2025 trade package #26: the Collector

With Christmas just a couple days away let's have a look at the penultimate trade envelope I received in November. This one was actually a pair of PWEs from Chris, the Collector, who apologized for the lack of baseball but made up for it with some "Michigan" and "hoops and hockey" stuff. As always I was happy to receive anything, especially new stuff, from someone as generous as Chris.

Here's what he sent:

The lone baseball item was a '24 Heritage card that paired up 2012 MVPs Miggy and Buster Posey. Buster's Giants swept Cabrera's Tigers in the World Series, and both should have plaques in the HOF when all is said and done.

Hoops-wise, three players got boosts to their PCs while a fourth makes his debut tonight. A LeVert Prizm base puts him at 70, good for 6th in my collection. Poole's Topps Holiday base is perfect for this time of year. Franz has more cards in my collection than his older brother by a factor of almost three because he appears in trade packages so often, like the Prizm Monopoly card above.

And Yale transfer F Danny Wolf joins the collection thanks to a '25-'26 Topps 1980-81 insert that throws it back to that year's design. After playing his first two seasons for the Bulldogs, Wolf headed to Ann Arbor for the '24-'25 season and was productive enough to get selected #27 overall by Brooklyn earlier this year. Chris pulled this card himself and was nice enough to include it here when I asked if it was available.

As I mentioned, Chris did indeed include some football cards. GOAT QB Tom Brady stars on a 2017 Absolute base with a design that feels like a bit of an anomaly for the brand, though not at all in a bad way, especially since it wasn't split into hobby/retail versions that year. WR Steve Breaston's 2010 Panini Contenders is much more typical of that product's look, and one I tend to enjoy. Prestige has been pretty consistent too, like WR Devin Funchess' 2017 card above, especially when it comes to RCs with college photos that I like to collect. LB David Harris was in just his second season when the '08 Topps card above was made, and he'd go on to pile up over 1100 combined tackles in 11 years, all but one with the Jets (Patriots, his 2017 swan song). And you all know Henne as one of my absolute favorite QBs. The KC playoff hero can be seen above on his 2010 Panini Epix base that came out a couple years before he'd suit up for Jacksonville.

I'll get to Michigan Hockey stuff in a minute, but there was also a pair of non-Wolverwings in the envelopes. There was a group of five pretty cool UD inserts in this shipment and one of them is the UD Portraits card of young star defenseman Mo Seider, whose productive play has helped Detroit show vast improvement this season. He's joined by fellow D-man Jake Walman, a guy Steve Yzerman spent a second-rounder to dump on the Sharks last year, only to see San Jose flip him to Edmonton earlier in '25 for a first round pick. 

And lastly we have the hockey Wolverines, with a nice bit of red indicating a couple Wolverwings! That's the case for C Andrew Copp as seen on last year's UD design. The recently traded Quinn Hughes (Minnesota) and fellow traded defenseman Jacob Trouba (2024, to Anaheim) also hail from that set that offers superb photography. Hughes also appears on a '24-'25 UD insert called "Gaming XP" that notes how long its subjects have been in the league. I'll add that this appears to be a "Speckle" parallel of that insert, which is a tougher pull and therefore even better!

Along with the four portrait cards is a quartet of landscapes. Kyle Connor's Sizzle Reel insert from this year's UD looks fantastic, especially in-hand, and the rainbow foil brings to mind 90s inserts from brands like Select. Wings captain Dylan Larkin gets two very appreciated additions from this year's UD, the very shiny "Compositions," and last year's "Gaming FOV," (I inadvertently flipped them when scanning). As you can see, the '24 product liked the "gaming" theme, which surely was an appeal to a certain younger generation of collectors, and the FOV card has a cool look to it, if you ask me. By the way, I now have 77 cards of #71.

Last but certainly not least is another base card from Upper Deck's base set a year ago, starring third-year RW Mackie Samoskevich. The young Panther appeared in four playoff games last season and tallied an assist in Florida's successful quest to repeat their win over Edmonton. Oddly enough this card is also his debut in my collection, and he appears to be the 98th subject to join that PC.

Chris, as always I appreciate you thinking of me and sending me cards of my favorite players and teams. I'm glad you enjoyed your Christmas Cards as a quick break from the Topps advent calendar rip. I'm looking forward to more trading between us next year and reading more interesting features on your blog. May you and your family have a peaceful Christmas together.

I plan on being back tomorrow, Christmas Eve, with the final trade package of November '25. Season's greetings to you all!

2024 trade package #15: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store part 2: hockey

It's been a nice sports weekend for me as Michigan Football beat a lesser rival plus the Yankees are down two games in the World Series. So with that positivity in mind, let's continue on with the mountain of cards sent to me by Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store back in August. (Reminder: part 1 is here.)

