2024 trade package #8: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Let's get roaring into May while completely ignoring that the calendar as I'm writing this shows that tomorrow is the last day of July!

The first trade package I received that month came from the most prolific of all of my trade partners: Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. This envelope was definitely different than the norm in terms of dimensions and weight for reasons I wouldn't be able to guess until I'd ripped it open.

The cardboard content was uncharacteristically sparse, though plenty familiar as it starred three players from my favorite MLB team. Miggy's from a Topps on-demand product from 2023 called Game Within the Game, one of 10 art cards done by Paul Jennis. At 1,612 copies printed it's on the higher end of rarity, which is cool by itself, plus the card looks great.

"Whiffin'" Willi Castro left Detroit after the 2022 season and naturally became a quality player for the Twins, putting up 2.7 bWAR last year while getting on pace to equal or exceed that number as a 2024 All-Star. You see him here on a Topps UK base from 2022.

I did use the word "familiar" above when referring to the team these three cards share, though that didn't necessarily refer to the players. Rucker didn't ring a bell but I did find him on the lower end of Fangraphs' top Tigers prospects. He's a 3B taken in 2023's 4th round out of high school and therefore a reasonable choice for Panini's Elite Extra Edition product, like the 2023 base you see above.

That was it for cards but not the package itself, not by a longshot. No, friends, I was treated to not one, not two, but four beautiful autographed 8x10s of some excellent Michigan Hockey alumni.

Michigan sports blog MGoBlog recently put together a two-part series on the top 20 careers of Wolverine NHLers (part 1, part 2, and you should totally check these out if you love Michigan Hockey) and two of the four guys here made the cut, fairly impressive given the large quantity of quality Michigan icers to play in the league. I'll borrow a bit from those posts for those three guys and give my own thoughts on the fourth:

Andrew Cogliano: Ok, so I have to admit that of the four photos, this one stumped me for a bit because the auto wasn't a gimmie and the player's name doesn't appear anywhere. Eventually I compared the signature to cards I have and came up with LW Andrew Cogliano, a guy I tend to associate with teams other than the Oilers. His UM career started the the school year after I graduated--2005--but I still got to see him play in-person a bit.

Per the aforementioned Top 20 posts, 

"The recently retired Cogliano was the inspiration for this piece, a player who had a hell of a run as a middle six winger for a bunch of teams. That's not what he's most remembered for in the NHL, though. That would be his remarkable iron man ways, as Cogliano at one time owned the longest consecutive games played streak in the NHL at over 800 games. He did not miss a single game his first 10 seasons in the NHL and remained remarkably well conditioned into his mid-30s."

"He started out in Edmonton but found a home in Anaheim, a fixture of the Ducks' really good teams in the mid-2010s in the middle six of the lineup. A well liked guy everyone would have a spot on their team for, that allowed older Cogliano to make deep runs in the playoffs with Dallas (2020) and Colorado (2022), the latter winning him a Stanley Cup."

Also of note, this is my second 8x10 signature of Cogs courtesy of Doug, who previously sent me one back in November of 2019, the 33rd time I'd shown off cards from him here!

John Madden: Not the meathead NFL coach/announcer but the guy who won a pair of cups with the Devils and another with the Hawks, Madden was a four-year C in the mid-90s for some very successful NCAA teams including the 1995-96 champs.

Per the Top-20 list,

"By his second season in the NHL, Madden had built a reputation as a top tier penalty killer and go-to matchup center for the always-stingy Devils, winning the 2000-01 Selke Trophy for the best defensive forward in the NHL. Madden was able to put himself in contention for such an award by not just being a great defensive player and a scrappy, fierce forechecker, but because he provided some valuable depth scoring too."

"Madden won two Cups in NJ and then departed for Chicago in 2009-10, then age 36, and won a third ring with the Blackhawks as a gritty veteran 4th line center. Madden's unusual, versatile career and distinction as one of the top defensive centers in the NHL lands him here."

EDIT: Jon Merrill: Thanks to Chris for pointing out that I got the wrong Jon/John from the Devils! Merrill's name has popped up quite a bit here especially thanks to Doug but briefly, the D from nearby Brighton was a three-year Wolverine at the stat of the 2010s and was a second round pick by New Jersey. This past NHL season was his 11th and he's suited up for a total of five teams including Detroit briefly in 2020-21. I don't see him surpassing anyone on this list but a double-digit year NHL career is nothing to sniff at!

