2024 trade package #15: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store part 1: everything but hockey

Tonight let's take a look at part of the latest big-ass shipment from Doug over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, received by me in August.

That's right--I said "part of" because he literally sent me this:

I split it into hockey and non-hockey, and you'll be getting the latter tonight. In true SCFtDS form, you'll get to see a large package broken up into multiple posts!

Baseball's up first and my Tigers PCs, some old and many new, were well represented. I don't know if Baez is long for a roster spot but that Bowman's Best is pretty cool. The '72 Gator would be cool enough on its own but this one is a Canadian special: O-Pee-Chee! Miggy makes a few recent-ish appearances here plus one more in the horizontals section. Campos is only 21 and a potential OF prospect to watch. Traded Tiger Canha joins a bunch of others in this post from this year's Heritage.

Cronenworth is of course a favorite. Flaherty is surely happy to be with the NL champion Dodgers while the Tigers got two solid prospects in the deal. Gold is 24 and still in high A while Graham will be that age early next year and seems to be hovering around A+ himself. The Riley Greene playing card is a cool one of a fun player I'm definitely growing to like on the team. And Griffey was pretty good in his day as well.

Jobe is pretty much the franchise's top prospect after going 3rd overall in 2021 and he was though of highly enough to make a late-season MLB debut followed by a couple appearances in the playoffs, which had to be thrilling for a young dude. Jung is another top-100 prospect for the team and while his '24 MLB debut wasn't amazing, it was cool to see the '22 first-rounder get some ABs with the big team. Keith is locked up for a few seasons and could be a key part of a rebuilt offense. Kemp is another OPC Tiger from my Canadian buddy, this one from 1979.

Kinsler's was a bit of a favorite of mine during his Motown tenure so I love the Refractor above. Larkin is of course a longtime personal favorite and PC guy. McGonigle is an intriguing middle IF prospect that the Tigers took 37th overall in '23. Austin didn't work out but his Tigers draftee bro Parker has shown a bit of hitting ability and a flair for web gems in the outfield so we'll probably see plenty more of him next year. Melton's a '22 4th-rounder out of San Diego State, Morris is a team legend and HOFer, and Olson is looking to be an excellent acquisition whose numbers were hampered by a sorry lack of run support (and bad health luck) this season.

I have to say, it's super cool to see a guy like Magglio in products like Panini's '23 Chronicles, including the card numbered /199 above! As with other players you saw today I'm always glad to see cards of Cal in trade packages. Skubal is largely responsible for taking what looked to be another below-average Tigers squad and making it a big story, with a Cy Young-worthy campaign that led his team to a very unlikely playoff berth! Tork recovered a bit after a dismal start and we'll likely get a better idea next year if he'll be part of the club's future. Tram is another team legend appearing courtesy of '23 Panini Select. And Papa Grande and JV had fans plenty excited back when they were starring on perennial playoff teams.

The versatile Vierling is our last standard vertical issue in the baseball group. Miggy gets another Heritage MLB pair card that looks quite cool as a throwback to past Topps designs. The two guys who led the '82 Tigers on the '83 Topps card had an especially good time in '84! A stray '85 OPC half sticker of Lou Whitaker was a very fun surprise. Jung makes a couple more appearances, including one with the also previously-seen Melton. And then we have a card of a former Tiger the likes of which I wouldn't tend to keep, but there's no way I could turn down the Leather & Lumber black gold signature you see here even if it features failed prospect Christin Stewart. Come on, how cool does that look?!

Switching over to basketball, I believe that every player seen here is currently active in the NBA. Injured Hawks G Kobe Bufkin leads all comers with three new cards. THJ had a solid 14 points in Detroit's season-opening loss last night, and the card you see above is numbered /165, which is cool. LeVert's Cavs are actually scheduled to face the Pistons tomorrow. I couldn't find any stats for Washington's Poole yet this season. And then we have the Wagner bros, Franz and Mo who combined for 30 points (23 and 7, respectively) in yesterday's season opener win against the Bulls.

Basketball got a couple new hits too! Brooks is a newcomer to both my basketball hits collection and UM basketball PC in general. He played as a G for five seasons in Ann Arbor, spanning 2017-18 to 2021-22, then went undrafted, so he's prime fodder for a product like Wild Card Alumination that gets signatures of players who probably wouldn't sniff a cardboard appearance otherwise. While he becomes the 36th subject in my basketball hits PC, Wilson gets his second: a Crown Royale jersey/auto (numbered /199). The 2017 Bucks first-rounder is pictured with the team that drafted him though he's since suited up for Houston, Doug's Raptors, and the 76ers.

