2024 trade package #20: Baseball Card Breakdown

Christmas is just a few days away but tonight I'll be showing off cards I received from someone born the day before the big holiday. Longtime friend Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown sent me some cool stuff back in September and it's about time I posted it:

Scan #1 includes two things I associate Gavin with more than pretty much anyone else. First is one of his trademark customs. His creativity has resulted in him using many different methods to create them, and one of them is sun bleaching. While I think he debuted that technique with the eye-blindingly yellow 1991 Fleer set, you can see he also gave it a try with 1988 Topps, and I was treated to Tram's All-Star subset appearance in that product.

Here's a look at the back which also includes a cool custom feature:

I really like the stamp Gavin uses as a calling card, and that he also signs his initials. What a treat these are! One of these days I really will try to show off the various customs he's (and maybe others) sent me in the long time that I've known him.

A dogged pursuit of a number of Topps' extremely cool Retired/Fan Favorites base and autograph sets is another thing I associate with Gavin. His accumulation of some of the tougher cards, especially from Archives Reserve and Retired Chrome Refractors really is impressive. If you don't believe me for some strange reason, head over to his blog and check them out.

As for me, I was super happy to receive the five-spot of '03 Topps Retired base you see above. The product used that year's flagship design but went with white instead of blue borders, and somehow that made them look even classier in combination with their great vintage photos. Gavin gifted me Sparky, '84 Tigers Evans and Gibby, phenomenon Fidrych, and HOFer Kell, which gave me six from that set (to go with the Tram I already had). I just updated my wantlist and appear to need Kaline, Gwynn, Ripken, and former Phillie/Tiger Jim Bunning. Again, I can't overstate how much I like the looks of these, made back in the days when Topps actually cared about design.

That's not all he sent, though, as I have one more scan of goodies. A Rainbow Foil of John's favorite guy (and new Cubs P) Matt Boyd leads off. That's followed by a Ginter X base of one of my personal faves, former blog namesake Curtis Granderson. Do I have too many? The answer is still no, but I'm proud to be in the lead on TCDb, at least for now.

Another former Tigers P on a Topps parallel is up next with ex-RP Shane Greene out of 2018 Update's Gold insert, which is naturally numbered to that year. Then we jump to another classy design in the form of Topps' Heritage Minors (2011), and a surprise autograph of former prospect Francisco Martinez, an IF/OF that played a couple stints in Detroit's system but never reached the Majors. His rather interesting signature graces a card numbered /861 on the back.

Former ROY Michael Fulmer is the final pitcher in today's post, and maybe from the scale of his card compared to the others you can tell it's from Topps Mini's 2019 version. He didn't pitch in the Majors this year but rumors exist that the Red Sox may try to shift him back to the rotation, and regardless, I hope he gets to enjoy a healthy season.

And the last card is one that brings to mind base-stealing king Rickey Henderson, who sadly passed away yesterday. Nobody's ever going to do it better than him, but back in 1997 the Tigers had an OF by the name of Brian Hunter, and he led the Majors in steals with 74, which is exactly what Rickey averaged per 162 games in his 25-year career. In '98 Topps's Stadium Club brand included a parallel called One of a Kind that was limited to 150 copies, not quite living up to the name, but they looked cool. Hunter's card appropriately shows him zooming in the direction of the next base on a beautiful foil parallel I'm now proud to have in my collection.

Gavin, thanks so much for these cards from about three months ago, and happy early birthday! There's a chance you'll get a small envelope from me this week in time to celebrate because I'd never leave a Christmas Eve baby/collecting friend out of my Christmas cards!

As for gifts that have hit my mailbox, I currently have one envelope left from September to cover, then two each from November and December, as long as no others decide to appear before the end of the month. Stay tuned for the September cards next!

A super 2023 TCDb trade roundup, part 2

As is sometimes the case I have a lot of non-card stuff going on right now, hence my posting even less than usual, and that includes needing to temporarily move my collection and other things in my house for carpet installation. Still, I'm trying to sew up my 2023 pickups, so let's blast through the rest of the trades/PIFs I received from TCDb friends last year.

I specifically grouped these together because these items came from four of my closest friends on the site, some of whom I talk to just about every day, discussing checklist updates/fixes, fun new pickups, and anything else we feel like.

First up is Shawn, a.k.a. corky. The former Washington resident (now in Arizona) hangs out on the site once in a while and does great work when he's around, plus he's an excellent trader.

