2026 trade package #13: Baseball Cards Come to Life

How about some late evening Independence Day posting to catch up a bit?

One of my favorite combo bloggers/TCDbers is Bo of Baseball Cards Come to Life. I especially enjoy his posts on the '85 Wendy's/Coke and '88 Domino's Tigers cards, for obvious reasons. Well, after I sent him a '67 Topps Poster he asked about after I made it and others available in a show recap, in June he was nice enough to surprise me with a PWE of needs that just so happens to include one of those Wendy's cards, plus others I was excited to get. Check 'em out:

I seriously can never have too many Grandersons, and when one of my next few TCDb trades arrives, I'll hit the 300-card mark, which is pretty cool. For that I can thank many kind traders like Bo, who sent me the 2008 UD StarQuest insert you see above. Next, Mr. Padre is from the 1989 Score 100 Superstars boxed set, one of many such fun items from that decade. And then we have the aforementioned Wendy's/Coke card, which stars Tigers OF and '84 champ Chet Lemon. That's just my second from the 22-card set (to go with the header/checklist), and there are 12 more cards of players I actively collect among the 20 I'm missing if I don't decide to chase the set.

HOF P Greg Maddux gets the second row to himself thanks to a very nice trio. I was a very active collector in the mid-to-late 90s so I'm very familiar with the designs of the first two sets: 1997 Leaf and Score. While I don't own complete sets of either, I have quite a few cards from both, and I really appreciate their designs, Leaf in particular. And then the third card is Mad Dog's entry in 2002 Fleer Hot Prospects, a product that I believe ran from its debut that year until 2004's Draft Edition. It's another design that I'm cool with, but that's pretty typical for me when it comes to Fleer from that era.

Speaking of Fleer and HOFers, the last baseball item is a gorgeous Ripken from 2003 Flair Greats. This is another flat-out beautiful design in my eyes, plus I love the 80s photo of young Cal surrounded by a very classy look.

Bo didn't stop at baseball and instead included a Michigan Football pair. Hailing from 2020 Leaf Draft's Red parallel are QB Shea Patterson and one of his best WRs, Donovan Peoples-Jones. The enshittified current Leaf iteration has its faults, but I do love seeing my college's football team represented on cards (even if they have to Photoshop the uniforms) and adding new items to my collection, so I really appreciate Bo including these as well.

Bo, thanks again for this fun surprise envelope of some PC needs! Please keep up the great Domino's and "Burgers or Gum?" series as well as the rest of your excellent blog writing, and I'll keep working on finding stuff you can use in your own collections.

Next up should be the other trade package I received in June, one that was a bit bigger but at least required zero postage for the person who gave it to me.

1/2/26 card show report: jumping back in in January

Tonight I'm back with my first show recap of the year, which was incidentally my first card spending of 2026. The first day of January's event was Friday, the 2nd, and I took that day off of work because, why wouldn't I?

I spent a pretty solid total of $90, with most of that going to my favorite seller, and a few bucks at a different table I've been to a few times. More on that later.

First up is some trade bait. I've got tons of relics and autos available on my TCDb sale/trade list, but these were cheap enough--generally $2 or $1 or less--that I decided to add them.

Baseball:

Football:

You know the drill: claim 'em if you want 'em!

As for my keepers, they had a bit of a 90s bias to them:

The Rainbow parallel of Criswell is obviously newer, but otherwise, the gang's all here! Yes, it's the quartet of Griffey, Gwynn, Maddux, and Ripken, though Maddux's cards are a tad newer. With the "90s inserts rule" tag in full effect once again, we'll begin with Griffey's inserts. The first is from 1997 Pinnacle XPress and is called "Far and Away." The other is one of my all-time favorites from back when Topps actually tried, and it's called "Clout Nine." That's a hell of a squad right there.

The lone Gwynn is actually a promo for one of Fleer's typically excellent Ultra inserts: an acetate 1996 chase card called "Season Crowns." Yes, this one looks even better in-person.

Mad Dog gets a new pair of parallels from last year's Donruss product, the first of which is one of a ton of Optic versions.

