11/8/25 card show report: a triple "J" meetup

For what will likely be my final post of 2025 (man, the year went by so fast!) I'm going to close the book on my collecting for November by covering the show I went to the weekend after the one I just covered.

Thanks to a bye in Michigan's football schedule I was able to head out west to Portage, not far from Kalamazoo, for a show held in a school gym. I made the 1.5 hour-ish trek out there because I'd get to hang out once again with John, Jeff, and Jason (plus his fiancee Samantha). You just don't pass up opportunities like that! John lives nearby and I was able to pick him up, Jeff's about a half hour closer than I am, and Jason's drive was just a little longer than Jeff's.

Of course I mention all three of these guys here and then didn't think to get a picture of all of us together while we were at the show. At least I got one of John and me when I dropped him off before heading home:

Anyway, just like I enjoyed hanging out with Angus at the show the week before, I had a blast with these folks. I ended up spending a bit of time with each of them, including Jeff before he took off (he beat us all there), but not before handing me the stuff I posted in this trade recap. I then stopped at a few tables where Jason and Sam were looking before they headed out. Then I closed out the show looking at a few other tables with John before we got out of there.

It was really nice seeing all of them in person and I greatly appreciate that they all took the time to hang out for a bit. I'm grateful for all the cool people I know through this hobby and here I was surrounded by a bunch at once, truly a treat.

I ended up spending $79, every last dollar in my wallet but one, apparently, and scored some cool items that went in Christmas card packages. I also came home with a few keeper items for myself, but thankfully not so many that I'll need to spend a lot of time going over them.

This 73-card boxed set focusing on Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline, was actually the very last thing I bought. I noticed it on a table way in the back and made sure to come back for it before I left. It's fairly low-end as far as production value goes, but for $5 I couldn't just leave it.

Here's a look at some vertical fronts. If the design isn't much to write home about, the photography choices are still very cool. The cards span Kaline's playing career and life beyond the field. There's a mix of orange and black borders not to mention black & white and color images.

 
There were some fun horizontal images too so I included a scanner bed worth of those as well. 

The backs are about as simple as the fronts but the write-ups are solid. You'll notice the first card is numbered "1A" and there's a "1B" as well, and then the rest of the numbers go up to 72.

One other thing to note is that the set was made with both black and red borders on the back, and mine obviously has the latter, which is a bit less common.

Overall I thought this was a great value for just $5 and it allowed me to add more than 70 cards to Al's PC!

I believe the rest of my cards, all but one of which were of the football variety, came from three different tables. First up is my sixth relic (13th hit overall) of Sauce Castillo. I'm pretty sure this came from a younger guy, probably a teenager, who was wearing a #2 Michigan Football jersey, so I was happy to give him a sale.

The cheapest football card here is a SAGE base of Michigan/Bengals DB DJ Turner. And then I found three very nice hits from the sport. One is my 12th autograph of TE Jake Butt, out of 2017 Spectra and numbered /75 on the back. #2 is a large multi-colored jersey swatch (with stitching) of RB Hassan Haskins from 2022 Panini XR, which is limited to just 25 copies. And last up, I overpaid a bit for the auto you see of Iowa/Michigan/Lions QB Jake Rudock, but it just looks so cool! It's a 2016 Panini Black Gold card, and I'd already scored the "White Gold" version (numbered /99, as opposed to 199 here) so now I have its twin. The signature and player image areas being enhanced by acetate make this a big winner for me in addition to the black background with gold foil. Besides the other auto I mentioned, I have a plate of Rudock as well and therefore three hits of him overall.

Thank you again to John, Jeff, and Jason & Sam for a nice meetup at this show. I hope we can set up something similar in 2026 depending on when these shows are scheduled!

This should be it for me for 2025. I'll mostly be spending tomorrow watching Michigan face Texas in the Citrus Bowl as my fellow fans and I look forward to a new coach next year, plus I've been putting in some effort cleaning up and updating my trade bait on TCDb. I should be back early in 2026 (maybe as soon as Thursday? We'll see!) to recap this month, which brought a couple more blogger trade packages, plus I have the December monthly show and rest-of-year looks at my eBay purchases and TCDb trades to get to.

So Happy New Year to all of you, and GO BLUE!

2025 trade package #19: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Happy American Thanksgiving, friends! As always, I'm thankful for all of you who follow, read, and comment here, trade with me, and post your own content.

And I specified the "American" part above to highlight the sender of tonight's trade package. Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store recently celebrated Canada's version of the event, and now thanks to him I have a ridiculous smorgasbord of cards to feast on! Here's a quick run through them because there's just so many and I know I'll need a nap afterwards:

Part 1 of baseball opens with a Wolverine in Abbott, but the rest are Tigers. Lopez's card is from the '81 Tigers Coke team set, and Skubal's Topps Holiday card is perfectly timed for the season.