As we switch over to the gridiron, transfer RB Thomas Rawls is the lone base card out of 10 items (hence splitting the remaining basketball and football into two scans). WR Amara Darboh gets a nice spotlight down the right side of the scan with three beautiful looking auto/relics. #1 is a dual jersey (you might call them "prime" as they aren't far off from patches) and football combo paired up with Darboh's signature, and the Absolute beauty is the Spectrum parallel of that product's RC, limited to "just" 99 copies. Next is Panini Phoenix's Orange parallel of his jersey/auto, clocking in at 150 copies. And finally we have a Rookies & Stars Dress for Success signature and memorabilia pairing that's also numbered /99. Fun news: these additions allowed Darboh to join the 50-hit club in the football PC! He's just the 11th player to reach that milestone.

The above three hits go quite well with this super sextet. Arrington is one of the 10 other 50-hit guys in my collection and the '09 Topps Magic autographs will always be a favorite of mine. Talented defender Devin Bush II joins the collection with his first hit, a Panini Luminance jersey that makes him football collection dude #254 and the fourth with that first name. I now have 11 Butts including the shiny one numbered /99 above, and I'll leave that there for all of you to get your best comments in. Chesson was a college teammate and position mate of Darboh's and he hit the double-digit mark with his 9th card including a signature (the other's a plate) thanks to 2017 Panini Spectra (#d /199). I would assume most of you who've followed me for long enough remember the namesake of my now-retired secondary blog, Mario Manningham, on a sweet Press Pass college uni signature. By the way, he's one hit away from joining Chad Henne in the 100-hit club while Jake Long needs three and Braylon Edwards needs six. Goals!

And last up is one of the biggest surprises in this mailing. Doug's certainly been generous enough to send me plates and other 1/1s before, but I didn't expect this Yellow 2020 Leaf Draft plate of former transfer QB Shea Patterson! The two-year Wolverine went 10-3 and 9-4 in 2018 and 2019, a few seasons before things really turned around for Jim Harbaugh's program. This appears to be my 56th 1/1 in my football PC with Shea being the 34th member to appear on at least one. I really enjoyed finding this among the rest of the loot which was already very high quality.

So as you can see I was quite pleased with the baseball, basketball, and football content. As for the hockey stuff, you'll have to wait until next time, but I promise it's worth a look as that stack was bigger than that of these three sports combined! I look forward to sharing that with you so y'all can get a feeling for just how much Doug stuffed into this box.

Until then, thanks so much for another fantastic package, Doug!

3/1/24 card show report: March radness

This evening I'm finishing covering my March hobby goings-on with the only purchase I made that month, which ended up being my usual card show.

I headed over to Taylor on Friday, the first, and happily spent $100 on lots of great stuff. I don't remember most of what I got that wasn't keepers for me, but I don't just spend an amount like that on something like cards if I don't think it's worth it. So I'm sure I picked up some great package-fillers for some of you that follow me here and others I trade with.

Speaking of trade bait, you might have noticed I haven't really had any cards to show off that weren't already ticketed for trade packages in these show reports lately, and that's mainly because I haven't come across anything that seemed worth it. Instead I'm focusing most of my money and effort on stuff I know will be going to one of my regular collecting buddies. That doesn't mean I won't have more to claim again in the future, but that's a much lower priority for me because I already know what most of my usual trade partners might like.

With that out of the way, here's my keepers from the March show:

The Cal on top is from a 2001 Fleer Premium insert called Decade of Excellence. This was a huge 50-card chase set in that product with cards ranging from Ruth and Gehrig (1920s) all the way up to A-Rod/Jeter/Nomar and others in the "2000s," though obviously that decade had just begun. As you can see, Ripken is one of the players representing the 90s, and for very obvious reasons unless you were living under a rock. I like the look of this insert as I often do with Fleer cards from that era, plus it's a new Ripken, so, win-win!