Lastly, there's three new Ripkens. The first is actually one of two cards you'll see that came from a purchase from the other seller I mentioned. I previously noted buying from them when I went for a second trip to the November show with Angus and found some cool stuff in their $1 or 6/$5 bin stuffed with miscellany. One of the things I found this time was a small package of 1991 Stadium Club Members Only cards, which I broke up to keep the pair I wanted then trade the rest.

The two beautiful inserts you see here are from a single-card 1996 Pinnacle offering called "Cal Ripken Jr. Tribute," a shiny and relatively tough 1:150 pack pull, plus 1998 Ultra's "Notables." I love anything that highlights Ripken's streak and that Pinnacle issue is flat out beautiful.

The final Ripken is an Elite Series insert from the previously mentioned '25 Donruss product. You can tell it's not from the heyday of inserts because it's got a plain white border along with the lack of logos. No, it doesn't hold a candle to the insert that originally claimed the name, but nothing is these days, and it's still a new Cal I needed, so I'll take it.

The Fielder/Canseco was my other keeper from the '91 Stadium Club Members Only cards, and it serves to note that those two led the AL in homers that season, tied with 44. That came a year after Big Daddy put up 51 bombs to get Motown rocking.

The final baseball single here is a 2005 Topps Total RC of once-again relevant guy Justin Verlander. HEY, THAT'S THE GUY WHAT I COLLECT! Of course, I grabbed this first-year of the future HOFer before the Tigers boosted their rotation by having him come home. Sanchez, the pitcher he shares the card with, was one of three players flipped to the Yanks for Gary Sheffield in November of 2006, by the way.

The final single period is a lone football card: a Donruss Optic parallel of Jake "Money" Moody that's the right color for a former Wolverine. His NFL performance has unfortunately been anything but "money," which is the way it can go for specialists, unfortunately. I hope he lands on his feet (unintentional kicker pun?) next season.

Finally, I have two more items from the oddball stuff found at that second table:

Back at that November show I grabbed the first box (#s 1-12) of these 1990 Collect-a-Books, and I was excited to find the next dozen in the exact same place! Gwynn is my lone PC guy from this one but the player selection is excellent, even if the QA isn't (former Giants slugger Kevin Mitchell is missing an "L" in his last name). Will I find the last box to round out the trio? Stay tuned (spoiler alert: no luck in February so the search continues).

The last item tonight is the oddest of all: a 1982 McDonald's placemat starring four Tigers from that era: John Wockenfuss, Rick Leach, Chet Lemon, and Alan Trammell. This thing is relatively large--about 17"x11"--when it comes to the type of items I tend to store, but for less than a buck I couldn't pass it up. Who knows, maybe I'll even eventually find the other three!

Obviously February continues to fly by so this month's show has already come and gone. I'll recap that somewhat soon (maybe) but first need to thank a couple very cool bloggers for trade cards they sent me this month. I also have a couple TCDb PIFs in hand and my first eBay pickup of the year on the way.

Until then, I hope everyone's had as nice of a start to collecting in 2026 as I have!

2026 trade package #1: Chronicles of Fuji

Tonight let's party like it's 2026 since, you know, it is, by taking a look at my first trade package of the year before the calendar flips to February.

Sender #1 this year was one of the blogosphere's favorite people: Mark of the Chronicles of Fuji. Just after the start of the new year I got this envelope in my mailbox:

Oooooh, this is big enough to hold some interesting items! Side note: do yourself a favor and buy postage on a site like PirateShip so you don't have to pay nearly this much when you're already being very generous in sending cards and paying to ship stuff.

Ok, well this is a good sign--that's my name. This portends good things!

And good things were indeed within! That's the January 1991 issue of Beckett Baseball with that year's sensation Cecil Fielder grading the cover, not to mention 1990 World Series champ Barry Larkin on the back, a hell of a two-fer. There's also a very nice Christmas card from my "blogger buddy" that was a nice touch. And then we have a couple taped up things of cards to open up.

The old nine-pocket page: a tried and true method for shipping cards, especially in PWE format. Fuji picked some very nice stuff and also packaged these in expert fashion. Let's have a better look:

Baseball begins with Tigers old and new. Baez is a Sepia Refractor and the Miggy pair is quite nice: a Triple Threads base and manu-"medallion." Carp's Topps Holiday card is a Green Plaid parallel that still feels appropriate for the season. The two Clarks bring me back to when cards were more fun, especially the Black Diamond parallel numbered /1500 on the back. Evans is a box bottom card and you actually just saw the whole bottom in my TCDb recap post.  And there's Big Daddy again, on a playing card (naturally he's a king in that set).

