2023 trade package #4: Dawg Day Cards

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2022 eBay purchases: remembering the -embers

While I'm trying to keep up some relatively positive posting momentum, here's a look at my personal eBay wins from the months of November and December:

When talking about sets that are important in the hobby's history, 1996 Leaf Signature's one-auto-per-pack product ranks way up there. Thanks to eBay I scored my 10th from that iconic set, and second of PC guy Dean Palmer. In this case it's the Silver version (which you can kind of tell by the stamp), and those were generally limited to 1000 copies (Bronze were 3500, Golds were 500). I already own the Bronze and just need the Gold to round out Dean-o's run of mainstream certified autos. The clean look and relatively low print run meant I didn't think twice about paying not quite $3.25 for this.

Would it be an eBay roundup without something purchased from my favorite seller, markaguirre22? Back around Thanksgiving I won the pair of Zach Putnam Topps Mini parallels you see above. Again, I don't put much thought or money into the on-demand stuff, but the Blue /10 was just $2 and the Orange /25 half that, so I was cool plunking down $3 plus tax (and free shipping) to add those.

And once again he was super nice to throw in some extras of guys he knows I collect! The Hill minis are from 2008 Ginter and are the A&G Back and Black Border versions. Meanwhile, Larkin's cards hail from 2001 Pacific Private Stock and 2011 Topps mini inserts. I already owned all four but will be happy to use these as trade bait.

Switching over to football briefly, here's a not-quite-maize plate repping my team that will be continuing its playoff quest this Saturday. Standout CB Marlin Jackson appeared on a number of cards in Topps' 2005 Draft Picks & Prospects product back when Topps was able to produce those (and actually did a nice job!). What you see here isn't a base card plate, but one used for printing his Senior Standouts Relics jersey insert. A slight twist is that this is one of those products where you could find both the front and back plates, and in this case we have the latter. Here's the back of that jersey card (which I own) for comparison:

I believe this is just my second back printing plate card to go along with a Topps Mayo of Adrian Arrington. As you can see, the color yellow didn't factor much into the rear of this card, but it's a different story on the front with Jackson seen in Michigan's iconic uniform.

For under $8.50 delivered I scored my first Jackson 1/1 and his 23rd hit overall. The seller took a page out of markaguirre22's book and threw in some cool UM-specific extras:

That's three RCs of former TE/WR Devin Funchess plus a Topps Magic Mini of WR great Braylon Edwards. Once again I have all of these but the gesture was very nice, plus I happen to know someone who could use the Braylon!

Back to baseball. We're coming up on almost seven years since Doug sent me what was my first card of UM pitcher Karl Kauffmann, a player who wasn't even on my radar at the time. Kauffmann had only recently signed with the Wolverines, and even if he'd been with the team for a year or two, it was rare for players who hadn't been drafted yet to appear on cards. But thanks to Leaf's Perfect Game product, I had the start of my PC of the future Rockies prospect.

Flash forward to a couple weeks ago and I snagged my second plate from this same set on eBay. Like the one above, the one Doug sent me (a yellow version) isn't a 1/1, but one of two made instead. I'm not sure how that works with these All-American Classic plates--fronts and backs? Maybe something having to do with these saying "Base - Common"? Still, while not true 1/1s, they're fun cards to find and can still join my plate/1-1 collection. And would you believe that I paid just a bit over $2 to get this in my mailbox? Not bad, eh?

To close things out this evening I have a pair of Bowman Draft plates of pitcher Clayton Richard from two different years and separate auctions. Up top is the Magenta plate from the base 2005 product, which featured Richard's first MLB cards. He definitely looks extra creepy and possessed with his eyeballs looking like they're 100% white in the scan!

The other is from the 2009 product, though I'll mention that Clayton did appear in the 2008 version as well. The 2009 base card included stats from his 2008 MLB debut campaign with the White Sox, though he'd only be with them for part of the season when that card was produced, getting sent to San Diego in July of '09 in the deal that brought Jake Peavy to the South Side.