We're in one of the busiest sports months of the year as all four major sports are in action plus some of the college versions. Relevant tonight is that both the Red Wings and Michigan Hockey have dropped the pucks on their seasons. As a matter of fact, I got to enjoy the latter in person last weekend!

Doug sent me a big stack of cards of both teams in this box,

and those are what we'll look at tonight!

Let's start with the local pro team, one which features four players from my alma mater, all of whom appear in this post! But we'll get to the WolverWings later. Datsyuk and Fedorov are both team legends and I'm glad to bump up their collections a bit. Meahwhile, Edvinsson is a former #6 overall pick going into his third season in Motown as a good defenseman prospect.

Next, LaPointe and Lidstrom are the most familiar names here. Marty won a pair of Cups with the Wings after they took him 10th overall in 1991, and he went on to play for the Bruins, Hawks, and Sens before hanging 'em up. Plus his son currently plays for Michigan Hockey! Lidstrom, meanwhile, is a HOF defenseman who won four Stanleys with Detroit, playing his entire career in Hockeytown. He's definitely a top-five team player of mine in franchise history.

Ozzie is the biggest name here for me, another '91 draft pick who went on to success with the team. He backed up vet Mike Vernon in the playoffs in '96-'97 before getting his turn with the repeat champs the following year, then came back in 2007-08 and '08-'09, helping the team win another Cup and then coming up just short the year after. Primeau's also pretty well known as a former #3 overall pick who put up some good numbers for the team but was part of the trade that brought Brendan Shanahan to Detroit, which worked out quite well! Raymond's a much more recent guy, chosen #4 overall in 2020, and he's coming off a 31-goal campaign, so he looks to be a big part of the future. Rutherford's a goalie from way before my time--drafted by Detroit in 1969, he found his way to Pittsburgh before a trade back to Detroit (twice!) and appeared in goal in parts of 10 seasons as a Wing.

German D-man Mo Seider leads off this scan and he comes into his fourth season as a key player on the blue line. I already mentioned how Shanny joined the team, and he was a star on a team filled with them that won three Cups. Soderblom is a Swedish winger chosen in the sixth round back in 2019 who hasn't been up with the parent team since 2022-23 but remains a prospect. Veleno was a late first-rounder way back in 2018 that hasn't yet parlayed amateur success into NHL production just yet.

The last of the Wings are represented with these horizontals and one odd-sized issue. Draper's probably the best player $1 ever bought as he brought plenty of grit along with key goals to four Cup-winners. The previously seen Seider looks good on a shiny UD insert. The Captain's NHL career coincided with some great 90s stuff like Collector's Choice's Stick-Ums. And Shanny gets one more appearance courtesy of a Pacific mini.

Now we switch over to the guys in maize & blue. Boston center Johnny Beecher makes his collection debut here thanks to Doug, and the 2019 first-rounder is in his second year with that team. Beniers and Bordeleau are both relative newcomers to the NHL and it's nice to see their collections get a small bump. Cogliano (who's also seen in the next scan) won a cup with the 21-22 Avalanche and then retired after last season, his 17th in the NHL!

Three-year Wolverine Compher was a teammate of Cogliano's with Colorado and also part of that Cup team, and now I'm happy to say that he's one of four Wolverines on the Red Wings! Jets sniper Kyle Connor has been lighting the lamp since 2016 and looks primed to hit the 30-goal mark for for the seventh time in eight seasons. As for Copp...

...he's another WolverinWing, as seen in the first two cards here. It's fun when the former Ann Arbor guys head to Detroit but even better when it's captured on cardboard. Another Team Canada card of Hobey-winner Adam Fantilli gives me two of him with that team to go with a pair with Columbus. Hagelin, who won a pair of Cups with the Pens, nears the 40-card mark as well as the top-10 of my Michigan Hockey PCs. Sitting 10 cards behind him is

Canucks D-man and last year's Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes, whose six cards here include a very cool playing card-style item from OPC. Defenseman Matt Hunwick is next, and this trio shows him with two of his six career franchises. Then we have former Leafs winger Zach Hyman who

joined the Oilers after six seasons in Toronto and steadily put up career highs until reaching 54 goals last year plus another 16 in the playoffs for runner-up Edmonton (though he's yet to score this year). While there are no Wolverines named Jones in this package, Doug had me keeping up with the Johnsons. One is Jack, another '21-'22 Avalanche Cup-winner who's now back in his second go-round with Columbus in his 19th(!) NHL season. The other is his new teammate Kent, the 2021 fifth overall pick who's in his fourth season in the league, and has five cards to his name in my collection as opposed to almost 60 for his elder fellow Wolverine.

