2/28/25 card show report: Marching into spring

I've been slacking again, or more accurately, focusing on other stuff that's grabbed my interest. That said, I haven't forgotten blogging, even if I'm terrible at keeping up with it!

Some of you may recall that I combined my first two 2025 shows into a single post because both dates were in January. Similarly, the "March" show's first date (since I usually go on Fridays) was the final day of February. Confused? Don't worry--the April and May shows took place during their corresponding months.

Once again it's been far too long for me to remember the details on this one, but I spent an almost-yearly high of $115 (January's was $120), largely thanks to one high-end card that I'm sure will get posted on another blog soon enough. There was also the usual nice stack of trade bait destined for some of my favorite folks, plus this unassigned stuff up for grabs:

The baseball stuff was mostly very cheap autos with a stray relic thrown in.

As for football, I went for a couple eye-popping patches and a patch/auto, plus a couple other cheapies I'm hoping someone will take off my hands. You know the drill: claim 'em if you want 'em!

And then there's my small pile of keepers:

Fleer's Lumber Company went through a number of different looks over its multiple iterations, and the '94 version isn't at the top for me, but it's still a very good one. I love me some numbered 90s inserts (they rule!) of my favorite stars from the era, so that Black Diamond Maddux (#d /1500 on the back) was a nice find for me. Cal's '83 Donruss second-year is a rare 80s base of him I didn't own, not to mention a reminder of the year I was born. Pacific's 2632 insert honoring his streak is one I don't recall seeing before so I was glad to snag it. And the Leaf Clean Up Crew insert offers a look at a very powerful infield trio for Baltimore that included two of the guys in the 500 HR/3000 hit club plus the SS with the most career bombs at his position.

On the basketball side of things I once again came home with a Caris LeVert insert out of what I'm sure was a dime or quarter box, plus a nice Bulls red jersey swatch of Fab Five guy Jalen Rose, my fifth relic and seventh total hit of the 13-year NBAer.

I now have a couple more shows to recap but first will be returning to trade packages with two from the month of March, then a few other incoming items.

2024 trade package #13: Topps Cards That Never Were

Happy September, y'all! We're quickly approaching fall, which means college football is back, and the defending national champion Wolverines opened up their 2024 season with a win this past weekend. And somehow the Tigers haven't even been eliminated yet. So it's a great month for sports around here.

Both of those teams and more popped up in the latest trade package I received from fellow Tigers fan Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were back in June. In fact, "more" is a good description for this absolutely stuffed package full of players I collect:

Hey, how about Rich "Dick Mountain" Hill joining the Red Sox to pitch in his 20th MLB season at the age of 44? Jeremy sent me three Topps parallels picturing Hill with three different teams, though none of them are the Sox, a team he's pitched for in four stints (in parts of six seasons). His fellow ex-Wolverine Barry Larkin is another of the school's most well known alumni, and he did indeed dominate at times over his HOF career. Dean Palmer is probably not as common of a PC outside of fans of Detroit, Texas, and maybe KC, so I appreciate folks like Jeremy including him when sending me cards. Meanwhile, Cal's my biggest player collection by far with nearly 1300 cards, like the Topps offerings you see above--my favorite being the die-cut--and a couple more below.

This doesn't happen too often but I prefer the Topps insert to the Panini/Donruss one in this case, both because of the design and photo choice. Tork's had a nice few weeks back with the big team and actually homered off of Rich Hill today! And I can never have too many Verlanders, like my first 2024 issue of him from Bowman.

Jeremy also included lots of basketball stuff. That begins with a three-pack of Hoops-related cards, including the Winter version. Former coach Juwan Howard is next with a pair of college issues, but these are just two of a larger bunch from the package.

If those Howard cards don't scream "1990s" I don't know what does! Meanwhile, LeVert is a top-10 guy in my basketball collection and one of just seven with 50+ cards. Like THJ he got in on the Hoops action too.

Though they don't all look it, all of LeVert's cards are different because they're either regular or Winter versions, or parallels with small color foil differences. Caris gives way to Glen Rice, my top basketball guy with over 200, currently the only member of that club. A single Duncan Robinson has him tied for third in my collection of players with that last name (according to TCDb) behind David and Rumeal, and tied with Glenn. Jalen Rose is another Fab Fiver to get some love here thanks to eight total cards, three of which you see here.