Thanks to these purchases--$6.64 for the '05 card and $7.63 for the other--I now count 12 different 1/1s in his PC, second only to Rich Hill's ~26 (still TBD) and one better than J.J. Putz's 11. Those are also my earliest plates of his as the oldest I previously owned were three of his four from 2011 Topps flagship.

So once again without spending a crazy amount I added some very nice stuff to a few of my PCs thanks to eBay. I look forward to showing off more additions in the form of the rest of my TCDB deals from this year before the end of the week!

2020 trade package #30: Wes Moore

A few weeks ago Wes, a.k.a. the Pancake King, held a very cool event on Twitter that he called his Tradeathon. He listed some 160 cards from the major sports and even non-sport stuff, one card at a time. There were HOF RCs, vintage, autos and relics, and even printing plates, plus some cool inserts. You know, basically the stuff he's been known to lob your way in his signature trade war packages.

The rules were simple and few: claim up to five cards, be the first to claim what you wanted, and send him stuff in return but make it a surprise. If that isn't a fun way to get stuff into other collectors' hands while getting cool stuff back, I don't know what is. Judging by tweets from Wes and those that were involved I'd say it was a huge success all around. For my part I flipped him a Leaf auto of wrestler Godfather plus some various Arizona Cardinals and Bama guys.

And now I get to show off what I got back from the flapjack flipper. I somewhat cautiously chose three cards fairly early to keep my options open later, and those were the three I finished with while avoiding being greedy and claiming nicer stuff I already had, such as RCs of Trammell/Molitor and Griffey Jr. I was glad to get what I was hoping for, and Wes was even nice enough to toss a couple extras in the mailer.

Here's what I got:

A little bit of theme going on there, eh? The top two cards here were the "throw-ins" and quite nice ones at that! On the left is a 2005 Elite RC of former stud DB Marlin Jackson, definitely one of the more desired brands for collectors like me that like to chase college cards. To the right is a Blue 2012 Leaf Draft auto of Mike Martin, a DL who was nearly unstoppable and a bright spot on defense during some of Michigan's down years earlier this decade. In typical Wes fashion, even the extras are generous!

As for the rest, I'll go in order as I chose them as opposed to scan order. First up was the horizontal Harbaugh, a Row 0 card from 1998 Flair Showcase. I've long admired the various Showcase iterations and their cool variations. In general I believe Row 0 was the rarest of the regular set, as opposed to 1 and 2. This one is numbered /100 and has a couple nice action photos up front.

Next is a card that interested me because of the guy pictured on the bottom, although his QB counterpart is certainly no slouch. Ordinarily I'd be sending a Steve McNair card over the border, but this 2004 Playoff Honors Class Reunion dual jersey is staying with me because of HOF DB Ty Law and that lovely blue Patriots swatch. Numbered /150 it's just my sixth hit of Law as I continue my quest for an auto of his. By the way, for those interested, McNair went third overall in '95 while Ty went 23 picks later. Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks joined Law as first round HOFers from that class.

Last but not least is a Michigan uni card I was glad to grab as a first hit of a recent alum. QB Shea Patterson had his ups and downs for various reasons, but he was still a big enough name to hit a bunch of pro- and college-themed products (despite a total lack of a draft pedigree), in this case Leaf Metal Draft. It may be heavily airbrushed but it's still a solid new autograph for my collection, and of course I'll have to work on adding more of those. If there was a card tailor made for me to choose in a tradeathon like this, meaning it was something I'd want but probably not want to buy, this was it. Plus it's a good example of some of the variety that was available in the football grouping alone.

And how about some backs since I only had to scan five cards today?

Wes, thanks again for the cool event, an idea I may have to steal (in homage to you, of course!) and the great cards I ended up with. I hope your returns continue to pour in with all kinds of crazy stuff you'll enjoy. Though I'm not sure if or when we'll trade again, I'll definitely be on the lookout for cards for you in the spirit of your cardboard generosity.

Madness? THIS IS BLOWOUT! (and eBay)

Warning:  this is a long post with lots of pictures (some of which are related to the subject matter) and YouTube videos (none of which are), but I know you all love it when I scan in all my Blowout purchases, so enjoy and help make this my new #1 post if you feel like it.

