2018 COMC purchases: 10 years later...

At long last I'm finishing up my 2018 COMC pickups with my favorites--my PC guys from the 2008 draft class!  It's this here blog's answer to GCRL:  Henne, Hart, Manningham, Long:

Record-setting RB Mike Hart is up first with a fun little trifecta.  His Stadium Club RC (#1799/1799!) leaves me just his '08 Upper Deck base short of his first-year run.  Next is a Rainbow parallel of his 2008 UD Icons auto, which looks to be my 64th card featuring his signature.  That product has a design I don't terribly care for but I love adding any new autograph of Hart.  And finally, I came up with a first for his collection:  a printing plate!  It happens to be a Michigan uni card, too, since it's from 2008 Press Pass Legends.  That's 1/1 #119 in my collection!

Now let's look at the Chad Henne pyramid of greatness--look out, Ron Swanson!  While I'd recommend more daily servings of autographs there's plenty here for a healthy collection.  Up top is another great example of Contenders' Playoff Ticket insert I enjoy so much.  A couple solo jersey relics from 2008 Leaf Certified Materials (#d /100) and 2009 Prestige bookend two more that include Chad's fellow '08 Wolverine draftee with the Dolphins, who's coming up next.  Those are #d /250 and /500, respectively.  Henne continues to rule the football collection with 124 hits and is getting close to joining 300-card PC guy Charles Woodson with a new total of 290.

Former #1 overall pick OT Jake Long gets a double-dip with his own group of cards in addition to the pair he shares with Henne above.  He joins Hart in the RC club with his 2008 Topps Letterman base (#104/419), and I appear to be four cards short of Jake's first-years.  I also added a new signature of his (Michigan uni!) thanks to 2008 SAGE Squared, a card he shares with fellow first-rounder Ryan Clady, who went 12th overall to Denver after a good career at Boise State, then enjoyed a solid NFL run cut short by injuries (sounds kind of familiar!).  To those I added a pair of SPx triple jersey relics, giving me nine of his cards from that product featuring many such variations.

This haul moved Long back ahead of Braylon Edwards with 82 hits as the fourth player to hit 80+, leaving him three shy of the next guy you'll see.

You may have heard of him.  Michigan star WR?  Super Bowl hero?  Namesake of this here blog?  Back in January I posted some Sportlots pickups that had me celebrating 200 Many Manninghams, and now I have a few more to add to that pile.  First is a pair of pretty Panini parallels (say that three times fast!):  2011 Gridiron Gear Gold X's (#068/100) and Prestige Xtra Points Red (#046/100).  I love any new Manninghams but I'm extra happy to add some numbered inserts.

Along with those is a new pair of Giants jersey relics.  The first is the Jumbo Swatch version of his 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear relic, a piece that looks great and is numbered 16/50.  From the same year's Leaf Limited I found a Rookie Jumbo Jerseys Team Logo swatch (#18/50) cut in the shape of New York's logo.  Well, a rough outline, anyway!

Manningham's 85 hits are good for second place, though he's a crazy 29 behind top guy Chad Henne, meaning I can't say I have too many!

Now that I'm finally done with these, some show pickups and trade packages should come next.

3/2/19 show report: March "M"adness

The calendar has flipped over to March and once again Michigan fans are looking forward to the NCAA tournament, though a regular season rematch with Michigan State and the Big Ten Tournament await.  Until then let's have a look at the cards I picked up at yesterday's show.  Yes, yesterday!

This is about as topical as it gets right now.  It's not often that I buy any basketball card, let alone one that cost $2, but it fit right in with my purchase from the awesome seller I see each month.  My third hit (all relics) of former Wolverine cager THJ is a 2013-14 Panini National Treasures NBA Rookie Materials jersey (#57/99).  It's a somewhat interesting swatch with a bit of stitching so I was glad to add another card of the two-time Knick who was swapped to the Mavs with fellow alum Trey Burke back in January.

The rest of my TMM haul wasn't large but I was still pretty excited when I pulled a few of these out the boxes I was searching.  Biakabutuka opens the group with a Gold version of his 1996 Donruss Elite appearance (I have the regular version already), a card numbered 1590/2000.  Speaking of inserts I hadn't seen one of the die-cut 2015 Panini Contenders ROY Contenders cards until I happened upon the Funchess above.  If you can't tell from the scan the cutting is around the right half of the "ticket".

