2026 trade package #3: Night Owl

Pitchers and catchers have reported! For most teams, anyway--a few will apparently be waiting until tomorrow, but close enough.

Let's celebrate with the final blogger trade package I received in January. Greg of perennial favorite blog Night Owl Cards sent me a nice envelope with a note hoping I was looking forward to baseball season, which I indeed am!

Here's a look at what he sent:

This was another nice mix of old and new. I still collect Bondo a bit, and this pair put me over the 70-card mark. Clark and Higginson feature on the beautiful UD Gold Glove set, which was unfortunately a one-and-done product. Flaherty's still in the rotation this season but may be the fourth best starter behind three current and former aces, including the (hopefully) triumphant return of JV. Bring on Too Many More Verlanders! And the Griffey quartet here presented me with my first Project 2020 card plus three of the '24 Topps Celebration of the Kid inserts I needed. I'm a card away from being half done with the 24-card set thanks to these, and they're my favorite part of the package.

Monroe, Pena, Sparks, and Young are guys I don't think about very often these days, though at least C-Mo was part of the '06 World Series squad (and Young is or at least was a fellow collector). Keider's unlikely to claim a spot in a star-studded rotation but I'm sure he'll get some spot starts especially when (and not if) injuries strike. Tork was only six years old when 2005 Topps (whose design appears in this year's Archives) was released, and that's the set that includes the RC of his new teammate, Verlander. Gleyber's another Heritage Tiger seen in this post, and Greg also included a Chrome Pink Sparkle Refractor of the 2025 All-Star.

Man, Topps will slap that "RC" logo on literally anything, won't they? Fellow '25 All-Star Riley Greene was often money last year, so the '23 Bowman Platinum New Money insert was wise to include him. Former top prospect pitcher Manning can be seen on his '24 Topps Gold, the reliable standby that's reasonably easy to identify, looks nice, and is numbered to the year it was printed. And last up is another Heritage insert of another '25 All-Star Tiger. Skubal appears in '25 Heritage's 1976 Player Icons insert as well as the Holographic parallel of that set, the latter of which you see above. It's a nice tribute to the '76 set's position icons seen on the cards' fronts. I don't know if "holographic" is the best name since there's not really any kind of rainbow effect to these, but the metallic look is still quite nice.

Greg's a Buffalo fan so he also knows his football. The Super Bowl was played a few days before I'm posting this and a bunch of Wolverines--four former players and three coaches--won the big game with Seattle, which was very cool. Two of the players in this scan--WR Jason Avant and LB David Harris--never won an NFL ring, but the other two guys, both of whom are among the GOATs of their positions, sure did. Brady and Woodson actually both celebrated winning it all in college AND the NFL, though Tom obviously wasn't the starter for the '97 Wolverines. '23 champ AJ Barner, a TE who transferred from Indiana, repeated that feat with Seattle this season, and he even scored the Hawks' lone offensive TD on a very nice route.

Greg, many thanks for this great baseball/football combo which closes the door nicely on the NFL season and has me itching for some Spring Training baseball!

I'll see if I can get myself motivated enough to post my January show spoils this weekend and then get going on February's cards. In the meantime, I hope the rest of you are as excited as I am for baseball and non-sucky weather to return! 

2025 trade package #17: Night Owl

Somehow the Tigers are still playing this late in October despite their epic second half collapse and some dire playoff game performances, and while I sound pretty crabby about that I'm very grateful because it's fun to have a Detroit team back in the playoffs again.

So let's celebrate the occasion with my final trade package from July, an envelope from Greg, a.k.a. Night Owl, who by the way recently celebrated his legendary blog's 17th anniversary! Greg's consistency and quality remain top-notch and that's really impressive in a hobby that sees people come and go all the time. (By the way, I hit 15 years of Too Many Grandersons/Verlanders a few weeks ago but suck at remembering to note the milestone yearly. Thanks to all of you who still read my sporadic, very occasional posts!)

This was a good package to lead into tonight's game because it's chock full of Tigers, and lots more great stuff:

A good chunk of this envelope was much of the Tigers team set from this year's Topps Heritage, which calls back to Topps' 1976 flagship design. Greg sent me 11 cards representing 10 different players, starting off with key bats like Carpenter (26 HR) and Dingler (3.1 bWAR to lead the offense, and as a catcher no less). Ibanez is a bench bat that I hope gets upgraded for a better chance at a deep run next year.

Jobe's TJ surgery means we may not see him again until the 2027 season. Keith followed up an All-Star Rookie season with fairly similar numbers while moving around the infield (and DH spot) to accommodate Gleyber Torres and a decently improved Javy Baez. RHP Madden, selected after Jobe, remains a good prospect for future rotations but lost the '25 season to a rotator cuff injury during spring training.

Malloy is another OF I hoped would improve the offense but he no longer fields like a playoff caliber player to me so hopefully he gets replaced in the offseason. Rogers was the nominal starter behind the plate but gave way to excellent play by Dingler, and while his bat cratered this year he's at least still valuable for his catching and mentoring skills. And Skubal continues to be Skubal, even if all of his numbers aren't as eye-popping as those from last year. The Tigers are fortunate to have the reigning AL Cy Young winner starting against a tough Seattle lineup tonight.

