1/3 and 1/31/25 Show Reports: Two-fer '25

Because I attended both January's and February's shows during the first month of this year (as you can see in the title, February's began on 1/31, and I like to go on Fridays), you get a two-fer post tonight!

#1 for the year was Friday, January 3, and my spending sheet says I threw down a year-high $120, which made for a strong start.

First, here's a scan of some pretty nice trade bait:

I've tried to swing back into getting baseball fodder since it seems that's what many folks prefer, but the football stuff just ends up being more plentiful much of the time, both in quantity and quality. The printing plate you see (scanned sideways, for some reason) stars Bears QB bust Mitchell Trubisky, and it hails from 2019 Panini Luminance (well, it was inserted into that year's Plates & Patches, but you know what I mean). I can't remember the exact price but I snagged it for less than $10.

As always, if you see anything you like, just ask and we'll see what we can work out!

As for my keepers,

It doesn't get much better than some "90s inserts rule" goodness! Junior Griffey features on the front of a '96 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle insert, Gwynn looks spiffy on a '97 Skybox E-X2000 base, Maddux is the face of a 2003 Fleer Tradition mini insert, and Pudge is the back half of the catching duo on Pinnacle's '97 Team Pinnacle version. Oh, and Ripken completes the quartet with a new relic card courtesy of '24 Ginter. Sweet!

The well-traveled Burke was a fun throw-in on the basketball side of things, and I'm always up for a cool Donruss numbered parallel, especially the Season Stat Line cards.

And it may not look it, but that '92 Pro Line football card was one of the most significant pickups for me this time. I'll explain why in a moment as we look at some backs.

The Reds' Sanders was a reasonable pick opposite Griffey to rep the NL OF in '95, his lone All-Star campaign. Maddux's Black & White mini card has a nice bonus of being numbered /1936 as a throwback to that year's Goudey design. I don't know why I included the back of Cal's Ginter relic here, but I did. Piazza was a natural counterpart to Rodriguez on the other Team Pinnacle insert.

And then we have my second example of a signature card from 1992 Pro Line Portraits' Autograph sets. OL Greg Skrepenak suited up for the Wolverines before being drafted by the Raiders, and he'd play 68 NFL games over five seasons between them and the Jaguars. His brief career combined with that era of the hobby means his certified auto selection is extremely limited, and this is one I was hot after since it's his only NFL version. I love adding signatures of new players to my collection and was happy for Skrepenak to join the club!

Four weeks later I headed back east down 94 for another Friday show. This time I spent a slightly odd (but even) $76, and I don't recall how I ended up at that number. Despite shelling out less cash, I brought home even MORE trade bait, if fewer PC additions:

Trade bait scan 1 of 2 is just the vertical cards, and most everything here was in the $1-$2 range, I believe.

And the other nine were of the horizontal variety. Lots more football, as you can see (and hopefully I'll get those sent out in TCDb deals at some point) with a pair of baseball relics. Want any? Please ask!

As for my keepers:

We'll start off this small assortment with another "90s inserts rule" reference. I don't know for sure if 1998 was my favorite year for Topps inserts, but after dragging their feet long enough to get way behind the likes of Pacific, Pinnacle, Fleer, and UD, Topps produced some bangers late in the decade. '98's Clout Nine, Focal Point, Mystery Finest, and Clemente Reprints were highlights, and to that group I'd add Hall Bound, a 15-card die-cut set honoring players who were practically shoo-ins for Cooperstown. Of that total, Clemens, McGwire, Bonds, and Juan Gonzalez were the only misses, for obvious reasons. Cal, of course, had no such problems. And here I added the Chrome version of his entry in that beautiful set!

Next I rewound the clock a decade while picking up the Whitaker/Trammell double-play combo in Starting Lineup card form. I've had (open) figure/card pairings of the two (plus Matt Nokes) since the year I turned six and was in retrospect lucky to find them at Meijer or Toys R Us, and now I have the inaugural iteration's cardboard issues. It was great finding them together and I think they were just a buck or two each. Cool!

