3/7/26 card show report: NIRvana

Happy April, friends! Baseball's back, even if warmer temps aren't (at least consistently), and Michigan Basketball is in the NCAA tournament final for the eighth time, six of which have been during my lifetime. It's also Easter, and I hope some of you enjoyed some related treats!

I made it out to my monthly show a couple days ago, but before I cover that we're going to have to go back to early March since I still have some catching up to do.

I actually went on a Saturday for the first time in a while for a couple reasons, but it worked out nicely. Because my usual seller hasn't had much time to add newer stuff, I didn't spend much on items from the boxes I usually buy from. I think it came out to $20 or so worth of dimes, $1s, $2s, and $5s. However, besides grabbing a couple more $5 cards from his showcases, I had a blast looking through one or two of his unsorted/unpriced boxes, as I do from time to time. He takes a bit of time to figure out his asking price, and it's always been very fair as far as what I'm willing to pay, so we both end up happy.

In this case I grabbed a handful of pretty nice stuff, most of which you'll see in this post, and much of which falls under the category of the greatest thing in sports cards: 90s inserts (which, of course, rule). Hence, the title of tonight's post: #NinetiesInsertsRule!

For that stack he wanted just $40, which I was more than willing to throw down, especially considering how much other sellers seem to love to jack up the price of increasingly scarce '90s cards, if not everything. That put me at a solid $70 total with lots to enjoy.

Here are my keepers:

The cheapest cards in scan #1 were the '25 A&G base of Tigers HOFers Cobb and Kell, both of which I believe were in the dime boxes. That's pretty cool since Kell's actually an SP! I can't remember if the Ginter insert of Gibby was in the $1 boxes or the misc. ones, but either way I love seeing a World Series celebration card of my favorite postseason homer celebration of Kirk's; We had him first, Dodgers! And Liranzo's Topps Pro Debut base is my first card of the top-100 catching prospect.

Besides those, let's celebrate some 90s inserts! #1 is a Tony Gwynn 1998 Leaf Fractal Matrix parallel, a set limited to 1600 copies which I think was the inspiration for Leaf's crazy Fractal Materials product. Mr. Padre also appears on one of this post's top cards: a 2000 Paramount Fielder's Choice insert. These die-cut chase cards done up in the style of a glove illustrate the greatness of Pacific, and I love grabbing these when I can.

Going back to "matrix" for a minute, we have HOF Wolverines SS Barry Larkin flying high on 1997 Stadium Club parallel called "TSC Matrix," so named for it's crazy cool background. Then we're back to another of my absolute favorite inserts (and brands): 1996 Studio's Masterstrokes, in this case featuring HOF P Greg Maddux. Like Pacific, Donruss/Leaf cranked out some beauties, like the artistic chase card above, numbered /5000 on the back. And lastly in this scan, the newest Dean Palmer to join my collection is a 2000 Stadium Club Chrome Refractor. SCC was even cooler back then than it is now, and the Refractors still look amazing today. (Also, 2000 is an honorary member of the #90sinsertsrule club.) I'm nearing 500 cards of Palmer, which is crazy to me.

I've got one more baseball scan with some heavy hitters before we get to lower-end stuff from other sports. No Griffey this time, but Gwynn and Maddux were joined by Ripken thanks to my 21st card of the 2007 Ultra Iron Man insert. This one celebrates his first AL MVP in 1983. Next to him is a cheapie 2020 Absolute Spectrum Blue parallel of future HOFer Max Scherzer that I thought looked very cool.

We'll get to the biggest card in this group momentarily, but first I'll cover the horizontal cards. All four of these guys actually appeared in the first scan. Gwynn's third pickup is a '98 Leaf Statistical Standouts insert, a chase set with a bit of a matte texture that was numbered /2500 on the back (and the first 250 were die-cut). Larkin #2 is a shiny 1995 Score Summit Nth Degree parallel with cool rainbow foil line/dot patterns on it. Maddux's second is a Chrome parallel inserted into 1999 Stadium Club, a year before it became its own product, as seen on the Palmer above. And another of my fun gets from the random box was a manurelic of Cobb from 2015 Topps. These "medallions" celebrate each subject's first HR, and for the Georgia Peach that was September 23, 1905, the lone run in a loss at Washington.

And now we have my co-favorite card of the show (that Fielder's Choice Gwynn, tho!) in my newest Gibby relic. Also part of the $40 assortment of cards, this is a 2005 Donruss Prime Patches Portraits Quad Swatch that comes with two jersey swatches plus pieces of a bat and hat. It's numbered /150 on the back and offers a design typical of Donruss/Leaf/Playoff back in the day, one I still miss. The presentation here is great, with an 80s photo of Kirk atop the four relic pieces, which are arranged nicely (even if they aren't terribly large). I now count 13 Gibby hits in my collection, including four autographs to go with this, my ninth relic.

And we'll close things out with some Wolverines. As I mentioned, men's basketball will be playing for a second title tomorrow night, plus the women's team also made it to the Elite 8 over the course of a fantastic season of their own. (AND Michigan Hockey's in the Frozen Four this weekend, but I've got no hockey cards to talk about this time.)

Basketball is represented by some colorful parallels of Trey Burke along with Pistons teammates Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson. Detroit's show quite the improvement this year to rocket to the top of the Eastern Conference, and maybe they can throw it back to the late 80s (and the Bad Boys teams) like Michigan's doing. Meanwhile, I scored some cool football inserts as well, starting with a die-cut Prizm of David Ojabo (now of the Dolphins). DPJ and Nico Collins are WRs depicted in chase cards from Mozaic and Prizm, which are so similar I often don't notice a difference. And last up is LB Josh Uche on a blue(!) Donruss Optic parallel, another brand that falls into the Panini version of Chrome cards. As it turns out, Uche just signed with Miami as well so he'll be joining Ojabo as a Dolphin.

