2018 COMC purchases: QB Club

It's been far too long since I posted here, and it's only thanks to Jeff that anything got put up in April.  But I still have some 2018 COMC pickups to show off before I can move on to some other stuff, so here we go!

Today is all about the QBs with three of the most notable field generals in Michigan history:

Up first is national champ Brian Griese on a nice mix of inserts and hits.  The Collector's Edge offering combines acetate plus some yellow and blue (more like purple, I guess) making for a fun insert.  The other three are numbered:  the same year's Leaf Rookies and Stars Ticket Masters (with former star RB Terrell Davis), a Player's Private Issue parallel from 2000 Topps Gallery (#227/250), and finally a die-cut 2001 Pacific Dynagon Big Numbers insert that highlights his jersey.

The hits portion is also solid thanks to jersey swatches from 2001 SP Game Used Edition and '05 Rookies & Stars, the latter a Ruby parallel numbered 093/199.  These cool additions give Griese 192 total cards (almost milestone time!) and exactly 20 hits (actual milestone time!).

Coach Jim Harbaugh is up next with a pair of this post's most interesting pickups bookending some other fun adds.  Insert number one of four is from 1996 Select Certified and is called "Thumbs Up".  See that pattern in the background?  The back (which I've included here) helpfully explains that what you're seeing is a reproduction of his thumb print.  What they didn't do in the 90s!  The other vertical card is a 1997 Topps Gallery insert called Critics Choice.  It features a great shot of a determined competitor, plus I just love Gallery in general.

Going horizontal we have Jim's 1996 Skybox SkyMotion base, which was a fun alternative to Sportflix.  I'm not sure if I can spot Harbaugh on this card but the cheerleaders sure do stand out!  And speaking of horn dogs, sloppy drunk jackass Joe Namath got his name on a '96 Topps insert called Broadway's Reviews where he opined on a number of stars at the position.

And lastly we have one of my favorite cards in the whole order, a 1997 Pinnacle Inscriptions auto (#1590/1975).  These acetate cards are fantastic and it sure doesn't hurt that Harbaugh has a very nice signature.  I don't think he has many certified autographs from his playing days so I was thrilled to make this my second (the other is from '96 Laserview Inscriptions) of the Michigan legend.

Adding these gives me 137 cards of the coach, two of which (the ones I already mentioned) are autographed.

Last up today is one of the most electric players from the sport, Denard Robinson.  Shoelace came up twice in my shopping cart courtesy of this 2013 Topps Triple Threads pair.  He had a couple variations of his Rookie Autograph Relics jersey/auto and I scored the base of the first (#06/99) and Emerald parallel of the second (#047/50).

Denard joins Griese in nearing a milestone with 98 cards to his name in my PC, and a crazy 41 of those are in the hits collection!

That's all for today but hopefully soon I'll finish up this series with what looks to be three more posts.  Stay tuned!

2018 Sportlots purchases: QB club

Since I last posted here NFL GOAT QB Tom Brady went and won another Super Bowl, to the delight of most Michigan fans and the disgust of probably most of the country again.  Hey, I get it--he's pretty much football's version of Derek Jeter:  a big time winner who's not entirely likable when he's off the field.

Anyway, that's a lot of words about someone who won't be featuring in this post, or even this series.  But we are talking about 12's position while looking at cards of two other notable Wolverine field generals today:

Brian Griese may have never won a ring in the NFL, but he did accomplish one thing Brady didn't:  bring a National Championship at Michigan.  The former journeyman and current college broadcaster is among the most represented guys in my PCs and days like this are why as I'm adding 10 fun new pieces.

The first seven are of the vertical variety and span 1999, the year after Griese was drafted, to 2005 and the second season of his first stint with the Bucs.  There's plenty of shininess to appreciate thanks to Leaf Certified, Quantum Leaf, Topps Gold Label, Pacific Exclusive, and Topps Pristine.  My favorite out of this excellent bunch is the Gold Label, made back in 2000 when Topps had competition and actually had to put effort into their products.  Base cards from UD (2001) and Playoff Contenders ('05) are there because I almost always love their designs.