Wings captain Dylan Larkin was one of the most common names in this package and I loved to see that. I'm grateful that the team has his leadership as he's become somewhat similar to the guy currently in charge, Steve Yzerman, so you'll imagine how much I grinned when I noticed that my collection totals for both players are very close! He's posted 31, 32, and 33 goals the past three seasons so we'll see if his incremental improvement continues, though more importantly I'm hoping for a return to the playoffs--something he hasn't experienced since his debut in 2015-16. Madden, meanwhile, won trophies both in college and the NHL, and missed the playoffs just twice in his career, with one occasion being a cup of coffee in his league debut. Oklahoma City native Jon Merrill also played for the Devils like Madden, though their careers didn't overlap. He was a Red Wing for 36 games in 2020-21 and is now in his fourth season with Minnesota.

I don't think I need to say much about Morrison as he's long been a blog favorite and I've talked about him plenty, so I'll just mention that he's #2 in my UM hockey PCs and the only other player besides Marty Turco to hit the century mark. Next, it's fun to have a shared PC with Doug like Nystrom, who's both a Michigan alum and 2/14 baby! A guy that's not too far behind Morrison is Max Pacioretty, a well-traveled winger who's with his fourth different team in as many seasons. 

My collection of Max is what it is because of folks like Doug who send me so many of his cards, like the ones in the previous scan, the few you see here (two of which are numbered!) and even more below. Palushaj barely had an NHL career to speak of but I still happily collect him. '21 #1 overall pick Owen Power is still fairly new to my collection but, again, thanks to Doug my small collection is growing. Tambellini was a favorite of mine while I had student season tickets. And as you'll see between this scan and the next,

My collection of Trouba got a nice bump as well. The sometimes overly aggressive D-man rests comfortably in the top 10 with just shy of 50 cards, in large part thanks to the guy who sent me these. One of the two Turcos helping to keep him #1 by a large margin can be seen here while there's one more below. Next, we have three of six Werenski cards representing yet another ex-Michigan guy that headed down to Columbus as a pro.

The other three sit atop this scan, including a typically excellent UD base plus the usually very cool (no pun intended) UD Ice. Two of the best looking cards in the entire box aren't even hits, but instead super thick cards of young Flyer Cam York. Both are '21-'22 SPx issues, with the first being a Finite inserted #d /399 and the other being a gorgeous Shadow Box card that has to be seen in-person to be appreciated.

We'll close out this scan (but not the post, oddly enough) with some beautiful hits. First is a beautiful RC auto of J.T. Compher, who's had his named called today already and will have the honor one more time. That's out of 2017-18 Ultimate Collection and the signature /399 is my third autograph to go with one relic. Tyler Motte, meanwhile, represents WolverWing #4 in this post, and that SPx Blackhawks jersey (/235) is relic #5 out of nine total hits. The former Chicago center joined Detroit as his 8th NHL team. Well represented PC guy Max Pacioretty is next with an SPx jersey representing one of his four seasons with Vegas. He's up to 12 hits including nine relics like that above average jersey swatch. And last up is a Panini Rookie Anthology card of Travis Turnbull that I swore I already had until I realized Doug had sent me the Patch version that comes with two excellent pieces of a Sabres jersey to go with Turnbull's signature. Besides the swatch upgrade, the card is #d /99, and that becomes my third hit of a Buffalo player who scored a single goal in three NHL games.

Like I said above, we weren't quite done yet because we still have some horizontals and other oddities that I decided to scan after the hits. Compher, Jack Johnson, and Patch all get some cool X-axis cards, and once again I love UD's flagship look. David Oliver isn't as common of a name around here--that's just my fourth card of his--so I appreciate the deep cut. The trio of goalie cards starring two of Michigan's best--Shields and Turco--has me wishing Pacific and its die-cut Crown Royale were still around. I love that he sent a base and two different parallels to give a nice look at the range of colors that set offered. Compher makes one last appearance thanks to a Panini sticker. And then we have one last player: David Shand. Like Oliver, he's not a very common name and actually only has 12 cards catalogued on TCDb. I now own three of those thanks to this 1979 sticker also made by Panini which may be the oldest such issue in my collection.

Once again I hope the fact that I had to give in and split up this package into two posts goes a long way towards indicating just how generous Doug can be when it comes to trading. Not only did he bomb me with quantity, but there was an absolute ton of quality across these two posts, and rest assured that I don't take such effort for granted. Thanks for being one of my favorite trading partners, Doug, and I hope to close out the year with a Christmas package that shows my appreciation!

Stay tuned for another August trade package coming up soon!

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 #9: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

When today's post is in the books I'll be able to say I'm finally caught up with blogger trade packages, at least temporarily! And given the sender, Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, is one of my most prolific trade partners, it's no surprise that this one is a doozy. All four major sports, sweet inserts, autos and relics, and more! Let's get down to it:

The baseball and non-Michigan hockey portions were small but of high quality. Miggy's 2021 Stadium Club card, a nice reminder that Detroit opens up the season in just a couple days, is an image variation from 2021, a horizontal issue of him sliding into a base as opposed to a vertical shot of him standing safely on base holding his helmet. I hope he reaches 3000 hits early in the season to get the pressure off himself early!