He sent me some very cool Griffeys, including a '96 Ultra promo, plus an oddball of another former Mariner I collect in Putz. And former UM CB Dave Brown is included on a sweet Seahawks card which stars another well-known Seattle guy in Largent.

Thanks, Shawn!

Next, Wisconsinite Brian (firesnbeers) sent me a bunch of stuff throughout the year in PIF form. The 2023 TCDb Member of the Year--and very deservedly so given his hard work and generosity on the site!--went to the National, so some of what you'll see below came from there, plus some came from a card shop not too far from him.

These came from a PIF about a year ago. That Conlon card is Vick's lone cardboard issue listed on TCDb, and it's now part of my Michigan Baseball PC. He played baseball and football for the Wolverines in the late 1910s/early 20s, apparently liking positions starting with a "C": catcher and center. Though his MLB career, 57 games over four seasons with the Cards, was short, he did win a ring with the '26 champion St. Louis squad, though he didn't actually appear in the Fall Classic.

There was a good bit of football content in that mailing as well, including the QB-heavy group above.

I can also often count on Brian to send me a nice bunch of Packers stuff since that comes with his territory, and he's especially reliable for getting oddball-ish stuff like police issues. Hence the additions to my Des and Woodson PCs from the group above.

The next bunch of scans came from a big August '23 mailing that included some National pickups, interesting stuff from his card shop, and lots more. Sweet Miggy cards here!

Gwynn, former Tigers, and a Rich Hill, excellent!

Hell yeah, even more of yesterday's birthday boy Dick Mountain, and in numbered form in a couple cases! More Tigers and another Michigan Baseball alum too.

Former Tigers in the wrong uniforms start off this scan but there's other cool stuff, including even more Hills! And one of the top cards in the whole package is the second oldest George Kell in my collection, out of 1955 Bowman. Wow!

He picked out these Topps Mini Pink parallels from the National after finding a nice deal on them and I thought that was very cool, though I did make sure to send the Jones to Paul as he still collects JaCoby.

A few more very interesting items here. The two columns of '79 Topps cards are from a box or uncut sheet or something, I forget which, but I thought it would be fun to add because of the presence of Bergman, another former Tiger in Corcoran, and of course the Maris/Aaron combo. Northrup is a '71 Topps Super and represents my first piece of that odd but great product's run. And last up is an Al Kaline mini record that was also made in 1971 by Mattel. That quickly became one of the most unique items in my collection!

There was plenty more football in this package as well, and a really nice mix of players to boot.

More football and more recent guys in Michigan unis. SAGE even managed their usual level of QC by calling former Michigan star DB Hill "Draxton" instead of Daxton.

And the last of the football and this package overall. A couple Topps Total multiplayer cards feature ex-Wolverines, a Score Red Siege parallel of former WR Chris Calloway looks great, and backfield bowling ball Leroy Hoard is high-steppin' on an extra tall Fleer GameDay card.

And now we're into the last PIF Brian sent me which was back in October. The first of two baseball scans offers more Miggy, three quarters of my Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken quartet (don't worry--Cal's included in the next scan), and, oh yeah, just another vintage HOF card: Al Kaline's '71 Topps. Awesome!

There's the Ripken I was referring to, along with Gwynns big and, uh, normal, and another Maddux.

And lastly, Brian made a big trade with another member and arranged to acquire cards for a few folks, which was very nice of him. I took advantage of his offer by picking up all of these needs for my '94 Finest and Pinnacle and '95 Finest sets.

Thanks again for a bunch of amazing PIF cards, especially the vintage and oddball stuff, Brian!

Next we have my fellow Michigander Jason (jasongerman9), the first of this group that I've met in-person, which I'll detail more in a future show recap. Jason's a baseball coach at a college near where he lives close to the Michigan/Indiana border, and it's easy to find stuff he can use as he has a huge wantlist of Reds and other PCs. He sent me a few nice sized PIFs last year broken down like this:

PIF #1 last February included a fun mix of baseball, basketball, and football stuff. If that Mosaic Kaline isn't emblematic of today's Panini, I don't know what is! I knew Jason was sending me the two IP/TTM autos of NCAA champ Glen Rice but they were still fun to get all the same.

