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!

3/23/19 show report: a few blue

While my take-home from March show #2 (in Troy) was a bit light, as described on TMV this evening, it skewed more towards quality when it came to the Michigan stuff I scored, mostly thanks to the "reasonable seller" I mentioned over there.  And, hey, it takes less effort to post about five cards than fifty!

It may be MLB's opening day, but don't tell that to coach Jim Harbaugh on this 2000 Topps Season Opener base, one of this two appearances in that set.  2000 was his second straight season with the Chargers and would be his final NFL campaign.  This card was easily worth the $0.05 asking price!

The other four are all hockey hits that set me back just a buck apiece.  I've seen this seller's stacks of $1 cards before and had a little luck, but it's been a while since I had this much success.  First up is a 2006-07 Black Diamond Gemography auto of former icer Danny Richmond, a guy I got to see play over the years I had season tickets.  It's my third hit of his (jersey/auto/RC and a plate).  Next is just my second hit of Blake Sloan (auto), a pretty good patch for just a buck, and a numbered one too, out of 2000-01 Titanium.  And lastly I dug up a fun pair of jerseys of blog favorite goalie Marty Turco, who continues to dominate my hockey PCs in hits (38) and total cards (115).  They come from 2005-06 SP Game Used and 2011-12 Upper Deck, with the latter depicting his brief stay with the Blackhawks.

Hopefully I'll be back with more Michigan stuff from my usual haunt in Taylor in a couple weeks!

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!

2018 Sportlots purchases: Harb Marb Superstarb

The big finish on the TMM side of this Sportlots series covers cards starring the player for whom I scored the most cards this time, and good news:  it's not a running back!  It does happen to be the other prominent backfield position and a guy that's well known to NFL and college fans alike:  current Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh:

We'll start with a scan that includes cards from 1991-95 and features many of my favorite brands.  Stadium Club is represented three times--1991, '92, and '94--while SP doubles it up with its first two releases, made in '93 and '94.  Action Packed ('93), Sportflics and UD ('94), and Finest ('95) offer one representative each here.  And yes, if you know me pretty well you already guessed that the Sportflics card is my favorite!

The first half dozen cards you see here represent six of the the eight '95 Pinnacle Club Collection cards I needed to finish Harbaugh's nine-card run in the set.  That product was done up in a very binder-friendly arrangement of nine cards each of 29 QB Club members, and I completed Jim's bunch with these and two more you'll see below in horizontal form.  And even then we're still not done with 1995 thanks to SP Championship (which wasn't just a baseball product!), Stadium Club again, and a very nice looking Ultra design.

Scan #3 is probably my favorite of the eight here today because of the cool mix of brands from 1996-97 (in addition to the '95 UD card that begins the group).  Bowman's Best makes quality appearances from both of those years and a '96 Donruss base reminds me I already have the Press Proof version.  That Topps-branded trio down the middle is my favorite of the post (with a close second coming up soon) thanks to beautiful looks from Finest, Chrome, and Laser.  The following year's Donruss Preferred and Flair Showcase add their own shine to the proceedings.

Sticking with 1997, Pacific's Invincible is a goofy way to keep things moving while a Pinnacle Inscriptions duo makes for a fun reminder of what they could do with design.  Another solid Topps trio follows in the form of flagship, Chrome, and an extremely nice Gallery piece worth framing.  A die-cut Team Mates insert and '98 Black Diamond Rookies base (that spawned a number of great looking parallels) are strong contributions from Upper Deck.

1998 brings more repeats--in a good way--from Bowman's Best, Finest, Stadium Club, and Ultra on some very nice pieces, and all of those surround my second favorite group of three:  all the base versions of Jim's appearances in that year's Flair Showcase.  That brand was going strong before Topps even thought to release their (well done) copycat Gold Label product, which I'm glad got made.  Topps never had an answer for the higher-end E-X2001, though!

There's plenty of variety to like here too as we look at some '99s and 2000s.  That first pair is a mix of some stuff we saw earlier:  Donruss Preferred + Quarterback Club.  Stadium Club continues a very nice day with base cards from both years, the latter being among my favorites.  Quantum Leaf's debut makes yet another cameo in this series, and you'll get to see the follow-up in the next scan.  SPx's 2000 design feels decidedly different from its norm, but it still looks pretty good.

