I've been sitting on a bunch of purchases from late 2013 that needed to be recorded, scanned, and posted, and I'm finally getting around to those. In many cases I may just mash up purchases by player instead of online store to make things easier. We'll see just how many posts I get out of this series, which I'm going to abbreviate COMC-JC-SL 2013.
Well here's a post I've been looking forward to writing, and teasing for a couple weeks while I've been at it. Over the course of my previously-undocumented COMC purchases from last year, I amassed a nice pile of Michigan football hits, inserts, and RCs--33, to be exact. I decided to show off 17 of them today, not just because that pretty much splits things nicely into two posts, but for other, milestoney-type reasons, as you'll see in a bit. Actually, this post is as chock full of milestones as anything I've written in a while! Please to enjoy these pigskin pickups:
Adrian Arrington 2008 SAGE Autographs Silver auto (#259/400)
Adrian Arrington 2008 UD Masterpieces Stroke Of Genius auto
Adrian Arrington 2009 Donruss Threads Pro Gridiron Kings auto (#090/100)
Adrian Arrington 2009 Score Inscriptions auto (#065/214)
Yep, it's still possible for me to score a nice number of Arrington hits for low prices on COMC. It's not like he has a shortage of them despite appearing in just five NFL games, and none since 2011! The SAGE is a Silver parallel to go along with the Bronze, Gold, and Red from the same set, and it looks like I just need the Platinum for the non-1/1 rainbow. That's not the only Michigan uni card, though, as I scored the beautiful Masterpieces auto that's still one of my all-time favorite sets (I also have the Jake Long), which needs to be brought back PRONTO. The Gridiron Kings can't quite live up to that standard, but is a solid art card itself. Lastly, I now have three different versions of AA's 2009 Score auto. Milestone #1: he's surpassed the 40-hit mark with 43 total, all including autos, good for 5th place in the PC!
Steve Breaston 2011 Topps Triple Threads Autographed Unity Relics jersey auto (#90/90)
Steve Breaston and his lazy auto are back, baby! I don't pick up too much of his stuff anymore, but I thought this auto/jersey would be a fun add at a low cost. The shocking red Chiefs jersey is a plus, and it's got a cool serial number, so why shouldn't I grab it? Breaston sits at a non-milestony 14 hits now.
Braylon Edwards 2005 Playoff Contenders auto RC
Bray-Bray may be a knucklehead at times, but I still like collecting his stuff. Considering the sheer number of cards I own of him, I've been focusing on autographs when possible, especially since I can usually count on some of you to send one of his relics my way. In this case, the card has the bonus of being a rookie auto, and even though the card features a (slightly smudged) sticker auto, it's one of the Panini sticker designs I actually kind of enjoy. Braylon holds tight at 3rd place in the collection with his new total of 54 hits.
Brian Griese 2001 Fleer Tradition Autographics auto
Here's a Broncos QB that had as much Super Bowl success as Peyton Manning this year! (I keed, I keed) Seriously, though, this is one of those early Fleer Autographics sets where everything just clicked: the pigskin background, the pair of photos, and the large, on-card signatures. Griese adds a huge bonus to this card with his absolutely flawless John Hancock. I'm always saying I should add more cards of the last Michigan QB to lead the team to a national title, and this time I put my money where my mouth was in adding an 11th Griese to my collection.
Leon Hall 2007 Press Pass SE Gridiron Graphs Gold auto
Leon Hall 2007 SP Rookie Threads 'A' patch auto RC (#071/250)
Leon Hall 2007 SP Rookie Threads 'L' (#2) patch auto RC (#234/250)
As you can see, I went big with player #2 to have multiple cards in the post. The Press Pass was a nice cheap Michigan uni addition, but the obvious real draw is the pair of letter autos. At some point in the past I picked up the first "L" plus one of the Gold versions of the same letter. That's right, I'm currently sitting on "ALLL." Well, if someone can help me find the basic version of the "H," I'll have another nameplate to add to my collection! For now, these three additions give Leon 34 hits, good for 8th place in the PC.
