2026 trade package #9: Topps Cards That Never Were

My next April trade package came courtesy of Jeremy from Topps Cards That Never Were. He's primarily a fan of a couple teams: the Rays and Tigers. His Rays are currently sitting atop the American League with 34 wins. Meanwhile, the Tigers are...not. They're tied in dead last with the Angels, whom they're somehow leading in tonight's game as I write this. To describe the quality of this year's team as "cheeks" is probably being kind.

That's frustrating as a fan, but then again it's not entirely new to me. I was born in 1983 and between then and last season they made the playoffs just nine times, winning one title in three tries (in '84, of course). Other than that, they've finished below .500 in 24 of those 43 seasons, losing 100+ games five times. in 2002 and '03 they earned a combined 98-225 record. And they're well on their way to another one of those seasons that feels like it time traveled straight from the 90s. These guys SUCK.

But that hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for collecting cards of Tigers new and old. Because of that, I'm thankful to Jeremy for the Tigers-centric mailer he treated me to last month, one that also included some other fun items for my collections:

Baez is one of a few Tigers who've been on the shelf for a good part of this season, though the streaky IF/OF wasn't playing well before going on the IL, and his All-Star '25 campaign looks like another random positive season for the enigmatic "El Mago." Bondo was part of Detroit's historically terrible 2003 campaign but I'd still take him over Jack Flaherty right now. In his prime Miggy would have led this team to maybe a few more wins, but it's largely a AAAA roster right now, and things will need to change for the record to improve significantly. I don't know that OF prospect Roberto Campos will be part of that growth, but top-10 CF prospect Max Clark, the 3rd overall pick in 2023, has the makings of a potential star, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do whenever he gets called up.

Former Wolverine Jake Cronenworth is one of the non-Tigers who made the trip up north to my mailbox. The former Ray appeared four times thanks to a pair of Topps Rainbow Foils, a Padres team set card, and a Heritage parallel. The foils look great, but especially appreciate the team card because those are sometimes harder to find than they should be.

Heading back to the past for a moment, we have a cool pair of former 1B/DH types. Darrell Evans' '85 OPC contains his stats from the 1984 World Series season, while my newest card of Cecil "Big Daddy" Fielder is from last year's Panini Prizm set.

Then we're back to a current guy in Riley Greene, who has a tendency to be a bit streaky, but has been one of the top three or four hitters on this year's team. The Archives card is a nice throwback to the 2005 Topps set, one with a design I appreciate a bit more in throwback form.

The late Hernandez takes us back to that same '85 OPC set as Evans above, and man was he a beast in 1984. Jobe, Jung, and Keith are all current Tigers, though the pitcher's still recovering from injury, Jung's spent most of the season in AAA, and Keith's scuffling a bit trying to repeat his solid past two seasons.

Larkin is another ex-Wolverine in this package and I love his Purple Holo Donruss card.

Speaking of parallels, former Tigers IF Scott Livingstone features on a Stadium Club Golden Rainbow insert from 1994. He played his first 3+ seasons in Detroit before being one of many Tigers flipped to the Padres in that decade. Utility guy Zach McKinstry is unfortunately hitting about as well as Livingstone did back then after an All-Star 2025. Montero's been one of the not-as-bad rotation options this year, though that's not saying a lot. And 2024 11th overall pick Bryce Rainer, a SS, is another very intriguing prospect that I hope gets called up in the next couple years in place of washed up FA signings.

It's nice to see three instances of ace P Tarik Skubal here as he chases his 3rd straight AL Cy Young, though between injuries and the team's lost season, it feels less likely that he'll win, and if so, he may not do so with the Tigers. I'll just enjoy his talents as long as he's here. Sweeney hasn't been with the big club since a rough '25 season. And JV's return hasn't been what fans had hoped as he's appeared in a single game: a loss in which he allowed 5 ER in 3.2 innings. At 43, his chances of getting to 300 wins are on life support. But if he can come back and pitch a bit more, it'll be a nice enough story. The trio of cards Jeremy sent of him look great, including an All-Star throwback.

