5/31/24 card show report: May the June be with you

Hi, friends! I've had a pretty busy September largely thanks to work (with the calendar indicating it's time for the new semester) and a bunch of non-blogging card stuff. The latter has mainly included my monthly show, yet another fun Facebook pickup, and some marathon packaging and shipping sessions that should result in some happy traders!

Speaking of shows, I did get out to Taylor for the June event, though the first day of three-day show was actually the 31st of May. Whatever, I'm still counting it as June for posting purposes.

Anyway, I spent $95, though it's been more than three months so I don't remember what the breakdown was. I didn't come home with any unassigned trade bait so let's just take a quick look at my keepers:

The baseball stuff begins with a six-pack of future HOFer Miggy, and technically he appears on one more card you'll see below. The first five cards being Marlins issues made me curious what the team breakdown is of my Cabrera collection. It looks like that works out to 62 Florida cards and 431 with Detroit. Not bad!

A stray Cobb then gives way to two many Grandersons! I still don't have nearly enough of him, just 276, which is less than half my Verlander count and not even in the top 10 of my MLB PCs.

Check out that oddball Griffey! Inge and AJax are a couple other Tigers favorites I was happy to see here. Jobe just got called up to AAA and could be in the mix for a rotation spot next year. I captured Maddux on three of his four MLB clubs (only the Dodgers are left out here) over four cards. Magglio's another guy I'm happy to snag cards of if I see them, even if they're White Sox issues.

Cal continues his PC dominance with three newbies up here and two more you'll see in the next scan, and I'm easily swayed by shininess. Leaf's Passing Through Time subset was a fun feature of mid-2000s Leaf (as in the REAL Leaf, not the sketchy imposter these days) and I have Pudge's 2003 and 2005 versions, the latter of which you see above. You could hardly call Skubal "Up & Coming" at this point as he's got a great shot at the AL Cy Young this season. And Torkelson's thankfully looked a bit better since returning from the minors.

Mickey Cochrane is yet another Tiger who's often seen wearing another team's uniform on cards, but that's never stopped me. Griffey, Maddux, and Ripken all make encore appearances, as does Miggy on a Topps Opening Day insert. And the first of the day's three big pickups is a cool bat card of Alan Trammell, which is my seventh relic (out of 12 hits) of the HOF SS. I own the full 10-card set of Fleer's 2006 Greats of the Game Tigers Greats insert, and now I have my third of the nine Memorabilia versions (Bill Freehan and Kirk Gibson are the others). Hopefully I can track down the rest at some point.

The basketball side of things is sparse as usual but I did track down a pair of numbered Jamal Crawfords to go with my second signature of ex-Wolverine/Piston Isaiah Livers. The shininess plus Rated Rookie logo made it a must-get combo for me, and I think I paid just $5 (likely less with my discount) for the autograph, which is numbered /99.

We'll close things out tonight with a perfect nine-card page of football. Funchess's Stained Glass Prizm insert looks quite cool, even if it doesn't live up to the acetate versions from previous decades. Haskins' green Prizm parallel reminds me that he got picked up by his former coach Jim Harbaugh's Chargers. I was surprised to find the three-spot of Ojabo cards you see above, two of which definitely have a Ravens purple theme going on, though my favorite is naturally the Legacy card of him with the Wolverines. By the way, he picked up a sack in week 1 against KC. A shiny pair of Schoonmakers reminds me that I read the TE might get some playing time this weekend against the Saints. GOAT CB Woodson can be seen on a poorly-scanned Silver parallel from 2023 Panini Mosaic that makes it hard to tell it's got the usual Refractor-ish finish.

And last up is my final big pickup of the show: a 2022 Score Signatures autograph of stud Texans WR Nico Collins. I'd say I landed my fifth auto (nine hits total) of the breakout receiver at a good time--a few months before the start of the season--because he could be on his way to an even better campaign after accumulating almost 1300 yards on 80 receptions with 8 TDs last season. Last week at Indy he went scoreless but did pop for six catches for a whopping 117 yards! Go figure his team ditched their dead weight at QB for the one competent ex-Buckeye QB in the league.

