2023 trade package #32: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Hey, it's been a while, how about another trade recap?

Here's what a "Small Packet" envelope from Canada looks like:

Something this large and in charge and stuffed with goodness could only be from one person: Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!

Here's a (very) brief overview of what he sent my way back in December:

Baseball was highlighted by numbered cards of Mr. Tiger and Barry Larkin. All hail Upper Deck! The other Tigers are great as well, including the Deckle Freehan, which isn't a dupe because this one has a blank back.

Basketball and football get short shrift this time in numbers but not quality. My first card of Mazi (rhymes with "Ozzie") is a Michigan uni RC out of Prestige. Sounds like the Cowboys enjoyed some of that quality Texas education when deciding to completely misuse him this year!

A pair of numbered UD Henne autos are among the highlights of the package, and I can never have too many of these! (But I'm not renaming the blog.)

The bulk as usual is hockey, starting with the much-improved Wings. I'm a big fan of the Lidstrom and Howard cards especially, with the former being a nice color match.

I don't know if these are from shows, repacks. elsewhere, or all of the above, but I was excited to have a bunch of ex-UM icers to flip through. This one already stars two hockey Mikes, not to mention a rare for me Beniers.

Hughes and Hyman have had nice years for their teams, and of course I love seeing Copp join the ranks of the WolverWings.

Another hockey Mike here, the John Madden I prefer, and I feel like I don't add Montoyas to my collection often enough. Plus there's WolverWing supreme Dylan Larkin, who's been fantastic this year for the home team.

I loved the plethora of Brendan Morrison cards and he remains one of my top hockey PCs, second only to a guy you'll see later in this post. Nystrom is a 2/14 baby meaning Doug and I both collect him.

MaxPatch is a Buckstorecards trade package stalwart, and Palushaj often comes along for the ride as well, but recent star Power is nice to see when it comes to some of the newer guys I haven't collected much of yet.

There's the #1 dude, goalie Marty Turco. He was featured on a lot of Pacific cards including an insert set of his own (card #3 above), not to mention the usual enjoyable stuff like the die-cut Crown Royale product. Goalies often simply get the best photos on cards, and Marty deserves it!

There were a few horizontal and odd-sized cards, covered here, plus a couple more hits. The two Topps minis of Madden have the same front image but different backs. Naturally Pacific brings the heat with more die-cut action including a numbered card (#d /290) of another hockey Mike: Comrie. A numbered swatch of Jack MF Johnson plus a Cup-shaped jersey of Blue Jacket Zach Werenski (wait, do I need a "hockey Zachs" tag too?) close out the cards portion.

But we're not done just yet because we go big AND go home with this signed 8x10 of four-year Wolverine and former Leaf/current Oiler winger Zach Hyman! (#HockeyZachs) This is a beautiful, high-quality photo signed with a very legible autograph plus Hyman's jersey number. He's been very effective for Edmonton since signing with them back in '21, establishing career highs in all three big offensive numbers. Based on those stats it's no surprise that he's pottted an absurd three hat tricks this season!

Thanks again to Doug for all of these goodies that arrived in plenty of time for Christmas. As always I appreciate the huge variety among sports, players, and designs, and of course the quality of the goods. I don't have a lot to send your way just yet but will be working on it as usual.

Next time, another trade recap!

TCDB trade roundup: five more for fall

No theme today, just five more transactions while I work on covering the ones I haven't shown off yet. Let's go!

First up this evening is abendermsu, who's a fan of that MSU, the team my beloved Wolverines will be taking on a week from this Saturday night. I sent a mix of 1995 and 1996 Donruss baseball base and a couple Spartan cagers in return for this Wolverine bounty:

Cronenworth's 2022 Topps base is the lone baseball entry here, and I'm hoping he continues where he left off in the NLDS, though so far the Phillies are threatening to dominate the series. On the football side of things there's some good offensive firepower with WR Derrick Alexander, TE Devin Asiasi, QB Elvis Grbac (x2), and WR/PR/KR Desmond Howard all represented. The '98 Playoff Prestige SSD Hobby set featured a pretty nice design that lends itself well to multiple colors, even if they aren't maize & blue.

As usual this scan is mostly offensive players as well, though it's nice to get a DL cameo too. College Football HOF G Reggie McKenzie represents the oldest set here with his '81 Topps base, including a photo that makes the then-30-year-old look like he was in his 50s. The awesomely named Kwity Paye gets two new cards for his collection including a Michigan uni action shot of the star DE. Flipping back to offense there's a ton of skill crammed into three last players: RB Biakabutuka, WR DPJ, and RB Wheatley. Not bad!

