12/2/17 card show report: Maize & Blue Christmas

In tonight's TMV post that likely brought you over here I hinted about having possibly unprecedented luck scoring some Michigan Football stuff at this month's show, and all out of the quarter box no less.  It was truly an early Christmas wish come true to land this many cool Wolverines for my player, insert, and rookie collections.

Think I'm exaggerating?  Check out the cardboard cornucopia below in which college unis outnumber those of the No Fun League:

Scan #1 starts with a 2007 SPx RC of Alan Branch--

--QB killer that he is, and I'll also lump in card #5, fellow defensive standout David Harris' first-year from that same set.  My luck tracking down rookies (more to follow), not to mentioned numbered ones, totally surprised me!

Next is a cool insert that features a pair of Big Ten LBs drafted in 2008:  Michigan's Shawn Crable (more of him later as well) and PSU's Dan Connor (not to be confused with the guy on Roseanne).

Then we hit the first of a bunch of PCs on the day with a pair of numbered Braylons from 2006 and 2007 UD products.

He's followed by PC #2, Mike Hart, on one of the many parallels available to the several base cards of each player found in 2008 Upper Deck Heroes.  This one's numbered #042/125 on the hard-to-see scan.

A Chad Henne trio (there's my new Michigan-themed jazz band name) represents the day's third PC, and my absolute favorite is the Gold Xtra Points parallel of Chad's 2008 Prestige RC in the middle.  Gold foil makes a great set look even better!

We'll go back to the RC well one more time in this scan with the first and third cards you see.  #1 is my ninth of Victor Hobson's 11 first-years and easily one of the best as it hails from the college-friendly 2003 Donruss Elite set.  Meanwhile, the third is my initial example of a rookie of outstanding CB Jourdan Lewis out of the equally outstanding 2017 Prestige product.

Those two bookend a totally unexpected numbered insert of future HOF OG Steve Hutchinson out of 2001 SAGE HIT.  The area with the number is raised/embossed a bit while the back assigns the player a score indicating the predicted quality of their career;  Hutch rated as a "future all-pro", just a step below "franchise player", so it's fair to see he exceeded SAGE's expectations.

Jake Long is a guy I've long collected (sorry) and one of a few newly-scanned PCs I'm debuting today (not pictured:  Tom Brady).  Considering the large number of hits, rookies, and inserts I've accumulated of #77, giving him an album was a natural move, and to that collection I added the pair of 2008 Upper Deck Icons inserts you see above (plus another below).

Of course my Manningham collection is no secret, and I was excited to add a numbered (641/999) insert of the Super WR from 2008 Prestige along with another UD Icons appearance.

Chris Perry makes a Christmasy cameo on a 2008 Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity Ruby (#071/249) parallel.

And finally, a representative shot of Shoelace untouched on a Blue(!) 2013 Bowman parallel marks a great point to introduce my Denard Robinson PC, at 71 cards strong and growing.

Because I landed one of each I knew I had to scan this last pair together:  inserts of 2001 Bears draftees David Terrell and Anthony Thomas.  Terrell's card is an interest SAGE HIT insert from 2001 that I hadn't seen, one that includes unorthodox serial-numbering in the top left.  A-Train, meanwhile, shows up in another iteration of Donruss' Elite insert, always a beautiful looking set.

And now we finish up with the horizontal cards, as luck would have it a page's worth (all repeat players from above).  Crable makes his second appearance on a couple versions of a fun numbered 2008 Playoff Prestige insert while I tacked on one more Braylon from the same year's Donruss Classics product.  Hart and Henne get back into the act on numbered cards from 2008's Donruss Elite and UD Icons, respectively.  Finally, Jake Long adds to the Icons tally while Super Mario pads his total with numbered 2008 Donruss inserts from Classics and Elite, both of which show this here blog's namesake in his school colors.

Clearly I had a blast and between adding these for myself and fattening some trade packages, so this month's show was a great way to send 2017 out with a bang!  But that doesn't mean I have a shortage of cards to show off, so stay tuned!