Lastly, I think I paid about the same amount to add relic cards of a couple more Wolverines that are joining the hits collection tonight. QB Joe Milton III is the guy that transferred to Tennessee after the wacky 2020 "season," and then the hapless Patriots spent a pick on him. He was just flipped to Dallas where he'll try to be Dak's backup, I guess. Meanwhile, NCAA champ WR Roman Wilson joins him, and though his post-college year in football proved to be a bust due to injury, I'm hoping to see him making some plays for the Steelers in a few months.

The three football additions you saw tonight put me at 260 unique subjects in my football hits collection, and that's a number I've proudly increased quite a bit the past few years.

Posting these show pickups lets me put some more cards away and continue to chip at my backlog. Next I plan on showing off my lone February trade package, one that was plenty big enough to get its own month!

2024 trade package #19: the Collector

Will I at least get all of my trade package recaps done before the calendar flips to a new year? Probably not, but I'll keep posting these as I feel like it.

Tonight's cool pile of stuff comes from Chris, the Collector, who was a longtime friend of mine here (and of many of you as well). Unfortunately I can no longer link to his blog since it's gone, plus he appears to have deactivated the email address I always used to contact him. Needless to say I'm plenty worried about how he and his family are doing, but for now I'll just wait and hope that everything's fine. Chris, if you're reading this, I'm always here for you!

Anyway, back in September he sent me a surprisingly large package of stuff, and I'll get to why it was so physically large at the end, but first we'll start with the cards:

Baseball part 1 starts of strong with a Jim Abbott and besides a RC of short-term star Brennan Boesch and a Miggy insert, the rest of the scan includes a bunch of '24 Topps Chromes of current Tigers Javy Baez and Kerry Carpenter. You'll see the same product and team pop up a few more times in this post so I have to imagine Chris was part of a group break at some point. I really appreciate him treating me to these as I haven't seen them at shows yet (not that I've looked, to be fair), and I'm liking having a good number of the base and parallels, which include Prism and standard Refractors. I'm also thankful for a trio of new Carpenter cards as my Kerry Bonds collection is still small for now.

"Wahoo" Sam Crawford is always welcome in trade packages sent my way. Davis was a Tiger for 60 games between 1993 and '94, as 1994 Fleer reminds us. 2017 first-rounder Faedo hasn't done much for Detroit but Flaherty worked out nicely in a win-win deal that brought the Tigers two very good players and the Dodgers another ring. And I hope to see Riley in HR celebration mode even more in 2025.

Greene and Higginson are former Tigers while Keith is a potentially exciting part of the future in the infield (and another '24 Chrome entry). Kinsler remains a short-time favorite of mine for his three-plus seasons in Detroit and helping the team dump Prince Fielder. Lipcius has 35 ABs to his name, all with the Tigers in '23, but was grabbed by the Dodgers before the '24 season, so I don't know what Topps was thinking (not that I mind another Refractor). Mikie's career was brief but Parker looks like he could be a mainstay in the outfield for years to come. And Olson could bolster a good young rotation if he can stay healthy.

Hey, it's blog favorite Dean Palmer! Peralta was very solid in Detroit and part of the 2012 AL Pennant winner. Multi ring-winner Scherzer is from one of Topps' All-Star Game-stamped sets, which are cards I don't generally seek out but do like to add. Check out make-or-break '25 guy Tork on three different Chrome cards: base, Prizm Refractor, and Refractor. More-than-0%-chance-'25-Tiger Verlander also appears on 2/3 of those. Worth proved to not be worth the 2nd round pick Detroit used on him in the 2007 draft, though at least guys like Giancarlo Stanton and Freddie Freeman were selected before him and not after.

The unfortunately recently injured Wagner is the only basketball representative here but despite his injury it's been quite a season for him. Former UM coach Harbaugh's done decently well leading the Chargers this year. The fact that Hutch could return for a hypothetical Lions Super Bowl appearance is still a crazy sentence to type. Another ex-UM QB, Patterson looks great on an appropriately blue Score Artist's Proof card that's numbered to just 35 copies! And lastly, Mazi and (also somewhat recently injured) Turner are draft picks from last year on some shiny Donruss Optic parallels, with the Bengals DB getting a second card in the form of a Green Hyper insert to go with his own Holo issue.

