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!

2017 Sportlots purchases: listen all y'all, it's a Sabo-tage

For today's post let's go with another Reds fan favorite: Chris Sabo, the 3B nicknamed "Spuds" who was the National League's Rookie of the Year in 1988 and was a World Series champ in 1990.

Spuds is another of my supercollections and as with others like Hal Morris, I had a ton of luck attacking his wantlist thanks to Sportlots:

We'll start with 1988 when Sabo was named NL ROY.  Future HOFer Roberto Alomar placed a distant fifth in that voting despite a fairly similar season, oddly enough.

The first five cards in this scan are from that year and they include issues from Donruss and Fleer boxed sets, pre-RCs from Fleer and Score update sets, and a Glossy parallel of the Fleer card.

Then '89 opens with an oddball Bazooka product produced by Topps along with more Donruss and Fleer boxed set cards.

This scan will take us through the rest of 1989.  As in several of my other Sportlots posts there's still more boxed set stuff, especially thanks to Score and Fleer being so prolific late in the decade.  Speaking of the latter I grabbed both of Sabo's Glossy parallels of the flagship set.  An exciting appearance by Sportflics is joined by one other base card in Chris' '89 Topps RC.  Seriously, I didn't have one!  Finally, a Topps Glossy Send-In and oddball Toys 'R' Us issue close the book on that year.

Here we start with a quick romp through 1990:  base cards from Leaf and Topps (again, seriously) and Topps' Tiffany parallel.  Then we start a ten-card run through '91 with a trio from Donruss, plus Fleer, O-Pee-Chee, and one of two Score flagship appearances.

We'll close out '91 in style by starting with Sabo's other Score appearance:  a World Series card that includes fellow Wolverine Barry Larkin flipping his lid.  That's joined by another Score boxed set, Topps Tiffany, and a checklist from Upper Deck.

1992 Begins with Bowman and Donruss, gets interesting with a Fleer Team Leaders insert, then returns to status quo with Leaf and O-Pee-Chee Premier.

Let's finish off '92 with base cards from Studio and Upper Deck, plus UD's stupid Gold Hologram parallel.  I'm a supercollector so I have to pick those up!

Things start to get kind of interesting again with some of the '93 stuff.  Donruss, Fleer, and O-Pee-Chee are fairly pedestrian but the year gets boosted by Flair, Stadium Club (Members Only Parallel) and the much-improved Studio.

A '93 Topps Gold parallel finishes up '93 before we get into 1994 and Sabo's Orioles tenure, which ended up lasting just one season.  Bowman and Collector's Choice base cards lead off alphabetically, and I also picked up the latter's Gold and Silver Signature parallels; it's always nice to knock off the rarer Gold versions.  Those are joined by an even better version of Flair, one of my favorite Leaf designs, a much better effort from OPC, and the start of a nice run of designs for Pinnacle.

This group completes the year of cardboard in '94, and you can tell we're going alphabetically, not chronologically, because there's some Reds outliers here.  One of those is from Score, though the company updated his team in its Rookie/Traded product.  Stadium Club's base set (and its Members Only Parallel) showed him with Baltimore while its Team card, while listing him as an Oriole, still had a shot of him in his Reds uni.  Finally, his Topps Gold parallel also had him with the Reds, though that's not a huge shock since its flagship product can arrive before players switch teams.

This scan--the last with vertically-oriented cards--shows Sabo with three of his four career teams.  Three '95 cards--Fleer, Score Gold Rush, and Topps Cyberstats--end his Orioles run, and that year's Leaf documents his short (20 games) tenure with the South Side Sox.  I did a quick Beckett search and came up with just four products in which Chris appears with Chicago including Leaf above, Fleer Update (which I already have), Upper Deck (which you'll see below), and UD's Special Edition.  I'll also note that while Sabo appeared in just five games with the Cardinals during that same '95 season, he never appeared on cardboard as a member of that team.

Chris' final MLB season was 1996 and fortunately for me he could be found on Fleer's outstanding matte design from that year (as well as Ultra).  I also snagged one of his much more recent cardboard appearances, 2015 Stadium Club.  See?  Topps can do good things, they're just not in the practice of doing them regularly.

This second-to-last scan is just cards aligned horizontally, the way your cell phone videos should be most of the time if you're not an idiot.

