2026 trade package #10: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

At long last (my fault) it's time to take a look at the most recent package sent to me by Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!

This one made its way to me back in April. Since then I've actually sent a response his way, only for him to have to return it because he was asked to pay something like $700 in taxes/duties. I'm still trying to figure out what category of goods to use on the customs form to avoid that ridiculousness.

Anyway, here's the mailer in all its glory. (Maybe I should try a quantity of "1" as well? I typically use a number like 50 or 100 to go along with ~$40ish in value, and only recently has it turned into a big issue.) And here's a look at all the fantastic stuff therein:

The baseball content leads off with some cards representing the much-improved Tigers, then a guy making his collection debut in style. Danny Zimmerman was primarily an OF from 2018-21 at Michigan before heading west to San Jose State (what's up, Fuji?) for 2022. He did pitch in a couple games during his freshman season and a few more during summer college ball. You see him here on a 2016 Leaf Perfect Game card, a Purple auto that's a 1/1, marking quite the first appearance in my collection!

The basketball stuff ended up containing some very nice items as well. French forward Moussa Diabate played one year in Ann Arbor before the Clippers snagged him in 2022's 2nd round. That THJ is one of the two big highlights, a 2018-19 Panini Impeccable parallel numbered to just 25! LeVert and Wagner are both trade package stalwarts that I'm glad to see here while women's star Syla Swords gets her second card in my PC and first that isn't team/NIL-issued. And lastly, Mitch McGary (who just celebrated his birthday Saturday, as noted by Jeff) gets an especially cool add to his pile: a 2013-14 Panini Signatures Draft X-Change card that features an embedded piece like a slide. Cool!

The football content was very, very high quality as you'll see over the next few scans, including a pile of serial numbered insanity that Robert would appreciate! (Apparently it's "other blogger call-out" day!) Tackling machine Devin Bush stars on another very low-numbered insert, and his Contenders chase offering is limited to just 25 copies. Former Michigan TE and current TV guy Jake Butt appears on a colorful Panini Father's Day issue numbered /499. One of my favorite recent WRs Jehu Chesson adds a 2017 Panini Phoenix Orange parallel (SN99) to his RC that I have. Similarly, I have LB Shawn Crable's 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear RC but not the super-rare Platinum Holofoil O's version limited to just 25 copies (that's three that rare so far if you're counting!). Darboh was Chesson's teammate and another one of my favorites of that time, and up above you see the Blue Wave Prizm version of his 2017 Panini Prizm RC, numbered to 149. Lastly (from this scan, at least), you see the rarest of the bunch (not including 1/1s) in the form of RB Chris Evans' 2021 Panini Spectra Neon Orange Die Cut. The color match serves it very well and I'm a big fan of die-cuts, but the best part here is that this one is numbered to just 10 copies. Whoa!

Blog favorite RB Mike Hart is the first highlight of this group, and the Artist's Proof parallel of his 2008 Select RC is numbered to just 32, once again giving you an idea of the quantity of quality numbered cards Doug sent this time. Mo Hurst's 2018 Rookies & Stars Longevity parallel isn't that much more common at just 75 copies made. One of OSU's least favorite defenders, David Ojabo, is seen here on a 2022 Donruss Optic parallel of his RC called Wave, and that's SN300. And talented wideout DPJ's 2020 Absolute rookie parallel, a Spectrum Blue, goes to just 50 copies while LB Josh Uche feature's in the same product's Spectrum Red insert, doubly common at 100.

And then we have some especially big hits. Doug treated me to not one but TWO autographed 1/1s, which is kind of insane, but that's the kind of stuff I'm grateful we're able to send back and forth sometimes. In this case it's my first signed plate of WR Devin Funchess. The yellow plate was used to produce his 2018 Panini Luminance card, then was subsequently inserted into 2018 Plates & Patches with a sticker auto affixed. What a great card that's now the centerpiece of his collection!

Jack-of-all-trades guy Jabrill Peppers is next with his largest relic swatch in my collection yet. Relic #3 (to go with an autograph) hails from 2018 Panini XR's Maximal Materials, an insert that certainly lives up to its name. It's a huge piece of a Browns jersey from his time with that team and numbered to just 49 copies.

Last up for football is one more TE (to go with Butt and Funchess, who played the position a bit in college, at least) and a guy who's moving his way up the coaching ladder in the NFL (currently coaching that position for the Falcons). Kevin Koger appeared on a solid number of autographed inserts back in 2012, and this Blue version is my second from that year's Press Pass product. I've long owned the unnumbered Silver card but this Blue one is numbered /50 up front, making it the only numbered signature card of his I own.

Next up is the hockey content, and we'll start with the Red Wings. The highlights of the base cards are franchise legends Fedorov and Yzerman (the embattled GM--more on that later), plus star D Moritz Seider. And then there's a surprise Be a Player signature of F Mike Krushelnyski. Krusher finished his career with Detroit over the '94-'95 season after signing as a FA in '94, but he's probably best known for another transaction. He joined Marty McSorley in the deal that sent their teammate Wayne Gretzky to the Kings in 1988, forever altering the futures of both franchises.