And that's it for this show. I'm thinking my next post will be a look at my big June Facebook purchase, though I'll have to decide how much I want to photograph/scan/write about since it was a LOT. Either way, I hope to have that up soon.

2024 trade package #7: the Collector

Happy July, y'all! With the NBA and NHL done for a bit, it's the time of year when baseball gets to shine before the return of college football next month. Let's celebrate by looking at some cards from all four major sports sent to me by Chris, the Collector, back in April.

Miggy most certainly was a star of the MLB over his 21 seasons, and it's bittersweet to see the back of his final Topps Chrome base card packed with his career numbers. Faedo, Manning, and Mize are all trying to bring some Mojo back to the Tigers' rotation (though it's mostly been the bats plus Kenta Maeda letting them down), and Faedo could potentially find himself back in a starting role soon while Manning tries to get right at AAA Toledo. The Verlander /75 is probably the best (and at least my favorite) card in this package, and I'm glad he got to celebrate two World Series titles because the villainous Astros are so easy to root against.

Flipping over to basketball, Chris did a nice job IDing a few former Wolverines I collect, mostly in colorful/shiny form. Iggy's been out of the league but was fun in college. It's crazy to me that THJ will be in his 12th NBA season later this year, and it's possible he'll be suiting up for the Pistons which is even cooler.

Finishing up with basketball we have a Crown Royale insert that evokes the heyday of Pacific, and this one stars another Wolverine/Piston combo, Isiah Livers, though he's not longer with the team. The card is numbered /75 just like Verlander's above and the blue goes well both with the Pistons' colors and those of his college team.

Repping the reigning NCAA champs of football, we begin with a Prizm base of stud defender Rashan Gary, a pass-rushing terror who's earned a good amount of respect in the NFL. Speaking of champs, we all know Griese led a team of them back in 1997-98 before a solid journeyman pro career. McKeon is yet another Michigan alum to have latched on with a Detroit team this offseason, signing with the Lions after four seasons with the team that drafted him, the Cowboys (and that card looks awesome thanks to its college action photo, though it would be even better if the border was something less Ohio-ish!). And lastly, a current Cowboy, Mazi Smith (seen on a Panini Mosaic RC) has a lot of work to do to live up to his first-round billing.

Would it really be an envelope of cards from Chris without some hockey content? No ex-Wolverines this time, but no problem there because I have plenty of love for the Wings too, especially the guys from the teams that were super successful for a good chunk of my life. The late Petr Klima, the first Czech player to defect directly to a team in the US (as opposed to Canada), is seen on his 1988-89 Topps base, and I remember him a bit from his early career in Detroit before wandering the league a bit and then returning briefly in 1998/99. And of course I'll always remember the Captain (1992-93 Stadium Club) for his 22 years and three Stanley Cups in Hockeytown, none bigger than 1996-97 when the Cup finally, finally returned to Detroit.

Chris, thanks again for thinking of me and sending some great new stuff my way! I'm slowly building up some interesting (and not entirely cardboard-based) stuff for you so I can return the favor in the near future. Until then, I hope things are going well with your wife's health situation, and I want to remind you that you've got a bunch of friends pulling for you and willing to help.

That does it for my April trades so next up will either be a quick Facebook Marketplace purchase recap or a look at my haul from that month's Taylor show.

2/2/24 card show report: fabulous February

Yesterday I went to my second show in just over a week and John (with whom I got to hang along with Jeff, Kevin, and Jason--more on that in a future post) made fun of me for being as behind as I am on posting so here I am! Tonight I'm covering my monthly show haul from Taylor back in early February.

My spending tracking sheet says I spent a year-high $130 while I was there, split up between my favorite seller plus the vintage guy that often sits behind him. That was too long ago to remember how that breaks down but I know I added some nice trade bait pieces to packages that have and will be sent out.

