11/8/25 card show report: a triple "J" meetup

For what will likely be my final post of 2025 (man, the year went by so fast!) I'm going to close the book on my collecting for November by covering the show I went to the weekend after the one I just covered.

Thanks to a bye in Michigan's football schedule I was able to head out west to Portage, not far from Kalamazoo, for a show held in a school gym. I made the 1.5 hour-ish trek out there because I'd get to hang out once again with John, Jeff, and Jason (plus his fiancee Samantha). You just don't pass up opportunities like that! John lives nearby and I was able to pick him up, Jeff's about a half hour closer than I am, and Jason's drive was just a little longer than Jeff's.

Of course I mention all three of these guys here and then didn't think to get a picture of all of us together while we were at the show. At least I got one of John and me when I dropped him off before heading home:

Anyway, just like I enjoyed hanging out with Angus at the show the week before, I had a blast with these folks. I ended up spending a bit of time with each of them, including Jeff before he took off (he beat us all there), but not before handing me the stuff I posted in this trade recap. I then stopped at a few tables where Jason and Sam were looking before they headed out. Then I closed out the show looking at a few other tables with John before we got out of there.

It was really nice seeing all of them in person and I greatly appreciate that they all took the time to hang out for a bit. I'm grateful for all the cool people I know through this hobby and here I was surrounded by a bunch at once, truly a treat.

I ended up spending $79, every last dollar in my wallet but one, apparently, and scored some cool items that went in Christmas card packages. I also came home with a few keeper items for myself, but thankfully not so many that I'll need to spend a lot of time going over them.

This 73-card boxed set focusing on Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline, was actually the very last thing I bought. I noticed it on a table way in the back and made sure to come back for it before I left. It's fairly low-end as far as production value goes, but for $5 I couldn't just leave it.

Here's a look at some vertical fronts. If the design isn't much to write home about, the photography choices are still very cool. The cards span Kaline's playing career and life beyond the field. There's a mix of orange and black borders not to mention black & white and color images.

 
There were some fun horizontal images too so I included a scanner bed worth of those as well. 

The backs are about as simple as the fronts but the write-ups are solid. You'll notice the first card is numbered "1A" and there's a "1B" as well, and then the rest of the numbers go up to 72.

One other thing to note is that the set was made with both black and red borders on the back, and mine obviously has the latter, which is a bit less common.

Overall I thought this was a great value for just $5 and it allowed me to add more than 70 cards to Al's PC!

I believe the rest of my cards, all but one of which were of the football variety, came from three different tables. First up is my sixth relic (13th hit overall) of Sauce Castillo. I'm pretty sure this came from a younger guy, probably a teenager, who was wearing a #2 Michigan Football jersey, so I was happy to give him a sale.

The cheapest football card here is a SAGE base of Michigan/Bengals DB DJ Turner. And then I found three very nice hits from the sport. One is my 12th autograph of TE Jake Butt, out of 2017 Spectra and numbered /75 on the back. #2 is a large multi-colored jersey swatch (with stitching) of RB Hassan Haskins from 2022 Panini XR, which is limited to just 25 copies. And last up, I overpaid a bit for the auto you see of Iowa/Michigan/Lions QB Jake Rudock, but it just looks so cool! It's a 2016 Panini Black Gold card, and I'd already scored the "White Gold" version (numbered /99, as opposed to 199 here) so now I have its twin. The signature and player image areas being enhanced by acetate make this a big winner for me in addition to the black background with gold foil. Besides the other auto I mentioned, I have a plate of Rudock as well and therefore three hits of him overall.

Thank you again to John, Jeff, and Jason & Sam for a nice meetup at this show. I hope we can set up something similar in 2026 depending on when these shows are scheduled!

This should be it for me for 2025. I'll mostly be spending tomorrow watching Michigan face Texas in the Citrus Bowl as my fellow fans and I look forward to a new coach next year, plus I've been putting in some effort cleaning up and updating my trade bait on TCDb. I should be back early in 2026 (maybe as soon as Thursday? We'll see!) to recap this month, which brought a couple more blogger trade packages, plus I have the December monthly show and rest-of-year looks at my eBay purchases and TCDb trades to get to.

So Happy New Year to all of you, and GO BLUE!

2024 eBay purchases: Six more from 24

I'm still slowly plugging away at the piles of 2024 stuff left to cover and after this post should have something like two to go (I think).

This one shouldn't take me too long to recap as it features just six cards, though they're all eBay purchases from last June through December and are pretty decently significant. I'll try not to get too wordy!

Win #1 was the most costly and I nabbed it back in early June:

My second certified auto of Sweet Lou hails from 2019 Donruss Optic and is the Red parallel that's limited to a scant seven copies! This one uses an action photo of Whitaker about to make some good contact, and while it lacks any MLB logos I do like the shot. It's also a fun throwback to the 1985 design used the year after Detroit last won it all, so that's a nice bonus.