That many different cards means we get to see Rose on a number of teams and designs, which is always great. And that's also true of his Fab Five teammate Chris Webber, #2 in my collection and nearing 200 (Howard and Rose are 3 and 4, the only others above 100). He was the most popular player in this mailer with 27 cards by my count!

Lots of Webber means lots more 90s stuff, and these definitely take me back to my teenage years. Out of all of these, the Upper Deck base feels a lot more timeless to me than the other designs that are more a product of their time (though still fun).

As we approach the end of the 90s and get into the aughts we get into some designs that appeal more to me. UD3 was a very cool product in multiple sports, Ultra was a perennial favorite, UD continued a streak of quality, Bowman's Best was superior to its recent baseball efforts, and even Topps Tipoff looked solid. Fleer's Premium was pretty nice as well, but the weird Topps Chrome design here feels like a rare miss.

Here's the last of the Webbers including a cool UD trio from later in his Sacramento tenure, then a couple horizontal issues from Ultra nd Stadium Club. The Award Winner card refers of course to his '93-'94 Rookie of the Year nod in a close vote against Penny Hardaway, another guy who went on to a very nice career.

And we'll finish up with football. Jeremy hit a whole bunch of names here too, which I loved. Brooks and Cooper are kind of deeper cuts for folks that aren't fans of the program like I am, but Brady, Calloway, Carter, Edwards, Henne, and Hutch are all pretty well known, I'd say, especially the GOAT and the biggest reason the Lions have returned to respectability. (By the way, this isn't the last time you'll see Aidan in this post!)

If you thought that first scan had a lot of talent then feast your eyes on this one. Kenn was a five-time Pro Bowler at LT for the Falcons. Long was a fantastic LT in his own right, and a former #1 overall pick. Owens spent nine years in the league at linebacker as a Rams first-rounder. Wheatley's storied Michigan career led to 10 NFL seasons--not bad for a running back! Fearsome LB/DE LaMarr Woodley won a ring with the Steelers. And Woodson is simply an all-time great in both the college and pro games. The Select insert that includes Hutch and Nico is especially cool as it features talent from all aspects of the game: offense, defense, and special teams.

The last I have of the football stuff is these horizontal cards. All guys were mentioned above except new Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh. The Brady/Woodson insert is fun given their notable playoff history that will forever link the '97 champion teammates.

Jeremy, thanks again for this huge amount of great cards that'll benefit many of my collections! I have some interesting stuff set aside for you and may be shipping them out within the next week or two depending on how things go.

As for posting over here, I think next up will be another show recap, or I may get to eBay or Facebook Marketplace purchases, whatever I feel like. Until then, eat 'em up, Tigers, and GO BLUE!

2024 trade package #3: the Collector

The calendar may say May--one of my favorite months--but in terms of blog time I'm still back in February. Baseball's spring training was due to begin shortly when Chris, a.k.a. the Collector, hit my mailbox with one of his excellent PWEs. One thing I liked about it is that he themed it to the sports of the season at the time: basketball, football, and hockey. You all know I put very little time, money, or effort into my basketball collection, and not a whole lot more of each into hockey, so I appreciate it when some of my trading buddies are nice enough to include them like this.

Let's take a quick look over the cards he sent this time:

McGary didn't pan out as an NBA first-rounder but he did help Michigan get to the NCAA finals in 2013. "Sugar" Mills was a big part of UM's '89 champs and then spent 11 years in the NBA, six of those with his hometown Pistons. Rice was the star of the 1988-89 Wolverines, then enjoyed 15 NBA campaigns, winning it all with the 2000 Lakers. Riley turned a decent four-year Michigan career into a second round pick and five NBA seasons, each with a new team. And of course Fab-Fiver Rose went from a star-studded college roster to 13 years in the league, though he lost out in his lone finals appearance to Rice's Lakers.

The football side of things here is smaller, but that's ok because I can take care of that myself easily. Still, I appreciated the Mazi Smith RC out of Prizm and the Score base of GOAT DB Charles Woodson. Mazi definitely didn't have the season anyone wanted--a lone sack and 3 TFL--after Dallas took him in the first round, but we'll see what a difference a year makes.

