2024 trade package #27: Baseball Cards Come to Life

And now we've come to my final trade package of 2024. This one arrived just after Christmas and was a fun surprise from Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life. He and I had previously made a trade via TCDb a couple years ago but this was our first "blogger" trade outside that site. Bo asked for some of the beat-up vintage I made available a few weeks ago and I came up with a pretty solid group of those for him in addition to some other stuff that I found on his wantlists.

He was nice enough to return the favor with some extremely cool stuff he must have pulled straight from my own wants as all were new to me:

The top group here represent my favorite items in the entire package. I wasn't familiar with the 1969 MLB PhotoStamps because their combination of vintage and oddball-ness made me unlikely to notice them. So I'm grateful to Bo for gifting me four of the Tigers that could be found: PC favorite Bill Freehan and fellow Detroit greats Willie Horton, Denny McLain, and Jim Northrup. I love the fact that these came out the year after that team won it all, and receiving these inspired me to add the others to my wants: Kaline, Cash, Stanley, McAuliffe, and Lolich.

The vintage action didn't stop there, though, as he included two '72 Topps base that I needed: Ted Simmons plus Darrell Evans' In Action subset appearance. That's a second-year of Simba and it puts me very close to his full Topps base run. Technically it's a second-year of Evans as well; His RC came out two years earlier instead, then he got consecutive base sports in '72.

Going back to oddball-ish stuff, the bottom row includes a Superstar back of Mr. Padre, a Topps Sticker of Willie Hernandez (shared with HOFer Steve Carlton), and a UK Mini of Jack Morris. There's enough of these one-offs that despite being common still represent holes in my collection, though not if someone like Bo can help it!

Next, he included a trio of Brandon Inge needs. Though I've long since had the '07 Topps base, I did indeed lack the Red Back seen above (I didn't scan the reverse, so trust me, bro). From that same year I was also treated to a horizontal photo of him attempting to make a crazy diving play in the stands (found in that year's Upper Deck product), and then Brandon's appearance in Topps' throwback 206 product released in 2010.

The last of the baseball content was one of a number of 2001 UD Vintage team checklists I've been chasing for a while because they include one or more guys I collect. In this case, Cal's the lone Oriole in my PC, but I do remember this team well, one that included ex-Cleveland star Albert Belle, Jeff Conine, Brady Anderson, and more.

Did Bo's generosity end there? Most definitely not! Also tucked into this envelope were three former Wolverines I needed from 1975 Topps football: longtime NFL O-linemen Dan Dierdorf and Reggie McKenzie, plus 10-year NFL CB John Rowser, who suited up for Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and the pictured Broncos. I now have 12 cards from this set, partially thanks to Bo, and just need #s 203 (an All-Pro card that includes HOF G Tom Mack) and 395, which is Giants RB Ron Johnson.

Bo, thanks for sending all of these needed cards my way! I hope we can increase the frequency of our trading in the new year and fortunately that shouldn't be too difficult with you making your wants available on my favorite trading site!

And once again thank you to everyone who contributed to TMV as a reader, commenter, and trade partner. I appreciate you all and will keep going in 2025--as long as none of you try to hold me to a three-post-per-day pace. I can't promise I'll put up six posts in a single month! But please do keep in mind that I still have a good amount of 2024 content to cover in the form of pickups from Facebook, TCDb, eBay, and shows, plus at least one other surprise source.

I'm not sure how long it'll take to catch up on those, so for now, I'll wish a happy new year to everyone who took the time to read this. May your 2025 be filled with good news, good friends, good food, good health, and everything you could want!

2/2/24 card show report: fabulous February

Yesterday I went to my second show in just over a week and John (with whom I got to hang along with Jeff, Kevin, and Jason--more on that in a future post) made fun of me for being as behind as I am on posting so here I am! Tonight I'm covering my monthly show haul from Taylor back in early February.

My spending tracking sheet says I spent a year-high $130 while I was there, split up between my favorite seller plus the vintage guy that often sits behind him. That was too long ago to remember how that breaks down but I know I added some nice trade bait pieces to packages that have and will be sent out.

As for my own haul, it looked like this:

I believe the Griffeys were a buck each, and who doesn't love Starting Lineup cards, with or without the figures? A lot of the other stuff you'll see here likely came from dime or quarter boxes (or maybe $0.50-ers, I can't remember!) and I was quite happy with the mix.

The Griffey and Maddux in this scan plus the Verlander all came from my usual guy, and I believe JV's jersey cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 or $10. By my count that's 32 hits of Mr. Kate Upton, and it was nice to get something of him in a Tigers jersey again.

The others came from the vintage guy and if I had to guess I spent $40 on his $3 box where you can get eight cards for $20? Got some for me and for others. Lolich's '75 Mini is appropriate given this year's Heritage/Mini set while the others were fun oddballs of Tigers greats. The Fidrych and Horton food issues are cool but man do those stamps look sharp. And I was excited to add a cool piece in the Kaline scratch-off card, which I did not scratch off, but did scan in full here:

I grabbed a few trade bait items from him as well.