Al Montoya: Montoya's the odd man out here as he understandably didn't make the list, though said list includes only one goalie (Marty Turco), and that's in line with the alumni the Wolverines have produced at the position. To be clear, that's 100% based on his not-terribly-exciting pro career of 168 games (136 starts) over nine seasons with six clubs. You wouldn't have guessed that back in the mid-2000s, though, when he was a highly rated hot-shot freshman. His first year coincided with my sophomore year and first with season tickets, and he'd go on to win 86 games over his three seasons, highlighted by a charge to the Frozen Four in his first year on campus. While he didn't live up to his billing as the 6th overall pick in 2004, he was a blast to watch guarding the goal for some excellent teams while I was a student.

Brendan Morrison: Morrison is my favorite of this quartet despite the fact that he played at Michigan the same years as Madden and therefore before I was ever on campus, and even though he never hoisted the Cup. That said, he was arguably the biggest superstar in this group during his college years having won that NCAA championship I mentioned in Madden's blurb plus winning the Hobey Baker Award, a.k.a. hockey's version of the Heisman. New Jersey had drafted him in 1993's second round and he'd spend parts of three seasons with them before eight solid years with the Canucks. A few other destinations followed and over the course of his 14-year career he'd pot exactly 200 goals and 401 assists.

His Top-20 write-up mentions,

"Morrison was never going to be able match the heights he achieved in college in the vastly more talented NHL, where his skill level was not overwhelming in any way, but Morrison still cobbled together a successful career."

I'd say 14 years in the league after that kind of college career is pretty solid.

Many thanks to Doug for this amazing group of signatures that adds to a growing collection of of Michigan Hockey autos not just on cardboard but on some eye-popping pictures too! Your generosity never ceases to amaze me and I appreciate you finding these for me. Rest assured I'm taking my responsibility of maintaining diplomatic relations seriously and working on a return for you.

Everyone else can look forward to another blogger trade package next time!

2023 trade package #9: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been more than a couple weeks since I last posted, mostly due to the usual procrastination and distractions, this time with a bit of life thrown in. That said, I haven't given up on covering the piles of cards on my desk, especially the blogger trades from some very cool people.

For the second straight year, Michigan Hockey's season ended in disappointment in the NCAA semi-finals, this time to eventual champ Quinnipiac (who's ok in my book for beating Minnesota!). All the same, it was a great year for a star-studded team that certainly lived up to the historically great program's expectations.

The person I trade with who's boosted my Wolverine Hockey collection with cards of the program's past stars more than anyone else (except, maybe--maybe--myself) is Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, and earlier this month he treated me to more of his trademark generosity from across the border. There's lots of hockey to check out and plenty more too!

We'll open things up with Bowman Chrome and Heritage Minors of some of the Tigers' prospects. The two double-"J"s are among the team's top farm players, and Greene has shown plenty of flashes. Paredes, of course, was flipped to Tampa in another one of those ill-fated "Will Detroit ever develop and keep an infield prospect?" deals.

Among the notables here are a 2007 Topps Red Back parallel of Bondo, a Fleer All-Star insert pairing up the well known Fryman with HOFer Craig Biggio, a Matt Manning that's "OMG eBay 1/1 100/100 last one!" (which is extra cool), a sweet recent Stadium Club base of Cal, and a Heritage insert of prospect Wenceel Perez. Nice stuff!

The baseball group ends with a bang! First is a Leaf Flash autograph of former Portage Northern and UM pitcher Tommy Henry, who got nine starts last year and one so far in '23. It's gaudy--it is Leaf after all--but the mostly Michigan uniform-ness makes it a winner. Joining him is my first hit of ex-#1 overall pick Spencer Torkelson. Nobody knows what to make of him but I think he still has plenty of time to show what he's capable of, especially if the team can stop messing with the swing he had success with before they got their dirty mitts on him.

Like I said, there's lots of UM Hockey to cover but there were also a few of the local pro team as well including a fun pair of stickers.

