The finish line is in sight--just one more post after this one and I'll be all caught up on 2017 purchases!
Today's post stars all of the
football hits I picked up of players that aren't current PCs of mine. That ended up being a nice round 10, a nice number for one post. Let's have a look at them:
Item #1 is the biggest, literally: a 1997 Leaf Signature 8x10 auto of WR Derrick Alexander. Limited (but not serial numbered) to 4000 copies, this will be a great piece to display with my other larger signed Michigan stuff. It hails from a set of 108 such oversized signatures, one that also includes Wolverines Tim Biakabutuka, Todd Collins, Elvis Grbac, and Jim Harbaugh (not to mention lots of other stars). Maybe I need to start a project and call it the "Wall of FaMe"! Anyway, this is my seventh hit of Alexander.
Sticking with the same position and letter of the alphabet, here's Jason Avant's 2008 Playoff Prestige Rookie Review Materials Prime jersey (#023/100). The "review" part comes into play when you realize that it uses the 2006 design for Avant's card (that was his rookie year), though it also includes a different photo than the original. Here's that rookie from 2006 plus the regular jersey version of this card for comparison:
As you can clearly tell the Prime version is a huge upgrade on the decent regular old jersey with three clear colors and lots of stitching. I was glad to make it my 48th hit of the longtime Eagles receiver.
As usual everything today is presented in alphabetical order and yet I find myself in the midst of a four-receiver run! That continues here with former Cardinal Steve Breaston way back in 2007 when he signed his whole name instead of just "SB". This is his Bowman Sterling rookie auto from that year, one I would have thought I had except it turns out what I did own was the Refractor version. While it's not a favorite design of mine it works fine, plus it gets me up to 27 hits of the former WR/special-teamer.
Today's last WR is one of the more recent ones to jump to the NFL: Amara Darboh. The Seattle draft pick appears here on a Panini XR Red jersey auto (#16/75) from last year. I was happy to get both a signature and large relic swatch even before considering the low price--$2.17--of this fun bunch of shininess. I guess others' dislike of sticker autos just works in my favor sometimes! While I won't try to claim XR is a necessary brand I like what I ended up with here, my second hit of a guy I hope to see last in the league for a while.
In general I would say that I've preferred Leaf's Certified design to those from its Limited counterpart over the years, but that doesn't mean the latter is exactly chopped liver. Consider the above card, a rookie auto of former star CB Leon Hall from the 2007 iteration (#60/99). It's pretty typical for a medium-end card done by that manufacturer around 10 years ago which means it's right in my wheelhouse. It also represents another addition to my group of Halls--38 in all after today--that continues to make him one of the more represented players in my football PC.
Three cards in today's post prove that you can find some of your favorite defensive players on cardboard--even if they're underrepresented--as long as you're willing to put in the effort. Besides Hall's above plus the one you'll see at the very end, retired tackling machine LB David Harris--who almost went out on a high note with the Pats after suffering through the dysfunction of the Jets--makes another hit-related appearance here on this 2011 Panini Threads Gridiron Kings Materials Prime jersey (#37/99). The canvas-like artistic design is probably a bigger highlight than the "prime" relic, which is just a bit of green and white with some stitching, but for as cheap as this card was I couldn't resist snagging it to bolster Harris' total, which now stands at a solid 27.
The third of my four rookie autos today is this one of Heisman finalist RB Chris Perry from 2004 Ultimate Collection (#152/250). That's one of those higher-end products that I'm always glad others buy so I can scoop up the singles I want on the cheap. Maybe whoever pulled this one at the time was excited about landing a big card of a first-rounder but they sure wouldn't be today since I got it for under $2! I'm generally fine with the design, though it's admittedly not very exciting, and Perry's signature has never been one to write home about. Still, it's great to pick up one of his autos from a high-end product on the cheap! Make it 51 hits of the former Michigan great.
Now we'll move on to a much more recent back who's making his hits collection debut: De'Veon Smith. The four-year RB didn't come in with as much fanfare as others but put together a solid college career that culminated in leading the backfield of the 2016 that went 10-3 in attempts, yards, and TDs and receptions (tied with the "Hammering Panda", Khalid Hill, on both counts). He's one of the few guys that didn't get drafted in 2017 but latched on with the Dolphins.
I was excited to land a college uni signature of him (he does have a few licensed ones in Panini brands) from 2017 Leaf Metal Draft (even if the airbrushing makes it look more like he's playing for Notre Dame here). It's always tough sledding for undrafted guys to last long in the pros but maybe Smith can carve out a career.
The second oldest card in today's bunch is this 2002 UD Authentics American Authentics Level 1 auto of the A-Train, Anthony Thomas. The design isn't terribly exciting but I'm a fan of having the cut out area for signatures sometimes, and Thomas's never fails to impress me. Honestly, you could probably slap that on a card as ugly as a recent Topps design and I'd have a difficult time passing on it! It's almost milestone time again here at TMM as this is my 49th hit of Anthony's.
I'm glad to be able to end on a high note (as if anything else from today would be a disappointment) with a letter manupatch/auto. It happens to be my first of Super Bowl champ LaMarr Woodley, quite possibly the first I've seen available. It's from 2007 SP Rookie Threads--some of the best letter cards you'll find--and is part of the nameplate that spells out his last name. You might recall that a while ago I completed Leon Hall's from the same product:
As is the case with Hall's cards this one's #d to 250 (#037 in this case) and has rarer parallel versions. They may not hit all the great design notes of the 2008 version but I still love the chase for another nameplate! In a mini milestone of sorts I've finally gotten Woodley to double digits with his 10th hit.
Almost done! Stay tuned for one last post as I really go out with a bang by showing off a buttload of football PC cards--rookies, inserts, hits, and more!--soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment