2026 trade package #1: Chronicles of Fuji

Tonight let's party like it's 2026 since, you know, it is, by taking a look at my first trade package of the year before the calendar flips to February.

Sender #1 this year was one of the blogosphere's favorite people: Mark of the Chronicles of Fuji. Just after the start of the new year I got this envelope in my mailbox:

Oooooh, this is big enough to hold some interesting items! Side note: do yourself a favor and buy postage on a site like PirateShip so you don't have to pay nearly this much when you're already being very generous in sending cards and paying to ship stuff.

Ok, well this is a good sign--that's my name. This portends good things!

And good things were indeed within! That's the January 1991 issue of Beckett Baseball with that year's sensation Cecil Fielder grading the cover, not to mention 1990 World Series champ Barry Larkin on the back, a hell of a two-fer. There's also a very nice Christmas card from my "blogger buddy" that was a nice touch. And then we have a couple taped up things of cards to open up.

The old nine-pocket page: a tried and true method for shipping cards, especially in PWE format. Fuji picked some very nice stuff and also packaged these in expert fashion. Let's have a better look:

Baseball begins with Tigers old and new. Baez is a Sepia Refractor and the Miggy pair is quite nice: a Triple Threads base and manu-"medallion." Carp's Topps Holiday card is a Green Plaid parallel that still feels appropriate for the season. The two Clarks bring me back to when cards were more fun, especially the Black Diamond parallel numbered /1500 on the back. Evans is a box bottom card and you actually just saw the whole bottom in my TCDb recap post.  And there's Big Daddy again, on a playing card (naturally he's a king in that set).

Card #1 in this scan is great since I'd say I share Fuji's love for collecting Mr. Padre and 80s boxed sets. I wasn't familiar with Jimenez but see that he's the player Detroit flipped to Minnesota for pitchers Chris Paddack and Randy Dobnak during their lackluster trade deadline last year. Lipcius and Meadows are both good old regular Refractors, though given how briefly the former was with Detroit I have no idea why Topps bothered putting him in their sets. Finest isn't what it once was but I won't say no to a RC of Mize! Nunez has been out of affiliated ball for years now but is still kicking in a few indy and foreign leagues, which is very cool. Cal joins Miggy above with a gorgeous Triple Threads card. If I'm not turning down Mize RCs I'm definitely happily accepting any Skubal RCs that come my way! And that Tork is a very nice Bowman Draft Invicta insert I don't think I'd seen before.

And we've still got plenty of baseball items left. York, a '45 Series champ as the team's starting 1B (though as the card implies, he did catch more than 200 games early in his career) appears on a card from the fantastic Conlon product distributed in the 90s. We'll get to the hits in a minute but first we have some other interesting stuff including horizontal cards of Miggy (a Topps Golden Giveaway code card), Colt Keith, and a Heritage team checklist. Then there's a cool five-pack of minis. The first two are from 1993 Humpty Dumpty and both Jim Abbott's and Jack Morris' cards are still in the plastic wrap. Nice! The other Minis, meanwhile, are from 2006 A&G. World Series guys Bondo and Polanco are regular backs and Chris "Red Pop" Shelton is a Black Border.

Fuji also treated me to a trio of Chrome autographs. 2015 Tigers first-round pitcher Beau Burrows' signature is from '21 Topps Chrome, and it remains to be seen if he can work his way back to health and a spot with an MLB team. Kubitza, also a pitcher, was a 2013 4th-rounder out of Rice who apparently flamed out a couple years after his 2015 Bowman Chrome auto was packed out. Lastly, Lugo's name is probably the most infamous to Tigers fans as he was half of the deplorable return for JD Martinez in a 2017 deal with Arizona. Here you see Dawel's 2019 Topps Chrome autograph, signed by a guy I actually got to see play in single-A ball for Lansing way back in 2015 when he was still in Toronto's system.

The final baseball items, which you saw way back in the first image of all the stuff together, are these 1977 Dover reprints. I actually snagged the book they came in (as panels) at some point, but it's very nice to have the singles as well. Both of these are reprints of 1912 Hassan Triple Folders, also known as T202 cards. The top one is "Ty Cobb Steals Third" starring the Georgia Peach and manager Hughie Jennings while the bottom is "Jim Delahanty at Bat" which includes that former Tiger (among other teams) from a big baseball family, and OF Davy Jones (get your "locker" jokes out of your system now), who appeared in parts of eight seasons with the Tigers. This is the only way I'll ever be able to afford anything that looks like one of these cards so they were a fun inclusion here.

