2025 Facebook Marketplace purchase: 10,000? Maniac!

It took a few months this year but back in mid-March I made my first Facebook Marketplace card purchase of 2025: a pair of 5000-count boxes of random stuff for $60.

I drove east to nearby-ish Livonia (my hometown!) and met up with a guy who was cycling out some unwanted stuff from collections he'd picked up, and that's exactly the kind of stuff I like looking through at around this price.

These boxes turned out to be heavier on base than inserts but the latter were still prominent enough to give me some great trade content, and the former were useful in some ways as well. I'd say the split was around 60% baseball, 20% football, and 10% each of basketball and hockey, give or take (it's been a while so I can't remember for sure!).

Regardless, as always I had fun flipping through this stuff, and a good chunk of it has already gone out in trade packages, plus I may list some on TCDb eventually.

As for the reason most of you are probably reading this, here were my keepers, which amounted to a pretty nice stack:

This bunch skewed recent, as in the past five or so years, which was great for me since that helps fill a lot of holes for current Tigers and other PCs. In terms of older stuff, the 2007 Topps Tigers you see here aren't base but are actually from the team set, which I didn't already have.

The Tigers were well represented, as you'd probably expect from cards I picked up in a suburb of Detroit. It's great to see the '06 World Series guys together with some of the stars leading the charge for a surprisingly good 2025 squad.

Both of my blog namesake guys made the smallish group of horizontal cards. Curtis deserves all of the awards for being a talented player who was fun to watch in addition to an impeccable ambassador of the game.

There was just a quartet of Wolverines I needed in the basketball stuff, but this gives you a small idea of some of the brands that were heavily represented.

The football contingent was three times larger (and happily included some love for the defensive guys) and again this gives you a bit of a taste of brands I found.

2024 Absolute Retail and Prestige were by far the biggest stacks so it's no surprise I had multiple keepers from both. Some Prizm and Mosaic sets also popped up a good amount, just to a lesser degree.

When it came to hockey the local favorites also made lots of appearances, mostly to the benefit of the collections of two guys I loved watching in my younger days. Sergei Fedorov got a great bump to his PC with a cool mix of brands and designs.

Though most of his cardboard appearances here depict him with other teams, Brendan Shanahan also got a nice boost, and there's even a few in the next scan from his tenure in Hockeytown.

The HOF three-time Cup winner, all with Detroit, spent parts of nine seasons as a Wing, but was also known for multiple years with the Devils, Blues, Rangers, and Whalers. What a great trade acquisition he was as Detroit finally ended its Cup drought in '97.

Oh yeah, one Michigan Hockey card did manage to sneak into the pile: an early 2000s base of Mike Cammalleri, a guy who had a nice 15-year career of his own.

Like I said, these were fun to look through and sort into piles for my trading buddies, plus I still have some stacks I may list for trade, we'll see. In the meantime, I recently bought another lot from this same seller--around 300 recent baseball inserts for $50--but probably won't do up a post on them since I only ended up with a single keeper for myself. Some of those did make for nice filler in the 11 trade packages that went out to some of you today, though, so some of you should watch your mailboxes!

Next time you see a post from me I should be into Aprils acquisitions.

2025 trade package #4: Chronicles of Fuji

It's the last day of March so of course I'm still covering trade envelopes I received back in January, but that's what happens when you slack on posting!

Last time you got to the contents of an envelope from a blogger who's also a teacher, and that's the case once again this evening. Tonight's cards arrived from all the way on the west coast courtesy of Mark of the Chronicles of Fuji. Fuji sent me a nice little surprise that was heavy on my favorite MLB team. They may have started the season 0-3 against the defending champs but I still think they'll be decent this year.

On to the cardboard (and more!):

Not only is the theme here "Detroit Tigers," but almost everything's an insert, and oddly enough, none of these guys are active Major Leaguers anymore, with Miggy being the most recent to have retired. Porcello last pitched in 2020 and Jackson hung 'em up after the 2018 campaign, the same sunset season for RP Jacob Turner, who ended his MLB tenure where he started it. Dmitri's bro Delmon Young is next with 2015 being his final MLB year, and Magglio's 15th and last was 2011. 2003 second round P Jay Sborz did make a single appearance with the big club in 2010, giving up five runs while recording a pair of outs, and that was the apparent end of his pro career.