Next, the biggest card I brought home this time was a 2001 SP Legendary Cuts bat relic of Wolverine/Tiger baseballer Charlie Gehringer. This was an especially exciting buy for me because of his connection to both teams, plus it's just a great example of the quality of vintage player relics that Upper Deck put out at the time. I'm also happy to add it to the other three Tigers I have from the Legendary Debut Bats set: Bill Freehan, Alan Trammell, and Lou Whitaker. '68 great Willie Horton is the last Tiger I need to finish up the team set, plus I'm chasing George Sisler for my Michigan PC.

I think the seller had this in his showcase for somewhere between $20-$30 and he gave me a discount on it with the rest of my purchase. I'm glad I didn't leave it for someone else to snag so I'd regret it! That's just my second Gehringer relic to go with 10 autographs and a plate.

The football side of things was mostly inserts with a couple other items of interest thrown in. Darboh's from 2017 Panini Classics' Red Back parallel, and while the back is the main difference, I was more interested in landing another numbered card, plus the college photo is a plus. Speaking of numbered stuff, Devin Funchess got two of those added to his PC (which sits at exactly 100, woo!): a 2015 Panini Clear Vision Blue parallel of his RC (kick acetate!) /99 and 2018 Panini Silver Knight parallel /50.

Then, Dax brings the Rated Rookie goodness from '22 Donruss as my 8th RC of the talented DB. A Michigan-uniformed Charles Woodson is the subject of a rookie year Press Pass insert from 1998 called Triple Threat. He was one of three players (Peyton Manning, Ryan Leaf) to be included in the set, and each player appears on three cards, with the one you see above being Woodson's third. I'd love to get the other two to put them together to celebrate the guy who rightly defeated the other two for the Heisman late in '97.

Last up on the insert side of things I came up with a cool pair of Pacific inserts of two guys I always lump together: David Terrell and Anthony Thomas. I have more of the latter than the former, though that's because A-Train's career lasted longer than Terrell's, leading to Thomas appearing on just about double the number of cards. So it was super cool to find both of them out of this 2001 Private Stock Titanium insert that was numbered /2000 and given out at the 2002 Hawaii Trade Conference. Yep, these two have lived it up better than I have!

And last up is one other hit that I thought would be fun to snag for something like $2 or $3: a 2020 Panini Contenders Blue Foil auto of former Michigan QB Shea Patterson. The guy who famously (allegedly) put more effort into his golf game than football practice still put up some good games for the Maize & Blue in 2018-19 so I didn't mind paying a few bucks for my third autograph of his, and first from a "real" brand (the other two are Leaf). I'd say it was worth it to get the full Michigan uniform experience even if it's a sticker-graph.

And that does it for what was a pretty low-key March for me. Don't worry, though, because there's lots more to see from April on, and I'll be back with a post that starts covering that month's cards soon!

2021 trade package #25: the Lost Collector

A.J. may call himself the Lost Collector but this is a dude who's far from lost when it comes to sending great PWEs. The chaser of all things Tino Martinez had promised to send a few Michigan cards my way and then as usual I forgot all about that so the envelope that showed up this past Friday was a surprise to me.

After Michigan's satisfying win over Penn State yesterday afternoon I'm definitely in the mood to show off some Wolverines cards, so here's what A.J. sent my way:

Three players, two brands, and one scan, so this will be nice and easy to recap! McKeon ("Mc-KEWN") was a solid TE in Ann Arbor and went undrafted in 2020 before being selected by the Cowboys, for whom he recorded his first pro catches in this afternoon's demolishing of the Failcons. Patterson, of course, was Michigan's QB in 2018 and 2019 and had an up-and-down career that left him undrafted as well. He's now playing in the CFL where a few other Wolverines have found success, so that's cool. And DPJ is definitely the most successful of this trio, with at least one catch in each game this year, and three TD catches in his previous two games. The 2020 sixth-rounder (which is still ridiculous to me) could see his role increase with headache machine Odell Beckham Jr. gone.

2020 Score is the first of the two products that featured in this PWE, and it's one with a design I give a thumbs up to, in no small part thanks to college uni photos. Patterson's RC represents the lone base of the four while the other three are Black parallels covering all three players here. Score has traditionally put out quite a few unnumbered color parallels over the last decade and these may be among my first from last year's offering. More Michigan uniform cards are always welcome to join the PC!

The other product you see is 2020 Leaf Draft, which just includes just Patterson and Peoples-Jones in its 100-card checklist. A.J. sent me base and Gold parallels of both guys, which was super helpful in making sure I had my bases covered there. I'm not sure where Leaf gets off throwing a "RC" logo on their cards, but I haven't taken that tag seriously from other brands for years, so why not go nuts? The only real downside of brands like Leaf is that they have to airbrush parts of the uniforms so you get quasi-team looks. Still, I appreciate the product as it's sometimes responsible for cards and occasionally autographs of guys that might not otherwise get them.