There's plenty more hockey to enjoy thanks to a pile of cards of Wolverines icers. Like the Wings, none of these guys made it to the Cup finals this year, but fortunately that's pretty rare. I love seeing the Wolverwings pop up in these packages and Copp is a good example. The Jackets continue to be a common NHL stop for drafted Michigan guys (including two different Johnsons). And that Herr was a nice inclusion here since it's just my second card of his, and this one is a '98-'99 SP Authentic Power Shift parallel numbered /500.

My favorite Wolverwing Larkin is the star of this scan, though how much longer he'll be with the team is unknown after he recently requested a trade. That divorce may be ugly due to a reported poor relationship between him and GM Steve Yzerman. The latter's tenure has unfortunately been a disaster, and I don't blame a talented guy like Larkin from moving on after 10 years of nothing. I'll continue to collect him either way, but his potential departure will be bittersweet. Meanwhile, though Larkin is in my top 10 of hockey PCs, longtime player Brendan Morrison is second (to Marty Turco), and I'm happy to see even more new stuff of the former national champ here.

Norton and Sloan join the previously seen Herr as players you don't see here too often. Meanwhile, Werenski, this year's Norris winner, is yet another Jackets guy. I really like the OPC playing card-style inserts like Zach's above. Johnson's horizontal insert with interior die-cuts is quite nice as well.

Speaking of Wolverwings and Kent Johnson, the hockey hits portion was most certainly as nice as the others. The SPx Super Scripts auto of Compher is his 4th signed card in my collection, but man does it look nice in-hand. The shiny foil background really makes it pop, plus I'm excited to have my first auto of his as a member of the Red Wings.

Meanwhile, the previously-seen Johnson joins the hit collection with a very cool auto/relic pair. The signed card hails from 2023-24 Upper Deck Credentials' Main Stage Signatures insert, and the design provides for a well integrated window for the sticker. Meanwhile, the relic sports the eponymous blue of his team's nickname in the form of a jersey swatch out of 2024-25 SP Game Used. These make for a quality ending to some top-notch hockey items.

And last but not least, these two UM other sports figures are making repeat performances, both after joining my collection thanks to this package's sender.

Rhodes (born Brandi Reed) hitched along for the trip in a January package I posted early in November, and that was on a Leaf signature card. This time she's back in relic form out of the 2021 Upper Deck Spectrum AEW product. The card doesn't specify what the swatch came from, but in any case it's a cool item to add to a collection (other and non-sports) I plan to put more effort into.

Canadian-born soccer player Shelina Zadorsky also debuted in my collection thanks to a SCFtDS trade package. In her case it was a two-fer that I posted last November: a Goudey base card plus a Goodwin Champions auto. Now I own the latter's memorabilia version, making for a perfect pair! I'm guessing she's more on Doug's radar as she played for his hometown's youth women's club (plus, you know, I don't really follow soccer).

Doug, thanks once again for another mailer stuffed with flat-out quality. As always I appreciate your generosity and how much effort you must be putting into finding this stuff. I'm looking forward to getting a package to you--one that doesn't involve almost $1000 in taxes--as soon as I can, especially once that current envelope gets returned.

As for what's next, I'm not sure if I'll take a quick break from trade packages to show off other stuff, but I have a few of those from May and June, two shows, one eBay purchase, and lots of TCDb stuff, so there's no shortage of content--just effort getting it written up and posted. Until then, I'll probably be outside enjoying some of my favorite weather!

2026 eBay purchases: rare cards and a coin

Well at least I didn't let the entire remainder of April pass before I posted again! It's been a lazy month for me hobby-wise and as usual I wasn't dying to put the effort into posting, but now I have some motivation to catch up thanks to a couple trade packages that arrived this month.

It was an interesting one for Michigan fans: the highs of the basketball Wolverines winning just their second national title followed by the even more favored hockey team falling once again in the semis of the Frozen Four to the hated Denver Pioneers, who've lapped Michigan in hockey titles, much to my chagrin.

But I can hardly complain about the results, along with football spring practice in the books that has me looking forward to the fall (but not until I've enjoyed some warm weather for more than a few days at a time, please!).

So apropos of almost nothing, here's a look at my four eBay pickups from the first third of 2026:

My first eBay purchase of any type this year, way back in February, was my second 1/1 of beastly Super Bowl-winning LB LaMarr Woodley. For a hair under $9 I'm now the proud owner of this 2007 SAGE HIT black plate of the 46th overall pick way back in '07. It's from the era when a brand like SAGE was allowed to use full team logos, names, and uniforms, and that makes the Michigan uni aspect a bonus.

Here's the base card for comparison:

Not bad at all. Like I said, that's 1/1 #2 to go along with a plate from 2009 Topps, and it marks hit #12 of the big hitter who piled up 58.0 total sacks, 319 tackles, and nine forced fumbles.

