2026 trade package #9: Topps Cards That Never Were

My next April trade package came courtesy of Jeremy from Topps Cards That Never Were. He's primarily a fan of a couple teams: the Rays and Tigers. His Rays are currently sitting atop the American League with 34 wins. Meanwhile, the Tigers are...not. They're tied in dead last with the Angels, whom they're somehow leading in tonight's game as I write this. To describe the quality of this year's team as "cheeks" is probably being kind.

That's frustrating as a fan, but then again it's not entirely new to me. I was born in 1983 and between then and last season they made the playoffs just nine times, winning one title in three tries (in '84, of course). Other than that, they've finished below .500 in 24 of those 43 seasons, losing 100+ games five times. in 2002 and '03 they earned a combined 98-225 record. And they're well on their way to another one of those seasons that feels like it time traveled straight from the 90s. These guys SUCK.

But that hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for collecting cards of Tigers new and old. Because of that, I'm thankful to Jeremy for the Tigers-centric mailer he treated me to last month, one that also included some other fun items for my collections:

Baez is one of a few Tigers who've been on the shelf for a good part of this season, though the streaky IF/OF wasn't playing well before going on the IL, and his All-Star '25 campaign looks like another random positive season for the enigmatic "El Mago." Bondo was part of Detroit's historically terrible 2003 campaign but I'd still take him over Jack Flaherty right now. In his prime Miggy would have led this team to maybe a few more wins, but it's largely a AAAA roster right now, and things will need to change for the record to improve significantly. I don't know that OF prospect Roberto Campos will be part of that growth, but top-10 CF prospect Max Clark, the 3rd overall pick in 2023, has the makings of a potential star, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do whenever he gets called up.

Former Wolverine Jake Cronenworth is one of the non-Tigers who made the trip up north to my mailbox. The former Ray appeared four times thanks to a pair of Topps Rainbow Foils, a Padres team set card, and a Heritage parallel. The foils look great, but especially appreciate the team card because those are sometimes harder to find than they should be.

Heading back to the past for a moment, we have a cool pair of former 1B/DH types. Darrell Evans' '85 OPC contains his stats from the 1984 World Series season, while my newest card of Cecil "Big Daddy" Fielder is from last year's Panini Prizm set.

Then we're back to a current guy in Riley Greene, who has a tendency to be a bit streaky, but has been one of the top three or four hitters on this year's team. The Archives card is a nice throwback to the 2005 Topps set, one with a design I appreciate a bit more in throwback form.

The late Hernandez takes us back to that same '85 OPC set as Evans above, and man was he a beast in 1984. Jobe, Jung, and Keith are all current Tigers, though the pitcher's still recovering from injury, Jung's spent most of the season in AAA, and Keith's scuffling a bit trying to repeat his solid past two seasons.

Larkin is another ex-Wolverine in this package and I love his Purple Holo Donruss card.

Speaking of parallels, former Tigers IF Scott Livingstone features on a Stadium Club Golden Rainbow insert from 1994. He played his first 3+ seasons in Detroit before being one of many Tigers flipped to the Padres in that decade. Utility guy Zach McKinstry is unfortunately hitting about as well as Livingstone did back then after an All-Star 2025. Montero's been one of the not-as-bad rotation options this year, though that's not saying a lot. And 2024 11th overall pick Bryce Rainer, a SS, is another very intriguing prospect that I hope gets called up in the next couple years in place of washed up FA signings.

It's nice to see three instances of ace P Tarik Skubal here as he chases his 3rd straight AL Cy Young, though between injuries and the team's lost season, it feels less likely that he'll win, and if so, he may not do so with the Tigers. I'll just enjoy his talents as long as he's here. Sweeney hasn't been with the big club since a rough '25 season. And JV's return hasn't been what fans had hoped as he's appeared in a single game: a loss in which he allowed 5 ER in 3.2 innings. At 43, his chances of getting to 300 wins are on life support. But if he can come back and pitch a bit more, it'll be a nice enough story. The trio of cards Jeremy sent of him look great, including an All-Star throwback.

One last scan concludes my recap of the goods, though I should note that I only scanned what was new to me. I'm mentioning that to give Jeremy credit for even more generosity as I'm showing off about half of what he actually sent.

