2025 trade package #13: the Collector

Hey all, I'm finally back to cover the first trade envelope I received in July, a month that ended up being super busy collecting-wise. This one came from Chris, The Collector, a couple months before his family experienced a heartbreaking loss. Please head his way and show him some support--he's one of the best and most generous members of the blogosphere and deserves all the love people have shown him.

True to his history of generosity and the effort he puts into finding great stuff for the collections of folks he trades with, he sent me a pair of PWEs containing some much-appreciated cards from all four major sports:

Encarnacion turned out to be an awful person off the field but at least Flair Showcase is a GOAT product. IF prospect Graham is still in Detroit's system after being selected in 2022's second round and he helped the team to the 2025 Midwest League championship after a dominant regular season. Jobe unfortunately had to undergo TJ surgery but if healthy could be a big part of what will probably be a Skubal-less rotation in a couple years. Kell's Topps Tribute card is probably the best looking in the bunch (with some great options) and I'd love to add more from that product. Keider's had some ups and downs as a spot starter for a team hoping to cling to a division title. And I'm not sorry that Wentz and his absurd ERA stats are gone!

As for basketball stuff, Dickinson was a star in Ann Arbor before transferring to Kansas for his final two seasons and going undrafted. THJ stuck it out for three Michigan seasons and became a first round pick who's still in the league. And a nice little run of Juwan Howard cards begins with the outstanding EX2001 product.

Juwan may not be Michigan's coach anymore but I'm still happy to collect any new cards of him like the very interesting bunch above. Those include some cool UD and Fleer stuff and even a post-career Finest issue from four years ago. He's joined by Fab Five teammate Chris Webber on another of my favorite designs from a Topps Chrome set.

Football wasn't as well represented this time but that's fine since it dominates my Michigan PCs anyway. In this case it's a Michigan uni card of RB Donovan Edwards out of Bowman Chrome U. In some ways he didn't live up to lofty expectations, especially in his final college season in 2024, but he supplied plenty of big runs as a runner, receiver, and even trick play QB, for teams that beat OSU, won conference titles, reached the playoff, and ultimately won it all in 2023-24. I don't know if we'll get many cards of the NFL UDFA but anything that gets sent my way is very welcome here.

Lastly, we have a five spot of Michigan Hockey cards from the erstwhile hockeydude. Four of those are O-Pee-Chees from a fat pack he got at Target, and his note mentions a fifth that he kept for himself and replaced with a UD Artifacts base of Luke Hughes, a guy from his team, the Devils. I like all of these but Beecher's a nice addition to a tiny-but-growing collection, and of course I'm a fan of Wolverwing cards like Compher's, which is also a Retro parallel. You'll be happy to know that Doug hadn't sent me any of these (yet, anyway), Chris.

As always I'd like to thank my buddy from New Jersey for all of these goodies and being so talented when it comes to finding quality fodder for trade packages. Chris, I know things are very difficult for you and your family right now and I hope any time you spend with them processing your grief gets you to a better place. I always mean it when I say I'm here to help with anything and that you have so many friends in the hobby. Thank you for thinking of me here as you were going through a terrible situation.

I hope to be back with more trade package coverage soon as I owe many other great folks similar thanks. 

2024 trade package #16: Chronicles of Fuji

It's certainly been an interesting couple of weeks since I started drafting this post, including an embarrassing election that will make the lives of almost all Americans worse for at least the next four years. As it pertains to the hobby, I hope the upcoming economic fallout doesn't cause anyone in the hobby to be priced out.

In better news, fortunately there are still plenty of good people in the card collecting community, such as Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji. Right now more than ever we need teachers like him who do the underappreciated job of teaching kids in a society that offers his vocation insults and insane conspiracy theories about the "woke mindset" instead of the resources and recognition they should get. I've heard a lot about how the recent generation of students is harder to reach due to their phone addictions, an attitude of not trying, and parents that aren't involved. What I'm trying to emphasize is that it obviously takes a person with a ton of patience, perseverance, and pride in their job to do what Mark does.