A few weeks later in March I scored one of my biggest cards so far of the young year. For whatever reason, my collection of WR Amara Darboh boasts some of the best looking items in my Michigan Football collection, and the rich got richer here. I was willing to go all the way up to almost $20 for this National Treasures plate/prime jersey/auto combo. Why? Once again, there's the Wolverine-ness of the thing: a Michigan uni shot, the logo on the back, and most of all, the fantastically large maize/blue/white jersey swatch. It's a thing of beauty!

Darboh's 51st hit marks his first 1/1 in the collection (surprisingly enough, given the overall quality of his PC), and one I was thrilled to add for sure.

Just a few days later I was finally able to rectify a small issue from a purchase from the February show. As I noted here, I grabbed what I thought were three 7-11 Slurpee Coin sets, but one of them--the 1986 Central Region version--was missing probably the biggest coin: Carlton/Ryan/Seaver. A bit over $6 shipped was enough to snag me two copies of this coin along with a couple dupes of another. And that's one more set knocked off the wantlist!

I was glad to catch the note at the bottom that states, "Nolan holds the all-time mark for K's, followed by Steve and Tom." That was indeed the case at the time, but the list looks a bit different some 40 years later. Ryan still stands along with a crazy 5714 over a crazier 27 seasons, but Randy Johnson (4875) and Roger Clemens (4672) topped Carlton's 4136, and Bert Blyleven (3701) snuck above Seaver's 3640. Those are your top 6, with Justin Verlander hoping to return to health to pitch enough to take over 7th place, currently held by Don Sutton. Only 20 K's separate the two!

And finally we have my most recent pickup. For a penny under $12 I scored my latest Manningham of (too) many just last week. This here is a black plate from Upper Deck's 2009 Heroes product, specifically for the Blue Retail Jerseys insert. Do I happen to own that card like I do with the base of the Woodley above? Could I claim I have "too many" Manninghams otherwise?

While I don't like the 2009 set as much as the 2008 version, which included RCs of Manningham and a bunch of his other teammates that are favorites of mine, it's still a cool looking set, and, I mean, since when am I not gonna chase a rare Mario I need?

Since I threw out numbers for the others I'll note that this is my second 1/1 of Manningham (the other is a National Treasures auto/plate that I showed off on TMM almost EIGHT years ago) and hit #103 of the namesake of my former sister blog.

As always, money well spent, I'd say!

And now I'll try to get back to work on a couple other posts before getting back to trade package action. In the meantime, bring on the warmer weather and more baseball!

2025 eBay purchases: maize & blue plate special

Hey all, tonight we'll take a look at the stuff I bought on eBay for myself in the second half of 2025. Let's get to it!

This first card is actually my most recent purchase but it doesn't fit in well with the rest so we'll start with it. Back in November I showed off the 2022 Michigan Valiant box set I bought, and I mentioned that when I opened it I had dupes of QB Cade McNamara's card #69 and was missing #68. Long story short, I plunked down $3.69 a bit before Christmas to be able to cross this one off the list. It's a decent overpay for what should be a cheap card, but I haven't found singles for these to be easy to find, and since I got such a ridiculous steal of a deal on the set, spending under $4 to finish it didn't bother me.

Now we'll head back to late September when I picked up this cyan (essentially blue!) printing plate auto of former Michigan/UMass RB Michael Cox. For some reason at the time I was under the impression that I didn't already have a hit of Cox in my collection, though I did, but that's ok since this one's much nicer, and wasn't crazy expensive at about $12.50. Plates like this one from 2013 Panini Contenders are great on their own but even better when they player signs them. By the way, for those who don't know or remember him, Cox played at Michigan from 2009-11 (mostly that first year), then headed to UMass for his senior season. He was a pretty unlikely draft pick by the Giants (7th round, 2013) but managed to rush for a TD in each of 2013 and '14 in a combined 18 NFL games.

It took until November for me to strike on eBay again, but when I did early in the month I hit paydirt with another Cyan plate. This time it starred DT Maurice Hurst the younger: a 2018 Luminance plate of his RC inserted into that year's Plates & Patches product. This one appealed to me since it's a college photo, of course, and earned me the first 1/1 in his PC to go along with seven autos. After being drafted by the Raiders he moved on to the Niners, sat out a year with an injury, and then has suited up for the Browns ever since. I happy put up a bit under $11 shipped to get this one in my collection.

Speaking of productive Michigan DTs, I then scored my first hit of one of Jim Harbaugh's "gifts from the football gods" who, along with Mason Graham, anchored a fearsome DL that helped the coach go out on top. Kenneth Grant went #13 overall to the Dolphins last year, and here you see him on a black plate used to produce his 2025 Panini Absolute RC. Because of the color, the front's not much to look at, but I love the metallic colored backs of these plates. Just under $9.50 was surprisingly enough to start a hits collection for a guy that could be a future star, and who's one of 273 (and still growing!) subjects in that bunch.

