2017 COMC purchases: too many Manninghams! (and more)

It's taken me until we're almost 100 days into 2018 but once I hit the Publish button on this post I'll have finally wrapped up 2017!

Today is all about my football player collections; rookies, inserts, hits, it's all there.  I hit eight of the nine (I left Tom Brady out since I don't really buy his stuff that often--he shows up in trade packages frequently enough!) and ended up with 66 cards including 22 hits.  Let's have a look at them so I can finally move on to stuff from this year!

We'll start alphabetically with Adrian Arrington, currently the lone supercollection of my football PCs.  I tracked down three of his inserts from Panini-related brands:  2008 Donruss Threads Bronze Holofoil (#131/250) and 2008 Score Gold Zone (#193/400), plus 2009 Donruss Threads Pro Gridiron Kings Framed Red (#072/100).  The theme of my Michigan Football purchases besides hits is "Numbered, shiny, Refractor, or all of the above" and these fit well.  I'm now at about 20% of AA's 370 cards

Braylon Edwards' stuff is plentiful on COMC so I had no problem finding a stack of cool cards of his.  In this first scan you can see more items that fit the description I mentioned above.  In fact everything I found of him is serial numbered as well.  That includes a Playoff Contenders insert from his 2005 rookie year, Topps Triple Threads base cards from 2006, '07, and '09 (plus a Sepia parallel from '06), a 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear parallel, plus more 2009 fun that comprises a numbered Finest Refractor plus parallels from Leaf Rookies and Stars and Topps Unique.

The last of the vertical inserts can be seen here--a Gold 759 parallel (guess what it's numbered to) from Topps' 2010 Unrivaled, plus a really nice insert from 2011 Panini Gold Standard called Golden Anniversary.

The horizontals begin with another 2005 Contenders insert that pairs Bray-Bray with fellow first-round WR Troy Williamson (definitely the lesser of the two).  That's followed by yet another numbered base card, this one from Panini's 2010 Plates and Patches.  Then that year's Topps Unrivaled makes a second appearance with a numbered chase card set called Veterans.

I also turned up a decent hit of Edwards, a Prime Cuts jersey (#49/50) from 2009 Donruss Rookies and Stars.  It met my usual cheapo price range for relics and comes with two colors, making it a solid addition to my Braylon Hits, now at 71 (and 235 cards overall).

As much as I love getting anything new of Mike Hart it's harder than it should be to find good prices for him when it comes to COMC inventory.  I at least tracked down this fun pair of 2008 Topps-branded parallels:  Kickoff Silver Holofoil (#0399/1349) and Letterman Refractor (#95/99).  Though I've been chasing the Letterman rookies of my guys I wasn't aware they had Refractor versions so that was a very nice surprise.  The Kickoff card, football's version of Opening Day, was a fun pickup too.  Together this pair jumps me up to 120 different Hart items.

Hey, it's blog favorite QB Chad Henne!  The new KC Chiefs backup found his way into my cart a good few times on some numbered inserts, plus one that's just plain ol' shiny.  He shares a 2008 Leaf Rookies and Stars insert you'll see again shortly with another PC guy, then goes solo on the rest:  2010 Crown Royale Blue (#049/100) and Playoff Contenders Playoff Ticket (#24/99), 2011 Rookies and Stars Longevity Parallel Silver (#211/249), and 2014 Panini Hot Rookies Showcase (#68/79).  The only non-numbered card is the horizontal one, 2011 Prestige Prestigious Pros Red.  It may not be the Michigan hue, but I sure do like the blue that the Score parallel is rocking!

And what would a post with Henne be without adding on to his football collection-leading hits total?  The first one is a mouthful:  2008 Absolute Memorabilia Rookie Premiere Materials AFC/NFC Spectrum Prime dual jersey/ball (#12/25) (sorry, Gavin!  Find me another one and you're welcome to this one.).  I've got a bunch of Henne's stuff (and other Wolverines too) from this product and am always happy to add to it.  Here the draw for me was the nice pair of "prime" jersey swatches.

