10/31 and 11/2/25 card show report: a November to remember

Now that I'm caught up on November trades, let's take a look at what I came home with after spending two days at that month's Taylor Town show.

First, I went on Friday as usual, which was actually Halloween, but for all intents and purposes, that was the first day of the November show so that's how I'm treating it here. Also, as is often the case, I spent all of my time and money at the tables of the seller I usually see since he's only there on Fridays and Saturdays. I dropped $60 there and was happy with what I got, including these keepers:

90s(ish!) inserts rule when it comes to the Gwynn and Maddux cards I picked out. Mr. Padre is from a 2000 UD insert named Cooperstown Calling, which wasn't exactly a reach for the legendary hitter, and the shiny rainbow foil and overall design really grabbed me. Mad Dog's insert is from the same year's Stadium Club Chrome product, and it's an acetate chase card called Clear Shots that very much lives up to its name.

The other baseball item was a 2020 Absolute Black autograph card of Tigers C Jake Rogers. These manuball inserts are perfect for signatures and the price was right when I factored this into my total cost. I know Rogers has pretty much given way to Dillon Dingler as the future of the franchise at the position, but I still appreciate the stability Jake brought behind the plate. Plus the card just looks cool!

As for football, I scored a Topps Resurgence RC of Michigan (via Indiana) TE AJ Barner (who caught another TD for Seattle today), a Prizm parallel of Devin Bush, and my first autograph of Josh Uche, which is a 2020 Panini Contenders Draft Picks card and therefore features a college action photo. Uche put up some nice defensive numbers in his junior and senior years (2018-19) and got himself selected in the 2020 second round, #60 overall, by New England. He had a career year in '22 with 11.5 sacks for the Pats, and has since bounced to KC and now Philly. As it turns out his signature is fairly legible by today's standards!

I then headed back on Sunday afternoon to meet up with Angus of Dawg Day Cards as I explained in this trade post.

Not only did I have a great time meeting him for the first time in person and swapping some cards, plus having a like-minded person to flip through boxes with, but spending a second day at the show gave me an opportunity to look around at the other tables I rarely see. I think my purchases were split up between something like five or six other sellers, so I can thank Angus for getting me back out there to the benefit of my collections (in addition to the time he put in driving over from Canada).

You'll see a few cards from my favorite vintage seller who I do make sure to stop by when he's around, plus a mix of a few others. Oddly enough, I spent another $60 exactly on day two. Here's what I grabbed:

Four of the cards in this image were courtesy of the guy who specializes in vintage (plus one more in the last scan), though one of them will surprise you. First is the '63 Topps League Leaders card which includes former Tiger Jim Bunning, whose 19 wins in '62 were the fifth best behind the other four on the card who all had 20+. Harvey Kuenn may be in a Giants uni but like Bunning I'll collect him regardless, and he's seen on the fun '63 Post design. Below him is a '70 Fleer World Series card of the '07 Fall Classic, just the fourth played, in which the Cubs defeated Detroit (the first of three straight Tigers pennants that ended in defeat for them). And lastly, the '23 Topps Museum Collection jersey of future HOFer Max Scherzer came from one of his boxes as well, one that often has some more modern odds and ends, though usually not hits like this. I probably would have grabbed it even with him on another team, but the large swatch of the Detroit star grabbed my eye and I knew I had to have it.

Meanwhile I grabbed a few cheapies elsewhere including an '86 Sportflics six-player card where Tiger Darrell Evans was one of the bunch (most AL HR) along with Wade Boggs, Don Mattingly, Willie McGee, Dale Murphy, and Dave Parker. Henneman is a '94 SP Die-Cut, Magglio is a 2006 Bowman Gold, Scherzer (again) is a 2019 Finest Refractor, and JV is from 2021 Topps 70 Years of Topps.

I think one of the last tables we stopped at had one or two tubs of very random things that were something like a buck each or six for $5. Angus and I both grabbed shrink-wrapped stacks of Fleer Stamps which you probably saw on Night Owl's blog since we each sent some to him. I scored a few other items for collecting pals too, but kept one for myself: this unopened box of 12 1990 Collect-A-Books. You can see on the back that the bunch includes Griffey, who I already have, but I thought it would be fun to keep this unopened and maybe try to find the other two boxes. Also, the other 11 players are solid to fantastic, and you can't beat that for a buck!

