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!

2017 trade package #9: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Well, that didn't go as well as I'd hoped, but Wisconsin earned their win and I hope they can continue their run to the playoff.

Win or lose, I mostly enjoyed watching the game, which Fox generously interspersed into three hours of commercials.  Since I can't honor a victory for my team, I'll instead celebrate the trademark outstanding effort of Doug from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store and his latest trade package (#47 on this here blog!), a 100% Wolverine special:

Starting things off with basketball, here's the captain of the '89 NCAA champs, Glen Rice, on a super thick numbered base card from 2011-12 UD Exquisite.  I love this image, which appears on other cards I own as well as a commemorative newspaper poster.

And a pair of hits of much more recent Wolverines.  On the left is THC enthusiast Mitch McGary on a 2014-15 Select Rookie Signatures auto (#172/275), a card which has a design that reminds me a lot of Prizm.  That's my fifth hit of the big man and second with an auto.

The other is an enormous jersey swatch from the same year's Court Kings product out of a relic set called Art Nouveau Jerseys.  The subject of this one is none other than Canadian SG Nik Stauskas, a.k.a. Sauce Castillo!  A current 76er, he's seen here with the team that drafted him--the Kings--on a card numbered 077/299.  My first non-plate hit of the Canuck came straight from the source.

Now we'll look at a quick four-spot of football.  The top pair of NFLers, Tom Brady and Devin Funchess, come from a typically solid Donruss set from this year.  Speaking of Funch, check out this great story of how he fulfilled a promise to score a TD (he actually picked up a pair) for the mother of a young solider killed in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the two Michigan uni cards are two very useful additions to my football RC project.  As you can see, both hail from this year's Panini Prestige product, one you can usually count on for great college photos, and they include Broncos TE Jake Butt and Seahawks WR Amara Darboh, two of Michigan's best receiving weapons last year.  That's my second RC of Butt (the other is from Score, also thanks to Doug) and first of Darboh.

And now for the main event:  hockey, naturally!  This group begins with a trio representing one of several hockey Mikes, in this case Cammalleri, who we'll see again in a bit.  Next is the Ducks' Andrew Cogliano with his original team, Edmonton.  He's followed by what I believe is my first card of Kyle Connor, an absolute sniper in his one year in Ann Arbor, who's one of several former Wolverines working for the Jets.  One of those teammates is Andrew Copp, seen on a pair of UD issues.  Wolverwing Luke Glendening and multi-Cup-winner with the Pens Carl Hagelin round out the scan on cards from the same OPC set as the Connor.

This group begins with a four-card Jack "MF" Johnson party, picturing him with his current team--Columbus--as well as L.A., with whom he made his NHL debut after Carolina drafted him.  Next is a very shiny UD issue of a former Wolverwing (and hockey Mike), Mike Knuble.  Next is a guy who didn't become a future star but has turned in a decent journeyman career:  goalie Al Montoya.  Blog favorite Brendan Morrison makes the cut once again in a SCFtDS package, which is always appreciated.  Ending this scan are David Moss--a guy I saw lots of during my school years in Ann Arbor--and another guy who enjoyed a pretty nice long pro career, defenseman Jeff Norton.

Not only did Doug send me a CanCon guy in Stauskas above, he also included a 2/14 collection player in Eric Nystrom to start of this scan.  He's joined by a pair of Paciorettys, including a die-cut UD card.  Young D-man Jacob Trouba rounds out the Wolverpeg Jets (eh, it's a work in progress) trio with a pair.  And finally, Doug went extra generous here by including a pair of cards of another uber-talented young star, Zach Werenski.  Another Wolverine exiled to Columbus, he put up a nice pair of seasons in Ann Arbor and has been pretty good for the Blue Jackets in one-plus years of pro play.

And if that wasn't generous enough, how about five new cards of Wolverwing star forward Dylan Larkin?  Without actually checking I'm going to bet that this almost doubles my count of Larkin base and inserts, again most of which likely came from across the border.  Awesome!  I may just have to give Dylan his own PC album if I can keep getting cards of him like this.