As for my own haul, it looked like this:

I believe the Griffeys were a buck each, and who doesn't love Starting Lineup cards, with or without the figures? A lot of the other stuff you'll see here likely came from dime or quarter boxes (or maybe $0.50-ers, I can't remember!) and I was quite happy with the mix.

The Griffey and Maddux in this scan plus the Verlander all came from my usual guy, and I believe JV's jersey cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 or $10. By my count that's 32 hits of Mr. Kate Upton, and it was nice to get something of him in a Tigers jersey again.

The others came from the vintage guy and if I had to guess I spent $40 on his $3 box where you can get eight cards for $20? Got some for me and for others. Lolich's '75 Mini is appropriate given this year's Heritage/Mini set while the others were fun oddballs of Tigers greats. The Fidrych and Horton food issues are cool but man do those stamps look sharp. And I was excited to add a cool piece in the Kaline scratch-off card, which I did not scratch off, but did scan in full here:

I grabbed a few trade bait items from him as well.

Next up is some slightly rare basketball content in the form of a couple relics that I think were $2-$5. Bufkin, thanks to one of Panini's sweater cards, joins the collection along with former Piston Livers. An aptly named hooper, Bufkin was a two-and-done in Ann Arbor, going to the Hawks at #15 overall in last year's draft. I'm sure I'll find something more interesting like an autograph to add to his collection but since these sweater cards are still cooler than any "event-worn" plain white swatches, I'll take it!

I ended up with about one and a half scans worth of cheapo Wolverines out of the dime, et al, boxes, and got a nice mix of players and color.

See? There's a few more to enjoy here including two new items for the GOAT Woodson's collection, and I keep growing Hutch's as well, which has been a nice trend.

Lastly, though I have to spoil that this theme has since been broken, I came home with three more Funchess hits from that show, where I often seemed to attract them like a very grateful magnet. In this case they're all jersey relics but at least there's a mix of color, size, and designs, and all three are numbered. The trio puts him over the 30-card mark to 31, making him the 16th player in my football collection to hit that milestone.

So that's another show recap in the books. I believe my next post will be one that recaps another great Facebook Marketplace experience that I'm still benefitting from months later. And yeah, I'll eventually catch up to my two shows from this month, including the meetup I mentioned from yesterday.

2023 trade package #22: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's November, so I'd better get back to posting if I'd like to be caught up by the end of the year!

That means I'm back tonight with a new trade recap. This package came from my top all-time trade partner, Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, back in August (yeah, I'm that far behind on some stuff!).

By my count this is the 50th time on this here blog I'm showing off a package from my favorite Canadian in the hobby, so thanks for 50 and here's to many more, Doug!

Let's dig into the contents:

These '88 OPCs, as the Canadian alternative to Topps, bring to mind Detroit's old rivalry with Doug's Blue Jays in the 80s. In fact, these cards carry stats from 1987, the year Toronto headed into the final week of the regular season with a 3.5 game lead but got swept in Detroit to end the season on an 0-7 run. The Tigers wouldn't be back in the playoffs until 2006.

More baseball content, including more Tigers, and Wolverines too! Elliott, an OF in Oakland's system, was a second-rounder in '22, putting him up there with a few recent Michigan Baseball draftees. Jobe was picked #3 overall in 2021 out of high school, and he's settled in as a top 100 prospect, so getting a numbered card of him early is great. I'm glad to have a guy like Rogers behind the plate as the position in Motown has been pretty iffy over the past few years.

Beers is a pitcher, also in Oakland's system, and was a 19th round pick out of Ann Arbor in '21, and here you see him on a Leaf Perfect Game signature card, allowing him to join the hits club. And then we come back to Elliott who also joins the club with an autograph on a sweet looking Elite card that includes some college uni action. I'm thrilled to add both of these guys to the collection!

On the basketball side of things, LeVert is starting to feel like a trade package stalwart, which is great, and so are the Wagner bros, in this case Franz. Webber was one of the most well known Wolverines on the court and I'm glad to see the HOFer in envelopes like these.

