2025 trade package #8: Cards on Cards

We've now made it to the March portion of my year of collecting, and trade-wise that month's first package came from Kerry of Cards on Cards. My college/pro collector buddy on the other side of the country sent me a very nice envelope stuffed with cards representing the three most popular American sports:

The baseball stuff all fit into one scan. Madden is potentially the future of the Tigers' rotation, just like JV was in the past. Maddux and Ripken form half of my big four thanks to Panini brands, while Griffey and Gwynn join them courtesy of a much older Panini sticker set (1991). Star left side infielders Sabo and Tram also came along for the ride in diminutive and sticky form. And speaking of past Tigers, there's a cool BInge from 2000 Bowman's Retro/Future parallel that threw it back to '55 Bowman.

Basketball ended up being the top dog sport this time, which as always was fine since pretty much everything was new to my relatively small collection! Bufkin was one of a few players who got a nice little bump to their PCs, and his bunch includes a few sets that pop up several times here, including a Donruss Winter parallel, Hoops, and Hoops' separate Winter release (which I'm writing about as we happily get closer to summer). THJ, Howard, and LeVert all appeared on just one card this time, but that's cool since they're all pretty well represented in my basketball collection as it is.

Poole stars on a fun trio--a number apropos of a guy who hit a big trey in the NCAA tourney years ago--including a very patriotic Prizm parallel that goes well with the upcoming holiday. Duncan Robinson, another three-point ace, gets a quartet added to his collection highlighted by the start of a Hoops/Winter rainbow. And then we get a look at Orlando's Wagner Bros., Franz and

Mo! This post made me check my count for both of them and currently Franz leads Moritz 53-22, which is a good indicator of which one is more highly regarded in the league.

Last up is one scan of football, all of which comprises guys from the past 10 years of the program. Colson, Corum, and McCarthy are all RCs from the latest edition of Panini's Absolute brand, specifically the non-SN retail set (I do chase those along with the hobby versions). Those guys are joined by fellow national champions Donovan Edwards (UDFA this year), Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, and a RC of WR Roman Wilson. A couple recent high-end defenders close out the group in Aidan Hutchinson (on another Michigan uni card!) and Kwity Paye, as seen on a Prestige Xtra Points parallel.

Kerry, thanks as always for taking the time to identify and send me cards of the pro and college players I collect! I continue to appreciate the effort you put into your trade packages and the quality of what you send, so I'm grateful for another envelope of goodness.

I'll be back soonish with the other package I received in March before showing off cards from other sources.

2024 trade package #24: Cards on Cards

Continuing with my marathon posting of trade packages this evening, here's #1 from earlier this month: a basketball-heavy mailer thanks to Kerry from Cards on Cards. Maybe this is something he can read as he nervously awaits his Oregon team's Wednesday Rose Bowl matchup with the hated Buckeyes. My suggestion: the Ducks wear crazy-ass jerseys all the time anyway so why not make an Oregon version of the iconic winged helmet and wait for Ryan Day to poop his pants like he usually does? Oh, and I happen to know that he has another envelope from me that may include one or more Ducks whenever he gets a chance to open it.

Anyway, here's what Kerry sent me earlier this month:

Most of the baseball fit in this one scan. Like his cards above, Baddoo may be feeling Blue after being DFAed so new pitcher Alex Cobb could join the roster. Greene, whose roster spot is secure, looks groovy on the Big League card, and he also offers my first look at this year's Stadium Club Chrome insert (not to be confused with the separate base issue). I wonder if Jung will get a chance to stick with the club now that Gleyber Torres has been signed and other moves may be in the works. Donruss' recent products are geared toward folks like me who love collecting classics like Sisler. Skubal, who's going to be very, very rich within a couple years, was an All-Star this year, as the above Topps insert reminded me. Verlander comprises the rest of the baseball content, and the shiny version of his Attax card makes the all-too-common regular versions seem even uglier than they are, if that's even possible.

Topps' flagship design has always been hit or miss with me, mostly the latter, but Stadium Club is rock solid when it comes to looks. I love the horizontal Verlander photo of him finishing his pitching motion, and the Sepia parallel looks quite nice as well.

Most (but not all!) of the rest of the content is basketball, and Hoops-related products are well represented. That works for me since I needed practically everything here! As with football, Panini released a Halloween-themed product called Haunted Hoops, and Bufkin and the younger Howard are two of the former Wolverines you can find in it. Burke is "just" a regular Hoops RC (nice!) and former UM coach Howard gets just his second card from the past decade to join my collection thanks to 2023-24 Topps Chrome, with Topps having to do the logoless thing like Panini does with baseball.