First up, a quick happy 30th to Beardy (yesterday) and happy 25th to SpastikMooss (today)!  You two are simultaneously making me feel old and young, so thanks for that.  That's a cheap segue into one of my favorite Walk Hard scenes, where Dewey suffers through rehab:

Anyway, all the best to two awesome bloggers.

I put Blowout in the title, you read this post:
I just need to quickly point out that there will be zero references to Spartans in this post despite the obvious references to 300.  This is a Michigan Wolverines-centric blog and I will not sully it with images associated with that stupid school to my northwest (unless there are Kirk Gibson cards involved).

That being said, I had quite a week on the interwebz.  Three different transactions led to some nice acquisitions for my various personal collections, so let's get right to it:

Blowout deal #1:  trade bait + Wolverines:
A Blowout seller (who turned out to be awesome and very easy to work with, which happens sometimes) posted a few four-card lots for $20 each.  One had a Braylon Edwards I wanted plus three other trade-worthy cards, so I pounced on it.  The guy wrote me back and said he might be putting more lots up, so I checked his Bucket.

He then demanded it back

Lo and behold, I found another six Michigan football cards I couldn't do without, and a second small Paypal transaction later, they were mine. First, the three trade-bait-type cards:

A 2010 Topps Chrome Ben Tate auto-RC, a 2010 Bowman Sterling Taylor Price jersey-RC and a 2010 Press Pass Dexter McCluster auto.  All of these are available for trade, so make your offers now!

Here's the part of the haul that I most cared about:

Braylon Edwards 2010 Bowman Sterling auto jersey:  My 24th Braylon (which almost makes my top three) happens to be my fifth autograph.  I still remember when I didn't have any of those this year!  I hope he ends up signing with a decent team, preferably with other former Wolverines.  As mentioned, this was the fourth card in the original $20 lot, in case you forgot.

Desmond Howard/Tony Martin 2001 Pacific Vanguard dual jersey:  Des becomes my 49th different Michigan PC player, and I thought it was pretty cool that I started off my collection of him with a jersey of him during his Lions stint.  The seller pointed out that this was double-sided, in case that bothered me, but I could care less who the other player is when I'm getting my first card of Mr. Heisman.

Marlin Jackson 2005 Bowman's Best auto-RC:  Marlin Jackson #8 for me is a sweet looking Bowman's Best autograph.  I loves me some Bowman's Best!  Serial #d 181/599


Marlin Jackson 2005 Press Pass auto:  Maybe I can pass this off as a Michael Jordon.  Anyway, I love the Michigan uni, as usual.

Jake Long 2008 Donruss Threads Rookie Collection jersey:  Oh look:  a green Jake Long Dolphins jersey swatch, I don't have any of those.  Serial #d 365/500 which is probably appropriate since I think I average picking up about one Jake Long hit per day.

Jake Long 2008 SP Rookie Threads Rookie Threads dual jersey:  I'd seen this one a few times but I had yet to pick it up somehow, maybe because it paled in comparison to its more desirable cousin (<Simpsons>Because they're so attractive!</Simpsons>) about which more later.  As you can see, this one is #d 061/125, and using a font that looks blockier than something from an NES game, it notes that Jake is in fact an offensive lineman.

Chris Perry 2004 Upper Deck NFL Legends Future NFL Legends jersey:  My 12th Chris Perry is this relatively simple but still reasonably nice jersey.

By know you want to aggressively kick me into a bottomless pit (don't kill the messenger!) because you're wondering about the title of my post (or maybe you already got it).  Well the Michigan portion of this transaction--all of seven cards--put me exactly at 300 unique Michigan football hits!