Here we have the last three verticals, all from 2001:  my favorite Pacific flagship design, Quantum Leaf part 2, and one of Ultra's best offerings.  The first of the horizontals is Stadium Club card #8, hailing from the '93 product.  Next to that is one of the many, many looks Playoff used, this one produced in 1994.  This scan finishes up with the other two '95 Pinnacle Club Collection cards I already mentioned.

There's still a bit more fun to be had here with a sextet of sideways stuff.  Pinnacle offers a pair of fun 1996 pieces thanks to the holographic Laser View (which didn't scan as well as I'd hoped) and die-cut Mint.  1997 offers two excellent UD-branded issues in the form of SPx (again, probably the best football version, as seen previously in this series) and UD3.  I'm very familiar with the baseball version of the latter but haven't seen all of the subset designs in the pigskin edition and need to see if any other Wolverines are present.  Speaking of UD, this post and the series end with flagship base cards from 1999 and 2000.

I added a buttload of cards to my various PCs throughout this series and none benefited more than James J. Harbaugh, who launched all the way from 63 to 130 items, meaning 18 of my 25 current football PCs have now crossed the century mark.  Hooray for Sportlots!

With these out of the way I hope you're not too sick of purchase posts since I have some very nice stuff from COMC to cover, plus a probable show run this coming weekend!

2/2/19 show report: a Feb-Blue-ary kind of show

As I described on TMV this evening, February's show resulted in less quantity than I'm used to, and this time most of it was concentrated on stuff I posted on that blog.  But I did come home with a quartet of dime and quarter inserts I was happy to pull from the mountain of boxes I sifted through:

DB Jamar Adams was one of the lesser known guys from my favorite draft class, the '08s, and his NFL career lasted all of eight games over three seasons, but don't think I wasn't excited to come up with that '08 Donruss Threads Gridiron Kings insert of the former Wolverine in his college duds!  I'll have to do some work to figure how if I'm missing any Michigan players from the set.

Card #2 calls back to the second post in my most recent Sportlots series when I showed off a bunch of RCs for my collection, including those of Michigan-to-USC transfer Justin Fargas.  To those I added a Topps Chrome Refractor from the '08 version, which went with black borders for the basic versions, a very good decision in my opinion.

The only PC guy I hit this time was current coach Jim Harbaugh on an insert I didn't recognize.  It's a set called MVPs inserted into '96 Collector's Choice, and that explains my lack of familiarity since I was way more likely to buy the baseball version at the time.  Jim was a Pro Bowler the previous year (as opposed to a pro bowler) was named the comeback player of the year to boot after posting career highs in completion percentage and YPA and leading the league in fourth quarter comebacks and game-winnings drives (3 and 4, respectively), so he appears to have earned his appearance here.

Last up is the only guy that's still active, WR Devin Funchess.  The FA pass-catcher appears today on an on-brand die-cut insert from Panini's 2015 Crown Royale.  Devin got plenty of hype going into his rookie year so he was a natural fit for the Regal Rookies insert, and in this case you're seeing the Green version.  Hopefully I can track some other variants down to show off, but more importantly, I hope Funchess lands with a team with a good QB and the sense to throw plenty of passes his way!

That's it for this show so next time we're back to Sportlots, and I'll try not to slack off so much that those posts drag into March.

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.

6/2/18 card show report: winning and Wolverines

If you've made your way here from today's TMV post then you know I had another good day at the monthly card show--and a great day overall!

Besides getting to see my Tigers win plus winning a few bucks at the casino, I scored some fun Michigan Football inserts (and one sneaky base card) from the quarter boxes at the show:

For whatever reason parallels from Playoff's 2007 NFL Playoffs product figured heavily into my buying this month.  What can I say?  That's what the boxes had to offer!  The first two cards here star former Cardinals draftees Alan Branch and Steve Breaston, with the former being a Red Metalized (#275/399) parallel and the latter simply called Gold (#185/299).  Note that each Wolverine you're seeing from this product today is on a parallel of their RCs from that set.

A couple former QBs give us a quick break from those, with an airborne Todd Collins on 1995 Summit's Rookie Summit and coach Jim Harbaugh featured on what I totally forgot was actually the "base" version of 1997 Totally Certified (#1184/4999).

