2025 trade package #11: the Collector

The All-Star break has come and gone since I last posted so it's about time I got another one up. Today you're getting a quick recap of a couple PWEs sent to me by Chris, The Collector, back in May.

This was the second time he'd sent some cards my way this year and he's since done it once more. It sure is great to have him back and I continue to try to send supportive and healing thoughts to his family.

Here's what he sent this time, wrapped up in and protected by a printed out copy of this Defector article ("Never put poison in your mouth."):

These worked out nicely as they could be split into three sports each with eight cards. The baseball section was naturally all about the Tigers, who ended a season-long six-game losing streak last night and look to regain the momentum of their excellent start. The three guys right down the middle, all on '25 Topps parallels, oddly enough, are part of that outstanding squad, with Mize the best of the trio. The inserts you see are, from top to bottom, Rainbow Foil, Spring Training, and Diamante Foil.

There's also a nice pair of (a.k.a. too many!) Verlanders, one of which calls into question my scanning abilities. It looks like I'm just a couple away from 700. I wonder how long it'll take to get to 1K?

When it comes to basketball, Chris sent me quite the poker hand: four pairs. Bufkin, Poole, Robinson, and the younger Wagner bro Franz all had me seeing double. Poole is nearing the 50-card mark while Franz recently crossed it, building up a collection that continues to surprise me. I don't hate seeing the Hoops Winter cards right now while we're in my favorite season but I would probably be glaring at them if it was January.

Lastly, on the gridiron I was treated to another two pairs, but first we'll check out the other players represented. The Don races into the first spot with a cool Bowman Chrome U college action card. Defensive beast Rashan Gary and former UM coach Jim Harbaugh get paired up thanks to last year's Prizm. And like Edwards, upcoming second-year Bengal Kris Jenkins appears in the Maize & Blue on his '24 Score RC.

 As for the pairs, it's all about the defense. First is the versatile Jabrill Peppers, who had a trying year in '24 on an awful Pats team while also dealing with some pretty nasty charges, though he's since been acquitted of those. Hopefully he can stay out of trouble. In fact, he should try to be more like Charles Woodson and keep his nose clean off the field while being amazing on it. He should also put in more effort than Panini did, using identical photos cropped slightly differently on cards from 2021 and '24.

That concludes a recap of the only blogger trade cards I received in May, but don't worry, I've still got lots to show y'all.

Many thanks to Chris as always for thinking of me and putting together a couple very nice envelopes! Chris, I hope you continue to find some time and energy to collect and blog because you should be aware that many of us appreciate you.

I'll be back soon once I figure out what to show off next. Until then, go Tigers, and welcome back to MLB, Rich Hill! 

4/4/25 card show report: April foolin' around

Tonight I'm posting what I think is my last recap for April which is that month's show, just a day before I head over to Taylor tomorrow for July's trip (and possibly a meetup with John!). This will be a very short one because I only spent $55 that day, and out of what I bought, only five cards stayed with me.

Here's a quick look at what I brought home:

You can see the best stuff right off the bat in the form of the baseball content. My 19th relic of Greg Maddux is a plain white Braves jersey swatch from Upper Deck's 2003 Finite product, a one-and-done offering that's somewhat forgettable. But hey, it's a nice new Maddux for me, and I think it was in the $5-$10 neighborhood so I'm happy!

As for a more recent pitcher I was glad to score a card of, you can see my second autograph of young Tigers starter Casey Mize, out of 2022 Panini Mosaic. It joins a 2021 card from the same product, and this parallel of the autograph set is apparently referred to as "Choice Fusion" for some reason. I was content to continue adding some cheap Mize autos to my collection before the season started, and then all he's done is get off to a great 8-2 start for the AL-best Tigers, so that makes this one even more exciting.

Switching over to basketball, Michigan Wagner bro Franz becomes that sport's 40th different subject in my hits collection thanks to a Hoops sweater card from 2021-22. I know people find these to be pretty goofy and I do myself sometimes, but it was a fun add for maybe $2 while I work on upgrading what I have of him.