Part 2 of baseball offers a Verlander (can't have enough of those!) and a good chunk of the OPC cards in the package (along with a note hoping I liked/didn't mind getting a bunch of that brand. I did indeed like them!). Sparky, Bergman, and Lemon were all '84 Tigers of course so those were my favorites.

HOFer Jack Morris joins that '84 group from above to form a nice quartet from the Canadian brand.

Then we have some cool hits to flip through! Zack Semler was a Michigan IF back in the late 2010s and he joins the collection courtesy of a Leaf Perfect Game signature. Thank you to Doug for going the extra mile and finding a new Wolverine once again!

As for the Tigers, Dylan Smith is a pitcher who made his debut this year and earned a win over 7 solid relief appearances. The 2021 3rd-rounder is here by way of Donruss Elite Extra Edition. Walker ('23 Topps Chrome) was a White Sox 2018 2nd-rounder who bounced to Texas (with whom he enjoyed his only MLB action), San Francisco, then Detroit, and it looks like he's been out of affiliated ball since the Tigers released him in 2023.

Ziomek (2013 Bowman Sterling Orange Refractor auto /75) was also a second-rounder, taken by Detroit in 2013, and he never advanced above the high-A level of the minors. Manning, though, is no stranger to my collection even though the 2016 #9 overall pick was sent to Philly at this year's deadline and is now a free agent after failing to pan out like his rotation-mate Casey Mize did. His Diamond Kings Rookie Expression jersey is one I'm glad to add to Manning's collection even though a return to Detroit is unlikely for now.

Doug went above and beyond again when it came to basketball because not only did he send me the usual excellent selection of players that are generally mainstays, but he also included three newbies in the form of women's hoops alumni Leigha Brown, Naz Hillmon, and Stacey Thomas! Brown transferred from Nebraska and spent three seasons in Ann Arbor, then played a bit for the 2023 Connecticut Sun. Hillmon was a big deal in her four seasons with the Wolverines, being named their first All-American among many other honors. She's now in her fourth season with the Atlanta Dream. Thomas put up four productive college seasons of her own and then spent 2000-05 in the WNBA, winning it all with the 2003 Detroit Shock, the motor city's previous pro team. Many thanks to Doug for this outstanding trio!

As for some of the stalwarts of past envelopes, Howard and Rice are always appreciated. And given the way Michigan Basketball has opened this season, I hope they're celebrating at the end of the season as Rice once did.

Taylor, Vaught, and Webber are also common names to find in these packages and are just as welcome. So are '91-'92 Panini Stickers of the previously seen Rice as well as Gary Grant!

Basketball got its own hit parade as well, opening with my third auto of Calbe Houstan (not "Houston," UD) out of Goodwin Champions. Juwan's kid Jett is up next with his hit collection debut out of '23-'24 Topps Chrome, and he's in his third season with the Orlando Michiganders, who also roster Mo and Franz Wagner plus Colin Castleton. And speaking of Mo, Doug treated me to my first signature of the older Wagner bro, this one thanks to 2019-20 Prizm. As with Houstan, his signature is, uh, not the most detailed, but about par for the course given the stupid amount of cards/stickers these guys have to sign these days.

Numbered inserts of Steve Breaston, Devin Funchess, and Karan Higdon are a great way to segue into the football content just a couple days before The Game. Steve's card is the rarest, numbered to just 25 on the back, while Funch goes for 194 and Higdon's is rarer at 50. Shoe Carnival is an apt sponsor for a card starring Lewan since the nicest thing I can say about him is that he's a clown. CB Ambry Thomas joins the numbers game with a blue Prizm parallel ("No-Huddle" to be specific) that's SN79 on the back. And the hit here is a good omen for Saturday's Ohio State tilt as I fondly Buckeye-killer Hassan Haskins piling up FIVE rushing TDs to lead Michigan over OSU in 2021. That Absolute jersey card above has a swatch just about nice enough to be a patch (or "prime" as they're sometimes calls) and it looks excellent as hit #5 (hey, there's that number again!) in his collection.

On the ice, the Wings have had their ups and downs this year, but generally seem to be better than last year so far. Guys like Chiasson and slightly more recently Franzen and Holmstrom take me back to the joy of watching the team succeed starting in the 90s for a good couple decades.

Kocur, Lidstrom, and McCarty were also key contributors on some of those Cup-winning teams, and I'm happy to see them in any group of cards someone sends me. Larson and Micalef are fun vintage-adjacent throwbacks to before I was old enough to follow hockey.

