2019 trade package #1: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

When Doug (of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store) sends me trade packages there are times when he undersells them, promising more in the way of quantity than quality.  While I don't think I can say that's ever been true, I guess it's a matter of perspective.  The one I just received from him the other day was another two-parter, and maybe you've headed over here from the TMV portion starring a bevy of Tigers and Wings.  Lots of quantity there, to be sure, but plenty I liked.

And it's possible that I'm just as pleased with this envelope as usual since the quality was mostly concentrated on the Michigan PCs, which is my preference anyway!  Here's all the great stuff I get to show off this time:

Up first:  basketball, and some recent guys at that.  It sounds a bit funny to refer to Crawford as "recent" but, hey, dude's still playing!  THJ, LeVert, and Sauce Castillo all at least played in Ann Arbor within the past decade.  By the way, all four guys you see above were first round picks.

As was this guy, German star Moe Wagner.  I'm happy to get my first hit of the big man in the form of a jersey from last year's Hoops product in a set called Rise N Shine Memorabilia, a name I know they've used before.  Hopefully he'll be starring for the Lakers before I know it!

The football bunch ended up being a group of nine, perfect for scanning purposes.  Super Bowl-bound QB Tom Brady starts us off on a beautiful 2018 Classics base, one of Panini's best offerings.  2018 champ Brandon Graham is next on a rare base appearance that isn't from his rookie year, and I'm curious to see what his next move is.  Severely underdrafted DL Maurice Hurst follows on a great four-spot:  his 2018 Leaf Draft base and All American insert plus RCs from Panini's Luminance and Rookies and Stars.  I'm loving the focus on college action here.

Then there's a great 2017-18 one-two punch starring Jabrill Peppers:  a rookie year Score Gold Zone parallel (#29/50) plus last year's Donruss Optic.  Doug is now responsible for three excellent Peppers cards from the former, including another parallel plus an autograph!

And then a very cool vintage surprise sews up the gridiron portion:  a 1963 Topps CFL base (in very nice condition!) of QB/RB Bob Ptacek.  After his three-year Michigan career in the late 50s he was drafted by the Browns, spent a year with them, then headed off to six seasons with the pictured Saskatchewan Roughriders.  Doug's gifted me with a few cool CFL issues and this is definitely one of the best!

As usual the hockey portion was the largest, and like the TMV version you'll see a ton of 2009-10 and 18-19 O-Pee-Chee, which I'm definitely down with, especially since I really like the design of the former.  I decided to have fun this time and separate these out in a scan I like to call "Hockey Mikes", the name of one of my favorite tags to use on this blog; I count at least six in my collection and you see four of them here.

And now I may have to create a new tag for "Hockey Andrews" because there's three alone right here (plus one or two "Andy"s not seen here).  Glendening got a double-dip as a Wing and appeared in this evening's other post.  And I'll take hockey John Madden over the Ace/Tinactin guy any day!

The Miller card leading off here was of interest to me because he played for four years in Ann Arbor starting in 2005, so it's possible I saw him play in a few games but can't remember him.  PC favorite Morrison makes another appearance, as does one of many hockey players from my hometown of Livonia, David Moss.  And the UD Nystrom (and its excellent photo) was a nice surprise since he's one of Doug's fellow 2/14 babies.

And here's an excellent pair of hits--the cream of the quality crop--to end things for today.  First up is a sick-nasty patch of Swedish chef Carl Hagelin courtesy of 2012-13 Limited and numbered to just 10.  It's a beautiful patch from a Rangers jersey and a nice upgrade on another Hagelin I believe Doug sent me--a jersey version of the same card.  No surprise there, though, since my Canadian trading buddy has sent me some of my best Hagelins (and hockey hits in general).

#2 is another collection newbie:  C David Wohlberg.  The South Lyon native (a bit north of me here in Ann Arbor) played four seasons for Michigan starting in 2008-09, and while he never made it to the NHL, unlike Miller above I do remember Wohlberg a bit, likely because he put up a nice number of points over his four years.  As always, kudos to Doug for turning up another new Wolverine for my PC, this time in the form of a 2014-15 Upper Deck AHL Box Set auto.

Doug, many thanks for this great start to trading between us in 2019!  I have a few things set aside for you already and will aim for sending something back your way in time for your birthday, especially since I know you have some COMC goodies for me.