The smallest deal you'll see today came from BrewerAndy, who took a handful of Brew Crew cards in return for these:

You'll see more of the '84 Tigers like the Big Wheel and Willie pop up again in this post. I keep (the younger version of) Pudge with my Tigers and love me some 90s inserts as well. Andy was a great source for a couple Brewers Police cards of Mike Matheny (1998 above and '95 below with Cirillo). And two more Griffeys from '04 Donruss tied this PWE up in a nice bow.

Next, I sent member capper14 a small baseball/basketball mix and changed things up by going for basketball and hockey in return:

The trio of basketball cards up top all star Franz "Mo's Brother" Wagner, and better yet they're all Michigan uni cards, in this case from 2021 Panini Prizm Draft. There's also a mix of UM Hockey guys in Felsner (a RC), Norton (x4), and WolverWing A-A-Ron Ward (who didn't mess up, and is also a RC). Side note: for probably like 25+ years I owned a little plaque with a signed version of that Ward, but too much sunlight from hanging on a wall faded the signature and card. Oh well.

And why not add to the Wings fun with a sextet of Stevie-Y cardboard? These are some great looking cards from 1993-94, especially the Leaf and Stadium Club offerings, in my opinion. I haven't added all of my Wings to TCDB yet but did so for Yzerman so I count 62 in my collection so far.

Next, though I sometimes avoid trades that have to be shipped to Canada, member Eriqulous, who leaves in nearby-ish Ontario, definitely made it worth my while. For a thick stack of '96 Fleer and a few other cards of guys he PCs, I got this Canuck-themed bunch:

The first seven cards here were all O-Pee-Chee needs, and they put a nice dent in some of my wants of that product. Simmons, Parrish, and Gibby all get a pretty good amount of exposure here, but I was especially excited to add new items of "The Bird" and yesterday's birthday boy Willie Horton. The  Canadian second-year of Ripken was a very nice get too, and I told Erick I was grateful that he included it. To those I added '87 Sportflics Team Preview cards of the Orioles (for Cal, of course) and Oakland (to add to my Tony Phillips PC). It's a very cool set and I think I've said before that I might just try to track down all 26.

Former UM/Twins P Gary Wayne represents the last of the baseball, and that's no ordinary '90 Fleer card you're seeing, but the Canadian version instead. I appear to have eight cards from the set with another 18 cards of PC guys still to locate.

The hockey content brought a really nice mix beginning with a fun new card of former UM player and coach (and Red Wing) Red Berenson from '91-'92 Future Trends. There's some cool inserts as well as some solid base. It's a bit hard to tell but the Morrison UD Choice card is the Reserve version with a cool holographic stamp background going on. Cammalleri's RC is also numbered /1650.

You just saw two of these three guys in the last scan, and they're back (along with Turco) in 2003-04 Pacific Atomic McDonald's form. Die-cuts plus food issues (I guess McDonald's is sort of food just like Denny's is, like, approximately food?) are awesome!

Finally this evening you get to see one of the biggest deals (in more ways than one) that I've made recently. Rockies fan mgratton proposed a deal to me on the first of September and after a week or two of counterproposals we came up with a trade I think we both really liked. I gave up a mix of some of the Colorado Refractors and other inserts from my Facebook collection purchase, a few hits I didn't care about (again, mostly Rox), and some other miscellany, and got this smorgasbord of amazingness:

The Abbott and pair of Frymans--Gold Rush and Sportflics!--are fun mid-90s entries. Griffey's only represented once this time but I'm plenty happy to let some of the others catch up to him. Gwynn was the big winner (Gwynner?) here with an outstanding 17 new items, many of which can be seen in the first two scans. I was glad to add food issues like the Post card and some lower-end but still cool inserts too.

Out of this bunch I think the Stadium Club Never Compromise insert is my favorite but the matte '96 Fleer base is a great piece. The last of his cards here is a 2011 Topps 60 Years of Topps insert that reprints his base from 1997, a set I've long admired, especially in the face of the poor base looks of the past 15-ish years. I also snuck a trio of new Larkin items in this deal, and the first of those is a 1990 boxed set issue.

