2025 trade package #23: Dawg Day Cards

Moving on to my second trade package of November, this one was actually hand delivered to me at a show (the first of two times that happened last month!) by Angus of Dawg Day Cards (who also goes by armac on TCDb). The Ottawa native wasn't too far across the border on Sunday, the 2nd, as he was nearby for a wedding. He'd let me know he'd be around with the possibility of meeting up, and fortunately that was day 3 of my monthly show. I made my usual trip on Friday to see my favorite seller, then headed back on Sunday while Angus was working his way across the border and dealing with all the fun that entails.

We arrived at practically the same time which worked out great, and I'd say we both really enjoyed talking cards and sports and stuff while looking through boxes. I may go into that more when I cover those two show trips in an upcoming post once I've taken care of recaps of the other trades that arrived last month.

Here we are. As always I'm the short one, though at this angle it doesn't seem like such a huge difference. Anyway, we each brought some cards (and more, in Angus's case) for the other person since that was a huge savings on postage, assuming you don't take into account how much he spent on gas. Hey, at least he was nearby for a fun reason before the show!

I have to say that what he brought put me to shame, but I did try to make up for it a couple ways, like buying him a few Browns he needed (which you can read about in his recap) and shipping a trade package for him.

Here's a quick look at all the cool stuff he brought:

Here's some of the non-card and oddball stuff. First is a Tiger Stadium giveaway radio. I have one or two of these from back in the late 80s or early 90s, but they're not in great shape like this one! Next is a souvenir cup and pin from the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings bowl. I believe Angus said he was at this game, in which Michigan lost 31-14 against Kansas State, largely thanks to a 3-TD game by future pro WR Tyler Lockett.

A few more pins join the fray, including a mix that mostly came from Little Caesar's and come with informational panels. Two celebrate previous World Series wins (1935 and '68) while the other two focus on '68 stars Mickey Lolich and Denny McLain. A 90s Pinnacle pin of Travis Fryman rounds out that group.

Then we have a couple team sets: 1990 Procards' Bristol Tigers, which I'll get to in a bit, and a '92 Coke/Kroger stadium giveaway Tigers set.

And last up is a matchbook featuring Al Kaline. Mr. Tiger graces the front of this item that appears to be from 1980 Liberty Superstar Matchbooks. I see a total of them on psacard.com, and the multisport set also includes Larry Bird, Guy Lafleur, and Willie Mays, among others. This is among the most unique Kaline (or anyone for that matter) items that have entered my collection.

And here's the back of some of the above items for those of you that would like to see more.

Before even getting to the "regular" cards this was a very generous pile of interesting stuff from Angus and I really appreciate it! But there was lots of cardboard to enjoy too:

Angus and I briefly discussed how he found himself starved for Topps cards in Canada the same way we Americans would describe ourselves when it came to O-Pee-Chee. Fortunately these days a diplomatic trade agreement that benefits residents of both countries is very easy to make! This scan leads off with the biggest star for me, Mark Fidrych, and his OPCs from 1978 and '80, and you'll see him again in the next scan. He's joined by '77 OPC Tigers Hiller, LeFlore, Oglivie, Ruhle, and "Le Grand Orange" Staub, plus a '72 of the late Joe Niekro. I didn't separate out the other stuff so an oddball Barry Larkin 1992 Investor's Journal single breaks things up a bit, but I still very much appreciate it!

Late SS Tom Veryzer joins his teammates from the '77 OPC stack, and a Ted Williams Pog card ends the "regular" stack of vertical cards, pairing up Detroit with their four-time World Series foe the Cubs. Chicago won the first two meetings in 1907 and '08, but Detroit got its revenge in 1935 and '45.

Next I'll do a quick summary of the horizontally-oriented cards you see. #1 is the third Fidrych of this post, also from 1977 OPC. While I still lack his Canadian RC, I now own his other appearance in that set that mirrors '77 Topps, which celebrates "The Bird" leading the AL (and both leagues, really) in ERA with a tiny 2.34. That season he put up a 19-9 record with a league-leading 24 complete games and crazy 9.6 bWAR, good enough for the AL Rookie of the Year and a second place Cy Young finish, but nowhere near the MVP. It was a season for the ages, even if it would precede a quick decline due to injuries.

The other horizontals were quite nice as well. Nolan Ryan was in his final season as a Met (and wouldn't crack 300 strikeouts until the following year with the Angels) so Lolich was able to take the K crown with 308. He'd go 2/3 on the pitching triple crown thanks to second place strikeout guy (301) Vida Blue's ridiculous 1.82 ERA (Lolich had 25 wins to Blue's 24). Mickey's teammate Joe Coleman was a distant third with 236.

Ending the all OPC run are team cards from 1973 and '76. What a cool look back at some vintage Canadian Tigers cards!

I also included some of the '90 Procards Bristol Tigers in this scan. The Virginia city hosted Detroit's Appalachian League (rookie ball) team from 1969-94, a rare long-term partnership for a minor league affiliate. Most of the players represented on these cards were in their first season with the club, and I picked two notables to go along with a Michigan PC guy and an occasional Tigers PC.

OF Danny Bautista played in parts of 12 MLB seasons, which is pretty solid, though most of those were away from Detroit (including the Series-winning '01 Diamondbacks). Late pitcher Jose Lima is definitely better known for a pretty good 13-year career mostly spent in Detroit and Houston.

Meanwhile, pitcher Greg Haeger's card was on my wantlist as one of just seven made of the Michigan alum, and it became my first in his collection, making this set an even better addition for me! And lastly we have 1B Tony Clark, the 1990 #2 overall pick, who played pretty well for the franchise and over his 15 years in the league. He's been head of the MLB Players Association for more than a decade so he's done quite well for himself.

The last of the baseball includes a couple oddballs and lots of stickers. Travis Fryman makes another cameo (or two) on Sports Collectors Digest and Baseball Cards Magazine inserts from '92 and '93, respectively, calling back to Topps designs from 1974 and 1968. I think cards inserted into magazines are great and loved getting a couple here.