Old tackling machine LB David Harris finishes off the group with three cards of his own.  Two of those are from that Playoff product--the previously seen Gold (#185/299) and Red Metalized (#275/399) parallels--and to those I was happy to add a Blue Press Proof from 2016 Donruss.  That one's not numbered but that's fine because I really like the product's design anyway.

PC guy Denard Robinson kicks off this group of the other four I came up with as he stars on a Rookie Die Cut insert from Topps' 2013 Strata.  It kind of looks like it should have a hole punched out on top so you can hang it from your Christmas tree.

Former star running back Tyrone Wheatley makes two appearances today.  The first is our second offering from 1995 Summit, and this time the insert is called "Backfield Stars".  Do you think Ty forgot that he's a back of the running variety and not a QB?  His other appearance is on the Platinum Blue parallel of 1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified (#1367/2499) which is an insert, unlike Harbaugh's card.

Last up for today is another former star defender on that 2007 Playoff product, but at least both the name and insert are different!  This is Steelers great LaMarr Woodley and a Red Holofoil insert (#071/125), the rarest of today's group.

That's it for this show but I have a bunch of great new additions arriving in the next day or so from COMC, so expect to see those as soon as I can get all ~150 total cards scanned and ready to show off on both blogs!

2/3/18 card show report: Winter sport Wolverines

My first 2018 card show was a fairly productive one as usual, as you probably saw over on TMV.  In terms of landing some new Wolverines the year started out a bit slowly, though it definitely got better as you'll see in upcoming show recaps.

Here was my small Michigan haul from February's Taylor show:

The football group comprised a nice mix of base, inserts, and a rookie.  Breaston's 2012 Certified Mirror Red (#015/250) parallel, with the former WR pictured with the Chiefs, opened up the inserts, and it's joined by another parallel, Taylor Lewan's 2014 Topps Chrome Orange Refractor from his rookie year, and a new addition to my Denard Robinson PC, a super thick issue from 2014 Panini Father's Day Rookies.

Cowboys rookie sensation Taco Charlton was a fun RC find as I don't pick those up from dime and quarter boxes too often.  Rookie #2 of the beastly DL hails from Panini's 2017 Prizm product, which is why it took me a while to realize it was a base version and not a parallel.

Last up are the base cards, and those represent three pretty well-known Wolverines.  First is QB and current coach Jim Harbaugh from his Colts days out of a 1996 Fleer one-off product called Ultra Sensations.  Then I found 2000 Leaf Limited cards of WRs Desmond Howard (#0986/5000) and Amani Toomer (#0387/3000).  That this set's base cards are numbered and home to many such RCs, including Tom Brady's, makes tracking some of these down at reasonable rates difficult, so it was fun to grab them even though they're "only" base cards.

I also scored a pair of Marty Turco inserts as I continue to build up his PC.  First is 2009-10 Upper Deck Draft Day Gems, another card noting that the two-time NCAA champ was drafted low as he was chosen before his freshman year in Ann Arbor.  The other is a 2010-11 Donruss offering called Donruss Boys of Winter, playing on the baseball version, of course.  If this one, featuring him with the Blackhawks, looks familiar to you then congratulations on remembering that I have a prime jersey version!

Stay tuned for at least three more shows' worth of posts including two from March as I continue to catch up on my 2018 pickups.

2017 COMC purchases: serial-nUMbered insanity

I'm back with more football stuff today, and I sure hope you like inserts because that's what you're getting--a LOT of them, in fact.  Shiny, die-cut, numbered, Refractor-ized, or some combination thereof.  These cards span the years 1995-2013 (you'll see more in my player collections post) and run the gamut of brands, designs, and sanity, not to mention numbering--about 75% of them, in fact, from 5000 on down to 99.  So let's have a look at 25 players' worth of new inserts!

The opening trio of Derrick Alexanders is fun because you'll see all three insert sets again in this post at least once.  1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Red (#d /4999) appears a bunch, 1998 Black Diamond Rookies Triple (#d /1500) once more, and Score's Scorecard parallel (especially the 2000 version seen here, #d /2000) quite a bit.