Speaking of "I already had a bunch of these", how about another addition to my 2008 SPx haul?  I did a quick count and this dual jersey card with the cut out area in the shape of the "SPX" name seems to be my 11th from that product (against seven of the Absolutes).  They look nice enough and usually don't go over $1.50 so they're well within my range).

But why don't we put a nice cherry on top of this sundae with my fifth Henne plate?  Already my third from 2014 alone, this one's a Cyan version from that year's Rookies and Stars set (the others are Prestige and Score if you were interested).  It's always a good day when you can add this many cards to your favorite PC and an even better one when one of those is a plate!  That's 114 hits of Chad, 266 cards overall, and 98 1/1s.

It happens to be good timing to be posting cards of the LT that protected Henne at Michigan and in Miami, former #1 overall pick Jake Long.  That's because he finally recovered from multiple injuries and surgeries to the point that he was able to to run for the first time in 18 months.  Football obviously takes a toll regardless, but nobody deserves that much pain!

For his collection I grabbed three cards from the 2008 Leaf Rookies and Stars Studio Rookies insert:  the Combos card you saw above with Henne (#413/500) plus his solo card (#0899/1000) and the Gold version of that (#304/500).  Then I tacked on yet another Gold card, this one the parallel from 2014 Topps (#0756/2014).

Happily I also didn't come up empty when it came to hits of the big guy.  Like his former teammate I came up with this '08 SPx dual jersey card whose version is described as "SPx Rookie Materials Star and Position Dual 149" (#023/149).  The nomenclature may be a bit ridiculous but at least you know what you're getting!  And what I got was five new Longs to reach 75 hits (just the second player to claim that many) and 115 cards overall.

There's still plenty to come in this post but we're now at the main course:  too many Marios!  Mr. Manningham led all comers in cards and it wasn't even close--wait until you see what I have in store!

Let's begin with this bevy of inserts.  The first two rows include 2008 inserts from Donruss Gridiron Gear and Leaf R&S (the previously seen Studio Rookies) plus Topps parallels:  a Chrome Refractor and Gold from flagship.  The horizontal pair next to them hail from 2008 Absolute and 2010 Prestige.  Everything is numbered except the Refractor, not that it needs that feature to be awesome.

Then the bottom trio includes two parallels from the fine looking 2011 Timeless Treasures set: Silver (#74/99) and Gold (#06/49).  A Gold Topps parallel from 2012 rounds out the inserts.  But we're just getting started, oh yes indeed.

Let's start with a perfect page of eight landscape hits.  The first two are from UD's fantastic 2008 SP Rookie Threads product, the one responsible for my all-time favorite Lettermen cards.  On the left is a dual patch (#46/75) the its partner in crime is a dual jersey/auto (#10/50).  Regarding the latter I was like "'RT'?  He's a wide receiv--ooooh, 'Rookie Threads'".

Then there's a four-spot of the very familiar 2008 SPx rookie materials:  Football Shape Dual 119 dual jersey (#077/119), SPX New Logo Dual 75 dual jersey (#14/75), SPX Dual 199 dual jersey (#091/199), and SPX Triple 99 triple jersey (#49/99).  I'm secretly building my own Giants jersey, y'all!

Moving on to the bottom row I grabbed a 2009 Prestige Rookie Review Materials Prime jersey (#14/50) with a nice two color/stitching combo, and this post's other Manningham autograph, 2016 Panini Plates and Patches Pivotal Marks (#63/99).  That one correctly highlights his extremely important catch in Super Bowl XLVI that led to the winning points.  If that's not pivotal I don't know what is!

