2021 trade package #24: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Dollar Store dude and Canadian buddy of the blog Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store recently sent me a nice fat envelope for the fourth time this year and it was another doozy! As is often the case when he sends me stuff, all four major sports get hit so there's potentially something for everyone here. And most importantly, everything is for me! Let's look at the contents this time:

The baseball and basketball portions were limited but very strong. We get a look at two Cabreras: future HOFer Miggy plus potential future Tiger Daniel, an OF Detroit took in the second round out of LSU last year. Former Wolverine and sure-fire future star Jordan Nwogu, like the latter Cabrera above, came out of this year's Topps Pro Debut, which seems to be using a mix of designs, and that's always a plus. And the package's biggest hitter is also from that product: an autograph of one of the Tigers' cream of the crop prospects, Riley Greene. The fifth overall pick in 2019, Greene has as much upside as anyone else selected in that first round, and the outfielder tends to slot in just behind Spencer Torkelson atop the team's farm rankings. Doug pulled this bad boy, numbered /50 on the back, himself, and was nice enough to flip it to me for future considerations, which I'm still working on. Just another reminder of his legendary generosity.

Getting back to Wolverines, from a different sport, take a look at the recent-ish due of THJ and LeVert. It's crazy to me that the younger Hardaway will be going into his ninth season this year while Vert will be appearing in his sixth once he's healthy.

Heading over to the gridiron, Michigan's 6-0 start has surprised lots of fans including me. This here group mostly leans towards the rookies but has some vet representation as well. Alexander and Kenn appear on cards made after their first seasons while older Wolverines Brooks and Foote RCs bookend two of this year's newest NFLers in Collins and Evans out of Chronicles Draft, meaning best helmet in college football shows up front and center. And the two biggest items of the bunch come up next: twin (but not identical) autos of former RB Karan Higdon out of 2019 Contenders. The main differences between the variations are the photos and team logos used. The pair doubles my count of Higdon hits to four.

And of course the bulk of the package comprises hockey, with the Wings of Hockeytown dominating the count over the Wolverines. There was a great mix of old and new and I decided to lead off with the players I remember watching growing up along with some guys that starred for the franchise's dynasty in the late 90s/2000s (and a bit beyond). Almost all of these guys won Cups with the team aside from Racine, Sheppard (card #6), and Ysebaert (#7), and the latter are players I remember well from playing EA's super-fun NHL games in the mid-90s. It's fun to be a fan of a franchise with such a great history, and one with some decently recent success too!

Here we have mostly recent players with the exception of one-year Wing Crowder and Gallant, whose Wings career ended a bit before I was really following them. He's since carved out a solid coaching career. Hirose's cards are from UD's pretty cool Allure product, and better yet the back of the die-cut parallel tells you exactly what it's called: White Rainbow. More of this, please!

And we end tonight's post on this scan with a mix of Wings and Wolverines, but no Wolverwings this time. The erstwhile Nyquist and Tatar parallels are 2016-17 OPC Ice Blue Traxx cards, and I know that because once again Upper Deck told me exactly that on their backs. They're cool looking parallels in my book!

As for the alumni of the #1 team in the NCAA right now, we'll start with Connor's card which is a Puzzle Back from last year's UD MVP (part of an image that forms Brent Burns of the Sharks). Sharks draftee and current Sen (Doug's team!) Josh Norris makes his debut in my collection with a 2021 UD Synergy inserted called Rookie Journey Draft, which is numbered /999. Patch is much more represented in my collection due to his stardom resulting in a lot of cards made, like the insert above from 2020-21 UD called Ripple the Twine--a cool hockey term I'd somehow never heard before. And last up is a nicely designed jersey relic starring Jacob Trouba, a defenseman drafted by the Jets who now plays for the Rangers. I like how the swatch forms the blade in the hockey stick design they've got going on. I also like that it represents hit #15 of the former first-rounder in my collection.

