2025 trade package #3: Nachos Grande

Not too long after I received that PWE from Chris, "The Collector," that I just wrote about, I was treated to an envelope from another Chris that's east of me: Mr. Reed of Nachos Grande. I've known him as a great blogger and quality trade partner for years now and was happy to include him in my most recent Christmas Card mailings, helping him complete his run of Reds Topps Lineage relics.

He was nice enough to return the favor the following month with a package that screamed "Nachos Grande" to me as it was chock full of items I associate with his collecting habits:

That foil Cobb actually hails from the same 2011 Topps Lineage product I just mentioned and it's one of several parallels you could find in the set, not to mention a card I didn't previously have on hand.

Then we get into the Ginter stuff, which is definitely a Nachos Grande staple. I had all of the ones you see here on my TCDb wantlist including 2020 base of Cobb, Fielder, Gwynn, and Tram, a 2020 Mini of Mr. Tiger Al Kaline, and a 2011 of former blog namesake Curtis Granderson. As it turns out, Fielder and Tram are both SPs in the 2020 product so it was extra nice of Chris to include them. They give me four former Tigers that were short-printed, along with Jack Morris and Sparky Anderson. I could also add Magglio Ordonez and Jim Bunning to my wants but haven't decided to do that yet.

And as if those weren't enough, Chris also helped me out with a dupe of a guy we both PC, Barry Larkin. I appreciate any extras he can send my way since he's managed to write up individual posts for more Larkins than I currently even own! #980 in my collection is the '21 Donruss Red and White Stripes parallel you see above, #d 1801/2021. That marks my fifth parallel of his Retro '87 base appearance along with the base card itself in what would likely be a years long search for the product's rainbow. While I miss the MLB logos I do like the design, including the throwback to the 1987 set.

Chris, thanks again for thinking of me and sending these great new additions my way. I'll keep working on trying to find some new Larkins for you to try to get more of your doubles into my collection.

And once again I'll be back soon as I have three more blogger trades from January to cover, not to mention a huge one from February, and three monthly shows to recap. Until then, enjoy some Spring Training ball as we head into warmer weather and a new season!

2025 trade package #2: the Collector

Today's the first day of March and it sees me returning with another trade envelope from January, the second I received this year.

I was very happy to see a PWE from longtime blog friend Chris ("The Collector") who'd largely gone MIA since shutting down his blog. The cards themselves were nice but in general I was a bit relieved that he was still around. I won't share his brief note or my speculation on what's happening in his world and just say that I'm grateful for the cards and wish him and his family the best.

Here's the contents:

The lone baseball item as Spring Training is kicking into full gear was this '24 A&G Gold Border Mini of former/current Tigers P Jack Flaherty. He was, of course, sent to the Dodgers to help them bring him another ring, and in the time between when Chris mailed this PWE and today when I'm writing this post, Flaherty returned to the team that helped him rebuild some value last year. Given some of the potential question marks in terms of the starters it's nice to have a proven guy like him to go with Tarik Skubal and some of the other young arms.

At the time he sent this both of these sports more associated with winter were still in action, and of course one of them will still be active for a couple months to come. On the football side of things, Brady and Woodson are two of the greatest players to come out of Michigan, not to mention play their positions in the NFL. Since Brady left New England for Tampa it's actually a bit funny to see older cards of him with the Pats. I'd say his record and that of Bill Belichick post-split pretty much tell the story of which of the two was more responsible for their remarkably dynasty.

Last up is hockey, which is still in full swing in terms of both the NHL and NCAA. The Red Wings have bounced back in a big way since firing a very ineffective head coach, and they're actually participating in an outdoor game in Ohio as I write this. A crazy eight former Wolverine icers can be found on the two rosters and six of them should be on the ice tonight. I don't think any of the Wings represented on these cards are still with the franchise, but Michigan alum Kyle Connor is still putting up huge points numbers with the Jets, and he may even crack 40 goals for the second time in his productive career.

Once again, thank you for the envelope and cards, Chris, and for indirectly letting me know that you're hanging in there. Again, I wish you and your family nothing but the best and want to remind you that you have lots of friends in the hobby if you ever need support.

Back soon with another January trade recap!

2024 trade package #4: Sport Card Collectors

Happy June! As for me, I'm on to March over here, though I think that was a relatively slow month for me so maybe I'll make up some time with enough posts over the next few weeks.

Tonight you get to see the first cards that were sent to me this year by Matt of various blogs including Sport Card Collectors. He always manages to PWE over some cool stuff, especially when it comes to my Tigers and Michigan Football collections.