Last up tonight, how about a 1/1 of a former #1 overall pick? Jake Long was one of the best players out of Michigan's outstanding 2008 draft class that's still my favorite. The four-time Pro Bowler stuck it out for nine NFL seasons with Miami (his drafting team), Atlanta, Minnesota, and also the pictured St. Louis Rams on this yellow plate from 2014 Topps. I picked it up for a little over $9 the week before Christmas to put the stud LT at 99 hits, putting him one shy of being the third football PC to hit the century mark, behind fellow '08 draftees Chad Henne and Mario Manningham. It's also my third 1/1 (all plates) of the top pick. Not bad!

For those interested, this haul puts my combined plates & 1/1s collection at a crazy 198. Whoa!

I'll try to finish up 2025 in the next post or two with my second half of the year TCDb trade haul, and then it'll be on to 2026.

2025 eBay purchases: go big and GO BLUE!

It's September and Michigan Football will be playing its second game of the season tonight, so let's finish up my pickups from the first half of 2025 with a look at what I bought for myself on eBay.

Purchase #1 was a little more than six months ago when I threw in a low bid on a plate that I was a bit surprised to win, but happy to get:

Braylon Edwards inches closer to the century mark with his 96th hit and fourth 1/1, a 2006 Bowman Chrome cyan plate. Since cyan is the closest you'll get to blue out of the four colors used in printing this is the best possible one for a Michigan collector like me! It joins similar cards from 2009 Topps Mayo (Magenta) and 2011 Topps Inception (Magenta and Yellow) and set me back a bit under $7--a very reasonable price for a plate.

Next, back in March you might recall in a Chronicles of Fuji trade post that I lauded Fuji for his generosity in sending me a $50 eBay gift card in January. I finally used it during my birthday month of May, snagging a huge addition for my football PC:

National champion RB Blake Corum supplanted his former position coach Mike Hart in the program's record books, and at this point I think he's taken over as my favorite to play the position as a Wolverine, so it was about time I found a high-end card of his to start his collection of hits. I don't remember the exact total, but I happily covered a bit more than the $40 cost of this amazing booklet with that gift card, plus I added a bit more to it (more on that in a minute).

 

Sure, I could have gone for some lower-end signature card, maybe the usual low-effort Leaf stuff, or SAGE, or even a pro uni card from one of the plethora of other Panini Brands. But when I saw this one, I knew it was National Treasures all the way. Though they're few and far between in my collection, I think booklets are awesome when done right, and this one counts. The left half comes with a larger Michigan blue jersey swatch with a "WOLVERINES" cutout above it, plus one of those cool acetate signature windows. The right side adds another jumbo swatch from what I would assume is a Wolverines jersey (even if it's "event-worn" or other).

As you can see on the outside of the booklet, it's also numbered to 49 up front, next to a nice, large version of the iconic block "M" logo. Nice!

 

I don't know what the future holds for his NFL career but I'll always appreciate Blake for what he did both on and off the field to represent his school, not the least of which was a storybook season that ended in a national title.

The next card is one of the ones that came along for the ride with the above Corum, along with a couple traders for friends, via the magic of combined shipping and a discount code for paying via eBay's app. In all, I scored four cards from this seller and after using Fuji's gift card, I spent $1.90 of my own money. You could say part of that cost amounted to this:

For basically $1 or so--seriously, the minimum bid--I was able to tack on my third autograph of Jack Blomgren, a former Wolverine and Rockies IF/OF prospect who's now working in Houston's system. While my other two signature cards of him hail from Panini Elite Extra Edition and are therefore use college uni photos (which I of course love), this one is my first of him in an MLB jersey (albeit an airbrushed one, I would assume). It's from 2020 Bowman Draft Chrome and is the Green version numbered /99. Not bad for a buck!

A couple weeks later in May, on my birthday, in fact, I won tonight's last card for just under $10 shipped:

This post's other 1/1 is also a cyan plate, though this time we stick to the diamond (and Bowman) and former pitcher Clayton Richard. My 14th (!) 1/1 of the lefty is the 11th plate I've picked up of him but somehow the first from the 2008 Bowman/Chrome line of sets. While he still can't hold a candle to Rich Hill's 36 cards of the rarest numbering, he's still second in the collection and one of just three with double-digits in that category (J.J. Putz is the other).

As I often say, $10 for a plate of a Michigan player I enjoy collecting is right in my wheelhouse, and given the way prices have gone up a bit over the past few years, I'd probable even go above my usual comfort zone of $15 max if something interests me enough. Fortunately I landed this one right in that affordable range to add to one of my player collections with some nicer rare pieces.

That's it for my personal eBay shopping so far this year, even up to the present, but then again my spending this year has seen a downward trend as I get pickier about what I'm willing to spend on and store. I wouldn't be surprised if found a couple more cool eBay items to recap by December, though.

But way before then, y'all can look forward to a bunch of July-related posts very soon. Stay tuned and GO BLUE! 