Lou doesn't appear in a ton of autograph sets and of course this particular card is fairly rare, so I didn't mind spending a bit under $60 to get it. My favorite in my collection is still his 2001 Topps Archives rookie reprint auto, but I'm thrilled to add a second like this one to it. I also picked up a JSA-certified 1983 Fleer auto (apparently from 2011 Leaf Ink) a while ago to give me sort of a third signature.

This one is definitely sweet!

A few weeks later I scored another pricey high-end signature card, and if I recall correctly, Greg was the one that let me know it was available, so if that was the case, thank you to him for the assist.

Bill Freehan's autographs have naturally gone up in price a bit due to his passing a few years ago, although I would say not egregiously so. In any case, I wasn't shocked that this dual signature card of him and fellow Wolverine/Tiger Rick Leach wasn't super cheap since I'm assuming TK Legacy, one of my favorite products as the manufacturer focuses on individual colleges, was likely distributed regionally. I don't recall if I saw this one up for sale before, or at least at a price I could handle, but at this point in my life, a bit under $50 was money I was willing to spend.

Naturally I love it because Freehan's one of my Michigan favorites--he went on to play for the Tigers and is a franchise great there too--and Leach is also a pretty significant Wolverine. But the focus on the college careers of both players is especially cool, as is their link which the back goes into. What it also doesn't mention is that both also played football for the Wolverines. Leach's gridiron career is more notable than Freehan's since he was a touted QB, but Bill was a notable two-sport athlete as well.

Not only is this my 14th signature of Freehan, but as a bonus it's also my first certified signature of Leach, who joins the baseball hits collection as member #40!

Roughly a month later I threw in a low max bid on a basketball card and was surprised to win it:

You all know I love my cheap plates so I was glad to win this one of former Wolverine Nik Stauskas for a mere $6.50 ($4.25 bid plus $2.25 in tax and shipping). "Sauce Castillo"'s RCs were released in 2014-15 so this cyan plate was used to create his rookie in that year's National Treasures product. I believe these plates were actually inserted into a subsequent product like a later National Treasures offering, but we still have them listed under 2014-15 NT on TCDb so I'll leave it categorized as such for now.

Believe it or not this is my SIXTH plate of Stauskas, which isn't something that happened intentionally, and it's hilarious to me that half of my hits of his are of the 1/1 variety while I only just recently picked up an autograph.

At the end of August I continued the printing plate theme with a return to baseball:

As usual here's my disclaimer that the subject of this card is pitcher Matt Miller who was drafted by the Brewers, not the Rockies/Indians P from Mississippi or the Texas Tech lefty who appeared in a few games in the early 2000s for the Tigers. The one I collect was born in South Carolina, went to high school in Indiana, and of course played for Michigan.

It looks like this Miller was only in organized ball between 2010, his draft season, and 2014, all while in the Brewers org. He pitched parts of the 2011 and 2012 seasons with the pictured Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (who doesn't love minor league team nicknames?) and appeared on 31 total cards catalogued on TCDb, with a mix of minor league issues joining regular issues from 2010 Elite Extra and 2011 Topps Heritage Minors and Pro Debut. Oddly enough I now own the yellow plates from both of the latter, and my only needs include his for minor league issues plus the remaining seven 1/1s from the Topps products. As rare as it is to find cards of his I need, $10.60 wasn't an unreasonable price for this.

Once again just a couple weeks later I added one more plate to my collection courtesy of eBay:

I think I may have mentioned my proclivity for collecting Rich Hill around here before! Now I can make the crazy claim that I own more 1/1s of Dick Mountain than I do combined hits of any one other player in my baseball collection (Zach Putnam has 35 to his name)!

This is my first of his from the 2020 flagship set to go along with the same year's Chrome Update and an On-Demand Mini Silver 1/1 parallel. The lefty dwarfs all others in that collection with 152 hits, literally representing more than 1/3 of the 447-card total. It's a mountain of Hills! (That definitely sounds better in my head than a mountain of Dicks.) Sometimes it's not easy staying at the top and I definitely had to fight off a few other bids to land this one for a bit more than $16.

My final personal eBay purchase wouldn't be until early December, and the subject of the card (at least one of them) remained the same:

The "Chirography" name had been around for almost a decade as part of Upper Deck's SP Authentic product when this dual signature starring Hill and fellow lefty pitching prospect Sean Marshall was made in 2006. I believe I own nearly 100 cards that include Rich's autograph so you could say I've studied his handwriting quite a bit in my hobby career.

Out of that grouping, I have a few signature cards he shares with others but this is my first that includes his former teammate Marshall, who was drafted a year later than Hill in 2003. He lasted nine years in the Majors, pitching six in Chicago and three more with the Reds, mostly as a bullpen guy from mid-career on. Marshall's now 42 and has been out of the game since 2014 while Hill has a chance at 45 (in March) to pitch in his 21st season. Crazy! I hope he gets a shot at more than the four games he pitched for Boston last season and gets to go out on his terms when he's ready.