Here's what he sent me back in March:

RP Lange is one of three current/former Tigers seen on Purple Heritage parallels tonight. Though he'd been decent in the past he's had a frustrating year (join the club--oh wait, he's on the right one for that) and a hissy fit that included firing a ball over the dugout when being taken out led to a demotion to AAA for now. I'm sure he'll be back, but things aren't looking great for supposed winner AJ Hinch.

Speaking of frustrating, one guy who has a legitimate beef is starter Reese Olson (2024 Topps) who gets just about zero run support whenever he pitches, leading to a completely unjustified 1-6 record. It took until his 10th start to get his first victorious decision despite giving up more than two runs just twice in 11 starts. Just think how good of a 1-2 he and Tarik Skubal could be if the cheap/incompetent owners and front office actually acquired and held on to quality bats!

Tork, star of a Topps Chrome insert, looked like such a bat by the end of last year but he's got some different swing mechanics going on this year that I blame on the coaching staff because this is a guy who could hit right out of college.

I'll get to the Verlanders in a minute but first let's look at Vierling (another purple!) who's been decent this year, plus a Mini of Austin Meadows, the guy Detroit foolishly traded away Isaac Paredes to acquire. Maybe his little bro will pan out for the Tigers, but so far that's feeling unlikely.

(Another tire fire of a Tigers season aside, this was a nice selection of cards of my hometown team!)

And now we get to just a few too many Verlanders! Can you believe in just a few weeks it'll be the 17th anniversary of JV's first no-no, which he fired against the Brewers? His 2022 AL Cy Young nod--pointed out by that Heritage card--was his second with Houston and third overall go go with 2011 and 2019. As mentioned, he joined Lange and Vierling in this shipment in getting the Heritage Purple treatment. And finally, there are a couple Ginter Minis including another relatively rare appearance from his stint with the '23 Mets. That's my 13th card of him with the dysfunctional franchise that can't stop punching itself in the face.

Besides Verlander, the best player in the envelope was one Aidan Hutchinson, the local boy who made good after moving on up to the Lions once his outstanding college career in Ann Arbor ended. These two Retail Blue Panini Select cards appear to do a good job of showing off one of his coveted traits: the "endless motor" that draftniks love. With what's likely a very improved secondary, he could make even more noise at and behind the line of scrimmage this year, living up to his hype as a QB-seeking missile.

Matt, as always thanks so much for thinking of me and IDing some great new fits for my collections. Having already fired back (which you've already recapped), I'll have to start another stack for you, but in the meantime I'll be glad to show off the next bunch you sent me once I've made it into May's acquisitions.

I think the next post you see here should be my March show recap, and that may just do it for that month. April might not take me too long either with a single show and two or three trades. May will be a crazy month to catch up on with three shows (the "June" show for me was actually yesterday, still in May) plus a bunch of trades. So, yeah, lots more good stuff to come!

2023 trade packages #19 and 20: It's Like Having My Own Card Shop and Cardboard Collections

It's been a busy few weeks for me card-wise. I think I mentioned the garage sale I hit up not too long ago, plus there was my usual monthly show. I scored another fun small collection via Facebook a couple Fridays ago, then headed out to the western part of the state this past weekend to meet up with Jeff and his cousin Sluggo along with John (more on that in a future post) for another show. Oh, and between all of that I also made a few more TCDb and blogger trades and eBay buys. I've got cards that need to be posted coming out of my ears!

So let's try to start catching up a little by covering a couple more blogger trades this evening. First up is Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. Waaay back in July he sent me a nice envelope of mostly Tigers that I really appreciated:

What better parallel could there be for Tigers cards but orange? Pretty much everything here is a parallel in some way, shape, or form, which is pretty cool, even if there's only one current (and soon-to-be-former!) Tiger. The low numbering on Garcia's Refractor is very impressive but my favorite card here has to be Mr. Tiger's Stadium Club Chrome Refractor. It doesn't show up in the scan but it looks beautiful in hand. Maddux was the lone non-Tiger today but I always appreciate getting new stuff of him.

Most of what's left here is also of the parallel or insert variety. Mazara's stint was short (thankfully) but the younger Meadows is an intriguing prospect, though it's hard to say if he'll get to appear in a game with his brother, who hopefully gets some help with his various issues. Verlander's always been a lights out kind of pitcher and I'm thankful I got to see him in person a number of times with the Tigers. And lastly there was a surprise autograph of former prospect Ronnie Bourquin. Detroit took him in the 2nd round of the '06 draft out of Ohio State (no wonder he never amounted to anything!) and he never rose above the AA level before spending a few years in indy ball. He at least had a nice signature as seen on the Bowman Sterling card above, though.