And speaking of interesting numbers, which I don't feel like I've done much lately, it's time to celebrate yet another collecting milestone for my Michigan alumni hits collection: 2400 cards! 2401 to be exact, thanks to the three here from Doug. One of these days maybe I'll go through some older posts to try to calculate just how integral he's been in that collection, especially the 300+ from hockey alone, but even without looking I can tell you he's contributed a LOT.

So for the 42nd time on this here blog alone (not including those posted on Too Many Manninghams), I have to extend a huge thanks to Doug for the effort and generosity he put into a fantastic trade package. I look forward to seeing your reaction to the package you just received from me recently (finally!) and trying to up my game to pay you back for these latest goodies, especially that Greene autograph.

This was obviously a typically big trade package but I'll be back soon with a much smaller one courtesy of TCDB.

8/6/21 card show report: more like card SLOW

After returning to card shows in a big way earlier this year I've had less luck the past few months coming home with lots of great new stuff, but that's fine. I've been going to them long enough to know that sometimes there just isn't much in the boxes to interest you, but you never know what the next one will bring.

I did still manage to drop $40 on some useful stuff a few weeks ago, which I believe was split up with 25 going to my usual favorite dealer and another $15 to the guy from Ohio who has great deals on vintage and who was back for the first time this year.

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

The lone trade bait card I scored that I didn't grab with anyone in mind in particular is this jersey/auto of Illinois/49ers/Chiefs WR bust A.J. Jenkins. It was one of a few $2 hits I snagged, and as usual it's up for grabs here and also available in my TCDB trade bait.

It's been long enough since I went that I can't remember how the prices for my vintage pickups broke down, but I think I got something between 10-15 cards for $10 and three more for $5 (two $2s and a $1). Better year, most of them were for me!

Up top we start with my second oldest Sparky (after his '59 Topps RC) out of 1972 Topps. I've still got a good number of his 1970s items to chase (plus a couple from 1960!) so it's fun to land something like this of a much younger George on the cheap. 1968 champ Jim Northrup is next on his '73 Topps base, putting me that much closer to a team set representing the '72 guys that were the last Detroit playoff team until '84. SS/OF (love that split!) Mickey Stanley, one of his teammates for both seasons, completes the row by appearing in the '70 Topps set.

Then we switch orientations and open with a card featuring former Tigers slugger (and '68 champ--see a theme here?) Norm Cash on a '72 Topps issue noting the previous year's home run leaders. Cash and future HOFer Reggie Jackson tied for second with 32 while "Beltin'" Bill Melton led the Junior Circuit with 33 long balls. To the right is pain-in-the-ass Billy Martin's '73 Topps manager card, the second of two sets in which he appears. I always thought it was kind of cool when they included the coaches up front as seen here.

The bottom row is quite impressive as well, starting with easily the oldest card in the bunch: a '54 Topps of Ray Boone, patriarch of one of the baseballest families you'll ever hear about. Ray was with Detroit for exactly five years: June 15, 1953 until the same date in 1958. '54 Topps is a classic of a set with the super cool old school logos so this was a beautiful find for me.

Next to him is a '72 Topps multiplayer RC that stars Darrell Porter (that's him on the left, not in the middle). I grabbed it for a buck in case any Brewers fans wanted it, but I may just keep it since he's one of those underappreciated guys from the era. His substance abuse problems are sad to think about but it's nice to remember him for 17 excellent years as a catcher.

And last up in this bunch is the most diminutive item today: Al Kaline's 1969 Globe Imports Playing Card. If the set it comes from looks a bit familiar to you that may be because I snagged Bill Freehan's version from Sportlots months ago. It's a super oddball vintage item of Mr. Tiger and was obviously coming home with me.