2024 COMC purchases: Nine from November

With the finish line now in sight I'm even more motivated to get this post done and call 2024 a wrap! Here's a look at the cards I bought for myself during COMC's Black Friday sale:

First up is hit #1 of another UM WR to wear #8 (besides another guy in this post), Ronnie Bell. The receiver/returner outplayed his practically anonymous recruiting rankings and was a key contributor as the Wolverines marched back to respectability under Jim Harbaugh. The Bowman's Best University card pictures him with the Wolverines (instead of the 49ers who'd eventually draft and then release him) and that's a great start for his hits collection! Sure, it's a sticker auto and he signed with his initials, but at least he added an inscription with his jersey number.

The day's other "first" is my second hit but first signature of LB Devin Bush II, a three-year Wolverine who did some nice work in 2017 and 2018 in Ann Arbor. The Steelers took him in the first round in 2019 and he's since bounced to Seattle and Cleveland, but was good enough to appear in an autograph insert (#d /299) in 2020 Panini Legacy.

In spot #3 is the other WR #8, the sure-handed Jason Avant, who was able to rescue the planted Michigan flag in Columbus this past season after Buckeye Jack Sawyer threw his hissy fit once his OSU team lost to Michigan again. Avant never won a Super Bowl with the Eagles but did have a solid 10-year career mostly spent with them, and I was thrilled to add another Triple Threads jersey/auto of his from his 2006 rookie year. The one you see above is the Sepia version /75 and is hit #66 of #8.

Next, RB Chris Evans appears to be out of the league at this point, but that wasn't going to stop me from picking up a third Michigan uni autograph of his. I may have passed on other brands but usually tend to like the simplicity of Score's rookie autos, so I had no problem ponying up a couple bucks for this one.

Sure, we've already had Devin, but what about second Devin? I paid less than $6.50 total for the cool pair starring former Panthers WR Funchess and I think that was a steal. The card on the left is a 2015 Panini Black Gold Sizeable Signatures Rookie Jerseys prime version, and I'm thinking you'll agree that it lives up to its "sizeable" and "prime" descriptors with ease. The other is a 2015 Panini National Convention VIP manupatch auto, which isn't the kind of thing I'd pay a premium for, but I do like seeing athletes sign things other than stickers. Funch moves up to 34 hits thanks to the pair.

I'll move down one spot horizontally to discuss the next card, a Jake Long 2008 Topps Triple Threads Sepia parallel. This one came with three really nice multi-color Dolphins swatches to go along with his signature (and numbering /75, like the Avant above). It's a great looking card to add to a collection that now stands at a very nice 98 hits, though he remains in third place behind our next two players.

Forever #1 guy Chad Henne continues to outpace the rest by a mile with his 146th hit, which happens to be one of the higher-end items in his collection. The 12th 1/1 I've landed for him, the card you see above is his 2008 Finest Yellow Plate (the non-auto version). It set me back a reasonable $14 which I don't mind paying for a top PC guy like Henne, whose hit collection isn't too far off of that from all-sports leader Rich Hill. As always, I'm a fan of when manufacturers do the border thing with their plates to make it obvious which color you have, especially in this case where the back is otherwise normal.

And last but not least is former blog namesake guy Mario Manningham. The 2008 Leaf Certified Materials auto you see above (#d /100) is everything I love about 2000s-era cards of some of my favorites, but it may be the most significant from this post for an entirely different reason: it puts Super Mario at exactly 100 hits, making him just the second player behind Henne in the football collection (and third overall including Rich Hill) to reach that mark! It actually wasn't 100% intentional as I would have been happy for Jake Long (again, 98) or Braylon Edwards (95) to make it first, but I only found one of the former I liked and none of the latter this time. So it looks like I get to celebrate Too Many Manninghams as my 2024 year of collecting comes to a close! (The football hits collection also surpassed the 1700-mark before the calendar turned, basketball went over 150, and hockey moved up to 350, with baseball very close to 450.)

Once again, thanks to everyone for making 2024 a great year of trading, blogging, reading, comments, shows, and more! I'm looking forward to treating you to recaps of the cards I've picked up since 2025 started including (at this point) seven blogger-related trade packages, two shows, and four TCDb deals. Look for a post covering the first blogger trade of January soon!

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.

2024 trade package #6: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been a busy month for me with a lot of time taken up by sorting through yet another great Facebook collection pickup (via a garage sale) plus a trip down south to see friends. But today I'm ready to get back at it with another trade recap.