Moving to the ice we have two Wings, whose season is bad enough that the less we talk about it the better. Besides a very nice OPC base of supremely talented Swede Zetterberg I was surprised to find a lovely signature from his countryman, defenseman Gustav Lindstrom, out of 20-21 UD Allure. Doug's sent me other cards from this product and they all 100% live up to the name! The young D-man played a bit the past couple years with the Wings before becoming a regular this season and we'll see what his future is for a team that can't seem to win a damn thing right now. Beautiful card, though!

Representing the UM basketball team, which did well to make it to the Sweet 16 after an inconsistent season, we'll start things off with some great looking cards of one of the longest tenured NBA Wolverines in Crawford, who finally retired this year, and current head coach Juwan Howard, bookending a new base of THJ. Crawford appeared in at least one game (which happened only in his final season, 2019-20) every season starting in 2000-01 and suited up for nine teams. And that Howard insert in the bottom row's center spot looks great, right out of the 90s!

Continuing on the court there's one more Howard to enjoy along with some 90s love for vets like Tarpley, Vaught, and Webber. But the recent Hoops trio is definitely where it's at thanks to a nice base of 3-point wiz Duncan Robinson and RCs of Isaiah Livers and Franz Wagner. Livers was fun to watch as a four-year Wolverine who became a key contributor over his last two seasons, and then the local guy (Kalamazoo) was taken by the Pistons, which was very cool. Wagner followed the trail his brother Mo blazed from Germany to Ann Arbor for two seasons and then was a first-round pick for Orlando last year, teaming up with his bro and another Michigan alum in Ignas Brazdeikis.

After two more cards of recent HOFer Webber, we start to get into the real goods with some hits out of basketball and football. Old man Jamal Crawford represents the former with a pair of 2016-17 Panini-branded relics. On the left is a Select Swatches relic from Select and to the right is a Catalysts jersey from Spectra. Both cards are from his 2012-16 run with the Clippers and each includes a bold red swatch. The Spectra card is also numbered on the back to 149. Jamal now has nine hits in his collection, good for fourth place among basketballers as he attempts to join the double-digit club.

The gridiron card count was small but definitely no worse for it with two high quality pieces! First up is a 2018 National Treasures jersey of new Patriots defensive weapon Jabrill Peppers. He was of course taken by Cleveland in the first round of the 2017 draft and is now free of the tire fire organizations there and in New York with the Giants. His brown jersey relic is numbered to 99 on the front and it marks hit #3 for him. Fellow versatile "weapon" and new member of Michigan's recruiting staff Denard Robinson gets an even cooler card to add to his tally, a 2013 Triple Threads Ruby parallel numbered to just 15 that includes three Jags swatches--one of which has three colors and some stitching--plus an autograph, making it one of the best cards in the envelope. It sure is sweet and I'm very happy to have it as hit #53 of the newly employed Robinson.

Now we head to the ice as Michigan Hockey prepares for its record 26th Frozen Four appearance tomorrow evening against Denver in Boston. The Wolverines still have the most national titles with nine but Denver and North Dakota loom nearby with eight each, and UM hasn't won it all since 1998. This team with a plethora of first-round NHL picks has me hoping for a new banner hanging in the rafters of Yost this winter.

Anyway, on to the cards. Cammalleri, Connor (among the league leaders in goals this year), Wings captain Larkin, and Pacioretty are all well known names while Hagelin and both Hunwicks (unrelated, as always) are guys I got to see play live in Ann Arbor. While the Larkins look great and I do love adding to his collection, I was the most excited for the Mirror Emerald parallel of Shawn Hunwick's 2012-13 Certified RC. It looks terrific and includes that same shot of him playing for Columbus in his Michigan gear that I've seen a million times, but even better, it's numbered 4/5, making it the rarest card in his collection that isn't a plate. It was a huge surprise and I'm thrilled to knock another one off his wantlist!

Fellow Blue Jacket Zach Werenski, who's put up some good numbers with the team this year as a defenseman, sews up the base and inserts with a nice pair--those OPC Platinum cards sure are sharp, aren't they?

And lastly we'll look at a quartet of big hits. We're going alphabetically here but the first one is about as good as it gets: a Yellow Printing Plate of former Duck Andrew Ebbett that was inserted in super high-end product 2008-09 Upper Deck the Cup. The plate was used to produce the former Wolverine's SP Game Used base card that year, and I love what Upper Deck did back then in kind of framing the plates they inserted, making them look even cooler. What a great addition!

Card #2 stars the previously seen Pacioretty, a guy I got to see play a bit in his one year in Ann Arbor before jumping to Montreal. He's put up over 300 goals in parts of 14 seasons and is a key piece on the Golden Knights when he's healthy. What you see above is a jersey relic from 2020-21 SP Game Used celebrating his appearance in 2020's NHL All-Star Skills competition. It's hit #9 for his collection and one of the newest ones I own of him.

Single-year Wolverine defenseman Jacob Trouba is the subject of the last two cards tonight. #1 is a draft banner jumbo relic from the year he was drafted by the Jets #9 overall, 2012. The card would have been pulled from 2019-20 SP Game Used and I believe it's my second banner-related relic from the sport, which is not something you see every day so I think it's pretty cool! Joining that is my eighth card that includes his signature, hailing from 2019-20 Upper Deck Chronology's Franchise History Autos. It's a very classy looking card of a guy whose current count of 10 goals has equaled his career high established in 2013-14, his rookie season. This outstanding pair puts him up to an excellent 17 hits, good for a fourth place tie with Shawn Hunwick among the 59 subjects in my hockey PC. These are a great way to close out another banger of a mailer from Doug!

Given the abundance of goodies you can see above, many of which are of such high quality that I'm happy I've worked as hard as I have recently to hit him back, I'm happy that I've finally done a show and tell post to share them with those of you that follow me. After a few more items arrive I'll be sending my first salvo of 2022 to Doug and look forward to his reaction. In the meantime I may just be able to start getting caught up on my TCDB trades. But before then, in honor of my favorite Canadian (or just in general?) trade partner...

And there you have it!

2021 trade package #24: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Dollar Store dude and Canadian buddy of the blog Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store recently sent me a nice fat envelope for the fourth time this year and it was another doozy! As is often the case when he sends me stuff, all four major sports get hit so there's potentially something for everyone here. And most importantly, everything is for me! Let's look at the contents this time:

The baseball and basketball portions were limited but very strong. We get a look at two Cabreras: future HOFer Miggy plus potential future Tiger Daniel, an OF Detroit took in the second round out of LSU last year. Former Wolverine and sure-fire future star Jordan Nwogu, like the latter Cabrera above, came out of this year's Topps Pro Debut, which seems to be using a mix of designs, and that's always a plus. And the package's biggest hitter is also from that product: an autograph of one of the Tigers' cream of the crop prospects, Riley Greene. The fifth overall pick in 2019, Greene has as much upside as anyone else selected in that first round, and the outfielder tends to slot in just behind Spencer Torkelson atop the team's farm rankings. Doug pulled this bad boy, numbered /50 on the back, himself, and was nice enough to flip it to me for future considerations, which I'm still working on. Just another reminder of his legendary generosity.

Getting back to Wolverines, from a different sport, take a look at the recent-ish due of THJ and LeVert. It's crazy to me that the younger Hardaway will be going into his ninth season this year while Vert will be appearing in his sixth once he's healthy.

Heading over to the gridiron, Michigan's 6-0 start has surprised lots of fans including me. This here group mostly leans towards the rookies but has some vet representation as well. Alexander and Kenn appear on cards made after their first seasons while older Wolverines Brooks and Foote RCs bookend two of this year's newest NFLers in Collins and Evans out of Chronicles Draft, meaning best helmet in college football shows up front and center. And the two biggest items of the bunch come up next: twin (but not identical) autos of former RB Karan Higdon out of 2019 Contenders. The main differences between the variations are the photos and team logos used. The pair doubles my count of Higdon hits to four.

And of course the bulk of the package comprises hockey, with the Wings of Hockeytown dominating the count over the Wolverines. There was a great mix of old and new and I decided to lead off with the players I remember watching growing up along with some guys that starred for the franchise's dynasty in the late 90s/2000s (and a bit beyond). Almost all of these guys won Cups with the team aside from Racine, Sheppard (card #6), and Ysebaert (#7), and the latter are players I remember well from playing EA's super-fun NHL games in the mid-90s. It's fun to be a fan of a franchise with such a great history, and one with some decently recent success too!

Here we have mostly recent players with the exception of one-year Wing Crowder and Gallant, whose Wings career ended a bit before I was really following them. He's since carved out a solid coaching career. Hirose's cards are from UD's pretty cool Allure product, and better yet the back of the die-cut parallel tells you exactly what it's called: White Rainbow. More of this, please!

And we end tonight's post on this scan with a mix of Wings and Wolverines, but no Wolverwings this time. The erstwhile Nyquist and Tatar parallels are 2016-17 OPC Ice Blue Traxx cards, and I know that because once again Upper Deck told me exactly that on their backs. They're cool looking parallels in my book!

As for the alumni of the #1 team in the NCAA right now, we'll start with Connor's card which is a Puzzle Back from last year's UD MVP (part of an image that forms Brent Burns of the Sharks). Sharks draftee and current Sen (Doug's team!) Josh Norris makes his debut in my collection with a 2021 UD Synergy inserted called Rookie Journey Draft, which is numbered /999. Patch is much more represented in my collection due to his stardom resulting in a lot of cards made, like the insert above from 2020-21 UD called Ripple the Twine--a cool hockey term I'd somehow never heard before. And last up is a nicely designed jersey relic starring Jacob Trouba, a defenseman drafted by the Jets who now plays for the Rangers. I like how the swatch forms the blade in the hockey stick design they've got going on. I also like that it represents hit #15 of the former first-rounder in my collection.

And speaking of interesting numbers, which I don't feel like I've done much lately, it's time to celebrate yet another collecting milestone for my Michigan alumni hits collection: 2400 cards! 2401 to be exact, thanks to the three here from Doug. One of these days maybe I'll go through some older posts to try to calculate just how integral he's been in that collection, especially the 300+ from hockey alone, but even without looking I can tell you he's contributed a LOT.

So for the 42nd time on this here blog alone (not including those posted on Too Many Manninghams), I have to extend a huge thanks to Doug for the effort and generosity he put into a fantastic trade package. I look forward to seeing your reaction to the package you just received from me recently (finally!) and trying to up my game to pay you back for these latest goodies, especially that Greene autograph.

This was obviously a typically big trade package but I'll be back soon with a much smaller one courtesy of TCDB.

2021 trade package #5: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Happy Sunday, everybody! I'm feeling good having been able to get some stuff done this weekend, plus Michigan took down Ohio State in basketball earlier this afternoon, so it's been a pretty good day. How about celebrating with my latest mailer from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store?

Speaking of celebrating, this is package #40 from one of my favorite traders that I'm featuring on this here blog (he got up to 56 on Too Many Manninghams, though there was some overlap there too). Doug managed to stuff a bunch of great cards into the last package he sent me, the one that included a couple sweet 8x10 autos, and somehow he still had enough to fill out a fat bubble mailer.

Thankfully he finally had some cards to show off from me, posting those not long after his birthday on 2/14. But I've got lots of catching up to do, as you'll see after taking a look at what he sent this time:

A Sabo base from the year his Reds won it all is the only baseball content today, but the team's name goes well with the next bunch. The last few years of Red Wings squads are a far cry from the glory days of teams helmed by the likes of Datsyuk, Larionov, and Zetterberg, but with Stevie Y in control, I have a feeling Hockeytown won't have to wait as long to celebrate with the cup as we did when 1997 rolled around. Igor's card is a suuuuper thick numbered base from UD's very high-end The Cup product. Also, I like the die-cutting on Hank's OPC card, but I'll be damned if these aren't a pain in the ass to try to position to scan since there's no straight edges and they spin around on the glass like it's an air hockey table!

Now we'll move on to the team of the hour (or the year?). Coach Juwan Howard, seen twice here, has done an amazing job to get the team where it is today, with just one loss, multiple impressive wins, and a likely 1-seed. The well-travelled Burke is always nice to see, and Grant's appeared in more than a couple Buckstorecards packages. "Sugar" Mills is one of the Pistons I remember from back when I actually used to watch pro basketball (mainly during the Pistons' heyday) and I liked him before I knew he was a former Wolverine.

The hits here are also typically excellent. Just my second LeVert (and Doug also sent me the first one, which is gonna be hard to top!) this Panini Noir looks really nice in-person, with the black & white image popping like crazy. That's a really nice pair of a talented young player. And then there's a very sharp, large two-color swatch featuring Sauce Castillo, hailing from Panini's high-end National Treasures. Nik, who's travelled about as much as Burke, is more common in my collection as this is card #10 in the hit collection (five each of relics and plates, if you can believe it). A hell of a pair from Stauskas' fellow Canadian!

If football wasn't represented by quantity this time the quality made up for it in spades. First is a Funch jersey on a Refractory/Prizmy 2016 Spectra card. Numbered /199, it of course shows him with the team that picked him, Carolina, but we'll see what he does next season after sitting this one out. This is Funchess hit #15 for me, by the way.

He's followed by a guy who probably won't ever see time on an NFL playing field, but that's fine because I love my college cards! Transfer QB Shea Patterson signed this 2020 Leaf Trinity card with a "Go Wolverines" inscription, making this kind of product even better for a collector like me. Just my second hit of Patterson (the other's also an autograph) this looks terrific and now I want to go out and find more Trinity cards of my PC guys!