Last up is a cheap football pair. On the left is a Red parallel of RB Hassan Haskins' RC from 2022 Panini Rookies & Stars, and Buckeye faces are probably still that color picturing him pouring on five TDs against them in 2021. Joining him is a 2020 Panini Playbook RC of former Pats LB Josh Uche. New England flipped him to the Chiefs last October but he barely played with them, and then signed with KC's Super Bowl opponents in Philly after the season ended. Out of the 14 Uche RCs I'm tracking, I'm now past 50% with eight out of 14.

So, yeah, not much this time, but that's ok because it made for less work in this post! After tomorrow's trip I'll get y'all another show recap once I'm caught up on May and June. Looking at my scanned stuff I think that'll amount to a pair of blogger trades, two more shows, eBay pickups for the first half of the year, a few TCDb deals before I disabled transactions for quite a while, and another fun Dave & Buster's sports-related prize.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th as we get closer to the MLB All-Star break!

2025 trade package #8: Cards on Cards

We've now made it to the March portion of my year of collecting, and trade-wise that month's first package came from Kerry of Cards on Cards. My college/pro collector buddy on the other side of the country sent me a very nice envelope stuffed with cards representing the three most popular American sports:

The baseball stuff all fit into one scan. Madden is potentially the future of the Tigers' rotation, just like JV was in the past. Maddux and Ripken form half of my big four thanks to Panini brands, while Griffey and Gwynn join them courtesy of a much older Panini sticker set (1991). Star left side infielders Sabo and Tram also came along for the ride in diminutive and sticky form. And speaking of past Tigers, there's a cool BInge from 2000 Bowman's Retro/Future parallel that threw it back to '55 Bowman.

Basketball ended up being the top dog sport this time, which as always was fine since pretty much everything was new to my relatively small collection! Bufkin was one of a few players who got a nice little bump to their PCs, and his bunch includes a few sets that pop up several times here, including a Donruss Winter parallel, Hoops, and Hoops' separate Winter release (which I'm writing about as we happily get closer to summer). THJ, Howard, and LeVert all appeared on just one card this time, but that's cool since they're all pretty well represented in my basketball collection as it is.

Poole stars on a fun trio--a number apropos of a guy who hit a big trey in the NCAA tourney years ago--including a very patriotic Prizm parallel that goes well with the upcoming holiday. Duncan Robinson, another three-point ace, gets a quartet added to his collection highlighted by the start of a Hoops/Winter rainbow. And then we get a look at Orlando's Wagner Bros., Franz and

Mo! This post made me check my count for both of them and currently Franz leads Moritz 53-22, which is a good indicator of which one is more highly regarded in the league.

Last up is one scan of football, all of which comprises guys from the past 10 years of the program. Colson, Corum, and McCarthy are all RCs from the latest edition of Panini's Absolute brand, specifically the non-SN retail set (I do chase those along with the hobby versions). Those guys are joined by fellow national champions Donovan Edwards (UDFA this year), Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, and a RC of WR Roman Wilson. A couple recent high-end defenders close out the group in Aidan Hutchinson (on another Michigan uni card!) and Kwity Paye, as seen on a Prestige Xtra Points parallel.

Kerry, thanks as always for taking the time to identify and send me cards of the pro and college players I collect! I continue to appreciate the effort you put into your trade packages and the quality of what you send, so I'm grateful for another envelope of goodness.

I'll be back soonish with the other package I received in March before showing off cards from other sources.

2024 trade package #25: My Sports Obsession

I'm fresh off watching Michigan's hilarious bowl victory over an Alabama team that claimed they belonged in the Playoff and then did that against basically the Wolverines bench. Now I've got three more December trade packages to cover this afternoon/evening to meet my goal of getting them all done before the new year.

Fortunately for me I'm able to front-load the work as the largest remaining package is the one that got to me next. This was a roughly 200+-count box from buddy of the blog and fellow Michigan fan Jeff of My Sports Obsession. Jeff, I hope you enjoy reading this post in the afterglow of one of our more unlikely bowl victories in team history!

