2024 trade package #23: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

My other trade package from November was the typical awesomeness from Doug at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. He actually managed to get it out in time that it wasn't impacted by the Canada Post strike, which was definitely a stroke of luck considering how long that went on and the fact that we're still dealing with the repercussions of the stoppage. As a matter of fact, I've had a package ready to send back his way for a couple weeks now but unfortunately USPS still isn't accepting mail to send across the border, presumably while their Canadian counterparts get caught up. Oh well, it'll just have to wait.

As for what I got in my final mailing from Kitchener, Ontario for 2024:

We'll start with baseball as usual. I remember Damon's brief stint with the Tigers in 2010 and his decent bat but noodle arm. Larkin and Morris are former Wolverines that won baseball's Ultra best prize in 1990. Walewander seems to be a cult favorite of some Tigers fans.

Heading over to football, Tom Brady starts us off with Topps' return to the sport thanks to their Composite product, one that brings to mind its long lost Fusion set that combined multiple brands, and in this case that includes Chrome. DE Len Ford was one of the most accomplished players to come out of the program, winning an NCAA title and then three NFL rings in a HOF pro career. Harbaugh, of course, needs no introduction, but I hope his ability to quickly turn around the fortunes of teams he coaches becomes the narrative around him instead of the stupid "QB whisperer" crap. Jenkins and Wilson were both drafted this year and I happily added a card each to their RC totals, plus a Scorecard parallel for the Bengals DL. And we go all the way back to RB Hassan Haskins' pre-college days with a Team USA jersey that came out when he was a lower-rated recruit and not yet a Buckeye-killing back.

The non-UM Red Wings all fit into this scan and they also serve as a nice transition into the hockey stuff, giving you a bit of an idea of a couple of the brands that were prevalent in this package: UD flagship and MVP. I'm old enough to remember Ogrodnick's name (likely due to video games made late in his career), though he was gone from Detroit by the time I was really paying attention to the sport. It's very cool to add such a relatively old Wings card to my collection!

Now let's take a look at some Wolverines and WolverWings! Young Kraken star Beniers kicks off the group with another example of UD taking advantage of owning Fleer's brand names like Metal. Compher's having a relative down year with the Wings but then again, who isn't at this point? Connor is once again on a great scoring pace and isn't too far from equaling his '23-'24 numbers, actually. Luke Hughes' stats are also down a bit from last season while last season's Norris winner Quinn continues to stack up points.

WolverWing Dylan Larkin continues to be the heart of the team as its captain, and hopefully a new coach will inspire the team to play up to their potential. Norris suits up for Doug's Senators and is among the team leaders in goals in his sixth season (though two of those saw him appear in just 11 games). Rare Wolverine-in-Buffalo Power just played in his 200th NHL game and has a chance to improve on some decent stats from last season. Trouba, of course, finally got out of New York as he was flipped to Anaheim earlier this month. And not-remotely-rare Wolverine/Blue Jacket Werenski has a chance to finally return to the 20-goal mark, his career high from 2019-20, which would be pretty cool for the stud defenseman. While I'm happy with the various base cards here, he appears on one of the best non-hits, a 2019-20 SP Game Used Orange Rainbow parallel that's numbered to just 103(?) copies.

There are just two horizontal cards to look at this time, but they're both worth a look! Beniers is back with a sweet die-cut numbered issue from 2022-23 SPx, which is probably the best of him in my collection besides the Metal Universe RC above. Connor also makes another appearance thanks to a UD insert called Stars of the Rink that has a cool rainbow "dots" pattern.

And then we have the hits, and boy are they nice ones! Number one is my first autograph of yet another Blue Jacket, defenseman Nick Blankenburg. The two-year Wolverine played three seasons with Columbus before signing with Nashville this past July. I absolutely love the look of his uncirculated autographed acetate RC from UD's Clear Cut brand.

The next autograph is somewhat similar with former Jets/current Wings C Andrew Copp signing an SPx card from the previous year's Clear Cut offering. The holographic background makes it a true throwback to SPx's origins and I feel like UD went away from that design aspect to its detriment, so it's a sight for sore eyes here. That's my fourth auto of the WolverWing.

And last up is one more Werenski appearance (hey, there's a reason he's a top-10 guy in my Michigan Hockey PC!). Though I previously claimed four hits to his name, it took #5 here to add my first signature. That comes from the shiny 2022-23 UD Stature Autographs set, one which appears to parallel the base set, which is already fairly high-end itself. I like that his name is fairly legible and as a bonus he even throws in his jersey number, one he has in common with my top baseball PC guy. Needless to say I appreciate Doug chipping away at the list of Wolverines for whom I need certified autographs, one I'm somewhat maintaining over on TCDb.

