2026 trade package #11: njwv

I don't do much collecting-related stuff on social media these days, and I'd say most of the little activity there I have is posting links to my latest posts here. That said, I do follow a number of collecting buddies and others in the hobby on Bluesky. After all, it's fun to see what other folks collect and think about cards, their favorite players, and other subjects, whether or not they also blog.

One account I follow who posts quite often is Nick Vossbrink, who also blogs over at njwv. He doesn't limit his subjects to collecting at all, choosing to write about sports in general (mainly baseball and soccer), photography, and museums, so there's a nice mix there.

I happened to catch a Bluesky post or reply where he expressed interest in the 1990 Score baseball set, possibly due to the famous Bo Jackson card therein, but it was a few months ago, so I can't remember. Anyway, I let him know that I had an extra--I've long had at least two hand-built sets in my collection, and I might have had more way back--and would be happy to try to make a deal with him for it.

We took our time going back and forth but were able to figure out something we were both happy with. In the end he sent me this as my first May trade:

A Riley Greene 2023 Topps Oversized Box Topper. These Costco-exclusive giants are 5 3/4" x 8" and of course this one parallels Greene's '23 Topps RC. I wasn't looking to nickel and dime Nick for value in return for shipping a junk wax set that included a couple notable cards, so I felt like this was a fair offer from him. Riley has followed up his All-Star campaigns in 2024-25 with what has the makings of another very nice season. In a year marred by some bats playing below expectations and others beset by injuries, Greene joins catcher Dillon Dingler and rookie IF Kevin McGonigle as the leaders of the offense. So I'll happily slot this into my album with similar oversized items.

But that wasn't all! Nick asked if I'd be interested in receiving any of his customs, and of course I said "sure!" I love seeing what the creatively inclined can do when it comes to producing their own cards.

The first two in this group borrow from the '81 Topps design and celebrate Miguel Cabrera during his 2023 swan song where he enjoyed retirement ceremonies from the Tigers' opponents. He received a Packers-style cheese hat from the Brewers and a cowboy hat from the Astros, and I love what Nick did with both the photos and design elements, especially incorporating the hats.

As for the second design, I believe that's an existing one I've seen but can't place (but should know), but I'd love for anyone to enlighten/correct me in the comments. Regardless, it looks very nice in its simplicity, and the player choice was outstanding too. The horizontal shots of Fidrych's iconic pairing with Big Bird, Kaline at the plate, and McLain staring down another batter are all well executed, paired with outlined inset images of the subjects.

And it's not like he limited his effort to the fronts, as you can see on these backs filled with stats and a couple brief write-ups.

Nick, thanks again for a great first trade! I hope you enjoy your Score set and that you keep writing, no matter what topic interests you whenever you post.

I'm thinking I'll be back reasonably soon with my other may trade package before showing off some other goodies. Stay cool!

2025 trade package #25: Cards on Cards

I know people say this every year, but man did 2025 go by fast. We're just a few days away from Christmas! And on that note, I took a bit of a break from blogging to get Christmas cards sent out to more than 20 very deserving people. It looks like most should arrive before the holiday while a few might take a couple more days. To those of you that made my nice list (not really, just the folks I found cards for), enjoy your gifts!

One of those folks is longtime buddy of the blog Kerry from Cards on Cards, who was nice enough to send me some cards last month. The Oregon fan got an early present yesterday when his Ducks advanced to the next round of the NCAA football playoff, and I'll be joining him in rooting for them, plus Indiana, in the coming weeks.

But for now let's look back a month when I received this from Kerry:

A box? Interesting! What could cause the need for this kind of shipping instead of the usual mailer? We'll see in a bit, but first we'll start with cards:

We'll start with (mostly) some Tigers. I believe I've mentioned '24 2nd round P Owen Hall before here, and he's seen on a 2025 Panini Crusade base card that somewhat calls back to the old Donruss insert that was popular when it was a shiny chase card. Jobe might still be a Star of MLB if and when he gets healthy. Donruss managed to find a photo of Leyland not smoking, so that's nice. Maddux is the lone non-Tiger here and I'm happy to add to one of my big four PCs thanks to cards from 2000 UD Victory and '25 Donruss, the former of which includes fellow HOFer Chipper Jones.

