TCDB trade roundup: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

I actually had some intention of getting this post done over the weekend but then TCDB needed to do its database migration and I didn't want to put this together without access to that, so here we are!

Again, I don't always feel like I have to have a theme, but I came up with eight trades that brought me between one and five cards and thought that would be a fun grouping. So here we go!

Deal #1 today is from Texas A&M fan amalum who sent me five total cards (one that's since gone out in another deal) for a college uni card of his team. I scored this quartet:

Yes I do get Verlanders from TCDB deals from time to time, and spoiler alert: you're about to see another one. The football cards were enjoyable adds as well. Calloway's obviously long been retired but Peppers (Pats) and Wormley (Steelers) are still active.

Next is a single card from BLWinborn40, a member I've now traded with twice. Not only did our first deal go just fine, but he also has more than 1000 successful transactions. So when my end of the trade fell off the face of the earth for about a month I knew not to blame him, and that paid off when it showed up from the black hole that USPS randomly assigns some PWEs for temporary storage. Anyway, I happily snagged this card in return for a couple 1996 and '97 Finest Silver Braves:

As far as manurelics go these plasticky 70th anniversary logos are kind of goofy, but at the cost of a couple cheap 90s cards I'm glad to grab another Verlander. It's actually my fourth manu-card of JV, with the others being more patch-like:

So it's no big deal to me that it's not some "premium" card because it's basically just a fun insert of one of my favorite players. And it was worth the wait!

Next, hey, do you all remember TCDB user cjjt, the guy who sent me the Michigan box stuffed with his Wolverine football (and others) dupes? Well he saw a few Michigan cards on my trade list and told me to pick out a few on his list to make a deal. I think that went very well:

Arrington is numbered /125, Avant 500, and Hart 999. Biakabutuka is a typically sweet Pinnacle Dufex card. And Harbaugh is from the hard-to-scan '98 Score Showcase Series parallel. Those bottom two guys are doing a fantastic job with the 7-0 Wolverines this year and I'm grateful for Hart's seemingly complete recover from a scary seizure he suffered on the sideline last week at Indiana. The quality of these inserts reminds me that I need to find more stuff on Chris' wantlist because there's much more available where this came from!

Kansas City guy homerjg007 was nice enough to work with me on a deal where I sent him 11 cards, a chunk of which were '96 Flair baseball dupes, for these four:

I'm slowly building a decent little Jesse Franklin collection and if I can keep adding Michigan uni cards like the Prizm insert above I'll be glad to continue that. I can't have Too Many Grandersons like the 2012 Heritage Chrome (#d /1963) above, even if he's with the Yanks. And a pair of excellent '97 Dean Palmers (Finest Silver Refractor and Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Blue /1999) bolster my #1 position on the site with 435 of his cards, nearly 150 better than the #2 collector. 90s inserts rule!

jj00148 is also a fan of a top-10 football team this year in Tennessee, who just knocked off Alabama in an instant classic. Anything that pisses off Nick Saban is good in my book. Anyway, I was able to flip him a pair of numbered football inserts I grabbed from the quarter box at a show for this Wolverine pair:

These are of course my two favorite players from the 2008 draft class, and among my all-time top 10: the previously seen Hart plus a new Henne as well. Mike's card is a 2008 Bowman Chrome Bronze parallel that's numbered /329. Meanwhile, Chad's card was found in 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear's Next Generation Silver version and is limited to 250 copies. Football inserts rule too!

If anyone is a fan of one or more of 2022 playoff heroes, Tigers that actually did well this season, or twice-fired managers, you'll enjoy this quartet from Martinma21 that I got in return for some 2020 Heritage and '21 Panini Mosaic cards:

Just to remind everyone, I was in the #CroneZone before it was cool! Though he finished the regular season in a bit of a slump he came up aces in the Padres' surprising upset of the Dodgers, going 7/16 with a homer and five RBI, including a game-winning two-run single to clinch the NLDS in game 4. Here you see him represented twice among the 60 total cards I now own of him. Greene is also an up-and-comer and I like the look of his '21 Donruss Optic Rated Prospect card even though "Rated Rookie" just sounds so much better. And the 2016 Bowman Family Tree Green parallel (/99) is my second of the six versions of the insert that pairs former Cardinals and Royals manager Mike Matheny with his son Tate.

