Check out my blowout: day 16: IT'S OVERRRRR

Previously:  day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, day 7, day 8, day 9, day 10, day 11, day 12, day 13, day 14, day 15

Well, this is it:  after today, the last day of April, we (or at least I) will bid farewell to one of my longest-running features on this here blog in its short life.  It saw me hit some major milestones and add some really great stuff, but all good things must end.  Also, it involved a ton of scanning, so there's that.  After showing off today's cards, I'll give a quick summary of a few interesting facts about the CoMB acquisitions, then new posts will finally move on to other things...like my extremely exciting large purchase from another Michigan fan full of big hits!

Chad Henne 2008 Upper Deck Heroes Bronze auto (#15/50):

Henne made a typically heroic Henne effort but in the end he succumbed to the mountain of a man that is Jake Long and had to settle with Braylon Edwards for second place at 39 cards.  This one is another excellent 2008 UD Heroes specimen and features a poised Henne about to throw--either during a practice or in a game in the form of a screen-type play based on the position of his favorite LT in the background.  He's got a great signature here, though I love that it looks more like "All H?" than anything else.  A much-welcomed pickup indeed.

Chad Henne/Jake Long/Mario Manningham 2008 SPx Winning Trios triple jersey (#81/99):

This really IS a winning trio, and a group of Wolverines from what's obviously my favorite draft class ever.  All three guys seem to have their game faces on, though Jake Long's is definitely the funniest.  In-person, though, it would absolutely be the scariest.  Dude is HUGE!  This allowed Long to hit 46, allowing him to remain the undisputed football leader while still trailing all-sport champ Rich Hill and his 47; Super Mario takes a step up to the 33 mark.

 Chris Perry 2004 Leaf Rookies and Stars Freshman Orientation Class Officers prime jersey (#035/100)

 Chris Perry 2004 Playoff Hogg Heaven Rookie Hoggs auto (#132/150)

 Chris Perry 2004 SAGE Red auto (#116/750):

Here's a trio of sweet Chris Perrys.  Oddly enough, though I usually heavily favor autographs, I really enjoy the R&S jersey card.  I'm not comfortable calling it a patch just because it has some nice stitching, so I'm content to go the Panini route and label it a "prime" jersey.  It really goes well with the Bengal orange theme of the card, though.  The Hoggs card is one I'd had my eye on for a bit, and as contrived as it is, and not as well done as other manuthing-signature cards, it's still pretty cool, signed with a bold silver pen.  The SAGE, meanwhile, was a nice pickup to go along with my Bronze parallel of the same card.  Chris' total at the end of CoMB is 23, which is his jersey number in the SAGE card, as you can see.  eBay ONE-OF--wait, that doesn't make any damn sense....

 Drew Henson 2004 SP Authentic auto RC (#276/990):

Here's a guy we haven't seen in a while, which makes sense because I really don't have much of him--just three cards when it comes to football.  It's a pretty solid rookie auto, though, and the price was definitely right for me at just under $2.50.  He may have bolted from Ann Arbor too soon and he may have washed out of the NFL, but he'll always have a place in my collection.

Jake Long 2008 Topps Letterman Patches Jersey Number auto (#07/75):

We'll close things out with the aforementioned 46th Long, which is admittedly a pretty goofy one.  I'd say that Topps didn't do a very good job of capturing the lighting in a bottle that that year's Razor Letterman baseball set or Upper Deck's SP Rookie Threads Lettermen did, but it's still a fun card.  It just happens to fail in the execution of what could have otherwise been a very cool design.  In fact, as far as I'm concerned, there's really only one thing wrong with it:  why the HELL is the sticker running vertically?  Although, I guess the more important question is, why couldn't Topps get these signed on the manuthings themselves?  They really left themselves no room to place the sticker without covering a part of the card they shouldn't have been.  Topps is lucky I have no room for my "Topps is dumb" tag here, because they definitely deserve it.  Still, it's a Long I didn't have and I'm a totally ridiculous Wolverines collector so here it is in my PC!

Before I go into some other semi-interesting stats and notes, it's time to celebrate what's easily my biggest milestone yet, in two-minute MSPaint form:

Come to think of it, I think Topps was inspired by this movie:  "Give them nothing and take from them everything!"

Yep, as the sidebar notes, I've passed the 500 football hit mark!  More than a year ago I was at something like 220 and I've more than doubled that (with a bunch more to scan)!  As I've done when I hit such milestones in the past, I again want to sincerely thank everyone involved that sent some of these cards my way.  More than anything, building up this collection from just a couple cards is what really got me back into collecting, and blogging about it has continued my interest in the pursuit.  Thanks to each of you for trading or selling me cards and/or reading about them here.

As promised, here's some relevant CoMB stats:

• 72 total cards
• 15 baseball (including one Topps Silk that doesn't fall under the "hits" category)
• 3 basketball
• 47 football
• 7 hockey
• Cheapest card:  a bunch were $0.94
• Most expensive card:  the Topps Letterman Jake Long at $7.07

I had a ton of fun finding, buying, scanning (maybe not scanning) and posting the cards for this series, so I hope you all enjoyed it as well.  I'll be back to the same grind again soon with some new stuff, but in the meantime I'll try to come up with some other good stuff for you too.  And maybe Jeff will pop up at some point with some more of his insights since he tends to be a good change of pace.  Me, I'm gonna throw all my Michigan cards in a pool and dive into it Scrooge McDuck-style.  A-woo-hoo!