2017 COMC purchases: serial-nUMbered insanity

I'm back with more football stuff today, and I sure hope you like inserts because that's what you're getting--a LOT of them, in fact.  Shiny, die-cut, numbered, Refractor-ized, or some combination thereof.  These cards span the years 1995-2013 (you'll see more in my player collections post) and run the gamut of brands, designs, and sanity, not to mention numbering--about 75% of them, in fact, from 5000 on down to 99.  So let's have a look at 25 players' worth of new inserts!

The opening trio of Derrick Alexanders is fun because you'll see all three insert sets again in this post at least once.  1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Red (#d /4999) appears a bunch, 1998 Black Diamond Rookies Triple (#d /1500) once more, and Score's Scorecard parallel (especially the 2000 version seen here, #d /2000) quite a bit.

FB B.J. Askew and WR Jason Avant make cameos on parallels from 2004 Playoff Honors and 2010 Topps, respectively.  The action photo used on the Avant card is fantastic.

Only one of Tim Biakabutuka's cards is numbered--the Platinum Red--but all three of his cards are fun, especially the hologram Big Bang from 1996 Skybox's Skymotion.

Stevie Brown doesn't have a lot of cardboard but I did find his 2013 Topps Gold on which he appears to be returning yet another INT.

Former QB Todd Collins is another player for whom I found at least three new inserts.  The die-cut is from a 1997 set called Excalibur Overlords, the Platinum Red is old news by now, and I also came up with one of Pacific's fun numbered cards from one of its trademark wacky designs, 1998 Revolution Shadows (#23/99).

Super Bowl winner Brandon Graham gains entry to the Scorecard club with the 2010 parallel of his rookie from that year's set.

CB Leon Hall comes to us with three numbered parallels:  a Blue Refractor version of his 2007 Finest RC (#068/299) plus Certified Mirror Blue (#082/100) and Topps Gold (#1315/2010) parallels from 2010.  The blue pair is especially cool.

Retired LB David Harris's Topps Gold comes from the following year, but the other insert, 2012 Absolute Gridiron Force Spectrum (#029/100), is notable because Harris isn't actually in the base set, just this insert (and its non-numbered regular version).

Get a load of those "Crazy Legs" on Elroy Hirsch in his 2001 Bowman Chrome Rookie Reprint!  The Refractorized card reminds me that I need to track down a copy of the original someday.

Desmond Howard's 1995 Bowman's Best Refractor represents the earliest card in this post, and I'm glad to add his to the others I own from that set.

Cato June is another guy that didn't get much hobby love but I did find his 2007 Topps Copper parallel (#0155/2007).

I almost ended up with a quartet of Chris Perry Refractors--2004 Topps Chrome, 2005 Bowman Chrome Blue, 2006 Topps Draft Bronze comprise the trio--but a 2008 Leaf Limited Bronze Spotlight (#081/125) was the combo breaker.

And TE Jay Riemersma appears on an Ultra Gold Medallion parallel before a much more interesting 2001 Pacific numbered card called Hobby LTD (#77/99).  You'll see a couple more from this product over the rest of the post.

WR Tai Streets gets in on the Refractor action thanks to 2000 Topps Chrome, plus he joins Riemersma in 2001 Pacific on a Retail LTD parallel (#d /299) instead of hobby, and is part of the Score Scorecard club too, in this case the 2003 version.

David Terrell and Anthony Thomas are reunited here and it feels so good.  The former arrives via a 2002 Topps Chrome Refractor (#509/599) which looks fantastic with the black border.  His RB counterpart appears on a pair of 2002 Fleer-branded parallels:  Flair Collection (#105/200) and Maximum To the Max (#027/250).  We'll see him again shortly.

Beefy RB Tyrone Wheatley is the first from a pair of '96 Donruss Press Proofs I found.  These differ from the base thanks to the "First 2,000 Printed" and "Press Proof" gold stamps plus having the helmet die-cut out of the upper-right corner.

Fearsome defender LaMarr Woodley closes out the scan with Topps Gold parallels from 2011 and 2012, joining the 2010 version I already had.

Here are the three horizontal cards that weren't part of the larger groups of players you'll see next.  RB Leroy Hoard's 1995 Absolute Die Cut Helmets translucent insert was a fun find out of the blue.  And A-Train added to his tally with a couple numbered 2002 cards:  Donruss Elite Back to the Future (#163/800) and 2002 Leaf Rookies and Stars Standing Ovation (#2048/2500).

WR Steve Breaston is the first of the five players for whom I found enough cards to give them their own scans, and all seven of the cards you see above are of the numbered variety.  Steve joins Leon Hall with a 2007 Finest Blue Refractor parallel of his RC, then gets in on the Scorecard fun with his 2008 version that's paired with a Gold Zone parallel (#368/400) from the same product.

A team colors-appropriate Red parallel from Topps' 2009 Unique product (#539/799) is next, and that's followed by a couple 2010 Panini-branded variations:  Crown Royale Blue (#007/100) and Gridiron Gear Gold X's (#061/100).  A Mirror Blue parallel from 2012 Certified (#047/100) joins this group of inserts unique to Breaston in this post.

QB Elvis Grbac is up next with nine cards, though one doesn't count as an insert.  First up is a great double-sided offering from 1997 Leaf called Run and Gun, and while Grbac is up front the better talent lies on the other side:

HOFer Marcus Allen.  Do I need a "90s inserts rule" tag for this blog too?