A couple recent Tigers team cards close out the baseball content. When it came to basketball, a couple Fab-Fivers were natural fodder for this package. Jimmy King stars on a Signature Rookies issue that pictures him with this year's national champs, while HOFer Chris Webber appears on a shiny foil Hoops insert celebrating 1993-94's top rookies. His inclusion makes sense since he was the league's ROY over Penny Hardaway and Jamal Mashburn.

In terms of football, Jeremy sent me a nice bunch of Charles Woodsons (speaking of HOFers), several of which were rookie year cards like the above '98 UD Choice. That's a subset card while his RC (which I do own) can be found earlier in the set. That was joined by what I'd consider the most exciting card in the package: a TTM/IP-signed 1999 Bowman of school legend RB Tim Biakabutuka. This was an exciting card to pull out of the stack and I already expressed my thanks to Jeremy for sending it back up to Ann Arbor.

Jeremy, thanks once again for thinking of me with this latest envelope--I obviously enjoyed all of these new PC additions! I'm not sure when I'll be sending a stack back your way, but I will say I'm at least working on it.

I'll try to be back soon once again with my final April trade package, one that had a distinct Canadian flavo(u)r!

2024 trade package #16: Chronicles of Fuji

It's certainly been an interesting couple of weeks since I started drafting this post, including an embarrassing election that will make the lives of almost all Americans worse for at least the next four years. As it pertains to the hobby, I hope the upcoming economic fallout doesn't cause anyone in the hobby to be priced out.

In better news, fortunately there are still plenty of good people in the card collecting community, such as Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji. Right now more than ever we need teachers like him who do the underappreciated job of teaching kids in a society that offers his vocation insults and insane conspiracy theories about the "woke mindset" instead of the resources and recognition they should get. I've heard a lot about how the recent generation of students is harder to reach due to their phone addictions, an attitude of not trying, and parents that aren't involved. What I'm trying to emphasize is that it obviously takes a person with a ton of patience, perseverance, and pride in their job to do what Mark does.

With all that in mind, I'm always grateful for (but never surprised by) the effort and care he puts into the trade packages he sends my way. That was the case when he sent me the following back in August:

Mr. Tiger's Topps Pristine base is a beautiful example of a cool vintage photo on a modern design. Joining him are a bunch of really vintage Tigers from the 1977 Dover Publications Classic Baseball Cards Reprints set. These came in an album--apparently compiled by Michigan grad and sportswriter (largely known for boxing) Bert Sugar--in detachable perforated form. A number of of totally classic early designs, including the three seen above, are represented, and while I do own an intact album, I didn't have any singles. Now I do, thanks to Fuji, and they give some great looks at classic Tigers stars!

Switching over to basketball, things seem to be looking up a bit for the Wolverines after Juwan Howard's tenure ended in failure, with new coach Dusty May bringing in some solid talent and a new culture. Howard's early coaching days plus his days as a player are still some good memories, though, and he's joined here by well known Fab Five teammates Rose and Webber. Rice brings to mind the program's national championship and another of their most notable alumni. And the late Robert "Tractor" Traylor was exciting in Ann Arbor in the late 90s.

Things have been less rosy for the football team in coach Sherrone Moore's first season due to a number of factors, though he's also due to bring in a pretty impressive first recruiting class if everyone signs. One of the team's past stars is Buckey-killing RB Tim Biakabutuka, and here Fuji provided me with some very cool base and inserts of the Congo-born back. Please bring back designs like these, Panini!

You want more former Michigan stars? Fuji's got your back! Bunch spent four years in the NFL after that many years as a solid FB in Ann Arbor. Collins has been the key to finally making an OSU QB look good in the pros. Crable was a pretty good LB in college. Griese and Harbaugh both enjoyed success in college and the pros, and of course Jim's back in the NFL chasing his Super Bowl dreams, even if he did leave his alma mater in a terrible spot in terms of recruiting, bringing in transfers, and hiring coaches when he left. Hart has been my favorite Michigan RB since his very successful four years here though the very similar Blake Corum may take over soon enough.

