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!

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.

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 Facebook Marketplace purchases: a few Facebook finds

As I near the end of my 2024 pickups so I can move on to this year's stuff, here's a quick look at my last three Facebook Marketplace purchases from last year. It's been long enough that I think a few of the items got mixed in with each other, but those details aren't as important as just showing off the goods.

So in mid-August I made two stops in one day, which was pretty cool. Trip #1 was to a garage sale that was thankfully largely inside a garage on a day when it decided to be pretty rainy! I saw an intriguing bunch of sports stuff for sale and made my way over. Here's most of what I picked up for an even $40:

I'm not sure if this matted 12x16 piece was a stadium giveaway or from something else but I thought it looked extremely cool. The top photo includes lots of team greats, all of whom are among my favorites in the history of the franchise, plus it notes the Tigers' four World Series titles to-date. The bottom is made to look like an envelope with a cancelled Tigers stamp, and it celebrates Miggy's 2012/13 consecutive MVP wins. I'll get this framed and put up at some point.

This stained glass piece doesn't specifically say it's Tigers-related but that's the feeling it gives me anyway. It was just $0.50 and I ended up sending it to Paul.

Y'all know I trade with at least one Blue Jays fan so I spent $3 on this baggie full of Toronto postcards. I still have a ton left with larger quantities of Juan Guzman and Pat Hentgen, slightly fewer of Ed Sprague and Devon White, and a smaller stack of Al Leiters. If anyone would like one or more of these please let me know and I'll see what I can do

Here's the first of a few boxes of cards. There was easily more than $2 worth of '24 Heritage in this box and I've already put some of them to use in trades. I kept a couple for myself and still have over 100 of them available to help anyone who can use them (but no SPs).

This was a fun box to flip through since I love Sportflics! I don't think there were any I needed in the box, but for $3 I got some cards from the first four years of that product to include in trade packages.

This $2 box of '94 Stadium Club ended up being a bit of a bust since the vast majority were in bad condition (foil issues), which is a shame since there was a good number of the Golden Rainbow parallels to be found. I may separate the few good ones out but otherwise don't mind taking the loss of $2.

Once again I'd argue that I got more than $7 worth here. There were plenty of dupes but since these were new enough at the time I threw them up on TCDb where they remain available, and I'm sure I've used some in deals already. If you can use some non-SP base help, I have almost 400 total cards up for grabs.

And last but not least, the lone single I grabbed was this cool 2022 Absolute dual jersey of Mize and Skubal numbered /99. I think the cost was a bit more than $10 but I didn't hate the overpay, even for a relic, because I'm enjoying getting nicer stuff of Skubal, plus the swatches aren't your usual plain white napkins.

With that sale in my rear-view mirror I once again headed in the direction of Brighton to buy a four-row box of cards from the same guy that sold me this shoebox back in April. I talked him down to $60 for the box and happily flipped through it once I got home.

It's entirely possible that there were some keepers in here for me that mixed in with the images for the last purchase below, but either way, once again I easily got my money's worth in entertainment and trade bait. These were pretty much all baseball and football--my bread & butter--and were mainly from the past few years, filling in some holes in my trade bait.

I don't have anything specific to show off at this point but anything I didn't keep for myself or send out in a trade package likely ended up on my TCDb tradelist.

Finally, early in September I noted a guy selling some cards that lives not too far from my mom's place, and for the initial asking price he was offering a bunch of prospect autographs (generally busts from the 90s-2010s), so we made a plan to meet up at his house to look things over.

He ended up being very fair to work with and in the end I bought home this stuff for $120:

Quite a few of these cards were either autographs (as mentioned) or bulk RCs, though like I said, many were scrubs at this point. But for the cost of one or two of my show trips I got a lot of value!

Here's how things shook out in terms of baseball. The first row and a half are prospects, especially 2000s Bowman/Chrome and Topps Traded, plus Bowman Sterling and others. The rest of row 2 plus row 3 are generally other base, some in decently sized groups. Row 4 I believe is all inserts, with a big, big portion being Bowman Gold parallels, but there were some other fun ones as well. And everything in the last row is an autograph or jersey, with more of the former than the latter.

A chunk of these went out in trade packages and I think I traded a few on TCDb as well, but I still have a good amount on that site's tradelist. I'd say the most "significant" card I pulled was this one:

It's been a while since Castillo could be considered a prospect, but an autograph #d /5 isn't something you pull out of a bulk box every day!

Here's a look at the football stuff (with a stray hockey card or two):

These are broken down in rows as following: base RCs, 90s base (mostly Stadium Club and Zenith from 1997, I think), inserts (lots of parallels!), and hits. The group of autos was smaller but still quite useful to me.

And here are the singles I ended up keeping for myself, again with the caveat that I might have mixed in pickups from purchase number 2 above:

Lots of shininess and big names! I especially love the 90s stuff like the Press Proof of Fielder and the Griffeys.

More shiny, numbered, and big PC guys. The Refractor theme was strong in this box and I loved it.

A few more baseball including Two Many Verlanders and a HOF battery of horizontals.

1997 Zenith treated me very well in terms of needed Wolverines but I was surprised by how many nice Brady cards were available too.

Both '97 Zenith and Stadium Club look fantastic, and that A-Train insert (#d /1000 on the back) was the cherry on top.

Obviously Facebook can be very hit or miss when it comes to card deals (or anything else, really), but that makes me appreciate these successes even more. I'll be back at it this year seeing what I can score on the site in between shows, eBay purchases, and blogger & TCDb trades.

But before I get to the new year's collecting, I need to recap my 2024 COMC Black Friday pickups. Stay tuned for those!

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.)

7/5/24 card show report: Bought on the 5th of July

I was able to convince myself to spend a bit putting together a post this evening because I knew there wasn't a ton I had to show off. Tonight you get to see my pickups from July's monthly card show.

This was the usual one in Taylor and I headed over the day after the Fourth to celebrate my freedom the American way: buying stuff! My spending sheet says I threw down $70 at this show and that's as detailed as I'm going to be able to be here, but that's ok: I have a few scans for y'all to enjoy:

We'll start as usual with the trade bait portion. I'm pretty sure the Sowers jersey was a buck because I tend to ignore relics like that most of the time. Sabathia is a 2020 Topps Tribute Green triple jersey and numbered /99, and I'd bet that came out of the $5 (or 5/$20) box. If you're surprised to see a Raptors jersey up for grabs, know that it's because I accidentally bought two, but did make sure to send one across the border. As for the football items, the Shaq Evans auto (2014 Rookies & Stars) and Cadillac Williams jersey (2010 Elite, #d /299) were likely also in the $1-$2 range.

Please claim 'em if you want 'em! I might be a bit pickier in what I want for the Sabathia but we'll see.

And now on to my keepers:

First we have a couple Maddux cards: an insert from my favorite hobby decade, plus a Donruss base from last year. A Prizm of current Tigers hurler Mize is followed up by a franchise great in Morris, also from '23 Donruss, though pictured/listed with Minnesota. A shiny 2002 Donruss Fan Club insert of Ripken finishes off the baseball content.

Moving on to the court (and a team that currently has a brighter season outlook than the football team, unfortunately), THJ got a nice little bump to his collection with a trio of colorful Panini inserts. Houston, who plays in Orlando and not his namesake city, joins Hardaway as one of four Wolverine cagers to appear in this post.

LeVert and Poole--definitely keeping up the shiny/colorful theme, round out the basketball group.

Meanwhile, on the gridiron, transfer RB Charbonnet has been relatively quiet in his sophomore campaign for former Michigan DC Mike Macdonald's Seahawks, but he does have three rushing scores and a TD catch in six games this season as fellow transfer tailback Kenneth Walker III's understudy. Collins was on pace to improve on an impressive 2023 season when he got hurt, and the Texas will surely miss him for the multiple weeks he'll be out, as they did today.

The next two cards form a nice pair as QBs involved with Michigan's most recent national titles. I thought the shiny insert (numbered /500) of Griese, the 1997-98 field general, looked awesome, and Harbaugh, the former UM QB and coach of last season's champs, is also seen on a very cool 90s design with his image and some of the text raised on the insert above. Everything that could fall into place and go right did so in 2023-24 but has since fallen apart this year due to a majority of the coaching staff and a ton of talent leaving. Michigan fans look to be in for some down seasons as new HC Sherrone Moore and his not-ready-for-prime-time assistants try to figure it out, but I'm still basking in that championship and can put up with it.