This was obviously a fantastic show and I'm excited to add even more cool 90s chase cards to my collection. I know I can count on comments from at least a couple of my regular readers who'll appreciate some of these!

Next time I think I'll be doing a recap of a few eBay purchases I made in the first quarter of 2026, then it should be Facebook Marketplace purchase #1 followed by this month's show. Go Tigers, go Blue, and go spring!

12/5/25 card show report: Christmas show-ping

Welcome back to another show recap as I near the end of my collecting from 2025. As you can tell by the date this was early in December, and I headed to my usual monthly show in Taylor.

I got a nice amount of Christmas card shopping done here, spending a yearly high of $153. $20 of that went toward some vintage Topps SPs for a deserving TCDb member, and the rest was at the tables of my usual seller.

First up is a bit of trade bait, which I hadn't come home with for a while:

I decided these were a pretty good value for the prices, which I think were generally $2 and under. As always, please drop a comment if you want to work something out!

And now for my keepers:

Baseball was well represented with a Purple paralle of Cronenworth, Donruss-related base of Griffey, Maddux, and Ripken (no Gwynn this time, sorry!), a Kinsler parallel, and a cool Griffey insert from UD's awkwardly-named HoloGrFX. With 630 bombs, Ken certainly earned his Longball Legacy!

As I've done a few times recently, I went through the seller's boxes of unpriced stuff that he hadn't put out yet, and I came up with a few including the two biggest cards you see here. He gave me a price I thought was great, so I was happy to take home a couple '84 Tigers hits! First is a 2005 Donruss Classics Stars of Summer jersey of Gibby. Numbered /250 on the back, it's my seventh relic of the '84 World Series hero (who may have appeared in one other one?) and I love the photo of him wearing the old-school uniform.

Joining him is another 1984 hero, Jack Morris, on a 2005 Donruss Leather & Lumber Leather Cuts signature card. This was one of a number of products that made things interesting by having players sign swatches of real or manufactured stuff like baseballs, wood, leather, and more. Black Jack's autograph looks excellent on a manu-leather piece, and of course I love seeing him pictured with the Tigers instead of one of his other teams as well. I now own four cards with Jack's signature, and this one is numbered /128 on the back.

When it came to basketball it was all about some cheap colorful stuff. THJ, Jett Howard, LeVert, and Poole all got new items added to their collections for what I think was less than a quarter each.

As for football, a Kwity Paye Prizm parallel was the only non-hit, but that's ok because I found a couple relics to boost that collection's numbers. First is a 2023 Contenders jersey relic of transfer (to UCLA) RB Zach Charbonnet, representing my third hit of my favorite half of Seattle's running back duo. Unfortunately his excellent season ended in the Hawks' win thanks to a torn ACL, so he won't get to appear in a hypothetical Super Bowl.

He's joined by a nice bold red jersey swatch of former Michigan also-transfer (Tennessee) QB Joe Milton, pictured with his former team that drafted him--the Patriots. He's currently with the Cowboys and stuck behind another entrenched starter, but if he can keep earning paychecks as a backup, that's not exactly the worst case for a guy not known to be accurate enough to be a starter. By the way, this is relic number two for the gunslinger's PC.

I'll be back soon with a few eBay pickups from the second half of '25, and in the meantime I'll be rooting for Indiana to cap off their magical NCAA football season with their first title. Go Hoosiers!

11/8/25 card show report: a triple "J" meetup

For what will likely be my final post of 2025 (man, the year went by so fast!) I'm going to close the book on my collecting for November by covering the show I went to the weekend after the one I just covered.

Thanks to a bye in Michigan's football schedule I was able to head out west to Portage, not far from Kalamazoo, for a show held in a school gym. I made the 1.5 hour-ish trek out there because I'd get to hang out once again with John, Jeff, and Jason (plus his fiancee Samantha). You just don't pass up opportunities like that! John lives nearby and I was able to pick him up, Jeff's about a half hour closer than I am, and Jason's drive was just a little longer than Jeff's.

Of course I mention all three of these guys here and then didn't think to get a picture of all of us together while we were at the show. At least I got one of John and me when I dropped him off before heading home:

Anyway, just like I enjoyed hanging out with Angus at the show the week before, I had a blast with these folks. I ended up spending a bit of time with each of them, including Jeff before he took off (he beat us all there), but not before handing me the stuff I posted in this trade recap. I then stopped at a few tables where Jason and Sam were looking before they headed out. Then I closed out the show looking at a few other tables with John before we got out of there.

It was really nice seeing all of them in person and I greatly appreciate that they all took the time to hang out for a bit. I'm grateful for all the cool people I know through this hobby and here I was surrounded by a bunch at once, truly a treat.

I ended up spending $79, every last dollar in my wallet but one, apparently, and scored some cool items that went in Christmas card packages. I also came home with a few keeper items for myself, but thankfully not so many that I'll need to spend a lot of time going over them.

This 73-card boxed set focusing on Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline, was actually the very last thing I bought. I noticed it on a table way in the back and made sure to come back for it before I left. It's fairly low-end as far as production value goes, but for $5 I couldn't just leave it.

Here's a look at some vertical fronts. If the design isn't much to write home about, the photography choices are still very cool. The cards span Kaline's playing career and life beyond the field. There's a mix of orange and black borders not to mention black & white and color images.

 
There were some fun horizontal images too so I included a scanner bed worth of those as well. 

The backs are about as simple as the fronts but the write-ups are solid. You'll notice the first card is numbered "1A" and there's a "1B" as well, and then the rest of the numbers go up to 72.

One other thing to note is that the set was made with both black and red borders on the back, and mine obviously has the latter, which is a bit less common.