There was even more football to enjoy but the top highlights by far were the super vintage mini RCs of Albert "Ox" Wistert and John Greene out of 1948 and '50 Bowman, respectively:

Albert was one of three brothers (Francis, a.k.a. "Whitey," and Alvin a.k.a. "Moose") to suit up for Michigan (but not at the same time) and all of them were OTs. This one played in Ann Arbor from 1940-42, then was selected by the Eagles, with whom he earned a selection to the first ever Pro Bowl plus a pair of pre-Super Bowl Championships. His #11, worn by all three of the brothers, is one of six to be retired by Michigan. He joins a few other ex-Wolverines in the '48 Bowman and/or Leaf sets as a rookie and represents a tie with Bob Nussbaumer from the same set as the oldest card in my Michigan PC!

Meanwhile, the '50 Bowman RC of ex QB/OL/other and wrestler Greene is just one of two cards in his name cataloged on TCDb, with the other being a 1986 reprint of this exact card, which hails from the same set as that of HOFer Elroy Hirsch's first year. He played in Ann Arbor in the early 40s before being drafted by the nearby Lions where he was basically a TE from 1944-50.

These two very early RCs are incredible and I can't thank Jason enough, probably because I owe him even more thanks for...

...this super cool custom jersey of my favorite former Michigan RB...

...Mike Hart! It turns out that Jason had a connection that could make something like this and asked me what name/number combo I'd want if such a thing was possible. I thanked him profusely for getting this made for me and was glad to wear it a few times last season during the team's national championship run with Hart guiding the running backs. Sadly, Hart is no longer with the team apparently for personal reasons, but I'll always be thankful for his contributions on the field and the sidelines (and to Jason for my favorite Michigan jersey in my entire wardrobe!).

Moving ahead to July, he sent me a Tigers-filled PWE with some great looking stuff in it. I was especially happy to get more Miggy stuff during his sunset season, but the Orange Refractor of Castro is quite cool as well.

These are limited to just 25 copies and this one was fairly close to being a Christmas card!

And here's the rest of the Tigers from that envelope highlighted by two guys I hope to see remain in the rotation throughout 2024 without any injuries, Manning and Skubal.

And finally in December he sent me some really nice Christmas cards. This scan features a lot of shiny stuff which I'm always a sucker for, and it's mostly Tigers plus a Cronenworth I didn't have. Sparky's Topps Chrome Platinum parallel is called a Platinum Toile Cream/Fuchsia Atomic Refractor (Topps and Panini parallels have long since jumped the shark) and is numbered /100. Meanwhile, I'm still a fan of Topps Tribute base cards I can get on the cheap or in trades because they look so premium.

TCP pops up in scan #2 as well and we're not even done yet after these! Remember when Grossman was a Tiger for a minute there? The two parallels you see of him are a Blue Mini-Diamond Refractor (/199) and a Black and White Mini Diamond Refractor. IF prospect Jack Lopez looks to appear on a similar version to the first Grossman but that's actually a Platinum Toile White/Blue Refractor numbered /199. OBVIOUSLY. Anyway, they look cool and that's a plus. Also, I've received so many copies of that Heritage Hill I don't know what to do with all of them!

And here's an exciting way to close out this group. Tram's sweet looking issue is a regular old (but plenty appreciated) Refractor. Charley Maxwell's 1962 Post Cereal card, just my third item of his, was one of two huge surprises in this envelope. The other was a 2009 SAGE HIT Cyan Plate of ex-Wolverine Tim Jamison! The Michigan DE played between 2005-08 and therefore saw the end of the Carr era and the beginning of the RichRod experience. He put up a reasonable 18.0 sacks and 28.5 TFL before appearing in a solid 56 games over six seasons with the Texans as an UDFA. I'm excited to have such a nice piece for my small collection of him!

Thanks for your generosity last year, Jason--that was some really impressive stuff you sent my way, and I look forward to more trading and hopefully meet-ups this year!

And last up tonight is a nice stack of stuff I got from longtime member Dan (vrooomed) to go with all of the other great items he sent me earlier in the year that I already covered. This was kind of a combination of a trade with a few surprises thrown in.

Dan threw in some newer Tigers to go with some Fielders I picked out, plus he included a cool STAR promo (and a shiny Miggy too). For those that don't know, he worked for the STAR company back in the 80s and therefore knows a good amount of what goes into producing cards. Also he had quite a few extras from those sets over the years to clear out, which you'll see more of in a bit.

Big and small, I trade for them all! Former Wolverine Ignasiak is another STAR card I'm sure I wouldn't have found otherwise. Keller joins my '91 Swell Greats set chase. And the minis of Bergman, Henneman, and Parrish join others in all three PCs!