Next, the Wily Peralta looks like the kind of card I'd tend to throw in my commons boxes, but if you flip it over (as seen below) you'll find it's the variation that includes advanced stats and is numbered /300. Nice! '24 first-round SS Bryce Rainer, taken in the same draft as Hall above, and considered a top-100 prospect, also appears on a '25 Panini Crusade card, but in his case it's the parallel creatively named "Crusade" which has a rainbow effect much more in line with the legendary insert. Two-time reigning Cy Young-winner Skubal evokes past franchise aces on a '24 Topps Archives base. And Tork brings to mind another holiday, Independence Day, with a Red/White/Blue Prizm from the '22 Panini Product.

Hey, remember when I recently showed off my loot from Angus and he included Mark Fidrych's '77 league leader card from O-Pee Chee? Kerry sent me the Topps version so now I have both! The diminutive Parrish item is a '91 Panini sticker that I needed of the '84 champs' catcher. I included the back of the Peralta '22 Advance Stat parallel to show off the numbering and statistical variations.

And last up for baseball there's a '24 Panini Prospect Edition Green auto of Tigers farmhand Bennett Lee. The Tulane/Wake Forest C was chosen by Detroit in 2023's 6th round and we'll see if he gets a chance to move up past high-A West Michigan next year to see how he stacks up against other prospects at the position. I'm still deciding what I think of the Prospect Edition (formerly Elite Extra Edition) design since it's such a big difference from past looks, but I do appreciate that it has its own thing going on. And it's cool to have an early signature of a Detroit prospect like Lee.

It may be nearing Christmas now but back when Kerry sent this box it was closer to Halloween, making the group of Haunted Hoops cards very season-appropriate. Bufkin, Goldin, and Poole all made the cut, plus another player in the next scan. That's actually my first card of the Russian-born Goldin, a F who played a season at Texas Tech and three with Florida Atlantic before transferring to Michigan for a productive fifth year. He now plays for Miami.

Speaking of firsts, SF/SG Mike McGee also makes his collection debut thanks to Kerry. His is not a name I knew very well, but I've been making an effort to suss out Michigan alumni for whom I lack cards, and the Lakers '81 first-rounder was one of those. His 1990-91 Skybox base you see above is actually his final card listed on TCDb, but I may chase others. Thankfully, having him on my wantlist worked out because of Kerry's keen eye!

Last up for the hoopers is star Franz Wagner, whose haul is fairly similar to Jordan Poole's above him as he has cards from Donruss Optic, Haunted Hoops, and the latest version of Topps. Those two actually sit a spot apart in my basketball PC top 10 with Franz at 8 and Poole just four cards behind him.

Last up for the card portion is a nice little bunch of football. Transfer (to Iowa) TE Erick All is out for the Bengals' season with an ACL tear, but here we see him on RCs from Absolute (Retail) and Donruss Optic. WR Nico Collins continues the spooky theme with my first '25 card of his: Score-A-Treat. Transfer (to USC) RB Justin Fargas makes one of his occasional cameos thanks to 2004 Topps Chrome, marking my 38th card of Huggy Bear Jr. And while fans have to wait until Monday Night Football to watch the Colts, my favorite current player of theirs, Kwity Paye, looks ready to cause some chaos on defense on a '21 Wild Card Alumination base that proved very difficult to scan thanks to its silver foilyness, but that's cool because it's got a great (and not airbrushed!) college photo.

So all that's left is the item that necessitated to box, and what a surprise it was:

A commemorative Cal Ripken Jr. baseball! And one that comes with its own ball cube making it easy to display! One panel features a printed image of the Iron Man while one of the sweet spots includes a facsimile signature and inscription marking his 2131th consecutive game played to surpass Lou Gehrig's streak. 

Meanwhile, another panel lists out a number of his accolades. The lack of mention of his final streak total of 2,632 and HOF election make me think that this was produced before 1998 but I could be wrong. There's nothing on the COA (and why does a ball with a facsimile signature need a COA?) that I could find to indicate when it was made, but then again I don't really care because it's simply a very cool item of one of my absolute favorite players and I really, really like it. And more than that I appreciate Kerry going to the expense of shipping it with everything else you saw here tonight.

Kerry, thanks for everything, I really enjoyed this box! Good luck to your Ducks against Texas Tech at the Orange Bowl, enjoy the envelope I sent your way, and have a Merry Christmas!

I plan on finishing up the final two November trade packages before the holiday this week and then we'll see how it goes catching up on everything else (including potential December card packages) after that. I hope everyone's staying warm and gearing up for a comfortable, stress-free holiday season!