Overall I thought this was a great value for just $5 and it allowed me to add more than 70 cards to Al's PC!

I believe the rest of my cards, all but one of which were of the football variety, came from three different tables. First up is my sixth relic (13th hit overall) of Sauce Castillo. I'm pretty sure this came from a younger guy, probably a teenager, who was wearing a #2 Michigan Football jersey, so I was happy to give him a sale.

The cheapest football card here is a SAGE base of Michigan/Bengals DB DJ Turner. And then I found three very nice hits from the sport. One is my 12th autograph of TE Jake Butt, out of 2017 Spectra and numbered /75 on the back. #2 is a large multi-colored jersey swatch (with stitching) of RB Hassan Haskins from 2022 Panini XR, which is limited to just 25 copies. And last up, I overpaid a bit for the auto you see of Iowa/Michigan/Lions QB Jake Rudock, but it just looks so cool! It's a 2016 Panini Black Gold card, and I'd already scored the "White Gold" version (numbered /99, as opposed to 199 here) so now I have its twin. The signature and player image areas being enhanced by acetate make this a big winner for me in addition to the black background with gold foil. Besides the other auto I mentioned, I have a plate of Rudock as well and therefore three hits of him overall.

Thank you again to John, Jeff, and Jason & Sam for a nice meetup at this show. I hope we can set up something similar in 2026 depending on when these shows are scheduled!

This should be it for me for 2025. I'll mostly be spending tomorrow watching Michigan face Texas in the Citrus Bowl as my fellow fans and I look forward to a new coach next year, plus I've been putting in some effort cleaning up and updating my trade bait on TCDb. I should be back early in 2026 (maybe as soon as Thursday? We'll see!) to recap this month, which brought a couple more blogger trade packages, plus I have the December monthly show and rest-of-year looks at my eBay purchases and TCDb trades to get to.

So Happy New Year to all of you, and GO BLUE!

10/3/25 card show report: scary cheap October cards

Catching up on these posts has gone decently well since I've actually put some effort into writing more often! Here we are with the last post I have planned for October.

Tonight we'll take a look at what I picked up at that month's show. I spent a paltry $50 that day, my low for the year by $5 (April), but that's ok because I definitely made up for it over the final two months. Plus I brought home some fun stuff for myself:

The baseball scan includes a fun mix of 90s/ish inserts and relics-ish. Gwynn's card is a 2002 Topps Gold, back when you could tell it was that parallel (and not "gold toile redgold waveblue"). It's numbered /2002 on the back and represents just the second year Topps printed that parallel after it began with the excellent 2001 set. I really like how these look, especially compared to the doldrums of the 2010s and 20s designs.

Next is Pudge on a 2000 UD Ultimate Victory Lasting Impressions insert. UV was the higher-end Chrome-like version of the budget Victory brand, and Rodriguez was one of 10 superstars found in this set. He'd just won the '99 AL MVP as well as his 7th straight Gold Glove (out of 10 in a row and 13 overall) and 6th straight Silver Slugger (of 7) and made his 8th of 10 consecutive All-Star appearances, with four more yet to come. So yeah, he made a lasting impression and fits right in with this set!

The unfolded Maddux card is the reason for the "90s inserts rule" tag tonight, though the others are close enough to be honored too. He's seen here on a 1998 Circa Thunder chase card called Limited Access, which includes a typical front and back but folds out so you get even more content inside. That includes another image and some stats in various situations from his first five seasons with the Braves:

(It took me a minute to figure how what these numbers represented until I checked just his Atlanta stats!) Pretty cool, eh?

As for the other interesting cards, first up there's a manupatch of Griffey from 2003 UD Patch Collection's MVPs insert. This one represents his '97 AL MVP win. It's a fun manufactured relic and came to me relatively cheap, so I'm quite happy with it.

Next is a 2005 Bazooka Blasts Relics bat of former Tigers SS Carlos Guillen. Don't ask me why he's listed with the Angels there since he only ever suited up for Seattle and Detroit. This looks to be my second relic (first bat) of the three-time All-Star who was quite productive for some 2000s Tigers teams.

And going alphabetically saves the best for last: a Greg Maddux 2003 Fleer Tradition Milestones Game Used Gold jersey (numbered /100 on the back). I snagged this with a few other cards in this scan and one or two in the next one for a very good total price. Mad Dog's 15 seasons of 15+ wins was a very impressive feat, and he achieved that in consecutive seasons (actually 17, in the end), plus an 18th in 2006 (and missed by one in '07). From 1988-2007 his average record was 17-10, and that's how you get to 355 career wins! This cool relic marks my 20th such card of Maddux and 21st hit overall.

With most of the attention on the baseball stuff, we'll quickly switch over to basketball and football to close things out. The former includes some nice color of Trey Burke, Caris LeVert, and Jordan Poole, and I continue to be able to find stuff like this in the dime and quarter boxes decently often. They grab my attention enough even though they're from my least favorite sport, and I'm happy to add them, plus cool stuff like Juwan Howard's '98-'99 Bowman's Best base.

As for football, RCs of Seattle RB Zach Charbonnet and Washington DB Mike Sainristil were nice finds for my chase of first-years. Harbaugh's a '97 Collector's Edge Extreme Foil insert, though there's not much of that feature on the card besides the swoosh running along the left and curving around to the bottom. And last up is one of my favorites from this month: my second of what amounts to three Charles Woodson entries from a 1998 Press Pass insert called Triple Thread. The '98 Heisman winner as well as QBs Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf each got a trio of cards in this set, naturally, and the versatile Woodson was the one true player who could claim the set's name. The three cards fit together kind of like Stadium Club's Triumverate, and I'll show those off once I nail down his card #7.