This one took a whole bunch of scans to recap, so settle in for lots of cards to eyeball:

Well damn, a sweet Sparky trio is a great way to start out strong! I remain grateful that the most important manager of my lifetime still gets the odd cardboard appearance. Miggy's count climbs with a high-quality three-spot of his own. And a third franchise legend joins the scan in Ty Cobb, who you'll see in two more scans in this post, including the next one. Stadium Club and Diamond Kings are products with designs that will always appeal to me more than plainer fare such as flagship Topps.

Two more Cobbs to start this scan look Georgia peachy to me thanks to Topps Chrome Platinum and an era-appropriate Sepia parallel from Stadium Club. Cronenworth is one of a bunch of guys in this post that both Jeff and I collect and I'm happy we can keep sending them back and forth, especially when I get beauties like a Holo and another eye-popping Stadium Club look. Elliott, a 2022 2nd-rounder out of Michigan, is probably another guy I found out about thanks to following Jeff's posts as he's often better at catching the newer guys than I am. Griffey stars on one of a number of instances of the fantastic Topps Museum product. And my Gwynn PC got a very nice boost in this package--including one of my favorites in Stadium Club Chrome--with a bunch more in the next scan too!

See? Lots more Gwynn, lots of fantastic designs! Museum, Stadium Club, Chrome Platinum, Gold Label, and some inserts too. Lots of great additions to his collection. The crazy Prizm parallel represents another PC guy we share in P Steven Hajjar on a Michigan uni card. And he's followed by a Retail version of a Mr. Tiger Panini Absolute base.

No suspense here as the Griffey/Gwynn pairing above joins Maddux and Ripken in this scan to complete the big four PC group. Cal's probably the player we trade back and forth the most in terms of our shared PCs, though a few guys probably do come close. I loved seeing Tram join Sparky above from the Purple Donruss parallel. Then, counting the next scan, we have four many Verlanders, which is twice as good as two, especially when they're this shiny.

With those three Chrome parallels I'm starting to approach JV rainbow territory. Baez's second appearance also gets the Chrome treatment. Cobb (Black Foil parallel) gets in on the action one more time with a flat-out classic shot of his baserunning skills. One of two last Gwynns serves as a reminder of one of Topps' recent-ish gimmicks, and then baseball goes out on top with Stadium Club base of two of my favorites--who retired and also entered Cooperstown in the same seasons--getting feted in fantastic horizontal shots.

Jeff also sent me a huge group of basketball Wolverines which I always appreciate since I don't put much money towards the sport. There was a fun mix of brands and designs with a few that popped up multiple times. A Premium Iggy tips things off, and then in a fun twist, I just looked on TCDb and found out that I now own as many cards of Kobe Bufkin as his namesake Mr. Bryant! THJ's in my top five with the four above him all over the 100-card mark. Houstan's a bit newer to the collection but the college card and shiny parallel here are great additions.

Young Jett Howard plays for the NBA's version of the Columbus Blue Jackets, a.k.a. Ann Arbor South, and his dad's fourth in my PC with 123 cards. LeVert is #7 and one of eight players who've reached the 50-card milestone. Livers may not be with the Pistons anymore but Cracked Ice parallels often look cool. McGary's college and pro careers were both far too short.

With the number of Jordan Poole cards I've received this year I'm somewhat surprised he's not ranked higher, but he's still just one card shy of joining my top 10 cagers thanks to hauls like this one. Remember when that Prizm Monopoly product was a huge thing for a minute? Just one card for Rice but the NCAA champ remains top dog with 206 cards, still the only player to eclipse the double century mark.

If Robinson's parents had any foresight they would have named him "Three-Point" instead of Duncan since he was responsible for way more of the former than the latter. Rose is the last of my top four over the 100-card mark and grouped nicely with two of his Fab Five teammates. Sauce Castillo was a fun guy to watch in college and the pros, and as the UD card captures, he indeed helped Michigan to the NCAA tourney final in 2013, a six-point loss to champion Louisville. Wagner bro Franz closes out the basketball group, and the young star's card count has absolutely exploded in my collection, climbing up to 47 for the 9th spot.

