2025 trade package #26: the Collector

With Christmas just a couple days away let's have a look at the penultimate trade envelope I received in November. This one was actually a pair of PWEs from Chris, the Collector, who apologized for the lack of baseball but made up for it with some "Michigan" and "hoops and hockey" stuff. As always I was happy to receive anything, especially new stuff, from someone as generous as Chris.

Here's what he sent:

The lone baseball item was a '24 Heritage card that paired up 2012 MVPs Miggy and Buster Posey. Buster's Giants swept Cabrera's Tigers in the World Series, and both should have plaques in the HOF when all is said and done.

Hoops-wise, three players got boosts to their PCs while a fourth makes his debut tonight. A LeVert Prizm base puts him at 70, good for 6th in my collection. Poole's Topps Holiday base is perfect for this time of year. Franz has more cards in my collection than his older brother by a factor of almost three because he appears in trade packages so often, like the Prizm Monopoly card above.

And Yale transfer F Danny Wolf joins the collection thanks to a '25-'26 Topps 1980-81 insert that throws it back to that year's design. After playing his first two seasons for the Bulldogs, Wolf headed to Ann Arbor for the '24-'25 season and was productive enough to get selected #27 overall by Brooklyn earlier this year. Chris pulled this card himself and was nice enough to include it here when I asked if it was available.

As I mentioned, Chris did indeed include some football cards. GOAT QB Tom Brady stars on a 2017 Absolute base with a design that feels like a bit of an anomaly for the brand, though not at all in a bad way, especially since it wasn't split into hobby/retail versions that year. WR Steve Breaston's 2010 Panini Contenders is much more typical of that product's look, and one I tend to enjoy. Prestige has been pretty consistent too, like WR Devin Funchess' 2017 card above, especially when it comes to RCs with college photos that I like to collect. LB David Harris was in just his second season when the '08 Topps card above was made, and he'd go on to pile up over 1100 combined tackles in 11 years, all but one with the Jets (Patriots, his 2017 swan song). And you all know Henne as one of my absolute favorite QBs. The KC playoff hero can be seen above on his 2010 Panini Epix base that came out a couple years before he'd suit up for Jacksonville.

I'll get to Michigan Hockey stuff in a minute, but there was also a pair of non-Wolverwings in the envelopes. There was a group of five pretty cool UD inserts in this shipment and one of them is the UD Portraits card of young star defenseman Mo Seider, whose productive play has helped Detroit show vast improvement this season. He's joined by fellow D-man Jake Walman, a guy Steve Yzerman spent a second-rounder to dump on the Sharks last year, only to see San Jose flip him to Edmonton earlier in '25 for a first round pick. 

And lastly we have the hockey Wolverines, with a nice bit of red indicating a couple Wolverwings! That's the case for C Andrew Copp as seen on last year's UD design. The recently traded Quinn Hughes (Minnesota) and fellow traded defenseman Jacob Trouba (2024, to Anaheim) also hail from that set that offers superb photography. Hughes also appears on a '24-'25 UD insert called "Gaming XP" that notes how long its subjects have been in the league. I'll add that this appears to be a "Speckle" parallel of that insert, which is a tougher pull and therefore even better!

Along with the four portrait cards is a quartet of landscapes. Kyle Connor's Sizzle Reel insert from this year's UD looks fantastic, especially in-hand, and the rainbow foil brings to mind 90s inserts from brands like Select. Wings captain Dylan Larkin gets two very appreciated additions from this year's UD, the very shiny "Compositions," and last year's "Gaming FOV," (I inadvertently flipped them when scanning). As you can see, the '24 product liked the "gaming" theme, which surely was an appeal to a certain younger generation of collectors, and the FOV card has a cool look to it, if you ask me. By the way, I now have 77 cards of #71.

Last but certainly not least is another base card from Upper Deck's base set a year ago, starring third-year RW Mackie Samoskevich. The young Panther appeared in four playoff games last season and tallied an assist in Florida's successful quest to repeat their win over Edmonton. Oddly enough this card is also his debut in my collection, and he appears to be the 98th subject to join that PC.

Chris, as always I appreciate you thinking of me and sending me cards of my favorite players and teams. I'm glad you enjoyed your Christmas Cards as a quick break from the Topps advent calendar rip. I'm looking forward to more trading between us next year and reading more interesting features on your blog. May you and your family have a peaceful Christmas together.

I plan on being back tomorrow, Christmas Eve, with the final trade package of November '25. Season's greetings to you all!