2018 trade package #10: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

For the fourth time this year it's time for another outstanding trade package from buddy of the blog Doug, proprietor of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!  We both recently sent bubble mailers across the Detroit River and I was excited to find another Wolverine-infused package in my mailbox this past Monday.  Between what you saw on TMV this evening and what I'm about to show off Doug even managed to hit all four major sports, as he does occasionally.

Here's the goods:

Starting off with a pair of basketballers we have a 2014-15 Hoops Silver parallel (#280/399) of Trey Burke along with 2017-18 Prestige base of THJ.  Hoops is a lot like basketball's version of Score--a simple (occasionally boring but always solid) design that looks nice on a number of parallels.

Football was a fun variety pack that started with two new cards for my Tom Brady PC (now 215 cards strong):  a 2013 Rookies & Stars base and a 2018 Classics Award Winners sticker.  I'm not the type to peel these and put them anywhere (then they wouldn't be mint condition!) but I do like collecting them.

Next up is RC #2 (out of six so far) of big Mo Hurst out of Panini's 2018 Luminance.  The unorthodox font reminds me just a bit of some late 90s Ultra sets.  I love that this one rocks a college action photo of the 2017 season-opening win over Florida.

Last up is one more entry from 2018 Classics:  a base card of future HOF DB Ty Law.  Once again Panini knocked it out of the park in terms of design and--speaking as a totally unbiased collector--player selection!

This pair of football hits got me very excited, especially my very first hit of the aforementioned Hurst, also from this year's Luminance.  His Rookie Ink auto is #208/249 and uses a photo a few frames before or after the one used on his rookie above.  Welcome to the collection as player #214, Mo!

He was joined by a 2013 Rookies & Stars Dress For Success Prime jersey (#09/25) of blog favorite offensive weapon Denard Robinson.  While the swatch is anything but "prime" (I have another one of these and the swatch is pretty much identical) the numbering and player make up for that.

The Michigan Hockey portion was a bit smaller than usual by emphasizing quality over quantity, starting with this trio.  Up top are 2016-17 Parkhurst RCs of a couple recent standouts in Connor and Hyman.  Connor followed up a stellar one-and-done college career with a 31/26/57 sophomore campaign for the Jets while Hyman, a bit of an offensive late-bloomer in college, improved his numbers for the second straight season in his third year, going 15/25/40 for the Leafs.  I look forward to seeing both in the playoffs for years to come!

They're joined by A-A-Ron Palushaj who certainly didn't mess up in appearing on a beautiful 2011-12 Pinnacle RC that's a dufex dream.

That quality carried right on over to the hits.  First is a large jersey swatch of the Swedish Chef of hockey, two-time Cup-winner Carl Hagelin from 2012-13 Limited's Jumbo Materials (#60/99).  That's my ninth hit of Hagelin and a fantastic one featuring an above-average jersey piece from his original team, the Rangers.

And finally, my second favorite card of the package (that Hurst auto, tho) is my fourth hit of Wolverwing wunderkind Dylan Larkin--with 75% of those generously donated to me by Doug.  Considering my collection of the young star is a paltry 13 cards I'm happy to have that many good ones, including this solid jersey swatch from 2017-18 SP Game Used.  Hopefully Detroit shows some faith in him and rewards him with a long term contract this off-season because I can see Larkin paying dividends and then some!

Doug, thanks once again for all this great stuff I'm thrilled to be adding to my Michigan PCs.  Since I just sent you an envelope it's back to the drawing board once more as I try to pile up some 2/14s, Alfredssons, Bills, and more!

2017 trade package #1: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Having shown off some goods over on TMV this evening, let's have a look at even more stuff from Doug at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store in the 42nd(!) package I've posted from him on this here blog:

The basketball contingent starts with this pair of 2013-14 Panini Crusade RCs of recent stars Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr.  THJ went on an absolute tear for Atlanta last Friday, then posted this yesterday:

From one Michigan Alum to another, all I can say is that boy Tom Brady is untouchable!!! #GOBLUE @UMichFootball #RespectGreatness

— Tim Hardaway Jr (@T_HardJR) February 6, 2017

#RespectGreatness indeed.

