2022 COMC purchases: check out who's back!

It's 2023 but I still have some 2022 content to cover before getting to some great adds already this year.

Tonight you'll get to see the entirety of my first COMC order since late 2020. A number of factors, some pandemic-related, made the site a lot less attractive for a while as their processing speed for adding and shipping cards dipped below acceptable standards. After seeing that things were closer to normal late last year, I once again dove in during their big Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.

About $160 later, I had a nice stack of cards for myself and some Christmas card packages to boot (some of which still need to go out once my oft-mentioned Sportlots box ships!). Here are the items I scored for my own collections:

Baseball part 1. God do I love me some 90s inserts, and few could compare to Upper Deck's Amazing Greats in 1997 and '98. Both versions look stunning, and the Maddux you see above is from the former. Its wood grain design and clear inset player image look great, plus I love the punny name of the insert. From the same year you also get a look at another GOAT insert technology: Pinnacle's Dufex. I nabbed PC guy Dean Palmer's Museum Collection parallel for under a buck, and boy does it look nice in its own right.

To those I added a five-pack of ex-UM pitcher autos, all of which I believe were less than $2.50. Bourque's is a Refractor of the only other hit I owned of him, and that's numbered /499. New Rockie Jeff Criswell gets a nice trio added to his total out of Bowman Chrome, Elite, and Topps Pro Debut, and of course the middle card is my favorite since it features a college uniform photo. He now has four such cards to his name in my collection. And I ended up with a single card, but a spiffy one, of Criswell's potential Colorado teammate, Karl Kauffmann, also from Elite. It's a Status die-cut parallel numbered /99 and gives him four autos also out of six total hits.

The other two baseball items deserved their own scans. I thought the 2013 Panini America's Pastime booklet of former Tigers (and Yankees) A-Jax and Granderson was just too cool to pass up, especially for just $6.45. I don't have many booklet cards in my collection and getting one with large relic swatches from two of my favorite Tigers OF was a coup in my book. The one you see above is the Gold version numbered /49. The Granderson pinstripe is a nice bonus!

Card number two here was I believe the most expensive one I landed for myself, but well within my price range for a card of its type. My purchase history says I dropped $8.34 for Clayton Richard's 2018 Topps Cyan plate, one of five 1/1s I bought this time (but the only one for myself). That gives the former QB/P 13 total 1/1s to his name, 10 of which are plates.

Switching over to football, it was easy to split these into vertical and horizontal scans. A couple players got the most love this time but I also added a pair of new names and lots of college action cards so I spent my money well.

My first autograph of stud WR Nico Collins was one of my biggest steals at just $3, and I couldn't complete the purchase of it fast enough at that price given they usually go for more (plus the whole Michigan uni thing). Darboh got four new additions to his count (two more below) including a sweet triple jersey/auto and a green parallel of his 2017 Prestige autograph (/150) seen here. I love the latter's use of an action shot from a home game in the Big House.

Chris Evans made his debut in my hits collection thanks to the crazy cool 1/1 Matt sent me, and now I have a college uni autograph to go with that, also courtesy of Prestige. Talented DB Lavert Hill is making his first appearance with a 2020 Prizm autograph, and so is the guy on the last card of this scan, outstanding C (and current New Orleans Saint) Cesar Ruiz out of the same year's Playbook product. I'm making a more concerted effort to add hits of players missing in my collection and that work paid off here with some great looking cards of two recent Wolverines, both in their alma mater's duds.

And who could forget the namesake of my former other blog, Mario Manningham? I scored three verticals and one horizontal card (in the next scan) of the Super Bowl hero. One's from '08 Absolute and it comes with a football chunk plus jersey swatches in the shape of his number. The second is one of his two appearances in 2008 SP Rookie Edition and is done in the style of SP's '93 product. And the last one seen here is 2010 Prestige auto limited to a somewhat strange 113 copies.

Over on the X-axis we start with the other two Darboh cards. The current iteration of Leaf is pretty sketchy but you still get some extremely cool cards from them sometimes, like Amara's inscription-laden Trinity auto seen above. The jersey/auto/RC next to it from Panini's Illusions was also pretty cheap and further enhances one of my quieter quality collections, which now stands at 47 cards!