Anyway, we have a nice assortment here, starting with a '91 Fleer World Series subset (not quite as cool as Score's), plus '92 OPC and Topps Gold.  Then 1994 is once again represented by Score's Select and Upper Deck (plus its not-that-great Electric Diamond parallel).  1995's Collector's Choice and its Gold Signature parallel--another one I'm glad to check off--finish us up here.

And here's today's final scan, which opens with the final two mainstream horizontal cards:  '95 Upper Deck and another Electric Diamond parallel.

The we go all the way back to the beginning with 1988 and '89 Topps Big, plus a miniature '89 Topps Leaders.  Those are followed by two '89 Panini Stickers, as well as Topps Stickers from the same year, one of which Sabo shares with AL counterpart Wade Boggs.  Last and definitely least (in terms of size), I grabbed Sabos Topps Micro issues from 1991-93.

All told this added a very nice 86 items to my Sabo collection and put me at 147/210 (70%) of his checklist, a great boost.

If that's not enough Sportlots action for you this evening, please head over to TMM for a nice little after dinner mint of a football post.  Either way, I'll send you off with a song:

2017 Sportlots purchases: hey, Abbott!

I'm doing my best to take advantage of the holiday break off from work to get some card stuff done, and yes, that does include doing up at least a few posts!

Before I get to today's content I also wanted to make sure to give a shout out to Kin of I Feel Like a Collector Again for the PWE he sent me recently, the contents of which are posted on TMM this afternoon.  I'm not sure how many of you who read/follow this here blog venture over there as well so I'm at least giving you a heads up to credit Kin for his Christmastime generosity.

And now, the subject of tonight's post:  Jim Abbott.

Jim Abbott.

I had plenty of luck piling up some cards of Abbott as I was filling out my Sportlots cart, and that's no surprise since his career spanned part of the junk wax era into the 90s (remember when we still had choices of brands?), plus he was enough of a fan favorite to appear in some recent products too.

In the following scans you'll see a nice mix of base from the 80s to today, a few inserts, and plenty of oddball too!  Essentially if a seller with something in my cart had anything of Abbott for around $0.25 or under, in it went.

I hope you all enjoy this look at the history of Jim's cardboard!

This first scan starts way back in '88 when I was just five, and opens with Jim's Topps Traded base highlighting his Team USA membership.  I think that's been talked about a decent amount here (and elsewhere), but as a reminder he helped lead the US to the 1988 Olympic gold medal with baseball as a demonstration sport that year.

There's also plenty of boxed set/oddball-type stuff from Classic, Donruss, Score, and Topps, an early-ish Fleer insert, and an example from the previous incarnation of Sportflix (Sportflics in this case, and not "Sportsflics" as you see so often).  Dead center is Jim's 1990 Collect-a-Book, and I'll show that in more detail at the end of the post.

This next group is mostly mainstream stuff with base and inserts from '91 Stadium Club, and 1992 Bowman, Leaf, O-Pee-Chee Premier, and Pinnacle (a solid early insert effort), though it does include oddball stuff from Toys 'r Us/Topps and a Jimmy Dean food issue along with another boxed set item from Score.

We remain almost entirely in 1992 with this bunch, beginning with a Score boxed set card and an insert (and a very nice, if simple, one) from the same brand.  Studio's sophomore version follows, then a pair of the superfluous Topps Gold parallel along with the more interesting Gold Winner version.  An oddball-ish Topps Kids card and McDonald's/Topps pairing close out the year while another Classic Game card begins '93.

Now we stay in '93, the year I hit double-digits and Abbott started appearing on cards as a Yankee.  Again there's mostly mainstream stuff here with the exception being that second card from Duracell.  Jim's first Angels tenure ends with cards from Donruss, OPC Premier, and Topps Gold, then his New York career starts with Select, SP, Stadium Club, the Yankees Stadium Club team set, and Triple Play's Gallery of Stars, which was essentially Diamond Kings 2.0.  The trio in the middle is a nice look at how the quality of cards continued moving in the right direction.

Here we finish up with '93 and Jim's UD base plus a couple from the kid-oriented Fun Packs.  The start of 1994 includes Bowman, Collector's Choice, Donruss (Special Edition), Finest, Flair, and Leaf Limited.  I feel like Finest took a step back in its sophomore season before making a small improvement the following year and finally getting back on track in '96 (other than the protectors, which I could do without).  There's some nice pitching action shots here, and even a bonus background shot of Abbott hitting, a relative rarity before interleague play.

