2018 trade package #15: the Collector

I got a very nice surprise in my mailbox last week when I went through my mail and came up with an unexpected PWE from Chris, a.k.a. "The Collector" (though I'll probably always associate him with his original name, "The Pedestrian Collector").  I've swapped cards with him a number of times and always enjoy doing so, plus it doesn't hurt that I love that something I sent his way made it into his blog banner! (that Mo Vaughn Starting Lineup up front.)

Chris even bucked tradition by sending me an all-Michigan trade package for the first time.  I previously received a nice group of Wolverines football and hockey stuff from him as part of a larger bunch of cards way back in February of 2017, but this time it's 100% alma mater matters, baby!

Here's what he sent along this time:

1988 Big Ten Player of the Year Gary Grant kicks things off with a '93-'94 Topps Gold parallel.  His four years in Ann Arbor led to a nice 13-year pro career.

Next up is a great pair from the basketball version of probably my favorite Fleer product, the '97-'98 flagship set.  Fab-Fiver Juwan Howard is surely well known by anyone reading this, and Terry "Sugar" Mills was a fun guy to watch during his six seasons with the Pistons (way back when I paid attention to basketball).

Last up is Howard's old teammate Jalen Rose on a college photo card from Classic's 1994 Four Sport product.  His Michigan uniform presages good things ahead.

Namely the five such cards in this football bunch, meaning 6/11 cards in this envelope fell into that category.  Extra credit to Chris!

Up top we have a trio of football alumni from last year's typically solid Score product, including RCs of draftees DL Taco Charlton and WR Jehu Chesson, plus a base of WR Devin Funchess, who I bet would be fun to watch if he had a consistently good QB throwing to him.

Joining those is a trio of cards from college-focused sets.  Chris sent over the base and Gold parallels of DL Mo Hurst from this year's Leaf Draft, and that's fantastic since Hurst is the only Wolverine in the product and I didn't feel like chasing the set this year.  They look great alongside a '95 Classic Five Sport of all-time great CB Ty Law.  These look so good to a college collector like me that I chased a number of similar products in my latest Sportlots haul.

Closing things out today is one more recent guy in PC guy Denard Robinson.  Card #91 in his collection is an interesting insert from 2013 Prestige called NFL Passport.  I'm actually familiar with the set because I have the autographed version of this card, though oddly enough that one is oriented in vertical fashion:

Thanks again for the surprise PWE, Chris!  I'm happy to be able to send something back your way soon, possibly in time for Christmas.  For now I suppose you can continue to bask in the glow of yet another World Series victory!

2015 trade package #18: breaking good: another great envelope from My Cardboard Mistress

It's been a bit more than a year since I had a trade package from Adam from My Cardboard Mistress to show off, but I'm not complaining--Spankee always makes it worth the wait!  Late last June he dropped some nice Wolverines on me, and now he's back for more!

The basketball portion included this quartet of cards with the clear highlight being the Goodwin pairing Tim Hardaway and THJ, though I'd call Jamal Crawford's photo a close second.

Jalen Rose makes a second appearance here in the form of this very purple Raptors relic from 2004-05 SP Game Used.  Nice!

Moving on to football, I thought I'd kick things off (pun unintended, please continue to ignore it) with this lucky 7-spot of Tom Bradys.  The reigning Super Bowl MVP is very well-represented, especially with that 2008 Score Gold Zone parallel, which is numbered 307/400.

Lots of my favorite players here, and lots of Michigan unis too!  The Arrington, Hart, and Henne from 2008 UD Draft Edition are all RCs as is Chad's 2008 Score.  Hart gets double-featured thanks to an insert I hadn't seen from the former, and I'd say "College Great" sums up Hart's Michigan career.  A couple other Henne base cards precede a winged-helmeted Kevin Koger from a Leaf set.

Three more players to show off here.  Manningham is present on a Topps Magic Mini along with a 2008 Score insert of Super Mario; I didn't realize until after I scanned them that Adam sent two of the latter because one of them was the Glossy version, but at least I now know for future reference.  Former double-team magnet Mike Martin hails from the same set as Koger above.  And I got a healthy dose of Denard from this SAGE HIT/Leaf Draft quartet, three cards of which are airbrushed Michigan Unis.

The final entry in the football portion is this simple but elegant Henne jersey from 2008 Topps.  Designing a card like this doesn't always work, but I like how Topps took their basic 2008 design and added the relic swatch, even if it takes a large bit out of his torso.

Thanks again for some great cards, Adam!  Here's hoping that my Wolverines and your Hokies make some big strides this season back to the levels of success we're both used to.

By the way, readers, please check out the Tigers stuff Adam sent me over on TMV tonight.  Oh, and because this is a My Cardboard Mistress trade, I bet he'd appreciate it if I reminded you all to

2015 trade package #17: high-end Wolverines from the Great COMC Hall of Fame

COMC flipping guru Tim from the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame recently sent me another nice haul of Wolverines as part of our ongoing trade.  He's really scored some nice stuff for me in exchange for some eBay pickups and a few things from COMC as well, and this package, a nine-spot was no exception:

Glen Rice 2011-12 Limited Trophy Case Signatures auto (#30/49)

This spiffy Rice card is my third signature of him out of three hits, and Tim also managed to land me one of the others recently.  The artistic look of the black/white design combines well with Glen's excellent penmanship.  By the way, the trophy in question here is Glen winning the 1994-95 All-Star three-pointer contest over Reggie Miller.