I occasionally chase cards of some of the guys that transferred out such as QB Ryan Mallett and found a good price on the slightly flawed (bit of a crease between his first and last names) auto/jersey from 2011 Timeless Treasures. That kind of thing doesn't pop up much in the other places I tend to look, so why not drop $2 for a solid hit?

The final Manningham card--though four is NOT "too many"--is from the hit-laded 2008 SPx product, and this one's a dual jersey with the swatch windows also in the shape of his jersey number. Mario's just one hit away from joining the 100-club in this collection, which currently includes Chad Henne and nobody else! (Jake Long remains at 97 and Braylon Edwards is chilling nearby with 93.)

One of my most interesting pieces I scored this time is the Denard Robinson 2013 Panini Black Rookie Shadowbox auto you see above. I thought the card enclosed a small mini jersey but it turns out it's just a flat image in a shadowbox-type design. That's still extremely cool, plus it's a new autograph of Shoelace for my collection, and it was just $2.25, so I'm very happy with it. That appears to be hit #54 of the dual-threat QB.

And this evening's final addition is my fifth hit and third autograph of DT Chris Wormley, a Ravens draftee who now suits up for the Steelers. He's the final recipient of a college uni auto for his collection, in this case out of 2017 Elite Draft, a product that was made for collectors like me. He's got a very good signature, especially with how low standards have gotten, and this one wasn't even $2, so it happily found a home in my football collection.

I was glad to be able to take another ride on the COMC train in 2022 and score some nice cards at great prices, plus they even arrived in time for me to send some out before Christmas! I hope those of you who follow the folks I sent them to (and will be doing so soon) enjoy seeing even more spoils on other blogs and social media.

As for me, while I wait for Sportlots to send me my now-ready-to-ship box cards, I get to show off some fun early 2023 items thanks to two fantastic trade partners plus some spoils from last weekend's show. It was a great start to the year in collecting and I'm looking forward to another enjoyable one with all of you. Happy new year!

2022 trade package #22: Scribbled Ink

I was set to show off my pickups from last weekend's show yesterday or today but then I got a special delivery from buddy of the blog Paul of Scribbled Ink (and way more often lately, Twitter). That was great timing since I needed something to do while waiting forever for Michigan's 8pm (moved to 9pm thanks to lightning delays) game against Hawaii.

After the great envelope he sent in May, this time Paul did a stellar job sending me cards of the players I PC and out of this bunch somehow included only two doubles despite the fact that he didn't even check to see if I had them! (Spoiler alert, I often don't either when sending blind packages to my fellow bloggers.) Impressive. Flipping through them and logging them into TCDB kept me busy for a while, which I definitely appreciated.

Here's all the cool stuff he sent in this package:

Former Wolverines really do look the best in Blue like Blomgren's Prizm parallel. I'm always happy to see Cronenworth cards I need in deals like this, and the Rated Rookie logo is a site for sore eyes. I also really appreciate Paul sending me Jake's Topps Living Set card since that's something I'd never buy myself.

Junior's a Royal Blue parallel from Topps Update and the photo is a great throwback to his sweet swing. I already completed the insert set starring the Gwynn above but do like that Paul remembered I collect him. Hajjar is another recent former Wolverine (a 2021 2nd round choice by the Twins, he was just sent to Cincy in a four-player deal that brought righty Tyler Mahle to Minnesota) and thanks to Paul I'm up to five of his cards with these two college uni beauties from Panini's Prizm.

And just like JC's card above, you wouldn't catch me ponying up for any Topps Now cards, but Paul was generous enough to include the one you see above of my favorite PC guy, Rich Hill!

Another former Wolverine leads off the second scan and it's a very nice duo of Barry Larkin, with the first being a Fleer Box Score base numbered /2950 and the second a retail version of a Panini Absolute insert.