That's it for the month of October, at least for now. I may show off a non-card Facebook purchase from then if I feel motivated enough, but I'm really more interested in finalizing my blogger trades, shows, eBay pickups, and eventually, TCDb deals from the second half of the year. So I would expect my next post to dip back into trades, in this case from November. Maybe even soon!

6/6/25 card show report: June boon

So, yeah, I went the traditional route and you're getting my June show recap tonight. It's another short one but still filled with cool stuff so I hope you all enjoy it!

According to my spending tracker, that monthly Taylor Town show on June 6 was my only spending for the month, though I certainly made up for that in July! More to come on that.

Anyway, I dropped $110 on some quality stuff, and some of that included some choice 90s inserts. My usual guy had recently bought out a collection with a good number of those found therein, and he invited me to flip through a big box of those (mostly baseball, some football). They were all unpriced, so I was somewhat careful about what I chose, but in the end I was very pleased with the price he gave me after looking them up. You'll see a few of those below and possibly more in trade packages as they get dispersed.

No trade bait this month, so let's get to the goods!

Now this is my kind of scan! And yes, the "90s inserts rule!" tag is in full effect here. First up is a '96 Sportflix Double Take insert starring Ken Griffey Jr. and then-bigtime prospect Ruben Rivera. The two year run of Pinnacle's Sportflix product remains undefeated when it comes to inserts (and we'll get to another one in a minute) including this one that pairs up a couple stars on an extremely cool lenticular design. That particular Griffey card is paired with another one of my favorites from the era: '98 Studio's Freeze Frame. I think the J. Geils Band would approve of this photograph-themed chase card that's numbered /4500 on the back.

An Al Kaline Iconic Card Reprint from 2019 Topps is the lone exception to the 90s greatness in this scan (besides the two hits, of course), and it gives me yet another tribute to a RC I really need to track down one of these days.

Back to the 90s fun and the decade's other notable junior. Dress For Success is a '97 Leaf offering with a faux jersey feel and even slightly raised lettering that makes the card live up to its theme quite nicely. This one's numbered /3500 and yet another example of the kind of stuff we're denied in this era's creative doldrums. The second of three Cals is a '98 Leaf Rookies & Stars Pennant Edition MVP insert, which is also numbered (/5000), and this one picks a top player at each position on the back, with the Iron Man slotting in at 3B. Finally, we get our other look at '96 Sportflix and its Hit Parade insert. Sure, the scene in the background doesn't change per card, but the motion is still extremely cool and I continue to have a fondness for cards that look like this.

And then we have the pair of baseball hits, both of guys that spent at least some time behind the plate. The first is a 2016 Ginter jersey relic of Victor Martinez, who caught over 850 games, mostly with Cleveland and Boston. It was nice getting him on a card where he's pictured with Detroit, for whom he played the final seven years of his career. He's joined by HOF catcher Pudge Rodriguez on a 2004 Donruss Elite Career Best bat card (#d /200). The bat relic version of the card has a back with a COA statement instead of the base insert's explanation of the titular career best number, in this case his 1999 MVP season total of 113 RBI (he never did reach 100 again), plus becoming the first catcher in the 20/20 club (35 HR/25 steals, both also career bests). The bat chip may be relatively tiny but it's still a pretty cool card to me!

On the basketball side of things I did end up with a single new card: an autograph of Moussa Diabate. My second such card of the French C and former Wolverine (2021-22 only) is a rookie-year insert from 2022-23 Prizm called Sensational Signatures. While I don't think you can describe this one that positively, it's still a fun addition for me.

I scored a football hit as well, but first we'll look at the single 90s insert I purchased from that sport. Collector's Edge was certainly prolific during that decade, and that includes 1998, Charles Woodson's rookie year. What you see above is his second base card in the product, which is numbered /5000 like the rest, but is from the "Super Masters" subset which has a different design than the rest. Rookie year and numbered? Sounds like something I'd like to add!

And finally we have this evening's lone football hit. That ended up being auto #2 of UM and Dallas Cowboys TE Luke Schoonmaker. Found in 2023 Panini Contenders, this very reflective foil card is the Playoff Ticket parallel of his base auto, and it's numbered /149. Hopefully the third-year TE is more successful with the Cowboys than fellow ex-Wolverine/Cowboy at the position Sean McKeon.

That's it for June's show but stay tuned for July's recap which includes a fun cameo! Also I'll be back soon with one of the other posts I promised last time.

5/2/25 card show report: it's gonna be May

With another monthly show coming up in less than a week, tonight I'm recapping my Taylor Town trip from May.

Coming off a show where I'd spent a yearly low of just $55 I almost doubled my spending at a $100 even. Oddly enough I may have come home with fewer cards than April, but that was the result of an increase in quality at the expense of quantity. Hey, whatever works!

First up, I did snag a bit of trade bait to make available here, all of which is a bit higher end than normal:

The Lo Duca auto is numbered /227 while the patch is limited to 100 copies. I know I trade with a bunch of Dodgers collectors but decided I might prefer specific offers of items in trade for these as they're on the nicer side. Meanwhile, the jersey/auto of Stewart is /75, and the Sano manurelic isn't numbered.

Please claim any if you'd like to trade for them here or over on TCDb.

As for my keepers, I can also sum them up in a single scan:

#1 PC guy Cal gets yet another addition in the form of a '21 Topps 70 Years of Topps insert that imagines what he'd look like on the 1978 design. His fellow 2007 Hall of Fame inductee (I was there!) Tony Gwynn is the other baseball representative tonight in the form of a pair of early 2000s relics. The vertical card is from 2002 Topps 206 while its horizontal sibling hails from 2001 Upper Deck. The latter came out just four years after Gwynn was on the small checklist of the ballyhooed debut of UD's Game Jersey cards. It was certainly a different time back then! I now count 12 relics in my collection of Mr. Padre, and I'll happily spend in the $5-$10 range to continue growing that count.

As for football, the lone non-relic I picked up was a 2021 Absolute Blue Diamonds parallel of former UM RB Chris Evans. It's numbered /99 and the color was along the right lines so why not? Next to him we have my first two hits of 2023 National Champ QB J.J. McCarthy, both of which are Vikings jersey relics. On the left is a jersey from '24 Absolute's Rookie Force insert, and that's joined by the same year's Donruss Rookie Phenom Jerseys set. I hope he hits the ground running as Minnesota's QB this season after barely playing during last year's preseason due to injury. For now he becomes subject #265 in my football collection.

Last up is relic #5 (and 6th overall hit) of the electrifying Desmond Howard. He's pictured on the card above with the Lions but this one was actually made by Stadium Club in 2001 to celebrate his appearance earlier that year in the Pro Bowl as a KR for the NFC. That was his lone appearance in the NFL all-star game over his 11 seasons, and he was named to the team on the back of numbers like 457 punt return yards (including a career-high 95-yarder) and TD, plus 1401 kick return yards on 57 tries, including a season-high 70.

That's all for this time but I'll figure out what I'd like to show off next and try to get another post up soon. Until then, if anyone has any solutions for the reeling Tigers, please feel free to share them with the front office in Detroit!

4/4/25 card show report: April foolin' around

Tonight I'm posting what I think is my last recap for April which is that month's show, just a day before I head over to Taylor tomorrow for July's trip (and possibly a meetup with John!). This will be a very short one because I only spent $55 that day, and out of what I bought, only five cards stayed with me.

Here's a quick look at what I brought home:

You can see the best stuff right off the bat in the form of the baseball content. My 19th relic of Greg Maddux is a plain white Braves jersey swatch from Upper Deck's 2003 Finite product, a one-and-done offering that's somewhat forgettable. But hey, it's a nice new Maddux for me, and I think it was in the $5-$10 neighborhood so I'm happy!

As for a more recent pitcher I was glad to score a card of, you can see my second autograph of young Tigers starter Casey Mize, out of 2022 Panini Mosaic. It joins a 2021 card from the same product, and this parallel of the autograph set is apparently referred to as "Choice Fusion" for some reason. I was content to continue adding some cheap Mize autos to my collection before the season started, and then all he's done is get off to a great 8-2 start for the AL-best Tigers, so that makes this one even more exciting.

Switching over to basketball, Michigan Wagner bro Franz becomes that sport's 40th different subject in my hits collection thanks to a Hoops sweater card from 2021-22. I know people find these to be pretty goofy and I do myself sometimes, but it was a fun add for maybe $2 while I work on upgrading what I have of him.

Last up is a cheap football pair. On the left is a Red parallel of RB Hassan Haskins' RC from 2022 Panini Rookies & Stars, and Buckeye faces are probably still that color picturing him pouring on five TDs against them in 2021. Joining him is a 2020 Panini Playbook RC of former Pats LB Josh Uche. New England flipped him to the Chiefs last October but he barely played with them, and then signed with KC's Super Bowl opponents in Philly after the season ended. Out of the 14 Uche RCs I'm tracking, I'm now past 50% with eight out of 14.

So, yeah, not much this time, but that's ok because it made for less work in this post! After tomorrow's trip I'll get y'all another show recap once I'm caught up on May and June. Looking at my scanned stuff I think that'll amount to a pair of blogger trades, two more shows, eBay pickups for the first half of the year, a few TCDb deals before I disabled transactions for quite a while, and another fun Dave & Buster's sports-related prize.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th as we get closer to the MLB All-Star break!

2/28/25 card show report: Marching into spring

I've been slacking again, or more accurately, focusing on other stuff that's grabbed my interest. That said, I haven't forgotten blogging, even if I'm terrible at keeping up with it!

Some of you may recall that I combined my first two 2025 shows into a single post because both dates were in January. Similarly, the "March" show's first date (since I usually go on Fridays) was the final day of February. Confused? Don't worry--the April and May shows took place during their corresponding months.

Once again it's been far too long for me to remember the details on this one, but I spent an almost-yearly high of $115 (January's was $120), largely thanks to one high-end card that I'm sure will get posted on another blog soon enough. There was also the usual nice stack of trade bait destined for some of my favorite folks, plus this unassigned stuff up for grabs:

The baseball stuff was mostly very cheap autos with a stray relic thrown in.

As for football, I went for a couple eye-popping patches and a patch/auto, plus a couple other cheapies I'm hoping someone will take off my hands. You know the drill: claim 'em if you want 'em!

And then there's my small pile of keepers:

Fleer's Lumber Company went through a number of different looks over its multiple iterations, and the '94 version isn't at the top for me, but it's still a very good one. I love me some numbered 90s inserts (they rule!) of my favorite stars from the era, so that Black Diamond Maddux (#d /1500 on the back) was a nice find for me. Cal's '83 Donruss second-year is a rare 80s base of him I didn't own, not to mention a reminder of the year I was born. Pacific's 2632 insert honoring his streak is one I don't recall seeing before so I was glad to snag it. And the Leaf Clean Up Crew insert offers a look at a very powerful infield trio for Baltimore that included two of the guys in the 500 HR/3000 hit club plus the SS with the most career bombs at his position.

On the basketball side of things I once again came home with a Caris LeVert insert out of what I'm sure was a dime or quarter box, plus a nice Bulls red jersey swatch of Fab Five guy Jalen Rose, my fifth relic and seventh total hit of the 13-year NBAer.

I now have a couple more shows to recap but first will be returning to trade packages with two from the month of March, then a few other incoming items.

2025 trade package #7: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's the last day of April so let's finally look at the mailer I received from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store back in February!

