10/31 and 11/2/25 card show report: a November to remember

Now that I'm caught up on November trades, let's take a look at what I came home with after spending two days at that month's Taylor Town show.

First, I went on Friday as usual, which was actually Halloween, but for all intents and purposes, that was the first day of the November show so that's how I'm treating it here. Also, as is often the case, I spent all of my time and money at the tables of the seller I usually see since he's only there on Fridays and Saturdays. I dropped $60 there and was happy with what I got, including these keepers:

90s(ish!) inserts rule when it comes to the Gwynn and Maddux cards I picked out. Mr. Padre is from a 2000 UD insert named Cooperstown Calling, which wasn't exactly a reach for the legendary hitter, and the shiny rainbow foil and overall design really grabbed me. Mad Dog's insert is from the same year's Stadium Club Chrome product, and it's an acetate chase card called Clear Shots that very much lives up to its name.

The other baseball item was a 2020 Absolute Black autograph card of Tigers C Jake Rogers. These manuball inserts are perfect for signatures and the price was right when I factored this into my total cost. I know Rogers has pretty much given way to Dillon Dingler as the future of the franchise at the position, but I still appreciate the stability Jake brought behind the plate. Plus the card just looks cool!

As for football, I scored a Topps Resurgence RC of Michigan (via Indiana) TE AJ Barner (who caught another TD for Seattle today), a Prizm parallel of Devin Bush, and my first autograph of Josh Uche, which is a 2020 Panini Contenders Draft Picks card and therefore features a college action photo. Uche put up some nice defensive numbers in his junior and senior years (2018-19) and got himself selected in the 2020 second round, #60 overall, by New England. He had a career year in '22 with 11.5 sacks for the Pats, and has since bounced to KC and now Philly. As it turns out his signature is fairly legible by today's standards!

I then headed back on Sunday afternoon to meet up with Angus of Dawg Day Cards as I explained in this trade post.

Not only did I have a great time meeting him for the first time in person and swapping some cards, plus having a like-minded person to flip through boxes with, but spending a second day at the show gave me an opportunity to look around at the other tables I rarely see. I think my purchases were split up between something like five or six other sellers, so I can thank Angus for getting me back out there to the benefit of my collections (in addition to the time he put in driving over from Canada).

You'll see a few cards from my favorite vintage seller who I do make sure to stop by when he's around, plus a mix of a few others. Oddly enough, I spent another $60 exactly on day two. Here's what I grabbed:

Four of the cards in this image were courtesy of the guy who specializes in vintage (plus one more in the last scan), though one of them will surprise you. First is the '63 Topps League Leaders card which includes former Tiger Jim Bunning, whose 19 wins in '62 were the fifth best behind the other four on the card who all had 20+. Harvey Kuenn may be in a Giants uni but like Bunning I'll collect him regardless, and he's seen on the fun '63 Post design. Below him is a '70 Fleer World Series card of the '07 Fall Classic, just the fourth played, in which the Cubs defeated Detroit (the first of three straight Tigers pennants that ended in defeat for them). And lastly, the '23 Topps Museum Collection jersey of future HOFer Max Scherzer came from one of his boxes as well, one that often has some more modern odds and ends, though usually not hits like this. I probably would have grabbed it even with him on another team, but the large swatch of the Detroit star grabbed my eye and I knew I had to have it.

Meanwhile I grabbed a few cheapies elsewhere including an '86 Sportflics six-player card where Tiger Darrell Evans was one of the bunch (most AL HR) along with Wade Boggs, Don Mattingly, Willie McGee, Dale Murphy, and Dave Parker. Henneman is a '94 SP Die-Cut, Magglio is a 2006 Bowman Gold, Scherzer (again) is a 2019 Finest Refractor, and JV is from 2021 Topps 70 Years of Topps.

I think one of the last tables we stopped at had one or two tubs of very random things that were something like a buck each or six for $5. Angus and I both grabbed shrink-wrapped stacks of Fleer Stamps which you probably saw on Night Owl's blog since we each sent some to him. I scored a few other items for collecting pals too, but kept one for myself: this unopened box of 12 1990 Collect-A-Books. You can see on the back that the bunch includes Griffey, who I already have, but I thought it would be fun to keep this unopened and maybe try to find the other two boxes. Also, the other 11 players are solid to fantastic, and you can't beat that for a buck!

