2025 trade package #27: Wes Moore

It's getting later on Christmas Eve but I'm still up for giving some thanks to another cool person who sent me cards in November (and getting a post up before the holiday official hits).

Tonight's cards came from Alabama native and former Pancake King, Wes Moore. I think most people who follow me here are aware of Wes's legendary trade war exploits and a sense of generosity that would put him in the Olympus of traders if one existed. In case anyone reading this hasn't heard of him (or the Pancake King story) before, just search his name on some of your favorite blogs to be amazed.

Anyway, it had been quite a while since either of us sent the other anything, I think, but his joy for giving certainly wasn't rusty when he sent me a nice bubble mailer last month. This one was filled with mostly Tigers, but also some football Wolverines--mighty kind of an Alabama fan towards one whose school was trying to poach the football coach from his!

Here's a look at what I found inside:

I have to say, the guy is still a pro, and the case these came in protected them perfectly.

Just in time for Christmas, this scan of Tigers includes silver and gold, and other colors too! There were enough Refractors in this envelope that I used the insert's name as a tag for this post. Former Tigers Avila and Castellanos fit the bill here while Bondo, Coke, and Big Daddy bring the gold. Fielder also represents silver, like the bells, with an Electric Diamond parallel from '94 UD.

Hey, more color! I still remember the hype around '90s Select Certified and its rare mirror parallels, which is somewhat similar to the more recent appreciation for that era's Precious Metal Gems. Fulmer and AJax bring more Refractor heat while All-Star Riley Greene bucks the Christmas colors trend with Sky Blue. No Refractors for Manning but the colorful effect is essentially the same on Prizm and Topps Rainbow Foil inserts. Nokes is a great throwback to one of my favorite 80s Tigers plus the fun stuff we got back then like stickers and boxed sets. And Magglio looks cool on a throwback Topps insert.

Will the Tigers stop pinching pennies long enough to give Skubal (and his fans) the gift of a new contract? I'm not holding my breath, but it's not impossible. Panini didn't have this festive season in mind when they made the parallel Tork appears on, which is more suited for another holiday. The Stadium Club Super Team card is my favorite in the package because I haven't found them easy to acquire and this one includes two of my Tigers favorites in Alan Trammell and Tony Phillips. Turley's another Refractor but I didn't recognize his name, which can happen as Bowman products sometimes include 16th round picks like the ex-Baylor P. And speaking of Refractors, how about a Negative version of a player who was fairly positive for Detroit, Justin Upton?

Last up tonight, the closest to gold these Michigan Football cards come is the maize they're wearing, but there's some silver to be had. And more importantly all nine cards feature college photos, which is very cool!

I'm not a big Leaf fan these days, but I have to say that Trinity Steel card of Blake Corum looks quite nice, partially because of the cool lava pattern in the background (in addition to the cool shot of him running hard as always). His '23 backup and lightning to Corum's thunder, Donovan Edwards, gets four cards added to his collection thanks to college stalwart SAGE. The fourth card is from their Artistry product, but I haven't found a checklist for that yet to get added on TCDb and will have to work on it when I have time.

Defensive backs Will Johnson and Makari Paige join the Don out of this year's SAGE product, and the latter represents my first card of Makari that isn't a Valiant Michigan issue. Ex-#1 WR Greg McMurtry, a five-year NFL vet, looks good on his '90 Score RC. And Colts LB Kwity Paye looks ready to bring the pain on a Wild Card Matte issue.

Wes, thanks for thinking of me once again, and I appreciate your trademark generosity and ability to get nice cards into the hands of others. I don't know if I can find anything you might need but if I do, rest assured I'll work on returning the favor. For now I'll happily thank you for this perfect Christmas present.

I'll be taking tomorrow off, of course, and then plan on returning with a couple show posts next on the docket. Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas, y'all!

Christmas Eve trade envelopes!

Did I have to post this evening on Christmas Eve? Maybe not. But last night after I noticed my total post count for this blog I realized it would be fun to get #1224 up on 12/24. Also, the stuff below became early Christmas presents for me, so why not?

I don't do this very often but you're getting a combined trade package post from me because I thought it made sense given the contents. Here are the last three trade envelopes I received in 2022 (pending any that sneak under the wire next week):

First up is a "real" Christmas card from a person whose generosity earns him the right to be called a cardboard Santa. Wes often went beyond the limits of reason and economy to give joy to collectors all over, and I'm glad he's still around the hobby world in whatever form he chooses. So I was grateful to receive this greeting card from him, which I unfortunately ripped a bit after having difficulty with the envelope. The real treasure was inside, though:

Thank you to Wes and Amy for this very cool custom! I hope both of you have a fantastic holiday as well, and I'll happily be keeping this with the other cool customs I've received over the years, which I really will show off in an album or something at some point.