Not as excited as I am about the two hits, though! First up is one of the most exciting of the bunch as it's another Wolverine/local pro team guy to add to the collection. Livers is from Kalamazoo and after four seasons in Ann Arbor the Pistons took him in the second round two years ago. Burke, of course, has been in the league since he was a top 10 pick in 2013, and that Purple Donruss Optic auto of his looks great! It's just my third card of his with a signature out of eight hits.

All four major sports got represented this time, including my 9-0 Wolverines from the gridiron. Asiasi transferred but of course I'll take any cards of such players as long as they don't appear in a college uni other than Michigan's. I guess Brady's retired for good, eh? He'll still appear in products for years to come, I'm sure. Hill's been good for Cincy's defensive backfield as a rookie, notching a couple picks and 1.5 sacks while being near the team lead in tackles, and his Bengals actually face off against Doug's Bills in just a bit as I'm writing this. Rudock's Spectra card is die-cut and SUPER thick, and this Neon Green insert, which brings to mind the upcoming holidays in the form of a Christmas tree, is numbered just 12/15! Lastly, ex-Michigan RB Charbonnet, who like Asiasi transferred out west to UCLA, is seen in his Bruins uni on the two cards above so I won't count them towards his collection but until I can find pro uni issues of his, I'll be happy to own a couple of the talented Seahawks back.

We'll finish up with hockey, as is tradition (for Canada and therefore the world). I grouped the Wings with the Wolverines since it made sense to me to show off all the cards from one sport like I do with the others, so here you see a couple of my favorites in D-men Konstantinov and Lidstrom, plus a couple other recent Detroit icers.

On the Michigan side of things, this group reminds me I just enjoyed a 10-1 Wolverines pasting of Lindenwood at Yost Ice Arena last Saturday during the football team's bye week. That's a good indication that the program is still a talent factor capable of producing guys like the ones you see above.

I had to squeeze one last non-hit into this scan, a sticker of Wings captain Dylan Larkin, one of the best to come out of Ann Arbor in the past decade. He's continuing to produce points like a machine and seems to be benefitting from the signing of local guy Alex DeBrincat!

Let's end with a bang thanks to four especially nice hits that typify Doug's generosity. I mean, the first two are plates! Number one is Jets star Kyle Connor, a Yellow plate from 22-23 O-Pee-Chee. The base set has a design that's nice to look at as usual and of course I'm thrilled to add my first 1/1 of the sniper. 

He's joined by my first card of any type of ex-Wolverine Chad Kolarik, a talented four-year Michigan C from 2004-08 (meaning I saw a good number of his games live). His NHL career amounted to a cup of coffee with the Blue Jackets in 2009-10 and a few more games with the Rangers the following season. Card #1 in his collection is one of UD's outstanding framed plates inserted into their high-end The Cup product, and this magenta plate was used to produce his Artifacts cards in 2010-11. Welcome, Chad!

I'm no less hyped for the other two cards here. The first is just a flat-out amazing booklet of former Jet/current Rangers D-man Jacob Trouba out of Panini's Playbook. Booklets are very cool items to add during a period of lack of innovation, and I love the combo of jersey pieces and a signature plus the shadowbox effect. Not only all of that, but this one's numbered AND a RC! Trouba's collection has grown nicely especially thanks to the sender of this package and he's among the hockey hits leaders with 18 now.

Finally, we travel near the end of the alphabet to one last player joining my collection tonight. Defenseman Cam York was drafted #14 overall by the Flyers in 2019 and he went on to play two seasons in Ann Arbor. Since then he's spent a good amount of time manning the blue line for Philly, and will soon be suiting up for his 100th career game. He joins my collection tonight thanks to a Rookie Materials jersey from 2021-22 Upper Deck, and I look forward to finding more of his cardboard myself or in future envelopes from Doug.

Speaking of which, one thing that finally motivated me to get off my butt and post was receiving another envelope from Canada just last week. I still have a few other trades to get to before then but I'll try to put in more effort to get caught up soon.

Until then, thanks again for package #50, Mr. Corti, and I look forward to seeing what I can do by the end of the year to return the favor!

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!