Now let's pad that hit total a bit more.  We'll go back to 2008 and begin with a huge jersey swatch/rookie from the fantastic Leaf Certified Materials (#203/599), another product that was quite friendly towards some of my favorite draftees from that year.  Then a decent Dress For Success jersey from R&S (#050/250) leads into another highlight-worthy card from SP Rookie Threads:  a Rookie Numbers Holofoil Patch (#51/75) with the cutout done in the shape of Super Mario's pro number.  Sticking with 2008 one final time I came up with a cheap (and accordingly tiny) jersey card from Icons (#178/199), which has never been high on my list.  Then Manningham goes out in style thanks to that 2014 Elite Throwback Threads Prime jersey (#19/49), which is on par with the Prestige card from above.

How about some numbers for the guy they called "the New Math" in Ann Arbor?  22 new cards, 13 of them hits, for 190 overall and the silver medal as the new #2 in my football PC with 81 hits!  Long and Edwards are left behind eating his dust, at least for now.

Now we're done with the cards I was the most excited to post, but I still have two more players to get to, and some nice stuff of them at that!  First is Denard Robinson, the most recent Michigan QB I've seen play live.  You all got to see the card on the left, his 2013 Absolute RC, a few posts ago, and to that I added a 2015 Certified Mirror Silver (#116/499).  I'm glad to see the Certified Mirror name has stuck around for 20+ years!

And the hits kept coming for Shoelace too.  Finding his hits at reasonable prices on COMC is like shooting fish in a barrel, which is fun for a collector like myself.  It's so easy I scored these three relic/auto cards for under $6 combined.  All are from his rookie year of 2013 out of Panini brands:  his Limited jersey/auto/RC (#264/299), Momentum Rookie Signatures triple jersey auto (#053/199), and Totally Certified Red Signatures jersey auto (#050/299).  Autographs are still my favorite hits to pick up but the Limited and Totally Certified issues came with very nice swatches too!

Oh yeah, and for a bit more than the price of those three--just $6.50--I landed my first 1/1 of the quick QB:  a 2016 Donruss Cyan plate from Plates and Patches.  I think you all know I'm a big fan of the classic Donruss look, and I'd say Panini's treated it well over the years.  It certainly looks nice here in plate form, if you ask me.  By the way, that's 1/1 #99, so we'll be celebrating a fun milestone very soon!  For now I'll enjoy four new Denard hits for a new count of 36, and 78 items overall.

And now I can say farewell to 2017 in style thanks to a quintet of cards starring my alma mater's upcoming Spring Commencement speaker, Charles Woodson.  You already saw the first two cards, rookies from 1998, in my Rookie Blue post a couple weeks ago, so you know how I feel about those (reminder:  Playoff Momentum gets a biiiiiig thumbs down).  To those I added a fun trio of inserts. 

First is a Pewter parallel (#120/199) from the retail version of 2015 Crown Royale.  These die-cut cards already look nice enough but pewter makes for a good alternate version.  Next is what's somehow the only Michigan uni card in the entire post, a gorgeous Stained Glass insert from 2015 Panini Prizm Draft Picks.  It's easily one of those "I saw it and I had to have it" kind of purchases and I bet I get at least one identical comment about it when this goes up.  Last is one final parallel, the Jumbo version of Chuck's Gold Zone (#44/99) from 2016 Score.  I don't think Panini should have made different versions of these, but at least the numbering helps you differentiate them.

It wasn't a huge haul for Woodson but he remains the player collection leader for now with 269 cards, three more than Henne.

And this super fun sendoff to 2017 bumped me up to 1266 football hits (up from the easier to remember 1234!).

Now that I'm finally, finally done,

I can say thank you to everyone who made 2017 another great year of collecting for me, and here's to 2018!  Maybe I'll even get most of my pickups from this year posted before next March....

2017 COMC purchases: hitsville UM-S-A

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.

2017 COMC purchases: basketball and hockey

Welcome to the first of what will likely be five posts in which I finally conclude a look at my 2017 purchases by covering everything I nabbed from COMC late last year.