Besides Touchdown Tim I came away with two other cards for player collections.  One is the so-Pacific-it's-an-ocean 1994 Prisms base of Jim Harbaugh you see above.  Sorry in advance (too late?) for any damage to your monitors and eyeballs!  Blog favorite QB Chad Henne also makes the cut with a 2010 Score Scorecard parallel (#091/499).  I doubt anyone else would be excited finding that in a quarter box but I let out a quiet but audible "wow", so you know where I stand.

Last up is about a different pair as you'll probably see today.  Recent do-everything guy Jabrill Peppers appears on a 2018 Contenders Draft Picks issue in full Michigan regalia.  Then there's NFL HOF DE Len Ford on a 1994 Topps Archives 1957 card that reprints his only Topps base issue, made in 1957.  That was his only mainstream card from his career besides his '55 Bowman RC (which I own!).  I'll have to try to find the Gold version of this card at some point.

Until next month's show, GO BLUE!

1/5/19 show report: what's this? What's this?!

No, I'm not going all Jack Skellington on you--I just had a bit of a surprised reaction to a card I found in a quarter box at my first show of 2019.  That's saying something since I'm pretty stoked with the stuff I've already shown off on TMV this evening.  But this pair's not bad either:

What's this?  What's this?  A Henne I don't have?  What's this?  What's this?  What can I rhyme with "have"?  Yeah, I'm just a bit geeked that I not only managed to pull a brand new Henne card for myself out of the quarter box--it also happens to be a great numbered parallel with a  Michigan uni photo!  My third entry of his from 2008 Playoff Prestige is an Xtra Points parallel (#125/300), one that forms a nice trio with his base RC and Gold Xtra Points issues.  How could you go wrong with this design plus a photo of the man starring in the 2008 Capital One Bowl victory over Florida?

Joining Chad is a huge relic of a guy who's apparently not long for the Panthers, which could be a boon to his career (accurate QB throwing to him, plz).  It's WR Devin Funchess on a shiny 2015 Panini Spectra Gigantic Jerseys jersey (#160/199), a set that's certainly as-advertised.  This gives me eight hits of the TE-turned-wideout and was definitely a good value for the $1 it set me back.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with pickups from another show this weekend, but other than that you can expect to see some COMC and Sportlots loot when I get around to scanning and posting it!

2018 eBay purchases: is there Henne chance I can finish this in five minutes?

Yep, I'm doing the five minute post thing over here too because, why not?  I'm betting if I allow myself to be ok with shorter posts I'll write more often.

And anyway this is a good time for it since I have a single card to show off, my only eBay purchase so far this month, which I won for a bit under $12 shipped:

This here is a 2014 Prestige Cyan Plate of my favorite football PC guy, Chad Henne.  I'd had my eye on it for quite a while before giving myself the green light as the seller also had a card I was chasing for a trade package.  I didn't win that one and its free combined shipping bonus, but I was still very happy to add another Henne 1/1 to my collection.  That's #7 (hey, his jersey number!) and leads my football collection by a lot since he's the only guy for whom I've nabbed more than two.  It also represents hit #120 (also a huge lead) and my 113th total plate/one-of-one.  I also noticed as I was updating my PC page that Henne continues to creep closer to Charles Woodson for the #1 spot in terms of my football player collections.  I mean, he may as well top all the lists, right?

Showing a Henne card is particularly relevant this week as Michigan prepares for the annual battle with Michigan State.  Chad was partly responsible for the insane triple-OT comeback win against the Spartans during his true freshman season of 2004.  He also tossed three TDs in another overtime victory in '05, three more in a three-score blowout in '06.  Henne finished his Michigan career against MSU with a game-winning pass to Mario Manningham in the 2007 matchup in East Lansing, one four he tossed in the four-point victory.  Yep, he never lost to the couch-burners!

It's definitely been more than five minutes, but once again at least that got me to post!  I'll leave you with a scan of the base version of this card as well as the Yellow Plate which I also own.  Half the plates are mine!

2018 eBay purchases: Henne given Sunday

After finally eclipsing the $1000 mark on card spending this year in September I went back and took a look at my monthly spending going back to 2012 (the first year I started keeping track) and noticed that since 2018 my overall spending is way down from what it was prior.  And I think that's a good thing, because I'm still picking up things I like and growing my collection while cutting the fat and leaving some to spend on other frivolities.