David Harris 2007 Donruss Gridiron Gear Autographs Gold Holofoil auto (#212/250)
Because defensive guys don't get a lot of love, sometimes the relative scarcity of their cards causes slightly inflated prices when it comes to their better stuff. At least that's my explanation for not having lots more of one of the best LBs to come out of Michigan in years. Thankfully I was able to add this parallel auto of the tackler extraordinaire's 2007 Gridiron Gear rookie. The clear-but-obvious sticker mars the card slightly, but the rest of the design looks great, especially in-person. And I'm proud to say that Harris is today's milestone #2, having hit the 20-card mark, just the 12th player in my PC to reach that plateau!
Mike Hart 2008 SP Rookie Edition '96 auto
Mike Hart 2008 SP Rookie Threads Signing Day auto (#034/116)
And now for a guy who's absolutely no stranger to my collection (or Jeff's), mighty mite RB Mike Hart. I'd been wanting the SP RE '96 auto for a while to go alongside the '93, '94, and '95s I already have, meaning I now own the entire run! For some reason--maybe the cool red background--I think the '96 is actually my favorite, but you really can't go wrong. Better than that, though, in my opinion, is the Signing Day auto, which I've already professed as one of my favorite sets, as Arrington and Jake Long can attest to. Other manufacturers could take a page out of UD's book here when it comes to making stickers blend in seamlessly. Also, the design just kicks ass! And the most kick-ass part of Hart's haul: milestone #3 is Mike becoming the fourth member of my 50-hit club with 51 thanks to this pair!
Chad Henne 2008 Finest auto
Chad Henne 2008 Leaf Certified Materials Certified Potential auto (#22/50)
I'm not down on Jake Long by any means, but QBs are naturally more exciting, and I've been trying to get Henne's total equal to and beyond Long's PC-leading 67 hits. These two by themselves won't quite do it, but they're definitely quality additions to Henne's collection. The Finest includes a solid signature, though I think Chad could have used the available space a bit more liberally. No matter, it's a nice to look at, colorful Finest card to go along with former teammates and draftmates Arrington, Hart, Long, and Manningham, which should be all the Wolverines in the set. Meanwhile, the LCM was a lower-numbered auto I was able to find for under $5, which is pretty much a no-brainer for me at this point. Those two nudge Chad closer to Long's lead with a new total of 62, still rarefied air in the PC!
Mario Manningham 2008 Stadium Club Rookie Autographs auto
Mario Manningham 2008 Upper Deck Premier quad jersey auto RC (#245/275)
And we close things out today with the blog's namesake. I'm in pretty good shape in terms of the number of Marios I have, but you can never have too many! The first is one of several Wolverines to appear in the 2008 Stadium Club set (the last one, BOOOOOO!) and I can already boast--stop me if you've heard these names before--Arrington, Hart, and Long; the last one, Henne, is high on my list of priorities. Even though the sticker window obnoxiously cuts Manningham in half, the photo's still cool, and the card features one of the hobby's better overall designs otherwise. In contrast to that is the quad jersey/auto from 2008 UD Premier. The set features jersey window variations including year (like above), player's name or nickname, and team name, giving you a bit of variety to choose from. This is easily one of the highest-end Manningham RCs in my collection and is a very welcome addition, especially for its low price. Super Mario's new total of 42 hits is good for 6th place in the collection, one shy of Arrington, thanks to his monster day above.
So that was already three milestones--what was the big deal about showing off exactly 17 hits today? Well I'll tell you, helpful hypothetical inquirer: those cards were enough to hit two MAJOR milestones:
800+ football hits (806 to be exact)
and
1200 Michigan sports hits (on the nose)!
To celebrate, I think it's time to dance!
Ok, with that celebration out of the way, I'll be back to baseball stuff, possibly as soon as tomorrow. But stay tuned Friday for a special guest trade post appearance by Jeff!
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