Seider's a star defenseman for the current team but guys like Zetterberg, Draper, Hull, and Shanahan all realized Cup glory with the Wings. The OPC stickers of Ivan Boldirev (1983), Reed Larson, and Paul Woods (1982) were a fun surprise.

And to close out the Hockeytown content we've got a bevy of hits! There's a nice jersey of Cholowski, one of many failed 2010s first-rounders, though he's still in the NHL (New Jersey) and has an excellent first name. Allure provides a colorful autograph of C Robby Fabbri, who was with Detroit for five seasons and put up decent numbers. Howard was an above-average goalie that was with Detroit for his entire career, and that's a beautiful red jersey swatch above to celebrate an All-Star nod in his penultimate season. And my favorite of the bunch is an SP Game Used jersey of Tomas Holmstrom, the enemy of goalies everywhere as he set up camp in front of the crease and was a pest, often putting back rebounds when not making netminders' lives a living hell otherwise.

A jersey of "Double A" begins the horizontal trio, made during his five-season stint with Detroit to open his career. That's joined by white and red jerseys, respectively, of winger Taro Hirose and D-man Gustav Lindstrom.

The Wings may be looking better than last year but they're nowhere near as hot as the NCAA's current #1 team, Michigan Hockey! They're 13-3-0 with 83 goals (good for 5+ per game!) and absolutely cooking right now. So why not look at some cards of past Michigan icers?

There are some absolute beauties in this first scan, especially thanks to UD brands like Allure and Synergy. The latter remind me a bit of Pacific's Invincible thanks to the circular inset photo. I'm also a big fan of Hyman's Canvas insert thanks to its great design and cool throwback jersey.

This scan includes a couple hockey Mikes, relatively recent G Jack LaFontain (Synergy again!), WolverWing Dylan Larkin, and hey, what's more thanksgiving than John Madden? Ok, it's not the turducken guy, but did the Raiders coach win three Cups like this guy did? I don't think so!

In this scan the Norris and Power (SN699!) cards are great, but I'm choosing to highlight the collection debut of Cristoval "Boo" Nieves. Boo played at Michigan from 2012-13 to 2015-16, and I remember seeing the C with the cool nickname play live a few times. TCDb lists just 34 cards for him and a good chunk of those are 1/1s or local/minor league issues. Therefore I'm grateful to get an NHL uni card of him, and even more thrilled that it's on the great looking Upper Deck Ice design (and numbered /1299 to boot). Cool!

And we'll end tonight's post with a few of the best cards in the whole package. Werenski also gets in on the Synergy fun, but the Pacioretty has even that cool set beat. The former player who joined the coaching staff this year as a special assistant features on a Black Diamond Diamond Might insert that's basically a thin acetate layer sandwiched between four thick cardboard pieces that are held together on each side by the action image. The overall effect is extremely cool and I love having something to enjoy that's an insert and not a hit. Also it's numbered /99 on the back. A winner in every way!

Last up we have two more hits, and more very nice ones at that. First up is a 2023-24 Upper Deck MVP Cyan Plate of WolverWing Andrew Copp where he's even pictured as a member of the Original Six team! That's my first 1/1 of his out of five total hits, and I believe 21st subject in the hockey collection to appear on such a card, plus it's obviously the best card I have of him so far.

He's joined by just my second autograph of D-man Christ Tamer, who was drafted by the Penguins and also suited up for the Rangers briefly, then Atlanta (as pictured above) for his final five seasons. His fairly legible signature and bonus jersey number inscription appear on a 2020-21 SP Signature Legends Gold Spectrum insert, one that has a very nice design.

Oh wait, I'm not actually done because Doug included these surprises as well! Canadian soccer player Shelina Zadorsky is indeed a Michigan alum, having played for the Wolverines from 2010-13, including acting as captain her senior year. Wikipedia says she won bronze (2016) and gold (2020) medals with the Canadian Olympic team, and now I'll have to do some research to see which other Wolverines earned Olympic medals in sports I don't tend to follow.

Thankfully my Canadian friend was aware of Zadorsky's alma mater and sent me this 2018 Goodwin Champions base and auto pair. She's the fifth member of my "other" Michigan sports category collection, and represents IMO the most legitimate "sport" of the bunch (two pro wrestlers, a boxing writer, and an auto racer). What a cool find!

Before I close things out, I also want to note that thanks in part to the cards in this post, I now have more than 2700 Michigan sports hits, so I'll once again express thanks to all who've contributed to that collection. Here's to the run to 3000 and more!

Doug, thanks once again for this feast of cards from August that I'm finally enjoying on Thanksgiving. I appreciate it as always and as is also usually the case, I'm looking forward to returning fire before Christmas.

Next, I'll see what I feel like getting to this weekend depending on how I feel before and after The Game. GO BLUE!

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!