There's also a stickerpalooza starring Tigers Fred Lynn and Jack Morris plus big four PC guy Cal Ripken Jr., and what's fun about these is that they're all Canadian versions. That goes for the Panini stickers, which is everything but the first Ripken, and that exact one which was produced by OPC.

A nice baseball haul to be sure, and we're not nearly done with this post yet!

Angus is a Browns fan so of course he knows football, especially when it comes to his favorite team. I'm sure he had dupes of the two Braylon Edwards cards he brought for me, one of which is 2009 Donruss Classics jersey numbered /299 on the back, which comes with a swatch in the color of, well, what else? That's my 97th hit of the former star WR.

Current Colts DE Kwity Paye doubles up Braylon with four additions from Panini Playbook and Prizm, a wacky Wild Card Alumination, and just my fifth signature of the seeker of sacks, this one out of 2021 Aspire, a SAGE brand. It may be airbrushed but we all know what team he's repping there!

And last up is a really nice pair of autos of defensive back Ambry Thomas, a Wolverine from 2017-19 who played in 42 games between 2021-23 for the Niners and has most recently been found on Philly's practice squad. Panini Contenders Draft Picks is a boon to a college collector like myself and I really enjoy the ticket motif plus the college action photos on the base and Red parallels you see above. Also, Ambry has a pretty nice signature even if he abbreviates his first name. My hit count for Thomas tripled thanks to this beautiful pair from Angus.

If you've read this far, congrats, you've made it to the final scan! I suppose they'd let Angus out of Canada no matter what, but could he really return home if he hadn't brought some hockey cards to a hoser across the border? No way!

First we have a fantastic pair of cards starring Wings HOFers Gordie Howe and Norm Ullman. Those came from a 1988-89 set called Esso NHL All-Star Collection. They're just a bit smaller than a standard card and I have to say I really like the design, which is very simple allowing for more attention to the classic photos.

Detroit legend Steve Yzerman is up next and three of the four items are brought to you by Kraft Dinner, one of the most Canadian things I can think of. The fun food issues you see above came out in 89-90 and 90-91. Lastly, The Captain appears on a more mainstream card: 1994-95 Finest, the first year that brand made it on the ice.

And lastly we have a pair that I think Angus was pretty excited about since they're Canadian stickers of Wolverines I collect. Debol has all of 6 cards listed on TCDb and his '79 Panini sticker is just the second I know have for his collection. Shand doubles him up with 12 to his name, and the former Flame now claims three items in my Michigan Hockey collection.

Angus, once again I want to say thank you for making the time to cross the border both ways to hang out at the show, and above and beyond that, for bringing me so much cool stuff that it took me this long to show it off! I'm definitely looking forward to scheduling another show with you (and potentially others like Night Owl) and maybe getting out to a Blue Jays game as well. Until then, it's a pleasure trading with you and I'll try to build up some good Browns to send your way.

I'll be back soon with November trade package #3!

2023 trade package #26: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been a few weeks since I last posted about receiving cards from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, and that means two things: another envelope arrived since then that I need to cover, and then another one joined it yesterday. These got to me in August, October, and December, so the roughly two month cadence means I have only myself to blame for being behind.

Anyway, here's a look at all the great stuff that arrived this time:

1981 Donruss Tigers. I don't think anyone looking at the 1980 squad would have predicted the franchise would win it all just a few seasons later. Alan Trammell, Lance Parrish, and Steve Kemp had the makings of a good core, but guys like Kirk Gibson and Lou Whitaker weren't quite there yet. Some of the guys above did have an impact on the Wire-to-Wire champs, though. Corcoran, Cowens, and Dyer were gone by the time the '81 season ended. However, swingman Rozema and #3 starter Wilcox were key pitchers in '84. And Kemp and Wockenfuss were traded in deals that brought back important players for the same team, the former for White Sox OF Chet Lemon in '81 and the latter as part of the famous swap where the Phillies sent Dave Bergman and Cy Young/MVP closer Willie Hernandez to Motown. And the rest is history.

Speaking of Guillermo, he leads off scan #2 in OPC form, along with teammates Terrell and Tram. I recall my brother and I mocking him as Walt "Terrible" but when I go back and look at his numbers, he was 47-32 from 1985-88, so it was mainly his 7-16 record in '88 for an otherwise solid team that earned him the nickname, I'm sure. Also, we weren't terribly happy that the guy the Tigers gave up to get him, Howard Johnson, had some big years for the Mets.

Meanwhile, Miggy is a guy Detroit traded for 16 years and 10 days ago, and nobody has any regrets about that, even before taking into account that the only guy the Marlins got that panned out was Andrew Miller, and even he only had a few years of success, out of the 'pen of all things.

Verlander's trade to the Astros felt like a catastrophe at the time and it still mostly feels like that with Jake Rogers being the only player of any value the Tigers got back, but at least we got to enjoy him for 13 seasons. Josh Johnson's entire career didn't last that long, but I guess two very good campaigns in a row tricked Topps into pairing him up with the future HOFer on that Diamond Duos insert.

And now over to football. I haven't totally warmed up to '23 Score's scoreboard design quite yet, but I also don't have that many cards from the product so it's still growing on me. I do appreciate getting more college photos, though! Brady may be gone (for good this time, I assume), but transfer RB Charbonnet, who finished his college career with a pair of strong years at UCLA, finally picked up his first NFL TD in week 13 against Dallas, which is great.

Nico and DPJ, in Prizm form, are two recent-ish WRs the generally run-heavy Wolverines have put in the league, and Peoples-Jones joined the Lions at the trade deadline, which is very cool, though his numbers are way down this season and he doesn't have a score out of his nine catches.

