COMC/JustCommons/Sportlots 2013 roundup part 13: final football featuring Pee-Wee's playhouse!

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I've been sitting on a bunch of purchases from late 2013 that needed to be recorded, scanned, and posted, and I'm finally getting around to those.  In many cases I may just mash up purchases by player instead of online store to make things easier.  We'll see just how many posts I get out of this series, which I'm going to abbreviate COMC-JC-SL 2013.

Here we are, finally at the last post of this series, meaning I'll have showed off the rest of my outstanding purchases from 2013!  I have plenty of excuses for taking this long, but instead, let's just enjoy some football cards.  Everything you see today came from COMC, and this is the second half of the group I showed off in post #8 in the series last month.  That one was all hits as I was excited to hit a major milestone, but you'll see a bit more of a mix today if you read on...right now!:

Anthony Carter 1986 Topps RC

Charles Woodson 1998 Metal Universe RC

Charles Woodson 1998 Ultra RC

I went on a small roll with RCs, landing these first-years of AC and Woodson.  I'm a bit surprised I never ended up with a Carter until now, either via trade or purchase since it's so cheap.  With Woodson I'm actually working on picking up a bunch of his rookies now, but here I started with a pair of Wolverine uni cards.  The Ultra is one of my favorite all-time cards because I know the image came from Michigan's 1997-98 Rose Bowl in which the Wolverines won their last title.  You can see the back of the image in this Detroit Free Press front page from January 2, 1998 (which sits right above the computer desk in my room in which I'm writing this very post):

From MyTeamPrints.com

It's a great shot of one of football's (college and pros) all-time greats, plus it includes coach Lloyd Carr on the far right, and possibly current coach Brady Hoke immediately to Woodson's right (hard to tell).  These are great additions to my Michigan Football Rookies collection, and I have plenty more to add to that album.

Desmond Howard 1997 Topps Gallery Gallery of Heroes

Ronald Bellamy 2003 Topps Draft Picks and Prospects Chrome Gold Refractor

Victor Hobson 2003 Topps Draft Picks and Prospects Chrome Gold Refractor

Bennie Joppru 2003 Topps Draft Picks and Prospects Chrome Gold Refractor

Ok, now how about some inserts?  I knew I had to grab the Howard when I saw it--I mean, wouldn't you?  Gallery was the source of some absolutely gorgeous cards in the 90s (many of you have surely seen the baseball versions if nothing else) I'd argue the stained glass-type inserts are at the pinnacle of those releases.

The trio of Refractors from 2003 Topps DP&P is also fantastic.  This was back when Topps made really nice college-themed sets with their university uniforms and everything.  Bellamy, Hobson, and Joppru never got a whole lot of hobby love (though Joppru did ok, I suppose), so it's great to see them in action on cards, especially something as nice as Refractors.

And now, of course, the hits:

Anthony Carter 2013 Topps Archives Fan Favorite auto

Here's a very nice AC autograph I'd been chasing since Archives came out last year.  I scored it for a pretty reasonable price, but I don't mind paying a bit more for him because his signature is so nice.  That's a great photo of him in action for the Vikings, too!

Mike Martin 2012 Crown Royale Rookie Signatures Silver Holofoil auto (#075/149)

Mike Martin 2012 Leaf Draft Blue auto

Mike Martin 2012 SP Authentic auto

I don't necessarily mean to pick up all this Mike Martin stuff, but his prices are generally at or below steal level these days, so I'm happy to add them to the collection.  The Crown Royale card is a lower-numbered parallel of this one, while the Leaf Draft is a bluer (and therefore better) version of the Red card I already owned.  The latter immediately jumps to the top of my list of favorite PC Martins.  Finally, the SP Authentic version is totally new, and it's fantastic in its own right in the way only SP Authentic cards can be.  By the way, I'm now just one Martin short of double digits. 

Greg Mathews 2010 SAGE HIT Gold auto (#167/250)

I'm most excited about picking up this Mathews auto not because it's the Gold version, but because it completes the trio from that set.  Here's the Bronze and Silver cards for your viewing pleasure.  Maybe at some point I'll get that up on the completed projects, etc. page.