Next up is some slightly rare basketball content in the form of a couple relics that I think were $2-$5. Bufkin, thanks to one of Panini's sweater cards, joins the collection along with former Piston Livers. An aptly named hooper, Bufkin was a two-and-done in Ann Arbor, going to the Hawks at #15 overall in last year's draft. I'm sure I'll find something more interesting like an autograph to add to his collection but since these sweater cards are still cooler than any "event-worn" plain white swatches, I'll take it!

I ended up with about one and a half scans worth of cheapo Wolverines out of the dime, et al, boxes, and got a nice mix of players and color.

See? There's a few more to enjoy here including two new items for the GOAT Woodson's collection, and I keep growing Hutch's as well, which has been a nice trend.

Lastly, though I have to spoil that this theme has since been broken, I came home with three more Funchess hits from that show, where I often seemed to attract them like a very grateful magnet. In this case they're all jersey relics but at least there's a mix of color, size, and designs, and all three are numbered. The trio puts him over the 30-card mark to 31, making him the 16th player in my football collection to hit that milestone.

So that's another show recap in the books. I believe my next post will be one that recaps another great Facebook Marketplace experience that I'm still benefitting from months later. And yeah, I'll eventually catch up to my two shows from this month, including the meetup I mentioned from yesterday.

10/6/23 card show report: cheap boxtober

I'm encouraged by the fact that I was able to get that Facebook Marketplace purchase post up last night so I'm back this evening to see if I can zip my way through another one. Because I'd like to give folks at least a couple days to look over that one and pick out potential trade bait, tonight I'm going to do the same with my show pickups from last Friday.

I continued my standard practice of taking the first Friday of the show off from work despite Michigan not playing until Saturday evening, largely because I feel like I might miss out on some good stuff if I wait a day. So early Friday afternoon I headed out to Taylor and spent around two or two and a half hours digging through lots of boxes. It was certainly worth the effort with the deals available that day. Dime cards were 100/$7 (and even better deals were there if you bought larger quantities but I'd had enough by then) and the next level up was quarter-ish cards at five/$1.

Here's a quick spending breakdown before I get to the scans:

• 100 @ $0.10 each = $10
• 125 @ 5/$1 = $25
• 10 @ 2/$1 = $5
• 7 @ 2$ = $14
• 5 @ 5/$20 = $20

That's $74 and he asked for $70.

Before I left I hit up the vintage guy I check out once in a while and grabbed eight of his $3 cards that go eight for $20. That means I left having spent $90 on some 255 cards--not bad!

Here we go with some trade bait. Please make your requests via comment/email/TCDb offer as always.

UD Finite rookies /1299; Moments & Milestones /150.

More M&Ms /150.

The rest of the /150 M&Ms, plus a Black parallel /25. The Studio Stars inserts aren't SNed but look awesome.

Bonds /10,000; Brown /2000; Ensberg /2006; Giles /150; King /3499; Reynolds /500. 
Ayanbadejo /1000; Denson, Huard, and King /2999; Graham /399; Hali /999; Mason /2009; McNown /2500; Moore /2010.

Moreau /2000; Redman /2500; Stith /1500; Westbrook is a Promo; Williams /500.

Pettis, Schaub, and Shiancoe /999; Stith /1500; Williams /999.

And now we get to my keepers:

These six items are among the eight I snagged from the vintage guy for $20. I'm very short on Bunning Tigers cards (and Yankee Killer Lary as well), Cash is always a winner, and the quartet of '74 Topps Stamps was too cool to pass up, especially since it added a new Freehan to my collection.

The dimes and $0.20 cards were as good to my collection as they were to the piles of trade bait I'm building. A numbered Bondo, a new Grandy, another Griffey for the set from which his card hails, Mr. Padre, the Professor, a sweet acetate Manning, and three of the four new Cals I added that day.

A numbered Pudge for under a buck? Yes, please! Not only did I hit all four of Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken, but I also got both blog namesakes too in Grandy and JV. Cecil looks cool in UD holo form. Ripken and Ozzie were All-Star stalwarts. And my first relic of Skubal, who put on an ace-like performance to end the 2023 campaign, is a 2021 jersey from A&G for just $2!

I didn't skip the other sports either, coming up with a sweet acetate Iggy plus a $2 signature of former star Trey Burke. That was such a nice deal I added a second one to send Jeff's way (since that's exactly what he would have done for me). It's just my second autograph of his among seven hits so I thought it was a particularly good score.

As for football, I came up with a couple more of those Donruss Premium Press Proofs, and I'll have to see how close I am to a team set at this point, but it was cool that they were RC parallels of Haskins and Ojabo. Law is a 2000s Ultra Gold Medallion, Funchess represents yet another sweet acetate insert, and we finish up with a final parallel, an Elite Pink, to add to Ojabo's growing collection.

I don't know how often my favorite seller will have those dime and $0.20 boxes but I've really been enjoying the time I've spent digging through them for gems so I hope to see them at upcoming shows.

Anyway, as usual, I hope you enjoyed a recap of my show experience, and I'll remind y'all one more time to please feel free to stake claims to some of the trade bait above!