Here's where things get especially interesting and another reason why I love trading with someone like Doug. Not only does he have access to stuff like CFL cards, he also puts in the research to find out which Michigan guys appeared on them! The late Coode was an OT for Michigan in the early 70s, then Atlanta drafted him in '74, but so did the briefly active World Football League's Detroit Wheels. Coode then opted for the CFL and seven seasons with the Ottawa Rough Riders, peaking with a Grey Cup win in '76 over Saskatchewan's Roughriders, whose lack of spacing in their nickname was obviously the difference in the 23-20 loss. Coode sadly passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 1987. You see him above on one of just three cards that feature him, all made by JOGO. This one was made in 1993 and is from the Missing Years set.

Art Walker's career trajectory is surprisingly similar. He was also an OL (who sometimes flipped to defense), in his case in the early 50s, and he also ignored the NFL's interest (Green Bay) for the CFL's (or WIFU until 1961) Edmonton Eskimos. In his (also) 7 seasons his team appeared in three Grey Cups and won two (his first two seasons). And sadly he also died at an early age, just 39. TCDb lists six cards for him, all CFL-related of course, and the 1961 Topps CFL above is his second to last cardboard appearance.

Thank you again to Doug for going the extra mile and finding cards of these two Michigan alumni so I could learn about them!

And let's close things out with some very impressive hits. Bookending this scan are my first two such cards of Buckeye-killing RB Hassan Haskins (oops, he just scored on Ohio State again!). His signature may not be much to look at, and I suppose it belongs in the bucket of such guys as Rashan Gary who tend to disappoint with their autos, it's still an autograph of a new player in my collection and I'm happy with that. Also, Donruss's answer to Chrome, Optic, looks pretty cool with the Contenders design. I love that Doug added a jersey relic as well of the now ex-Titans RB to double up the fun.

Former Raider and one-year Niner Big Mo Hurst, playing for the Browns in his fifth season, is unfortunately out for the year with a torn pec but hopefully will return to full strength by next season. As another fairly recent Michigan defender I enjoyed wreaking havoc in the backfield, I love getting new cards of his like the 2018 Donruss Elite auto you see above. His signature is also not the most intricate, but "Mo H." isn't the worst. And that auto, numbered /299, is my fifth of the big DL. Nice!

Sticking with defense--arguably Michigan's strength recently--how about a guy who's having a very nice third year in Indy, Kwity Paye? His '21 Absolute Signature Rookies Green Waves auto is limited to just 25 copies and if you know what you're looking for, "K. Paye" or something like that can be seen. As with Hurst, all of my Paye hits are autos and I now have four of those thanks to this package.

And now we'll end with what I'd say is my favorite design of the package. I'm quite happy getting any new signatures of star WR Nico Collins (this is number four of eight total hits), but I'm also a sucker for stuff like the '21 Panini Elements Rookie Neon Signs card above. This one is actually the Orange parallel, numbered /125, and sometimes it's not all about the on-card signature when you get a fun design element like you see here with the acetate/shadowbox thing. While most recent designs don't stack up to those of the 90s for me, once in a while I'll see a gem like this and just think, "cool!"

So that's another Buckstorecards package in the books! I'll be back with the newest one later this month but I still have others to catch up on before I even get there, and even more after it. Knowing me, it's likely I'll still be posting 2023 stuff in January but that's not that big of a deal since I also won't have my personal COMC pickups until then.

So I'll be back at it again soon with the next trade envelope whenever I feel like it. Until then, thanks to Doug for another banger!

2023 trade package #25: the Lost Collector

Let's keep on keepin' on with trade packages! Tonight's comes from AJ, the Lost Collector. Though he stopped blogging almost two years ago now he's still plenty active on Twitter and in the collecting game, so I thought of him a few weeks ago as I was going through some unwanted stuff in my collection and came up with a Wheaties box that included his dude Tino Martinez on the front; I later added a Donruss promo card I found at a show and somehow he didn't have that either!

AJ was nice enough to send me a pretty sizeable envelope in return filled with Tigers and Wolverines:

Bojarski was born in South Africa and has appeared in games for American minor league teams plus one in Australia, so yeah, dude's well-traveled! Fick's rooftop grand slam was the last homer hit at Tiger Stadium so he'll always have that going for him. Greene, Jobe, and Manning, all of whom appear down a diagonal here, could all be part of the team's future "Mojo." Tommy Henry, the pride of Portage Northern High School, is the lone Michigan baseballer here today, appearing on his Heritage RC from this year. Pudge was indeed a star wherever he went, a total of six teams as it turns out. And as I said the other night, Tork's power potential could make things very interesting for a lineup that's been starving for runs.

Another Tork insert--because why not--gives way to probably my favorite card in the whole package. Gibby and Tram were certainly cornerstones of the '84 champs, not to mention a number of teams that surprisingly couldn't repeat that year's success. The insert you see is from 2005 Leaf, so it's old enough that it was made when inserts still meant something other than TacoMojoPrizmFractor. Too cool!

Over to basketball, a sport in which Michigan's success this year has been fleeting. At least the team has been an NBA factory, producing guys like LeVert and Wagner. I just made fun of Prizms but that first Caris looks great, even if blue is a much better color than green. And if I had to pick between the Wagner bros who play for Orlando, Franz would be my choice as he's been the better of the pair, though I'd be happy to get cards of either.

Oh, hey, football, that sport that Michigan's been great at the past three seasons! Not only are the player selection and overall design variety in the group outstanding, but there's a ton of college uni action going on too! Star WR Nico Collins is finally benefitting from having a QB who isn't a serial sexual assaulter and/or dead-armed retread. Though he may now be dealing with an injury, he's already eclipsed the 1000-yard mark for receiving yards and has also amassed a career high six scores. Hell, you name a stat and it's a new personal mark for him this year.

Meanwhile, Chris Evans hasn't become a star like his Hollywood namesake, but that won't stop me from collecting him. I'm always glad to land new stuff like the above plus a couple more seen in the next scan, putting me at a solid 18 with plenty more to come.

Like I said, green isn't my top choice for a Wolverine alum's parallel, but the color does look solid in Prizm form.