We'll end things tonight with a pair of talented defenders. Ojabo is an enticing talent if he can stay healthy for a Ravens team known for producing excellent defenses. Here you see him on a Canvas parallel of his '22 Donruss RC. It's hard to tell but it has a bit of a canvas texture to it which is a fun feature. Meanwhile, 2023 Cowboys first-rounder Mazi Smith is in his second season and looking to make a claim for more playing time. I scored my first autograph (or hit of any kind) of the DT in the form of a 2023 Leaf Exotic parallel called "Prismatic Zebra." Leaf gonna Leaf, I guess. It's a Michigan uni-ish card (boo airbrushing) and numbered 9/13, so it's not a bad start to his collection. That makes him member #253 of the football hits collection.

That takes care of this show and I have nothing else from July to post other than one eBay purchase and possibly some TCDb deals, though I'll be grouping those into other posts when I'm caught up on everything else. That means the next time I post you'll probably be getting a look at one of four trade packages that were delivered to me in August, most of which were absolute doozies.

Until then, I hate the Yankees and Michigan State and hope to see both lose one or more upcoming games.

5/3 and 5/11/24 show reports: May the shows be with you

This past May was another two-show month for me--technically three if you count the first day of the June Taylor show being on Friday, the 31st of the year's fifth month.

First, as usual, I headed east to Taylor and dropped $80 mostly on some nice trade bait for packages that have since been sent out. I did snag a small handful to offer up here:

I'm pretty sure both jerseys were a buck and I'm relatively short on baseball trade bait compared to football, so I thought the jerseys repping the Texas teams were worth it. Claim 'em in the comments if you want 'em!

And now here are my May Taylor keepers, largely from the cheapo boxes like I like them:

Nothing crazy, just some of my usual favorites. Cronenworth is a natural when it comes to blue inserts. I was happy to find a high-end Larkin base for what I believe was either a quarter or a time. Three new Maddux cards? Not too shabby! A pair of fellow HOF pitcher Jack Morris was a nice find. And lastly there's one of two Ripkens I dug out this time.

That '96 Score Ripken you see above is specially numbered "2131" and had been on my wantlist for quite a while so I was happy to come up with it. A trio of Pudge closes out the baseball stuff.

When it comes to collecting basketball-playing Kobes, Bufkin's definitely my guy, and the lone basketball entrant here. But I did find a cool trio of non-UCLA cards of transfer RB Zach Charbonnet, including my first relic of him, making him member #252 of the football collection.

Here's some great looking football inserts including one of recent alum Ronnie Bell along with cool QB chase cards of Elvis Grbac and Jim Harbaugh. The former gets the Dufex treatment while the latter feels more like a Donruss insert to me than Pinnacle, though it looks great either way.

And here's the last of the football including dumbass LT Taylor Lewan and talented d-man Kwity Paye on parallels, a couple Absolute Retail RCs, and two more of GOAT DB Charles Woodson.

That was it for Taylor but I wasn't done for the month just yet!

Eight days later I made the 90-ish minute drive west to Kalamazoo so I could meet up with some great hobby friends. I knew Jeff and Kevin (Sluggo) would be at that big show selling, plus Jason from TCDb and John planned on attending as well. I got there in the early afternoon and met up with the Sluggo's guys, catching up with them first. Jason appeared a little later, and then John. As always it was great to catch up with everyone.

Here's a pic John got of the two of us, and clearly only one of us knows where to look when taking a picture. Anyway, I spent a total of $100 at this show between four or five sellers, I believe. Kevin gave me another outstanding deal and I snagged some quality stuff from a few others I may look for again the next time I head that way.

Once again most of my purchases were destined for mailers, but my combined haul looked like this:

Give me new Gwynns any day, horizontal or vertical. Haskins was let go by the Titans but just joined the Chargers and reunited with coach Jim Harbaugh. Higdon was another successful college back, just not in the NFL. Ruiz is one of a few recent talented centers the program has produced. And I found what ended up being my fifth auto of DB David Long Jr. (not to be confused with the LB from WVU) who was released by the Giants and doesn't appear to have joined their practice squad or another team just yet.

I also found this nice little six pack of Michigan Hockey guys in a dime box, of all things, which was a surprise given the star power here. Beniers just got paid big time by the Kraken and Fantilli, as I've mentioned a couple times, won the Hobey Baker after an outstanding '22-'23 campaign.

Many thanks again to Jeff and Kevin plus Jason and John for another quality show meet-up, and I hope we get to do it again soon, though not in September as that conflicts with Michigan Football's big matchup with Texas.

In the meantime I'll continue to play catchup as I now get to move on to June with still a TON of great pickups to cover.