The horizontals are a fun mix in that they're all over the place.  Fleer's Flair Showcase looked awesome in '99 and that goes nicely with all the shiny above.  Pacific gets repped again thanks to the die-cut 2001 Prism Atomic, with the Broncos logo particularly suited to the design.  And then we jump forward to 2002 and another nice Topps offering, Heritage.

This is the kind of variety I love adding to any collection so I was happy to put them in Griese's PC for a new count of 186.

Meanwhile, Shoelace (who's part of the brand new Alliance of American Football) may have switched to RB late in his college career and during his brief NFL stay, but I'll always think of him as a dual-threat QB.  That's how he's depicted on four of these five new cards and that works for me!

The first three are from 2013 college-themed brands--Leaf Draft, Press Pass, and SAGE HIT--that unfortunately have to employ the usual tricks perfected by unlicensed products, such as airbrushing and non-uniform shots.  Joining those are a Score Hot Rookies insert from the same year plus a 60th Anniversary Factory Set issue from 2015 Topps.  With those I'm now five cards closer to the century mark at 96.

I still have something like four posts left in this series but plan on showing off my loot from last Saturday's card show next.

2018 trade package #15: the Collector

I got a very nice surprise in my mailbox last week when I went through my mail and came up with an unexpected PWE from Chris, a.k.a. "The Collector" (though I'll probably always associate him with his original name, "The Pedestrian Collector").  I've swapped cards with him a number of times and always enjoy doing so, plus it doesn't hurt that I love that something I sent his way made it into his blog banner! (that Mo Vaughn Starting Lineup up front.)

Chris even bucked tradition by sending me an all-Michigan trade package for the first time.  I previously received a nice group of Wolverines football and hockey stuff from him as part of a larger bunch of cards way back in February of 2017, but this time it's 100% alma mater matters, baby!

Here's what he sent along this time:

1988 Big Ten Player of the Year Gary Grant kicks things off with a '93-'94 Topps Gold parallel.  His four years in Ann Arbor led to a nice 13-year pro career.

Next up is a great pair from the basketball version of probably my favorite Fleer product, the '97-'98 flagship set.  Fab-Fiver Juwan Howard is surely well known by anyone reading this, and Terry "Sugar" Mills was a fun guy to watch during his six seasons with the Pistons (way back when I paid attention to basketball).

Last up is Howard's old teammate Jalen Rose on a college photo card from Classic's 1994 Four Sport product.  His Michigan uniform presages good things ahead.

Namely the five such cards in this football bunch, meaning 6/11 cards in this envelope fell into that category.  Extra credit to Chris!

Up top we have a trio of football alumni from last year's typically solid Score product, including RCs of draftees DL Taco Charlton and WR Jehu Chesson, plus a base of WR Devin Funchess, who I bet would be fun to watch if he had a consistently good QB throwing to him.

Joining those is a trio of cards from college-focused sets.  Chris sent over the base and Gold parallels of DL Mo Hurst from this year's Leaf Draft, and that's fantastic since Hurst is the only Wolverine in the product and I didn't feel like chasing the set this year.  They look great alongside a '95 Classic Five Sport of all-time great CB Ty Law.  These look so good to a college collector like me that I chased a number of similar products in my latest Sportlots haul.

Closing things out today is one more recent guy in PC guy Denard Robinson.  Card #91 in his collection is an interesting insert from 2013 Prestige called NFL Passport.  I'm actually familiar with the set because I have the autographed version of this card, though oddly enough that one is oriented in vertical fashion:

Thanks again for the surprise PWE, Chris!  I'm happy to be able to send something back your way soon, possibly in time for Christmas.  For now I suppose you can continue to bask in the glow of yet another World Series victory!