As for me, besides packing up some envelopes soon, I think I may go back to the blogger trades I need to cover, then sprinkle in some eBay pickups and more TCDb transactions.

TCDB trade roundup: c2cigars, deadhead11, and Mjprigge

I had a pretty busy couple weeks in terms of card stuff that feels like it included everything but blogging. Lots of logging/scanning, going to a show, and proposing, sending and receiving some TCDB trades.

Speaking of the latter, I've been fortunate enough to have three envelopes show up recently thanks to that site (with at least one more on the way!), so I thought it would be fun to do a second (I believe?) TCDB trade roundup. Here's a quick look at what I received:

First up was either a PIF (pay it forward) or RAK (random act of kindness) from C2Cigars, a.k.a. Chuck. If his name sounds familiar to you, that's because I was able to meet up with him and Paul at a show in Paul's neck of the woods late in 2019. Continuing the spirit of a thread that's now more than four years old and 2500+ posts strong, Chuck sent me the following nine cards out of the blue:

The first two are 2021 Donruss base issues of Tigers teammates Miggy and the Candyman. I think the design could have used less white and more color, but it's cool having a couple more 2021 Tigers in my collection since I don't buy packs or anything. Candelario's lacked the power he showed off last year, but it's fun to see Cabrera chasing a couple milestones as his career winds down.

Besides those I was treated to a seven-spot of '21 Heritage Tigers. Topps is running back the '72 design this year, and it features a solid design, though I still prefer action shots to this posed stuff. But it does hit some classic notes nicely, so there's that. Miggy and Candelario are also featured here, along with pitchers Tyler Alexander, Gregory Soto, and Spencer Turnbull. Also in the picture is slugger C.J. Cron, who I was disappointed to see gone after his powerful start to the 2020 season was interrupted by injury. And then there's my favorite of the bunch: a throwback to the multiplayer RCs of yesteryear. This one includes a trio of pitching prospects: the recently DFAed Beau Burrows, who lost his lunch on the mound and then his spot on the team; Kyle Funkhouser, who's been quite good out of the 'pen; and Rony Garcia, whom Detroit snagged from the Yankees in the 2019 Rule 5 draft.

I also want to give extra credit to Chuck as Alexander's card is a short print, one of three Tigers in the high numbers (including Joe Jimenez and JaCoby Jones).

And why not include the backs for completeness?

It was very cool of him to send these my way and fortunately for me I'd already gathered a few items for him before supplementing them with a few more at last week's show (recap coming soon-ish). I may also follow his lead and pick a random TCDBer to send a PIF to so the fun continues.

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Next up is a deal I completed with John from Minnesota who goes by deadhead11 (with an assist from Paul!). A fan of Saints and Shaq, among others, John DMed me asking about a couple New Orleans hits I scored on the cheap from my monthly show, wondering if we could work out a deal around them. Hey, I'm happy to take a look, at least.

We batted the proposal back and forth a few times, and thanks to a few cards Paul was generous enough to PWE to him on my behalf, we agreed on a deal that brought me some cool Michigan Football stuff, including a pair of new autographs:

The first nine include vets like WR Derrick Alexander ('99 Finest), OT John "Jumbo" Elliott ('94 Stadium Club), insane Viking C Steve Everitt ('95 Pacific), and QB Elvis Grbac ('99 Pacific). Rookie year cards comprise transfer TE Devin Asiasi (2020 Playoff RC), beastly DL/LB Brandon Graham (2010 Playoff Contenders Rookie of the Year Contenders insert), transfer QB Ryan Mallett (2011 Finest RC), LB Jonas Mouton (2011 Rookies & Stars Longevity Silver parallel /249), and transfer QB Jack Rudock (2016 Panini Prizm RC). I loved getting some of the lesser seen vets like the two OL, and the rookies were helpful with my project where I'm chasing those, including guys who transferred out (Asiasi and Mallett), and new additions like Rudock. I appear to be just one first-year shy for the two quarterbacks here, while I own just a pair of Asiasis.

Before we get to the autographs there's one more base to admire, with former #1 Alexander getting the die-cut/horizontal treatment courtesy of 2001 Pacific Crown Royale. How could I not try to swing that as part of the deal?

But my real prizes were a pair of Thomas Rawls autographs (speaking of transfers!). John had one listed and came up with another one, which was a nice bonus for me. The Wolverines/CMU Chippewas RB can be seen here on a pair of signatures from 2016 Panini products: Infinity's Infinite Ink (/188) and Prestige. Both are great in their own right with the card on the left being thick, shiny, and numbered, and the other showing off that full bleed Prestige look that I tend to appreciate.

These are my first two solo autographs of Rawls to go along with a relic, auto/relic, and plate.

I was very happy with my experience dealing with John and would highly recommend him thanks to his patience and willingness to work out a fair deal.