Once again, hooray for more cards that I can put away! I think my last two '24 posts should be a few more Facebook Marketplace buys and then my late-year COMC haul. Then I'll be glad to get reporting on 2025 trades, shows and more.

2021 trade package #11: The Collector

I follow a pretty large number of blogs, and based on the blogrolls and mentions I see on those I'm aware that they only represent a fraction of what's out there. That's awesome because it's a great sign that both the hobby and this part of it are still doing great.

While I can't claim to pay attention to many of them to the degree I'd like, such as commenting on posts the writers clearly put lots of work into, I do try to make the effort to participate on some more than others. One such blog is The Collector, run by one of my favorite trading partners Chris. He and I are like-minded collectors in several ways so he's always fun to deal with. He also recently reached a very significant milestone: 500 posts! Among those are one of the best series I've seen on any blog: his all-time teams, which definitely required a lot of work but resulted in some great reading.

I mention all that because last week I received a PWE from him which included a note thanking me for reading and commenting to the extent that I do, which is really nice considering he's one of the folks I can pretty much count on to find a comment over here. Oh, and some cards for me too!:

Jeez, anybody still remember 2013 Topps? Two-time Derby winner Fielder didn't take home the crown that season, but he was the 1B for the 2012 squad pictured on card #2 up there, a team that beat Oakland in the ALDS and swept the hated Yanks to reach Detroit's most recent World Series berth, only to get swept by another great even-year Giants run. I still can't believe one of the teams from that era didn't win it all!

Chris apologized for what ended up being a hockey-heavy envelope, as if that's a bad thing somehow. On the Wings side, AA's been gone for a couple seasons while Bertuzzi still has a chance to but into a star. And then we get to three big pieces of Hockeytown's success over the past quarter century: Holmstrom, Yzerman and Zetterberg. At some point I'll get my Wings PCs loaded in TCDB so I have a better idea of what I have of some of those favorites.

Oh yeah, and for good measure Chris included a very Alluring autograph. Kuffner only got a cup of coffee with the Wings in 2018-19 and then was included in the deal with AA above for Sam Gagner, a pick last year, and a second rounder this year, so that could still turn into something. He's one of those Canadians you occasionally see spurn the OHL to play American college hockey, which I love. That and the colorful design makes this one a winner.

He even managed to make an almost even split of Detroit stuff and Michigan cards, which is pretty cool (besides the already impressive fact that there were no dupes in this PWE!). I needed each of Burke and Sauce Castillo (a RC) from the shiny 2014-15 Panini Prizm. 

OLB John Anderson (who also punted in college!) played 12 seasons for the Pack but only made it onto 39 items catalogued by TCDB, with even fewer being mainstream products. Yet Chris was able to send me a third item for his collection, his 1984 Topps second year base--a card with six years of stats on it. RCs are weird but that design is still a classic.

And then there's a quartet of some recent(ish) Wolverines hockey stars. Cogliano has never been a star, but this year he gets to Be-a-Player for the 14th season, and that's awesome. Hagelin is nobody's idea of an MVP at this point but he chipped in 10 goals and 21 points over 48 playoff games with the Pens, winning a pair of rings. WolverWing Larkin has seen the quality of the team around him erode but is still young enough to become an MVP one day. And all Patch has done is score 300+ goals in parts of 13 seasons, never being named the most valuable, but winning the '11-'12 Masterton ("Qualities of Perseverance and Sportsmanship") so there.

(Wait, why was he worried about this being hockey-heavy again?)

Chris, thanks again for a fun PWE as you celebrate 500 posts! Congratulations on keeping up with the blog for that long (and hopefully years to come!) and thanks for being a terrific trade partner. Should things fall in line it's not inconceivable that I could have some card show-sourced items headed to your own mailbox in the next month or two.

And coming up next on this here blog...another trade package? Don't mind if I do!

2021 trade package #5: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Happy Sunday, everybody! I'm feeling good having been able to get some stuff done this weekend, plus Michigan took down Ohio State in basketball earlier this afternoon, so it's been a pretty good day. How about celebrating with my latest mailer from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store?

Speaking of celebrating, this is package #40 from one of my favorite traders that I'm featuring on this here blog (he got up to 56 on Too Many Manninghams, though there was some overlap there too). Doug managed to stuff a bunch of great cards into the last package he sent me, the one that included a couple sweet 8x10 autos, and somehow he still had enough to fill out a fat bubble mailer.