Now we switch over to the sport of the day: football. Believe it or not, Brady's not my top football guy--that distinction belongs to his fellow QB Brian Griese--and Tom Terrific ranks only #7, the last guy in my football 300-club. That's probably because I really don't put money into a guy like him since his prices tend to be overinflated. Still, you can always count on the kindness of strangers friends, and I appreciate this six-pack from Jeff! He also sent me a nice bunch of five cards of transfer RB Zach Charbonnet, who's had his ups and downs with Seattle.

I'm not quite a quarter of the way through the RCs of Charbonnet I'm chasing but it does help when someone's nice enough to send them to me! Charlton was a fun player with a cool nickname. Collins is two TDs away from matching his career high of 8 set last year, and maybe he can come up with a big pair in Sunday's game. Speaking of a big pair, actually, let's make that a three-of-a-kind with RBs Corum, Edwards, and Haskins here. I need as many as I can get of the first two, with Corum in his first year and the Don headed for the draft.

Meanwhile, Hutch continues to climb the leaderboards thanks to days like this one, and I hope the former Hot Rookie gets a chance to return in a big way for a Lions playoff game. The Bowman Chrome U love continues in this scan with a pair of champs in Johnson, an upcoming first-rounder, and McCarthy, who was anything but unexpected to Michigan fans, but most definitely a delight thanks to his calm leadership. I don't wish transfer QB McNamara anything but good health (and maybe a better head) next season. The Prestige card of the former "Money" kicker is the highlight of two Moody cards, though he's going through a nightmare season for the Niners and clearly isn't right after an injury. And Ojabo has quietly put up a couple sacks this season for Baltimore, though I don't get the impression that his playing time has been growing.

If you could pick a color for a parallel on a DPJ Browns card, why would you go with anything other than orange? Schoonmaker has one game left to try to equal his rookie season total of 2 TDs while his teammate Mazi has been slightly better during his own sophomore campaign. I love Donruss' Rated Rookies cards and the Optic of defensive back DJ Turner looks sweet! WR Roman Wilson joins a few of his other title teammates in this post on another excellent card. And GOAT DB Charles Woodson gets three more for his own collection, enough to secure him the #3 spot by that many cards over Braylon Edwards.

We're not quite done yet because there were two cool Prizm relics of recent Wolverines in this package. Charbonnet makes his second hits PC appearance with a Neon Green Pulsar parallel of his jersey card, and that's joined by my first relic of Lions terrorizer Aidan Hutchinson: a beautiful Honolulu blue swatch!

And even then we're still not quite done because Jeff included a rare hockey card, though given the photo it was an obvious inclusion. Shields was an excellent netminder in the early 90s, winning 111 games before suiting up for the Sabres, Sharks, Ducks, Bruins, Panthers, and Thrashers in parts of 10 NHL seasons. The photo of him in action at what I'm guessing is Yost Ice Arena is as Classic as the card's brand.

Jeff, thank you once again for this absolutely ridiculous stack of cards that hit so many of my PCs! I hope you enjoyed your own Christmas package, and I can promise plenty more White Sox, Michigan, and other PC cards will be heading back your way in 2025, when I hope we can also meet up at a few shows.

Stay tuned this evening for two more (much shorter) trade recaps to close out the year!

2024 trade package #24: Cards on Cards

Continuing with my marathon posting of trade packages this evening, here's #1 from earlier this month: a basketball-heavy mailer thanks to Kerry from Cards on Cards. Maybe this is something he can read as he nervously awaits his Oregon team's Wednesday Rose Bowl matchup with the hated Buckeyes. My suggestion: the Ducks wear crazy-ass jerseys all the time anyway so why not make an Oregon version of the iconic winged helmet and wait for Ryan Day to poop his pants like he usually does? Oh, and I happen to know that he has another envelope from me that may include one or more Ducks whenever he gets a chance to open it.