2024 trade package #15: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store part 2: hockey

It's been a nice sports weekend for me as Michigan Football beat a lesser rival plus the Yankees are down two games in the World Series. So with that positivity in mind, let's continue on with the mountain of cards sent to me by Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store back in August. (Reminder: part 1 is here.)

We're in one of the busiest sports months of the year as all four major sports are in action plus some of the college versions. Relevant tonight is that both the Red Wings and Michigan Hockey have dropped the pucks on their seasons. As a matter of fact, I got to enjoy the latter in person last weekend!

Doug sent me a big stack of cards of both teams in this box,

and those are what we'll look at tonight!

Let's start with the local pro team, one which features four players from my alma mater, all of whom appear in this post! But we'll get to the WolverWings later. Datsyuk and Fedorov are both team legends and I'm glad to bump up their collections a bit. Meahwhile, Edvinsson is a former #6 overall pick going into his third season in Motown as a good defenseman prospect.

Next, LaPointe and Lidstrom are the most familiar names here. Marty won a pair of Cups with the Wings after they took him 10th overall in 1991, and he went on to play for the Bruins, Hawks, and Sens before hanging 'em up. Plus his son currently plays for Michigan Hockey! Lidstrom, meanwhile, is a HOF defenseman who won four Stanleys with Detroit, playing his entire career in Hockeytown. He's definitely a top-five team player of mine in franchise history.

Ozzie is the biggest name here for me, another '91 draft pick who went on to success with the team. He backed up vet Mike Vernon in the playoffs in '96-'97 before getting his turn with the repeat champs the following year, then came back in 2007-08 and '08-'09, helping the team win another Cup and then coming up just short the year after. Primeau's also pretty well known as a former #3 overall pick who put up some good numbers for the team but was part of the trade that brought Brendan Shanahan to Detroit, which worked out quite well! Raymond's a much more recent guy, chosen #4 overall in 2020, and he's coming off a 31-goal campaign, so he looks to be a big part of the future. Rutherford's a goalie from way before my time--drafted by Detroit in 1969, he found his way to Pittsburgh before a trade back to Detroit (twice!) and appeared in goal in parts of 10 seasons as a Wing.

German D-man Mo Seider leads off this scan and he comes into his fourth season as a key player on the blue line. I already mentioned how Shanny joined the team, and he was a star on a team filled with them that won three Cups. Soderblom is a Swedish winger chosen in the sixth round back in 2019 who hasn't been up with the parent team since 2022-23 but remains a prospect. Veleno was a late first-rounder way back in 2018 that hasn't yet parlayed amateur success into NHL production just yet.

The last of the Wings are represented with these horizontals and one odd-sized issue. Draper's probably the best player $1 ever bought as he brought plenty of grit along with key goals to four Cup-winners. The previously seen Seider looks good on a shiny UD insert. The Captain's NHL career coincided with some great 90s stuff like Collector's Choice's Stick-Ums. And Shanny gets one more appearance courtesy of a Pacific mini.

Now we switch over to the guys in maize & blue. Boston center Johnny Beecher makes his collection debut here thanks to Doug, and the 2019 first-rounder is in his second year with that team. Beniers and Bordeleau are both relative newcomers to the NHL and it's nice to see their collections get a small bump. Cogliano (who's also seen in the next scan) won a cup with the 21-22 Avalanche and then retired after last season, his 17th in the NHL!

Three-year Wolverine Compher was a teammate of Cogliano's with Colorado and also part of that Cup team, and now I'm happy to say that he's one of four Wolverines on the Red Wings! Jets sniper Kyle Connor has been lighting the lamp since 2016 and looks primed to hit the 30-goal mark for for the seventh time in eight seasons. As for Copp...

...he's another WolverinWing, as seen in the first two cards here. It's fun when the former Ann Arbor guys head to Detroit but even better when it's captured on cardboard. Another Team Canada card of Hobey-winner Adam Fantilli gives me two of him with that team to go with a pair with Columbus. Hagelin, who won a pair of Cups with the Pens, nears the 40-card mark as well as the top-10 of my Michigan Hockey PCs. Sitting 10 cards behind him is

Canucks D-man and last year's Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes, whose six cards here include a very cool playing card-style item from OPC. Defenseman Matt Hunwick is next, and this trio shows him with two of his six career franchises. Then we have former Leafs winger Zach Hyman who

joined the Oilers after six seasons in Toronto and steadily put up career highs until reaching 54 goals last year plus another 16 in the playoffs for runner-up Edmonton (though he's yet to score this year). While there are no Wolverines named Jones in this package, Doug had me keeping up with the Johnsons. One is Jack, another '21-'22 Avalanche Cup-winner who's now back in his second go-round with Columbus in his 19th(!) NHL season. The other is his new teammate Kent, the 2021 fifth overall pick who's in his fourth season in the league, and has five cards to his name in my collection as opposed to almost 60 for his elder fellow Wolverine.