One last scan concludes my recap of the goods, though I should note that I only scanned what was new to me. I'm mentioning that to give Jeremy credit for even more generosity as I'm showing off about half of what he actually sent.

A couple recent Tigers team cards close out the baseball content. When it came to basketball, a couple Fab-Fivers were natural fodder for this package. Jimmy King stars on a Signature Rookies issue that pictures him with this year's national champs, while HOFer Chris Webber appears on a shiny foil Hoops insert celebrating 1993-94's top rookies. His inclusion makes sense since he was the league's ROY over Penny Hardaway and Jamal Mashburn.

In terms of football, Jeremy sent me a nice bunch of Charles Woodsons (speaking of HOFers), several of which were rookie year cards like the above '98 UD Choice. That's a subset card while his RC (which I do own) can be found earlier in the set. That was joined by what I'd consider the most exciting card in the package: a TTM/IP-signed 1999 Bowman of school legend RB Tim Biakabutuka. This was an exciting card to pull out of the stack and I already expressed my thanks to Jeremy for sending it back up to Ann Arbor.

Jeremy, thanks once again for thinking of me with this latest envelope--I obviously enjoyed all of these new PC additions! I'm not sure when I'll be sending a stack back your way, but I will say I'm at least working on it.

I'll try to be back soon once again with my final April trade package, one that had a distinct Canadian flavo(u)r!

2025 trade package #23: Dawg Day Cards

Moving on to my second trade package of November, this one was actually hand delivered to me at a show (the first of two times that happened last month!) by Angus of Dawg Day Cards (who also goes by armac on TCDb). The Ottawa native wasn't too far across the border on Sunday, the 2nd, as he was nearby for a wedding. He'd let me know he'd be around with the possibility of meeting up, and fortunately that was day 3 of my monthly show. I made my usual trip on Friday to see my favorite seller, then headed back on Sunday while Angus was working his way across the border and dealing with all the fun that entails.

We arrived at practically the same time which worked out great, and I'd say we both really enjoyed talking cards and sports and stuff while looking through boxes. I may go into that more when I cover those two show trips in an upcoming post once I've taken care of recaps of the other trades that arrived last month.

Here we are. As always I'm the short one, though at this angle it doesn't seem like such a huge difference. Anyway, we each brought some cards (and more, in Angus's case) for the other person since that was a huge savings on postage, assuming you don't take into account how much he spent on gas. Hey, at least he was nearby for a fun reason before the show!

I have to say that what he brought put me to shame, but I did try to make up for it a couple ways, like buying him a few Browns he needed (which you can read about in his recap) and shipping a trade package for him.

Here's a quick look at all the cool stuff he brought:

Here's some of the non-card and oddball stuff. First is a Tiger Stadium giveaway radio. I have one or two of these from back in the late 80s or early 90s, but they're not in great shape like this one! Next is a souvenir cup and pin from the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings bowl. I believe Angus said he was at this game, in which Michigan lost 31-14 against Kansas State, largely thanks to a 3-TD game by future pro WR Tyler Lockett.

A few more pins join the fray, including a mix that mostly came from Little Caesar's and come with informational panels. Two celebrate previous World Series wins (1935 and '68) while the other two focus on '68 stars Mickey Lolich and Denny McLain. A 90s Pinnacle pin of Travis Fryman rounds out that group.

Then we have a couple team sets: 1990 Procards' Bristol Tigers, which I'll get to in a bit, and a '92 Coke/Kroger stadium giveaway Tigers set.

And last up is a matchbook featuring Al Kaline. Mr. Tiger graces the front of this item that appears to be from 1980 Liberty Superstar Matchbooks. I see a total of them on psacard.com, and the multisport set also includes Larry Bird, Guy Lafleur, and Willie Mays, among others. This is among the most unique Kaline (or anyone for that matter) items that have entered my collection.

And here's the back of some of the above items for those of you that would like to see more.