Next we get a look at some rare cards of players on the D side of the ball. Kwity Paye's been pretty good for the Colts since they took him in the first round in '21. This season he already has career highs in fumbles forced and recovered (two each), and his 7.5 sacks are also a personal best with a few games left. He's also got a good shot to surpass last season's tackle (combined, solo, and for loss) numbers, so he's definitely trending in the right direction. Naturally he gets a Green Prizm too!

Ambry Thomas is a DB that flashed a lot of potential in limited play in Ann Arbor and he's made a bit of noise for a Niners team that includes fellow alumni Ronnie Bell and Jake Moody. He doesn't have a lot of non-college product appearances yet but I'm plenty happy seeing him in the winged helmet thanks to SAGE.

LB Josh Uche was a bright spot for the Pats last season after going off for 11.5 sacks, 9 TFL, and 2 forced fumbles, but his 2023 has been about as middling as the rest of the team. Hopefully he can move on to a squad that'll appreciate him more and put him in position to succeed.

Speaking of success, few Michigan RBs enjoyed more in college than Tyrone Wheatley, seen high-stepping to another TD at the Big House on a card made by Classic. Blake Corum's historic career brings to mind the affinity Wheatley had for piling up yards and finding the end zone. What a great photo that encapsulates the experience of watching him play.

AJ, I really appreciate this great package you put together for me that featured some great additions to my collections. Though it's rare to find new Tino items for you I'll keep working on it just in case because I owe you a lot of thanks for this stuff!

So who was the next generous soul to gift me some cards? Check back soon to find out!

2023 trade package #12: the Collector

Tonight's trade envelope comes from a collector I've traded with many times who recently celebrated 600 transactions on TCDb (quite the feat!). That collector's name? THE Collector, Chris!

Not one to sit around and wait for deals to come to him, Chris put in a bunch of work to hit that 600 deal milestone (in preparation of celebrating his 600th post). I can see in his transaction history that he started 2023 with 545 done and he's completed 78 already this year as I'm writing this. Nice! Find him over there as hockeydude, by the way.

Chris reached out to me early last month and I became his 596th swap. He offered me a nice little mix of items from my wantlist in return for future considerations, though I happened to have some stuff on hand I was going to send him anyway, so that worked out really well.

Here's what the New Jerseyan sent westward to me in Michigan:

The transaction Chris proposed actually only included the bottom six cards so the trio of Tigers were nice throw-ins. The Cuyler and Fryman are from '93 UD while Jose Lima hails from the '96 product. Cuyler got a pretty good number of ABs with some of those terrible 90s Tigers squads while Fryman enjoyed a respectable career in Detroit before finishing out his run with the Indians. The late Lima looked like nothing special before a trade to Houston produced the highest moments of his career. He did return to Detroit in 2001 for parts of a couple seasons.

Another Tiger is the lone baseball representative from the deal as originally agreed upon. J.D. Martinez is a guy who pulled a reverse Lima, heading from Houston to Detroit and overhauling his swing to great results in the batter's box and his wallet. His 2017 Topps All-Star Game set card got me to look up his Midsummer Classic appearances, and he's made five--one with the Tigers and four with the Red Sox.

Basketball gets just one new card today but that's fine because it's my least favorite sport. Chris hit one of my Wolverine cager PCs with a 21-22 Donruss Optic base of Tim Hardaway Jr., a three-year Michigan guard who's spent the last five of his nine NBA seasons with the Mavs. Wait, he's been in the league for nine years?! Man, I'm getting old.

Switching over to one of my alma mater's more recently successful sports, Chris found a pair of ex-Wolverines that I was happy to see. First is five-time Pro Bowl OT Mike Kenn who played 17 seasons for the Falcons. He appeared in 251 NFL games, all of which he started, and that's an excellent pro career if you ask me. His '82 Topps card above notes his second of five eventual All Pro selections. Joining him from the other side of the ball is DE Kwity Paye on a '21 Panini Chronicles Flux base that shows him in college action. Paye, like Kenn, was a first round selection, in his case by the Colts, and he'll be going into his third NFL season this fall.

And we'll wrap things up with a hockey duo from hockeydude right in the thick of what's probably sports' best postseason setup. Mike Comrie (2001-02 Topps Reserve) never won a Cup but did contribute a pair of goals and four assists to the 06-07 runner-up Ottawa Senators, who fell to the Ducks 4-1. Meanwhile, Ann Arbor native Andrew Copp (21-22 OPC's Retro version) is still active in the league and has 54 playoff games under his belt including 20 last year with the Rangers, but saw his new team, the Red Wings, fall short this season. I'm hoping the team exits its long rebuild soon and that Andrew is part of that success.

Chris, many thanks for making me part of your quest for 600 trades and congratulations on blowing that goal out of the water! I'm looking forward to picking up more stuff for you at the next show and in the meantime I hope those deals keep rolling in on your end.

2023 trade package #4: Dawg Day Cards

In the days since I last posted I've received even more amazing stuff from some very cool people, so it's about time I cover something else on my card desk.

This evening's envelope arrived earlier this month from Angus who I mostly think of as the writer of Dawg Day Cards, though he can also be found on TCDb (user ID armac). The Canadian fan of the Browns has been around for quite a while but we've only ever really interacted once, not quite four years ago when he and Night Owl met up at a show and they teamed up to send me some fun cards.

Angus may have had my address handy from that effort or he might have gotten it from someone I've dealt with on TCDb, but either way, he was very generous with the envelope he sent across the border:

In addition to a very nice note we'll start out with the baseball stuff. I love trading with Canadian folks because they have much easier access to stuff we don't down here, such as older Leaf cards (including the '85 Tram above) and the Canuck version of Panini's stickers. The trio of '90 stickers are as American as they team and players depicted, but the three '92s beneath them come straight from America's friendly northern neighbor. And boy do those crazy pixelated rainbow foil versions take me straight back to being a kid and ripping packs of these while trying to fill up my albums. Fielder was obviously an excellent choice for such a sticker that year.