Thankfully he finally had some cards to show off from me, posting those not long after his birthday on 2/14. But I've got lots of catching up to do, as you'll see after taking a look at what he sent this time:

A Sabo base from the year his Reds won it all is the only baseball content today, but the team's name goes well with the next bunch. The last few years of Red Wings squads are a far cry from the glory days of teams helmed by the likes of Datsyuk, Larionov, and Zetterberg, but with Stevie Y in control, I have a feeling Hockeytown won't have to wait as long to celebrate with the cup as we did when 1997 rolled around. Igor's card is a suuuuper thick numbered base from UD's very high-end The Cup product. Also, I like the die-cutting on Hank's OPC card, but I'll be damned if these aren't a pain in the ass to try to position to scan since there's no straight edges and they spin around on the glass like it's an air hockey table!

Now we'll move on to the team of the hour (or the year?). Coach Juwan Howard, seen twice here, has done an amazing job to get the team where it is today, with just one loss, multiple impressive wins, and a likely 1-seed. The well-travelled Burke is always nice to see, and Grant's appeared in more than a couple Buckstorecards packages. "Sugar" Mills is one of the Pistons I remember from back when I actually used to watch pro basketball (mainly during the Pistons' heyday) and I liked him before I knew he was a former Wolverine.

The hits here are also typically excellent. Just my second LeVert (and Doug also sent me the first one, which is gonna be hard to top!) this Panini Noir looks really nice in-person, with the black & white image popping like crazy. That's a really nice pair of a talented young player. And then there's a very sharp, large two-color swatch featuring Sauce Castillo, hailing from Panini's high-end National Treasures. Nik, who's travelled about as much as Burke, is more common in my collection as this is card #10 in the hit collection (five each of relics and plates, if you can believe it). A hell of a pair from Stauskas' fellow Canadian!

If football wasn't represented by quantity this time the quality made up for it in spades. First is a Funch jersey on a Refractory/Prizmy 2016 Spectra card. Numbered /199, it of course shows him with the team that picked him, Carolina, but we'll see what he does next season after sitting this one out. This is Funchess hit #15 for me, by the way.

He's followed by a guy who probably won't ever see time on an NFL playing field, but that's fine because I love my college cards! Transfer QB Shea Patterson signed this 2020 Leaf Trinity card with a "Go Wolverines" inscription, making this kind of product even better for a collector like me. Just my second hit of Patterson (the other's also an autograph) this looks terrific and now I want to go out and find more Trinity cards of my PC guys!

And as always we'll end another enjoyable SCFtDS post with the Michigan Hockey content, which consists of two scans this evening. Here we have a nice mix of base and inserts. Former Habs teammates Cammalleri and Patch bookend this bunch with some shiny Certified base issues that don't quite reflect how, um, reflective they are, but that's no problem since that means they scanned nicely! Connor is from UD's Artifacts, a brand that's given me trouble in its past football iterations but plenty of nice stuff when it comes to icers. While he's not the lone subject of that Hurricanes team checklist, Wolverine Phil Di Giuseppe's name is prominent on the card so to his collection it'll go. Wolverwing Glendening and D-man Jon Merrill below him hail from a Prizm update set and both are RCs, so I got that going foo me. Hagelin and another Wolverwing, Larkin, highlight the textbook excellence of UD's photograph and design. And lastly, a second Merrill enters the mix--a numbered (/100) OPC black parallel that looks really nice with the rainbow effect plus the border.

Young star Zach Werenski, who's in his fifth season in Columbus (barf) and scored 20 goals last year, is the last subject before we get to the hits, and he appears on a Blue parallel from UD's Overtime product plus the flagship set as well. Remove the logos and you still know you're looking at an Upper Deck hockey card every time.

And then we have three more hits to admire in a package full of them. #1 is a 2016-17 UD AHL autograph of former star C T.J. Hensick, another card that embodies UD's pleasing look. I got to see pretty much his entire college career as a season ticket holder and I can tell you he was one of those guys who was absolutely electric, sometimes taking over a game by himself when the team needed him. Somehow this is only my second hit of his so I definitely value this one highly.

#2 is the undisputed highlight of this package for me. Dylan Larkin is my favorite current Wolverine in the NHL and it doesn't hurt that he happens to play for the Wings as well. As a young star his cards are understandably expensive so I'm glad to score an autograph of his here and there. Getting this UD Credentials signature limited to just 25 copies, then, is absolutely insane! Doug's now responsible for two of the three Larkin autos in my PC, and if that doesn't say something about his generosity then I don't know what does. What a sweet card!

And finally, we head over to his beloved Anthology product, the 2013-14 version. Doug busted a bunch of this stuff in an effort to complete some of the various sets, and to his credit he was able to finish up the dual jersey auto RCs like the Trouba you see above, quite and accomplishment. I believe this one was a dupe for him from a later box break, and I really appreciate him sending it my way since he'd be well within his rights to sell it to recoup some of his investment. Instead, though, he was nice enough to make it my 14th Trouba hit (many of which came from him), half of which feature the young star's signature. It would have been a tall order topping the sick-nasty patch auto he sent me last month, but this is just as high-end as the rest he's sent me over the years.