Joining that pair was this beauty:

This here is a :takes deep breath: Glenn Robinson III 2014-15 Panini National Treasures Air Apparent Jersey Autographs Prime patch auto (#05/25).  This card of the third Glenn Robinson is a triple threat of a very cool signature, ridiculous patch, and low numbering.  GRIII will be in the All-Star slam dunk contest and tweeted the following this morning:

I want to let all my followers know, if you have any ideas💡 for me to do in the Dunk Contest I wanna hear it!! 😳🤔

— Glenn Robinson III (@GRIII) February 7, 2017

Good luck to him!  This amazing patch auto is my fourth Robinson hit ant 69th overall in my basketball collection.

Football was represented too, and it even had a Super Bowl connection:

Repping my vintage football collection is this 1962 Post Cereal CFL of former QB Bob Ptacek.  If you see a CFL-related card in my collection you can put good money on it having come from Doug, who digs up gems like this all the time.  Very cool!  It's been almost four years but I previously posted about Ptacek after picking up his TK Legacy auto.

Moving on to a more recent product, this Devin Funchess 2015 Prestige Draft Picks card will go right into my football inserts PC.  Funch's base card from this set looks pretty nice, but this extra shiny/foil-y insert of the 2015 2nd-rounder is cool too.

Joining those guys is--what's this?  A redemption?  Interesting.  It's from 2007 Playoff Contenders and autographed Rookie Ticket #106 is Alan Br--

ALAN BRANCH KILLS QBs

Uh, I believe that's "Super Bowl champion Alan Branch Kills QBs", friend.  Your friendly (except to QBs) neighborhood NT had a half-sack and recovered a big fumble for the Pats on Sunday while earning his place in NFL history.

This redemption is an interesting one for two reasons; first, Branch never signed his cards so these got returned with a "NO AUTOGRAPH" stamp, like so:

and a replacement.  And second, I'm aware of that because way, way back, like almost 10 years ago, I bought a redemption card just like this one and tried to redeem it.  So I'm really curious to see what happens when I send this card in; will Panini honor it?  And if so, what will I get?  Stay tuned to find out!

Finally, it's hockey time!

More like Hockey Mikes time with more than half of the cards representing Cammalleri and Comrie, including that sweet Invincible card.  Also in the shot are a pair of Jack Johnsons, fellow D-man Jon Merrill, and sharer of Doug's 2/14 birthday Eric Nystrom, a guy I saw a ton of during my season ticket days.  His ability to pull Wolverines from Dollar Store packs and case breaks is unparalleled.

Case in point:  this stunning 2012-13 Dominion Patches Autographs patch auto (#52/60) of Bork himself, 2015-16 Stanley Cup-winner Carl Hagelin.  One Michigan alum patch/auto is great but a pair is just crazy.  I do believe this card, my eighth of the Swede, is my new favorite!

Doug, thanks again for a crazy (or would you be more comfortable with loonie?) good package, not to mention the second one I need to post while I try to figure out what to send back your way.  In the meantime, happy one week until your birthday!

2016 trade package #12: Dollar Store Hockey Mikes Galore (and more!)

If you're over here tonight chances are you already saw half of my haul from the latest package I received from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store over on TMV.  Thanks for heading over to see the Wolverine half!

While the other half was all hockey--all Red Wings in fact--all four major sports are represented here, some more than others.  Nice variety is a hallmark of Doug's packages, though, so I wasn't surprised by that, just happy as usual with some great new additions:

Representing baseball is this Hal Morris that's entirely new to my collection.  That's not too much of a surprise--while I don't dislike '91 Fleer like many others seem to, I simply don't own any complete sets from that year, and it's the kind of card I'm more likely to receive in a trade instead of buying online.  Hence, this worked out perfectly for me.  That's #106 of the guy whose team had won it all the previous year.

Basketball kicks off with a very nice Prestige card of former star Trey Burke, heads back to a pair of sweet Donruss issues of Jamal Crawford and Juwan Howard, then finishes with a trio of C-Webbs.  I really like the look of the Donruss cards thanks to their full-bleed photos, retro-ish elements, and logo stamps.  Then again, I tend to prefer Panini's recent stuff to Topps' these days.

Birthday boy Tom Brady (happy 39, Twelve!) headlines a football trio that includes former #1 Braylon Edwards and a 2008 Score RC of blog favorite Chad Henne.  Hey, Tom's only six years older than I am, that gives me time to win four Super Bowls of my own to tie him!