The basketball content included RCs of two very notable Michigan hoopers, Juwan Howard and Glen Rice. I hope this year's squad can repeat the latter's heroics and win it all to cap a season that's going extremely well so far! Joining them is another big name, literally and figuratively. The late Robert "Tractor" Traylor was another Detroiter that starred at the program and went on to the NBA, resulting in some cool cards around the end of the 90s. Besides a very of-its-time UD Ionix RC, the '98-'99 Fleer Brilliants Illuminators insert looks fantastic, and believe you me, this scan does not do it justice!

And we'll close things out with football. Corum's Rams put up a good fight, but Fuji's Seahawks prevailed with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Not that I'm complaining since Seattle has a bunch of Michigan Football connections as well, and I'll be rooting for them in the Big Game in less than a couple weeks. As for the new card of Blake, it has a nice shot of him on his way to score again with the Wolverines so I love it.

He's joined by a guy Fuji knows quite well due to his time with the Packers: Charles Woodson. I believe Mark actually commented on a recent post of mine that he had some of these piled up with plans to send them my way, so that's likely what happened here, much to my benefit. I love the mix of designs and years, and of course that two of them (Panini Contenders Draft Picks) picture him with the '97 champs.

Fuji, thanks so much for this early year treat which I obviously enjoyed very much. I hope your return to the classroom has gone well and that you still manage to find some time to blog--you know I love those flea market recaps! And while we're at it, good luck to your Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

I should be back relatively soon with my second of three January trade posts. That's right, I received a third today just before the calendar flips! After that I'll cover my January show purchases, and then maybe I'll be caught up in time for next Friday's show. Wait, caught up? Is that even possible?

2024 trade package #21: All Trade Bait, All the Time/Netchuc Arts

(First, one quick note: I may put up several posts over the next few days--as in more than one per day--as I try to close out trade recaps before the calendar flips. We'll see!)

Back in September I was happy to receive a couple envelopes from Oscar, former blogger at All Trade Bait, All the Time and current Twitterer. While he no longer blogs, you can still catch him on his Youtube channel NetChucArts where he discusses all manner of things: his art, record collection, music and concerts, his beloved Dodgers, and of course, cards. He even recently showed off the Christmas package I sent his way.

If I had any doubt it was from him based on the address, the note on the back confirmed it. Oscar has many hermanos in the hobby and I'm proud to be one of them.

One of the envelopes contained some very nice cards:

Though I'm sick to death of '89 Topps I never get tired of seeing former Wolverines pitcher Jim Abbott donning the maize & blue on his RC. Oscar hit a couple of my biggest PCs here, one of them being Griffey, and the cards you see above are from Donruss Signature and Pinnacle Inside. The former was the first follow-up to the landmark '96 Leaf Signature one auto-per-pack product, and it was a great one, while the latter is from the second and final year of Pinnacles cards-in-a-can concept.

Griffey's fellow Junior Ripken is next, and he was the winner of this package by comprising almost half of the contents himself. In addition to a base card from Fleer's fantastic 2001 Platinum set, he sent me representatives from three Cal-focused inserts from that same manufacturer: 1995 Flair's Ripken Enduring, 2000 Gamers' Cal to Greatness, and 2000 Tradition's Ripken Collection. I admire all of those sets and appreciate Oscar adding to my biggest player collection.

Last up in terms of the card stuff is a fun Tigers pair. The Miggy is a '23 Topps Team Logo manupatch starring the Olde English "D." I still happily collect manurelics, especially when they look fun like this one, and it's another card to add to my collection of the future HOFer, so, win-win! Joining him is former teammate Buck Farmer, a guy who spent most of his time in Detroit's bullpen for the first eight seasons of his career (2014-21). He can be seen on a 2015 Finest autograph that was released just a couple years after the Tigers took him in the 2013 draft's 5th round.

The nine-spot of cards, exactly one page worth, was great by itself, but then Oscar surprised me with a second envelope containing prints of some of his artwork, something I didn't previously have in my possession!