Daniel, thank you again for an excellent envelope of my Motown baseballers (plus Maddux!), I appreciate it, even if it took way longer than it should have to show these off.

Not too long after the cards above hit my mailbox I got a nice little PWE from Colbey, the man whose wheels are fly like the honeys, and who blogs oat Cardboard Collections. For the second time this year he sent me some fodder for my Michigan Football PC:

Yeah, I guess if Colbey's gonna be familiar with any Michigan alumni it would be one who played for his favorite NFL team. On the back of his business card I included above he expressed hope that I needed this 1997 Fleer Goudey mini of Buckeye-killer RB Tim Biakabutuka, who played 50 games for Colbey's Panthers. Good news: I did indeed need it! That's not bad since I'm getting pretty close to 250 cards of Touchdown Tim.

And here's the back for completeness because it's the least I can do when I only have to scan one card!

Thanks to you as well for thinking of my and my favorite team to collect, Colbey! I may be hitting you back at least once before it's time to send Christmas cards.

Readers, please stay tuned for more as I try to dig out of this pile of stuff to post that I keep allowing to grow. I'll likely prioritize blogger trades for a bit more until I'm caught up on them.

2023 eBay purchases: Pirate King!

Happy spring, y'all! I've got a couple really nice trade packages to share but haven't logged and scanned them yet, and I didn't want that to hold up getting at least something posted. So tonight you're getting my three personal eBay purchases from the first couple months of 2023.

Tonight's post, as is sometimes the case, is all about (new Pirates pitcher) Rich Hill.

It's going to take a bit for me to get used to seeing Dick Mountain in a Pirates uniform, but I'm just happy to see him back for his 19th(!) MLB season. In that time his Baseball Reference transaction section has gotten so long you'd have to print it on a CVS receipt. Since being drafted and signed by the Cubs in 2002 he's pitched for them (2005-08), the Orioles (2009), Red Sox (2010-12), Indians (2013), Angels and Yankees (2014), Red Sox #2 (2015), A's (2016), Dodgers (2016-19), Twins (2020), Rays and Mets (2021), and Red Sox #3 (2022). And that doesn't include his stint with the indy ball Long Island Ducks in 2015 that led to his return to Boston!

Pittsburgh will be the 12th team Hill's pitched for (he never reached the Majors with the Cardinals and Nats), tying him for third all time with Mike Morgan and Matt Stairs. Former Tiger Edwin Jackson holds the record with 14 teams, and another former Tiger (the odds were good, obviously) Octavio Dotel took the bump with 13.

Anyway, that's a long preamble to introduce this evening's cards. Here's the three big items I bought of Hill in January and February:

I've mentioned that I don't touch Topps "on-demand" stuff too often but my favorite seller on the site, markaguirre22, had this 2020 Topps Mini Silver 1/1 up for grabs in late January and I scored it for the minimum $10 bid plus tax (and free shipping). It's a Twins card and he doesn't have a ton of those so that's cool.

I know I've also mentioned the numerous occasions when this seller generously threw in extras and he did that this time as well. Both of these 2013 A&G Minis were new to me which was a very nice bonus, and I make sure to thank him in my feedback every time he sends me something like this.

Less than a week later I got in a bit of a bidding war for this 2006 Flair Showcase plate used to make Rich's card in the Showcase Signatures set. The Cubs-appropriate Cyan card set me back a bit under $18, but I didn't mind too much because I don't have to go that high very often, and anything up to around $20 is reasonable enough for me. It's my first of the four from that plate set so that's one reason I fought a bit harder to win it. Here's the card that resulted from this plate and its brethren:

Pretty cool, no? Flair Showcase had a wide variety of looks during its existence and I like the design of this insert set for sure.

Finally, a bit more than a month ago I won the most recently produced 1/1 I've added to Hill's PC, a 2022 Topps Chrome yellow plate. My winning bid was only $9 but tax and shipping pushed that cost up close to $15, which is just kind of the reality of buying on the site these days. Anyway, it represents Rich's third stint in Boston, and who's to say he won't return later this year in a deadline deal or as a free agent in the offseason in search of his 20th year at the game's highest level? By the way, with yellow not being a staple of the Red Sox's team colors, I 100% need to get a plate in that color of him with the Pirates!

These additions continue Hill's dominance of my baseball PC with 149 hits, of which 35 are 1/1s. My TCDb-leading 349 items, 35 of which are of the rarest variety, allow me to confidently continue calling myself the king of Dick Mountain!