Your first place Tigers were well represented in this package that arrived a couple months before the season opened. The past guys are pretty good company between Miggy, Fister, and Grandy, but Carp, Greene, and Jobe are all making big contributions to a club that's exceeded my expectations so far. Speaking of Riley, who needs team parallels when you have your own name parallel?

Keith's been slower to get things going this year but did homer today. Manning's stock may be down but McGonigle's has shot up quite a bit, making that numbered Donruss parallel extra nice. Parker's still working his way back from injury and so is Rogers, but Mize has been a nice story so far as he leads the Tigers with four wins. Morris's Predictor insert is a bit of a combo-breaker, but not entirely since end his 13-year career in Detroit, playing 40 games here in 2000.

Ex-Tiger DeMeritte's fantastic 2020 image, one of the best of that year, gets the Chrome and Refractor treatment, and I have a feeling we'll see this one popping up in highlights for years to come. Miggy leads off the hit parade with a 2024 Ginter jersey, my 16th such card of the future HOFer. A beauty of a jersey/auto of '24 Tigers bullpen ace Tyler Holton was one of the bigger surprises of this mailing. Limited to just 25 copies, it comes with a solid signature and cool jersey swatch. And we'll end the baseball content with a non-Tiger: my first auto of former Wolverine Jordan Nwogu. The Canadian Cubs prospect eluded my hits collection up until Doug rectified that, and he becomes baseball hits PC guy #41. Nice!

I took way too long to post this package but it's still not that close to Halloween yet, no matter what that LeVert Hoops card would have you think. Franz had a career best season, albeit one limited a bit by injury. Ex-coach Juwan looks great on a gorgeous '90s SPx design. And LeVert makes a second appearance in the form of the second relic I can claim of him: a jersey inserted into 2020-21 National Treasures.

I didn't time it this way on purpose but this scan ties in well with the recently completed NFL draft. The group includes five '24 rookies, all of whom were difference-makers for Michigan's recent title, plus a base of talented vet Rashan Gary. It looks like I'm shy four more vets (Aidan Hutchinson, Nico Collins, Charles Woodson, and Ty Law) and one RC (Jaylen Harrell) to complete the team set. As always I'm a fan of Score using college action photos for the first-year guys.

Former Pats Ty Law and Josh Uche plus Giant/Raider Ty Wheatley round out the base portion of the football content. Then former TE/WR Devin Funchess double dips with a very, very nice pair of hits. His 2019 Certified auto, numbered to just 30 copies, features a typically eye-pleasing holographic design, and that marks 15 cards I own that include his signature. It's joined by a large jersey swatch from that year's Crown Royale, a decent throwback to the excellent Pacific brand. Funch continues to outpace the other three Devins in my football collection with 35 hits.

Fortunately some of the other teams represented today have been or were at least moderately successful this year because both of the hockey squads underachieved and missed their playoffs. So it goes, but I still enjoy collecting them! First up we have the local pro team, and a mix of recent and older. The big highlights for me are the bookend images here: Pavel Datsyuk and Nick Lidstrom. The 2014-15 Metal card of the former may have been a tough scan but it looks great in-person. And the further we get from Lidstrom's playing days, the more I appreciate the things he did to make the Wings a perennial playoff threat.

Unlike the second Datsyuk above, Lidstrom's second card--also a Fleer brand throwback--scanned very well and the image represents just how nice it looks. Seider's SP Authentic card is a shiny look at the future/present of the Motown blue line. Shanahan's UD insert looks just as pleasing in my hands as it does in 2D on your screen. And Sheppard was a favorite of mine from the Sega EA Sports NHL game days.

In this last Wings scan, Veleno and Yzerman are linked as the latter flipped the former in March in a deal to bring former Detroit goalie (and Doug's fellow 2/14 baby) Petr Mrazek back. Zetterberg was another of those stars the team doesn't seem to be developing much these days, but maybe we'll see more of them again in the future.

Speaking of player development, Doug included a pair of hits of former prospects. Ex-Spartan (barf!) Taro Hirose appears to be with a German team now but he was a decent prospect at one point and good enough to appear on beautiful UD cards like the numbered Black Diamond signature you see above. Meanwhile, Smith, seen on a very nice numbered jersey in the form of a large Red Wings red swatch, was one of the team's two 2016 second-round picks, and he's since bounced around a bit, finally landing in Philly's system.

Lastly, the Michigan Hockey content may not have been abundant, but the quality and a big side of shininess were most definitely there in spades. Just look how that top row trio of Beniers and Connor cards just pops! The numbered Hughes is especially nice right now as he chases a second straight Norris trophy, competing with a guy in the next scan. Hyman scored exactly half of his 54 goals from last season but still had a decent enough year for the Oilers. And Larkin continues to be a good captain for a Wings squad that continues to fail him.

You want more shiny and/or numbered? You've got it! A pair of pretty Pacioretty cards begins tonight's last scan, courtesy of UD's Allure and Ice brands. Trouba's finally away from the Rangers and that's probably the best I can say about his season. Werenski is Wolverine Norris Trophy finalist #2 this year thanks in part to his career highs of 23 goals, 59 assists, and 82 points. And yet another top-notch card of a high-end blueliner will close things out tonight: a numbered Black Diamond of Cam York. My York collection is small but pretty much nothing but bangers thanks to Doug, with pretty much everything being this high quality.

Many thanks to Doug, my favorite Canadian trade partner, who managed to send this and another mailer plus post the first part of the package I recently sent his way before I finally got off my butt to recap this February envelope! I look forward to seeing your follow-up posts as I try to reload for future considerations.

1/3 and 1/31/25 Show Reports: Two-fer '25

Because I attended both January's and February's shows during the first month of this year (as you can see in the title, February's began on 1/31, and I like to go on Fridays), you get a two-fer post tonight!