I'll preface this by saying that Oscar is one of the people in my life with whose politics I align most closely. I highly respect his views when it comes to things like both parties shamelessly ignoring the country's ills in favor of enriching themselves, the military's limitless budget that could be better spent on America's poor and homeless, and the country's shameful treatment of minorities and other nationalities.

With that important context covered, I can explain that if you haven't seen it, a few years ago Oscar, an accomplished artist, produced a series during Trump's first reign of terror called "Tromperia," a five panel series done in the Loteria art style.

I'm happy to share these to all of you who are interested here:

"La barrera," of course, is the famous wall along the US/Mexico border. Trump as a "cock" is a pretty apt image, I'd say.

Separating children, often literal babies, from their parents, whether or not they entered the country illegally, was pure evil, and portraying ICE as something as evil as the devil goes at least a bit of the way towards describing how truly despicable that group is.

Though certainly many of the stories of the families seeking a better life don't end so positively, I'm glad that Oscar finishes the series with the happy ending of this one being reunited. I also included the back of one of these to show that he included the title and numbering(!) of each piece to go along with his signature on the front of them.

Oscar, I'm honored to have received some of your artwork, and even more grateful that the subject is something I feel so strongly about. I'm happy to be able to tell you that I have a plan to frame these together, and was hoping to be able to show that all finished in this post, but it may involve a bit of trimming to get everything to fit, so I decided not to hold up getting this posted any longer. I'm also grateful for the excellent cards, and appreciate having an hermano like you to talk cards, music, politics, and more. ¡Gracias!

I now have five more trades to get through, all from November and December, and as mentioned earlier will see if I can cover each of them in their own posts by the end of the day Tuesday.

2023 trade package #14: Cards As I See Them

How great is the blogosphere that you can reconnect with an old trading buddy without missing a beat? I ask because recently I was dealing with one of my favorite TCDb-ers and spotted an item I knew would fit the collection of GCRL Jim of Cards As I See Them perfectly if he didn't already have it. As it turns out he didn't, so eventually I was able to send it northwest of me to his mailbox.

I'm referring to Jim as an "old" trading buddy because for whatever reason we hadn't swapped cards since December of 2015. That's ok because it can totally happen, but you can tell it's been 7 1/2 years because he ceased operations on his Garvey Cey Russell Lopes blog earlier that year and will mark his seventh year of Cards As I See Them in September.

Anyway, it was great working with him again because as if no time had passed he sent me a fantastic return envelope chock full of stuff I love to collect:

We'll start with a couple recent cards of Miggy. I smile looking at the backs of his cards which need the fonts for his stats made smaller to fit in his 20+ years of service. Cronenworth is mostly a newer PC since Jim and I last traded, though his first cards did come out in 2015, but since then he's appeared in a lot more sets. Gehringer's from one of those classic Renata Galasso sets that I can't help but enjoy. Granderson's always a callback to my original blog name that I may decide to return to one day if I feel like it. And it's crazy that Hill's still pitching, an MLB journey that he resumed back in '15 with a few successful appearances with the Red Sox. Speaking of that team, hell yeah to the Chrome Purple Refractor representing his third and most recent stint for the club!

Mr. Tiger is always welcome in a trade envelope that comes my way, and it's no secret why he reached the 3K hit mark! I was very impressed with the number of Barry Larkin cards Jim included, and he even got creative with the '04 Topps Traded checklist. I remain a fan of Topps' 2021 Chrome Platinum Anniversary product because of cards like the one you see dead center.

The 30/30 card got me looking at the other members who joined the club around the time, in this case 1996, the year after he won his NL MVP award. Barry smacked 33 dingers to go with 36 steals, and he was joined that year by Dante Bichette (31/31), Barry Bonds (42/40, which was his fourth 30/30 season and made him the second member of the club Jose Canseco started, since joined by A-Rod and Alfonso Soriano), and Ellis Burks (40/32), Bichette's teammate. It looks like the only other time teammates achieved the feat in the same year was 1987 when HoJo and Darryl Strawberry went 36/32 and 39/36 for the defending champion Mets. By the way, Bonds' dad Bobby was the first player to reach the dual marks five times, since equaled by his son! They and Alfonso Soriano are the only to put up those numbers in four seasons. It's an interesting achievement and group, hence this huge aside about it!