Wings captain Dylan Larkin was one of the most common names in this package and I loved to see that. I'm grateful that the team has his leadership as he's become somewhat similar to the guy currently in charge, Steve Yzerman, so you'll imagine how much I grinned when I noticed that my collection totals for both players are very close! He's posted 31, 32, and 33 goals the past three seasons so we'll see if his incremental improvement continues, though more importantly I'm hoping for a return to the playoffs--something he hasn't experienced since his debut in 2015-16. Madden, meanwhile, won trophies both in college and the NHL, and missed the playoffs just twice in his career, with one occasion being a cup of coffee in his league debut. Oklahoma City native Jon Merrill also played for the Devils like Madden, though their careers didn't overlap. He was a Red Wing for 36 games in 2020-21 and is now in his fourth season with Minnesota.

I don't think I need to say much about Morrison as he's long been a blog favorite and I've talked about him plenty, so I'll just mention that he's #2 in my UM hockey PCs and the only other player besides Marty Turco to hit the century mark. Next, it's fun to have a shared PC with Doug like Nystrom, who's both a Michigan alum and 2/14 baby! A guy that's not too far behind Morrison is Max Pacioretty, a well-traveled winger who's with his fourth different team in as many seasons. 

My collection of Max is what it is because of folks like Doug who send me so many of his cards, like the ones in the previous scan, the few you see here (two of which are numbered!) and even more below. Palushaj barely had an NHL career to speak of but I still happily collect him. '21 #1 overall pick Owen Power is still fairly new to my collection but, again, thanks to Doug my small collection is growing. Tambellini was a favorite of mine while I had student season tickets. And as you'll see between this scan and the next,

My collection of Trouba got a nice bump as well. The sometimes overly aggressive D-man rests comfortably in the top 10 with just shy of 50 cards, in large part thanks to the guy who sent me these. One of the two Turcos helping to keep him #1 by a large margin can be seen here while there's one more below. Next, we have three of six Werenski cards representing yet another ex-Michigan guy that headed down to Columbus as a pro.

The other three sit atop this scan, including a typically excellent UD base plus the usually very cool (no pun intended) UD Ice. Two of the best looking cards in the entire box aren't even hits, but instead super thick cards of young Flyer Cam York. Both are '21-'22 SPx issues, with the first being a Finite inserted #d /399 and the other being a gorgeous Shadow Box card that has to be seen in-person to be appreciated.

We'll close out this scan (but not the post, oddly enough) with some beautiful hits. First is a beautiful RC auto of J.T. Compher, who's had his named called today already and will have the honor one more time. That's out of 2017-18 Ultimate Collection and the signature /399 is my third autograph to go with one relic. Tyler Motte, meanwhile, represents WolverWing #4 in this post, and that SPx Blackhawks jersey (/235) is relic #5 out of nine total hits. The former Chicago center joined Detroit as his 8th NHL team. Well represented PC guy Max Pacioretty is next with an SPx jersey representing one of his four seasons with Vegas. He's up to 12 hits including nine relics like that above average jersey swatch. And last up is a Panini Rookie Anthology card of Travis Turnbull that I swore I already had until I realized Doug had sent me the Patch version that comes with two excellent pieces of a Sabres jersey to go with Turnbull's signature. Besides the swatch upgrade, the card is #d /99, and that becomes my third hit of a Buffalo player who scored a single goal in three NHL games.

Like I said above, we weren't quite done yet because we still have some horizontals and other oddities that I decided to scan after the hits. Compher, Jack Johnson, and Patch all get some cool X-axis cards, and once again I love UD's flagship look. David Oliver isn't as common of a name around here--that's just my fourth card of his--so I appreciate the deep cut. The trio of goalie cards starring two of Michigan's best--Shields and Turco--has me wishing Pacific and its die-cut Crown Royale were still around. I love that he sent a base and two different parallels to give a nice look at the range of colors that set offered. Compher makes one last appearance thanks to a Panini sticker. And then we have one last player: David Shand. Like Oliver, he's not a very common name and actually only has 12 cards catalogued on TCDb. I now own three of those thanks to this 1979 sticker also made by Panini which may be the oldest such issue in my collection.

