2016 COMC purchases: footballin' into February

It's the end of the first month of 2017 so let's finally finish up my COMC purchases from 2016.  On display today:  the rest of my football hits.  10 cards, nine players...let's go!

Adrian Arrington 2008 SP Rookie Threads 'R' patch auto RC (#04/28)

Starting us off is a card from one of my all-time favorite products, 2008 SP Rookie Threads.  These are my favorite versions of the letter patch cards out of Upper Deck (or elsewhere, for that matter) because they look like they were cut right from a college jersey.  This Arrington is my third from his nameplate, joining an "N" and a "T" (plus an "I" from the much rarer nameplate), and my 48th hit of him overall.

Steve Breaston 2007 Playoff National Treasures auto RC (#089/243)

A few early Breaston cards bear signatures that include his whole name, but for the most part, "SB" is par for the course.  That's too bad, but at least this signature appears on one of Panini's higher-end products, National Treasures, and it even doubles as a rookie card.  Breaston moves on up to 24 cards in my hits collection.

Braylon Edwards 2005 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Red Materials jersey-ball (#054/150)

No, I didn't arrange things so today's post would be nothing but receivers; in fact, Braylon's our final wideout today.  I've already got a ton of his hits and he's not really one of my favorites, but I still grab his stuff if it's cheap enough, like this Mirror Red jersey/ball parallel from the excellent Leaf Certified Materials product.  It marks my 50th relic-type card of Bray-Bray, and 69th hit overall, maintaining his third-place status.

Devin Gardner 2015 Leaf Trinity Pure Autographs Charcoal auto

One of the coolest cards I have to show off is this glass-like autograph of former QB Devin Gardner from the very interesting Leaf Trinity set.  As they combine college photos, on-card signatures, and a fun transparent design, I'd love to find others of my favorite players in the future, and I hope my fellow college collectors do as well.  Matching his jersey number above (which eventually changed to 98) this is my 7th hit of Devin.

Elroy Hirsch 1997 Upper Deck Legends Autographs auto

Oh boy is this a card I've been looking forward to showing off since I picked it up last year.  Hirsch, probably better known by his nickname "Crazylegs", initially starred for Wisconsin in the early 40s but was sent to Michigan in '43 because he joined the Marines.  In Ann Arbor he continued his extremely successful multi-sport career, then eventually made his way to the NFL's Rams after his discharge from the USMC.  With LA he enjoyed even more statistical success over his nine seasons, enough that he was enshrined in Canton, not to mention college's Hall of Fame as well.

As I set out to add some new players to my football collection (you'll see three more in this post), I considered landing something this nice of Hirsch a pipe dream.  These on-card autos on a beautiful UD design are iconic and I didn't expect to find the deal on COMC that I did, but a reasonable price soon made it mine.  Welcome to the collection, Crazylegs!

Tony McGee 2001 Pacific Impressions Triple Threads triple jersey (with Steve Bush and Brad St. Louis)

Tight end Tony McGee isn't remotely new to this blog as I've shared a number of his rookies and inserts with you, but this is my first hit of his, which is no surprise since he has just two, with the other being an autograph out of 1995 Pro Line.  Since I can't exactly be choosy I don't mind too much that he shares this card with two other TEs (though St. Louis was apparently mainly a long snapper in the NFL).  Now to chase down that autograph....

Denard Robinson 2013 Absolute Rookie Premiere Materials AFC-NFC triple jersey (#73/99)

Denard Robinson 2013 Topps Mini Autographs auto

I'm sure everybody that's reading this here post knows Denard is another guy familiar to my collection.  He's got plenty of cards to choose from and I can often find very good prices for them on COMC even if it's not during a big time sale.  The fact that it was Black Friday meant I grabbed these two for mere peanuts.  The Absolute triple jersey is my tenth relic-only card of him and was a fun pickup thanks to the low price and great photo.  I also dug up an autograph of the Mini variety from the same year and tried to scale the images to give you a better idea of its size.  Denard is the subject of the first of two milestones today as he becomes the 12th player in my collection to reach the 30-hit mark!

Jake Ryan 2015 Contenders auto RC

Although I haven't shown off any cards of him to-date, I believe I've mentioned former LB Jake Ryan once or twice over here.  A player who was generally considered a three-star recruit, I'd argue that he outplayed that rating over his four years (2011-15) in Ann Arbor.  Green Bay saw enough out of him to grab him in 2015's fourth round and he's seen a decent amount of action in his first two seasons for the Pack.  Hopefully more success awaits him in the pros.  For now I'm just happy to add him to my collection with this Contenders signature.  Speaking of that autograph, I'd say Jake has something to work on during the off-season.

Matt Wile 2011 Leaf Army All-American Bowl auto

Today's final card is also today's last new player.  Wile was both a place-kicker and punter for the Wolverines from 2011-15.  He mostly handled kickoffs his freshman year, mixed punting and field goals the next two, then pretty much focused on the PK role during his senior season.  He went undrafted, as many kickers do, and bounced around a few practice squads before seeing game action with Atlanta and Arizona.  I wouldn't exactly count on him to appear in any of Panini's products any time soon so I was happy to grab this Leaf Army signature; that product his proved valuable in the past when it's come to landing cards of some of the more obscure Wolverines.

I'm glad to end my showoff of 2016 purchases with this post, but before I'm done I have one more milestone to celebrate:  with today's haul I've eclipsed the 200 mark for unique players in my football collection by moving up to 202 thanks to today's newbies.  While I'm excited to add to my collection any way I can, it's especially fun to find something of a player I haven't yet acquired and making things even more diverse.  And that's how I'd like to close the book on last year.

Now that I'm caught up on this stuff, stay tuned for trade packages--January was a great month!--and more, including some fun eBay scores.