Heading back to today's players, I sure hope Mize has a successful return from TJ surgery. I just looked into his recovery and it's been just a little over a year since he went under the knife...

Not unlike the card that opens this scan! TJ recovery is tough but he could certainly still be part of the team's future, assuming it has one under its current awful ownership. In better news, Tork has shown some signs of improvement lately which is nice to see, though I get how hard the switch from amateur to pro ball can be. The Rainbow foil card below those two features ex-Tiger Robbie Grossman and "what amazing and or completely stupid thing will he do today?" guy Javy Baez.

A Bowman's best autograph of former Tigers SS Dixon Machado was a fun surprise. He's got a super loopy signature that stands out at a time when a lot of guys can't be bothered.

A Mini Ginter X of Larkin brings us back once more to the '90 WS champ whose collection I'm striving to get to the 1000 mark. Then a trio of horizontal cards ends the baseball group. I love quality shots of Jim Abbott's delivery and you know you can expect a good one when it's Stadium Club (bonus for Chrome!). Granderson piled up 31 doubles in '06 but his encore the following season was one for the record books: 38 doubles, 23(!) triples, 23 HR, and 26 steals. Wow!

And last up is a Topps One-Two Punch insert of ex-Tiger teammates Verlander and Scherzer. Those guys were co-aces in Detroit from 2010-14 and each won a Cy Young Award (and Verlander an MVP) and won 20+ games in a season during their run. Yet despite combining for 169 wins over those five seasons, Detroit failed to win a World Series, getting swept by the 2012 Giants, losing in the ALCS twice, falling to Baltimore in the ALDS in 2014, and missing the playoffs entirely in 2010. Those failures loom large since the exits of Scherzer and Verlander signaled the "rebuild" the Tigers remain mired in almost a decade later. So I can't help but laugh at their fate with the 2023 Mets!

Jim added a trio of Michigan Football cards for good measure which was mighty nice of him, and though Edwards is a pretty well known Wolverine, I wouldn't expect just anyone to know which school Hall and Manningham (well, maybe not Manningham!) played for. Braylon, possibly making a great catch, is from 2008 Stadium Club, and he's joined by fellow WR Manningham's RC from the same set, with the latter numbered /1799--pretty sweet! Hall played on the opposite side of the ball as the first-rounder seen on his '07 Topps RC was a defensive back.

Big thanks again to Jim for this excellent mail day and the return to trading between the two of us. I look forward to seeing the reactions from some of you if he posts what I sent him, but regardless, let this recap be a reminder that he's still a great guy to deal with.

Still to come: MORE trade packages, June's show pickups, and a fun eBay score too! When will I get around to them? Eventually!

2023 trade package #13: the Angels in Order

I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted but I've been busy with stuff like turning 40 and visiting a friend down south. Still, trade recaps await so I'm back to it!

It's been great for the blogosphere to have Tom from the Angels in Order back and writing very regularly (something I obviously can't manage!), and an even cooler development is the way he's taken to trading on TCDb. His exploits there (TCDb ID "calangels") where he's well on his way to the 100-transaction mark in just a few months led to our first trade in about three years. I was happy to tack on some extra stuff to his original proposal and off we went!

Here's my end of the deal:

We start with a trio of '87 Leaf Tigers. I took a look at the team checklist for the set and these sew up the players I actually collect from it, meaning I'm ignoring Bruce Fields' and Walt Terrell's entries. Next, I can't say no to more cards of Maggs and Pudge, a couple of key '06 Tigers, whether or not they're depicted with Detroit. That would explain why my collections of them are as large as 236 and 351 cards, respectively!

The last Tigers card was a '96 Collector's Choice Silver Signature parallel of the team checklist starring who else back then but Big Daddy himself, Cecil Fielder. The '96 set featured one of the product's better designs in my opinion.

And then we move on to cards of three guys that make up my big four PC group of non-Tigers/Wolverines. Ripken gets left out this time but he leads the pack by a mile so that's ok. I was happy to add four new Griffeys, three of them Reds cards, to keep marching him towards the next milestone of 1100. Mr. Padre Tony Gwynn adds to the Collector's Choice parade with one of the 836 items I own of him. And ex-Padre and Dodger (not his most well-known squads) Greg Maddux is a bit behind Gwynn with 817 including the '07 UD First Edition above.