This is a fun mix of inserts and players, with home run heroes Miggy and Magglio ranking above the rest, though AJax remains a favorite of mine.

Oh yeah, and then there's one more fun little bonus: that eBay gift card! Fuji was already generous enough to send me some cards, but then he went way above and beyond by gifting me $50 to spend at the source of some of my bigger pickups! To give you an idea of how seriously I'm taking that, I haven't spent it yet, and as a reminder, this envelope made it to me in January. I'm looking forward to picking up a heavy hitter or two to justify the great expense Fuji went to here, and whenever I do find the perfect fit(s), rest assured you'll see a post right here.

Fuji, once again, thanks so much for the great Tigers cards and the eBay credit, I really appreciate it! I don't have a lot set aside for you right now but I'll keep stocking up until I can hit you back.

 Meanwhile, stop me if you've heard this one before, but stay tuned for more trade recaps soon!

2023 trade package #13: the Angels in Order

I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted but I've been busy with stuff like turning 40 and visiting a friend down south. Still, trade recaps await so I'm back to it!

It's been great for the blogosphere to have Tom from the Angels in Order back and writing very regularly (something I obviously can't manage!), and an even cooler development is the way he's taken to trading on TCDb. His exploits there (TCDb ID "calangels") where he's well on his way to the 100-transaction mark in just a few months led to our first trade in about three years. I was happy to tack on some extra stuff to his original proposal and off we went!

Here's my end of the deal:

We start with a trio of '87 Leaf Tigers. I took a look at the team checklist for the set and these sew up the players I actually collect from it, meaning I'm ignoring Bruce Fields' and Walt Terrell's entries. Next, I can't say no to more cards of Maggs and Pudge, a couple of key '06 Tigers, whether or not they're depicted with Detroit. That would explain why my collections of them are as large as 236 and 351 cards, respectively!

The last Tigers card was a '96 Collector's Choice Silver Signature parallel of the team checklist starring who else back then but Big Daddy himself, Cecil Fielder. The '96 set featured one of the product's better designs in my opinion.

And then we move on to cards of three guys that make up my big four PC group of non-Tigers/Wolverines. Ripken gets left out this time but he leads the pack by a mile so that's ok. I was happy to add four new Griffeys, three of them Reds cards, to keep marching him towards the next milestone of 1100. Mr. Padre Tony Gwynn adds to the Collector's Choice parade with one of the 836 items I own of him. And ex-Padre and Dodger (not his most well-known squads) Greg Maddux is a bit behind Gwynn with 817 including the '07 UD First Edition above.

Since this bunch was going to work out to be three images regardless, I bunched the three Wolverines together. It's great trading with an Angels collector like Tom because he happened to have a couple Jim Abbott dupes for me in the form of a couple oddball-ish items. The first is a 1991 team issue Smokey the Bear card while the other is from a 1992 Classic multi-sport product called World Class Athletes, a set that largely focuses on recent Olympians (Jim was one in the 80s, of course) but which also includes a smattering of other stars.

The '75 Topps of HOFer Ted Simmons was a late addition as a replacement for an '82 Fleer Stamp of Jack Morris that Tom couldn't find. Uh, yeah, that's a reasonable swap, dude! It apparently gives me 99 cards of the ex-UM C and a milestone celebration will surely follow soon. A fellow Wolverine from the gridiron closes us out tonight in the form of a '91 Classic base of Jarrod Bunch, a late 80s FB (remember that position?) who spent four years in the NFL with the Giants and Raiders.

Tom, thanks again for reaching out and working this deal via TCDb! It was great trading with you again and I look forward to the next time we can swap some cards. In fact, I may already have a decent pile going for you after this month's show.

Stay tuned for a couple more trades, a June show recap, and lots more!

