2026 trade package #9: Topps Cards That Never Were

My next April trade package came courtesy of Jeremy from Topps Cards That Never Were. He's primarily a fan of a couple teams: the Rays and Tigers. His Rays are currently sitting atop the American League with 34 wins. Meanwhile, the Tigers are...not. They're tied in dead last with the Angels, whom they're somehow leading in tonight's game as I write this. To describe the quality of this year's team as "cheeks" is probably being kind.

That's frustrating as a fan, but then again it's not entirely new to me. I was born in 1983 and between then and last season they made the playoffs just nine times, winning one title in three tries (in '84, of course). Other than that, they've finished below .500 in 24 of those 43 seasons, losing 100+ games five times. in 2002 and '03 they earned a combined 98-225 record. And they're well on their way to another one of those seasons that feels like it time traveled straight from the 90s. These guys SUCK.

But that hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for collecting cards of Tigers new and old. Because of that, I'm thankful to Jeremy for the Tigers-centric mailer he treated me to last month, one that also included some other fun items for my collections:

Baez is one of a few Tigers who've been on the shelf for a good part of this season, though the streaky IF/OF wasn't playing well before going on the IL, and his All-Star '25 campaign looks like another random positive season for the enigmatic "El Mago." Bondo was part of Detroit's historically terrible 2003 campaign but I'd still take him over Jack Flaherty right now. In his prime Miggy would have led this team to maybe a few more wins, but it's largely a AAAA roster right now, and things will need to change for the record to improve significantly. I don't know that OF prospect Roberto Campos will be part of that growth, but top-10 CF prospect Max Clark, the 3rd overall pick in 2023, has the makings of a potential star, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do whenever he gets called up.

Former Wolverine Jake Cronenworth is one of the non-Tigers who made the trip up north to my mailbox. The former Ray appeared four times thanks to a pair of Topps Rainbow Foils, a Padres team set card, and a Heritage parallel. The foils look great, but especially appreciate the team card because those are sometimes harder to find than they should be.

Heading back to the past for a moment, we have a cool pair of former 1B/DH types. Darrell Evans' '85 OPC contains his stats from the 1984 World Series season, while my newest card of Cecil "Big Daddy" Fielder is from last year's Panini Prizm set.

Then we're back to a current guy in Riley Greene, who has a tendency to be a bit streaky, but has been one of the top three or four hitters on this year's team. The Archives card is a nice throwback to the 2005 Topps set, one with a design I appreciate a bit more in throwback form.

The late Hernandez takes us back to that same '85 OPC set as Evans above, and man was he a beast in 1984. Jobe, Jung, and Keith are all current Tigers, though the pitcher's still recovering from injury, Jung's spent most of the season in AAA, and Keith's scuffling a bit trying to repeat his solid past two seasons.

Larkin is another ex-Wolverine in this package and I love his Purple Holo Donruss card.

Speaking of parallels, former Tigers IF Scott Livingstone features on a Stadium Club Golden Rainbow insert from 1994. He played his first 3+ seasons in Detroit before being one of many Tigers flipped to the Padres in that decade. Utility guy Zach McKinstry is unfortunately hitting about as well as Livingstone did back then after an All-Star 2025. Montero's been one of the not-as-bad rotation options this year, though that's not saying a lot. And 2024 11th overall pick Bryce Rainer, a SS, is another very intriguing prospect that I hope gets called up in the next couple years in place of washed up FA signings.

It's nice to see three instances of ace P Tarik Skubal here as he chases his 3rd straight AL Cy Young, though between injuries and the team's lost season, it feels less likely that he'll win, and if so, he may not do so with the Tigers. I'll just enjoy his talents as long as he's here. Sweeney hasn't been with the big club since a rough '25 season. And JV's return hasn't been what fans had hoped as he's appeared in a single game: a loss in which he allowed 5 ER in 3.2 innings. At 43, his chances of getting to 300 wins are on life support. But if he can come back and pitch a bit more, it'll be a nice enough story. The trio of cards Jeremy sent of him look great, including an All-Star throwback.