Next, vintage lovers will likely get a kick out of my two-for-five deal with SaveDaKid. I was able to send him a pair of 2007-08 Topps basketball inserts for these:

If you're in this scan you're a winner, literally. Gator and Northrup were key pieces of the '68 champion Tigers, not that either knew that was in their future when their photos were taken for those '67 Topps issues that still look terrific today. The late Bergman had three years to wait until he'd enjoy the same celebration after he was shown on his '81 Topps Traded card depicting him with his third of four franchises (five if you count his very temporary stay with the Phillies in '84). Morris, the ace of the '84 staff, was still going strong over his HOF career in '86 when he won a career-high 21 games for the first of two seasons (and 20 for the second of three), with those stats captured on his '87 Drake's issue. Finally, star DB Rick Volk won it all in his second NFL season with Baltimore in 1968, four years before the Topps card you see above was made. What a great bunch of champs this group is!

And lastly, I'm happy to end this post on a strong note--a 90s inserts rule! note, to be precise--thanks to a deal I made with SeventhSon in which I sent a small mix of stars for the three below (plus another since included in a trade mailer):

Mr. Padre was the subject of many a great card from that decade, and even though the Ultra Diamond Mine insert is actually from 2000, we'll make that year an honorary member. Don't forget that we didn't really start getting great looking inserts until a few years in anyway. Regardless I love the diamond theme, silver foil, and great photo of the master of his craft.

No offense to that card at all but it can't hold a candle to the greatness of 1996 SPx and its Bound for Glory insert. If the first version of the die-cut hologram base set was a revelation, so was this chase set that also looked amazing.

And finally, yes, I consider the Silver and Gold versions of the base cards from 90s Finest to be inserts, and anyway, they rule. That's a great looking Maddux no matter what you call it.

That's eight more deals in the books but I still have a nice chunk left to cover in addition to a couplep more pending transactions there. To those I can add a couple eBay buys that'll get a post soon, and who knows what else. Look forward to reading about and seeing lots more cards soon!

The TCDB Michigan Box part 2: football

I had a great time at this afternoon's monthly show and will be recapping that in relatively short order, but this evening I'm happy to finally take care of something I've had on the back burner for more than two years.

Last March I did a quick recap of the basketball stuff I needed from what I've been simply referring to as "The Michigan Box", a 5000-count monster box that was nearly full of UM basketball and football dupes from the collection of TCDB member cijt. As a quick reminder, back in May of 2020 he sent me the box in return for a mix of some of my dupe Michigan hits and a few other things that fit his collection.

It took me quite a while to sort through everything, especially the football stuff since it was sorted by player but then brand/year instead of my preferred year/brand. Plus I had to filter out anything I already had a copy of, plus any additional copies in many cases.

Still, it was a lot of fun to do that work and very productive for my collection as well--I was able to add more than 1600 new cards to my Michigan Football PCs! Putting them away will coincide with my project of expanding the home of those collections from four to five monster boxes because they were getting pretty snug.

Here's a look at what was left in the box after I removed all the dupes (and the basketball stuff that I'd previously covered). I won't be showing all 1600+ cards, but I will show one for every player represented, plus a few of the items you see in the fifth row of the box pictured above as well.

I also snagged a picture of the players' piles to try to give a sense of scale so you can see who benefitted the most from this trade. I know by the spreadsheet I created to track all this that Jim Harbaugh was the big winner, with Brian Griese, Evlis Grbac, Derrick Alexander, and Tyrone Wheatley following in his wake. I should also point out that the vast majority of cards were from the late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s (Chris apparently set a cutoff of who he collects around 2008). The second-to-last pile you see is guys who only had one or two new cards added, and those are followed by some new TK Legacy adds.

Because this is a lot of cards to cover I'm presenting the scans without comment other than identifying the players, mentioning how many new cards they added to their PCs, and then in parentheses noting their current collection counts as of this posting on TCDB.

