2024 COMC purchases: Nine from November

With the finish line now in sight I'm even more motivated to get this post done and call 2024 a wrap! Here's a look at the cards I bought for myself during COMC's Black Friday sale:

First up is hit #1 of another UM WR to wear #8 (besides another guy in this post), Ronnie Bell. The receiver/returner outplayed his practically anonymous recruiting rankings and was a key contributor as the Wolverines marched back to respectability under Jim Harbaugh. The Bowman's Best University card pictures him with the Wolverines (instead of the 49ers who'd eventually draft and then release him) and that's a great start for his hits collection! Sure, it's a sticker auto and he signed with his initials, but at least he added an inscription with his jersey number.

The day's other "first" is my second hit but first signature of LB Devin Bush II, a three-year Wolverine who did some nice work in 2017 and 2018 in Ann Arbor. The Steelers took him in the first round in 2019 and he's since bounced to Seattle and Cleveland, but was good enough to appear in an autograph insert (#d /299) in 2020 Panini Legacy.

In spot #3 is the other WR #8, the sure-handed Jason Avant, who was able to rescue the planted Michigan flag in Columbus this past season after Buckeye Jack Sawyer threw his hissy fit once his OSU team lost to Michigan again. Avant never won a Super Bowl with the Eagles but did have a solid 10-year career mostly spent with them, and I was thrilled to add another Triple Threads jersey/auto of his from his 2006 rookie year. The one you see above is the Sepia version /75 and is hit #66 of #8.

Next, RB Chris Evans appears to be out of the league at this point, but that wasn't going to stop me from picking up a third Michigan uni autograph of his. I may have passed on other brands but usually tend to like the simplicity of Score's rookie autos, so I had no problem ponying up a couple bucks for this one.

Sure, we've already had Devin, but what about second Devin? I paid less than $6.50 total for the cool pair starring former Panthers WR Funchess and I think that was a steal. The card on the left is a 2015 Panini Black Gold Sizeable Signatures Rookie Jerseys prime version, and I'm thinking you'll agree that it lives up to its "sizeable" and "prime" descriptors with ease. The other is a 2015 Panini National Convention VIP manupatch auto, which isn't the kind of thing I'd pay a premium for, but I do like seeing athletes sign things other than stickers. Funch moves up to 34 hits thanks to the pair.

I'll move down one spot horizontally to discuss the next card, a Jake Long 2008 Topps Triple Threads Sepia parallel. This one came with three really nice multi-color Dolphins swatches to go along with his signature (and numbering /75, like the Avant above). It's a great looking card to add to a collection that now stands at a very nice 98 hits, though he remains in third place behind our next two players.

Forever #1 guy Chad Henne continues to outpace the rest by a mile with his 146th hit, which happens to be one of the higher-end items in his collection. The 12th 1/1 I've landed for him, the card you see above is his 2008 Finest Yellow Plate (the non-auto version). It set me back a reasonable $14 which I don't mind paying for a top PC guy like Henne, whose hit collection isn't too far off of that from all-sports leader Rich Hill. As always, I'm a fan of when manufacturers do the border thing with their plates to make it obvious which color you have, especially in this case where the back is otherwise normal.

And last but not least is former blog namesake guy Mario Manningham. The 2008 Leaf Certified Materials auto you see above (#d /100) is everything I love about 2000s-era cards of some of my favorites, but it may be the most significant from this post for an entirely different reason: it puts Super Mario at exactly 100 hits, making him just the second player behind Henne in the football collection (and third overall including Rich Hill) to reach that mark! It actually wasn't 100% intentional as I would have been happy for Jake Long (again, 98) or Braylon Edwards (95) to make it first, but I only found one of the former I liked and none of the latter this time. So it looks like I get to celebrate Too Many Manninghams as my 2024 year of collecting comes to a close! (The football hits collection also surpassed the 1700-mark before the calendar turned, basketball went over 150, and hockey moved up to 350, with baseball very close to 450.)

Once again, thanks to everyone for making 2024 a great year of trading, blogging, reading, comments, shows, and more! I'm looking forward to treating you to recaps of the cards I've picked up since 2025 started including (at this point) seven blogger-related trade packages, two shows, and four TCDb deals. Look for a post covering the first blogger trade of January soon!

2024 trade package #15: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store part 1: everything but hockey

Tonight let's take a look at part of the latest big-ass shipment from Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, received by me in August.

That's right--I said "part of" because he literally sent me this:

I split it into hockey and non-hockey, and you'll be getting the latter tonight. In true SCFtDS form, you'll get to see a large package broken up into multiple posts!

Baseball's up first and my Tigers PCs, some old and many new, were well represented. I don't know if Baez is long for a roster spot but that Bowman's Best is pretty cool. The '72 Gator would be cool enough on its own but this one is a Canadian special: O-Pee-Chee! Miggy makes a few recent-ish appearances here plus one more in the horizontals section. Campos is only 21 and a potential OF prospect to watch. Traded Tiger Canha joins a bunch of others in this post from this year's Heritage.

Cronenworth is of course a favorite. Flaherty is surely happy to be with the NL champion Dodgers while the Tigers got two solid prospects in the deal. Gold is 24 and still in high A while Graham will be that age early next year and seems to be hovering around A+ himself. The Riley Greene playing card is a cool one of a fun player I'm definitely growing to like on the team. And Griffey was pretty good in his day as well.

Jobe is pretty much the franchise's top prospect after going 3rd overall in 2021 and he was though of highly enough to make a late-season MLB debut followed by a couple appearances in the playoffs, which had to be thrilling for a young dude. Jung is another top-100 prospect for the team and while his '24 MLB debut wasn't amazing, it was cool to see the '22 first-rounder get some ABs with the big team. Keith is locked up for a few seasons and could be a key part of a rebuilt offense. Kemp is another OPC Tiger from my Canadian buddy, this one from 1979.

Kinsler's was a bit of a favorite of mine during his Motown tenure so I love the Refractor above. Larkin is of course a longtime personal favorite and PC guy. McGonigle is an intriguing middle IF prospect that the Tigers took 37th overall in '23. Austin didn't work out but his Tigers draftee bro Parker has shown a bit of hitting ability and a flair for web gems in the outfield so we'll probably see plenty more of him next year. Melton's a '22 4th-rounder out of San Diego State, Morris is a team legend and HOFer, and Olson is looking to be an excellent acquisition whose numbers were hampered by a sorry lack of run support (and bad health luck) this season.