As you can see the cards hit a bunch of my collections and I would have been more than happy with this package if they made up the entire contents, but then Chris threw this in as well:

I was still buying Starting Lineups back in 2000 and already had this Classic Duos combo of Cal with Chipper, but then Chris sent it my way noting that it was a throw-in in a recent purchase of his, and I was excited to get it because not only is it in better condition than the one I already had (the packaging suffered wear and tear due to several house moves), but it also comes in a protective display case that should keep it that way! Oh, and as a bonus, I can pass on my extra to fellow Cal collector Jeff. Bonus!

Chris, thank you once again for your generosity a few months ago and all the great stuff you've sent me over the years. Again, I don't know if you're even reading blogs anymore, but if you are, please know I appreciate our friendship and I'm lucky to have been able to trade with you. According to tracking info, the Christmas cards I sent your way should have been delivered today and I hope you enjoy them and have a great holiday.

With some much-needed downtime coming up I'll work on finishing up trade recaps for this year as best as I can in the next couple weeks.

2024 trade package #10: Bob Walk the Plank

It's always a treat when I get cards from Matt of Bob Walk the Plank since we send stuff back and forth maybe once or twice a year, but there's always a higher-end aspect to it. Back in May he treated me to quite the birthday present with these:

Current/future star Riley Greene is a nice looking Museum Collection parallel numbered to just 50. Both Griffeys are from that decade or so in the late 90s/early 2000s when everything was numbered. His Topps Stars goes to 9799 while the gorgeous team color parallel from Leaf Certified Materials is much rarer, /200!

Hill ('23 Chrome Update Orange) is even more limited at just 25 copies, plus that color could be considered a team parallel too. I've mentioned that Miller was quite useful to the Tigers as trade bait, and his 2007 UD Masterpieces card is quite the looker. I have a crazy 83 cards of Casey Mize right now, and one of the rarest of those is the '22 Select Cracked Ice you see above, which is limited to 25 copies just like the Hill (don't worry, Gavin, neither is a 12/25!).

Neither of those is the rarest card of the bunch, though, thanks to a '22 Topps Mini Red of my favorite recent Tigers catcher, Jake Rogers, that's numbered 2/5. Wow! Speaking of "wow," how about another 2007 UD Masterpieces RC of a former Tigers pitcher, this time future HOFer Max Scherzer? That's a beautiful card of the three time Cy Young winner and owner of two World Series rings. Last up is another Red parallel that's not quite as rare as the others in this scan--299 copies--of former RP Joel Zumaya, whose legacy is looking iffy due to being connected to some very troubling allegations about former player and TV guy Craig Monroe.

And here you'll see the contents of the package I was the most excited about. First up is no big deal, just a Miguel Cabrera autograph from 2005 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects. I don't think I can emphasize just how generous Matt is--though I encourage you to look through all my trade packages from him here, containing flat-out amazing cards of current and future HOFers like Kaline, Verlander, Larkin, and others--but maybe this will help: this is my fourth signature of Miggy, and aside from the one I pulled from a pack myself, the other three have come from my collecting doppelgänger in West Virginia. Seriously, my hat's off to him.

Continuing the goodness, next up is a bat relic of a guy I just mentioned above: Barry Larkin. I'm as sick as everyone else of seeing the boring 80s designs beaten to death by Topps, but I'll always be happy about a new hit of a favorite player, such as #25 of the Wolverines SS that became a Reds star!

And for something even more timely, not only is it amazing that Tarik Skubal is the front-runner for the AL Cy Young on another tire fire of a "rebuilding" team, but Matt managed to score a '22 Chrome Refractor auto (numbered /499) of his on Twitter for under $20 and have it delivered to me. What a great card to have of a guy who'll presumably be around for a bit more after the team thankfully didn't give him up for another underwhelming prospect package (see: Flaherty, Jack) at the deadline.

On the football side of things, a pair of Tom Brady cards serves as an appetizer to the main course: a brand new Chad Henne autograph, which is something I haven't been able to add for quite a while. The 2009 Gridrion Kings card you see above (#d /50) is my 144th hit of one of my favorite UM QBs, putting him six behind collection leader Rich Hill. That number is bonkers and I'm grateful for folks like Matt who've helped build that collection.