With all that in mind, I'm always grateful for (but never surprised by) the effort and care he puts into the trade packages he sends my way. That was the case when he sent me the following back in August:

Mr. Tiger's Topps Pristine base is a beautiful example of a cool vintage photo on a modern design. Joining him are a bunch of really vintage Tigers from the 1977 Dover Publications Classic Baseball Cards Reprints set. These came in an album--apparently compiled by Michigan grad and sportswriter (largely known for boxing) Bert Sugar--in detachable perforated form. A number of of totally classic early designs, including the three seen above, are represented, and while I do own an intact album, I didn't have any singles. Now I do, thanks to Fuji, and they give some great looks at classic Tigers stars!

Switching over to basketball, things seem to be looking up a bit for the Wolverines after Juwan Howard's tenure ended in failure, with new coach Dusty May bringing in some solid talent and a new culture. Howard's early coaching days plus his days as a player are still some good memories, though, and he's joined here by well known Fab Five teammates Rose and Webber. Rice brings to mind the program's national championship and another of their most notable alumni. And the late Robert "Tractor" Traylor was exciting in Ann Arbor in the late 90s.

Things have been less rosy for the football team in coach Sherrone Moore's first season due to a number of factors, though he's also due to bring in a pretty impressive first recruiting class if everyone signs. One of the team's past stars is Buckey-killing RB Tim Biakabutuka, and here Fuji provided me with some very cool base and inserts of the Congo-born back. Please bring back designs like these, Panini!

You want more former Michigan stars? Fuji's got your back! Bunch spent four years in the NFL after that many years as a solid FB in Ann Arbor. Collins has been the key to finally making an OSU QB look good in the pros. Crable was a pretty good LB in college. Griese and Harbaugh both enjoyed success in college and the pros, and of course Jim's back in the NFL chasing his Super Bowl dreams, even if he did leave his alma mater in a terrible spot in terms of recruiting, bringing in transfers, and hiring coaches when he left. Hart has been my favorite Michigan RB since his very successful four years here though the very similar Blake Corum may take over soon enough.

The numbered LeSueur at position #3 here is quite cool as is the foil card of HOFer and Super Bowl-winner (times three!) Ty Law, but otherwise the story of this scan is star WRs. Howard of course won the Heisman and then had a very memorable moment winning a Super Bowl. Super Mario is a big reason Eli Manning won one if his rings and Manningham remains a blog favorite (obviously) to this day. And Terrell is one of the best receivers to come out of Ann Arbor, even if his NFL career doesn't bear that out. The former #1 jersey-wearer is one of several guys to appear on numbered cards in this post, with his Ultra RC at spot #8 being a highlight.

I supposed you could have one without the other, but I always like getting A-Train cards when Terrell's included because they're forever linked for me. Thomas joins Terrell from the serial numbered Ultra set and adds a Pros & Prospects #d card to boot. Toomer is another Ann Arbor star that lined up wide for the Wolverines and then won a Super Bowl with Eli Manning. Walker didn't pan out in the NFL but was excellent in college. And Wheatley is one of a number of Michigan RBs to have a solid NFL career. Better yet, he played back when card designs looked their best, especially inserts!

The rest of the football content, including some horizontal items, features familiar names from above along with GOAT DB Charles Woodson. The Score Wheatley is an especially cool card while the die-cut Playoff helmet design is, to borrow from the 90s, radical! I also really miss brands like Fleer's Showcase and Leaf's Certified Materials (referring to the real Leaf, not the garbage knockoff that's sullying the name these days).

There was more than just cards in this envelope this time as Fuji included a couple issues of a collecting magazine I was previously completely ignorant of: the Trader Speaks. More on the magazine itself in a minute, but first, here's a great look at Mr. Tiger as the cover star from November 1974, literally 50 years ago! Mr. Tiger had recently finished up his 22nd and final season in the MLB, all with Detroit, and he went out as an All-Star (for the 18th time) while finishing just one homer shy of the 400-mark. He'd be enshrined in Cooperstown six years later.

