Trade with Dustin: a pair of Tigers not named Granderson

Dustin and I met up last Saturday for some awesome batting cage action, though both of us were rusty enough that "awesome" became more like "not entirely terrible at hitting slowly pitched balls."  Not bad for our first time out this summer, though, and hopefully there's more of that on the horizon.

Anyway, he mentioned he was bringing a couple cards along that I might like, and here they are:

These are 2011 Topps Diamond Die-Cuts of Tigers Austin Jackson and Max Scherzer.  As it turns out, Dustin was correct that I like these very much.  I'm glad I didn't have to jump through Topps' hoops of entering 250 codes to get something decent and can enjoy the fruits of someone else's labor!  As much as I rag on Topps, these really are nice cards to have (I just think their giveaway system needs a drastic overhaul, though not before someone gives them an emergency cranial-rectal extraction first) and will fit into my Tigers collection very nicely.

Really, my only nit with the cards themselves at all is that Jackson's features a pretty glaring error:  on the back, it states that his "Diamond Deed" came "...in a 6-4 win over the Tigers on September 4, 2010."  Uh, guys?  He plays for the Tigers--he didn't beat himself.

Anyway, like the football versions, the die-cut design of these is very cool, so I definitely appreciate the haul.  Thanks, Dustin--I'll get you back the next time we hit up a card show, maybe with some Mariners, assuming none of them have been traded to the desperate Yankees by then.

Card show report: 11/27: a No Relics Rainbow

Dustin (No Relics Pulled) and I hit up another of the monthly Gibraltar Trade Center (Taylor, MI) card shows this past Sunday, and I'll get to my pickups in a couple future posts, but first I wanted to show off the goods he brought along to complete our most recent ongoing trade.  (Side note:  in-person trading is the best and I wish I could do it more often, but I've been lucky to be able to meet with both Dustin and Jeff at least once, so that's a plus)  

So to even us up this time, Dustin put in some time on COMC and, aside from getting some exciting stuff for himself that I can't wait to see, made excellent use of my singles wantlist page and went at it with a vengeance like his name was John McClane.  The results?:

Bill Freehan 1964 Topps

Bill Freehan 1966 Topps

Bill Freehan 1974 Topps

Bill Freehan 1968 Topps Game

Bill Freehan 1975 Topps

That's a whopping FIVE cards I needed for my Freehan player collection, meaning I'm down to just eight.  This group is interesting because it includes what are now my oldest (1964) and most recent (1975) of the collecting.  The '64 is my favorite since it's his second-year card (I can almost taste that RC!) although the '75 is a lot of fun due to its signature colorfulness and having a ton of years of stats on the back.  Despite looking around at shows I haven't seen a ton of Freehan that I need recently so getting these five was a huge help; I may follow Dustin's example and just snap up the rest of them online.

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Autographs Black

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Jersey Blue

Dustin mentioned that he had some help for me on the Hill rainbow, too, and he definitely delivered with this pair #d out of 50. (12 on the auto, 02 on the jersey)  The autograph is especially great as the red ink stands out on the black background.  I now stand at 11 cards left to get, and at least a couple of those are reasonably attainable.  Still, not including the Light Blue jersey #d to 200, the average numbering left is 26, so we'll see how that goes.  In the meantime, I can enjoy these as well as...

Rich Hill 2007 Sweet Spot Signatures Black Glove Leather Silver Ink

...this bad boy, my favorite of the whole lot.  Dustin was nice enough to grab me something besides the PC/rainbow stuff from my singles/player wantlist and this was the result.  I already had a gold ball and Red Stitch/Blue Ink version from the set, but this one definitely blows those out of the water, especially as far as manu-autos go.  Topps can go to hell with their horrible leather manubominations while Upper Deck goes and does something right with these.  That's my 30th different Rich Hill, by the way, putting him close to some of the football players in my PC.

Rich Hill 2006 Topps autograph

Dustin got one more card for me in a bundle deal with other stuff he picked up, but as it turns out, I already have it, so this 2006 Topps Hill auto is now part of my Wolverines trade bait, though I won't be such a hard-ass about having to trade it only for other Michigan stuff--if you're a Hill or Cubs fan, hit me up and we'll make a deal!