Skubal was indeed tops in AL strikeouts last year since that's one of the three stats that make up the triple crown he claimed, but what's even more impressive is that he topped that number with 241 in '25 over the same number of games while also improving his ERA and bWAR (wins were a bit harder to come by as he dipped from 18 to 13 thanks to that second half swoon). And the final Heritage card is of new '25 Tiger Gleyber Torres, who proved to be a pretty good FA signing with a 2.9 bWAR season at second in a year that saw regression at SS from the likes of Trey Sweeney and Jace Jung. He allowed the Tigers to slot guys like Baez and Zach McKinstry at SS and get better production there.

A Topps Spring Training parallel of PC guy Jake Cronenworth leads off the non-Heritage stuff and I'm mighty thankful to have a Michigan alum be a big enough name that folks remember I collect him. Team HR leader Riley Greene headlines a group of 2025 Bowman cards that include his base and a Purple parallel numbered /250. Double "J"s Jackson Jobe and Jace Jung follow with base cards of their own plus a couple Chrome inserts of the injured hurler: Rockstar Rookies and Rookie of the Year Favorites. The latter is die-cut to play off the flag motif at the top of the card, so that's fun. While that award is off the table for him, I'm rooting for Jobe to return to health and a second shot at success on the mound.

The final page starts with a couple more '25 Bowman-related items. 2023 first-rounder Kevin McGonigle shot up prospect rankings this year and the middle infielder looks like a potential star in the making for a team that could use more offense. '24's top pick Rainer, a SS, joins him on a Chrome card, and he's got a top-100 prospect pedigree as well.

Top PC guy Cal Ripken joins the previously seen Skubal from 2025 Topps' throwback to the 1990 set, which isn't my favorite design but is still a sight for sore eyes after they beat the dead horse of 1989 last year.

Second place finisher in team HRs Tork brings back '25 Heritage for a curtain call with Chrome Refractor and Silver Sparkle Refractor parallels. His rather successful season was almost as big of a relief to fans as I'm sure it was to him given his struggles last year, and I hope we get to see his powerful bat in the lineup for years.

We'll close out the baseball portion with a fun anomaly in this package: a card that's not from the last couple years. Greg included an '83 OPC of 1984 World Series MVP Alan Trammell, which I'm considering a good omen for tonight even though he sent it months ago.

And our final card tonight is a lone football item: a '23 Score base of Titans WR Nico Collins. Michigan's run-focused offenses have tended to downplay the WRs over the years even with the presence of talented receivers, but once in a while one is able to pop in the league, and that's been Collins, who's gone for 8 and 7 TDs over the past two seasons, plus over 1000 yards in both, and is hopefully on his way to career highs this year.

Greg, thanks again for this outstanding baseball-heavy envelope that you sent back in July which I'm only showing off now. I appreciate the Heritage Tigers and all the other very useful stuff for my PC. I hope my Tigers continue to advance but also that they don't have to face your Dodgers, though if it comes to that I'll happily wish your team well while rooting against them!

I'll be back soon with non-trade stuff from July, and in the meantime, EAT 'EM UP, TIGERS!

2024 trade package #5: Night Owl

Moving on into April, here's a look at the first trade package I received that month, courtesy of Greg of Night Owl Cards:

As it was April, Greg was wishing me a happy baseball season with these cards, which was a very nice thought. It's largely been more of the same frustrations with a few highlights mixed in, but that's what happens when you're a fan sometimes. I still love this team and most of the players, just not the awful owners.

Anyway, a lot of the cards in the package were new additions to my Tigers collections and that's great! Baddoo is a classic flagship numbered Gold parallel that's pretty much been a mainstay since 2001, and I'm always happy to add more of those to my collection. Baez has been one of the frustrating parts of the club the past few years but I still enjoy the Purple Heritage cards. I'm looking forward to adding more cards celebrating Miggy's dual 3000 hit/500 HR accomplishments, and you can't go wrong with a Heritage insert to do that. Clemens got dumped to Philly but Carpenter's been a rare pleasant surprise on offense when healthy. Englert hasn't done much to get excited about but his card's a Refractor so it's worth celebrating. And Greene continues to mix flashes of tantalizing talent with the lingering effects of injuries. I'm still all-in on him for now as a franchise mainstay, though.

Greene was well represented here which certainly works for me! That Action Stars insert was odd enough in its design and photo that if I didn't see the Tigers logo I would have guessed it was something made by Panini or Leaf. The unrelated Shane Greene can be seen in Yellow form. Confused? Don't be! Pitcher Garrett Hill gets a two-fer on his Topps Chrome Update base plus one of several orange/black foil Halloween-related parallels from the regular Update product. And I always enjoy showing off cards of legends Kaline and Kell together as I remember listening to the pair call games.