I have to say, it's super cool to see a guy like Magglio in products like Panini's '23 Chronicles, including the card numbered /199 above! As with other players you saw today I'm always glad to see cards of Cal in trade packages. Skubal is largely responsible for taking what looked to be another below-average Tigers squad and making it a big story, with a Cy Young-worthy campaign that led his team to a very unlikely playoff berth! Tork recovered a bit after a dismal start and we'll likely get a better idea next year if he'll be part of the club's future. Tram is another team legend appearing courtesy of '23 Panini Select. And Papa Grande and JV had fans plenty excited back when they were starring on perennial playoff teams.

The versatile Vierling is our last standard vertical issue in the baseball group. Miggy gets another Heritage MLB pair card that looks quite cool as a throwback to past Topps designs. The two guys who led the '82 Tigers on the '83 Topps card had an especially good time in '84! A stray '85 OPC half sticker of Lou Whitaker was a very fun surprise. Jung makes a couple more appearances, including one with the also previously-seen Melton. And then we have a card of a former Tiger the likes of which I wouldn't tend to keep, but there's no way I could turn down the Leather & Lumber black gold signature you see here even if it features failed prospect Christin Stewart. Come on, how cool does that look?!

Switching over to basketball, I believe that every player seen here is currently active in the NBA. Injured Hawks G Kobe Bufkin leads all comers with three new cards. THJ had a solid 14 points in Detroit's season-opening loss last night, and the card you see above is numbered /165, which is cool. LeVert's Cavs are actually scheduled to face the Pistons tomorrow. I couldn't find any stats for Washington's Poole yet this season. And then we have the Wagner bros, Franz and Mo who combined for 30 points (23 and 7, respectively) in yesterday's season opener win against the Bulls.

Basketball got a couple new hits too! Brooks is a newcomer to both my basketball hits collection and UM basketball PC in general. He played as a G for five seasons in Ann Arbor, spanning 2017-18 to 2021-22, then went undrafted, so he's prime fodder for a product like Wild Card Alumination that gets signatures of players who probably wouldn't sniff a cardboard appearance otherwise. While he becomes the 36th subject in my basketball hits PC, Wilson gets his second: a Crown Royale jersey/auto (numbered /199). The 2017 Bucks first-rounder is pictured with the team that drafted him though he's since suited up for Houston, Doug's Raptors, and the 76ers.

As we switch over to the gridiron, transfer RB Thomas Rawls is the lone base card out of 10 items (hence splitting the remaining basketball and football into two scans). WR Amara Darboh gets a nice spotlight down the right side of the scan with three beautiful looking auto/relics. #1 is a dual jersey (you might call them "prime" as they aren't far off from patches) and football combo paired up with Darboh's signature, and the Absolute beauty is the Spectrum parallel of that product's RC, limited to "just" 99 copies. Next is Panini Phoenix's Orange parallel of his jersey/auto, clocking in at 150 copies. And finally we have a Rookies & Stars Dress for Success signature and memorabilia pairing that's also numbered /99. Fun news: these additions allowed Darboh to join the 50-hit club in the football PC! He's just the 11th player to reach that milestone.

The above three hits go quite well with this super sextet. Arrington is one of the 10 other 50-hit guys in my collection and the '09 Topps Magic autographs will always be a favorite of mine. Talented defender Devin Bush II joins the collection with his first hit, a Panini Luminance jersey that makes him football collection dude #254 and the fourth with that first name. I now have 11 Butts including the shiny one numbered /99 above, and I'll leave that there for all of you to get your best comments in. Chesson was a college teammate and position mate of Darboh's and he hit the double-digit mark with his 9th card including a signature (the other's a plate) thanks to 2017 Panini Spectra (#d /199). I would assume most of you who've followed me for long enough remember the namesake of my now-retired secondary blog, Mario Manningham, on a sweet Press Pass college uni signature. By the way, he's one hit away from joining Chad Henne in the 100-hit club while Jake Long needs three and Braylon Edwards needs six. Goals!

And last up is one of the biggest surprises in this mailing. Doug's certainly been generous enough to send me plates and other 1/1s before, but I didn't expect this Yellow 2020 Leaf Draft plate of former transfer QB Shea Patterson! The two-year Wolverine went 10-3 and 9-4 in 2018 and 2019, a few seasons before things really turned around for Jim Harbaugh's program. This appears to be my 56th 1/1 in my football PC with Shea being the 34th member to appear on at least one. I really enjoyed finding this among the rest of the loot which was already very high quality.

So as you can see I was quite pleased with the baseball, basketball, and football content. As for the hockey stuff, you'll have to wait until next time, but I promise it's worth a look as that stack was bigger than that of these three sports combined! I look forward to sharing that with you so y'all can get a feeling for just how much Doug stuffed into this box.

Until then, thanks so much for another fantastic package, Doug!

2023 trade package #31: the Collector

Happy new year, friends! The calendar has flipped over to another year but in terms of cards I need to recap I'm still stuck in 2023 a bit longer. It's worth it to give credit to some traders that continued to send me great stuff through the end of the year, though.

Tonight's subject is Chris, the Collector. Chris actually sent me a couple envelopes in December and this was the larger of the pair. Here's what arrived in this one:

Sparky's looking mighty fine in Tiffany form! Baez, Miggy, and Greene (plus Tork in the next scan) are all from '23 Topps Archives, and I got at least one of each of the 1956, 1965, and 2003 card designs. The second Cabrera is an insert from that product: 1957 Hit Stars. The Gibby cards were both new to me: a 1990 Starting Lineup rookie year version (so he's shown with the Tigers, not the Dodgers), and 1993 Pacific Spanish's Jugadores Calientes (Hot Players) prism insert. Grandy is from the beautiful Topps Tribute set, in this case 2013's version. And Topps can't keep up with the number of times Hill changes teams so they should just airbrush his jersey and go with "???" for the team.

Here's a bit more baseball plus a basketball pair. Fan favorite Chet Lemon comes from '87 Donruss Opening Day. Ripken is from UD's strange Ionix product released in 2000. Remember when Scherzer pitched for the Tigers? There he is on a 2014 Topps Blue parallel. There's the Tork I previously mentioned, part of the 1956 design portion. And how about that super cool Brandon Inge auto? Sticking with the 2023 Archives theme he's the first card alphabetically in the Fan Favorites Autographs insert, a yearly favorite that mixes current stars with past team guys like Jayson Werth, Jesse Orosco, Devon White, and Chili Davis. Very cool of Topps to include him here on the 1964 design. That's just my second signature of his to go along from one made waaaaay back in 2000. Thanks, Chris!