The numbered LeSueur at position #3 here is quite cool as is the foil card of HOFer and Super Bowl-winner (times three!) Ty Law, but otherwise the story of this scan is star WRs. Howard of course won the Heisman and then had a very memorable moment winning a Super Bowl. Super Mario is a big reason Eli Manning won one if his rings and Manningham remains a blog favorite (obviously) to this day. And Terrell is one of the best receivers to come out of Ann Arbor, even if his NFL career doesn't bear that out. The former #1 jersey-wearer is one of several guys to appear on numbered cards in this post, with his Ultra RC at spot #8 being a highlight.

I supposed you could have one without the other, but I always like getting A-Train cards when Terrell's included because they're forever linked for me. Thomas joins Terrell from the serial numbered Ultra set and adds a Pros & Prospects #d card to boot. Toomer is another Ann Arbor star that lined up wide for the Wolverines and then won a Super Bowl with Eli Manning. Walker didn't pan out in the NFL but was excellent in college. And Wheatley is one of a number of Michigan RBs to have a solid NFL career. Better yet, he played back when card designs looked their best, especially inserts!

The rest of the football content, including some horizontal items, features familiar names from above along with GOAT DB Charles Woodson. The Score Wheatley is an especially cool card while the die-cut Playoff helmet design is, to borrow from the 90s, radical! I also really miss brands like Fleer's Showcase and Leaf's Certified Materials (referring to the real Leaf, not the garbage knockoff that's sullying the name these days).

There was more than just cards in this envelope this time as Fuji included a couple issues of a collecting magazine I was previously completely ignorant of: the Trader Speaks. More on the magazine itself in a minute, but first, here's a great look at Mr. Tiger as the cover star from November 1974, literally 50 years ago! Mr. Tiger had recently finished up his 22nd and final season in the MLB, all with Detroit, and he went out as an All-Star (for the 18th time) while finishing just one homer shy of the 400-mark. He'd be enshrined in Cooperstown six years later.

Meanwhile, this issue from the following May stars eight Tigers from a post-WWII set that's not Topps or Bowman. Instead, they were distributed (regionally) by Tip Top Bread. The black & white, 2 1/4 x 3" set is 163 cards strong, and while not every star of the time is included, many are. 15 Tigers made the cut, and more than half of them can be see here, including former Wolverine Dick Wakefield and HOFer George Kell. I also wasn't familiar with this set at all so this was an educational double whammy for me!

As for the magazines themselves, they're black and white (except for the red borders on the fronts) and measure about 7 x 8.5". They include various card news stories, addresses for TTM autographs, and letters, with the bulk of the pages devoted to auctions and classified ads for buying/selling/trading. The well known Keith Olbermann, who's certainly not secretive about his collecting habit, answers mailed-in questions in the May edition. These are an extremely cool look at the hobby from that time, about a decade before I was born, and it's fun to see the ridiculously low asking prices for items that are now super expensive, if not practically priceless.

Fuji, thanks again for all you do and for another exciting package of stuff that's a nice boost to my collection and my education! I plan on getting you back by the end of the year as I work on Christmas cards for 2024. But first, I need to continue catching up on everything I haven't covered yet, so more to come soon!

2023 trade packages #19 and 20: It's Like Having My Own Card Shop and Cardboard Collections

It's been a busy few weeks for me card-wise. I think I mentioned the garage sale I hit up not too long ago, plus there was my usual monthly show. I scored another fun small collection via Facebook a couple Fridays ago, then headed out to the western part of the state this past weekend to meet up with Jeff and his cousin Sluggo along with John (more on that in a future post) for another show. Oh, and between all of that I also made a few more TCDb and blogger trades and eBay buys. I've got cards that need to be posted coming out of my ears!

So let's try to start catching up a little by covering a couple more blogger trades this evening. First up is Daniel of It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. Waaay back in July he sent me a nice envelope of mostly Tigers that I really appreciated:

What better parallel could there be for Tigers cards but orange? Pretty much everything here is a parallel in some way, shape, or form, which is pretty cool, even if there's only one current (and soon-to-be-former!) Tiger. The low numbering on Garcia's Refractor is very impressive but my favorite card here has to be Mr. Tiger's Stadium Club Chrome Refractor. It doesn't show up in the scan but it looks beautiful in hand. Maddux was the lone non-Tiger today but I always appreciate getting new stuff of him.