2023 trade package #2: a Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts

Jon of a Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts was the sender of my second trade package of 2023, and I'd say the contents are worth coining the phrase "small things come in good packages." Check out all the cool stuff, some of which is of diminutive stature, in this envelope:

I teased the tiny stuff but I'm starting with standard sized cards. Gwynn is a Refractory Chrome insert from 2019. Mr. Tiger's shiny parallel was inserted into Topps' solid 2011 Lineage product. His longtime teammate Mickey Lolich's item in spot #3 is from 2001 Topps Archives Reserve, a beautiful Chrome Refractor version of the excellent base set.

Below those are a pair of 2014 Panini Golden Age sticker cards, each with four players. The first is awesome since it includes Kaline and another '68 teammate, Willie Horton, who's gotten a bit of love in some of these throwback sets (plus the excellent Catfish Hunter and Yaz). The big draw for me on the second is Michigan Heisman-winner Tom Harmon, but Detroit boxer Joe Louis is a huge plus. Naturally I'm happy to see The Man as the third subject, and the youngest DiMaggio is no slouch either. Ty Cobb (who won a car for splitting the batting average crown with Nap Lajoie, sort of) wraps up the baseball content in the scan.

The last regular sized card in the bunch is a rookie year insert of Charles Woodson out of 1998 Skybox Premium. The reigning Heisman winner made the D'Stroyers set by obliterating offenses with his ball-hawking ways first in college, then the pros. As a reminder, he accumulated 65 INTs (with 11 leading to TDs) and forced 33 fumbles (and returned a couple of those for scores as well).

Ah yes, the much-hyped small stuff! Let's start with a nice stack of Minis. The first three are 1999 Pacific Private Stock PS-206 cards featuring PC guys Tony Gwynn, Greg Maddux, and Dean Palmer. Yes, that's a funny combination, but I have lots of player collections! These look nice though I tend to think of the 2001 set more often.

The others are from Panini Golden Age products. Gehringer is from 2012 and is the Red Candy back. Fellow Wolverine and to a lesser degree ex-president Gerry Ford is from the 2013 set's Carolina Brights backs. Also from the UM football team we have Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch and a double-dose of the previously-seen Harmon from 2014. Hirsch and the first Harmon are Hindu backs while the other Harmon is a Mono back.

And all by himself from 2014 Ginter's Black Bordered set is Sparky Anderson. It sure is fun adding stuff of him since managers don't appear on nearly as many cards as their players do, understandably. I love the image of the pensive skipper, probably wondering if he should live up to his nickname of "Captain Hook" or leave Jack Morris in.

Everything else in this scan and the next one is a sticker, and boy is there some great variety here! The first two you see, Chet Lemon and Larry Herndon, hail from 1981 Topps Stickers, and those of course are pre-Tigers items but still 100% welcome for me. Everything else with the exception of the 1983 Ripken seen in the final image is from the '82 set, and there you see Lance Parrish, Herndon again, Jack Morris, Darrell Evans, Lemon again, and Morris along with Denny Martinez/Steve McCatty/Pete Vuckovich. The rookie-year sticker of Cal is very cool, and it's one of his two appearances in that set.

And here we have the final six stickers, once again with a mostly Tigers lean broken up by another Ripken cameo, which happens to be the second '83 sticker I just mentioned. That's because these are all also from that very set. Evans makes his second Giants appearance, Herndon makes his first as a Tiger, and Dan "Peaches" Petry joins in the fun. After the Ripken we have a pair of Lance Parrishes that form a full image of the apparently disinterested subject.

This was a very fun and diverse group of new additions to my collections and I have to thank Jon for all the effort he put into identifying and sending cards I could use, especially mini and sticker types that I often don't tend to buy for myself for various reasons. I also appreciate when folks like him go the extra mile to send items of, say, Tigers players in different uniforms, and especially Wolverines of any type. So this was a fantastic second package that kept up the momentum from the first one I showed off earlier.

I'm happy to report that Jon has already been handsomely rewarded for this bounty with a fat stack of cards of some of his own player collections that I had fun rounding up on Sportlots, and I look forward to his reaction to those when he has time!

As for me, I'll likely try to recap this month's show before January is over, both because not doing so would be pretty lazy, plus the February one is right around the corner. Until then, go check out Jon at http://pennysleevethoughts.blogspot.com!