Doug, once again thank you for sending me some prized new items for my collections! Please feel free to take a breather while I work on paying you back. I'm glad to say I have at least one thing in the works I think you'll like, and I'll keep working on a return. In the meantime, I hope you had a great birthday and that you're having a blast with Mischief!

2020 trade package #5: My Sports Obsession

It's certainly been an interesting couple of weeks, to say the least, but I'm finally back today with a new post after once again using a lot of my card time on TCDB (with positive results!).

Today's post is brought to you by buddy of the blog Jeff who runs My Sports Obsession.  He's another one of those guys that's great to trade with since we have a bunch of PCs in common, including Jim Abbott, Barry Larkin, Cal Ripken Jr., and all Michigan Wolverines--all of which you'll get to see in this here post!

Jeff sent me a nice bubble mailer stuffed with goodies a couple weeks ago, hitting three of the major sports and multiple collections:

I mean, I said Abbott, Larkin, and Ripken, right?  The '97 Pacific of Barry in the middle of the top row brings me back to buying a few packs of that product back then, so while the design isn't one of my favorites I like it for the nostalgia factor.  And I was surprised to find that I needed all four Cal cards you see up there, with my favorite being the '93 Ultra.  That gives you a good look at the beginnings of some manufacturers dragging themselves out of the dark ages of junk wax designs.

Moving over to basketball we get our first Michigan uni card thanks to a sweet insert of of program legend Trey Burke out of Contenders, followed by a Prizm parallel of him.  Panini's also responsible for a great overhead shot of THJ going to the rim.  Speaking of Junior Hardaway, Jeff was nice enough to toss in a 2018-19 Prizm jersey relic of him (just my fourth, and 7th hit overall), plus a cool purple Kings swatch of Sauce Castillo (4th, 9th) from Hoops.  He's skilled at finding good deals and doesn't mind ending up with dupes as he can often send them to me (and vice versa) which, again, makes him an ideal trade partner for me.

Football part 1 is this great looking bunch with even more Wolverines uniform love.  Crable didn't end up on a ton of cards but the lesser-known '08 draftee did make it to an Upper Deck Starquest insert that year.  Former #1 Devin Funchess looks just fine in Refractor form with Orange and original flavors of his '15 Topps Chrome RC.  RB Karan Higdon went undrafted and doesn't have much cardboard either so that 2019 Contenders Draft insert is much appreciated.  Big Mo Hurst's 2018 Prestige base is a sight for sore eyes as it knocks another RC off his list, plus it's yet another nice college action card.  Talented jackass LT Taylor Lewan makes two 2014 Bowman insert appearances with a Black parallel and '50 Bowman card.  And do-everything dude Peppers comes in with a pair of cards I accidentally scanned in reverse:  '18 Contenders Draft (awesome design and college uniform!) and '17 Donruss RC, another one I can cross off the list!

This nice little blowout ends things with a bang.  First is a great Shoelace four-pack, including his 2013 Select RC--which leaves me chasing just the retail version of his Absolute RC--plus one of his two SAGE HIT base cards I somehow didn't have.  SAGE has its ups and downs but that one looks good in my book partly because I don't think anything got airbrushed.

Then we move on to even more hits.  I'll start with the super cool Channing Stribling Elite auto as it worked well scanning it next to Denard's horizontal offering.  I came home from a show last May with my first signature of the DB, but this Elite Draft Status Die Cut Purple is undoubtedly cooler, so I really have to thank Jeff for sending it my way.  Next is a nice jersey relic of WR Amara Darboh from 2017 Certified on a design that's fairly typical of the brand--which I say as a positive.  I believe both of our Darboh collections skew heavily toward the hit side, which is a cool situation.

If that 2017 Contenders Draft Ryan Glasgow auto looks familiar, that's because Fuji sent me the Blue Foil parallel that I posted earlier this month, and now I've got the base version to add, which is outstanding.  I really value brands like this (and the occasional SAGE and Leaf product) for producing autos of guys that likely wouldn't get any, especially when it comes to those who play defense.  A higher drafted DL that did appear on a nice number of hits his rookie year and then pretty much nothing else, Mike Martin, closes out the post with a 2012 Gridiron Rookie Autographs X's signature /499.  It's definitely been a good while since I called his name on either of my blogs, but this does give him a solid 14 hits (all autos) to his name.

Speaking of numbers, before I end things today so I can get to the growing backlog of things to be posted, I want to thank Jeff for sending me the Michigan Football hits that put me over the 1500-card milestone!  According to the Google Sheet I use to track everything, I now count 1501 different relics/autos/plates/more of 225 total players in that collection, numbers that continue to boggle my mind as they grow.  As I like to do whenever I announce these marks, I want to say thank you to all who have contributed to that collection through the generosity of your trades, making this experience even more rewarding (not to mention more affordable)!

And again, a big thanks to Jeff for sending another kick-ass trade package my way.  Jeff I have a very nice stack of stuff to send you at some point so I'm looking forward to returning the favor.