Most of what's left here is also of the parallel or insert variety. Mazara's stint was short (thankfully) but the younger Meadows is an intriguing prospect, though it's hard to say if he'll get to appear in a game with his brother, who hopefully gets some help with his various issues. Verlander's always been a lights out kind of pitcher and I'm thankful I got to see him in person a number of times with the Tigers. And lastly there was a surprise autograph of former prospect Ronnie Bourquin. Detroit took him in the 2nd round of the '06 draft out of Ohio State (no wonder he never amounted to anything!) and he never rose above the AA level before spending a few years in indy ball. He at least had a nice signature as seen on the Bowman Sterling card above, though.

Daniel, thank you again for an excellent envelope of my Motown baseballers (plus Maddux!), I appreciate it, even if it took way longer than it should have to show these off.

Not too long after the cards above hit my mailbox I got a nice little PWE from Colbey, the man whose wheels are fly like the honeys, and who blogs oat Cardboard Collections. For the second time this year he sent me some fodder for my Michigan Football PC:

Yeah, I guess if Colbey's gonna be familiar with any Michigan alumni it would be one who played for his favorite NFL team. On the back of his business card I included above he expressed hope that I needed this 1997 Fleer Goudey mini of Buckeye-killer RB Tim Biakabutuka, who played 50 games for Colbey's Panthers. Good news: I did indeed need it! That's not bad since I'm getting pretty close to 250 cards of Touchdown Tim.

And here's the back for completeness because it's the least I can do when I only have to scan one card!

Thanks to you as well for thinking of my and my favorite team to collect, Colbey! I may be hitting you back at least once before it's time to send Christmas cards.

Readers, please stay tuned for more as I try to dig out of this pile of stuff to post that I keep allowing to grow. I'll likely prioritize blogger trades for a bit more until I'm caught up on them.

TCDB trade: PIF from jasongerman9

I've mentioned a PIF (pay it forward) I received from a favorite TCDB member recently in my last few posts and tonight you're going to get a look at it.

Jason, a.k.a. jasongerman9, a guy who puts in an admirable amount of work on the site, is another fellow member who lives in Michigan, though in his case he's very near the southern- and western-most parts, close to Lake Michigan and the Indiana border. He's a collector of the Reds and I've been able to send him a decent amount of cards of his team, and in return he's sent me some fun stuff back a few times.

This time I was rewarded with an eight-card PWE with everything he sent coming off my wantlist, assuring that it was all new to me. Check it out:

Baseball leads things off on an evening when the World Series is due to resume with game 3. You know I was happy to see yet another new Cronenworth hit my collection thanks to the site, and in this case it's Jake's base from 2022 Gypsy Queen. That's #61 in his collection, good for #3 on the site. Joining him is 90s bat maestro Tony Gwynn from Upper Deck's 2000 Gold Reserve product. That was basically a "best-of" remix of the base product with an upgraded look (a gold theme, naturally), kind of like what Topps Chrome used to be (I think Chrome just does the whole base set now? Maybe not, I dunno). I need fewer than 10 cards of Mr. Padre to crack the 800 mark!

Heading over to football and my beloved Wolverines, a pair of college uni cards bookend the sextet that Jason gifted me while I'm still celebrating my team's win over an in-state rival with a massive culture problem. Former #1 WR Derrick Alexander suited up for Michigan from 1989-93 (but suffered a knee injury in the '91 opener and missed the rest of the season) and went 2-2 against the Spartans. Here you see him on a trio of 1995 issues--Classic Images Four Sport, Collector's Choice Player's Club parallel, and Ultra Gold Medallion--plus a '98 Pacific Paramount Red insert. I like the Ultra card as it brings to mind the '96 baseball version that also went 100% gold foil. These get me close to the 200-card mark for Alexander, who current stands at 195.

Next up is a Biakabutuka from 2000 Playoff Prestige, a set with a nice looking foil heavy design. The big back played three seasons in Ann Arbor from '93-'95 and only went 1-2 against MSU, though he did put up almost 200 rushing yards plus a score in his final season.