Hockey continued to be very well represented in this side of the package, naturally, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  Hockey Mike #1 today is Cammalleri, who'll hopefully get back over the 30-goal mark with the Devils this coming season.  Talented C Andrew Cogliano ended his eight-year streak of double-digit goals this year but maybe the new season will bring more success for the Anaheim Duck.  Jack MF Johnson is looking sharp on a nice horizontal card that I didn't have room to scan in that orientation.  Hockey Mike #2 is Knuble, who enjoyed a nice long career and one Cup victory with Detroit.  And Patch brings us back to active players as he jumps his place in line (my fault, see next scan).

I'm not sure how that sticker of Hockey Mike #3, Komisarek, slipped behind the first of three Pacioretty cards, but once I noticed I was too lazy to re-scan.  Oh well!  Trouba is another talented current player looking sharp in his Jets uni.  And we close things out with another blog favorite, Marty Turco, both in Gold Medallion and sticker form.

And now the hockey hits, supplied generously as usual by Doug:

Mike Brown 2014-15 Upper Deck MVP Pro Sign auto

This recent MVP auto of Brown--Hockey Mike #4 today--is my second of the oft-traveled penalty machine.  In this case he doesn't appear with his whimsical mustache, so it's good I have one where he does.  He closed out last year with Montreal, his sixth team, and I'm curious to see what 2016-17 will bring for him.

Carl Hagelin 2013-14 Crown Royale Coat of Arms Materials jersey

And the Bork is back  Here's Hagelin on a Crown Royale relic that honors Pacific designs of yore.  As you might expect I was thrilled to see him win the Cup with the Pens last season after coming over from Anaheim.  He put up some nice numbers in the second half of the regular season, then 16 points (six goals) in the playoffs for the champs.  That makes this a nice time to add my seventh hit of the one of the former crowd favorites at Yost.

Thanks for all the fun new stuff, Doug, and I look forward to sending you an envelope that's already bursting at the seams whenever your mail service gets back to normal!

2016 trade package #9: I Doug these Expo cards from SCFtDS

Buddy of the blog and #1 trade partner Doug from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store was at it again in April, sending me another awesome Wolverines-centric trade package.  Seriously, if you're a college fan and you're not trading with my Canadian neighbor, you're missing out.

I believe some of the cards in this post made their way to me via the yearly Expo Doug so expertly takes advantage of, especially the hockey content.  Here's four sports worth of an Expo explosion of cards!

Baseball is represented today by Abbott and Larkin.  Don't ask me how I didn't have the '91 Donruss Abbott as I really don't know, though I never collected that set otherwise.  The Hometown Heroes card from 2013 is very cool as well, and it makes me long for the days when the Angels simply went by "California."  Bonilla and Larkin make a nice pair of '90 NLCS foes, and of course Barry's team won it all that year.

From Basketball it's another pair of players, in this case NCAA and NBA title-winner Glen Rice plus Chris Webber.  Rice's RC hails from the notable 1990-91 Hoops set, which is about as ubiquitous as any junk wax-era set.  The Classic card Webber appears on is interesting not just because it's a college action card, but because of this:

It's a promo from the 1993 National!  That's one way to one-up the standard promo card.

Michigan is best represented as a football school despite the success of the school's other sports, and here's one of the program's all-time greats, Anthony Carter, on a '91 Score card.  He wasn't the only gridiron alum in the package, though:

Zeno Karcz 1963 Topps CFL

Leave it to Doug to once again hit me up with a CFL card starring a former Wolverine.  It's a bit trick to find much about Karcz, a Toronto native, as it appears he only played one varsity season in Ann Arbor before moving on to junior football and the CFL.  This poorly-spelled CFL profile of Zeno is a bit more informative and lists his stats as a LB and RB, the latter of which is his position of record on the card's back.  Karcz played 10 seasons for the very successful Hamilton Tiger-Cats and won three Grey Cups with that team before returning to his junior team as a coach.  Here he is on a very cool vintage issue courtesy of Topps, who was actually producing CFL sets back then!