I'm also hoping to cover all the new stuff that's ended up on my card desk over the last few weeks before it gets overwhelming, so stay tuned!

2020 trade package #4: a Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts

If I decided to make a list of the top 10 best things about card blogging, numbers one through nine would be trade packages.  I've received so many cool items from all over the place since I got into this racket and it's made me a better collector.

My newest trade partner is Jon over at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts.  I'd followed his blog for a while when recently he was nice enough to offer me a couple vintage football cards, one of which I needed.  Then he was able to tack on some cool basketball stuff to boot, which surprised him a bit but not me since that's definitely my smallest Michigan collection.  That was enough for him to be able to send a PWE my way:

The court stuff leads off with Trey Burke, somehow a veteran of five teams in six-plus seasons.  I always loved Donruss' Stat Line parallels when it came to baseball so this '15-'16 card, numbered /43 for his 4.3 assists/game (I guess you can't number a card out of 4.3), is right up my alley.  That's followed up by a shiny Red/White/Blue parallel from the same year's Prizm product, and there's plenty of that brand to enjoy today.

That's all thanks to our next guy, Tim Hardaway Jr., who's only on his third team in his seventh year.  The similar cards you see in a pair were released a year earlier thank Burke's, and they appear to be Blue Wave and Yellow/Red Mosaic Prizms.  These are confusing, but not Topps Tek confusing!  The last card of his trio is from the same 2015-16 set as Trey's card above, and from what I can tell this particular parallel is called a Flash Prizm.  It's definitely all about flash, I'll give it that!

Last up from the basketball group is possibly my favorite of the bunch.  Nik "Sauce Castillo" Stauskas is bursting through your screen in living color on a 2014-15 Donruss Rookies Swirlorama parallel.  I think the combination of a design that succeeds in grabbing me right in the nostalgia plus a funky parallel makes this a win.

And then we close things out with the card that kicked off this deal, a '69 Topps of former Michigan/Chicago Bears DB.  Vintage football is another weak area of my collection but it won't be for long if I have folks like Jon helping me.  This is a great looking card that's especially fun for me since I was primarily a baseball collector for so long and enjoy seeing the different looks Topps used between sports back then.  One feature you can often count on when it comes to old cards: awesome team logos.  Damn nature, you scary!  This is just my second McRae to go with his '64 Philadelphia RC and I appreciate Jon putting in the effort to note that he's a former Wolverine and offer it up to me.

Jon, thanks again for a great first deal!  You have an envelope heading your way as we speak (unless you're reading this after Thursday when it'll likely get delivered) that I hope you'll consider a good answer to this one.

As for me, I appear to be Marching into spring with lots more stuff to show off from a couple TCDBers, another blogger, eBay, and this past weekend's show.

2019 COMC purchases: superb basketball and football

It's been a superb Sunday here in Ann Arbor weather-wise considering it's just the second day of February.  Temperatures got up in the 50s a day after we were dealing with the usual cold and snow, and I definitely took advantage.

Now I'm sitting here putting together a post while glancing at the game every now and then, between two teams I don't really care about.  But the fact that it's Super Bowl Sunday is a good reminder that I still haven't covered all of my 2019 pickups.  This COMC recap and one more should do it.

Today I'll be showing off my basketball scores and, yes, some of the football as well!  (A quick note:  I don't have all of the former cataloged in my own albums or on TCDB yet as I've had to create their checklists myself, which sometimes takes a bit.)

I believe I mentioned the crazy number of plates I purchased in the last post, and a large chunk of the ones staying with me are surprisingly from basketball, my least favorite of the four major sports.  I'm not the type to pass up a good deal when it comes to my Michigan collections, though, and four of these were under $4, with the other less than $5.

Here's the backs so you can tell who actually appears on each card.  I landed my first plates of Burke and THJ (times two!), second of Rice, and fifth(!) of Sauce Castillo himself, Nik Stauskas.  All of them are from higher-end products meaning Panini did their thing where they affixed the plates to super thick pieces of cardboard.  Those are totally fine but I really like what they've done with colorful backs on the actual metal the last couple years.  Three of these were inserted into the following year's National Treasures products so checklisting them can take a bit of work.  But who cares, because five new basketball plates!

The football section is quite good as well, though you're in for a pretty good show in the final post of this series.  WR Amara Darboh's up first with a cool pair from 2017:  a Playoff autograph and Absolute dual jersey/football auto RC (#282/299).  As long as Panini keeps producing Playoff cards with college photos like that, I'll keep buying them!  Those two bookend my first 1/1 of former QB (and one-year WR) Devin Gardner.  It's a magenta plate from his only NFL card out of 2015 Topps Field Access, a product known more for its plethora of sticker autos.  He's looking quite acrobatic there for sure.