And last up is another thumping back from around the same time. Tyrone Wheatley is seen in the greatest helmet in the sport on a 1995 Superior Pix Promo, a card made during his rookie season in the NFL. From 1991-94 he put his name all over the record books with more than 4000 rushing yards and 53 TDs rushing/passing, and he did the best of this group against Michigan State, going 3-1 with the '93 game being his lone loss. He tallied a rushing score his freshman season, two more on the ground in 1992, and added a catching TD to a pair of rushing tallies to cap off a great career as part of the in-state rivalry.

Many thanks to Jason for this generous PIF of a PWE, and I'll be working on sending more stuff back to him when I can, likely after one or two shows this weekend. Until then, Go Blue, and if you're an MSU football player, go to jail!

The TCDB Michigan Box part 2: football

I had a great time at this afternoon's monthly show and will be recapping that in relatively short order, but this evening I'm happy to finally take care of something I've had on the back burner for more than two years.

Last March I did a quick recap of the basketball stuff I needed from what I've been simply referring to as "The Michigan Box", a 5000-count monster box that was nearly full of UM basketball and football dupes from the collection of TCDB member cijt. As a quick reminder, back in May of 2020 he sent me the box in return for a mix of some of my dupe Michigan hits and a few other things that fit his collection.

It took me quite a while to sort through everything, especially the football stuff since it was sorted by player but then brand/year instead of my preferred year/brand. Plus I had to filter out anything I already had a copy of, plus any additional copies in many cases.

Still, it was a lot of fun to do that work and very productive for my collection as well--I was able to add more than 1600 new cards to my Michigan Football PCs! Putting them away will coincide with my project of expanding the home of those collections from four to five monster boxes because they were getting pretty snug.

Here's a look at what was left in the box after I removed all the dupes (and the basketball stuff that I'd previously covered). I won't be showing all 1600+ cards, but I will show one for every player represented, plus a few of the items you see in the fifth row of the box pictured above as well.

I also snagged a picture of the players' piles to try to give a sense of scale so you can see who benefitted the most from this trade. I know by the spreadsheet I created to track all this that Jim Harbaugh was the big winner, with Brian Griese, Evlis Grbac, Derrick Alexander, and Tyrone Wheatley following in his wake. I should also point out that the vast majority of cards were from the late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s (Chris apparently set a cutoff of who he collects around 2008). The second-to-last pile you see is guys who only had one or two new cards added, and those are followed by some new TK Legacy adds.

Because this is a lot of cards to cover I'm presenting the scans without comment other than identifying the players, mentioning how many new cards they added to their PCs, and then in parentheses noting their current collection counts as of this posting on TCDB.

There are 10 scans covering the 84 players whose collections were hit followed by a scan of TK Legacy stuff, and then a few more scans with something out of the ordinary at the end. Please enjoy this mix of years and brands of football cards!:

Bobby Abrams: 1 (2)     Derrick Alexander: 130 (189)     Jason Avant: 2 (121)

Ron Bellamy: 1 (18)     Tim Biakabutuka: 89 (230)     Keith Bostic: 2 (3)

Tom Brady: 28 (288)     Steve Breaston: 2 (130)     Jarrod Bunch: 22 (34)

Jerry Burns: 2 (4)     Chris Calloway: 41 (55)     Anthony Carter: 55 (100)

Todd Collins: 30 (72)     Evan Cooper: 1 (3)     Thom Darden: 3 (7)

Dan Dierdorf: 4 (9)     Dean Dingman: 1 (4)     Tom Dohring: 1 (1)

Glenn Doughty: 2 (4)     Braylon Edwards: 31 (338)     Jumbo Elliott: 17 (28)
Matt Elliott: 1 (4)     Mike Evans: 2 (4)     Steve Everitt: 7 (27)
Justin Fargas: 2 (27)     Jay Feely: 1 (2)     Chris Floyd: 1 (9)

Devin Funchess: 1 (79)     Ian Gold: 3 (10)     Brandon Graham: 1 (47)
Elvis Grbac: 136 (191)     Brian Griese: 165 (386)     James Hall: 1 (3)
Mike Harden: 4 (6)     David Harris: 2 (94)     Mercury Hayes: 2 (7)

