4/5/2024 show report: Christmas in April

Tonight's post is one of two I know of that I need to finish out the month of April. This one's a quick summary of the monthly Taylor show I got to on 4/5.

I spent a yearly low there of $45 (with the exception of the second show I got to in January to buy from Sluggo's Sports Cards at the event in Kalamazoo) but still came home with some cool stuff.

First up is some trade bait:

I love me some 90s inserts! The Akili Smith is spoken for but everything else is still up for grabs. McNown's Gridiron Kings card is actually the Canvas version as it's one of the first 500 printed (#0090/5000).

As for my keepers,

As far as I can remember it was mostly a dime/quarter box kind of day. I added a trio of cards featuring a couple of Detroit's recent top prospects, double-"Js" Jackson Jobe and Jace Jung, largely thanks to a prospect-heavy Donruss product. Next is a pair of classic Tigers, Kaline and Pesky, though of course the latter is much more famous for his eight seasons (and namesake Fenway Park feature) than the three with the Tigers. A couple Ginter Ripkens bump his total up as he nears the 1300-card mark in my collection. And former UM pitcher (on a Wolverine-ish airbrushed photo card) Steve Hajjar is the source of this post's title with a 2022 Leaf Holidays-related product and its Happy Holidays autograph set. That's my third signature of the left who's in Cleveland's system.

I also found a couple scans' worth of football stuff between the dime/quarter and dollar boxes. Bell would look better in a Blue parallel, of course, but Red works for his current team, the Niners, plus at least the card has a great college action photo. Transfer RB Charbonnet is one of three guys in these two scans (K Jake Moody and TE Luke Schoonmaker are the others) to pop up thanks to the Retail versions of their Panini Absolute RCs (you can tell as they lack serial numbers on the front as opposed to the hobby cards). The two shiny Funchess parallels are numbered /70 and /75 so I didn't mind throwing down a buck each. QB Grbac features on a pretty cool early Bowman Chrome insert. I may be slowly (and unintentionally) working on Ty Law's Mosaic rainbow, we'll see. And Paye would also benefit from an upgrade of Red to Blue on a Press Proof version of his Donruss RC.

The previously-mentioned Schoonmaker gets almost an entire scan to himself thanks to a rookie-related quartet, one of which is a Prizm Draft card with a great shot of him in action for the Wolverines. And joining my non-sport/misc. Wolverines category is broadcaster Rich Eisen. The New York native is a fan of the Jets (for some reason) but has done a great job over his career of lauding the Wolverines and celebrating the school where he earned his undergrad degree while being a co-editor for the sports section of the Michigan Daily.

I'll try to be back soonish with my last April post and maybe even post a bit more frequently so I can get caught up a bit more.

2022 trade package #22: Scribbled Ink

I was set to show off my pickups from last weekend's show yesterday or today but then I got a special delivery from buddy of the blog Paul of Scribbled Ink (and way more often lately, Twitter). That was great timing since I needed something to do while waiting forever for Michigan's 8pm (moved to 9pm thanks to lightning delays) game against Hawaii.

After the great envelope he sent in May, this time Paul did a stellar job sending me cards of the players I PC and out of this bunch somehow included only two doubles despite the fact that he didn't even check to see if I had them! (Spoiler alert, I often don't either when sending blind packages to my fellow bloggers.) Impressive. Flipping through them and logging them into TCDB kept me busy for a while, which I definitely appreciated.

Here's all the cool stuff he sent in this package:

Former Wolverines really do look the best in Blue like Blomgren's Prizm parallel. I'm always happy to see Cronenworth cards I need in deals like this, and the Rated Rookie logo is a site for sore eyes. I also really appreciate Paul sending me Jake's Topps Living Set card since that's something I'd never buy myself.

Junior's a Royal Blue parallel from Topps Update and the photo is a great throwback to his sweet swing. I already completed the insert set starring the Gwynn above but do like that Paul remembered I collect him. Hajjar is another recent former Wolverine (a 2021 2nd round choice by the Twins, he was just sent to Cincy in a four-player deal that brought righty Tyler Mahle to Minnesota) and thanks to Paul I'm up to five of his cards with these two college uni beauties from Panini's Prizm.

And just like JC's card above, you wouldn't catch me ponying up for any Topps Now cards, but Paul was generous enough to include the one you see above of my favorite PC guy, Rich Hill!

Another former Wolverine leads off the second scan and it's a very nice duo of Barry Larkin, with the first being a Fleer Box Score base numbered /2950 and the second a retail version of a Panini Absolute insert.

The Trio of 2017 Topps High Tek Maddux cards was all new as well and I have to admit they took me a bit to ID because of the bevy of patterns available and general lack of images on TCDB so far. I believe I've correctly labeled them as Blackout (much more noticeable on the back), Pattern 2A/2B (Braids / Chainlink Hexagon), and Pattern  4A/4B (Hexagons and Circles/ Spiral Dots), respectively. Hope I got those right!

Fellow big four PC guy Ripken is next and his pair included an '86 Drake's Big Hitters food issue and Cal's appearance from Classic's 1992 version of its well known game. Sweet Lou (today's other dupe) is also the subject of a fun oddball from True Value's 1986 set. I was kind of surprised to find that I already had that because I didn't remember collecting it, but either way this was also very thoughtful of Paul since what I still need of Whitaker largely falls into the category of odd and harder-to-find stuff.

And last up today is the first autograph in yet another one of my collections of recent Michigan Baseball alumni: Jeff Criswell. I now have seven cards of the righty who was an Oakland second round choice a couple years ago (and who headed up 96 to Lansing in '21 and '22 for pro ball) and my first hit (making him the 32nd member of the baseball hits collection). This one hails from one of Leaf's many amateur-oriented sets, 2020 Valiant, and the one Paul sent me is the Green parallel of the New Dawn autographs set, numbered on the back 80/99. I hope to see Criswell move up the ladder more next year while I hopefully accumulate more of his cards, but in the meantime this first signature of his to add to my collection is much appreciated.

Paul, thanks for always finding great stuff to send my way including the contents of this package, all of which was perfectly targeted at some of my favorite PCs. I'm thrilled that the timing worked out so you also got my latest New Hampshire-bound salvo around the same time, which is awesome!

With this package covered I think next time you'll see my show recap but you never know what tomorrow's mail will bring.