Manning has yet to live up to his prospect billing, partly due to health issues, but there's still time, though it'll feel like a (Topps) holiday if he does! Maton's bat caught whatever disease is going around the Detroit clubhouse and was mercifully let go. Greg included a nice selection of Ripkens for me here, two of which are from the 90s with the other pair being more recent. Naturally I really like the earlier cards more, especially the one made by Panini, though I do sometimes like Panini's Donruss parallels. E-Rod bolted Motown because he could make more money and be on a potentially decent team, though he apparently needs some good health news to actually get back on the mound. He was a Tiger long enough to make it into this year's Topps Series 1 set and its various parallels. Speaking of those, his former catcher Rogers can be seen on his appearance in the Holiday insert.

The rest of the baseball including the horizontal cards makes for a fun scan full of variety. The most interesting vertical card to me here is Tresh's '70 Topps base, my first vintage item of the Central Michigan grad who appeared in about 8.5 seasons with the Yanks before being flipped to Detroit in June of '69, his sunset season. Leave it to Greg to treat me to a cool vintage Tiger I didn't have!

As for the X-axis cards, they start with a bang thanks to the fancy Heritage parallel starring three former Tigers pitching prospects in Burrows, Funkhouser, and Garcia. It looks like Burrows bounced around a few systems since departing Detroit and he's now in the Phillies system. Funkhouser was in AA with Texas last year and hasn't pitched since that I can see. Garcia was a Yankees MLFA that the Tigers took in the 2019 Rule 5 draft and he also hasn't pitched in 2024 that I know of after spending last year in AAA.

Topps' kid-oriented Big League sometimes results in fun looking cards and the graffiti card above gets a thumbs up from me. Ditto for the design on Mize's card with a very cool background going on. I have no idea who Michael Papierski and Cody Sedlock are but neither was in the Detroit system for very long and appeared on a dual prospect card anyway. And lastly, Vierling's been a fairly solid addition in the deal that also brought Maton to Detroit for, among others, Clemens above. His Heritage card also includes a terrific background on the action photo.

Baseball wasn't the only sport to be found in this envelope but I'm not shocked because Greg's a fan of the Bills so he probably didn't find it too difficult to dig up cards of a few of the guys I collect. In fact, two of them here, Collins and Riemersma, played for Buffalo! Robinson and Stribling, meanwhile, both bounced around the NFL a bit before spending a bit of time in the short-lived AAF. Stribling also dabbled in the XFL, CFL, and USFL while Shoelace went into coaching and other athletic roles, though of course he recently lost his Michigan job due to a very stupid OWI.

As far as I'm concerned the two Bills cards are the best here because Collins appears in a Michigan uni and Riemersma's Fleer base has a typically cool design from the brand. But as always I appreciate folks like Greg who include any former Wolverines when they trade with me like Greg did here.

And with that I have to give a hearty thanks to Night Owl for an excellent trade package to lead off the MLB season! I may have complaints about my team but I have nothing but praise for this great bunch of cards sent to me by a first-ballot blogging HOFer. Greg, I have a little stack I've been putting together for you and hope to have enough to send a return your way soon. Until then, thanks for the cards and all the great content you provide, and good luck to your Dodgers in 2024!

2023 trade package #18: Night Owl

 

Greg who runs Night Owl Cards needs no introduction so I'll just lead off by saying I made a deal with him recently and now I'm here to show off my end of the deal. I became aware that he was slowly working on the 1988 Pacific Legends set and I happened to have a good chunk of dupes left from my box break, so I sent him something like 19 of his needs plus a couple other Dodgers. Because I know Greg's on TCDb I thought I'd make it fun and easy for both of us by sending him a trade proposal so the cards would automatically go into his collection, and then I picked out a few cards I hoped to get in return if he thought it would be fair. He did!

So here's what I ended up with:

I know some folks find those 1990 Swell cards too low-end for their tastes, but I enjoy them plenty, especially since they include appearances of some guys that don't have enough, like the Bird (who, by the way, was in '88 Pacific Legends too!). It's not like Fidrych collectors are spoiled for choice, and anyway the colorful look here is pleasing to my eye at least, so I was happy to add it.

Seeing Maddux on a team other than the Cubs and Braves is always a bit jarring, so his stints with the Dodgers and Padres captured on cardboard still throw me off sometimes. But I'll happily take anything I can get of one of my favorite player collections, especially a Topps Gold parallel numbered /2007.

Considering the relatively low quality of most of what I sent to Greg I wouldn't have blamed him if he didn't want to include the '75 Topps Denny McLain base you see there that pairs him up with '68 rival Bob Gibson. But he's a generous guy so he did just that and now I have another fun piece in my McLain collection, now 25 cards strong.

Here's where I'll probably lose a lot of you as I'm sure many who read this blog don't collect football or at least not Wolverines specifically. But these additions are just as fun for me as the baseball ones.

First up is my first (and probably only for a while) card of former UM RB Ty Isaac. Isaac was a highly recruited back from nearby Illinois who opted for USC over Michigan in 2013, then transferred to Ann Arbor a season later and had to sit out a year under the old rules. He put up some decent numbers for the Wolverines in 2015-2017, if not stats that would correspond to his recruiting ranking, then went undrafted and played briefly for the fly-by-night Alliance of American Football league, as captured on the card you see above from Topps. The product includes 10 total cards (including three autographs) for me to chase and I'd love to add more if I can.