Once again I hope the fact that I had to give in and split up this package into two posts goes a long way towards indicating just how generous Doug can be when it comes to trading. Not only did he bomb me with quantity, but there was an absolute ton of quality across these two posts, and rest assured that I don't take such effort for granted. Thanks for being one of my favorite trading partners, Doug, and I hope to close out the year with a Christmas package that shows my appreciation!

Stay tuned for another August trade package coming up soon!

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!

2020 COMC purchases: hockey new year!

I hope everyone had an excellent holiday season, I know I did. After taking a few days off, though, I decided I was ready to get started posting in 2021, and fortunately I happened to have some worthy content handy.

Although I'm still waiting on my original COMC order (which is pretty much all trade bait destined for Christmas packages), a package that's been in limbo since 12/14, the second one I had shipped days later made it to my mailbox before the year was up. All but one of the cards in this one were for me, so at least I've got that going for me!

I ended up doing quite well with the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales so I have a nice fat stack of cards to show off. Because of that I'm going to break them down into (at least) three posts by sport. As you might have guessed by this post's title, hockey is first up:

While this is in now way a huge haul, I'll remind everyone that I don't tend to search out hockey very much, and I largely went after these due to their ridiculously low prices. Here's a bit more about each:

Chris Brown 2013-14 Upper Deck Overtime Autographs auto: once again, ladies and gentlemen, it's the pride of Flower Mound, Texas! $0.90 was all it took to grab this Coyote colored (:chuckles Phoenixly:) signature of Brown, my ninth including an auto of 12 total hits (and 15 cards overall). It's a rare addition to his collection by me since much of what I own is courtesy of The Buckstore Kid, naturally. Fellow Wolverine Jacob Trouba can also be found here so this may not be the last of the set you'll see!

Greg Pateryn 2013-14 Crown Royale auto RC (#450/499): Pateryn is something of an unheralded D-man but he's managed to hang in the league on and off for approaching a decade, which is nice to see. He was originally drafted by the Leafs but made his debut and played his first few seasons with the pictured Canadiens here. Crown Royale's die-cuts just about always look nice, and the fact that this is also a numbered RC is a plus. At just $1.25 I was glad to make it his third hit (two autos and a plate) out of just five total cards.

Jeff Tambellini 2005-06 Parkhurst Signatures auto: the last auto of the group belongs to the son of former Oilers GM Steve. Jeff was a dynamite college player during my school days in Ann Arbor, though his NHL career was nothing special. But, man, could he take over a game and carry the team on his back when they needed it! I had no second thoughts about paying a buck for his signature on such a nice design, not that I was surprised that the classic Parkhurst name offered up a good look like this. Five of my eight Tambellini hits feature his John Hancock (out of just 14 cards overall).

Mike Cammalleri 2008-09 Black Diamond Jerseys Quad quad jersey: only one hockey Mike today so I'm not gonna use the tag, but I am quite happy with the new addition. Everyone knows relics have kind of lost their luster over the years, but it's not because of cool ones like this. The four swatches on my copy resulted in three different colors, which is definitely a win, as was nabbing the card for $1.25. TCDB tells me Cammalleri is #3 in my hockey collection (76 cards) and it's no wonder when I can add cool hits like this, my 18th of the former sniper.

Dylan Larkin 2019-20 SP Game Used Showcase Standouts Jerseys jersey: no, it's not a Wings card, but when you only have to pay $1.05 ("Freedom isn't free!") for a relic of a star like Larkin you go for it. And it looks like instead of being the now infamous "event-worn" crap that involves throwing on a jersey for five seconds to meet the definition, it was at least used in action at that event. Larkin's prices make many of his hits cost-prohibitive so this was a fun, cheap way to grab relic #5 (of seven hits) and card #40 overall. I'm glad the Wolverwing will be back in Motown for at least two more seasons after this one.

Since this was just five cards, plus I needed some back scans for TCDB, here's the backs of everything.

I would expect my next post to cover all my baseball purchases next, but we'll just have to see!

2020 trade package #33: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Hey, we're a third of the way through November and I'm getting up my first post of the month!

Today I'm showing off another Canadian cornucopia from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. If you've read a recap of any of the slew of envelopes he's sent my way then you know his generosity is the stuff of legend around here. So here's a look at the latest mailer from him:

"Small packet" my ass! This was one of the larger bubble mailers you can get and it was stuffed with cards in toploaders, because that's how he rolls. Also, please notice the ridiculously cheap shipping cost, a very patriotic (Canadian) price of $17.76, about $13.60 American. If I was to send this exact package the other direction I guarantee you I'd be paying two to three times that. Then again, Canada often seems to do things more intelligently than its neighbo(u)rs to the south.