Ondre Pipkins 2012 Leaf Army All-American Bowl auto

Pee-Wee!  Ondre is a DT who unfortunately injured his ACL last year and is still working his way back from that.  He's still a former highly rated recruit and will hopefully make some noise again when he's completely healthy.  As you might imagine, this is my first card of him since he's still in college--once in a while I like to land these Army All-American cards, though I do try to be careful because of the way guys transfer these days.  Welcome to the PC, Pee-Wee!

Roy Roundtree 2013 Upper Deck Rookie auto

"Tree" is the other new member of the PC today, and he arrives in style on this amazing Upper Deck card, about to catch a pass while wearing the #21 Desmond Howard Legends jersey.  This is a flat-out gorgeous card that does horizontal the right way and pairs a beautiful photo with a great design and signature.  Roy is the WR recruit that former coach Rich Rodriguez lured from Purdue, famously leading idiot Boilermaker coach Joe Tiller to describe him as "A guy in a wizard hat selling snake oil," apparently not realizing that Roundtree hadn't signed an LOI for Purdue and didn't actually want to go there.  He's also playing #138 in the PC!

David Terrell-Anthony Thomas 2001 Titanium Double Sided Jerseys Patches dual patch

David Terrell 2002 Topps Reserve auto

The Terrell/Thomas duo closes things out for us today.  The Bears, of course, chose the pair with their first two picks in 2001, and although they didn't work out in the NFL, I still think it's cool they were selected together, like Jake Long and Chad Henne in 2008.  The dual patch card was surprisingly cheap considering both of the patches are reasonably nice, and are ACTUAL patches, not single-colored swatches referred to as such.  Along for the ride is a very nice solo Terrell auto from 2002 Topps Reserve.  It may be a sticker auto but I have zero issues with it and think it looks great.  By the way, Terrell now sits at 34 cards while Thomas moves up to 33, which is pretty cool.

Ok, I can now close the book on my 2013 purchases!  It was a great year, and I'm very satisfied with my pickups, including the ones you saw in this series.  For the record, my football PC now stands at 815 cards and counting, making me wonder if I can hit 100 by the end of 2014.

On to new content soon, I promise!  Stay tuned for Jeff's tumblr post, which features some verrrrry nice stuff this week.  I'll give you a hint:  basketball is involved. 

COMC/JustCommons/Sportlots 2013 roundup part 12: Heath Murray

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I've been sitting on a bunch of purchases from late 2013 that needed to be recorded, scanned, and posted, and I'm finally getting around to those.  In many cases I may just mash up purchases by player instead of online store to make things easier.  We'll see just how many posts I get out of this series, which I'm going to abbreviate COMC-JC-SL 2013.

This will be the second-to-last post in this series, and the last featuring a baseball PC.  Today's subject is pitcher Heath Murray, who you might remember from such posts as the second in my Many More Michigan Men series.  Before these purchases Murray's PC sat at a paltry three cards.  Let's see how much I added to it late last year:

Heath Murray 1994 Signature Rookies Draft Picks Signatures auto (#7/7750)

First up is an "other" card--an autograph from the EXTREMELY LIMITED unlicensed Signature Rookies set from 1994.  This card likely depicts Heath in Ann Arbor, but since it's airbrushed it doesn't get the "Michigan Uniform" tag.  Still, I'm pretty sure I snagged it for under a buck, and it IS an autograph, so not a bad way to start!

Heath Murray 1994 Stadium Club Draft Picks XRC

Although it's not a "true" RC, but an XRC, this is still Murray's first mainstream card, so that's cool.  As it's Stadium Club, it also gets First Day Issue and Member's Only parallels, though I have yet to find either.  One cool feature I haven't seen in a set before:  the back note's he was a third-round pick (1994) and then updates fans on the status of the team's previous five picks in that round.  The '89-'92 players were uninteresting, but the Padres' 1993 third-rounder was Matt Clement, who went on to a decent nine-year career (and was in Class A at the time).