And as always we'll end another enjoyable SCFtDS post with the Michigan Hockey content, which consists of two scans this evening. Here we have a nice mix of base and inserts. Former Habs teammates Cammalleri and Patch bookend this bunch with some shiny Certified base issues that don't quite reflect how, um, reflective they are, but that's no problem since that means they scanned nicely! Connor is from UD's Artifacts, a brand that's given me trouble in its past football iterations but plenty of nice stuff when it comes to icers. While he's not the lone subject of that Hurricanes team checklist, Wolverine Phil Di Giuseppe's name is prominent on the card so to his collection it'll go. Wolverwing Glendening and D-man Jon Merrill below him hail from a Prizm update set and both are RCs, so I got that going foo me. Hagelin and another Wolverwing, Larkin, highlight the textbook excellence of UD's photograph and design. And lastly, a second Merrill enters the mix--a numbered (/100) OPC black parallel that looks really nice with the rainbow effect plus the border.

Young star Zach Werenski, who's in his fifth season in Columbus (barf) and scored 20 goals last year, is the last subject before we get to the hits, and he appears on a Blue parallel from UD's Overtime product plus the flagship set as well. Remove the logos and you still know you're looking at an Upper Deck hockey card every time.

And then we have three more hits to admire in a package full of them. #1 is a 2016-17 UD AHL autograph of former star C T.J. Hensick, another card that embodies UD's pleasing look. I got to see pretty much his entire college career as a season ticket holder and I can tell you he was one of those guys who was absolutely electric, sometimes taking over a game by himself when the team needed him. Somehow this is only my second hit of his so I definitely value this one highly.

#2 is the undisputed highlight of this package for me. Dylan Larkin is my favorite current Wolverine in the NHL and it doesn't hurt that he happens to play for the Wings as well. As a young star his cards are understandably expensive so I'm glad to score an autograph of his here and there. Getting this UD Credentials signature limited to just 25 copies, then, is absolutely insane! Doug's now responsible for two of the three Larkin autos in my PC, and if that doesn't say something about his generosity then I don't know what does. What a sweet card!

And finally, we head over to his beloved Anthology product, the 2013-14 version. Doug busted a bunch of this stuff in an effort to complete some of the various sets, and to his credit he was able to finish up the dual jersey auto RCs like the Trouba you see above, quite and accomplishment. I believe this one was a dupe for him from a later box break, and I really appreciate him sending it my way since he'd be well within his rights to sell it to recoup some of his investment. Instead, though, he was nice enough to make it my 14th Trouba hit (many of which came from him), half of which feature the young star's signature. It would have been a tall order topping the sick-nasty patch auto he sent me last month, but this is just as high-end as the rest he's sent me over the years.

Doug, once again thank you for sending me some prized new items for my collections! Please feel free to take a breather while I work on paying you back. I'm glad to say I have at least one thing in the works I think you'll like, and I'll keep working on a return. In the meantime, I hope you had a great birthday and that you're having a blast with Mischief!

2021 trade package #3: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

I'm back tonight with the last January trade package that I have in-hand (so far, at least!), another Canadian special from buddy of the blog Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. For some reason he's generous enough to keep sending me packages even though I've owed him at least one for a while. Fortunately I just got one on its way to him, so things will start to even out a bit. I didn't hit him in time for Christmas (or anyone else, for that matter) but I think this one will get there before his birthday on 2/14 (send him some cards of guys born that day!).

Anyway, this was another multi-sport bonanza with a few things I knew would be included but mostly some outstanding surprises:

Let's begin with the Wings stuff, a nice red and white quartet. I'm glad the Applicator, a former Spartan, is no longer in Hockeytown, but his base card along with Nielsen's from 2020-21 Upper Deck looks fantastic. I'm glad UD is still around in some capacity because their designs are top notch! Turgeon's still a work in progress but his Upper Deck Ice RC, #d /999, fits in with the comments I just made about the brand's design chops, with Ice being a particularly cool motif. And then there's The Captain, a.k.a. The GM. The star of a Team Canada Juniors card made by--who else?--Upper Deck has his work cut out for him in terms of a rebuild, but what a great moment it would be to see the guy who captained the Wings to their first title after a long drought do the same from the front office!

Switching over to Michigan Basketball stuff, I enjoyed checking out this bevy of recent guys. NCAA tourney legend Jordan Poole leads the way with six cards, finally getting his collection to double digits, and that's thanks to a cool quartet of rookie-year issues, some of which are Panini Chronicles-related, and a nice Contenders college action card. A Nik "Sauce Castillo" Stauskas RC with a bit of a hardwood feel is another cool highlight. 

Then we get to a trio of cool hits. Poole features on a die-cut relic from a Crowne Royale set, a product known for that design feature. The Hoops sweater card where Jordan co-stars with Iggy Brazdeikis had me laughing and was perfect for ugly sweater season. And then there's one more Michigan uni card to enjoy: a Contenders auto (my first card of any kind, in fact) of Kentucky transfer Charles Matthews, who headed north to Ann Arbor for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. Those were coach John Beilein's last two years coaching Michigan and included reaching the title game in '18, losing to Villanova. I'm not the biggest basketball fan but this is a really nice bunch!