LeVert, Poole, Robinson, and both Wagner brothers also get the Haunted Hoops treatment here. Every card you've seen has been a base except for the two Orange parallels--Bufkin above and Poole here. Poole also gets a new Panini Flux for his PC, Robinson joins Bufkin above from the apparently-difficult-to-scan Hoops Premium Stock product, and Franz adds appearances from Panini Illusions and the most recent Topps Chrome.

Remember a bunch of the guys we just saw? Well they're back--in sticker form! These are all 2023-24 Panini Stickers, and four of them are standard versions while Poole gets a cool holofoil entry and Franz appears in the Global Icons subset representing his native Germany. I hope both Wagner brothers heal up in time to run it back next season!

Lastly, I can always count on a fellow college collector like Kerry to send some Wolverines my way. Better yet, half of these are college uni photos! Hutchinson's season ended too soon earlier this year but with the injury luck the Lions have had in 2024 there's no doubt he wouldn't have made it through the season anyway. That doesn't dampen my enthusiasm for collecting him, and I continue to root for his team to keep winning to make my friends who are Lions fans happy.

His former teammate J.J. McCarthy suffered his own injury before even making it through the preseason, and I hope he returns to health next year as well. For now I'll keep collecting him, especially Michigan cards like the above pair of Score inserts which remind me of happier memories earlier this year when JJ led Michigan to a national championship.

And lastly, I guess the theme of this section is injured recent Wolverines because Wilson also dealt with similar issues in the preseason and has barely played so far in 2024. His pro debut may be done prematurely but boy did he come up big time and time again for last year's title-winners catching 12 TDs including the one that tied the Rose Bowl against Alabama with under 2:00 to go in the eventual OT win for the Maize & Blue. While I tend to favor Score's RC design, Prestige does sometimes have its moments, and I've always appreciated them using college shots as well.

Kerry, thanks again for this envelope stuffed with Tigers and Wolverines! I'll continue my full-throated support for your team especially as a matchup looms with a team with possibly the most toxic fans in the nation. GOOD LUCK, DUCKS!

Well that's three posts I've done today and that leaves three for New Year's Eve, giving me something to do as I watch Michigan's noon bowl game against Alabama (again). Most of the impact players will be gone due to the draft or transferring, and it was already looking like a mismatch before taking that into account, so I won't be expecting a win, but regardless I'll be thankful for one last 2024 Michigan Football game after the calendar year began on the best note possible. LET'S GO BLUE!

2023 trade package #23: Cards on Cards

Let's get back to my pile of trades to cover with a fun package sent by my MLB/NCAA collecting counterpart in the west, Kerry of Cards on Cards!

This one included a nice amount of baseball, a bit of football, and to my surprise, a whole lotta basketball stuff. While the latter sport is my least favorite to watch, it's always great receiving those cards in trades because I put very little money and effort into those PCs. That means just about anything sent my way has a high likelihood of being new to me, plus it bulks up some collections that I'm often neglecting otherwise.

So here's a look at what my future Big Ten-watching pal sent this time:

Baseball 1 of 2: There was some chatter that Baddoo might not be in the team's plans next season but other than the recent acquisition of Mark Canha I haven't seen anything to support that so I'll keep on collecting him and his many crazy parallels. Kudos to Kerry for including the Russ Brock since he's a bit of a deep cut out of my Michigan Baseball PC! I don't know if the reality of Miggy retiring will really hit me until he's not in the lineup next season. And thank you to folks like Kerry for bulking up my Cronenworth collection in packages like this one to the point that I've eclipsed the century mark. There's so few active UM alumni these days that I especially appreciate people finding his cards to send me. And Cal's Optic card features a different view of his unorthodox stance.

Baseball 2 of 2: a classic shot of Gorgeous George leads off, followed by a two-pack of Tigers rising star slugging 1B Spencer Torkelson. We might just see him in the neighborhood of 30 bombs next year, and I hope the front office gives him some lineup help.

The baseball group then ends, appropriately enough, with blog namesake guy JV. The Mosaic Aces insert looks quite cool, then we have a pair of Mets cards to document his short stay with the dysfunctional New York franchise ("LOL which one?!"). Finally, how about a relic card with a design as eyeball-popping as anything made by the guy I wrote about in my last post, Mike Cramer? The oversized relic card is numbered to just 99 and looks to be my 30th hit out of what now amounts to more than 600 cards, another fun milestone!