The group you see above bumped my collection of McKeon to 5 plus 7 each for Shea and DPJ. Bonus points to A.J. for a 100% college uni PWE!

Here's the backs for completeness. I'm kind of curious why Leaf used gold accents on both the base cards and Gold inserts, but again, Leaf gonna Leaf.

A.J., thanks again for hitting me back just in time for me to celebrate my Wolverines being 9-1 and in the hunt for the playoff with two games left. I'll keep looking all over for cards you don't have, though I know how much of a challenge that is when you could easily rename your blog "Too Many Tinos"!

2021 trade package #16: The Lost Collector

A few weeks ago when I did my show report after getting to one for the first time in forever, I mentioned that as usual most of my money went towards trade bait, which was excellent since that's generally my best source for reasonably priced quality items for trade packages. As solid as everything was, it was only $1.

I mention that because one of the cards I snagged just in case was a Tino Martinez numbered jersey. I deal with enough folks that could potentially use it that I was glad to bring it home, and at worst it could go on TCDB anyway. That worst cast scenario was in no way necessary, though, because the first person I offered it to (via Twitter DM) is a bigtime Tino collector, and as it turns out he even needed it, despite being over the 1,100 mark in that player collection!

I'm guessing that most of you who know him already put together that I'm talking about A.J., a.k.a. the Lost Collector, who was nice enough to show his appreciation in his post here. A.J. didn't stop there, though, as he subsequently sent me an unexpected PWE with a few cards that fit my collections perfectly:

That trio of Tigers along the top is an excellent start! First up is Ty Cobb's appearance in 2020 Topps' Topps Choice insert set. In that one you can find past and present players on Topps designs from 1956, 1965, 1987, 1991, 2008, 2011, and 1971, with the latter being the source for the Georgia Peach's card above. In addition to the usual writeups, the backs mention in large print which set the designs came from, which is a good way to try to educate folks less familiar with their past products.

Big Daddy is up next on his 2019 Topps Chrome Update Family Business insert, and "daddy" is the key word here. Every player in this Refractorized insert has or had at least one other family member in the game, and of course Tigers fans were well acquainted with Cecil's son Prince before he became a star in his own right. Due to the way the younger Fielder's tenure with Detroit ended, my opinions of the two have flip-flopped and I'm back to preferring the guy who brought joy to the area when he socked 51 HRs in 1990.

Last up in the Tigers group is Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline, who got plenty of screen time in my most recent post. Happily, while I added a bunch of new stuff to his collection via Sportlots, I still needed the 2019 Topps Update Perennial All-Stars insert you see above (my third, to go along with Griffey and Ripken). The back states that Al is the youngest position player to start an MLB Midsummer Classic at 20 1/2 in 1955 (the year he won that batting title), plus he'd be named to 13 in a row (15 total), which is the definition of "perennial"!

Last up today is a pair of Wolverines that makes me appreciate this envelope even more, because it shows that A.J. put as much effort into knowing what to include for me as I did in finding something for him. I love my Michigan uni cards and that's exactly what I have here in 2020 Prizm Draft RCs of QB Shea Patterson and WR Donovan Peoples-Jones. It's no surprise that Shea went undrafted after the way his Michigan career went, but DPJ has a chance to make some noise in his upcoming second season with the Browns after putting up 14 TD catches and two punt return scores in college.

And here's the backs for those of you who like to see those.

A.J., once again I'm glad you liked the Tino, and I'll be happy to look for more stuff you could potentially use, especially if I can get back to the same show next week. Either way, I really appreciate you getting me back with this five pack that really targeted my collections nicely!

With nothing else coming in the mail for the foreseeable future I'm planning to be back next time with more Sportlots cards as I continue to work through those stacks.

2021 trade package #5: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Happy Sunday, everybody! I'm feeling good having been able to get some stuff done this weekend, plus Michigan took down Ohio State in basketball earlier this afternoon, so it's been a pretty good day. How about celebrating with my latest mailer from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store?