I mentioned that Dan had lots of STAR cards to offer, and that included these nine minor league team sets that all included at least one PC guy I collect. Here's a quick list of the sets:

• 1988 Charlotte Rangers, Florida State League All-Stars, Ft. Lauderdale Yankees, Lakeland Tigers
• 1989 Burlington Braves (missing a few at the end of the checklist), Cedar Rapids Reds, Hamilton Redbirds (Cardinals)
• 1990 Elizabethtown Twins, Memphis Chicks (Royals)

I ended up with 10 player collection needs which was great, including two new Dean Palmers. Wolverines P Greg Everson got three new cards added to his total (including one in the next scan where he's referred to as "Chuck" on the front) and I now have five of his eight issues. Kamieniecki's well known enough, I think, and I've mentioned the late Powell a few times. However Karasinski (Braves P who didn't make the bigs) and Morse (Twins 2B, same) are making their collection debuts; Lata also gets a second card to his name.

I'm going to keep all of the sets intact because why not? Since I needed to scan the third Everson as the 10th card in the bunch, I thought I'd pull a few other stars that caught my eye. Juan Gon and Sosa joined Palmer in a star-studded '88 Charlotte set, Felipe Alou was a coach for the '88 FSL All-Star Game, and Conine was the best card found in the '90 Memphis Chicks set featuring future Royals.

Dan, once again, thank you for some super fun trading throughout 2023 and your generosity in sending some very useful items my way!

And thank you once again to all four of these guys for being awesome friends and fellow TCDb members! The site is better with all of you actively trading, handling IRs, and providing advice, and I appreciate all that you do!

Lastly, thanks to everyone who doesn't care that I post like once a month sometimes. I'll be back at some point with my final 2023 post recapping my COMC Black Friday pickups.

2023 trade package #s 34-37: Bob Walk the Plank, The Collector, The Lost Collector, and A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts

So I can finish up covering the trades I received from bloggers last December before the calendar flips to March, here's a combined trade post featuring the last four envelopes that hit my mailbox before Christmas '23:

Former Bob Walk the Plank blogger Matt and I still manage to swap cards at least once or twice a year and I enjoy that we tend to keep things fairly high-end, or at least above average. This time he sent me a very nice Michigan-themed Christmas present after picking up some stuff from COMC:

Merry Richmas! Of the five you see there, four are new to me and the fifth was a great deal he didn't want to pass up despite knowing it was a dupe for me. The latter would be card #1 in the scan, a Bright Yellow Back from 2017 Heritage that isn't numbered but is limited to just 25 copies. That's most definitely a good idea of the generosity remaining in this envelope. The other Hills include his 2019 Topps Mini Pink parallel (/25), 2020 Topps Mother's Day "Hot Pink" (/50, and could have fooled me on the color!), 2020 Topps Mini Pink (/25), and 2020 Topps Update Black (/69, NICE). That's an outstanding selection of recent numbered Hills and it's not like I get to add this many of him at once very often!

Joining him on the baseball side is one more dupe Matt couldn't pass up, a 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Gold Refractor (/50). He's obviously got great taste because pre-2010-and-later Refractors continue to look fantastic!

Finishing up on the football end of things we have a pair of very rare Wolverines. Former TE and solid broadcaster Jake Butt is up first with a 2017 Panini Certified Mirror Green auto. It's really tough to make out on the scan but along the upper-right edge it's numbered a ridiculous 5/5--hell yeah! That's my 9th hit and 7th auto of the talented pass-catcher. Flipping over to defense, there's my third signature of LB Mike McCray, and certainly my best as it's a 2018 Elite Orange Status die-cut auto numbered 07/10. The signature's nothing to write home about (pun intended) but the card design--die-cut plus numbered--and home college uni action photo make this a winner in my book.

Thanks again for our yearly trading and in particular this outstanding Christmas present, Matt!

Next I have a fun surprise PWE from Chris, the Collector, which ended up being the second that he sent me last December and third since November:

Former Michigan pitcher and current Guardians prospect Steve Hajjar leads off this one. This is just the 9th card in his collection so the Wolverines uni-highlighted '21 Prizm Draft Green Pulsar Prizm was a fun surprise. I was of course thrilled to see another Rich Hill need out of '23 Topps Chrome Update even if Topps dropped the ball on showing him with the Padres. And Chris tapped into his extensive hockey knowledge to send me a foily 2002-03 Pacific Vanguard base of goalie Steve Shields, a very successful netminder in Ann Arbor in the early 90s who played for six teams over 10 NHL seasons.

And as if those weren't enough, the big prize was this full SI For Kids sheet from the November/December '23 issue starring none other than NCAA Champion RB Blake Corum (plus a few other notable names). Corum and his teammates delivered the greatest possible present to Wolverines fans after the holiday with a Rose Bowl win over Alabama and title win over Washington. He ended his extremely productive Michigan career with school highs in single-season rushing and total TDs and points scored and career records in those exact same stats. I look forward to seeing what he can do in the NFL though I wouldn't ask a single thing from him after his career in the college game that I much prefer anyway. But I'll be glad to add on to the paltry five cards I have for now.

Thank you, Chris, for the extra Christmas present!

Next, after sending me a nice chunk of cards last September, AJ the Lost Collector hit my mailbox again before Christmas with this small but effective group of cards:

I think I'm sensing some kind of theme here.... First up is what's easily my best card of WR Ronnie Bell so far, a '23 Prizm Draft Gold Ice Prizm. It's just my third card of the Niners pass-catcher who outperformed his recruiting ranking in college by a mile, and it'll be hard to top for a while! Breakout WR Nico Collins of the Texans is next, hailing from last year's Score set, and I look forward to seeing him continue his upward trajectory next season. RB/PR Chris Evans hasn't been able to get things going for the Bengals but I'm happy to continue to add his RCs to his collection either way, such as the '21 Donruss Optic up above. And how could you possibly go wrong with two defensive stars Michigan lost, only to continue their dominance in 2023, in Mazi Smith and DJ Turner, out of last year's Prestige? The brand continued its practice of using college photos, which of course I love, and I was glad to cross these off of the needs lists of those two players, for whom I now own two cards and one card of--welcome to the collection, DJ!

Thank you, AJ, for gifting these to me last year just before my team put a bow on possibly their best season ever!

And finally tonight, definitely the most Christmassy bunch of cards that could have sat under my tree came from A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts' Jon. Whether you're a fan of Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon" or get excited at the site of Christmas colors red, gold, and green, you'll love these as much as I did:

Panini's solid 2013 Cooperstown product offered cracked ice-type parallels in a number of colors, and Jon represented three of those over three different players in the HOF-themed product. Wolverine/Tiger Charlie Gehringer is up first with Gold and Red cards, which is great as I apparently already had the Green of him. The Golds are /299 with the Reds a more common /399. Tigers HOF hitter and iconic broadcaster George Kell is next, and Jon sent me his cards in three colors, including the Green, whose set is the most common and not numbered. Another former Wolverine, Gorgeous George Sisler, rounds out the group with a Red card of his own. I'll have to track down his Gold but do have his Green as well. I also have Blues /499 of Sisler and Gehringer, and need to track down Matrix (/325) cards of everyone seen here.

Jon, thank you for a very festive PWE of HOFer PCs (too many acronyms!) to close out the year in collecting, and I look forward to trading with you again this year!

Thank you once again to everyone who sent me cards in 2023, which resulted in an average of 1.5 envelopes/packages per month! No matter how long I keep blogging, I'll continue to work with all of you that enjoy swapping cards as it's one of my absolute favorite parts of being here. I already have some 2024 trades to show off once I finish up the rest of my '23 acquisitions, and I promise I'll get back to sending packages out myself soon. As a matter of fact, two are due to arrive to current trading buddies in the next day or so.

Next time: either TCDb deals (likely split into two parts), a show recap, eBay pickups, or my late-year COMC haul, though the latter will likely be my '23 finale.

2023 trade package #16: Baseball Card Breakdown

I may not post very often these days, but I do still keep up appearances, and having been around the card blogging scene for coming up on 13 years, I've traded with a lot of great people. One huge benefit of that longevity is great relationships with many of those trade partners who are still around. As much as I've been enjoying making deals on TCDb, there's nothing like the mutual trust I've built with some of my favorites over the past decade-plus.

One such person, who's deservedly well known and liked in this sphere is Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown. It looks like he hit the 10-year mark back in June, and a bit more than a year after he started up BCB we made our first trade (fittingly for this post, I received a Topps Retired Signature autograph!). This evening's post makes 12 deals I'll have reported on on this here blog, so needless to say, the history's there to make me feel plenty comfortable to keep working with him.

