That's right, it's show time once again! For this post we're traveling all the way back to the beginning of 2024 when I made it over to my first show of the year in Taylor, before heading to my second just two weeks later. We'll get to that one in a bit, but first here's a quick recap of my usual monthly show. Somewhat unusually I headed east to Taylor on the first Saturday of the month instead of Friday, I think because I didn't feel like taking that Friday off. Michigan had just earned a thrilling OT win against Alabama in the Rose Bowl a few days earlier and I was just biding my time until ..read more

My next trade package from January arrived courtesy of another longtime buddy of the blog, Paul, who can be found on Twitter now that he no longer blogs as Scribbled Ink. This one was just full of surprises and, well, just check it out: It wasn't long after Christmas that the envelope showed up in my mailbox so I'd say the little Tigers helmet was still appropriate for the season. It looks great and has a perfect little olde English "D," and I may decorate a small tree late this year with all my sports-related ornaments. Paul also included an unopened 2023 team set of his local minor league ..read more

Ok, I'm finally caught up on 2023 so let's look at new cards that joined my collections in 2024. To begin with, we'll go with a trade package I received way back in early January. Jeff of My Sports Obsession hit my mailbox with this mailer not too long before we met up in Kalamazoo for a show he and his cousin were doing (details in a future post). It was stuffed with Tigers, some of my favorite bigger PCs, a few Wolverines, and more! Here's what trade package #1 of 2024 contained for me: Baddoo started out hot and has actually had what I'd call above-average success for a rule 5 pick ..read more

That's right, this post will finally wrap up 2023 for me. At least it only took a third of 2024 to get there! I'm going to take a quick run through the cards I picked up for myself so I can get ready to finally get started with 2024 stuff. Here's what I scored this time around the Black Friday weekend: 90s inserts rule! Three numbered Gwynns? Don't mind if I do! The first is "limited" to 3000 copies and you'll see the back in a bit. The other two had just 5000 copies made of each. As a reminder, that seems pretty high these days, but these were still pretty rare back then, way before today's ..read more

As is sometimes the case I have a lot of non-card stuff going on right now, hence my posting even less than usual, and that includes needing to temporarily move my collection and other things in my house for carpet installation. Still, I'm trying to sew up my 2023 pickups, so let's blast through the rest of the trades/PIFs I received from TCDb friends last year. I specifically grouped these together because these items came from four of my closest friends on the site, some of whom I talk to just about every day, discussing checklist updates/fixes, fun new pickups, and anything else we feel l ..read more

I'll probably do the other half of my TCDb trade recap next time, but to break things up a bit I'm finally covering what I brought home from December's monthly show. I headed to Taylor on the first of December last year and threw down $80 for some nice stuff, though it's been long enough that I can't remember the breakdown. So just assume it was the usual combination of dimes, $1/$2/$5, and everything in-between! First up as always is the trade bait: Belt /250; Grieve /1995; Loney /520; Manny /150; Blackmon /499; Burleson /600 Carricker /2249; Cole /2000; Cotchery /2007; Curtis /999; Cutle ..read more

Tonight I'm bringing you one of a two-part series covering all of the TCDb trades I haven't yet covered here. There's lots to go over so I'll likely be fairly brief in terms of my comments. avsbruins65 (PIF): Mark is known to be a generous member and I was the beneficiary of that generosity back in December. Former Michigan P John Locker joins the collection thanks to the 1990 minors issue you see above. He was a reliever for UM in 1988 and '89, and Boston took him in the 40th round in the latter season. He pitched two years for the low-A Elmira Pioneers and appears to have left the game ..read more

With 2023 blogger trades all wrapped up I'm moving on to my eBay purchases from the last four months of the year. We'll start back in early September when I happily spent a bit more than $12.50 delivered for my second plate of Denard Robinson. This particular Shoelace 1/1 is his magenta plate used to make his 2013 Absolute RC, specifically the "base" version and not the variation where he's carrying the ball in his other hand. You all know I love me some Denard, and I hope he's one of the holdovers on new Michigan coach Sherrone Moore's staff. A bit less than two weeks later I was quite happ ..read more

It's the last day of January so I'm making the effort to cover one more card package I received this past December. Tonight's comes from buddy of the blog Jeff of My Sports Obsession. I actually got to see Jeff in-person again earlier this month at a show (which you might have seen on Twitter and/or other blogs), and I promise I'll cover that once I wrap up 2023 stuff. Included in that is a fat stack of cards he sent me before Christmas. Here come 15 scans worth of goodies! We'll lead off with lots of el Mago, all as a Tiger which is great. I'm still skeptical he'll hit reasonably well aga ..read more

Hey, it's been a while, how about another trade recap? Here's what a "Small Packet" envelope from Canada looks like: Something this large and in charge and stuffed with goodness could only be from one person: Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store! Here's a (very) brief overview of what he sent my way back in December: Baseball was highlighted by numbered cards of Mr. Tiger and Barry Larkin. All hail Upper Deck! The other Tigers are great as well, including the Deckle Freehan, which isn't a dupe because this one has a blank back. Basketball and football get short shrift this time in ..read more