Before even getting to the "regular" cards this was a very generous pile of interesting stuff from Angus and I really appreciate it! But there was lots of cardboard to enjoy too:

Angus and I briefly discussed how he found himself starved for Topps cards in Canada the same way we Americans would describe ourselves when it came to O-Pee-Chee. Fortunately these days a diplomatic trade agreement that benefits residents of both countries is very easy to make! This scan leads off with the biggest star for me, Mark Fidrych, and his OPCs from 1978 and '80, and you'll see him again in the next scan. He's joined by '77 OPC Tigers Hiller, LeFlore, Oglivie, Ruhle, and "Le Grand Orange" Staub, plus a '72 of the late Joe Niekro. I didn't separate out the other stuff so an oddball Barry Larkin 1992 Investor's Journal single breaks things up a bit, but I still very much appreciate it!

Late SS Tom Veryzer joins his teammates from the '77 OPC stack, and a Ted Williams Pog card ends the "regular" stack of vertical cards, pairing up Detroit with their four-time World Series foe the Cubs. Chicago won the first two meetings in 1907 and '08, but Detroit got its revenge in 1935 and '45.

Next I'll do a quick summary of the horizontally-oriented cards you see. #1 is the third Fidrych of this post, also from 1977 OPC. While I still lack his Canadian RC, I now own his other appearance in that set that mirrors '77 Topps, which celebrates "The Bird" leading the AL (and both leagues, really) in ERA with a tiny 2.34. That season he put up a 19-9 record with a league-leading 24 complete games and crazy 9.6 bWAR, good enough for the AL Rookie of the Year and a second place Cy Young finish, but nowhere near the MVP. It was a season for the ages, even if it would precede a quick decline due to injuries.

The other horizontals were quite nice as well. Nolan Ryan was in his final season as a Met (and wouldn't crack 300 strikeouts until the following year with the Angels) so Lolich was able to take the K crown with 308. He'd go 2/3 on the pitching triple crown thanks to second place strikeout guy (301) Vida Blue's ridiculous 1.82 ERA (Lolich had 25 wins to Blue's 24). Mickey's teammate Joe Coleman was a distant third with 236.

Ending the all OPC run are team cards from 1973 and '76. What a cool look back at some vintage Canadian Tigers cards!

I also included some of the '90 Procards Bristol Tigers in this scan. The Virginia city hosted Detroit's Appalachian League (rookie ball) team from 1969-94, a rare long-term partnership for a minor league affiliate. Most of the players represented on these cards were in their first season with the club, and I picked two notables to go along with a Michigan PC guy and an occasional Tigers PC.

OF Danny Bautista played in parts of 12 MLB seasons, which is pretty solid, though most of those were away from Detroit (including the Series-winning '01 Diamondbacks). Late pitcher Jose Lima is definitely better known for a pretty good 13-year career mostly spent in Detroit and Houston.

Meanwhile, pitcher Greg Haeger's card was on my wantlist as one of just seven made of the Michigan alum, and it became my first in his collection, making this set an even better addition for me! And lastly we have 1B Tony Clark, the 1990 #2 overall pick, who played pretty well for the franchise and over his 15 years in the league. He's been head of the MLB Players Association for more than a decade so he's done quite well for himself.

The last of the baseball includes a couple oddballs and lots of stickers. Travis Fryman makes another cameo (or two) on Sports Collectors Digest and Baseball Cards Magazine inserts from '92 and '93, respectively, calling back to Topps designs from 1974 and 1968. I think cards inserted into magazines are great and loved getting a couple here.

There's also a stickerpalooza starring Tigers Fred Lynn and Jack Morris plus big four PC guy Cal Ripken Jr., and what's fun about these is that they're all Canadian versions. That goes for the Panini stickers, which is everything but the first Ripken, and that exact one which was produced by OPC.

A nice baseball haul to be sure, and we're not nearly done with this post yet!

Angus is a Browns fan so of course he knows football, especially when it comes to his favorite team. I'm sure he had dupes of the two Braylon Edwards cards he brought for me, one of which is 2009 Donruss Classics jersey numbered /299 on the back, which comes with a swatch in the color of, well, what else? That's my 97th hit of the former star WR.