And then we have the hockey content from hockeydude. Beniers, Hyman, and Powers all hail from the same UD set, and that's one super talented trio right there. Matty's numbers dipped a bit in his third season after Seattle made him 2021's #2 overall pick, but he's got a bright future ahead of him. Owen, the #1 choice just before Beniers, had a solid season on Buffalo's blue line. And perhaps no former Michigan icer has enjoyed a better season than Hyman, who ranked third in the league in regular season goals with a crazy 54, and has added seven more in the playoffs to tie for the lead with his Oilers into the second round.

Hughes is looking pretty Glossy this season too, putting together a ridiculous 17/75/92 line as a defenseman and putting himself in position to win the Norris Trophy. Kolarik was a low draft pick who appeared in all of six NHL games but had a very nice college career, and I love adding a numbered card to my small collection of him. Larkin had a tough season for a number of reasons off the ice, but he proved to be the most important player on the team he captains. He reached a new high in goals (33) and eclipsed 200 scores and 500 points this season on a team that sadly choked away its chances at the playoffs. And lastly, Werenski reached new heights in assists (46) and points (57) on a team that missed the postseason but gave playing time to four other Wolverines.

Thank you again to Chris for the lone blogger trade envelope I received in February (not a complaint), and of course, because he's a generous guy, I have yet another one to show off from last month once I catch up. Again, I appreciate you finding some great stuff for my collections, especially the ones I don't really focus on my myself.

Still to come from the month that was February: a show (at which I've spent the most so far this year through April), a super cool Facebook purchase, and a Twitter pickup from someone just about everyone should be familiar with.

3/2023 and 5/2023 card show reports: talking about four shows on the weekend like it's TGIF

Why yes, I am an 80s/90s kid, why do you ask?

So one of the consequences of my slacking on posting more than usual this year is that I've fallen behind on covering the shows I've made it out to since March. That's why I'm taking a quick break this evening from trade packages to do a brief roundup of the four I attended in March and May (so far).

First up is the usual monthly show in Taylor for March. I made it over there on Saturday, the 4th, and I didn't come back with a whole lot, but did track down some stuff that made it into trade packages, a bit of random trade bait, and some items for myself. All of that set me back just $45. Here's the goods:

The trade bait that hasn't found a home yet, even after getting posted on TCDb a while ago: an Alge Crumpler jersey (not numbered), a jumbo swatch of Ardarius Stewart (two colors with stitching, #d /25), and a dual autograph of RBs Kenny Irons and Chris Henry (#d 50).

Please feel free to make an offer for anything mentioned as trade bait tonight here in the comments or over on TCDb, by the way.

I ended up with a lucky seven grouping of cards for myself. Juniors Griffey and Ripken appear on Triple Play's fold-out/scratch-off (unscratched) game cards and Kenny gets a second addition thanks to Stadium Club's 1999 Never Compromise insert. Maddux indeed took the Road to Cooperstown and that Fleer/SI insert looks great. Speaking of amazing inserts (the 90s ones especially rule!) how about an Orange Epix of Pudge? A Michigan uni RC of Josh Uche from '20 Prestige is one of two football additions with the other being an above average-sized jersey swatch of Denard Robinson from 2013 Rookies & Stars. It's numbered /299 and represents hit #55 of Shoelace, who's happily with the program assisting with the team's recruiting efforts (which are going quite well if you hadn't noticed!).

Next, I drove about 75 minutes on a cold, windy, rainy day up to Lansing--willingly! Why the hell would I do that? Well they have a pretty nice sized show at the mall up there, but I had no reason to make the trek until I found out that Jeff and his cousin Sluggo would be making the even longer drive up from Indiana to spread the good word of Sluggo's Sports Cards to Michiganders like myself.

Despite the shitty weather I'm very happy I made the trip because it was great to meet Sluggo, plus he and Jeff had a very impressively organized setup of fairly priced cards to look through. It also didn't hurt that Jeff gave me a very friendly discount, but I would have happily paid full sticker price for what I picked out of their $1/$3 boxes. Jeff and and I also got to swap cards in-person again, which was fun.