This turned out to be another great haul from one of my favorite traders and I'm already looking forward to our next deal.  Thanks again, Dustin!

Labor day posting: Tigers playoff run, plus card show report

Happy Labor day to all:
Hopefully all of you are enjoying a day off, and more importantly, hopefully each of you has a job in these uncertain times.


Quick poll quick reminder:
Please take my poll to help decide if I should spin off my Wolverines content into a new blog!

Do you want me to spin off a UM blog?
	YES, enough with all the Michigan crap!
	YES, I love all the Michigan crap!
	No, one blog is just fine
	I'm from Ohio and reading this in jail or to my sister-wife
pollcode.com free polls

Detroit Tigers playoff chances:

Well, it looks like it's time for me to get with the program in terms of the Tigers' chances of making the playoffs.  I still know the decision to hand another year to Leyland before he proved anything was a mistake, but at least the team has come out and excised the second-half demons of the last five years and I'm very impressed by their play of late.  As of this post, Detroit owns a 6.5 game lead over Cleveland before a huge series against the Indians starting today.  The Tigers sit at 16 games over .500 and ESPN gives them a 91.1% chance of making the playoffs.  I would hope that even Jim Leyland, inept chain-smoker that he is, couldn't blow that kind of cushion.
Leyland criticisms aside, Detroit's had a very good second half, and that's the biggest reason that we currently sit in first place, much more than the typically strong first half we enjoyed this year.  Some local writers are chalking the difference up to the lead we built up in the opening months of the season, but anyone with a brain knows that post All Star break is when the rubber meets the road for the Tigers.  
We can attribute the strong record mostly to the play of Justin Verlander, who made the leap everyone hoped he would this year and joined that elite tier of starters.  Nobody can touch him this year, and while he's already sewn up the A.L. Cy Young, the fact that the MVP is even a possibility for him is telling.  The rest of the pitching has been very hit-or-miss, except for the lights out José "I like it when you call me big papa" Valverde.  Some statheads are complaining that he's allowing too many baserunners, but Todd Jones he ain't--the guy is automatic when it comes to nailing down saves, and I don't think he can improve very much on a 100% save rate.  Valverde and Verlander have truly been crucial in maintaining any degree of a lead this year.
Miguel Cabrera has been as important as usual, of course, but his somewhat lower power stats (the only real ding on him this year) have been offset by great performances from unlikely sources, namely SS Jhonny Peralta and C Alex Avila.  A few newcomers, the result of a couple offseason and midseason deals, have also been impressive, namely Victor Martinez, Wilson Betemit and Delmon Young.  Despite the loss of Brennan Boesch, Detroit looks like they have an offense that won't be so punchless in the playoffs.
So here we are with 22 games left in the regular season, including two series against the Indians, which will decide the playoff fate of both teams.  Will 2011 be the first year in forever that the Tigers win their division and waltz into the playoffs?  Right now all signs point to yes, but thing will be much clearer after this week's three-game tilt with Cleveland.  Until then, GO TIGERS!

Fine, fine, how about that card show report:
As I mentioned yesterday, if you made it all the way to the bottom, Dustin and I hit up Gibraltar Trade Center in Taylor for another of their (increasingly shrinking) monthly card shows.  I'll show off the results of the couple boxes I grabbed this week, but today I'm going to show you the singles I grabbed, some being PC and some being trade bait per usual.


I'll start off with the small handful of trade bait I grabbed in case some of you aren't interested in the stuff for my collection:

The one baseball trade bait card I grabbed was this 2008 Razor letter of Carlos Gutierrez of the Twins, since I know a couple of my readers like them.  Sorry if you were hoping for more, but I didn't really find any great baseball deals today.

Two of my three football pickups today were these 2006 Sweet Spot RC/auto helmets of Baltimore's Demetrius Williams (#d 894/899) and St. Louis' Marques Hagans.  For the price they looked like good trade bait, and I figured it was about time I got some Rams cards up in here.

My other pickup, also of Marques Hagans, was this 2006 Sweet Spot triple jersey/auto/RC (#d 50/99).  I'm hoping a St. Louis collector makes me an offer for these.