Current Colts DE Kwity Paye doubles up Braylon with four additions from Panini Playbook and Prizm, a wacky Wild Card Alumination, and just my fifth signature of the seeker of sacks, this one out of 2021 Aspire, a SAGE brand. It may be airbrushed but we all know what team he's repping there!

And last up is a really nice pair of autos of defensive back Ambry Thomas, a Wolverine from 2017-19 who played in 42 games between 2021-23 for the Niners and has most recently been found on Philly's practice squad. Panini Contenders Draft Picks is a boon to a college collector like myself and I really enjoy the ticket motif plus the college action photos on the base and Red parallels you see above. Also, Ambry has a pretty nice signature even if he abbreviates his first name. My hit count for Thomas tripled thanks to this beautiful pair from Angus.

If you've read this far, congrats, you've made it to the final scan! I suppose they'd let Angus out of Canada no matter what, but could he really return home if he hadn't brought some hockey cards to a hoser across the border? No way!

First we have a fantastic pair of cards starring Wings HOFers Gordie Howe and Norm Ullman. Those came from a 1988-89 set called Esso NHL All-Star Collection. They're just a bit smaller than a standard card and I have to say I really like the design, which is very simple allowing for more attention to the classic photos.

Detroit legend Steve Yzerman is up next and three of the four items are brought to you by Kraft Dinner, one of the most Canadian things I can think of. The fun food issues you see above came out in 89-90 and 90-91. Lastly, The Captain appears on a more mainstream card: 1994-95 Finest, the first year that brand made it on the ice.

And lastly we have a pair that I think Angus was pretty excited about since they're Canadian stickers of Wolverines I collect. Debol has all of 6 cards listed on TCDb and his '79 Panini sticker is just the second I know have for his collection. Shand doubles him up with 12 to his name, and the former Flame now claims three items in my Michigan Hockey collection.

Angus, once again I want to say thank you for making the time to cross the border both ways to hang out at the show, and above and beyond that, for bringing me so much cool stuff that it took me this long to show it off! I'm definitely looking forward to scheduling another show with you (and potentially others like Night Owl) and maybe getting out to a Blue Jays game as well. Until then, it's a pleasure trading with you and I'll try to build up some good Browns to send your way.

I'll be back soon with November trade package #3!

2025 trade package #19: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Happy American Thanksgiving, friends! As always, I'm thankful for all of you who follow, read, and comment here, trade with me, and post your own content.

And I specified the "American" part above to highlight the sender of tonight's trade package. Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store recently celebrated Canada's version of the event, and now thanks to him I have a ridiculous smorgasbord of cards to feast on! Here's a quick run through them because there's just so many and I know I'll need a nap afterwards:

Part 1 of baseball opens with a Wolverine in Abbott, but the rest are Tigers. Lopez's card is from the '81 Tigers Coke team set, and Skubal's Topps Holiday card is perfectly timed for the season.

Part 2 of baseball offers a Verlander (can't have enough of those!) and a good chunk of the OPC cards in the package (along with a note hoping I liked/didn't mind getting a bunch of that brand. I did indeed like them!). Sparky, Bergman, and Lemon were all '84 Tigers of course so those were my favorites.

HOFer Jack Morris joins that '84 group from above to form a nice quartet from the Canadian brand.

Then we have some cool hits to flip through! Zack Semler was a Michigan IF back in the late 2010s and he joins the collection courtesy of a Leaf Perfect Game signature. Thank you to Doug for going the extra mile and finding a new Wolverine once again!

As for the Tigers, Dylan Smith is a pitcher who made his debut this year and earned a win over 7 solid relief appearances. The 2021 3rd-rounder is here by way of Donruss Elite Extra Edition. Walker ('23 Topps Chrome) was a White Sox 2018 2nd-rounder who bounced to Texas (with whom he enjoyed his only MLB action), San Francisco, then Detroit, and it looks like he's been out of affiliated ball since the Tigers released him in 2023.