2025 trade package #23: Dawg Day Cards

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2024 trade package #20: Baseball Card Breakdown

Christmas is just a few days away but tonight I'll be showing off cards I received from someone born the day before the big holiday. Longtime friend Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown sent me some cool stuff back in September and it's about time I posted it:

Scan #1 includes two things I associate Gavin with more than pretty much anyone else. First is one of his trademark customs. His creativity has resulted in him using many different methods to create them, and one of them is sun bleaching. While I think he debuted that technique with the eye-blindingly yellow 1991 Fleer set, you can see he also gave it a try with 1988 Topps, and I was treated to Tram's All-Star subset appearance in that product.

Here's a look at the back which also includes a cool custom feature:

I really like the stamp Gavin uses as a calling card, and that he also signs his initials. What a treat these are! One of these days I really will try to show off the various customs he's (and maybe others) sent me in the long time that I've known him.

A dogged pursuit of a number of Topps' extremely cool Retired/Fan Favorites base and autograph sets is another thing I associate with Gavin. His accumulation of some of the tougher cards, especially from Archives Reserve and Retired Chrome Refractors really is impressive. If you don't believe me for some strange reason, head over to his blog and check them out.

As for me, I was super happy to receive the five-spot of '03 Topps Retired base you see above. The product used that year's flagship design but went with white instead of blue borders, and somehow that made them look even classier in combination with their great vintage photos. Gavin gifted me Sparky, '84 Tigers Evans and Gibby, phenomenon Fidrych, and HOFer Kell, which gave me six from that set (to go with the Tram I already had). I just updated my wantlist and appear to need Kaline, Gwynn, Ripken, and former Phillie/Tiger Jim Bunning. Again, I can't overstate how much I like the looks of these, made back in the days when Topps actually cared about design.

That's not all he sent, though, as I have one more scan of goodies. A Rainbow Foil of John's favorite guy (and new Cubs P) Matt Boyd leads off. That's followed by a Ginter X base of one of my personal faves, former blog namesake Curtis Granderson. Do I have too many? The answer is still no, but I'm proud to be in the lead on TCDb, at least for now.

Another former Tigers P on a Topps parallel is up next with ex-RP Shane Greene out of 2018 Update's Gold insert, which is naturally numbered to that year. Then we jump to another classy design in the form of Topps' Heritage Minors (2011), and a surprise autograph of former prospect Francisco Martinez, an IF/OF that played a couple stints in Detroit's system but never reached the Majors. His rather interesting signature graces a card numbered /861 on the back.

Former ROY Michael Fulmer is the final pitcher in today's post, and maybe from the scale of his card compared to the others you can tell it's from Topps Mini's 2019 version. He didn't pitch in the Majors this year but rumors exist that the Red Sox may try to shift him back to the rotation, and regardless, I hope he gets to enjoy a healthy season.

And the last card is one that brings to mind base-stealing king Rickey Henderson, who sadly passed away yesterday. Nobody's ever going to do it better than him, but back in 1997 the Tigers had an OF by the name of Brian Hunter, and he led the Majors in steals with 74, which is exactly what Rickey averaged per 162 games in his 25-year career. In '98 Topps's Stadium Club brand included a parallel called One of a Kind that was limited to 150 copies, not quite living up to the name, but they looked cool. Hunter's card appropriately shows him zooming in the direction of the next base on a beautiful foil parallel I'm now proud to have in my collection.

Gavin, thanks so much for these cards from about three months ago, and happy early birthday! There's a chance you'll get a small envelope from me this week in time to celebrate because I'd never leave a Christmas Eve baby/collecting friend out of my Christmas cards!

As for gifts that have hit my mailbox, I currently have one envelope left from September to cover, then two each from November and December, as long as no others decide to appear before the end of the month. Stay tuned for the September cards next!

2023 trade package #18: Night Owl

 

Greg who runs Night Owl Cards needs no introduction so I'll just lead off by saying I made a deal with him recently and now I'm here to show off my end of the deal. I became aware that he was slowly working on the 1988 Pacific Legends set and I happened to have a good chunk of dupes left from my box break, so I sent him something like 19 of his needs plus a couple other Dodgers. Because I know Greg's on TCDb I thought I'd make it fun and easy for both of us by sending him a trade proposal so the cards would automatically go into his collection, and then I picked out a few cards I hoped to get in return if he thought it would be fair. He did!

So here's what I ended up with:

I know some folks find those 1990 Swell cards too low-end for their tastes, but I enjoy them plenty, especially since they include appearances of some guys that don't have enough, like the Bird (who, by the way, was in '88 Pacific Legends too!). It's not like Fidrych collectors are spoiled for choice, and anyway the colorful look here is pleasing to my eye at least, so I was happy to add it.