Starting with these four cards, I'm proud to announce that I'm finally getting off my ass and putting together my trade bait page.  I've only added what you see above, but I'm actually going to start scanning things in to those locations a bit at a time.  I'll keep you updated on my progress so you know what to look for.  In the meantime, please feel free to make offers on anything I listed today or anything I've posted on in the past.


Now, onto my PC pickups:

Since Dustin was flipping through more non-hit stuff than I was, he found this '96-'97 Mantle reprint (#12) that I needed.  I've been working on this set forever, so he grabbed it for me as part of our ongoing trade.  I'm actually down to needing just these:  20 28 32 34, so if you have any of those please let me know and I'll get them from you for something you like.

My other baseball addition will be part of my Tigers and Michigan baseball PCs:  this 2005 Topps Retired Signature auto of Bill Freehan.  I've been after this for a bit now and got a decent price of $10 on it.  The guy I bought it from wasn't terribly friendly or good at math, but then again he was wearing a Michigan State shirt.  I was trying to buy this one along with a Darrell Evans from the same set, plus an Alan Trammell 2002 Greats of the Game auto.  He had all three cards listed at $10, so I asked him if he'd do $25.  
The best he was willing to do was knock off $2 "Because lower would be less than half book."  Without accounting for the fact that I came home and looked all three up on COMC only to find that the Evans was worth less than he thought and that their total "book value" was $45, I just don't get a dealer who hasn't sold something by the last day of a show being so against selling something at a fair price.  I'd say that he gave Dustin an even harder time when he tried to work out a deal on some singles.  Then again, like I said, the guy was clearly a moron, so go figure.  In any event, I'm very excited to add a second Freehan auto to my PC.


The rest of these all came from one seller, (from whom I also grabbed the trade bait cards above) a guy I always visit because of his plethora of 5000 count boxes stuffed with 50-90% hits.

Here's a 2002 Michigan TK Legacy jersey of Aaron Shea.  For a couple bucks, I really like how the jersey stands out on the simple design.  I'm now up to two hits of Shea, both jerseys, of the player who sits atop my collection when sorted alphabetically by first name.

I figure I'll do both of these at once:  Adrian Arrington 2008 SAGE Bronze and Gold autos.  I bought the Red version from the same seller a few months back, so I'm pretty close to the rainbow on these, as far as I can tell.  I do find it funny that the non-numbered versions literally say they're not numbered, but I like these overall anyway.  I'm now up to 20 Arringtons, and everything is still an autograph, which is pretty cool.

I couldn't come home without something of this guy, hence this Jake Long 2008 Stadium Club Beam Team jersey.  It was the only Long I didn't have that I thought was the right price, but it goes well with my two other '08 TSC Longs, an auto and a jersey. Because I couldn't find a Henne I was willing to buy, Long again sits atop the collection with 31 total cards. 

Lastly I snagged a new sig of one of my favorite recent Michigan WRs, this Jason Avant 2006 SAGE Bronze auto.  Hand-numbered 156/656 (an odd even number...) I thought it would look pretty good with the rest of my Avants (18, all told).


I didn't quite stop there, though, as I thought to flip through the guy's hockey autographs just in case I could snag Michigan players from there as well.  I was rewarded with these two additions:

Up first is this Mike Knuble 1998 Be a Player auto.  Knuble was excellent at Michigan, then enjoyed some success quickly with the Wings thanks to their Cup runs, before moving on to a few other teams.  I love that I was able to add a Red Wings card that was also a Michigan player to my collection, and of course this is my first of Knuble.

I guess this sort of balances it out!  You won't see many Avalanche cards on this here blog, but Colorado drafted the guy and that's why you see this T.J. Hensick 2008-09 SP Authentic Sign of the Times auto here.  Hensick was just ridiculous during his Michigan career and got absolutely robbed of the Hobey Baker in his final season, likely due to an absolutely undeserved misconduct penalty at one point during the season.  He played on some great teams that never got over the hump but was still a joy to watch, and though his NHL career has yet to really progress, it's great to finally have something of him in the PC.