The basketball portion pairs up Robert "Tractor" Traylor on a '98 SP Top Prospects card that was hard to scan with HOFer Chris Webber out of UD's 2003-04 Glass. I have Chris's Fab Five teammate Jalen Rose from the same set.

There was a bit of football and hockey to be had as well! AC's 1989 Starting Lineup card is one of few (if any) SLU cards I own and a very cool item to find in this envelope. I don't know if I'll ever have the corresponding figure but I appreciate owning the card. Grbac's '98 Bowman Chrome Refractor looks amazing as that insert often does. Oddly enough this envelope didn't include current blog namesake Justin Verlander but Chris did find something to represent my defunct second blog: a Mario Manningham 2011 Rookies & Stars Longevity parallel numbered to just 99. No, I still don't have enough of him! Former teammates Patterson and Peoples-Jones probably couldn't have predicted our Wolverines would be in the national title game this coming Monday and it still sounds strange when I think about it, but I can't wait! And Hutch was a big part of Michigan Football's turnaround, and now he's due a lot of credit for how much he's returned the Lions' D to respectability and helping the team to its first playoff berth in forever.

Chris wouldn't be TCDb's hockeydude if we didn't swap hockey cards once in a while, and here he threw in a 2023-24 UD base of Red Wing C Robby Fabbri. The former Blues draft pick arrived in Hockeytown in a 2019 trade and is now in his fifth season with the winged wheels. He's even looking likely to top his career high of 17 goals with 11 as of this post. Let's go, Red Wings!

Chris, thanks again for all of these great cards, not to mention being a fantastic trade partner and regular reader/commenter. I appreciate the effort and quality you put into envelopes like these and I'm looking forward to trading with you more in '24!

I think I now have six blogger-type trades from December left to cover in addition to that month's show, late year eBay purchases, and lots and lots of TCDb trades from throughout the year, so I'll keep at it as I work on catching up. First, though, should be show #1 of the year for me tomorrow (Saturday), and then Michigan's first shot at a national championship since 1997. GO BLUE!

2023 trade package #14: Cards As I See Them

How great is the blogosphere that you can reconnect with an old trading buddy without missing a beat? I ask because recently I was dealing with one of my favorite TCDb-ers and spotted an item I knew would fit the collection of GCRL Jim of Cards As I See Them perfectly if he didn't already have it. As it turns out he didn't, so eventually I was able to send it northwest of me to his mailbox.

I'm referring to Jim as an "old" trading buddy because for whatever reason we hadn't swapped cards since December of 2015. That's ok because it can totally happen, but you can tell it's been 7 1/2 years because he ceased operations on his Garvey Cey Russell Lopes blog earlier that year and will mark his seventh year of Cards As I See Them in September.

Anyway, it was great working with him again because as if no time had passed he sent me a fantastic return envelope chock full of stuff I love to collect:

We'll start with a couple recent cards of Miggy. I smile looking at the backs of his cards which need the fonts for his stats made smaller to fit in his 20+ years of service. Cronenworth is mostly a newer PC since Jim and I last traded, though his first cards did come out in 2015, but since then he's appeared in a lot more sets. Gehringer's from one of those classic Renata Galasso sets that I can't help but enjoy. Granderson's always a callback to my original blog name that I may decide to return to one day if I feel like it. And it's crazy that Hill's still pitching, an MLB journey that he resumed back in '15 with a few successful appearances with the Red Sox. Speaking of that team, hell yeah to the Chrome Purple Refractor representing his third and most recent stint for the club!

Mr. Tiger is always welcome in a trade envelope that comes my way, and it's no secret why he reached the 3K hit mark! I was very impressed with the number of Barry Larkin cards Jim included, and he even got creative with the '04 Topps Traded checklist. I remain a fan of Topps' 2021 Chrome Platinum Anniversary product because of cards like the one you see dead center.

The 30/30 card got me looking at the other members who joined the club around the time, in this case 1996, the year after he won his NL MVP award. Barry smacked 33 dingers to go with 36 steals, and he was joined that year by Dante Bichette (31/31), Barry Bonds (42/40, which was his fourth 30/30 season and made him the second member of the club Jose Canseco started, since joined by A-Rod and Alfonso Soriano), and Ellis Burks (40/32), Bichette's teammate. It looks like the only other time teammates achieved the feat in the same year was 1987 when HoJo and Darryl Strawberry went 36/32 and 39/36 for the defending champion Mets. By the way, Bonds' dad Bobby was the first player to reach the dual marks five times, since equaled by his son! They and Alfonso Soriano are the only to put up those numbers in four seasons. It's an interesting achievement and group, hence this huge aside about it!

Heading back to today's players, I sure hope Mize has a successful return from TJ surgery. I just looked into his recovery and it's been just a little over a year since he went under the knife...

Not unlike the card that opens this scan! TJ recovery is tough but he could certainly still be part of the team's future, assuming it has one under its current awful ownership. In better news, Tork has shown some signs of improvement lately which is nice to see, though I get how hard the switch from amateur to pro ball can be. The Rainbow foil card below those two features ex-Tiger Robbie Grossman and "what amazing and or completely stupid thing will he do today?" guy Javy Baez.

A Bowman's best autograph of former Tigers SS Dixon Machado was a fun surprise. He's got a super loopy signature that stands out at a time when a lot of guys can't be bothered.

A Mini Ginter X of Larkin brings us back once more to the '90 WS champ whose collection I'm striving to get to the 1000 mark. Then a trio of horizontal cards ends the baseball group. I love quality shots of Jim Abbott's delivery and you know you can expect a good one when it's Stadium Club (bonus for Chrome!). Granderson piled up 31 doubles in '06 but his encore the following season was one for the record books: 38 doubles, 23(!) triples, 23 HR, and 26 steals. Wow!

And last up is a Topps One-Two Punch insert of ex-Tiger teammates Verlander and Scherzer. Those guys were co-aces in Detroit from 2010-14 and each won a Cy Young Award (and Verlander an MVP) and won 20+ games in a season during their run. Yet despite combining for 169 wins over those five seasons, Detroit failed to win a World Series, getting swept by the 2012 Giants, losing in the ALCS twice, falling to Baltimore in the ALDS in 2014, and missing the playoffs entirely in 2010. Those failures loom large since the exits of Scherzer and Verlander signaled the "rebuild" the Tigers remain mired in almost a decade later. So I can't help but laugh at their fate with the 2023 Mets!