Denard Robinson 2013 Panini Contenders auto RC (#206A)

Denard Robinson 2013 Prestige Prestigious Picks Materials Gold jersey (#166/399)

The post's first two hits are both of recent college QB sensation Denard Robinson.  Doug let me know that the Contenders rookie auto was coming because he pulled it himself from a hobby box of that product back in March.  I don't really open boxes and packs like I used to, but if you can't pull a PC player, there's still some excitement in landing a guy someone you trade with collects, so that must have been fun.  As usual, the set's design looks very cool, and I love the signature.

Meanwhile, the Prestige jersey was a nice surprise.  These days sometimes all you get is a plain white jersey swatch smaller than a postage stamp, so I like the above-average Jags teal(?) piece of fabric here.  The scan makes it a bit difficult to tell that this is the gold version, but the rectangle that includes almost all the text and the swatch is that color while the rest of the card is a foily silver.

This pair gives me a very nice total of 24 hits of Shoelace for my football PC, and I can't wait to continue adding to that total. 

And at last we come to the hockey content--and why not, considering the crazy number of players the program has sent to the NHL.  Scan #1 includes five of them:  hockey Mikes Cammalleri and Knuble, talented rookie center Andrew Copp of the Jets, a hat trick of Carl Hagelins (Bork!), and D-man Jack Johnson.  Hagelin's had a nice playoffs for the Penguins, whom I'm sort of reluctantly rooting for with the Wings already out.

And here's five more players:  Johnny Madden, Jeff Norton, Max Pacioretty, blog favorite Marty Turco, and a mini of enforcer Mike Brown (which I opted to include at the end to make the scans look better).  I don't have a ton of cards of Turco with the Hawks since he wasn't with the team very long, so that was a fun addition.  If I can get more bunches of his cards I may scan them all someday.

Chris Brown 2013-14 Panini Prime quad jersey auto RC (#056/199)

And now for the hits, starting with this outstanding quad Coyotes jersey/auto of Flower Mound, Texas' own Chris Brown, which is my eighth hit of the young center.  Now I'm not saying Doug is entirely responsible for my collection of Brown hits, I'm jus--hey wait, he is responsible for all eight of them!  Yep, sometimes it's just not a SCFtDS package without this player.  Here's the trades that contained the other seven:

• May, 2014:  jersey and auto
• August, 2014:  auto
• December, 2014:  plate
• May, 2015:  jersey auto and auto
• January, 2016:  jersey/patch

Nice job, Doug--keep 'em coming, please!

Carl Hagelin 2013-14 Fleer Showcase Uniformity dual jersey (with J.T. Miller)

Hagelin's fourth appearance in today's post is thanks to this dual jersey card from a few years ago, back when he was still with the Rangers.  I don't know much about Miller, who seems to have had a good year for New York, but Carl and his beautiful blue swatch (did you think I was gonna say "eyes"?) are the headliners here.  I now have six hits of the Pens winger.

Jacob Trouba 2013-14 Panini Playbook First Drafts Signatures auto and 2015-16 Upper Deck Game Jerseys jersey (#GJJT1)

I wasn't booing, I was saying "Troooooooubaaaa!"  The talented young defender's prices must have come down a bit because I wasn't within sniffing distance of Trouba's autograph after his top-10 draft selection and jump to the pros.  Thankfully my Canadian buddy/friend/guy sent me my first signature of Trouba along with a new quarter-sized Jets jersey swatch from this year's UD.  I'm thankful for both and definitely glad to have an auto of Trouba while I can; this pair gives me five hits of him.

Marty Turco 2009-10 Between The Pipes Autographs auto

And last but definitely not least, oh hi again, Mr. Turco!  I'm wondering if Doug found one of these for himself since the goalie mask/auto combo is right up his alley.  Fortunately for me, anyway, he sent this one to me, and I'll be happy to admire it for the same reasons.  I'm grateful for the Be-a-Player and In the Game products for giving me plenty of hits to chase of the unsung guys I like to collect, like Turco and his fantastic signature--with jersey number inscription!  Marty leads my hockey PC with 32 hits, and I have a feeling Doug's not done adding to it.

And while we're on the subject of hockey hits, I'm just one card shy of the 200-card milestone.  Do I have anything in-hand to get over that hump?  Stay tuned!

Mr. Corti, thanks again for hitting many of my PCs as you're always able to do.  I don't have much on hand for you right now, but I do have the beginnings of another epic response.  SOON.