Since this bunch was going to work out to be three images regardless, I bunched the three Wolverines together. It's great trading with an Angels collector like Tom because he happened to have a couple Jim Abbott dupes for me in the form of a couple oddball-ish items. The first is a 1991 team issue Smokey the Bear card while the other is from a 1992 Classic multi-sport product called World Class Athletes, a set that largely focuses on recent Olympians (Jim was one in the 80s, of course) but which also includes a smattering of other stars.

The '75 Topps of HOFer Ted Simmons was a late addition as a replacement for an '82 Fleer Stamp of Jack Morris that Tom couldn't find. Uh, yeah, that's a reasonable swap, dude! It apparently gives me 99 cards of the ex-UM C and a milestone celebration will surely follow soon. A fellow Wolverine from the gridiron closes us out tonight in the form of a '91 Classic base of Jarrod Bunch, a late 80s FB (remember that position?) who spent four years in the NFL with the Giants and Raiders.

Tom, thanks again for reaching out and working this deal via TCDb! It was great trading with you again and I look forward to the next time we can swap some cards. In fact, I may already have a decent pile going for you after this month's show.

Stay tuned for a couple more trades, a June show recap, and lots more!

2023 trade package #6: Chronicles of Fuji

It may be April 1st but no foolin', I'm actually posting something! I have an absolute ton of stuff to catch up on so I'm going to try to rapid fire through some of it as best as I can.

Last month I was one of the lucky recipients of a package from Fuji (Chronicles of Fuji), who's sent me lots of great stuff in the past. This time I got a small flat rate box of all kinds of cool items that hit multiple spots in my collections:

It certainly makes sense to start off alphabetically with Jim Abbott. Those oddball Baseball Card Magazine cards are very cool and you'll see more of them a bit later. Retiring future HOFer Miggy featured heavily in this bunch with an excellent nine items (more below), all from Panini.

The remaining Miggy cards here look great too. The Dominators insert is numbered /999 and I love the callbacks to Preferred and the Gallery of Stars insert, plus the die-cut is a plus. Can't go wrong with a pair of DK-related Cobbs. Fielder's UD hologram card is a beaut. And The first of a run of Larkins is also a Topps throwback done by the previously-mentioned magazine.

More Larkins! I'll get to 1000 of his soon at this rate. The pair of numbered V-Marts get a big thumbs up from me as well, especially the Season Stat Line parallel numbered to his 2013 batting average. That "blank" spot is actually a blank front printing glitch issue of HOF P Jack Morris which I'll be happily keeping. Nokes was indeed exciting as a slugging C for a few years with the Tigers. And Palmer and Phillips are two recent favorite PCs.

Scherzer, Tanana, and Verlander combined for 361 wins (out of 686 for all teams) as Tigers, and I'm interested in seeing how the Mets teammates fare this year (as soon as JV is healthy again). And lastly we have should-be HOFer Lou Whitaker.

After one more Sweet Lou there's some fun oddball team logo items and then cool inserts of ex-Tigers I don't tend to collect, but I'll likely keep at least some of them because the cards are great!

Here's most of the rest of the baseball stuff--horizontals and oddball sizes--though there's still a bit more to go. I don't think I'd ever seen that Phillips/Jefferies insert before and it was a definite need for Tony's PC, so kudos to Fuji for finding that one for me! The JaCoby will likely find a better home with one of his bigger collectors soon. And how about all the insanely cool oddball stuff? Champ Summers and Steve Kemp are the stars of the Fleer Stamps on the right.

Paul Gibson is another ex-Tiger I don't collect but I'm not getting rid of what represents my first '91 Topps Desert Shield card! The auto is of Ann Arbor-born Tigers draftee Shannon Withem, a P whose entire MLB career consisted of 3 IP in a 1998 game for the Jays. Then you see the first of the largest items in the package, Donruss All-Star Standups of Jack Morris and Sweet Lou!

Joining those were the even larger regular All-Star cards. Here you see the team set sans Tram. What a great callback to the '84 team!