Meanwhile this scan opens with his base from 1998 Zenith, the year with the "dare to tear" 5x7 inserts. I also grabbed five cool 90s inserts of Maddux, and you see four in this scan. The first is a '93 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle card pairing him with Mike Mussina from the AL. The way his '93 Ultra Award Winner scanned makes it look like a Panini Absolute card. And the reprint-ish item that ends his group here is a 2014 Topps Future Stars That Never Were, the most recently printed card in the bunch. I also snuck in a new Dean Palmer from 2003 Topps' HTA set. And then we have the first three out of nine Ripkens found in the package. He joins Gwynn in that Post set and I also added a total of four of his 1997 Burger King-issued cards. That set includes eight regular cards and the header so I'm on my way there.

This scan begins and ends with the other two BK Ripkens. Pudge gets another appearance thanks to 2003 Studio's beautiful die-cut/acetate Studio Stars set. The rest of the Gwynns include mid-90s goodness featuring a Bowman's Best base pairing him with speedster Brian Hunter for some reason. And Maddux's last appearance is a '95 UD Checklist.

Here's what I meant about the deal being "big" in more than one way. I knew the 1989 Topps Baseball Talk/LJN piece of Gibby was pretty large but when I added the '93 Donruss Masters of the Game Ripken to the trade--a set I didn't know much about--I didn't know what I was getting into. An oversized Dick Perez art piece? Yes, please!

I shouldn't leave out the smaller stuff, though. That includes four new 1990 Topps Doubleheaders of Abbott, Larkin, Tram, and Sweet Lou. All of them are in pretty reasonable condition including their plastic holders/stands, and of course I love any representations of the latter two players' '78 Topps RCs.

I also landed Topps coins of Gwynn (1988), Ripken ('87 and '88), and Tram ('88) to continue the oddball theme.

Since I still had a few more cards to show off, why not include the other sides of the Doubleheaders, all of which are the '90 Topps appearances of those players?

Finally, we'll end the post with four cards that went toward my set wants for '94 and '95 Finest. Thomas, Molitor, and Boggs are all HOFers so I consider them solid additions here. Those wantlists now sit at 18 and 39 cards missing, respectively.

Well, that was definitely a lot to cover from "just" five trades, but sometimes that's the kind of quantity and quality you can get with your TCDB deals! I'll try to be back with more soon.

2020 trade package #15: $30 a Week Habit

Today's trade is kind of a funny one because most of my deals with my fellow bloggers are blind trades, occasionally involving a card or two I've picked out. Not so today as I show off a bunch of great stuff I chose from the TCDB trade list of cool Floridian Robert of $30 a Week Habit.

I was browsing the site looking for a single card to finish up a set for Doug when I noticed that Robert (TCDB ID rmitchell6700) had one available. I happened to have an envelope for him that was just about ready so I asked him if I could get it from him, and of course he said sure, and suggested seeing if he had anything else that I wanted.

He had anything else I wanted, some 67 cards in total, all of which he generously sent my way:

(Mostly former) Tigers part 1: Boyd and Demeritte are still around, and we may actually get to see them play this year! Evans' third Topps appearance, from 1973, is my 60th of the '84 champ, and a great vintage addition to boot. And I didn't realize this until now, but there's a whole lot of Topps Heritage going on in this scan! Inge is bookended by two of my favorite Tigers OF--who were traded for each other--in Granderson and AJax. The latter even appears in three of his seven career uniforms.

More former Tigers. Kell's face is always a nice one to see in a trade envelope. I double-dipped on Nokes' 1990 Leaf cards, the second of which reflects a June trade to the Yankees that brought Lance McCullers (the elder) to Detroit in his sunset season. UD's OPC version included an interesting angle showing of Magglio's batting stance. And Parrish, who recently celebrated his birthday, also reps '90 Leaf and a new team himself as '89 was his first year with the Angels after a couple with the Phils.

I also came up with five many Verlanders, another former Tiger, and two of them are even Detroit cards. There's plenty of shiny to go around but my favorite is the '19 Donruss Career Stat Line parallel, numbered /204 for his win total through 2018. In case you're interested, Verlander won 183 as a Tiger, good for seventh in the franchise's history. Stat Line has always been a cool insert and I'm glad to see it continue in the latest releases.

The vertical cards repping Griffey, Gwynn, and Maddux added up to a perfect nine, so why not show them off together? There's a couple more examples of '90 Leaf--I'm up to 21 on the strength of guys I collect--and Mr. Padre and Mad Dog each get a Topps reprint of some kind. That second Griffey card interests me the most, though, as it's from '98 Collector's Choice, which is a set I know plenty about, but I'd never seen it!