2022 trade package #20: Collector's Crack

The next couple trade packages you'll see came courtesy of a couple longtime blogger friends but with a bigtime assist thanks to TCDB.

The deal you'll see tonight was my first with Mark, a.k.a. CynicalBuddha, of Collector's Crack, since July of 2019. Obviously it had been far too long since we sent cards back and forth from Alaska and Michigan, so I was glad to see we had so many trade matches for each other. That made figuring out a deal a breeze, and then we even managed to make it a bit bigger by adding on some hits.

Everything went smoothly and I added the following items to my collection:

I don't know if they'll ever all be healthy at once, or all on the Tigers even if that works out, but for now I'm still enjoying collecting stuff of three of the team's best young pitchers. Right now Mize leads the trio in my collection with 45 cards (some of which I believe I'll be showing off in future TCDB roundups), with Manning second at 16, and Skubal #3 with 14.

Over here we have some Tigers and other PCs. The Miggy cards were fun throw-ins for me, and I'll continue to add nice Cochrane cards to his PC whenever I can get them, Tigers uniform or no. Remember when Kirk Gibson was managing the D-Backs?

Gwynn is a major PC for me and the three items here all looked great to me--a throwback to his college days, a colorful Diamond Kings insert, and another throwback to Topps' Doubleheaders product. The latter is in a much easier to manage format than the original's flimsy paper stored in a plastic stand, but other than that the concept is pretty much the same: one side is a reprint of the player's RC and the other is their card from that year (or in the case of the '21 insert, their final Topps card):

I'm always glad to see Jack Morris in a Tigers uni in newer products because despite his greatness with Detroit he's often lauded for his performances with the Twins and Blue Jays. And why not keep adding to my collection-leading PC of Ripken?

Three many Verlanders comprise half of this final scan, and while I was glad to add a new Tigers card thanks to the 2012 A&G insert, my favorite is the Stadium Club Chrome from a couple years ago as that brand looks so sharp.

On the relics side of things I scored a double of a Bowman Heritage bat of Magglio (I somehow missed that I already had it, but that's cool, I made it available back on TCDB) and a new similar card from 2005 Donruss Champions (one of his two appearances in the set). Mark also came up with a new JV relic for me out of 2013 GQ, my 32nd hit of his, 19 of them being relics like this one.

Mark, thanks again for a great trade! I was happy to be able to run it back after we let three years go by.

For those of you reading this who aren't familiar with Mark, please go check him out on TCDB under his cynicalbuddha account, add him as a friend, and get trading with him. I can promise you an easy deal where both sides are happy just like this one!

Still to come: another old blogging pal and I work out a pretty large deal on the site....

TCDB trade: randylaw, part 2: Detroit Tigers 1980s-today

 

Welcome to part 2 of my recap of the large deal I made with randylaw on TCDB. Since I already explained how the trade was done in part 1, plus I have a LOT of stuff to show off today, let's get right to it!

Today's theme is Detroit Tigers players from the 1980s-today (obviously not including the '84 guys I showed off last time):

There are a few guys in today's post for whom I acquired under five cards, and four of those players bookend this photo. Miggy and Castellanos ('14 Topps RC) are two of only three active players I counted in this post, but that's because the sets lean 90s-heavy. Granderson (including an SI For Kids Card) is obviously a favorite of mine, and Guillen, on a shiny UD Spectrum base, was a fun and productive player not that long ago.

Next we have three stalwarts of some bad 90s Tigers teams, but ones I enjoyed watching growing up anyway. There's a quick five-spot of former 1B and current MLBPA chief Tony Clark. While he didn't exactly live up to his top prospect billing he did have a solid career. A couple creative late Pinnacle issues--Inside and X-Press--highlight the group.

I bet if you asked a bunch of people my age who their favorite Tiger for much of the 90s was, they'd say Cecil Fielder. His 51-homer season was a blast to watch, and blast was something he did often, compiling almost 250 bombs in parts of seven seasons in Motown in a successful homecoming from Japan. In his group here you'll find a mix of oddball, low-end, and some of my favorite brands that modernized design like Ultra and Stadium Club. The '96 Ultra brings back memories of busting packs searching for my Tigers and the many cool inserts that were available.