This absolutely stacked package came from prolific trading buddy Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store back in April. There's a ridiculous amount of stuff to look at, especially new hits, so let's get down to it:

The relatively small baseball portion was hugely impactful. Doug's a fan of Panini Chronicles and a few of the cards you see here came from those brands. Sutherland, a Tiger for parts of three seasons in the 70s, is a '75 Hostess, and the Tigers team card is from the (usually) celebrated '75 Topps Mini set. Mike's son Daz hasn't made good on his prospect status yet, but the former Tiger (currently with Oakland) is more than welcome to join my collection of his former team with a '21 Chronicles Black 1/1! Just as exciting is a not quite as rare autograph of Cecil Fielder from '23 Chronicles, numbered to just 25 copies. It's my first signature of "Big Daddy" and just the second hit to go with a bat relic, and I'm extremely grateful for Doug's generosity in sending it my way after pulling it from a box break last year. Finally, 2021 #3 overall pick Jackson Jobe, a high school pitcher out of Oklahoma, makes his debut in the Detroit hits collection with a large jersey swatch out of '23 select. Jobe's considered a top-20 pitching prospect and aside from a bit of injury trouble, he looks like he could become a future ace.

On the basketball front we'll start with Joey Baker, a four-year Duke F who finished up his collegiate career in Ann Arbor. Wagner's from the somewhat oddball Pro Picks Premier product (say that three times fast!) that unfortunately has to go the airbrush route. I'm once again thankful for Doug bolstering my collecting with my first autographs of two players straight from my TCDb "Michigan alumni I need certified autographs for" list. The first is Caleb Houston, a G for the 2021-22 Michigan squad who bailed for the draft and got taken in the second round by the NBA version of the Wolverines, the Orlando Magic. My first signature of him proved to be card #1 in his collection, a 2022-23 Panini Court Kings Fresh Paint Ruby auto (#d /99). He's joined by three-point sharpshooter Duncan Robinson out of a '21-22 Chronicles insert, Apprentice Signatures Red. This was one of a few cards that came out of Panini's Rewards exchange program, and it's also my first hit of the SF/SG who'll be going into his seventh NBA season in a few months.

Flipping over to the gridiron, QB Wally Gabler's '70 O-Pee-Chee card was of extra interest to me as it's the first I've owned of the transfer from the New Mexico Military Institute (alma mater of blog favorite Tony Phillips). He got to start a few games in 1965 and went on to play for seven seasons in the CFL, appearing with the Toronto Argonauts, Winnipeg Blue Bombers (seen here) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He has five total OPC CFL cards to chase and I may work on tracking down the rest, but for now he's a very welcome addition to the collection.

On the hits front, I was pleased to receive new autographs of Jake Butt (Leaf Valiant) and De'Veon Smith (Elite) along with signatures of a couple new guys. DT Chris Hinton, son of the former NFLer of the same name, appeared in 32 games for the Wolverines between 2019-21, went undrafted, and appeared in a few games in 2022 and '23 with the Chargers; we'll see how friendly his new coach is to the former Michigan D-lineman! He's seen here on the first card of him in my collection out of 2022 Pro Set Draft.

Meanwhile, former Dallas TE Sean McKeon, who just joined the Lions as a free agent last month, is a more familiar face, though I'd yet to land a hit of any kind of his until Doug sent me his 2020 Panini Contenders auto, one that also came courtesy of Panini Rewards. I hope he sticks with the team come fall!

With these additions my count of unique subjects in the football hits PC eclipsed 250, so hooray for that milestone (and Doug, who was a big help in getting there)! Also, Jake hit the 10-card mark (eight autos and two plates), so I get to say that I have 10 Butts and I cannot lie!

There was enough Red Wings content to split it off from the rest of the hockey items. Along with a few newer players I was happy to see old favorites like Franzen, Holmstrom, Hull, and Kozlov. Hull of course was part of that famed 2001-02 Cup-winning team that just added Pavel Datsyuk to its HOF group which is now at 10 players (Shanahan, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Robitaille, Yzerman, Larionov, Chelios, and Hasek are the others). What a team that was!

2007-08 Cup winner Henrik Zetterberg rounds out the group of old favorites with a card that celebrates him being a draft steal as I write this post on the second day of the 2024 NFL draft.

The next bunch of scans comprised the largest portion of the mailer: Michigan Hockey. On a weekend that saw some three future Wolverines get drafted, I get to show off lots of cards of former UM icers who made it to the NHL, past and present. This group definitely represents the former as Beniers and Bordeleau are early in their careers, Compher became a WolverWing this past season, and Connor continues to light the lamp for the Jets while nearing the 250-goal mark.

More Connor? More fun for me! Fantilli won the Hobey Baker Award before having a nice rookie season for the Wolverine-friendly Blue Jackets. Glendening was a longtime WolverWing before heading off to Dallas and Tampa. The super talented Hughes just won his first Norris Award after going off for 17 goals (first time in double-digits) and 75 assists, both career highs, with 10 postseason assists for his Canucks. Goalie Jack LaFontaine joins the collection after spending two years in Ann Arbor and three more with Minnesota. Larkin's a mainstay on this blog and I hope he retires as a career Wing with at least one Cup win on the way to a HOF career.

The last of the non-hits opens with the well-travelled Jon Merril (Devils, Wings, Canadians, Wild), and he gives way to a duo starring relatively young Senator (Doug's team!) Josh Norris. Another Wolverine/Blue Jacket in tonight's post is Zach Werenski, who gets three new additions to his collection here while also appearing below. And lastly, my Cam York collection doubled in size to two with the numbered UD Synergy card you see above. The purple looks hilarious with the orange and black of the Flyers' uni but hey, why not?

