2023 trade package #12: the Collector

Tonight's trade envelope comes from a collector I've traded with many times who recently celebrated 600 transactions on TCDb (quite the feat!). That collector's name? THE Collector, Chris!

Not one to sit around and wait for deals to come to him, Chris put in a bunch of work to hit that 600 deal milestone (in preparation of celebrating his 600th post). I can see in his transaction history that he started 2023 with 545 done and he's completed 78 already this year as I'm writing this. Nice! Find him over there as hockeydude, by the way.

Chris reached out to me early last month and I became his 596th swap. He offered me a nice little mix of items from my wantlist in return for future considerations, though I happened to have some stuff on hand I was going to send him anyway, so that worked out really well.

Here's what the New Jerseyan sent westward to me in Michigan:

The transaction Chris proposed actually only included the bottom six cards so the trio of Tigers were nice throw-ins. The Cuyler and Fryman are from '93 UD while Jose Lima hails from the '96 product. Cuyler got a pretty good number of ABs with some of those terrible 90s Tigers squads while Fryman enjoyed a respectable career in Detroit before finishing out his run with the Indians. The late Lima looked like nothing special before a trade to Houston produced the highest moments of his career. He did return to Detroit in 2001 for parts of a couple seasons.

Another Tiger is the lone baseball representative from the deal as originally agreed upon. J.D. Martinez is a guy who pulled a reverse Lima, heading from Houston to Detroit and overhauling his swing to great results in the batter's box and his wallet. His 2017 Topps All-Star Game set card got me to look up his Midsummer Classic appearances, and he's made five--one with the Tigers and four with the Red Sox.

Basketball gets just one new card today but that's fine because it's my least favorite sport. Chris hit one of my Wolverine cager PCs with a 21-22 Donruss Optic base of Tim Hardaway Jr., a three-year Michigan guard who's spent the last five of his nine NBA seasons with the Mavs. Wait, he's been in the league for nine years?! Man, I'm getting old.

Switching over to one of my alma mater's more recently successful sports, Chris found a pair of ex-Wolverines that I was happy to see. First is five-time Pro Bowl OT Mike Kenn who played 17 seasons for the Falcons. He appeared in 251 NFL games, all of which he started, and that's an excellent pro career if you ask me. His '82 Topps card above notes his second of five eventual All Pro selections. Joining him from the other side of the ball is DE Kwity Paye on a '21 Panini Chronicles Flux base that shows him in college action. Paye, like Kenn, was a first round selection, in his case by the Colts, and he'll be going into his third NFL season this fall.

And we'll wrap things up with a hockey duo from hockeydude right in the thick of what's probably sports' best postseason setup. Mike Comrie (2001-02 Topps Reserve) never won a Cup but did contribute a pair of goals and four assists to the 06-07 runner-up Ottawa Senators, who fell to the Ducks 4-1. Meanwhile, Ann Arbor native Andrew Copp (21-22 OPC's Retro version) is still active in the league and has 54 playoff games under his belt including 20 last year with the Rangers, but saw his new team, the Red Wings, fall short this season. I'm hoping the team exits its long rebuild soon and that Andrew is part of that success.

Chris, many thanks for making me part of your quest for 600 trades and congratulations on blowing that goal out of the water! I'm looking forward to picking up more stuff for you at the next show and in the meantime I hope those deals keep rolling in on your end.

2023 trade package #10: Topps Cards That Never Were

Hey, why don't I show off another envelope I received last month? This one was a surprise from Florida resident Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were. Jeremy has been a fun trade partner as he collects the Rays as well as the Tigers, who will always remain my favorite MLB team even when their owners ignore their way to a perpetual rebuild. Here's what the maker of missing Topps cards PWEd up to me this time:

Up top we have a pair of Topps cards that ARE, both of Wolverines I collect. First is a zoomed-in action shot of San Diego's versatile Jake Cronenworth, who's switched to playing 1B from primarily 2B after the Pads acquired Xander Bogaerts. Though he hasn't put up gaudy numbers he remains a key piece for a team with playoff expectations. TCDb tells me I have 82 of his cards, and it's very cool to be well on my way 100 when a few years ago he wasn't even considered a serious MLB prospect.

Meanwhile, Barry Larkin's card is one that was made this year to look like it was made in '88. Obviously it wasn't since the photo shows Larkin wearing one of my favorite versions of the jerseys the franchise wore late in his career. His card back then looked like this,

and the stats on the back from his first two seasons didn't portend his HOF career, though 1988 would be his first of 12 All-Star appearances. This is one of 938 Larkins I own as I continue the march to 1,000+!

The last baseball card of the group stars a former Tiger, one who's due to face his former team in his debut for his newest one. Justin Verlander will get the start tomorrow a day after another former Tiger, Max Scherzer, leads his Mets against Detroit. Jeremy mentioned in his note that this Panini Prizm insert--a Red/White/Blue Prizm--is "the usual Verlander parallel" and that running joke has provided me with some very nice JV cards since the two of us have been trading. I currently count 568 many Verlanders in my collection and as always, I can never have too many!

