3/7/26 card show report: NIRvana

Happy April, friends! Baseball's back, even if warmer temps aren't (at least consistently), and Michigan Basketball is in the NCAA tournament final for the eighth time, six of which have been during my lifetime. It's also Easter, and I hope some of you enjoyed some related treats!

I made it out to my monthly show a couple days ago, but before I cover that we're going to have to go back to early March since I still have some catching up to do.

I actually went on a Saturday for the first time in a while for a couple reasons, but it worked out nicely. Because my usual seller hasn't had much time to add newer stuff, I didn't spend much on items from the boxes I usually buy from. I think it came out to $20 or so worth of dimes, $1s, $2s, and $5s. However, besides grabbing a couple more $5 cards from his showcases, I had a blast looking through one or two of his unsorted/unpriced boxes, as I do from time to time. He takes a bit of time to figure out his asking price, and it's always been very fair as far as what I'm willing to pay, so we both end up happy.

In this case I grabbed a handful of pretty nice stuff, most of which you'll see in this post, and much of which falls under the category of the greatest thing in sports cards: 90s inserts (which, of course, rule). Hence, the title of tonight's post: #NinetiesInsertsRule!

For that stack he wanted just $40, which I was more than willing to throw down, especially considering how much other sellers seem to love to jack up the price of increasingly scarce '90s cards, if not everything. That put me at a solid $70 total with lots to enjoy.

Here are my keepers:

The cheapest cards in scan #1 were the '25 A&G base of Tigers HOFers Cobb and Kell, both of which I believe were in the dime boxes. That's pretty cool since Kell's actually an SP! I can't remember if the Ginter insert of Gibby was in the $1 boxes or the misc. ones, but either way I love seeing a World Series celebration card of my favorite postseason homer celebration of Kirk's; We had him first, Dodgers! And Liranzo's Topps Pro Debut base is my first card of the top-100 catching prospect.

Besides those, let's celebrate some 90s inserts! #1 is a Tony Gwynn 1998 Leaf Fractal Matrix parallel, a set limited to 1600 copies which I think was the inspiration for Leaf's crazy Fractal Materials product. Mr. Padre also appears on one of this post's top cards: a 2000 Paramount Fielder's Choice insert. These die-cut chase cards done up in the style of a glove illustrate the greatness of Pacific, and I love grabbing these when I can.

Going back to "matrix" for a minute, we have HOF Wolverines SS Barry Larkin flying high on 1997 Stadium Club parallel called "TSC Matrix," so named for it's crazy cool background. Then we're back to another of my absolute favorite inserts (and brands): 1996 Studio's Masterstrokes, in this case featuring HOF P Greg Maddux. Like Pacific, Donruss/Leaf cranked out some beauties, like the artistic chase card above, numbered /5000 on the back. And lastly in this scan, the newest Dean Palmer to join my collection is a 2000 Stadium Club Chrome Refractor. SCC was even cooler back then than it is now, and the Refractors still look amazing today. (Also, 2000 is an honorary member of the #90sinsertsrule club.) I'm nearing 500 cards of Palmer, which is crazy to me.

I've got one more baseball scan with some heavy hitters before we get to lower-end stuff from other sports. No Griffey this time, but Gwynn and Maddux were joined by Ripken thanks to my 21st card of the 2007 Ultra Iron Man insert. This one celebrates his first AL MVP in 1983. Next to him is a cheapie 2020 Absolute Spectrum Blue parallel of future HOFer Max Scherzer that I thought looked very cool.

We'll get to the biggest card in this group momentarily, but first I'll cover the horizontal cards. All four of these guys actually appeared in the first scan. Gwynn's third pickup is a '98 Leaf Statistical Standouts insert, a chase set with a bit of a matte texture that was numbered /2500 on the back (and the first 250 were die-cut). Larkin #2 is a shiny 1995 Score Summit Nth Degree parallel with cool rainbow foil line/dot patterns on it. Maddux's second is a Chrome parallel inserted into 1999 Stadium Club, a year before it became its own product, as seen on the Palmer above. And another of my fun gets from the random box was a manurelic of Cobb from 2015 Topps. These "medallions" celebrate each subject's first HR, and for the Georgia Peach that was September 23, 1905, the lone run in a loss at Washington.