There are 10 scans covering the 84 players whose collections were hit followed by a scan of TK Legacy stuff, and then a few more scans with something out of the ordinary at the end. Please enjoy this mix of years and brands of football cards!:

Bobby Abrams: 1 (2)     Derrick Alexander: 130 (189)     Jason Avant: 2 (121)

Ron Bellamy: 1 (18)     Tim Biakabutuka: 89 (230)     Keith Bostic: 2 (3)

Tom Brady: 28 (288)     Steve Breaston: 2 (130)     Jarrod Bunch: 22 (34)

Jerry Burns: 2 (4)     Chris Calloway: 41 (55)     Anthony Carter: 55 (100)

Todd Collins: 30 (72)     Evan Cooper: 1 (3)     Thom Darden: 3 (7)

Dan Dierdorf: 4 (9)     Dean Dingman: 1 (4)     Tom Dohring: 1 (1)

Glenn Doughty: 2 (4)     Braylon Edwards: 31 (338)     Jumbo Elliott: 17 (28)
Matt Elliott: 1 (4)     Mike Evans: 2 (4)     Steve Everitt: 7 (27)
Justin Fargas: 2 (27)     Jay Feely: 1 (2)     Chris Floyd: 1 (9)

Devin Funchess: 1 (79)     Ian Gold: 3 (10)     Brandon Graham: 1 (47)
Elvis Grbac: 136 (191)     Brian Griese: 165 (386)     James Hall: 1 (3)
Mike Harden: 4 (6)     David Harris: 2 (94)     Mercury Hayes: 2 (7)

Drew Henson: 3 (38)     Leroy Hoard: 70 (87)     Steve Hutchinson: 1 (15)
Marlin Jackson: 2 (65)     Jon Jansen: 1 (4)     Trezelle Jenkins: 2 (11)
Dhani Jones: 2 (14)     Cato June: 1 (12)     Mike Kenn: 19 (30)

Ty Law: 59 (91)     Randy Logan: 1 (3)     Jake Long: 1 (148)
Rob Lytle: 1 (4)     Tom Mack: 2 (6)     Tony McGee: 49 (71)
Greg McMurtry: 25 (33)     Jamie Morris: 1 4()     John Navarre: 1 (32)

Mel Owens: 1 4()     Bubba Paris: 5 (9)     Chris Perry: 1 (122)
Robert Perryman: 6 (8)     Jay Riemersma: 14 (32)     Denard Robinson: 2 (119)
Jon Runyan: 1 (5)     Greg Skrepenak: 5 (17)     Jim Smith: 1 (5)

Tai Streets: 15 (48)     Mike Teeter: 3 (3)     David Terrell: 3 (157)
Anthony Thomas: 41 (196)     Amani Toomer: 87 (318)     Jerame Tuman: 1 (12)
Jon Vaughn: 29 (41)     Derrick Walker: 8 (12)     Marquise Walker: 2 (68)

Gabe Watson: 2 (32)     Tyrone Wheatley: 111 (237)
Charles Woodson: 2 (325)     Butch Woolfolk: 1 (4)

Lou Baldacci: 1 (2)     Dave Brown: 2 (7)
Curtis Greer: 2 (6)     Ali Haji-Sheikh: 4 (7)
Jim Harbaugh: 205 (368)     Desmond Howard: 64 (103)
Reggie McKenzie: 3 (6)     Trevor Pryce: 1 (4) (Griese also pictured)

How awesome was that variety?! Lots of Michigan uniforms and plenty of shininess I wanted to highlight as well. The majority of what I added was base with a few inserts mixed in, but I don't care because I love adding any new Michigan stuff I can. Speaking of that...

These were the TK Legacy cards I needed, and many of the names are notable--the Wistert family was big here, Leach was a sensation, and Morrison and Turco are two of the most successful alumni of the hockey program.

Speaking of TK Legacy, a product I broke several boxes of, Chris included an empty pack (shown roughly actual size) from an unknown year (I could probably figure it out but don't feel like doing the research) with Braylon Edwards front and center. I didn't keep any of these from my previous boxes but think I'll hold onto this one.

And lastly, there was a whole mess of tickets/stubs that I was excited to add to my collection. I love the mix of images used on these, from game action to campus sites, and many of them came from wins as well! The first two scans include 20 tickets from games between 1976 and 1984 while the final one includes plain game passes instead of tickets along with three stubs that are hard to pin down. Similar to what I did with the cards and player collection info above, I looked up the score of each game and posted the results below:

• 1976 vs. Wake Forest: W 31-0
• 1977 vs. Wisconsin: W 56-0
• 1978 vs. Arizona: W 21-17
• 1978 vs. Michigan State: L 24-15
• 1979 vs. Minnesota: W 31-21
• 1979 vs. Wisconsin: W 54-0
• 1979 vs. Ohio State: L 18-15
• 1980 vs. Cal: W 38-13
• 1980 vs. Michigan State: W 27-23
• 1980 vs. Purdue: W 26-0