Last up is a third Wolverine that he was nice enough to include. I've mentioned that the blue 2022 Panini Select Draft cards are the product's retail version when they've come up in previous posts, and now I have another one to add to my collection: GOAT DB Charles Woodson. The set's color scheme continues to complement the Wolverines found therein, especially since they appear in their college uniforms. As always, that's a big plus for me! I wonder how many of the 338 Woodson cards I own show him as a Wolverine? TCDb says just 18 which feels low, but that makes me appreciate the few that I have.

Jeremy, thanks again for the fun surprise PWE! As you can tell by all I said about the four cards you included this time I really appreciate you sending all of them my way. And I'm glad you liked the stuff I sent back down south. This may not be a good season to be a Tigers fan but I hope you're enjoying the resurgent Rays in 2023!

2023 trade package #4: Dawg Day Cards

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2023 trade package #3: Cardboard Collections

Things sure can change in a hurry! I had just a few things in-hand late last week before the weekend hit and I got a huge pile of stuff in just a couple days. All of a sudden I have lots I need to show off from TCDB, trades, this past weekend's show, and eBay.

Fortunately I've got a nice quick trade package to cover this evening thanks to Colbey of Cardboard Collections. He hit my mailbox with an unexpected PWE this weekend and I was very happy with the contents:

Here you see former UM #1 WR Derrick Anderson on two versions of his cards from 1994 Superior Rookies. On the left is the base version while the Gold parallel sits to its right. As always I love to see the college action photo up front. Captured here is gameplay from Michigan visiting Penn State in its Big Ten debut season, October 16, 1993. The Nittany Lions took a 10-0 lead but Alexander brought the Wolverines back within a score before halftime with a 48-yard punt return TD. The Maize and Blue would tack on two Todd Collins pass TDs in the second half while PSU managed just a 4th quarter field goal, leading to a 21-13 UM victory. Alexander would pace his squad with 48 receiving yards in the win.

Here are the backs, which show the relative scarcity of these cards back in the day. The base is "limited" to 26,730 copies while the Gold saw just 4,455 made. The other versions that exist are an Autograph (SN5000, and which I own), an insert called "Deep Threat" (1000 copies), and samples of both that insert and the base.

You can see by his stats here that Alexander was one of Michigan's best WRs in program history, though of course those numbers pale in comparison to today's much more pass-happy game (which I do enjoy myself). A 1991 ACL injury cut his junior season short but he returned the following year to put up career best numbers. Besides his 22 TD catches he rushed for one score and returned four punts for touchdowns over his career.

The Browns would draft him at #29 in 1994 and he'd compile 40 reception scores, one rushing TD, and one punt return touchdown over nine seasons with the Browns, Ravens, Chiefs, and Vikings.

Obviously I'm a fan of this pair and happy to add them to my collection of Alexander, which is 197 cards strong and growing. Many thanks to Colbey for thinking of me and sending them my way!

TCDB trade: PIF from jasongerman9

I've mentioned a PIF (pay it forward) I received from a favorite TCDB member recently in my last few posts and tonight you're going to get a look at it.

Jason, a.k.a. jasongerman9, a guy who puts in an admirable amount of work on the site, is another fellow member who lives in Michigan, though in his case he's very near the southern- and western-most parts, close to Lake Michigan and the Indiana border. He's a collector of the Reds and I've been able to send him a decent amount of cards of his team, and in return he's sent me some fun stuff back a few times.

This time I was rewarded with an eight-card PWE with everything he sent coming off my wantlist, assuring that it was all new to me. Check it out:

Baseball leads things off on an evening when the World Series is due to resume with game 3. You know I was happy to see yet another new Cronenworth hit my collection thanks to the site, and in this case it's Jake's base from 2022 Gypsy Queen. That's #61 in his collection, good for #3 on the site. Joining him is 90s bat maestro Tony Gwynn from Upper Deck's 2000 Gold Reserve product. That was basically a "best-of" remix of the base product with an upgraded look (a gold theme, naturally), kind of like what Topps Chrome used to be (I think Chrome just does the whole base set now? Maybe not, I dunno). I need fewer than 10 cards of Mr. Padre to crack the 800 mark!

Heading over to football and my beloved Wolverines, a pair of college uni cards bookend the sextet that Jason gifted me while I'm still celebrating my team's win over an in-state rival with a massive culture problem. Former #1 WR Derrick Alexander suited up for Michigan from 1989-93 (but suffered a knee injury in the '91 opener and missed the rest of the season) and went 2-2 against the Spartans. Here you see him on a trio of 1995 issues--Classic Images Four Sport, Collector's Choice Player's Club parallel, and Ultra Gold Medallion--plus a '98 Pacific Paramount Red insert. I like the Ultra card as it brings to mind the '96 baseball version that also went 100% gold foil. These get me close to the 200-card mark for Alexander, who current stands at 195.