Speaking of celebrating, this is package #40 from one of my favorite traders that I'm featuring on this here blog (he got up to 56 on Too Many Manninghams, though there was some overlap there too). Doug managed to stuff a bunch of great cards into the last package he sent me, the one that included a couple sweet 8x10 autos, and somehow he still had enough to fill out a fat bubble mailer.

Thankfully he finally had some cards to show off from me, posting those not long after his birthday on 2/14. But I've got lots of catching up to do, as you'll see after taking a look at what he sent this time:

A Sabo base from the year his Reds won it all is the only baseball content today, but the team's name goes well with the next bunch. The last few years of Red Wings squads are a far cry from the glory days of teams helmed by the likes of Datsyuk, Larionov, and Zetterberg, but with Stevie Y in control, I have a feeling Hockeytown won't have to wait as long to celebrate with the cup as we did when 1997 rolled around. Igor's card is a suuuuper thick numbered base from UD's very high-end The Cup product. Also, I like the die-cutting on Hank's OPC card, but I'll be damned if these aren't a pain in the ass to try to position to scan since there's no straight edges and they spin around on the glass like it's an air hockey table!

Now we'll move on to the team of the hour (or the year?). Coach Juwan Howard, seen twice here, has done an amazing job to get the team where it is today, with just one loss, multiple impressive wins, and a likely 1-seed. The well-travelled Burke is always nice to see, and Grant's appeared in more than a couple Buckstorecards packages. "Sugar" Mills is one of the Pistons I remember from back when I actually used to watch pro basketball (mainly during the Pistons' heyday) and I liked him before I knew he was a former Wolverine.

The hits here are also typically excellent. Just my second LeVert (and Doug also sent me the first one, which is gonna be hard to top!) this Panini Noir looks really nice in-person, with the black & white image popping like crazy. That's a really nice pair of a talented young player. And then there's a very sharp, large two-color swatch featuring Sauce Castillo, hailing from Panini's high-end National Treasures. Nik, who's travelled about as much as Burke, is more common in my collection as this is card #10 in the hit collection (five each of relics and plates, if you can believe it). A hell of a pair from Stauskas' fellow Canadian!

If football wasn't represented by quantity this time the quality made up for it in spades. First is a Funch jersey on a Refractory/Prizmy 2016 Spectra card. Numbered /199, it of course shows him with the team that picked him, Carolina, but we'll see what he does next season after sitting this one out. This is Funchess hit #15 for me, by the way.

He's followed by a guy who probably won't ever see time on an NFL playing field, but that's fine because I love my college cards! Transfer QB Shea Patterson signed this 2020 Leaf Trinity card with a "Go Wolverines" inscription, making this kind of product even better for a collector like me. Just my second hit of Patterson (the other's also an autograph) this looks terrific and now I want to go out and find more Trinity cards of my PC guys!

And as always we'll end another enjoyable SCFtDS post with the Michigan Hockey content, which consists of two scans this evening. Here we have a nice mix of base and inserts. Former Habs teammates Cammalleri and Patch bookend this bunch with some shiny Certified base issues that don't quite reflect how, um, reflective they are, but that's no problem since that means they scanned nicely! Connor is from UD's Artifacts, a brand that's given me trouble in its past football iterations but plenty of nice stuff when it comes to icers. While he's not the lone subject of that Hurricanes team checklist, Wolverine Phil Di Giuseppe's name is prominent on the card so to his collection it'll go. Wolverwing Glendening and D-man Jon Merrill below him hail from a Prizm update set and both are RCs, so I got that going foo me. Hagelin and another Wolverwing, Larkin, highlight the textbook excellence of UD's photograph and design. And lastly, a second Merrill enters the mix--a numbered (/100) OPC black parallel that looks really nice with the rainbow effect plus the border.

Young star Zach Werenski, who's in his fifth season in Columbus (barf) and scored 20 goals last year, is the last subject before we get to the hits, and he appears on a Blue parallel from UD's Overtime product plus the flagship set as well. Remove the logos and you still know you're looking at an Upper Deck hockey card every time.

And then we have three more hits to admire in a package full of them. #1 is a 2016-17 UD AHL autograph of former star C T.J. Hensick, another card that embodies UD's pleasing look. I got to see pretty much his entire college career as a season ticket holder and I can tell you he was one of those guys who was absolutely electric, sometimes taking over a game by himself when the team needed him. Somehow this is only my second hit of his so I definitely value this one highly.

