2017 trade package #4: the (Pedestrian) Collector

I recently received my second trade package courtesy of Chris who runs the (Pedestrian) Collector, and this time I was happy to find some Wolverines to go with the rest of the contents.  If you read my TMV post from this evening you saw that I showed off a pair of cards relevant to that blog, but those make up a tiny fraction of the contents.  In fact, I like to think Chris was doing his best impression of Doug with this package based on the attention to detail he put into finding some Michigan stuff for me (and that's high praise!).

Here's a look at what Chris sent:

The five-card football portion starts with a QB club of three cards.  First is a '98 Topps Chrome of Elvis Grbac, a former Niner/Chief/Raven who had a nice Michigan career from '89-'92.  Next is a nice pair of cards featuring current Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh.  These hail from '95 Playoff Contenders and '97 Finest.  Shiny and higher-end seems to be the theme of the day!

The fourth card represents two of my football collections:  rookies and vintage.  It's an '81 Topps first-year of 17-year Atlanta Falcon T Mike Kenn, one of the school's most successful NFL products.  This one doesn't fit in with the shiny theme but is high quality for sure!

The fifth and final card gets us back on track with the others, and it's also from about the same time period:  a 2001 Topps Chrome base of Tai Streets, a WR who played for the '97 national champs and went on to a brief NFL career with San Fran and Detroit.

Now that's some good football content!  On to hockey:

It's a Mike Comrie hot page!  The first five cards represent the former Michigan C who's pictured with his original team, Edmonton, for whom he skated from 2001-2003.  The former Mr. Hilary Duff appears on cards from

• 2002-03 Pacific Heads Up
• 2002-03 Private Stock Titanium
• 2003-04 Upper Deck High Gloss Parallel (#24/25)
• 2001-02 and 2002-03 Atomic

This is a really nice bunch, especially thanks to the pair of die-cut atomic cards, not to mention the low-numbered UD parallel, which may be my best Comrie that isn't a hit to-date!

Two other players came long for the ride, and one is this '94-'95 Electric Ice parallel of LW (and Kitchener, Ontario native) Cam Stewart's Upper Deck second-year card.  It goes to show that Upper Deck's penchant for quality design goes way back.

Finally, Chris included a pair of cards of blog favorite goalie Marty Turco, both showing him with the Stars, the team that originally drafted him.  These come from 2002-03 Private Stock Titanium and 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee (which was being handled by Upper Deck at the time).  They give me a nice pair of action shots with Turco in both away and home unis.

Once again, thanks a lot for a great package of Wolverines, Chris!  I'll work on sending you a nice response as soon as I can acquire stuff I know you'll like.

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!

2014 trade package #11: June playoffs can only mean one thing

HOCKEY!  What, did you think I meant blah-sketball?

Anyway, can you believe it's been almost three weeks since I've posted a trade package from Doug at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store?!  Well worry not, he's back and better than ever thanks to today's entry into the trade post archives:

We start things off with four players:  hockey Mikes Cammalleri and Comrie, a duet of Andrew Cogliano, and Stanley Cup Finals participant (and goal-scorer!) Carl Hagelin.  The artsy UD Canvas card in the upper-right is my favorite here, although the European card of Comrie is also very cool.

Jack Johnson's Blue Jackets may have bowed out in the first round, but he makes a strong appearance here with six cards, including co-favorites Panini Prizm (love that design) and another gorgeous UD Canvas card.  The lesser known Brad Jones makes another appearance, and Doug may be responsible for every one of his cards in my PC.  College-favorite Jed Ortmeyer also makes a cameo, as does former Wing and multiple Cup-winner Aaron Ward (whose autograph from the same set I'm pursuing).

Closing out today's stellar group of base/inserts is this quartet of my all-time favorite goalie, Marty Turco.  If the fact that Turco, a Wolverine, didn't clue you in that this was a Buckstorecards package, or that it featured this big bunch of mask shots, then both combined made it a dead giveaway.  I loves me some Turco, so I hope he keeps sending them!

Per usual, he threw in some nice hits.  One is an autograph I already have,

...this '05-'06 BAP signature of Mike Comrie with the Coyotes.  I don't have to get rid of it, but if anyone reading this would like to trade me for it, just ask!

One of the new hits for me was this Aaron Palushaj 2011-12 Panini Prime Signatures auto (#87/99), just my second hit of the two-year Wolverine center from my hometown of Livonia, Michigan.  If you ask me, the design and signature live up to the "Prime" moniker very well.

Finally, although he wasn't a Wolverine, this Danny DeKeyser 2013-14 Totally Certified Rookie Roll Call Jerseys Prime Blue patch (#13/50) was so sweet I wanted to show it off here as well as over on TMV.  And Danny isn't exactly irrelevant to this here blog as he played at nearby-ish Western Michigan, one of the Wolverines' former CCHA foes.