On the football side, I suppose it would make a ton of sense that Angus would have some dupes of the guys who have been part of the Michigan-to-Cleveland pipeline. The four Braylon items are great, especially the trio from '05 Topps Heritage, including both variations of his RC, plus a foil (more like Chrome) parallel. Hoard was drafted by the Browns and spent his first six-plus seasons with the franchise, including their sneaky move to Baltimore. Long is a Michigan uni card and that made it a natural throw-in.

Here's where things got really impressive: this six-pack of autographs! Wait, let me be more specific: six Michigan uni autographs! Hell yeah! Angus did an amazing job picking them out so let's look at them one by one.

QB-turned-WR-turned-QB-again Devin Gardner earned himself a ton of respect on the field after gutting out wins (and losses) while often injured during some of the program's low years. He turned that resilience into a very respectable analyst career after the NFL didn't work out. But before that he made his way onto some very cool cards like the 2015 Upper Deck Inscriptions auto you see above. Though the super reflective foil doesn't lend itself to good scans, the in-hand item looks great with his signature and an all caps "GO WOLVERINES!" inscription atop a great college action shot. That's my 10th hit of DG and I'm happy to have hit that milestone, hopefully with more in my future.

Speaking of cards with tricky-to-scan reflections, next up is CB Marlin Jackson's 2005 SAGE Autographs Bronze auto. You can just barely see his very nice signature on the sticker, and this one is hand numbered 322/650. It's my 24th hit of the 2006 Super Bowl champ who picked off fellow Wolverine Tom Brady's pass to seal the Colts' win over the Pats in that season's AFC title game.

We'll proceed alphabetically with Mike McCray's 2018 Panini Elite Draft Picks auto. One of those products that's obviously geared toward collect collectors like me, it's a great one for finding hits of the less known guys like McCray, a LB that's made the transition from player to coach, joining former UM DC Don Brown at UMass. His autograph isn't much to look at but at least the card looks cool. I'll happily keep it with the other auto in his collection.

Guinea-born DE Kwity Paye is next, and he's the youngest player in this bunch, still playing for the Colts, who took him 21st overall in 2021. A force on the D-line (like a good number of guys the Wolverines have sent to the league recently), Paye put up some nice sack and TFL numbers in Ann Arbor. He certainly looks fearsome on the outstanding pair of autos Angus sent out of '21 Score, which I of course love thanks to the college action they capture here. The top card is the "base" version of the autograph while the one below it is the Gold Zone parallel. The pleasing pair jumps his collection up to three signed cards, and it was fun to receive them together in one envelope.

Heading back to the offensive side of the ball, we'll wrap up today's post with prolific #1 jersey-wearing WR David Terrell, whose three years in the Big House ended a year before I headed off to Ann Arbor myself. The 8th overall pick by Chicago in 2001, he was an NFL bust, but his college career meant the hype was off the charts when it came to cards. That's why you can see him on such items as the above 2001 Crown Royale Rookie Signatures auto, which is both signed on-card and numbered /250 (in that goofy but sort of endearing digital print way instead of foil stamping). He looks like he's about to run another route that finishes with him in the end zone, and the large signature goes nicely with the whole package. It's my 46th hit of Terrell, which along with the 56 I have of teammate and fellow '01 Bears draftee Anthony Thomas, gives me exactly 100 of a pair that will be forever linked in my mind.

Angus, once I again I want to thank you and say how much I appreciate the effort and generosity that went into sending this envelope over to me. And I'm happy to report that I'll be able to pay you back in kind relatively soon, though I'm thinking of waiting to hit up one more show in case I can sweeten the pot even more.

Everyone else, please stay tuned for some more excellent trades and PIFs, show pickups, eBay buys, and more, which I may actually get caught up on at some point!

2023 trade package #1: Scribbled Ink

I've been slacking long enough in 2023, so let's start looking at cards that are new to me this year! Tonight I have this year's first trade package courtesy of buddy of the blog Paul, of the defunct Scribbled Ink, who can still be found tweeting at @Scribble4me.

A bit earlier this month he let me know to expect something, and not long after I had the following on my porch:

Quick backstory there: among the things I sent Paul for Christmas was a signed Marcel Dionne jersey. It was a crazy good deal and I couldn't pass it up, and I'm glad he appreciated it. I'll show off what was in the box at the end but first we'll dive into the "CARDS" envelope.

(Please note that Paul sent much more than what you see here but I was too lazy to scan most of the dupes.)

The biggest former Wolverine currently playing not nicknamed "Dick Mountain," Cronenworth is one of my favorite recent PCs. That collection got a very nice bump thanks to Paul. Highlights include Stadium Club, some Topps and Chrome color, a sweet Donruss Season Stat Line parallel numbered /94 (for the total of runs he scored in 2021), and a Retro '88 jersey from the same '22 Donruss product. Very nice! I now have a pair each of relics and autos of Mr. CroneZone, and TCDB tells me I have 75 total cards, which is excellent (and also tops on the site for now)!

Paul hit a few of my other big PCs while he was at it. The Stadium Club Griffey (Red parallel) is a stunner, and of course I recognize the play it captures (check out a video and more here) as it happened in Tiger Stadium back in '98. What. A. Catch! The Topps Pro Debut insert of a young Junior is very cool too. I'm glad Paul also included a Stadium Club base of Kenny's former teammate Larkin as it captures Barry's Hall of Fame induction in 2012. I still need to grab his HOF plaque postcard, now that I think about it!

The one Maddux card in the package was a literal work of art, produced by talented artist Lauren Taylor. Three other players I collect can be found in the product and I might have to track their cards down as well because this beauty is a huge step up from the MSPaint-quality, drug-induced nightmares that came out of the Project sets.

And what would a baseball recap be without my biggest PC, well on its way to 1200 cards? Cal gets four new items: a couple Topps inserts, a chase card from Prizm, and one of Score's old trivia holograms. Is anyone else sick of 1987 Topps all over again?

Paul also added a trio of Verlanders, and I'd say the Mosaic insert with its "Aces" motif is just too cool to beat, but the "Mojo" Refractor of the '87 Topps card is a worthy contender.