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And finally, hot out of the mailbox today, is the result of a deal with TCDBer/Tweep Matt of Wisconsin, whom many of you know as Mjprigge on the former and @mjpmke on the latter. The author/librarian/Brewers fan tweeted that he was hoping to try to put together the fun debut of Upper Deck's SPx from 1996. I almost immediately asked him to send me a wantlist since I had a few I was happy to give up. We ended up matching up for five that he needed, plus a college football autograph I'd grabbed at a past show. In return, I was happy to get the following in an easily worked out PWE trade:

I think I was the most excited about card #1 here since it's the oldest: a '69 Topps Deckle Edge of former Tigers great Willie Horton. Bulking up his collection is something I've been trying to focus on recently so scoring something like that in a deal is great.

The next four cards represent three of his teammates that combined to help the Tigers win the '68 Series. Mickey Stanley is seen here on his '73 Topps base, on which someone noted in pen that the Gold Glove CF that year also played some SS, which is a bit of an understatement. Detroit manager Mayo Smith made the ballsy call to move Stanley to the all important infield spot for the World Series, replacing all glove/no-bat SS Ray Oyler while fitting OFs Horton, Al Kaline, and Jim Northrup, into the lineup as well. Man did that pay off!

The aforementioned Northrop comes up next on his '74 Topps base, and he took advantage of his '68 Series at-bats with a pair of homers and 8 RBI in the win.

Then awesome story and PH great Gates Brown joins Stanley's second appearance out of 1976 SSPC, with that product continuing to be the gift that keeps on giving. Brown chipped in 6 HR during the title-winning season, with a few coming in clutch situations off the bench.

Gates won a second ring as a coach with the Tigers in '84, a team that included former White Sox OF Chet Lemon, who came to Detroit in a swap that sent Steve Kemp to the Windy City in 1981, the year the card you see above was made by Topps . I'd say that deal worked out just fine for the good guys as Lemon put up eight solid-to-excellent campaigns in nine seasons in Motown, including a career-high 6.2 bWAR (matching the previous year) during that magical '84 season.

Last up in this scan is another ring winner, just one that didn't accomplish the feat with Detroit. I can't go that many posts on TMV without at least one Verlander, and here you can see the 2017 champ on a 2020 Topps League Leaders subset issue, which mentions his 21 wins to top the AL in 2019; teammate Gerrit Cole came in second with 20. Alas for the cheatin' Astros, they couldn't repeat the magic of 2017 for some reason, and fell to the Nats.

We're not quite done here, yet, though, because there's one more item remaining. Toymaker LJN co-produced these oversized oddballs, like Larkin's here, with Topps in 1989, and while the front looks normal enough, the back is definitely enough to throw most people for a loop. You could "play" audio clips on the top half of the back with a special record player that was sold separately (wasn't everything, back then?) making them a fun novelty, though obviously they never caught on.

Big thanks to Matt, who's a fun Twitter follow and excellent TCDBer, for another easy deal, our second (with the other happening about a year ago). I love helping people tackle sets when I can, and getting some very cool cards from a rock solid trade partner is just gravy.

At some point in the near future I'll have another recap of a deal made on the site with a familiar (at least to me) trader, but first I'll be showing off a couple other trade packages plus going over the results of my latest monthly show.

2021 Sportlots purchases part 5: Lucky Tiger Seven

Previously: Quick summary and set wants; Big and small we have them all!; Better off Ted; A Tettle-ton of Froot Loops

Since my last post was a Michigan player and the Sportlots one before that focused on a solo collection I thought it would be fun to highlight a group for tonight's. Not that there aren't any Wolverines in this post, mind you, but the theme here is Tigers greats of the past. Also, if you're wondering why you don't see certain Tigers you're sure would fit in that category, rest assured there's another team post coming at some point! (Also also, if you're a fan of the movie tonight's title vaguely references, you're extra cool in my book!)

So here's seven of Detroit's finest, from the recent past to way before I was born:

This first scan covers four players alone, since I picked up just a few cards of each. Player number one is the Bird, one of the Franchise's most colorful and recognizable guys, and I was geeked to end up with his 2010 Topps Triple Threads base (#d /1350) for cheap. It's my 24th card from his fairly small oeuvre of around 200 issues (according to TCDB), and I'd love to add more, whether they're recent high-end base like this or some of his earlier items.

Fidrych's amazing 1976 ROY campaign coincided with catcher Bill Freehan's sunset season with the team, and they'd form a battery just once that year for the pitcher's second start. It looks like Bruce Kimm caught every other Bird start, maybe as a personal catcher sort of situation? Anyway, Freehan, who's a favorite of mine as well of John's, of course, can be seen here on a textbook Action Packed issue, in this case 1993's All-Star Gallery. As you would expect it's raised and embossed, plus the shot of the '68 champ in the dugout with his chest protector and bat is quite cool. It's not easy for me to track down new Freehans that I need, especially cheaper ones, so I was happy with this deal.

Bookending another '68 champ we'll get to in a minute is another Wolverine/Tiger, Charlie Gehringer. Up top is a Burgundy version of one of his two appearances in Conlon's 1994 set (which continues numbering from the previous one). He got an "In Memorium" banner because he'd passed away the previous January, a few months shy of 90. It's a nice card that's even improved a bit with a royal kind of border. At the end of the scan is an even older issue from TCMA's 1980 All Time Detroit Tigers set. The only horizontal card in a set of 12 (and why not? Fielding shots look great on this axis!), he's in great company with obvious choices like Cobb, Greenberg, Kaline, Newhouser, Cochrane, and more. I might have to try to track down the rest!

And then there's the last player in the scan we haven't covered yet. Even though he's pictured with three of the five other franchises for whom he played, there's no way you can leave out Willie Horton when you're talking about past Tigers greats! After 14 excellent years in Motown, the pinnacle of which was that '68 season, Horton played one game for the Tigers before being sent to Texas. His stay was short as before the '78 season he was flipped to Cleveland, which started a very nomadic summer that saw him get released, picked up by Oakland, and traded to Toronto. In January of '79 the Mariners signed him, and he'd spend his final two MLB seasons in Seattle (though he'd eventually get traded to Texas again, released, and signed by the Pirates). At least some portions of that journey are captured on the three Topps cards above from 1978-80, giving me a nice run in his collection from 1970-80.

And next we have TOO MANY GRANDERSONS OUT OF NOWHERE! I was pretty picky about what I bought this time of one of my favorite recent Tigers, but the price was right to grab all seven of his appearances in Topps 2008 team gift set. I don't anticipate finding a deal on the complete set of 55 anytime soon, so I'm happy to just pick up singles of guys like Curtis and JV. Besides a solo card, Grandy gets paired up with 2007 All-Star Carlos Guillen, who was terrific in Detroit, and lauded for a few accomplishments. The biggest was his 20-20-20-20 season in which he accumulated 20 each of doubles, triples, homers, and steals, one of four players to achieve that feat. Besides that, in 2007 he was named AL Player of the Week in July, led the sport in triples (naturally!), and was among the team leaders in hits and batting average. That year was by far his best in terms of bWAR, and given his overall numbers that makes total sense. Believe it or not it ended up being his career best, even after some of those big seasons he had in the Bronx! By the way, I'm nearing 200 many Grandersons, so he's now on milestone watch.

Even though I mostly scanned these in alphabetical fashion they get increasingly homogenous as we continue; including this scan the last three cover just two other players. No complaints from me, though, since I get to own and you get to gawk at a whole bunch of Kalines! I treated myself to 19 new cards of Mr. Tiger, which is one short of his age when he won the 1955 AL batting title. There's nothing vintage or anything, but it was fun to give his collection that much of a boost in numbers, not to mention some very cool cards. 

The oldest is from a 1995 Upper Deck food issue produced for Eagle snacks, and he's part of an excellent nine-card checklist. UD is represented again with the always excellent SP Legendary Cuts (2006). Fleer makes the cut twice with one of its cool Sports Illustrated products, 1998's Then and Now, plus 2003 Fall Classics. Donruss' lone entry is 2004's World Series product's Blue parallel. And Topps claims the rest thanks to 2000 Stars, 2010 flagship's Turkey Red insert and 206 base card, and 2011 GQ. There's lots of classic vintage photography and images to admire here, something I don't get to appreciate as much as I should because most of my PCs are modern players. All the more reason to chase some Kalines! 

So here's some more Kalines I chased! These are from the Toppsopoly era so they're blander than they could be design-wise, but there's still some nice images to enjoy. Though I don't believe I own any of the much older "test issue" versions of Topps' cloth stickers, I grabbed the insert version from 2011 Lineage, which is pretty cool. It looks like 2013 GQ (Framed White) and Heritage's Flashbacks insert opted for the same image, kind of like the Turkey Red and GQ cards above. A 2014 Triple Threads base is definitely the highest-end card here, though that year's set wasn't numbered, and if you wanted the same photo on a different design you could go with 2020 A&G below. I think my favorite photo/image in this bunch is the one featured on 2017 flagship's Salute insert, which shows a very young future HOFer.

Since 19 doesn't go into two nicely when it comes to scans I decided to place Al's last pair of cards at the top of this one. On the left is the 2004 version of Heritage's Flashbacks insert, and I give Topps credit for going horizontal with a great shot celebrating young Kaline winning that batting title at 20. Did you know that the previous youngest batting champ at that point was one Ty Cobb? Anyway, Al's run ends with a simple 2020 Archives base that has a strange portrait photo but a cool batting action image.

And tonight we end on another HOFer, granted one that was a relative short-timer for the franchise compared to most of the rest of these players. George Kell came to Detroit from the Philadelphia A's in 1946 and spent the best years of his career with the Tigers until being sent to the Red Sox in a nine-player deal in 1952. That means he missed out on the '45 championship team plus he was traded just a year before Kaline debuted. At least they got to form an all-time great broadcasting pair.

His first two cards here--1991 Topps Archives (reprint of his '53 base) and 2001 Fleer Boston Red Sox--depict him with his third team, but fortunately the others are all about the Olde English "D". The first is from the gorgeous 2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame product, and the one I have here is the variation with a white "D" on his hat, while I already owned the orange letter version. The other two are Archives issues from 2019 and 2020, and in my opinion the '19 card, done in the style of the cool '75 set, is executed better, but both are quite cool.