Speaking of customs, I was thrilled to be included on someone's nice list:

Gavin of Baseball Card Breakdown is probably the best producer of customs I know, and he really puts those skills to good use at this time of year (which happens to be his birthday, by the way!). I've been the recipient of some very cool Christmas-themed productions of his and this year was no different. You've probably seen a bunch of these around the blogs and Twitter so far, and I'm happy to present my Ripken card. How cool is this? I included Gavin's note explaining a bit of the process where he took the classic but offensive-to-the-eyes yellow of '91 Fleer cards and solar bleached them to something easier to look at, then added a separate clear overlay with holiday themes and messages:

Thanks again for including me when sharing the fruits of your creative labor, Gavin! I hope you have an amazing birthday/Christmas, and I promise you'll be getting a few little gifts from me as well whenever I can get my Sportlots box shipped!

Finally, a day or two ago I received a surprise PWE from Colbey at Cardboard Collections. The busy breaker was nice enough to send me a pair of cards to celebrate the upcoming holiday:

And they're both Michigan uni autographs! On the left is DL Mike Martin, a guy who didn't care how much you double-teamed him because he was getting to your QB or RB on matter what. That's from 2012 SP Authentic, back when you could enjoy Upper Deck's efforts, which were often good when it came to college-related cards.

That's very apparent on the other card from Colbey, an autograph of WR Roy Roundtree out of 2013 Upper Deck. Martin's teammate of three years was exciting to watch at the position, especially while Denard Robinson was at QB, such as his game-winning catch in the legendary 2011 night game against Notre Dame. I love the horizontal action shot of Roy about to record another reception, possibly against Air Force in 2012, a game Jeff and I actually attended (a too-close 31-25 win).

Thank you for thinking of me just before Christmas, Colbey, I appreciate it!

May all of you reading this have wonderful holidays no matter what you celebrate and with whom. Thank you to all who've been generous with their time, money, and cards for another year. Merry Christmas!

2020 trade package #30: Wes Moore

A few weeks ago Wes, a.k.a. the Pancake King, held a very cool event on Twitter that he called his Tradeathon. He listed some 160 cards from the major sports and even non-sport stuff, one card at a time. There were HOF RCs, vintage, autos and relics, and even printing plates, plus some cool inserts. You know, basically the stuff he's been known to lob your way in his signature trade war packages.

The rules were simple and few: claim up to five cards, be the first to claim what you wanted, and send him stuff in return but make it a surprise. If that isn't a fun way to get stuff into other collectors' hands while getting cool stuff back, I don't know what is. Judging by tweets from Wes and those that were involved I'd say it was a huge success all around. For my part I flipped him a Leaf auto of wrestler Godfather plus some various Arizona Cardinals and Bama guys.

And now I get to show off what I got back from the flapjack flipper. I somewhat cautiously chose three cards fairly early to keep my options open later, and those were the three I finished with while avoiding being greedy and claiming nicer stuff I already had, such as RCs of Trammell/Molitor and Griffey Jr. I was glad to get what I was hoping for, and Wes was even nice enough to toss a couple extras in the mailer.

Here's what I got:

A little bit of theme going on there, eh? The top two cards here were the "throw-ins" and quite nice ones at that! On the left is a 2005 Elite RC of former stud DB Marlin Jackson, definitely one of the more desired brands for collectors like me that like to chase college cards. To the right is a Blue 2012 Leaf Draft auto of Mike Martin, a DL who was nearly unstoppable and a bright spot on defense during some of Michigan's down years earlier this decade. In typical Wes fashion, even the extras are generous!

As for the rest, I'll go in order as I chose them as opposed to scan order. First up was the horizontal Harbaugh, a Row 0 card from 1998 Flair Showcase. I've long admired the various Showcase iterations and their cool variations. In general I believe Row 0 was the rarest of the regular set, as opposed to 1 and 2. This one is numbered /100 and has a couple nice action photos up front.

Next is a card that interested me because of the guy pictured on the bottom, although his QB counterpart is certainly no slouch. Ordinarily I'd be sending a Steve McNair card over the border, but this 2004 Playoff Honors Class Reunion dual jersey is staying with me because of HOF DB Ty Law and that lovely blue Patriots swatch. Numbered /150 it's just my sixth hit of Law as I continue my quest for an auto of his. By the way, for those interested, McNair went third overall in '95 while Ty went 23 picks later. Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks joined Law as first round HOFers from that class.