And finally tonight, this surprise quintet is a fun way of wrapping things up. Representing the Pistons, Lions, Wolverines, and Red Wings are a great mix of Starting Lineup cards showing off several different designs. Hill and Osgood are examples of partnerships with Topps and Fleer, respectively, while Batch, Griese, and Woodson have designs I'm much more familiar with when it comes to those collectible figures and their cards. As for the title-winning Wolverines pair, Griese's from the 2000 product while Woodson's from the '98 Extended Series released during his rookie season.

That's another Bob Walk the Plank package in the books and man was it a great one! I'm fortunate to trade with some very generous folks and Matt is most definitely among the best when it comes to high-end dealing. I appreciate it as always and am working on a return worthy of this to send back to Morgantown as soon as I can. Thanks, Matt!

I believe I have two more May trade packages to get to followed by some show recaps and then it'll be on to June. Stay cool, enjoy the Olympics, and join me in looking forward to the college football season in just a few weeks!

2023 Facebook purchases: in the market for some lots!

I'm just gonna go ahead and warn you right now that this post will be image-heavy, but that's because I'll be showing off both some keepers and stuff available to all of you reading this here post. Just be aware!

So, I think you all know that I've had some pretty reasonable luck buying cards and card-related items via Facebook Marketplace. Well tonight I'm back with two more success stories, one small and one much larger.

First, back in mid-August, I headed maybe 30 minutes north of Ann Arbor to check out a garage sale that had been advertised on Marketplace, because the helpful pictures included a number of interesting card items. While the recent blasters on hand were naturally overpriced, I picked up a bunch of things that weren't. The total they gave me for the items below was $37:

A box of 2018 Heritage base and a misc. 2021/2022 box that was mostly Topps brands with a bit of Panini mixed in. $10 and $5.

A couple of these sets of Lions McDonald's/Fleer GameDay sheets. I got one each for John and Paul at $5 per.

A couple Griffey Starting Lineups (still unopened!) that I didn't already have, for another $5 each.

Two sets of '94 Post still sealed ($2 each), one of which went to Paul, and six packs of early 90s Conlon for $0.50 each.

I was quite happy with that haul, and if you want to see some highlights of the boxed/packed stuff, here you go:

Some of the best pulls from the Conlon packs. What a beautiful, if simple, product, filled with HOFers, stars, forgotten players, and more than a century of baseball history!

Some stacks from the misc. '21/'22 box. I pulled a lot out for trade packages (and a few for myself) but may list some on TCDb soon.

The 2018 Heritage box was definitely worth the price since I'm sure I'll be able to trade a bunch, plus I was able to flip some SPs that were left in there already.

My keepers, 1 of 2. All former Tigers (except one, for now...), mostly on other teams, but that's cool.

My keepers, 2 of 2. More ex-Tigers from recent-ish Topps brands.

Overall I was quite happy with that score, especially since it yielded a nice amount of trade bait for some of my favorite folks.

Less than a month later I found a guy selling a mixed lot in my hometown of Livonia for the very reasonable price of $50. I didn't see the point in haggling when the pictures made it look pretty interesting. By the time I got over there he'd continued to add stuff to the pile, and he let me know that he'd purchased a larger collection and was dumping some of it he didn't need/want/feel like dealing with. In that case I'd say we both got a great deal.

There was a LOT to go through, and these images will give you a small taste of what things looked like before I really started sorting through it all:

This big-ass tub was filled with boxes and albums. The set boxes fooled me as a couple were factory set boxes from early 90s UD, but they had more interesting stuff inside, as it turned out.

There was a ton of really oddball stuff mixed in, such as these vending machine capsule helmets, oversized stuff, and even a few packs, most of which I opened.

The monster box was a blast to dig through and I came up with some great stuff for myself, pending trade packages, and more. Oh, and back to oddball, there were a couple EA games as well.

My favorite album contained a bunch of these 1980 Topps Superstar photos, many of which have already been earmarked for packages, though there's still some that can be claimed below.

The unopened stuff was mostly mid-80s Donruss All-Star oversized cards, but there was also this bunch of Fun Food Pins, which were mostly Cal plus Willie McGee.

Now I'll give you a quick look at what I kept and then a very brief summary of what's up for grabs.

Regular-ish baseball, 1 of 3. Those Detroit News cards are pretty cool when I can find them.

Baseball 2 of 3. Lots of Scherzer adds between the lots today!