Today's post covers both basketball and hockey since I didn't pick up much of either (as usual):

Darius Morris 2012-13 Immaculate Collection Printing Plates Yellow (1/1)

Nik Stauskas 2014-15 Spectra Global Icons Printing Plates Yellow (1/1)

Like I said, I really don't chase basketball very much, but how could I pass up this pair of plates for around $11 combined?  The top one is my second 1/1 of Morris, the former Laker who's now playing in China, and it represents my 12th hit of him overall, good enough to break the tie with fellow former Laker (among other teams) Cazzie Russell.

If two plates out of 12 hits seems pretty good, prepare to be impressed by Nik "Sauce Castillo" Stauskas.  The Canadian star (whose plate is definitely far yellower than Morris' above) appears on a 1/1 on four of his six hits in my basketball collection.  That's crazy!  What's just as cool is that I now have double-digit 1/1s in all four sports of my Michigan PCs, and a pretty sweet 97 overall--and this is only my first COMC post in this bunch so who knows what might happen to that number soon!

Shawn Hunwick 2012-13 Panini Prime Dual Jerseys dual jersey (with Dalton Prout) (#011/200)

Shawn Hunwick 2012-13 Panini Prime Prime Time Rookies Jersey Autographs jersey auto (#20/50)

These next two are the first additions to my Shawn Hunwick PC since last October--as I find myself saying too often, his cards can be hard to find at reasonable prices for whatever reason.  Both are from 2012-13 Panini Prime--part of the excellent Rookie Anthology Product--and that's no surprise since Hunwick appears on 15 cards under that title (not including 1/1s).  This pair doubles my count to four of those, and some toughies await including three numbered to five copies and one limited to just three.  I'll take 'em as I find 'em.

I didn't know a thing about Prout so I looked him up and found out that he lasted with Columbus far longer than Shawn did, though he's most recently been associated with New Jersey.  The card he shares with the former Michigan goalie is the only such issue I have in Hunwick's collection so far.

Meanwhile the auto/jersey is far more interesting by virtue of including a signature along with a huge jersey swatch.  Just another example of Panini doing it the right way, I guess!

I now lay claim to 27 of Hunwick's 71 non-1/1s, 30 overall, and 15 hits.

We'll end the day with one more goalie on a flat-out cool card, one you'd be forgiven for mistaking for a Pacific product.  This Marty Turco Hot Gloves insert actually hails from an Upper Deck/McDonald's partnership from 2006-07.  It's die-cut in the shape of a goalie's catcher, and the main characteristic differentiating it from a Pacific-produced card is that it doesn't feature manufactured "netting", or die-cutting in that area at all.  But that doesn't take away from its very cool design, one that's definitely worthy of my favorite goalie's PC.

Come back soon for more COMC goodies as we go on a four post football run!

2017 Sportlots purchases: bringing the Wood, son

I've got one post left in my series covering my huge Sportlots purchase over on TMV, but that's gonna wait (at least) one more day as I feature the final football guy over here:  Charles Woodson.  As was the case on the other blog, the player featured in the finale is the one for whom I landed the most new cards, and that was definitely the case with Woodson.  What did I land, and how many?  Keep reading to find out!

My haul begins with 1999 because the previous year is pretty much RC stuff, most of which I have.  So we'll start with second-years from an earlier incarnation of Absolute as well as Bowman Chrome.  Then begins a huge run of a company many of you might have forgotten or weren't aware of in the first place:  Collector's Edge.  Considering it produced its final cards the following year, meaning it's been almost 20 since they came out, you could definitely be forgiven for your ignorance or lack of awareness.

The product titles here include Advantage, First Place, Fury, Masters, and Supreme, with a couple Gold Ingot parallels thrown in.