Heath Murray 1996 Bowman RC

Heath Murray 1996 Bowman Foil

Up next is Heath's only true RC from '96 Bowman, along with the Foil parallel (yep, it existed all the way back then!).  But wait, it doesn't have the RC logo on it, how am I to know that's what this is?!  In all seriousness, this is a nice portrait shot, and the pair represents the sum of Heath's 1996 cards--but far from the only Bowman issues we'll see today.

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Chrome

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Chrome International Refractor

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Chrome Refractor

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman International

I wasn't lying!  These five come from the six-card '97 Bowman/Chrome "rainbow" (which I put in quotes since there's not much to get.  I'm just missing the non-Refractor Chrome International card, which I don't think I've seen for sale so far.  The inaugural release of Chrome proved to be a very popular one, and it became a fan-favorite that's highly-regarded to this day, though it's become much more complicated.  For my part I think the design came out very well when Chrome-ified, and I love the Refractors, as usual.

Heath Murray 1998 Bowman Chrome

Heath Murray 1998 Bowman International

1998 Bowman/Chrome increases slightly to a nine-card rainbow thanks to a couple more parallels, but I don't currently have any to show here.  The Chrome set again looks nice, so I look forward to scoring those Refractors.  Meanwhile, the International parallel is a bit of a step up thanks to the map-like background instead of the previous year's flag (although they again improved in subsequent years).  Besides these two, I already have the base Bowman card by virtue of owning the complete set, so I'm 1/3 of the way done here.

Heath Murray 1998 Fleer

This is Heath's other 1998 card, and it signals we're done with Bowman for the day.  I've said a few times I like how Fleer went the highlight stamp route instead of making separate cards, which too often feel like filler.  I'm also a fan of the borderless design, even if the manufacturer went away from the awesome matte finish from the previous years.

Heath Murray 2000 E-X Genuine Coverage jersey

Heath Murray 2000 Fleer Mystique Fresh Ink auto

Heath Murray 2000 SkyBox Autographics auto

Heath Murray 2000 Ultra Fresh Ink auto (#838/925)

After a one-year hiatus, Murray appeared on four cards in 2000:  these four, all of which are hits, which I guess isn't a major surprise since the turn of the century coincided with the relic/autograph explosion in the hobby.  They also happen to be the final four cards for his career, so he certainly when out with a bang.  Once I pick up the '97 Bowman Black, Blue, and Gold Ink autos I'll own 100% of his hits, which seems attainable.

The Reds cards make me laugh a bit because he never appeared in the Majors with the team; Cincy grabbed him off waivers after the '99 season but released him the following spring.  The Dodgers signed him, but Murray never made it back with them either, leading to a 2001 season with Detroit, then a few games in 2002 with Cleveland before he retired.  This isn't the first example of that in my collection, as this Rich Hill Cardinals auto will attest.

Anyway, I do like the various designs Fleer used with the three autograph sets, especially the Mystique and Ultra versions, the latter of which has an interesting sticker design that kind of adds to the card.

These hits make Heath the 21st member of my Michigan Baseball PC, and also put that collection over a pretty major milestone of 250 hits--254 exactly as of today.  So woohoo to that!

I'm also very happy to have added 15 new Murrays to the checklist (and 16 to his collection overall) for a new total of 18/30, which is exactly 60%!

Stay tuned for the final post in the series, which will be all football, plus trade packages and more.

COMC/JustCommons/Sportlots 2013 roundup part 11: Putzing around near the end

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I've been sitting on a bunch of purchases from late 2013 that needed to be recorded, scanned, and posted, and I'm finally getting around to those.  In many cases I may just mash up purchases by player instead of online store to make things easier.  We'll see just how many posts I get out of this series, which I'm going to abbreviate COMC-JC-SL 2013.

J.J. Putz is the focus of my second-to-last baseball post in the series, so let's get down to it with a lucky 13 new additions:

J.J. Putz 2004 Donruss Team Heroes Showdown Bronze (#039/150)

I sort of like the colorful-but-simple base card, although I don't think the Bronze border adds all that much to the package.