And then we head back into Greg's wheelhouse: vintage. Randy Logan was a safety for some very good Michigan teams at the beginning of the 70s, then was drafted by Philly in 1973's third round. He spent 11 years suiting up for the Eagles and compiled 23 interceptions. What you see above is his 1979 Topps base, which marks just my fourth card of his, and the oldest besides his '76 Topps RC.

From the same set I also snagged my fifth card of College Football HOF RB Rob Lytle. The late Lytle was a Wolverine from 1973-76, selected by Denver in 1977's second round, and put up 14 total TDs over 87 NFL games in his seven seasons. He has just 12 cards to his name on TCDb and I now have four from his playing days (including his '78 Topps RC) to go with an autograph.

Here are the backs for those that enjoy them:

Greg, thanks once again for another fun deal! I'm always glad when we can swap cards despite the large differences in our collecting philosophies.

More trade recaps and other stuff to come!

2022 trade package #19: Night Owl

Here we have just my third post in August, and one I should have gotten to much sooner to thank the nice person responsible for sending me a great trade package. I just get easily distracted by other card stuff and usually leave blogging low on the old priority list. But on this stormy late summer evening it's about time I got around to this.

A few weeks back Greg/Night Owl posted the results of a couple Topps breaks he did including the 2021 Chrome Platinum Anniversary product that came out earlier this year. I asked if he'd set aside a card for me and he was generous enough to do so, then I sent him a few things off his wantlist for that. Well that's what I thought anyway because there was much more than just a cool recent Tigers need:

When you think of Night Owl, if one of the first words you associate with him isn't "vintage" (the other for me would be "Dodgers"), you probably don't follow him, which you totally should. The top three cards here are evidence of that, and I really appreciate Greg helping me with my pre-80s collections as they're quite sparse. Bare ('77 Topps) was only a Tiger for two of his five MLB seasons, 1976-77, the final of his career, and Sutherland (NO's beloved '75 Topps) played three of 13 seasons in Motown, but they were definitely needs for me. So was Johnny Podres' '67 Topps base. Another guy I associate with the Dodgers (he did appear in 13 of 15 MLB campaigns and win four rings and the '55 Series MVP with Brooklyn/LA), he's the biggest name of the trio, traded to Detroit in '66 and staying there through the following season before a sunset year in '69 with his almost-namesakes the Padres. All three of these are nice vintage additions and I thank Greg for them!

Everything else is much more modern and that's great too. I immediately offered the '22 Home Run Challenge code to Paul even though Baez is a surprising longshot to hit anything out of the park, much less in play, this season. Lugo's golden even if his absence is a reminder of another garbage trade by the franchise. Morris's Prizm Refractor is the card that started this deal as I loved the look of the classic old photo of Jack on the even more classic and iconic Topps design. Being a variation on a Refractor sure didn't hurt either. Turnbull is a more recent Tiger and also threw a no-hitter before being lost to injury and then losing his brain to whatever made him think to celebrate the repeal of Roe v. Wade.

And lastly we have the surprise of the package, a number medallion manurelic from this year's Topps. Ever since I stopped buying boxes I haven't cared that these have sometimes replaced more traditional "hits" and I even enjoy some of their designs. Jersey numbers are a big thing in sports so this was a natural idea for such a card, and I'm happy to have Miggy's 24. It's a number worn by such icons as Willie Mays, Rickey Henderson, and Ken Griffey Jr., and before we all know it he'll join them in Cooperstown. When that happens I'll own at least two manurelic cards, both representing his time with the Tigers. Very cool.

Greg, thank you sincerely again for not only setting aside that cool Jack Morris for me, but also adding on some nice vintage and other Tigers here. I'll make sure to return the favor with some more vintage, Dodgers, vintage Dodgers, or other wants of yours as soon as I can!

The couple times I get off my butt to post you should be seeing trade packages from a couple blogger buddies that were facilitated through TCDB, but will be getting regular trade package coverage because that's how I do things. Watch for those soon-ish!

2021 trade package #26: Night Owl

Blogging legend Night Owl and I are very different in terms of what we collect, but one great part of the hobby is that that doesn't remotely matter when it comes to trading. To thank me for sending him his first second autograph of Paul Lo Duca, a cheapo I found at a recent show, Greg got a PWE over to me earlier this week. I didn't expect anything which made it that much nicer, and that meant I had no idea what I'd be pulling out of the envelope, which is even more fun. I'd say he did an outstanding job picking out these cards for me:

Since I had room I thought I'd include the tiny note he sent (always a plus, and something I like to do as well!) and fancy business card. I know I've said this before but I tend to keep pretty much anything like the latter because it's kind of fun to collect in its own right, plus people obviously put effort into it, so you won't see me throwing that stuff away!

Anyway, on to what we have here. Let's start with the quartet of vertical Tigers. Cards seem to be less and less for kids these days but you'll still see mascots pop up like Detroit's Paws on a 2020 insert. I didn't realize that season marked his 25th as the team's mascot, a pretty cool fact! Then Panini gives us a double dose of Tigers legends (and batting title winners) in Kaline--2018 Donruss last name only variation--and Kuenn--'21 Diamond Kings. I like that the latter has him listed with Detroit where he enjoyed the best seasons of his 15-year career, from 1952-59. He'll actually be popping up again in a future post, by the way. Joining him in that set is future rotation stalwart Casey Mize on an artistic RC. 2021 saw him enjoy a pretty solid first full campaign and I'm looking forward to seeing how he does when the team's actually got more talent around him.