Playing on the opposite corner from Fielder was Travis Fryman, who also debuted with the Tigers in 1990. He put up consistently solid numbers in Detroit before departing a year after Cecil, heading to Cleveland by way of the expansion D-Backs. His haul starts with some low-end stuff as well but I was able to add some mid- and later 90s stuff too, with my favorite being the '96 Score Dugout parallel.

My Mike Henneman (also known as "Henne-butt-chin"!) collection got a very nice boost in this deal. Though the former reliever only spent 10 seasons in the Majors he was effective to the end, putting up 31 saves (against seven losses, granted) in '96 with Texas, his sunset campaign. Before that, though, he tallied 154 saves and 57 wins in eight-plus seasons with the Tigers (and then got flipped to Houston). I scored a couple of his 1987 XRCs, a few oddballs, and some other fun 90s items among 23 new items.

I wouldn't leave out Brandon Inge, whom I affectionately refer to as "BInge", if I had any chance of adding cards of his. I like that the five above show his positional versatility, a reminder that he went wherever he was needed on the diamond.

Austin Jackson ("A-Jax") was another somewhat recent favorite of mine who won me over as Granderson's replacement after the latter was dealt. All I could get of him here was a '17 Topps base of him with the White Sox, but it was worth an add for me.

Nokes was with Detroit for just four-plus seasons, but the former PTBNL in a deal with the Giants had a big '87 season and played during my early impressionable years of being a fan, so he immediately became one of my favorites along with Lou Whitaker. There's plenty of oddball stuff to enjoy there--Holsum Discs, what's up?!--but my favorite is no surprise to anyone: the Sportflics card.

Rounding out this scan is a guy who was a big contributor to the team's success around 10 years ago, Magglio Ordonez. I ended up with only Tigers cards, though I can't remember if I did that on purpose or if Randy didn't have any White Sox stuff I needed. In any case, that meant plenty of nice shiny stuff from the mid-2000s on like Bowman and Topps Chrome, and my favorite of the bunch: that beautiful 2007 Bowman's Best base.

This photo (which is a good example of why I prefer scans when they're feasible--just look at this mess!) includes just two players, meaning their hauls were among the largest of the trade. They also both happen to be PCs I've been focusing on more lately.

First is slugging 3B Dean Palmer and 14 new cards. Only three of them have him in a Detroit uniform, but that's down to what I needed and what years I could grab, meaning the rest are with the Rangers and Royals. I was glad to add some new Stadium Club items, including one with a cameo from future Tiger Ivan Rodriguez. Also, the Tigers trio is pretty solid with Finest and Fleer Showcase issues.

The other is the late Tony Phillips, who got an excellent bump of 36 items to get him over the century mark. The versatile IF/OF spent a good chunk of his career with the A's, winning a ring with the '89 team, but the five years he was with Detroit were his second longest tenure with a team. Here you can see I came up with one Oakland card, one after he joined the Angels, and 34 with my favorite team. They span 1989-95 so as you'd expect there's a ton of variety, with multiple Panini stickers, Stadium Club looks, and some Donruss, Leaf, and even a couple Triple Plays! You'd better believe I'm super excited for that Sportflix card, though.

We'll finish up today's post with more guys with few cards bookending larger groups. Polanco and Pudge joined Magglio in contributing to some of Detroit's playoff teams so I still like adding stuff of them when I can. Sheridan was a Tiger from 1986-89, again, when I was just starting to watch the team, so I rooted for the Ann Arbor native back then. I think a lot of us thought Thompson was going to be an ace, and I for one was pissed when Detroit sent him to Texas for Juan Gonzalez's stupid ass, but injuries meant he never pitched for the Rangers. And then there's the last guy from this post still playing (probably, since that's pending a return from surgery) in Verlander, popping up on a 2018 Heritage base.