Ziomek (2013 Bowman Sterling Orange Refractor auto /75) was also a second-rounder, taken by Detroit in 2013, and he never advanced above the high-A level of the minors. Manning, though, is no stranger to my collection even though the 2016 #9 overall pick was sent to Philly at this year's deadline and is now a free agent after failing to pan out like his rotation-mate Casey Mize did. His Diamond Kings Rookie Expression jersey is one I'm glad to add to Manning's collection even though a return to Detroit is unlikely for now.

Doug went above and beyond again when it came to basketball because not only did he send me the usual excellent selection of players that are generally mainstays, but he also included three newbies in the form of women's hoops alumni Leigha Brown, Naz Hillmon, and Stacey Thomas! Brown transferred from Nebraska and spent three seasons in Ann Arbor, then played a bit for the 2023 Connecticut Sun. Hillmon was a big deal in her four seasons with the Wolverines, being named their first All-American among many other honors. She's now in her fourth season with the Atlanta Dream. Thomas put up four productive college seasons of her own and then spent 2000-05 in the WNBA, winning it all with the 2003 Detroit Shock, the motor city's previous pro team. Many thanks to Doug for this outstanding trio!

As for some of the stalwarts of past envelopes, Howard and Rice are always appreciated. And given the way Michigan Basketball has opened this season, I hope they're celebrating at the end of the season as Rice once did.

Taylor, Vaught, and Webber are also common names to find in these packages and are just as welcome. So are '91-'92 Panini Stickers of the previously seen Rice as well as Gary Grant!

Basketball got its own hit parade as well, opening with my third auto of Calbe Houstan (not "Houston," UD) out of Goodwin Champions. Juwan's kid Jett is up next with his hit collection debut out of '23-'24 Topps Chrome, and he's in his third season with the Orlando Michiganders, who also roster Mo and Franz Wagner plus Colin Castleton. And speaking of Mo, Doug treated me to my first signature of the older Wagner bro, this one thanks to 2019-20 Prizm. As with Houstan, his signature is, uh, not the most detailed, but about par for the course given the stupid amount of cards/stickers these guys have to sign these days.

Numbered inserts of Steve Breaston, Devin Funchess, and Karan Higdon are a great way to segue into the football content just a couple days before The Game. Steve's card is the rarest, numbered to just 25 on the back, while Funch goes for 194 and Higdon's is rarer at 50. Shoe Carnival is an apt sponsor for a card starring Lewan since the nicest thing I can say about him is that he's a clown. CB Ambry Thomas joins the numbers game with a blue Prizm parallel ("No-Huddle" to be specific) that's SN79 on the back. And the hit here is a good omen for Saturday's Ohio State tilt as I fondly Buckeye-killer Hassan Haskins piling up FIVE rushing TDs to lead Michigan over OSU in 2021. That Absolute jersey card above has a swatch just about nice enough to be a patch (or "prime" as they're sometimes calls) and it looks excellent as hit #5 (hey, there's that number again!) in his collection.

On the ice, the Wings have had their ups and downs this year, but generally seem to be better than last year so far. Guys like Chiasson and slightly more recently Franzen and Holmstrom take me back to the joy of watching the team succeed starting in the 90s for a good couple decades.

Kocur, Lidstrom, and McCarty were also key contributors on some of those Cup-winning teams, and I'm happy to see them in any group of cards someone sends me. Larson and Micalef are fun vintage-adjacent throwbacks to before I was old enough to follow hockey.

Seider's a star defenseman for the current team but guys like Zetterberg, Draper, Hull, and Shanahan all realized Cup glory with the Wings. The OPC stickers of Ivan Boldirev (1983), Reed Larson, and Paul Woods (1982) were a fun surprise.

And to close out the Hockeytown content we've got a bevy of hits! There's a nice jersey of Cholowski, one of many failed 2010s first-rounders, though he's still in the NHL (New Jersey) and has an excellent first name. Allure provides a colorful autograph of C Robby Fabbri, who was with Detroit for five seasons and put up decent numbers. Howard was an above-average goalie that was with Detroit for his entire career, and that's a beautiful red jersey swatch above to celebrate an All-Star nod in his penultimate season. And my favorite of the bunch is an SP Game Used jersey of Tomas Holmstrom, the enemy of goalies everywhere as he set up camp in front of the crease and was a pest, often putting back rebounds when not making netminders' lives a living hell otherwise.