Anyway, here's what Kerry sent me earlier this month:

Most of the baseball fit in this one scan. Like his cards above, Baddoo may be feeling Blue after being DFAed so new pitcher Alex Cobb could join the roster. Greene, whose roster spot is secure, looks groovy on the Big League card, and he also offers my first look at this year's Stadium Club Chrome insert (not to be confused with the separate base issue). I wonder if Jung will get a chance to stick with the club now that Gleyber Torres has been signed and other moves may be in the works. Donruss' recent products are geared toward folks like me who love collecting classics like Sisler. Skubal, who's going to be very, very rich within a couple years, was an All-Star this year, as the above Topps insert reminded me. Verlander comprises the rest of the baseball content, and the shiny version of his Attax card makes the all-too-common regular versions seem even uglier than they are, if that's even possible.

Topps' flagship design has always been hit or miss with me, mostly the latter, but Stadium Club is rock solid when it comes to looks. I love the horizontal Verlander photo of him finishing his pitching motion, and the Sepia parallel looks quite nice as well.

Most (but not all!) of the rest of the content is basketball, and Hoops-related products are well represented. That works for me since I needed practically everything here! As with football, Panini released a Halloween-themed product called Haunted Hoops, and Bufkin and the younger Howard are two of the former Wolverines you can find in it. Burke is "just" a regular Hoops RC (nice!) and former UM coach Howard gets just his second card from the past decade to join my collection thanks to 2023-24 Topps Chrome, with Topps having to do the logoless thing like Panini does with baseball.

LeVert, Poole, Robinson, and both Wagner brothers also get the Haunted Hoops treatment here. Every card you've seen has been a base except for the two Orange parallels--Bufkin above and Poole here. Poole also gets a new Panini Flux for his PC, Robinson joins Bufkin above from the apparently-difficult-to-scan Hoops Premium Stock product, and Franz adds appearances from Panini Illusions and the most recent Topps Chrome.

Remember a bunch of the guys we just saw? Well they're back--in sticker form! These are all 2023-24 Panini Stickers, and four of them are standard versions while Poole gets a cool holofoil entry and Franz appears in the Global Icons subset representing his native Germany. I hope both Wagner brothers heal up in time to run it back next season!

Lastly, I can always count on a fellow college collector like Kerry to send some Wolverines my way. Better yet, half of these are college uni photos! Hutchinson's season ended too soon earlier this year but with the injury luck the Lions have had in 2024 there's no doubt he wouldn't have made it through the season anyway. That doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for collecting him, and I continue to root for his team to keep winning to make my friends who are Lions fans happy.

His former teammate J.J. McCarthy suffered his own injury before even making it through the preseason, and I hope he returns to health next year as well. For now I'll keep collecting him, especially Michigan cards like the above pair of Score inserts which remind me of happier memories earlier this year when JJ led Michigan to a national championship.

And lastly, I guess the theme of this section is injured recent Wolverines because Wilson also dealt with similar issues in the preseason and has barely played so far in 2024. His pro debut may be done prematurely but boy did he come up big time and time again for last year's title-winners catching 12 TDs including the one that tied the Rose Bowl against Alabama with under 2:00 to go in the eventual OT win for the Maize & Blue. While I tend to favor Score's RC design, Prestige does sometimes have its moments, and I've always appreciated them using college shots as well.

Kerry, thanks again for this envelope stuffed with Tigers and Wolverines! I'll continue my full-throated support for your team especially as a matchup looms with a team with possibly the most toxic fans in the nation. GOOD LUCK, DUCKS!

Well that's three posts I've done today and that leaves three for New Year's Eve, giving me something to do as I watch Michigan's noon bowl game against Alabama (again). Most of the impact players will be gone due to the draft or transferring, and it was already looking like a mismatch before taking that into account, so I won't be expecting a win, but regardless I'll be thankful for one last 2024 Michigan Football game after the calendar year began on the best note possible. LET'S GO BLUE!