Next up is a Biakabutuka from 2000 Playoff Prestige, a set with a nice looking foil heavy design. The big back played three seasons in Ann Arbor from '93-'95 and only went 1-2 against MSU, though he did put up almost 200 rushing yards plus a score in his final season.

And last up is another thumping back from around the same time. Tyrone Wheatley is seen in the greatest helmet in the sport on a 1995 Superior Pix Promo, a card made during his rookie season in the NFL. From 1991-94 he put his name all over the record books with more than 4000 rushing yards and 53 TDs rushing/passing, and he did the best of this group against Michigan State, going 3-1 with the '93 game being his lone loss. He tallied a rushing score his freshman season, two more on the ground in 1992, and added a catching TD to a pair of rushing tallies to cap off a great career as part of the in-state rivalry.

Many thanks to Jason for this generous PIF of a PWE, and I'll be working on sending more stuff back to him when I can, likely after one or two shows this weekend. Until then, Go Blue, and if you're an MSU football player, go to jail!

The TCDB Michigan Box part 2: football

I had a great time at this afternoon's monthly show and will be recapping that in relatively short order, but this evening I'm happy to finally take care of something I've had on the back burner for more than two years.

Last March I did a quick recap of the basketball stuff I needed from what I've been simply referring to as "The Michigan Box", a 5000-count monster box that was nearly full of UM basketball and football dupes from the collection of TCDB member cijt. As a quick reminder, back in May of 2020 he sent me the box in return for a mix of some of my dupe Michigan hits and a few other things that fit his collection.

It took me quite a while to sort through everything, especially the football stuff since it was sorted by player but then brand/year instead of my preferred year/brand. Plus I had to filter out anything I already had a copy of, plus any additional copies in many cases.

Still, it was a lot of fun to do that work and very productive for my collection as well--I was able to add more than 1600 new cards to my Michigan Football PCs! Putting them away will coincide with my project of expanding the home of those collections from four to five monster boxes because they were getting pretty snug.

Here's a look at what was left in the box after I removed all the dupes (and the basketball stuff that I'd previously covered). I won't be showing all 1600+ cards, but I will show one for every player represented, plus a few of the items you see in the fifth row of the box pictured above as well.

I also snagged a picture of the players' piles to try to give a sense of scale so you can see who benefitted the most from this trade. I know by the spreadsheet I created to track all this that Jim Harbaugh was the big winner, with Brian Griese, Evlis Grbac, Derrick Alexander, and Tyrone Wheatley following in his wake. I should also point out that the vast majority of cards were from the late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s (Chris apparently set a cutoff of who he collects around 2008). The second-to-last pile you see is guys who only had one or two new cards added, and those are followed by some new TK Legacy adds.

Because this is a lot of cards to cover I'm presenting the scans without comment other than identifying the players, mentioning how many new cards they added to their PCs, and then in parentheses noting their current collection counts as of this posting on TCDB.

There are 10 scans covering the 84 players whose collections were hit followed by a scan of TK Legacy stuff, and then a few more scans with something out of the ordinary at the end. Please enjoy this mix of years and brands of football cards!:

Bobby Abrams: 1 (2)     Derrick Alexander: 130 (189)     Jason Avant: 2 (121)

Ron Bellamy: 1 (18)     Tim Biakabutuka: 89 (230)     Keith Bostic: 2 (3)

Tom Brady: 28 (288)     Steve Breaston: 2 (130)     Jarrod Bunch: 22 (34)

Jerry Burns: 2 (4)     Chris Calloway: 41 (55)     Anthony Carter: 55 (100)

Todd Collins: 30 (72)     Evan Cooper: 1 (3)     Thom Darden: 3 (7)

Dan Dierdorf: 4 (9)     Dean Dingman: 1 (4)     Tom Dohring: 1 (1)

Glenn Doughty: 2 (4)     Braylon Edwards: 31 (338)     Jumbo Elliott: 17 (28)
Matt Elliott: 1 (4)     Mike Evans: 2 (4)     Steve Everitt: 7 (27)
Justin Fargas: 2 (27)     Jay Feely: 1 (2)     Chris Floyd: 1 (9)

Devin Funchess: 1 (79)     Ian Gold: 3 (10)     Brandon Graham: 1 (47)
Elvis Grbac: 136 (191)     Brian Griese: 165 (386)     James Hall: 1 (3)
Mike Harden: 4 (6)     David Harris: 2 (94)     Mercury Hayes: 2 (7)

Drew Henson: 3 (38)     Leroy Hoard: 70 (87)     Steve Hutchinson: 1 (15)
Marlin Jackson: 2 (65)     Jon Jansen: 1 (4)     Trezelle Jenkins: 2 (11)
Dhani Jones: 2 (14)     Cato June: 1 (12)     Mike Kenn: 19 (30)