The lone basketball single I picked up was a Ruby Wave Prizm of Duncan Robinson, whom I may have mentioned once or twice is now with the Pistons.

As for football, my second signature of FB Ben Mason hails from '21 Contenders, and it's a bit goofy as he's pictured with Baltimore but noted as having been signed by the Pats. Considering his position it's a bit surprising that he was drafted at all but Baltimore took him in round 5 in 2021, and he got into one game with them a couple years later in the midst of bouncing around various practice squads. His signature isn't bad and this is my first pro uniform auto of him, so that's cool.

He's joined from the sport by a legendary name in Elroy Hirsch. "Crazy Legs" of course is a HOF multi-position guy who played for both Wisconsin and Michigan, and he suited up for the Chicago Rockets and LA Rams in the 40s and 50s. I love finding vintage stuff of him such as the '57 Topps you see above, which is simply a classic design. It's my second oldest card of Hirsch as I already have his '56 base, but I still need his Bowman issues from 1950-54, including his RC.

And we'll close out with hockey. A dime (or maybe cheaper?) box turned up 24-25 Artifacts base cards of Hobey Baker winner Adam Fantilli plus Owen Power, and then I spend a couple bucks on my 11th relic and 16th hit of Jack Johnson, this one from 2007-08 UD.

Clearly I had a great (and productive) time spending a couple days at this show, including one with Angus. And happily the in-person show hangouts didn't end there since I got to do another one the following weekend, which I'll cover next time.

Until then, I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday, including those of you who received cards from me, and that some of you are getting some days off of work like I am!

4/4/25 card show report: April foolin' around

Tonight I'm posting what I think is my last recap for April which is that month's show, just a day before I head over to Taylor tomorrow for July's trip (and possibly a meetup with John!). This will be a very short one because I only spent $55 that day, and out of what I bought, only five cards stayed with me.

Here's a quick look at what I brought home:

You can see the best stuff right off the bat in the form of the baseball content. My 19th relic of Greg Maddux is a plain white Braves jersey swatch from Upper Deck's 2003 Finite product, a one-and-done offering that's somewhat forgettable. But hey, it's a nice new Maddux for me, and I think it was in the $5-$10 neighborhood so I'm happy!

As for a more recent pitcher I was glad to score a card of, you can see my second autograph of young Tigers starter Casey Mize, out of 2022 Panini Mosaic. It joins a 2021 card from the same product, and this parallel of the autograph set is apparently referred to as "Choice Fusion" for some reason. I was content to continue adding some cheap Mize autos to my collection before the season started, and then all he's done is get off to a great 8-2 start for the AL-best Tigers, so that makes this one even more exciting.

Switching over to basketball, Michigan Wagner bro Franz becomes that sport's 40th different subject in my hits collection thanks to a Hoops sweater card from 2021-22. I know people find these to be pretty goofy and I do myself sometimes, but it was a fun add for maybe $2 while I work on upgrading what I have of him.

Last up is a cheap football pair. On the left is a Red parallel of RB Hassan Haskins' RC from 2022 Panini Rookies & Stars, and Buckeye faces are probably still that color picturing him pouring on five TDs against them in 2021. Joining him is a 2020 Panini Playbook RC of former Pats LB Josh Uche. New England flipped him to the Chiefs last October but he barely played with them, and then signed with KC's Super Bowl opponents in Philly after the season ended. Out of the 14 Uche RCs I'm tracking, I'm now past 50% with eight out of 14.

So, yeah, not much this time, but that's ok because it made for less work in this post! After tomorrow's trip I'll get y'all another show recap once I'm caught up on May and June. Looking at my scanned stuff I think that'll amount to a pair of blogger trades, two more shows, eBay pickups for the first half of the year, a few TCDb deals before I disabled transactions for quite a while, and another fun Dave & Buster's sports-related prize.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th as we get closer to the MLB All-Star break!

