2016 COMC purchases: happy Rookie Blue year!

Now that I'm all caught up on the rest of my 2016 stuff I can show off the fruit of my COMC labors in the form of purchases around Black Friday weekend and going back a few months.  If you came over from TMV you already saw a bunch of Michigan-related cards as I posted pickups of baseball PC guys, and now I have some football stuff to show you.

Specifically, I went back to the first-year well to further my Michigan Football rookies collection, a.k.a. Rookie Blue.  Because new players can be added anytime this checklist is a bit of a moving target, but I'm up for the challenge!  Here's 14 new cards of 10 players:

Yo!  This card is from 2008 Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity (#969/999) (I'm still missing the regular Rookies and Stars version).  Like most of today's cards it's numbered and a bit shiny.  I now have 16 of 19 first-years of the WR from my favorite draft class.

Speaking of shiny numbered cards of WRs, here's a very colorful RC of receiver/returner Steve Breaston out of 2007 Absolute Memorabilia (#442/699).  You really have to see these in-person to get the full effect, so for now just take my word for it that it looks fantastic.  I'm nearing the 75% mark with 19/26 Breaston rookies.

WR?  Check.  Shiny?  Very much so!  Numbered?  No!  This is a very cool clear card of Funchess, the second-round Panthers receiver, and possibly my first interaction with Panini's Clear Vision product.  This is the "base" version as it features straight lines in the background while the variation has a different pattern going on.  The card is my 16th of Funch's 24 rookies.

The oldest card of the bunch goes all the way back to 2000 and this Rookies and Stars RC of LB Ian Gold (#0117/1000--hey, the numbering's back!).  These are a bit tough to find since the set carries a bit of a premium--it seems that Patriots QB that's gonna go down as the GoaT also has a rookie in this product.  This marks my fifth of Gold's nine first-years.

Tackling machine David Harris is still doing his thing in the NFL, even if it's still for the sad sack Jets.  Here he is on a 2007 Donruss Gridiron Gear Retail RC (#432/599).  While I understand the difference between hobby and retail boxes and packs, I've never understood why manufacturers think it's necessary to make different versions of the base set sometimes.  I'm closing in on Harris' 24 rookies with a new count of 20 thanks to this one.

Here's a card you'll see again in a future post as I cover other pickups for his PC.  Mike Hart's RC from the interesting/weird 2008 Topps Letterman product also fits in with today's mostly numbered theme as my copy is #109/419 (419?  Why 419?!).  It's a bit too reflective to scan perfectly, but I think you get the idea.  I'm just three cards shy of the 25 RC run of my favorite Michigan RB.

You'll also see this Henne in another post soon and I'll be glad to do that to help get my money's worth; I paid more for this than I usually spend on rookies for this project, but I had a good reason:  it's the last of Henne's 22 cards that I needed!  It also happens to come from a set I don't particularly care for due to two reasons:  it doesn't look particularly nice, which is rare for UD, and they're just so difficult to find for reasonable prices (which is why I still need Jake Long's, Mike Hart's, and Shawn Crable's copies).  Needless to say, I'm happy to knock off Henne as my 120th complete player in this project.

RB Chris Perry keeps up the mostly offensive players trend with this pair of 2004 Fleer-branded cards.  First up is Authentix (#211/750), a fun product that briefly ran in the early 2000s, and this version included an embedded ticket stub, adding to the set's motif.  The other, Sweet Sigs (#041/999) was a one-off, and I'm not too surprised that the design didn't really catch on despite its potential.  Perry has 30 first-years for me to chase and these two give me a new total of 18.

Walker was one of the more heralded receivers in Ann Arbor so he has a crazy 48 cards for me to chase.  I'm happy, then, that I was able to add three at a time here.  First is 2002 Fleer Genuine (#278/599), a product I think I'd like a bit more if the photo wasn't so limited.  Next is Throwbacks, a somewhat forgettable product that doesn't quite do it for me despite its simplicity.  Finally, UD Authentics (#0158/1000) looks great thanks to its callback to UD's origins.  These three got me out of my 50% rut to a new total of 27 Walker RCs.

Our final player today is big Gabe Watson, another guy for whom I found multiple cards this time.  On your left is his 2006 Donruss Threads Retail Rookies RC (#727/999), and again I have to wonder why Panini made hobby- and retail-specific versions, especially since the hobby version looks great.  That's joined by his base out of 2006 Sweet Spot (#259/699), a product I've often enjoyed thanks to its fun manu-helmet/auto cards.  In this case, Gabe is surrounded by a lot of Cardinals red, which makes sense to me.  I'm happy to say that I'm just three cards shy of his 22 first-years.

Thanks to this bunch I'm getting very near the millennium mark with an overall total of 985 cards and counting.  Hopefully I'll continue to make progress in 2017, and maybe I'll even land a couple of the higher-priced vintage issues or Bradys that I need.

Stay tuned for more COMC loot and some trade packages soon!