Ty Law: 59 (91)     Randy Logan: 1 (3)     Jake Long: 1 (148)
Rob Lytle: 1 (4)     Tom Mack: 2 (6)     Tony McGee: 49 (71)
Greg McMurtry: 25 (33)     Jamie Morris: 1 4()     John Navarre: 1 (32)

Mel Owens: 1 4()     Bubba Paris: 5 (9)     Chris Perry: 1 (122)
Robert Perryman: 6 (8)     Jay Riemersma: 14 (32)     Denard Robinson: 2 (119)
Jon Runyan: 1 (5)     Greg Skrepenak: 5 (17)     Jim Smith: 1 (5)

Tai Streets: 15 (48)     Mike Teeter: 3 (3)     David Terrell: 3 (157)
Anthony Thomas: 41 (196)     Amani Toomer: 87 (318)     Jerame Tuman: 1 (12)
Jon Vaughn: 29 (41)     Derrick Walker: 8 (12)     Marquise Walker: 2 (68)

Gabe Watson: 2 (32)     Tyrone Wheatley: 111 (237)
Charles Woodson: 2 (325)     Butch Woolfolk: 1 (4)

Lou Baldacci: 1 (2)     Dave Brown: 2 (7)
Curtis Greer: 2 (6)     Ali Haji-Sheikh: 4 (7)
Jim Harbaugh: 205 (368)     Desmond Howard: 64 (103)
Reggie McKenzie: 3 (6)     Trevor Pryce: 1 (4) (Griese also pictured)

How awesome was that variety?! Lots of Michigan uniforms and plenty of shininess I wanted to highlight as well. The majority of what I added was base with a few inserts mixed in, but I don't care because I love adding any new Michigan stuff I can. Speaking of that...

These were the TK Legacy cards I needed, and many of the names are notable--the Wistert family was big here, Leach was a sensation, and Morrison and Turco are two of the most successful alumni of the hockey program.

Speaking of TK Legacy, a product I broke several boxes of, Chris included an empty pack (shown roughly actual size) from an unknown year (I could probably figure it out but don't feel like doing the research) with Braylon Edwards front and center. I didn't keep any of these from my previous boxes but think I'll hold onto this one.

And lastly, there was a whole mess of tickets/stubs that I was excited to add to my collection. I love the mix of images used on these, from game action to campus sites, and many of them came from wins as well! The first two scans include 20 tickets from games between 1976 and 1984 while the final one includes plain game passes instead of tickets along with three stubs that are hard to pin down. Similar to what I did with the cards and player collection info above, I looked up the score of each game and posted the results below:

• 1976 vs. Wake Forest: W 31-0
• 1977 vs. Wisconsin: W 56-0
• 1978 vs. Arizona: W 21-17
• 1978 vs. Michigan State: L 24-15
• 1979 vs. Minnesota: W 31-21
• 1979 vs. Wisconsin: W 54-0
• 1979 vs. Ohio State: L 18-15
• 1980 vs. Cal: W 38-13
• 1980 vs. Michigan State: W 27-23
• 1980 vs. Purdue: W 26-0

• 1981 vs. Notre Dame: W 25-7
• 1981 vs. Navy: W 21-16
• 1981 vs. Illinois: W 70-21
• 1982 vs. Indiana: W 24-10
• 1982 vs. Michigan State: W 31-17
• 1983 vs. Purdue: W 42-10
• 1984 vs. Washington: L 20-11
• 1984 vs. Michigan State: L 19-7
• 1984 vs. Illinois: W 26-18
• 1984 vs. Minnesota: W 31-7

Total record of these: 16-4

• 1979 vs. Minnesota: W 31-21
• 1979 vs. Ohio State: L 18-15
• 1980 vs. Northwestern: W 17-10
• 1980 vs. Cal: W 38-13
• 1980 vs. Michigan State: W 27-23
• 1981 vs. Iowa: L 9-7
• 1981 vs. Northwestern: W 38-0
• 1981 vs. Illinois: W 70-21
• Purdue: unknown
• Michigan State: unknown
• Houston: either 1992 (W 61-7) or 1993 (W 42-21)

Total record of these: 7-2 (with 2 unknown), with some overlap with the games above.

I'm excited that I'll finally be putting these away after they've been sitting in the box for over two years, and it'll be fun seeing for myself just how big they make each of the players' stacks instead of just relying on a number on a list!

With these covered I'll be back soon, possibly as soon as this holiday weekend, with a card show recap. I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing Fourth of July weekend, even at a time when the Supreme Court has made it impossible to celebrate.

2022 trade package #14: Sport Card Collectors

If there's one person I can count on to send me new stuff I didn't already have (and fortunately a lot of you are great at that!) it's Matt of Sport Card Collectors (and his various umbrella of great blogs). Matt usually hits me up with a fun PWE a few times a year, and in rare cases he'll even triple or quadruple the loot and send me a bubble mailer.