Seeing Maddux on a team other than the Cubs and Braves is always a bit jarring, so his stints with the Dodgers and Padres captured on cardboard still throw me off sometimes. But I'll happily take anything I can get of one of my favorite player collections, especially a Topps Gold parallel numbered /2007.

Considering the relatively low quality of most of what I sent to Greg I wouldn't have blamed him if he didn't want to include the '75 Topps Denny McLain base you see there that pairs him up with '68 rival Bob Gibson. But he's a generous guy so he did just that and now I have another fun piece in my McLain collection, now 25 cards strong.

Here's where I'll probably lose a lot of you as I'm sure many who read this blog don't collect football or at least not Wolverines specifically. But these additions are just as fun for me as the baseball ones.

First up is my first (and probably only for a while) card of former UM RB Ty Isaac. Isaac was a highly recruited back from nearby Illinois who opted for USC over Michigan in 2013, then transferred to Ann Arbor a season later and had to sit out a year under the old rules. He put up some decent numbers for the Wolverines in 2015-2017, if not stats that would correspond to his recruiting ranking, then went undrafted and played briefly for the fly-by-night Alliance of American Football league, as captured on the card you see above from Topps. The product includes 10 total cards (including three autographs) for me to chase and I'd love to add more if I can.

And then we head back into Greg's wheelhouse: vintage. Randy Logan was a safety for some very good Michigan teams at the beginning of the 70s, then was drafted by Philly in 1973's third round. He spent 11 years suiting up for the Eagles and compiled 23 interceptions. What you see above is his 1979 Topps base, which marks just my fourth card of his, and the oldest besides his '76 Topps RC.

From the same set I also snagged my fifth card of College Football HOF RB Rob Lytle. The late Lytle was a Wolverine from 1973-76, selected by Denver in 1977's second round, and put up 14 total TDs over 87 NFL games in his seven seasons. He has just 12 cards to his name on TCDb and I now have four from his playing days (including his '78 Topps RC) to go with an autograph.

Here are the backs for those that enjoy them:

Greg, thanks once again for another fun deal! I'm always glad when we can swap cards despite the large differences in our collecting philosophies.

More trade recaps and other stuff to come!

TCDB trade roundup: four trades and three PIFs!

It's New Year's Eve Eve and this will probably be my final post of 2022 unless I'm feeling especially celebratory tomorrow for events related to the gridiron and not the end of the year. I'm sending off this year in collecting with the latest batch of cards that hit my mailbox thanks to TCDB. That amounts to four trades plus three PIFs (pay it forwards), the latter of which were perfectly timed with the season of giving.

Here's how those transactions went:

Deal #1 was my first with Bo of Baseball Cards Come to Life, though it was through his TCDB ID of borosny that we were able to connect for this swap. He matched me for nearly 20 cards on my wantlist--man, does using that site ever make trading easier!--and I came up with more than 42 cards for him off his baseball set wants on his site. Those came from '95 and '96 Score plus '96 Donruss and Leaf. Here's what I got in return:

As I often do when it comes to trades there I picked out a wide variety of items to hit my many collections. You'll see '84 Tigers like Bergman and Brookens again in this post. Three more Grandersons add nicely to my quest for "too many." Ex-closer Mike Henneman pops up twice in this deal (see the next scan). AJax is another ex-Tiger I've come to appreciate in the years since he's been gone. Matheny and Hal Morris are two of the four Michigan alumni to be found here, and that Morris minors card is pretty cool.

HOFer Jack joins the Morris and '84 Tigers parties with an early 90s duo. Former Wolverine Leon Roberts indeed managed Detroit's AAA squad, the Toledo Mud Hens, at one point. The Maddux/Ward/Cora trio completed or nearly finished their three respective sets--'94 Ultra Series II, '95 Donruss Series I, and '96 Donruss. And lastly we have a fun trio of late 80s Topps Stickers Super Star Backs. Barry's from the '89 set while Tram and Lou are rightfully seen together out of the previous year's product.

Bo was awesome to work with and I look forward to making more deals with him, plus I'll continue to follow his excellent blog.

Next up is a smaller deal with bravefan1, my third with him since I joined the community. Naturally I gave up a few Braves cards, including a couple low-end autos, and in addition to a solid relic I'll be including in a belated Christmas package, I nabbed these three for myself:

These three are right up my alley! First up is a 2004 Absolute Memorabilia base of Tigers HOFer George Kell. It offers a beautiful, shiny rainbow foil design and is numbered (/1349) so it's right in my wheelhouse. Mad Dog's 2000 UD Faces of the Game Insert isn't quite from the 90s but it's close enough, and this is another one of those chase sets I fondly remember from back when it was actually fun and affordable to open boxes. Finally, I managed to sneak in a 2022 Topps Gallery RC of #1 overall pick Spencer Torkelson, who hopefully got his sophomore slump out of the way with his tough freshman campaign. That's my first RC of his, and I look forward to seeing how he bounces back in '23 on what will mostly otherwise be a pretty uninteresting tanking squad.