One last scan concludes my recap of the goods, though I should note that I only scanned what was new to me. I'm mentioning that to give Jeremy credit for even more generosity as I'm showing off about half of what he actually sent.

A couple recent Tigers team cards close out the baseball content. When it came to basketball, a couple Fab-Fivers were natural fodder for this package. Jimmy King stars on a Signature Rookies issue that pictures him with this year's national champs, while HOFer Chris Webber appears on a shiny foil Hoops insert celebrating 1993-94's top rookies. His inclusion makes sense since he was the league's ROY over Penny Hardaway and Jamal Mashburn.

In terms of football, Jeremy sent me a nice bunch of Charles Woodsons (speaking of HOFers), several of which were rookie year cards like the above '98 UD Choice. That's a subset card while his RC (which I do own) can be found earlier in the set. That was joined by what I'd consider the most exciting card in the package: a TTM/IP-signed 1999 Bowman of school legend RB Tim Biakabutuka. This was an exciting card to pull out of the stack and I already expressed my thanks to Jeremy for sending it back up to Ann Arbor.

Jeremy, thanks once again for thinking of me with this latest envelope--I obviously enjoyed all of these new PC additions! I'm not sure when I'll be sending a stack back your way, but I will say I'm at least working on it.

I'll try to be back soon once again with my final April trade package, one that had a distinct Canadian flavo(u)r!

2023 trade package #30: Sport Card Collectors

My final post of 2023 is my Christmas gift from Matt of the group of blogs I still refer to as Sport Card Collectors. Not that long after the second of the latest two PWEs he sent me materialized in my mailbox I had another envelope with even more goodies. As it turns out, he treated me to a bunch of Tigers IP/TTM autos from expert in that field Dion, so thanks to both of them for this outstanding collaboration:

We'll start with Bartee (1997 Topps), who's one of the most notable names in the group. It's not like his MLB career was much to write home about, but the six-year MLBer returned to Detroit in 2021, eventually serving as the first base coach, and he was due to return the following season before he tragically died suddenly from a brain tumor at just 49 years old.

Crosby (2012 Bowman Draft RC) was a top-50 pitching prospect drafted by the Tigers out of high school in 2007, though as with many such selections in the past 20 years he didn't pan out, lasting just one season in the bigs. It looks like the lefty was given a chance by the Twins in 2018 and he otherwise played in indy ball in 2017 and 2019-20.

Duran (1998 Stadium Club RC) wins the award for this post's best card design/signature combo for sure. That's an excellent legible autograph running up the right edge under his pitching arm. Roberto pitched out of the 'pen in 31 games over 1997 and '98 on a couple forgettable teams. He didn't get to appear on any certified autos so kudos to the Domincan hurler for a great signature he didn't have to practice as often as players these days.

Edmondson's (1993 Bowman) name is one I'm not familiar with, but after looking him up it's probably because he never pitched for the Tigers. Drafted out of high school in 1991, he later bounced around between the Mets, Braves, and Marlins, getting a nice tour of the current NL East. His MLB career consisted of a 9-12 record over 121 games between 1998-99, then he finished his minor league career in the Detroit system again before a season in indy ball. It looks like he's since landed on his feet, going into coaching future pitchers.

Another guy that's very notable for me is Fields (2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks), for a couple reasons. Drafted out of a local high school in 2009, he was surely even more familiar to the Tigers as the son of Bruce Fields, who played briefly for the team in 1986 and then worked for the franchise as a minor league manager and hitting coach. Another connection for me is that Daniel was thought to be leaning towards his commitment to play baseball at Michigan. A $1,625,000 signing bonus (as a 6th rounder) changed his mind. Unfortunately he saw just three plate appearances in his lone MLB game (in 2015, though at least he doubled and scored.