Drew Henson: 3 (38)     Leroy Hoard: 70 (87)     Steve Hutchinson: 1 (15)
Marlin Jackson: 2 (65)     Jon Jansen: 1 (4)     Trezelle Jenkins: 2 (11)
Dhani Jones: 2 (14)     Cato June: 1 (12)     Mike Kenn: 19 (30)

Ty Law: 59 (91)     Randy Logan: 1 (3)     Jake Long: 1 (148)
Rob Lytle: 1 (4)     Tom Mack: 2 (6)     Tony McGee: 49 (71)
Greg McMurtry: 25 (33)     Jamie Morris: 1 4()     John Navarre: 1 (32)

Mel Owens: 1 4()     Bubba Paris: 5 (9)     Chris Perry: 1 (122)
Robert Perryman: 6 (8)     Jay Riemersma: 14 (32)     Denard Robinson: 2 (119)
Jon Runyan: 1 (5)     Greg Skrepenak: 5 (17)     Jim Smith: 1 (5)

Tai Streets: 15 (48)     Mike Teeter: 3 (3)     David Terrell: 3 (157)
Anthony Thomas: 41 (196)     Amani Toomer: 87 (318)     Jerame Tuman: 1 (12)
Jon Vaughn: 29 (41)     Derrick Walker: 8 (12)     Marquise Walker: 2 (68)

Gabe Watson: 2 (32)     Tyrone Wheatley: 111 (237)
Charles Woodson: 2 (325)     Butch Woolfolk: 1 (4)

Lou Baldacci: 1 (2)     Dave Brown: 2 (7)
Curtis Greer: 2 (6)     Ali Haji-Sheikh: 4 (7)
Jim Harbaugh: 205 (368)     Desmond Howard: 64 (103)
Reggie McKenzie: 3 (6)     Trevor Pryce: 1 (4) (Griese also pictured)

How awesome was that variety?! Lots of Michigan uniforms and plenty of shininess I wanted to highlight as well. The majority of what I added was base with a few inserts mixed in, but I don't care because I love adding any new Michigan stuff I can. Speaking of that...

These were the TK Legacy cards I needed, and many of the names are notable--the Wistert family was big here, Leach was a sensation, and Morrison and Turco are two of the most successful alumni of the hockey program.

Speaking of TK Legacy, a product I broke several boxes of, Chris included an empty pack (shown roughly actual size) from an unknown year (I could probably figure it out but don't feel like doing the research) with Braylon Edwards front and center. I didn't keep any of these from my previous boxes but think I'll hold onto this one.

And lastly, there was a whole mess of tickets/stubs that I was excited to add to my collection. I love the mix of images used on these, from game action to campus sites, and many of them came from wins as well! The first two scans include 20 tickets from games between 1976 and 1984 while the final one includes plain game passes instead of tickets along with three stubs that are hard to pin down. Similar to what I did with the cards and player collection info above, I looked up the score of each game and posted the results below:

• 1976 vs. Wake Forest: W 31-0
• 1977 vs. Wisconsin: W 56-0
• 1978 vs. Arizona: W 21-17
• 1978 vs. Michigan State: L 24-15
• 1979 vs. Minnesota: W 31-21
• 1979 vs. Wisconsin: W 54-0
• 1979 vs. Ohio State: L 18-15
• 1980 vs. Cal: W 38-13
• 1980 vs. Michigan State: W 27-23
• 1980 vs. Purdue: W 26-0

• 1981 vs. Notre Dame: W 25-7
• 1981 vs. Navy: W 21-16
• 1981 vs. Illinois: W 70-21
• 1982 vs. Indiana: W 24-10
• 1982 vs. Michigan State: W 31-17
• 1983 vs. Purdue: W 42-10
• 1984 vs. Washington: L 20-11
• 1984 vs. Michigan State: L 19-7
• 1984 vs. Illinois: W 26-18
• 1984 vs. Minnesota: W 31-7

Total record of these: 16-4

• 1979 vs. Minnesota: W 31-21
• 1979 vs. Ohio State: L 18-15
• 1980 vs. Northwestern: W 17-10
• 1980 vs. Cal: W 38-13
• 1980 vs. Michigan State: W 27-23
• 1981 vs. Iowa: L 9-7
• 1981 vs. Northwestern: W 38-0
• 1981 vs. Illinois: W 70-21
• Purdue: unknown
• Michigan State: unknown
• Houston: either 1992 (W 61-7) or 1993 (W 42-21)

Total record of these: 7-2 (with 2 unknown), with some overlap with the games above.

