2025 eBay purchases: maize & blue plate special

Hey all, tonight we'll take a look at the stuff I bought on eBay for myself in the second half of 2025. Let's get to it!

This first card is actually my most recent purchase but it doesn't fit in well with the rest so we'll start with it. Back in November I showed off the 2022 Michigan Valiant box set I bought, and I mentioned that when I opened it I had dupes of QB Cade McNamara's card #69 and was missing #68. Long story short, I plunked down $3.69 a bit before Christmas to be able to cross this one off the list. It's a decent overpay for what should be a cheap card, but I haven't found singles for these to be easy to find, and since I got such a ridiculous steal of a deal on the set, spending under $4 to finish it didn't bother me.

Now we'll head back to late September when I picked up this cyan (essentially blue!) printing plate auto of former Michigan/UMass RB Michael Cox. For some reason at the time I was under the impression that I didn't already have a hit of Cox in my collection, though I did, but that's ok since this one's much nicer, and wasn't crazy expensive at about $12.50. Plates like this one from 2013 Panini Contenders are great on their own but even better when they player signs them. By the way, for those who don't know or remember him, Cox played at Michigan from 2009-11 (mostly that first year), then headed to UMass for his senior season. He was a pretty unlikely draft pick by the Giants (7th round, 2013) but managed to rush for a TD in each of 2013 and '14 in a combined 18 NFL games.

It took until November for me to strike on eBay again, but when I did early in the month I hit paydirt with another Cyan plate. This time it starred DT Maurice Hurst the younger: a 2018 Luminance plate of his RC inserted into that year's Plates & Patches product. This one appealed to me since it's a college photo, of course, and earned me the first 1/1 in his PC to go along with seven autos. After being drafted by the Raiders he moved on to the Niners, sat out a year with an injury, and then has suited up for the Browns ever since. I happy put up a bit under $11 shipped to get this one in my collection.

Speaking of productive Michigan DTs, I then scored my first hit of one of Jim Harbaugh's "gifts from the football gods" who, along with Mason Graham, anchored a fearsome DL that helped the coach go out on top. Kenneth Grant went #13 overall to the Dolphins last year, and here you see him on a black plate used to produce his 2025 Panini Absolute RC. Because of the color, the front's not much to look at, but I love the metallic colored backs of these plates. Just under $9.50 was surprisingly enough to start a hits collection for a guy that could be a future star, and who's one of 273 (and still growing!) subjects in that bunch.

Last up tonight, how about a 1/1 of a former #1 overall pick? Jake Long was one of the best players out of Michigan's outstanding 2008 draft class that's still my favorite. The four-time Pro Bowler stuck it out for nine NFL seasons with Miami (his drafting team), Atlanta, Minnesota, and also the pictured St. Louis Rams on this yellow plate from 2014 Topps. I picked it up for a little over $9 the week before Christmas to put the stud LT at 99 hits, putting him one shy of being the third football PC to hit the century mark, behind fellow '08 draftees Chad Henne and Mario Manningham. It's also my third 1/1 (all plates) of the top pick. Not bad!

For those interested, this haul puts my combined plates & 1/1s collection at a crazy 198. Whoa!

I'll try to finish up 2025 in the next post or two with my second half of the year TCDb trade haul, and then it'll be on to 2026.

2024 August-December card show reports: binging through five shows

Here's a show recap post for my five trips to Taylor in August through December last year because if I do one post for each at this point it may take me until March.

8/2/24:

My purchase-tracking spreadsheet says I dropped $80 at this one, so it was a pretty average show for me price-wise.

First up, some trade bait:

I believe both the A-Rod and Hoffman up top are gone but I think I may have everything else still.

My keepers:

Hooray, a new Granderson! Newer Gwynns are nice but how about some "90s inserts rule!" action for Maddux? Griffey and Ripken complete the quartet. By the way, Bowman's Best's Mirror Image was one of my favorites back then despite the fact that the prospects they featured often didn't work out.

Holo Griffey! A numbered Gwynn! I included the back of the Mirror Image insert plus the numbered Elite Teams insert of the Braves, who definitely lived up to that description. Speaking of the Bowman's Best card, this one was quite good as obviously Maddux and Moose are HOFers, but Colon also had a very nice career, and Wright even managed to last for 19 seasons!