Next, I made more headway on a couple set chases plus scored a nice PC pair in a deal with Mat9975. In return for a quartet of 1996 baseball base and a pair of '06 Bowman football RCs, I got these:

How sweet is that Barry Larkin '94 SP Holoview FX card? Upper Deck had already shown some hints of what they could do with holograms in previous years, but they really upped their game on this insert, that's for sure! The Long Ball Leaders card of PC guy Dean Palmer produced the same year by Donruss also looks very cool. I'm so grateful we didn't have to suffer through a Topps monopoly and instead got the greatest decade in card creativity in the 90s.

The two set wants I grabbed are from the same year, oddly enough. Larry Walker's Finest card puts another small dent in that one, and I'm down to just 17 that I need. And between the Kieschnick and the Maddux from above, my second set of '94 Ultra Series II that I was building after my Facebook collection purchase should now be done. Once I verify that I'll be happy to make it available for trade!

The last of my trades before we get to the PIFs came from pdmkam. He made a proposal aiming for 13 of my '95 Donruss baseball dupes, and after a quick counter from me, we had a deal. Here are the nine cards I ended up with:

I told you you'd see more '84 Tigers! There could have been even more in this transaction but I swapped a few of them out for a couple of the newer items you see above. The late Bergman appears on '82 and '84 Donruss cards when he had yet to be flipped to Detroit. Brookens joins him in the latter set that came out the same year the Tigers last won the Series, as does the Big Wheel, Lance Parrish, who also gets his '83 card from that manufacturer added to the pile. HOFer Ted Simmons joins the 80s party with his '81 Topps appearance.

As for the "newer" cards I referenced, those came in the form of Mr. Tiger's '84 Topps Archives reprint of his '54 RC, plus my latest Rich Hill add, his '22 Topps Update base. It took Topps until Update to include Hill despite the fact that he re-joined the Sox before 2021 even concluded, but that's Topps for you. How long will I need to wait for my first card of Dick Mountain with the Pirates?

I mentioned that I ended up with nine cards and this fun oddball of the Bird from Upper Deck's 1993 All-Time Heroes product was the last. UD did a great job picking images for the main panel and the left side, I must say. According to TCDB I just need Ty Cobb's solo appearance (#32) and one he shares with Honus Wagner (#145) to finish up the team set!

All of these deals went off without a hitch and marked the end of a great year on the site, which I'll briefly recap in a minute. But first, here's a quick look at the three PIFs that came my way in December:

#1 was from Bo who I guess appreciated the fact that I threw in a few extra Yankees when I sent his envelope. Back my way came this six pack:

Gwynn, Maddux, Ripken, and a (former) Tiger PC guy too? Yes please! All of these were on my wantlist and it was fun looking though them when the PWE showed up. The two food issues bookending everything are great, and I've always been a fan of the Triple Play and Score products representing Gwynn as well. Thanks again, Bo!

Next, Colorado native Jim, a.k.a. budler, went on his own Secret Santa spree, as evidenced by the many thank yous he received in the "Pay it forward" thread. I happened to be one of his lucky targets and enjoyed seeing these two:

There's that trademark Gwynn hairstyle from the late 80s! Once again, both of these were needs, and I appreciate Jim's Christmastime generosity.

Finally, while trying to PIF another member, one of my site buddies was able to get their address from Joe, a.k.a. ymmat, so to show my appreciation I sent Joe a bit of baseball set help from my dupes. Not long after he returned the favor with these:

Yeah, it was a Holly Padre Christmas in this three-pack of PIFs, and I'm absolutely fine with that! It was great adding so many new Gwynn cards to my collection, enough to get me over the 800 mark, as it turns out. Once again all of these were new to me as they came straight from my wantlist, including the oddball playing cards and Gold Topps Micro. My favorite by far, though, is the '97 Topps Hobby Masters insert. 1997 was the first year of what I consider modern Topps' best five-year run in terms of base design plus inserts after years of being very blah. That's a fantastic looking chase card of Mr. Padre and I'm happy to add it to his collection with everything else you see above.