1994 continues with OPC, Pacific (and its old, terrible logo), a Score Gold Rush parallel, Sportflics, Stadium Club Team, and another food issue:  Tombstone Pizza.

That never gets old.  Meanwhile, 1995 opens with the second offering of Collector's Choice, that brand's probably unnecessary Special Edition (Silver Signature), and the slightly improved third year of Finest (boo protectors!).  The Collector's Choice SE card does have a great example of Pitching Face, though.

Now we get into the meat of '95, when Jim signed as a free agent with the White Sox.  That year's weird Fleer design along with Pacific's Crown Collection and Upper Deck Series I (and its Electric Diamond parallel) featured Abbott with his old team while Leaf (still one of my favorite designs of theirs), SP, Stadium Club Series II (Super Team World Series), UD Series II, and UD Special Edition depicted him with his new team.  One cool thing I noticed about this group:  no borders!

Jim returned to the Angels in a midsummer deal in '95, and all three '96 cards above--Emotion-XL, SP, and Summit (Foil parallel) capture that.  That SP design remains one of my favorites from the product's whole run.

The '99 Upper Deck Victory base in the second row hails from his final season, before which he'd signed with the Brewers.  Then we get a nice bunch of retrospective cards:  2002 Topps American Pie, 2004 UD Yankees Classics, 2005 Donruss Greats and Topps Rookie Cup, and 2013 USA Baseball Champions Highlights.  We're not quite done with his post-career cards, though.

Despite the stupidity of the Toppsopoly, at least they've thought to include him in various recent products.  The final three regular-sized vertical cards hail from 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen's No Hitters insert, 2014 Topps' Upper Class (with a great photo of a very young Jim in the old-school uni), and 2015 Topps Update's Pride and Perseverance, an actual good idea from Topps!

Then we're off to the beginning of the horizontal stuff.  Upper Deck celebrated a nice little milestone with its Fifth Anniversary insert that spruced up some of its cooler issues from the original '89 version, such as this multi-exposure that was Abbott's RC in that iconic set.  Sticking with UD but moving up a year, we have a 100% hologram card from that year's Denny's set (note that they weren't always completely holograms).  Also from '94 is a Fleer Golden Moments insert (one they'd use again, fortunately) that includes Abbott and two other pitchers:  Chris Bosio and the late Darryl Kile.  All three tossed no-hitters the previous year, though Kile's was not of the shutout variety as he allowed an unearned run on a wild pitch.

This scan finishes up the horizontal stuff, beginning with 1994 Stadium Club (the label-maker set!) and Upper Deck Electric Diamond.  1995 is represented by the pair of Flair and Studio (and its credit card design).  Three more cards for the following year:  Pinnacle's high-end (at the time) Aficionado--the set that taught us a new word for "fan"--Stadium Club, and its Silver parallel.  And finally, from 20 years later we have another example of Stadium Club, and a very nice one at that.

Last up is the stuff that came in weird sizes.  That includes Panini Stickers from 1990 and '92 (I should check to see if I have these in my albums), a 2010 TRISTAR Obak Mini, and tiny Topps Micro cards from 1991, 1992 (two of them) and '93.

And finally, here are the scans from the Collect-a-Book for those of you who were curious:

Back and front

Inside #1

Inside #2

Inside #3

I hope you all had fun poring over a crazy 92 cards of Abbott for his PC, giving me an excellent new total of 247!

I don't know who'll be up next, but stay tuned.

2017 Sportlots purchases: on this day in '84 he roared

I was all set to post my purchases from last Saturday's show before I caught this in my Twitter feed:

On this day in 1984: pic.twitter.com/vAIIedXQvD

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) October 14, 2017

33 years ago today the Tigers completed one of their best seasons in franchise history with an 8-4 Game 5 victory over San Diego to win their fourth (and most recent) World Series title.  ALCS MVP Kirk Gibson opened the scoring with a first-inning two-run bomb off of Padres starter Mark Thurmond, but when he came to the plate in the bottom of the 8th, Detroit was holding onto a one-run lead with 3B Marty Castillo and 2B Lou Whitaker on third and second and one out.

Hall of Fame Padres manager Dick Williams visited his Hall of Fame reliever Goose Gossage on the mound to discuss walking Gibson with first base open and setting up an inning-ending double play.  Ever the competitor, Gossage talked his skipper into going after Gibby, prompting a scene captured on video for posterity in which Hall of Fame Tigers manager Sparky Anderson noted to Gibson, "He don't wanna walk you!  He don't wanna walk you!"