As for the other two players, the first is Tanana, who pitched for 21 seasons, eight of those with his hometown team. He was such a fixture of the franchise in the 80s and early 90s that I accidentally included him in the photos for the previous post without thinking, before remembering that he didn't join the team until June of '85. I came out of the deal with 20 new cards of his, beginning with '86 Donruss and ending with '93 Score and his sunset season. Like a number of other players seen here today you'll notice I found some stickers and other oddballs of him, plus a number of brands I love like Studio and Stadium Club.

And last but definitely not least today--so say 20 new cards of his own--is Fruit Loops himself, Mickey Tettleton. I think I initiated this trade with Randy because he had so many needs out of the stuff I'd grabbed in that Facebook Marketplace lot, but what sealed the deal for me was that he had so many new cards I needed of guys like Palmer, Phillips, and Tettleton as well. Better yet, 16 of these were made depicting him with the Tigers, and a lot of them show him in action behind the plate. This haul also got him over the 100-card mark, putting me at about a quarter of his collection, which is pretty cool!

That's "all" I have for today but I hope you enjoyed this look at what was largely a throwback to 80s and 90s Tigers, with a few from the successful teams from the decade starting in 2006. If you liked these you won't want to miss the finale which has lots of interesting stuff you may not be expecting!

2019 trade package #38: Nachos Grande

Way back near the end of November Chris, who runs Nachos Grande, announced his Season of Giving giveaway in which people could sign up for some free cards of their favorite teams, with Chris trying to oblige as best as he could.  He's always been a good dude to trade with and I appreciated the dual goals of finding good homes for unwanted cards and sending things out for the holiday season, so I put my name in, and he was nice enough to send a stack of Tigers (and a few other things) my way.  If that's not the epitome of holiday giving I don't know what is!

Here's what Chris sent this time:

We'll lead off with possibly my favorite card of the whole package, a '98 Paramount Team Checklist card featuring Tony Clark, kind of the Tigers' Nicholas Castellanos of his day.  Detroit developed him as a high draft pick and he put up some good numbers on some awful teams before being cut loose in his seventh year.  At least he made the playoffs a couple times after that!  This card is another pefect example of how fun Pacific was back in the 90s.

Encarnacion was Clark's teammate for a few seasons and went on to win rings with the Marlins in '03 and Cardinals in '06 (against the Tigers!).  Fulmer's Bunt insert from 2017 was new to me, and I'll continue being a broken record in hoping he returns to health and effectiveness next year.  Hunter gave the team a couple quality seasons before retiring after a one-year return in Minnesota.  Kaline looks great on a 2002 Fleer Fall Classic base.  Kinsler (also '17 Bunt) was one of my favorites in his three-plus seasons in Motown and 2B hasn't been the same since he left.  Playoff hero Magglio appears on a 2008 UD Heroes Charcoal parallel #d 352/399.  Palmer's big bat was a rare highlight on some bad 90s teams, and '99 UD retro was a highlight of that year's releases.  And I somehow didn't have the base version of Phillips' '94 Collector's Choice base where the underappreciated multi-position player can be seen going airborne turning two.

And now some horizontal cards and more!  I didn't arrange things like this on purpose but the cards down the left side are all new to me while the other two are dupes.  While Granderson's redundant thanks to my '08 Topps complete set, I needed two of the '14 Topps base:  Miggy's 2013 AL RBI leaders base and an issue of V-Mart sliding into home in better times for him and the franchise.  '84 champ Larry Herndon's '88 Topps Big card was also new, and I'm sure I'm lacking a bunch of Tigers from the three-year(?) run of the product.  And then there's my co-favorite item today, an '85 Topps Rub Downs piece that includes Lou Whitaker along with Carney Lansford, Mario Soto, and John Denny, plus a glove and a couple of balls.  Chris had it in a penny sleeve with the instructions card, which was cool from a collecting perspective, and also wise of him since the other piece is so thin.  It's a very cool oddball item to add to Sweet Lou's collection, now sitting at 290 different items.