I'm excited that I'll finally be putting these away after they've been sitting in the box for over two years, and it'll be fun seeing for myself just how big they make each of the players' stacks instead of just relying on a number on a list!

With these covered I'll be back soon, possibly as soon as this holiday weekend, with a card show recap. I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing Fourth of July weekend, even at a time when the Supreme Court has made it impossible to celebrate.

2022 trade package #2: Chronicles of Fuji

It looks like it's been exactly two weeks since I last posted and they've definitely been busy ones! We all got to enjoy a pretty exciting Super Bowl with yet another former Wolverine (DB David Long) winning a ring. And my activity on TCDB has only increased with lots more trade bait posted and many deals completed or in-progress. In fact, looking over on my card desk right now I have 12 TCDB trades to cover at some point, plus six other blog deals to recap after this one!

And speaking of "this one", it's one of the bigger stacks I get to enjoy! And enjoy it I will, even if I'm extremely jealous of the weather the sender gets to enjoy. While it got briefly warm enough here to melt the many inches of snow we've dealt with, we're once again in the middle of a storm that'll bring another 6-9". Meanwhile it's sunny and high 60s in San Jose, home to blogging/trading legend Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji.

In January Mark sent me another typically generous package out of the blue, which is a color I'm happy to picture as I see nothing but white outside! I had no idea he was sending what he did and was surprised about the variety found within among three of the major sports. Continue reading to see what I mean:

2017 Honus Bonus, a collectible card/fantasy game product, was a bit of an odd duck for sure. But it's a fun one to collect as well for a number of reasons. One of them is the abundance of 1/1s, with multiples made to represent different significant stats. In the two examples here for Ian Kinsler and Justin Upton, that would be their career HR up to that point. Through 2016, his third of four seasons with Detroit after eight in Texas, Kinsler had clubbed 212 of his 257 career bombs. Upton, snagged as a FA before the 2016 season, finished that campaign at 221 after 10 years, then was flipped to the Angels, still his current squad, and he's added 128 taters over his past five.

I like the game-dated aspect of these cards and they're a fun addition to my collection even if the true "rarity" isn't there. Very cool of Fuji to send them my way!

Basketball was very well represented this time, enough that I decided to make it easy on myself and just take a group photo. After all, there was lots worth showing off here, with the 90s and inserts offering lots of creativity and shine.

Player #1 in the pile is Tariq Abdul-Wahad, a relative newbie to my collection in terms of cards that aren't part of complete sets. Previously named Olivier Saint-Jean, he was born in France to two basketball-playing parents, and played at Michigan in 93-94 before transferring to Fuji's San Jose State. Sacramento chose him 11th overall in 1997, the same year he converted to Islam and took on a new name. He's very welcome to the basketball collection! Nice catch, Fuji.

Other players that are part of this bunch include Jamal Crawford, coach Juwan Howard, Ray Jackson, Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Mo Taylor, Robert Traylor, Loy Vaught, and Chris Webber. As you can see, there's a nice bunch of Michigan uni cards, which makes sense giving how popular the program was for a bit in the early 90s. Taylor and Webber got the most new additions with eight and nine, respectively. And I'm absolutely digging a bunch of the inserts, like Howard's hologram (upper-right corner), the die-cuts, and the plethora of shininess.

One such card I decided to highlight was this 1998-99 Ultra Unstoppable insert of Taylor. The booklet-like card folds open so I put together this three-part (somewhat cut-off) look at it:

I don't recall seeing these before so I thought it was cool!

The football side more than lives up to its courtside companion with lots of great names and designs. Touchdown Timmy is a blast to collect since his cards largely fall in the super creative era of the 90s, and that's on full display here. I especially love the Leaf slide card and SP HoloView insert, which bring to mind my favorite tag, "90s inserts rule"! His last card is actually a '96 Bowman reprint, not the original, by the way.