And now we have my co-favorite card of the show (that Fielder's Choice Gwynn, tho!) in my newest Gibby relic. Also part of the $40 assortment of cards, this is a 2005 Donruss Prime Patches Portraits Quad Swatch that comes with two jersey swatches plus pieces of a bat and hat. It's numbered /150 on the back and offers a design typical of Donruss/Leaf/Playoff back in the day, one I still miss. The presentation here is great, with an 80s photo of Kirk atop the four relic pieces, which are arranged nicely (even if they aren't terribly large). I now count 13 Gibby hits in my collection, including four autographs to go with this, my ninth relic.

And we'll close things out with some Wolverines. As I mentioned, men's basketball will be playing for a second title tomorrow night, plus the women's team also made it to the Elite 8 over the course of a fantastic season of their own. (AND Michigan Hockey's in the Frozen Four this weekend, but I've got no hockey cards to talk about this time.)

Basketball is represented by some colorful parallels of Trey Burke along with Pistons teammates Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson. Detroit's show quite the improvement this year to rocket to the top of the Eastern Conference, and maybe they can throw it back to the late 80s (and the Bad Boys teams) like Michigan's doing. Meanwhile, I scored some cool football inserts as well, starting with a die-cut Prizm of David Ojabo (now of the Dolphins). DPJ and Nico Collins are WRs depicted in chase cards from Mozaic and Prizm, which are so similar I often don't notice a difference. And last up is LB Josh Uche on a blue(!) Donruss Optic parallel, another brand that falls into the Panini version of Chrome cards. As it turns out, Uche just signed with Miami as well so he'll be joining Ojabo as a Dolphin.

This was obviously a fantastic show and I'm excited to add even more cool 90s chase cards to my collection. I know I can count on comments from at least a couple of my regular readers who'll appreciate some of these!

Next time I think I'll be doing a recap of a few eBay purchases I made in the first quarter of 2026, then it should be Facebook Marketplace purchase #1 followed by this month's show. Go Tigers, go Blue, and go spring!

2/6/26 card show report: February fun

I did end up going to my monthly show yesterday (as opposed to Friday) which was kind of a nice change of pace. You'll get to hear all about that eventually, but before then I'll be giving you a look at what I brought home earlier in February.

My total spending on that Friday was $98, split almost down the middle between my usual seller ($50) and one I've checked out a few times lately for some more oddball stuff ($48), especially the 6/$5 tubs.

Speaking of the latter, I picked up a lot of 14 of the 1967 Topps Posters for $23:

This isn't all of them as I set a few aside for other collectors, but I do have these available for trade. If it isn't obvious, there are dupes of Campaneris and Wagner. If you'd like to claim these, please do so and we'll work out a trade!

Next up is the baseball bunch from the usual guy. I believe the Briceno came from his box of cards that are $1 each or 6 for $5, and though it's not a RC, I thought it might be a good time to pick up something of one of Detroit's better catching prospects. The Bunnings all came from the dime box, and I didn't mind that all four picture him with the Phillies instead of the Tigers. There's three great brands plus Gypsy Queen in the quartet. Speaking of HOF pitchers, the Red Prizm of Maddux is a bit of a color match for his Braves.

And then there's the biggest card I scored for myself this time: a Jack Morris auto from 2004 Upper Deck Etchings. Numbered to 375 up front, it's obviously a sticker-graph, but a cool one in my opinion since it's not the boring old clear sticker that often gets signed. The card itself looks great too, not that I'm surprised given UD's output of classic looking vintage-themed products during that decade. I'm also happy to keep up a streak of autos of Morris with the Tigers instead of his other well-known teams (Minnesota and Toronto), with that count now at five. This was a great way to round out my purchase at that seller's tables for a reasonable $10.