The lone basketball single I picked up was a Ruby Wave Prizm of Duncan Robinson, whom I may have mentioned once or twice is now with the Pistons.

As for football, my second signature of FB Ben Mason hails from '21 Contenders, and it's a bit goofy as he's pictured with Baltimore but noted as having been signed by the Pats. Considering his position it's a bit surprising that he was drafted at all but Baltimore took him in round 5 in 2021, and he got into one game with them a couple years later in the midst of bouncing around various practice squads. His signature isn't bad and this is my first pro uniform auto of him, so that's cool.

He's joined from the sport by a legendary name in Elroy Hirsch. "Crazy Legs" of course is a HOF multi-position guy who played for both Wisconsin and Michigan, and he suited up for the Chicago Rockets and LA Rams in the 40s and 50s. I love finding vintage stuff of him such as the '57 Topps you see above, which is simply a classic design. It's my second oldest card of Hirsch as I already have his '56 base, but I still need his Bowman issues from 1950-54, including his RC.

And we'll close out with hockey. A dime (or maybe cheaper?) box turned up 24-25 Artifacts base cards of Hobey Baker winner Adam Fantilli plus Owen Power, and then I spend a couple bucks on my 11th relic and 16th hit of Jack Johnson, this one from 2007-08 UD.

Clearly I had a great (and productive) time spending a couple days at this show, including one with Angus. And happily the in-person show hangouts didn't end there since I got to do another one the following weekend, which I'll cover next time.

Until then, I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday, including those of you who received cards from me, and that some of you are getting some days off of work like I am!

2024 trade package #10: Bob Walk the Plank

It's always a treat when I get cards from Matt of Bob Walk the Plank since we send stuff back and forth maybe once or twice a year, but there's always a higher-end aspect to it. Back in May he treated me to quite the birthday present with these:

Current/future star Riley Greene is a nice looking Museum Collection parallel numbered to just 50. Both Griffeys are from that decade or so in the late 90s/early 2000s when everything was numbered. His Topps Stars goes to 9799 while the gorgeous team color parallel from Leaf Certified Materials is much rarer, /200!

Hill ('23 Chrome Update Orange) is even more limited at just 25 copies, plus that color could be considered a team parallel too. I've mentioned that Miller was quite useful to the Tigers as trade bait, and his 2007 UD Masterpieces card is quite the looker. I have a crazy 83 cards of Casey Mize right now, and one of the rarest of those is the '22 Select Cracked Ice you see above, which is limited to 25 copies just like the Hill (don't worry, Gavin, neither is a 12/25!).

Neither of those is the rarest card of the bunch, though, thanks to a '22 Topps Mini Red of my favorite recent Tigers catcher, Jake Rogers, that's numbered 2/5. Wow! Speaking of "wow," how about another 2007 UD Masterpieces RC of a former Tigers pitcher, this time future HOFer Max Scherzer? That's a beautiful card of the three time Cy Young winner and owner of two World Series rings. Last up is another Red parallel that's not quite as rare as the others in this scan--299 copies--of former RP Joel Zumaya, whose legacy is looking iffy due to being connected to some very troubling allegations about former player and TV guy Craig Monroe.

And here you'll see the contents of the package I was the most excited about. First up is no big deal, just a Miguel Cabrera autograph from 2005 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects. I don't think I can emphasize just how generous Matt is--though I encourage you to look through all my trade packages from him here, containing flat-out amazing cards of current and future HOFers like Kaline, Verlander, Larkin, and others--but maybe this will help: this is my fourth signature of Miggy, and aside from the one I pulled from a pack myself, the other three have come from my collecting doppelgänger in West Virginia. Seriously, my hat's off to him.

Continuing the goodness, next up is a bat relic of a guy I just mentioned above: Barry Larkin. I'm as sick as everyone else of seeing the boring 80s designs beaten to death by Topps, but I'll always be happy about a new hit of a favorite player, such as #25 of the Wolverines SS that became a Reds star!