The middle contains three new players to the collection.  First is DL Rashan Gary, a former top college recruit who went to the Packers in the first round last year.  I came up with a 2019 Panini Legacy auto of him in a Michigan uni, which is awesome, though his signature is anything but.  Hey, they can't all look like Griffey's and Rivera's!

Next is his fellow New Jersey native Ron Johnson, not to be confused with the former Michigan RB.  This one played on the D-Line and was part of that same recruiting class, but he transferred out last year.  He's one of a few future college players I can name from the autograph portion of that 2016 Upper Deck USA set.

The last of the newbies is another former QB that changed positions like Gardner, but in Zach Gentry's case, the move to TE stuck, and it worked out ok for him since he got drafted by the Steelers.  His 2019 Contenders Draft auto looks pretty cool, which doesn't surprise me a bit, and he has a somewhat interesting signature too.

Moving on we have another QB, transfer guy Ryan Mallett.  As I think I've said a few times, I occasionally collect his stuff as long as he's not shown in an Arkansas uniform.  Here you can see a 2011 Plates & Patches jersey/auto RC (#080/299) followed by a Topps Magic signature from the same year.  Both are cool in their own right but Magic is a somewhat recent Topps product I actually like, so that's notable.

Ok, we're on to the last QB of the day, I promise.  John Navarre, the gumpy signal-caller from Cudahy, Wisconsin, gets another of his very occasional appearances; this is just my 13th hit of him.  Luckily I found a cheap new addition in the form of a 2004 Bowman's Best Green auto (#189/499).  I already had the base version, which I prefer mainly because the green ink doesn't look great here--the parallel version of the card is fine otherwise--so it's nice to have them as a pair.

Last up is former Michigan DL Chris Wormley, who's often a fun follow on Twitter:

I hit the trifecta today! I got pooped on, peed on, and puked on by my lovely daughter. 👍🏽

— Chris Wormley (@Chris_Wormley43) January 29, 2020

My second auto and third hit of his is a rookie year 2017 Donruss Optic Rookie Autographs Blue auto (#23/75).  What better color of a parallel could you ask for in terms of a former Wolverine?  He's seen a decent amount of playing time with the Ravens and hopefully that increases enough for him to earn a rare non-rookie appearance in some Panini products.

That's it for today but stay tuned for another blowout post where I cover the rest of my football purchases.

2019 trade package #34: The Collector

Something like seven out of my 18 Christmas card packages appear to have been delivered thus far, and this evening I'm happy to be posting a package of my own from one of those recipients, Chris of the Collector.

I've known Chris since before he dropped the "Pedestrian" in his blog's name and we've sent cards back and forth a few times.  Most recently he sent me a PWE full of Tigers toward the end of July, and today he's back with another one that skewed toward my preferred Wolverines collection.  Here's a look at what he sent:

First up is a pair of J.J. Putz cards I wasn't positive I needed until I checked them against his collection.  I have over 200 cards of the former Michigan pitcher so it's always tough for me to find new ones, but apparently not for Chris, who knocked both the shiny 2002 Topps Reserve Parallel (#094/150) and 2009 Mets Topps team set cards off my list.  Nice!  And yes, the former is really referred to as "Parallel", but as goofy as that is, checking off a numbered parallel from his RC year is a big deal for me.

Sticking with baseball is a tasty oddball--at least, I'd assume it's tasty.  I don't think I ever really got into Cap'N Crunch and I'm more of a Cinnamon Toast Crunch fan when it comes to sugary cereal.  Either way, Cal's card from that brand's partnership with Topps is a nice addition to his collection, logos or not.

From the world of basketball, where Michigan lost a heartbreaker in OT to Oregon this afternoon, is Nik Stauskas, a.k.a. "Sauce Castillo", on his 2014-15 Donruss RC.  You purists can have your Topps Rookie Cup all you want but I'll take that Rated Rookie logo any day!  It's crazy to me that he already seems to be out of the league after playing for five teams over the same number of years, but maybe he'll be back.

Finally we'll head over to the gridiron, where bowl season is due to start next weekend.  Chris hit me with a pair of Tom Brady offerings:  a 2017 Panini Contenders Draft picks base as well as an insert from 2019 Score called "Captains" which seems pretty self-explanatory.  Of course I love seeing the shot of #10 with the Wolverines, and Michigan's upcoming date with Alabama is a good reminder of how Brady brought his team back against the Crimson Tide for a win in the 2000 Orange Bowl.

Joining the GOAT QB is another 2017 Contenders offering, this time a Game Day Tickets insert of rookie year TE Jake Butt, also rocking a college uniform.  Poor Jake can't seem to stay healthy since a bowl game injury that year, and I wish him a full recovery and real shot in the NFL.  For now at least I can smile and say that I have 17 Butts!

Chris, thanks once again for thinking of me with this nice PWE (and note, an underrated part of the package) that included exactly zero dupes and seven new cards I'm glad to have.  Here's hoping your Christmas cards get to you in a reasonable amount of time!