That's exactly what he did very recently, and now I get to show off the fruits of his generosity, this cool mix of Tigers, PCs, and Michigan Football:

There were 10 Tigers cards but since that's one more than nine you'll have to catch the last one in the next scan. These are all '21 and '22 cards so it's no surprise I didn't have any of them, and because they're so new almost all of these guys are still on the team. John's guy Matt Boyd is the only exception, and the injured Giant who hasn't been healthy enough to start yet this year is seen on this year's Topps Rainbow Foil parallel. Miggy's up next with a '21 Chrome Prism Refractor plus base from this year's Bowman and Donruss. He just passed Rod Carew and has Rickey Henderson, Craig Biggio, and Ichiro in his crosshairs this season, which would place him in the top 25. It's very cool to be able to see that kind of history being made.

And then we have a trio of pitchers that could be the future of the rotation if they could all just be healthy and effective at once! Manning, who may still return this year, joins Cabrera from the '22 Bowman set (my first examples of those). And my Mize collection continues to grow at a time when he won't be pitching again for quite a while. Besides his '21 Bowman Platinum RC Matt sent both of Casey's Holo Orange parallels from '22 Donruss, including his Diamond Kings subset appearance. Skubal, who'll be starting tonight, is the only one who's active, and the card you see above his is '21 Panini Mozaic RC, my 11th card of the talented lefty.

Turnbull (same set, Prizm parallel) is another talented pitcher, but I'm less excited to see him here since his asinine Instagram comments about the Supreme Court's inarguably harmful decision to overturn Roe.

Spencer Turnbull is posting shit on his instagram story praising the Supreme Court ruling today and I tend to forget that a good chunk of baseball men are conservative and don’t want me to have rights and it makes me sad

— sam (@sambanban) June 24, 2022

Moving on is a new #CroneZone card headed to Jake's collection, his super thick 2022 Topps Inception base. Jake's been a bit streaky but has had a very nice June after a slow start. And the rest here combine to make up too many Verlanders! Card #1 is from 2021 Absolute's Icons insert, and I'd say JV has done more than enough in his career to earn that label. The '21 Diamond Kings "The Club" insert looks a bit nicer in comparison. Then from Topps we have throwbacks to the designs of 1965 and 1986, plus an Orange parallel from last year's Big League. My current Verlander count (besides "too many") is 516 and continuing to climb!

I mentioned Michigan Football stuff too and was thrilled to end up with two scans worth. Almost everything features college unis which is always my preference when possible, so huge bonus there. This group includes three guys from my favorite UM draft class of 2008: Arrington, Hart, and Long. Two inserts of the GOAT Tom Brady were great non-college inclusions, including TB12 in big head mode on the Mosaic card. I hope the talented Collins ('21 Chronicles Spectra) gets out of an awful QB situation in Houston and gets to shine. Corum's card from 2022 Bowman University (a Topps product I like?!) is one of my favorites (despite the mandatory airbrushing) because it gives me a jump-start to his collection before he's even drafted. His 2021 season has me absolutely juiced to see what he can do in his second year. And former big man DT Mo Hurst rounds out this group with his 2018 SAGE HIT base that looks a lot better than some of their recent designs.

And the last scan has seven cards, all with college action (plus a bonus NFL shot). Mathews and Warren join Hurst out of past SAGE HIT products and I remember their careers at Michigan quite well. Recent-ish draftees McKeon, Paye, and Peppers all appear on some nice base Score designs that are accented quite well with the team's colors, and Paye gets a bonus '21 Chronicles Draft appearance too! And lastly we have the GOAT on the other side of the ball, DB Charles Woodson. Also out of Score this is his cameo in the '21 Score Collegiate Champions insert, which lauds the fact that he won titles in college ('97) and the NFL (2010), not to mention the Heisman. Quite the trio of accomplishments!

Matt, thanks for going out of your way to send me this bubble mailer filled with PC goodness! As usual I'm looking forward to seeing what I can find for you at this weekend's show, and hopefully you won't have to wait long for a response to this envelope.

That's it for the moment for blogger trade packages so next time I'm expecting that I'll finally cover a pretty significant eBay purchase.

TCDB trade roundup: five by five

On this lovely Ann Arbor evening I've got five more swaps to show those of you interested in that kind of thing. These were all smaller than the last ones I did so I was glad to up the total to five in order to get more stacks put away.

First up tonight is my fellow Michigander Johnsogr who lives in Frankenmuth, a German town known for the world's largest Christmas store, Bronner's. I was able to put a nice dent in his 1995 Stadium Club baseball wantlist, chipped in some 2015 Topps Updates, and as a surprise I gave him around 150 1996 Topps dupes I had sitting around as well (mostly from, you guessed it, that Facebook collection I bought). I was happy to get the following in return:

Gold Grandy! That one's numbered /2009. Junior Griffey is from the 1992 Triple Play Gallery of Stars insert that was just another name for Diamond Kings. Grimes is another new UM Baseball guy making his way into my PC thanks to minors cards, necessary since the '89 draft pick of Oakland was out of baseball by 1994. Larkin looks cool whether he's at the plate (1999 Bowman International) or in the field ('95 Stadium Club Super Team Division Winners). My Henneman collection is over 101 cards thanks to items like the '95 Flair above. And while Tigers cards are preferred, I'll take Morris in any uniform, including the Jays ('93 Select).