The CE name claims the first two cards here--another Gold Ingot parallel plus a set called Triumph.  Then it's off to more familiar territory.  The next pair hails from Donruss:  the flagship product as well as Elite, a couple I'm happy to see standing strong today.  Speaking of strong brands, I grabbed a pair from that year's Finest as well, and that's another set whose quality was top notch for a while.  A classic Fleer Tradition design leads into two products still available today:  (Leaf) Certified and Rookies and Stars.

Here's a scan with a lot to like, especially a cool Playoff Prestige SSD (hobby) design, Score, Stadium Club, and Topps Chrome.  Stadium Club is a product that worked for every sport and I'm disappointed that NFLers won't appear on it any longer, at least for the foreseeable future.

The first five cards here finish up '99, and those include Topps Stars, Ultra, and three UD offerings:  MVP, Retro, and Victory.  That looks like Broncos star Ed McCaffrey, father of Wolverines QB Dylan, making a cameo on the Ultra card!

Then 2000 brings us Bowman and its Chrome version, one last Collector's Edge product (T3), and Donruss.  I liked seeing the versions of Donruss in the first scan and this one because the manufacturer used those in "what would have been"-type cards in their 2001 baseball return.

And like those Donruss products, I collected the baseball versions of some of these as well, such as Metal, Skybox, and Ultra.  Those Pacific and Score designs are among my favorites for each and really make me wish the latter had been able to last longer in the baseball world.  Meanwhile, the super shiny Leaf Certified reminds me of the two RCs I still need from the product:  WR Marcus Knight and some guy named Brady.

The final four cards from 2000 are an all Upper Deck affair.  A cool flagship design is followed by a Silver Script parallel from MVP, and then there's a pair from that year's Victory.  That's a pretty cool achievement for Chuck since defenders obviously don't get the hobby love they deserve.

A very cool Absolute Memorabilia design kicks off 2001, though it's possible I like it because I associate it with some of my favorite hits.  Then there's a pretty good Bowman design, followed by the always excellent Classics, one of Donruss' best brands.  Lastly, Focus and Game Time are a couple examples from the Fleer brand explosion around that time (which can be seen much more prominently in my collection when it comes to baseball).

One more (non-Ultra) Fleer product kicks off this scan, then it's on to perennial offering Rookies and Stars.  Playoff Honors proved difficult to scan, but I assure you it looks quite nice.  Leaf's higher-end Quantum Leaf product looked great in 2001 thanks to the bold blue featured up front.  Score and Select featured solid looks as usual.  Pacific's Titanium (Retail) was kind of forgettable that year.  And Topps Chrome gave us another very good effort, joined by a product called "Collection", which was essentially a stamped factory set version.

More excellence from Ultra and Upper Deck flagship begin the end of 2001, with Top Tier (a pretty unnecessary product), Vintage, and Victory closing the book on that year.  Then 2002 opens with another fun Absolute Memorabilia design, an absolutely bonkers Crown Royale die-cut piece, the usual from Donruss, and a retro-like Fleer Platinum.  Kudos to Pacific for breaking the mold!

Fleer Showcase and its beautiful framed art-style design start off this scan that features plenty of nice stuff including Showcase's sister brand, Tradition.  Leaf Certified shines, literally, in another excellent iteration.  The two Pacific cards--flagship and Adrenaline--are the least interesting of this bunch for me but that's a high bar to cross.  Meanwhile, Playoff Prestige is another good looker and Score is a nice way to go back to the basics.  Lastly, Topps (the 2002 set is one I don't own) and Chrome look outstanding despite the green border (I would've gone with blue!).

Another beautiful Ultra design leads into an Upper Deck trilogy (but not Trilogy) to end 2002:  flagship, MVP, and XL.  I loved the latter's baseball version, 40 Man, so I should see how many Wolverines from that product I can track down.

Another three-peat begins 2003 as Fleer leads the charge via Focus, Platinum, and Tradition.  The last two are about on par with each other in terms of quality while I don't find Focus that interesting.

