It's a Friday, it's a beautiful day, and even better yet, it's celebration time! One of my oldest blogging/collecting friends is marking a couple big anniversaries, and in typical fashion he decided to put a generous spin on it and send out cards to a lucky few.
By now you've probably seen a few posts that open up with this image, and I'm proud to have been included in Chris's (the Collector) Anniversary Celebration Extravaganza! 40 years of collecting and 10 of blogging are big deals for sure, and the hobby and blogosphere are much better places for having Chris be part of them.
Of course I also love his incorporation of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons in the logo, and if I had the power, I'd nominate Chris for the second annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence. Anybody that agrees is one of the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.
Anyway, if you haven't for some reason, do yourself a favor and go check out his anniversary-related posts, including the box breaks of Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary he included in his generous (I'm gonna use that word a lot today) giveaway packages.
I mean, what other word can you use to describe a big-ass envelope stuffed with free cards that cost him $13 to mail?
Here's an overview of the contents: a note, three unopened packs, some penny sleeves, and a bunch of cards. I opened the top two packs (which you'll see shortly) but since I have a complete '86 Topps set, I decided to leave that rack pack sealed, one he included thoughtfully as Tigers HOFer Jack Morris appears on the front.
I tend to think of including a note in a trade package as a classy thing to do, even if it's just a brief "thanks for trading and I hope you enjoy these!" So I thought this "thank you" from Chris was very, very nice, and it just continues to prove that he deserves all the love for being a fantastic writer and trader, not to mention going through a tough time the past few years. I'm grateful he stuck with it and hope he does keep the urge to write more even if he's collecting less. His blog has been the home of some very well researched and written series, and the Collector remains one of my all-time favorites among long-timers like
Night Owl and
Fuji.
Ok, now that I've gone overboard in expressing my appreciation, here's the loot, starting with my pack of '92 Topps:
Nothing too crazy here, but plenty of names that I know, with Hrbek and Bernie being the two best names if you ask me.
And 2026 Bowman is certainly the newest product I've opened in a long time. Matt Holiday's kid and Roman Anthony are solid pulls, and I also got an Electric Sluggers insert of Aiva Arquette of Miami. The latter is a 2025 first-rounder out of Oregon State via his birthplace of Hawaii (cool!), and a pre-2026 consensus top-50 prospect.
Now that we're done with the packs, here are the cards Chris "curated" for me, and as always (and I do mean always), he did an excellent job:
A pair of Cronenworths is a great place to start! You'll see a solid amount of the aforementioned Topps Chrome Platinum throughout my post as well as those of others who received these packages thanks to Chris breaking a few boxes. That includes guys like Greene and Kell. He also sent me a good number of '25 Topps Tigers, plus a cool '26 Diamante Foil of OF Parker Meadows.
Oddly enough this scan opens and closes with the two biggest names the Tigers traded (correctly, I'd say) at this year's deadline. That Ripken is one of three Chris sent, and at 99 copies made is one of a pair that were numbered too! Future HOFer Scherzer continues to be very welcome in trade packages like this, especially when it's on an "ace" playing card-themed item.
And lots of shiny in the last baseball scan. The whole top row plus the Ripken at the bottom comprises Refractors, most of which are from TCPA. While blog namesake guy Verlander is much appreciated, the Cal is especially cool, and it was fun seeing Chris pull that from his box and note it in his break video. Speaking of Ripken the younger, that three-player Orioles card is numbered to just 50! And going back to Mr. Kate Upton, the Heritage insert as another very nice item as it's a holofoil version. Then, finally, we go back to Cronenworth with what's hit #6 (third relic), an Absolute jersey that pairs him up with erstwhile Tiger Isaac Paredes, a very cool piece for this here blog.
I'll just spoil now that Chris hit all four major sports. The Penny/Shaq/Webber insert is very cool and I was happy to get an insert of recent Wolverines basketballer Danny Wolf.
He delivered even more high quality stuff when it came to football. The Holo parallel of RB Blake Corum, one of my absolute favorite recent guys, is one of three you'll see if that player. I think Will Johnson's going to have a very good NFL career, and I'm happy to see him on some nice color such as the Prizm/Chrome pair above. That Bowman Chrome U insert of brief UM transfer QB Mikey Keene is my first card of his from a major manufacturer (the other are ONIT) so that was a fun inclusion). No matter whether or not he starts again in the NFL, I love seeing new cards of McCarthy, especially in college action. Sainristil and Schoonmaker are two more recent guys that join the rainbow here. And the Woodson pairing is quite nice: a Select parallel numbered /149 and an acetate-type insert that looks very cool in-hand.
Cleaning up the football items, we get the other two Corum cards: yet another eye-popping color parallel plus a Pink parallel of a blue Rams jersey swatch, giving "the Great" five hits in my collection. And those are joined by the card that was covered up by a note in the picture above that shows everything. Chris says he found that IP/TTM auto of five-time Pro Bowl OT Mike Kenn in a dollar box and knew it was worth it regardless of its legitimacy. Good call!
I'll get to the larger hockey stack featuring my Wolverines in a moment, but first there was this OPC Platinum Wings pair: Swedish wingers Jonatan Berggren and Lucas Ryamond. The latter's still with the team and has been a quality player since being selected #4 overall in 2020.
Hockey scan 1/2 includes some very good names in Beniers, Blankenburg, Connor, Hughes, Johnson, and Larkin, and of course Larkin and Patch are two of my favorite icers to collect. The Pacioretty minor league card from '08-'09 is especially cool as I have so few of those when it comes to collecting hockey. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, I'm still happily collecting Larkin despite the ongoing saga of his trade demands.
And lastly, Greg Pateryn, Owen Power, and Zach Werenski join the party along with an encore from Hughes. The Hughes/Werenski defensive pairing here is a very impressive one, given they both are Norris Trophy winners who are two-time All-Stars that were also named to their All-Rookie teams during their debuts. That UD Bustle insert of Zach is definitely one of these nicest cards in the whole envelope.
Chris, once again, thanks so much for this huge, generous, and hugely generous package of cards that you sent to celebrate two big personal anniversaries of your own. I can't say enough how glad I am that there's still a good number of bloggers like you who keep that practice alive, and that we've been able to continue trading cards through ups and downs. No matter what your collecting and blogging future look like, you've earned some rest to go along with all the respect you deserve. And I'm enjoying reading all of the other posts by folks who received these packages. Be well, and be ready for the next time I can send cards back your way!
I'll try to be back relatively soon with more posts covering my pickups from the past few months, but today's took priority over everything else. I've still got tons of scans covering eBay, shows, Facebook, and TCDb trading to get to and look forward to sharing those soon!