Card #1 in this scan is great since I'd say I share Fuji's love for collecting Mr. Padre and 80s boxed sets. I wasn't familiar with Jimenez but see that he's the player Detroit flipped to Minnesota for pitchers Chris Paddack and Randy Dobnak during their lackluster trade deadline last year. Lipcius and Meadows are both good old regular Refractors, though given how briefly the former was with Detroit I have no idea why Topps bothered putting him in their sets. Finest isn't what it once was but I won't say no to a RC of Mize! Nunez has been out of affiliated ball for years now but is still kicking in a few indy and foreign leagues, which is very cool. Cal joins Miggy above with a gorgeous Triple Threads card. If I'm not turning down Mize RCs I'm definitely happily accepting any Skubal RCs that come my way! And that Tork is a very nice Bowman Draft Invicta insert I don't think I'd seen before.

And we've still got plenty of baseball items left. York, a '45 Series champ as the team's starting 1B (though as the card implies, he did catch more than 200 games early in his career) appears on a card from the fantastic Conlon product distributed in the 90s. We'll get to the hits in a minute but first we have some other interesting stuff including horizontal cards of Miggy (a Topps Golden Giveaway code card), Colt Keith, and a Heritage team checklist. Then there's a cool five-pack of minis. The first two are from 1993 Humpty Dumpty and both Jim Abbott's and Jack Morris' cards are still in the plastic wrap. Nice! The other Minis, meanwhile, are from 2006 A&G. World Series guys Bondo and Polanco are regular backs and Chris "Red Pop" Shelton is a Black Border.

Fuji also treated me to a trio of Chrome autographs. 2015 Tigers first-round pitcher Beau Burrows' signature is from '21 Topps Chrome, and it remains to be seen if he can work his way back to health and a spot with an MLB team. Kubitza, also a pitcher, was a 2013 4th-rounder out of Rice who apparently flamed out a couple years after his 2015 Bowman Chrome auto was packed out. Lastly, Lugo's name is probably the most infamous to Tigers fans as he was half of the deplorable return for JD Martinez in a 2017 deal with Arizona. Here you see Dawel's 2019 Topps Chrome autograph, signed by a guy I actually got to see play in single-A ball for Lansing way back in 2015 when he was still in Toronto's system.

The final baseball items, which you saw way back in the first image of all the stuff together, are these 1977 Dover reprints. I actually snagged the book they came in (as panels) at some point, but it's very nice to have the singles as well. Both of these are reprints of 1912 Hassan Triple Folders, also known as T202 cards. The top one is "Ty Cobb Steals Third" starring the Georgia Peach and manager Hughie Jennings while the bottom is "Jim Delahanty at Bat" which includes that former Tiger (among other teams) from a big baseball family, and OF Davy Jones (get your "locker" jokes out of your system now), who appeared in parts of eight seasons with the Tigers. This is the only way I'll ever be able to afford anything that looks like one of these cards so they were a fun inclusion here.

The basketball content included RCs of two very notable Michigan hoopers, Juwan Howard and Glen Rice. I hope this year's squad can repeat the latter's heroics and win it all to cap a season that's going extremely well so far! Joining them is another big name, literally and figuratively. The late Robert "Tractor" Traylor was another Detroiter that starred at the program and went on to the NBA, resulting in some cool cards around the end of the 90s. Besides a very of-its-time UD Ionix RC, the '98-'99 Fleer Brilliants Illuminators insert looks fantastic, and believe you me, this scan does not do it justice!

And we'll close things out with football. Corum's Rams put up a good fight, but Fuji's Seahawks prevailed with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. Not that I'm complaining since Seattle has a bunch of Michigan Football connections as well, and I'll be rooting for them in the Big Game in less than a couple weeks. As for the new card of Blake, it has a nice shot of him on his way to score again with the Wolverines so I love it.