Foucault (1978 Topps) is the oldest player in this bunch, and amazingly he pitched for six MLB seasons (including 1977-78  with Detroit) despite being a 43rd(!) round draft pick back in 1969. There were about 20 fewer teams back then, but still! His claim to fame for the Tigers would be the player the team received in a deal that sent fan favorite Willie Horton to Texas in 1977. The card he signed above, quite legibly, I should add, is his lone cardboard appearance with the Tigers.

On to the second scan! Greisinger (1999 Topps) was the biggest prospect of this group, I would think, as the 6th overall pick out of Virginia in 1996. He was a top-100 prospect to Baseball America the following season, then made his debut in '98, winning six of his 21 starts. The injury bug got him soon after, though, and he'd spend just 21 more games in the bigs with the Tigers, Twins, and Braves. He had a much better time in Korea and then Japan, though, spending nine mostly successful seasons there. And he has a pretty interesting signature to boot!

Heath (2002 Topps Chrome Traded) is a guy I had to look up, and for good reason: he was a 31st round pick in 2000! It looks like he never got above high-A ball with Detroit or the Angels so I'm not sure why Topps considered him a prospect, but I'm happy he got himself a card and I'm bet he was happy to sign this one. He's another guy that appears to have gone into coaching, in his case, high school ball.

Lowry (1987 Donruss RC) was a backup catcher (and occasional 1B) for the Tigers in 1984, '86, and '87 after being drafted out of UNC in 1980. It doesn't look like he appeared in the playoffs for the '84 champs but it must have still been amazing to be part of the wire-to-wire champs! He managed in the franchise's minor league system from 1995 until his untimely death in 1997 from a heart attack at just 39. His Wikipedia article mentions that the Tigers named their Player Development Man of the Year Award in his honor.

Back when signing players out of Asia was much less common (though growing, thanks to the rousing success of Hideo Nomo), the Tigers took a gamble on Taiwanese lefty Fu-Te Ni (2009 Bowman Draft RC) before the start of the '09 season. The Yankees' Chien-Ming Wang's success had lots of teams looking to replicate that strategy. Ni pitched quite well in 36 games out of the 'pen that season, but his numbers went the wrong way the following season. While MLB didn't work out for him he did go on to play through 2020 for various indy and foreign leagues. His signature didn't scan especially well here but it's easily one of the coolest of the bunch.

Time to come clean again: I had no idea who Yuri Sanchez (1992 Classic Draft Picks) was. That surprised me a bit more because the Dominican IF was actually a second round pick in 1992 out of a Massachusetts high school. The player selected right after him? Todd Helton (who, to be fair, didn't sign and ended up going to college, not playing for the Padres). He appears to have spent 1992-2000 in several teams' systems but never made it higher than AAA with the Reds in '96. Sanchez then played parts of six seasons in indy ball.

And last up tonight is Larry Sheets (1991 Upper Deck), whose last MLB cards were produced after his single year in Detroit--1990 (though he did play 11 games for Seattle in '93). The 1978 Baltimore second rounder--the first of four Orioles picks that round, and it took two more for them to select a local kid named Ripken--his 1984 cup of coffee led to a solid five-season run with the O's that included 83 homers. Detroit made a deal for him in January of '90 and he put up not-awful numbers as mostly a DH doing spot work in the outfield corners. I think I remember him best thanks to some of those late 80s NES baseball games, and mostly as an Oriole.

Many thanks again to Matt (and Dion for the assist!) for these 12 autographs of Tigers, some of which I knew well and others I obviously didn't. I'm always happy to learn more about who I collect, though, so this was a very educational post for me, at least, in addition to a great Christmas present. I hope both guys I mentioned here had a fantastic holiday as well and I look forward to Matt's reaction to my gift to him whenever he's ready.

And as for everyone else, I hope you all had a great year of collecting in 2023, and here's to a fantastic '24. Happy New Year!