Yes, I know it says 301 there, keep reading.  For now, this seems appropriate:

Blowout deal #2:
Following Tim's lead in trying to suss out some Seneca Wallace cards for his crazy-ass PC, and on the heels of local stories about his likely imminent call-up, I let it be known that I was looking for Zach Putnam stuff.  I already had seven cards I liked, but there were definitely more I was interested in, especially his Razor Letterman cards (of which I pulled exactly ZERO out of two cases!) since I had one unnumbered and one /20.  I only got one good reply, but it was a worthwhile offer:  this guy had Putnam's 1-of-1 letter "M".  He wasn't sure how much he wanted for it so we haggled and I looked at his Bucket.

Actually, I use Picasa Web Albums

Wouldn't you know it, he had a Tigers card of a particular player I liked.  I pulled the old combine and save strategy and got a great pair of cards, plus more, which you'll see in a minute:

Because this is a one-of-one, I thought I'd also scan the back as proof:

Pretty slick, right?  I now have a "U", "N" and "M" meaning I need a TAP-a TAP-a TAP-a.

So what was the other nice pickup for me in this deal?  Perhaps you've heard of this guy, a former Tiger and current All-Star starter:

Yep, my first Grandy (non-RC) hit is a doozy--this 2010 Topps Peak Performance jersey/auto, which you can see is numbered 21/50.  I know these are pretty tough to pull because I haven't seen a ton of them for sale (you might remember I pulled a Ryan Howard auto-bat a while back, but still).  We negotiated a fair price for the pair, but when I asked him to come down a couple bucks to make it a nice even price (and just because) he offered to throw in a couple Verlanders:

This one's a 2005 Zenith RC.  I can't say I love the design, but I love the fact that it's a Verlander RC and that's mainly what counts here (plus it was essentially free).  While he was at it, he threw in this gem:

A 2003 USA Baseball jersey of JV--my third jersey of the Tigers' ace and my first of him in a USA uniform.  I'm very happy about this deal which netted me a huge Putnam for my collection (and puts me closer to working on his nameplate, which I might just have to do now) and my first big Granderson hit (which puts me closer to actually living up to my blog's name).

eBay deal:
Yeah, I lifted the embargo (which had more to do with selling anyway considering the way eBay likes to treat sellers like the Gimp from Pulp Fiction) because I had already bought this card TWICE and still hadn't received it.  It really is true that the third time's the charm:

My 28th Jake Long (thanks to the three others I picked up this week) vaults him back into first place and makes him card #301 in the PC.  This is probably the card I've been working the hardest to get since I acquired all my other Michigan letter autos.  I had extremely bad luck trying to nab it twice and not receiving it for whatever reason (coughassholesellerscough) so I wasn't going to let other bidders keep me away from this one--I mean there's only so many in existence, but statistically the incompetence of the USPS couldn't keep one away from me forever.  I ended up paying a bit more than half book plus shipping (another reason I favor Blowout) and today, praise the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his noodly appendage, it showed up in my mailbox.   To say I'm ecstatic is an understatement right now, seriously.
While I was getting this in a reasonable protector, I thought to pull out my other various Michigan letter autos and snapped a quick picture:

In alphabetical order we have Adrian Arrington, Jason Avant, Leon Hall, Mike Hart, Chad Henne and Jake Long.

I hope to add to this collection in the future, my favorites being the SP Threads that look like they came right off a Wolverines jersey, but any will do--Eric knows where I'm coming from.

Since I've probably used up all of your bandwidth, I'll end here, but I hope you've enjoyed one of my more epic weeks in PC acquisitions.

More Blowout stuff from my favorite seller

In the mail today I got a great package of stuff from my favorite seller (which arrived before stuff I bought from eBay almost two weeks ago now!) in a return to my big rolling ways on Blowout.  I heartily endorse buying from him and suggest that you check out his latest selling thread on Blowout in which, as usual, he sells from his massive Picasa web albums at various prices, plus also liquidates some pretty nice relics and autographs (currently $1.25 per).  The prices are phenomenal and the more you buy the more likely he is to cut you a deal, as he's done for me several times.

I got the following 11 cards for $50:
 

Adrian Arrington 2008 Topps Performance Highlights auto:  I actually already had this one so I'll likely be giving it away to a friend.  He threw it in as a bonus, though, probably since this is the FIFTH time I've bought stuff from him, and it's generally been for a decent amount of money.  It was a very nice touch and another reason why it's great to do business with him (besides great prices and quick, reliable shipping).