Before we go back to my loot from that seller in football form I'm going to show you my other keepers from the second seller. Once again I scored some of the previously mentioned 6/$5 bin items, and you'll get to see one in a minute, but in addition to that and the Topps Posters above, I grabbed these:

For a combined $20 I scored a trio of 7-11 Slurpee coin sets. These lenticular "coins" are among my favorite oddball collectibles and I couldn't pass them up! Also, I know I'll definitely be getting a comment from Fuji on this post!

Scan #1 shows off the complete 1984 Central Region set. Per TCDb, these have an "E" suffix for the card numbers (which are Roman numerals) as opposed to "H" for the East and "K" for the South. There are 24 total and you see each of those above, with plenty of stars mixed in with other favorites. Lou Whitaker and Ted Simmons are my PC guys here but I'm happy to have the whole set!

The second scan starts with 15 of the 16 coins from the 1986 set (also the Central Region, which you can tell since the fronts have blue borders and the backs are yellow). I didn't realize until I got home that while what I bought came with 16 coins, one of them was a dupe and I was missing probably the best one: Steve Carlton/Nolan Ryan/Tom Seaver. No biggie, I may be able to score that on eBay soon. Anyway, this set is even more reminiscent of the very similar Sportflics cards as it opts for trios (except for the Dwight Gooden that leads the set). Those obviously work well on this style of card and I like how they look. PC guys for me include Cal Ripken Jr. (on an MVPs coin with Keith Hernandez and Don Mattingly), Jack Morris ("Ace Pitchers" with Bert Blyleven and Rick Sutcliffe), Lance Parrish ("All-Star Catchers" with Carlton Fisk and Tony Pena), Chet Lemon ("Star Outfielders" with Brett Butler and Willie Wilson), Darrell Evans ("Home Run Hitters" with Tom Brunansky and Cecil Cooper), and Kirk Gibson ("Big Hitters" with Paul Molitor and Greg Walker).

The last set here is the Detroit Region version made in 1987. From what I can see, Detroit is the only area that had its own team represented by itself. Chicago got a 16-coin Cubs/Sox split, the East got Mets/Red Sox/Yankees, Mideast got Orioles/Red Sox/Cubs/Mets, and West got Angels/Dodgers. This set was made close enough to the '84 World Series team that the biggest stars are still present, and there are only two players (Darnell Coles and Dwight Lowry) that I don't collect. Gibby, Tram, Sweet Lou, and others are all there, plus relative newcomer Frank Tanana, in the 12-coin set. Cool!

Before getting to the final item from this seller I thought I'd grab an image of an example back of each coin.

Besides those, like I said, I kept one of the 6/$5 items for myself. That was the complete 12-card set of 2015 Topps Update's Pride and Perseverance. Thought it wasn't in the greatest of shape since its team bag got bounced around in the tub plenty, I thought it was worth it for less than a buck. While the design is typically fairly boring in the usual Topps way, the idea was a great one: examples of players who overcame adversity. It's inspiring to read about how these guys defeated obstacles that could have prevented them from playing. Former Detroit Tiger Curtis Pride and Jim Abbott feature in this set, and I'm glad to have it in my collection.

And now we'll close things out with some football, mostly from I believe the dime and quarter boxes. Score-A-Treat and Donruss feature heavily, but I did manage to find a colorful Absolute parallel of Corum, a Mosaic of Moody, and Topps Resurgence base of Woodson as well.

This could have been a decent trip if I'd stuck to my usual guy's tables, but the 7-11 coins definitely upped the experience to an excellent one. And I'm glad to say I had an enjoyable time yesterday as well, but like I said, you'll have to wait a bit for that. I still need to show off a couple TCDb PIFs, a pair of eBay purchases (with one on the way), and at least one March trade envelope. Until then, may the weather continue going in the right direction as we get deeper into spring training!

2026 trade package #6: Johnny's Trading Spot

I skipped going to my monthly show today in favor of going tomorrow, mostly out of laziness, but the weather's not exactly cooperating either (lots of fog and rain). Instead, I'll put that time towards showing off my final February trade package.

As it happens, that came to me courtesy of John of Johnny's Trading Spot. This was the first time we swapped cards, and that started when I threw some John Elways into a package Angus brought across the border for me to send John's way to make shipping easier. John was nice enough to return the favor with a package that looks pretty similar to others I've seen across some blogs (in a good way!), but with a distinctly Detroit flavor.