Basketball ended up being the story of the day with a couple of the biggest cards of the haul hailing from that sport: an autograph of Caleb Houstan (my second), the guy who plays for Ann Arbor South (Orlando), plus a nice Lakers swatch of his teammate Mo Wagner (hit #4).

Football didn't get shut out, though, as I came home with both a numbered rookie-year Griese from SPx plus a new Funchess jersey relic (hit #32 for him).

9/6/24:

For September's show it looks like I upped my total spending to an even $100, and a good chunk of that must have gone towards items for trade packages based on what I have scanned to show here. That works for me, though, as I love using these shows as a source of cards to send out to my favorite trading buds.

As for cards that weren't ticketed for specific folks, here's what I grabbed:

What can I say? I'm a sucker for autographed manupatches, and I think those signed metal cards are too cool. I probably only spent a couple bucks on each of these anyway, and hopefully they'll find a good home before long, but I don't think I've had any bites for them on TCDb just yet.

My keepers:

It's always great when I can add rarer cards like Artist's Proofs to my PCs, including Palmer's. Pudge shares his '93 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle insert with another excellent if not HOF backstop, Darren Daulton. And I'm sorry that Gwynn's the one to get covered by the peel's sticker on '95 Donruss Dominators insert you see above--a favorite of mine, by the way--but I got this one to pair with a copy that I do have peeled, so now I have one of each to enjoy.

I scored a few more basketball items this time, and THJ was the highlight as I found three new cards for his collection, including a Panini Prizm auto that represents my sixth signature and 13th overall hit of the ex-Wolverine and current Pistons standout.

The football side of things was very offensive, but only in terms of the positions represented, because I was quite happy with my little haul. The Threads jersey of Braylon gives him 95 total hits, keeping him in 4th behind Henne, Manningham, and Long, though the race to be the second to 100 is anybody's game. I also found my second auto of TE Nick Eubanks on a red parallel of his Contenders Draft issue, and believe it or not, the one I already own isn't from the same product, but an entirely different one!

10/4/24:

October was a bit of an outlier as I spent just $55, but in thinking back to that day and looking over what I have here, I'm pretty sure I recall that being a day where my favorite seller had lowered some of his prices even more so I got a lot of bang for my buck.

The available trade bait:

I'm pretty sure each of the autographs/jerseys was just a buck, plus the numbered inserts and other 90s stuff were just too cool to pass up and try to get into someone else's collection.

Not a ton for me either this time, but a few cool items:

The Maddux, Ripken, and Pudge cards were all fun additions, plus I nabbed my first card of IF prospect Trey Sweeney, one of the guys that came over in the Jack Flaherty deal with the Dodgers. If he can help force Javy Baez off the roster then he'll forever be a legend in my mind. Meanwhile, the Manning ended up being a decent chunk of my purchase price, and if I'm being honest, probably an overpay, but I thought it was a very cool piece with huge swatches, a signature, and numbering to just 10 copies. I don't know what his future is with the Tigers but this is the kind of card I see myself keeping even if he moves on.

RBs Chris Evans and Hassan Haskins stole the show on the gridiron for this month, though defenders Rashan Gary and Chris Wormley also get in on the action with cool numbered cards.

11/1/24:

I spent $105 on this one and didn't come home with any up-for-grabs trade bait, but I believe I did score some nice items for trade and Christmas card packages. But better yet, I had a very nice day bringing home some cool hits for myself, much of which I think was in the $2-$5 range:

A jersey produced by Fleer's Ultra brand becomes relic #18 (and hit #19) for Mad dog. I'm the most excited about the Arrington/Henne dual because it's getting harder to find reasonably priced copies of cards for either that I need, and Henne's one of my favorite PC guys. Arrington gets his 56th hit and Henne keeps a secure grip on the top spot in the sport with his 145th(!).

I landed pairs of autos of the rest of the players. Butt's are from Panini's Absolute and XR, and the Michigan TE who was anything BUT booty cheeks in college jumps up to 13 hits. DT Mo Hurst started his career with Oakland as seen on signature cards from Luminance and Prizm, but he's since moved on to San Fran and then Cleveland. I now own seven hits of his, all signed like these. And lastly, DPJ finally made his hits collection debut with a couple Panini Chronicles autos that were parallels done in the Obsidian design. I believe the Purple is limited to 30 copies and the Orange is /25. While they remind me a bit of many recent Leaf designs, I'm relieved that they weren't made by that execrable manufacturer, and instead I've got two quality college uni cards of one of the most talented wideouts to pass through Ann Arbor recently.