The last two cards today came from my go-to guy at the show, who unfortunately didn't have any room for his dime and quarter boxes this time, meaning most of the stuff he had available wasn't in my wheelhouse. I did gladly drop $2 on my first autograph of former Wolverine basketballer Ignas Brazdeikis and another $5 on a sweet looking UM jersey/auto of RB Karan Higdon, though. Iggy's card is from 2019-20 Hoops' Hot Signatures Rookies set and represents my third hit of his (two jerseys). Meanwhile, Higdon's 2019 National Treasures jersey/auto/RC is just my second hit (an autograph) of the hard-running back. Naturally I love that the relic is from a college jersey instead of a pro one.

Naturally I grabbed a small amount of trade bait too, but it was still on the low end of what I'm used to in terms of this monthly show. No problem, though, since I should be back at it next week, where I'm looking forward to digging through boxes until my back hurts while looking for buried treasure for my collection and others' as well!

2021 trade package #19: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

While I'm continuing to sort the stuff from the boxes I teased in my last post, I'm finally giving myself a break today to make sure I give Doug from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store his due for another generously packed trade envelope stuffed with goodies that I'm excited to share.

Let's start off with some cards of my favorite baseball team, which has turned things around quite a bit in the season's second half (a.k.a. since DFAing Nomar Mazara, just sayin'). My favorite Canadian helped me getting into this decade with a bunch of Tigers out of flagship, Gallery, Stadium Club, and more, and there's some very good current names here (and one from the distant past in Cobb, of course). The Cabrera cards are nice as he zeroes in on 500 HR and eventually 3000 hits as well, but I'm more interested in the pair of Mizes, including a Refractory Bowman's Best insert, as he's done quite well this year after his 2020 cup of coffee went worse than expected.

Rogers was teaming up with the versatile Eric Haase to give the team a surprising boost at C this year before his injury, so maybe someone from the Verlander deal will turn out to be useful after all! Skubal's had some struggles but I'm glad to see him continue to get experience as I can still see him as a useful rotation arm in the future. Jones' card has a typically awesome Stadium Club photo. And JV gets an honorary place with the Tigers here even though his Diamond Kings base there shows him with the Astros.

I believe National Hockey Card Day was around the time I got the envelope that included these legendary Wings, so that was a nice fit as Doug's country celebrated one of its favorite sports. The Pacific and UD cards here look great and are a nice palate cleanser after mostly staring at Topps stuff above. All four of these guys were a blast to watch during the Hockeytown heyday of the mid-90s through the aughts. While I love the Wings uni cards, the numbered Team Canada of Yzerman is awesome too. While we Detroiters wait for the results of the Yzerplan, I highly suggest that y'all head over to Doug's posts on his ultra high-end 2015 Team Canada Master Collection break. Beware: there's some absolutely sick nasty patch and signature cards in that series!

Those guys weren't the only Wings in the package, though. I can't say I wasn't happy to see the Applicator gone after the 2019-20 season--the fewer MSU players on the team, the better! Fischer is a bigtime throwback to the teams starring the guys above. UD's '20-'21 base cards look nice as usual, and I believe all three guys seen here will be back, including another Spartan in Hirose. Svechnikov looks diminutive on an OPC mini but maybe the former first-rounder will have success with another team.

And the big prize here is a sweet jersey/auto of former Slovak prospect Tomas Jurco. The card, which includes a very nice two-color swatch with stitching, would have been found in one of Doug's all-time favorite products, 2013-14 Panini Rookie Anthology. While Jurco is another former prospect that didn't work out for the team--he's since bounced to Chicago, Edmonton, and Vegas--this is a great looking Red Wings hit that I'll be happy to keep!

Moving on to the Michigan stuff, we open things with basketball, and a very appropriate card: a Michigan uniformed Classic issue of current coach Juwan Howard. His Fab Five teammate Chris Webber is next on a Topps base. And lastly we have hit #2 of the package: an autograph of recent Wolverine D.J. Wilson (my first hit of his of any kind) out of 2017-18 Panini Chronicles. This one is the Red version (which you could tell if the foil scanned a bit better) and is numbered /149. Wilson was a three-year Wolverine who went to the Bucks as a 2017 first-rounder, then found himself traded to Houston this past March. Will he become one of the next Michigan Basketball alumni to get paid big time? We'll see!