• 1981 vs. Notre Dame: W 25-7
• 1981 vs. Navy: W 21-16
• 1981 vs. Illinois: W 70-21
• 1982 vs. Indiana: W 24-10
• 1982 vs. Michigan State: W 31-17
• 1983 vs. Purdue: W 42-10
• 1984 vs. Washington: L 20-11
• 1984 vs. Michigan State: L 19-7
• 1984 vs. Illinois: W 26-18
• 1984 vs. Minnesota: W 31-7

Total record of these: 16-4

• 1979 vs. Minnesota: W 31-21
• 1979 vs. Ohio State: L 18-15
• 1980 vs. Northwestern: W 17-10
• 1980 vs. Cal: W 38-13
• 1980 vs. Michigan State: W 27-23
• 1981 vs. Iowa: L 9-7
• 1981 vs. Northwestern: W 38-0
• 1981 vs. Illinois: W 70-21
• Purdue: unknown
• Michigan State: unknown
• Houston: either 1992 (W 61-7) or 1993 (W 42-21)

Total record of these: 7-2 (with 2 unknown), with some overlap with the games above.

I'm excited that I'll finally be putting these away after they've been sitting in the box for over two years, and it'll be fun seeing for myself just how big they make each of the players' stacks instead of just relying on a number on a list!

With these covered I'll be back soon, possibly as soon as this holiday weekend, with a card show recap. I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing Fourth of July weekend, even at a time when the Supreme Court has made it impossible to celebrate.

2022 trade package #2: Chronicles of Fuji

It looks like it's been exactly two weeks since I last posted and they've definitely been busy ones! We all got to enjoy a pretty exciting Super Bowl with yet another former Wolverine (DB David Long) winning a ring. And my activity on TCDB has only increased with lots more trade bait posted and many deals completed or in-progress. In fact, looking over on my card desk right now I have 12 TCDB trades to cover at some point, plus six other blog deals to recap after this one!

And speaking of "this one", it's one of the bigger stacks I get to enjoy! And enjoy it I will, even if I'm extremely jealous of the weather the sender gets to enjoy. While it got briefly warm enough here to melt the many inches of snow we've dealt with, we're once again in the middle of a storm that'll bring another 6-9". Meanwhile it's sunny and high 60s in San Jose, home to blogging/trading legend Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji.

In January Mark sent me another typically generous package out of the blue, which is a color I'm happy to picture as I see nothing but white outside! I had no idea he was sending what he did and was surprised about the variety found within among three of the major sports. Continue reading to see what I mean:

2017 Honus Bonus, a collectible card/fantasy game product, was a bit of an odd duck for sure. But it's a fun one to collect as well for a number of reasons. One of them is the abundance of 1/1s, with multiples made to represent different significant stats. In the two examples here for Ian Kinsler and Justin Upton, that would be their career HR up to that point. Through 2016, his third of four seasons with Detroit after eight in Texas, Kinsler had clubbed 212 of his 257 career bombs. Upton, snagged as a FA before the 2016 season, finished that campaign at 221 after 10 years, then was flipped to the Angels, still his current squad, and he's added 128 taters over his past five.

I like the game-dated aspect of these cards and they're a fun addition to my collection even if the true "rarity" isn't there. Very cool of Fuji to send them my way!

Basketball was very well represented this time, enough that I decided to make it easy on myself and just take a group photo. After all, there was lots worth showing off here, with the 90s and inserts offering lots of creativity and shine.

Player #1 in the pile is Tariq Abdul-Wahad, a relative newbie to my collection in terms of cards that aren't part of complete sets. Previously named Olivier Saint-Jean, he was born in France to two basketball-playing parents, and played at Michigan in 93-94 before transferring to Fuji's San Jose State. Sacramento chose him 11th overall in 1997, the same year he converted to Islam and took on a new name. He's very welcome to the basketball collection! Nice catch, Fuji.

Other players that are part of this bunch include Jamal Crawford, coach Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Mo Taylor, Robert Traylor, Loy Vaught, and Chris Webber. As you can see, there's a nice bunch of Michigan uni cards, which makes sense giving how popular the program was for a bit in the early 90s. Taylor and Webber got the most new additions with eight and nine, respectively. And I'm absolutely digging a bunch of the inserts, like Howard's hologram (upper-right corner), the die-cuts, and the plethora of shininess.

One such card I decided to highlight was this 1998-99 Ultra Unstoppable insert of Taylor. The booklet-like card folds open so I put together this three-part (somewhat cut-off) look at it:

I don't recall seeing these before so I thought it was cool!