Doug, thanks so much for this outstanding envelope to end our year of trading. Again, I'm frustrated that I couldn't send a return sooner due to the strike, but I promise it'll be worth the wait, plus at least I have it ready to go at the drop of a hat. In the meantime I'll work on starting a new stack for you at this weekend's show. I hope you and Mischief had a merry Christmas!

I'll be back soon (possibly very soon!) with more trades from December.

2024 trade package #6: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been a busy month for me with a lot of time taken up by sorting through yet another great Facebook collection pickup (via a garage sale) plus a trip down south to see friends. But today I'm ready to get back at it with another trade recap.

This absolutely stacked package came from prolific trading buddy Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store back in April. There's a ridiculous amount of stuff to look at, especially new hits, so let's get down to it:

The relatively small baseball portion was hugely impactful. Doug's a fan of Panini Chronicles and a few of the cards you see here came from those brands. Sutherland, a Tiger for parts of three seasons in the 70s, is a '75 Hostess, and the Tigers team card is from the (usually) celebrated '75 Topps Mini set. Mike's son Daz hasn't made good on his prospect status yet, but the former Tiger (currently with Oakland) is more than welcome to join my collection of his former team with a '21 Chronicles Black 1/1! Just as exciting is a not quite as rare autograph of Cecil Fielder from '23 Chronicles, numbered to just 25 copies. It's my first signature of "Big Daddy" and just the second hit to go with a bat relic, and I'm extremely grateful for Doug's generosity in sending it my way after pulling it from a box break last year. Finally, 2021 #3 overall pick Jackson Jobe, a high school pitcher out of Oklahoma, makes his debut in the Detroit hits collection with a large jersey swatch out of '23 select. Jobe's considered a top-20 pitching prospect and aside from a bit of injury trouble, he looks like he could become a future ace.

On the basketball front we'll start with Joey Baker, a four-year Duke F who finished up his collegiate career in Ann Arbor. Wagner's from the somewhat oddball Pro Picks Premier product (say that three times fast!) that unfortunately has to go the airbrush route. I'm once again thankful for Doug bolstering my collecting with my first autographs of two players straight from my TCDb "Michigan alumni I need certified autographs for" list. The first is Caleb Houston, a G for the 2021-22 Michigan squad who bailed for the draft and got taken in the second round by the NBA version of the Wolverines, the Orlando Magic. My first signature of him proved to be card #1 in his collection, a 2022-23 Panini Court Kings Fresh Paint Ruby auto (#d /99). He's joined by three-point sharpshooter Duncan Robinson out of a '21-22 Chronicles insert, Apprentice Signatures Red. This was one of a few cards that came out of Panini's Rewards exchange program, and it's also my first hit of the SF/SG who'll be going into his seventh NBA season in a few months.

Flipping over to the gridiron, QB Wally Gabler's '70 O-Pee-Chee card was of extra interest to me as it's the first I've owned of the transfer from the New Mexico Military Institute (alma mater of blog favorite Tony Phillips). He got to start a few games in 1965 and went on to play for seven seasons in the CFL, appearing with the Toronto Argonauts, Winnipeg Blue Bombers (seen here) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He has five total OPC CFL cards to chase and I may work on tracking down the rest, but for now he's a very welcome addition to the collection.

On the hits front, I was pleased to receive new autographs of Jake Butt (Leaf Valiant) and De'Veon Smith (Elite) along with signatures of a couple new guys. DT Chris Hinton, son of the former NFLer of the same name, appeared in 32 games for the Wolverines between 2019-21, went undrafted, and appeared in a few games in 2022 and '23 with the Chargers; we'll see how friendly his new coach is to the former Michigan D-lineman! He's seen here on the first card of him in my collection out of 2022 Pro Set Draft.

Meanwhile, former Dallas TE Sean McKeon, who just joined the Lions as a free agent last month, is a more familiar face, though I'd yet to land a hit of any kind of his until Doug sent me his 2020 Panini Contenders auto, one that also came courtesy of Panini Rewards. I hope he sticks with the team come fall!

With these additions my count of unique subjects in the football hits PC eclipsed 250, so hooray for that milestone (and Doug, who was a big help in getting there)! Also, Jake hit the 10-card mark (eight autos and two plates), so I get to say that I have 10 Butts and I cannot lie!