On the basketball side of things we have Mo's little bro and teammate Franz Wagner, who's having a pretty nice season for the Magic. The Chronicles card with the old Hoops design really takes me back while the Prizm parallel is all kinds of patriotic. Bonus points for both being including college action shots!

Closing out the cardboard portion, Paul repeated that feat with the football items he included. Nico's Prestige card from '21 hails from the previously mentioned Chronicles, and it's a good reminder of why I tend to enjoy the brand's college draft cards. Paye's insert from the wildly confusing Wild Card Matte product appears to be called "Weekend Warriors Gold/Green Shield" if TCDB's checklist is to be trusted (and that's the one I'd trust the most, so...) and that comes with a cool Wolverines shot and numbering on the front /40. And then there's the second cool hit of the package: a '21 Contenders Draft auto/RC of Bengals RB Chris Evans. It's just my second of the versatile speedster after I added one from COMC, and his signature looks nice on the typically pleasing Contenders design. Nice find!

(Here I'll insert a quick note that I'm unofficially over 2500 Michigan sports hits, so depending on when I can verify those, I may have a celebration post forthcoming. In the meantime you can always see my collection stats on the bar on the right.)

So as Mr. Pitt would say,

Well I'll be happy to show you:

It's another box! I can't remember if I'd seen these figures before but I have to say they look really good. The bottom of the box has a 2017 date on it and also mentions Loot Crate so I wonder if these were exclusive to those subscription boxes. The figures are sculpted quite nicely and the box boasts the number of articulation points. My search shows that batters come with a plate while pitchers get a mound.

Here's a look at JV out of the box. The little pegs are places where you can attach the figure with holes in its feet if you want to pose it that way. I think the creator did a pretty good job capturing Verlander, with the only real goofiness being the oversized heads, which is actually kind of fun.

I'm going to leave this one out of the box and put it out on display with some of my other stuff like bobbleheads. Big thanks to Paul for including such a cool item of my blog's (current) namesake and a guy we both love to collect.

Paul, thanks for always keeping things interesting whenever you send me a package! I'm glad you liked your Christmas cards and I'm already hard at work on a new mailer for you which will hopefully be ready after another show or two.

Up next is trade package #2 from another one of my Christmas card targets (who should be receiving their envelope in the next day or so, actually).

9/2/22 show report: look who showed up!

So a couple weeks ago as usual it was time for the monthly show in Taylor. I once again took a Friday off to head that way since Michigan's season opener was the following afternoon and I wasn't missing that for anything, even the fun of a card show. So off to the east I went.

John let me know that the stars aligned and that he and his wife would be able to make the roughly two-hour trek out that way from the Portage area as well. I hadn't seen him in quite a while so I thought that was awesome.

They made it there around an hour or so after I did and had been looking through my favorite seller's boxes. We got to hang out and talk cards for a bit while flipping through the dollar and quarter cards, then John went off to check out some of the other sellers.

I was happy to get to see one of my Tigers/Michigan-collecting buddies and trade a few things in-person too. I'd found a Michigan Football t-shirt for him plus picked up a cool looking Topps binder in a Facebook deal, so I got those to him along with a little stack of cards I'd piled up. Shipping the binder would have been a pain so giving it to him in-person was fantastic.

John also brought this insert of Jarrett Irons, a former LB, that I'd forgotten I'd commented on when he posted it on Twitter a while back. As it turns out he had a double of it and remembered to bring it with him. Awesome! Irons was a mid-90s Wolverine who has all of six cards to his name per TCDB, and two of them are from Hero Decks playing cards, which tend to be too nebulous for me to worry about. The other four are from the '97 Press Pass product, including this Combine insert, which shows off some of his measurables on the back. He went undrafted and was out of the sport pretty quickly but seems to have carved out a nice business career for himself.

Big thanks to John for the first Irons card for my collection, and a very well-timed Michigan uni issue at that! I hope we can get together for another show in the near future, in Taylor or elsewhere.

As for my own spending, my notes indicate the following breakdown:

• One $5 card
• Two $2 cards
• 28 dollar cards
• 52 quarter cards

That came out to $50 according to my math and the seller discounted it down to $45. My man!

Here's the generic trade bait I scored that remains available (here and on TCDB):

The Finest cards are all Refractors. I found a big bunch of them together in the quarter box and snagged them all. The Brazelton auto is numbered /350.

And that brings us to the stuff I kept for myself this time:

Abbott's a 2020 Ginter Chrome Refractor, which is one way to spruce up a boring design!  A very Michigan uni Jesse Franklin /999 hails from the same year's Elite product. It's hard to tell but the Conlon card of Greenberg is, well, Green! Speaking of that color, so is Rich Hill's card from 2020 Chrome Update Sapphire, which is numbered /45 and set me back a decent $2. Caris is the only basketball representative today, looking very Patriotic on a 2020-21 Prizm parallel.

On the football side there's lots more Michigan uniformity to love. Though it didn't scan as well as the LeVert above, the Nico parallel you see to start this image is also a Red/White/Blue Prizm. Evans' card is from the same product but is the Gold Ice version instead, which looks quite cool. My opinion of Lewan has fallen drastically the more I've learned about his terrible behavior, but I still pick up the occasional card of him like the 2019 Score Scorecard parallel you see above. New Patriot Jabrill Peppers popped up on a couple Prizm parallels of his own in the quarter boxes: Disco and Green. The slightly difficult to scan well Streets is a '99 Collector's Edge Advantage Galvanized parallel, numbered with a real foil stamp to 200 copies.

And then we have the two hits. The $2 2021 Absolute jersey you see of Collins above is just my second hit of the Houston WR. My collection of him is small at just 15 cards so I hope I can keep adding nicer stuff like this the longer he's in the league.