Anyway, on with the cards!

The baseball portion was definitely strong for its size. Gerber's no longer in the system but he's seen here on a 2017 Bowman Holiday card, numbered /99, which is very cool. Guillen's one of many past Tigers I still enjoy collecting. Both of those Griffeys were new to me, including a die-cut Leather & Lumber card and a Classics base from 2020 that has a design more reminiscent of Donruss but looks pretty cool.

Finally, the two 2020 Topps Chrome rookie autos are quite nice! Alexander is a former second-rounder who looked decent this year and may well benefit from the Tigers finally going after a good pitching coach in UM's Chris Fetter. Castro also looked promising this past season after coming over from Cleveland in the deal that sent Leonys Martin to the Indians. Considering the increased potential for the team under new manager (*sigh*) A.J. Hinch, it's nice to have autos of these guys already, so I appreciate Doug including them this time.

Hockey part one stars another team also rebuilding, the Wings. I didn't want to scan everything but didn't want to leave anything out either, so here's a family photo. You'll notice the similar one you'll see later looks better because I arranged the cards vertically instead. Live and learn. Anyway, there's some very nice stuff in here, such as a Prizm base of Doug's guy Daniel Alfredsson, and lots of other recent dudes as well.

I thought it would be fun to pick a page full of favorites. The Donruss card (position #2) is former Russian Five-r Slava Kozlov, and he's part of a group of shiny fun and star power. UD's Ice is definitely a super cool brand, especially the acetate versions. The recently re-signed Mantha makes a couple appearances here, and even more in the photo above.

And we're still not done with the guys from Hockeytown thanks to these two stunners. The first is a beauty from UD's aptly-named Allure (2019-20), a Red Rainbow autograph numbered /349, and the subject is forward Taro Hirose, an undrafted Canadian NCAA alum who played his college hockey at...checks notes...

--record scratch--

MICHIGAN STATE? Welp. That's still a very nice card with a signature that includes his jersey number, so it may just remain in my collection, we'll see.

The other is a huge jersey swatch from 2017-18 SP Game Used, celebrating the 2017 NHL Centennial Classic. One of those fun outdoor games the NHL does sometimes, it was celebrating 100 years of the host Maple Leafs (who won 5-4 in OT), not to mention the league itself. The player here is Tomas Tatar, a talented forward who put up some good numbers with Detroit before being flipped to Vegas. He was later traded that same year (2018) for former Wolverine Max Pacioretty. I love the enormous swatch design here and this one should be a keeper for me!

I put the basketball and hockey stuff together this time because it was just easier to scan them like that. There's some nice players and designs here, with my favorite being the Fleer Retro of Rice, though the Taylor SP Authentic is a close second. Also, Rudy T.!

A couple C-Webbs finish up the hoopers, then it's on to the gridiron. Doug sent me a nice boost to my Brady collection that was mostly 2020 Panini Legacy inserts on a nice mix of designs. I was certainly happy to see sideline-to-sideline LB Devin Bush, too, on a 2019 Chronicles Classics card, even if it reminds me that he's unfortunately done for the year. I see him having lots of success over his NFL career with the kind of talent he has!

Football finishes up with this sextet. Griese and the A-Train represent one of the best Stadium Club designs (2002), and Peppers gets a cameo after starring in the Giants' win (wait, they won a game?!) this past weekend. It's always great to see one of my all-time favorite Michigan QBs, Denard, in a college shot. And there's even a new Woodson for me: a 2016 Score No Fly Zone insert. I think a dude that piled up 65 interceptions and around 200 passes defended earned his entry into that set.

Part two of the hockey bounty starred this bunch of Wolverines, headlined by some of my favorites like the various hockey Mikes, multiples of stars like Larkin, Pacioretty, Trouba, and Werenski, and other favorites like Morrison and Turco.

I'm not generally the type to focus on card backs, but the difference between Carl Hagelin's 2019-20 OPC and the subsequent's version is stark. The earlier one immediately made me say, "What is this, a card for ANTS?!" while this year's is so much easier to read with larger text and a white background.

As I did with the Wings I chose nine favorites here, largely opting for the same stars & shine duo. Goalie Al Montoya is the fourth card and #9 is Wolverwing Aaron Ward. UD Ice makes three more appearances, including one for Larkin, and I was thrilled to add five new items to his collection, but there's really a lot to enjoy here, like Hunwick's Rainbow parallel and a brand new insert of young D-man Hughes.