And now we have the first of five(!) basketball scans. This one features just two players: Trey Burke and Jamal Crawford. Burke was a blast to watch in college and Crawford seemed to be in the league forever (20 seasons, counting one game in 2019-20) while suiting up for nine teams. There's some nice looking base designs for both of these players and each gets a solid collection bump: Burke's right at 30 and Crawford sits at 39.

Not only does this 100% THJ scan feature a nice bit of color, but it also includes a pair of season-appropriate Hoops Winter cards. You'll see a few more of those in the rest of the scans. My favorites have to be the Prizms, though, with the Red/White/Blue having the best color combo, but I think I like the design of the first Green card up top a bit more. This bounty bounces his collection up to 54, good for 6th place in my collection.

Other than a single Mitch McGary card here (#12 in his collection), the star of this scan is former four-year Wolverine LeVert. Once again there are some mighty fine designs here, especially the Revolution and Optic cards, but nothing tops that Prizm, which I believe is called "Red White Orange Shimmer." You'll see a couple more of his items below which means Kerry sent me 10, and those vaulted Caris into the top 10 of my basketball collections with 42 cards, one more than I own of Michael Jordan via the sets I've built!

Just a bit more variety here with four players represented. I'm glad Poole got dealt away from the Warriors and complete toolbag Draymond Greene, though I wonder if his best days may be behind him after a legendary NCAA tourney performance and a title with Golden State in '22. The first two cards of his trio look especially nice, and when I add them to what I had before I now own 21 Pooles.

I'll handle GRIII and Sauce Castillo together as they were teammates from 2012-14 in Ann Arbor. Both were drafted in 2014 after a pair of good seasons though neither is in the NBA at this point. It looks like I have nine Robinson cards, fewer than the 16 I own of his dad. Stauskas is a bit more prevalent among the hoopers I collect with 21 cards.

And then including the next scan I can show off six cards of the younger of the two Wagner bros to play for Michigan: Franz. Just like Hardaway above I was treated to a pair of Hoops Winter cards and a reminder that the season is coming with its frigid temperatures whether or not I like it. What I do like is shiny cards like the last one in this scan, and collecting brothers who played for the same college program and are now teammates in the league (along with fellow Wolverines Caleb Houstan and Jett Howard!). Including the three you'll see next, I now claim ownership of 24 of Franz's cards, and that has me :clap: pumped up.

Last up in basketball we have a four-pack of the older Wagner bro, Mo. I'll still take Donruss's Rated Rookie logo over Topps' rookie cup any day, but that's me. The two Panini Status cards--a rookie and Rookie Prominence insert--are shiny and cool and right up my alley. The group grows his collection to 14, a distant 10 away from little bro. Speaking of which, Franz joins the previous seen LeVert in sticker form bringing to mind the original iteration of Panini and the stickers they sold.

One last scan will take us home tonight, and that includes the two football cards in the package. Before he headed to the NFL and some legal trouble, Haskins etched his name in program lore with five TDs against a soft Buckeyes squad to put Michigan back in the win column of the rivalry in 2021. Appropriately enough you see him here in the winged helmet, probably racing past another defender with no chance at stopping him.

Ordinarily a college uni card would be my favorite but I'll give the edge to a new item for one of my top PCs, Chad Henne. One of six players to hit the 300-card mark among the gridiron guys I collect, Henne is seen on a 2013 Prizm Pulsar parallel that could only be one color for a Michigan alum: Blue. Great find, Kerry!

Many thanks to Kerry for this outstanding pile of cards, most of which, if not all, were new to me! I'm grateful to have a few friends who also collect college teams because it's so much fun seeing what we can find for each other.

With this one covered, I hope to recap a few more trade packages soon!

11/4/22 card show report: November big spender

A couple Fridays ago I once again made it back east to Taylor for the monthly show after missing October's, and because of that I was willing to spend a bit more than I usually do if the opportunity arose.

I spent about my average of two hours flipping through my favorite seller's boxes and came up with the following totals:

• 60 quarter cards
• 55 dollar cards
• 7 $2 cards

All of that came out to $84 and the guy asked for $80, which was plenty reasonable. I was quite happy with the amount of trade bait I grabbed, especially out of the dollar boxes, and I suspect that he moved some stuff I would have skipped from the $2s into that. Anyway, I once again came home with a good amount of trade bait for some of my favorite folks plus plenty to list on TCDB. Speaking of the site, I also stopped by a vintage dealer that's often there and grabbed a couple cards for buddies I trade with there for just $5, so that was a successful stop as well.