Jim added a trio of Michigan Football cards for good measure which was mighty nice of him, and though Edwards is a pretty well known Wolverine, I wouldn't expect just anyone to know which school Hall and Manningham (well, maybe not Manningham!) played for. Braylon, possibly making a great catch, is from 2008 Stadium Club, and he's joined by fellow WR Manningham's RC from the same set, with the latter numbered /1799--pretty sweet! Hall played on the opposite side of the ball as the first-rounder seen on his '07 Topps RC was a defensive back.

Big thanks again to Jim for this excellent mail day and the return to trading between the two of us. I look forward to seeing the reactions from some of you if he posts what I sent him, but regardless, let this recap be a reminder that he's still a great guy to deal with.

Still to come: MORE trade packages, June's show pickups, and a fun eBay score too! When will I get around to them? Eventually!

2022 COMC purchases: check out who's back!

It's 2023 but I still have some 2022 content to cover before getting to some great adds already this year.

Tonight you'll get to see the entirety of my first COMC order since late 2020. A number of factors, some pandemic-related, made the site a lot less attractive for a while as their processing speed for adding and shipping cards dipped below acceptable standards. After seeing that things were closer to normal late last year, I once again dove in during their big Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.

About $160 later, I had a nice stack of cards for myself and some Christmas card packages to boot (some of which still need to go out once my oft-mentioned Sportlots box ships!). Here are the items I scored for my own collections:

Baseball part 1. God do I love me some 90s inserts, and few could compare to Upper Deck's Amazing Greats in 1997 and '98. Both versions look stunning, and the Maddux you see above is from the former. Its wood grain design and clear inset player image look great, plus I love the punny name of the insert. From the same year you also get a look at another GOAT insert technology: Pinnacle's Dufex. I nabbed PC guy Dean Palmer's Museum Collection parallel for under a buck, and boy does it look nice in its own right.

To those I added a five-pack of ex-UM pitcher autos, all of which I believe were less than $2.50. Bourque's is a Refractor of the only other hit I owned of him, and that's numbered /499. New Rockie Jeff Criswell gets a nice trio added to his total out of Bowman Chrome, Elite, and Topps Pro Debut, and of course the middle card is my favorite since it features a college uniform photo. He now has four such cards to his name in my collection. And I ended up with a single card, but a spiffy one, of Criswell's potential Colorado teammate, Karl Kauffmann, also from Elite. It's a Status die-cut parallel numbered /99 and gives him four autos also out of six total hits.

The other two baseball items deserved their own scans. I thought the 2013 Panini America's Pastime booklet of former Tigers (and Yankees) A-Jax and Granderson was just too cool to pass up, especially for just $6.45. I don't have many booklet cards in my collection and getting one with large relic swatches from two of my favorite Tigers OF was a coup in my book. The one you see above is the Gold version numbered /49. The Granderson pinstripe is a nice bonus!

Card number two here was I believe the most expensive one I landed for myself, but well within my price range for a card of its type. My purchase history says I dropped $8.34 for Clayton Richard's 2018 Topps Cyan plate, one of five 1/1s I bought this time (but the only one for myself). That gives the former QB/P 13 total 1/1s to his name, 10 of which are plates.

Switching over to football, it was easy to split these into vertical and horizontal scans. A couple players got the most love this time but I also added a pair of new names and lots of college action cards so I spent my money well.

My first autograph of stud WR Nico Collins was one of my biggest steals at just $3, and I couldn't complete the purchase of it fast enough at that price given they usually go for more (plus the whole Michigan uni thing). Darboh got four new additions to his count (two more below) including a sweet triple jersey/auto and a green parallel of his 2017 Prestige autograph (/150) seen here. I love the latter's use of an action shot from a home game in the Big House.

Chris Evans made his debut in my hits collection thanks to the crazy cool 1/1 Matt sent me, and now I have a college uni autograph to go with that, also courtesy of Prestige. Talented DB Lavert Hill is making his first appearance with a 2020 Prizm autograph, and so is the guy on the last card of this scan, outstanding C (and current New Orleans Saint) Cesar Ruiz out of the same year's Playbook product. I'm making a more concerted effort to add hits of players missing in my collection and that work paid off here with some great looking cards of two recent Wolverines, both in their alma mater's duds.

And who could forget the namesake of my former other blog, Mario Manningham? I scored three verticals and one horizontal card (in the next scan) of the Super Bowl hero. One's from '08 Absolute and it comes with a football chunk plus jersey swatches in the shape of his number. The second is one of his two appearances in 2008 SP Rookie Edition and is done in the style of SP's '93 product. And the last one seen here is 2010 Prestige auto limited to a somewhat strange 113 copies.

Over on the X-axis we start with the other two Darboh cards. The current iteration of Leaf is pretty sketchy but you still get some extremely cool cards from them sometimes, like Amara's inscription-laden Trinity auto seen above. The jersey/auto/RC next to it from Panini's Illusions was also pretty cheap and further enhances one of my quieter quality collections, which now stands at 47 cards!

I occasionally chase cards of some of the guys that transferred out such as QB Ryan Mallett and found a good price on the slightly flawed (bit of a crease between his first and last names) auto/jersey from 2011 Timeless Treasures. That kind of thing doesn't pop up much in the other places I tend to look, so why not drop $2 for a solid hit?

The final Manningham card--though four is NOT "too many"--is from the hit-laded 2008 SPx product, and this one's a dual jersey with the swatch windows also in the shape of his jersey number. Mario's just one hit away from joining the 100-club in this collection, which currently includes Chad Henne and nobody else! (Jake Long remains at 97 and Braylon Edwards is chilling nearby with 93.)

One of my most interesting pieces I scored this time is the Denard Robinson 2013 Panini Black Rookie Shadowbox auto you see above. I thought the card enclosed a small mini jersey but it turns out it's just a flat image in a shadowbox-type design. That's still extremely cool, plus it's a new autograph of Shoelace for my collection, and it was just $2.25, so I'm very happy with it. That appears to be hit #54 of the dual-threat QB.

And this evening's final addition is my fifth hit and third autograph of DT Chris Wormley, a Ravens draftee who now suits up for the Steelers. He's the final recipient of a college uni auto for his collection, in this case out of 2017 Elite Draft, a product that was made for collectors like me. He's got a very good signature, especially with how low standards have gotten, and this one wasn't even $2, so it happily found a home in my football collection.