Meanwhile, the Paye autograph was my lone $5 purchase on the day. I don't know that it was necessarily the price it should have been but it ended up being worth it, especially with the little discount I got. Plus it's another first for me as I also didn't have any hits yet of the Colts' first rounder from '21, and better yet it's a full Michigan uni card--no airbrushing or anything! It hails from the extremely and wildly confusing 2021 Wild Card Matte product. I'll save you the details of my pursuit of more info, but from what I can tell it comes from the Matte Black version of the Red Hot Rookies Autographs insert and is numbered /50...on both sides. Yep, you read that correctly. See the stamp on the front above? Here's the back:

Today's Leaf and Panini aren't remotely the quality of the original versions of those brands, but once in a while they can be as fun as they are frustrating. Anyway, Kwity joins the football collection as new member #233.

So as usual I had a fantastic time, came home with some stuff I was excited about and also had enough to fill out 10 trade packages, a few of which have been blogged and/or tweeted about. And I got to hang out and talk cards with John, so it was a great Friday for collecting. Then Michigan opened up the season with a decisive win, so the four-day weekend was about as good as it could have been!

Depending on what comes in over the next couple days I may be recapping some of my recent TCDB deals next time, so watch out for lots more incoming cards soon!

2022 trade package #14: Sport Card Collectors

If there's one person I can count on to send me new stuff I didn't already have (and fortunately a lot of you are great at that!) it's Matt of Sport Card Collectors (and his various umbrella of great blogs). Matt usually hits me up with a fun PWE a few times a year, and in rare cases he'll even triple or quadruple the loot and send me a bubble mailer.

That's exactly what he did very recently, and now I get to show off the fruits of his generosity, this cool mix of Tigers, PCs, and Michigan Football:

There were 10 Tigers cards but since that's one more than nine you'll have to catch the last one in the next scan. These are all '21 and '22 cards so it's no surprise I didn't have any of them, and because they're so new almost all of these guys are still on the team. John's guy Matt Boyd is the only exception, and the injured Giant who hasn't been healthy enough to start yet this year is seen on this year's Topps Rainbow Foil parallel. Miggy's up next with a '21 Chrome Prism Refractor plus base from this year's Bowman and Donruss. He just passed Rod Carew and has Rickey Henderson, Craig Biggio, and Ichiro in his crosshairs this season, which would place him in the top 25. It's very cool to be able to see that kind of history being made.

And then we have a trio of pitchers that could be the future of the rotation if they could all just be healthy and effective at once! Manning, who may still return this year, joins Cabrera from the '22 Bowman set (my first examples of those). And my Mize collection continues to grow at a time when he won't be pitching again for quite a while. Besides his '21 Bowman Platinum RC Matt sent both of Casey's Holo Orange parallels from '22 Donruss, including his Diamond Kings subset appearance. Skubal, who'll be starting tonight, is the only one who's active, and the card you see above his is '21 Panini Mozaic RC, my 11th card of the talented lefty.

Turnbull (same set, Prizm parallel) is another talented pitcher, but I'm less excited to see him here since his asinine Instagram comments about the Supreme Court's inarguably harmful decision to overturn Roe.

Spencer Turnbull is posting shit on his instagram story praising the Supreme Court ruling today and I tend to forget that a good chunk of baseball men are conservative and don’t want me to have rights and it makes me sad

— sam (@sambanban) June 24, 2022

Moving on is a new #CroneZone card headed to Jake's collection, his super thick 2022 Topps Inception base. Jake's been a bit streaky but has had a very nice June after a slow start. And the rest here combine to make up too many Verlanders! Card #1 is from 2021 Absolute's Icons insert, and I'd say JV has done more than enough in his career to earn that label. The '21 Diamond Kings "The Club" insert looks a bit nicer in comparison. Then from Topps we have throwbacks to the designs of 1965 and 1986, plus an Orange parallel from last year's Big League. My current Verlander count (besides "too many") is 516 and continuing to climb!

I mentioned Michigan Football stuff too and was thrilled to end up with two scans worth. Almost everything features college unis which is always my preference when possible, so huge bonus there. This group includes three guys from my favorite UM draft class of 2008: Arrington, Hart, and Long. Two inserts of the GOAT Tom Brady were great non-college inclusions, including TB12 in big head mode on the Mosaic card. I hope the talented Collins ('21 Chronicles Spectra) gets out of an awful QB situation in Houston and gets to shine. Corum's card from 2022 Bowman University (a Topps product I like?!) is one of my favorites (despite the mandatory airbrushing) because it gives me a jump-start to his collection before he's even drafted. His 2021 season has me absolutely juiced to see what he can do in his second year. And former big man DT Mo Hurst rounds out this group with his 2018 SAGE HIT base that looks a lot better than some of their recent designs.

And the last scan has seven cards, all with college action (plus a bonus NFL shot). Mathews and Warren join Hurst out of past SAGE HIT products and I remember their careers at Michigan quite well. Recent-ish draftees McKeon, Paye, and Peppers all appear on some nice base Score designs that are accented quite well with the team's colors, and Paye gets a bonus '21 Chronicles Draft appearance too! And lastly we have the GOAT on the other side of the ball, DB Charles Woodson. Also out of Score this is his cameo in the '21 Score Collegiate Champions insert, which lauds the fact that he won titles in college ('97) and the NFL (2010), not to mention the Heisman. Quite the trio of accomplishments!

Matt, thanks for going out of your way to send me this bubble mailer filled with PC goodness! As usual I'm looking forward to seeing what I can find for you at this weekend's show, and hopefully you won't have to wait long for a response to this envelope.

That's it for the moment for blogger trade packages so next time I'm expecting that I'll finally cover a pretty significant eBay purchase.

2021 trade package #27 and 28: Sport Card Collectors

As if I didn't already have enough to be thankful for today--a day off, sleeping in, hanging with my family, and some great food--Matt of Sport Card Collectors (and Big Blue Cardboard and Cards Over Coffee) recently decided to treat me to a PWE and then seconds, with both arriving on Tuesday. This evening seems like a perfect time to share them so I'm going to do just that, changing things up a bit and covering them one at a time!