College football season is approaching fast, much to my excitement, and Doug sent plenty of great stuff to remind me of that fact. Brady and Woodson bookend the top row with some 2021 Score inserts including the base and Purple versions of the Collegiate Champions set. Naturally I love that one since it shows each player before and after they became pros. Yeah, I know Tom played just six games (and 20 pass attempts) between 1996 and '97 as Griese was the starter for the '97 Rose Bowl winners, but he was still part of the team.

Speaking of star QBs, we get player-to-coach #2 with Jim Harbaugh's '91 Fleer base. I wonder if the staff changes he made over the offseason will finally get his team moving in the right direction.

I was a bit surprised to see a Bills card in this package but O'Donnell ('71 Topps RC) was indeed a Wolverine. I can't stop laughing at the cartoon of the lineman next to the team name! A 2021 Score RC of first-round DL Kwity Paye was also a very nice surprise, and I'm glad my first first-year of the future Colts star is a college uni card from that set.

And then we have some very nice hits. The aforementioned Griese gets a new relic added to his collection (24 hits), a 2002 Upper Deck Fourth Quarter Fabrics jersey with a cutout in the shape of a "4". Griese came up with two big fourth quarter plays during the undefeated '97 season: a 2 yard TD pass to TE Jerame Tuman with 2:55 left to defeat Iowa at home, and then a 23 yard score to the same target early in the last period of the Rose Bowl that would keep Michigan on top when Washington State ran out of time.

WR Devin Funchess (who recently put his foot in his mouth big time, but at least did a decent job of apologizing) is the subject of one of the best looking cards of the entire envelope: a 2015 Topps Strata autograph. It's a thick acetate-type card and I can't get enough of those, plus it's a new autograph (and a numbered one at that!) so I'm very excited to add it to his 18 other hits I already had.

Finally, a second signature is part of the bunch in the form of a 2019 Certified auto of RB Karan Higdon. It's the Mirror Teal version and therefore numbered /50. Man, I remember when the Mirror inserts were easy to tell apart! Anyway, I'm not sure if Karan is still hanging around the league after Houston took a chance on him as an UDFA, but he had a pretty nice four seasons in Ann Arbor. This shiny auto is his debut in my football collection, though I have another one to show off soon!

At least we've made it to the hockey content, and as usual there's a lot! Just as you saw with the Wings above there's a good number of '20-'21 UD base here, and a few other recent brands as well, which is much appreciated since I don't really buy much hockey stuff myself. Cammalleri's the winner here with three new cards, keeping him in third place overall in my collection at 78. And the first of two Copps is a '20-'21 OPC Retro Black that's numbered /100 on the back. You'll see one more of those in each of the next couple scans!

I got to see most of the guys in this group play at least one game in Ann Arbor, and hopefully I'll get back to Yost this year to see more future NHLers, such as yet another Hughes brother. The erstwhile Quinn is another subject of that numbered OPC parallel, and I'm happy to see his collection continue to grow, especially thanks to Doug. Larkin, of course, is still my favorite of the bunch as a WolverWing!

The last of the "regular" hockey stuff includes two beautiful Troubas: UD Ice and a Canvas insert, the latter of which continues to be an excellent mainstay for the brand. Turco continues his reign of dominance over the collection at 126 items--the only player currently over 100. And Werenski is the last of the three OPC cards /100, finishing up a very talented trio.

And if for some reason all of that didn't have you thinking that Doug's generosity knows no bounds, how about this trio? The pride of Flower Mound, (clap clap clap clap "DEEP IN THE HEART OF") Texas, Chris Brown stars on an absolutely nasty patch with the relic window cut out to spell his name. Numbered /25, it hails from another of Doug's high-end favorites, National Treasures (also 2013-14). That give him a lucky 13 hits, many of which came from Canada. By the way, he's listed as a member of the Capitals here but I would think that patch came from a jersey when he was with his original team, the Coyotes.