So 2018 has been another year of good collecting value for me, and a great example of that is my most recent eBay pickup:

The card:  a 2013 Panini Contenders Cyan Plate of blog favorite QB Chad Henne.  The cost:  a measly $6.49 delivered.  Hell, the tree fiddy shipping cost more than the card itself!  It's a plate version of this typically solid Contenders base card:

Henne's actually no longer with the Jags as he signed on with KC for a couple years this past offseason.  Jacksonville sure loves them some Jortles, let me tell you.

Of course he's unlikely to see much--if any--playing time this year thanks to the red hot play of sophomore QB Patrick Mahomes.  So I don't know when Chad will next see the field, but fortunately there's still lots of his cardboard to chase.

As for what I do have, that amounts to 282 total cards including six 1/1s as part of a football collection-leading 119 hits.  This new addition also marks my 112th 1/1, a number that boggles my mind every time it increases.

Until next time, JOOOORRRRRTLES!

2018 Sportlots purchases: Too Many Manninghams and the great '08s

Ok, it's about time I got started on my latest Sportlots pickups for this here blog.  I got a bit distracted, as is my way, with putting together a few more player collection albums, but today I'm ready to share the first post in this series. 

Since I began TMV's version with that blog's former and current namesakes, it's only natural that I'd do the same over here.  Mario Manningham it is!  Then I decided that his four new cards alone weren't worth a post by themselves so I added in the rest of his fellow 2008 draftees that have found their way into my PCs.  Enjoy!

First up is old double-A, Adrian Arrington.  These seven newbies were particularly helpful as Arrington is my only supercollection so far.  The first four hail from Press Pass and SAGE, the types of brands I wouldn't include in my baseball PC checklists but consider find when it comes to the gridiron.  Besides, they all feature college unis!  The 2008 trio includes Press Pass SE, its Gold parallel, and an insert called Insider Insight, plus a Glossy parallel from SAGE.

His day is complete with a 2009 Score trio of flagship, that card's Glossy parallel (an insert you may see a few more times today), and the same card from Inscriptions, a related product.  I now count 86 cards in my possession of the 370 I've checklisted for #16.

I didn't have as much luck this time with Mike Hart but did end up with a couple repeats from Arrington's haul:  2008 Press Pass SE base and 2009 Score Glossy.  At least this keeps the college uni train rolling!  Plus it gives me a new count of 124 Harts.

Blog favorite Chad Henne led all comers today with 10 new additions (card #3, from 2010 Absolute, ended up being a dupe as it's the retail version).  Issues from 2008 Press Pass, 2010 SP Authentic and SPx, and 2008 Upper Deck (College to Pros insert) get the Michigan uni treatment and are definitely highlights, though a 2009 Razor Army All-American Bowl card was an interesting change of pace.  You can now put me down for 281 Hennes and counting!

OT OG Jake Long joins Mike Hart at the table for two with this pair:  a 2009 Score Glossy insert (again!) and 2010 Topps Magic base (joining Henne above in the latter set).  While he's the only player in this post without a college action shot he's the fourth and final to be featured on a Glossy Score card, so he's got that going for him.  That and a new total of 120 cards.

And the man of the hour himself in 100% winged helmet form!  The 2008 trio comprises a Donruss Threads insert called College Gridiron Kings (brilliant!), Press Pass, and a Gold parallel from Press Pass PE.  A repeat performance from 2010 SP Authentic caps off a very nice quartet of Super Marios, giving him a new count of 198, putting me tantalizingly close to two hundred many Manninghams!

I haven't decided what I'll show off next but I have plenty to choose from so stay tuned as we near the beginning of the college season!

2018 COMC purchases: PC partying like it's 1999 in red, white, and blue

It's time for the big finish in this latest series of COMC pickups, and I promise you the meaning of the title will soon be clear.

This time I managed to score at least one card of all of my football PC guys except for Tom Brady, since his prices are never reasonable and you guys send a nice amount of his stuff in trade packages because you're awesome.

Here's the results of a couple more months of COMC digging:

Just one Adrian Arrington this time, a 2008 Leaf Limited Silver Spotlight (#55/99) parallel, but that's great since it knocks another card off his checklist (79/370).  I now have 80 unique cards of the former WR.

You already saw those top two Jason Avant cards in my RC post from a few weeks ago, and I'll remind you that they were the last two of his first-years I needed, so that was an exciting development.  To those I added a 2006 Triple Threads Red triple jersey/auto, also from his rookie year, to one of my highest quality player collections of football hits, one that includes two other cards from that year's version of Topps' high-end offering.  Hit #49 of the possession receiver and American Ninja Warrior contestant is my 92nd overall Avant.