12/6/24:

With the holiday approaching quickly in December I planned on throwing down more cash towards Christmas cards fodder and was quite successful. The $115 I spent was second only to February's $130 cost, and I think the results speak for themselves as you look over the various posts and Tweets mentioning some of the cool stuff I sent out.

Once again, no unassigned trade bait, but some very cool keepers:

My favorite vintage guy was around and I think $15 of my total went to him for this trio of super cool Freehan items. Those include a '65 Topps Hot-Iron Transfers, '70 Topps Super, and '73 Topps Candy Lids. I'm always on the lookout for new Freehan stuff because anything I don't have is something I'll treasure. That made these an exciting purchase for sure!

I believe everything else I got for myself from my favorite seller was from the cheaper boxes, so everything here was probably $1 at most, and more likely $0.25 or $0.50. Once again, the "90s inserts rule!" tag is in full effect, and you have to know I was loving it. Fun insert designs starring three of my favorite 90s heroes always make my day. By the way, I think Freehan and a Pacific card featuring in the same post is very apt since they each remain criminally underappreciated these days.

Well, that's the rest of 2024 in show recaps for me. I believe what's left for me to cover for last year at this point is COMC, eBay, Facebook, and something else really fun that I don't think I've teased yet. Once I can catch up on those I can get to some cool trades I've received this month, January and February's shows (I'm sure I won't have those all done by this Friday), and maybe more timely TCDb trade recaps.

You might even say I still have a whole lot to...show you! (Sorry.)

2023 trade package #26: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been a few weeks since I last posted about receiving cards from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, and that means two things: another envelope arrived since then that I need to cover, and then another one joined it yesterday. These got to me in August, October, and December, so the roughly two month cadence means I have only myself to blame for being behind.

Anyway, here's a look at all the great stuff that arrived this time:

1981 Donruss Tigers. I don't think anyone looking at the 1980 squad would have predicted the franchise would win it all just a few seasons later. Alan Trammell, Lance Parrish, and Steve Kemp had the makings of a good core, but guys like Kirk Gibson and Lou Whitaker weren't quite there yet. Some of the guys above did have an impact on the Wire-to-Wire champs, though. Corcoran, Cowens, and Dyer were gone by the time the '81 season ended. However, swingman Rozema and #3 starter Wilcox were key pitchers in '84. And Kemp and Wockenfuss were traded in deals that brought back important players for the same team, the former for White Sox OF Chet Lemon in '81 and the latter as part of the famous swap where the Phillies sent Dave Bergman and Cy Young/MVP closer Willie Hernandez to Motown. And the rest is history.

Speaking of Guillermo, he leads off scan #2 in OPC form, along with teammates Terrell and Tram. I recall my brother and I mocking him as Walt "Terrible" but when I go back and look at his numbers, he was 47-32 from 1985-88, so it was mainly his 7-16 record in '88 for an otherwise solid team that earned him the nickname, I'm sure. Also, we weren't terribly happy that the guy the Tigers gave up to get him, Howard Johnson, had some big years for the Mets.

Meanwhile, Miggy is a guy Detroit traded for 16 years and 10 days ago, and nobody has any regrets about that, even before taking into account that the only guy the Marlins got that panned out was Andrew Miller, and even he only had a few years of success, out of the 'pen of all things.

Verlander's trade to the Astros felt like a catastrophe at the time and it still mostly feels like that with Jake Rogers being the only player of any value the Tigers got back, but at least we got to enjoy him for 13 seasons. Josh Johnson's entire career didn't last that long, but I guess two very good campaigns in a row tricked Topps into pairing him up with the future HOFer on that Diamond Duos insert.

And now over to football. I haven't totally warmed up to '23 Score's scoreboard design quite yet, but I also don't have that many cards from the product so it's still growing on me. I do appreciate getting more college photos, though! Brady may be gone (for good this time, I assume), but transfer RB Charbonnet, who finished his college career with a pair of strong years at UCLA, finally picked up his first NFL TD in week 13 against Dallas, which is great.