I got everything you see above for $64 (including the $10 Freehan) and I was reasonably happy with that.  In the next couple posts, as promised, I'll show off the results of my Michigan TK Legacy and 2010 Topps Update baseball jumbo boxes.  Until then, enjoy your day off, and GO TIGERS!

College football week 1 wrap-up plus card show intro

But first, a quick poll (the poll is quick, the lead-up isn't so much):
I started this here blog a little more than a year ago now, and I named it with a play on a throwaway Simpsons reference and one of my favorite (at that time) Tigers.  While that might have given readers the impression that it would mainly be a baseball-related blog, that first week or so I posted the results of a five-box break, and four of those were football.  I also didn't take very long to make clear my love of all things Michigan sports.
Although I've been collecting for roughly the last 15 years (on again/off again, though), I really put it into high gear around the time I started this blog, and really, that was the point I shifted my collecting focus from baseball to my Michigan PC, which has grown by leaps and bounds, to my great satisfaction.  However, with the exception of what I think is a small group of you, I don't think this is a subject that interests most of my audience.  
Because of that, I'm considering trying to return the focus of TMG to general collecting topics, MLB and the Tigers (my main baseball PC focus).  To do so, I might spin off a new blog that focuses on Michigan--generally hobby-related stuff, but occasionally discussions about team goings-on and the like, kind of like some of the content I post here that isn't necessarily card-related.  My intention would be to continue highlighting my Michigan PC and trade for more stuff while also bringing relevant Michigan sports items to interested collectors/readers.  I'm also somewhat interested in potentially having a couple team members writing for this blog if they'd be interested, since I've spoken with a few fellow Michigan fans and collectors in the blogosphere and I'd be interested in seeing what they'd have to add to such a project.
Having seen how some of you whose blogs I follow seem to handle a couple blogs reasonably well, I feel like I could accomplish enough on these two blogs to provide and acceptable amount of content to keep both worthwhile (and possibly even beyond that with a couple team members in the case of the Michigan-centric blog).  SO, I ask each of you who made it this far:

Do you want me to spin off a UM blog?
	YES, enough with all the Michigan crap!
	YES, I love all the Michigan crap!
	No, one blog is just fine
	I'm from Ohio and reading this in jail or to my sister-wife
pollcode.com free polls

I have one related question that I'd like you to answer in the comments:  if I do spin off a Wolverine collectors blog, are you interested in participating as a team member?  If this happens I'd be willing to discuss some standards, posting frequency, etc.  Please let me know if you're interested as I'd love to have several points-of-view if this project goes forward.

Thanks for putting up with this long-winded but relevant fact-finding mission.

FOOTBAW, week 1:

• Wolverines 1-0:
• Michigan came out of the gate a little wobbly against Western Michigan, but the defense turned things around before long with great pressure, getting into (and onto) the Broncos' QB's head.  
• Coverage remains suspect and/or an adventure, but tackling looks...um...like tackling, I think, because after the last three years I don't quite remember what it looks like. 
• The offense stalled at times but had some nice moments too, and the coaching staff quickly crushed any concern that Denard was going to take 100% of his snaps from under center and give the ball to someone else (idiots).
• Kickoff coverage was the biggest negative, but coach Hoke is on it.  
• The weather delays were the biggest surprise of the game, especially the way the game was ultimately cancelled in the third quarter, a Michigan first.  
• Sadly, the backups didn't make it in, but hopefully after next week (or maybe during next week's game) against some creampuffs they'll see the field.  
• A crazy start, but an important win for a new staff aiming to heal a wounded program.
• Almost upsets:  
• Auburn-Utah St.:  I would have loved to see an SEC team go down, but in the end I think Auburn's victory was inevitable, even if it wasn't apparent with 60 seconds to go.
• USC-Minnesota:  But I would have loved THIS potential upset even more.  It's a shame that Minnesota had one last opportunity to swing the score in their favor and couldn't pull it off, but still, kudos to them for being in it against one of the game's most corrupt programs ever.
• Awesome upsets:  
• I won't kick Notre Dame while they're down except to post this.  It's not their fault that the media overrates them literally every year, only to be embarrassed when the Irish inevitably faceplant.  My favorite moment was the interception that resulted from a Notre Dame pass that deflected off the helmet of an oblivious receiver and into the arms of a USF defended--inside the USF 10!  In some ways I wish Notre Dame was a higher-profile opponent for next week's historic night game in Ann Arbor (where anything can still happen, to be fair), but the Irish choking against a supposedly inferior opponent is soothing in its familiarity and regularity.  Also, that's what you get for trying to mix religion with football, geniuses.
• Wow was the ending to TCU-Baylor amazing.  What a comeback by TCU and what a thing to celebrate for Baylor (if they even remember how).  A great first-week upset.
• Congrats to Sacramento St. for beating Oregon St., one of my favorite western teams because they always seem to beat up on USC.  
• Other interesting stuff:
• Thanks, schedulers, for putting Georgia-BSU and Oregon-LSU at the same time.  Asshats.
• LSU beating Oregon is not awesome for me since I hate the SEC, but congrats to them on a huge win that'll look great on their resume.
• More congrats to Boise St. for beating up on Georgia, which was awesome but not an upset.  Suck it, The South.
• How'd the Big 10/12 do?:
• Winners:  Wisconsin (big), MSU (lame), Michigan (incomplete), Northwestern (close), Ohio State (without Pryor knowledge), Penn State (creampuff), Iowa (ditto), Purdue (ditto, barely), Nebraska (ditto, big), Illinois (ditto, medium).
• Losers:  Minnesota (barely, to USC), Indiana (lol, to Ball State)