The Trio of 2017 Topps High Tek Maddux cards was all new as well and I have to admit they took me a bit to ID because of the bevy of patterns available and general lack of images on TCDB so far. I believe I've correctly labeled them as Blackout (much more noticeable on the back), Pattern 2A/2B (Braids / Chainlink Hexagon), and Pattern  4A/4B (Hexagons and Circles/ Spiral Dots), respectively. Hope I got those right!

Fellow big four PC guy Ripken is next and his pair included an '86 Drake's Big Hitters food issue and Cal's appearance from Classic's 1992 version of its well known game. Sweet Lou (today's other dupe) is also the subject of a fun oddball from True Value's 1986 set. I was kind of surprised to find that I already had that because I didn't remember collecting it, but either way this was also very thoughtful of Paul since what I still need of Whitaker largely falls into the category of odd and harder-to-find stuff.

And last up today is the first autograph in yet another one of my collections of recent Michigan Baseball alumni: Jeff Criswell. I now have seven cards of the righty who was an Oakland second round choice a couple years ago (and who headed up 96 to Lansing in '21 and '22 for pro ball) and my first hit (making him the 32nd member of the baseball hits collection). This one hails from one of Leaf's many amateur-oriented sets, 2020 Valiant, and the one Paul sent me is the Green parallel of the New Dawn autographs set, numbered on the back 80/99. I hope to see Criswell move up the ladder more next year while I hopefully accumulate more of his cards, but in the meantime this first signature of his to add to my collection is much appreciated.

Paul, thanks for always finding great stuff to send my way including the contents of this package, all of which was perfectly targeted at some of my favorite PCs. I'm thrilled that the timing worked out so you also got my latest New Hampshire-bound salvo around the same time, which is awesome!

With this package covered I think next time you'll see my show recap but you never know what tomorrow's mail will bring.

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 Sportlots purchases part 8: more Michigan? Marvelous!

Previously: Quick summary and set wants; Big and small we have them all!; Better off Ted; A Tettle-ton of Froot Loops; Lucky Tiger Seven; Dizzying Deans, Sportlots has been Barry, Barry good to me

Just two posts left after this one! Tonight's will be another group post instead of a single player like the last one, though we're sticking with Michigan Baseball as the theme. I believe I counted 17 different players in the scans below, enough that I originally considered splitting them up, but I'm feeling motivated to finish these up. Therefore, it's more Michigan mania!

We'll start with this group since I found a lone new card for all nine players. Up top are three of the older Wolverines you'll see today: 1976 SSPCs of P Jim Burton and OF Tom Grieve, plus a '78 TCMA of 1B/OF (and UM football player as well) John Herrnstein. Burton's '78 SSPC card will sew up his four-card run whenever I can find it. Herrnstein's collection will be tougher to complete because, as a reminder, he shares '60s rookie star cards with Willie Stargell and Dick Allen.

The next four are some of the latest Michigan alumni to make their pro debuts. Blomgren, Criswell, and Franklin (2020 Bowman Draft) were all selected in the first five rounds of the '20 draft, while Brewer (2020 Topps Heritage Minors) was a Houston 3rd rounder the year before. They're all pretty good prospects, and these items represent my first for each player except Criswell (my 4th).

A couple "S" players close out the scan. First is a 2011 Triple Threads Sepia parallel (#d /625) of HOFer George Sisler, giving me 99 different items of "Gorgeous" George. The other continues the run of oddballs, especially of the food issue variety (foodballs?) in this series: an '81 Topps Coca-Cola St. Louis Cardinals issue of P Lary Sorensen. Aside from the obvious Coke logo up front and different numbering on the back, these are very similar to the base cards, but still fun pickups for your everyday player or oddball collector.

Jim Abbott got the biggest boost in numbers to his collection of the players you'll see today, and this group of nine isn't even all of them. The scan is bookended by food issues from Topps/Bazooka's 1990 partnership plus 1993 Kraft, a pop-up I won't be popping up myself. Also from 1990, starring a poorly chosen photo emblematic of the junk wax era, is Donruss' Learning Series, a 55-card set geared towards elementary- and middle-schoolers.