FB B.J. Askew and WR Jason Avant make cameos on parallels from 2004 Playoff Honors and 2010 Topps, respectively.  The action photo used on the Avant card is fantastic.

Only one of Tim Biakabutuka's cards is numbered--the Platinum Red--but all three of his cards are fun, especially the hologram Big Bang from 1996 Skybox's Skymotion.

Stevie Brown doesn't have a lot of cardboard but I did find his 2013 Topps Gold on which he appears to be returning yet another INT.

Former QB Todd Collins is another player for whom I found at least three new inserts.  The die-cut is from a 1997 set called Excalibur Overlords, the Platinum Red is old news by now, and I also came up with one of Pacific's fun numbered cards from one of its trademark wacky designs, 1998 Revolution Shadows (#23/99).

Super Bowl winner Brandon Graham gains entry to the Scorecard club with the 2010 parallel of his rookie from that year's set.

CB Leon Hall comes to us with three numbered parallels:  a Blue Refractor version of his 2007 Finest RC (#068/299) plus Certified Mirror Blue (#082/100) and Topps Gold (#1315/2010) parallels from 2010.  The blue pair is especially cool.

Retired LB David Harris's Topps Gold comes from the following year, but the other insert, 2012 Absolute Gridiron Force Spectrum (#029/100), is notable because Harris isn't actually in the base set, just this insert (and its non-numbered regular version).

Get a load of those "Crazy Legs" on Elroy Hirsch in his 2001 Bowman Chrome Rookie Reprint!  The Refractorized card reminds me that I need to track down a copy of the original someday.

Desmond Howard's 1995 Bowman's Best Refractor represents the earliest card in this post, and I'm glad to add his to the others I own from that set.

Cato June is another guy that didn't get much hobby love but I did find his 2007 Topps Copper parallel (#0155/2007).

I almost ended up with a quartet of Chris Perry Refractors--2004 Topps Chrome, 2005 Bowman Chrome Blue, 2006 Topps Draft Bronze comprise the trio--but a 2008 Leaf Limited Bronze Spotlight (#081/125) was the combo breaker.

And TE Jay Riemersma appears on an Ultra Gold Medallion parallel before a much more interesting 2001 Pacific numbered card called Hobby LTD (#77/99).  You'll see a couple more from this product over the rest of the post.

WR Tai Streets gets in on the Refractor action thanks to 2000 Topps Chrome, plus he joins Riemersma in 2001 Pacific on a Retail LTD parallel (#d /299) instead of hobby, and is part of the Score Scorecard club too, in this case the 2003 version.

David Terrell and Anthony Thomas are reunited here and it feels so good.  The former arrives via a 2002 Topps Chrome Refractor (#509/599) which looks fantastic with the black border.  His RB counterpart appears on a pair of 2002 Fleer-branded parallels:  Flair Collection (#105/200) and Maximum To the Max (#027/250).  We'll see him again shortly.

Beefy RB Tyrone Wheatley is the first from a pair of '96 Donruss Press Proofs I found.  These differ from the base thanks to the "First 2,000 Printed" and "Press Proof" gold stamps plus having the helmet die-cut out of the upper-right corner.

Fearsome defender LaMarr Woodley closes out the scan with Topps Gold parallels from 2011 and 2012, joining the 2010 version I already had.

Here are the three horizontal cards that weren't part of the larger groups of players you'll see next.  RB Leroy Hoard's 1995 Absolute Die Cut Helmets translucent insert was a fun find out of the blue.  And A-Train added to his tally with a couple numbered 2002 cards:  Donruss Elite Back to the Future (#163/800) and 2002 Leaf Rookies and Stars Standing Ovation (#2048/2500).

WR Steve Breaston is the first of the five players for whom I found enough cards to give them their own scans, and all seven of the cards you see above are of the numbered variety.  Steve joins Leon Hall with a 2007 Finest Blue Refractor parallel of his RC, then gets in on the Scorecard fun with his 2008 version that's paired with a Gold Zone parallel (#368/400) from the same product.

A team colors-appropriate Red parallel from Topps' 2009 Unique product (#539/799) is next, and that's followed by a couple 2010 Panini-branded variations:  Crown Royale Blue (#007/100) and Gridiron Gear Gold X's (#061/100).  A Mirror Blue parallel from 2012 Certified (#047/100) joins this group of inserts unique to Breaston in this post.