My pair of hockey hits today begins with this exceptionally cool die-cut dual jersey/auto of Chris Brown, the pride of Flower Mound, Texas.  It's a bit hard to show in the scan, but the die-cutting is done above the top of the jersey image to give it the feel of a hockey sweater.  My ninth hit of brown comes from a word salad of a set called 2013-14 Panini Titanium Home Sweaters Memorabilia Autographs Prime and is numbered 13/25 (almost a Christmas card!).

And the other hit Doug sent carries the name of one of Upper Deck's most iconic autographed offerings.  From 2006-07 SP Authentic, this is a Chirography auto of Cammalleri, a two-time King who was actually with that team for his second stint this season before being sent to Edmonton just a few days ago!  I now own 14 hits of the sniping FW, half of which carry signatures like this one.

Well that was definitely a fun package to sort through and post, especially after being a bit down about the football team's play yesterday.  Thanks again for the usual above-and-beyond effort, Doug (and for being responsible for the last four packages I've shown off here!).  I'm continuing to work on my response so you can have a merry cardmas!

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.

2016 trade package #1: happy blue year from Doug

Before this month Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store had never sent me my first trade package of the year.  Of course, after he closed out 2015 by sending me four envelopes in a row from August to September and six of the final nine I received, I don't think I should be shocked.  I mean, we've been trading since December of 2012 and this is the 35th time I've posted cards from him, meaning he averages about an envelope per month, so he's truly earned the title of my most prolific trade partner.

I showed off some Tigers and Wings from him over on TMV this evening, and now I've got some Wolverines to up the ante (and prove how hard Doug works towards finding things specific to your PCs):

This Purple Prizm parallel from last year's Prizm product is the lone football entrant, and along with the Anibal Sanchez from my TMV post, I think the theme of the envelope may have been "Purple Rain."  I'll happily take anything new of the retiring all-time great, whose collection I plan to scan and post very soon!

The obligatory hockey content starts off with four hockey Mike cards:  Cammalleri, a pair of Comries, and Komisarek.  Those guys bookend newly-minted Penguin Carl Hagelin and a pair of Jack Johnsons--lots of red, white, and blue in those images!  Wrapping things up are blog favorite Brendan Morrison (and another patriotic uniform) and another Michigan hockey Mike--Modano is a native of the state--who shares his card with another blog favorite, goalie Marty Turco.

And now for hitsville, U.S.A.:

Chris Brown 2013-14 Artifacts Jerseys Patch Emerald patch-jersey (#36/75)

The pride of Flower Mound, Texas, Brown has bounced between the Caps and the AHL's Hershey Bears the last few years, but boy was he fun to watch for his three years in Ann Arbor.  Here he is on a jersey/patch combo (which seems like an uncommon duo to me), including a very nice dual-colored patch.  Brown has sneakily found his way to seven hits in my hockey PC.

Jon Merrill 2013-14 Dominion Patches Autographs patch auto (#57/99)

Brown's teammate for two years, Merrill found his way to the Devils in 2013 and hasn't looked back.  This beautiful patch/auto combo gives me four Merrill hits, all featuring signatures, and three including at least one relic--and I think more than one of those others came from Doug as well!  Here's hoping that Jon and fellow Wolverine Mike Cammalleri put up some big numbers in New Jersey this season.

Marty Turco 2010-11 Donruss Boys of Winter Threads Prime patch (#060/100)

And finally, Doug gives me a fantastic way to close things out with this beautiful Donruss hit, my first patch of Michigan goalie legend Marty Turco.  The white/green combo makes me think it's probably from a Stars jersey (his final season in Dallas came the year before), and what a nice patch it is with lots of stitching to make it stand out.  I really enjoy this colorful, horizontal design and I'm happily adding this as my 31st hit of Turco, who continues to lead the hockey collection.