Baseball 3 of 3: the Cecil was a fun find, and I also decided to hang on to the Smith for my collection of star and HOF baseball RCs.

Simba and Chester are the two Topps photos I kept.

The Cal up top is actually a 5x7 box-topper and not from the slightly smaller boxed set made of the Ripken Collection insert. The pin and Topps Big items are new to me as well.

Hell yeah, new Studio portraits of Mr. Padre and the Professor!

Not much individual stuff from the other sports but these were all pretty cool. I believe the Webber Pog-like item was popped out of a card that included another one. The Collins and Hoard are oversized Pacific cards, and there are a LOT more available below.

Some near and complete sets from baseball and football, including:

• 1990 Swell Baseball Greats (currently missing 10/135)
• 1991 Swell Baseball Greats (missing 22/150)
• 1991 Score Rookie/Traded complete set of 110
• 1994 Pinnacle Series II (missing 12/270)
• 1991 Topps Toys "R" Us Rookies unopened box set of 33
• 1992 Pinnacle Rookies unopened box set of 30
• 1993 Pinnacle Joe DiMaggio unopened box set of 30
• 1991 Classic (football) unopened sealed (in two parts) set of 50
• 1994 UD Miller Lite/Tombstone Super Bowl Showdown complete set of 5
• 1990-91 Pro Set Super Bowl XXV Silver Anniversary Commemorative opened box set of 160 (note: I still have an unopened one of these available from the big Facebook collection I bought a few years ago)

Ok, now that I've got all that covered, here are things that are available to those of you who made it this far. As usual, please go ahead and claim things in the comments. Nothing's up on TCDb yet but will be soon. If I know you I'll probably just go ahead and send you what you pick out, otherwise I'll respond to try to work out a trade. And of course, I've already pulled a lot of stuff for soon-to-be sent trade packages, so if you don't see much of anything you want here, rest assured a lot of you already have nice stacks going!

Best of the baseball stuff by far. Witt (Sr., of course) looks to be IP/TTM.

More nice baseball singles.

Some numbered, parallels, and more.

Mostly numbered parallels.

Parallels that aren't numbered. Carmona's Refractor has some surface damage that's pretty clear.

Lots of stacks of commons, some fairly recent. The biggest is from '95 Collector's Choice SE and I already pulled a bunch for my team collector buddies, but if you've got wants please let me know!

'96 UD Ripken Collection oversized box set (minus the box, plus some rough edges/corners).

More oversized stuff. Can't say I'd seen the A-Rod flip book before.

This doesn't appear to be a team set of D-Backs Pinnacle Snapshots but there's a nice bunch.

Big and not quite as large.

Available Topps photos.

Big stack of Donruss puzzle cards (heavy on Willie Stargell), no complete sets, plus some various stickers (mostly Fleer) and UD holograms.

Donruss Action All-Stars.

This Cleveland Indians bear thing is next to some of those aforementioned football helmets, and that'll transition us into the football stuff:

Again, a mix of oversized and slightly less oversized. The Master Photos are quite cool in my opinion.

More oversized stuff of the Pacific and UD variety.

Hockey begins with this very cool binder. I'm giving Chris (the Collector) first right of refusal on it because that Hartford logo makes me think of him immediately, but he may turn it down.

A couple more oversized pieces

'91-'92 Seventh Inning Sketch OHL and WHL near sets. OHL's missing 64/382 (plus 7 of the 16 Teams insert), WHL's missing 11/359.

A couple hockey complete sets. On the left, 1991 Ultimate Draft, a 90-card set (with some dinged corners). On the right, 1991 Arena Draft Picks, a complete in box 33-card set, though the cards definitely got bricked and are a bit worse for wear after I pulled them apart.

And last up is the misc. category:

Pins, coins, the two EA games, and two unopened packs of Olympics cards.

Again, there was so much more, from the less exciting stuff from the monster box that will likely head to my TCDb trade list, and some very cool stuff I pulled for many of you already, much of which was of the oddball/oversized variety. Still, I'd be happy to see more of the above go to good homes, so please throw out some requests if you're so inclined.

As for me, I continue to try to organize things in boxes for "to list on TCDb" and "to dump back to Facebook Marketplace because this is junk and taking up space!" And you know I'm still keeping my eye on the site for good deals like these.