Well, I'd been checking out his trade bait page (seriously, give it a look!) now and then, and a couple  of his better items caught my eye. I reached out to him on Twitter to find out what he wanted for them. As it turns out, he showed off what he picked out in his June post celebrating 10 years of Baseball Card Breakdown. Long story short, he sent me links to a couple of his most wanted ("wishful thinking") items on COMC: a '57 Topps of Gil Hodges and '72 Topps Steve Garvey. The prices for those were so reasonable that I was happy to throw in a '78 Topps Trammell/Molitor RC I also snagged there. I was only too happy to do that knowing that Gavin made a very fair offer, he wouldn't flake on me, and would get my end of the deal to me safely, which he certainly did:

I should clarify that I only asked for the first two cards, which we'll discuss in a minute, but first, big thanks to Gavin for generously including Bill Freehan's 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Gold Refractor. Not only is it a beautiful looking card of one of my favorite underrated collections, but it's limited to just 25 copies! Or should be, at least--these were supposed to be numbered /25 on the back but both the copy Gavin sent me and the image on TCDb lack said stamp, making me think it's an issue across the entire run of this parallel. Anyway, as throw-ins go, this one was great!

Now on to the biggest items:

Both of tonight's new autographs hail from one of Gavin's favorite products: Topps' Retired Signature Edition. As you can see above, they came in taped one-touches, but that didn't stop me from removing them to get better scans. As these images show, that set featured retired fan favorites (and not just HOFers) on chrome-style cards using that year's flagship design, but with white replacing the blue borders and other design elements. I'm a fan of vintage photos on newer designs so I think these came out great.

First up is my third signature of a guy I'll forever associate with the '84 Tigers, '88 World Series history be damned (we had him first...and last!). Gavin had two such cards of Kirk Gibson and I opted for this one, where the end of his autograph kind of keeps running to the edge of the card. It features a great pair of photos of a young Gibby, and he had a pretty interesting way of signing his name back then, so it's a winning combo, not unlike his pair of game 5 homers in the 1984 Fall Classic.

And of course we get full career stats on the back, plus a hologram for authenticity purposes.

I'm very excited to add this one to his collection, especially since of the two other autographs I have of him, only one is still in good shape--Gibby's card from the following year's product, which I naturally acquired from Gavin; the other is a 2001 Topps Archives rookie reprint auto of his that came to me faded and has only gotten worse as time has gone on. I'll replace it at some point, but I still count it for now.

So the Gibson alone would be exciting enough, but the next card made the deal even sweeter, and definitely earned Gavin his side of the trade:

HOF corner infielder George Kell appeared in at least parts of seven seasons with the Tigers, his longest tenure with any franchise, and those 800+ games were played pretty much during his prime. Though you'll sometimes see him pictured with Boston or Baltimore (and rarely, Philly and the White Sox), I'll always consider him a Tiger based on the above, plus his run as a very enjoyable play-by-play guy with fellow star Al Kaline.

What you see here is my first on-card signature of Kell, replacing the 2010 Panini Century cut auto I've had of him for a while as his best card. The Arkansas native would have been about 81 when this was signed and he obviously did an excellent job with a very legible autograph. He obviously took his time which, at his age and considering the the number of cards he had to sign is admirable. And as with Gibson's card above, naturally I love the photos of George in his younger days.

Here's the back of his card as well, highlighting some especially good years in Motown, especially 1949, when the AL batting champ led both leagues; 1950, when he paced both circuits in hits and doubles; and 1951, when his numbers in both of those stats were enough to lead his own league.

I took a quick look at my collection and these two join cards I already owned of fellow Tigers Darrell Evans and Lance Parrish, plus Michigan guy Jim Abbott, out of the very cool 2003 product. In all, I count 13 cards in my collection that came out of the set's 2003-05 run, with Alan Trammell, Bill Freehan x2), Denny McLain, and Earl Weaver joining everyone mentioned above, plus secondary signatures for Evans, Abbott, and Gibby.

Many thanks once again to Gavin for having such nice trade bait available and making a more-than-fair deal that got a few nice cards in his hands for the stunning pair above, plus the generously included Freehan insert. I'll be glad to continue trading with him as long as we both keep at it and I know I can do so with confidence thanks to trades like this one.

Coming up next, I may take a quick break from blogger trades to catch up on the piles of TCDb trades, two shows' worth of cards, and an eBay pickup, just to mix things up a bit. We'll see. Anyway, I've got lots more cards to cover so if you like show & tell posts--and I hope you do since that's about 99% of what I do these days--you're in for lots more to look at!