The basketball and football portions weren't as bountiful but were no less appreciated. Joining ex-Piston Grant Hill and current (for now, anyway!) UM coach Juwan Howard from his own playing days is my first autograph of fellow Fab Fiver Jimmy King. It's a Signature Rookies card so you get some nice college action in the photo, making it a Michigan uni card, besides the bonus of it being my first of King, the 31st different member of my basketball collection.

Over on the football side we have cool numbered cards of Brian Griese and Mike Hart, the latter of which is a "base" RC despite having the Refractor finish on it. Meanwhile, three of the four(!) autographs here are of the Michigan uni variety, a fun reminder of Michigan's spring game having been played earlier today. Breaston's from the fantastic 2009 Topps Magic set, and since I already had it but Jeff didn't, I brought that to him when I visited him at a recent show (more on that in a future post!). Former QB Todd Collins gets a new auto card from '95 Superior Pix, a very similar card to the King above, and that includes a college uni shot that also meets my approval. My favorite ex-Michigan RB Hart adds an autograph to his RC above, this one from a Topps set that shows him during his brief NFL career with the Colts. Fortunately he's doing great as UM's current RBs coach! And fellow legend Marquise Walker closes us out with a very, very nice Topps Finest auto/RC that includes a nicely done signature with bonus jersey number.

Fuji, thank you as always for the generosity and effort that went into you sending this package my way. I'm always thrilled to keep trading with you and this recap shows all the reasons why that's the case. I have a few cards I grabbed for you at a recent show and will try to hit you back once I have enough for an appropriate response. Until then, may the rest of your school year be uneventful!

2023 eBay purchases: Pirate King!

Happy spring, y'all! I've got a couple really nice trade packages to share but haven't logged and scanned them yet, and I didn't want that to hold up getting at least something posted. So tonight you're getting my three personal eBay purchases from the first couple months of 2023.

Tonight's post, as is sometimes the case, is all about (new Pirates pitcher) Rich Hill.

It's going to take a bit for me to get used to seeing Dick Mountain in a Pirates uniform, but I'm just happy to see him back for his 19th(!) MLB season. In that time his Baseball Reference transaction section has gotten so long you'd have to print it on a CVS receipt. Since being drafted and signed by the Cubs in 2002 he's pitched for them (2005-08), the Orioles (2009), Red Sox (2010-12), Indians (2013), Angels and Yankees (2014), Red Sox #2 (2015), A's (2016), Dodgers (2016-19), Twins (2020), Rays and Mets (2021), and Red Sox #3 (2022). And that doesn't include his stint with the indy ball Long Island Ducks in 2015 that led to his return to Boston!

Pittsburgh will be the 12th team Hill's pitched for (he never reached the Majors with the Cardinals and Nats), tying him for third all time with Mike Morgan and Matt Stairs. Former Tiger Edwin Jackson holds the record with 14 teams, and another former Tiger (the odds were good, obviously) Octavio Dotel took the bump with 13.

Anyway, that's a long preamble to introduce this evening's cards. Here's the three big items I bought of Hill in January and February:

I've mentioned that I don't touch Topps "on-demand" stuff too often but my favorite seller on the site, markaguirre22, had this 2020 Topps Mini Silver 1/1 up for grabs in late January and I scored it for the minimum $10 bid plus tax (and free shipping). It's a Twins card and he doesn't have a ton of those so that's cool.

I know I've also mentioned the numerous occasions when this seller generously threw in extras and he did that this time as well. Both of these 2013 A&G Minis were new to me which was a very nice bonus, and I make sure to thank him in my feedback every time he sends me something like this.

Less than a week later I got in a bit of a bidding war for this 2006 Flair Showcase plate used to make Rich's card in the Showcase Signatures set. The Cubs-appropriate Cyan card set me back a bit under $18, but I didn't mind too much because I don't have to go that high very often, and anything up to around $20 is reasonable enough for me. It's my first of the four from that plate set so that's one reason I fought a bit harder to win it. Here's the card that resulted from this plate and its brethren:

Pretty cool, no? Flair Showcase had a wide variety of looks during its existence and I like the design of this insert set for sure.