Again, this is long enough ago that a decent amount of what I bought went out in trade packages, but once again I have some loot to offer up to the masses plus a trio of cards for myself for an even $50:

The word of the day was "manurelics" and boy did I pick a bunch of them out of the $1 and $3 boxes! These five are all up for grabs. Arrieta's is one of those heavy MLB Debut medallions from 2016; Kemp's is a much lighter Players Weekend "patch" (plastic piece) from 2018; Kepler is a very chunky commemorative coin/medallion out of the 2020 product; Sano's is a plastic-y Jackie Robinson "patch" from 2017; and the Big Hurt's 2021 offering is also a plastic piece masquerading as a "patch," one that I guess Jeff didn't need since he's the first person I would have offered it to!

I didn't keep much for myself but that's totally fine. As you can see I ended up with Topps 70th manurelics of Gwynn and Scherzer from the same set as the Thomas above, and those join Kaline and Verlander in my collection. I'm no longer treating manufactured relics as "hits" but do still like to pick them up occasionally, and I've created an album for any I've kept in all sports.

The one non-manurelic card that went into my collection was a Barry Larkin that was new to me. The "90s inserts rule" tag is once again welcome this evening thanks to his 1995 SP Special FX insert you see there on the left. This is a tough-to-scan foil card that has a sky blue with clouds background (which didn't really come across in the image) plus an inset hologram, the latter of which was synonymous with UD over their first decade in the hobby. What a great looking card, even if you can't tell from the scan.

Many thanks to Sluggo (Kevin) and Jeff for a great experience, and I can't wait to meet up with them again the next time it's convenient for all of us.

Less than a week after seeing those guys I headed back to Taylor on Friday, March 31, for the April show, which happened to begin at the end of the previous month. I love getting there on Fridays when I can so the boxes are less picked through and the crowds are smaller since the autograph guests appear on Saturdays and Sundays.

I spent a high for the year of $75 on lots of good stuff, much of it of a higher quality than I usually get. Yep, once again some of the stuff got sent out. We'll start with available trade bait:

The Clemson sticker of Adams was a fun trade bait pickup for a buck, and it was something I don't recall seeing before. There are enough college collectors that I bet I find a taker before long. Böhringer is a jersey swatch /75; Cobbs is a Prizm auto /199; and the Smith manuhelmet auto goes for a crazy 899 copies.

Yet again, one scan covers my own pickups. I don't know what the future holds for Baddoo's spot on the team but couldn't pass up an acetate of him. Griffey was a dime or quarter and logo or no, that's a keeper as well. The Ricken Stadium Club Draft First Day parallel was possibly the most exciting pull for me that day because I'd never seen one before. That filled a hole in one of my more obscure Michigan Baseball PCs! Pudge shares a '92 Team Pinnacle insert with fellow star catcher Benito Santiago. A shiny Topps Tribute of JV was too nice looking to pass up. I found not one but a pair of Cronenworth minis from '21 Ginter.

And then there's a very nice pair of hits. I think both were priced around $10 but ended up being a bit less when bundled with other cards, plus I got my usual little discount. It feels like forever since I added a Griffey hit and then all of a sudden I have a great bat card from 2001 MVP. A piece of a HOFer's bat is always nice, and it's extra great when it's a guy with one of the sweetest swings in the game!

The other is just my second autograph of Fab Fiver Jalen Rose. Hailing from 2010-11 Panini Gold Standard, it looks to be a sticker auto (on a card with a signature window, which is interesting), and the back has a serial number /299. I obviously don't put much money into my basketball collection but I was happy to add a quality signature of the ESPN/ABC analyst and former Wolverine great for a reasonable price.

And now that catches us up to the day I'm writing this, May 6. Yesterday was my most recent show appearance and, you guessed it, it was time to head east to Taylor Town again on a Friday. My favorite seller had promised lots of discount stuff and he didn't disappoint. I spent $65 after a little discount on 50 dime cards, 50 $1 cards, and seven that were $2 apiece. I didn't even stay as long as I usually do because my patience ran out, but he'll apparently have more next month so I'm looking forward to it.