Meanwhile, this issue from the following May stars eight Tigers from a post-WWII set that's not Topps or Bowman. Instead, they were distributed (regionally) by Tip Top Bread. The black & white, 2 1/4 x 3" set is 163 cards strong, and while not every star of the time is included, many are. 15 Tigers made the cut, and more than half of them can be see here, including former Wolverine Dick Wakefield and HOFer George Kell. I also wasn't familiar with this set at all so this was an educational double whammy for me!

As for the magazines themselves, they're black and white (except for the red borders on the fronts) and measure about 7 x 8.5". They include various card news stories, addresses for TTM autographs, and letters, with the bulk of the pages devoted to auctions and classified ads for buying/selling/trading. The well known Keith Olbermann, who's certainly not secretive about his collecting habit, answers mailed-in questions in the May edition. These are an extremely cool look at the hobby from that time, about a decade before I was born, and it's fun to see the ridiculously low asking prices for items that are now super expensive, if not practically priceless.

Fuji, thanks again for all you do and for another exciting package of stuff that's a nice boost to my collection and my education! I plan on getting you back by the end of the year as I work on Christmas cards for 2024. But first, I need to continue catching up on everything I haven't covered yet, so more to come soon!

2024 trade package #13: Topps Cards That Never Were

Happy September, y'all! We're quickly approaching fall, which means college football is back, and the defending national champion Wolverines opened up their 2024 season with a win this past weekend. And somehow the Tigers haven't even been eliminated yet. So it's a great month for sports around here.

Both of those teams and more popped up in the latest trade package I received from fellow Tigers fan Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were back in June. In fact, "more" is a good description for this absolutely stuffed package full of players I collect:

Hey, how about Rich "Dick Mountain" Hill joining the Red Sox to pitch in his 20th MLB season at the age of 44? Jeremy sent me three Topps parallels picturing Hill with three different teams, though none of them are the Sox, a team he's pitched for in four stints (in parts of six seasons). His fellow ex-Wolverine Barry Larkin is another of the school's most well known alumni, and he did indeed dominate at times over his HOF career. Dean Palmer is probably not as common of a PC outside of fans of Detroit, Texas, and maybe KC, so I appreciate folks like Jeremy including him when sending me cards. Meanwhile, Cal's my biggest player collection by far with nearly 1300 cards, like the Topps offerings you see above--my favorite being the die-cut--and a couple more below.

This doesn't happen too often but I prefer the Topps insert to the Panini/Donruss one in this case, both because of the design and photo choice. Tork's had a nice few weeks back with the big team and actually homered off of Rich Hill today! And I can never have too many Verlanders, like my first 2024 issue of him from Bowman.

Jeremy also included lots of basketball stuff. That begins with a three-pack of Hoops-related cards, including the Winter version. Former coach Juwan Howard is next with a pair of college issues, but these are just two of a larger bunch from the package.

If those Howard cards don't scream "1990s" I don't know what does! Meanwhile, LeVert is a top-10 guy in my basketball collection and one of just seven with 50+ cards. Like THJ he got in on the Hoops action too.

Though they don't all look it, all of LeVert's cards are different because they're either regular or Winter versions, or parallels with small color foil differences. Caris gives way to Glen Rice, my top basketball guy with over 200, currently the only member of that club. A single Duncan Robinson has him tied for third in my collection of players with that last name (according to TCDb) behind David and Rumeal, and tied with Glenn. Jalen Rose is another Fab Fiver to get some love here thanks to eight total cards, three of which you see here.

That many different cards means we get to see Rose on a number of teams and designs, which is always great. And that's also true of his Fab Five teammate Chris Webber, #2 in my collection and nearing 200 (Howard and Rose are 3 and 4, the only others above 100). He was the most popular player in this mailer with 27 cards by my count!

