Do You Believe In Angels?!

A TRADE ABOVE AND BEYOND

I literally was about to give up on the hobby, again. I had a post started about being burned out. With economic issues that come way before cards, a bad facebook trade that ripped me off and the Detroit Tigers sending all my TTM requests from spring training back using my stamp asking for money; I was about to call it quits and focus on something else. Many of you probably think "huh, he must not be as passionate about cards as me." That may be true but believe me I am all about my cards; I do a blog for god's sake. I have been having a lot negative feelings lately when I think about cards so I thought I should take a mental health break. Do what makes you happy, right? I shouldn't feel anxious or angry about a hobby.
In my darkest collecting moment, when the lights were about to go out on my blog a mail day of epic proportions filled my mailbox. Now, this may illustrate me as a weak man; a fly by night collector. A guy who is only in it for the good times and is pissy and a quitter during the bad times (a typical Detroit Tiger fan by any other definition). But, a beam of light from heaven shined down on my green plastic mail box. I heard angels quietly singing as I opened the back door of it. Here are the contents that have renewed my passion and taught me to love again.

Tom at The Angels In Order sent me a trade package that must have taken him hours of digging to put together. I am still in shock over the package and it will take weeks to digest all the goodies he sent over. I barely remember whatever it was I sent him but I know there is no way it was anything close to what he sent me. I will post highlights but please believe me he sent me a STACK of cards. The timing is unbelievable. Tom himself must be an angel from cardboard heaven.

WOW. I'm gonna need a bigger mailbox.

This is the first card I saw peeking out at me.

This Trammell alone would have made the trade even and good for me. But look at the rest of this stuff he sent. Its probably not even the best card! Seriously Tom?!

WHAT?! Al Frickin' Kaline

There was newer Tigers...

I love cards that look like they have a story to tell with condition. This Mickey Stanley is so cool. The Freehan is a masterpiece in itself.

There was vintage Tigers...

The Kaline is a reprint but Tom sent so much vintage I couldn't post hardly any of it.

Upon vintage Tigers...

These stamps show why trading online is so amazing. These stamps would be out of my price range and I probably would overlook them at a local show because shows can be overwhelming with product. I think they are the so cool and would never imagine I would ever own such a thing.

Tiger Stamps!...

My #2 favorite Fielder card of all time. I know my LCS had one of these under glass streaked with my drool when I was a kid. I had never owned on until now.

Die Cut JV. So sweet.

The CAT! I am a huge Catalanotto fan.

I opened so many 07 packs to find this card and never did. Now I have it!

Favorite Tigers...

He tossed in a ton of Jose!

You know Tom puts care into his trade packages when he takes enough time to look at what I collect and then dig to find Rey Ordonez! I am speechless.

Favorite Players...

The stack of Nolan Ryan cards in this package was staggering. There must have been 50 Ryan cards.

Who the hell gives up 50 Nolan Ryan cards in a trade?! Out of the stack he sent, I owned 3.

The giant stack of Rocket cards was unthinkable too.

Favorite Legends...

One of my favorite Canseco cards of all time. I owned this once. No idea what happened to it and now I have 2 versions!

Favorite Legends and their Gold variations...

I don't think I have posted much of my past career managing Toys R Us stores for 10 years during my college years but the fact that some of the cards that showed up have deeper collecting meaning like these prove there was a higher power putting together this trade package with Tom.

Now I have some decisions to make due to this card. I don't know much about this card and will have to research but in the meantime, Horton will be signing autos in a few weekends and I may have this card signed.
Tom blew me away with this package and didn't even give me a heads up that it was coming. I will be busy spreading all the cards out on my bar basking in their beauty for weeks. Thank you so much Tom, this package meant more than you will know.

Also in the box today...

As if the package above wasn't amazing enough, I got a TTM return from one of my PC guys. I worshipped this guy in Toledo and only wish he could have spent more time in the show. Mike Hessman is the man. I am so happy he took the time to sign and return my card. It came back in like a few days at that. What a legend.

Come on Tigers...WTF

In my rant earlier I mentioned the Tigers had sent me all my TTM auto requests from Spring Training back to me. Except for JD Martinez which came back RTS. So that tells me all the fan mail to the Tigers gets thrown into a box until August and never gets to the players at all. They didn't even try to forward my JD letter or even give it to him anytime before his departure. Lame. They used my SASE to send me a request for money for my other letters. Check out the Tiger's site to see that they have partnered with Topps to make unique cards of certain players you can buy autographed for $15 to way too much money plus shipping. For the 9 players they have listed (JV and Miggy are not one of them) it will cost you over $200 with shipping to get signed cards of all 9. I see some benefits of this system but still think the Tigers screw the actual adult ticket buyers again and again. Maybe autograph chasing is a child's game, I don't know. For me, I only want to display the pieces as a fan but have to pay stupid amounts of money for autographs I am rarely happy with. Oh well, that is the state of our hobby for a Tiger fan. The team that had such potential and star power going into the season that can't win games has to make money other ways I guess.