Finally, a bit more than a month ago I won the most recently produced 1/1 I've added to Hill's PC, a 2022 Topps Chrome yellow plate. My winning bid was only $9 but tax and shipping pushed that cost up close to $15, which is just kind of the reality of buying on the site these days. Anyway, it represents Rich's third stint in Boston, and who's to say he won't return later this year in a deadline deal or as a free agent in the offseason in search of his 20th year at the game's highest level? By the way, with yellow not being a staple of the Red Sox's team colors, I 100% need to get a plate in that color of him with the Pirates!

These additions continue Hill's dominance of my baseball PC with 149 hits, of which 35 are 1/1s. My TCDb-leading 349 items, 35 of which are of the rarest variety, allow me to confidently continue calling myself the king of Dick Mountain!

TCDB trade roundup: five more for fall

No theme today, just five more transactions while I work on covering the ones I haven't shown off yet. Let's go!

First up this evening is abendermsu, who's a fan of that MSU, the team my beloved Wolverines will be taking on a week from this Saturday night. I sent a mix of 1995 and 1996 Donruss baseball base and a couple Spartan cagers in return for this Wolverine bounty:

Cronenworth's 2022 Topps base is the lone baseball entry here, and I'm hoping he continues where he left off in the NLDS, though so far the Phillies are threatening to dominate the series. On the football side of things there's some good offensive firepower with WR Derrick Alexander, TE Devin Asiasi, QB Elvis Grbac (x2), and WR/PR/KR Desmond Howard all represented. The '98 Playoff Prestige SSD Hobby set featured a pretty nice design that lends itself well to multiple colors, even if they aren't maize & blue.

As usual this scan is mostly offensive players as well, though it's nice to get a DL cameo too. College Football HOF G Reggie McKenzie represents the oldest set here with his '81 Topps base, including a photo that makes the then-30-year-old look like he was in his 50s. The awesomely named Kwity Paye gets two new cards for his collection including a Michigan uni action shot of the star DE. Flipping back to offense there's a ton of skill crammed into three last players: RB Biakabutuka, WR DPJ, and RB Wheatley. Not bad!

The smallest deal you'll see today came from BrewerAndy, who took a handful of Brew Crew cards in return for these:

You'll see more of the '84 Tigers like the Big Wheel and Willie pop up again in this post. I keep (the younger version of) Pudge with my Tigers and love me some 90s inserts as well. Andy was a great source for a couple Brewers Police cards of Mike Matheny (1998 above and '95 below with Cirillo). And two more Griffeys from '04 Donruss tied this PWE up in a nice bow.

Next, I sent member capper14 a small baseball/basketball mix and changed things up by going for basketball and hockey in return:

The trio of basketball cards up top all star Franz "Mo's Brother" Wagner, and better yet they're all Michigan uni cards, in this case from 2021 Panini Prizm Draft. There's also a mix of UM Hockey guys in Felsner (a RC), Norton (x4), and WolverWing A-A-Ron Ward (who didn't mess up, and is also a RC). Side note: for probably like 25+ years I owned a little plaque with a signed version of that Ward, but too much sunlight from hanging on a wall faded the signature and card. Oh well.

And why not add to the Wings fun with a sextet of Stevie-Y cardboard? These are some great looking cards from 1993-94, especially the Leaf and Stadium Club offerings, in my opinion. I haven't added all of my Wings to TCDB yet but did so for Yzerman so I count 62 in my collection so far.

Next, though I sometimes avoid trades that have to be shipped to Canada, member Eriqulous, who leaves in nearby-ish Ontario, definitely made it worth my while. For a thick stack of '96 Fleer and a few other cards of guys he PCs, I got this Canuck-themed bunch:

The first seven cards here were all O-Pee-Chee needs, and they put a nice dent in some of my wants of that product. Simmons, Parrish, and Gibby all get a pretty good amount of exposure here, but I was especially excited to add new items of "The Bird" and yesterday's birthday boy Willie Horton. The  Canadian second-year of Ripken was a very nice get too, and I told Erick I was grateful that he included it. To those I added '87 Sportflics Team Preview cards of the Orioles (for Cal, of course) and Oakland (to add to my Tony Phillips PC). It's a very cool set and I think I've said before that I might just try to track down all 26.