Lots of Webber means lots more 90s stuff, and these definitely take me back to my teenage years. Out of all of these, the Upper Deck base feels a lot more timeless to me than the other designs that are more a product of their time (though still fun).

As we approach the end of the 90s and get into the aughts we get into some designs that appeal more to me. UD3 was a very cool product in multiple sports, Ultra was a perennial favorite, UD continued a streak of quality, Bowman's Best was superior to its recent baseball efforts, and even Topps Tipoff looked solid. Fleer's Premium was pretty nice as well, but the weird Topps Chrome design here feels like a rare miss.

Here's the last of the Webbers including a cool UD trio from later in his Sacramento tenure, then a couple horizontal issues from Ultra nd Stadium Club. The Award Winner card refers of course to his '93-'94 Rookie of the Year nod in a close vote against Penny Hardaway, another guy who went on to a very nice career.

And we'll finish up with football. Jeremy hit a whole bunch of names here too, which I loved. Brooks and Cooper are kind of deeper cuts for folks that aren't fans of the program like I am, but Brady, Calloway, Carter, Edwards, Henne, and Hutch are all pretty well known, I'd say, especially the GOAT and the biggest reason the Lions have returned to respectability. (By the way, this isn't the last time you'll see Aidan in this post!)

If you thought that first scan had a lot of talent then feast your eyes on this one. Kenn was a five-time Pro Bowler at LT for the Falcons. Long was a fantastic LT in his own right, and a former #1 overall pick. Owens spent nine years in the league at linebacker as a Rams first-rounder. Wheatley's storied Michigan career led to 10 NFL seasons--not bad for a running back! Fearsome LB/DE LaMarr Woodley won a ring with the Steelers. And Woodson is simply an all-time great in both the college and pro games. The Select insert that includes Hutch and Nico is especially cool as it features talent from all aspects of the game: offense, defense, and special teams.

The last I have of the football stuff is these horizontal cards. All guys were mentioned above except new Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh. The Brady/Woodson insert is fun given their notable playoff history that will forever link the '97 champion teammates.

Jeremy, thanks again for this huge amount of great cards that'll benefit many of my collections! I have some interesting stuff set aside for you and may be shipping them out within the next week or two depending on how things go.

As for posting over here, I think next up will be another show recap, or I may get to eBay or Facebook Marketplace purchases, whatever I feel like. Until then, eat 'em up, Tigers, and GO BLUE!

2022 trade package #9: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

When today's post is in the books I'll be able to say I'm finally caught up with blogger trade packages, at least temporarily! And given the sender, Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, is one of my most prolific trade partners, it's no surprise that this one is a doozy. All four major sports, sweet inserts, autos and relics, and more! Let's get down to it:

The baseball and non-Michigan hockey portions were small but of high quality. Miggy's 2021 Stadium Club card, a nice reminder that Detroit opens up the season in just a couple days, is an image variation from 2021, a horizontal issue of him sliding into a base as opposed to a vertical shot of him standing safely on base holding his helmet. I hope he reaches 3000 hits early in the season to get the pressure off himself early!

Moving to the ice we have two Wings, whose season is bad enough that the less we talk about it the better. Besides a very nice OPC base of supremely talented Swede Zetterberg I was surprised to find a lovely signature from his countryman, defenseman Gustav Lindstrom, out of 20-21 UD Allure. Doug's sent me other cards from this product and they all 100% live up to the name! The young D-man played a bit the past couple years with the Wings before becoming a regular this season and we'll see what his future is for a team that can't seem to win a damn thing right now. Beautiful card, though!

Representing the UM basketball team, which did well to make it to the Sweet 16 after an inconsistent season, we'll start things off with some great looking cards of one of the longest tenured NBA Wolverines in Crawford, who finally retired this year, and current head coach Juwan Howard, bookending a new base of THJ. Crawford appeared in at least one game (which happened only in his final season, 2019-20) every season starting in 2000-01 and suited up for nine teams. And that Howard insert in the bottom row's center spot looks great, right out of the 90s!