Hit #2 is just my second (also an autograph) of Jets C Andrew Copp, who's slowly increased his production in his six full NHL seasons. This one came out of UD's 2019-20 Overtime product and is from the Gold Foil Autographs set. On my other Copp auto, also a stickergraph, he spaced his name out a little bit more, but that's not uncommon given they were made a few years apart.

And finally, we'll end this evening's post with "Max Patch", or in this case, "max relics", of Max Pacioretty. The dual jersey card you see above, numbered /145, is from Upper Deck's 2020-21 Artifacts Materials Gold set, and it looks like I got a pair of Vegas sweater pieces to represent my eighth hit of the former UM star.

Did I say this was another great envelope or what? Not that my Canadian counterpart has ever sent a dud. I'm slowly accumulating some items for a return in the near future, hopefully one that will live up to the greatness he sends every time! If you want the chance to deal with a trade partner this consistently good, get yourself over to his blog and see what you can do about his wantlist.

2019 trade package #17: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been quite the nice weekend here in Ann Arbor.  The weather finally turned from rain 24/7 to sunny and 70s.  Michigan Baseball blew through its opponents to reach the College World Series finals for the first time since 1962, gaining the team a ton of new fans (maybe more on that soon!).  And I got to take in my second viewing of the terrific Spiderman:  Into the Spiderverse at the Big House last night.

So why not celebrate the good times with the most recent trade package I got from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store?  The one he sent me back in May was awesome, but I'd venture to say that this one was a cut above.  This June mailer certainly puts a nice bow on a great weekend in June:

Let's start with a nice bunch of Wings.  The numbered '12-'13 Dominion base cards--which are dummy thicc!--are the highlights for me as they star two of the best players in team history in Datsyuk and new GM Yzerman.  The late Dineen (NHLer Kevin's dad) spent most of his five NHL seasons in Detroit and won a pair of Cups in the 50s before becoming a pretty successful coach.  Kelly was an even bigger star in Detroit and Toronto and won a crazy four cups for each franchise!  The HOFer passed away just a couple months ago, but he and Dineen look great from their playing days on Parkhurst cards from 12 years ago.  Kozlov and McCarty were of course mainstays on multiple Cup-winners.

This group of rookies is headlined by a trio of cards from UD's Synergy brand, one I wasn't familiar with until now.  The blue cards are #d /799 and the back of the red (excellent choice!) has a scratch-off code that I believe you'd redeem as a full set for an upgraded version.  I know little of these four guys but they all appear to be in the organization still, and hopefully one or more of them will join some of Yzerman's draftees to make the team competitive again.

Moving on to basketball, we'll start with a 2010-11 Limited card that doesn't star former Michigan legend Cazzie Russell, but instead Michael Campanella "Campy" Russell (no relation, just an error here).  Then we can move on to one of this post's seven delicious hits:  a jersey/auto/RC of Caris LeVert from 2016 National Treasures (#24/49).  It takes a lot for a relic swatch to have any effect on me these days but this tri-color maize & blue jersey more than does the trick!  Pair that with an autograph that includes an inscription and you've got a beast of a card.  Not a bad way to start my collection of the young Brooklyn Nets SF!

Doug let me know in advance that he had my back when it came to some RCs from probably my favorite yearly football release, Score, but I wasn't expecting some useful veteran base as well.  I love the throwback design here, and the backs look quite nice as well, especially the super colorful reverses on printing plates:

I realize plenty of collectors dislike having the same photo appear on the front and back but that doesn't matter at all to me.  And more importantly I'm happy to have some new cards of Michigan's NFL stars of the gridiron, including PC guy Tom Brady.  If Clark ever stops acting like a dumbass maybe I'll enjoy collecting him as well (and Lewan has had his moments, too).  Peppers' card includes a great photo, though I'll soon see him on cardboard in a different uniform.