Here's some horizontal cards of a couple guys we've already seen and a few we haven't. Two more inserts up the total to four many Grandersons, including a Gold /2012, and Junior adds a pair of his own giving me five new cards of him today. Earlier we had the late Mr. Padre and now we have Mr. Tiger thanks to a pair of Kaline inserts. Jack Morris gets one appearance courtesy of a five-player '82 Topps base--he was part of a four-player tie for wins in the AL in the shortened '81 season with 14. And a Sisler/Ichiro pairing makes sense since the latter topped the former's single-season hits record.

If you thought something was missing you were right: the highlight of this envelope was a crazy TEN new cards of the Iron Man. It's mostly a nice bunch of inserts, led by another one of those '07 Ultra Iron Man cards I needed, and a pair of Topps cards from an insert highlighting his streak. But the biggest get for me here is the 2015 Topps First Home Run medallion, a fun manurelic Robert was generous enough to include after reasoning that I would enjoy it (I will!). Cal hit the first of 431 bombs on April 5, 1982, opening day of his first full season, which would end with him winning the league's ROY award. A 1,000-card milestone post won't be long now!

A Mo Hurst insert was a fun find to rep the football collection, and then it was on to hockey. I'm not remotely surprised that I found so many of the guys I collect in Robert's trade bait since he's such a big collector of the sport. Hockey Mikes Cammalleri, Comrie, and Knuble all cameo, plus there's a rare appearance by Danny Felsner, and even a new Dylan Larkin insert, which I just realized scanned way darker than it should have.

And we'll finish this post with the rest of the hockey. I think I've said this a few times but Moss is one of a number of Wolverine icers born in my hometown of Livonia, and his college career from 2001-05 coincided with my time at the school. Muckalt doesn't pop up too often here so I was glad to find a shiny new insert of his. And I even added another Marty Turco jersey relic for good measure, this one from 2002-03 Pacific Quest for the Cup. That's the 39th hit in his collection, and he continues to lap the rest.

Many thanks again to Robert, a good guy of the blogging and trading communities, who exemplifies one of my favorite words, generosity, in deals like this. I'm exited to add all these great cards to my collections while advertising both his trading acumen and TCDB account, which you should totally hit up to make a deal of your own!

12/28/19 card show report: 90s inserts rule at the end of 2019

As I mentioned in my last post covering my in-person trade with Paul, we hit up his (extremely) nearby show in Troy on the last Saturday in December, marking the second time in 2019 that I got to two shows in a month.  That ended up putting me over $200 in card spending for the month, the only time that happened last year, though I came within $1 on two other occasions.  There was plenty of good reason for that, though:  besides the two shows I finished up my COMC purchasing for my Christmas Cards.

Anyway, Paul made sure it was worth the trip for me in a few ways, starting with that trade.  Plus, as I also mentioned in that last post, we got to meet up with Chuck (C2Cigars) from TCDB, which was really cool.

He brought a nice little stack of TCDB customs I'd seen around the site, and I happily took an autographed version of the one you see above.  It's a nice reminder of getting to meet one of the nicer guys on the site, and I hope some of you on TCDB trade with him eventually.  He was nice enough to bring me something straight off my wantlist:  a 1957 Topps RC of former UM football player Lou Baldacci.  A terrific addition to my vintage and RC collections, it's my first of the FB/QB/HB/PK, which isn't surprising since he has all of three cards to his name--this one and a couple reprint versions Topps did in 1994.  It gives me a completed run on my Michigan Football RC project checklist from 1955-'94, a string of 78 players.  Thanks, Chuck!

After the meetup I hit up one of Paul's favorite sellers, a guy who's usually at Taylor, though I tend to spend my money there on my favorite dude's tables.  I believe I ended up with $10 worth of quarter cards, including a nice bunch of $0.25 hockey autos that might make for good trade bait.

Then we headed over to the table of a guy I hadn't met before.  Paul was nice enough to alert us to his crazy deals, and after talking to him he sounded like a guy having fun and just wanting to sell stuff at ridiculously low prices to people who'd appreciate it.  He didn't seem to be aware of the value of current stars and was checking a Beckett or some other price guide, generally in favor of the buyer.

I dropped $38 at his table on a few things for my self and some pretty nice trade bait, some of which will go out eventually, plus a few cards for Paul as well--call it a finder's fee!  Here's the stuff I took home with me:

The "90s inserts rule" tag portion of the post covers these two fun inserts from that era.  Mr. Padre's is a '96 Denny's Holograms Grand Slam Artist's Proof, which was fun since I didn't realize Pinnacle inserted those into the packs found at the restaurant known for its food being garbage.  It's Gwynn on a hologram insert made in the 90s so it's 100% gold to me.

