2018 COMC purchases: Certainly Awesome Inserts

I'm sending out the Matt Signal for my collecting buddy at Sport Card Collectors as he's sure to love this post that's chock full of 90s and 2000s football inserts!  There's a lot to see today so let's get down to it:

This group of Touchdown Tims starts with a fun pair of '96s:  Donruss's Elite (#07384/10000) and Pinnacle Summit's Inspirations (#4526/8000).  I love me some numbered Donruss/Leaf/Panini/Pinnacle/Playoff/Score cards!  Elite is especially a favorite for me.  For those of you who are curious, don't be too surprised that he named Emmitt Smith his inspiration.

Moving up a few years I grabbed two more numbered cards.  First is a '99 Bowman's Best Refractor (#028/400) back when the brand and design were still relevant to me.  And last up is a 2000 Quantum Leaf Double Team insert (#1038/1500), the first of a few you'll see in today's post (with one more you'll get to catch in this series' finale).  This one pairs up the talented RB with former Panthers QB Steve Beuerlein:

Of the four cards I grabbed from this insert, Biakabutuka is the only Wolverine that appears on the front part of the card, but that's fine since I usually scan both sides of such multiplayer issues.

Hey, it's Ala--

ALAN BRANCH KILLS QBs

Alan Branch.  Yep, that Alan Branch!  I found five new inserts of the slayer of signal-callers, all numbered parallels from his draft/rookie year of 2007.  The first four are all Donruss-related brands:  Threads Bronze Holofoil (#115/250), Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Red (#082/100), Playoff NFL Playoffs Gold Metalized (#021/149), and Playoff Prestige Draft Picks Light Blue (#342/999).  I love the look of that year's Prestige set as usual, and the foil parallels just knock it out of the park!

The last Branch today is the first of three 2007 Topps Chrome White Refractors you'll see in this series.  The base version looks good as usual, and of course I'm partial to the Blue offerings, but the white cards have a cool style of their own.  This one is #691/869.  Why 869?  I dunno.

One QB that Branch didn't get to kill was Elvis Grbac, who was long out of the league by the time Branch debuted.  Still, Grbac had a pretty nice career for being chosen near the end of the eighth and final round in the '93 draft--better than that of #2 overall pick Rick Mirer, at least!

The first two of a quartet of his cards I found are Refractors from 1999 Topps Chrome and 2000 Bowman Chrome.  Once again these were made during an era where I appreciated Topps' yearly efforts.  That's a great photo on the Bowman Chrome card!

Next is another 2000 Quantum Leaf Double Team card:

Front an center is Elvis' teammate Donnell Bennett, a RB who'd just had a career season in '99, though he too would be out of the league after the 2001 season.

And before Elvis leaves the building I turned up one more insert of his, a 2001 Playoff Honors parallel called X's and O's (#182/219).  These are very similar to Donruss' Stat Line insert that debuted in the baseball product that year as the cards are numbered to an interesting career stat for each player (making some of them super rare).  It took me a bit of searching to deduce that the "219" refers to Grbac's overall draft position in 1993!

The guy with the most new cards this time is Jim Harbaugh as I turned up seven interesting new inserts of the current coach, all from 1996-2000.

The 1996 contingent is led by Refractors from Bowman's Best and Finest (his Bronze version).  Again, great examples of design from that era of Topps.  Those are joined by another appearance from Summit's Inspirations insert (#6780/8000).  Harbaugh names his dad as a major inspiration which is no surprise given their positive relationship over the years.  But interestingly he mentions that "My hero growing up was Bobby Orr.  That's why I wear no. 4."  You learn something new every day!

Another fun Refractor design from 1999 Bowman Chrome joins the fray, then we get today's final 2000 Quantum Leaf Double team pairing:

Natrone Means' second stint in San Diego wasn't quite as successful as his first in terms of the numbers he put up, but he was still the biggest name on the Chargers for this insert that highlighted each team's backfield.