Then things get Canuckified with 1990 Fleer Canadian and O-Pee-Chee, a couple issues from our friendly neighbors to the north. That Fleer photo was another bad choice, to be sure. A pair of Classic cards produced in 1991 and '92 look much better to me since action shots almost always trump portraits in my opinion, plus it's always really cool to see portions of Jim's one-armed delivery. Last up here is a pair of '93 Upper Deck Gold Hologram cards, which are annoying to have to track down as a player-collector, but then I suppose they do give me a reason to collect a second version of a card where Abbott's wearing a Michigan shirt! You'll see one more of these below since he was all over that '93 set.

One last Abbott (for now) gives way to a few slightly more recent guys. I found a new pair of cards of Portage, Michigan native and 2019 Arizona draftee Tommy Henry: his Bowman Draft and Draft Chrome Refractor issues. It's always nice when I can track down stuff with backs that mention Michigan in one form or another, such as these that include his college stats.

Drew Henson is a player whose cards I get to chase in two sports, and here I have four of the five from this purchase. The first couple are from 1999 team sets for New York's Tampa affiliate, with the second apparently hailing from an "update" set that's almost identical. The '02 Hot Prospects insert he shares with another guy that had some hype behind him, Xavier Nady, is pretty cool thanks to a pair of rounded corners. And to those I added a four-player 2003 Bazooka sticker whose players happen to appear in the order of best MLB career to worst!

You'll see more of both of the other guys in this scan in a minute, but interestingly enough they're both still involved with the game despite their ages. Old Rich Hill turned 41 a few months ago but is still pitching pretty well, though of course those efforts are now for the Rays instead of the Twins, with whom he appears on his 2020 Topps Heritage base. And former Cardinals C and manager Mike Matheny made the relatively short trip to Kansas City to helm the Royals after being let go by St. Louis, the team pictured on his 2004 Topps 1st Edition parallel above.

The other Matheny cards I found were both from 2005. The first is also a 1st Edition version of his Topps flagship base, and it offers and even better action photo than the previous year's. I wonder if an out resulted from that throw? The other is the Silver parallel from Total, which wasn't as good as the 2002-03 versions in my opinion, so I'm not really disappointed the brand disappeared until the bastardized cash grab online version resurrected the name in 2019.

The rest of this scan stars William Harold Morris, and almost everything I scored of Hal this time was of the oddball variety, but that worked for me as a fun way to beef up his PC a bit. Here you see a trio of Classic cards from 1989 and '91, a 1991 Baseball Cards Magazine issue done up in the style of '66 Topps, and Morris' three appearances in a Rembrandt/Ultra-Pro promo set put out in '92. The latter was a 20-card set featuring casual shots of some baseball stars (such as Bobby Bonilla and Jose Canseco), mainly focusing on their favorite pastimes, such as tennis for the guy above. The backs included Ultra Pro holograms and a message of the "limited" nature of the cards; the ones you see here received 125,000, 250,000, and 100,000 copies, respectively.

Two more Morris cards get me just a pair shy of 300 for his collection. The first is from the US Playing Card Company's 1992 Baseball Aces deck, and it's only natural that someone playing for the Reds should be assigned a suit of that color. The other is the only "mainstream" card in his bunch, his '95 Collector's Choice Silver Signature parallel, making him the fourth Wolverine I've found from that set (Steve Ontiveros, Steve Howe, and Scott Kamieniecki are the others).

Player #2 in this scan is Hal's former teammate Chris Sabo, and as with Morris I came away with '89 and '91 Classic issues of "Spuds". You can add him to the food issue club as well thanks to a '92 Jimmy Dean oddball from an 18-card set that also included Jim Abbott among its stars. Lastly, also from 1992 is a goofy design (and funny photo of Sabo utilizing a hitting training aid) from Topps Kids. If you care for whatever reason, the latter is the variation that has two asterisks in the trademark line instead of one.