#2 is the undisputed highlight of this package for me. Dylan Larkin is my favorite current Wolverine in the NHL and it doesn't hurt that he happens to play for the Wings as well. As a young star his cards are understandably expensive so I'm glad to score an autograph of his here and there. Getting this UD Credentials signature limited to just 25 copies, then, is absolutely insane! Doug's now responsible for two of the three Larkin autos in my PC, and if that doesn't say something about his generosity then I don't know what does. What a sweet card!

And finally, we head over to his beloved Anthology product, the 2013-14 version. Doug busted a bunch of this stuff in an effort to complete some of the various sets, and to his credit he was able to finish up the dual jersey auto RCs like the Trouba you see above, quite and accomplishment. I believe this one was a dupe for him from a later box break, and I really appreciate him sending it my way since he'd be well within his rights to sell it to recoup some of his investment. Instead, though, he was nice enough to make it my 14th Trouba hit (many of which came from him), half of which feature the young star's signature. It would have been a tall order topping the sick-nasty patch auto he sent me last month, but this is just as high-end as the rest he's sent me over the years.

Doug, once again thank you for sending me some prized new items for my collections! Please feel free to take a breather while I work on paying you back. I'm glad to say I have at least one thing in the works I think you'll like, and I'll keep working on a return. In the meantime, I hope you had a great birthday and that you're having a blast with Mischief!

2020 trade package #30: Wes Moore

A few weeks ago Wes, a.k.a. the Pancake King, held a very cool event on Twitter that he called his Tradeathon. He listed some 160 cards from the major sports and even non-sport stuff, one card at a time. There were HOF RCs, vintage, autos and relics, and even printing plates, plus some cool inserts. You know, basically the stuff he's been known to lob your way in his signature trade war packages.

The rules were simple and few: claim up to five cards, be the first to claim what you wanted, and send him stuff in return but make it a surprise. If that isn't a fun way to get stuff into other collectors' hands while getting cool stuff back, I don't know what is. Judging by tweets from Wes and those that were involved I'd say it was a huge success all around. For my part I flipped him a Leaf auto of wrestler Godfather plus some various Arizona Cardinals and Bama guys.

And now I get to show off what I got back from the flapjack flipper. I somewhat cautiously chose three cards fairly early to keep my options open later, and those were the three I finished with while avoiding being greedy and claiming nicer stuff I already had, such as RCs of Trammell/Molitor and Griffey Jr. I was glad to get what I was hoping for, and Wes was even nice enough to toss a couple extras in the mailer.

Here's what I got:

A little bit of theme going on there, eh? The top two cards here were the "throw-ins" and quite nice ones at that! On the left is a 2005 Elite RC of former stud DB Marlin Jackson, definitely one of the more desired brands for collectors like me that like to chase college cards. To the right is a Blue 2012 Leaf Draft auto of Mike Martin, a DL who was nearly unstoppable and a bright spot on defense during some of Michigan's down years earlier this decade. In typical Wes fashion, even the extras are generous!

As for the rest, I'll go in order as I chose them as opposed to scan order. First up was the horizontal Harbaugh, a Row 0 card from 1998 Flair Showcase. I've long admired the various Showcase iterations and their cool variations. In general I believe Row 0 was the rarest of the regular set, as opposed to 1 and 2. This one is numbered /100 and has a couple nice action photos up front.

Next is a card that interested me because of the guy pictured on the bottom, although his QB counterpart is certainly no slouch. Ordinarily I'd be sending a Steve McNair card over the border, but this 2004 Playoff Honors Class Reunion dual jersey is staying with me because of HOF DB Ty Law and that lovely blue Patriots swatch. Numbered /150 it's just my sixth hit of Law as I continue my quest for an auto of his. By the way, for those interested, McNair went third overall in '95 while Ty went 23 picks later. Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks joined Law as first round HOFers from that class.

Last but not least is a Michigan uni card I was glad to grab as a first hit of a recent alum. QB Shea Patterson had his ups and downs for various reasons, but he was still a big enough name to hit a bunch of pro- and college-themed products (despite a total lack of a draft pedigree), in this case Leaf Metal Draft. It may be heavily airbrushed but it's still a solid new autograph for my collection, and of course I'll have to work on adding more of those. If there was a card tailor made for me to choose in a tradeathon like this, meaning it was something I'd want but probably not want to buy, this was it. Plus it's a good example of some of the variety that was available in the football grouping alone.