One of the main reasons I wanted to trade with John is that he had 10 cards to knock off my '94 Finest wantlist, the biggest of which was Cal in the #2 spot up there.

Manny's a relatively big name too, to be fair. 31 more cards (not including what I haven't posted yet) would let me close the book on the second version of Finest.

He also had a few football items for me to sweeten the pot. Jenkins is a college uni card by virtue of being made by Classic, and I was quite excited to add a 2003 Topps Chrome RC of TE Bennie Joppru since it had been so difficult for me to find one for a reasonable price. You might be a bit surprised to see me post a pair of Lions cards since I have almost nothing to do with that tire fire of a franchise, but these two 2006 Topps Total trios include two Wolverines that suited up for the loveable losers, OT Jeff Backus and DE James Hall.

It's always great trading with people in Michigan and John was obviously great to work with since I was happy to pay it forward with that big stack of '96 Topps base. His 700+ trades with perfect feedback mirror my experience so go check him out!

Next up is Las Vegas native hershey (a.k.a. Brian) who was mainly interested in some '96 Bowman and Flair cards from my set-fillers to go toward some of his PCs, plus a trio of Eddie Murrays. In return I got some baseball PC stuff of my own, a couple vintage-ish football items, and more baseball set help:

Abbott is a 2005 Topps Rookie Cup Reprint, though not of his RC since Rookie Cup is the obvious theme here. You'll see another from this set in the next scan. Bergman, Hernandez (including Sportflics!) and Lemon are nice additions to the PCs I'm working on of the '84 Tigers. And that '98 Ultra Artistic Talents insert was probably the item I was most pleased to add in this deal.

Next, both of Cal's cards here are from 1993: a Leaf Heading for the Hall insert plus a Denny's Grand Slam Hologram produced by UD. Sabo, like Abbott above, is a reprint, and his Rookie Cup card was found in '89 Topps, a year after he was named NL ROY. That puzzle card is the last one I needed out of the 23 for Ty Cobb's puzzle inserted into '83 Donruss packs. Henson (who I just watched beat OSU in 2000 on Youtube) is seen on a 2003 Fleer Double Header mini insert called "Let's Play Too!"

And then there's a cool pair of '81 Topps cards of former Wolverines Randy Logan and Jim Smith. I only have five and three cards of them, respectively, but they have a total of just 31 cards between them so that's not too surprising!

And here's the set help I was able to get from hershey. I can't recall if either or both of the '94 Ultra cards will go to the set I'm building or the second one I'm putting together to trade. The back of the '95 Score checklist you see with Toronto on the front has the Cardinals on the back so it's an all birds checklist! And I appear to be just one card short of my chase for '96 Donruss thanks to this quartet headed by Bonds, plus possibly more in the piles I have yet to scan. As a reminder all three of these sets are projects that started from that Facebook collection I purchased.

Everything went well with this deal and while I haven't traded again with Brian yet I'll do so again with confidence thanks to my experience here and his perfect feedback with more than 800 deals under his belt.

Next we'll go from one prolific trader to one who's ever busier. bravefan1 (Scott) sent me a second offer not long after we completed our first deal (covered here) and this one proved to be a nice little PWE trade for both sides. I sent him a quartet of Braves, including a nice Andruw Jones insert, and got the following back (plus a Matt Boyd insert for John):

Last time I loaded up on Cronenworth and Mize and this time the story was mostly three other Tigers. Those classy looking Cobbs hail from 2021 Diamond Kings (Art of Hitting insert) and Topps Gallery. The DK card looks great as always and the Gallery possible uses an image that I haven't seen a thousand times, so those are great. Mr. Tiger looks a bit out of place on Panini's modern 2021 Mosaic design but he's 100% welcome here all the same. Maddux (2021 Stadium Club) was able to wear a shirt like that three times in his career, all with the Braves: 1995, when they won it all, and '96 and '99, both losses to the Yankees. And Skubal's been a bright spot in Detroit's rotation (today's not-as-great performance aside), not that I knew that would be the case back in February when I landed 2021 Diamond Kings and Topps Gallery RCs of the young star.

I haven't traded with Scott a third time just yet but I wouldn't be surprised to get another offer from him soon as he continues to get closer to 1500 comments, all positive, in his TCDB transactions career!

This evening's penultimate trade comes from an older but familiar name: hiflew, a.k.a. Johnny, a.k.a. the dude that writes (wrote?) the blog Cards From the Quarry. I hadn't actually traded with him for more than 10 years for whatever reason so this was a nice surprise, and possibly one for him as well since I was able to recognize his username but he might not have put mine together. So that was a fun blast from the past!