I was glad to be able to take another ride on the COMC train in 2022 and score some nice cards at great prices, plus they even arrived in time for me to send some out before Christmas! I hope those of you who follow the folks I sent them to (and will be doing so soon) enjoy seeing even more spoils on other blogs and social media.

As for me, while I wait for Sportlots to send me my now-ready-to-ship box cards, I get to show off some fun early 2023 items thanks to two fantastic trade partners plus some spoils from last weekend's show. It was a great start to the year in collecting and I'm looking forward to another enjoyable one with all of you. Happy new year!

2022 trade package #26: the Collector

Now that I've made lots of progress getting Christmas packages out in the mail, it's time to get back to what I was fortunate to receive this month! Chris (the Collector) went the Xzibit route, sending Christmas cards with a Christmas card:

Chris is a nice dude, confirmed (as if I didn't already know that.

Here's the cardboard contents:

Scan number one includes cards of a couple local teams: the Tigers and Wings. I love that Chris hit both my former and current blog namesakes in Granderson and Verlander. Curtis is seen on a Mets-appropriate Orange parallel (/250) from 2014, though of course that color also works for his original team. JV appears with both the Tigers (Topps' Chasing History insert) and his new old team, the Astros. Dig the back of the latter, which is just a blast to look at:

Since that injury-abbreviated 2020 campaign he tacked on an 18-4 record/1.75 ERA/185 K NL Cy Young season and his first World Series winning decision while earning ring number two. To say his career has been special is an understatement!

Current (though injured) Tigers pitcher Skubal joins the orange party with that parallel from last year's Topps Big League to sew up the baseball group.

Over on the ice we have a fun group of Wings. Datsyuk and Zetterberg are two Detroit players I associate with each other because they were longtime European teammates (02-03 through 15-16) that were late round draft pick gems (sixth and seventh rounds, respectively) back when the Wings were great at that. They also won the 2007-08 Cup together while spending their entire careers with the franchise, and tallying more than 300 goals.

Chris Osgood is another name that's known well around Hockeytown, even if he wasn't initially given the respect he deserved. After backing up veteran Mike Vernon in 96-97 he led the team to a cup repeat. A few years later he'd be off to the Isles and Blues, but he'd return to Motown in time to run it back with the 07-08 squad mentioned above.

I have less to say about Hirose because he's a Michigan State guy, but as with those in other sports (see: Kirk Gibson) I'm willing to give him a shot.

As for Michigan State's big brother, here's some cards of guys that played football and hockey for my old school. Brady, Manningham, and Woodson are all legends of the Ann Arbor gridiron, and all won Super Bowls in the NFL too. Tom's 2022 Father's Day card looks great with the old college action photo, which appears way better than his NFL season, which proves he should have hung 'em up and put time into his marriage. The Manningham (hey, another former blog namesake, that's all three!) 2011 Rookies & Stars parallel is absolutely sick, a beautiful blue that works for his alma mater and pictured team. That one's also numbered /75 and is definitely my favorite of the bunch. That's not to knock the die-cut UM card of GOAT CB Charles Woodson out of '98 Press Pass, though, because the design, including a textured football, kicks all kinds of ass!

Heading back to the ice one more time we have a really nice pair of cards of former sniper Mike Cammalleri. The 15-year center scored almost 300 goals while suiting up for five different teams, including two stints each with the Kings and Flames depicted in his two above cards. On the left is a base from 2007-08 UD Mini Jersey, a fun product with the thing in the name as something to chase, plus what I believe to be a red(?) Prizm parallel from 2013-14. Whatever the actual color, Chris continued to kill it with the team-appropriate parallels in this package.

Chris, thanks so much for the warm Christmas wishes and cards of both types! I'm happy to report that a present of your own is on its way back to New Jersey as we speak, possibly in time for Sunday, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I loved these early gifts!

2021 trade package #7: My Cardboard Mistress

It's definitely nice that a hobby is something you can do at your own pace. I spend a decent amount of "card time" on a weekly basis but don't get the urge to blog much, so I write up the occasional post whenever I feel like it.

Adam ("Spankee"!) who blogs at My Cardboard Mistress seems to have the same philosophy, or at least found himself pulled in other directions enough that he posted once each year in 2019 and 2020 and has gotten one up this year. There's definitely nothing wrong with taking a hiatus from collecting and/or blogging, no matter the reason, because you can always get back into it if you feel like it.

That said, it's great to have him back, even if it's only temporary. Adam was one of my favorite trading buddies a few years ago because he's another guy that likes to collect baseball plus a college team (go Hokies!), and recently he surprised me by letting me know some cards were on their way to me from him. As I opened them it felt like no time had passed at all, other than the years of the cards being much more recent:

Sometimes I get annoyed when a manufacturer uses the same basic look in product after product, but I guess there's also something to be said for "Awww, this is a doub--wait, no, this is from the Holiday set, not flagship!" So hell yeah to a new Granderson, even as I look forward to the coming months when we'll hopefully be free of snow!

Everything else was football which is great since you know I love me some Wolverines. Mr. Brady here was the most well represented with six total cards, two of which are college shots. Nice! 

Tom's Rookie Debut was a 1/3 for six yards cameo in relief (I'm assuming) of Drew Bledsoe in a 34-9 loss to the Gary Moeller-coached Lions. How have things gone for both franchises since then, anyway? 2010 Sweet Spot was a fun product because the base set was college-oriented and looked great, plus you could pull those sweet signed manuhelmet cards. Contenders' ticket motif is pretty much always a hit with me, like that 2018 version. The Elite Primary Colors insert is definitely one of the coolest cards of the package, with many of the front elements raised a bit, and numbering /299 on the back to boot! "Hero" is definitely an apt word to describe the GOAT's on-field performance, and that holofoil Playoff insert looks sweet. And finally, TB10 is a staple in Panini's college products that include past players, and I'll take any of them that I can get.

The non-Brady items were just as nice. Two of my absolute favorites in Henne and Manningham join Brady out of 2010 Sweet Spot despite the set being released two years after they were rookies, and those look awesome as well. Big Mo Hurst is still trucking along with the Raiders after a questionable medical diagnosis made him fall to the fifth round. Adam provided looks at him in Maize and Blue and with the team that drafted him, the latter in the form of a really nice 2018 Contenders auto RC! That's just my third auto (and hit of any kind) of the big man, and I really appreciate my fellow college collector for including it here. And last up we have another UM favorite in Denard Robinson on a Rookies & Stars Crusade insert from his 2013 rookie year. It's a great reminder of one of Donruss's coolest, shiniest inserts from its heyday.