He's joined by a guy Fuji knows quite well due to his time with the Packers: Charles Woodson. I believe Mark actually commented on a recent post of mine that he had some of these piled up with plans to send them my way, so that's likely what happened here, much to my benefit. I love the mix of designs and years, and of course that two of them (Panini Contenders Draft Picks) picture him with the '97 champs.

Fuji, thanks so much for this early year treat which I obviously enjoyed very much. I hope your return to the classroom has gone well and that you still manage to find some time to blog--you know I love those flea market recaps! And while we're at it, good luck to your Seahawks in the Super Bowl.

I should be back relatively soon with my second of three January trade posts. That's right, I received a third today just before the calendar flips! After that I'll cover my January show purchases, and then maybe I'll be caught up in time for next Friday's show. Wait, caught up? Is that even possible?

2025 Facebook Marketplace purchases: July spree

Hello, friends! It's now November and I'm still working on covering stuff I got in July. Let's get down to it with my three Facebook purchases from that month.

Numbers 1 and 2 were nearby each other so I scored them on the same day. First up is a big three-row box that was advertised as being mostly Chrome cards. Figuring I could at least use those for trade bait, I drove to Westland, which isn't that far from me, and spent $30 on that box. As advertised, it was mostly Chrome-type cards, with a bit of recent regular cardboard mixed in, and I'd say the majority was 2024 Bowman Chrome Prospects and 2023 Topps Chrome.

I'll have nice stacks of each to add to TCDb eventually, but for now, here are my keepers:

A new card of Michigan alum Tommy Henry was quite exciting for me, and that one above is also a good reminder to mention that there were a couple stacks of Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary cards in the bunch as well. Tigers IF prospect Lee hails from the huge stack of '24 Bowman Chrome Prospects. McKinstry and Vierling are recent Tigers that represented some of the non-Chrome stuff while Scherzer of the pennant-winning Jays makes a couple appearances on other products.

All in all it was a very reasonable pickup for the price, and a number of cards from this box made it into trade packages that have gone out or will do so by the end of the year.

That same day I headed back to Livonia for I think my third purchase from a guy who sounds like he buys collections and then clears out parts of them (here's my most recent post of cards I bought from him from earlier this year). This time I ended up with a pair of four-row boxes filled with a bit of everything (but mostly the bigger sports) for $70. These have been a great source of keepers and trade items for me recently, especially more recent stuff that I haven't found at shows or had sent to me in trades. They've boosted my inventory of '20s baseball and football inserts for TCDb which has been a big help.

I found a ton of keepers from these so I'll keep my comments short.

Last year's Donruss showed up in force in this purchase, much to the benefit of a number of my PCs. Hatfield and Pesky hail from a 90s Topps Archives product, and interestingly enough, both are '50s Tigers who'd previously played for the Red Sox. The Donruss EEE of Michigan alum O'Halloran, college uni and all, was a super fun gem in this big pile of stuff.

Rose was the lone basketball keeper for me, which is fine. My football PCs, especially for some recent rookies, really got some nice bumps, with 2024 first-years especially well represented. That includes Michigan-to-Iowa transfer TE Erick All, plus Indiana-to-Michigan transfer TE AJ Barner, who won a title with Michigan and has gone on to be fairly productive for the Seahawks.

Griese and Harbaugh are all well-known past NFL Wolverines while Collins and Gary continue to be stars for their teams. I love the Michigan uni RCs of a couple more champs, Colson and Corum.

EDGE Jaylen Harrell is a guy who didn't get a ton of hype (or many cardboard appearances), but he led the '23 champs in sacks and was taken in the 7th round by Tennessee, making the NFL just like his dad. Jenkins, another NFL legacy, also made some noise on defense for the title-winning team, and he's one of a bunch of Wolverines playing for the Bengals. Law was fantastic in college, as pictured, before his HOF NFL career. And Milton may have transferred to Tennessee but I'm still collecting any of his non-Volunteers RCs.

The Halloween-themed Score-a-Treat product popped up a bit in this purchase and I was glad to add a couple Wolverines out of the '24 version. Speaking of "treat" it was fun to find three RCs of kicker Jake Moody, the erstwhile Niners PK. Wilson was one of my RCs from '24 Rookies & Stars, plus the previously mentioned Score-a-Treat. Woodson was maize & blue through and through but does look good there in red.