If you got this far expecting a plethora of Michigan Hockey hits, boy do I have good news for you, because that's exactly what you'll get to see via this scan and the next one!

The previously-seen Bordeleau is first with an autograph that knocks him off my list of players I collect that need such a card, thanks to a shiny offering from Parkhurst via UD. Former Avalanche winger JT Compher is next with an SPx jersey repping the team with which he won a Cup, and that's hit #3 for him. Scoremaster Kyle Connor adds a numbered dual jersey from Artifacts to his pile, now five cards strong. Fox is definitely the oldest player here having appeared in the 70s and 80s for Atlanta, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, and while he's not new to the collection, Doug gifted me an SP Signature autograph of his to knock another name off the list. Patch gets a fun pair in the form of two '21-'22 SP Game-Used relics: a jersey swatch plus a banner from a couple 2021 outdoor games at Lake Tahoe, and those push him into double digits with 11 hits. Porter, another former Hobey winner, appears on an AHL auto from UD that represents my second signature and fifth overall hit of a guy I enjoyed watching in college. And as promised, Blue Jacket Werenski adds to his own stash with relic card #4, an SP Game-Used jersey (though I still need to track down an auto of his).

And we'll finish up this evening's post with some horizontal hockey. Yet another new player joins the hits collection today in Blankenburg, a defenseman who suits up for--who else?--Columbus. This Upper Deck jersey allows him and the other newbies today to bump the hockey subject count up to 64, which is great! Upper Deck Ovation supplies my third auto (and overall hit) of Andrew Copp, the former Jet and Ranger who's been a WolverWing the past two seasons. The (new) Captain, Dylan Larkin, finally hits double-digits with a beautiful swatch of a Wings jersey found in an SP Game-Used product. Tyler Motte's just a card behind him as #9 is his fifth relic, courtesy of Upper Deck, though he's appeared on five other teams since being pictured with Chicago here. And lastly, we see another captain and (fingers crossed) possibly future Red Wing, Jacob Trouba on a nicely designed UD Game Jersey. He's on the upper end of my collection with a solid 18 hits.

Besides the previously mentioned milestones I was able to hit another fun little one thanks to Doug's hitsplosion: 2600+ hits in the UM collection! I crossed the 2500 mark at some point last year and I'm thrilled to have moved up more than 100 already since then.

Doug, thanks so much for this amazing package plus the one from May that I'll hopefully show off soon! I have a few things ready to head back your way to Kitchener once I can fill out a package a bit more, but I think you'll be quite pleased.

Next time I post here y'all should be getting one more April blog trade recap before I cover other stuff from that month.

2024 eBay purchase: how Rudock!

(Quick note: I thought I was wrapping up February when I went to post this and then realized I actually purchased the card in late January. Oh well, whatever--I tend to do something like quarterly eBay pickup posts and this is the only item I've bought on that site for myself through May, so we'll press on!)

Above note aside, let's finish up February's (or January's, or whatever!) pickups by looking at my first eBay buy of 2024:

Here we have a magenta plate of former Iowa/Michigan QB Jake Rudock. The plate was used to produce his 2016 Playoff RC though it was actually inserted into Panini's Plates & Patches product that year, as is Panini's wont.

Since I can't remember when I discussed Rudock last, I'll give a quick recap of his college and pro careers. A fairly standard pocket-passer-type QB, the Florida native headed to Iowa and was pretty much their starter in 2013 and 2014, with the team going 8-5 and 7-6 over those two seasons. He transferred to Big Ten foe Michigan for the 2015 season as it was apparent that new big thing C.J. Beathard would be taking over under center in coach Kirk Ferentz's stone age offense. The switch (or other combined factors) led to the Hawkeyes going 12-0 in the regular season, though they lost by 3 to Big Ten champion MSU, then got their faces kicked in by Stanford in the Rose Bowl. The following season Iowa stumbled to an 8-5 record once again.

Meanwhile, Rudock would become the answer to a trivia question: Jim Harbaugh's first QB as coach of his alma mater after the embarrassing end to Brady Hoke's tenure (which was the result of Rich Rodriguez's embarrassing tenure). He brought some respectability to the position (though that's no ding against the valiant efforts made by the colossally mismanaged Devin Gardner) and after stumbling in a tough road test against what would be a ranked Utah team, he led the Wolverines to 9 regular season wins with a close loss to temporarily good MSU and a typical blowout loss for the time against the Buckeyes. Highlights included a November bombing of Indiana in a 2OT game plus a 41-7 curb-stomping of the Gators in the Citrus Bowl. That was Michigan's first bowl win since the 2012 Sugar Bowl and would be Harbaugh's only postseason victory until his squad defeated Alabama and Washington to win the whole thing earlier this year.