2024 trade package #23: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

My other trade package from November was the typical awesomeness from Doug at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. He actually managed to get it out in time that it wasn't impacted by the Canada Post strike, which was definitely a stroke of luck considering how long that went on and the fact that we're still dealing with the repercussions of the stoppage. As a matter of fact, I've had a package ready to send back his way for a couple weeks now but unfortunately USPS still isn't accepting mail to send across the border, presumably while their Canadian counterparts get caught up. Oh well, it'll just have to wait.

As for what I got in my final mailing from Kitchener, Ontario for 2024:

We'll start with baseball as usual. I remember Damon's brief stint with the Tigers in 2010 and his decent bat but noodle arm. Larkin and Morris are former Wolverines that won baseball's Ultra best prize in 1990. Walewander seems to be a cult favorite of some Tigers fans.

Heading over to football, Tom Brady starts us off with Topps' return to the sport thanks to their Composite product, one that brings to mind its long lost Fusion set that combined multiple brands, and in this case that includes Chrome. DE Len Ford was one of the most accomplished players to come out of the program, winning an NCAA title and then three NFL rings in a HOF pro career. Harbaugh, of course, needs no introduction, but I hope his ability to quickly turn around the fortunes of teams he coaches becomes the narrative around him instead of the stupid "QB whisperer" crap. Jenkins and Wilson were both drafted this year and I happily added a card each to their RC totals, plus a Scorecard parallel for the Bengals DL. And we go all the way back to RB Hassan Haskins' pre-college days with a Team USA jersey that came out when he was a lower-rated recruit and not yet a Buckeye-killing back.

The non-UM Red Wings all fit into this scan and they also serve as a nice transition into the hockey stuff, giving you a bit of an idea of a couple of the brands that were prevalent in this package: UD flagship and MVP. I'm old enough to remember Ogrodnick's name (likely due to video games made late in his career), though he was gone from Detroit by the time I was really paying attention to the sport. It's very cool to add such a relatively old Wings card to my collection!

Now let's take a look at some Wolverines and WolverWings! Young Kraken star Beniers kicks off the group with another example of UD taking advantage of owning Fleer's brand names like Metal. Compher's having a relative down year with the Wings but then again, who isn't at this point? Connor is once again on a great scoring pace and isn't too far from equaling his '23-'24 numbers, actually. Luke Hughes' stats are also down a bit from last season while last season's Norris winner Quinn continues to stack up points.

WolverWing Dylan Larkin continues to be the heart of the team as its captain, and hopefully a new coach will inspire the team to play up to their potential. Norris suits up for Doug's Senators and is among the team leaders in goals in his sixth season (though two of those saw him appear in just 11 games). Rare Wolverine-in-Buffalo Power just played in his 200th NHL game and has a chance to improve on some decent stats from last season. Trouba, of course, finally got out of New York as he was flipped to Anaheim earlier this month. And not-remotely-rare Wolverine/Blue Jacket Werenski has a chance to finally return to the 20-goal mark, his career high from 2019-20, which would be pretty cool for the stud defenseman. While I'm happy with the various base cards here, he appears on one of the best non-hits, a 2019-20 SP Game Used Orange Rainbow parallel that's numbered to just 103(?) copies.

There are just two horizontal cards to look at this time, but they're both worth a look! Beniers is back with a sweet die-cut numbered issue from 2022-23 SPx, which is probably the best of him in my collection besides the Metal Universe RC above. Connor also makes another appearance thanks to a UD insert called Stars of the Rink that has a cool rainbow "dots" pattern.

And then we have the hits, and boy are they nice ones! Number one is my first autograph of yet another Blue Jacket, defenseman Nick Blankenburg. The two-year Wolverine played three seasons with Columbus before signing with Nashville this past July. I absolutely love the look of his uncirculated autographed acetate RC from UD's Clear Cut brand.

The next autograph is somewhat similar with former Jets/current Wings C Andrew Copp signing an SPx card from the previous year's Clear Cut offering. The holographic background makes it a true throwback to SPx's origins and I feel like UD went away from that design aspect to its detriment, so it's a sight for sore eyes here. That's my fourth auto of the WolverWing.

And last up is one more Werenski appearance (hey, there's a reason he's a top-10 guy in my Michigan Hockey PC!). Though I previously claimed four hits to his name, it took #5 here to add my first signature. That comes from the shiny 2022-23 UD Stature Autographs set, one which appears to parallel the base set, which is already fairly high-end itself. I like that his name is fairly legible and as a bonus he even throws in his jersey number, one he has in common with my top baseball PC guy. Needless to say I appreciate Doug chipping away at the list of Wolverines for whom I need certified autographs, one I'm somewhat maintaining over on TCDb.