#1 for the year was Friday, January 3, and my spending sheet says I threw down a year-high $120, which made for a strong start.

First, here's a scan of some pretty nice trade bait:

I've tried to swing back into getting baseball fodder since it seems that's what many folks prefer, but the football stuff just ends up being more plentiful much of the time, both in quantity and quality. The printing plate you see (scanned sideways, for some reason) stars Bears QB bust Mitchell Trubisky, and it hails from 2019 Panini Luminance (well, it was inserted into that year's Plates & Patches, but you know what I mean). I can't remember the exact price but I snagged it for less than $10.

As always, if you see anything you like, just ask and we'll see what we can work out!

As for my keepers,

It doesn't get much better than some "90s inserts rule" goodness! Junior Griffey features on the front of a '96 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle insert, Gwynn looks spiffy on a '97 Skybox E-X2000 base, Maddux is the face of a 2003 Fleer Tradition mini insert, and Pudge is the back half of the catching duo on Pinnacle's '97 Team Pinnacle version. Oh, and Ripken completes the quartet with a new relic card courtesy of '24 Ginter. Sweet!

The well-traveled Burke was a fun throw-in on the basketball side of things, and I'm always up for a cool Donruss numbered parallel, especially the Season Stat Line cards.

And it may not look it, but that '92 Pro Line football card was one of the most significant pickups for me this time. I'll explain why in a moment as we look at some backs.

The Reds' Sanders was a reasonable pick opposite Griffey to rep the NL OF in '95, his lone All-Star campaign. Maddux's Black & White mini card has a nice bonus of being numbered /1936 as a throwback to that year's Goudey design. I don't know why I included the back of Cal's Ginter relic here, but I did. Piazza was a natural counterpart to Rodriguez on the other Team Pinnacle insert.

And then we have my second example of a signature card from 1992 Pro Line Portraits' Autograph sets. OL Greg Skrepenak suited up for the Wolverines before being drafted by the Raiders, and he'd play 68 NFL games over five seasons between them and the Jaguars. His brief career combined with that era of the hobby means his certified auto selection is extremely limited, and this is one I was hot after since it's his only NFL version. I love adding signatures of new players to my collection and was happy for Skrepenak to join the club!

Four weeks later I headed back east down 94 for another Friday show. This time I spent a slightly odd (but even) $76, and I don't recall how I ended up at that number. Despite shelling out less cash, I brought home even MORE trade bait, if fewer PC additions:

Trade bait scan 1 of 2 is just the vertical cards, and most everything here was in the $1-$2 range, I believe.

And the other nine were of the horizontal variety. Lots more football, as you can see (and hopefully I'll get those sent out in TCDb deals at some point) with a pair of baseball relics. Want any? Please ask!

As for my keepers:

We'll start off this small assortment with another "90s inserts rule" reference. I don't know for sure if 1998 was my favorite year for Topps inserts, but after dragging their feet long enough to get way behind the likes of Pacific, Pinnacle, Fleer, and UD, Topps produced some bangers late in the decade. '98's Clout Nine, Focal Point, Mystery Finest, and Clemente Reprints were highlights, and to that group I'd add Hall Bound, a 15-card die-cut set honoring players who were practically shoo-ins for Cooperstown. Of that total, Clemens, McGwire, Bonds, and Juan Gonzalez were the only misses, for obvious reasons. Cal, of course, had no such problems. And here I added the Chrome version of his entry in that beautiful set!

Next I rewound the clock a decade while picking up the Whitaker/Trammell double-play combo in Starting Lineup card form. I've had (open) figure/card pairings of the two (plus Matt Nokes) since the year I turned six and was in retrospect lucky to find them at Meijer or Toys R Us, and now I have the inaugural iteration's cardboard issues. It was great finding them together and I think they were just a buck or two each. Cool!

Lastly, I think I paid about the same amount to add relic cards of a couple more Wolverines that are joining the hits collection tonight. QB Joe Milton III is the guy that transferred to Tennessee after the wacky 2020 "season," and then the hapless Patriots spent a pick on him. He was just flipped to Dallas where he'll try to be Dak's backup, I guess. Meanwhile, NCAA champ WR Roman Wilson joins him, and though his post-college year in football proved to be a bust due to injury, I'm hoping to see him making some plays for the Steelers in a few months.

The three football additions you saw tonight put me at 260 unique subjects in my football hits collection, and that's a number I've proudly increased quite a bit the past few years.

Posting these show pickups lets me put some more cards away and continue to chip at my backlog. Next I plan on showing off my lone February trade package, one that was plenty big enough to get its own month!

2024 August-December card show reports: binging through five shows

Here's a show recap post for my five trips to Taylor in August through December last year because if I do one post for each at this point it may take me until March.

8/2/24:

My purchase-tracking spreadsheet says I dropped $80 at this one, so it was a pretty average show for me price-wise.

First up, some trade bait:

I believe both the A-Rod and Hoffman up top are gone but I think I may have everything else still.

My keepers:

Hooray, a new Granderson! Newer Gwynns are nice but how about some "90s inserts rule!" action for Maddux? Griffey and Ripken complete the quartet. By the way, Bowman's Best's Mirror Image was one of my favorites back then despite the fact that the prospects they featured often didn't work out.

Holo Griffey! A numbered Gwynn! I included the back of the Mirror Image insert plus the numbered Elite Teams insert of the Braves, who definitely lived up to that description. Speaking of the Bowman's Best card, this one was quite good as obviously Maddux and Moose are HOFers, but Colon also had a very nice career, and Wright even managed to last for 19 seasons!

Basketball ended up being the story of the day with a couple of the biggest cards of the haul hailing from that sport: an autograph of Caleb Houstan (my second), the guy who plays for Ann Arbor South (Orlando), plus a nice Lakers swatch of his teammate Mo Wagner (hit #4).