And for something even more timely, not only is it amazing that Tarik Skubal is the front-runner for the AL Cy Young on another tire fire of a "rebuilding" team, but Matt managed to score a '22 Chrome Refractor auto (numbered /499) of his on Twitter for under $20 and have it delivered to me. What a great card to have of a guy who'll presumably be around for a bit more after the team thankfully didn't give him up for another underwhelming prospect package (see: Flaherty, Jack) at the deadline.

On the football side of things, a pair of Tom Brady cards serves as an appetizer to the main course: a brand new Chad Henne autograph, which is something I haven't been able to add for quite a while. The 2009 Gridrion Kings card you see above (#d /50) is my 144th hit of one of my favorite UM QBs, putting him six behind collection leader Rich Hill. That number is bonkers and I'm grateful for folks like Matt who've helped build that collection.

And finally tonight, this surprise quintet is a fun way of wrapping things up. Representing the Pistons, Lions, Wolverines, and Red Wings are a great mix of Starting Lineup cards showing off several different designs. Hill and Osgood are examples of partnerships with Topps and Fleer, respectively, while Batch, Griese, and Woodson have designs I'm much more familiar with when it comes to those collectible figures and their cards. As for the title-winning Wolverines pair, Griese's from the 2000 product while Woodson's from the '98 Extended Series released during his rookie season.

That's another Bob Walk the Plank package in the books and man was it a great one! I'm fortunate to trade with some very generous folks and Matt is most definitely among the best when it comes to high-end dealing. I appreciate it as always and am working on a return worthy of this to send back to Morgantown as soon as I can. Thanks, Matt!

I believe I have two more May trade packages to get to followed by some show recaps and then it'll be on to June. Stay cool, enjoy the Olympics, and join me in looking forward to the college football season in just a few weeks!

2024 Facebook Marketplace purchase: Shoeboxin'

Tonight I get to wrap up the month of April 2024 in terms of my collecting with what was my third purchase via Facebook Marketplace.

A guy in Brighton, which is about a half hour-ish north of me, posted a shoebox of baseball stuff for sale, asking $100:

He estimated that there were around 500 cards in there, all fairly recent, including inserts, SPs, and some other stuff. Also, everything was sleeved.

This other image from the listing gives you a pretty good idea of the content, with a lot of it being what today's collectors tend to refer to as "color," especially parallels like Refractors.

We managed to settle on a $75 price and everything proceeded smoothly. As usual I had a blast flipping through everything and setting aside a few things for myself while mainly enjoying coming up with even more stuff to send my favorite trade partners (with most of the getting listed on TCDb).

A number of you have long since received your loot from this box but I think I may still have some to send out.

Anyway, here's what I held onto for myself:

I guess today's a rare day where I don't need or want to make fun of Baez since his three-run homer led Detroit to a win over Cleveland. Even if I eventually dump his base stuff in my trade boxes when he's inevitably jettisoned from the roster, I'm happy to keep fun parallels like Refractors. Cochrane is a favorite old-old school guy of mine whether he's shown with Philly or Detroit, and bordered parallels are elite. Kinsler makes two colorful appearances here (one below), both in Rangers uniforms, but that's fine because he was another short-term Detroit favorite of mine. Scherzer, seen here on a couple cool inserts from his brief tenure with the Mets, was also in the news today having eclipsed his former teammate Justin Verlander in career strikeouts to rank 10th all-time. Garcia, Rondon, and Travis never really did anything for Detroit, though I remain angry about the team dumping Travis to the Blue Jays even though injuries shortened his career, because the Tigers sure do love getting nothing for their talented young infielders.

Reyes, like a more recent Tiger in Akil Baddoo, is an example of a minor rule 5 success as he parlayed his December, 2017 selection from Arizona into parts of five seasons with Detroit. The gold foil is quite nice on the top card and the bottom is your standard quality Refractor. And then the oldest items in the box were a few 1990 Topps Stickers with PC guys Gwynn and Ripken starring on three fronts and one back. The flip side of Mr. Padre's sticker is fellow HOF OF Andre Dawson. Cal serves as the Superstar back for Devon White and Jeffrey Leonard while his foil and regular stickers include Mitch Williams and Gary Gaetti on the backs.