Joining him is Ripken on a shiny (not that you can tell from the scan) chase card from '97 Circa called Icons.  In fact, it's funny looking at the image in this post and then down at the actual card with its reflective rainbow foil front.  Cal was indeed an icon of his era and the back of this surprisingly thin card lauds him for his professionalism during "the most celebrated baseball feat in recent history.  That's great, but I was already sold on 90s insert+Cal+shiny!

Next up we have a couple graded rookie year cards of Michigan QB Brian Griese.  Besides the fact that my opinion of grading couldn't get much lower, I just felt like it would be more fun to crack these and see them up-close, so that's exactly what I did, and grouped them with my other football pickup from the guy:

Fellow QB Todd Collins looks awesome on his own rookie year insert, an acetate die-cut 1995 Playoff Contenders chase card called Rookie Kickoff.  Reread that sentence and then try coming up with a scenario where that doesn't come home with me!  And now we get a better look at the Griese cards from '98.  Up top is a Finest Refractor from that year, and despite the lack of film it hasn't been peeled--it's the rarer No-Protectors version!  Fortunately I didn't have to take the grading company's word for it as these are easy to identify with one trait:  the No-Protectors have the same Refractory look on the back.  Please allow me to demonstrate with something that took enough effort that I'd better get a comment from Gavin:

Shiiiiiiny!  That pairs nicely with Griese's '98 SPx Finite RC (#1535/1998), which was a bit too reflectively to scan nicely.  With that one out of the way I'm short just six of his 39 first-years I'm chasing.  Plus I got to celebrate yet another milestone in 2019 by landing my 200th card of the '97 National Champ.  Woohoo!

This guy also had a binder full of completed and near done baseball and football insert and relic sets.  This Amani Toomer autograph is just my second signature of the former Giants WR, and it hails from 2000 Playoff Prestige's Team Checklists set.  It looks like the last 30 of them were signed, and that includes fellow Wolverines Elvis Grbac and Tyrone Wheatley, the latter of which I also own.  One of the reasons I spent a lot of time digging through this seller's cards is that I first asked him for a price on this one and he wanted $2.  Sir, you have my interest!

Last up from this seller was a very appropriate color for a parallel of a former Wolverine star.  Here's a beautiful Blue version of Marty Turco's 2003-04 O-Pee-Chee base, numbered up front 432/500.  As usual I'll happily laud Topps when they deserve it, and I'd argue that they knocked this one out of the park (though I'm not surprised since they were still putting effort into their releases back then).

On the way out I made sure to stop by the tables of a guy who always has a huge variety of BCW supplies and some miscellaneous other stuff, because he was asking $3 for opened factory sets of 1990 Topps.  That worked for me since the set definitely doesn't warrant paying shipping, which costs more than the worth of the set.

I had most of my PC guys' cards from this one (though not all, which I'll get to in a second!), but scoring the complete set filled a nice gap in my collection:  I now own complete Topps flagship sets from 1984-2010, a run I'm fairly proud of.  Plus I had plenty of fun getting this set all sorted and in order (they didn't ship that way, I believe) as that gave me a chance to take a closer look at all of the cards.

And, as I alluded to a minute ago, I did end up with a few new additions:  two of Tony Gwynn's issues--All-Star and regular--and one of Ripken, also the All-Star subset.

I'd call landing this much stuff at a show that hasn't had much for me in the past an unqualified success and definitely a great way to end 2019.  Many thanks to Chuck and Paul for a fun meetup!

As far as shows go I did get to Taylor this month but haven't decided what order I'm going to cover my in-hand stuff, so we'll see when I get to that.  In the meantime, here's to another great year of shows and trading!

2019 trade package #30: Card Boarded

Once again I'm celebrating a Michigan Football win on a lovely (if chilly) Saturday, even if the team didn't play as well as expected.  And I'm doing so with another package from Paul who lives in Sterling Heights, Michigan.  

But wait!  It's not buddy of the blog Paul who runs Scribbled Ink, but instead Paul who runs Card Boarded!  This Paul contacted me letting me know he had some Michigan Hockey dupes to send my way, and I said sign me right up, because I love trading with new folks, especially fellow Michiganders, and especially especially anyone that has Michigan stuff I can use.