The Michigan Football contingent all fits in one scan with room to spare. From the non-hit group I especially like the brand new Aidan Hutchinson, and I recently learned that the blue Select cards are the retail version which explains why they seem to be way more prevalent to me than the "regular" base, which I now know as the hobby set. The Nico auto, which may be a Mojo parallel or one of about a million other variations, is just as loud as the earlier Leaf auto we saw but no less appreciated--it's just my second of the stud WR, and just like the Henry it's a college card, so thumbs up! To that Doug added a nice relic of Collins' WR predecessor Amara Darboh, and the numbered hit with a large swatch is my 48th of him. It's apparently a rare instance of a Darboh I have that Jeff doesn't, though I wouldn't be shocked if he rectified that soon.

The hockey content did not remotely disappoint, and most of it this time seemed to hail from a few products like 17-18 Compendium, 21-22 OPC, and 22-23 Upper Deck. They all look quite nice but I think the latter happens to be an especially good effort by UD. Out of this group the Jets' Kyle Connor has one playoff goal thus far.

Oh that's a nice Dylan Larkin! The captain tied his career highs with 32 goals and 47 assists in '23 but did them in the same season for the first time, so his 79 points were a career best. He led the team in all of those categories and also signed an eight-year extension, so I'm happy he'll be around Hockeytown for a while longer. The Young Guns of Will Lockwood that follows is my first of  four-year Wolverine, so that was a fun find in the envelope. We'll see more of a couple of the guys in the next scan, but for now the pairing of Montoya goalie action cards was pretty nifty too!

The non-hits stuff finishes up with an awesome Turco action shot and trio of additional recent UD issues that include outstanding photography and design. How cool is that Larkin, tho?!

As for the biggest cards, two of them star former Wolverine-turned Devil-turned Golden Knight-turned Wing-turned Canadien-turned Wild: Jon Merrill. He's popped up a good amount in Doug's previous packages and got another nice boost this time with a very nice autograph and oversized jersey swatch. The pair gives him 13 hits, good for a tie with fellow buckstorecards package stalwart Chris Brown for 7th in the hockey collection. He's joined by another well-travelled vet still active in the playoffs, Tyler Motte. His 8th hit is a gorgeous UD Premier jersey/auto/RC with a beautiful three-color swatch from a jersey of the team that drafted him, the Blackhawks (he's now with the Rangers). Bonus points for the jersey number added to the signature plus serial numbering to boot.

Doug, thanks again for another killer package! I know you've already started posting some of what I sent back your way, and I hope you've had a chance to pick out some Presstine repacks for even more blog content.

As for me, I don't know how quickly I'll be back with the next envelope, but I'll work on it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2020 trade package #1: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's February 14 and that means one thing around here: celebrating the birthday of buddy of the blog Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!  I think it's awesome that he collects cards of athletes, celebrities, and more, with whom he shares a birthday, and today's post is a good example of that fun, listing his top 10 2/14 cards from the last year.  I'm happy to announce that he has a few more things from me that he'll be able to show off whenever he feels like it.

Speaking of "whenever he feels like it," unforeseen circumstances delayed me from getting his latest package to me (delivered weeks ago!) scanned and ready so eventually I figured, why not show it off on his big day?  And "big" is appropriate when discussing this latest mailing, one that arrived in what I believe was a 600-ct box, meaning he shelled out good money to get it to me.  Such is the generosity of my Canadian neighbour.  And as I flipped through the cards, I felt that generosity even more!

That Miggy is from a 2014 set that was available (probably in packs?) at that year's National, and it's cool because I hadn't seen it before.  The other three hail from one of Doug's favorites: Panini's Chronicles.  I love the mix of brands/designs it offers, and those are on full display here with a pair of Christin Stewarts and my first auto of young IF Dawel Lugo.  Nice!

The baseball continues here with even more Panini goodness.  Griffey hails from 2012 Prizm, and that sweet shot of his sweet swing is new to me.  The not-so-outspoken-anymore Verlander also cameos with another example of a 2019 Chronicles design, this one from the super thick Spectra.  And then there's two of my favorites in the whole box:  2019 Elite Extras of former Michigan pitchers Tommy Henry and Karl Kauffmann, two guys that were key to the Wolverines' College World Series run last year.  I love that they're both college uni cards plus I was thrilled to get my first of Henry, hopefully card #1 of many.

When it comes to packages from Doug, hockey is always well represented, and this time I was treated not just to cards of my alma mater, but the local pro club as well.  The Wings may be terrible this year but they were fun to watch in the 90s and 2000s when they were like the Braves except they won more than one title.  You'll see O-Pee-Chee's 2019-20 base set quite a bit today, one I think looks quite nice, as is typical for the brand.