In terms of what I'll show off tonight, as always I'll lead off with the unassigned trade bait:

Former Wolverine Bourque is a dupe for both myself and Jeff though I didn't realize it at the time. We'll get to the Caldwell in a minute. Cobb is SN149; Ervin, Prosise, and Reynolds are SN199; Robiskie is SN50; and Stewart (a cleat piece!) is SN15. As for the Caldwell, how great could it be seeing as it's the only card here out of the quarter box?

Wait, does that say "1/1" on the right?! It sure does! I have no idea how that snuck into the pile of quarter boxes, and even then how nobody grabbed it before me, but either way it's an exciting score! It's definitely not in mint condition having bounced around in at least that box for a bit, but I'm sure it'll make someone happy.

Trade bait #2: as you can see I like getting my money's worth on the $1 and $2 cards with autographed relics, and I've always liked those Topps Strata cards with the acetate windows. Funchess is another dupe for both Jeff and me but seemed worth a grab just in case. Hardy and Mayle are both SN799 as is the Palmer manuhelmet. Prosise card #2 is SN499 and the Walton cards are SN399 and SN99, respectively.

Just shout if you want anything you see above and we can try to work out a deal!

Now we'll move on to my keepers:

On the baseball side, out of the quarter box we have a Griffey from this year's Gallery that looks classy plus a Maddux from 2008 Topps Moments & Milestones (for his 300 career wins). I believe both basketball hits were in the $2 box and those are of former Laker (among other teams) Mo Wagner (Franz's brother!) and former lots-of-teams GRIII (numbered /199). Wagner moves up to three hits while Robinson III gets his sixth. Last up in this scan is one football item that didn't fit in the next one: a Panini Unparalleled RC of Packers defensive star Rashan Gary, who's sadly out for the season with a knee injury. According to my list I now have a third of Gary's 21 RCs I'm tracking.

The rest of the football also came out of the quarter box. The Nico insert is timely since the WR actually caught a TD today despite the Texans' garbage QB situation. Darboh's shiny SAGE insert would look cooler if it wasn't partially airbrushed. Braylon's insert is from back in the 2000s when serial numbered inserts were still awesome (this one is SN1000). Former Lion Graham Glasgow, who escaped the tire fire here (for Denver, so take that for what it's worth) had eluded my collection up to this point so I was thrilled to track down his lone RC (2018 Panini Unparalleled) plus what I believe to be a "Flight" parallel.

On a day that was good to my Michigan RC collection I also picked up my very first first-year of last year's stud Wolverine back Hassan Haskins out of this year's Prestige. It's a Michigan uni card that's sure to give Ohio State collectors nightmares for years to come! Then we go back to the Panini Unparalleled well for the last time, though this isn't actually a RC but, oddly enough, a parallel, for my first card of former FB Joe Kerridge (from 2018, just like Glasgow's card). Just one of 12 issues of him made, this is the Superplaid version numbered /150, starring a guy who played in 12 games over two seasons with the Pack (not bad for a fullback!). I wasn't gonna skip a Prizm parallel of transfer RB Rawls out of the quarter box. And lastly we have one more RC, and a college uni card at that, of Pats LB Josh Uche, who just picked up three sacks in last Sunday's win over the Colts.

Well, I set out to spend more than usual to make up for the last show, plus to start re-stocking my trade package coffers and bring home some items for myself, and I'd say that I succeeded on all fronts. I'm looking forward to what will likely be my last show of the year in a few weeks in hopes of having enough fodder to allow me to do one of my favorite holiday traditions of sending out Christmas cards, maybe with an assist from COMC thanks to their seeming return to competence this year? We'll have to see, but after feasting on turkey on Thanksgiving I may be going back for seconds from a couple sources for some holiday shopping.

2021 trade package #12: My Sports Obsession

It's been a while thanks to other stuff grabbing my attention, but I'm back this evening with a trade package that I'm posting the same day as the birthday of a player that trader and I both collect. Former Wolverines and Reds great and HOF SS Barry Larkin turned 57 today, and I wouldn't be surprised to see my fellow Larkin collector do a quick post about him tonight. That would be longtime buddy of the blog Jeff of My Sports Obsession, who sent me a well packaged little box a week or two ago.

As usual I was interested to see what he'd found for me since we're often swapping Michigan sports dupes back and forth, and rest assured you'll see some of those. There was a nice mix of my favorite MLB team, the Tigers, as well, though, as much as it must have pained Jeff to part with them.