Doug, thanks so much for this outstanding envelope to end our year of trading. Again, I'm frustrated that I couldn't send a return sooner due to the strike, but I promise it'll be worth the wait, plus at least I have it ready to go at the drop of a hat. In the meantime I'll work on starting a new stack for you at this weekend's show. I hope you and Mischief had a merry Christmas!

I'll be back soon (possibly very soon!) with more trades from December.

5/3 and 5/11/24 show reports: May the shows be with you

This past May was another two-show month for me--technically three if you count the first day of the June Taylor show being on Friday, the 31st of the year's fifth month.

First, as usual, I headed east to Taylor and dropped $80 mostly on some nice trade bait for packages that have since been sent out. I did snag a small handful to offer up here:

I'm pretty sure both jerseys were a buck and I'm relatively short on baseball trade bait compared to football, so I thought the jerseys repping the Texas teams were worth it. Claim 'em in the comments if you want 'em!

And now here are my May Taylor keepers, largely from the cheapo boxes like I like them:

Nothing crazy, just some of my usual favorites. Cronenworth is a natural when it comes to blue inserts. I was happy to find a high-end Larkin base for what I believe was either a quarter or a time. Three new Maddux cards? Not too shabby! A pair of fellow HOF pitcher Jack Morris was a nice find. And lastly there's one of two Ripkens I dug out this time.

That '96 Score Ripken you see above is specially numbered "2131" and had been on my wantlist for quite a while so I was happy to come up with it. A trio of Pudge closes out the baseball stuff.

When it comes to collecting basketball-playing Kobes, Bufkin's definitely my guy, and the lone basketball entrant here. But I did find a cool trio of non-UCLA cards of transfer RB Zach Charbonnet, including my first relic of him, making him member #252 of the football collection.

Here's some great looking football inserts including one of recent alum Ronnie Bell along with cool QB chase cards of Elvis Grbac and Jim Harbaugh. The former gets the Dufex treatment while the latter feels more like a Donruss insert to me than Pinnacle, though it looks great either way.

And here's the last of the football including dumbass LT Taylor Lewan and talented d-man Kwity Paye on parallels, a couple Absolute Retail RCs, and two more of GOAT DB Charles Woodson.

That was it for Taylor but I wasn't done for the month just yet!

Eight days later I made the 90-ish minute drive west to Kalamazoo so I could meet up with some great hobby friends. I knew Jeff and Kevin (Sluggo) would be at that big show selling, plus Jason from TCDb and John planned on attending as well. I got there in the early afternoon and met up with the Sluggo's guys, catching up with them first. Jason appeared a little later, and then John. As always it was great to catch up with everyone.

Here's a pic John got of the two of us, and clearly only one of us knows where to look when taking a picture. Anyway, I spent a total of $100 at this show between four or five sellers, I believe. Kevin gave me another outstanding deal and I snagged some quality stuff from a few others I may look for again the next time I head that way.

Once again most of my purchases were destined for mailers, but my combined haul looked like this:

Give me new Gwynns any day, horizontal or vertical. Haskins was let go by the Titans but just joined the Chargers and reunited with coach Jim Harbaugh. Higdon was another successful college back, just not in the NFL. Ruiz is one of a few recent talented centers the program has produced. And I found what ended up being my fifth auto of DB David Long Jr. (not to be confused with the LB from WVU) who was released by the Giants and doesn't appear to have joined their practice squad or another team just yet.

I also found this nice little six pack of Michigan Hockey guys in a dime box, of all things, which was a surprise given the star power here. Beniers just got paid big time by the Kraken and Fantilli, as I've mentioned a couple times, won the Hobey Baker after an outstanding '22-'23 campaign.

Many thanks again to Jeff and Kevin plus Jason and John for another quality show meet-up, and I hope we get to do it again soon, though not in September as that conflicts with Michigan Football's big matchup with Texas.

In the meantime I'll continue to play catchup as I now get to move on to June with still a TON of great pickups to cover.

2023 trade package #26: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been a few weeks since I last posted about receiving cards from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, and that means two things: another envelope arrived since then that I need to cover, and then another one joined it yesterday. These got to me in August, October, and December, so the roughly two month cadence means I have only myself to blame for being behind.

Anyway, here's a look at all the great stuff that arrived this time:

1981 Donruss Tigers. I don't think anyone looking at the 1980 squad would have predicted the franchise would win it all just a few seasons later. Alan Trammell, Lance Parrish, and Steve Kemp had the makings of a good core, but guys like Kirk Gibson and Lou Whitaker weren't quite there yet. Some of the guys above did have an impact on the Wire-to-Wire champs, though. Corcoran, Cowens, and Dyer were gone by the time the '81 season ended. However, swingman Rozema and #3 starter Wilcox were key pitchers in '84. And Kemp and Wockenfuss were traded in deals that brought back important players for the same team, the former for White Sox OF Chet Lemon in '81 and the latter as part of the famous swap where the Phillies sent Dave Bergman and Cy Young/MVP closer Willie Hernandez to Motown. And the rest is history.