2021 trade packages #17 and 18: Scribbled Ink

While it's hard to find reliability these days, I can just about always count on Paul of Scribbled Ink (but mostly on Twitter) to keep things interesting. He may have moved to New England, but he'll be damned if he ever turns into a Masshole! The erstwhile Michigander and current New Hampshirian was nice enough to treat me to both a bubble mailer and PWE recently, so I thought I'd round them up into one post. And I meant it when I said he made things interesting here as I didn't expect any of this stuff!:

We'll start off with the bubble mailer that I believe arrived in late June. This is how he packaged the contents, and the sticky note made me laugh since he'd hyped up one or more if the items he was sending here.

Here's a look at almost everything in the envelope. Up top we have three totally random packs: 1991 OPC Premier baseball, 2015 Panini Texas Longhorns, and 1990 Collegiate Collection LSU. He thought I might try to flip the latter two to fellow college collectors, but he was wrong since I went ahead and ripped all three (more on that below) since I don't really buy packs for myself anymore.

Next is a pocket schedule from a Minor League team about a half hour away from Paul's new home: the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Even with Sith Lord Rob Manfred robbing towns of teams, it's nice that you can often count on a nearby Minors franchise for fun, low-cost games. This one happens to be the AA team for the Blue Jays (previously the Cards, Mariners, and Rockies), and claims potential future star IF Austin Martin as one of its better prospects. I hope Paul gets to enjoy seeing some of Toronto's future stars on their way up!

And last up in this scan we have two of the most exciting items here: a pair of Gypsy Oak cards. I'll admit I don't know much about these, but I've seen the works of art by the talented Jeff Baker all over the place, and I'm always impressed by how great they look. There's some great people doing amazing things in the world of customs right now (more on that later), and this guy is clearly one of them. I believe Paul asked me if I was interested in the Greenberg (it may have been a dupe for him?) but the Ripken, apparently signed by the artist, was definitely a surprise. How great do these look?!

I thought it would be worthwhile to show off the backs. Hank's card definitely has an 80s Topps feel to it, and Cal's functions as a checklist. If you're interested in more stuff like this, I'd suggest checking Jeff out on Twitter or his site here.

Of course, "more stuff like this" includes by far my favorite item in the envelope, this carved(? Etched?) Braille card of Ripken. It's scanned here at roughly its actual size, and obviously it looks even cooler in-hand, but even in a 2D image you can get an idea of the level of detail and quality. I did some quick translating and the Braille reads:

Cal Ripken Jr

Balt Orioles

Stars of

Sports

Man, how cool is that? I really appreciate the great work Jeff put into his pieces, not to mention Paul for including what's now one of the most interesting items in my Ripken collection.

Before we get to the PWE, here's a quick look at the results of the packs:

1991 OPC Premier:  I got my 7 cartes de baseball as promised, and the pack definitely had a Canadian lean with a pair each of Jays and Expos. Crime Dog and Bonds are the most notable players here, but Boddicker, Key, and Gruber each had pretty nice careers as well, with all winning at least one ring.

2015 Panini University of Texas is just like the Michigan product I enjoyed so much. Most of the players are well known to me, as I'm sure they are to many sports fans, and I'll probably toss them up on TCDB unless somebody comments here that they want them.

I've seen packs like this LSU version before, I believe, and they're great for collectors of universities like me. Not that I can really stand any SEC teams for multiple obvious reasons, of course. Again, these'll go up on TCDB unless I have one or more readers who are a different kind of Tigers fans!

A bit earlier this month I was then the lucky recipient of Paul's favorite ammo: a PWE.

I get where he's coming from because despite collecting a ton of different players, for a lot of them I already have a lot of the basics. He's really underselling himself here, though, because I most definitely didn't have any of these items and was in no way likely to find them myself anytime soon:

Before I discuss these, here's a look at the backs of the first two cards, since there was no way I was going to have any inkling what they were without doing so myself:

Millburg Trading Cards looks to be a company that prints all kind of custom stuff like cards, stickers, and apparel. As with any customs featuring player likenesses and/or obvious use of other companies' designs, I don't know the legal workings of this, but I will say that their cards look pretty cool!