Wings content #2 of 3.  The star of the show here is PC guy Dylan Larkin, whom I scanned with both teams just because.  I was happy to need all three because I love growing his collection, and all the cards look nice, too, including the Artifacts red insert called Aurum, which is a bit short on gold, but that's fine for this Red Wings fan!

The last of the Wings stuff comes with a couple more 19-20 OPCs, but of course I'm more interested in cards starring The Captain--and now The GM--Steve Yzerman.  The mix of old and new photos, designs, and uniforms, makes those a fun trio!

On the Michigan side of things, the basketball team has had its highs and lows this year but have been pretty interesting under new coach Juwan Howard.  Representing that team, Doug hit me up with a new base of Rumeal Robinson, a jersey of weed entrepreneur (go figure!) Mitch McGary, and a ridiculously beautiful slide/auto of Robinson's '89 NCAA title teammate Glen Rice.  I believe the Rice is my second such auto from that set and, yes, it looks even better in person!

A very nicely balanced package continues with some excellent football content.  '99 Collector's Edge Masters makes four appearances throughout this scan with base cards (/5000) of PC guy Tim Biakabutuka and former QB Elvis Grbac, plus HoloSilver (with red stamps?) parallels (/3500) of '98 champs Griese and Woodson.  Touchdown Tim is also represented on a super cool '99 UD Retro base, also new to me.  I also loved the nostalgia for 90s inserts with '94 Score Gold Zone parallels of AC and OT John "Jumbo" Elliott.  And then we have my first card of another newbie to my collection, former LB/DL hybrid Craig "Death" Roh, a pretty good recruit who played in Ann Arbor during one of the team's worst eras, 2009-12.  While NFL success eluded him he's since done well for himself in the CFL, and made his way onto this Red parallel from UD's product for that league last year.

These two guys have been associated a bit more with winning, though, in college and/or the pros.  (Future former?) Patriot great Tom Brady features on a very cool horizontal Panini Gridiron base while blog favorite PC guy Chad Henne gets in on the fun with a card I surprisingly didn't have: his 2011 Plates & Patches base (/299).  I recently hit the 300 mark for the latter and can't wait to boost his collection even more this year as I make him my top football PC.

And now we get into the bulk of the package:  Michigan Hockey content!  19-20 OPC makes a solid seven more appearances over the next three scans, proving the Ann Arbor-to-NHL pipeline is as strong as ever.  There's also a couple example of the prior season's factory set blue version of UD's MVP which were also new to me, as was practically everything you'll see in these scans.

There's WolverWing Dylan Larkin again, and I promise my scan of the Aurum insert looks much better than the one used here, getting much closer to the actual red color.  Joining him is a fun AHL card of winger Brad Jones, PC guy Brendan Morrison, and a new 90-91 OPC offering of D-man Jeff Norton.

Before we get to the real fireworks of the box here's the last of the "regular" hockey stuff.  That includes another Norton, two more OPCs, and a card each of D-men Jacob Trouba and Zach Werenski that allowed me to provide scans to TCDB.  I'm noting that because very few cards in the box were missing images there, often thanks to Doug, which was very cool.

And now the part you've probably been expecting considering the source!  Up first is another autograph of the pride of Flower Mound, Texas, Chris Brown, and as usual I'll mention that Doug is almost 100% responsible for my collection of that player.  Next is a couple jersey relics of hockey Mike #1, Cammalleri, from 02-03 Be-a-Player, plus a 2012-13 UD Game Jersey set that was given away at the NHL Hall of Fame back in 2013.  I hadn't seen those before so learning about them was cool, plus I got the set added to the TCDB.

The other hockey Mike is Comrie, and his card happens to be more than just a normal BAP relic (from 03-04) as it got a 1/1 stamp at the 2004 All-Star game.  These aren't your standard 1/1s but I still like to label them that way, and anyway they sometimes make plain cards more interesting.  That'll become my first 1/1 of Comrie.

Another guy with twice the hits today is D-man Jon Merrill, a guy who's been with Vegas for the last three years but was drafted by the Devils, the team pictured above.  The designs of those relic cards are different but the Dominion and Titanium cards came out of Panini's Rookie Anthology, kind of an ancestor of Chronicles.  Doug's also been a major factor in my Merrill collection.