Speaking of Guillermo, he leads off scan #2 in OPC form, along with teammates Terrell and Tram. I recall my brother and I mocking him as Walt "Terrible" but when I go back and look at his numbers, he was 47-32 from 1985-88, so it was mainly his 7-16 record in '88 for an otherwise solid team that earned him the nickname, I'm sure. Also, we weren't terribly happy that the guy the Tigers gave up to get him, Howard Johnson, had some big years for the Mets.

Meanwhile, Miggy is a guy Detroit traded for 16 years and 10 days ago, and nobody has any regrets about that, even before taking into account that the only guy the Marlins got that panned out was Andrew Miller, and even he only had a few years of success, out of the 'pen of all things.

Verlander's trade to the Astros felt like a catastrophe at the time and it still mostly feels like that with Jake Rogers being the only player of any value the Tigers got back, but at least we got to enjoy him for 13 seasons. Josh Johnson's entire career didn't last that long, but I guess two very good campaigns in a row tricked Topps into pairing him up with the future HOFer on that Diamond Duos insert.

And now over to football. I haven't totally warmed up to '23 Score's scoreboard design quite yet, but I also don't have that many cards from the product so it's still growing on me. I do appreciate getting more college photos, though! Brady may be gone (for good this time, I assume), but transfer RB Charbonnet, who finished his college career with a pair of strong years at UCLA, finally picked up his first NFL TD in week 13 against Dallas, which is great.

Nico and DPJ, in Prizm form, are two recent-ish WRs the generally run-heavy Wolverines have put in the league, and Peoples-Jones joined the Lions at the trade deadline, which is very cool, though his numbers are way down this season and he doesn't have a score out of his nine catches.

Here's where things get especially interesting and another reason why I love trading with someone like Doug. Not only does he have access to stuff like CFL cards, he also puts in the research to find out which Michigan guys appeared on them! The late Coode was an OT for Michigan in the early 70s, then Atlanta drafted him in '74, but so did the briefly active World Football League's Detroit Wheels. Coode then opted for the CFL and seven seasons with the Ottawa Rough Riders, peaking with a Grey Cup win in '76 over Saskatchewan's Roughriders, whose lack of spacing in their nickname was obviously the difference in the 23-20 loss. Coode sadly passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 1987. You see him above on one of just three cards that feature him, all made by JOGO. This one was made in 1993 and is from the Missing Years set.

Art Walker's career trajectory is surprisingly similar. He was also an OL (who sometimes flipped to defense), in his case in the early 50s, and he also ignored the NFL's interest (Green Bay) for the CFL's (or WIFU until 1961) Edmonton Eskimos. In his (also) 7 seasons his team appeared in three Grey Cups and won two (his first two seasons). And sadly he also died at an early age, just 39. TCDb lists six cards for him, all CFL-related of course, and the 1961 Topps CFL above is his second to last cardboard appearance.

Thank you again to Doug for going the extra mile and finding cards of these two Michigan alumni so I could learn about them!

And let's close things out with some very impressive hits. Bookending this scan are my first two such cards of Buckeye-killing RB Hassan Haskins (oops, he just scored on Ohio State again!). His signature may not be much to look at, and I suppose it belongs in the bucket of such guys as Rashan Gary who tend to disappoint with their autos, it's still an autograph of a new player in my collection and I'm happy with that. Also, Donruss's answer to Chrome, Optic, looks pretty cool with the Contenders design. I love that Doug added a jersey relic as well of the now ex-Titans RB to double up the fun.

Former Raider and one-year Niner Big Mo Hurst, playing for the Browns in his fifth season, is unfortunately out for the year with a torn pec but hopefully will return to full strength by next season. As another fairly recent Michigan defender I enjoyed wreaking havoc in the backfield, I love getting new cards of his like the 2018 Donruss Elite auto you see above. His signature is also not the most intricate, but "Mo H." isn't the worst. And that auto, numbered /299, is my fifth of the big DL. Nice!

Sticking with defense--arguably Michigan's strength recently--how about a guy who's having a very nice third year in Indy, Kwity Paye? His '21 Absolute Signature Rookies Green Waves auto is limited to just 25 copies and if you know what you're looking for, "K. Paye" or something like that can be seen. As with Hurst, all of my Paye hits are autos and I now have four of those thanks to this package.