#1 is former Wolverine (as if I don't mention that fact enough) and 2021 All-Star Jake Cronenworth from the Lettermen line. Click the link to see the large range of players and schools, though, spoiler for fellow Michigan fans: Cronenworth is the lone representative for our team. Not a surprise in a set that's heavy on alumni of such programs as UCLA, LSU, and Vanderbilt. Anyway, Jake's card looks excellent, with a good (if a bit too zoomed-in) action photo, team colors, and the team nickname in fat capitals up top.

Another guy who was no stranger to the Midsummer Classic (and who I thought was fun during the Home Run Derby broadcast) is Junior Griffey, here repping the Quarantine Project Minis line. This 12-card set uses the classic '62 Topps design and places a cartoony or mosaic type of image of a player over a photographic stadium background. I like the resulting posed image of Griffey in a Mariners uni from early in his legendary career.

Last up is a card that was customized by the pictured player--an IP or TTM autograph of one of my bigger recent PC guys, Dean Palmer. The slugging 3B signed his '92 Ultra base with some decently legible writing, and I'm really happy to get a card like this for his collection since I never sent him a TTM request back in my younger days when I sent a ton of those out. It was very cool of Paul to think of me whenever he found that, and that's a great example of why I love trading with people like him.

While he obviously doesn't feel like he sent me much, there were clearly some gems for me in both envelopes, especially when it comes to the custom-type stuff that wasn't even on my radar. So, many thanks to Paul for this pair that came up aces! Once I get my end of my latest huge TCDB deal, he'll have a nice fat stack of stuff heading back his way to reward these efforts.

As for me, I have a few things in the pipeline: that TCDB deal I just mentioned, this month's show, an eBay win, and the final post in my latest Sportlots series, plus who knows what else? When will I get to all of that? At some point!

2020 trade package #6: The Angels, In Order

Well, it's happened.  I keep getting more cards in and then not posting them, so they keep piling up!  A couple recent purchases have a lot to do with that as I've been spending a good amount of time related to them on TCDB.  But I can't keep putting off showing off trade packages and other stuff, so let's go!

I can speak for everyone when I say I'm glad to see the return of Tom of The Angels, In Order, to blogging and trading after a heartbreaking loss in his family.  In the face of something like that, anything like collecting takes a back seat to more important things like taking care of your family, but sometimes the distraction can be nice as well.  And in my case, when my stepdad passed more than a year before I was blogging here, looking over the boxing autographs I bought for him helped remind me of the fun we had watching the sport together.

With all that to deal with I wanted to emphasize that I appreciate Tom being back and I hope we can all help him in some small way.  For my part I'm looking forward to sending him some more of the Angels, Patriots, and checklists he loves to accumulate.

I definitely need to do that anyway since he was nice enough to send me a PWE filled with Tigers.  "Happy new baseball season!" said the note, sent well in advance of the coronapocolypse.  Oh well, we'll get back to sports when it's time, and for now I'll enjoy some new cards:

Part one is a nice bunch of 2019 and 2020 stuff.  Talented up and coming P Matt Boyd, a.k.a. John's guy, reps the former on a 2019 Rainbow parallel.  I hope over whatever portion of the season gets played he shows more of the stuff that got folks excited about him last year.

The 2020 stuff is split into flagship and Heritage, and I believe all of it is new to me.  Miggy hits both with a Turkey Red insert and Heritage base, the latter done up in the classic '71 Topps design.  The Turkey Red cards are interesting because they maintain the look of past versions other than the matte finish.  Three guys give me examples of the 2020 flagship base Tigers--utility dude Niko Goodrum (nice action photo), Paul's favorite, JaCoby Jones, and--barf--Jordan Zimmermann.  JZ and his albatross contract will at least be gone after this season!

Joining Miggy from the Heritage set are OF Victor Reyes and P Drew VerHagen.  Detroit plucked Reyes from Arizona in the 2017 Rule 5 draft, and he put up a decent showing last season over 69 games, so he may have a shot at a bench spot.  VerHagen was kind of a swing guy and was released by the team late last year so he could sign in Japan.