Based on how much I talked about the site this year and all the trade recaps I did, you'd probably assume I had a great year on TCDB, and you'd be correct! Between 2019 and last year I'd completed only 18 total transactions there. Things got a bit better for me this year when I put more effort in:

Yep, I finished up 76 formal deals to go with a nice number of PIFs back and forth. I even managed to shed a net 10 cards, not including those that didn't get captured in the count due to PIFs or unofficial trades. Now that I'm approaching 100 completed transactions I'm looking forward to boosting that number even more in 2023!

Thank you again to all the members I traded with this year who made TCDB a site I'm happy to spend lots of time on. I'll be back better than ever in January.

2021 Sportlots purchases part 5: Lucky Tiger Seven

Previously: Quick summary and set wants; Big and small we have them all!; Better off Ted; A Tettle-ton of Froot Loops

Since my last post was a Michigan player and the Sportlots one before that focused on a solo collection I thought it would be fun to highlight a group for tonight's. Not that there aren't any Wolverines in this post, mind you, but the theme here is Tigers greats of the past. Also, if you're wondering why you don't see certain Tigers you're sure would fit in that category, rest assured there's another team post coming at some point! (Also also, if you're a fan of the movie tonight's title vaguely references, you're extra cool in my book!)

So here's seven of Detroit's finest, from the recent past to way before I was born:

This first scan covers four players alone, since I picked up just a few cards of each. Player number one is the Bird, one of the Franchise's most colorful and recognizable guys, and I was geeked to end up with his 2010 Topps Triple Threads base (#d /1350) for cheap. It's my 24th card from his fairly small oeuvre of around 200 issues (according to TCDB), and I'd love to add more, whether they're recent high-end base like this or some of his earlier items.

Fidrych's amazing 1976 ROY campaign coincided with catcher Bill Freehan's sunset season with the team, and they'd form a battery just once that year for the pitcher's second start. It looks like Bruce Kimm caught every other Bird start, maybe as a personal catcher sort of situation? Anyway, Freehan, who's a favorite of mine as well of John's, of course, can be seen here on a textbook Action Packed issue, in this case 1993's All-Star Gallery. As you would expect it's raised and embossed, plus the shot of the '68 champ in the dugout with his chest protector and bat is quite cool. It's not easy for me to track down new Freehans that I need, especially cheaper ones, so I was happy with this deal.

Bookending another '68 champ we'll get to in a minute is another Wolverine/Tiger, Charlie Gehringer. Up top is a Burgundy version of one of his two appearances in Conlon's 1994 set (which continues numbering from the previous one). He got an "In Memorium" banner because he'd passed away the previous January, a few months shy of 90. It's a nice card that's even improved a bit with a royal kind of border. At the end of the scan is an even older issue from TCMA's 1980 All Time Detroit Tigers set. The only horizontal card in a set of 12 (and why not? Fielding shots look great on this axis!), he's in great company with obvious choices like Cobb, Greenberg, Kaline, Newhouser, Cochrane, and more. I might have to try to track down the rest!

And then there's the last player in the scan we haven't covered yet. Even though he's pictured with three of the five other franchises for whom he played, there's no way you can leave out Willie Horton when you're talking about past Tigers greats! After 14 excellent years in Motown, the pinnacle of which was that '68 season, Horton played one game for the Tigers before being sent to Texas. His stay was short as before the '78 season he was flipped to Cleveland, which started a very nomadic summer that saw him get released, picked up by Oakland, and traded to Toronto. In January of '79 the Mariners signed him, and he'd spend his final two MLB seasons in Seattle (though he'd eventually get traded to Texas again, released, and signed by the Pirates). At least some portions of that journey are captured on the three Topps cards above from 1978-80, giving me a nice run in his collection from 1970-80.

And next we have TOO MANY GRANDERSONS OUT OF NOWHERE! I was pretty picky about what I bought this time of one of my favorite recent Tigers, but the price was right to grab all seven of his appearances in Topps 2008 team gift set. I don't anticipate finding a deal on the complete set of 55 anytime soon, so I'm happy to just pick up singles of guys like Curtis and JV. Besides a solo card, Grandy gets paired up with 2007 All-Star Carlos Guillen, who was terrific in Detroit, and lauded for a few accomplishments. The biggest was his 20-20-20-20 season in which he accumulated 20 each of doubles, triples, homers, and steals, one of four players to achieve that feat. Besides that, in 2007 he was named AL Player of the Week in July, led the sport in triples (naturally!), and was among the team leaders in hits and batting average. That year was by far his best in terms of bWAR, and given his overall numbers that makes total sense. Believe it or not it ended up being his career best, even after some of those big seasons he had in the Bronx! By the way, I'm nearing 200 many Grandersons, so he's now on milestone watch.