Last up in this scan is yet another defenseman, Jacob Trouba, who finally saw his tenure with the Jets end thanks to a trade to the Rangers, with whom he could possibly tie or best his career-high of 10 goals.  This relic with a fun design should represent hit #10, making him one of a select group of guys in the collection to hit that mark.

Two of the guys on these horizontal cards are also in the 10+ club.  One is Cogliano, whose Upper Deck Ice card is twice as nice thanks to dual swatches!  The other is possibly my favorite card in the whole package is a new Shawn Hunwick--something I haven't been able to say in a while--that includes an autograph plus an enormous Blue Jackets patch, plus, you know, his Wolverines helmet.  Hunwick remains my lone hockey supercollection and it was a nice surprise from Doug that I could finally add to it again.  And last but not least is a cool multi-swatch card of former Michigan star Tyler Motte, a guy that went off for 32 goals and 24 assists in his final year in Ann Arbor, then bounced around from Chicago to Columbus to his current team, Vancouver.  I like when manufacturers make relics more interesting with ideas like swatch windows that spell out something relevant.

Doug, once again, happy birthday and also thanks for all the effort (and money!) you put into this amazing package that was an excellent start to the year.  While I work on getting all of these scans added to my collection and my stats updated I hope you enjoy the little envelope I sent your way to celebrate 2/14, and I'll work on another one as soon as I can.

Everyone please head over to SCFtDS to check out Doug's work and send him some cards of 2/14 babies yourselves.  Then stay tuned for all the other posts I've been promising while I've been slacking this year!

2019 trade package #28: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

I'm back today with the third of the three trade packages that I'd mentioned arrived to me this month, meaning this is the "big" one, and in my experience, nobody does big like my #1 trade partner, Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!  This latest bubble mailer was absolutely packed to the gills and I'm impressed that he appears to have maximized the amount of weight he could send without the price skyrocketing.

This is another one of his signature envelopes stuffed with variety plus some heavy hitters, hitting many of my PCs all over the place, and I'm proud to be showing it off this evening:

We'll start with the Tigers content.  Pleasant surprise Niko Goodrum leads off this group with his base card from this year's GQ, and then we go on a five-card run of 2019 Heritage High Numbers' classic design, with only Paul's favorite, JaCoby Jones, still with the team.  This scan concludes with a trio of 2019 Bowman Draft Picks of three of the teams' better recent prospects.  RHP Faedo seems to be the consensus best of the three, with Roger's kid getting some consideration, and 2018 5th-rounder Wolf not as highly thought of for now.  I hope Clemens pans out as the big league club could use all the hitters it can develop!

One of these things is not like the others!  Three of this four are recent Panini issues, with an Optic variation of Cabrera and pair of 2019 cards of happy Cub Castellanos, with the Leather & Lumber die-cut a particular highlight for me.  The scan makes it difficult to tell but not only are these cut--they're much thicker than the base cards.  I'm definitely a fan!  I'm always happy to see Mr. Tiger in a trade package, even another reprint from Topps.  I really need to get me a copy of the original!

And we conclude the Tigers stuff with this beautiful Leather & Lumber auto of OF Christin Stewart, signed on a manu-lumber piece.  Doug broke a box of the product back in July and was generous enough to set this one aside from me.  It takes me back to the fun days of Fleer, Panini, and UD having players sign various pieces inserted into cards that simulated bats, balls, gloves, and more.  Stewart has an interesting signature and he's plenty young enough to remain an interesting prospect with potential to star in Detroit's outfield for years to come.  If that doesn't work out it's still a very cool card.

The baseball portion concludes with this pair of Michigan Baseball alumni, which is definitely a tale of two PCs.  Ignasiak's career was a short one and I have all 15 of his regular issues, plus this fun minor league offering.  Meanwhile, Larkin's Hall of Fame career led to plenty of cardboard appearances, and I own more than 750 of them!

We now go back to Motown for a minute, specifically Hockeytown.  The Alfredsson that leads off this scan calls to mind that recent Twitter post that was going around, asking people what clue they'd use to indicate they were being held against their will.  Doug giving away an Alfredsson?  Blink twice if you're being held hostage, buddy!

This first of two Wings scans is chock full of franchise royalty, especially Datsyuk, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Yzerman, and Zetterberg.  Pavel's second appearance is a very cool throwback to fun looks Score produced way back in the early 90s.  And the Yzerman has me excited to see what the Captain can do to rebuild a team that's fallen on hard times lately.