Chad Henne 2008 Topps Mayo Cut Plug jersey:  The jersey piece isn't outstanding (but at least not a boring white) but the card design is great--I really like these mini card-within-a-card hits that Topps has been doing.  Hooray for yet another Henne (21 by my count, including multi-player cards).

Charles Woodson 2001 Pacific Invincible jersey:  I paid a bit more than I wanted for a fairly boring jersey of Mr. Heisman, but you've gotta start somewhere and I really, really wanted something of Michigan's most recent Super Bowl champion.  This is my only PC Raiders hit so far, and I don't anticipate seeing many more in the future, but you never know.

Jake Long 2008 Absolute Memorabilia RPM Spectrum prime jersey-ball-prime jersey:  I've said about 20 times now that I'll probably keep collecting these variations of the RPM cards as long as I keep finding them.  This is actually only my second of Long, but I'm sure I'll find more.  It's not autographed like the other one but the jersey pieces are fantastic and much deserving of the "prime" label, unlike most of the single-color crap you see nowadays. 

Jake Long 2008 Leaf Certified Materials Freshman Fabric Mirror Red jersey ball auto:  What's one of these posts without multiple Jake Longs?  Hell, I've got four different versions of this card so far, but this is only the second autographed version.  Two relics plus an autograph that's serial numbered from Long's rookie year make this an outstanding addition for just a few bucks.

Jake Long 2008 SPx triple jersey auto RC:  Another day, another numbered Long autographed relic RC.  Jake looks as determined in this shot as I do when I'm hard at work pursuing more of his endless collection of RCs.

Jake Long 2009 Topps Mayo Cut Plug auto:  Only my second non-2008 Long, I've had several opportunities to grab this card but for some reason hadn't purchased it until this occasion.  It's one of those that really does look better in person, but it's a very sharp design overall, other than my minor quibble about the picture getting short shrift due to a lot of empty space otherwise.  Also, this becomes Jake Long PC hit #23, for those counting.

Mario Manningham 2008 Absolute Memorabilia RPM ball-prime jersey:  Another Super Mario, and my second RPM of him at that.  I've had my eye on this card in that guy's album for a while and finally jumped on it this time.  That's a great-looking jersey swatch, even if it's from the Giants.  I guess I just can't resist the RPM set in all its incarnations.

Mario Manningham 2008 Absolute Memorabilia Stargazing prime jersey:  Also from '08 AM, some of you might remember I also snagged a Jake Long like this somewhat recently.  The scan doesn't do a good job of portraying the Refractor-iness of the card, but at least you get a good look at a solid prime jersey swatch.

Marlin Jackson 2005 Sweet Spot Rookie Signatures auto RC:  This doesn't happen very often, but I didn't realize that these autographed manu-helmets had been around this long until recently; I thought the 2010 set was the debut of that set.  I'm certainly glad to have been proven wrong as I get to add a great-looking novelty card to my Jackson collection.  I prefer the 2010s because they depict the college helmets, but these are still very sharp cards.

Tai Streets 2001 Pacific Invincible jersey:  We'll end on a somewhat boring jersey card from the same set as the Woodson, but for $1.25, picking up a Streets jersey to go with the autograph I have of him was a good deal.  I'm glad he won a title here at Michigan since his NFL career never panned out.  At least he got to come back to Michigan to play for the Lions briefly (well, I guess that's sort of a positive anyway).  Since I'm sure I have a RC or two of Tai lying around, he's one of many Wolverines for whom I could claim a trifecta, if I was into that sort of thing.

As usual I was very happy with the whole purchase process and the result--a great bunch of cards that you see above.  Others like Tim from GSNHOF have benefited from buying from him, so do yourself a favor and give serious consideration to doing so yourself, whether you're looking for some mid-end stuff of your favorite player/team or a pile of cheap autographs and relics for trade bait at great prices.