Even though I mostly scanned these in alphabetical fashion they get increasingly homogenous as we continue; including this scan the last three cover just two other players. No complaints from me, though, since I get to own and you get to gawk at a whole bunch of Kalines! I treated myself to 19 new cards of Mr. Tiger, which is one short of his age when he won the 1955 AL batting title. There's nothing vintage or anything, but it was fun to give his collection that much of a boost in numbers, not to mention some very cool cards. 

The oldest is from a 1995 Upper Deck food issue produced for Eagle snacks, and he's part of an excellent nine-card checklist. UD is represented again with the always excellent SP Legendary Cuts (2006). Fleer makes the cut twice with one of its cool Sports Illustrated products, 1998's Then and Now, plus 2003 Fall Classics. Donruss' lone entry is 2004's World Series product's Blue parallel. And Topps claims the rest thanks to 2000 Stars, 2010 flagship's Turkey Red insert and 206 base card, and 2011 GQ. There's lots of classic vintage photography and images to admire here, something I don't get to appreciate as much as I should because most of my PCs are modern players. All the more reason to chase some Kalines! 

So here's some more Kalines I chased! These are from the Toppsopoly era so they're blander than they could be design-wise, but there's still some nice images to enjoy. Though I don't believe I own any of the much older "test issue" versions of Topps' cloth stickers, I grabbed the insert version from 2011 Lineage, which is pretty cool. It looks like 2013 GQ (Framed White) and Heritage's Flashbacks insert opted for the same image, kind of like the Turkey Red and GQ cards above. A 2014 Triple Threads base is definitely the highest-end card here, though that year's set wasn't numbered, and if you wanted the same photo on a different design you could go with 2020 A&G below. I think my favorite photo/image in this bunch is the one featured on 2017 flagship's Salute insert, which shows a very young future HOFer.

Since 19 doesn't go into two nicely when it comes to scans I decided to place Al's last pair of cards at the top of this one. On the left is the 2004 version of Heritage's Flashbacks insert, and I give Topps credit for going horizontal with a great shot celebrating young Kaline winning that batting title at 20. Did you know that the previous youngest batting champ at that point was one Ty Cobb? Anyway, Al's run ends with a simple 2020 Archives base that has a strange portrait photo but a cool batting action image.

And tonight we end on another HOFer, granted one that was a relative short-timer for the franchise compared to most of the rest of these players. George Kell came to Detroit from the Philadelphia A's in 1946 and spent the best years of his career with the Tigers until being sent to the Red Sox in a nine-player deal in 1952. That means he missed out on the '45 championship team plus he was traded just a year before Kaline debuted. At least they got to form an all-time great broadcasting pair.

His first two cards here--1991 Topps Archives (reprint of his '53 base) and 2001 Fleer Boston Red Sox--depict him with his third team, but fortunately the others are all about the Olde English "D". The first is from the gorgeous 2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame product, and the one I have here is the variation with a white "D" on his hat, while I already owned the orange letter version. The other two are Archives issues from 2019 and 2020, and in my opinion the '19 card, done in the style of the cool '75 set, is executed better, but both are quite cool.

Though I only came away with five cards of Kell, they were enough to get me over the 50-card mark to 53, so that's worth a little celebration.

I'm curious to see what people think of these items in the comments, but regardless I know I had a blast picking up some cool items of some of the best players in the team's storied history! Next time I'll probably be back with another single-player post, but first you can expect another surprise PWE trade post.

2019 Sportlots purchases: Willie and the Bird

The afterglow of Michigan absolutely dominating MSU yesterday has me plenty energetic on this chilly Sunday, so let's go back to my unposted Sportlots stuff and have a look at a couple of guys who were winners in their own time.

Rookie phenom Mark Fidrych burst onto the scene and the national consciousness in 1976 with his trademark nickname,

a crazy pre-pitch routine on the mound, and some absolutely dominating numbers:  a 19-9 record, league-leading 2.34 ERA, 24(!) complete games, and a 9.6 bWAR. He was named the AL ROY and placed second to Jim Palmer in the Cy Young balloting, plus he started the All-Star game.  As a rookie.  TWENTY FOUR COMPLETE GAMES.  CC Sabathia tops the list of complete games by active MLBers with 38, and Justin Verlander is second with 26.  The Bird did it in a season.  Wow.