6/4/21 card show report: That's Bait

As much fun as I had at last month's show where I made good use of my favorite seller's $1 box, my enjoyment and loot were both doubled yesterday. How do you top a take-home like that? Cut prices in half! All of his cards that were previously a buck were now $0.50, and friends, I went nuts. The box you see above is the haul I brought home: 124 $0.50 cards and 130 dimes ($75, for those of you that are as math-challenged as I am). A few of the dimes went towards my collections, I found a ton of great stuff for upcoming trade packages, and I landed a ridiculous amount of general trade bait figuring I'd either find takers here or throw them on TCDB. At those prices I was much less likely to toss something back in the boxes, though I did tend to ignore the minors/low-end college hits. I grabbed so many cards thinking "This is only $0.50?!"

So have a quick look at my personal dime pickups and then settle in for a trade baitapalooza!

Just a reminder: almost everything here cost me a dime. Gwynn's first card is from the pre-Chronicles/Optic combo product 1998 Donruss Collections and is a chromed-out version of his Leaf base from that year. Flagship Donruss, Elite, and Preferred could also be found in those packs. Speaking of Donruss, I also found Mr. Padre's base from last year's product, at least the one that uses his more common name instead of an "Anthony" variation.

My lone personal pickup from the $0.50 was the '96 Studio Bronze Press Proof of Cal, and I was pretty excited to nab that parallel, one of "just" 2000 copies made! The foil's a bit messed up on the back but that doesn't bother me as I'm a huge fan of that year's design, and the product in general. To that I added a 2019 A&G Ginter Greats insert and 2020 Donruss base (I already had the variation of this one) for a dime each.

I've mentioned him enough here for all of you to know that I love collecting HOF former Wolverine George Sisler, and I snagged the 1999 UD Century Legends card you see above out of the dime box because I wasn't sure if I had it. As it turns out I didn't because it's actually an NNO (no number on the back) version with a Washington logo on something that looks like a circular sticker where the number would be:

Finally, on the basketball front I couldn't ignore a new Jamal Crawford insert for a dime. It's from 2012-13 Panini Prestige's Bonus Shots Gold parallel set and is numbered /249, which coincidentally seems like the number of years he played in the league!

I had even better luck when it came to football dimes, especially on the rookie card front. Card #1 is my first of TE Devin Asiasi, who played one season in Ann Arbor and then transferred back home to UCLA. He joins C Cesar Ruiz (RC #2) and LB Josh Uche (also #2, plus a Michigan uni!) out of 2020 Donruss. I was also very happy to find my third first-year of CB Jourdan Lewis, this one out of 2017 Playoff.

On the insert side of things, I believe the two Thomas Rawls parallels were pretty close together, if not back-to-back. The first is a 2016 Panini Sacrifice Die-Cut and is numbered /199 up front (and, yes, die-cut) while the other is an unnumbered Blue Press Proof from the following year's Donruss. Speaking of transfers, he also departed the Wolverines for his senior season, going up to Central Michigan before appearing in parts of four NFL campaigns.

One of my favorite recent guys, Denard Robinson, overlapped with Rawls' college career for a pair of seasons, and there was no way I was going to ignore his 2016 Prestige Xtra Points Green parallel you see above, because chances are good that if I didn't need it, Jeff would.

And then we have two more items of star WRs bookending Uche's RC. First up is a sweet Amani Toomer that isn't an insert but might as well be with its stylin' foil at the bottom. That's his 1996 Press Pass Paydirt base. On the other side is even more gold, specifically a Gold Medallion parallel of former #1 Derrick Alexander's '95 Ultra 2nd Year Standouts. I already had the regular version of that so I'm glad to have finished off the pair.

That was a pretty nice take-home for me, but obviously I'm even more excited about the cards I've already sorted into piles for future trade packages, plus this bonanza that I'm geeked to offer today.

Briefly, if you see anything that interests you, please leave a comment here, shoot me an email, or hit me up on Twitter, then I'll see about working something out with you. I'm being up front in stating that these cost me $0.50, so it's not like I'm gonna ask an arm and a leg. If you're already a common trade partner of mine, I may already have a stack going for you and will be happy to add to it. If we haven't dealt before I'll probably want to come up with a deal with you first.