The other four cards are also very exciting for me because they're kind of a double-dip: favorite players and wantlist help! I don't know if Greg hit up my wants on TCDB but I needed the entire quartet, starting with card #5 out of '95 Fleer's Cal Ripken Jr. insert also known as "Enduring." I now need just cards 1 and 3 to knock off the 15-card set, so if this was a blind guess by Greg then it was a hell of a shot!

Similarly, while I'm not going after the entire enormous 2007 Topps Generation Now chase set, I've slowly pieced together the ones representing current blog namesake Justin Verlander's 17 wins in 2006 (done) and also those of former title guy Curtis Granderson. Grandy put up 31 doubles in his first full season, then went 20/20/20/20 (2B/3B/HR/SB) the following season. The three cards Greg sent me got me up to 24/31 with not a double in sight, so once again if he managed to do that on a pure guess, that's amazing, and if instead he sought out my wants on TCDB, he's a very smart person.

Greg, thanks again for a fun PWE that hit my favorite baseball team, two of my best PCs, and two set wantlists all in just eight cards! I'll see if I can't hit you back before the end of the year in the event that I can find anything up your alley.

I'll be back soonish with another PWE trade post, one that's double the fun, plus a much larger package too!

2019 trade package #12: Night Owl + Dawg Day Cards

Today's trade package appears to be a fun first for me:  a collaboration between two bloggers!  While I've swapped cards a few times with Greg of the world famous Night Owl Cards, I had yet to work with Dawg Day Cards owner Angus.  Then the two met up at a recent show (which I highly recommend!), as the note Greg included mentioned, and the result was "a combined effort" with some fantastic cards:

I'm happy to report that the pair delivered a masterful performance, starting with this mix of Tigers new and old.  New DH "Miggy" looks great on last year's Donruss Optic.  Cobb's total increases with a couple recent Topps inserts.  Mr. Tiger stars on a cool promo card for a set called "Spectrum Diamond Club".  V-Mart gets the Sepia Refractor treatment from 2015.  And rejuvenated (e.g. away from toxic hitting coach Lloyd McClendon) catcher James McCann can be seen on his last Detroit Topps card, in this case a parallel.

And a few more Tigers.  I don't miss Jones at all but Palmer and Clark were fun to watch on the infield corners, especially at the plate.  The maybe possibly healthy Jordan Zimmermann is this year's flagship Gold parallel.  And I've seen that merry-go-round at Comerica Park more times than I can remember.

After covering my main team, Greg and Angus hit my four big non-Michigan baseball PCs, plus this here blog's namesake.  Both Griffey cards--'98 Pinnacle Performers and '07 UD First Edition--were new to his collection, an exciting development for me.  I already had both Gwynn cards by virtue of owning the complete sets, but they'll make great trade bait, plus they shouldn't be skipped over by any self-respecting blogger at a show.  Same thing with Maddux--why would you ignore one of the best pitchers of his generation or '95 SP Championship?!  

Getting back to new items, the Ripken is a 2017 Topps insert highlighting All-Star Game MVPs, and this is one of Cal's two appearances as he won the award both in '91 and a decade later, as this card notes, during his farewell season.  Last up is a fun new Verlander from this year's Heritage's Then and Now insert, one of two that pairs him with the terrific Palmer.  JV has been matched with a number of great pitchers on similar inserts but this is his first with Palmer, a very good choice.

And the cherry on top was this great selecting of Michigan Football guys that was 100% college photo action!  It also doesn't hurt that six of the eight players represented are PC guys.  Arrington and Avant are from Topps' sublime 2009 Magic product (Mini inserts) while Crable's cards hail from UD sets produced during his 2008 draft year.  Speaking of my favorite Michigan Football draft season, my three top players from that group are all here as well:  Hart and Manningham (UD Draft Edition) and Henne (Press Pass SE Gold parallel).  Multi-sport bust Drew Henson appears on his RC from one of my favorite Topps Draft products ('04) and former #1 WR David Terrell closes out the day with a 2001 Press Pass card that evens him up with his always-paired teammate Anthony Thomas at 147 items.

Greg and Angus, thank you both for this unexpected and well-balanced package of Tigers, Wolverines, and PC guys!  Greg, I'll keep working on finding stuff you'll like, especially '75 buybacks (I saw that wantlist!) and Angus, I look forward to trading with you when you're ready.

2018 trade package #21: Night Owl

Highly decorated and prolific blogger Greg, whom everyone knows better as Night Owl, was nice enough to send me a great little package after I completed a few of his wants a couple months ago.  Getting a Night Owl package is lots of fun because I never have any idea of what I might get.  Oh sure, Tigers will likely be part of the equation, but in what form?

There's no reason for me to keep you in suspense, check them out!:

Mini Miggy, Donruss Miggy, Topps Miggy, Blue Miggy.  Sounds like something you might hear on The Big Bang Theory followed by "Bazinga!" ::laugh track for 10 minutes straight::  That blue Donruss parallel is perfect and I love the throwback to the '84 set.  And no, I don't remember flipping the Topps and Donruss base cards while scanning these.