And in case you thought we were done for some reason, we still have the hits, and six big ones at that! Doug definitely knows what I like.

#1 is 2019-20 UD Artifacts dual jersey (/125) of recent favorite Wolverwing Dylan Larkin. Featuring two beautiful red swatches, it's just my sixth hit of him, a beauty that makes me laugh because the swatch placement makes it look like his knees are extremely swollen.

Second is a bold orange swatch of former Oilers C Cooper Marody, who I saw play a few times over his three-year career in Ann Arbor. Out of 2018-19 Ultimate collection (/399) it's my first card of Marody, who was drafted by the Flyers, got a cup of coffee in Edmonton, and seems to be playing in Austria now. Definitely a nice way to welcome him as the 58th member of the hockey collection.

Player #3 here is Jeff Tambellini, whose three seasons with Michigan's hockey team coincided with my sophomore through senior years at the school. He was one of those rare guys who could take over a game, and he probably should have won the Hobey Baker award in 2004-05. Doug sent me three great new hits for his collection (now up to seven cards). The first is a 2005-06 Fleer Hot Prospects patch auto RC (/349) that comes with a really nice tri-color patch. Next is a dual jersey from the same year's UD Rookie Update product (/999) which pairs him with former Tampa sniper Martin St. Louis. And finally, we have a nicely done jersey auto RC (/1999) out of SPx, featuring another of that product's designs that I really like. This is a really nice trio for his collection, and even if he didn't really have much success in the pros, these serve as great reminders of his fun career in Ann Arbor).

Last up today is one-year D star Jacob Trouba on an autographed rookie of his own out of 2013-14 Ultimate Collection (/299). I know enough to realize that this is a pretty high-end card of a guy who's still pretty well respected in the league, and maybe will be more recognizable to Americans since he came over to the Rangers a couple years ago. My third Trouba that includes an autograph (out of 12 hits overall), all of which I bet are thanks to Doug, this is a great way to end tonight's post with a bang.

Actually, before I finish up, I should mention one more celebratory item: these hockey additions push that collection over the 300 mark to 303, meaning it joins football and baseball as Michigan sports collections to have hit that milestone. One of these days I'll try to count up how many of those were sent to me by my favorite Canadian.

Mr. Corti, thanks once again for the surprise bonanza of toploadered goodness! I've recently landed something I'm looking forward to sending you for Christmas, especially when I can fill out an envelope with a bit more (hopefully from a show or COMC?) to make your holiday season even brighter.

2020 trade package #22: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been another good month or so for trade packages, as today's post (and at least one that's upcoming) will prove.

Tonight's mailer showed up this past Sunday, a pleasant surprise to find on my porch a few days ago. What was in it? Even more Canadian bakin' from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store. Your friendly neighbourhood king of dollar store repacks had let me know about a few cards I could expect at some point, and happily it didn't take him very long to fill out another enjoyable envelope to send across the border:

No baseball this time so we'll get right into the hardwood stuff. Almost everything was from the glorious 90s so there's a huge variety of brands and designs to choose from. Coach Juwan Howard looks radical on one of Skybox's many era-appropriate looks. Brooklyn's LeVert gets a chance to put on a show as the NBA playoffs resume. I remember rooting for "Sugar" Mills as a Piston before knowing he was a Michigan alum. And Rice, Rumeal, and Tarpley are all pretty well known products of the program.

A trio of Loy Vaught and a lone C-Webb close out the basketball content, and then it's on to the gridiron. I needed all three cards of Brady in his old uniform, from 2020 Panini products Legacy and Score. I'm liking the Score base design as usual, and there's a good look at TB12's competitive nature on a Gold parallel of an insert called Game Face. Giants big back Jarrod Bunch also makes a couple appearances out of '93 Stadium Club and '94 Collector's Choice.

A cool horizontal UD Toomer is joined by the highlight of the football content for me: four more 2020 Score Wolverines. Gary's a second-year card so he's with the vets, then there's the trio of Wolverines from the set's rookie class. TE Sean McKeon ("Mc-KYOON") went undrafted but signed with the Cowboys after a solid career both blocking and catching at the position. Transfer QB Patterson's name was well known around the country as the signal-caller, but nobody was surprised when he went undrafted after a not-as-good-as-expected couple of seasons in Ann Arbor. Still, his name was big enough to get him into lots of products this year over others, such as first-round C Cesar Ruiz. Such is the hobby. Talented WR Peoples-Jones rounds out the group after he left for the draft a season early. He too failed to reach his vast potential in college but was explosive at times, and hard work and good coaching could make him a valuable wideout. I'm looking forward to snagging any other 2020 Wolverines as they show up in new products.