Overall I'm quite happy with how this purchase went: I got it for less than the purchase price, added a few fun cards, and picked up a bunch of fun recent-ish trade bait. It was basically the equivalent of a solid day of dime- and quarter-boxing at a show, and at $0.15 per card, that's essentially what it was, though with a bit of driving in place of the time spent digging.

Now that I'm caught up through April I should be back soon to start recapping five May trades (and more from the month) that brought me some very timely exciting items. Until then, I hope all of you are like me, basking in the time of year when baseball doesn't have to share the spotlight with the other major sports (though the Olympics may be good watching).

2024 Facebook Marketplace purchase: February Facebookin'

Since I'm still recapping February's pickups, today I'm going to give a quick look at my first Facebook Marketplace purchase of the year.

So later in that month I saw a seller that had a few different postings that included images like this one:

I asked him what he wanted for whatever he had left and that amounted to a total of three boxes and somewhere between 9000-10K cards.

He originally asked for $60 for that stuff, then quickly went down to $50 taking into account that I'd be driving over there (not far from my monthly show in Taylor). That sounded good to me!

I brought it all home and started flipping through it, and once again I most definitely got my money's worth of trade bait, keepers, and fun. The four major sports were well represented, plus soccer, WWE, MMA, and even other stuff. And I was very happy that a relatively small amount was junk with most of it being stuff from the past five-to-ten years. If I recall correctly I think the seller told me these were leftovers from a collection he acquired from a guy who busted a lot of boxes/packs, and that seems accurate.

I'm still sorting through everything and have started listing the set-fillers on TCDb, plus I think I got most of the better inserts up already, and that's led to some trades there, and a lot of you that got trade packages from me in the past couple months got anywhere from a few to a lot of the cards from this lot (so, again, mission accomplished!).

Right now the bulk of what I listed on TCDb was from the past few years of Heritage, Archives, and Donruss, but we'll see what else I list, including possibly a ton of Topps flagship (especially 2021) and some miscellaneous others, not to mention the other sports. I may make an announcement here when I have more listed in case anyone wants to match me there for trades, but for now my best advice if you trade there is just to keep your wantlists updated.

So with all that out of the way, here's everything I found for my own collections, which is great since it'll give you a good sense of some of the products that were well represented:

Avila's a former Tiger I still collect if not one I go after that hard. I was ready to dump all over Baez even more in this post until he (and the rest of the team) went off the past couple games. There's still a pretty high chance he'll be one of those former Tigers whose cards I flip over to my trade list, or at least most of them--I tend to keep the cooler looking inserts--but for now I'm holding onto them. He was one of two current/former Tigers that dominate tonight's post.

Seriously, there was a lot of el Mago and between this haul and some trades (especially a couple packages from Jeff) I went from not very many to 77!

Here's the last page of just Baez, though you'll see a bit more of him later. Are you getting a good sense of which sets were prominent here? I think '21 Heritage and that year's flagship Topps were the top two but either way there was a good mix of designs and inserts.

How about some inserts and base of Tigers legends Miggy, Cobb, and Goslin (1934-37 including the '35 champs)? When Cabrera gets elected on his first ballot he'll join those two as well as Griffey and Gwynn in the Hall. Mr. Padre reminds us here that Stadium is still amazing.

One Larkin parallel did manage to sneak into the bunch, and Maddux is the third of the big quartet, though Ripken isn't represented this time. Co-prospects Manning and Mize flank another former catcher I sometimes collect in James McCann.

Rogers' bat hasn't come back yet but I'm glad to see him back to health. Former Tiger Scherzer was the other guy whose totals got a nice bump thanks to this purchase as you'll see in this scan and a few others.

If I wasn't so lazy I could look at my TCDb history to see when his PC grew and by how much, but for now I just looked at the site and I have 125 of him, so these pickups definitely pushed him over the century mark. Simba's new card is from a small stack of Sport Kings cards I pulled out of the boxes.

Tigers ace Skubal leads off this scan and boy is it fun watching him pitch this year, just like seeing vintage Verlander. It's still a travesty Detroit never won a title with JV and Max, but I chalk that up to bad luck and questionable management. Speaking of the latter, Baez sneaks in one more time and is joined by former stars Fielder and Pudge.

