2026 TCDb trades: pair of PIFs

It's been a pretty nice Saturday for Wolverines fans: the basketball team held off Wisconsin to advance to the conference tournament final (after cruising to a regular season title), the hockey team handled Penn State and will also be heading to the final round of their conference tourney, and the women's basketball team was announced as a top-16 seed and spot as a host next weekend. GO BLUE!

So to celebrate, tonight I'm going to show off a trio of cards of my fellow UM alumni that I received in two PIFs (pay-it-forwards) from TCDb members last month.

First up is a '22 Topps Padres team set card of Jake Cronenworth, who's pretty much the most prominent Michigan guy in MLB right now, especially with Rich Hill retiring. There are two ways to tell that this is actually a team set card: it's numbered "SD-3" on the back, plus it's missing the "Future Stars" logo on the front of the flagship card. These can be tough for me to track down since they're often sold regionally, so I'm glad to check it off Jake's list. It's my 149th of Cronenworth and was sent to my by longtime site friend Jason, a.k.a. jasongerman9, whom I mention here often. I hope his Lake Michigan College team has a great season!

The other two cards were a bit of a mystery to me when they arrived, one at a time, from two different eBay sellers. I know Ann B. Davis well enough that I'm aware that the actress who played Alice on "The Brady Bunch" also attended UM--I just didn't know who'd sent these to me. Eventually I figured out it was Chuck, a.k.a. C2Cigars, after he commented one one of my TCDb lists I use to show off a card of each Michigan alum I collect. In retrospect I shouldn't have been surprised because he's messaged me a few times asking if I collect certain subjects as he's aware of one of my favorite PCs.

The late Davis was born in New York and went to high school in Erie, PA, before heading to Ann Arbor, where she became another famous alum to go into acting. Of course she's mainly known for her role as Alice in multiple "Brady Bunch" shows and movies, but she made way more appearances than that in front of the camera. Also, I see her 100th birthday is coming up in less than two months.

Chuck was generous enough to send me two cards of Davis. The first is from the 250-card 1991 Starline Hollywood Walk of Fame set, one that's chock full of stars of the stage and screen on a relatively simple but nice design. The back is done up well with career highlights and a trivia game. The other was made in 1998 by Inkworks, a brand known for producing lots of pop culture sets, and this product was called TV's Coolest Classics. The 90-card set has a retro theme and appears to focus on "The Brady Bunch," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Get Smart!," and "Hogan's Heroes." I count nine card appearances for Davis in the base set.

Many thanks to both Jason and Chuck for these additions to my collections! I always appreciate people who contribute to my collections, but it means even more to me when they put in the effort to bulk up my Michigan PCs, whether it's one of the many athletes or even a non-sports Wolverine.

I'll try to be back soon with the one trade package I received in March and then catch up on other additions.

2025 TCDb trade roundup: July through December

Hi all, and welcome to what should be my final post for 2025! Or at least for now. I may go back and do a recap of my spending or something, but this post is the last one recapping cards I acquired last year.

As promised, I'm giving you a look at my TCDb trades and PIFs (pay-it-forwards) for the second half of the year. Back in August I ran through the ones I completed between January and April, and now you'll see those I got done starting in July after a bit of a trading hiatus.

There's a ton of images here representing something like 46 transactions so I'll be keeping my comments to a minimum. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments and sound off on your favorites, though.

Here we go!

158cf946-8d68-483a (TCDb Secret Santa):

This member may have a cryptic username that means nothing by me but his real name is Ross. He was the sender of my Secret Santa package last year and did an amazing job by picking out this six-pack of numbered Dean Palmers. Hailing from 2000 and 2001, the highest print run is just 99 and the lowest is 52. Wow! It was certainly a Merry Christmas for me and I had a blast participating in the event once again.

ablox (PIF):

 

 

avsbruins65 (PIF):

avsbruins65 (PIF--his own Secret Santa):

Mark is one of the best guys on the site especially when it comes to PIFs, and this second one was right around Christmas, as you probably guessed from the note. The Playoff chips are very cool and I was grateful to receive my 29th Griese hit in the form of a Topps Pristine jersey.

Barbeque Chicken:

bcmeeker:

1B Nate Holdren, a Michigan alum, joins the collection with one of the just nine to his name. The Rockies drafted him in 1993 but he never made it above AA.

Bigdaddymac25:

bigfocus:

Bob Warnell:

brad456:

budler:

chris_from_md:

deadhead11:

John from Minnesota, who's oddly enough a big Saints fan, is my top trade partner on the site as this was our sixth deal since I joined.

DeckedKey86:

Eggbert60:

Ericd3043:

There are lots of beautiful cards here but the one that needs some explanation is the 1986 Slurpee coin since you can only see Carlton Fisk in the image. He's joined by fellow catchers Tony Pena and, relevant for me, Lance Parrish. While I'm at it, Tram's DK card is a sample, and Kaline's Refractor is numbered /299.

greg_fantom:

hawkking:

Joe's another one of my site favorites. I needed to make a quick deal with him to acquire a few cards to add to a separate deal and scored these four for myself. I don't really collect Pistons cards but did need the 1980-81 leaders card you see as it's my first of Michigan guy Phil Hubbard.

heattreat:

horfin:

Another Michigan baseball guy joins the collection here in 2010 Reds draftee Chris Berset, a Wolverines catcher with just six minor league cards to chase. I also snagged my first relic (to go with a pair of autos) of All-Star Riley Greene.

imthegrinch:

jambieyes:

Lazy Amish:

LMCards17:

marcbrubaker:

Bru! Marc and I worked out a 65-for-55 deal, one of my biggest of the year, over the summer, and it went very well. He no longer blogs at Remember the Astrodome but I'm glad he's pretty active on TCDb because it was a blast trading with him.

mastodon:

In this deal the Carlson finished up the 2021 Topps '52 Topps Redux set that was nearly complete when I picked it up as part of a Facebook Marketplace lot, plus I nabbed a relic of Michigan/Rams RB Blake Corum, whose team is playing for a Super Bowl berth tomorrow.

Monkeyfeetmd:

myrke:

The item in the second scan here is a 1988 Topps box bottom which includes a pair of PC guys: Darrell Evans and Tony Gwynn. It's kind of a cool piece as it includes players from both 1984 pennant winners.

njavgjoe:

OfficerZero:

ravensray52:

This one kind of ended up being two deals in one shipment for us as I contacted this member, John, about the Sainristil auto after we agreed to the first transaction. I was glad we were able to work out a second one for my first hit of the '23 national champ, out of Topps Resurgence.

Revmrzac:

Ronsolo1:

Rooty10:

Royals417:

sgill08:

smitha1:

sparkchaser 41:

A couple quick notes here. First, the red Conlon card of the Killefer brothers added another Michigan Baseball guy to my collection: Wade, a.k.a. "Red," who played for both Purdue and the Wolverines in college. He appeared in seven MLB seasons with Detroit, Washington, Cincinnati, and the NY Giants. As for the last three items, they're fun oversized Coke/Kroger Tigers team cards.

Spinmove:

sues2blame (PIF):

Before the apparently retiring Hill was chosen for 2025 Topps Chrome Update and Heritage, this minor league card was his lone issue last year. It was snagged from a team set representing KC's AAA affiliate and sent to me very generously by Thomas from--you guessed it--Omaha. Hill did manage to appear in a couple games for the Royals, unfortunately losses for him, as he marked his 21st MLB campaign with his 14th team. If he's truly hanging 'em up, may the ageless wonder look back on his long career with pride.

TallestJord:

triplecrown:

Fellow Michigander (Muskegon) Matthew and I were able to put together a fun deal that would benefit us both since he was in need of the extra 2017 Tigers SGA team set I had, and he had some good matches for me. He even worked in a pair of autographs: an IP/TTM of current Piston Duncan Robinson plus a Leaf Metal high school card of now-former Michigan QB prospect Jadyn Davis. The latter came in as a fairly well regarded four-star but barely played despite a number of opportunities, and it seems like the scouting on him was a bit too optimistic. Still, I'm glad to add him to my football collection!

Wax_Nostalgic:

wayneh59:

woodmangb:

ymmat:

I've mentioned a few other favorites in this post so I'll call out this Joe as well. We've done a few transactions and PIFs and I'm always glad when we can do so. Here you see a mix of what I picked plus a few surprises, like the Norris auto and Keith Primeau at the end. There's a reason the dude has 3300+ trades and 100% feedback!

That was definitely a huge stack of cards that I got to show off, though I've long since put them away. Before I sign off on this post, just a quick update on some of the baseball sets I'm working on that you saw throughout this post:

• 1990 Swell Greats: need 7 more
• 1991 Swell Greats: need 14 more
• 1995 Finest: need 19 more
• 1996 Flair (both Silver and Gold): need 11 more
• 2015 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. 2632: need 1 more
• 2024 Topps Celebration of the Kid: need 16 more

Besides those I was happy to add to a bunch of my player collections in multiple sports, including Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken, Barry Larkin, Rich Hill, and yes, too many Grandersons and Verlanders! I knocked off some more cards in my never-ending chase for Michigan Football RCs and added a few hits as well. And as I continue my foray into player collecting, I added a bunch of new subjects to my collection, with a project focusing on that possibly upcoming. It was another productive and entertaining year of trading as I crossed the 200-mark and made 55 deals (not including PIFs and the like), good for my second best year after 76 in 2022.

Hopefully I'll be back at it again in 2026 soon with an updated tradelist and renewed energy.

Thanks again to everyone for a fantastic 2025 in the hobby and on this blog, and I'll be back soon to kick off 2026!