Also, if anyone needs details on one or more of these (e.g. name, team, serial numbering, etc.), please let me know!

Baseball and football dimes. I leaned towards numbered stuff and parallels since those tend to be good items to have for TCDB deals. I don't know why most of the baseball ones were Twins, but maybe a Minnesota collector will want them!

Vertical baseball autos, auto/relics, and relics. (The Inscribed Overbay is actually a $1 card from last time, but I figured I might as well include it here.) A bunch of these (and the rest that you'll see) are also numbered.

Horizontal baseball autos, auto/relic, and relics. Beltre and Johnson hits for $0.50? Sign me up!

I even grabbed a few basketball autos (and one relic) to diversify my portfolio, as it were!

It wasn't on purpose, but football definitely overtook baseball in volume. Here's all the vertical autos and relics. Again, lots of numbered stuff.

And lastly, here's the horizontal football autos and relics.

I'm hoping at least a few of these result in deals here but if not I'll eventually get them added to TCDB and see what I can get done over there.

Once again I had a blast at a show, my second in as many months since it became possible to get back to them, and I'm already excited about the next one!

I believe my next post will cover the Facebook purchase I've teased a few times now, so stay tuned for that. While you're waiting, let's get trading!

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!

2021 trade package #3: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

I'm back tonight with the last January trade package that I have in-hand (so far, at least!), another Canadian special from buddy of the blog Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. For some reason he's generous enough to keep sending me packages even though I've owed him at least one for a while. Fortunately I just got one on its way to him, so things will start to even out a bit. I didn't hit him in time for Christmas (or anyone else, for that matter) but I think this one will get there before his birthday on 2/14 (send him some cards of guys born that day!).

Anyway, this was another multi-sport bonanza with a few things I knew would be included but mostly some outstanding surprises:

Let's begin with the Wings stuff, a nice red and white quartet. I'm glad the Applicator, a former Spartan, is no longer in Hockeytown, but his base card along with Nielsen's from 2020-21 Upper Deck looks fantastic. I'm glad UD is still around in some capacity because their designs are top notch! Turgeon's still a work in progress but his Upper Deck Ice RC, #d /999, fits in with the comments I just made about the brand's design chops, with Ice being a particularly cool motif. And then there's The Captain, a.k.a. The GM. The star of a Team Canada Juniors card made by--who else?--Upper Deck has his work cut out for him in terms of a rebuild, but what a great moment it would be to see the guy who captained the Wings to their first title after a long drought do the same from the front office!

Switching over to Michigan Basketball stuff, I enjoyed checking out this bevy of recent guys. NCAA tourney legend Jordan Poole leads the way with six cards, finally getting his collection to double digits, and that's thanks to a cool quartet of rookie-year issues, some of which are Panini Chronicles-related, and a nice Contenders college action card. A Nik "Sauce Castillo" Stauskas RC with a bit of a hardwood feel is another cool highlight. 

Then we get to a trio of cool hits. Poole features on a die-cut relic from a Crowne Royale set, a product known for that design feature. The Hoops sweater card where Jordan co-stars with Iggy Brazdeikis had me laughing and was perfect for ugly sweater season. And then there's one more Michigan uni card to enjoy: a Contenders auto (my first card of any kind, in fact) of Kentucky transfer Charles Matthews, who headed north to Ann Arbor for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. Those were coach John Beilein's last two years coaching Michigan and included reaching the title game in '18, losing to Villanova. I'm not the biggest basketball fan but this is a really nice bunch!

The football side of things was less voluminous but no less effective. On the left is LB and #60 overall selection by the Pats last year, Josh Uche. Doug's responsible for sending me my first card of the four-year Wolverine who put up 14.5 sacks his last couple years in Ann Arbor. That would be his RC from last year's Rookies & Stars product. I've never been a fan of that product's design but will definitely overlook its faults since it used a college photo!