2018 Sportlots purchases: QB club

Check me out getting all motivated to get these posts done!  Today we're going to look at new additions for two of the five QBs in my PCs:

#1 is national champ and solid NFL journeyman Brian Griese.  Because his career lasted as long as it did he has a lot to choose from, and I'd say I did well in taking advantage of that.  The top three cards here are from '99 including a very cool Absolute SSD offering and base from Fleer Focus and Paramount.  2000 Upgrades on those with excellent designs by the likes of Bowman's Best, Finest, Focus again, and Fleer's Showcase, plus another Fleer product in Mystique and a solid Pacific look.

Here we finish off 2000 with another Paramount example and then the first of a couple instances of Topps Gallery, which I really went hard after in terms of cards for both blogs this time.  Then the entire batch of 2001 stuff you see is quite nice:  Absolute Memorabilia, a pair of Bowman's Bests (including one that co-stars Rams legend Kurt Warner), Bowman Chrome, Donruss Classics, Finest, and Fleer Showcase again.  For my money Bowman's Best killed it in the design department between 2000 and 2005, especially in their football product.  And Showcase was great in that it consistently looked outstanding even while really changing up its look from year to year.

The first five here finish off the 2001 run.  We start with my favorite flagship Pacific design, a decent Playoff Contenders look, the second and final iteration of the amazing blue Quantum Leaf, another great Stadium Club look, and typically good photography from Upper Deck.  Then 2002 begins with a few repeats from the previous year:  Absolute, Bowman's Best, Classics, and Finest.  Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!  I love being able to get pieces of these excellent sets starring my favorite players--just one of the many rewarding aspects of PCing!

2002 proved to be a bumper crop of Grieses for me this time, leading all years seen here with 14 cards; 2001 was second with 12.  Everything you see here continues '02, and there's lots to like.  Fleer gets back in the game with Flair, Premium, and Ultra.  Those are joined by standalones from Leaf Certified and Pacific.  Playoff is represented twice with a couple of my favorite brands, Contenders and Prestige.  And Topps scores a pair of huge completions in Stadium Club and Gallery.

2002 completes its triumphant run with base cards from Upper Deck plus its gridiron answer to baseball's 40-Man, called XL.  For some reason I scanned the latter after card #1 for 2003, which hails from Absolute Memorabilia once again.  A very strong group follows with possibly my favorite Bowman's Best design of the few you saw today, Donruss' classics and Gridiron Kings--the well done football equivalent to the Diamond version--plus Playoff Prestige and Topps Draft.  I say it every time I post one of these cards but I sure do miss Topps Draft!  We then have to skip 2004 because Griese appeared on very few cards that year, but at least I cam up with a solid start for 2004 thanks to Donruss Classics again.

Speaking of 2005 we can mostly close out the verticals with Topps Heritage, Ultra, and Upper Deck, completing a quartet of Bucs cardboard.  Topps Heritage makes one more appearance thanks to a 2006 base with Griese pictured as a member of the Bears.  Another Topps throwback product, 2003 All American, makes up half of the horizontal haul, with 2004 Upper Deck bridging the gap between Griese's Dolphins/Bucs runs.

In all I was able to add 51 new cards for a new total of 175 Brian Griese cards, a very healthy new count!

Of course Denard Robinson's five new cards pale in comparison, but three of them do have that Michigan uniform factor going for them!  All of them are from his 2013 rookie season, with #1 being a Bowman Black parallel (which, unfortunately, had to use an airbrushed photo).  The other two come from the Upper Deck-owned Fleer Retro product which inserted throwback versions of several past Fleer brands.  The Metal Universe card honors that product's 1997 design while the Ultra card is a callback to 1991.  In each case the design honored was the debut for the product, something I'm sure was done on purpose.

Besides that fun trio I added a couple slightly newer pieces.  One is a very foil-y/shiny Certified card from 2015 and the other is a typically nice look from Panini's 2016 Prestige.  Along with the 2013 offerings they give me a new total of 90 Shoelace cards, giving me some easy motivation to chase another milestone.

Just two more posts left, which I hope to get done soon!