More Scherzer, more JV, and a couple team cards I somehow didn't have. Verlander's last card warrants another "Stadium Club rules!" comment because, come on, look at that shot!

The basketball portion was also somewhat fruitful for me thanks to three players appearing at least once: THJ, Poole, and Duncan Robinson. Illusion, Mosaic, and Prizm were fairly well represented in that sport and I'll probably have a better idea how those look if/when I get them sorted and listed.

Brady and Bush kick off the gridiron content, and since I picked up these boxes the latter has signed with the Browns.

Gary is one of two players in the group who got a pair of cards added to his collection, joining Chase Winovich. Haskins, dumbass Lewan, Wheatley, and the GOAT Woodson each saw their PC increase by one.

The amount of hockey in the bunch was relatively small but I did snag one new card of stud Nucks D-man Quinn Hughes, whose team will go to a game 7 with Zach Hyman's Oilers tomorrow night.

Without taking a lot more time which would certainly make me even less motivated to post I don't think this gave you the best idea of the fun I had flipping through these cards and finding some great content to send out to some of my favorite folks, but if it only gives you a snapshot I guess that's not bad. I expect my spoils to continue to result in more trades with bloggers and on TCDb and that makes this purchase another unqualified success.

I actually have another Marketplace purchase I'm excited to show off eventually when I'm more caught up (you'll continue to see that phrase a lot) but first there's other stuff to cover from previous months.

11/3/23 show report: showvember

While I don't feel like putting the effort into a trade post this evening I did feel motivated enough to cover my pickups from this month's show.

I can't remember the exact breakdown but I spent $40 at my favorite seller's tablet, split up into dimes, $0.50ers, $1s, and $2s, then another $20 at the table of the vintage guy that's there about 80% of the time. Most of the higher value stuff is headed for trade packages which is generally my goal, so this was another successful show for me.

But as usual I also have some trade bait and personal keepers.

First up, the cards that are/were available for trades:

I made more of an effort to get some baseball bait since I know lots of folks that follow me aren't as interested in other sports like football. The top three cards are all samples which seemed like the kind of thing that can be hard-to-find. Then there's a nice bunch of numbered stuff: Finley is /999 (hey, Pacific!); the Johnsons are /1199 and 500; Morales is /2013; the Wandy cards are /399 and 500.

I included the backs of the three promos as the two Portraits cards are slightly different.

Butler's a '92 Diamond King that I couldn't pass up along with some other amazing cards from my favorite decade that absolutely scream "90s inserts rule!" Bernie's from the amazing Pacific Paramount Fielder's Choice insert, this from '99. The acetate/die-cut Walker is SN5000 and from one of my favorite Donruss Studio inserts. Belle and Williams hail from a '96 Select chase set called Claim to Fame, and they aren't individually numbered but do claim to be "1 of 2100 produced" on the back. And the other Williams is from Pinnacle's Summit Hitters Inc. insert, and that's also numbered, to 4000 copies.

As of this post everything above is still available!

The football bait is once again largely numbered stuff mixed in with a few cool looking items and one hit this time. Numbering for those who care: Battle /350; Cunningham /299; Jammer /400; Johnson /500; Jue /1499; Keller /250; Meachem already traded; Piscitelli /200; Smith already traded.

Mostly numbered again but there's two that aren't because they looked cool enough on their own. The third card in this scan is a '97 Pacific team checklist for the Falcons with a couple see-through windows. Number four is a Score Future Franchise that pairs up Dez White and Cade McNown (I know, I know--it was 2000, nobody knew better!). Numbered cards: Tuiasosopo /1250; Wells /500; Williams /899; Foster /2002; Gates /999; Greene /500; Minnis /999. And yes, it's nice to see so much Pacific in here while I continue reading Mike Cramer's book!

Finishing off the football, I threw in the back of the White/McNown since it fit. The numbered cards are Mitchell /4000; Robinson /350; Robinson /4000; Young /750. And lastly, the Brown/Clayton/White triple jersey was something like $2 (and is numbered /100) so it seemed like a good trade bait pickup.