2022 eBay purchases: remembering the -embers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2022 trade package #21: Cardboard Collections

The other recent TCDB-aided trade post I have for you this evening is thanks to collector of Braves, Panthers, and toys, and Affordable Group Break-er Colbey of Cardboard Collections. This will be just the fifth trade I've done with him on this blog, but given how active he is on TCDB, with more than 300 deals in the books, we could easily increase that count but taking advantage of that site's trade-enhancing features.

Those of you who know Colbey are probably fairly familiar with his username on a number of sites, "flywheels", and that's exactly his alias on the DB. After I recently loaded up more cards to my trade list and ran a trade matching report he came up near the top, and we ended up with a deal in which we each got 70+ cards. Everything went great, and I was happy with my own haul, which included some fun trade items for others which have since gone out to them in the mail.

Here's what I landed for myself from my longtime blogging pal:

Up front we have some classy looking throwback looks at Tigers HOFer Tyrus Raymond Cobb. In all I ended up with six items (you'll see another below) made in roughly the last decade of the Georgia Peach, and I'd say the shiny 3000 Hits Club insert is my favorite here. Jake from St. Clair (think that nickname could stick like the State Farm guy?) is next with yet another RC for my growing collection of the young Padres star (and one of two appearances this evening as well). After him is a trio of a duo that manned the corners at Tiger Stadium in the 90s: Cecil Fielder and Travis Fryman. While I don't prioritize those guys in deals I'll always add them in to bulk up a trade when it makes sense.

Also sometimes guys like those two star on one of the best cards of the package, as is the case with Fryman and his '94 Select Skills insert. It's a beautiful looking rainbow foil card that reminds me how grateful I am that other brands made great looking cards and eventually forced Topps to up their game. The double-take of Grandy's 2015 GQ card with its White Bordered parallel makes it easier to appreciate how much better the latter version looks. Greenberg joins Cobb as a Detroit HOF blast from the past, and in Hank's case he arrives courtesy of Topps' 2011 CMG Reprints insert (and you'll see him one more time in a bit). I managed to sneak Griffey and Gwynn into the package thanks to their 2018 Donruss base appearances. And who could resist a Toys R Us/Topps collab of a young Henneman?

I won't be renaming this blog after Austin Jackson--I don't even have 100 of his cards yet--but I was glad to make him part of this deal with the pair above. Mr. Tiger makes a well deserved cameo with two cards here and one below, and did you know he was just the fourth AL player to hit two homers in an inning? Three more recent Larkins help me continue his march to 1K, and I'm over 900 so I'm happy with the progress I'm making. And Mize may be on the shelf (honestly, which pitcher for the Tigers isn't at this point?) but my pursuit of his cards isn't, so there's a nice pair of his items to round out this scan.

If I had to have the Toys R Us Henneman, why not 1987 AL ROY second runner up Matt Nokes? I don't think people realize just how many cards of Magglio--Tigers and White Sox--I have in my collection, but TCDB tells me it's 234 and when I look at his stack in my Tigers box I believe it! I really liked the nice mix I got of Pudge (with one still to go below) even with only one Tigers card in the bunch, and the Marlins card is a nice reminder that he helped Florida to the '03 World Series in his only season with them before helping bring Detroit back to respectability. Tork's been...not great this year, but I'm nowhere near ready to give up on a kid that just turned 23 and obviously gets zero good feedback from a failure of a coaching staff. And hey, how about the season JV is having? Dude's a few months older than I am and he's a ridiculous 16-3.

How about even more Verlanders? No such thing as too many, I always say! The Morris/Avery card is a fun French's food issue. Magglio looks even better with the Tigers on his '11 Topps Diamond Anniversary parallel. And THJ was the lone basketballer to appear here, but one more sport will feature in the final scan below.

All those "you'll see x more in a few" comments were about this scan full of minis. It's largely a Ginter party but there's a few other sets repped as well. Tram is the only baseball player that wasn't seen earlier, and I happily added something new of him. Clark is nobody's idea of a role model but I collect plenty of terrible people so here's a sticker of him to add to the pile.

And finally I enjoy when folks make up their own promotional stuff like business cards, for their blogs/breaks/other. In Colbey's case it's an extra great idea because he also left a spot to write down the TCDB transaction number, a great thing to include in one or more places when you package up your deals there.

One more reminder: not pictured are a few more very nice inserts and hits that went to some of my other favorite trade partners. I want to emphasize that because just the stuff you see above was a nice haul as far as I was concerned. Colbey continues to be a great guy to trade with and I'm glad we were able to complete such a large deal thanks to my current favorite card site. Thanks, Colbey!

Up next you'll probably see my spoils from the Labor Day weekend show featuring a cameo by someone I mention quite often around these parts. Until then, I have more TCDB deals in the works!