It seems like a good idea to mention that this post will be published on Juneteenth as we look at the last player in the group of vertical cards. Moses Fleetwood "Fleet" Walker was a C for Toledo of the old American Association, considered a "major league", back in 1884, making him the first black player (or just "the first black in the majors" according to the cringe-y back of the 1986 Fritsch Negro League Baseball Stars card you see on the left) to break the color barrier. That makes Jackie Robinson's bravery in 1947 no less important, though, as he fought through the same kind of ignorance and hate that Walker did. While you won't find him on too many cards, unfortunately, another of his items can be found relatively easily: a base card from Upper Deck's 1994 product Baseball: the American Epic, which describes Fleet's history a bit more intelligently.

To finish things up today, here's a six-pack for your weekend. First up is the final Jim Abbott Gold Hologram from 1992 Upper Deck, a set that included lots of those artsy cards. My Tommy Henry collection grows by one more thanks to a cool 2020 Topps Pro Debut base that makes good use of the card's orientation. A multiplayer card including fellow Yankees prospects from the time Juan Rivera and Jackson Melian is Drew Henson's other appearance from the Minors team sets mentioned above. I got two cards closer to Rich Hill's 2020 Topps rainbow with his base card and Gold Star (factory set) parallel, not to mention two more cards from his year with the Twins. And lastly, Sabo joins Morris in needing just two more cards for a milestone (he's at 198) thanks to one last food issue: a 1992 French's card he shares with HOFer Wade Boggs. I've never been a mustard guy but that 19-card set full of All-Stars is fun and I may have to try to track down more of those.

Considering these additions combined with those from some of the earlier posts in this series, I got a lot of good work done on the checklists of some of the many former Wolverines I collect, and added some fun pieces.

Still to come in the final two posts are one more single-player feature plus a last one with a team theme that I think will please many of you!

2021 trade package #14: Scribbled Ink

My second package that arrived last week came from buddy of the blog Paul of Scribbled Ink (more commonly on Twitter these days). He'd let me know that he found something interesting at an antique/thrift shop plus I knew of a couple cards he'd set aside for me. I can't say I was exactly expecting this, though!:

I'll have to admit, my first thought when I saw this was

Well, there were indeed some cards to be found:

Here's a five spot of 2021 Topps Tigers. My collection of those was next to nothing because it wasn't like I was gonna go out and buy any packs, plus I didn't get into the dime boxes at the last show. Miggy is continuing his decline as most expected, but he'll still be fun to watch as he chases dual milestones of 500 HR and 3000 hits. One or both of this marks will probably need him to play until next season, but with Detroit in the midst of an endless rebuild there's not much reason not to play him! He's paired up with fellow "masher" Jonathan Schoop, who hasn't lived up to that moniker as much as say, catcher Wilson Ramos, in 2021.

Jeimer's been fairly reliable, though, and may be a rare example of a good outcome of an Al Avila trade. Is that possible? I hope to see that trend continue because the Tigers need all the bats they can get right now. Flipping over to the mound quickly, I was never really the biggest fan of Buck Farmer, so I wasn't terribly disappointed when he was let go recently. Paul's guy JaCoby is a player I do hope sticks around a bit longer, though, since he's a pretty good OF (if not a future top three guy) with a streaky bat but very good defense. I included the '95 EMotion Pudge here as he's in my collection of former Tigers and didn't fit in elsewhere. That was definitely one of Fleer's cooler 90s products.

Scan #2 includes the PC guys. Griffey leads off this group, and Longball Lore is a good set to include him in since he's one of just nine players to reach the 600 HR mark. This A&G insert from 2020 mentions him tying the MLB record for consecutive games with a homer at eight in 1993 (with Dale Long and Don Mattingly the only other players to do so). Fittingly, the '20 Update Chrome card that comes next also has something to do with dingers, namely Junior's 1994 HR Derby performance, the first of three he won.

Moving on, Mr. Padre is part of Topps' 70th anniversary celebrations in its 2021 flagship product. This 70 Years of Topps insert of Gwynn is done up in the 1974 design and the back explains that the set was released in one series for the first time that year, which I didn't know. Next to him is a Verlander Paul asked if I needed, and I said yes because I wasn't aware it existed. 2014 Bowman's Hometown is a parallel that brings to mind the International and Interstate versions you could have found in the late 90s.