Unfortunately a knee injury in spring training the following year derailed that momentum, and a torn rotator cuff suffered a few weeks later sapped him of any effectiveness for the rest of his career.  Though he seems to have enjoyed his post-playing life, he sadly passed away in 2009 after an accident while working on a dump truck.  Fans of the Tigers and the sport in general will always remember Fidrych fondly for his amazing '76 season and mound antics.

Because of his brief career he didn't appear on a ton of cards so my Bird collection was fairly small before this latest Sportlots run, but I was able to boost it a bit with this fun group of seven pickups:

The oldest card in this scan is Mark's 1980 Topps base, which gives me all of his single-player flagship issues and leaves me short just a league leader card from '77, the same year his RC was produced.  Next is the low end but solid '88 Pacific Legends, which did quite a nice job with player selection, which I'm betting you'll agree with if you like collecting both stars and fan favorites.  Then comes '92 Action Packed All-Star Gallery (once again!) which is packed with lots of great players in a small set.  1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes is another product we've seen more than once in this series, and the design brings to mind Upper Deck Vintage designs that would come out in the ensuing decade.

Then we get into the next decade where things are a little more modern.  Again, you'll see a lot of sets repeat as I often tried to find all of the available Tigers I needed while searching each, so Topps' funky 2001 American Pie gets another appearance here.  I was also excited to find the Bird in Fleer's classy 2004 Greats of the Game, even though he was only really "great" for one season.  And lastly, it was also nice to see him make the cut for SP Legendary Cuts (sorry) as that always offers a nice design and is generally filled with legends as well.

This lucky bunch of seven cards give me 22 of the Bird and have me wanting lots more.  The Fleer Greats card has my favorite design while Action Packed and UD provided the best photos.  I've put his other cards I'm interested in on my TCDB wantlist, so don't be surprised if you see him make another appearance here in the future!

Next we move from the mound to the outfield and a player who enjoyed a much longer and productive career in Motown.  William Wattison Horton patrolled the deeper part of old Tiger Stadium for parts of 15 seasons from 1963 until he was traded to Texas in 1977.  While here he socked more than 250 of his 325 career homers, made four All-Star teams, put up a career-best 5.4 bWAR in 1968, and was a driving force behind that team that won it all for a reeling city.  His #23 was retired in 2000 and his contributions to the team and city as a fan favorite made that a natural choice.  You may have seen this clip before

in which Horton, from his LF position, made a perfect throw home to catcher Bill Freehan to nail speedster Lou Brock in Game 5 of the '68 Series.  The play was crucial with Detroit down 3-1 in the Series and helped turn things around, with Detroit owning the last three in a row.

My collection of Willie is also smaller than I'd like it to be, but purchases like this one help motivate me to grow that number with more cool stuff like this:

I was glad to give this group a triple dose of vintage goodness.  Topps cards from 1975 (I already have the Mini) and '76 flank a simple oddball-ish example of 1976 SSPC.  I still need to track down Horton's '64 Topps RC, or any of his cards from the '60s for that matter, as the oldest I have of him right now is from 1971 Topps.  There's something for me to work on in 2020.

The next couple are from sets you just saw in Fidrych's scan:  '92 Action Packed ASG and 2001 Topps American Pie.  I really like the photo Action Packed went with, which shows a focused slugger at the plate in an old-school Tigers uni.  The back notes that he was fourth in franchise history in HR at the time with 262, and Cecil Fielder (who was traded) and Lou Whitaker, who were active back then, never caught up.  In fact, only one player managed to eclipse him (as well as #3 Hank Greenberg):  Miguel Cabrera, who'd need 61 more to top franchise legend Al Kaline.

After those we end the day with a couple "newer" cards.  The first is 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game and another gorgeous design.  I also love that year's version for its various team Greats insert, which includes the Tigers, but this is simply another joy to look at.  Horton is my eighth Tiger from the base cards and I'm short just the Denny McLain, which I might get eventually, but I'm not terribly motivated since he's been such a jackass since he retired.

Last up is 2014 Panini Golden Age, a set whose design and checklist definitely evokes A&G and Gypsy Queen.  That means it's not exactly high on my list of favorites, but I was still happy to add it to Willie's collection.  The back highlights his outstanding 1968 season as the AL's "dominant offensive force" in "one of baseball's most pitching dominated seasons."  His bat certainly loomed large for the Tigers both in the regular season and playoffs, but don't forget his arm as seen in that clip above!

This fun look at a pair of fan favorites gets me down to two more posts, which I hope to have done soon with COMC's sales looming.  My plans include one more multiplayer post followed by a big solo finish I know other Tigers fans will enjoy.