Though I only came away with five cards of Kell, they were enough to get me over the 50-card mark to 53, so that's worth a little celebration.

I'm curious to see what people think of these items in the comments, but regardless I know I had a blast picking up some cool items of some of the best players in the team's storied history! Next time I'll probably be back with another single-player post, but first you can expect another surprise PWE trade post.

2021 eBay purchase: Pacifically Legends

Pacific Legends: for three years this better-than-expected low-end product from the manufacturer that would eventually be able to produce cards of current Major Leaguers (in English, even!) offered collectors another way of collecting some of the legends and past fan favorites of the game.

The sets came up on my radar last Summer when I was able to grab a couple boxes of the '88 version among a bunch of other stuff (generally smaller boxed sets) on Facebook. Fuji bought one and I busted the other, coming one card shy of a pair of complete sets.

In talking to Fuji about his interest in these sets, I later found out that he decided to keep the box he got from me unopened, and then grabbed the full 220-card '88/'89 set on eBay to go with a complete 1990 set out of a box he did open. This was relevant to me since he generously sent me a near complete '90 set earlier this year.

Thanks to Cardbarrel and Spotlots I was able to finish up my second '88 set and knock out the remaining 90s I needed, leaving me shy just the '89 version. I thought I'd purchased just that from eBay a couple months ago, but it ended up just being something like 20% of it, so I returned it.

Then, in Mid-April what did I come across on eBay but the very same '88/'89 set that Fuji had purchased for himself, also at under $10 shipped.

I pulled the trigger and happily received this package not long after.

As a reminder, the 1988 and '89 products comprised one continuous set, with the former numbered 1-110 and the latter picking right up again at 111 through 220. By the way, a nice bonus of this boxed version was the pair of checklists, which weren't packed out as far as I can tell. I can't claim to have removed the sets completely undamaged from this unorthodox packaging, but I'm fine with how the cards look.

Since I did a long-ass video of my 1988 box break and that allows you to take a good long gander at those cards, I won't show any off here, but I did think it was worth doing some highlights from '89 since I had very few of these in my collection before this purchase:

The Tigers included HOFers Cobb, Cochrane, Greenberg, and announcer Ernie Harwell, whom you would be unlikely to see in a set made by someone else.

I grabbed a back so you could compare it to the '88s. The fronts and backs are pretty much the same between '88 and '89 with the power blue background color on the latter being the only difference; the '88s are yellow. I also thought the back of this Reggie would be fun to scan because "Reggie's Hall of Fame election appears certain." definitely made me laugh.

Here's a selection of some of the legends from the '89 set, all well known names. As you've probably noticed, art work was used for most of the pre-WWII players, possibly to avoid having black & white images mixed in, I'm not sure.

I thought it would be fun to show a few of the fun/interesting appearances as well, from fan favorites to an ump and another broadcaster. A Mad Hungarian, former Tiger, catcher/manager of the Seattle Pilots, and mutton-chopped dude who slugged 50 HR (not to mention an umpire nicknamed "Shag") definitely keep you on your toes!

Since I'm showing those off this evening I though it would be worth doing the same with the completed '90 set since I never formally did that previously, with just a few examples when Fuji sent me the main stack and then some of the ones I bought to complete it.

The Tigers this time included HOFers Bunning and Gehringer (the one UM guy I believe you'd find in all three series), fan favorite Horton, and also HOFer Kell, whom I'm including with this group because he was with the White Sox for all of three seasons, as opposed to seven with Detroit.

If you compare the fronts of the cards in the group above to the '88 and '89 versions you can notice a couple subtle differences in the top corners and "banners" on the bottom, but they're still pretty close. The backs give you more clues that you're looking at a different product, though, especially with the 110-card set starting things back at #1. Color-wise it's like an inverted 1988 card, plus you lose the kind of scroll design for the writeup/stats area. I think I prefer this one a bit more, but there's nothing wrong with the prior versions. Also, how amazing is it that Appling was still alive when this card was made? He passed early in 1991, a few months shy of 84 years old.

There were lots of great choices for legends to show off, like these guys. If you remember some of the membership of the '88 set then you might notice some repeat cameos here, like Aaron (#1 in both), Banks, and Berra, but it's kind of understandable since it doesn't seem like it was meant to be a third series, but its own thing.

There were lots of fun choices among the other fan favorites, though, and I figured at least a few of you would see one or more guys you remember fondly here.

So now I can happily call myself the owner of all three two three (yeah, we'll go with three) Pacific Legends sets from 1988-1990. I got to bust a box, do some old-fashioned set-building, and even sort cards from a previously unopened set, all for under $30. Money and time well spent for sure, once again with a very appreciated assist from Fuji.

On a related note I have two completed '88 sets (#s 1-110) available for trade should anyone ever be interested in dealing for one or both, so hit me up!