That pile was nice enough but this quartet of TTM/IP autos totally surprised me!  I'm familiar with all except Saucier, so it's off to Baseball Reference once again!  Lynn Jones, who signed his '81 Topps card, was also a Rule 5 guy, and was in Motown for five seasons, missing out on the '84 team but earning a ring with the Royals the following year.  His younger namesake Todd ('07 UD First Edition) was a notable closer in Detroit after coming over from Houston, and was reacquired for the 2006 World Series season.

Saucier ('82 Donruss) joins his fellow players from the decade in a "How 80s can you look?" contest, and he apparently came to the Tigers from the Rangers after being a PTBNL in their deal with the Phillies, with whom he won a ring in 1980.  And lastly, Searcy's ('89 Topps) name is one I remember well from the junk wax-era cards that touted him as a "future star".  Though he didn't live up to that billing he did last five seasons with the Tigers and Phillies.

Tom, once again it's great to see you trading and writing, and I'll certainly be returning the favor with some cards for you once I have the ability to accumulate more to go with a few I already had set aside.  Welcome back!

11/1/19 card show report: keepin' it real (cheap)

I once again took a Friday off yesterday with the express purpose of getting over to the monthly show in Taylor as I would be home today on a Michigan Football Saturday.  Speaking of the Wolverines, they looked just fine while thumping Maryland 38-7, and now they get to head into a bye before welcoming the Michigan State Penitentiary Spartans.  I don't know what I'll do during the bye but I'll figure it out.

As for the show, it was one of those where I didn't spend a whole lot or come home with much as the kind of stuff I generally like was few and far between.  But that's fine since I like hanging out there and digging through bunches of boxes for hidden gems.

The $15 I spent can be broken down as follows:  40 dime cards at 20/$1; 30 quarter cards at five/$1; eight $0.50 cards; and three $1 cards.  Most of those will be heading for trade packages, but I have a small group of fun stuff to show off:

We'll start as usual with the baseball side.  I was pretty happy with this trio of Tony Gwynns, all of which were $0.50 or under, I think.  #1 is a '95 Zenith All Star Salute insert, which lists him as "All-Star Hit Man" on the bottom of the difficult-to-read scan.  An apt title, Panini!  Upping the ante and bringing out my beloved "90s inserts rule" tag is 1996 Upper Deck Hot Commodities.  While the '97 version looked kind of cool, the orange foil die-cut original from a year earlier can't be beat!  Last up is the second year of Topps Chrome, 1997, which parallels one of my all-time favorite Topps designs, though I appear to be in the minority on that.

Next up is a duo of Barry Larkins:  his '92 Bowman foil base card, on which he's defying gravity while turning a twin killing against the Cubs, and a 2011 Gypsy Queen Framed Paper parallel (#234/999).  I have no idea why this version was called "paper" so I'll just chalk it up to Topps' goofiness.

Greg Maddux keeps the insert-heavy theme going with 2001 Ultra Decade of Dominance and a 2013 Hometown Heroes States parallel.  Greg's dominant decade included four straight Cy Young awards and a World Series ring in '95.  He was actually born in Texas but the Hometown Heroes product doesn't interpret the term literally.

Last up is an interesting pair.  One is a Pudge insert from 1997 UD called Rock Solid Foundation that I remember quite well.  The rainbow foil design looks great and between that and the fact that Rodriguez is a HOFer and former Tiger, I happily grabbed this card.  And then we have the one $1 card I kept for myself--an IP auto of former Michigan P and PC guy Heath Murray on his '97 Topps issue.  What was I gonna do, spend just $14 and leave this one at the show?  No way!