Recuperating starter Michael Fulmer looks good on the plan-but-solid '18 Donruss design, as does Mr. Tiger on a name variation.  There's also a Topps Rookie History reprint of Kaline that's another reminder that I need to knock that original card off of my collecting bucket list before it gets reprinted 20 more times.

Greg also fired the McCannon a couple times with a pair of inserts.  Naturally I'm especially attracted to the Refractor from 2015 Chrome but the Big League card from this year is no slouch.

Of course I was excited to see two Verlanders among the goodies, especially since one is a true RC:  his 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads base in which he looks every bit of the 13 years younger that he is as pictured.  I say true RC as opposed to the ridiculous "(RC)" designation that lingered for a few years.  Anyway, that's a great card, not to mention generous on Greg's part since JV escaped Detroit's poor coaching and reestablished himself as a top pitcher!

Joining that is a Topps team card from 2015 which is very cool since those don't tend to be easy to track down, at least without having to purchase the whole set.  They're also easy to miss since the photo up front is identical, but the large numbering on the back beginning with "DT-" is very helpful.

I tossed the rest of the modern Tigers in this same scan, and those include another 2015 Chrome Refractor, this time swingman Buck Farmer, a couple base examples of 2018 Big League in the form of Dixon Machado and Jordan Zimmermann, a 2015 flagship Snow Camo ("SNOW CAMO?!") parallel of short time closer Joe Nathan, and a 2018 Opening Day insert of fan favorite mascot Paws.

I said "modern" Tigers above because here's where things got especially interesting.  An '84 Fleer base of Chet Lemon, a guy who was an All-Star that year on a fantastic team, is about as mainstream as it gets.  That's followed by a fun new addition for me, a '94 Ted Williams base of Mark Fidrych.  I neither have many cards of that brand or player, so it's definitely a cool throw-in for me.

Next is a five-spot of old, olllld Tigers from 1992 Conlon, giving me a great opportunity to learn about more players from that era:

• Shea was with the Tigers from 1927-29 and again in '39.  The backup catcher's career spanned parts of 11 seasons and six teams, and his claim to fame appears to be when he was sent to the Browns by Boston for future HOF catcher Rick Ferrell.
• Sorrell pitched his entire ten-year career (1928-37) in Detroit and put up decent numbers, including a 92-101 record and 17.0 bWAR.  Unfortunately for him, by the time the 1935 World Series team rolled around he wasn't on the mound much, and sometimes out of the 'pen when he was.
• In Stoner's case somehow a rapper of the same name did not impede my search results.  The pitcher came from a huge family where pretty much all of the kids seem to have been named after famous people--Ulysses S. Grant in this case--and there's also a story about how he came to have an oddly bent index finger on his pitching hand on his SABR page.  He spent most of his nine year career in Detroit, in 1922 and 1924-29, and went 50-57.
• Tavener was nicknamed "Rabbit", and why not back then (1921 and 1925-28, plus a year in Cleveland).  The SS was small even for his era at 5-5, small enough that Ty Cobb didn't want him, but he put up a few solid seasons in Motown.  So I guess now we know what it would be like if someone my size played in the Majors in the 20s!
• Finally, Joyner Clifford "Jo-Jo" White was lucky enough to earn a cool nickname and get a ring with the '35 Tigers.  The OF was with Detroit from 1932-1938, and while it doesn't look like he lit up box scores, he was apparently a solid enough option off the bench to appear in both the '34 and '35 Series.

And now I'm going to borrow one of Night Owl's cooler features (I mean he's got so many), one I don't think he's even used in a while:

For me the best card in the package was definitely the last card you see in that scan, card #61 in a set produced by local paper The Detroit News in 1981 that celebrated 100 years of the Tigers (one that I definitely need to track down now!).  This one honors the World Series champion 1945 squad, and the back helpfully lists who appears:

The biggest names here are Newhouser, who put up a ridiculous 12.1 bWAR that year, longtime Tiger Dizzy Trout, and Rudy York.  Hank Greenberg, returning from three years away due to WWII, isn't pictured for some reason, but he was a big contributor in the win over the Cubs, so I'll at least mention him here.

And then we have the final card in the package, and the only one that doesn't fit the Tigers theme.  It's a 2017 Topps Update base of PC guy Ken Griffey Jr.--a very young Junior Griffey, in fact, working a camera at Comiskey Park.  There's never a bad time to include Griffey in a package of cards heading my way!

Thanks once again for surprising me with all of this great stuff, Greg!  I know we don't trade often but I promise I'll send some more wantlist help and Dodgers so we can do it again!