Former UM/Twins P Gary Wayne represents the last of the baseball, and that's no ordinary '90 Fleer card you're seeing, but the Canadian version instead. I appear to have eight cards from the set with another 18 cards of PC guys still to locate.

The hockey content brought a really nice mix beginning with a fun new card of former UM player and coach (and Red Wing) Red Berenson from '91-'92 Future Trends. There's some cool inserts as well as some solid base. It's a bit hard to tell but the Morrison UD Choice card is the Reserve version with a cool holographic stamp background going on. Cammalleri's RC is also numbered /1650.

You just saw two of these three guys in the last scan, and they're back (along with Turco) in 2003-04 Pacific Atomic McDonald's form. Die-cuts plus food issues (I guess McDonald's is sort of food just like Denny's is, like, approximately food?) are awesome!

Finally this evening you get to see one of the biggest deals (in more ways than one) that I've made recently. Rockies fan mgratton proposed a deal to me on the first of September and after a week or two of counterproposals we came up with a trade I think we both really liked. I gave up a mix of some of the Colorado Refractors and other inserts from my Facebook collection purchase, a few hits I didn't care about (again, mostly Rox), and some other miscellany, and got this smorgasbord of amazingness:

The Abbott and pair of Frymans--Gold Rush and Sportflics!--are fun mid-90s entries. Griffey's only represented once this time but I'm plenty happy to let some of the others catch up to him. Gwynn was the big winner (Gwynner?) here with an outstanding 17 new items, many of which can be seen in the first two scans. I was glad to add food issues like the Post card and some lower-end but still cool inserts too.

Out of this bunch I think the Stadium Club Never Compromise insert is my favorite but the matte '96 Fleer base is a great piece. The last of his cards here is a 2011 Topps 60 Years of Topps insert that reprints his base from 1997, a set I've long admired, especially in the face of the poor base looks of the past 15-ish years. I also snuck a trio of new Larkin items in this deal, and the first of those is a 1990 boxed set issue.

Meanwhile this scan opens with his base from 1998 Zenith, the year with the "dare to tear" 5x7 inserts. I also grabbed five cool 90s inserts of Maddux, and you see four in this scan. The first is a '93 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle card pairing him with Mike Mussina from the AL. The way his '93 Ultra Award Winner scanned makes it look like a Panini Absolute card. And the reprint-ish item that ends his group here is a 2014 Topps Future Stars That Never Were, the most recently printed card in the bunch. I also snuck in a new Dean Palmer from 2003 Topps' HTA set. And then we have the first three out of nine Ripkens found in the package. He joins Gwynn in that Post set and I also added a total of four of his 1997 Burger King-issued cards. That set includes eight regular cards and the header so I'm on my way there.

This scan begins and ends with the other two BK Ripkens. Pudge gets another appearance thanks to 2003 Studio's beautiful die-cut/acetate Studio Stars set. The rest of the Gwynns include mid-90s goodness featuring a Bowman's Best base pairing him with speedster Brian Hunter for some reason. And Maddux's last appearance is a '95 UD Checklist.

Here's what I meant about the deal being "big" in more than one way. I knew the 1989 Topps Baseball Talk/LJN piece of Gibby was pretty large but when I added the '93 Donruss Masters of the Game Ripken to the trade--a set I didn't know much about--I didn't know what I was getting into. An oversized Dick Perez art piece? Yes, please!

I shouldn't leave out the smaller stuff, though. That includes four new 1990 Topps Doubleheaders of Abbott, Larkin, Tram, and Sweet Lou. All of them are in pretty reasonable condition including their plastic holders/stands, and of course I love any representations of the latter two players' '78 Topps RCs.

I also landed Topps coins of Gwynn (1988), Ripken ('87 and '88), and Tram ('88) to continue the oddball theme.

Since I still had a few more cards to show off, why not include the other sides of the Doubleheaders, all of which are the '90 Topps appearances of those players?

Finally, we'll end the post with four cards that went toward my set wants for '94 and '95 Finest. Thomas, Molitor, and Boggs are all HOFers so I consider them solid additions here. Those wantlists now sit at 18 and 39 cards missing, respectively.

Well, that was definitely a lot to cover from "just" five trades, but sometimes that's the kind of quantity and quality you can get with your TCDB deals! I'll try to be back with more soon.