The football side of things was also largely a celebration of all things inserts.  Harbaugh is the only exception--as shiny as that pair is, they're actually a different version of '96 Summit called Premium Stock, which is a bit thicker than the regular set and featuring foilboard fronts.  Funchess's appropriately colored parallel is a 2018 Donruss Blue Press Proof.  While I tend to prefer that insert to be numbered, I think this one was only a dime or quarter, and the color's certainly a plus.  Navarre, a guy I don't add too often since he's either hard to find or prices are too high, can be seen on a Rookie Gold version of UD's goofy 2004 Diamond Prosigs set (#004/249).  Denard is much more common around here, and there he is on a 2013 Prestige Prestigious Picks Gold insert, which is apparently named for the foil color of the insert title since the background is silver.

Switching over to the horizontals we have two more numbered cards.  One of those is tackling machine David Harris, who shares a 2007 Playoff Contenders Draft Class insert (#0144/1000) with fellow '07 pick Darrelle Revis.  That's quite a productive pair!  By the way, here's a reminder that outstanding Wolverines LaMarr Woodley and Harris went back-to-back in the second round three picks after the Lions opted for MSU QB Drew Stanton.  This is why you suck, Lions.  Speaking of QB busts, million dollar arm/ten cent head signal-caller Ryan Mallett popped up on a 2011 Absolute Memorabilia War Room insert, and I'll be fine continuing to add stuff of the transfer as long as he's pictured in a pro uni--e.g., nothing with Arkansas.  He's joined by a fellow transfer, RB Jon Ritchie, who's today's last card:  a 2001 Ultra Gold Medallion (#131/250).  I was surprised because I didn't recall that parallel being numbered.

That's it for this month's usual show, though there's a small chance I may hit up one more before my attention turns to COMC around Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  Until then it'll be back to the well with Sportlots until I get all of those posted.

2018 trade package #25: Sport Card Collectors

It's been raining PWEs in my area lately, a fun development that I hope doesn't cease in 2019.  One of those is featured in this evening's TMM post while the other is my third such envelope from Matt of Sport Card Collectors in as many months.  The expert PWE-partier has flipped some fun stuff my way this year and I was happy to see his note in this envelope that promised to continue the trend next year.

Here's what he sent my way this time:

It's a Tigers insert party!  Cobb is a Vintage Legend from 2010 Topps.  Recent former 2B Ian Kinsler looks great in a Detroit throwback uni on a themed insert from 2015.  Ace closer K-Rod looks a bit smaller than usual on a 2016 A&G Mini.  J-Up is looking good on a Black parallel of the Tigers version of his base card from 2016 Heritage.  And the newly-retired V-Mart gets in on the act with a 2014 Chrome Purple Refractor.

And then completely out of the blue, there's this guy.  Joining my IP/TTM auto collection is this signed copy of pitcher Doug Bair's '85 Topps base!  Originally a Pirates draft pick, Bair came to Detroit in a trade with the Cardinals in 1983 (after winning a ring with them the previous year) and hung around until late in the '85 season, meaning he was an '84 champ.  He pitched sparingly during the playoffs, with a lone appearance in the Series, but was a decent option out of the 'pen that year. 
It was definitely a nice surprise to pull out a new autograph for my collection, especially an '84 Tiger, and that's the kind of fun stuff Matt comes up with.

Thanks again for yet another fun trade package, Matt, and I'm looking forward to hitting you back with a very nice Christmas envelope of your own as soon as I have everything in hand.  After that I'm looking forward to more great trades in 2019!

More autographed stuff for me to scan: IP and TTM autos

Quite a lot has happened since I last posted, including Dave Roberts and the Dodgers bullpen politely handing over the World Series to the Red Sox and their four former Tigers (and denying PC guy Rich Hill a much-deserved win in the process).  The MLB season is now done and it's all over except for the awards, but I still have baseball on my mind as I continue to look for stuff to post.

Following up on my last couple that featured some autographed memorabilia I've collected I thought it was high time for me to do an album for my in-person and TTM autographs, so that's exactly what I did.