Yet another Certified Platinum Red from the same year joins the ranks, and that's followed by a deceptive card I thought was an insert but is actually a team checklist from the base set of 1999 Absolute SSD.

Getting back to actual inserts the next card is a cool one from '99 Donruss Preferred called QBC National Treasures (#0604/2000) which is an early mention of the moniker that would go on to be a high-end product.

A pair from 2000 is up next:  Scorecard once again, then a Premiere Date parallel (#089/138) from Pacific's Vanguard brand.  It seems like Pacific usually put the serial numbers up front but in this case it's visible on the back.  The opposite is true of another 2001 Pacific card, again a Retail LTD parallel, which I've always thought looked great on probably my favorite Pacific flagship base design.

A horizontal Leaf Rookies and Stars insert from 2002 called Great American Heroes (#1523/2000) and Brass Coin from 1998 Pinnacle Mint close out Grbac's bunch.  I have a decent number of the baseball versions of these coins but very few from football.

Brian Griese is #2 in a run of three QBs, and once again everything you see here is numbered.  We'll start with the year 2000, which includes a Black Diamond Gold (#0361/1000) version as well as a Donruss insert called Dominators (#4225/5000), which is the winner for highest numbered card by one over the '97 Platinum Reds.  The latter is surprisingly plain for a Donruss insert.

2001 brings another pair, starting with Fleer's E-X Essential Credentials (#236/299), a name I remember from my earlier collecting days, and Pacific's Invincible Red (#432/750), one that appears elsewhere in my inserts collection.

As we move ahead another year we're treated to another Fleer brand parallel with Box Score's First Edition (#020/100), then one of my favorite cards in the whole post, a Championship Ticket from 2002 Contenders (#088/250).  For some reason the combination of color and holographic foil is very pleasing to my collecting eye.  I consider it a cool yearly parallel regardless.

Our last pair (there's an odd number, obviously) hails from 2005, starting with a Silver parallel from Bowman (#118/200) and a Gold one from Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity (#146/199).  Sorry, I don't have anything bronze to go with those!

Last up we head all the way back to Griese's rookie year of 1998 and another instance of Upper Deck's Black Diamond brand in the form of an insert called Sheer Brilliance (#0045/1400).  His future surely looked brilliant after winning a national title the previous season and getting drafted as a potential heir to John Elway.

While I managed to add seven cards of current Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh only two of them are numbered since the bulk of his career was spent before that was a trend.  The first two you see here--Press Proofs from 1996 Donruss and Leaf--are limited to just 2000 copies, they just aren't stamped.  The Donruss version includes the helmet die-cut like the Wheatley earlier, and the Leaf card goes a step further in taking bites out of either side to give it a bit more of an hourglass shape.

Joining them are another pair of 96s, in this case from Topps brands.  One is the Pacific-like Pro Bowl insert from Stadium club while the other is an insert called Tide Turners from the debut of Topps Chrome.  Jim was both a Pro Bowler and named AP Comeback Player of the Year in '95 so the Chrome card certainly makes sense.

Then our numbered cards appear back-to-back with another 1998 Black Diamond Rookies Triple (#0557/1500) and 2000 Score Scorecard (#1566/2000).  Something tells me I should try to pick up the 2000 Score set at some point since it's obviously chock full of Wolverines!

We'll end his bunch on a high note with some Dufex coolness in the form of a horizontal Trophy Collection parallel from 1996 Pinnacle.  Those cards are great as-is, and so is the design from that year, but the photo selection really makes for a winner here.

Amani Toomer is the other WR in this triple-decker QB sandwich.  While his recent derogatory comments about the state of the team--from a guy who doesn't appear to make any effort to make a connection with his alma mater, no less--irked me quite a bit, I don't tend to make my collecting decisions based on stuff like that.  So don't be too surprised that he was the biggest winner of this COMC run with 12 new cards.

Toomer was yet another player that appeared in the '97 Totally Certified Platinum Red insert, but I also found his Blue version (#1882/2499), definitely more appropriate for a Michigan guy.  A '99 Topps Stars parallel creatively named Parallel (#168/299) finishes off the late 90s group while an early iteration of Absolute's Tools of the Trade name (#0503/1000) begins the 2000s, which is when the rest of Amani's cards cards for today were produced.

For those we jump ahead a few years where Topps Chrome Refractors from 2004 and '05 sandwich an Upper Deck Foundations Exclusive Gold (#063/100) parallel, also from '04.  Then 2006 brings a nice looking Gold version of the familiar Elite Series from Donruss Elite (#0134/1000) and the penultimate Scorecard parallel (#521/750) for this post.

A 2007 Bowman Chrome XFractor (#081/250) is the sole example of that type of insert today, but for a good reason--I already own the Refractor from that year.  Then we finish up in 2008 with a Scorecard insert that's not from flagship Score, but its Select version (#049/100) instead, and a Topps Gold Border (to differentiate it from the useless Gold Foil inserts) printed during his sunset season.

As always I had a blast searching high and low (especially low!) on COMC for these new additions to my football inserts PC, finding all kinds of designs that caught my eye.  And as I mentioned I still have some others to show off in the player collections post that will be the finale of this series soon.  Until then, which ones do each of you like the best?