So on a day dominated by football but also marked by Michigan's second contest of the season on the ice, here's a look at all the great hockey stuff Paul sent my way:

It was a very Hockey Mikes kind of package, and I would have used that tag if it would have fit, but Paul sent me a nice variety of players so there wasn't room.  Cammalleri (1 new card, 71 total) and Comrie (14, 41) are two such players, and the latter definitely got a nice boost.  You'll see more of him in a minute, but this first bunch of five gives you a good idea of the range of years and sets spread throughout the mailer, especially Pacific and Upper Deck MVP.  Cogliano isn't a "Mike" but did get three new additions to his collection (46).

I mentioned Paul added 14 cards to my Comrie collection, and here's most of the rest.  Pacific makes a couple more quality appearances with designs I like--no surprise at this point in its run.  This scan includes the first of a number of Victory cameos you'll see in the next few, plus a shiny (a.k.a. difficult to scan but good looking) Parkhurst.  Jack Johnson (52) gets a newbie from UD, a brand also included in Comrie's count.

Here's our other Hockey Mike:  former Wolverwing Knuble (2, 24), pictured with his fourth (and sixth) team, the Flyers.  As you can see, 2007-08 MVP's base cards came with the silver signatures instead of making them an insert, which seemed pretty cool to me.  Then we get into another nice run for a single player:  John Madden (10, 29).  The three-time Cup winner (two with the pictured Devils, once with the Hawks) got a nice boost with this selection, including more Pacific goodness, Victory and MVP, and one of a couple appearances of a very cool UD Victory design, right down the middle.

After a couple more Maddens, from previously seen Victory and Ultra sets, we move on to a singular Al Montoya (17), the goalie for the first team I watched with student season tickets.  Then we go to one of my biggest hockey PCs in Brendan Morrison (11, 94), big enough that he has his own Google album in my collection.  Ranked #2 after a guy you'll see in a couple scans, he was also the beneficiary of many of the same sets we've seen already, which is a great thing since I like how they look.  2001-02 Topps makes its third and final appearance, plus there's the beautiful 2000-01 UD Vintage, once again, to its left.

Four more Morrisons lead to a singular cameo for Max Pacioretty (51) on a 2013-14 Score Gold parallel I'm surprised I didn't have (though I do have the base version).  It reminds me of the look Topps used to use on its own Gold inserts until recently.  Then it's back to the crease for yet another big player run:  Steve Shields (14, 31).  These were a huge boon to one of my smaller collections that I'm happy to be growing, and, as is often the case with goalies, there's some terrific shots.

Nothing against the rest of the cards you're seeing today, but this scan and the next are my two favorites, and I think you'll see why as you look them over.  The 2000-01 Pacific base that ends the last scan includes an outstanding photo, but that same year's Stadium Club design, leading off this one, can't be beat.  Then we're back for the Vintage design I keep mooning over, and the shiny Parkhurst look from 2003-04.

We'll get back to Shields in a minute, but first we have a couple other players to cover here.  The first is top PC guy Marty Turco (7, 126), who also gets some good crease shots.  He stars on one of the coolest cards in the whole envelope, a solid (acetate?) base card from a 2005-06 Upper Deck Trilogy subset numbered 092/599.  I don't think I'd see these before, but the Frozen in Time cards are quite thick, and the see-through aspect is always a plus.

Zach Werenski (9) then pops up on the newest card in his small collection.  We'll see if the Columbus D can score 11+ goals for the fourth straight season.

This penultimate scan is my other favorite because it includes some excellent looking stuff, plus everything's horizontal.  Comrie, Madden, and Morrison all return for their final appearances before we come to the conclusion of the Steve Shields show.  And what a show it is with some cool designs, including a sweet 2001-02 Atomic Premiere Date parallel of the already die-cut base set (#03/90) and my first Shields relic in nine hits:  a 2000-01 Black Diamond Game Gear goalie pad.  That's much cooler than the traditional jersey swatch and I think it's awesome.

Last up today is the remainder of the Turcos, and why shouldn't the #1 PC guy get to send us home?  His three horizontals are from 2002-03 MVP, 2003-04 Pacific's In the Crease, and the same year's SPx.  The Pacific insert somewhat reminds me of other inserts the brand did on the baseball end while the SPx design brings to memory the product's earlier emphasis on holograms.  Those are joined by a mini from 2001-02 Private Stock's PS-2002 insert.

Paul, thanks for reaching out and sending me some great looking, useful stuff for a bunch of my hockey collections!  I'll try to start piling up more Wings/Preds/goalies/etc. so we can do this again soon.