Adam, thanks again for this fun trade package! It looks like it's the first time we've swapped cards since 2015, and no matter how long the wait it's nice to be able to do it again. Hopefully when things get closer to normal I can put together another pile for you, but in the meantime please enjoy the envelope I just sent your way in return!

2020 trade package #31: the Collector

The other day I received an unexpected envelope from Chris over at the Collector, happily tearing it open only to find more surprises in the surprise package: envelopes within an envelope! One PWE held an extra long toploadered card while the other contained a couple of pairs each in their own toploaders, taped together to make another long one. October is a good month for mysteries so let's dig in!

We'll start with the oversized card, which ended up being the '87 Donruss All-Stars Pop-Up of the Iron Man himself, Cal Ripken. These fun oddballs were inserted into packs of the even larger '87 Donruss All-Stars cards, and as the name suggests, you can pop them out and fold a couple tabs to make them stand up, showing them in action against the backdrop of the old Houston Astrodome, site of the '86 Midsummer Classic. I already had one of these (to go along with my lone other example, Lance Parrish, plus an '86 card of Lou Whitaker) so as I don't see it on his TCDB list, I'll likely be sending it over to Jeff, who I know will appreciate it.

Next is a pair of prolific Michigan WRs who enjoyed varying degrees of success in the NFL. Braylon appears on a base card from 2010 Topps Magic, one of the manufacturer's stronger brands in my opinion, (even if it isn't from the all-time great '09 college-themed version!) with a nice design. He's joined by college great, former blog namesaker, and bailer out of gumpy Giants QB Eli: Mario Manningham. This card was a bit of a mystery for me as it's clearly in the style of 2011 Panini Rookies & Stars, but didn't come up on TCDB until I found the checklist and added it myself. It's one of a six-card team set that was produced in conjunction with Pepsi and given away at a Monday Night Football game that year. Very cool!

Lastly, Chris treated me to a pair of cards from a sport we both collect a bit, though him decidedly more than me. Both star sniper Max Pacioretty, who was drafted by Montreal and enjoyed 10 pretty nice seasons with them until moving on to Vegas for the past two. He hit the 30-goal and 60-point marks for the sixth time this past campaign and put up a 5/3/8 line in the playoffs for the Golden Knights. Here you see the former Canadien on some slick Upper Deck cardboard (and more!) from 2015-16 Tim Horton's and 2016-17 Trilogy. Have I mentioned before how much I love it when card-makers print the name of the set on the back so their cards are easier to identify? See what I mean in the next scan.

Here's the backs for completeness. You can see the instructions for Cal's Pop-Up card and what I was just saying about UD's much-appreciated identification on the backs.

Chris, thanks a lot for the fun surprise! I hope you enjoyed the latest package I sent your way and keep piling up the nice pickups from baseballcardstore.ca, which I'm totally gonna try soon.

2020 eBay purchase: Many "M" Minis

Today's post is a quick recap of yet another purchase from my favorite eBay seller, markaguirre22. Among his auctions he tends to list stuff that must have been part of a pretty nice Michigan PC, and those usually start at $1. Also he offers free shipping on everything, which is super rare these days.

This time I kept an eye on four numbered cards that I secured for $1 each plus tax, though my total was less than $4 thanks to eBay bucks. Once again I was quite happy with my haul, which he even shipped in a bubble mailer despite shipping being gratis:

The first four cards you see here are the ones I bought, plus, as has happened before, the seller threw in a nice extra he knew I'd like. The third mini you see of tackling machine David Harris was a bit smaller than the rest so I set it aside, and it happens to be the oldest as it's from 2010 Topps Magic. That product included three small parallels: Mini, Mini Black, and the numbered Mini Pigskin 50, which is what you see above.

The rest of the cards hail from Topps' 2013 Mini product where all of the cards, including base, were printed with smaller dimensions. Harris joins blog favorite PC guy Chad Henne and former blog namesake Mario Manningham (the throw-in card!) out of the Gold parallel, where the cards were numbered /58.

Speaking of Henne and Super Mario, yesterday was the 15th anniversary of one of the best moments in the history of the Big House:

4th down ✅

:01 ✅

Trailing by 4 ✅#OTD 1⃣5⃣ years ago, Chad Henne found Mario Manningham as time expired to lift @UMichFootball past PSU. pic.twitter.com/a9YqPPROT6

— Michigan On BTN (@MichiganOnBTN) October 15, 2020

That clip still gets me every time I watch it. Anyway, all those at $1 apiece (plus the free Manningham) were already a nice deal, but then we get to the card I was surprised didn't get a second bid: Harris's Black parallel. While cards numbered /58 don't feel extremely rare these days, ones that had only five copies made certainly do! As the legendary clip says,

via GIPHY

That was easily less than $4 well spent. I now count 92 cards of Harris, 308 of Henne, and 221 of Manningham in their respective PCs.

And of course he's the backs for the sake of completeness.

This was another purchase post but coming up next I should have a brand new trade package to show off.

2020 trade package #16: Bump and Run Football Card Blog

I have a quick post for you to enjoy on this Father's Day Sunday in late June. Trevor over at the Bump and Run Football Card Blog shot me a message recently asking me if I needed a few cards he listed, and it turned out one of those would be new to me. Then the other day a very well packaged PWE showed up in my mailbox: cards in a card saver, placed in the middle of a standard envelope, with the two sides folded in, and all taped over, which I thought was a clever way of adding protection for free! Here's what he sent:

#1 is an '88 Score base of PC guy Tony Phillips, whose cards I'm chasing with renewed interest. The late Phillips played five seasons in Detroit while doing some of his best work with Oakland. A member of two pennant-winning teams, including the '89 champ Athletics, Tony's 50.9 bWAR and versatility put him in the Hall of Very Good. I'm glad to have his base card from Score's colorful debut. Kudos to Trevor for remembering that I collect him.

Second is former Michigan WR David Terrell's second-year base from 2002 Upper Deck. Speaking of colorful, this photo definitely pops! UD had a knack for selecting some great images and letting them be the star of their cards, and I'd love to see them back on the football side of things.

Finally we have the card from Trevor's list that I needed: Mario Manningham's 2008 Upper Deck College to Pros insert. Super Mario was one of three Wolverines (Henne and Long with the others) in UD's second go round with this insert that's fairly self-explanatory. Of course I'm a fan of seeing my guys in their college unis on cards, whether or not they're my favorites from my #1 draft class. This is a cool reminder of the origins of one of New York's biggest Super Bowl heroes.