As for my keepers, mostly from the dime box:

I think everything here was a dime except for the Gibby/Harwell and Ripken. Granderson's Heritage issue is an SP but I don't have to care since I only had to pay a dime. It was nice finding a few other PCs at that price as well. Meanwhile, the Gibson/Harwell 2004 Fleer Greats Announcing Greats insert was a buck or two and isn't even numbered, but it was too cool to leave behind! And Cal's '96 Finest Refractor was one of the $3 or 8/$20 cards I snagged from the guy that mostly deals in vintage, and the $2.50 cost was totally fine with me as it's a beaut.

I don't know why I had so much luck finding new cards of '23 Series champ Max Scherzer in the dime boxes but I had no reason to put them back. This little stack features some solid designs like Phoenix and Optic, Stadium Club and Chrome. It doesn't matter to me that all of them have him pictured with the team he helped win his first ring, the Nats, because he's one of those ex-Tigers I continue to collect, if not put much money into.

The basketball and football fit into one scan and I believe all of these were dimes except for one. My last post featured a nice number of LeVert cards and I found two of my own here of the shiny variety out of Panini products. While the Refractor-like Prizm card is quite nice, the Orange Donruss parallel with its rays of light is the winner in my book.

Flipping over to the gridiron and a team I'm rooting for to finish out Jim Harbaugh's suspension with two wins and no distractions, we actually start with a current player. Corum and the other RBs haven't shown the explosive play-making ability they brought last year but he continues to live in the end zone, already equaling last year's 18 TDs on the ground despite almost 100 fewer carries. I happily chipped in a buck for the Bowman U card you see above, plus I snagged one for Jeff while I was at it because he'd do the same for me.

The other three are dime inserts I was more than happy to dig out of the boxes. Ex-WR Darboh can be seen on a Prizm parallel of his Optic rookie, and there's that "Rated Rookie" logo I love so much. QB Elvis Grbac was the back half of another Score Future Franchise insert like the one you saw above, and RB Sylvester Morris was the "future" guy up front. He'd play 15 games for KC in 2000 as a first-rounder and then completely disappear from the league. One guy who's still around and causing havoc for NFL offenses is Kwity Paye, seen here on an Orange parallel of his '21 Panini Playbook RC (with just the area you see up top changed to orange). He's got 4.5 sacks for Indy this year putting him on pace to beat his career high of 6.0 from last season. He's also equaled his career best two fumble recoveries from his rookie season with lots of time left to pad that number.

I'll get back to trade posts shortly but hope you all enjoyed yet another look at my monthly trip to Taylor which was a good time as always for me.

11/6/21 card show report: a couple very good signs

Two constants of my last few show recaps were my disappointment in a lack of dime boxes to pick through and the fact that I didn't come home with as much fun stuff as I was able to earlier in the year. I'm happy to say both of those situations changed this past Saturday when I headed east to Taylor for a couple hours. That's right: I said Saturday, the same day as a Michigan Football game. But I was able to get over there because Michigan didn't face off with Indiana until 7:30. So I was able to enjoy the show and kill time before the game. Efficiency at its finest!

Anyway, I was exciting to find that the dime boxes were back! I want to say I went through something like six to eight of those super long three row boxes, and after plenty of time spent ignoring recent baseball and basketball garbage, I came up with 80 cards.

Next up I waded through the dollar boxes for the types of hits I love for myself and trade packages, and I grabbed 17 of them, figuring I'd be paying $25 and then getting out of there with a few interesting pieces but nothing great.

Then I took a look at the dude's showcases, which very occasionally have something I'm interested in. For instance, in the past I snagged what I think was a nice deal on a Dylan Larkin manuletter auto. I quickly found two big singles I hoped I could take home with me, and luck continued to be on my side as that's exactly what I did!

More on those at the end, but first up we've got the few trade bait cards I didn't pick up for anyone in particular:

These were all a buck along with others I picked up for some trade packages, and many had languished in the guy's $2 box for months. I thought I'd diversify a little with a basketball pair, plus Quentin's a numbered auto and face mask cards are cool (and that Burleson is numbered 213/350) on the back.