Lots more Tigers to get to!  Casanova had a great name but not a bat to match, and he was one of many players the Tigers acquired from the Padres or Astros in the 90s.  Higginson's act wore thin for me toward the end of his tenure, but that '98 Flair Showcase card is a thing of beauty.  The Bowman Chrome card (2012) is of RP Matt Hoffman, a 26th round pick that found his way into the set for some reason.  I'll always appreciate Robinson for being just good enough to entice the Orioles to send Mickey Tettleton to Detroit.  And while the humorous Sparks didn't put up great numbers, I do appreciate the fun design of 2003 Studio and its cool background photo of one of the entrances to Comerica Park.

Ok, now we're done with the Tigers.  Knudson's not worth mentioning but the 2011 Topps Attax cards of the park and mascot Paws are fun.  The former is actual a foil version but it was hard to get that to come across in a scan.

And last up today is a trio of non-Tigers cards, in this case Barry Larkin, a guy Chris also collects for some reason.  He sent a nice mix in the form of 2005 Throwback Threads, 2015 Contenders, and 2016 Topps Archives.  Those of you who know me at all shouldn't be surprised that I'd rank them 2, 1, and 3, in that order--Michigan uni cards almost always win--but all three look great no matter what.

Chris, thanks again for including me in your Season of Giving, and I'm glad you liked your own Christmas cards from me!  Let's do more trading in 2020, especially if I can hunt down more set-fillers for you so you can continue the completion momentum you've got going in your latest series of posts!

2018 trade package #6: Cards on Cards

So as it turns out the mystery sender of the package I mentioned a couple posts ago was Kerry of Cards on Cards, which makes a lot of sense because I've only traded with a couple Oregonians.  What threw me off was the ZIP on the label which didn't quite match his, but Kerry was able to explain that.

So that means I have a nice bunch of stuff to show off from the Cards/Ducks fan for the eighth time on this here blog.  And I do mean a bunch!

Here's the start of a ton of Cabreras Kerry sent me, but by no means is this everything--it'll take portions of three more scans to take care of that!  Almost everything is Topps but you can see a Prizm and Optic appearance in there too.  My favorites are the Topps Chrome, Optic, and Bowman insert as it's numbered (#090/150).

This scan finishes off the vertical Cabreras (hint hint, more to come!) and includes a pretty cool Stadium Club insert from last year.  Then we finally get to look at another player, Nick Castellanos, on a pair of 2016 Topps releases:  Ginter and Heritage.  I hope he can keep his bat going with a move to the OF this season.

"Big Daddy" Cecil Fielder appears on consecutive Bazooka releases from '95 and '96.  I know I had the latter since I own the set but I believe the earlier one is new to me.  And while I'm on the subject of new stuff there's a pair (with more to come) of #1 starter Michael Fulmer via 2017 Chrome and A&G.  Keep sending these to me, guys, I love getting them!

Yep, there's always room in my collection for more of Michael Fulmer, such as his 2016 Heritage base and an insert from last year.  Another pitcher named Mike made the trip in the form of closer Mike Henneman ('93 Flair) and he's joined by an even more famous Tigers fireman, Guillermo Hernandez, on my first Rediscover Topps card (from the '89 set).  Then we begin a very nice run of former Tigers 2B Ian Kinsler, who seemed to rival Miggy in terms of the number of new cards I added thanks to Kerry.  All five that you see here are from 2016 or '17, with the Archives card from last year being the clear highlight.  Turn two, baby!

We'll start this scan by finishing up the vertical Kinslers, and what a start it is with a beautiful Stadium Club card.  May that brand continue as long as I'm collecting!

He's followed by a pair of Martinezes:  the departed J.D. and the thankfully-leaving-soon Victor.  J.D. was a blast to watch after coming to Motown and retooling his swing, and I'm thankful that Detroit's front office is smart enough to recognize good opportunities at least once in a while!

New HOFer Jack Morris stops by with a pair of 80s issues--his '87 Leaf Diamond King (which I'm almost positive I didn't have) and '89 Upper Deck base.  Nice choices!

Brand new Brave Anibal Sanchez closes out this group, and I really wish him well after his Tigers stint that started very well and ended less so for various reasons.