The football side of things was less voluminous but no less effective. On the left is LB and #60 overall selection by the Pats last year, Josh Uche. Doug's responsible for sending me my first card of the four-year Wolverine who put up 14.5 sacks his last couple years in Ann Arbor. That would be his RC from last year's Rookies & Stars product. I've never been a fan of that product's design but will definitely overlook its faults since it used a college photo!

The other is my 12th relic (and 35th hit overall) of former UM WR Amara Darboh, and it also hails from Panini's R&S. While he didn't turn into much in the NFL he was lots of fun to watch in college and I continue to enjoy collecting him. Darboh's no longer with Seattle, the team that drafted him, but since pretty much all of his cards were made during his rookie year of 2017, that's who he's pictured with here, and it comes with a nice Seahawks blue swatch.

And now we get to the usual main event: Michigan Hockey. Compher, Hughes, Hyman, and Trouba are all from the previously mentioned '20-'21 Upper Deck product that I'm already in love with, though Trouba's card features one of the funniest miscuts I've ever seen! I only have three cards of former RW David Oliver, but then he doesn't have many to chase, so this 1995-96 O-Pee-Chee card is great. And Patch makes yet another SCFtDS trade appearance out of '19-'20 UD Overtime, with the Vegas winger responsible for three goals in just six games this season.

Hockey hits? Hockey hits! The Ebbett (auto #6, hit #8 overall) is an ITG stickergraph, but the designers did a nice job of hiding that fact by placing it on an image of a rink. Andrew has an outstanding signature and even includes his jersey number, which is always cool. He played four full years in Ann Arbor starting my sophomore year so I believe I got to see every one of his home games and I'm glad to collect cool stuff of his like this auto.

Werenski's a much more recent guy, and the young d-man is fun to watch even if he plays for Columbus. He hit the 20-goal mark last year in his fourth season, and that was in fewer games than the others! This UD Game Jersey includes a very nice royal blue swatch from a Blue Jackets sweater, and I can't think of a better color for the former Wolverine's first hit in my hockey collection!

Last up here is a card Doug teased me with, and for once the scan may actually do it justice. Found in an Upper Deck product called Chronology, it's a gorgeous Jacob Trouba patch auto done up in the style of UD's Masterpieces, with a beautiful red border tying it all together. That goes especially well with his patriotic jersey colors now that he's with the Rangers. Oh, and the gold pen auto isn't bad either. I've got some nice cards of the young star defensemen in my collection, but nothing approaches the sheer brilliance of this one, probably my favorite card in the whole package!

But we're not quite done. He had to send these latest traders in a larger than usual envelope to accommodate one more item he teased, plus another that I believe was a surprise:

Upper Deck's Be a Player product offered a set called Portraits in 2006-07, and the titular items could be found signed by one to four players. One of my favorite PC guys, Brendan Morrison, made the cut for the checklist, and the result is this beautiful 8x10 that features a nice action photo and a dedicated space for a nice, large signature. What a cool item, one that's begging to be put up on the wall in a place of prominence in my card room. Fellow favorite dude Marty Turco can also be found here so his has gone on my wantlist, and I was disappointed to discover that the Frozen Four-winning pair didn't get a dual card to themselves. Anyway, very cool of Doug to both acquire this for me and deal with the logistics of shipping it.

And if he was already doing that, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, right? I was totally surprised to see this awesome signed 8x10 of another guy who starred at Yost Ice Arena for a couple years I had tickets, 2005-06 and '06-'07: Jack Johnson. Jack was a blast to watch during his college days, a major force on the ice, even if he sometimes took stupid penalties. It was no surprise when the #3 overall pick from the '05 draft went pro after a pair of seasons, and he's enjoyed some ups and downs over a long NHL career.

This photo is signed in blue (naturally!) sharpie and is from game action against the Lake Superior State Lakers of the former CCHA, Michigan's longtime pre-Big Ten league.

This information from the back wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped so I'm not sure if it came from one of two '06-'-07 games (2/16/07 @ LSSU, 2/18/07 in Detroit) or a pair of away games in Sault Ste. Marie in November of 2007 the following season. Either way, it's a very cool piece and a nice addition to my collection of Michigan autographed memorabilia!

Doug, thanks again for an extremely cool package of stuff--you always manage to surprise me with some amazing cards, and sometimes other items too! I hope the envelope I just sent you gets there safely and quickly and that you're just as geeked about your latest haul from our ongoing deals!

With all my incoming trades covered for now I think next time you'll be seeing my first eBay pickup of 2021 before I get back to the rest of my 2020 COMC haul.