J.J. Putz 2005 Donruss Champions Impressions Green (#18/25)

You can really tell this is one of those sets where Panini based the entire design around room for an autograph and then worked backwards.  This is my fifth out of nine cards in this set.

J.J. Putz 2005 Donruss Signature Autograph Gold Master Series auto (#03/50)

In their heyday, the on-card Donruss Signature sets were a sight to behold.  This one's not bad, and features one type of sticker I'm cool with.  It's my fifth of eight in the set, with a pair of autographs and a parallel /10 to go.  Also, this is my seventh autograph and 12th overall hit for J.J., and #249 in the Michigan Baseball PC!

J.J. Putz 2007 Topps Co-Signers Blue (with Felix) (#044/250)

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Co-Signers Silver Blue (with Felix) (#072/250)

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Co-Signers Silver Bronze (with Felix) (#293/300)

Aaaaaand queue the reasons for the "parallelarrhea" tag today.  A good number of the Co-Signers parallels look cool, but there's 12 and 10 cards in the 2007 and 2008 sets respectively that I need to chase after, and they get ridiculous after a while!  I have just three from the former and four from the latter at this point.

J.J. Putz 2008 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor (#167/559)

Now here's a parallel I can enjoy!  I think the Heritage Chrome concept was a great idea, and making Refractors was a natural extension of that.  Sorry the Refractory-ness doesn't come across as well in this scan, but trust me--it's Refractastic.

J.J. Putz 2009 O-Pee-Chee Black

Ok, what I said about the Copper Team Heroes card above?  Take that and multiply it by 10 and then apply it to this card.  Wooo black border....

J.J. Putz 2009 Topps Attax

File this under "The crap player-collectors have to put up with."  At least it was cheap, I guess.

J.J. Putz 2009 Topps Wal Mart Black Border

J.J. Putz 2011 Topps Target

Stupid, useless retail exclusive meets slightly more interesting useless retail exclusive.

J.J. Putz 2013 Topps Mini

J.J. Putz 2013 Topps Mini Gold (#47/62)

Try calling someone "YOU LITTLE PUTZ!" and see how that goes.  As for the Gold, that's a parallel I've always liked, so it's ok in my book.

13 dynamite new J.J.s give me a new PC total of 174/308, with an additional four 1/1s and three "others" for a new count of 181 in Putz's collection.

More on the way soon, including a new Doug C. trade package, the final two posts in this series, another Justcommons haul, and a few welcome additions to the TK Legacy collection!

COMC/JustCommons/Sportlots 2013 roundup part 10: Abbott, Getz, and Richard

(Note:  view all posts in this series with this link)

I've been sitting on a bunch of purchases from late 2013 that needed to be recorded, scanned, and posted, and I'm finally getting around to those.  In many cases I may just mash up purchases by player instead of online store to make things easier.  We'll see just how many posts I get out of this series, which I'm going to abbreviate COMC-JC-SL 2013.


We're finally getting somewhere with these posts covering my last 2013 purchases, and I'm pretty sure I've got about three left--two more baseball players plus the rest of my football haul.  Today you get three more baseball guys:

Jim Abbott 1989 Donruss Rookies RC

Jim Abbott 1989 Fleer Update RC

Jim Abbott 1989 Score Rookie-Traded RC

And just like that I now own all six of Abbott's 1989 RCs (click these for Bowman, Topps, Upper Deck).  You should note that all three of these come from update-type sets, but as is usual retain just about all design elements from the regular sets.  The Donruss card is the most notable as it includes the ubiquitous "The Rookies" logo, which is as familiar to collectors as the company's legendary Diamond Kings.  Meanwhile, the Donruss and Score backs note Abbott pitching at UM and leading the US to the 1988 gold medal while the Fleer card has no stats available and fills the wasted space with...nothing.

Jim Abbott 1993 Finest

Ok, now I have Jim's card from the noted debut set of Finest, now I just need the Refractor.  It can't be all that expensive, right?

Jim Abbott 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection

I keep saying the '95 set is a huge improvement, but I really shouldn't knock the original, which was a cool innovation at the time.  Pinnacle deserves some kudos for a design element that lives on today!