In return for a quartet of '96 Flair Rockies, a numbered Todd Helton insert, and memorabilia cards of Jason Jennings and Troy Tulowitzki, I ended up with four baseball items, two football cards, and four baseball Nolans, the latter of which I happily sent to Paul (including a Nolan Ryan #d /35). Here are the keepers for me:

Jeimer's got some work to do to get back to the kind of value he posted the last two seasons (2.0 and 3.8 bWAR) and I'm hoping he can heat up with the weather. His Topps Gold parallel here is from 2021 Topps. Former Tiger Austin Jackson is next, and even though he's pictured with the hated White Sox I was glad to land his 2016 Topps Update Gold parallel since I'll always associate him with the Tigers. Former Wolverine Barry Larkin's 2021 Donruss card above is appropriately decked out in Holo Blue, as befitting of his alma mater. Maddux can be seen once again tonight, this time on a 2021 Topps '86 Topps insert, making me pine for the days when Topps wasn't shoving the '87 design down our throats. And lastly, former Wolverines Jake Butt and Taco Charlton appear in college unis with hilariously airbrushed helmets on their 2017 Leaf Draft Gold parallels. I think the funniest part is that their helmets are different colors here.

Big thanks to Johnny for kicking off a new deal after more than a decade, and if I can pile up more Rockies he'd like I'll happily work with him again as he nears 300 completed trades!

With all of those covered so far I get to end this post with the easiest deal to cover so far: a one-for-one trade with brooks1856. All he was asking from me was a '96 Flair Ozzie Smith (silver background, gold foil letters, to be specific) as he'd tried to land it a couple other times and ended up with the wrong version. I don't recall what he originally offered me but after looking over his trade bait I quickly countered and asked for this:

Slurpee coin! Lou Whitaker is joined by the Wizard and Buddy Bell on this 1986 7-Eleven Southeast Region coin that I'm now proud to have in my collection. The theme is Gold Glovers and Sweet Lou was just coming off winning his third straight when this was made; Bell won six in a row from '79-'84 and Smith, of course, was the gold standard in the NL at his position from 1980-92. Good company for sure!

Though I own all 30 of the 2000 7-Eleven set I'm woefully short on older gems like this one so I was thrilled to add it in a deal, especially one that cost me just one card in return.

Here it is in its full motion glory:

Oooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh. Don't be surprised if I re-use this animated GIF on the day the Tigers retire his jersey!

As with everyone else mentioned tonight, this member was an excellent trader and I couldn't have been happier with how well everything went, so it's possible more deals are in our future.

Well that knocked a nice chunk of cards off my desk, and I'm thinking I'll continue this series the next time I post unless something else shows up sooner, including my first eBay pickup in a while.

TCDB trade roundup: nkandy11, NetScans, and TxRyan

I'd love to get some more cards put away so here's a recap of three more TCDB deals from earlier this year!

First up is Mariners collector nkandy11. Our first deal went well enough that I also have another one to show off when I get more caught up. I was able to send him a bunch of Seattle cards from my Facebook collection set-fillers/inserts plus a bunch of Edgar Martinez stuff I listed as I've been thinning out some of my non-PC cards. In return I got a nice stack of Tigers, baseball PC guys, and UM basketball and football items:

Great mix of brands and players here! TCDB has been a great source for boosting collections that I'm less interested in paying for (Fryman, Henneman, Parrish) and ones that can get expensive quickly (stars like Larkin, Maddux, and Griffey).

It's often worth the time to go through all of a member's trade bait cards, even if you're not a big collector of a sport. The two mini triples featuring Wolverine basketball trios are great, coach Howard's SPx card looks amazing, and the lenticular UD Vaught piece is a highlight.

Andy had lots of UM football for me to grab as well. Offensive stars Alexander, Biakabutuka, Calloway, Grbac, and Griese are just the tip of the iceberg!

Whether it's base, inserts, shiny cards, or college unis, there's something for pretty much everyone here. Once again, as usual, the offensive side of the ball gets all the love, with record book guys Harbaugh, Terrell, Toomer, and Wheatley well represented.

Star RB Rob Lytle's 1980 Topps base gets the first spot here as the last vertical card because those items didn't divide nicely by 9. Joining the previously seen Alexander, Biakabutuka, and Harbaugh, are fellow legends Anthony Carter, Todd Collins, Desmond Howard, and HOFer Ty Law. Hey, a defensive guy!

While some of the cards arrived in slightly worse shape than I had expected, I was fine with their condition, and everything else about the trade--communication, shipping, etc.--went great, which is why I had zero issues trading with Andy again. The fact that he's still 100% positive on feedback after 700+ transactions is also a good sign, so go check him out!

Next up is Kansas native NetScans, who was one of my earliest trade partners on the site a couple years ago. Moises is a Yankees collector who was interested in a bunch of the Bombers stuff I listed from the Facebook collection plus some other New York cards I listed to try to boost my trading (successfully, obviously!). This was an all baseball trade but I was quite happy with it and even ended up with more on my side than I'd sent out. That came in the form of Tigers and diamond PCs, namely these:

Some shiny and higher-end Tigers (Mickey on a technicality here!) feature first including pairs of 90s guys Clark and Fryman. I'm a fan of both Cobb cards, especially the shiny, fat Tribute card. And as you can see, I kept the Cronenworths coming in as much as possible in each trade.