Many thanks to Trevor for thinking of me and sending these cards my way. I highly recommend adding him on TCDB (user ID tntcardsstg), trading with him, and following his blog. I'll be working on a return shot in the near future!

2020 trade package #3: Chronicles of Fuji

I count myself among the people lucky enough to trade with Fuji and I'm always glad to hear when he's sending something my way since I know it'll be great.  That was mostly definitely the case when Mark played Santa last month and sent out a fleet of envelopes all over the country.  Even with my expectations high Fuji's generosity always manages to surprise me.  Check out this latest mailer:

Make no mistake, this package was a hit parade, and this isn't even half of it!  We'll start with Michigan pitching great Jim Abbott on a signature from UD's Goodwin champions.  As usual with the brand the artwork is suspect but the auto is top notch!  Then there's a whole mess of Tigers.  The first of two Miggy relics from 2019 Topps is a jersey from the set done up in the '84 design, which reminds me of the Tigers '84 set I grabbed at Comerica Park last year.  Next is a 2017 Topps Holiday jersey of Michael Fulmer which is somehow my first hit of the former ROY whom I continue to hope returns to full health.

Going a bit older school we have what I considered a pleasant surprise:  a 2000 Topps Traded autograph of former catcher/infielder Brandon Inge.  He could be streaky but put together a few nice seasons in the mid-aughts with his best year coinciding with Detroit's return to the Fall Classic.  That's my first auto of BInge and only my second hit overall along with a jersey, so this was a great inclusion!

Last up in this scan is a trio of nice jersey relics of Trashtro pitcher Justin Verlander.  I may cover this more in a future post but for now to answer what may become a FAQ:  yes I still collect JV, though I've soured on him as a player given his lackluster reaction to his team cheating its way to a title.  Anyway, these relics are quite nice and hail from 2017 Ginter and Heritage and '19 Donruss.

And the bevy of Tigers doesn't end there!  Up top is a very cool acetate auto out of 2002 Topps Pristine of '01 first-round bust P Kenny Baugh.  In a round one short on quality regulars (Joe Mauer, Mark Prior for a minute, Gavin Floyd, Mark Teixeira) Baugh was still a bad miss as he never made it out of the minors, plus he was selected ahead of, among others, David Wright!  That see through auto card is super cool, though, and I'm planning on keeping it for now despite the fact that I rarely hold onto cards of such players.

The other two here are somewhat similarly designed jersey relics of former teammates Miggy and V-Mart.  Cabrera's is from 2019 while Victor's was made the previous year.  I may have looked this up and mentioned it before, but as teammates from 2011-18 they combined for 454 HR while seeing their production fall off a cliff after 2016.  By the way, this is just my second hit of Victor and first of him as a Tiger, so again, nice job by Mark!

And now we're on to the "other sports" portion of the package.  I thought the Jimmy King/Ty Wheatley duo card made for a nice segue between the two games seen her, and naturally I enjoyed the college photos out of the terrific looking '95 Classic Five Sport set.  Biakabutuka's card is also very interesting:  a $20 phone card inserted into packs of '96 Press Pass.  They apparently also could be found in values of $5, $10, and $1996.  Remember phone cards?  That's so 90s.

And I'll give the best card of this bunch its own paragraph.  Glen Rice is probably the best player from the '89 champs and I'm always happy to get new stuff of his, especially when I don't have to buy it myself!  This 2016-17 Panini Excalibur Calligraphy card is a textbook example of how nice his signature can look, and he clearly lives up to the set's name here.  This is my fifth auto of Rice and of course I want to keep adding more.

Last up is the football hits portion, or what I'm going to refer to as the "Long haul" for obvious reasons.  I wonder if any of you can picture my face after I pulled card after card out of this package and thought, "How much great stuff did Fuji just send me?!"  I mean, take a look at the previous three scans and keep them in mind when you look at this bonanza.  Yowza!

Let's start with Touchdown Tim in the upper-left corner.  You wouldn't know it from the looks of it but that card was made by Fleer during his rookie year of '96, and despite the plain look it's nice to have since he doesn't have a ton of signed cards.  Then we have what's just my second auto of DL Ryan Glasgow of the Michigan walk-on Glasgows.  The reason it's difficult to see his name in that scan is the color of the foil--blue, appropriately enough--since it's a parallel version of his regular auto in the set.  As usual with Contenders/Draft I think it looks awesome and love the college action photo they went with.

Before we get to the guy who had the biggest day I can cover two of his teammates and fellow '08 draftees.  #1 PC guy Chad Henne is first with a jersey relic out of that year's UD product and then we jump forward two years for a sweet dual jersey out of Sweet Spot of another top guy in Mario Manningham, a.k.a. the namesake of my defunct sister blog.  The latter looks especially cool with, yep, a great college photo.

And now to the man of the hour, Jake Long, who represents a quarter of today's hits, with all of them being autographed!  Two of them--'08 Stadium Club and '09 Topps Mayo--include "just" signatures while the other three--'08 Leaf Certified Materials, Bowman Sterling, and UD Premier--come with relic bonuses.  Again, pulling these out one at a time was a crazy experience, and I'm humbled once again by Fuji's trademark generosity, not to mention the effort I like to credit when people go above and beyond to hit my preferred college collections.

Mark, thanks once again for this stunner of an envelope!  I'm not sure when or how I'll hit you back, but regardless of what you say I intend to do so one way or another.  And in the meantime I'm enjoying seeing the similarly amazing packages popping up on other blogs.  It's good to be a friend of Mr. Fuji!

1/4/20 and 1/31/20 show reports: January Jonesing

I didn't have to wait very long this year to get to my first shows of 2020, getting east to Taylor on the first Saturday of the month and again on the last Friday.  Things just happened to work out that February's show weekend started in 1/31 and I went that day as I had friends in town the next day.

Because I wanted to get going on getting these posted I decided to just combine them, but I'll give a quick note on how both went.  I didn't want to miss January's event because my usual guy was doing his thing where pretty much everything was half its usual price, and that worked out quite well for me as I dropped $30 on mostly trade bait, some of which has already gone out.  Then at the end of the month I threw down $40 to the same guy for more goodies, many of which were $2 hits for my football collection.  To those I added a nice little bunch of vintage pickups (again, some for trade bait) for another $20, bringing my monthly total to $90.