Switching over to the horizontal axis we start with another '95 EMotion example of another former Ranger/Tiger, Dean Palmer. I was curious about the use of "alert" up front, and the back states, "Despite 22 errors in 1994, Palmer showed good range at third." A Gold Glover he wasn't, but he could hit! Sticking with that side of the infield we see a 2020 Topps Chrome Update Pink Wave Refractor of the Iron Man. I think there's too many types of Refractors (and Prizms too!) out there, but I'm cool with both the pink and the "wave" pattern here. By the way, like his fellow Junior above, this one highlights a HR Derby, in this case Cal's 1991 performance.

And last up we have the Michigan cards, three of which even feature Michigan unis--a relative rarity when it comes to baseball compared to basketball and football! My first Criswell card came from Jeff (and Sportlots) but was a Team USA card, so I'm a bigger fan of these 2020 Prizm Draft offerings: base and Green Pulsar (I believe). Very cool to see college action on a baseball issue like this.

Next, I was in on Cronenworth well before he surprisingly turned into a quality player after being dealt to the Padres, but his star turn has resulted in many more items than he'd previously had on his checklist, not to mention increased prices. That means I really appreciate Paul thinking of me with his 2021 Donruss base, one that stars the iconic "Rated Rookie" logo.

I should probably temporarily rename this blog "Too Many 2020 Topps/Chrome Updates" until I get 'em all because they've been doing a lot of work feeding my PCs. Dick Mountain doesn't have that many cards of his yearlong stint with the Twins, but this is one of them. He sure looked good making the Yankees bats look ridiculous the other night!

Finally, spark plug OF Jordan Nwogu makes his collection debut, joining former teammate Criswell out of 2020 Prizm Draft. The former walk-on was a blast to watch out of the leadoff spot, leading the team in batting average last year and enjoying the excitement of a College World Series final appearance plus getting chosen by the Cubs in the third round. He's a guy to keep an eye on to make lots of noise in the bigs and I'm excited to track down more of his cards.

Well that was a pretty exciting bunch of cards I think, so thanks Pau--

What?

A box that large, $11 in shipping, and there were only cards inside, you say? Yeah, I guess you're right, I should see if there's anything else...

Oh yeah, here's something else:

Remember Ken Griffey Jr., Bart? He's back! In Bobblehead form! This hand painted bobblehead (it's NOT A DOLL, MOM!) is a super cool piece to add to my collection, and I really appreciate Paul finding it, thinking of me, and anteing up to send it to me.

Let's open it up and take a look:

I would guess that Griffey was the main reason I became aware of San Bernadino, located in southern California. Young George Ken was the #1 overall pick in 1987, of course, and he'd play most of his second pro season with the Spirit, Seattle's A+ team from '87-'94 (and again from 2001-06). They've changed classes, names, and affiliations a few times since, but that's where he found himself for a chunk of 1988, and that year Best would make him #1 (a full year before Upper Deck) in their Minor League set for the team:

Of course, the following year he'd begin his illustrious career just two years after being drafted, and he wouldn't look back. But Spirit fans got to see glimpses of his greatness before that, so why not celebrate one of your franchise's greatest alumni with a bobblehead? The Spirit did exactly that, and as far as I can tell this bobblehead was given out in 2001. Overall I consider it to be a very nice looking piece that's in great shape, plus it's even somewhat limited--this one is stamped "4078/5000" on the bottom. That it's complete with the packaging is icing on the cake, but I'll likely display it with my other bobbleheads freely because I like doing that. This is a very cool surprise indeed!

Paul, thanks for the cardboard and, uh, hand painted surprises that were perfectly targeted at my collections! I tip my cap to you for putting in the effort to find stuff for me, not to mention going out of your way to ship it to me. Hopefully with another couple shows on the calendar soon I'll be able to return the favor!

Speaking of trade packages another one arrived today, so I'll probably show that off soon in between a recently arrived eBay purchase and another that should ship soon. A steady stream of incoming cards is certainly keeping me busy!