Here's a look at all the cool stuff he sent me this time:

We'll kick things off tonight with a couple scans worth of vintage and vintage-adjacent (I'm never sure at what point to draw the line--1980? 1989?) Tigers. The '74 team checklist was a fun surprise, and I liked how Topps decided to go with the players' signatures up front, definitely a cool idea. I was just as geeked for the second-year card of star catcher Lance Parrish (1979), the oldest card I now own of him that isn't his multiplayer '78 Topps RC. LeFlore and Rozema ('80 Topps) are both native Michiganders who spent a few years as notable Tigers players. And Brookens was my favorite of the '81 Fleer bunch, though again the other guys are well known to Detroit fans, plus the checklist was new to me!

Continuing the run of Fleer, first we have a four-spot of '85s, led by Lemon, one of the starters on the '84 Wire-to-Wire winners. Kuntz's last MLB season was '85 so he got a ring himself, Monge pitched for both pennant-winners in '84 (but not in the playoffs), and Scherrer came over to the club from the Reds late in '84, but in plenty of time to make three appearances in the Series win over the Padres. Brumley played one season in Detroit while '89 (the year of the Fleer Update release that includes this pair) was Williams' last in the bigs.

Moving back to the present, or thereabouts, almost everything here was new to me. I'm surprised I didn't already have Opening Day starter Boyd's '19 Topps base, but Jeff checked it off the list so that's no problem. I believe just about all of the Miggy cards were new additions as well, including two of the three 2020 Update issues. Former Tiger Iggy is still in the league, but here he's overshadowed by a mini of Larkin's fellow HOF SS Alan Trammell, looking game ready in his retro Tigers digs.

Somehow there's still more Tigers cards to get to. Of the first six guys only Goodrum is still with the team, though Morgan's working his way through the minors in a system that doesn't really have any good prospects blocking him. The Heritage team card is cool, and Moya's 2015 Bowman Chrome Green Refractor auto (#d /99) was one of the biggest surprised of the package. The Puerto Rican OF never amounted to anything in the pros but I'll be damned if he doesn't have a sweet signature!

Now we'll take a quick look at the player collections Jeff hit. His namesake, a pitcher named Criswell, was a big part of Michigan's 2019 team that made it all the way to the finals of the College World Series. He was drafted by Oakland in the second round last year, and here he's pictured on a Panini USA Stars & Stripes base, my first card of his! Fife is also a former UM pitcher with just two mainstream cards to his name: the '74 Topps RC you see above and an OPC from the same year. Griffey's 2020 Archives base is a throwback to that very set. Birthday boy Larkin can be seen here on an '87 Classic Update Yellow/Green Backs card that I'd never seen before, plus '88 Score. And that's a sweet trio of 2004/05 cards of Maddux, probably my favorite pitcher of his era.

Cal is yet another player (and HOF SS) that Jeff and I have in common, so it's fun sending his cards back and forth. Panini's run with the Triple Play name produced some fairly boring cards, but that doesn't remotely apply to the base issue you see above noting the Iron Man's election to the Hall in 2007. While I'll probably make a bigger deal about it in a future post, now is as good a time as any to announce that Ripken recently became my first player collection to hit the 1000-card mark! My current TCDB count shows 1,010, which is a very cool milestone for me.

And how could anyone who trades with me not include something of the guy whose name is in the title of this here blog? Three many Verlanders is a nice way to close out the baseball section.

There's just a bit left to cover but it's an exciting quartet for me. I'm always glad to receive basketball stuff in trades because I'm so unlikely to buy it, so it was super nice of Jeff to include relics of THJ (with a huge swatch, numbered /325) and Mo Wagner, whose little bro may decide to join him in the NBA soon. Those are my eighth and second hits of each player, respectively.

And to close things out today we have a nice defensive football pair. Hudson (2020 SAGE HIT) was an excellent LB recruit who took over at the celebrated "viper" position in Michigan's defense after Jabrill Peppers left for the NFL, and he was very productive there, good enough to be drafted by Washington in the 5th round last year. It would appear that all of his available cards so far (fewer than 50) are from draft-oriented sets, and that's great for collectors like Jeff and me because we'll take all the Michigan uni cards we can get! In my case this is card #1 of Hudson, so hopefully I can add more soon.

And then we have a 2020 Prizm Draft auto of former Michigan DB David Long, a 2019 third round choice by the Rams who got a bit of play the past two seasons. His signature on this sticker is just a bit cramped, but at least you can easily make out the "D" and "L". This is somehow my fourth autograph of his, split evenly between pro and college uniforms. Naturally I love the action shot here of Long returning a pick along his team's sideline.

Jeff, thanks a lot for this surprise box that had a lot of great new stuff I needed (whether or not I knew that I did)! Odds are that I'll be making a return to my monthly show this weekend so there's a good chance I'll be able to start a new pile for you so I can return fire before much longer.