Gibson made him pay by absolutely tattooing a no-doubter to the right field upper deck, giving the Tigers a four-run cushion they wouldn't relinquish:1984 AL Cy Young and MVP Award-winner Willie Hernandez needed just four batters to get the final three outs, and ended things by getting Hall of Fame Padre Tony Gwynn to fly out to left.  (By the way, I'm mentioning all these HOFers since none of the players on that Detroit team ever gained election.)

I was too young to enjoy the victory at the time but fortunately my family made sure I grew up remembering that '84 team.

So, flash forward to 2017.  I made my biggest combined Sportlots purchase to-date, grabbing more than 1,000 cards, a few of which went out in trade packages, but most of which have remained with me.  Everything is scanned but it'll take me a while to get each card cropped, labelled, and ready for posting.  However, as I mentioned, Detroit's earlier tweet inspired me, so today marks the first day of the great Sportslotting of 2017, starring one Kirk Gibson:

Since I already had a pretty good portion of Gibson's regular issue stuff from products that came out during his career (and a few after), get ready to see lots of oddball stuff, especially stickers, things from boxed sets, coins, and other miscellany.

This scan includes cards from 1982 (Drake's), '84 (Donruss and Fleer), '85 (Drake's again), and '86 (Fleer Limited Edition, Fleer Star Stickers, Leaf, Topps Glossy Send-Ins, and True Value).  Definitely some interesting stuff with just a couple regular base cards.

This group is pretty similar to the last one.  We start with 1987 (Fleer Game Winners, Fleer Limited Edition, and Topps Tiffany), make a longer stop in '88 (Fleer Glossy, Fleer Star Stickers, Score Rookie/Traded, Sportflics, and Topps Tiffany) and finish with the start of '89 (Bazooka).  Almost everything here is from a boxed set, and of course 1989 begins the run on his Dodgers cards.

This scan proves two things:  I found a ton of '89 stuff (almost everything here is from that year), and Fleer produced a buttload of sets that year!  In order we have these Fleer products:  Baseball All Stars, Baseball MVP's, Exciting Stars, Glossy, Heroes of Baseball, League Leaders, Superstars, and Wax Box Cards.  It's almost as if he did something in '88 to merit all the attention.  An oddball Kay-Bee issue (from the usual partnership with Topps) breaks the brand monopoly, though the Wax Box card, cut from the bottom of a box, is probably the coolest get here.  I may just have another to show you in a future post!

We'll finish up 1989 in this scan with the first eight cards you see:  Score Hottest 100 Stars, Sportflics, Topps Ames 20/20 Club, Topps Cap'n Crunch, Topps Glossy Send-Ins, Topps Hills Team MVP's, and a pair from a Woolworth's/Topps collaboration.  Then we begin the new decade with another Topps/Ames partnership, this one covering All-Stars.

This scan mostly closes the book on the store and retail issues (you might see more in a bit!) but my focus was on the second of my old-school Sportflics pickups.  While the more modern versions were always going to look better, these hologram cards were super cool in the 80s.

Now we get into the 90s and much more mainstream stuff, though first up is an oddball from the 1991 Classic Game set (purple?  Really?)  Gibby's Dodgers issue from the same year's UD set follows.  Then we get a pair of '92s:  the Stadium Club Pirates card (which I think is the last I needed of him with that team) and Topps Gold, the second and final Royals appearance.  After those come a pair of '94s in Leaf and Collector's Choice Silver Signature (not sure how those got out of order).  The final three cards begin a nice run of '95s:  Collector's Choice SE Silver Signature, Donruss Top of the Order, and Emotion.

1995 was pretty much the last year Kirk appeared on cardboard while he was playing  as his career ended after that season; His only '96s are three Collector's Choice issues.  Thankfully, '95 was a good year to be collecting the OF that reunited with his original team.

This scan starts with five more for '95:  Score Gold Rush, Select Certified, SP Championship and its die-cut parallel, and Upper Deck Electric Diamond.  Then all of a sudden we jump ahead to 2002 with Fleer Fall Classics, a Topps American Pie base card and Red Sluggers insert, and Upper Deck World Series Heroes.  No oddballs here, just plenty of Tigers cardboard and cards once again celebrating Gibby's iconic 1988 Game 1 homer.