Continuing on the court there's one more Howard to enjoy along with some 90s love for vets like Tarpley, Vaught, and Webber. But the recent Hoops trio is definitely where it's at thanks to a nice base of 3-point wiz Duncan Robinson and RCs of Isaiah Livers and Franz Wagner. Livers was fun to watch as a four-year Wolverine who became a key contributor over his last two seasons, and then the local guy (Kalamazoo) was taken by the Pistons, which was very cool. Wagner followed the trail his brother Mo blazed from Germany to Ann Arbor for two seasons and then was a first-round pick for Orlando last year, teaming up with his bro and another Michigan alum in Ignas Brazdeikis.

After two more cards of recent HOFer Webber, we start to get into the real goods with some hits out of basketball and football. Old man Jamal Crawford represents the former with a pair of 2016-17 Panini-branded relics. On the left is a Select Swatches relic from Select and to the right is a Catalysts jersey from Spectra. Both cards are from his 2012-16 run with the Clippers and each includes a bold red swatch. The Spectra card is also numbered on the back to 149. Jamal now has nine hits in his collection, good for fourth place among basketballers as he attempts to join the double-digit club.

The gridiron card count was small but definitely no worse for it with two high quality pieces! First up is a 2018 National Treasures jersey of new Patriots defensive weapon Jabrill Peppers. He was of course taken by Cleveland in the first round of the 2017 draft and is now free of the tire fire organizations there and in New York with the Giants. His brown jersey relic is numbered to 99 on the front and it marks hit #3 for him. Fellow versatile "weapon" and new member of Michigan's recruiting staff Denard Robinson gets an even cooler card to add to his tally, a 2013 Triple Threads Ruby parallel numbered to just 15 that includes three Jags swatches--one of which has three colors and some stitching--plus an autograph, making it one of the best cards in the envelope. It sure is sweet and I'm very happy to have it as hit #53 of the newly employed Robinson.

Now we head to the ice as Michigan Hockey prepares for its record 26th Frozen Four appearance tomorrow evening against Denver in Boston. The Wolverines still have the most national titles with nine but Denver and North Dakota loom nearby with eight each, and UM hasn't won it all since 1998. This team with a plethora of first-round NHL picks has me hoping for a new banner hanging in the rafters of Yost this winter.

Anyway, on to the cards. Cammalleri, Connor (among the league leaders in goals this year), Wings captain Larkin, and Pacioretty are all well known names while Hagelin and both Hunwicks (unrelated, as always) are guys I got to see play live in Ann Arbor. While the Larkins look great and I do love adding to his collection, I was the most excited for the Mirror Emerald parallel of Shawn Hunwick's 2012-13 Certified RC. It looks terrific and includes that same shot of him playing for Columbus in his Michigan gear that I've seen a million times, but even better, it's numbered 4/5, making it the rarest card in his collection that isn't a plate. It was a huge surprise and I'm thrilled to knock another one off his wantlist!

Fellow Blue Jacket Zach Werenski, who's put up some good numbers with the team this year as a defenseman, sews up the base and inserts with a nice pair--those OPC Platinum cards sure are sharp, aren't they?

And lastly we'll look at a quartet of big hits. We're going alphabetically here but the first one is about as good as it gets: a Yellow Printing Plate of former Duck Andrew Ebbett that was inserted in super high-end product 2008-09 Upper Deck the Cup. The plate was used to produce the former Wolverine's SP Game Used base card that year, and I love what Upper Deck did back then in kind of framing the plates they inserted, making them look even cooler. What a great addition!

Card #2 stars the previously seen Pacioretty, a guy I got to see play a bit in his one year in Ann Arbor before jumping to Montreal. He's put up over 300 goals in parts of 14 seasons and is a key piece on the Golden Knights when he's healthy. What you see above is a jersey relic from 2020-21 SP Game Used celebrating his appearance in 2020's NHL All-Star Skills competition. It's hit #9 for his collection and one of the newest ones I own of him.