I'm starting off with these 1990 Panini Stickers since they're the oldest items from the mailer, and also because everything else comes from one manufacturer, making for a very nice sampler. I can still remember ripping packs of these stickers as a kid and filling up my album, hoping for the Tigers and nicer items, such as that foil helmet card. Henneman and Lemon are also PC guys and are most definitely welcome here.

Everything else you'll see here is a Fleer brand, largely from the 90s but with some aughts thrown in as well. This group represents all of the Ultra cards he sent my way. Fleer's first "premium" brand debuted in 1991 but started using its more typical full-bleed photo/foil combo the following year. The product's run from 1997-2001 has some of my favorite design elements I associate with the set, especially the neon lettering look.

This group includes single cards from 1995 (Fryman) and '96 (Williams), four from 2000, and a trio from 2006. Fryman, Palmer, Bondo, and BInge are all PC guys, plus like I said, I really favor a certain era of these, so those 2000s look amazing to me. 

A 90s Fleer product that was even higher-end than Ultra was Flair. These cards were released on thicker stock with even more gold foil elements, and they retained the full-bleed photo greatness of other products like Topps's Stadium Club.

The set made its debut in 1993 and is represented here by the complete first scan plus first two cards of the second image. It's awesome for me to see PC favorites like Fielder, Fryman, Gibby, Henneman, Phillips, Froot Loops, and Sweet Lou. Still, for as bad as that decade's teams were, I've deployed the "1990s Tickers SUCKED" tag tonight.

The remaining seven cards from the second scan represent the '94 set, one that was fairly similar in design to the previous year's, including dual front images, while adding lots more gold foil in the form of the larger player name plus team. Gibby and Phillips are the highlights of these for me, as is one of the inserts added in '94: Hot Gloves.

Up next is a quartet from 1995's E-Motion, a product under the SkyBox name. These are very 90s Fleer-coded with an experimental design that's kind of busy, one that's most noteworthy for the "emotion" on each card. I don't think anyone's ever associated the word "delighted" with the ultra-competitive Gibson, but I'm still happy to see guys like him and Whitaker in this set. It may be weird, but it's of its time.

Keeping that word "experimental" in mind, another fun 90s Fleer offering was Metal Universe. This fusion of metallic elements and comic books debuted in 1996, and the first five cards you see here were found in that set. There's a big emphasis on crazy foil backgrounds that highlight the crazy imagery. Fryman represents my PC guys from the '96 set while Tony Clark (who recently resigned as MLBPA chief) and malcontent Bobby Higginson's cards were inserted into the '98 version.

I kind of mashed up a bunch of products in these two images, and we'll start with 2000 Skybox Dominion. Those feel like fairly textbook examples of a a Skybox product from around then, and I recall busting a decent amount of packs of those chasing some fun inserts. E-X always looked great, including the 2000 product represented here by another malcontent, Juan Gonzalez. And Encarnacion's a huge creep who's a great candidate for Chris's "Bad Guys in Sports Tier List" post, but Gamers was a fun rip back in 2000 thanks to the chase for relics.

Leading off the second scan, I suppose I could have included Weaver's beautiful 2001 Flair Showcase card with the earlier Flair items, but I think Showcase was in a league of its own and really showed how nice cards could look. Then, a couple years after Fleer released a pretty nice product called "Focus," they put out a "Jersey Edition" of the same name, chasing the hot trend of relics. Dean-O highlights the group for me, and well-known collector Dmitri Young is also among the group. Lastly, a lone example of 2004's Sweet Sigs stars Pudge, a Tiger for parts of five seasons who made his debut with the team that same year and helped bring the franchise back to the playoffs on 2006. The base set looks great and the relic and autograph cards are top-notch as well.

And now we've come to the final pair of images, ones that feature some of Fleer's best efforts over its storied but relatively brief existence. The manufacturer did a fantastic job of highlighting some of the game's HOFs, legends, and fan favorites in a number of products, but I think the product most synonymous with the idea is Greats of the Game. These always had beautiful, artistic designs with classic photos, and like Topps's Fan Favorites, they didn't limit admission to HOFers, which I've always appreciated.