And how about some backs since I only had to scan five cards today?

Wes, thanks again for the cool event, an idea I may have to steal (in homage to you, of course!) and the great cards I ended up with. I hope your returns continue to pour in with all kinds of crazy stuff you'll enjoy. Though I'm not sure if or when we'll trade again, I'll definitely be on the lookout for cards for you in the spirit of your cardboard generosity.

2020 trade package #22: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been another good month or so for trade packages, as today's post (and at least one that's upcoming) will prove.

Tonight's mailer showed up this past Sunday, a pleasant surprise to find on my porch a few days ago. What was in it? Even more Canadian bakin' from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. Your friendly neighbourhood king of dollar store repacks had let me know about a few cards I could expect at some point, and happily it didn't take him very long to fill out another enjoyable envelope to send across the border:

No baseball this time so we'll get right into the hardwood stuff. Almost everything was from the glorious 90s so there's a huge variety of brands and designs to choose from. Coach Juwan Howard looks radical on one of Skybox's many era-appropriate looks. Brooklyn's LeVert gets a chance to put on a show as the NBA playoffs resume. I remember rooting for "Sugar" Mills as a Piston before knowing he was a Michigan alum. And Rice, Rumeal, and Tarpley are all pretty well known products of the program.

A trio of Loy Vaught and a lone C-Webb close out the basketball content, and then it's on to the gridiron. I needed all three cards of Brady in his old uniform, from 2020 Panini products Legacy and Score. I'm liking the Score base design as usual, and there's a good look at TB12's competitive nature on a Gold parallel of an insert called Game Face. Giants big back Jarrod Bunch also makes a couple appearances out of '93 Stadium Club and '94 Collector's Choice.

A cool horizontal UD Toomer is joined by the highlight of the football content for me: four more 2020 Score Wolverines. Gary's a second-year card so he's with the vets, then there's the trio of Wolverines from the set's rookie class. TE Sean McKeon ("Mc-KYOON") went undrafted but signed with the Cowboys after a solid career both blocking and catching at the position. Transfer QB Patterson's name was well known around the country as the signal-caller, but nobody was surprised when he went undrafted after a not-as-good-as-expected couple of seasons in Ann Arbor. Still, his name was big enough to get him into lots of products this year over others, such as first-round C Cesar Ruiz. Such is the hobby. Talented WR Peoples-Jones rounds out the group after he left for the draft a season early. He too failed to reach his vast potential in college but was explosive at times, and hard work and good coaching could make him a valuable wideout. I'm looking forward to snagging any other 2020 Wolverines as they show up in new products.

The start of the hockey content includes envelope stalwarts Cogliano and Knuble, whom I'm always happy to see, but young star D-Man Quinn Hughes, whom I got to see over his two years in Ann Arbor, is the big highlight here. The card on the left is a foil-y RC (/199) out of UD's high-end Buybacks product, one I saw broken a few times on Phil Hughes' Youtube channel. It's definitely got that super premium Upper Deck shine to it. The other is a cool horizontal insert called Rookie Science from UD Credentials, with the formula for "velocity vector" on the back. That's too much math for my English major brain, so instead I'll enjoy the colorful front. Colors are pretty!

This scan of the rest of the hockey starts out very strongly with two new Dylan Larkins. New WolverWing #1 is a sweet rainbow die-cut out of 2019-20 Allure called White Rainbow, which I know because the back literally tells you! Well done, UD. That's joined by his base card from the previously mentioned Credentials. Patch gets a textbook Ultra insert fro 2016-17 Fleer Showcase (made by UD) called Scoring Kings, which has a lightning background that didn't scan very well. I believe that SPA of Trouba is my first of him with the Rangers since he joined them, but I'll have to check. Werenski hails from the Rainbow parallel of OPC's Platinum product that I always enjoy seeing. Shiny!

And then we get to the three big hits of the package. If you thought I was excited about the two Hughes cards you saw earlier then you'll know I was geeked for Doug to send me my first auto of him as well! I'm fortunate to trade with someone like Doug who pulls so many ridiculously nice cards and is willing to trade them. I'll certainly be working on hard on trying to pay him back for this 19-20 Exquisite auto (/99). That alone would have made the envelope, but then there's also a sweet dual jersey of Patch, whom we also already saw, out of last year's Artifacts. This is basically a numbered (/165) relic version of the base card, and it looks great. And last up is the only non-Wolverine in the pile, but it's a card that looked great with the other hockey stuff. Like Larkin's card above, this one is from UD's Allure, and the back tells me you're looking at a Red Rainbow Jersey. You literally couldn't pick a better color for a Red Wings card, and I'd say the up-and-coming winger Zadina is a player to get excited about too!