The trade bait not ticketed for future envelopes starts with a bunch of numbered football inserts out of the dime box:

Bruce and Holmes are /750; Lowery and Williams are /499; Muhammad is /600; and the four Prestige cards (three are Gold, Nash is Green) are /500.

Cartwright (/499) and Jackson (/1000) finish out the non-hits. From the baseball stuff, the Baez auto/manuball is /99 and LoCain's All-Star jersey isn't numbered. The Abdur-Rahim Game Floor card was too fun to leave for just a buck. And the football stuff includes jersey relics of Will Fuller (/25), Andre Johnson (/160), Laquon Treadwell (/199) and D'Wayne Eskridge (/249)

The pickings were slimmer when it came to my PCs this time, but I can't complain because I largely use shows to stock up on trade fodder. Miggy's a 2007 Turkey Red but is actually an SP with an ad back. Pudge is a nickname variation from '22 Donruss. Maddux is a 2006 UD insert I didn't have. And LeVert is a '19-'20 Mosaic insert. All came from the dime boxes.

It's a big relief to have all of these cataloged and posted so I can put them away and continue to chip at the piles of cards on my desk. Until June, unless I make an unexpected stop at another show, look forward to more trades of the blogger and TCDb variety!

2/5 and 3/5/22 card show reports: old and new $45s

I'm taking a quick break from posting trades to cover the shows I made it to over the past two months. As a reminder I skipped January's for weather reasons.

First up was February 5 when I made the usual drive east to Taylor Town Trade Center to hit up my favorite seller. It looks like from my notes my breakdown of the purchase that day was 10 $1 cards, 12 that were $2 each, and five out of his $5 box. I added that up to $54 went I went to pay but he gave me a price of $45 because he treats his regular customers well!

A lot of those cards will be sent out in trade packages if they haven't been already, but here's what I brought home with me, starting with available trade bait:

Nothing too crazy but those dual Diamond Kings relics are always fun and I know I trade with at least a couple folks that collect the Royals. Berroa's card is #d /299, Blalock's is /200, and Stewart's is /100. As always, please feel free to ask me about the trade here in the comments or on TCDB.

And here's the three I kept for myself, because 90s inserts rule!!! First up is a 1999 UD Textbook Excellence Double insert of PC guy Greg Maddux. As you can see it's #d /2000, hence the "double" variation, and it's also die-cut on the right side, plus it has kind of a copper grid thing going on behind the photo. The regular version isn't numbered and is plainer, the Triples are /100 with maybe a silver kind of grid background, and the Home Runs are /10 with maybe a holofoil grid. I love me some numbered 90s inserts!

Not that they have to be numbered for me to love them. I'd actually tried to trade for card #2 on TCDB just that week but the member understandably valued it quite highly. No problem, I snagged one from the $5 box. That would be another die-cut card, a '97 Ultra Baseball Rules of top PC guy Cal Ripken Jr. Besides the baseballs being die-cut the stitching is also raised/embossed, which is a very cool little detail. The back of this one explains MLB HOF eligibility requirements.

Last up and also from '97 is a super cool insert from the interesting-if-divisive Pinnacle Inside product. I for one loved it and some of the great looking inserts you could find from both years it existed. In this case we're looking at a Dueling Dugouts chase card that paired two players and included a wheel you could spin that would show each player's stats from 1992-1996.

I nabbed this one because of the guy on the back, Pudge, to add to his collection, but this would have been impossible to pass up either way.

Thanks to the magic of converting phone video to animated GIFs I can show off both sides relatively quickly like-a so:

How cool is that?! Today's inserts may suck and get short shrift due to the obsession with hits and RCs, but fortunately for collectors like me, we'll always have a treasure trove of 90s inserts to dig up.