A few Greats products are represented in these two scans. The recently deceased Lolich plus Jack Morris, a couple World Series heroes, start us off with the debut 2000 set, one I love for its amazing aesthetics. HOFers Cobb and Kell show off the 2002 design, one with an even simpler retro look that suits the photography well. Cochrane (listed as a Tiger!) is our third Mickey of this post, and he joins Mr. Tiger from Flair Greats, released in 2003 as a great fusion between the two brands. And lastly, Cochrane makes a repeat (including photo) appearance in the 2004 Greats set along with the previously seen Morris, plus Wolverines/Tigers Freehan and Gehringer, as the product went back to a very cool framed look. What a great collection of, well, greats, on great designs!

John, thanks for sending these to complete our first trade, I really appreciate it! I'm sure anyone reading here knows your blog well so I'll just mention that they should also find you over on TCDb. Good luck to your Braves this year and also to you making some headway on your wants of your favorite team!

Tomorrow I plan on heading to my usual show and then I'll probably put in some work readying my next post which should cover last month's show.

2025 TCDb trade roundup: July through December

Hi all, and welcome to what should be my final post for 2025! Or at least for now. I may go back and do a recap of my spending or something, but this post is the last one recapping cards I acquired last year.

As promised, I'm giving you a look at my TCDb trades and PIFs (pay-it-forwards) for the second half of the year. Back in August I ran through the ones I completed between January and April, and now you'll see those I got done starting in July after a bit of a trading hiatus.

There's a ton of images here representing something like 46 transactions so I'll be keeping my comments to a minimum. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments and sound off on your favorites, though.

Here we go!

158cf946-8d68-483a (TCDb Secret Santa):

This member may have a cryptic username that means nothing by me but his real name is Ross. He was the sender of my Secret Santa package last year and did an amazing job by picking out this six-pack of numbered Dean Palmers. Hailing from 2000 and 2001, the highest print run is just 99 and the lowest is 52. Wow! It was certainly a Merry Christmas for me and I had a blast participating in the event once again.

ablox (PIF):

 

 

avsbruins65 (PIF):

avsbruins65 (PIF--his own Secret Santa):

Mark is one of the best guys on the site especially when it comes to PIFs, and this second one was right around Christmas, as you probably guessed from the note. The Playoff chips are very cool and I was grateful to receive my 29th Griese hit in the form of a Topps Pristine jersey.

Barbeque Chicken:

bcmeeker:

1B Nate Holdren, a Michigan alum, joins the collection with one of the just nine to his name. The Rockies drafted him in 1993 but he never made it above AA.

Bigdaddymac25:

bigfocus:

Bob Warnell:

brad456:

budler:

chris_from_md:

deadhead11:

John from Minnesota, who's oddly enough a big Saints fan, is my top trade partner on the site as this was our sixth deal since I joined.

DeckedKey86:

Eggbert60:

Ericd3043:

There are lots of beautiful cards here but the one that needs some explanation is the 1986 Slurpee coin since you can only see Carlton Fisk in the image. He's joined by fellow catchers Tony Pena and, relevant for me, Lance Parrish. While I'm at it, Tram's DK card is a sample, and Kaline's Refractor is numbered /299.

greg_fantom:

hawkking:

Joe's another one of my site favorites. I needed to make a quick deal with him to acquire a few cards to add to a separate deal and scored these four for myself. I don't really collect Pistons cards but did need the 1980-81 leaders card you see as it's my first of Michigan guy Phil Hubbard.

heattreat:

horfin:

Another Michigan baseball guy joins the collection here in 2010 Reds draftee Chris Berset, a Wolverines catcher with just six minor league cards to chase. I also snagged my first relic (to go with a pair of autos) of All-Star Riley Greene.

imthegrinch:

jambieyes:

Lazy Amish:

LMCards17:

marcbrubaker:

Bru! Marc and I worked out a 65-for-55 deal, one of my biggest of the year, over the summer, and it went very well. He no longer blogs at Remember the Astrodome but I'm glad he's pretty active on TCDb because it was a blast trading with him.

mastodon:

In this deal the Carlson finished up the 2021 Topps '52 Topps Redux set that was nearly complete when I picked it up as part of a Facebook Marketplace lot, plus I nabbed a relic of Michigan/Rams RB Blake Corum, whose team is playing for a Super Bowl berth tomorrow.