Oh yeah, and I went to a card show:
Some of you probably skipped down here.  That's cool with me.  Anyway, Dustin and I hit another show today.  As a quick recap, I grabbed another Michigan TK Legacy VI box, a jumbo box of 2010 Topps Update baseball (I know I'm a hypocrite, but it was a good deal and it sorta worked out), a few PC cards and a bit of trade bait.  Dustin scored some nice pickups and a trade as well and I'm sure he'll be showing those off soon.


I'll be back tomorrow with a look at the singles I picked up, then I'll have separate posts for the boxes (both of which are essentially repeats, so no reviews) later in the week.  So stay tuned for all that, excited readers.

A Blowout trade bait twofer

Not that Toofer

Another small lot makes for a good quick post on this fine Thursday, nine days before the start of Michigan's football season:

These 2011 Topps patches of McCutchen and Reyes were a ridiculous $5 delivered, so I jumped all over them knowing I could trade them to a couple people who'll be thrilled to have them:  McCutchen's heading to Dustin of No Relics Pulled and Reyes will be part of my trade to end all trades (until the next time we trade) with Mike of BA Benny's Yada Yada Yada (since it's one of like 80 teams that he collects).  I know not everybody likes manupatches (I'm not in that group unless they're very poorly done) but I think $2.50 a pop for these was a steal, especially when I know a couple collectors who'll want them.


Not much content today, so thanks to the Reyes patch I'll again post one of my favorite Simpsons moments:

"The Nye Mets are my favorite squad-ron"

More Blowout loot to come shortly, including an exciting new addition to my baseball PC!

Michigan garage sale and fan day, plus lots of trades!

Lots of stuff going on this weekend!  First up today, I headed down to the Michigan football garage sale with Dustin (who brought a couple cards you'll see below).  Intending to buy some football stuff, I actually only ended up with a 2007 Rose Bowl program for $5 (yeah, I know we lost, but it has a ton of great former Wolverines in it) in that sport.  However, I was luckier in terms of baseball stuff, as you'll see below.
We also met up with Jeff of My Sports Obsession, who drove up with his family for this event and the fan day event as well (which you'll also get to see below--starting to see a trend?) and he brought some stuff so we could do a little in-person trading.
About the only unrelated part of the weekend--but not really because trading was involved--was a great trade package I got from Ted of Crinkly Wrappers (see:  below).  Let's knock these out one at a time:


Garage sale and fan day:
I'll start with the more disappointing part of the afternoon:  fan day.  This was supposed to be a free autograph session where you could meet the various position groups and get free signatures (and maybe pictures), one per person.  Despite that limitation, and despite getting there almost two hours before the start of the event (AND despite Jeff and his family giving me cuts), I came away with nothing due to organizational incompetence.  From the sounds of things, this is the first year in a while things were this bad, and they seem to owe mostly to Denard Robinson's presence, plus construction-type stuff.  Still, it was pretty sad, and by the time I tried hitting up other lines or even just getting down onto the field, it was too late.  I at least took it like a man, though--you should have seen grown men bitching and using every excuse in the book while bemoaning missing out on FREE autographs.  I'm not happy with how things went, but you won't see me crying about it--there's always next year.
The upside (besides hanging out with Jeff's hilarious family for a few hours, including his daughter who wanted a sharpie to scribble out the Notre Dame players on her magazine) is that I got a few fun photos:

Here's the Denard line, which gives you an idea of why we never made it--people were about 8-10 across on the stairs and I think he was allowing photos, plus he left about 15 minutes early.

Here's the back of one of the scoreboards, both of which are getting upgraded

This is what the line looked like outside the gates (and stretching around into the parking lot) about an hour before the session started.

A view of a new scoreboard from the bleachers

And the other one, across the stadium

Fans enjoying themselves on the field.  Coach Hoke was signing in the lower right corner there, but there was no way in hell I'd be able to get him today

Another view of the field

...and one more, just because

So, yeah, disappointing, but at least earlier in the morning I had better luck at the garage sale.  I was planning on nabbing a practice/game-worn jersey, football or something else, but most of the good stuff was gone by the time we got there.  Not so in terms of the baseball stuff, though!  Dustin grabbed a jersey for himself, and I couldn't help but grab three different versions because they looked great (and at $20 were cheaper than store-bought stuff!).  Here they are before I wash them and try to get them in slightly better shape before I wear them

...and Dustin brought some cards:
Dustin and I see each other on campus often enough to trade quite a bit, so we're always flipping stuff back and forth.  Today he brought me a couple sweet additions to my PCs:

A very Sparkly J.J. Putz

Sweet!  A new Ripken, and it's a mini with a great shot of him in action at SS

 How could I say no to two awesome cards like that?


...then Jeff brought stuff today too:
I managed to track down Jeff at the garage sale and we arranged a bit of a swap.  Here's a look at some of the stuff I got from him:

A brand new Super Mario, this one hailing from 2008 Absolute Memorabilia.  This was the highlight of the deal for me, but I got other nice stuff as well.

Autographs of a couple erstwhile Tigers.  I may include these in my Tigers PC or I may flip them to another Detroit collector, we'll see

A few new Wolverines, a new Griffey, A 2011 Topps Gwynn reprint, a new Hill, a full-size Ripken to go along with the Mini Dustin gave me, and a couple George Sislers, including another Mini

This Gwynn is from an oddball set called Topps Heads UP! baseball stars.  It has a suction cup in the back so you can stick it wherever.  I may put it on my screen door on Halloween to scare the kiddies.  This is worth it for the 'stache/mullet-ish thing alone!

I'm sure Jeff and I will be trading again in the future, but as always it was great to meet a fellow blogger and trader in person, especially one who's such a big Michigan fan.  Bo bless you for spreading the Maize and Blue word in enemy land to the heathens of Notre Dame, good sir.

...and finally, cards from someone I didn't meet this weekend:

Ted and I had a trade on the backburner for a while, which worked out well for me because I had time to sort through everything and pull all my Blue Jays I no longer wanted.  I sent those his way, and this weekend I also got my stuff from him:

We'll start here with a bunch of great looking Verlanders and Grandersons.  I think the Turkey Red Granderson is my favorite of the group, it's just an outstanding looking card.

Next up were some Wolverines and set wantlist cards.  I highlighted these two because Richard is also a former Wolverine, and the Blue Jays are obviously Ted's team.  In all, he helped me with seven different sets.

Finally, more Tigers:  vintage Tigers, old Tigers on vintage-looking cards, current Tigers on vintage-looking cards, perfect Tigers, die-cut Tigers, gold Titers, former Tigers, rookie Tigers and brand-new Topps set Tigers.

Big thanks to Ted and I look forward to trading with him again.

I believe between this post and my card show recap yesterday I was able to cover everything that happened during this action-packed weekend.  Look for more Blowout buy content this week!