The start of the hockey content includes envelope stalwarts Cogliano and Knuble, whom I'm always happy to see, but young star D-Man Quinn Hughes, whom I got to see over his two years in Ann Arbor, is the big highlight here. The card on the left is a foil-y RC (/199) out of UD's high-end Buybacks product, one I saw broken a few times on Phil Hughes' Youtube channel. It's definitely got that super premium Upper Deck shine to it. The other is a cool horizontal insert called Rookie Science from UD Credentials, with the formula for "velocity vector" on the back. That's too much math for my English major brain, so instead I'll enjoy the colorful front. Colors are pretty!

This scan of the rest of the hockey starts out very strongly with two new Dylan Larkins. New WolverWing #1 is a sweet rainbow die-cut out of 2019-20 Allure called White Rainbow, which I know because the back literally tells you! Well done, UD. That's joined by his base card from the previously mentioned Credentials. Patch gets a textbook Ultra insert fro 2016-17 Fleer Showcase (made by UD) called Scoring Kings, which has a lightning background that didn't scan very well. I believe that SPA of Trouba is my first of him with the Rangers since he joined them, but I'll have to check. Werenski hails from the Rainbow parallel of OPC's Platinum product that I always enjoy seeing. Shiny!

And then we get to the three big hits of the package. If you thought I was excited about the two Hughes cards you saw earlier then you'll know I was geeked for Doug to send me my first auto of him as well! I'm fortunate to trade with someone like Doug who pulls so many ridiculously nice cards and is willing to trade them. I'll certainly be working on hard on trying to pay him back for this 19-20 Exquisite auto (/99). That alone would have made the envelope, but then there's also a sweet dual jersey of Patch, whom we also already saw, out of last year's Artifacts. This is basically a numbered (/165) relic version of the base card, and it looks great. And last up is the only non-Wolverine in the pile, but it's a card that looked great with the other hockey stuff. Like Larkin's card above, this one is from UD's Allure, and the back tells me you're looking at a Red Rainbow Jersey. You literally couldn't pick a better color for a Red Wings card, and I'd say the up-and-coming winger Zadina is a player to get excited about too!

Doug, thanks once again for another killer envelope! As I've told you in our usual back-and-forth I have a few things in-hand and elsewhere for you, and I'll keep adding to it until it's worthy of this greatness, and then send it back across the Detroit River. Until then, may your hot hand continue as your personal and group breaks go on!

2019 trade package #17: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's been quite the nice weekend here in Ann Arbor.  The weather finally turned from rain 24/7 to sunny and 70s.  Michigan Baseball blew through its opponents to reach the College World Series finals for the first time since 1962, gaining the team a ton of new fans (maybe more on that soon!).  And I got to take in my second viewing of the terrific Spiderman:  Into the Spiderverse at the Big House last night.

So why not celebrate the good times with the most recent trade package I got from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store?  The one he sent me back in May was awesome, but I'd venture to say that this one was a cut above.  This June mailer certainly puts a nice bow on a great weekend in June:

Let's start with a nice bunch of Wings.  The numbered '12-'13 Dominion base cards--which are dummy thicc!--are the highlights for me as they star two of the best players in team history in Datsyuk and new GM Yzerman.  The late Dineen (NHLer Kevin's dad) spent most of his five NHL seasons in Detroit and won a pair of Cups in the 50s before becoming a pretty successful coach.  Kelly was an even bigger star in Detroit and Toronto and won a crazy four cups for each franchise!  The HOFer passed away just a couple months ago, but he and Dineen look great from their playing days on Parkhurst cards from 12 years ago.  Kozlov and McCarty were of course mainstays on multiple Cup-winners.

This group of rookies is headlined by a trio of cards from UD's Synergy brand, one I wasn't familiar with until now.  The blue cards are #d /799 and the back of the red (excellent choice!) has a scratch-off code that I believe you'd redeem as a full set for an upgraded version.  I know little of these four guys but they all appear to be in the organization still, and hopefully one or more of them will join some of Yzerman's draftees to make the team competitive again.

Moving on to basketball, we'll start with a 2010-11 Limited card that doesn't star former Michigan legend Cazzie Russell, but instead Michael Campanella "Campy" Russell (no relation, just an error here).  Then we can move on to one of this post's seven delicious hits:  a jersey/auto/RC of Caris LeVert from 2016 National Treasures (#24/49).  It takes a lot for a relic swatch to have any effect on me these days but this tri-color maize & blue jersey more than does the trick!  Pair that with an autograph that includes an inscription and you've got a beast of a card.  Not a bad way to start my collection of the young Brooklyn Nets SF!