National champ QB Brian Griese was the most common player found in the bunch, as you'll see between this scan and the next one. The Collector's Edge card is numbered /3500, the Fleer Showcase Air to the Throne insert is a reminder that he didn't quite follow in Elway's footsteps (though he did have a respectable career), and the 2000 Leaf Certified base is one of the higher-end ones you'll see here that wouldn't be out of place in an insert set.

See? More Griese (but not greasy) goodness! I wonder if anyone else remembers Upper Deck's short-lived UD Graded product, which I mainly know about due to having to track down some annoying RCs. The inserts from UD, Ultra, and even Topps (it was long enough ago, when they were still trying) are great. Absolute Memorabilia's hobby base cards were way better than the bland retail versions that never should have been made. And the Griese/Terrell pairing never happened in college or the NFL, unfortunately, but would have been a dynamic duo!

Speaking of QBs, newly-extended coach Jim Harbaugh makes an appearance here out of a baseball insert: Topps' 2016 First Pitch set, naturally showing him at Comerica Park. And Fuji even somehow found a Chad Henne I didn't have: a 2008 Prestige Prestigious Picks insert numbered /500, with the young Henne seen in his maize & blue uni. Those two are joined by another UM great, Desmond Howard, on a 1992 All World issue.

Incredibly, there's still more 90s/early 2000s greatness left to cover. It's awesome to see Terrell and Thomas together as nature intended: the WR on a numbered UD Finite base and the A-Train on one of Donruss's greatest inserts: Elite's Passing the Torch. For those of you who are curious, he was paired with former Bears back Gale Sayers. Hey, they can't all be winners, but damn is that set a beauty!

Former WRs Amani Toomer and Marquise Walker are next. Super Bowl champ Toomer can be seen on high-end offerings from 2000 Topps Gold Label (Class 3) and the previously seen Absolute Memorabilia. Walker's card is another throwback to quality Topps inserts: 2002 Topps Debut's Collegiate Classics. This foil chase card with a great college photo honors his 7 catches for 134 yards and a TD (one of his 11 that year) in a 24-10 win over Purdue in 2001, my freshman year.

Last up here us new Broncos RBs coach Tyrone Wheatley, someone who knows just a bit about the position. The Michigan great is seen on 1995's Metal Silver Flashers, Skybox Prime Time Rookie, and  Upper Deck Predictor inserts, plus a 2001 Topps Combos that pairs him up with the already seen Thomas. Those two are the #4 and 5 career rushers at the school, combining for 8276 yards, 96 rushing TDs, and 103 overall scores!

We're not quite done with inserts yet since Fuji also included this large item in the package: a graded 2003 Topps Chrome Refractor of transfer RB Justin Fargas, numbered /100. The beautiful shiny Refractory-ness is enhanced by a bold black border that I'm sure Gavin would admire. This is a gorgeous addition to my collection of Huggy Bear's kid, and I'll think about whether or not I feel like cracking it out of the slab to admire it more.

Ok, now we're closing in on the end with just a couple cards left to cover. The first is a great looking jersey card of former QB/WR Devin Gardner out of Panini's 2015 collegiate product focusing on the school, one of a number they made. DG was an athletic competitor and leader and those skills seem to be translating well to his potential next career in analysis/broadcasting. I'm looking forward to seeing him advance in that career!

And last up today is this throwback to fun Pacific products and their leading efforts when memorabilia cards were still novelties. Griese was paired up with HOF RB teammate Terrell Davis on this Titanium dual jersey, a double-sided card that in retrospect definitely got it right with the star up front. For me, though, it's a nice new jersey card to add to my Griese collection, now at 25 hits strong, making him the 18th player to reach that mark.

Thanks again for this whopper of a trade package, Fuji! Sending 1/1s, 90s inserts, and lots of Wolverines is a great way to keep yourself in my top tier of favorite trading partners, that's for sure. I hope your school year is going well, and I look forward to hitting you back as always whenever I can pile up some more trade bait. Until then, you know I'll keep following your blog, easily one of the best out there!