2024 trade package #17: Cards on Cards

I'm in a very thankful mood as I write this post, and not just because this past Thursday was turkey day. I'm grateful I still have family around as I get older, and friends to hang out with, a secure job, enough money to live my lifestyle, and a home.

And more specifically, today I'm very thankful that my Michigan Wolverines beat Ohio State for the fourth straight year despite breaking in a first-year coach, weathering injuries, having one of the worst QB room/offensive coordinator combos in program history, and having nothing to play for but pride, But they did it anyway!

And even more specifically to the hobby and this blog, I'm extremely grateful to everyone I have the privilege of trading with and talking to about cards, plus those who read and even comment over here despite my relative lack of posts.

In a similar vein, I'm very thankful for old blog friends I go way back with, like Kerry of Cards on Cards. Kerry's my college team/pro teams collecting doppelganger in the northwest, and he was one of the earlier folks I traded with waaaay back in 2010 not long after I started Too Many Grandersons. He sent me a fairly large envelope of stuff back in August, and I'm thankful that folks like him don't mind me taking until it's a hair before December to recap it!

Here's what he sent:

Some big names I collect to start things off with Miggy, Cronenworth, Greenberg, Greene, and Junior Griffey. Jake was born eight years after Topps originally used that design in 1986.

That's Griffey and now Gwynn and Maddux; Will the quartet be completed? Read on to find out. But first, check out these super nice additions to my collection of Matt Manning. My favorite: the 3D card, easily. We need more of these and fewer Refractor patterns (colors are fine). The Clearly Donruss acetate card is a close second, though!

His fellow high draft pick Mize also gets in on the action to a lesser degree. Morris and a few other '84 Tigers popped up in that Pinnacle Limited set much to the benefit of Detroit collectors like myself. Oh, and the short wait is over: Kerry did indeed complete the group by including four Ripkens, including a cool Red (I think?) parallel numbered /2023. Cy Young-winner Skubal is next, and while I fully expect our cheap-ass owners not to make a reasonable attempt to sign him, I'll enjoy him wearing the Olde English "D" as long as I can.

Next, Tork is definitely facing a make-or-break season as a former top guy who'll need to earn a spot on a team that should be contending in the AL Central. I really like the mix of Panini designs Kerry included here. The Sport Kings card you see of Tram is my first of the HOF SS from 2024, and that's another one of those products than can be useful for finding players you don't necessarily see much elsewhere. Hopping back to present players, could Verlander return to the Tigers? It's not out of the question, but locating that cool gold playing card-type issue on TCDb was as I'll need to do research on a checklist. Finishing out the baseball stuff, Griffey and Cronenworth make repeat appearances while a John Denny Swell card from 1990 puts me down to just nine short of that set.

While Michigan Football's overall record this year has been pretty disappointing (though wins over the two rivals on the schedule sure helped!), the basketball team is looking pretty nice under new coach Dusty May. I know I said that in my last post but that continues to be the case. None of the guys in this scan played for him but they've all since played in the NBA so that's cool. Bufkin's in his second season with Atlanta, THJ is putting up some minutes with the Pistons, and Houstan and Howard are both with Ann Arbor's pro franchise in the south, Orlando (more on that below).

The former coach's son is getting increased minutes for the Magic in his second season, which is nice to see. Speaking of familiar names, I think most people know Jordan Poole and Duncan Robinson, whether or not they know about their Ann Arbor connection.

I haven't seen this many Duncans at once since Kerry's Cardinals employed father & son duo Dave and Chris! Rose is one of a couple Fab-Fivers you'll see tonight. And as for Franz Wagner...

...the budding Magic star is yet another Orlando player represented here. It may be too late for me to get an autograph of Mo's younger brother at a reasonable price but I really appreciate Kerry passing along this many cards of Franz in one package. Meanwhile, THJ makes one more appearance in sticker form and then we have Jett's dad on a phone card, which is such a 1990s thing I think I just teleported to the mall to go to a music store after watching an episode of TRL when I got home from school. A very cool addition indeed!