Mickey Tettleton always gets a shoutout here so of course I loved seeing him on a product that itself is always worth noticing:  Sportflix.  He's joined by a surprising six J-Up cards from 2016-17.  The exciting OF, who re-upped with the Angels (and new teammate Ian Kinsler) can be seen on a number of Topps products--including a 2016 Heritage Chrome insert, #d /999--plus Panini's Donruss Optic.

And now we get to the horizontal stuff.  That starts with three more of Miggy from fairly recent Topps releases, including a Toys 'R Us (RIP) Purple parallel and a Heritage insert that pairs him with Pirates legend Roberto Clemente.  That's not a terrible pairing, though Baseball Reference seems to indicate that Frank Robinson or Willie Stargell might be better comparisons.

MLBPA head Tony Clark pops up on a great landscape action card at the plate out of '98 Ultra that you could totally mistake for Stadium Club if not for the font used.  Then Ian Kinsler pops up three more times on some better Topps releases including Stadium Club, an Orange Chrome Refractor, and 2016 Chrome.

Pitchers are then responsible for the final two cards.  Max Scherzer was the player listed with Detroit on the multiplayer Heritage card but David Price joined him soon enough.  And finally, the Stadium Club brand has had much better days than Jordan Zimmermann lately, but maybe he could still put up some decent numbers to make some headway towards justifying his atrocious contract.

This whole scan is devoted to non-standard sized cards and mostly comprises 2014 Topps Mini stuff.  Former Tigers Alex Avila, Doug Fister, and the previously-seen Sanchez are the verticals while a pair of Cabreras were done up lengthwise.  A cool skinny Kaline from last year completes the group.

Here's a bunch of rookie types from Bowman and Heritage sets.  Jimenez and Machado have good chances of making the 2018 squad out of Spring Training while Lobstein is long gone and Farmer is probably almost out of chances.  Some of the rest appear in the club's improving minors system with Manning and Burrows going 3-4 in BA's organizational top 10 and Stewart sitting at #9.  Meanwhile, Funkhouser and Alexander make the grade in MLB's list at #s 8 and 13, respectively.  In that list Manning is #2, Burrows 4, and Stewart 6.  Not a bad bunch!

Kerry hit one into the Upper Deck with this relic and auto from that awesome brand.  The first is a Magglio Ordonez jersey from 2008 Upper Deck Spectrum Spectrum Swatches, a Purple parallel #23/30.  As I think I usually say, I have lots of fond memories of Magglio with the Tigers and am happy to take as many of his cards as people want to send me--no such thing as Too Many Magglios either!  A quick count of him in my Tigers PC comes up with 14 relics (one bat and 13 jerseys) and an autograph.

Joining him is homer-happy flavor of the week Chris Shelton whose beautiful signature is paired with a very nice design.  I'd say the spotlight theme is done well, plus I'm a fan of signature window-type cards in many cases.

Former blog namesake Curtis Granderson made a cameo in this package by hitching a ride on this Miggy card, a Wal Mart Blue parallel from 2013 Topps.  It'll be heading to Grandy's PC, and as a bonus it made me realize I might have the base version in my Cabrera pile.  I did, so that's a two-for-one deal heading to that collection!

The only non-Tiger in today's post is Cal Ripken Jr. on this nice trio.  The A&G insert and Optic base are very nice but the highlight for me was easily the 2013 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle card you see first.  It's a fun callback to the glory days of 90s inserts for sure.  I flipped it over to see who they paired with Cal:

2012 was the one down year (due to injury) in a run of six years, the other five of which were very good campaigns for Tulo, so this was a good choice.  Ripken also has a version where he matches up with Derek Jeter, and each of those has a variation where the front and back players are reversed.

A quick side note:  these put me up to 699 Ripkens in the album!  I'll surely take care of that milestone soon.

And last up is the one and only Mr. Kate Upton, 2017 World Series winner and namesake of this here blog Justin Verlander.  The bunch was so big it was almost too many--almost.  This first group of nine starts with a trio from Panini's Triple Play product from 2012, then moves on to another product from the same manufacturer, 2015 Prizm.  Here you see the base card and Blue Baseball Prizms parallel (wonder why they call it that?).  Very nice use of blue, I think.