Here's a look at the combined haul this time:

Trade bait, part 1: baseball.  I believe the last three cards here were $0.50 at the first show while the Ward was $1.  Why would I pick up what appears to be a base card for that much?  It's tough to see the stamp on the front if you're not looking for it, but the back helps:

This is a 2003 Donruss Atlantic City National stamped card /5 that I'm sure someone will want.

And part 2, the football stuff.  I believe a couple of these were just $0.50 too, and at most a buck or two.  As usual, please claim anything you like in the comments or via email and we'll work something out!

Now we can move on to the stuff for me:

You can see how that vintage purchase paid off in this scan, especially in the top row.  The Gehringer is from a 1961 set called Golden Press and I think it looks great, especially for the era, plus it's my oldest of the Mechanical Man so far.  Horton's card is from 1970 Topps (his oldest as well) and I'm kind of slowly working on his vintage stuff.  And the dual Tigers rookie is fun since I mainly needed it for my Fisher collection as he's a Michigan alum, but scoring a RC of excellent Canadian relief dude Hiller is a very nice bonus.

Down the middle we have three guys from some of my biggest PCs in Griffey, Maddux, and Ripken.  The Junior phone card might look a bit familiar since I picked up similar stuff recently from that '95 Classic set.  My fun with Panini's Leather & Lumber continues with a cool die-cut Maddux insert called Benchmarks.  And we head back to the '90s for Fleer's Emotion E-XL and a '96 insert called N-Tense.  The while the front and back "layers" of the card are die-cut those areas in the middle of the letter are paper, though it's still a very cool design.

The bottom row opens with another extremely cool vintage item, a '72 Kellogg's of Wolverines HOFer George Sisler.  These look awesome and I hope to add more of similar guys like Ted Simmons as I find them.  And last up is former Tiger and current Trashtro Justin Verlander on a 2019 Donruss 150th Anniversary parallel (#149/150).  The photo on this one is actually the variation of the regular base, though I'd assume that they have the same odds of being pulled.

Heading over to the gridiron for the non-hit football stuff I came up with this trio.  Shoelace's card is a 2013 Spectra RC (/99), though I didn't realize that when I picked it up, so that was a fun surprise, and leaves me just a couple short of all his first-years.  Bo's card is a Delong Gum insert from 2013 Panini Golden Age, a "baseball" product like A&G, GQ, and Goodwin.  And my favorite of the bunch is the last vintage item of the day, a solid '57 Topps base of former Wolverines DE Len Ford.  It's just my third card of his along with his '55 Bowman RC and a '94 Topps Archives reprint of this very card!

And the hit parade begins on the Y-axis.  Leaf Trinity's Clear autos look amazing, such as Chesson's (eight hits) above.  I picked up three new Braylon (89) items, two of them featuring a second player, and one of those is on display here in the form of a dual jersey with former Lions WR Roy Williams.  Williams was a guy who was fairly productive and then was flipped to Dallas for, among other picks, a first-rounder that Detroit characteristically wasted on TE Brandon Pettigrew.

Getting back on track, it's unfortunately somewhat rare for me to pick up new Hart (69) stuff these days but I did luck out with his rookie year '08 Stadium Club Beam Team auto, a nice throwback to that brand's classic insert.  Lewan (15) gets a jersey swatch from last year's Certified that's about as big as he is a jackass.  Solid CB David Long is today's new player with his first hit, an autograph from '19 Prizm.  Former #1 overall OT Jake Long (86) makes a Michigan quartet from the 2008 UD Icons Rainbow auto set (with Arrington, Hart, and Henne), so I just need Manningham and Shawn Crable.  And probably the best of my trio of Chris Perry (55) items is this '04 Leaf Certified Mirror Blue ball/helmet/jersey relic, a card that's totally up my alley).

Pressing on with the horizontals, Jason Avant (63) gets a new jersey from '06 R&S, though I'd have a bone to pick with whoever would refer to it as "prime" if I IDed it correctly.  TE Jake Butt (6) joins former teammate Chesson with an amazing 2017 Leaf auto of his own out of Metal Draft.  Airbrushed helmet aside, the State Pride cards are super nice, though I wouldn't mind more of Michigan's motto on display.  Braylon's back for his promised third appearance, a Playoff Honors ball/jersey that pairs him with fellow Browns rookie Charlie Frye, a Cleveland QB that busted (go figure) even quicker than Edwards.

His more successful NFL counterpart, Mario Manningham (95) gets a "super" jumbo jersey swatch from '08 Gridiron Gear that I've labeled as "prime" since Panini didn't change the serial numbering (/50) from the non-prime version.  Oh, Panini....  It's a beautiful swatch and I'll put down a few bucks that Matt will have a positive comment about it not long after this gets posted!  Then we're back to Chris Perry's other two hits from 2002 Fleer's Rookie Throwback Threads insert.  The jersey/ball (/50) and leather helmet may be event worn/used but they're still plenty of fun to pick up.

David Terrell (45) didn't even up his hits total with counterpart Anthony Thomas's 53, but this 2001 Fleer Legacy Triple Threads jersey makes for some nice parallels as I now have a card like this for each player, plus they're both at exactly 150 in their PCs.  Michigan's former #1 had the worst career of the three as Gardner did decently well in four-plus years with Washington while Wayne was, uh, pretty good with the Colts, I believe.

Last up is RB Ty Wheatley (6) on a super nice shoe relic from 2001 Absolute Memorabilia.  This was from way back when Donruss/Playoff/whoever included a helpful image on the back showing the actual item the material came from, like-a so:

It's always fun to add something like this among the sea of less interesting relics like jerseys these days.

I think many of you will agree with me that that was a fairly productive pair of shows, especially since you haven't seen all the trade cards I've sent out or will be doing at some point.  Milestone-wise we're coming up on a pretty big one as I'm at 1495 football hits.  With the definition of some of those being a bit iffy in my mind these days (such as unsigned manu-relics) I'll feel a bit more comfortable about the number when I've eclipsed it by a bit, but it'll be worth a celebration no matter what!

Happily I'm just about caught up on in-hand stuff again with an eBay pickup being the only thing left for now, though I'm looking forward to a trade package in the next couple days and another eBay win.  After that I'm hoping to find some time to redo how I'm presenting my PCs, mainly to incorporate TCDB but also cleaning things up generally, plus I have a potential feature that may interest a lot of you, so stay tuned.  Oh, and welcome back, baseball!