2018 trade package #10: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

For the fourth time this year it's time for another outstanding trade package from buddy of the blog Doug, proprietor of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store!  We both recently sent bubble mailers across the Detroit River and I was excited to find another Wolverine-infused package in my mailbox this past Monday.  Between what you saw on TMV this evening and what I'm about to show off Doug even managed to hit all four major sports, as he does occasionally.

Here's the goods:

Starting off with a pair of basketballers we have a 2014-15 Hoops Silver parallel (#280/399) of Trey Burke along with 2017-18 Prestige base of THJ.  Hoops is a lot like basketball's version of Score--a simple (occasionally boring but always solid) design that looks nice on a number of parallels.

Football was a fun variety pack that started with two new cards for my Tom Brady PC (now 215 cards strong):  a 2013 Rookies & Stars base and a 2018 Classics Award Winners sticker.  I'm not the type to peel these and put them anywhere (then they wouldn't be mint condition!) but I do like collecting them.

Next up is RC #2 (out of six so far) of big Mo Hurst out of Panini's 2018 Luminance.  The unorthodox font reminds me just a bit of some late 90s Ultra sets.  I love that this one rocks a college action photo of the 2017 season-opening win over Florida.

Last up is one more entry from 2018 Classics:  a base card of future HOF DB Ty Law.  Once again Panini knocked it out of the park in terms of design and--speaking as a totally unbiased collector--player selection!

This pair of football hits got me very excited, especially my very first hit of the aforementioned Hurst, also from this year's Luminance.  His Rookie Ink auto is #208/249 and uses a photo a few frames before or after the one used on his rookie above.  Welcome to the collection as player #214, Mo!

He was joined by a 2013 Rookies & Stars Dress For Success Prime jersey (#09/25) of blog favorite offensive weapon Denard Robinson.  While the swatch is anything but "prime" (I have another one of these and the swatch is pretty much identical) the numbering and player make up for that.

The Michigan Hockey portion was a bit smaller than usual by emphasizing quality over quantity, starting with this trio.  Up top are 2016-17 Parkhurst RCs of a couple recent standouts in Connor and Hyman.  Connor followed up a stellar one-and-done college career with a 31/26/57 sophomore campaign for the Jets while Hyman, a bit of an offensive late-bloomer in college, improved his numbers for the second straight season in his third year, going 15/25/40 for the Leafs.  I look forward to seeing both in the playoffs for years to come!

They're joined by A-A-Ron Palushaj who certainly didn't mess up in appearing on a beautiful 2011-12 Pinnacle RC that's a dufex dream.

That quality carried right on over to the hits.  First is a large jersey swatch of the Swedish Chef of hockey, two-time Cup-winner Carl Hagelin from 2012-13 Limited's Jumbo Materials (#60/99).  That's my ninth hit of Hagelin and a fantastic one featuring an above-average jersey piece from his original team, the Rangers.

And finally, my second favorite card of the package (that Hurst auto, tho) is my fourth hit of Wolverwing wunderkind Dylan Larkin--with 75% of those generously donated to me by Doug.  Considering my collection of the young star is a paltry 13 cards I'm happy to have that many good ones, including this solid jersey swatch from 2017-18 SP Game Used.  Hopefully Detroit shows some faith in him and rewards him with a long term contract this off-season because I can see Larkin paying dividends and then some!

Doug, thanks once again for all this great stuff I'm thrilled to be adding to my Michigan PCs.  Since I just sent you an envelope it's back to the drawing board once more as I try to pile up some 2/14s, Alfredssons, Bills, and more!

2018 eBay purchases: "Booty and the Shoelace" is my new morning radio show

I'll start showing off my Sportlots stuff over here next time but first I wanted to make sure I posted a couple eBay cards I scored from a seller who had a pair of cards I sent in my latest trade package for Doug.  After all, combined shipping rules!

