It's about time I get an actual card post up this month so I'm able to put more stuff away.
My TCDb transactions stats tell me I completed 41 deals last year (not including PIFs), which is my second best so far (76 in 2022) and a couple better than '23. Tonight I'm highlighting a few of those for various reasons--favorite members, interesting cards, or whatever else. I'll have a part 2 up soon that covers "the rest" with probably very little commentary.
So without further ado, here's some cool cardboard I made deals for in '24:
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This is mostly here because of the Sparky relic--my second of old George--but the minors cards of some of my more obscure Michigan Baseball PCs and the oddballs are quite cool too!
I worked out a deal with
Mark of Collector's Crack late in the year because we had a lot of matches including some items I could use for Christmas packages, plus he's always been a good dude. Since some of it indeed made it into holiday envelopes, this isn't nearly everything I got from him, to give you a good idea of how fun this deal was. The auto of the late Mallett is my fifth while I accidentally grabbed the rookie auto of DT Mike Martin because I apparently hadn't logged it on the site. Oh well, more trade bait! Thank you to Mark for an awesome deal.
Brian's one of my closest friends on the site so the stuff I got from him would have been here regardless, but this was a super fun swap. The Action Packed cards aren't the standard ones you usually see as they have a little (I'm assuming fake) diamond in them. He found a couple partial sets of those at an antique store-type place, I believe. I also loved getting all of the former Wolverines/Brewers from the beer set, and there's lots more to love here too.
Yeah, no big deal at all, just a trio of VINTAGE KALINES! The '58 he shares with slugger Harvey Kuenn and the '59 solo card are now the oldest cards of Mr. Tiger in my collection, and the '64 League Leaders card that includes Yaz was a great treat as well. You'll see more of ex-Wolverine Paciorek in a bit but he's one of a number of Brewers and Packers police cards I've acquired thanks to Brian.
I think I may have asked him for the Miggy you see here but the other two were HUGE surprises. The Maddux jersey looks terrific, and boy is that Daz Cameron jersey number piece sweet! WOW!
I knew these other Pacioreks were coming at some point but had no idea the rest would be included in this Christmas gift! We already had Mr. Tiger, so why not Mr. Padre on a nice relic? And speak of the devil, there's a beautiful Kaline relic (piece of pants) from one of Upper Deck's superlative Baseball Heroes sets. Last up in this very generous mailing to close out a year in generosity is a Topps Archives Purple auto of Alan Trammell, numbered to 150 on the back. Whoa! Tram has a gorgeous signature and fits in well on a design used during his playing career: 1993 Topps.
Thanks so much, Brian!
Speaking of Brian, I was glad to be introduced to one of his friends and fellow Wisconsinites on the site, Jeff. Though I handsomely rewarded him later, Jeff sent me the items above in a deal that was heavily in my favor. It starts with a '71 Topps RC of HOF Michigan alum Ted Simmons, a huge get for me. The 2020 Heritage Buyback of another Michigan Ted, Sizemore, also from the '71 Topps set, is next. And how about just my second Simba auto from '22 Heritage's Real Ones Autographs set? Oh, and the jumbo of Riley Greene ('23 Update Oversized Combo Box Topper) was a pretty slick throw-in.
This kind of deal only assures that I'll continue trading with Jeff in the future!
Jason, a fellow Michigander and another of my best buddies on the site, is no stranger to these posts as we've dealt a few times, often in blind trade form, though I think in this case I mostly picked out stuff I wanted. He was nice enough to grab the top three cards for me on COMC to finish up the 2008 Topps and '21 Topps Series 1 near sets I grabbed at a garage sale last summer. I think he may have had the rest of these in his port as well and shipped back to himself. Among the great stuff you see is a minors card of former Michigan icer Milan Gajic, a guy I enjoyed watching play in Ann Arbor. The Burnaby, BC native's four years with the Wolverines matched mine and I liked seeing his skills on display, which led to the saying "Gajic is Magic."
Thanks, Jason!
It definitely feels like there's a Wisconsin bias to this post but that's unintentional. Matt's always been a fun Twitter follow and my trades with him have always gone well. This time I got more help with my '95 Finest set (22 more to go!), a cool trio of Tigers, and a full set of the cards that were a bonus addition to
his book Opening Day in Milwaukee. It's very cool to know collectors that have produced content like this, and I'll be reading that at some point.
Puckfiend (Secret Santa):
I once again participated in TCDb's Secret Santa event late last year (run by Dan/vrooomed, mentioned below) and the person who drew my name was an LA Kings fan named Paul. He did a nice job by sending me a card of a player I collect, a 2024 Topps Pristine Green Refractor of Ripken, then made things more interesting by including David Wells' book and the note you see above. I'll be reading it at some point and then passing it along as requested (though I'm not sure that I'll do the picture thing).