One of my PCs that benefited most from this latest shipment is a third of four straight WRs (out of seven in this post), Steve Breaston.  First I found a couple numbered parallels:  2007 Playoff NFL Playoffs Gold Metalized (#021/149) and 2010 Panini Plates and Patches Silver (#010/100).  Then I had even better luck in finding him on signature cards four times:  2007 Playoff NFL Playoffs Signatures Red (#014/100), 2007 SP Rookie Threads Rookie Exclusive Autographs (#083/100), 2007 Leaf Limited auto RC (#34/99), and 2009 SP Threads Stitch in Time Autographs.  Between the uniform and ink I even came up with a couple patriotic cards for the holiday!

These new additions give me 31 hits of the former Cardinal and 99 total cards in his collection.

I promise I'll get to other positions in a minute, but alphabetically this is where we are with our fourth receiver in a row, Braylon Edwards.  No hits today but plenty of numbered insert goodness!  The first two are Elite Series inserts from 2007 Elite:  Black (#334/400) and Gold (#0130/1000) versions.  Next is a 2007 Topps Chrome White Refractor (#391/869) that calls back to my previous inserts post where I showed off a few more of those.  A 2008 trio includes Donruss Threads Retail Blue (#339/350), Topps Triple Threads Emerald (#120/149), and 2008 Leaf Limited Bronze Spotlight (#038/125).  Last up is a 2009 Donruss Classics Timeless Tributes Silver (#067/100) parallel.  Those Elite cards are great but I have to give the nod to the White Refractor today!

The productive college receiver sits comfortably among my player collections with a new total of 243 cards.

Here's our first non-WR of the day.  QB Brian Griese certainly made the most of his quartet of cards if you ask me.  A super cool acetate/die-cut insert called Star Studded from 2000 Fleer Focus leads things off, and it has to be one of my top five cards from this whole purchase.  It's followed by the last example of 2000 Quantum Leaf's Double Team insert (#0779/1500) from this purchase, one where Griese understandably plays second fiddle to HOF RB Terrell Davis, whose 1997 and '98 campaigns were legendary.

Last up for the inserts is a 2003 Topps Chrome Black Refractor (#351/599) that notes Griese heading home to play for the Dolphins in 2003, the same team his father led for his whole NFL career.

Those cool new additions are joined by Brian's fantastic signature (and number inscription!) on a 1999 Donruss Private Signings auto card.  The design's a bit simple (and I could do without the purple) but NFL penmanship doesn't get much better than that!  Griese's hit total moves up to 17 and his overall PC now stands at a healthy 124.

Stud CB Leon Hall accounts for half of the Michigan uniform cards I have to show off today, though you already saw those--2007 Donruss Elite and Ultra--in the rookies post.  Those are joined by a couple more rookie-year cards: a pair of parallels.  First is a Contenders Playoff Ticket (#33/99), giving me another example of that fun insert in my collection.  Sometimes it's nice not to have to chase 20 different versions of a card!  Speaking of cards with lots of parallels, I paired that with yet another 2007 Topps Chrome White Refractor (#156/869), the last one I came up with.

These four put Hall's total up to a respectable 83 with some help from Sportlots incoming.

Don't call it a Hart attack because the only Mike Hart I picked up this time was his 2008 Upper Deck Icons RC you previously saw.  That's card #122 of the former Colts RB.

It was another good package for hits leader Chad Henne, if not for Hart.  Just one insert leads off this group, a 2008 Bowman Chrome Rookies Bronze (#195/329) parallel that looks a bit more like orange in the scan.  Then hit #1 is one of the best cards in the entire purchase, a 2014 Totally Certified Awesome Autographs Blue auto (#04/15).  I showed off the Gold version back in May and that one's numbered to 5 while this school colors-appropriate variation is a bit less rare, but all the more patriotic for it.  USA!  USA!

Hit number two is a 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear dual jersey/ball (#18/25) that was a last-minute addition as I missed shipping a few cards in my original package and decided to fill out a smaller one.  It's my fifth hit from a brand with some cool cards that year.