I had another eBay pickup arrive just today so that'll probably get its own post soon, plus I'll be trying to get back to the huge Sportlots haul, so keep an eye out for plenty of new cardboard soon. As for me, I'll be enjoying the satisfaction of filing these away in a box in my card closet.

2021 Sportlots purchases part 2: big and small we have them all!

Previously: Quick summary and set wants

Today's post is filled with all kinds of crazy oddball stuff: minis, oversized cards, discs, coins, and even a sticker dump from Topps and Panini that has nothing to do with Henry Owens. After initially opting against picking up many of these items I decided I'd enjoy filling in some of the odder parts of my player collection checklists with the zany offerings you see below. And better yet, I realized it would be a blast posting them all at once instead of going player by player, so you can get a look at great examples of unorthodox collectables from the past 40 years--especially the earlier half of that run.

I'm curious to see how many of you collected some of this stuff in your younger days, and to see what everyone's favorite type of item in this post is, and why.

And now, on to the gallery of weirdness!

Stickers (and stamps):

Stickers were and are a great way to get kids into collecting. My brother and I enjoyed working on filling in our Panini albums for a good chunk of their run, but we never really collected the Topps versions, maybe because they weren't as available as Panini's. Either way, you'll find both brands here (and O-Pee-Chee), and a couple stamps as well. I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but regardless of whether or not I have a player's sticker stuck in a Panini album, I've been buying them intact for player-collecting purposes.

Jim Abbott: 1990 Topps (with Vince Coleman, and Darryl Strawberry on the back); 1991 Panini, 1994 Panini

That '91 Panini design was definitely an outlier for the product!

Hal Morris: 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1996 Panini

I definitely get the '94 and '96 Panini designs confused from time to time. '94's has the player's name in a pennant and '96's is a bit smaller.

Dean Palmer: 1992, 1993, and 1995 Panini

I definitely remember the first two versions here but '95 doesn't stand out to me (though '96 does) so I don't recall if I actually worked on the album in 1995.

Tony Phillips: 1985 O-Pee Chee and Topps (with Dave LaPoint); 1988 Panini; 1988 O-Pee-Chee and Topps (with Kevin McReynolds; Ryne Sandberg on the OPC back, Jeffrey Leonard on the Topps back); 1991 Panini French

Multiplayer stickers were a great idea, especially when OPC and Topps included a player on the back that made these even more collectable. The '88 Panini design is definitely one of the best in my opinion.

Chris Sabo: 1989 O-Pee Chee (with Ozzie Smith on the back); 1992 Panini x2; 1993 Panini

If you were a kid ripping Panini sticker packs back then maybe you'll remember the excitement of pulling one of those super shiny versions used to highlight team and league logos and the All-Stars. Years before X-Fractors were a thing, these looked totally badass!

Lary Sorensen: 1984 O-Pee-Chee (with Larry Gura)

Geoff Zahn: 1983 and 1985 O-Pee-Chee

I scanned these together because why not? You'll see a number more from the early and mid-80s in the next couple scans. I think it's pretty cool how OPC had you peel the '85 version out of the rest of the image, which would have made them more fun to add to whatever scene you were imagining.

Ted Simmons: 1982 Fleer Stamps; 1982 Topps; 1983 Fleer Stamps; 1983 O-Pee Chee and Topps; 1984 O-Pee-Chee; 1984 Topps x2; 1985 Topps (with Mike Fitzgerald); 1986 O-Pee Chee (with Ken Oberkfell); 1986 Topps (Simmons half only)

Lots of fun examples here! I've got just a few stamps (I believe all are from Fleer) so it's cool to add the odd one here and there. The '86 Topps here is one of six or so where one of the sellers (or whomever they got the stickers from) cut some two-player stickers in half. That wasn't clear in the way they were listed on Sportlots but it's not a big deal to me. I may try to replace them at some point but more likely I'll just decide I don't care. It's a bit more annoying when there's another player on the back, but all I'm really interested in is the player I collect! Anyway, like the shiny Panini sticker above I also chased after other "premium" versions like the foil you see here from 1984.

Mickey Tettleton: 1989 O-Pee-Chee (Tettleton half only, Joe Carter on the back); 1989 Panini; 1989 Topps (with Dave Smith, Harold Reynolds on the back); 1990 Topps (with Andre Dawson on the back); 1990 Topps Superstar Backs (with Kirk Gibson(!) and Teddy Higuera on the front); 1991 Panini French; 1993 Panini

We have another half sticker here, but the bigger story is that Tettleton's 1990 Superstar Back filled another need for me in the form of a Kirk Gibson sticker!

(snagged from TCDB because I was too lazy to scan mine)

No need to grab an extra copy of either since I was able to kill two birds with one stone here.

Lou Whitaker: 1983 O-Pee-Chee; 1985 Topps x2 (Whitaker half only on second sticker); 1986 O-Pee-Chee and Topps (Whitaker half only on both); 1987 O-Pee-Chee; 1987 Topps x2 (Whitaker half only on second sticker); 1988 O-Pee-Chee (Whitaker half only, Paul Molitor on the back); 1989 O-Pee-Chee (with Doc Gooden on the back); 1990 Topps Superstar Backs (with Bob Walk and Tom Candiotti on the front); 1991, 1992, 1994, and 1995 Panini

Well damn, that's a good way to beef up my collection of Sweet Lou stuff when most of what I'm left chasing is relatively rare! It was nice gaining three more foils among this huge variety, plus I didn't miss out on anyone I cared about on the five that were cut up.