Rayeveryplayerand76e:
Ray in Philadelphia was super easy to work with as we had no problems making a one-for-one basketball auto swap. My prize was my first hit, an autograph, of former Wolverine Tariq Abdul-Wahad. The French SG was born Olivier Sant-Jean and played college ball for Michigan in 1993-94 and 94-95, then transferred to San Jose State for his final two seasons. He was the 11th overall pick by Sacramento in 1997 and played parts of six seasons with the Kings, Magic, Nuggets, and Mavs. Fleer included him in their cross-brand Autographics signed insert in 1998-99 and now I can add another name to my list of Wolverines for whom I own a certified auto!
tucha:
Way before Canada Post went on strike I made a fun PWE trade with Al in Langley, BC. To absolutely nobody's surprise, my return included OPC and hockey! The Bird and Simba cards are great and I love the look of both of the Larkins, but I really appreciated getting the buyback of Michigan icer Jeff Norton limited to "just" 25 copies. It probably doesn't seem like a big thing but I made sure to thank him for including it without asking a lot.
vrooomed (PIF):
Five-time member-of-the-year (including 2024!) Dan is another TCDber I count as a close friend on the site which is why you see his name along with Brian's and Jason's here a lot. When he's not efficiently running something like a fantasy league, giveaway, or Secret Santa, or working on inaccuracy reports to correct things on the site, he sometimes finds time to trade as well. We've sent lots back and forth, and this time he mailed me a few things I asked him about (most of the stuff in the first scan) plus a couple nice stacks of cards from 1987 Hygrade. Thanks to what he sent I now own 51 of the 114-card set and will likely chip away at it slowly. It's definitely a classic product that you still see all over the place.
Thanks, Dan!
Ymmat (PIF, 8/24):
Joe and I flip stuff back and forth quite a bit too, so even if we're not formally trading we're sending each other PIFs. This is one of two occasions last year where he played on my TCDb username of FreehanSolo. He covered the first part of the name with a pair of Tigers catcher Bill: his '63 Topps RC plus an SP Legendary Cuts jersey. Wow! I already had my own copy of the rookie, which is of course also a favorite of
John's, so I passed this one on to fellow Tigers fan
Paul to enjoy. I'll be keeping the relic, though, because it was new to me!
In terms of the "Solo" portion, well, Han's Star Wars card is obvious but I had to look up the other. From a 1965 set covering the TV series it's Napoleon Solo ("...and 2 beautiful women," which, yep!) from
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He was played by Robert Vaughn on the 60s spy show and Henry Cavill in the 2015 movie remake. Very clever of Joe!
For our first trade of the year, closed out last July, I got some 123 items from him in return for just 49 (though I threw in some extras, namely Legends Sports Memorabilia card sheets and a few magazines to even things out). A large chunk of my end went to Brian, Dan, and Jason, especially a bunch of '86 Topps football for Brian's set build, but I got some fun stuff for myself too as you can see above.
Ymmat (trade #2 + PIF):
If I recall correctly, the contents of this trade arrived in three PWEs. The first two included the items that were part of the transaction while a third contained what you see in the last scan, which I'm treating as a PIF as they were a nice surprise! The main deal included some fun new stuff including my first card of recent Wolverine pitcher Connor O'Halloran, a 2023 fifth-round selection of the Blue Jays who was born in nearby Mississauga, Ontario.
As you can see, the second group includes another Freehan/Solo pairing, a couple more vintage Tigers, a Dingler and pair of Greenes, and lastly, two surprise autos. The first is a Blue Topps Chrome of pitching prospect Sawyer Gipson-Long, the guy Detroit got for Michael Fulmer from the Twins at the '22 trade deadline. His signature looks cool, the parallel color is nice, and this one's numbered /150 to boot. It's joined by a Stadium Club auto of another guy with a sweet sig, SS Zack Short. He came to Motown at the 2020 deadline for Cameron Maybin (after his second stint with the Tigers) and played parts of the 2021-23 seasons. He's since bounced around to the Mets, Red Sox, Braves, and most recently, Astros.
Obviously Joe is a very generous guy and I can assure you we'll be hitting each other's mailboxes again this year!
Thank you to everyone in this post for continuing to make TCDb the best place to organize your collection and trade, and here's to more of the same in 2025! I'll be back soon with part 2, though I haven't decided if I'll mix it up with content from somewhere else first. We'll see!