2016 trade package #14: Happy Random Tigers Appreciation Month from Night Owl

Although he might be the most well-known baseball card blogger, I don't trade with Night Owl very often; in fact this is just my third trade with Greg since I started my own blog, and that last deal came almost four years ago.  But I guess he was thinking about me after I helped him with some of his Nebulous Nine wants as part of my Wantlist Awareness Month effort a few weeks ago because he responded in kind with his own theme:  Random Tigers Appreciation Month.  I would argue these Tigers are more quality than they are random, but I'll let y'all be the judge of that:

Scan #1:  the A&G Greenberg is very nice but is the outlier here as everything else hails from 2016 Diamond Kings (Miggy and the second McCann), 2015 Stadium Club (Castellanos, Cespedes, and the second V-Mart), and 2016 Opening Day (J.D., the first V-Mart, and the first McCann).  Opening day is its usual solid if unspectacular self while Stadium Club does a very nice job of returning to its roots, and Diamond Kings looks simply fantastic.  I'm especially happy to add more of J.D. and McCann here, but everything's a winner.

Scan #2 includes the final Stadium Club card from last year--the recently called-up Moya, who went 3-5 and knocked in Detroit's only run in today's loss.  Next we have three former Tigers:  Ordonez, of whom I've mentioned multiple times that I have a ton of cards;  a Purple Opening Day parallel of Scherzer, who's having a very nice 2016; and Miller, who was sent to Miami in the deal that brought Miguel Cabrera to Detroit and may find his talents on the move again this summer.  Next is a trio of rookies:  from 2009 Heritage we have pitcher Alfredo Figaro and OF Wilkin Ramirez, then Brian Powell from '96 Topps.  Figaro last pitched in the Majors in 2014 and Ramirez saw some action with the Twins in 2013.  Powell was sent to the Astros in a deal for future manager Brad Ausmus and returned later as a free agent.  Last up is a '79 Hostess oddball of Detroiter and former Tiger Ron LeFlore.

Greg also hit one of my player collections with a very cool oddball:

I have Gibby's 1981 Topps rookie but until Night Owl included it in this package I'd never added his Coca-Cola version of the card.  The pop manufacturer co-branded these Topps issues of 11 team sets of 12 cards each.  While I'm not sure of their overall scarcity I will say that to this point I've never found a Gibson card at a price I liked, so I'm impressed that Greg sent me a graded one.  I may pop it out of the case eventually but for now I'll keep it as-is.  What a fun piece of a guy who's a hero to Tigers and Dodgers fans alike!

Greg, thanks for an unexpected and not-so-randomly excellent package of Tigers!  Don't think that the cards I sent you recently will be my last attack on your Nebulous Nine needs, either--every month should be Wantlist Awareness Month!

Tigers, Tigers, burning bright. From the Owl of the Night.

That's right, everybody--you've just been BLAKED.  #ENGLISHED

So at the last show I hit up, I found a reasonably cool Hideo Nomo manupatch card for $1 and knew I had to pick it up for a Dodger fan.  That fan ended up being Greg (the Night Owl), so in the mail it went along with some other assorted Dodgers stuff I never wanted to see again.  This afternoon, my generous haul arrived in my mailbox, like-a so:

Some artistic stuff (including the Juan Gonzalez who wasn't a massive loser), a HOFer, minis new and old, and an '82 Topps sticker of Al Cowens.  Plus,

Some JVs.  I should do a count to make sure I have more of Verlander so I can justify renaming the blog for good.  The Bowman's Best is especially nice because it looks great, plus it's not like I was gonna be pulling that from a pack anytime soon.  The best was yet to come, though:

All-Time Fan Favorites meets Chrome meets Refractor meets 1980s star Tigers catcher Lance Parrish.  Sweet!  #d 211/299, this is a perfect example of the extremely useful stuff I like to get out of trades (along with the Verlanders, to be fair).  But that's not even my favorite card in the package:

Here's a 1975 Topps Mini of Bill Freehan, one of the seven I still needed to have every Topps base card from his playing career!  Not sure if Greg sent this one because of that or because of the big "Tigers" logo up top, but either way, I'm thrilled to pick up a nice copy of this for my Freehan PC.  That, and I'm glad I've been slacking on finishing that project up, hoping some kind bloggers would make their own contributions.

A big thanks to another great blogger and trader--thanks, Greg!

Happy mail Monday!

The above gives you an idea of what I just got done shipping:  two boxes, five bubble mailers and one PWE.  The cards in that picture are heading to the following bloggers (plus COMC):

• BA Benny (a bubble mailer and the largest box)
• Cardboard Collections (bubble mailer)
• COMC (the smaller box)
• The Daily Dimwit (PWE)
• My Cardboard Mistress (bubble mailer)
• My Sports Obsession (bubble mailer)
• Night Owl (bubble mailer)

Some of those are for pre-arranged trades and some are just because I'm cool and/or love seeing my name on your blogs in trade posts.  Anyway, even though I'm sure most of you who read this blog at all follow each and every one of them, but if you don't, make sure you do, and make today's $30 post office visit worth it for me!

You Complete Me: day 4

Previously:  day 1, day 2, day 3


Two packages, one small, one huge, arrived yesterday, and another bit of news is that my final SportLots card (the 2001 Donruss Rookie Reprint of Tom Glavine) did finally ship.  The guy's in for neutral feedback at best, but I'm glad to be getting that, so look for a final You Complete Me post in a couple days.

Now that it's not a college football Saturday, let's have a look at how I did:
Envelope #1 (SportLots):

Only one set represented here, but it's a complete one!  These were the last eight I needed for 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites.  I already said several times how much I like this set, and Night Owl was nice enough to express the same sentiment, so I'll get the set scanned for you guys sometime soon.