Jim Abbott 2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites

This card actually fills two needs as I was chasing the '05 TATFF set, which I was happily able to complete in the process.  It's done in the style of 1994 Topps, and Jim was actually with the Yankees then, so that works out nicely.

Jim Abbott 2013 Upper Deck National Convention

UD picked a bit of a goofy picture for this convention card from last year, but those of you who know me already understand that I grabbed it because of Abbott appearing in a Michigan uniform.  This was one of the wrapper redemption cards available at the 2013 Chicago national, requiring attendees to purchase certain numbers of packs from the manufacturer.

Seven new Abbott cards give him a new total of 63 cards in his PC!

Chris Getz 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects X-Fractor (#120/199)

Chris has 10 different versions in the 2008 Bowman Draft/Chrome rainbow and this is my 7th, leaving me shy the Blue, Gold, and Red Chrome Refractors.

Chris Getz 2009 O-Pee-Chee

While picking up some other stuff on Sportlots I was able to turn up the base version of Chris' 2009 OPC card, a set produced by Upper Deck (which seems strange since it was a Canadian version of Topps for so long).  I'd previously picked up the Black Mini and now just need the Black parallel along with the Black Blank Back (say that three times fast!) version.

Chris Getz 2012 Topps Toys R Us Purple Border

"Hooray for retail exclusives!" said NO ONE EVER.  With Toys R Us, Walmart, and Target, in addition to the surplus of parallels, it's a bit of a chore to collect all of a player's yearly flagship issues these days.  In the case of Getz's 2012 cards, it looks like I'm short his Black, Factory Set Orange, and Mini Gold versions, so that's not too terrible.

Chris Getz 2013 Topps Update Emerald

Chris Getz 2013 Topps Update Gold (#0771/2013)

Chris Getz 2013 Topps Update Target Red Border

The other half of the Getz haul this time is this three count of 2013 flagship rainbow additions.  Justcommons hooked me up with these on the cheap as they had recently busted a bunch of 2013 Update at the time (I did the same with 2014 flagship recently).  Of his nine issues from that set, I'm surprisingly missing just the Sapphire parallel (/25) and the Walmart Blue exclusive.

Today's six-card Getzfest gives him a new total of 63/101 issues with a total PC count of 64 cards!

Clayton Richard 2005 Bowman Chrome Draft Blue Refractor (#083/150)

Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite Refractor color!  Back in the pre-parallel explosion days, Clayton had just seven different versions in the 2005 Draft/Chrome set, and I just need the Gold (/50) Refractor version to sew things up.  It's so nice not having to chase down the Orange and Red versions, limited as they are!

Clayton Richard 2011 Topps Target

Again with the retail exclusives!  At least this is the final one of the post.  To finish up Clayton's flagship/Chrome collection for that year, I just need to pick up the Gold and Red Refractors; beyond that, I can close the book on all of his 2011 cards by scoring his 2011 Heritage SP, which has been on my radar for a bit.  I'm sure it helps that there's only 22 cards to chase.

Clayton Richard 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Black (#080/199)

I've decided that one Mini doesn't deserve the "Arrrg minis" tag, so you won't see that today.  I like two things about this one:  the black border looks quite nice, and because the variation is on the front, I didn't have to scan the back!  From the set I need three more Minis (including the Wood /5) and the very tough Currency card, also numbered to five, so this one might take a while!

Clayton Richard 2013 Topps Mini

Clayton Richard 2013 Topps Mini Gold (#36/62)

Clayton Richard 2013 Topps Silver Slate Blue Sparkle Wrapper Redemption

We'll finish today's post with one more rainbow chase.  The pair of Minis gives me three of the four from that set (I already had the Pink), although the Black /5 looms large.  The Blue Sparkle is a nice addition, but again, the Silver Slate version /10 will be a tough get.  There's a lot of 2013 parallels to chase and I still need many of them, but I'm sure I'll slowly pick them up as prices drop.

These six new Richard cards run his collection to 95/145 and his total PC to 99 thanks to some 1/1s!

Stay tuned for the final three posts with some newer stuff mixed in.