Nico and DPJ, in Prizm form, are two recent-ish WRs the generally run-heavy Wolverines have put in the league, and Peoples-Jones joined the Lions at the trade deadline, which is very cool, though his numbers are way down this season and he doesn't have a score out of his nine catches.

Here's where things get especially interesting and another reason why I love trading with someone like Doug. Not only does he have access to stuff like CFL cards, he also puts in the research to find out which Michigan guys appeared on them! The late Coode was an OT for Michigan in the early 70s, then Atlanta drafted him in '74, but so did the briefly active World Football League's Detroit Wheels. Coode then opted for the CFL and seven seasons with the Ottawa Rough Riders, peaking with a Grey Cup win in '76 over Saskatchewan's Roughriders, whose lack of spacing in their nickname was obviously the difference in the 23-20 loss. Coode sadly passed away from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in 1987. You see him above on one of just three cards that feature him, all made by JOGO. This one was made in 1993 and is from the Missing Years set.

Art Walker's career trajectory is surprisingly similar. He was also an OL (who sometimes flipped to defense), in his case in the early 50s, and he also ignored the NFL's interest (Green Bay) for the CFL's (or WIFU until 1961) Edmonton Eskimos. In his (also) 7 seasons his team appeared in three Grey Cups and won two (his first two seasons). And sadly he also died at an early age, just 39. TCDb lists six cards for him, all CFL-related of course, and the 1961 Topps CFL above is his second to last cardboard appearance.

Thank you again to Doug for going the extra mile and finding cards of these two Michigan alumni so I could learn about them!

And let's close things out with some very impressive hits. Bookending this scan are my first two such cards of Buckeye-killing RB Hassan Haskins (oops, he just scored on Ohio State again!). His signature may not be much to look at, and I suppose it belongs in the bucket of such guys as Rashan Gary who tend to disappoint with their autos, it's still an autograph of a new player in my collection and I'm happy with that. Also, Donruss's answer to Chrome, Optic, looks pretty cool with the Contenders design. I love that Doug added a jersey relic as well of the now ex-Titans RB to double up the fun.

Former Raider and one-year Niner Big Mo Hurst, playing for the Browns in his fifth season, is unfortunately out for the year with a torn pec but hopefully will return to full strength by next season. As another fairly recent Michigan defender I enjoyed wreaking havoc in the backfield, I love getting new cards of his like the 2018 Donruss Elite auto you see above. His signature is also not the most intricate, but "Mo H." isn't the worst. And that auto, numbered /299, is my fifth of the big DL. Nice!

Sticking with defense--arguably Michigan's strength recently--how about a guy who's having a very nice third year in Indy, Kwity Paye? His '21 Absolute Signature Rookies Green Waves auto is limited to just 25 copies and if you know what you're looking for, "K. Paye" or something like that can be seen. As with Hurst, all of my Paye hits are autos and I now have four of those thanks to this package.

And now we'll end with what I'd say is my favorite design of the package. I'm quite happy getting any new signatures of star WR Nico Collins (this is number four of eight total hits), but I'm also a sucker for stuff like the '21 Panini Elements Rookie Neon Signs card above. This one is actually the Orange parallel, numbered /125, and sometimes it's not all about the on-card signature when you get a fun design element like you see here with the acetate/shadowbox thing. While most recent designs don't stack up to those of the 90s for me, once in a while I'll see a gem like this and just think, "cool!"

So that's another Buckstorecards package in the books! I'll be back with the newest one later this month but I still have others to catch up on before I even get there, and even more after it. Knowing me, it's likely I'll still be posting 2023 stuff in January but that's not that big of a deal since I also won't have my personal COMC pickups until then.

So I'll be back at it again soon with the next trade envelope whenever I feel like it. Until then, thanks to Doug for another banger!

2021 trade package #30: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

As I slowly (very slowly!) continue catching up on trade packages from late last year, I'm back today with another great one from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. The fifth envelope he sent me in 2021 came around the beginning of January, I believe, and he once again knocked it out of the park in sending some amazing and much needed cards my way:

Baseball part 1 was a 100% Wolverines affair with seven cards hitting five different player collections. Blomgren, Criswell, and Franklin are all pretty recent draftees so I don't have a lot of their stuff yet, most of which consists of Bowman/Chrome and the various Topps minors-focused sets. That means I'm always glad to see them appear in trade packages like this one. 