Glenn Robinson III 2014 Panini National Convention Rookie Materials jersey

Next in the package is this cool jersey relic that was part of a Panini National Convention wrapper redemption program last year.  What's really cool is that it's very obvious what part of the combine jersey the swatch came from.  It'll go nicely with the GRIII autograph Doug sent me last December!

Jalen Rose 2004-05 SP Authentic Signatures auto

Jalen Rose 2004-05 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics jersey

Jalen Rose 2004-05 Sweet Shot Swatches jersey

Tim then went on a mini run on Jalen Rose with these three 2004-05 Upper Deck cards, all of which feature the current ESPN analyst as a member of the Raptors.  Up top is my first Jalen signature on a typically solid SP Authentic design, while the other two are jersey swatches in purple and...dark purple?  I can't tell, but both look great, and this trio bumps me up to four hits of Jalen in the basketball collection, which has grown quite a bit in the last few weeks!

Jake Long 2008 Absolute Memorabilia Rookie Premiere Materials Oversize Jersey Number Prime dual patch football (#03/10)

Jake Long 2008 Upper Deck Draft Edition Autographs Gold auto (#07/25)

And now we head off to the gridiron, and in a high-end kind of way--the combined numbering for this pair of Jake Longs is just 35!  First up is a beautiful double-patch/football relic from 2008 Absolute numbered to just 10.  Those patch pieces, especially the four-colored one on the right, are so sick I can only assume their parents declined to immunize them because Jenny McCarthy said they'd catch autism.  I now have seven of Jake's cards from that product in my football collection and none of them can touch the prime-ness of this one!

Also, for you Michigan uniform lovers like Jeff and me, take a gander at that UD Draft Edition auto of old #77 in the maize and blue.  I was worried Tim had sent me a dupe (I have this version already) but then noticed the numbering between the signature area and Michigan logo which makes it the Gold version numbered to just 25!  The former #1 overall pick may not have a team for next season just yet, but until he does I'm still happy to acquire stuff like this that brings back great memories of his days at the Big House.

By the way, these represent a bit of a milestone as Jake is just the second member of my football PC to hit the 70-card mark, right on the nose in this case.  He's still seven short of leader Chad Henne (who has more stuff from COMC incoming!) but has a large 11-card lead over third place holder Braylon Edwards.

Mario Manningham 2008 SPx Rookie Materials NFL Letters Dual Patch 50 dual patch (#22/50)

Mario Manningham 2008 SPx Winning Materials Football Shape 39 jersey (#09/39)

Two Manninghams does not equal too many Manninghams, so keep sending them my way, guys, like Tim did here with a pair of 2008 SPx cards.  Keeping up the high-end theme, first up is a dual patch card, the "NFL" version numbered to 50, which includes some nice stitching on the "L."  That's followed up by a single relic "Football Shape" version numbered to just 39, and that includes a beautiful blue swatch of a Giants jersey.  As I've said before, UD made a bunch of different versions of these Rookie Materials and Winning Materials cards with various names, shapes, and numbering, so it sometimes takes a bit to sort them out--I now have five of Manningham alone and I'm still working on getting them all named correctly to alleviate future issues.  Speaking of numbers, I now own 54 hits of the fifth in a group of five football collection subjects over the 50-card mark.

Thanks again for another top-notch package, Tim, and I look forward to sending your spoils out next week after seeing if I can bolster some recent pickups with one more shot at a show!

This Week on MSO-Wolverines

It’s been awhile but I started posting on MSO – Wolverines again so I’ll try to post these on Sunday here as well.  Here’s what was posted last week.

Robert “Tractor” Traylor

Jimmy King

Rickey Green

Chris Webber

Jalen Rose

Nik Stauskas

Glenn Robinson III

Mitch McGary

Zach Nagelvoort

Raymon Taylor

 

As you can tell, most of those were saved from the week that the NBA and NHL drafted.  I said I hadn’t been blogging, not that I haven’t been saving stuff to post.  I may eventually get caught up and post newer stuff.

This Week on MSO-Wolverines

It’s Sunday, time to recap the pictures that I post on My Sports Obsession – Wolverines blog.

After clinching at least a tie for the Big Ten Championship yesterday, it worked out that this post is basketball heavy.  Now let’s cheer for 2 more wins to clinch an outright championship instead of a shared one.  Not to mention, who the hell wants to lose.

Michigan takes down little brother again.

Vintage T-shirt

Trey Burke – Skills champ

Tim Hardaway jr.

Gerald Ford (1934)

Highlights from Michigan’s loss to Wisconsin

Meryl Davis and Charlie White

Trey Burke

Olympic Sprinter Ed Tolan (1929)

Trey Burke

Alley-Oop to Glen Robinson III

Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose and Chris Webber

Glenn Robinson III portrait designed with the lyrics to Hail to the Victors

If you had trouble loading all these pics, you can also view them at My Sports Obsession – Wolverines, be sure to follow us on Facebook as well so you can share your love for the Wolverines with all your friends.  I’ll be back next Sunday.