The other is my 12th relic (and 35th hit overall) of former UM WR Amara Darboh, and it also hails from Panini's R&S. While he didn't turn into much in the NFL he was lots of fun to watch in college and I continue to enjoy collecting him. Darboh's no longer with Seattle, the team that drafted him, but since pretty much all of his cards were made during his rookie year of 2017, that's who he's pictured with here, and it comes with a nice Seahawks blue swatch.

And now we get to the usual main event: Michigan Hockey. Compher, Hughes, Hyman, and Trouba are all from the previously mentioned '20-'21 Upper Deck product that I'm already in love with, though Trouba's card features one of the funniest miscuts I've ever seen! I only have three cards of former RW David Oliver, but then he doesn't have many to chase, so this 1995-96 O-Pee-Chee card is great. And Patch makes yet another SCFtDS trade appearance out of '19-'20 UD Overtime, with the Vegas winger responsible for three goals in just six games this season.

Hockey hits? Hockey hits! The Ebbett (auto #6, hit #8 overall) is an ITG stickergraph, but the designers did a nice job of hiding that fact by placing it on an image of a rink. Andrew has an outstanding signature and even includes his jersey number, which is always cool. He played four full years in Ann Arbor starting my sophomore year so I believe I got to see every one of his home games and I'm glad to collect cool stuff of his like this auto.

Werenski's a much more recent guy, and the young d-man is fun to watch even if he plays for Columbus. He hit the 20-goal mark last year in his fourth season, and that was in fewer games than the others! This UD Game Jersey includes a very nice royal blue swatch from a Blue Jackets sweater, and I can't think of a better color for the former Wolverine's first hit in my hockey collection!

Last up here is a card Doug teased me with, and for once the scan may actually do it justice. Found in an Upper Deck product called Chronology, it's a gorgeous Jacob Trouba patch auto done up in the style of UD's Masterpieces, with a beautiful red border tying it all together. That goes especially well with his patriotic jersey colors now that he's with the Rangers. Oh, and the gold pen auto isn't bad either. I've got some nice cards of the young star defensemen in my collection, but nothing approaches the sheer brilliance of this one, probably my favorite card in the whole package!

But we're not quite done. He had to send these latest traders in a larger than usual envelope to accommodate one more item he teased, plus another that I believe was a surprise:

Upper Deck's Be a Player product offered a set called Portraits in 2006-07, and the titular items could be found signed by one to four players. One of my favorite PC guys, Brendan Morrison, made the cut for the checklist, and the result is this beautiful 8x10 that features a nice action photo and a dedicated space for a nice, large signature. What a cool item, one that's begging to be put up on the wall in a place of prominence in my card room. Fellow favorite dude Marty Turco can also be found here so his has gone on my wantlist, and I was disappointed to discover that the Frozen Four-winning pair didn't get a dual card to themselves. Anyway, very cool of Doug to both acquire this for me and deal with the logistics of shipping it.

And if he was already doing that, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, right? I was totally surprised to see this awesome signed 8x10 of another guy who starred at Yost Ice Arena for a couple years I had tickets, 2005-06 and '06-'07: Jack Johnson. Jack was a blast to watch during his college days, a major force on the ice, even if he sometimes took stupid penalties. It was no surprise when the #3 overall pick from the '05 draft went pro after a pair of seasons, and he's enjoyed some ups and downs over a long NHL career.

This photo is signed in blue (naturally!) sharpie and is from game action against the Lake Superior State Lakers of the former CCHA, Michigan's longtime pre-Big Ten league.

This information from the back wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped so I'm not sure if it came from one of two '06-'-07 games (2/16/07 @ LSSU, 2/18/07 in Detroit) or a pair of away games in Sault Ste. Marie in November of 2007 the following season. Either way, it's a very cool piece and a nice addition to my collection of Michigan autographed memorabilia!

Doug, thanks again for an extremely cool package of stuff--you always manage to surprise me with some amazing cards, and sometimes other items too! I hope the envelope I just sent you gets there safely and quickly and that you're just as geeked about your latest haul from our ongoing deals!

With all my incoming trades covered for now I think next time you'll be seeing my first eBay pickup of 2021 before I get back to the rest of my 2020 COMC haul.