And now we'll end with what I'd say is my favorite design of the package. I'm quite happy getting any new signatures of star WR Nico Collins (this is number four of eight total hits), but I'm also a sucker for stuff like the '21 Panini Elements Rookie Neon Signs card above. This one is actually the Orange parallel, numbered /125, and sometimes it's not all about the on-card signature when you get a fun design element like you see here with the acetate/shadowbox thing. While most recent designs don't stack up to those of the 90s for me, once in a while I'll see a gem like this and just think, "cool!"

So that's another Buckstorecards package in the books! I'll be back with the newest one later this month but I still have others to catch up on before I even get there, and even more after it. Knowing me, it's likely I'll still be posting 2023 stuff in January but that's not that big of a deal since I also won't have my personal COMC pickups until then.

So I'll be back at it again soon with the next trade envelope whenever I feel like it. Until then, thanks to Doug for another banger!

2022 trade package #27: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

(Quick Christmas cards note: as of this post I'm waiting on one of the envelopes I shipped earlier this week to be delivered, plus I'm awaiting one eBay order and three orders to my Sportlots box--before I even get to ship it--so the last six packages will be delayed until after Christmas. They'll go out ASAP!)

This evening's trade package doesn't have a Christmas theme but was the first one I received in December so I feel justified calling them Christmas cards. In this case it was yet another bubble mailer from my Canadian buddy Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. He had more goodies to send my way courtesy of his trademark repacks, group breaks, and his own box/pack rips, and got them out to me in plenty of time for the holiday season.

Here's what he treated me to this time:

On the baseball side of things I got Panini Chronicles cards of a couple Tigers in Manning and Tork. Manning's from the Obsidian portion while Torkelson's cards hail from Contenders Optic and Pinnacle. I've said it before but I'll reiterate that I join Doug in being a fan of the multitude of designs found in that product, so I always like seeing the results of his group and personal breaks of those!

Switching over to basketball a solid total of six (out of seven; see next scan) players are represented here. THJ, LeVert, and Livers are from the more recent draft classes, Crawford's kind of in-between, and Mills and Vaught go back to the teams of my youth. It's fun having a Wolverine like Livers on the local NBA team!

A Franz (Mo's brother!) Wagner from Chronicles' Rookies & Stars subset last year rounds out the basketball stuff.

Today's last sport I need to cover (that's right, no hockey!) is football, with the Wolverines a bit more than a week away from their College Football Playoff semifinal tilt with TCU. The majority of these came from this year's much-delayed Score product, though there's a few other sources too, like cards starring #1 WR Derrick Alexander and QB Elvis Grbac.

But the real stars here are the base and RCs out of Score. Looking over the checklist I believe Doug gifted me a full team set out of his break(s), including three vets in Brady, Clark, and Collins. I was very happy he also included four (see next scan) first-years of some up-and-comers. In this scan you see my second rookie of the heart of last year's squad, RB Hassan Haskins. Next to him is my first card of any type of star CB Dax Hill, the Bengals' first rounder this year at #31 overall who was a huge recruiting win for the Wolverines. Joining that pair is the well known Aidan Hutchinson, this year's #2 overall who's helped change the garbage fire culture in Detroit as much as one rookie can. That's my second RC of his as well.

This last scan includes the rest of the football, and Hutch comes back for seconds with the Red version of an insert called PROtential. Since the base cards disappointingly (for me) feature pro unis instead of college duds, I'm glad to see a chase card like this one that shows amateur action. His partner in crime, David Ojabo, is next, both with a RC--my first!--and a Gold Zone parallel of the same, #d /50. The injured LB had to sit out to start the season but is now back in action and will hopefully get some love with game photos in next year's products.

Former WR Tai Streets gives us a quick break from the Scorefest, and if I can't get a true Michigan uni card I'll happily roll with a Senior Bowl shot which maintains the sport's most iconic helmet (and maize pants too).

And then we have the biggest and best card in the whole bunch: a Hutchinson Red Zone Autograph #d 20/20. That's right, not only did I win a Hutch autograph from Matt (Sport Card Collectors), but now I have a second one thanks to more generosity from a blogging friend. Doug let me know when he pulled this and I'm grateful to know folks that are willing to set stuff like this aside for me knowing I'll get them back with something just as nice. Who would have thought earlier this year that I'd finish 2022 with a pair of signatures of the #2 overall pick that was drafted by the local team, and I wouldn't have bought either of them?

Big thanks to Doug for the fifth time this year. As always he boosted the quality of my collection with some great stuff and I'm feeling the holiday love. He's one of the folks for whom I'm waiting on some Sportlots items, but both he and his readers should look forward to an embarrassment of presents once I can finally ship something back his way!

Christmas Eve is tomorrow and depending on how things go I may put together a quick multiple trade recap to pretty much close out the year of those kinds of posts (though there's still next week) and then I'll be back with my show spoils for December, eBay pickups, COMC loot, and eventually a few more TCDB trades.

