2023 trade package #15: the Collector

Well we're more than halfway through the year and I still have a lot to catch up on in terms of cards to show off on my desk, though it's getting a bit better. It certainly helps when I actually post them and can get on to the next pile!

Tonight's envelope was yet another from one of my favorite trade partners (I have a lot of favorites), Chris of the Collector. We send stuff back and forth all the time, often without any warning, and I'm pretty sure that's what happened here because I don't remember him letting me know something was on the way.

Here's all the cardboard goodness he hit me with this time:

Now that's a nice pair of Miggy cards! I'm still partial to the 2001 Topps set so the Archives parallel is especially cool to me. Also, this is a great time to chastise MLB for not giving Cabrera the kind of send-off he deserves as much as guys like Pujols, Ortiz, and Jeter. Whatever, just another ball dropped under Rob Manfred's watch.

E-Rod's looking good in blue and I wonder if he'll be wearing a new jersey with that color (or any others) in just a few weeks. When I saw the Sabo I hoped it was one of those annoying to track down Gold Hologram versions, and it was! With the MLB draft all wrapped up I'm sure some fans are already giving up on Tork and looking ahead to some of the bats and arms the team took this week. Verlander was one of those arms way back, a rare good draft choice for the franchise. And underrated SS Carlos Guillen represents a trade that went in the Tigers favor plus a guy whose talent I appreciated during his eight years in Motown.

Sure, we've had some normal sized cards, but why not oversized? Back when Finest still looked like its own premium product, like 2000, you could snag a box topper like Mr. Padre above (and even a Refractor version!). Gwynn is #17 in the set so he would have been pulled from a Series 2 box while #s 1-10 were found in Series 1. It's a beauty and one I'll happily add to his collection.

Sticking with oversized stuff but going even more oddball, how about this thing? I'm sure those of you familiar with 90s stuff remember Stadium Club's Master Photo pieces, but did you know Topps collaborated with Toys'R'Us to produce a 100 card set that came with a bonus 12-card insert set that included the 5x7 above? Sure, just about any Tigers "prospect" they picked back then would have sucked, but it's still a very cool piece. Thanks, Chris!

One last scan will take care of the other three sports that made it into the package. The Fab-Fivers go well together, but while Webber's has the cooler design, King happens to be the subject of a recent feel-good story, returning to Michigan to finish up his degree in time to graduate with his daughter!

Heading over to football, Brady and Collins are notable guys from recent Panini Products, but Ojabo may be less well-known to non-Michigan fans (unless you're an Ohio State fan!), and of course you don't hear as much about SAGE as the major brands. Still, that's a very cool card of a guy who could be making some major noise in the league when he's fully healthy.

Lastly, we move onto the ice where Michigan just had another guy drafted in the Top 5, with Hobey-winner Adam Fantilli joining the Wolverine contingent in Columbus at #3 overall. The photography on the UD cards Chris sent me looks excellent as always, and I'm grateful that Larkin will continue to captain the Wings for years to come (with a pair of fellow ex-Wolverines to boot!). I wouldn't mind seeing another former top-10-er, Jacob Trouba, on Detroit's blue line. And lastly, I realized later when I had finished scanning everything that the Ultra Gold Medallion of front-of-the-net-maestro Tomas Holmstrom had fallen behind the scanner so I made sure to add it to this group.

Chris, thanks again for such a fun surprise envelope with some especially cool oversized items! I'm not sure when I'll be returning fire but best believe when I do you'll be getting the same quality coming back your way!

2021 trade package #11: The Collector

I follow a pretty large number of blogs, and based on the blogrolls and mentions I see on those I'm aware that they only represent a fraction of what's out there. That's awesome because it's a great sign that both the hobby and this part of it are still doing great.

While I can't claim to pay attention to many of them to the degree I'd like, such as commenting on posts the writers clearly put lots of work into, I do try to make the effort to participate on some more than others. One such blog is The Collector, run by one of my favorite trading partners Chris. He and I are like-minded collectors in several ways so he's always fun to deal with. He also recently reached a very significant milestone: 500 posts! Among those are one of the best series I've seen on any blog: his all-time teams, which definitely required a lot of work but resulted in some great reading.

I mention all that because last week I received a PWE from him which included a note thanking me for reading and commenting to the extent that I do, which is really nice considering he's one of the folks I can pretty much count on to find a comment over here. Oh, and some cards for me too!:

Jeez, anybody still remember 2013 Topps? Two-time Derby winner Fielder didn't take home the crown that season, but he was the 1B for the 2012 squad pictured on card #2 up there, a team that beat Oakland in the ALDS and swept the hated Yanks to reach Detroit's most recent World Series berth, only to get swept by another great even-year Giants run. I still can't believe one of the teams from that era didn't win it all!

Chris apologized for what ended up being a hockey-heavy envelope, as if that's a bad thing somehow. On the Wings side, AA's been gone for a couple seasons while Bertuzzi still has a chance to but into a star. And then we get to three big pieces of Hockeytown's success over the past quarter century: Holmstrom, Yzerman and Zetterberg. At some point I'll get my Wings PCs loaded in TCDB so I have a better idea of what I have of some of those favorites.

