QB Davis Warren, WR Semaj Morgan, and QB Bryce Underwood.

And now, on to the cards themselves. I'll drop a few notes under some of the front scans, but I'll let the images speak for themselves in terms of the design.

This is a pretty strong group starting with big LT prospect Babalola, wunderkind (with a lot of work to do!) QB Underwood (making his collection debut), and third-string back Kuzdzal, who acquitted himself very well when duty called last season.

Some of these guys will be playing in Ann Arbor next year, but one who won't is former walk-on QB Davis Warren, who somehow beat OSU 13-10 a couple seasons ago, and that was actually less impressive than his biggest accomplishment: overcoming leukemia. He headed out west to Stanford with the Bryce Underwood era in full effect, and I can guarantee everyone's rooting for Warren to succeed.

This group is one of the more newsworthy relative to the other scans. EDGE Derrick Moore was the first Wolverine selected in this draft, and better yet, he's staying at home with the Lions, who took him #44 overall (2nd round). K Zvada couldn't repeat his outstanding 2024 season but signed as a UDFA with the Giants. QB-turned-WR McCulley came over from Indiana and didn't have as big of an impact as it seemed he might, but he was decent enough to sign with Miami after the draft. And Hausmann's story, which included him stepping away from the team near the end of the season, is now known, and worth a read as it touches on mental illness and the pressures athletes face.

There are a few likely '26 contributors here but nobody I'll bore you with in terms of details.

QB Jaydn Davis unfortunately didn't pan out, but I join my fellow Michigan fans in wishing him well as he transfers to East Tennessee State. Meanwhile, LB Jaishawn Barham, who joined the Wolverines for two seasons after a pair with Maryland, was Michigan guy #3 taken in the draft, #92 overall to the Cowboys (3rd round). 

This is another pretty good group. LB Jimmy Rolder was the fourth Wolverine taken in the draft at #118 overall (4th round) by...the Lions again! The team's leading tackler could maybe help a team with lots of needs on defense. RB Jordan Marshall is a guy lots of fans were looking forward to seeing last year, and he lived up to the hype with 10 rushing TDs and 900+ yards, limited only by some late injuries. He formed an outstanding tandem with Bama transfer Justice Haynes, who popped for 10 scores of his own and a crazy 7.1 Y/A on just 121 rushes in seven games. The injury bug got him too, unfortunately, and that stalled what may have been a Heisman-caliber campaign. Justice is off to Georgia Tech for the '26 season and I wish him happy trails.

Hey, we've got a couple more draft picks here! TE Marlin Klein's decision to leave early seemed strange but he did decently well for himself, getting taken by the Texans at #59 overall (2nd round), surprisingly high, and before some other well-regarded players at the position. Still, he was Wolverine #2 selected, and will surely form a fearsome matchup along with ex-Michigan star Nico Collins. We also have "TE" Max Bredeson, who was pretty much a FB, and a very successful one at that. His blocking was top-notch and he was often found in the endzone ahead of his RBs as they piled up TDs. Max was the fifth Wolverine selected in this draft at #159 overall (5th round) by the Vikings, which means he'll happily join ex-teammate JJ McCarthy.

Another few guys to discuss here. Ka'Apana is unfortunately already out for the season due to injury. DT Benny was the sixth and final Michigan guy selected this time, going to the Wolverine-friendly Ravens at #250 overall (7th round). S Rod Moore, one of the cover guys, will hopefully be back to health during the next season as a key part of the defense, and one who made some big plays for the '23 champs. And WR Morgan (another cover guy) transferred to UCLA after showing some flashes of brilliance overshadowed by frustrating drops. I still hope he lives up to his potential there and gets his shot at the NFL.

In this last group I can note that EDGE TJ Guy also signed as a UDFA, and he'll be joining Benny above, plus former DC Jesse Minter, Baltimore's new HC. Speaking of HCs, the less said about former guy Sherrone at this point the better.

The seller also included a copy of a header-type card, one that mirrors the front of the box. I decided to keep it (and scan it) as that makes this a nice even 80.

With all that said, congrats to the 2026 draftees (and UDFAs), and here's to the success of the '26 team in a few short months. GO BLUE!

I believe I'll be back next with my April show cards, then we'll see how long it takes me to cover two trade packages before my May show recap, with the event happening this Friday.

2025 Facebook Marketplace purchases: July spree

Hello, friends! It's now November and I'm still working on covering stuff I got in July. Let's get down to it with my three Facebook purchases from that month.

Numbers 1 and 2 were nearby each other so I scored them on the same day. First up is a big three-row box that was advertised as being mostly Chrome cards. Figuring I could at least use those for trade bait, I drove to Westland, which isn't that far from me, and spent $30 on that box. As advertised, it was mostly Chrome-type cards, with a bit of recent regular cardboard mixed in, and I'd say the majority was 2024 Bowman Chrome Prospects and 2023 Topps Chrome.