Football didn't get shut out, though, as I came home with both a numbered rookie-year Griese from SPx plus a new Funchess jersey relic (hit #32 for him).

9/6/24:

For September's show it looks like I upped my total spending to an even $100, and a good chunk of that must have gone towards items for trade packages based on what I have scanned to show here. That works for me, though, as I love using these shows as a source of cards to send out to my favorite trading buds.

As for cards that weren't ticketed for specific folks, here's what I grabbed:

What can I say? I'm a sucker for autographed manupatches, and I think those signed metal cards are too cool. I probably only spent a couple bucks on each of these anyway, and hopefully they'll find a good home before long, but I don't think I've had any bites for them on TCDb just yet.

My keepers:

It's always great when I can add rarer cards like Artist's Proofs to my PCs, including Palmer's. Pudge shares his '93 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle insert with another excellent if not HOF backstop, Darren Daulton. And I'm sorry that Gwynn's the one to get covered by the peel's sticker on '95 Donruss Dominators insert you see above--a favorite of mine, by the way--but I got this one to pair with a copy that I do have peeled, so now I have one of each to enjoy.

I scored a few more basketball items this time, and THJ was the highlight as I found three new cards for his collection, including a Panini Prizm auto that represents my sixth signature and 13th overall hit of the ex-Wolverine and current Pistons standout.

The football side of things was very offensive, but only in terms of the positions represented, because I was quite happy with my little haul. The Threads jersey of Braylon gives him 95 total hits, keeping him in 4th behind Henne, Manningham, and Long, though the race to be the second to 100 is anybody's game. I also found my second auto of TE Nick Eubanks on a red parallel of his Contenders Draft issue, and believe it or not, the one I already own isn't from the same product, but an entirely different one!

10/4/24:

October was a bit of an outlier as I spent just $55, but in thinking back to that day and looking over what I have here, I'm pretty sure I recall that being a day where my favorite seller had lowered some of his prices even more so I got a lot of bang for my buck.

The available trade bait:

I'm pretty sure each of the autographs/jerseys was just a buck, plus the numbered inserts and other 90s stuff were just too cool to pass up and try to get into someone else's collection.

Not a ton for me either this time, but a few cool items:

The Maddux, Ripken, and Pudge cards were all fun additions, plus I nabbed my first card of IF prospect Trey Sweeney, one of the guys that came over in the Jack Flaherty deal with the Dodgers. If he can help force Javy Baez off the roster then he'll forever be a legend in my mind. Meanwhile, the Manning ended up being a decent chunk of my purchase price, and if I'm being honest, probably an overpay, but I thought it was a very cool piece with huge swatches, a signature, and numbering to just 10 copies. I don't know what his future is with the Tigers but this is the kind of card I see myself keeping even if he moves on.

RBs Chris Evans and Hassan Haskins stole the show on the gridiron for this month, though defenders Rashan Gary and Chris Wormley also get in on the action with cool numbered cards.

11/1/24:

I spent $105 on this one and didn't come home with any up-for-grabs trade bait, but I believe I did score some nice items for trade and Christmas card packages. But better yet, I had a very nice day bringing home some cool hits for myself, much of which I think was in the $2-$5 range:

A jersey produced by Fleer's Ultra brand becomes relic #18 (and hit #19) for Mad dog. I'm the most excited about the Arrington/Henne dual because it's getting harder to find reasonably priced copies of cards for either that I need, and Henne's one of my favorite PC guys. Arrington gets his 56th hit and Henne keeps a secure grip on the top spot in the sport with his 145th(!).

I landed pairs of autos of the rest of the players. Butt's are from Panini's Absolute and XR, and the Michigan TE who was anything BUT booty cheeks in college jumps up to 13 hits. DT Mo Hurst started his career with Oakland as seen on signature cards from Luminance and Prizm, but he's since moved on to San Fran and then Cleveland. I now own seven hits of his, all signed like these. And lastly, DPJ finally made his hits collection debut with a couple Panini Chronicles autos that were parallels done in the Obsidian design. I believe the Purple is limited to 30 copies and the Orange is /25. While they remind me a bit of many recent Leaf designs, I'm relieved that they weren't made by that execrable manufacturer, and instead I've got two quality college uni cards of one of the most talented wideouts to pass through Ann Arbor recently.

12/6/24:

With the holiday approaching quickly in December I planned on throwing down more cash towards Christmas cards fodder and was quite successful. The $115 I spent was second only to February's $130 cost, and I think the results speak for themselves as you look over the various posts and Tweets mentioning some of the cool stuff I sent out.

Once again, no unassigned trade bait, but some very cool keepers:

My favorite vintage guy was around and I think $15 of my total went to him for this trio of super cool Freehan items. Those include a '65 Topps Hot-Iron Transfers, '70 Topps Super, and '73 Topps Candy Lids. I'm always on the lookout for new Freehan stuff because anything I don't have is something I'll treasure. That made these an exciting purchase for sure!

I believe everything else I got for myself from my favorite seller was from the cheaper boxes, so everything here was probably $1 at most, and more likely $0.25 or $0.50. Once again, the "90s inserts rule!" tag is in full effect, and you have to know I was loving it. Fun insert designs starring three of my favorite 90s heroes always make my day. By the way, I think Freehan and a Pacific card featuring in the same post is very apt since they each remain criminally underappreciated these days.

Well, that's the rest of 2024 in show recaps for me. I believe what's left for me to cover for last year at this point is COMC, eBay, Facebook, and something else really fun that I don't think I've teased yet. Once I can catch up on those I can get to some cool trades I've received this month, January and February's shows (I'm sure I won't have those all done by this Friday), and maybe more timely TCDb trade recaps.

You might even say I still have a whole lot to...show you! (Sorry.)