Just as welcome are two new cards of #CroneZone guy Jake Cronenworth, a guy who looks like a building block on what could be a dangerous Padres team at some point. The Bowman Platinum and Topps Update parallels of yesterday's birthday boy give me 25 cards of a player whose checklist has exploded since his recent breakout.

And the group concludes with a pair of cards of a guy whose last game was much closer to the production of the older card than the newer of the two you see. Barry Larkin's issue from the second year of UD's amazing SPx product is from 1997 while the Donruss base you see hails from 2021. Out of curiosity to anyone who sees this, which SPx design do you prefer more: 1996 or '97? I consider the latter a nice improvement on a very cool look but understand the appreciation for the OG.

The hit side of things was also very Michigan-centric with one exception. The Cronenworth auto, just my second after buying one at a recent show, is just my second of his, and Doug was generous enough to let me have it after he pulled it from one of several Chronicles boxes he's opened. Switching from sending him cards to straight cash since he pulls great stuff to send me remains on the table. Anyway, it's a very cool looking card out of the Panini Black Autographs insert and I'm excited to now have a second signature of the young star.

Next up is a Bowman Platinum auto of Portage, Michigan native (shout out to John!) and former Wolverines star pitcher Tommy Henry. As you can see here he was selected by Arizona, back in the 2019 draft, and he seems to be slotting in the middle of their top 30 prospects at the moment. This is my third autograph of the left and I'll gladly take more if I can get them!

Last up is a former Tigers prospect, Scott Sizemore, on a 2007 Bowman Heritage Signs of Greatness autograph card. One of Adam's/Spankee's favorite PC guys (yep, he's a Virginian), Sizemore spent a little time with Detroit in 2010 and '11 before being flipped to Oakland. Though he was a pretty good prospect at second and third, he was somewhat blocked by a combination of Brandon Inge, Carlos Guillen, and a couple utility guys, and he played minimally after 2011. He does, however, have an outstanding signature!

The basketball portion was 20 cards strong, and "strong" goes a long way towards describing the quality of some of these cards! THJ, coach Juwan Howard, Caris LeVert, Mitch McGary, and Glen Rice are all represented here, and the die-cut SPx offerings and Howard insert particularly stand out. Just lots of great new content from one of my collections that tends to lag behind the rest because of my relative disinterest in the sport.

But it certainly piques my interest when I see cards like the ones above along with these! Three more players make appearances here: Maurice Taylor, Franz Wagner, and Chris Webber, and all three are shown on notable cards. Taylor's is a cool UD die-cut that screams "90s inserts rule!", Wagner's is a college uni photo, and Webber's got lots of razzle dazzle including die-cut and shiny inserts and base. By the way, Wagner's Orlando team may be rough in terms of its record but I love that he's teammates with his brother Mo (Moritz) plus fellow Wolverine Ignas Brazdeikis.

Here's a couple more Webber cards that didn't fit in the other scans since nine doesn't go into 20 nicely. C-Webb's sitting pretty in my basketball collection at #2 with 159 cards, second only to Rice's 204.

Moving over to football the last names were clumped together in the letters "A" through "H" but that's fine because you still have plenty of good players to choose from. Like transfer TE Devin Asiasi, former WR and current coach Ronald Bellamy, GOAT QB Tom Brady, and WR Devin Funchess on offense. Or if you're a defensive guy there's LBs Taco Charlton and David Harris. Charlton was one of I believe four former Michigan guys that played for the Steelers this year. And Bellamy's card makes me wonder how many Senior Bowl-type cards I have of the player in their college helmet and a pre-draft all-star game jersey.

As with baseball, Doug really brought the boom with the hits here. Imagine my surprise when I saw the Henne jersey (2008 Bowman Sterling Green Refractor, #d /50) and found out that I didn't actually have it! That's a rarity these days since I own 138 different hits of the former UM QB.

Beastly DL Mo Hurst suited up for the Raiders his first three NFL seasons, as depicted on a 2018 Prizm auto (#d /199) above, but this year he's been plying his trade for the playoff-bound Niners, who are playing tonight, and also boast former Wolverines Lavert Hill, Ambry Thomas, and Jarrod Wilson on their defense. That's my fourth hit (all autos) of a DL who put up 13.5 sacks in Ann Arbor.