Lastly for football, Brady and Victor Hobson join in the fun on horizontal multiplayer cards.

Then we move on to a huge stack of Steve Yzerman cards I didn't have, many of which are from the 90s. It's not like I ever got rid of any of his cards--I just didn't really collect hockey as a kid, and most of what I have of him has come to me through trades.

There's not much to say other than there's some pretty cool stuff here on a huge mix of products and designs.

And here's the last of the cards of the Captain. He's apparently a single card short of becoming the third hockey player to hit 100 different cards in my collection, joining Wolverines Marty Turco and Brendan Morrison. Wolverwing Dylan Larkin is next at 75, and the next closest Motown guy that didn't play for Michigan is Sergei Fedorov at 59, so obviously this was a great boost to Stevie Y's collection.

Speaking of Larkin, he's one of three Michigan icers represented in this purchase thanks to UD MVP, joining Seattle's Matty Benier's and young goalie Jack LaFontaine.

Last up is definitely something of an oddball. Back in 1993 a set called Metallic Impressions Cooperstown Collection was released, apparently aiming to be the first of more releases. That didn't happen, but at least we got to enjoy this crazy swing at the fences. It's a tin of 20 metallic cards featuring HOFers and stars. I found one for sale nearby for $10 and happily went to pick it up a few days after I nabbed the stuff you see above.

Here's a few looks at the tin:

I like boxed sets like this that include the checklist right on the packaging.

"Strictly limited" to just 49,900 sets! The bottom also helpfully describes the way the cards are made better than I can.

Very nicely packaged thanks to plastic inserts that keep the cards from flying around and causing wear and tear.

Not everyone's a HOFer here but you get a nice mix of legends and other guys that some people appreciate collecting.

The backs somewhat give you an idea of how the metal edges are sort of crimped over the backs, so they aren't as thick and heavy as they could be.

Like I said, not everybody here's a HOFer so I even got to add a new Mickey Lolich to my collection.

I wonder who else we might have seen had more of these been made?

Pops and El Tiante get their own scan since 20/9 leaves a pair left over.

This was a very cool oddball addition to my collection for just $10, and now I'm curious if any of you still reading this post own this set or anything similar you'd like to brag about in the comments down below.

Happily I still have at least one more Facebook Marketplace pickup to cover before the end of the year, but first I have lots more to cover. I'll see you all soon!

2025 trade package #16: the Angels in Order

Happy October, all! Though I don't love the decrease in temperature as we head towards fall, at least we get some nice colors...and playoff baseball!

And speaking of my favorite sport, I received a very nice surprise package from Tom of the Angels, In Order, back in July that was all baseball, all the time. And as a nice little bonus, because we're both members of TCDb, he sent me a bunch of wantlist matches I needed, so everything in the envelope was new to me.

Here's the contents from his latest mailing:

Hey, we've got a few playoff teams in this scan, at least for now. One of the two Reds representatives is Griffey out of 2008 Upper Deck X and 2016 Donruss. His most memorable postseason experience was 1995, though his Mariners never made it past the Series-bound Indians. Seattle fell in the '97 ALDS to Baltimore, then he was part of the '08 White Sox that would lose to a pennant-winning Devil Rays team. Here's hoping the Reds pull off an upset of the juggernaut Dodgers!

Gwynn (1986 Fleer Star Stickers and 2012 Gypsy Queen) got to play in the World Series near the beginning and end of his career. Of course the former was a tilt against the magical '84 Tigers, which went five games, and the latter was a sweep at the hands of the '98 Yankees during their dynasty back then. I hope Mr. Padre's team, including Michigan alum Jake Cronenworth, makes a deep playoff push this year.

Inge (2012 Topps Update) is mostly known for 12 seasons with the Tigers, and that includes their surprise Series appearance in '06 (a loss to St. Louis) and a 4-2 2011 ALCS defeat at the hands of Texas, who lost that year's Fall Classic to...St. Louis. Though he's a lower priority PC guy for me I'm happy to track down even base cards of his like this Update issue that notes his 2012 signing with the A's.