Last up is a very interesting pair that I wasn't aware of until this latest COMC sale.  Those two die-cut full-motion hologram cards are from 1997 Pinnacle inserts called V2 from Zenith and Inscriptions (meaning I scanned them backwards).  The Zenith card appears to show Jim celebrating running in a score himself while the Inscriptions card depicts him throwing a pass.  These cards are extremely cool but relatively small in size and mostly limited to QBs and a few RBs.  They sure don't make 'em like they used to!

The well-traveled Dhani Jones is today's final solo subject before I get to the one-offs.  I don't usually have much luck finding new stuff of him so this numbered parallel trio was pretty cool to find.  A 2008 Score Scorecard is first, numbered 117/649.  Then we have a pair of 2011s:  Certified Platinum Blue (#070/100) and Panini Gridiron Gear Silver X's (#209/250).  Go on, take a wild guess which is my favorite, I'm sure you'll get it on the first try!

And the rest.  QB Todd Collins heads up this group with a 1997 Collector's Edge Extreme Forerunners (#1262/1500) acetate-style card.  That highlights a 95-yard TD pass Collins tossed to Bills WR Quinn Early on December 1, 1996.

The next three are Refractors.  CB Marlin Jackson's name doesn't appear on the front of that 2007 Topps Chrome White Refractor (#193/869) but he's the clear star of this one which celebrates his interception of a Tom Brady pass late in the 2006 AFC Championship, preserving the lead for the eventual champs.  More than a decade later Brady would be victimized by another former Michigan star, Brandon Graham, to lose out on a comeback attempt in this year's Super Bowl.

The other two Refractors WR Tai Streets from 2001 Topps Chrome (#915/999) and RB Tyrone Wheatley from the previously-seen 2000 Bowman Chrome.  And to close out this post we have one more ridiculously cool die-cut card, a 2015 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Helmet Die Cuts of WR Devin Funchess.  Why shouldn't the best helmet in all of college football get a starring role on an insert in a college-themed set?

With these posted and put away look forward to two more posts in this series, one covering some cool hits, then the big finish featuring new stuff for my PCs.

2015-16 COMC purchases: insertmania

Continuing my quest to get all my 2015 and '16 purchases to-date posted, especially before my next COMC package arrives (and we really are close to the end!), here's a bunch of football inserts I grabbed from my favorite card-purchasing site:

Brian Griese 2008 Topps Gold Border (#0484/2008)
Leon Hall 2007 Topps Copper (#1693/2007)
Leon Hall 2008 Topps Gold Border (#0253/2008)
David Harris 2012 Topps Gold (#0036/2012)
Steve Hutchinson 2010 Topps Gold (#1898/2010)

Jake Long 2010 Topps Gold (#0039/2010)

Amani Toomer 2007 Topps Copper (#1505/2007)

We'll start with this lucky seven spot of Topps numbered parallels from 2007, '08, '10, and '12.  For some reason the Coppers were the cards numbered to the year while the Gold versions were /52 in 2007, explaining Hall's first card (a parallel of his rookie) as well as Toomer's appearance above.  Longtime QB Griese and a second appearance by Hall represent the following year's return to Gold.  We then skip a year and move on to a pair of all-time great Wolverine OL in future Hall of Fame G Hutchinson and former #1 overall pick Long.  Rounding out the group is tackling machine David Harris, a LB that was good enough to appear in flagship during a non-rookie year.  I loves me some numbered inserts and these Topps parallels always fit the bill.

Jim Harbaugh 2000 Score Franchise

Dhani Jones 2011 Certified Mirror Red (#034/250)

Jake Long 2008 SAGE HIT Saturday Colors

Mario Manningham 2008 Press Pass Legends Bronze (#185/999)
Tony McGee 1995 Pinnacle Trophy Collection
Amani Toomer 1997 Collector's Edge Masters 1996 Rookies (#0643/2000)

And now for a bit of miscellany.  I haven't accumulated very many inserts of the coach in khakis so the shiny Harbaugh Score insert was a fun get.  And if he's relatively rare in my collection, Dhani Jones is positively scarce; the well-traveled Wolverine has so few cards I should consider supercollecting him.  Long makes another appearance on this eye-pleasing college game-themed insert from 2008 SAGE.  Fellow '08 draftee Manningham appears on a numbered Press Pass parallel to go along with Chad Henne from the same set.  I finished up TE Tony McGee's rookies so why not move on to inserts like this '95 Pinnacle parallel that's Du-fex legit to quit?  Finally, Toomer gets his second numbered card of the day, and I distinctly remember acquiring this in a COMC trade with Tim from GSNHoF.