The other two are a couple more examples from the plethora of variations out of 2008 SPx.  As it turns out the top card ("Star and Position Dual 149", #045/159) was new to me as I'd believed but the other ("SPX Dual 199") was already in my collection.  That's easy to do when you have 11 cards from the same confusing product!

No worries, Henne still leads the way with 118 hits, though the missed opportunity at another addition keeps him in second place overall at 271 total cards.

Henne's college/pro teammate Jake Long popped up twice in this package.  The first was his previously seen 2008 UD Masterpieces rookie while I also came up with an autograph from the same year's SP Rookie Threads SP Authentics (#025/244).  The sticker auto is my 77th hit of the former #1 overall pick, and 118th card in his collection.

Let's keep this 2008 draft class run going with blog namesake Mario Manningham!  Our fifth WR today previously appeared in the RCs post thanks to the cards bookending this scan, hailing from 2008 Donruss Classics and Ultimate Collection, ending my search for his 23 RCs.  To those I added a 2008 Finest Moments Black Refractor (#88/99).  This parallel of the regular insert highlights Super Mario's excellent game-winning catch with a couple minutes remaining in the rivalry game at Michigan State in 2007.

With this new trio I'm nearing 200-many Manninghams with a new total of 193.

My Chris Perry haul was anything but, but that doesn't mean he got completely shut out this time.  Here's Chris on another Playoff Contenders Playoff Ticket insert (#04/99), this time from the 2008 iteration of the product.  And that's not the last one you'll see today either!  Before we get there, this is card #87 in my Perry collection, and I'm looking forward to getting him over the century mark with some incoming Sportlots items.

MGoBlog's brief celebratory 4th of July post includes a fun highlight video of our next player, Denard Robinson, which reminded me once again of how Shoelace remains the most electric player I've witnessed in-person in any sport.  It's no wonder I keep collecting his stuff like this pair of 2013 hits.  On the left is a Panini Prizm Autographs auto, and like a fine wine that's paired with a Limited Rookie Jumbo Jerseys RC Logo Autographs dual jersey auto (#78/99).  This shiny pair came in at a paltry $3 total and gives me 82 total Denards, 38 of which are hits.

Since you can't have one without the other I'll handle David Terrell and Anthony Thomas together.  Also you already saw all four of these cards in the football rookies post.  Terrell's 2001 Pacific Dynagon Retail puts him at 87 cards while the A-Train rides again with 2001 Fleer Focus, Private Stock, and Upper Deck Rookie FX over the century mark to 101.

Today's penultimate player is the final WR, Amani Toomer.  I turned up four very attractive parallels of him, starting with my favorite, a 2000 Bowman's Best Acetate Parallel (#239/250).  It's hard to tell by the scan but these live up to their names and are see-through, which makes them look fantastic.  I love when searching for new PC additions introduces me to nice looking stuff I didn't know about!

Joining that one from the year 2000 is a Topps Chrome Refractor, done up in a nice shade of blue.  We've definitely got all the colors of the flag today and those colors don't run!  That includes a very red 2001 E-X Essential Credentials (#190/299) parallel.  I recall the name and multiple versions from E-X's earlier iterations, and this one is a great example.

Last up is a 2004 Playoff Contenders Playoff Ticket (#137/150), which is an old enough version that it's numbered to 150 instead of the more common 99.  Toomer's Giants didn't reach the playoffs in 2003 but he did place second in TD receptions with 5.  And speaking of numbers I now have 104 different cards of Toomer.

Last up as usual is the GOAT, Charles Woodson.  You can see here that I finished my run of Playoff Tickets with the legendary DB in the form of this 2015 version (#031/199), which also carries different serial numbering.  The design is perfect for his Raiders uniform after his return to the team that drafted him.  And though it's just one card it ends up being important as it puts him alone at the top of my football PCs with 272 cards!  Not today, Chad Henne....

Once again I had a blast hunting down and scanning all of these new additions to show off, and the work paid off handsomely as I'm sure you saw over the course of this series.  With today's additions my football hits total 1297 so I have another fun milestone coming up, plus one I originally thought I'd hit today until my lack of attention led to a Chad Henne double:  2000 hits in my entire Michigan PC.  That's right, with the 13 football items I added today I'm now sitting at 1999 cards out of the four major sports plus a few miscellaneous areas.  No worries, though, as I have something fun to show off soon to hit that mark, so stay tuned!

Besides that you can look forward to my latest huge haul from Sportlots once everything is in and ready.  Until then I hope everyone has a safe and happy Independence Day!