With Larkin (1990 Donruss Best of the NL), we start a nice streak of guys that did get to celebrate a Series victory. Though he'd have to take his '95 NL MVP as a consolation prize for losing to the eventual champion Braves in that year's NLCS, the surprising 1990 Reds buzzed through the Pirates (4-2) and swept Oakland to win it all, and with a roster featuring three former Wolverines (Larkin, Hal Morris, and Chris Sabo).

Maddux (2008 Bowman) was no stranger to the playoffs, getting to play October baseball in 13 of his 23 seasons, though none with the Padres. His three World Series appearances were the aforementioned '95 Braves, who defeated Cleveland, then losses to the Yankees in '96 and '99. His playoff record of 11-12 (1-2 in the World Series) isn't as impressive as his regular season numbers, but he was a big part of the reason Atlanta was a mainstay in October between 1995 and 2003.

Morris (1992 Topps Gold Winners) is the guy with the most postseason success of everyone seen here tonight. The ace of the '84 Tigers went 3-0 in that year's playoffs, including a pair of World Series wins. While 1987 proved to be a disappointment for the Tigers, who lost 4-1 in the ALCS to the eventual champion Twins, Morris would return to the Series in '91, with the Twins, and '92, with the Blue Jays, and earn a ring with both, including MVP honors with the Twins (to offset an 0-2 record the following year) bolstered by his legendary game 7 10-inning shutout of the Braves.

And Petry (1986 Leaf) contributed to the '84 Tigers as well with 18 regular season wins, though he didn't earn a decision in the sweep of the Royals and was the pitcher of record in Detroit's lone loss in game 2.

Detroit somehow has a chance to continue in the playoffs tomorrow after needing a superhero effort from Tarik Skubal in game 1 to paper over a left-on-base epidemic that finally caught up to them in game 2 earlier today. I don't expect anything different tomorrow but can hope!

All but one of the players in this scan is a repeat from above but I thought it would be fun to group the 1993 UD Fun Pack cards together since the ones in the first scan formed a perfect group of nine. While Fun Pack was never one of my favorite products, it did include some great photography.

Ripken is the lone player we didn't cover above, and his appearance marks another successful grouping of my big four player collections! His Orioles went all the way in '83, just his second full season. His regular season MVP performance carried over into the 3-1 ALCS victory over the White Sox, though his numbers in the main event were mediocre. He'd have to wait until 1996 for a return to October ball, and that involved a 3-1 ALDS win over Cleveland but a 4-1 ALCS loss to the storied Yankees. The following year they repeated with a 3-1 ALDS win over Griffey's Mariners, but this time Cleveland avenged their loss in six games to earn a matchup with the Marlins, which they hilariously lost.

The last card in this bunch is a Topps mini insert of Maddux where he's appropriately depicted as a member of the Braves. During that 1995-2003 run, he piled up 158 wins, his fourth straight Cy Young (and four other top-five finishes), beginning on a high note with that ring in '95.

I should also mention Griffey's Mariners put together a nice season to earn themselves a first-round bye as they await the winner of the Detroit/Cleveland series.

Tom, thanks again for this great bunch of cards which, again, were all needs, so I extra appreciate it! I'm not sure when I'll be sending you cards next but I do have a little stack going for you.

To everyone else, whether or not your team is in the playoffs, I hope you're enjoying some postseason baseball, and in the meantime I'll be back soon with what I think is my final trade package of July.

2025 trade package #14: My Sports Obsession

It took a bit after the clock finally hit zeroes for me to be able to function normally again, but now that I'm done enjoying Michigan's third victory of the season (over Nebraska), I can spend a bit of time on another trade post.

July package #2 arrived courtesy of fellow Michigan fan Jeff of My Sports Obsession. As he's done in the past, he sent me a straight-up BOX stuffed with cards, and so many of them were new that I decided to save myself a bit of effort by not scanning the dupes.

There's a ton of great content from the top three major US sports, so let's get into it:

Scan #1 includes Tigers favorites Miggy and Big Daddy, with the latter being represented on some very cool oddballs, two of which are playing cards. The highlight for me, though, is the quartet of Cronenworths. I still love that Jeff and I take turns bolstering each other's PC of the Michigan alum, and this time he sent me some great looking items, two of which are nice parallels. We're currently the #s 3 and 4 collectors of Cronenworth on TCDb, by the way.