I'll have nice stacks of each to add to TCDb eventually, but for now, here are my keepers:

A new card of Michigan alum Tommy Henry was quite exciting for me, and that one above is also a good reminder to mention that there were a couple stacks of Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary cards in the bunch as well. Tigers IF prospect Lee hails from the huge stack of '24 Bowman Chrome Prospects. McKinstry and Vierling are recent Tigers that represented some of the non-Chrome stuff while Scherzer of the pennant-winning Jays makes a couple appearances on other products.

All in all it was a very reasonable pickup for the price, and a number of cards from this box made it into trade packages that have gone out or will do so by the end of the year.

That same day I headed back to Livonia for I think my third purchase from a guy who sounds like he buys collections and then clears out parts of them (here's my most recent post of cards I bought from him from earlier this year). This time I ended up with a pair of four-row boxes filled with a bit of everything (but mostly the bigger sports) for $70. These have been a great source of keepers and trade items for me recently, especially more recent stuff that I haven't found at shows or had sent to me in trades. They've boosted my inventory of '20s baseball and football inserts for TCDb which has been a big help.

I found a ton of keepers from these so I'll keep my comments short.

Last year's Donruss showed up in force in this purchase, much to the benefit of a number of my PCs. Hatfield and Pesky hail from a 90s Topps Archives product, and interestingly enough, both are '50s Tigers who'd previously played for the Red Sox. The Donruss EEE of Michigan alum O'Halloran, college uni and all, was a super fun gem in this big pile of stuff.

Rose was the lone basketball keeper for me, which is fine. My football PCs, especially for some recent rookies, really got some nice bumps, with 2024 first-years especially well represented. That includes Michigan-to-Iowa transfer TE Erick All, plus Indiana-to-Michigan transfer TE AJ Barner, who won a title with Michigan and has gone on to be fairly productive for the Seahawks.

Griese and Harbaugh are all well-known past NFL Wolverines while Collins and Gary continue to be stars for their teams. I love the Michigan uni RCs of a couple more champs, Colson and Corum.

EDGE Jaylen Harrell is a guy who didn't get a ton of hype (or many cardboard appearances), but he led the '23 champs in sacks and was taken in the 7th round by Tennessee, making the NFL just like his dad. Jenkins, another NFL legacy, also made some noise on defense for the title-winning team, and he's one of a bunch of Wolverines playing for the Bengals. Law was fantastic in college, as pictured, before his HOF NFL career. And Milton may have transferred to Tennessee but I'm still collecting any of his non-Volunteers RCs.

The Halloween-themed Score-a-Treat product popped up a bit in this purchase and I was glad to add a couple Wolverines out of the '24 version. Speaking of "treat" it was fun to find three RCs of kicker Jake Moody, the erstwhile Niners PK. Wilson was one of my RCs from '24 Rookies & Stars, plus the previously mentioned Score-a-Treat. Woodson was maize & blue through and through but does look good there in red.

Lastly for football, Brady and Victor Hobson join in the fun on horizontal multiplayer cards.

Then we move on to a huge stack of Steve Yzerman cards I didn't have, many of which are from the 90s. It's not like I ever got rid of any of his cards--I just didn't really collect hockey as a kid, and most of what I have of him has come to me through trades.

There's not much to say other than there's some pretty cool stuff here on a huge mix of products and designs.

And here's the last of the cards of the Captain. He's apparently a single card short of becoming the third hockey player to hit 100 different cards in my collection, joining Wolverines Marty Turco and Brendan Morrison. Wolverwing Dylan Larkin is next at 75, and the next closest Motown guy that didn't play for Michigan is Sergei Fedorov at 59, so obviously this was a great boost to Stevie Y's collection.

Speaking of Larkin, he's one of three Michigan icers represented in this purchase thanks to UD MVP, joining Seattle's Matty Benier's and young goalie Jack LaFontaine.

Last up is definitely something of an oddball. Back in 1993 a set called Metallic Impressions Cooperstown Collection was released, apparently aiming to be the first of more releases. That didn't happen, but at least we got to enjoy this crazy swing at the fences. It's a tin of 20 metallic cards featuring HOFers and stars. I found one for sale nearby for $10 and happily went to pick it up a few days after I nabbed the stuff you see above.

Here's a few looks at the tin:

I like boxed sets like this that include the checklist right on the packaging.

"Strictly limited" to just 49,900 sets! The bottom also helpfully describes the way the cards are made better than I can.

Very nicely packaged thanks to plastic inserts that keep the cards from flying around and causing wear and tear.

Not everyone's a HOFer here but you get a nice mix of legends and other guys that some people appreciate collecting.

The backs somewhat give you an idea of how the metal edges are sort of crimped over the backs, so they aren't as thick and heavy as they could be.

Like I said, not everybody here's a HOFer so I even got to add a new Mickey Lolich to my collection.

I wonder who else we might have seen had more of these been made?

Pops and El Tiante get their own scan since 20/9 leaves a pair left over.

This was a very cool oddball addition to my collection for just $10, and now I'm curious if any of you still reading this post own this set or anything similar you'd like to brag about in the comments down below.

Happily I still have at least one more Facebook Marketplace pickup to cover before the end of the year, but first I have lots more to cover. I'll see you all soon!