More recently I headed back earlier this month for another run through the dude's boxes, and while I can't remember the exact breakdown, my haul again came from the $1, $2, and $5 boxes, with the later on sale at 5/$20. This time I think my total was closer to $50 and again he knocked a bit off, asking for $45. Sold! The quarter boxes were too crowded to peruse and he still didn't have any dimes to flip through so I happily headed home with these items, starting with unclaimed trade bait:

I thought both football cards I grabbed looked pretty nice and I always like to snag autographed memorabilia cards for trade bait when I can. The Brian Leonard is #d /100, and the super shiny gold Fant (now with the Seahawks) has a solid five memorabilia pieces along with numbering /299. Meanwhile, I went a bit unorthodox in picking up the Australian Silky Terrier Manupatch from 2018 Goodwin Champions because, why not? I bet someone will want it, either here or on TCDB. Once again, please claim 'em if you want 'em!

My own take home was double the size of last month's with a few fun new items:

Former UM pitcher Jeff Criswell is front and center on a 2020 Panini USA Baseball insert #d /999, and he reps the collegiate national team while Jack Flaherty is on the back shown with the 18U team. Speaking of numbered cards, I snagged two different Griffeys from 2008 Topps Moments & Milestones, each for just a buck. They each represent one of Ken's 147 RBI from his crazy '97 MVP-winning season and both are #d /150. I realize there's a ton of these and it's a goofy set but I still thought it would be fun to pick them up.

The second row opens up with the most expensive of the cards I kept for myself: a $5 2021 Leaf Metal Draft autograph of former Wolverine Jesse Franklin, as seen in an airbrushed Wolverines uniform. $5 might seem a bit much for him but that was the first hit of his I'd seen and the guy I buy from always cuts me a deal so I felt it was worth it. Welcome to the collection, Jesse!

Next is the lone basketball card I kept, a 2007-08 Fleer Hot Prospects dual jersey (/149) of former Fab Fiver Jalen Rose. Michigan's actually playing as I write this and I don't expect them to beat Tennessee--after all, they've only been winning every other game for more than a month--but I'm still glad they were able to go dancing after a down year. Anyway, my fifth hit of Rose shows him with his sunset season team of the Suns (ha!) at the end of his 13-year career. It's nice to see a couple interesting colors instead of the plain old white/gray.

Last up this evening is one more numbered insert: a 2007 Topps TX Exclusive Silver parallel of former UM LB Prescott Burgess. I can add this card, limited to just 49 copies, to the RC I'd already picked up of him. He has just 69 (nice) cards to his name on TCDB and I have 12 of them. He managed to appear in 40 games over four seasons after the Ravens took him in the 2007 6th round so that number of cardboard appearances seems reasonably appropriate to me.

That's all for February and March but I hope I'll be back in April with more great results, whether or not I spend exactly $45 again! Until then, I would expect that my next post will be a double blogger trade recap. And no matter what happens in any of their games, I'll be enjoying watching UM's women's and men's basketball and men's hockey teams as they continue to work for postseason glory. GO BLUE!

2021 trade package #8: Cards on Cards

Not too long after receiving an envelope from one of my older college-collecting trade partners on one coast, I was surprised with a fun package from another. Adam of My Cardboard Mistress was responsible for the 10th trade I recorded 10+ here years ago on TMV (TMG at the time!) and just a couple deals later came Kerry of Cards on Cards.

It's always been easy to deal with Kerry since he collects an MLB team plus a university (go Ducks!), and I've kept trading with him for more than a decade because he always sends great stuff my way. This time, that included three of the four major sports and some very cool cardboard (and cardboard-adjacent materials)!:

Let's start things off with the guys who'll be back in regular season action soon. Miggy's probably in line for another back end of his career-type season but that doesn't dim my excitement of adding new stuff of him, like a Donruss Optic Pink Prizm, a couple 2020 Topps Update base items (of course he's an active leader in a number of hitting stats!), and a 2021 insert in the style of '52 Topps, because the manufacturer is celebrating its 69th anniversary this year, right? I can't wait to see the latter in Archives, Heritage, Archives Heritage X Ben Baller, and the Chrome versions of all of the above.

As for the other Tigers guys, first we have Miggy's teammates Matt Boyd and Joe Jimenez bringing color to the proceedings, with John's favorite non-Freehan Tiger Boyd, Detroit's opening day starter, a Pink Chrome Refractor, and bullpen guy Jimenez a Red parallel. Then there's one of my favorite recent former Tigers, Kinsler, on a Topps Fire base, and Castellanos on a card I figured I had until I flipped it over and found that it was from a team set. Those aren't always that easy to track down so I surely appreciate them in trade packages!