PWE #1:

Tigers and Wolverines: two teams I'm thankful to root for even if it's been a while since either has been at the top of their sport. We'll start on the diamond with a pair of AL ROY pitchers. Fulmer came back from TJ surgery to be fairly effective as a closer, though I don't know if that's his expected role in 2022. He appears here on a 2020 Topps Update Gold parallel (#0080/2020). A decade earlier some clean shaven kid named Verlander took the league by storm and was the top rookie, and Justin's seen here on a cool 2021 Diamond Kings insert I wasn't aware of called "The Club." The back notes a cool feat of his from 2019 when he joined the club (hey, that's the name of this set!) of pitchers with 3000 strikeouts while also going over the 300 mark for the season. Not bad!

The football side of things was all college unis all the time, so bonus points to Matt! First up is a 2021 Score insert called Collegiate Champions, and yes, Brady had a small role on the last title-winning Michigan Football squad, and then went on to contribute a bit to seven Super Bowl champs. Hart is my favorite all-time Michigan RB and I love how he's guiding the current players while coaching the position. You could call him the gold standard and that would be appropriate as he's seen here on a 2008 SAGE HIT Gold parallel. 2021 first-round monster Kwity Paye, as seen from this year's Prizm Draft set, has gotten better as the season's gone on, picking up a sack in each of his las two games to go with a forced fumble (and a pair of fumble recoveries earlier this year). And Hart's 2008 draft mate and #1 overall pick Jake Long was also a gold standard while manning LT for Dolphins teammate Chad Henne in Ann Arbor and Miami. He shares a 2008 UD Draft Edition Franchise Foundations subset offering with USC/Falcons T Sam Baker, a guy also highly regarded at the position who joined Jake as an '08 first rounder.

That was a high quality group of cards, so how about envelope #2?:

Look who's back--Michael Fulmer! He was the only landscape card so I scanned him at the end of the first row but I'll start with him here. Though the image doesn't completely capture the reflectivity going on here, that's a 2019 Topps Rainbow Foil parallel of a nice action shot. After missing 2019 and a chunk of 2020, he came back this season to appear in 52 games, just four of which were starts, and ended up with 14 saves. I don't get the impression the rotation will have room for him unless a young guy really falters in spring training, but he could still be a valuable bullpen arm, swing starter, or trade piece.

And now we head back to college football, the sport on my mind as Michigan prepares to face football factory/school optional juggernaut OSU. Brady is our second of three repeat players here and his is the only card with an NFL action shot. That's from 2020 Score's In the Zone insert and as you can tell from two of the corners it's the Gold parallel version. Speed-in-space receiving back Chris Evans of the Bengals gets half this envelope to himself thanks to 2021 Panini Chronicles cards repping Prestige and XR along with the previously seen Prizm Draft. XR hasn't been around long and I don't know if I'm a huge fan yet but Prestige has long been good to collectors like myself. And Paye also makes his triumphant return here in a product I don't believe I'd set my eyes on before, 2021 Wild Card Matte White. It brings back the well known name from a few decades ago if not the design or a license, but Paye's Wolverines uni didn't need to get airbrushed so that's a big plus for me. Also, the Stripe parallels are back and some might chase those for the nostalgia kick.

Matt, thanks as always for your trademark generosity in PWE form. At some point before the next holiday I'll be rewarding you with a larger envelope filled with your favorite blue team and lots more.

And most definitely before then I'll be showing off the substantial trade box that arrived the other day, a couple high-end eBay pickups, and then hopefully more of the Facebook lot. But I'm ready to succumb to turkey coma, so Happy Thanksgiving, all!

2021 trade package #21: Sport Card Collectors

Buddy of the blog Matt of Sport Card Collectors let me know last week that I could expect a new envelope from him soon, and then Saturday I was happy to find it in my mailbox. Considering its contents the timing was great, and before I watched Michigan face off with Washington under the lights in prime time, I was PWE partying!

A six-card envelope full of 2021 UM draftees, all of which are in Michigan unis, is about as good as it gets on a college football Saturday. As a reminder, WR Nico Collins went to Houston in the third round; RB Chris Evans was a sixth round choice of the Bengals; and Kwity Paye, a DE with a mean streak, was Indy's first rounder. Nico had one catch in Houston's hilarious win over the Urban Meyer-"led" Jags, Evans doesn't look to have participated or at least recorded a stat as Cincy beat Kirk "Come at me, COVID" Cousins' Vikings, and Paye had three tackles--two solo and one for a loss--plus a fumble recovery as his Colts lost to a Seahawks team that actually let Russell Wilson throw.

Now, as for the cards, the top row all comes from Panini's 2021 Chronicles Draft product. I'm on record as liking the variety of designs as it incorporates multiple brands, and this year Panini seems to have numbered them as one big set instead of multiple inserts. I don't know what that does in terms of what's considered a RC but I don't really care. Anyway, in this case you see, left to right: XR, Spectra, and Playbook. A quick look on TCDB indicates that other brands/designs include Chronicles base, Donruss, Score, Prestige, Illusions, Recon, Status, Donruss Optix, Flux, Select, Rookies & Stars, Legacy, and Playoff. Sheesh!

And then there's the bottom row, which is all "Come Come, Kwity, Kwity, You're so hitty, hitty." Paye's Prizm Draft RC pairs up nicely with the Red, White, and Blue parallel. Speaking of base/parallel combos, I can add the last card you see here, a 2021 Score Red, to the Kwity RC I already have to make another nice pair. There's lots more versions of both for me to chase though my priority will remain the base rookies.

Just six cards to scan, plus I uploaded missing fronts/backs for three cards on TCDB, so here's the backs as well. Lots of block "M"s for my fellow Michigan fans and me.

Matt, thanks for another excellent PWE that proved to be very timely as I enjoyed it before watching my favorite team literally run all over Washington en route to a second win in two games. As I've told you I have lots of stuff piled up for you so at some point in the near future I'll be hitting you back with an envelope of the bubble-with-tracking type!