And now the team of the day: the football Wolverines! My (new) Big Ten buddy is familiar with how to identify who played for my school just like I'm more than happy to look up guys from his. Transfer TE Erick All makes his collection debut out of '23 SAGE HIT, appearing in a Michigan uni despite having transferred to Iowa. Brady's about the most well-known Wolverines guy in the business but I really have to talk up fellow QB-turned-broadcaster Devin Gardner, who did an outstanding job calling Michigan's game last week after having done a very insightful podcast for a few years. Speaking of successful QBs, I was very happy to see a couple rookie-adjacent cards of '97-'98 champ Brian Griese out of Fleer Brilliants and Upper Deck UD3. Buckeye-killer Haskins is back in the NFL with Jim Harbaugh's Chargers while blog favorite QB Chad Henne rode off into the sunset after carrying the clipboard for another Chiefs title team. Turner is sadly out for the season for the Bengals but hopefully the DB will come back stronger than ever next year.

And last up tonight are these two former Wolverines receivers, both pictured wearing the Maize & Blue on Leaf autographed cards even though they each transferred out! Black was a fairly highly touted WR recruit who produced very little in three seasons before transferring to Texas for the doomed 2020 COVID season. This marks my third signature of the 4* from Connecticut.

Henning, who's also making his collection debut tonight, appeared over the 2020-22 seasons for the Wolverines, rushing for a pair of scores in 2021, with none bigger than the opening score of that year's edition of The Game. Ohio State has yet to beat its hated rival ever since. Meanwhile, Henning remained in the conference and headed to Northwestern, where he picked up five total TDs (four catches and a run) in '23. This season he caught four more and that'll do it as the Wildcats won't be bowling with a 4-8 record. We'll always have that TD in the inspiring '21 OSU win, though!

Kerry, thanks so much again for all of this great stuff! I really appreciate how well you hit so many of my various collections, and it remains a pleasure trading with you for going on 15 years. I'll be gladly including you in this year's Christmas cards and already have a few things set aside for you.

Up next will be one more August envelope, and then we'll see if I pivot to wrapping up the rest of the year's trades before I get to everything else because I always feel like those should get priority.

2023 trade package #23: Cards on Cards

Let's get back to my pile of trades to cover with a fun package sent by my MLB/NCAA collecting counterpart in the west, Kerry of Cards on Cards!

This one included a nice amount of baseball, a bit of football, and to my surprise, a whole lotta basketball stuff. While the latter sport is my least favorite to watch, it's always great receiving those cards in trades because I put very little money and effort into those PCs. That means just about anything sent my way has a high likelihood of being new to me, plus it bulks up some collections that I'm often neglecting otherwise.

So here's a look at what my future Big Ten-watching pal sent this time:

Baseball 1 of 2: There was some chatter that Baddoo might not be in the team's plans next season but other than the recent acquisition of Mark Canha I haven't seen anything to support that so I'll keep on collecting him and his many crazy parallels. Kudos to Kerry for including the Russ Brock since he's a bit of a deep cut out of my Michigan Baseball PC! I don't know if the reality of Miggy retiring will really hit me until he's not in the lineup next season. And thank you to folks like Kerry for bulking up my Cronenworth collection in packages like this one to the point that I've eclipsed the century mark. There's so few active UM alumni these days that I especially appreciate people finding his cards to send me. And Cal's Optic card features a different view of his unorthodox stance.

Baseball 2 of 2: a classic shot of Gorgeous George leads off, followed by a two-pack of Tigers rising star slugging 1B Spencer Torkelson. We might just see him in the neighborhood of 30 bombs next year, and I hope the front office gives him some lineup help.