Doug, thanks once again for another killer envelope! As I've told you in our usual back-and-forth I have a few things in-hand and elsewhere for you, and I'll keep adding to it until it's worthy of this greatness, and then send it back across the Detroit River. Until then, may your hot hand continue as your personal and group breaks go on!

2020 trade package #13: My Sports Obsession

I think I've said this once or twice already, but despite my lack of spending this year--only around $250--for multiple reasons, I've had lots of great new cards come into my collection. You can chalk that up to the word that used to come before "cards" in this hobby: trading. TCDB has been a great new source for that, and I really do plan to show off more of my deals that came from the site.

But first, I always like to give top billing to my bread and butter, which is trades with other bloggers. Buddy of the blog Jeff of My Sports Obsession is one of those fine folks, and we keep a nice stream of the many collections we have in common going back and forth.

Jeff sent me a nice mailer that arrived at the end of May, and I was thrilled not just at the excellent content, but also that every single card was new to my collection--quite a feat when you'll see who was involved:

I mean, the baseball end of things involved my #1 and #3 overall PCs in Larkin and Ripken. Barry comes to us on a 2020 Donruss card whose design honors the '86 set. released a year before his RC. The back gives him credit for playing his entire career with the Reds and ranking with Pete Rose at the top in several team stats, though I think Barry deserves extra credit for not betting on baseball or being a shitbag in general. With Jeff's help his collection gets a bit closer to 800.

While I wasn't surprised that I needed a 2020 Larkin card I was shocked to find that two 1991 Donruss base offerings and a '92 Fleer issue were new to me. I'm not shocked that I didn't find it worth buying junk wax-era stuff like those but you would think I'd have had them long ago one way or another. Great job by Jeff to fill in those gaps and add another cool pair in a 2018 Donruss variation and '93 UD Then & Now hologram insert. UD's holograms always get a thumbs up from me. With five additions Cal's within spitting distance of being my first 1000-card PC!

Closing out the scan is a basketball pair--my second and third cards of one-and-done Wolverine Ignas Brazdeikis, who was a lot of fun to watch while he was here. Both are rookies, which is great by itself, but the Prizm card also features a college uniform, so it's my pick of the duo. Jeff's focused on collecting UM basketball alumni from roughly the past decade and I'm grateful that he thought of me during his search.

Now here's some maize & blue fireworks! I'm not sure the last time I could post a 100% Michigan uni scan like this in a trade recap, but regardless, this is flat-out awesome. Jeff provided my first taste of 2020 Michigan RCs out of 2020 Prizm Draft by including QB Patterson and WR DPJ. Shea's senior year ended up being disappointing for his draft stock and it wasn't a shock that he didn't get chosen, but I guess Panini included him here (and likely will in other products) figuring the fan base will be hot after his cards regardless.

Anyway, those look great, and I'm looking forward to adding first-years of whichever other draftees make the cut in subsequent sets. Meanwhile, those two are joined in the set by a pair of Tom Brady base cards, each of which sticks with the college theme, much to my approval.

Next is a pair of non-Panini 2017 cards: a Leaf Gold parallel of RB De'Veon Smith and SAGE HIT base of DE Chris Wormley. I don't think Smith lasted very long in the league after going undrafted, but Wormley got flipped from the Ravens to the Steelers a few months ago, so hopefully he'll make a difference there. Side note for anybody who's curious: I do count pre-draft all-star game photos that include UM helmets as "Michigan uniform" cards.

Finally, we've come to the big hit of the envelope, one that happens to star a big hitter. Rashan Gary may have worn #3 during his time in Ann Arbor but everyone will always remember the way he came in as the #1 overall recruit. That makes getting this college-themed Prizm Draft auto that much sweeter! As I mentioned when discussing my two other autos of the DE, I wish he put a bit more effort into his signature, or at least used more of the sticker, but it is what it is. And what it is is another Rashan Gary auto, and I'm excited!

Jeff, thanks again for sending me some great new additions to my collections, especially those of the UM variety. On that subject, I have a LOT to send back your way soon, so get ready for some work updating your collections on TCDB!