Scan #2 begins with two more Fielder cards including another fun oddball. A guy who hit 300+ HR including 258 over a seven-year span of 1990-96 most definitely has the power to hang in a set made in conjunction with Duracell. A single Griffey, featuring what appears to be Junior in an older style Mariners uni, gives way to a nice little bunch of Gwynns, with an oddball and some Stadium Club beauties in the mix. The latter applies to another of our shared PC guys in Barry Larkin, and that card brings back great memories of watching him play, plus the original Stadium Club Chrome products. 2021 2nd-round IF Izaac Pacheco provided some nice pop for the Midwest League champion West Michigan Whitecaps as he works his way through Detroit's system.

Oh hey, it's another one of the players Jeff and I both PC--Cal Ripken Jr.! He's the #1 guy whose cards we send back and forth and #1 in my collection (second to Frank Thomas in his). Topps Chrome Platinum and Stadium Club Chrome both have pleasing designs. The less I say about Tork's team and their division lead-choking ways right now, the better, though I do appreciate getting his cards. And including the next scan, you get to see 11 Many Verlanders that Jeff sent my way, with some nice looking Topps designs leading the way.

See? Even more Verlanders! Even a card of him with his latest team, the Giants, who've all of a sudden helped lead him to the fountain of youth, apparently. It would be awesome if he felt like pitching next season.

He's joined by another Tigers Topps parallel like in the first scan, plus a pair of interesting 80s issues: a Fleer Mini of catcher Matt Nokes, and a 7-11 coin of HOFer Jack Morris. Sweet!

I'll say it until I'm blue (and maize?) in the face, but thank you to those who send me Michigan Basketball cards I don't have so I can spend my money on the sports I prefer! Jeff sent me a couple recent-ish stars in LeVert and Franz Wagner, the latter of which is, appropriately enough, blue!

On the football side of things, my collection of transfer RB Zach Charbonnet (UCLA) got a nice little three-card boost that included a RC and cool multi-color die-cut of the same. Stud WR Nico Collins pops up once, as does former UM coach and current Chargers leader Jim Harbaugh. Buckeye-killers Haskins and Hutch join in the fun in airbrushed form thanks to Wild Card Matte.

Hutch has been pretty quiet early this season, though I'll attribute some of that to rust after an injury derailed what was going to be a special 2024 season for him. Jenkins is in his second season with Cincy and hopefully will improve on his 3.0 sacks from last year while I continue to chase his RCs like the ones above. Law is a deserving HOFer and I'm glad he continues to appear in lots of post-career products just like Charles Woodson. Former blog namesake Manningham is another guy who comes up pretty often despite his relatively short career, likely due to helping Eli Manning's gumpy ass win a Super Bowl. The SAGE card above is my first of UM DB Rod Moore, a guy who made some big plays for the '23-'24 champs, then was out all of last season and the start of this one. Ojabo's another example of what you get with the current "Wild Card" name these days. And I love adding to my collection of the championship team's defensive MVP, Mike Sainristil, who's been solid in the league so far.

This last scan begins with a couple more RCs in a post stuffed with them. Mazi hasn't lived up to his college and draft hype but was fun as an amateur, and Wilson was even more of a blast as a high-scoring WR for the '23 champs, though he's been slow to get going in the NFL due to injuries.

Last up we have a group of seven cards of players Jeff sent that I'll hold onto but won't count towards those players' collections as they're pictured in other college unis. First is a quartet of TE Erick All, who bailed for offensively-challenged Iowa and made room for Colston Loveland to be a star in Ann Arbor. Charbonnet, as I mentioned, headed out west to UCLA and put up good enough numbers to get himself drafted by Seattle, where he's made some nice plays. And WR/KR AJ Henning remained in the conference like All, heading to Northwestern where he put up some solid numbers with the benefit of more playing time he might not have received in Ann Arbor.

Jeff, thanks a ton for this generous box of stuff that really had a nice effect on a bunch of my favorite collections! I need to start a new stack for you since sending that last one but I'm looking forward to treating you to some Wolverines while we celebrate our team's 3-1 start. GO BLUE!

I should be back soon with even more July trade content. Until then, Tigers, would it kill you to win a game every now and then and not lose the division in embarrassing fashion?