Until then I hope everyone is staying merry, jolly, and warm!

11/4/22 card show report: November big spender

A couple Fridays ago I once again made it back east to Taylor for the monthly show after missing October's, and because of that I was willing to spend a bit more than I usually do if the opportunity arose.

I spent about my average of two hours flipping through my favorite seller's boxes and came up with the following totals:

• 60 quarter cards
• 55 dollar cards
• 7 $2 cards

All of that came out to $84 and the guy asked for $80, which was plenty reasonable. I was quite happy with the amount of trade bait I grabbed, especially out of the dollar boxes, and I suspect that he moved some stuff I would have skipped from the $2s into that. Anyway, I once again came home with a good amount of trade bait for some of my favorite folks plus plenty to list on TCDB. Speaking of the site, I also stopped by a vintage dealer that's often there and grabbed a couple cards for buddies I trade with there for just $5, so that was a successful stop as well.

In terms of what I'll show off tonight, as always I'll lead off with the unassigned trade bait:

Former Wolverine Bourque is a dupe for both myself and Jeff though I didn't realize it at the time. We'll get to the Caldwell in a minute. Cobb is SN149; Ervin, Prosise, and Reynolds are SN199; Robiskie is SN50; and Stewart (a cleat piece!) is SN15. As for the Caldwell, how great could it be seeing as it's the only card here out of the quarter box?

Wait, does that say "1/1" on the right?! It sure does! I have no idea how that snuck into the pile of quarter boxes, and even then how nobody grabbed it before me, but either way it's an exciting score! It's definitely not in mint condition having bounced around in at least that box for a bit, but I'm sure it'll make someone happy.

Trade bait #2: as you can see I like getting my money's worth on the $1 and $2 cards with autographed relics, and I've always liked those Topps Strata cards with the acetate windows. Funchess is another dupe for both Jeff and me but seemed worth a grab just in case. Hardy and Mayle are both SN799 as is the Palmer manuhelmet. Prosise card #2 is SN499 and the Walton cards are SN399 and SN99, respectively.

Just shout if you want anything you see above and we can try to work out a deal!

Now we'll move on to my keepers:

On the baseball side, out of the quarter box we have a Griffey from this year's Gallery that looks classy plus a Maddux from 2008 Topps Moments & Milestones (for his 300 career wins). I believe both basketball hits were in the $2 box and those are of former Laker (among other teams) Mo Wagner (Franz's brother!) and former lots-of-teams GRIII (numbered /199). Wagner moves up to three hits while Robinson III gets his sixth. Last up in this scan is one football item that didn't fit in the next one: a Panini Unparalleled RC of Packers defensive star Rashan Gary, who's sadly out for the season with a knee injury. According to my list I now have a third of Gary's 21 RCs I'm tracking.

The rest of the football also came out of the quarter box. The Nico insert is timely since the WR actually caught a TD today despite the Texans' garbage QB situation. Darboh's shiny SAGE insert would look cooler if it wasn't partially airbrushed. Braylon's insert is from back in the 2000s when serial numbered inserts were still awesome (this one is SN1000). Former Lion Graham Glasgow, who escaped the tire fire here (for Denver, so take that for what it's worth) had eluded my collection up to this point so I was thrilled to track down his lone RC (2018 Panini Unparalleled) plus what I believe to be a "Flight" parallel.

On a day that was good to my Michigan RC collection I also picked up my very first first-year of last year's stud Wolverine back Hassan Haskins out of this year's Prestige. It's a Michigan uni card that's sure to give Ohio State collectors nightmares for years to come! Then we go back to the Panini Unparalleled well for the last time, though this isn't actually a RC but, oddly enough, a parallel, for my first card of former FB Joe Kerridge (from 2018, just like Glasgow's card). Just one of 12 issues of him made, this is the Superplaid version numbered /150, starring a guy who played in 12 games over two seasons with the Pack (not bad for a fullback!). I wasn't gonna skip a Prizm parallel of transfer RB Rawls out of the quarter box. And lastly we have one more RC, and a college uni card at that, of Pats LB Josh Uche, who just picked up three sacks in last Sunday's win over the Colts.

Well, I set out to spend more than usual to make up for the last show, plus to start re-stocking my trade package coffers and bring home some items for myself, and I'd say that I succeeded on all fronts. I'm looking forward to what will likely be my last show of the year in a few weeks in hopes of having enough fodder to allow me to do one of my favorite holiday traditions of sending out Christmas cards, maybe with an assist from COMC thanks to their seeming return to competence this year? We'll have to see, but after feasting on turkey on Thanksgiving I may be going back for seconds from a couple sources for some holiday shopping.