There was enough Red Wings content to split it off from the rest of the hockey items. Along with a few newer players I was happy to see old favorites like Franzen, Holmstrom, Hull, and Kozlov. Hull of course was part of that famed 2001-02 Cup-winning team that just added Pavel Datsyuk to its HOF group which is now at 10 players (Shanahan, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Robitaille, Yzerman, Larionov, Chelios, and Hasek are the others). What a team that was!

2007-08 Cup winner Henrik Zetterberg rounds out the group of old favorites with a card that celebrates him being a draft steal as I write this post on the second day of the 2024 NFL draft.

The next bunch of scans comprised the largest portion of the mailer: Michigan Hockey. On a weekend that saw some three future Wolverines get drafted, I get to show off lots of cards of former UM icers who made it to the NHL, past and present. This group definitely represents the former as Beniers and Bordeleau are early in their careers, Compher became a WolverWing this past season, and Connor continues to light the lamp for the Jets while nearing the 250-goal mark.

More Connor? More fun for me! Fantilli won the Hobey Baker Award before having a nice rookie season for the Wolverine-friendly Blue Jackets. Glendening was a longtime WolverWing before heading off to Dallas and Tampa. The super talented Hughes just won his first Norris Award after going off for 17 goals (first time in double-digits) and 75 assists, both career highs, with 10 postseason assists for his Canucks. Goalie Jack LaFontaine joins the collection after spending two years in Ann Arbor and three more with Minnesota. Larkin's a mainstay on this blog and I hope he retires as a career Wing with at least one Cup win on the way to a HOF career.

The last of the non-hits opens with the well-travelled Jon Merril (Devils, Wings, Canadians, Wild), and he gives way to a duo starring relatively young Senator (Doug's team!) Josh Norris. Another Wolverine/Blue Jacket in tonight's post is Zach Werenski, who gets three new additions to his collection here while also appearing below. And lastly, my Cam York collection doubled in size to two with the numbered UD Synergy card you see above. The purple looks hilarious with the orange and black of the Flyers' uni but hey, why not?

If you got this far expecting a plethora of Michigan Hockey hits, boy do I have good news for you, because that's exactly what you'll get to see via this scan and the next one!

The previously-seen Bordeleau is first with an autograph that knocks him off my list of players I collect that need such a card, thanks to a shiny offering from Parkhurst via UD. Former Avalanche winger JT Compher is next with an SPx jersey repping the team with which he won a Cup, and that's hit #3 for him. Scoremaster Kyle Connor adds a numbered dual jersey from Artifacts to his pile, now five cards strong. Fox is definitely the oldest player here having appeared in the 70s and 80s for Atlanta, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, and while he's not new to the collection, Doug gifted me an SP Signature autograph of his to knock another name off the list. Patch gets a fun pair in the form of two '21-'22 SP Game-Used relics: a jersey swatch plus a banner from a couple 2021 outdoor games at Lake Tahoe, and those push him into double digits with 11 hits. Porter, another former Hobey winner, appears on an AHL auto from UD that represents my second signature and fifth overall hit of a guy I enjoyed watching in college. And as promised, Blue Jacket Werenski adds to his own stash with relic card #4, an SP Game-Used jersey (though I still need to track down an auto of his).

And we'll finish up this evening's post with some horizontal hockey. Yet another new player joins the hits collection today in Blankenburg, a defenseman who suits up for--who else?--Columbus. This Upper Deck jersey allows him and the other newbies today to bump the hockey subject count up to 64, which is great! Upper Deck Ovation supplies my third auto (and overall hit) of Andrew Copp, the former Jet and Ranger who's been a WolverWing the past two seasons. The (new) Captain, Dylan Larkin, finally hits double-digits with a beautiful swatch of a Wings jersey found in an SP Game-Used product. Tyler Motte's just a card behind him as #9 is his fifth relic, courtesy of Upper Deck, though he's appeared on five other teams since being pictured with Chicago here. And lastly, we see another captain and (fingers crossed) possibly future Red Wing, Jacob Trouba on a nicely designed UD Game Jersey. He's on the upper end of my collection with a solid 18 hits.

Besides the previously mentioned milestones I was able to hit another fun little one thanks to Doug's hitsplosion: 2600+ hits in the UM collection! I crossed the 2500 mark at some point last year and I'm thrilled to have moved up more than 100 already since then.

Doug, thanks so much for this amazing package plus the one from May that I'll hopefully show off soon! I have a few things ready to head back your way to Kitchener once I can fill out a package a bit more, but I think you'll be quite pleased.

Next time I post here y'all should be getting one more April blog trade recap before I cover other stuff from that month.