Then there's the fun trio of college-uniformed RCs:  Bush, Gary, and Higdon.  All three were a blast to watch with the Wolverines and I hope they add to Michigan's count of successful pro players.

I mentioned Lewan when pointing out his base card above and he also made a second appearance in this envelope on a 2014 Leaf Metal Draft Prismatic Blue auto (#39/50).  Again, nice choice of color.  The airbrushing is annoying as usual but when getting past that this is a fun second version of Lewan's auto in this product (I own the base) and my 14th overall hit of the Titans OT.

As usual hockey is the star of the post, starting with this base/insert mix, which includes the return of the Hockey Mikes (oops, no room for the tag!):  Cammalleri, Comrie, Knuble (Wolverwing RC!), and Komisarek.  Madden's card is one of the coolest of the bunch, an artistic piece that surprisingly doesn't come from Topps Gallery or UD Masterpieces.  We'll see familiar guys Montoya and Patch again in just a minute.  And the Turco Game Breakers insert (from 2006-07 UD Victory) is a new entry for his PC.

And the rest of the hit parade, of the sick/nasty variety.  Seriously this is some bad-ass hockey cardboard (and other materials).

#1 is an eye-popping patch of C Andrew Ebbett.  This one hails from 2007-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects' Emblems, and it's pretty obvious that we're seeing parts of the "A" and "T" from the Binghamton Senators jersey he's wearing.  I took a quick look at the team's history and found that they were affiliated with Doug's Sens until 2017.  That was his first team out of college before moving on to Anaheim and elsewhere.  What a sick patch for hit #7!

Second up is my favorite somewhat recent Michigan guy in the NHL, Wolverwing Dylan Larkin.  My fifth hit of his out of just 23 cards--with Doug responsible for four of those five, I believe--is a beautiful red jersey swatch from 2018-19 Upper Deck Trilogy's Green parallel, #d /242 to match his career number of games played in at that point.  That included 80 each in his first two campaigns and 82 more in '17-'18.  More Larkin stuff, please!

You probably don't hear much about Oklahoma-born defenseman Jon Merrill outside of my blogs, but the autograph you see above, from UD's 2015-16 Artifacts, is actually my 8th hit of his (again, largely thanks to Doug's generosity).  He's spent the last two seasons with Vegas after his first four with the pictured Devils.

I promised more of Montoya and now I'll deliver on that, thanks to Doug's delivery!  After a much hyped college career he was a pretty good prospect so it's no surprise to see Inigo's cousin in a product like ITG's Between the Pipes from 2006-07.  One of the relics is obviously a jersey swatch but the other is unique to the sport:  a goalie's catching glove.  It's fun getting different pieces like this thanks to collecting multiple sports (and knowing a guy who can fill up your hockey box like whoa).  Alvaro is now up to seven hits and he appears on enough that I don't think I'll have a problem growing that number.

While that Ebbett we just talked about is super cool, I don't think anything else tops the final card today, a Max Pacioretty 2016-17 UD Black Lustrous INK auto (#075/175).  The Black brand is one of UD's higher-end offerings and it certainly takes its name to heart, which results in some stunning cards when paired with autos like you see here (and I'll also note that the signature is in much better shape than the scan would indicate).  This is a super thick issue that includes three little windows around the Upper Deck logo:  a see-through image and two pieces designed to look like parts of a sweater.  That thickness makes it tough to get a completely clear scan, but I don't have to care about that because I can look at the card in person whenever I want to, which I may just do more often than any other card of Max in my collection (six of which are now hits).

Doug, thanks again for this outstanding follow-up to your kick-ass May envelope.  I'm looking forward to hitting you back in a few weeks when I have a few eBay purchases and likely show adds in-hand and ready to send over the border!