Last but not least is a Michigan uni card I was glad to grab as a first hit of a recent alum. QB Shea Patterson had his ups and downs for various reasons, but he was still a big enough name to hit a bunch of pro- and college-themed products (despite a total lack of a draft pedigree), in this case Leaf Metal Draft. It may be heavily airbrushed but it's still a solid new autograph for my collection, and of course I'll have to work on adding more of those. If there was a card tailor made for me to choose in a tradeathon like this, meaning it was something I'd want but probably not want to buy, this was it. Plus it's a good example of some of the variety that was available in the football grouping alone.

And how about some backs since I only had to scan five cards today?

Wes, thanks again for the cool event, an idea I may have to steal (in homage to you, of course!) and the great cards I ended up with. I hope your returns continue to pour in with all kinds of crazy stuff you'll enjoy. Though I'm not sure if or when we'll trade again, I'll definitely be on the lookout for cards for you in the spirit of your cardboard generosity.

2020 trade package #25: Wes Moore, the Pancake King

I haven't seen this many pancakes since the last time the Lions OL played! Bad football jokes aside, I wanted to make sure to get up a quick post today thanking Pancake King Wes for what's already the second PWE he sent my way after the one I showed off a week ago.

Today we have Justin Verlander's 2006 Topps (RC), which is different from a RC. The latter would apply to JV's card from the previous year's Topps flagship set, among almost 50 other cards, and I'm thinking the new rules for rookie cards went into effect around '06.

This Series 2 card depicts a very young Verlander and the stats on the back cover only his Minor League numbers from his 2005 pro debut, where he went 11-2 with 136 strikeouts over 20 starts with high-A Lakeland and AA Erie. However, he did make his Major League debut on Independence Day that year (for Alan Trammell's last team as Tigers manager), allowing four earned runs in a 6-0 loss at Cleveland. He'd get one more chance later that month against the Twins but give up all the runs in a 5-2 loss. Obviously things went a bit better the following year.

Wes, thanks again for treating me to an unexpected PWE, and even more for bringing the variety with a Tigers PC card after hitting my Michigan collection last time! I don't know exactly what I'll be able to send back (not waffles) but I'm hoping to return the favor soon.

2020 trade package #23: Wes Moore, the Pancake King

Wes, formerly of Jaybarkerfan's Junk and Willinghammer Rising (not sure if I'm missing any others) is most definitely one of the all-time greats of the trading community. His trade packages are the stuff of legend, and I remember being floored by his undefeated record in trade "wars" with some of the bloggers I love to follow. That kind of generosity is exactly what trading is all about and my favorite part of the blogging experience.

That said, I've never traded with Wes myself. Given his propensity to trade in your favor to the extreme, that might be a good thing for me, since I usually try to make an effort to send more than I'm receiving. I already do a bit of higher-end trading with a couple folks, so that would have been a war on at least three fronts that I couldn't have managed.

Thankfully Wes's trademark generosity is still on display, but in much more manageable form. After he revealed himself to be the famed Pancake King, filling up mailboxes once again, he started on a new effort, sending out mass amounts of PWEs. That's a great, affordable way to get cards in the hands of collectors that will appreciate them, which is pretty much his M.O. Maybe his constant resupply of stamps will help offset the deliberate sabotage of the USPS by Trump and his lackeys.

Anyway, since I was aware of all of the above, I was excited to pop open such an envelope a week or two ago and see the above calling card, easily one of the best things to come out of the blogging/trading world lately. I can now say that I've joined the club of those who've been stacked!

Here's the card Wes included:

Very cool of a fellow college collector to be aware of one of my team's alumni since he's pictured with the pro team that snagged him in the draft. What you see above is Michigan/Jets RB/FB B.J. Askew's RC from 2003 SPx (#0653/1500). It only took a few years for Upper Deck to go away from the die-cut/hologram parallel from its first couple products, but as this card makes abundantly clear, UD was very intent on distinguishing this set one way or another!

Askew was fun to watch in Ann Arbor during his 1999-2002 tenure, with most of his action coming over his last two seasons due to playing in the shadow of all-time back Anthony Thomas. 2001 (my freshman year) was his best as he went off for over 1000 rushing yards on the way to 11 TDs (10 on the ground). He then took a back seat to another star in Chris Perry the year he graduated, but was still fairly productive, enough so that the Jets snagged him in the third round. His limited pro career was nothing to write home about, but as always I love picking up cards of the less heralded guys, much less anything any everything of former UM football players.

Wes, thanks for including me in your latest pancake stacking! I'll have to see if I can't return the favor, or at least try to pay it forward in your honor.