And here are the rest of the Tigers Kerry sent, mostly Topps stuff. Agrazal was grabbed from the Pirates late in 2019 but never pitched for Detroit before being let go a year later. OF prospect Cameron is a Camo Bowman parallel and I hope we get to see him make some Daz-ling plays at Comerica Park in the future! Cron provided some nice pop last year before an injury made his short campaign even shorter, and I was surprised Detroit didn't make more of an effort to keep him. McKay pitched a bit for Detroit the past two seasons and Schwindel never suited up for the team; both are now gone. And Greiner is a Don Kelly-level automatic out that's gonna need his defense to shine if he wants to sniff playing time.

Hey, get a load of these too many Verlanders! I was excited to discover that I needed every single item you see here. A good chunk of the scan is Topps Update and Big League cards, but I was treated to some other items as well, like my first 2021 Topps base example, which just so happens to be an SP! Kerry also included a '52 insert for my blog's namesake as well. And there's a pair of smaller items as well: a 2020 Topps 206 mini, plus a 2015 Topps Sticker (the lone Tiger of the bunch).

Oh, you were wondering why I hadn't mentioned this one? It's because I knew it needed its own scan! I was a big fan of Stadium Club Chrome during its initial release around 20 years ago so I'm happy to see that it lives on in name and quality. Better yet, this guy's a Refractor! This is easily my favorite card in the package and I can't thank Kerry enough for it.

He also hit one of my non-Tigers PCs in Junior Ripken with this five-pack of 2020s. #1 is a Donruss Optic insert called Retro '86--not a surprise given the use of that year's design--and the rest are from 2020 Topps/Chrome Update. The latter had different checklists which means that even though the cards look exactly the same, the numbering is different. I guess I can't complain too much about that bloated checklist if it means more items of my guys like the players above and Cal, highlighted here for his performances in the '01 All-Star Game and '91 HR Derby.

College collecting protip: trade with others that collect a college team because when you send them cards of their college, they'll send back some of yours! Like Howard, LeVert, Rose, and Webber here. What coach of the year Juwan has done this season can't be understated. He and the other guys here were no strangers to March Madness, and I hope Howard's team can continue this year's success after defying all expectations and reaching the Sweet 16 as a 1-seed. (Side note: good luck to Kerry's Ducks as well, unless they play Michigan, in which case NOPE!)

And last but not least is this cool Michigan Football trio, all of which are new to my collection. Collins is from Donruss' purdy Preferred brand, and I was surprised I didn't have it yet. The other current coach in this post, Harbaugh, is from the 2000 version of Topps' Collection set, which got somewhat confusing in future years, but in this case featured a nice clear stamp to distinguish it from flagship. And we'll end the day with a Michigan uni card: super talented Pats rookie Josh Uche, out of 2020 Absolute. The latter is a bit confusing as there are hobby and retail versions, and after some deliberation I'm thinking this is retail since hobby is supposed to have more of a holofoil finish. If that's the case, I'm glad retail buyers didn't get stuck with lower-end versions, and either way I'm glad to add a new Uche, just my second!

Kerry, thanks again for another great surprise envelope! Whether you knew it or not, everything here was new to me except for one of the Topps Update Ripkens, quite the feat when you consider how large my collections of some of the players are. As I've been saying to everyone lately, I'll hit you back when it gets easier to acquire stuff for trade bait. Until then, good luck to your favorite teams with bird mascots!

The TCDB Michigan Box part 1: basketball

Although my Cardbarrel order arrived today I knew it was going to be delayed a bit from its original ETA so I finally got to work on something I'd been putting off for a bit.

As some of you may remember, last May I completed a TCDB deal with fellow Wolverines collector Chris (cjjt) in which I flipped him some dupe Michigan Football hits and maybe a few other things for a 5000-count monster box of his UM football and basketball extras. The not-quite-full box added 1600+ football cards to my collection and more than 350 basketball items to boot! Plus I came into possession to a bunch of extras I could use as traders, some of which have long since made their way to mailboxes around the country. In short, it was a huge boon to my collection and a blast making my largest TCDB deal by far.