The football side more than lives up to its courtside companion with lots of great names and designs. Touchdown Timmy is a blast to collect since his cards largely fall in the super creative era of the 90s, and that's on full display here. I especially love the Leaf slide card and SP HoloView insert, which bring to mind my favorite tag, "90s inserts rule"! His last card is actually a '96 Bowman reprint, not the original, by the way.

National champ QB Brian Griese was the most common player found in the bunch, as you'll see between this scan and the next one. The Collector's Edge card is numbered /3500, the Fleer Showcase Air to the Throne insert is a reminder that he didn't quite follow in Elway's footsteps (though he did have a respectable career), and the 2000 Leaf Certified base is one of the higher-end ones you'll see here that wouldn't be out of place in an insert set.

See? More Griese (but not greasy) goodness! I wonder if anyone else remembers Upper Deck's short-lived UD Graded product, which I mainly know about due to having to track down some annoying RCs. The inserts from UD, Ultra, and even Topps (it was long enough ago, when they were still trying) are great. Absolute Memorabilia's hobby base cards were way better than the bland retail versions that never should have been made. And the Griese/Terrell pairing never happened in college or the NFL, unfortunately, but would have been a dynamic duo!

Speaking of QBs, newly-extended coach Jim Harbaugh makes an appearance here out of a baseball insert: Topps' 2016 First Pitch set, naturally showing him at Comerica Park. And Fuji even somehow found a Chad Henne I didn't have: a 2008 Prestige Prestigious Picks insert numbered /500, with the young Henne seen in his maize & blue uni. Those two are joined by another UM great, Desmond Howard, on a 1992 All World issue.

Incredibly, there's still more 90s/early 2000s greatness left to cover. It's awesome to see Terrell and Thomas together as nature intended: the WR on a numbered UD Finite base and the A-Train on one of Donruss's greatest inserts: Elite's Passing the Torch. For those of you who are curious, he was paired with former Bears back Gale Sayers. Hey, they can't all be winners, but damn is that set a beauty!

Former WRs Amani Toomer and Marquise Walker are next. Super Bowl champ Toomer can be seen on high-end offerings from 2000 Topps Gold Label (Class 3) and the previously seen Absolute Memorabilia. Walker's card is another throwback to quality Topps inserts: 2002 Topps Debut's Collegiate Classics. This foil chase card with a great college photo honors his 7 catches for 134 yards and a TD (one of his 11 that year) in a 24-10 win over Purdue in 2001, my freshman year.

Last up here us new Broncos RBs coach Tyrone Wheatley, someone who knows just a bit about the position. The Michigan great is seen on 1995's Metal Silver Flashers, Skybox Prime Time Rookie, and  Upper Deck Predictor inserts, plus a 2001 Topps Combos that pairs him up with the already seen Thomas. Those two are the #4 and 5 career rushers at the school, combining for 8276 yards, 96 rushing TDs, and 103 overall scores!

We're not quite done with inserts yet since Fuji also included this large item in the package: a graded 2003 Topps Chrome Refractor of transfer RB Justin Fargas, numbered /100. The beautiful shiny Refractory-ness is enhanced by a bold black border that I'm sure Gavin would admire. This is a gorgeous addition to my collection of Huggy Bear's kid, and I'll think about whether or not I feel like cracking it out of the slab to admire it more.

Ok, now we're closing in on the end with just a couple cards left to cover. The first is a great looking jersey card of former QB/WR Devin Gardner out of Panini's 2015 collegiate product focusing on the school, one of a number they made. DG was an athletic competitor and leader and those skills seem to be translating well to his potential next career in analysis/broadcasting. I'm looking forward to seeing him advance in that career!

And last up today is this throwback to fun Pacific products and their leading efforts when memorabilia cards were still novelties. Griese was paired up with HOF RB teammate Terrell Davis on this Titanium dual jersey, a double-sided card that in retrospect definitely got it right with the star up front. For me, though, it's a nice new jersey card to add to my Griese collection, now at 25 hits strong, making him the 18th player to reach that mark.

Thanks again for this whopper of a trade package, Fuji! Sending 1/1s, 90s inserts, and lots of Wolverines is a great way to keep yourself in my top tier of favorite trading partners, that's for sure. I hope your school year is going well, and I look forward to hitting you back as always whenever I can pile up some more trade bait. Until then, you know I'll keep following your blog, easily one of the best out there!

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!