And now for my own pickups, mostly of the dime variety:

On a day where a lot of the talk is centered on MLB's award finalists, let's look at some dime box baseball! Avila was a fun Tigers catcher and a 2019 Chrome Refractor was an easy buy for a dime, even if he's pictured with Arizona. Cobb pops up in pretty much any modern set that includes retired players and legends, and 2018 Diamond Kings was no exception. Griffey continues his march toward 1000 cards with base from 2006 Upper Deck Artifacts and 2013 Panini USA Champions. Mr. Padre also gets a pair, from 1992 Score Procter & Gamble all the way up to 2021 Ginter. That brand popped up a couple more times for HOF shortstops in the form of Larkin and Ripken from the previous two years. And I'll happily pay ten cents for a new Sparky card such as his 1981 Topps team checklist.

An unlicensed trio closes out the baseball portion. Cal's second appearance is courtesy of the weird fun/plain combo done by '21 Donruss. I still like to collect the occasional Scherzer card, and a Detroit appearance such as 2014 Donruss Elite is a bonus. And I even added to my Verlander collection, of which I have too many, with his 2020 Donruss Optic base.

The basketball portion is comparatively tiny but it's still a good sign that I found any for myself at all. The THJ and Duncan Robinson you see above are Blue parallels from 20-21 Panini Select and they look quite nice in hand, better than they scan, and much lighter too.

On the football side we start with two dimes. Transfer TE and New England draftee Asiasi is a 2020 Panini Phoenix parallel and I believe I correctly IDed it as "Fire Burst" but could easily be proven wrong. And I even added a new RC to my collection of Butts--Jake Butts, that is. His 2017 Select first-year is #11 of 14 I'm chasing.

And then the last two cards you see of New Orleans C Cesar Ruiz were from the dollar box. Should I have paid a buck each for 2020 Donruss Optic Purple Shock and Green Velocity parallels of his rookie? Maybe not, but they're Michigan uni cards and I wasn't originally spending much anyway, plus they doubled the size of his PC.

So now chronologically we're at the point where I was looking intently at the baseball showcase when something caught my eye. Could it be?...

Yes indeed, a Jake Cronenworth autograph! It may be from Gypsy Queen instead of a brand I actually like, but it's a nice first signature (or hit of any kind) of one of my favorite young players and the best Michigan Baseball alum to come along recently. The should-have-been 2020 NL Rookie of the Year enjoyed a nice encore in his first full season, making the All-Star team thanks to 21 HR and ultimately a 4.8 bWAR for a talented young Padres team that underachieved in the end. He was a key part of the Slam Diego thing and also hit for the cycle back in July. I look forward to adding more of his hits to a PC I was working on before he was cool.

When I asked the guy how much he wanted for it, he responded "...for you...$20." I'd taken a quick look at eBay and they seemed to be going for more like $30. While that cost still felt like an overpay to me, my desire to own a Cronenworth auto plus wanting to keep the guy in business won out and I added it to my purchase. Then another card caught my eye:

I've made no secret that Cal's one of my favorite all-time players, both in terms of the game and player collections. His 1032 cards dwarf all comers if you needed any proof. I also love me some 90s but if you didn't know that you haven't read anything on this here blog, so welcome.

Anyway, Fleer's collaboration with Sports Illustrated produced some outstanding products in the late 90s, and one of the results was an insert set that reprinted some of the formerly respected publication's most iconic covers, including signed versions. Cal graced the cover on July 29, 1991, when he was more than halfway to his goal of besting Lou Gehrig's iron man streak while, as the front says, "...enjoying the best season if his illustrious career." Ball don't lie, and neither do the numbers: the AL MVP (for the second time) went off for a career bests of 11.5 bWAR, 34 bombs, 114 RBI, .940 OPS, 368 total bases, and, oh yeah, six steals!

So yeah, it's a beautiful card of a great SI cover, plus it includes an autograph of one of the greatest players I've been privileged to watch. And his signature is obviously one of the best out there as well. Oh, and it's numbered (by hand)? Yeah, gotta have it. How much? "Hmmm...for you...$40." Yep, sold! What's funny is these two late additions ran my total up to $84 and I literally had four each of $20s and $1 bills in my wallet. "Ah, you're fine," he said, clearly realizing I'll be back next month as a regular customer, which is worth more than making me put back one of the cheapo dollar hits.