Lastly, a couple Leaf-branded products end this scan:  the beautiful and shiny Certified Materials and the not-that-exciting Rookies and Stars.  I guess I just never saw the use of R&S as a base set, though it did offer some interesting inserts.

Playoff's Hogg Heaven was kind of a weird brand that didn't leave me wanting more when it quietly went away, but at least Prestige still exists with quality designs like this one from '03.  Score and Topps were both their usual solid selves that year, and I'm always up for shots of Chuck returning yet another INT.  That year's Upper Deck features a fantastic shot of Woodson going all out to defend a pass against the Steelers.  And then 2004 begins on a high (-end) note with Absolute Memorabilia, Donruss Classics, and Leaf Certified Materials.  Another understated Fleer Tradition design balances things out a bit here.

The first four cards here are 2004's swan song:  Score, Sweet Spot, Topps Total, and Upper Deck--a nice little mix of base design.  Then we take a very brief visit to 2005 with Score (again), Topps Heritage, Topps Total (again), Topps Turkey Red, and Ultra.  That year's Heritage went with a great retro look in the style of many past designs.  Turkey Red was a fun throwback that also worked in the baseball world.  And Ultra proved it was still among the best lookers.

I don't know if Woodson got less hobby love over the next few years or if I just found less to buy, but this group of nine is spread across 2006-2011.  '06 is represented by Topps brands Chrome, Heritage, and Total, with Heritage definitely another highlight in terms of design.  The next two years are each represented by Upper Deck and very different designs; '08 has always been among my favorites.

Topps' forgettable Platinum shines by itself in terms of the '09 stuff, then we skip 2010 entirely.  Excellent designs (as usual, sorry to beat a dead horse) from Prestige and Score are joined by a nice Topps effort called Legends, which correctly included the legendary Woodson.

A couple more Topps cards finish out 2011:  a Blue parallel of the Legends card you just saw, plus a brand called Rising Rookies with a design that evokes Upper Deck for me.

2012 gets a nice, shiny start with Certified and Donruss Elite, and then the Panini train keeps rolling with Prestige, Rookies and Stars, and Score.  I like how the Elite and Score cards both include the retro Packers unis.

Last up, another looker from Topps Archives reps 2013 and a design that's not quite up to snuff with its predecessors can be seen on 2014's Absolute.

This group of six, the last of the vertical cards, is one of my favorites for fairly obvious reasons.  The all-Panini bunch includes the Retail version of Absolute from above, 2015 Donruss (on another design I appreciate) and Prizm from the same year.  But the real stars are 2015 and 2016 Contenders Draft Picks and Prizm Draft Picks from 2015.  Michigan uniform cards uber alles!  I'm already a fan of most Contenders designs so those two are particular highlights for me thanks to the college unis.

This first of two horizontal bunches has some interesting stuff including:  a 1999 Pacific card shared with a fullback(!); a cool looking Ultra insert from 2000 with the punny title of "Instant Three Play"; Fleer Tradition base and Glossy versions from 2001; and a super cool die-cut cut that could only have been made by Pacific.

And now we've finally made it to the end.  The Fleer Premium card is a base issue that looks more like an insert.  2005 Upper Deck has a shot of a savvy vet letting the offense know he's coming for them.  A retail version of Ultra from 2007 is hard to distinguish from the hobby card.  2009 SPx could use a bit more game action going on in the background but Woodson returning a pick is the star of the show anyway.  And lastly, Charles is seen taking another INT back to the house on a 2012 Gridiron base.  I wonder which Broncos QB was responsible--Tim Tebow or Kyle Orton?

This crazy bunch of new cards--almost 150 in total--pushes the Michigan great to the leader of pack that is my football PCs with 264, good for a slim lead over second place guy Chad Henne.  We'll see how long that advantage lasts!

With my Sportlots acquisitions from 2017 now done, next on my plate will be the last of my pickups from last year:  another huge COMC haul.  Stay tuned!