And then we have a new member to the PC (#229 overall), former FB Ben Mason. An excellent blocker and short-yardage/goal line back, "Bench" picked up 7 TDs in 2018, though his role on the team changed as coaches Jim Harbaugh and Josh Gattis tweaked the offense his last couple years. A Ravens draftee, Mason can be seen here on his 2021 Panini Chronicles Prestige auto, on that stars a great action photo of a guy whose position has largely been phased out of the game.

Definitely the most unique item of the package was a 2016 Panini Father's Day card of blog favorite dude Denard Robinson as it includes a piece of pylon from the Colts/Jags game on 12/13/2015. Looking at the box score of that 51-16 Jacksonville win (BORTLES!), Shoelace led both teams with 75 rushing yards (he tacked on a 12-yard catch) on 14 carries, including a 31-yarder plus a score from the 1. That was his lone TD that season and in fact the final one he'd score in the NFL, adding on to the four he accumulated the previous year. I'll have to look but I believe pylon relics are few and far between in my collection, though Denard certainly isn't as this is my 52nd hit of his.

And last up on the gridiron is a beauty of a horizontal auto card design courtesy of--who else?--Upper Deck. Braylon made the most of the room he had on his sticker affixed to this card that was part of UD's 2009 Signature Shots insert. A respectable 15 of my 93 hits of Edwards include a signature like this one but not all of them can claim a classy UD design.

And lastly for today, if the fact that I needed the Henne shown above was surprising, the relative dearth of hockey cards came as a shock! That certainly wasn't a bad thing, though, given the quality of everything else Doug fit into the envelope, plus he fills gaps in my Michigan Hockey and Red Wings PCs so frequently that going without them once won't kill me.

This very red trio of icers on UD products looks terrific all lined up together. Mathias Bromé is a Swedish winger in an organization that certainly knows how to value them, and UD took notice by including him in their coveted Young Guns subset in '20-'21. HOF goalie Dominik Hasek sandwiched a year with Doug's Senators with two two-year stints in Hockeytown, winning a pair of Cups in '01-'02 and '07-'08, and here he's seen on a '20-'21 UD Artifacts card #d /499. And my favorite of the trio is also numbered, plus it stars WolverWing Dylan Larkin. UD's Synergy brand has resulted in some very cool looking acetate cards like this '20-'21 Exceptional Young Stars insert, which is #d /749. The young star continues to be an important cog on offense, leading the team in points and tied in goals (with dumbass Tyler Bertuzzi) at 19. I love getting any and all new cards of his to add to my collection.

Doug, I'm sorry it took so long to recap this package but once again I want to say a huge thanks for all the Christmas goodies! As always I appreciate it big time and I'll continue to put in work to hit you back. The good news is I already have a couple things in hand and more in the works, so I'll at least try not to take so long to return fire.

The rest of you should stay tuned for six more blogger trades (more keep coming in!) and at least four TCDB trade recaps as I slowly try to catch up.

2021 trade package #7: My Cardboard Mistress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2020 trade package #35: Sport Card Collectors

Well if I wasn't in the Christmas spirit before, I sure am now! I'm the proud owner of a few cool Christmas card packages that have arrived over the past couple weeks, and today's post features a big one (in every sense of the work) thanks to Matt over at Sport Card Collectors.

He'd let me know to expect this bountiful bubble mailer--special for the occasion since he's a big fan of PWEs, so don't think that went unnoticed!--and I was happy to see it safely arrive. First, the note:

See what I said about Christmas spirit? As Matt mentioned, he sent me both a bit of stuff I was sort of expecting trade-wise and lots more that I'll certainly consider a generous gift.

Here's what was inside:

One of my surprises right off the bat was this 2001 Pacific Private Stock Game Gear 2018 Topps Major League Material Relics jersey of former Tiger V-Mart. I do love making fun of Topps for cribbing this design from a product released more than 15 years prior, but it's one I recall fondly so I'll allow it! This is just my second hit of Victor with the Tigers so it was a fun addition I didn't see coming.