Well Doug, you've knocked it out of the park banged it into the back of the net (gotta keep with the hockey theme!) yet again!  Thanks for some excellent cards, and you should now look forward to the next bunch heading your way as soon as I get them ordered!  Readers, this is my 17th trade with Doug since December of 2012, so if you need me to tell you to go check out Sports Cards From the Dollar Store again, you need a Zdeno Chara body check face first into the boards!

2013 trade package #15: SCFtDS sends me a deja Blue trade package

The last trade package you got to see on this here blog, a few weeks ago, came from Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store.

As a change of pace, today's trade package comes from...um...Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store.  I'm pretty sure he hasn't even received the package I sent back his way for the one he sent me earlier and he already sent me ANOTHER one.  Those Canadians sure are friendly, even if they use their "U"s differently than us.  So, onward to this package's loout:

Oh yeah, hockey--I'm pretty sure Doug collects that sport.  Just a few this time, but I already know he has more ready to send me because like 80% of the cards he pulls are Wolverines, making him the best hockey pack buster EVAR.  By the way, a Cammalleri/Pacioretty/Cammalleri line would be pretty badass, no?

He even included a football card of Michigan Football all-time great Charles Woodson, then hit on some of the basketball team's better alumni in Howard, Rice and C-Webb.

And then there was THIS stuff:

Mike Comrie 2001-02 Bowman YoungStars Relics jersey

Hey, it's my first relic of one of Michigan's many hockey Mikes!  Comrie was indeed hot stuff coming out of Michigan in the early aughts, tallying 43 goals and 103 points in a pair of seasons in Ann Arbor before bolting for Edmonton.  Mr. Hilary Duff is now happily retired, and I can claim four hits of him (three autos).

Kevin Porter 2009-10 Upper Deck Trilogy Young Star Scripts auto

Porter is easily one of the best Michigan Hockey alumni I ever got to see in-person in Ann Arbor, in his case during years I had season tickets.  I especially enjoyed his Hobey Baker-winning campaign in 2007-08, when he piled up 33 goals and 33 assists.  He notched nine points with the Sabres last season, and we'll see if he can score more playing time next year.  This is my second Porter card that includes an autograph, and my third hit of him overall.

Doug, thanks as always, again, for a great trade.  I'm gonna be smart this time and pile up a bunch of stuff you need so I ostensibly won't owe you for a bit.  Readers, get your buck store's worth of hobby writing over at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!

Check out my blowout: day 2: Be a Player, not a hater

Previously:  day 1

I'm back today with more from my huge COMC purchase.  Back on Monday I showed off the three basketball hits I picked up for myself.  Today, in honor of the highest remaining seed left in the CCHA tournament (and a team that'll hopefully win Friday and Saturday night), we're moving on to a few Michigan hockey pickups from that package.  Notice I said "a few"--I have more for a later date.

It just so happens that all three of today's cards hail from the same set, which made them a perfect choice for one post:

Brendan Morrison 2005-06 Be a Player Signatures auto:

I've made multiple promises to myself to get more stuff of the former Hobey Baker winner, and I finally made some more progress on that front.  I now have two relics and two autos of Morrison, putting him one card behind current hockey leader Marty Turco, so that's progress in and of itself.
This is a pretty cool card for a sticker auto, although it's unfortunate that the autograph area consumes almost half the card.  The rest of the layout and photograph are very sharp, though, and I do like the autograph.  Plus, of course, I really like the way the card goes with the other two you'll see below. 

Mike Comrie 2005-06 Be a Player Signatures auto:

This is my third Comrie (all autographed), which is a nice start to a PC of a player who just retired last month after a solid, if brief, NHL career.  I'm sorry to see him hang 'em up so soon since he was such a force in his short time with Michigan, but I suppose there's worse things than being a young, wealthy retiree married to Hillary Duff, right?

Mike Knuble 2005-06 Be a Player Signatures auto:

Today's other Mike is former Red Wing (among other teams) Knuble.  A prolific four-year scorer at Michigan, he played for Detroit his first two pro seasons and joined them in winning the '97-'98 cup before moving on to the Rangers, then Bruins (as pictured here), Flyers, and finally Capitals.  Up until this season, he'd scored 20+ goals every year since '02-'03, but this year has been quite a downer as his stats are pretty terrible across the board.  Maybe he can find his way back to a team that knows how to use wily veterans as effectively as anyone--say, somewhere close to his old stomping grounds?  Just a thought....

Tune in again soon for more from this ginormous package as I have some hockey left, a good amount of baseball, and tons of football to show off.  This could take a while!