Enjoy this cool pair of football hits:

First up is my third autograph (and fourth hit overall) of star TE Jake Butt, one I scored for about $3.  This one comes from last year's Panini Contenders product and is his base auto RC version, not to be confused his other base auto, #253, or Contenders Draft Picks, for that matter.  As usual it's got a nice design going for it including the usual ticket motif.  Since card backs don't usually get much love I like that some of his key info is right up front, such as his hometown of Pickerington, Ohio, a place that produced his teammate Taco Charlton among other former Wolverines.

Here's hoping for a healthy year for J-Booty after a 2017 lost to injury.

As for co-host #2 on a radio show that totally needs to happen, that would be Denard Robinson.  The former spark plug QB recently joined former teammate Devin Gardner in the CFL and I hope he gets to show off his many talents there.  Going back to his former NFL dreams here he is on an autographed version of Panini's Rookies and Stars Slideshow (#41/91) from his rookie year of 2013.  Of course I love adding an autograph of one of my favorites but even without the ink I'd be a fan of this one having enjoyed the origin of the Slideshow name way back in the 90s with Leaf.  It's a great way to make a card stand out with so many autographs out there, and I'd say it's a pretty nice compromise between on-card and sticker autographs.

A bit more than $4 was enough to let me add this, card #85 and hit #39, to Shoelace's collection, with a few more on the way from Sportlots.

And speaking of that site, watch for lots of posts covering those pickups soon!

7/7/18 show report: well the hits start coming and they don't stop coming

In addition to what you saw over on TMV this evening I have a nice little assortment of football quarter cards (5/$1!) and a few $2 hits to join them:

We'll start with a 2017 Panini RC of Chiefs WR Jehu Chesson that I surprisingly hadn't already grabbed between shows, Sportlots, and other sources.  It's my third of his 12 first-years that I've charted, and I have another couple coming from Sportlots soon.

Then I turned up a quartet of 2007 Playoff NFL Playoffs parallels that must have eluded me last time because last time I came home with five that I showed off in June.  Alan Branch, St--

yep, he kills QBs!  Anyway, Branch, Steve Breaston, and David Harris can all be seen on their Red Holofoil parallels, and in a fun twist all three are #077/125!  I'm not sure how that happened but it's worth noting.  Speaking of Harris I also tracked down his Gold Metalized (#063/149) card.

Then the other two go towards my Denard Robinson PC.  First is his 2013 Rookies and Stars Longevity base card--again, not the Longevity parallel insert, but the base set called "Longevity", whose cards aren't considered rookies for whatever reason.  That's joined by a somewhat easier-to-recognize 2013 Topps Platinum Orange Refractor on a design that looks like it would be much more appropriate for a Dolphins team set.

Here's the hits I scared up for $2 apiece.  #1 is another Breaston, a Sepia version of one of his 2011 Triple Threads Unity jersey/autos (#54/75).  That gives me six different variations from this set (including three of card #3) and 101 total Breastons, a fun little milestone (#1 of 2 today).

Next is a cool pair of large jersey relics of WR Amara Darboh.  The one on top is a Pink parallel (just some of the foil, I guess) of his 2017 Crown Royale Jumbo Rookie Silhouette Jerseys card (#118/250) and the other is a shinier 2017 Panini Illusions First Impressions Memorabilia jersey.  These give me a pretty reasonable total of six Darboh hits.

And finally I was a bit surprised to find De'Veon Smith's 2017 Panini Contenders Draft Picks auto RC since the seller surely could have marked it up given the fan base in the area.  As usual I love the ticket theme and various college goings-on, just like I did when Jeff sent me Chris Wormley's card earlier this year.  It's my first hit of Smith in a full, un-airbrushed Michigan uni and it looks great as card number four in his collection.

Speaking of hits and milestones you might recall from my 2000th hit post (e.g. the last one I wrote) that I was closing in on a new football mark.  Well I'm happy to report that I reached and exceeded it here by getting to a new total of 1302 football hits.  That might have been a fun thing to boast about this Friday but I figured I should get to posting while I felt like it.  Onward to 1400 and beyond!

With these posted stay tuned as I work on the huge influx of Sportlots cards I'll need to show off soon, including one package I'm still waiting on!

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!