I'll paraphrase the overused joke here and say that someone once asked me which Verlanders I wanted. My response: "Yes." Matt happily obliged here with TOO MANY VERLANDERS, and in this case "too many" equals a perfect page of nine. Better yet, everything here is new to me. I love the two Panini cards--a Diamond Kings Artists Proof (hard to see the logo in the bottom right) and an Optic Prizm--and the Chrome Sepia Refractor is extremely cool as well. TCDB tells me that I'm right at 450 cards of Mr. Upton after this haul, so many thanks to Matt for some really nice JVs to bump up that total.

And speak of the devil, here's one item I did know was coming. A couple months ago a reasonably priced plate of one of his favorite PCs, Rodney Hampton, came up for sale on eBay. I snagged it so Matt wouldn't miss out on it and traded it to him for future considerations. We eventually agreed on a 2005 Topps RC of Verlander, which is worth a lot more than it used to be. I don't remotely understand how flagship rookies that exist in abundance are worth so much but other people can spend their money however they want. As for me, I already have one of these, but now I have something nice to send to fellow Verlander collector Paul who could definitely use one; Merry Christmas to him!

The rest of the package was absolutely stuffed with Michigan Football stuff, which was a blast to go through. I decided to separate these into three scans worth of stuff that's new to me and one large image of the rest so I didn't have to do something like 11 or 12 scans here.

While not every single card featured a college photo it sure feels like the majority of them did, which is 100% awesome. This scan includes four new RCs for my Rookie Blue project, half of which are maize & blue cards: two of injured sideline-to-sideline LB Devin Bush plus Classics cards of Jake Butt and Mo Hurst. They wouldn't be the only first-years in this package....

Besides them, we have a Butt insert (huh-huh, huh-huh /Butthead voice), numbered Braylon, and Gold Press Pass parallels of Hart and Bennie Joppru, and a SAGE IHT base of former DE Tim Jamison. I initially had Hart in the dupes pile until the light hit it correctly and I was able to note that it had gold foil, which meant I could happily add another card to his PC!

I'm designating the top row here as not quite RC status. 2020 Cowboys TE draftee Sean McKeon appears on Panini Chronicles cards with Donruss and Optic designs--cool how they used photos from two different games--and a Scorecard parallel. I believe the Chronicles cards are technically considered inserts, so for now they won't go towards the RC project, but I'm still very glad to have them.

Former QB Navarre makes an increasingly rare cameo (his stuff is just harder to find for some reason) on a Press Pass parallel of his own, this one appropriately Blue, while handing off the ball to a guy we'll see in the next scan.

Do-everything defender Jabrill Peppers also gets a nice trio of his own. Shiny Optic and Prizm parallels bookend another Classics RC appearance, and those inserts represent just a couple more pro uni cards. It's been nice watching him make some plays this season for the hapless Giants!

Last up are a couple 2004 inserts of that RB I just mentioned, Chris Perry (Hot Prospects and Topps), a sweet Elite base of Mr. Heisman Charles Woodson, and a double-the-fun duo of '08 draftees Jake Long and Mike Hart that I somehow didn't have. Woodson and Tom Brady have pretty much become staples of Panini's yearly college themed sets and that's totally fine by me, though I'd be happy to see even more past Michigan legends.

That was the last of the "new" stuff but this huge surprise also counts, in a way. I already owned Terrell's "raw" 2001 Pacific Dynagon Retail RC but I surely won't say no to a PSA 10! I will say that if I didn't already have a copy I probably would have cracked this, but now it'll be fun to keep one slabbed like this.

Lastly, if my words didn't convey how many Michigan Football cards were in this package, hopefully this picture will help you. There's even more maize & blue here, and besides a number of guys you already saw, plenty of my favorites like Arrington, Henne, and Shoelace. Michigan cards never go to waste here, and I'm glad to say that Paul's not the only one (besides me) getting something out of this gift that keeps on giving, as Jeff will be the proud owner of a few new cards himself! Hooray for the season of giving.

Matt, thanks again for this amazing mailer full of Tigers and Wolverines (which sounds way more dangerous when I say it that way!). I really appreciate your generosity, including going outside of your comfort zone to send a package this large all at once. I've had another great year of trading with you and you can bet I'll be back at it in 2021!

Next time, even more giving! Stay tuned while you're decking those halls....