Two of many Grandersons are a reasonable number in any deal, though I'm always happy to get more! Tork's been a disappointment so far this year but Greene still has time to restore some hope once he gets a chance after recovering from his injury. Gwynn's swing looks as sweet on the SP Authentic card as the '95 Fleer's design looks awful. Henneman makes an appearance in a good number of these trade packages, as does Inge, who you'll see in the next scan as well.

Larkin and Maddux both figured prominently in this deal, keeping their PC counts ticking up. Both are nearing milestones, with Barry threatening 900 and Mad Dog getting closer to 800.

Yep, still a few more Maddux cards to show off, and then there's his fellow HOFer, Morris, on a fun '94 Score Rookie/Traded Gold Rush parallel. I'm sure I have plenty more to get to as I scan in all of these trades but I'll just announce now that TCDB tells me I have exactly 200 cards of him, which is pretty cool! Speaking of similar milestones, the uber versatile Phillips needs just one more to hit 250, and that's out of 417 listed on the site (you bet I'm #1 by a mile). And then there's PC leader Cal (also by a mile) with the first three of eight I snagged this time. The '96 Fleer card looks a bit like the Tiffany parallel since it isn't matte but it's actually from a team set designed that way.

A few more Ripkens here include three from the 10-card 2015 Topps insert celebrating his 2,632 consecutive games played streak, giving me a total of 6. St. Peter is a new Michigan Baseball PC addition. He played with some of the good teams in the mid-80s, got drafted by the Cubs in '88, and was out of baseball just a few years later, but eventually became a pro fisher. Meanwhile, it feels like I never add new Whitaker cards but the 2B who'll have his number retired in under two months found his way into this deal with a '95 Collector's Choice Silver Signature. Oh, and two more Grandersons made the cut too!

A numbered Topps Gold of Maddux (with AJ-punching C Michael Barrett) and a recent-ish Topps Mini close out the PC stuff, leaving some set wants help. Between the Bonds and other cards I think I have in the piles yet to be seen, I'm down to just three missing cards from '95 Score. And the same year's Finest remains a work in progress despite the six above and a nice chunk more still to be seen, but I needed way, way more than that after picking these out of the Facebook collection boxes and now I'm down to "just" 48, which means I've made lots of progress.

My two deals thus far with Moises have proved to me that he's a great dude to deal with (500+ trades and still perfect feedback) and I'll surely be doing that more as circumstances allow.

Finally this evening I have a smaller deal with someone I hadn't dealt with before, TxRyan. The Twins fan wanted some cards of his favorite team and we put together an 11-for-11 deal fairly quickly. Here's what I ended up with:

There were a lot of players to tag today and I didn't get all of them but that's because I wanted to make sure to include "90s inserts rule" thanks to stuff like the '94 Pinnacle Museum Collection parallel that kicks off this scan (and plenty of others you've seen and will see!). I don't have nearly the volume of Curtis's cards from 2008 UD Heroes as I do Rich Hill's but two of the numbered parallels don't hurt. The Pinnacle Inside Stand-Up Guys insert you see above includes PC guys Griffey and Gwynn as well as...

...Ripken on the back! Not to mention HOF C Mike Piazza (though if Maddux had been the fourth I would have loved that). Speaking of Kenny Griff, does any player these days have a swing as sweet as his as seen on that 2000 UD Hitter's Club insert? BInge and Morris both hail from 2005 Diamond Kings' Framed Red parallel and they look great. Palmer's '97 Leaf Fractal Matrix card comes from a complicated but often cool product from the best era for cardboard innovation. And Sisler is a fun early Wolverine baseballer to collect no matter the era.

Inge may have moved on to a couple teams after his Tigers run ended but that hasn't stopped me from collecting them, like his 2013 Topps Gold parallel. And Barry Larkin is just as golden as in the Medallion parallel from 2005 Ultra, which happened to be die-cut that year, making the action photo-centered card even cooler!

The last three items you see here are '84 Fleer Star Stickers that I hadn't requested in the deal, but nevertheless they showed up in the envelope like this:

It was super nice of him to throw these in and I made sure to give him a shout-out in the site's Pay It Forward thread which is filled with similar stories of generosity. Parrish, Petry, and Hernandez (not sure why I left him out of order) were all key components for the '84 champs so I love that these were made the same year that team won it all.

Like I said, that was my first deal with him but I doubt it'll be the last thanks to how smoothly everything went, including the extras and even putting in the extra cost to ship BMWT (which I did as well since I almost always try to match shipment methods).

Happily I can now get all of these put away and get to work on scanning more so I can eventually clear off my desk, though that would require finishing these faster than they've been arriving and that's been a losing battle lately. Eventually!