Coins (and a pin):

Topps tried the coin thing back in 1964 and '71 and then went back to the well from 1987-90. Just like stamps the format makes them very collectable so they were a natural fit when it came to baseball collecting. It seems like pins were less common but they're so oddball that they're pretty much off my radar except for the odd examples in my collection.

Sweet Lou represents my fourth 1984 Fun Foods pin (Lance Parrish, Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammell), and they're kind of fun to collect when you find them for cheap like I did here. Morris' coins were made by Topps in 1987 and '88, with the latter being my only example from that year's version. Lastly, Larkin, Tram, and Tettleton are all from the 1990 set, though I'm not sure why Barry's has more of a silver look to it while the others are gold.

And here's the backs. I like the way the pin uses a comic book-like font.

Minis, micros, and more!:

If you only like your cards to be 2.5x3.5, look away now! Most of this stuff has dimensions smaller than that, making them a pain to store but interesting to look at. Also, it's easier to fit lots more of them on a scanner.

Up top we have Chris Sabo on an '89 Topps UK Mini, a reasonably well known set. Humpty Dumpty appears to be (or have been) a Canadian snack food brand, and in 1993 they offered diminutive cards like the Abbott you see above. It came shrink-wrapped but I was happy to open it up now that it was safe from any greasy (a.k.a. delicious) food. Freehan appears in a playing card-type set made in 1969 by Globe Imports, and the black and white "card" is printed on fairly thin paper stock, making me think I could pretty easily print up a whole set of those if I wanted! Hal Morris finishes up the top row with a 1992 Donruss Cracker Jack mini that could be found in boxes of that snack. Those were made a year after the snack maker teamed up with Topps to do the same.

Then we go even smaller with a trio of '93 Topps Micros for three players whose collections I focused on bigtime in this purchase. They're followed by more traditional minis from the last decade out of Panini's Golden Age and Topps' A&G and GQ. I'm happy to note that this isn't the last you'll see of Horton and Kell in this series.

I've had some fun loading up on those cool Kellogg's cards from the 70s and 80s that so many people are into, and for good reason! Here you see a Simmons from 1980 along with Morris versions from 1982 and '83. What a consistently excellent food issue!

I probably could have included Ted Simmons' 1983 Fleer Star Sticker with the group above but as it was still joined to the same piece as the Reds logo, which made it larger, I thought it was a good fit here. A 1990 King B disk of Chris Sabo and '94 Oscar Mayer Round-Up of Jim Abbott seemed to make sense in this group as well. Maybe I'll take the plunge and "pull" on the Abbott disc's tab if I get another one I don't mind opening up and potentially damaging.

Most of the rest of the group here is shorter and wider than your typical trading card. The first three are from a Crown/Coke Orioles team set that reminds me a bit of the Target Dodgers set from the same era. This one is made up of 501 perforated cards sorted alphabetically, and I scored my first three in Tigers great Kell, former Wolverine Maddox, and PC guy Tettleton. Below them are Tettleton and Phillips from the slightly smaller (physically, but not set size) 1988 Starting Lineup Talking Baseball electronic game (which you can read a lot more about here). And breaking up the combo here is 1981 Topps Scratchoffs of Ted Simmons that will remain unscratched in my collection.

Oversized oddballs:

These can present a storage challenge of their own but sometimes bigger really is better when it means more room for creativity!

We'll end things today with the biggest stuff because that's what I scanned last. I'm pretty sure Donruss' Action All-Stars jumbos like Simmons' from 1984 above are pretty well known at this point. Maybe a bit less known are the All-Star-related Pop-Ups, with examples of Morris (1986) and Whitaker (1987) seen in this scan. I didn't realize that two Midsummer Classics in a row were held in dome: Minnesota in '85 and the Astrodome the following year. The stadiums can be seen in each card's background plus the home team is mentioned on the back.

Today's largest item by far is a 1990 Topps Heads Up of Jim Abbott. These originally came with suction cups so you could stick them up on your wall or elsewhere, but I don't think the disembodied head thing proved too popular.

And we'll close out tonight's post with a more mainstream oversized item: Dean Palmer's entry from Fleer's 1994 Extra Bases set. I've snagged a number of these now and have resorted to keeping them, along with lots of my other larger card items, in a graded card box, where they fit quite nicely without having to worry that I'll accidentally bend and crease them in a standard monster box. That's where everything else in this scan will probably reside as well.

That was definitely a fun bunch of weird stuff to look through and post about. While I'm working on getting everything put away safely I hope at least a few of you reading this will let me know which of this stuff you collected and/or what you liked/hated.

And I'll be back soon-ish with another stack of Sportlots stuff from this order once I figure out what I feel like scanning and writing about!