This is a pretty nice collection of players considering it's just eight cards.  I understand the inclusion of Sheppard, the late Yankee Stadium announcer (who, by the way, looks more like Death here than the recently deceased Al Davis ever did, just sayin'--I mean, jeez, you couldn't find a better photo?  THINK OF THE CHILDREN!) but I'm not sure how necessary it was to throw in an umpire.  It doesn't really matter, though, because look at those other players--Reggie, Aaron, Rice, Gibby and Fielder--this is a great mix of stars and not as widely popular fan favorites.
# of cards:  8     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  1

Package #2 (COMC):

This was the big one I've been looking forward to.  This purchase started with a nice pile of Michigan football stuff from one seller.  I then added onto it because combined shipping is your friend when it comes to COMC.  It's definitely a different paradigm compared to SportLots, but I still employed the find-as-many-as-you-can-from-one-seller strategy because of the ease of making offers.

The above scan is just a teaser of what the package included, not only because it's also filled with Michigan PC stuff, but because it included so many inserts that completed sets I'm going to scan for you soon.  It includes the last four 1999 PowerDeck CDs I needed, (which is obviously funny since that set has been around so long) the final big name from my second set of 2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition, and a teaser of my newly-completed 2011 Bowman's Best, (Veterans and Prospects) megaprospect Bryce Harper.  

As a side note, this buy also included a bunch of 2001 Donruss Rookie Reprints I needed, but that set's still not complete, so check back soon to see how I'm doing there.  Also of note--I easily found all the Mantle Reprints I needed except for #20 from 1996.  While I found examples on eBay, I couldn't find one on COMC, and Beckett was no help because it looked like there were actually only 19 made that year.  I finally google-lucked my way into a blog post that expressed the same frustration I had, and explained that #20 hailed from 1996 Bowman.  WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THIS, TOPPS?  Once I figured that out, I easily snapped up the final piece.  "Topps is dumb" tag?  "Topps is dumb" tag.

To keep it short for now, since I'm promising all those scans, here's a list of everything I completed with this trade package:

• 1996-97 Topps Mantle Reprints
• 1998 Upper Deck Griffey Home Run Chronicles
• 1999 PowerDeck CDs
• 1999 Topps Nolan Ryan Reprints
• 2000 Fleer Ripken Collection
• 2001 Fleer Rookie Reprints
• 2008 Donruss EEE
• 2011 Bowman's Best Prospects
• 2011 Bowman's Best Veterans

Completing those was no small feat, especially considering how old a bunch of those sets were.  I'm thrilled to have whittled down my baseball wantlists in such a major way.

# of cards:  46     # of sets added to:  10     # of sets completed:  9

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  54
• Sets added to:  11
• Sets completed:  10

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  12
• Total cards:  154
• Sets added to:  20
• Sets completed:  18

So what's next?  Well, as I said, one more SportLots envelope featuring one card, plus a wrap-up since that would be a short post otherwise.  Also, the Michigan football, baseball and hockey PC items from the COMC haul.  Then, lots and lots of scans of complete sets!  And hopefully in the future, an incredibly shrinking wantlist....

New trade package and other loot, plus Michigan game day

Trade package from Night Owl:

So a little while ago I sent Night Owl a trade package and he eventually blogged about it in grand fashion.  Today in my mailbox I received his self-described and self-deprecatingly-described "paltry" response, which wasn't paltry at all.  The goods:

-Wantlist cards I needed from 1994 Topps (one left!), 2000 Upper Deck (a lot left, but he sent me a Dodger!), 2006 Topps (just six left!) and 2007 Topps (one left!).  He also sent me card #391 from 1994 Topps, which would have completed my set if it was for 1995 Topps instead (nice try, buddy!).  Wantlist cards are ALWAYS welcome, no matter how many or few.  Please refer to the good ole wantlist here, as well as the Five or Fewer Club on the right bar down there somewhere on your screen.

-A few misc. Michigan players (football and baseball)

-Some very good current and former Tigers (think Verlander, Kirk Gibson, et al).

A quick look at some of the highlights:

Masterpieces Gibby, Goudy Gibby (with a familiar pic), Cabrera and Porcello shinies, and a couple Topps Gold parallels of former UM pitchers.  NICE!

All in all, a very nice return, and I hope to see more wheeling and dealing with Night Owl in the future.  Thanks again, buddy!

BlowoutCards forums loot

I've mentioned before that I get my vicarious pack-busting kicks by frequenting the BlowoutCards pack break forums, and while checking out a bunch of 2010 Donruss Elite Extra Edition breaks I finally found someone who'd managed to pull a Ryan Lamarre (Michigan) Collegiate Patches autograph.  People in those forums are often dying to flip stuff they've pulled, so it was really easy to convince the guy to sell me his for a price we were both happy with.  The spoils:

Pretty sweet, no?  Another nice addition to my Michigan personal collection.

Michigan game day

Michigan football looks to rebound from a disappointing loss against hated Michigan State against a tough Iowa defense today.  MGoBlog LiveBlog link here.  And as usual,