Oh yeah, and for good measure Chris included a very Alluring autograph. Kuffner only got a cup of coffee with the Wings in 2018-19 and then was included in the deal with AA above for Sam Gagner, a pick last year, and a second rounder this year, so that could still turn into something. He's one of those Canadians you occasionally see spurn the OHL to play American college hockey, which I love. That and the colorful design makes this one a winner.

He even managed to make an almost even split of Detroit stuff and Michigan cards, which is pretty cool (besides the already impressive fact that there were no dupes in this PWE!). I needed each of Burke and Sauce Castillo (a RC) from the shiny 2014-15 Panini Prizm. 

OLB John Anderson (who also punted in college!) played 12 seasons for the Pack but only made it onto 39 items catalogued by TCDB, with even fewer being mainstream products. Yet Chris was able to send me a third item for his collection, his 1984 Topps second year base--a card with six years of stats on it. RCs are weird but that design is still a classic.

And then there's a quartet of some recent(ish) Wolverines hockey stars. Cogliano has never been a star, but this year he gets to Be-a-Player for the 14th season, and that's awesome. Hagelin is nobody's idea of an MVP at this point but he chipped in 10 goals and 21 points over 48 playoff games with the Pens, winning a pair of rings. WolverWing Larkin has seen the quality of the team around him erode but is still young enough to become an MVP one day. And all Patch has done is score 300+ goals in parts of 13 seasons, never being named the most valuable, but winning the '11-'12 Masterton ("Qualities of Perseverance and Sportsmanship") so there.

(Wait, why was he worried about this being hockey-heavy again?)

Chris, thanks again for a fun PWE as you celebrate 500 posts! Congratulations on keeping up with the blog for that long (and hopefully years to come!) and thanks for being a terrific trade partner. Should things fall in line it's not inconceivable that I could have some card show-sourced items headed to your own mailbox in the next month or two.

And coming up next on this here blog...another trade package? Don't mind if I do!

2018 trade package #11: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Now that I'm back and rested from a much-needed vacation to visit friends I have one from a pair of trade envelopes to show off to you before I get back to the eBay goodness.  Today's is a two-parter, naturally, as it's from Canadian good guy (as if that wasn't redundant) Doug of Spourts Cards Froum the Doullar Stoure.  As is tradition he sent me a great pre-Expo package, which I'm guessing will soon be followed up by a post-Expo package, though I wouldn't be surprised if I received a "while I'm at the Expo!" package from him as well.  Dude's awesome, is what I'm saying.

So make sure to check out the great goods on TMM this evening after you peruse these nice additions:

We'll start with this pair of Michigan baseballers, Jim Abbott and Chris Sabo.  These guys never got to play together in college--they missed each other by about three years due to their age difference--or in the pros, but I'm happy to have them side-by-side here!

Doug also sent a bunch of Wings stuff, a nice assortment that I have to imagine he accumulated through his trademark repacks.  This first scan includes a few fan favorites in Datsyuk, Franzen, Holmstrom, and Lidstrom.  Those Score cards that dominate the scan are mostly from the 12-13 set, and I think they look great.  I hope you do too because there's more where that came from!

Alongside a few other players the clear star of the show here is The Captain, Steve Yzerman.  I'm not sure what's going on with the photo on the Zenith card, especially the coloring, but it's an otherwise great shot of the Detroit legend.  Meanwhile a Parkhurst issue from 92-93 offers a cool landscape shot of "Stevie Y" in action.  That playing card starring the whole team is a great way to wrap up most of the base.

I said "most" because of this nice pile featuring a pair of notable Wings goalies: Jimmy Howard and Chris Osgood.  I've probably mentioned a million times that I got to see my Wolverines defeat Howard and his Maine teammates in the NCAA regionals years ago, and he's served as a solid if unspectacular netminder in Motown.  Osgood, of course, won three cups, two as a starter, in Hockeytown, and I especially like his selection here.

The first of the three hockey hits going into my Wings collection is this jersey relic of Wolverwing Luke Glendening from 2016-17 SP Game Used's Stadium Series Fabrics offering.  It highlights Detroit's victory over the Avalanche in a game played at Coors Field on February 27, 2016.  Five different wings scored in the 5-3 win, and Glendening (on just my second hit of him), pictured here, picked up an assist.  The slightly larger than average jersey swatch is a beautiful red straight out of the team's colors.

Wings hit #2 is this jersey relic of former grinder Tomas Holmstrom from 2010-11 Zenith Winter Warriors Materials.  The Swede was part of four Cup-winners in Detroit, and "warrior" certainly describes his style of play, a fearless force in front of the net who never gave a goalie a moment of peace and was often in the right place to bang home a rebound.  He left as a fan-favorite and I'm happy to have something of his for my collection.

Last up is my third card of Wolverwing wunderkind Dylan Larkin from 2015-16 Upper Deck Champ's, with all three coming courtesy of Doug.  This time I got a Rookie Jerseys relic to go with the autograph and insert he'd already sent.  Here's the pair of hits side-by-side:

At some point I'll track down the base RC to go with it and make it a proper trifecta.

Once again Doug, thanks a ton for your generosity!  Not everybody gives up hits of young stars like you do, or puts in the time to hit my favorite PCs.  I hope you had a great Expo and I look forward to hitting you back at some point, but for now I'll sit here and complain to myself about how this country's shipping rates are higher than yours for no reason!