A jersey of "Double A" begins the horizontal trio, made during his five-season stint with Detroit to open his career. That's joined by white and red jerseys, respectively, of winger Taro Hirose and D-man Gustav Lindstrom.

The Wings may be looking better than last year but they're nowhere near as hot as the NCAA's current #1 team, Michigan Hockey! They're 13-3-0 with 83 goals (good for 5+ per game!) and absolutely cooking right now. So why not look at some cards of past Michigan icers?

There are some absolute beauties in this first scan, especially thanks to UD brands like Allure and Synergy. The latter remind me a bit of Pacific's Invincible thanks to the circular inset photo. I'm also a big fan of Hyman's Canvas insert thanks to its great design and cool throwback jersey.

This scan includes a couple hockey Mikes, relatively recent G Jack LaFontain (Synergy again!), WolverWing Dylan Larkin, and hey, what's more thanksgiving than John Madden? Ok, it's not the turducken guy, but did the Raiders coach win three Cups like this guy did? I don't think so!

In this scan the Norris and Power (SN699!) cards are great, but I'm choosing to highlight the collection debut of Cristoval "Boo" Nieves. Boo played at Michigan from 2012-13 to 2015-16, and I remember seeing the C with the cool nickname play live a few times. TCDb lists just 34 cards for him and a good chunk of those are 1/1s or local/minor league issues. Therefore I'm grateful to get an NHL uni card of him, and even more thrilled that it's on the great looking Upper Deck Ice design (and numbered /1299 to boot). Cool!

And we'll end tonight's post with a few of the best cards in the whole package. Werenski also gets in on the Synergy fun, but the Pacioretty has even that cool set beat. The former player who joined the coaching staff this year as a special assistant features on a Black Diamond Diamond Might insert that's basically a thin acetate layer sandwiched between four thick cardboard pieces that are held together on each side by the action image. The overall effect is extremely cool and I love having something to enjoy that's an insert and not a hit. Also it's numbered /99 on the back. A winner in every way!

Last up we have two more hits, and more very nice ones at that. First up is a 2023-24 Upper Deck MVP Cyan Plate of WolverWing Andrew Copp where he's even pictured as a member of the Original Six team! That's my first 1/1 of his out of five total hits, and I believe 21st subject in the hockey collection to appear on such a card, plus it's obviously the best card I have of him so far.

He's joined by just my second autograph of D-man Christ Tamer, who was drafted by the Penguins and also suited up for the Rangers briefly, then Atlanta (as pictured above) for his final five seasons. His fairly legible signature and bonus jersey number inscription appear on a 2020-21 SP Signature Legends Gold Spectrum insert, one that has a very nice design.

Oh wait, I'm not actually done because Doug included these surprises as well! Canadian soccer player Shelina Zadorsky is indeed a Michigan alum, having played for the Wolverines from 2010-13, including acting as captain her senior year. Wikipedia says she won bronze (2016) and gold (2020) medals with the Canadian Olympic team, and now I'll have to do some research to see which other Wolverines earned Olympic medals in sports I don't tend to follow.

Thankfully my Canadian friend was aware of Zadorsky's alma mater and sent me this 2018 Goodwin Champions base and auto pair. She's the fifth member of my "other" Michigan sports category collection, and represents IMO the most legitimate "sport" of the bunch (two pro wrestlers, a boxing writer, and an auto racer). What a cool find!

Before I close things out, I also want to note that thanks in part to the cards in this post, I now have more than 2700 Michigan sports hits, so I'll once again express thanks to all who've contributed to that collection. Here's to the run to 3000 and more!

Doug, thanks once again for this feast of cards from August that I'm finally enjoying on Thanksgiving. I appreciate it as always and as is also usually the case, I'm looking forward to returning fire before Christmas.

Next, I'll see what I feel like getting to this weekend depending on how I feel before and after The Game. GO BLUE!