2017 trade package #12: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

It's early Christmas present time here at TMM HQ, and it would have been even sooner if I wasn't so unmotivated to post this month--today's trade package arrived a few weeks ago!  Don't be too shocked that the source, for the 48th time, is from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store.  It's always a blast trading with him because he's one of a few folks that puts so much effort into IDing and sending me Wolverines stuff, like what you see below:

We'll start with this basketball group, which opens with a quartet from 2017-18 Hoops (which looks very Score-like).  Crawford, of course, has seemingly been around forever, and THJ is in his fifth season, but LeVert is just an NBA soph and Wilson was pick #17 earlier this year after a nice couple years as a starter.

Doug then went all vintage on me with a pair of (apparently unrelated) Russells from 1977-78 Topps:  Campy and Cazzie.  While the latter should be pretty well known here as the co-leader in basketball hits in my collection, Campy was also very good for the Maize and Blue.  A native of the state (Pontiac), he was a first-round pick in 1974 and played seven of his nine seasons for Cleveland (and a couple more for the Knicks), making one All-Star appearance in 1979.  I may not collect much basketball but I love vintage cards like this that get me more into Michigan's history in the sport.

Moving on to the gridiron, this Darboh RC from the beautiful 2017 Prestige set is my second such example after Doug sent me one last month.  Michigan dupes never go to waste over here, though, as most head southwest to Jeff!

As usual most of the action in this package comes from the icers as the Canadian sport politely dominated the envelope (but added a friendly "Sore-ey, eh?").  This first scan features seven players including a pair of Hockey Mikes.  One of those is an Upper Deck Ice base from 97-98 starring Mike Knuble, one of my favorite Wolverwings.  Non-football/Ace guy John Madden also appears on a pair of very nice looking base issues from UD Vintage and Pacific Supreme.  And there's a ton more talent to appreciate here.

This scan opens with goalie Al Montoya, a guy who starred while I was a student, then moves on to a couple less heralded guys in Norton and Oliver, the former of whom often makes appearances in Doug's packages thanks to repacks, greatly benefiting my collection.  Patch is a star player who's also seen here often courtesy of the Buck Store guy.  Shields is another goalie I'd like to collect more of especially since he came through the NHL when some pretty cool inserts existed.  Young start Jacob Trouba makes his usual cameo on a pair, and then another former Wolverwing, Aaron Ward, closing things out.

Next, this trio (and another card you'll see in a bit) finally got me to make the effort to scan my entire collection of Turco, my all-time favorite Michigan goalie.  At just 64 it's smaller than most of my other PCs, though larger than my current hockey supercollections (Red Berenson and Shawn Hunwick).  This group is a good example of some nice looking stuff produced by UD, once again making me pine for them as a baseball option once more.

And now we get to the hits, beginning with this 2013-14 Select Prizms auto (#34/99) of Flower Mound, Texas native Chris Brown.  A shiny Refractor-like Prizm parallel with a nice looking signature, it puts my Brown hits count in double-digits at 10, with all or most of those coming by way of Doug!

I'm covering these next two as a pair since they go together for a couple reasons.  For one thing, each is my first hit of the respective player, which is very cool.  But more thematically, Kyle Connor (2016-17 SPx Double XL Materials dual jersey (#142/199)) and Tyler Motte (2016-17 SPx Rookies Red jersey (#012/235)) comprised two-thirds of one of Michigan's most prolific lines in recent memory back in 2015-16.

Connor was a Hobey Baker finalist in his lone Michigan season, putting up a crazy 35/36/71 scoring line.  Motte, meanwhile, busted out in his final season (as a junior) with 32/24/56.  They were joined by J.T. Compher (no hits of him...yet!), another junior that year who paired 16 goals with 47 assists, and I'm sure that latter number wasn't too difficult to pad thanks to his linemates.

So I was thrilled to see this pair in the package.  Connor is yet another talented young Michigan alum starring for the Jets while Motte's seen time a decent amount of ice time for the Hawks the past season and a half.  Adding new players to my collection is nice enough, but the cherry on top is the fact that these guys are rising stars.  Thanks, Doug!

Last alphabetically (but first in my heart!) is Turco again on what might just be my favorite card in the package, a 2013-14 Luxury Suite stick (#122/199).  For one thing I've always thought it was cool that Marty is a player that continues to appear in hockey products despite last playing in the NHL in 2011-12.  I also enjoy this card because I think goalie stick relics are pretty cool.  You can find a decent number of sticks in relic sets in the sport, but if I had to guess, those used by goalies are probably less common since they likely don't break as often.  Either way I'm happy to add this as my 34th hit of the two-time NCAA champ thanks to another generous contribution from Doug.

Once again, Doug, thanks for an extremely productive year of trading in 2017, including this sixth package on this here blog alone!  I hope you enjoy the loot that arrived today while we both load up for another great year in '18!