Monkeyfeetmd:

myrke:

The item in the second scan here is a 1988 Topps box bottom which includes a pair of PC guys: Darrell Evans and Tony Gwynn. It's kind of a cool piece as it includes players from both 1984 pennant winners.

njavgjoe:

OfficerZero:

ravensray52:

This one kind of ended up being two deals in one shipment for us as I contacted this member, John, about the Sainristil auto after we agreed to the first transaction. I was glad we were able to work out a second one for my first hit of the '23 national champ, out of Topps Resurgence.

Revmrzac:

Ronsolo1:

Rooty10:

Royals417:

sgill08:

smitha1:

sparkchaser 41:

A couple quick notes here. First, the red Conlon card of the Killefer brothers added another Michigan Baseball guy to my collection: Wade, a.k.a. "Red," who played for both Purdue and the Wolverines in college. He appeared in seven MLB seasons with Detroit, Washington, Cincinnati, and the NY Giants. As for the last three items, they're fun oversized Coke/Kroger Tigers team cards.

Spinmove:

sues2blame (PIF):

Before the apparently retiring Hill was chosen for 2025 Topps Chrome Update and Heritage, this minor league card was his lone issue last year. It was snagged from a team set representing KC's AAA affiliate and sent to me very generously by Thomas from--you guessed it--Omaha. Hill did manage to appear in a couple games for the Royals, unfortunately losses for him, as he marked his 21st MLB campaign with his 14th team. If he's truly hanging 'em up, may the ageless wonder look back on his long career with pride.

TallestJord:

triplecrown:

Fellow Michigander (Muskegon) Matthew and I were able to put together a fun deal that would benefit us both since he was in need of the extra 2017 Tigers SGA team set I had, and he had some good matches for me. He even worked in a pair of autographs: an IP/TTM of current Piston Duncan Robinson plus a Leaf Metal high school card of now-former Michigan QB prospect Jadyn Davis. The latter came in as a fairly well regarded four-star but barely played despite a number of opportunities, and it seems like the scouting on him was a bit too optimistic. Still, I'm glad to add him to my football collection!

Wax_Nostalgic:

wayneh59:

woodmangb:

ymmat:

I've mentioned a few other favorites in this post so I'll call out this Joe as well. We've done a few transactions and PIFs and I'm always glad when we can do so. Here you see a mix of what I picked plus a few surprises, like the Norris auto and Keith Primeau at the end. There's a reason the dude has 3300+ trades and 100% feedback!

That was definitely a huge stack of cards that I got to show off, though I've long since put them away. Before I sign off on this post, just a quick update on some of the baseball sets I'm working on that you saw throughout this post:

• 1990 Swell Greats: need 7 more
• 1991 Swell Greats: need 14 more
• 1995 Finest: need 19 more
• 1996 Flair (both Silver and Gold): need 11 more
• 2015 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. 2632: need 1 more
• 2024 Topps Celebration of the Kid: need 16 more

Besides those I was happy to add to a bunch of my player collections in multiple sports, including Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken, Barry Larkin, Rich Hill, and yes, too many Grandersons and Verlanders! I knocked off some more cards in my never-ending chase for Michigan Football RCs and added a few hits as well. And as I continue my foray into player collecting, I added a bunch of new subjects to my collection, with a project focusing on that possibly upcoming. It was another productive and entertaining year of trading as I crossed the 200-mark and made 55 deals (not including PIFs and the like), good for my second best year after 76 in 2022.

Hopefully I'll be back at it again in 2026 soon with an updated tradelist and renewed energy.

Thanks again to everyone for a fantastic 2025 in the hobby and on this blog, and I'll be back soon to kick off 2026!