Single-year Wolverine defenseman Jacob Trouba is the subject of the last two cards tonight. #1 is a draft banner jumbo relic from the year he was drafted by the Jets #9 overall, 2012. The card would have been pulled from 2019-20 SP Game Used and I believe it's my second banner-related relic from the sport, which is not something you see every day so I think it's pretty cool! Joining that is my eighth card that includes his signature, hailing from 2019-20 Upper Deck Chronology's Franchise History Autos. It's a very classy looking card of a guy whose current count of 10 goals has equaled his career high established in 2013-14, his rookie season. This outstanding pair puts him up to an excellent 17 hits, good for a fourth place tie with Shawn Hunwick among the 59 subjects in my hockey PC. These are a great way to close out another banger of a mailer from Doug!

Given the abundance of goodies you can see above, many of which are of such high quality that I'm happy I've worked as hard as I have recently to hit him back, I'm happy that I've finally done a show and tell post to share them with those of you that follow me. After a few more items arrive I'll be sending my first salvo of 2022 to Doug and look forward to his reaction. In the meantime I may just be able to start getting caught up on my TCDB trades. But before then, in honor of my favorite Canadian (or just in general?) trade partner...

And there you have it!

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 #29: My Sports Obsession

We're 12 days into the new year and I'm finally back with my first post of 2022. However, thanks to a stack of trade packages from the past few weeks that I still need to cover, I'll be stuck in 2021 here for a bit longer. But it'll be worth it to show off all the goodies some nice folks sent me. I'm planning on covering blogger trades first and then getting to the deals I've made on TCDB lately.

Jeff who blogs at My Sports Obsession is one of my oldest blogging/trading buddies, and our shared interest in collecting Michigan sports means it's always a good time when we send cards back and forth.

At the end of November he let me know he'd sent a package my way and I was looking forward to it as usual, but I certainly didn't expect this:

That box was absolutely stuffed with cards! He even held his nose and filled up a good chunk of it with Tigers stuff. Check out how the piles came out in terms of baseball, basketball, and football stuff:

After thinking about how I wanted to present these I decided to try to show off all my keepers in a mix of scans and (mostly) photos. Here's the goods:

Scan 1/3 includes three of my PCs, two of which are Wolverines. Seattle native and Braves prospect Jesse Franklin is up first on just my third card of his, from 2020 Panini Prizm Draft Picks. Big thumbs up for a Michigan uni card! Canadian Cubs draftee and Franklin's former 2018-19 Michigan teammate Jordan Nwogu is next on his 2020 Bowman Draft base that give me three issues of him as well. And then there's many (almost TOO many?) Grandersons, six of them in fact. Although they represent three of his seven career franchises (both NY teams and the Marlins), the Tigers aren't one of them. Well played, Jeff! The group pushed his collection to 203 cards so I can officially say I have two hundred many Grandersons!

The other cards I decided to scan because they grouped together nicely were mainly 1985 Donruss and Fleer Tigers. These are a lot of fun for me since they feature stats from the '84 World Champs, so some of my favorites from the teams history are represented right here, in some cases twice.

Petry is the last of the players from the '85 sets but not the last card since the Tigers (and their '84 World Series foes the Padres) were represented on a checklist as well. Since this group is obviously all Tigers from a while ago I grouped in the three vintage stars you see here as well. Bunning, the HOFer who pitched a perfect game AND no-hitter, went into the Hall as a member of the Phillies but spent the first nine of his 17 seasons with the Tigers, so it's totally reasonable he's shown with Detroit on his Sweet Spot card. And Greenberg and Kuenn weren't teammates--they missed each other by a few seasons--but I'm glad to have the pair representing the Tigers in Diamond King products any day!