Like a number of you I got into the TTM thing as a kid and I had a pretty reasonable amount of success in the 90s acquiring a nice range of signatures of players, especially Tigers.  I've also picked up a handful of in-person signatures myself of through others.  And then there's the stuff of unknown origin.

Here's a quick look at the album in its state at the time of this post:

And here's a quick rundown of how I acquired these (as best as I can remember):

• In-person:
• Myself:
• Sager and Lolich
• Others (trade, purchase, etc.):
• Putz
• TTM (myself):
• Nieves, Hunter, Casey, Guillen, Moehler, Cruz, Easley, Clark, Erstad, Beltre, Alomar Jr., Glavine, Blue, Thompson, Powell, Grace, Williams, Molitor, Eckersley, Smoltz, Garner, Lowell, Salmon, Brogna, Gwynn
• Can't remember:
• Whitaker, Anderson, Freehan, Leach, Abbott, Petry, Northrup, Leach, Abbott

I've also sent a decent number of my TTM successes out in trade packages since I don't value them as much as I used to.  And on a related note, I'm happy to make some of these available in trade.  Many are keepers for me, of course, such as any of my PC guys and some of the Tigers, but I'm willing to let a number of them go, so if you're interested, please send me a comment or email!

And please feel free to keep up with this collection (though I likely won't be adding much to it at this point) via this link, or hit the link in the sidebar to your right.

So what do y'all think?  Any favorites here?  What's the best player you've gotten, be it IP or TTM?

2018 trade package #14: Sports Card Collectors

Two of my three direct Sportlots envelopes have arrived and a couple more are on their way to join others already in my Box.  Plus my "oops I forgot a few and added others" COMC package arrived the other day.  Pretty soon I'm gonna be up to my ears in cards to post!

Actually I'm kind of already in that boat but have been kind of lazy about putting up my two most recent COMC writeups.  Matt from Sport Card Collectors to the rescue!  My fellow 90s insert fanatic gave me a perfectly reasonable excuse for putting that off in sending cards to me for the sixth time already this year.  Once again it was a PWE with plenty of pop:

PC guy Jim Abbott claimed 1/3 of the envelope with this fun pair.  On the left is an IP/TTM-type signature on his '90 Donruss base card.  Comparing that to other Abbott signatures I own, including one other such card that's also from the 90s--Topps--it looks about right so I have no reason to doubt its authenticity, making it the clear highlight of the envelope!  (By the way, I've finally posted an album just with my IPs/TTMs.  I still have more to scan so most of what's there is up because I've scanned them for my Tigers/other PC albums, but stay tuned for more.  Anyway, catch those by finding them under my collections on the right side of this page.)

The other one Matt sent is no slouch either:  a 2013 USA Baseball Champions Legends Certified Die-Cuts Mirror Green (#006/199).  Yes indeed that's a mouthful, but basically it's another parallel of a card I already own, the plain-old die-cut:

There's a few other colors I'd like to add to this rainbow and I'm glad Matt got me started off with the Mirror Green, which looks pretty sharp!

The other four cards were all Tigers, and not just some boring base stuff either.  Matt Boyd, the guy who started the game I attended a few weeks ago, appears on an Indigo parallel from this year's Gypsy Queen (#116/250).  The Georgia Peach gets a stunning insert called Portraits from Panini's excellent 2018 Diamond Kings product.  Promising righty Michael Fulmer brings me back to one of my favorite Topps Products, Stadium Club Chrome, with an insert of that same name from last year.  If any product deserves the Chrome treatment, this is it!  And finally, a 2018 Topps Gold parallel (#1205/2018) brings back good memories of 2B Ian Kinsler, who always seemed to lead off games I attended with a solo HR.  He'll forever remain in my good graces for being an excellent Tiger whose production was the icing on the cake for dumping the bloated contract (and carcass) of Prince Fielder on the Rangers.

Thanks for the surprise envelope, Matt!  I'm happy to say that I have a few things in-hand and a bit more on the way so I can send you a fun return.  A guy whose name rhymes with "Hodney Rampton" might even be involved....