Marlin Jackson 2005 Bowman's Best Blue (#0833/1399), Bronze (#165/199), Green (#365/799)

This colorful trio of the former star CB puts me just two cards shy of Jackson's rainbow from the set (including autographs), though I happen to need the rarest versions:  both Silver cards numbered /25.  I think '05 Bowman's Best was a great looking set and I decided a while ago to chase all of Marlin's versions because it'll look really nice all put together.

David Terrell 2001 Hot Prospects Pigskin Prospects
David Terrell 2002 Finest Refractor (#168/250)

Terrell without A-Train?  Hey, that's just how things shook out this time.  This pair of early 2000s inserts was fun to grab--I mean, dig that die-cut, football-shaped, college uni card from Fleer up top!  In case you're curious, Anthony Thomas was not part of the same 20-card set.  Joining that gem is a Refractor, and a somewhat lower numbered one at that.  I could have done with more of the action in the background instead of that design, but I love just about any Refractor.

Tyrone Wheatley 1995 Pinnacle Trophy Collection

Tyrone Wheatley 2001 Pacific Dynagon Premiere Date (#008/135)

Last up is another player pair, and this time it's Wolverines RB coach and former yard-gainer extraordinaire Tyrone Wheatley.  I don't remember which Trophy Collection card I grabbed between Ty's and McGee's above, but they're both winners to me.  While I very slightly prefer the baseball version's design from that year, this is very, very close second and as always the Dufexed delight looks great.  That's joined by one of Pacific's stronger suits--another numbered parallel, and also another one I believe I grabbed from Tim, who has a knack for finding hidden treasures like this one.  It's shiny, the numbering is fairly low, and it's even on the front which can be a nice change of pace.

Ok folks, just one more COMC pickup post remains, but I'm planning on leading up to that with a couple other items:  my most recent eBay score and a quick show recap from earlier this month.

2013 trade package #12: Colby sends me Wolverines from out of the (maize and) blue!

As I alluded to yesterday, I had a fun and unexpected trade package show up in my mailbox the other day.  Although I haven't featured a trade from him on this year blog until today, the address was plenty familiar to me, as I'm sure it is to many of you as well:

"Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark!"

Colbey has proven to be a generous trader (not to mention fantastic blogger and outstanding group break-runner) time and again, but I was still pleasantly surprised by what he managed to include this time:

Avant is just the appetizer as we dive straight into eight of the package's 10 Tom Brady cards.  The extreme similarity of the last two Panini offerings got a chuckle out of me, I'll admit.

Two more Brady cards and then it's off to the races with a lucky seven Breastons.  My favorite, of course, is the Topps DP&P that features Stevie back in Ann Arbor!

What's this, only TWO Braylons?  The Hall, pair of Hennes and pair of 2012 Topps defensive standouts are all well and good, but I really like the duo of Dhanis since I really don't have as many of his cards as I'd like.

Finally, there's this 2012 UD Junior Hemingway rookie.  I actually already own it having picked up a copy in a trade last year, but I never did show it off by itself in its full glory.  This is a great shot of Junior wearing the #21 Desmond Howard "Legends" jersey after that tradition was instituted last season.  Very cool!

Thanks, Colby, for an unexpected trade that made my day!  I also enjoyed the baseball stuff you sent my way, which can be seen over at TMV this evening.

Those of you reading this should be following Colby's Braves/Panthers/everything-centric blog Cardboard Collections and get trading with this southern gentleman!