The baseball group then ends, appropriately enough, with blog namesake guy JV. The Mosaic Aces insert looks quite cool, then we have a pair of Mets cards to document his short stay with the dysfunctional New York franchise ("LOL which one?!"). Finally, how about a relic card with a design as eyeball-popping as anything made by the guy I wrote about in my last post, Mike Cramer? The oversized relic card is numbered to just 99 and looks to be my 30th hit out of what now amounts to more than 600 cards, another fun milestone!

And now we have the first of five(!) basketball scans. This one features just two players: Trey Burke and Jamal Crawford. Burke was a blast to watch in college and Crawford seemed to be in the league forever (20 seasons, counting one game in 2019-20) while suiting up for nine teams. There's some nice looking base designs for both of these players and each gets a solid collection bump: Burke's right at 30 and Crawford sits at 39.

Not only does this 100% THJ scan feature a nice bit of color, but it also includes a pair of season-appropriate Hoops Winter cards. You'll see a few more of those in the rest of the scans. My favorites have to be the Prizms, though, with the Red/White/Blue having the best color combo, but I think I like the design of the first Green card up top a bit more. This bounty bounces his collection up to 54, good for 6th place in my collection.

Other than a single Mitch McGary card here (#12 in his collection), the star of this scan is former four-year Wolverine LeVert. Once again there are some mighty fine designs here, especially the Revolution and Optic cards, but nothing tops that Prizm, which I believe is called "Red White Orange Shimmer." You'll see a couple more of his items below which means Kerry sent me 10, and those vaulted Caris into the top 10 of my basketball collections with 42 cards, one more than I own of Michael Jordan via the sets I've built!

Just a bit more variety here with four players represented. I'm glad Poole got dealt away from the Warriors and complete toolbag Draymond Greene, though I wonder if his best days may be behind him after a legendary NCAA tourney performance and a title with Golden State in '22. The first two cards of his trio look especially nice, and when I add them to what I had before I now own 21 Pooles.

I'll handle GRIII and Sauce Castillo together as they were teammates from 2012-14 in Ann Arbor. Both were drafted in 2014 after a pair of good seasons though neither is in the NBA at this point. It looks like I have nine Robinson cards, fewer than the 16 I own of his dad. Stauskas is a bit more prevalent among the hoopers I collect with 21 cards.

And then including the next scan I can show off six cards of the younger of the two Wagner bros to play for Michigan: Franz. Just like Hardaway above I was treated to a pair of Hoops Winter cards and a reminder that the season is coming with its frigid temperatures whether or not I like it. What I do like is shiny cards like the last one in this scan, and collecting brothers who played for the same college program and are now teammates in the league (along with fellow Wolverines Caleb Houstan and Jett Howard!). Including the three you'll see next, I now claim ownership of 24 of Franz's cards, and that has me :clap: pumped up.

Last up in basketball we have a four-pack of the older Wagner bro, Mo. I'll still take Donruss's Rated Rookie logo over Topps' rookie cup any day, but that's me. The two Panini Status cards--a rookie and Rookie Prominence insert--are shiny and cool and right up my alley. The group grows his collection to 14, a distant 10 away from little bro. Speaking of which, Franz joins the previous seen LeVert in sticker form bringing to mind the original iteration of Panini and the stickers they sold.

One last scan will take us home tonight, and that includes the two football cards in the package. Before he headed to the NFL and some legal trouble, Haskins etched his name in program lore with five TDs against a soft Buckeyes squad to put Michigan back in the win column of the rivalry in 2021. Appropriately enough you see him here in the winged helmet, probably racing past another defender with no chance at stopping him.

Ordinarily a college uni card would be my favorite but I'll give the edge to a new item for one of my top PCs, Chad Henne. One of six players to hit the 300-card mark among the gridiron guys I collect, Henne is seen on a 2013 Prizm Pulsar parallel that could only be one color for a Michigan alum: Blue. Great find, Kerry!

Many thanks to Kerry for this outstanding pile of cards, most of which, if not all, were new to me! I'm grateful to have a few friends who also collect college teams because it's so much fun seeing what we can find for each other.

With this one covered, I hope to recap a few more trade packages soon!