So a warm welcome to my third card with a Ripken signature and first that doesn't include a relic or manufactured piece. It was great to pair with an up-and-coming infielder's first 'graph in my collection and an outstanding way to end the show on a high note before I returned home to watch Michigan handle Indiana.

While I'm looking forward to next month and the final show of the year (which may involve me getting a highly sought-after in-person signature), I've still got plenty to show off over here, including my latest eBay score plus more of the Facebook lot. Until then, may all of your shows be as fruitful as this one was for me!

2019 trade package #10: Base Card Hero

I'm happy to announce that my recent return to picking up cheap but interesting hits at my monthly show resulted in a deal with a new trade partner:  Ryan of Base Card Hero.  The fan of Minnesota teams expressed interest in a Glen Perkins manuletter auto I nabbed back in February, and eventually we swapped addresses and some cards.  I hadn't had anybody busting down my door for Twins so the deal was more than welcome, plus I love trading with new folks, and I found Ryan easy to work with.

And I should probably also describe him as generous.  Witness the plethora of Tigers that arrived in my mailbox in late April:

Here's some Tigers A-G, all of which I like to collect.  Of this group, Cobb is the only one I've cataloged on TCDB but I hope to get the others added soon.  The Diamond Kings cards are the easy highlights for me here, especially given the players (plus that framed Hank is sweet!) but I was happy to see a couple more Fulmers as I wish him a speedy return to health.

I'd be happy enough with base Kinslers, but shiny Kinslers are even better!  Traders like Ryan have sent me some very nice stuff of his over the years and he's another guy whose collection will likely look quite nice for me on TCDB.  McCann is a guy Detroit is clearly missing behind and at the plate now that he's away from Lloyd McClendon's nefarious influence.  Seriously--send Lloyd west to the Angels and see if Mike Trout turns into Steve Trout at the dish.  I might have more cards of Magglio than any other non-player collection Tiger.  And it's still nice to think about the days when Scherzer turn his turns in Detroit's rotation.

Here's some interesting stuff of guys who aren't currently sorted by name in my Detroit box.  Ordinarily lackluster RP Joba is notable here as an SP from 2014 Topps update.  Maybe I'll eventually have enough cards of Sam "Wahoo" Crawford to give him his own spot in the box!  Stewart brings back the Diamond Kings love and a reminder of a couple big games he had earlier this season.  The two Bowman guys don't rank highly in the system, but you never know.

And to those I can add some inserts, mostly of the parallel variety.  Niko's a current Tiger while Smyly and Price are both long gone.  The back of the Wal-Mart Blue team parallel notes that in 2012 the Tigers swept the Yankees in the ALCS with OF Delmon Young picking up the game-winning RBI in each contest, an MLB first (which I hadn't remembered!).

There were three players in this envelope with enough cards to split them into separate scans, and first up is Miggy.  The 1B/DH is in the midst of a power outage and his best days are likely behind him, but there's lots of cardboard to like here, especially if you enjoy parallels.  Also:  Diamond Kings once again!  TCDB tells me I have 288 Cabrera cards, so we'll eventually see how Magglio stacks up to that number.

Mr. Tiger is next up, and again I'm thrilled with the DK base card, though another reprint of his Topps RC, which is as close to the real thing as I'll get for a while, is a nice touch too.  And I'm always glad seeing vintage photos of guys like Kaline such as the Topps 150 insert.  Looks like I have 88 cards of the HOFer, and I'm hoping to add more vintage to that count this year.

Ryan may be new to trading with me but he already was well aware of how to get on my good side:  send Verlanders.  Many, many Verlanders.  He sent me nine, or exactly one page worth, and I needed seven of them, which is a great ratio for me considering I have over 350 cards of my favorite Tigers pitcher.  Everything but the first two cards you see in the image is brand new, and I continue having no problem accumulating cards of JV as an Astro.  Topps made the easy decision to pair him with Nolan Ryan in this year's Greatness Returns insert, and the Heritage New Age Players looks pretty nice as well.

Ryan, once again I'll say thanks for a fantastic first trade!  I'll be following your blog as I work on picking up more Minnesota trade bait to send your way.

Everyone else can look forward to more trade package goodness soon.