This last group of vertical regular issues is all playoffs, all the time.  From 2004 I grabbed one of Kirk's Donruss World Series Blue cards, plus both of his Tigers entries from that year's fantastic UD Legends Timeless Teams product.  Last up is a 2013 Hometown Heroes Curtain Call insert--take a stab at which home run that highlights, why don't you.  As you might guess, the Tigers-centric Timeless Teams cards are my favorite here, and they remind me that I really should try to see if I can finish up a team set at some point.

Just three horizontal cards this time:  1989 Topps Big, 1989 Fleer Glossy World Series, and 1995 UC3.  I've always considered the latter to be superfluous because of Pinnacle's Sportflix brand, but while that had a hologram kind of style, I guess UC3 shoots for a 3D look.

And now we start heading away from standard card formats and spin in circles instead.  Here you see Topps Coins from 1987 and 1989 plus a 1990 King B Disc.  You may just see similar items in future Sportlots posts!

This final scan covers all of the smaller stuff, mainly stickers and minis.  Items 1 and 3-5 are Topps Stickers from 1981, '82, '83, and '87, respectively.  Between the '81 and '82 Topps Stickers is a Fleer Stamp from 1982.

The next four stickers hail from Panini's 1989 sticker book, including a pair highlighting the Dodgers' World Series win.  Three more Topps items then continue the 1989 run:  Mini Leaders, Topps/O-Pee-Chee Sticker Backs, and Stickers.

Moving on to the bottom, items 1 and 3 are Panini stickers from 1990 and '95.  I must not have been collecting the latter because they don't look familiar to me at all.  In between those we have a tiny Topps Micro offering, something seen here fairly often when it comes to my PCs, and this one was made in 1992.

Closing out this post is a horizontally-oriented sticker that appropriately enough was made in 1984 by Topps.  Gibby's is the half I care about, but he shares this dual-player offering with former Red Sox (and still brother of Trevor) Glenn Hoffmann.

That's an awesome 80 new cards and oddball issues added to my Gibson PC, which ends the day at 282, just a couple short of his career stolen base total, oddly enough.

I'm looking forward to showing y'all the rest of my huge Sportlots purchase soon, though I'll likely try to get a few other things posted first.  I may not have them all done by the time we have a World Series champion, but while I'm working I'll be happily thinking about the from 33 years ago!

2015 trade package #29: a freezing Fuji envelope

Like many of you out there I was the beneficiary of a fantastic Fuji trade package, one of many he sent out recently.  I can't imagine there's a single person reading this here blog that hasn't heard of the legendary Fuji thanks to his top-notch blog and super generous envelopes.  On this snow-covered Michigan Sunday evening, here's what Mark sent my way:

A perfect page of Tigers!  This nine-spot includes father and son Fielder, Hammerin' Hank, the oft-traded Edwin Jackson, a super rare Kinsler parallel (#d 18/25!), a Refractor of former closer Joe Nathan, a pair of inserts of former ace Scherzer (the latter is #964/999), and a very young JV.  The Kinsler was easily one of the highlights of the whole envelope and I'm excited to have it.

Panini stickers!  Specifically, a six-pack from the 1988 album.  Man, did I ever love putting these together as a kid.  One of these days I'll take some pictures of what I have in terms of the old albums and the stickers stuck in them.  It's nice having "unstuck" versions to keep as well, including Sweet Lou Whitaker.

Hits!  Highlighting the bunch is a pair of Granderson jerseys (yep, he hit both of this here blog's namesakes), and Curtis' World Series performance this season has me more interested than usual in piling up more of his stuff.  Former Tigers prospect Corey Knebel (apparently pronounced "kuh-NAY-bull," who knew?), since flipped to Milwaukee by way of the Rangers, makes an appearance from a 2013 Panini Prizm set; dude has a very nice signature!  Peake is a Rochester, Michigan, native who was Washington's first pick in '91 and actually never played for Detroit, but was instead with the OHL's Detroit Junior Red Wings when this card was made, making it a very cool piece!

Please make sure to check out the rest of the goods over on TMM this evening--let's just say that Mark managed to include something of all three of the namesakes of my pair of blogs in this package.

Thanks again for some great cards, Mark, and don't you worry about a lack of trade bait in the future--I'll be sending more stuff your way anyway!