Here's the rest of the baseball group in photo form, and it's generally a who's who of current and relatively recent former Tigers. Represented above are Alex Avila, Matt Boyd, Daz Cameron, Jeimer Candelario, Nick Castellanos, Juan Encarnacion, Travis Fryman, Michael Fulmer, Joe Jimenez, Matt Manning, Victor Martinez, and Jake Rogers. A '90 Topps box card of Fred Lynn (generally known for his time with other franchises) rounds out the player group and then we also have some mascot cards of Paws, stickers, and team cards from the past few years of Topps flagship. There's some very nice stuff in the bunch, including a numbered Fulmer from Topps Hi Tek and a nice boost to my collection of young catcher Jake Rogers.

One sport I don't go out of my way to collect is basketball, but that doesn't mean I don't get excited when someone sends me some Wolverines hoopers in trades like this. Jeff hit a nice mix of former stars and fairly current players, really doing a nice job bulking up their numbers in my collection. The players above include Ignas Brazdeikis, Trey Burke, Jamal Crawford, Tim Hardaway Jr., Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, Caris Levert, Terry Mills, Glen Rice, Duncan Robinson, Glenn Robinson III, Jalen Rose, Nik Stauskas, Maurice Taylor, Mo Wagner, Chris Webber, and D.J. Wilson. THJ's count got a nice bump as did some of the Fab Five-ers, and even Glen Rice's total got a nice bump despite already being #1 in my collection for the sport. He joined Granderson above in eclipsing the 200-card mark at 203, with Chris Webber next at 151, and current Wolverines coach Juwan Howard taking the bronze with 99. There's a very cool mix of brands and designs here and while I'm not sure the photo does a good job of capturing it, some of these really pop! It's also nice seeing some of these players' collections grow since that generally doesn't happen on my account.

Last up today is football, and here I'll say I appreciate Jeff's efforts even more since I know he doesn't tend to collect some of the older former players that I do. My understanding is that a lot of these came out of boxes of stuff his cousin bought from collections to stock his future card shop, and there's obviously a huge alumni base to check for when sorting things out. So thanks, Jeff!

The mix of old and new here includes Tim Biakabutuka, Devin Bush, Jake Butt, Anthony Carter, Frank Clark, Braylon Edwards, Devin Funchess, Rashan Gary, Elvis Grbac, Jim Harbaugh, Desmond Howard, Maurice Hurst, Jourdan Lewis, Ryan Mallett, Mike Martin, Shea Patterson, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Jabrill Peppers, Thomas Rawls, Denard Robinson, De'Veon Smith, Amani Toomer, Josh Uche, Tyrone Wheatley, and Charles Woodson.

I loved seeing a few college uniform cards in there and was of course ecstatic to add to the collections of everyone listed. I wasn't too surprised by some of the players who were more represented than others like Funchess and Denard since they're big parts of Jeff's PC. But past greats like current coach Jim Harbaugh, beastly back Tim Biakabutuka, and GOAT Charles Woodson were nice surprises as well, especially the latter's super nice looking insert.

You might have been wondering since that first image what that jersey card was, and it turns out it's this nice 2015 Donruss Rookie Threads swatch of the already mentioned Funchess. The erstwhile Panther has played sparingly since leaving Carolina for Indy and hasn't seen game action since 2019 due to injuries and a COVID opt-out. I don't know if he'll be able to make his way back into the league but I'm happy to keep collecting him anyway. And I'm also happy to point out that this is my 20th hit of the former TE/WR! It's the 11th relic to go with four autographs, an auto/relic, two patches, and two plates. Not bad!

Jeff, thanks again for the huge box of Tigers and Wolverines goodness that arrived in plenty of time for Christmas, even if I'm only recapping it a few weeks after. I appreciate all the time you put into pulling that stuff for me, and as always I look forward to hitting you back with some Wolverines of my own, a few of your player collections, and (sigh) even some White Sox!

Looking over at my card desk I count four more blogger trade packages and a pair from TCDB with at least two more from the latter on the way, so next time look forward to another trade recap from another of the usual suspects.