Doug, I'd like to thank you once again for some great cards that hit a bunch of my PCs (not that I'd expect anything less at this point!).  I've got a few things set aside for you and I might just be hitting you back before you know it.

2015 trade package #14: going BuckStore wild on a Saturday night

If you're reading this post there's a good chance you've read the companion post I put up on TMV this evening that includes the other cards in this package (plus an explanation of why I'm posting later on a Saturday Night).  And if you didn't, welcome anyway!

I'm back once again with a new trade package from ::flips a coin:: Bob Walk the Plank  Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!  Everyone's favorite Canuck that spends a buck put together another work of art, so let's get down to business:

The basketball portion included THJ and a trio of Jamal Crawford issues, all of which look quite nice.  The top two are both from 2014-15 Prestige, the X-Fractor like card from 2014-15 Select, and the last is a Refractor (#d 12/99) from 2007-08 Topps Letterman.  It's still unreal to me how long Crawford has been in the league!

One of the two football cards I scored this time was Tom Brady's base from 2014 Topps Mini.  The card's size is as diminutive as the effect over- or underinflation of footballs has on the game, and if you're one of those that thinks his legacy has been "tarnished," well, I'll just sit here and laugh at your ignorance, my friend.  As an odd coincidence, the card pictures Tom Terrific facing the Colts!

Braylon Edwards 2007 Donruss Threads Silver Holofoil (#066/100)

Meanwhile, the other is this shiny new addition to my football inserts collection, and is a reminder of happier days when Bray-Bray was still in the league and too busy to make stupid comments about the state of Michigan's football team!

And here's where it gets real exciting:  the hockey stuff:

I scanned these alphabetically but I would have put Berenzweig's card first regardless; as far as I can tell this is my first issue of defenseman Andrew "Bubba" Berenzweig, who put up 81 points for the Maize and Blue between 1995 and 1999 and was part of two title-winning teams.  He was a fifth-round pick of the Isles and never got much more than a cup of coffee in the league, but his name and legend live on!  On this Score Select card from '94-'95 he's depicted as part of Team USA for that year's Mexico Cup, and better yet, the back notes his decision to attend Michigan.

Bubba's joined by numbered inserts of fellow D-men Jeff Jillson (#28/50) and Mike Komisarek (#085/100) and base cards of Brendan Morrison, A-A-Ron Palushaj, and Jeff Tambellini.

And then there's the big hits:

Chris Brown 2013-14 Dominion jersey auto RC (#136/299) and 2013-14 Panini Titanium Titanium Reserve Autographs auto

Chris "Deep in the Heart of Texas" Brown gets double-billing with a couple Panini issues from a year or two ago.  The first is autographed relic #1 for me and it also happens to be a very nice (and very thick) RC while the other is my third autograph.  All told I have six hits of Brown, and I believe I owe Doug some thanks for just about all of them!

Aaron Palushaj 2011-12 Panini Rookie Anthology dual jersey auto RC (#228/499)

Speaking of guys whose collections have been bolstered by Mr. Corti, I landed this gorgeous Panini RC of current KHLer A-A-Ron Palushaj, which is enhanced by a couple jersey swatches--including Montreal red (maroon?) plus a very loopy signature.  I can also claim six hits of Palushaj, with several of them coming to me from Canada.

Marty Turco 2003-04 Black Diamond Threads jersey and 2003-04 Private Stock Reserve jersey (#186/700)

I think everyone knows Doug's a big goalie (mask) collector so I really I appreciate when he sends me cards of Michigan's guys, especially my favorite, Marty Turco.  He picked a great pair here with the Pacific card being the clear winner thanks to its multicolored-ness.  Old Marty leads all comers in the hockey collection with 29 hits, 19 of which are relics like these.

Doug, as is always, and I mean always the case, I thank you for all the great stuff you've brought to my collection, and I look forward to sending a thank you package your way soon!