2019 trade package #13: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

If you don't follow me on Twitter, you might not be aware that I sent out a round of nine trade packages this morning.  Sometimes I just prefer shipping them out to writing up posts for the ones that have made it to me.  But I do love getting stuff entered into my collection and put away, so there's a bit of motivation for this evening's post.

Friend/buddy/pal/guy of the blog Doug (Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, as if you didn't know since I've put up more than 80 trade posts from him between my two blogs) hit me with excellent envelopes this month and last, so it's about damn time I catch up with his Canadian kindness.  May's mailer included the following:

The stuff I would have featured just on TMV before I decided to halt TMM (e.g. Detroit teams and baseball PCs) has a decidedly Michigan spin to it today.  Former Wolverine Rich Hill--whose college team is headed to Omaha for the first time since '84!--leads off with the only baseball content on the day.  His 2019 Heritage base knocks a need off my list and is the first of this year's cards to join that PC.

Everything else is Red Wings, which is fun since I recently read the somewhat poorly-written but informative and entertaining book about the Russian Five.  None of them are seen here, but Hull and McCarty both won Cups in Detroit:  Hull got his second title in 2001-02, his first in a three-year stint in Hockeytown, and McCarty enjoyed all four of the Wings' recent runs.

Next, Dylan Larkin is a great representative of the new and improved Too Many Verlanders as the Wolverwing fits both the Detroit and Michigan sides of my collection.  I could have included him with his former teammates below but thought he looked good with the rest of the Wings up here.  The pair of 2018-19 UD cards (flagship and Trilogy) bump his total up to 22.  More, please!

Basketball was much more prevalent this time than usual, and that proved to be timely when my alma mater hired Juwan Howard, star of five cards in this scan, as their next basketball coach.  There's lots of excitement around here thanks to the program's resurgence and recent success, and I'm looking forward to what he brings to the program.  My favorites sent by Doug are the two SPx cards, numbered to 10,000 and 3,390.

More basketball.  Rice and Vaught are fun additions here as they were both '89 national champs, and Rose and Webber were Fab Five teammates with Howard, who seems determined to heal the wounds of the 90s scandal and bring everyone back together, which would be amazing for everyone involved.

The basketball section concludes with this awesome trio of hits.  Burke's Court Kings jersey may be my first exposure to the basketball version of Diamond Kings, and it's certainly a positive one as hit #3 of the college star.  Sauce Castillo looks terrific in a Blue parallel of a Fabric of the Game jersey card (hit #7), a name that has a great history in memorabilia cards.  And the showstopper is a stunning 2014-15 Panini Gala Cinematic Signatures auto that pairs THJ's signature with a slide-like inset piece.  This is my first autograph of his and what a card to lead with!  It's rare for me to declare a basketball card the best in the package, but there's no beating this one.  Wow!

The football portion was only slightly larger than the baseball selection today, pairing a couple 90s Pro Set base cards of another current coach, Jim Harbaugh, and five-time Pro Bowl OT Mike Kenn, with my second card of recent Michigan DB Channing Stribling out of Topps' product covering the doomed AAF.  I hope he finds another opportunity after making an impact for the Wolverines.

And now we get to the traditionally copious amount of hockey stuff, most of which was new to me, though I don't recall how much because I entered these on TCDB a while ago.  Cammalleri is somehow the only Hockey Mike in the group but that leaves plenty of variety to enjoy, such as more recent players like Compher and Copp.  Cogliano and Johnson are well-known faces when it comes to Doug's envelopes to me.

A few older guys in Jones, Madden, Norton, and Ortmeyer (the last of whom I got to watch while I was in college) give way to the start of a nice Max Pacioretty run.  The two shiny cards that end this scan, one of which is a Rainbow insert, give way to...

...yet another flashy OPC issue, plus a second showing him with his current club in Las Vegas.  Trouba and Werenski are two more guys I consider "recent" and both of them also appear fairly often when Doug sends me stuff, especially the former.  And I'm always excited to land a new card for my hockey PC-leading collection, Marty Turco, such as this OPC Retro insert from about a decade(!) ago.

The icers also got in on the hit parade with this trio of signatures.  I never miss an opportunity to celebrate the pride of Flower Mound, Texas, Chris Brown.  Doug's gifted me a number of his hits (I currently have 10) and even more of well-traveled D-man Jack Johnson (14), owner of a fantastic signature.  Last up is an older player who doesn't get much love in terms of hits as they weren't a thing for most of his career:  David Roberts.  The back of what became autograph #2 of the winger, a Be a Player card from '96-'97, notes that he graduated from Michigan with a degree in English, so he's obviously got very good judgment.

That's it this time, and what a lot of "it" it was!  Thanks again, Doug, and I look forward to hitting you back fairly soon with a small package with some nice surprises in it--maybe even before I get around to posting the envelope you sent to me this month.