And even more Wings.  Gallant had some nice years as a player and went on to become head coach of Columbus, Florida, and currently Vegas.  McCourt was the #1 overall pick in '77 and put up four-plus very good seasons with the team, averaging around 30 goals.  The three cards of Mantha, especially the two higher-end ones (Ice rules!) are very nice gets of the 2013 first-rounder who looks like he'll be a solid contributor again this year.  Russo also stars on an Ice card, and a numbered one at that, and we'll see if the former Notre Dame D gets another chance after limited action in the NHL.

The basketball content was limited but very effective, which is great since it's my least favorite of the four major sports.  The Grant was new to me and I especially liked the pair of Chronicles cards of recent Michigan guys LeVert and Wagner.  LeVert just got paid, a three-year, $52.5 million extension with Brooklyn, and I'm happy to see him succeeding.

After a short break from hits in this post, here comes a fantastic one-two punch from the hardwood.  Old man Jamal Crawford, going into his 20th(!) season, appears here from his rookie year on a 2000-01 SP Authentic Sign of the Times auto, giving me hit #7 of the former Bull but also my first signature!  He's joined by a beautiful 2010-11 Absolute Memorabilia Spectrum Signatures Gold auto (#76/99) of the doubly-nicknamed Campy "Mr. Moves" Russell (who, again, wasn't related to Cazzie).  Michael Campanella Russell signs his first initial and nickname here which is very cool, and I loved getting this as my first hit of the former Cav/Knick!

The Michigan portion this time was excellent as always.  Doug hit me with my second RC of tackling machine junior (David Harris will be #1 in my heart for a long time) Devin Bush II, from 2019 Panini Legacy, plus the only checklisted rookie of former UM DB Jarrod Wilson that I could find out of Panini's Unparalleled.  I owe him a special thanks for the latter since it doesn't appear on Beckett's OPG as a RC for whatever reason.

Joining those are a fun trio of inserts.  He added to my limited collections of these two players with an Orange parallel from Legacy of Rashan Gary (#129/199), who picked up his first NFL sack today, plus a Scorecard parallel of RB Karan Higdon from this year's Score, a couple more college uni cards, which are the tops!  A very shiny horizontal 2019 Score insert called Signal Callers of QB Tom Brady caps things off here.

And at last we've made it to Doug's specialty:  Michigan Hockey content!  Almost everything in this scan was new for me, including three of the four Dylan Larkins, which I happily added to his PC, getting him up to 26 items.  I wasn't aware until receiving this envelope that last year's MVP product had a blue factory set version, so now I'm glad to know about them so I don't toss out others thinking they're dupes.

The rest of the "regular" hockey stuff includes a player you'll see again in a minute, a pair of Max cards, a brand new Turco, and a cool horizontal Ebbett that goes towards his very small collection.  Like the MVP Larkin above, I thought this Turco was a dupe until I noticed the gold foil at the bottom, making this the base version of 2002-03 Titanium, and the one I already owned the retail version.  I've since updated my collection to reflect those and am glad for the second cardboard lesson of this post!

And here's the rest of the hockey with the big finish.  O-Pee-Chee's Platinum is another one of those products that looks outstanding when it gets chrome-ified, and Compher's auto (my second) above from 2017-18 looks even better in person, naturally.  I don't think anybody has sent me as many Aaron Palushaj hits (or any, for that matter) as Doug, and he upped the count with this 2011-12 SP Authentic auto/RC #d 693/999, making it the 11th hit (10 including signatures) in AP's collection.  

And the star of the show is the previously-mentioned Merrill, another guy I'm constantly fed by my Canadian counterpart.  Hit #9 is this flat out stunning 2013-14 Panini National Treasures Icy Inscriptions auto.  I enjoy cards featuring acetate as much as the next person, if not more, and am not bothered when players sign a piece of something instead of the card itself (like the Stewart above), so this is another design that reminds me why I love collecting, and getting envelopes from Doug.  The number of times he's sent me cards like this is off the charts as he continues to be a boon to my hockey PC.

Doug, not that you could tell at all by reading this post, I thoroughly enjoyed yet another mailer from you and have to thank you for continuing to send me great stuff.  I plan on hitting you back at least once more, maybe after going on a Black Friday/Cyber Monday COMC shopping spree to bulk up on some quality content for a return.  Until then, good luck to your Sens!