The rest of the group is Topps stuff, starting with 2015 and 2016 Ginter (which look almost identical front and back), plus 2016 Archives and Heritage.  Archives did a pretty good job with the '91 design.

And here's another quartet, all but one of which were new.  First is JV's 2016 Topps Opening Day base which I had somehow not managed to track down.  Next is the lone dupe, his 2017 Donruss base; I can't remember if I picked that up in a trade or at a show.  From the same product Kerry tossed in an '83 Retro Variation, which not only looks great but also reminds me of my birth year.  And last up is a '17 Ginter insert called What a Day which celebrates Verlander's second no-hitter, the one against Toronto in 2011.  Needless to say I was thrilled to add this many newbies to Justin's PC.

I was able to cover a large portion of what Kerry sent here but don't think for a second that you see everything he included.  That shouldn't be a surprise since his generosity knows no bounds.  Thanks again, my friend from the left coast, for a fantastic pile of new stuff I'm already enjoying.  I have a show or two on the schedule in the coming weeks and will make sure to dig out some stuff to hit you back!

Speaking of hits, please also make sure to head over to TMM this evening for my penultimate 2017 COMC post which is all football hits.

2016 trade package #25: Fuji wishes me a Magglio Christmas and a happy Zoom-Zoom year

My final trade package of 2016 arrived courtesy of Mark/Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji, and what a package it was!  I'm talking 100% hits from the legendary blogger/trader/teacher/flea-marketer (you've got quite the diverse résumé, there, Fuji!).  Check out one of them over on TMM this evening, especially if you like a certain "super" player.

Most of the loot was of the Motown baseball club persuasion, so here's some Tigers to help me ring in the new year:

I may be getting to the point that I need to consider another name change for this blog:  Too Many Magglios!  Besides a ton of base and inserts, I now own 14 different hits of Ordóñez thanks to this excellent pair.  As usual, the "too many" would be tongue-in-cheek because I love collecting the offensive outfielder who put together seven very nice seasons for my Tigers.  Keep sending him my way, folks, and I'll take them off your hands.

Here Fuji sent me a nice pair of jersey relics.  The first is an attractive gray swatch from 2005 Sweet Spot, a Gold parallel of the Majestic Materials set.  I really like the design and colors here, and it doesn't hurt that it's numbered to 75.  The other also hails from a UD product from about the same time, 2007 Masterpieces.  The Captured on Canvas relic set retains Masterpieces' beautiful artistic look with the canvas theme and border.  Well done on both, Upper Deck.

Joining Magglio is my seventh hit of a young pitcher who was fun to watch in Detroit, Rick Porcello.  You may recall that he was sent to Boston in the deal that temporarily brought Yoenis Cespedes to Motown, and though he no longer calls Detroit home, I'm very happy to see him succeed, especially this year when he posted career numbers and won the AL Cy Young in a close race with former teammate Justin Verlander.  This 2010 Topps Peak Performance jersey hinted at his potential (his 2009 season was quite good) but I don't think anybody saw this year's 22-4 record coming!

The 2005 Topps Cracker Jack card housing this Pudge relic (my sixth) may be mini, but the bat chip is anything but, just like Rodriguez's larger-than-life career.  The legendary catcher is known more for his decade-plus with the Rangers, but he did put in four-plus years with the Tigers, helping to bring them back to relevance in the mid-aughts.  I'll be happy to see him elected to the Hall, which should happen this year, and that would make him the first former Tiger to earn that honor since Al Kaline in 1980!  Pudge goes with the Hall like baseball goes with "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and Cracker Jack.

Joel Zumaya.

It's a shame the former fireballer's career was derailed by injuries as he was fun to watch out of the bullpen, a place where the Tigers could certainly use his electric arm right about now.  Here he is on what's surprisingly my seventh hit, a jersey from 2009 Upper Deck Icons.  The action photo is classic Zoom-Zoom about to blow yet another pitch by a hitter.

Fuji, thanks again for ending my 2016 trading year in style with some fun stuff--I look forward to sending more cards flying back and forth across the country in 2017!