So this past weekend I finally decided to start making a bit of progress on covering the contents. This evening, in honor of the UM basketball team going dancing as a #1 seed(!), albeit with a key injury or two, here's a quick look at the basketball content:

I took this shot to give you an idea of the sizes of the stacks for all 23 guys represented here. Glen Rice's pile (124 cards) led the way by far, with Juwan Howard (46), Loy Vaught (39), Jalen Rose and Terry Mills (26), and Chris Webber (25), the next highest. Gary Grant (18) and Rumeal Robinson (14) were the other two to hit double-digits.

In this scan and the next two I decided to grab one card to represent each player in the bunch, and in all but five cases (where I only received a single new card of a player) I had a choice, so I often opted for Michigan uniform cards where I could. Bullock, Burke, Calip, and Hughes were four of the five single-card guys, and I can't say Calip's name was familiar to me. The long-tenured Crawford added four new cards, Green got six, and Higgins five. Given the wide range of years represented here you won't be surprised that I got to enjoy a huge variety of brands and designs!

Here we have Jimmy King (2 cards), Mills, and Rose from some college-themed sets. McCormick (three), Riley (four), and Tarpley and Taylor (eight each) are guys I hadn't mentioned yet. I was absolutely spoiled with choice for Rice (don't worry, you'll see more soon) but had to go with the E-X Century card here. Flair and UD's Black Diamond were a couple brands I was happy to see plenty of, especially the version graced by Taylor.

Rudy T.! I had a pair to pick from for him and skipped the boring junk wax item for an SP Authentic base featuring a cool college shot. Traylor's Focus base was one of three to choose from, and since I like the baseball and football iterations of that design, why not go with that? Vaught's Flair insert was a natural choice for me, a basketball-appropriate set called Hardwood Leaders. Wade's another guy I wasn't familiar with and the Wild Card you see above (more familiar to me on the football side of things) was it. And of Webber's nice stack I thought the mid-90s Ultra insert pairing him up with a Lion was fun.

As I said a good amount of the stuff was somewhat boring base from the early 90s so I didn't have any desire to show off everything (and therefore need to resort to my terrible card photography skills), but still managed to come up with some very cool items to highlight. Take this nine-spot of Sporting News coach of the year Juwan Howard. Because he had 46 cards to choose from I easily came up with a page worth, starring some fun inserts and interesting base from products such as Topps Finest and Chrome plus UD's Black Diamond and SPx.

And then there's '89 champ Rice and his 124 cards, meaning I couldn't stick to just nine! Chris had each player sorted by brand and then year, which was weird for me as I was flipping through everything to determine what was new, and that's why you see things sort of grouped that way here. It's kind of fun seeing a trio of Bowman's Best designs with a three-peat, though, or a couple Flair Showcases bringing the shininess.

Look at the Topps and Upper Deck greatness on display here! The former includes Stadium Club, Finest times three, and Gallery while the latter brings it with SP, flagship, Black Diamond, and Encore. And I didn't even include the E-X Century card you already saw! The 1997 and '98 Upper Deck flagship baseball products are among my favorites and the hoops version lives up to the hype with interesting game-dated photos.

These four guys combined for 116 new cards, fewer than Rice by himself, but I didn't want to give them the short end of the stick. Rose leads the way with another Stadium Club look I've always appreciated plus the usually cool Ultimate Victory. Platinum's throwback designs can be fun but not as much as Taylor's resting dunk face. Mystique was another shiny brand I liked to collect, as was Topps Chrome in its older iterations, and here Vaught brings his own intense dunk face. Lastly, I threw in a retro Webber (one of several from that set) and a very representative 90s insert.

As a result of all this craziness Rice became the leader in my basketball PC with 187 cards, making him the second to hit the century mark after Webber, now at 136. Howard (84), Rose (63), and Vaught (53) all eclipsed the 50-card mark, and I count 11 players with at least 20 items. Not bad at all!

And now I can enjoy putting them away before moving on to my Cardbarrel cards, then possibly returning with the massive football side of this deal, which will probably take several posts. Until then, good luck to my Wolverines in the NCAA tournament!