Based on his steady improvement, Rudock earned a look with the Lions as a 6th round pick after that season, which is not bad at all since he didn't appear to have much of an NFL future before heading to Ann Arbor. That's not to say that his NFL career amounted to much--just spot duty in three 2017 contests in which he completed 3 of 5 passes for 24 yards and an interception. The Lions eventually let him go in early 2019, then he signed on with the Dolphins, though he never went active with them.

You won't hear Jake complaining about those results, though, because he gave the league his best shot and is now in med school back in Ann Arbor. How cool is that?

Rudock remains one of a growing number of transfers (both in and out) that I collect, with that number sure to shoot up big-time thanks to the burgeoning landscape of the transfer portal and NIL money. I'll always fondly remember his single season with the Maize & Blue when he and Harbaugh arrived to try to right the ship, the first step on a long journey that culminated in a championship that brought elation and relief to Michigan fans worldwide. This plate is now my best card in his small collection, joined by a higher-end autograph to make a solid pair. At about $12 delivered (including tax), I was happy to add it. As luck would have it, I'm even tied with Jeff as his top collector on TCDb at 11 cards!

And with that I should now be caught up through February (aside from TCDb trades which will get recapped in a larger catch-up post) so I should be moving on to March next time.

2024 trade package #2: Scribbled Ink

My next trade package from January arrived courtesy of another longtime buddy of the blog, Paul, who can be found on Twitter now that he no longer blogs as Scribbled Ink. This one was just full of surprises and, well, just check it out:

It wasn't long after Christmas that the envelope showed up in my mailbox so I'd say the little Tigers helmet was still appropriate for the season. It looks great and has a perfect little olde English "D," and I may decorate a small tree late this year with all my sports-related ornaments.

Paul also included an unopened 2023 team set of his local minor league team, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. The sets you can get starring these teams are very cool, period, and I'm always glad to add more whether I've seen the team or know any players on them. This set includes last year's roster of AA players working their way up Toronto's system and the subject I'm most familiar with is a favorite of Paul and his son, Orelvis Martinez. The slugging Dominican infielder popped 28 HR in his first full minor league season, 2021, then added 30 and 28 more the two subsequent seasons, working his way up to AAA Buffalo. He's a top 100 prospect and I hope his fans get to enjoy his Major League debut soon!

The MLB stuff starts with some '96 Topps Tigers, and the less said about the teams back then, the better, though the players seen here are of higher quality than the average guy on those 90s squads. Cronenworth's start to the '24 campaign gets Gold Stars from me in addition to Topps. That Griffey Topps insert is deceiving because it's actually a green version and numbered /299! And a couple late 90s Cals lead into just a few more in the next scan.

Seven's just a few, right? The couple recent Topps and Donruss parallels are great--orange really goes well with Baltimore's unis, of course--but those 90s cards are outstanding. 1997's design is one of my all-time favorites from Topps, and Chrome makes it look even better, plus the photo they went with on this one is easily a top-10 Ripken for me. The horizontal Zenith is simply a work of art depicting the HOFer at bat. And the others are excellent too!

Paul even managed to sneak a Verlander (just one!) into this package, a Rainbow Foil from last year's Topps flagship product and one of a small number I own that show him with the Mets.

And last up for baseball, Paul was nice enough to snag one of the last two 1997 Score Hobby Reserve base cards I needed to re-complete my set. It's been a few years since I discovered that while most of my complete set included cards with the "HRxx" numbering on the back, a handful of the cards were the wrong version lacking numbering like that. I chipped away at the set until I got down to just two cards: the Nagy that he picked up and shipped to me, and the Andruw Jones Goin' Yard subset card you see above, which I bought myself on Sportlots last year. So, once again for the first time, I'm the proud owner of the full 1997 Score Private Stock/Hobby Reserve base set. w00t!

And we'll end on a strong note with some football and hockey. The latter is made up of a pair of UD All-Star related cards from the early 90s starring a couple Wings favorites from the team's 90s/2000s dynasty, Fedorov and Yzerman.

And the second football item is quite nice: a triple jersey of former UM QB and current (for now, given his arrest earlier today for OWI) staffer Denard Robinson, my 57th of Shoelace.

But SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP, what is that leading off this scan? Are you kidding me, Paul? An Aidan Hutchinson printing plate AUTOGRAPH?

Yep, sure is! That's an unexpected late Christmas gift if I've ever seen one, and a very, very, VERY generous one at that! Hutch could be found in Leaf's 2022 Ultimate Draft football product and this plate, which is indeed signed, was used to create Aidan's autographs found therein.

This is just my third Hutchinson hit and somehow all three include his signature, but it's going to be extremely difficult to top a signed 1/1.

Paul, sorry for the super belated post but thank you again for the incredible stuff above, truly a great mix that lives up to your reputation for sending a good variety every time. I don't have anything remotely close to the quality of some of this but will be able to hit you back relatively soon, which I can hopefully do now that the shock of the contents of this package has worn off!

This post wraps up January's blogger trades so next I'll either move on to one from the following month or recap some shows or something. We'll see relatively soon.