Doug let me know in advance that he had my back when it came to some RCs from probably my favorite yearly football release, Score, but I wasn't expecting some useful veteran base as well.  I love the throwback design here, and the backs look quite nice as well, especially the super colorful reverses on printing plates:

I realize plenty of collectors dislike having the same photo appear on the front and back but that doesn't matter at all to me.  And more importantly I'm happy to have some new cards of Michigan's NFL stars of the gridiron, including PC guy Tom Brady.  If Clark ever stops acting like a dumbass maybe I'll enjoy collecting him as well (and Lewan has had his moments, too).  Peppers' card includes a great photo, though I'll soon see him on cardboard in a different uniform.

Then there's the fun trio of college-uniformed RCs:  Bush, Gary, and Higdon.  All three were a blast to watch with the Wolverines and I hope they add to Michigan's count of successful pro players.

I mentioned Lewan when pointing out his base card above and he also made a second appearance in this envelope on a 2014 Leaf Metal Draft Prismatic Blue auto (#39/50).  Again, nice choice of color.  The airbrushing is annoying as usual but when getting past that this is a fun second version of Lewan's auto in this product (I own the base) and my 14th overall hit of the Titans OT.

As usual hockey is the star of the post, starting with this base/insert mix, which includes the return of the Hockey Mikes (oops, no room for the tag!):  Cammalleri, Comrie, Knuble (Wolverwing RC!), and Komisarek.  Madden's card is one of the coolest of the bunch, an artistic piece that surprisingly doesn't come from Topps Gallery or UD Masterpieces.  We'll see familiar guys Montoya and Patch again in just a minute.  And the Turco Game Breakers insert (from 2006-07 UD Victory) is a new entry for his PC.

And the rest of the hit parade, of the sick/nasty variety.  Seriously this is some bad-ass hockey cardboard (and other materials).

#1 is an eye-popping patch of C Andrew Ebbett.  This one hails from 2007-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects' Emblems, and it's pretty obvious that we're seeing parts of the "A" and "T" from the Binghamton Senators jersey he's wearing.  I took a quick look at the team's history and found that they were affiliated with Doug's Sens until 2017.  That was his first team out of college before moving on to Anaheim and elsewhere.  What a sick patch for hit #7!

Second up is my favorite somewhat recent Michigan guy in the NHL, Wolverwing Dylan Larkin.  My fifth hit of his out of just 23 cards--with Doug responsible for four of those five, I believe--is a beautiful red jersey swatch from 2018-19 Upper Deck Trilogy's Green parallel, #d /242 to match his career number of games played in at that point.  That included 80 each in his first two campaigns and 82 more in '17-'18.  More Larkin stuff, please!

You probably don't hear much about Oklahoma-born defenseman Jon Merrill outside of my blogs, but the autograph you see above, from UD's 2015-16 Artifacts, is actually my 8th hit of his (again, largely thanks to Doug's generosity).  He's spent the last two seasons with Vegas after his first four with the pictured Devils.

I promised more of Montoya and now I'll deliver on that, thanks to Doug's delivery!  After a much hyped college career he was a pretty good prospect so it's no surprise to see Inigo's cousin in a product like ITG's Between the Pipes from 2006-07.  One of the relics is obviously a jersey swatch but the other is unique to the sport:  a goalie's catching glove.  It's fun getting different pieces like this thanks to collecting multiple sports (and knowing a guy who can fill up your hockey box like whoa).  Alvaro is now up to seven hits and he appears on enough that I don't think I'll have a problem growing that number.

While that Ebbett we just talked about is super cool, I don't think anything else tops the final card today, a Max Pacioretty 2016-17 UD Black Lustrous INK auto (#075/175).  The Black brand is one of UD's higher-end offerings and it certainly takes its name to heart, which results in some stunning cards when paired with autos like you see here (and I'll also note that the signature is in much better shape than the scan would indicate).  This is a super thick issue that includes three little windows around the Upper Deck logo:  a see-through image and two pieces designed to look like parts of a sweater.  That thickness makes it tough to get a completely clear scan, but I don't have to care about that because I can look at the card in person whenever I want to, which I may just do more often than any other card of Max in my collection (six of which are now hits).

Doug, thanks again for this outstanding follow-up to your kick-ass May envelope.  I'm looking forward to hitting you back in a few weeks when I have a few eBay purchases and likely show adds in-hand and ready to send over the border!