QB Elvis Grbac is up next with nine cards, though one doesn't count as an insert.  First up is a great double-sided offering from 1997 Leaf called Run and Gun, and while Grbac is up front the better talent lies on the other side:

HOFer Marcus Allen.  Do I need a "90s inserts rule" tag for this blog too?

Yet another Certified Platinum Red from the same year joins the ranks, and that's followed by a deceptive card I thought was an insert but is actually a team checklist from the base set of 1999 Absolute SSD.

Getting back to actual inserts the next card is a cool one from '99 Donruss Preferred called QBC National Treasures (#0604/2000) which is an early mention of the moniker that would go on to be a high-end product.

A pair from 2000 is up next:  Scorecard once again, then a Premiere Date parallel (#089/138) from Pacific's Vanguard brand.  It seems like Pacific usually put the serial numbers up front but in this case it's visible on the back.  The opposite is true of another 2001 Pacific card, again a Retail LTD parallel, which I've always thought looked great on probably my favorite Pacific flagship base design.

A horizontal Leaf Rookies and Stars insert from 2002 called Great American Heroes (#1523/2000) and Brass Coin from 1998 Pinnacle Mint close out Grbac's bunch.  I have a decent number of the baseball versions of these coins but very few from football.

Brian Griese is #2 in a run of three QBs, and once again everything you see here is numbered.  We'll start with the year 2000, which includes a Black Diamond Gold (#0361/1000) version as well as a Donruss insert called Dominators (#4225/5000), which is the winner for highest numbered card by one over the '97 Platinum Reds.  The latter is surprisingly plain for a Donruss insert.

2001 brings another pair, starting with Fleer's E-X Essential Credentials (#236/299), a name I remember from my earlier collecting days, and Pacific's Invincible Red (#432/750), one that appears elsewhere in my inserts collection.

As we move ahead another year we're treated to another Fleer brand parallel with Box Score's First Edition (#020/100), then one of my favorite cards in the whole post, a Championship Ticket from 2002 Contenders (#088/250).  For some reason the combination of color and holographic foil is very pleasing to my collecting eye.  I consider it a cool yearly parallel regardless.

Our last pair (there's an odd number, obviously) hails from 2005, starting with a Silver parallel from Bowman (#118/200) and a Gold one from Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity (#146/199).  Sorry, I don't have anything bronze to go with those!

Last up we head all the way back to Griese's rookie year of 1998 and another instance of Upper Deck's Black Diamond brand in the form of an insert called Sheer Brilliance (#0045/1400).  His future surely looked brilliant after winning a national title the previous season and getting drafted as a potential heir to John Elway.

While I managed to add seven cards of current Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh only two of them are numbered since the bulk of his career was spent before that was a trend.  The first two you see here--Press Proofs from 1996 Donruss and Leaf--are limited to just 2000 copies, they just aren't stamped.  The Donruss version includes the helmet die-cut like the Wheatley earlier, and the Leaf card goes a step further in taking bites out of either side to give it a bit more of an hourglass shape.

Joining them are another pair of 96s, in this case from Topps brands.  One is the Pacific-like Pro Bowl insert from Stadium club while the other is an insert called Tide Turners from the debut of Topps Chrome.  Jim was both a Pro Bowler and named AP Comeback Player of the Year in '95 so the Chrome card certainly makes sense.

Then our numbered cards appear back-to-back with another 1998 Black Diamond Rookies Triple (#0557/1500) and 2000 Score Scorecard (#1566/2000).  Something tells me I should try to pick up the 2000 Score set at some point since it's obviously chock full of Wolverines!

We'll end his bunch on a high note with some Dufex coolness in the form of a horizontal Trophy Collection parallel from 1996 Pinnacle.  Those cards are great as-is, and so is the design from that year, but the photo selection really makes for a winner here.

Amani Toomer is the other WR in this triple-decker QB sandwich.  While his recent derogatory comments about the state of the team--from a guy who doesn't appear to make any effort to make a connection with his alma mater, no less--irked me quite a bit, I don't tend to make my collecting decisions based on stuff like that.  So don't be too surprised that he was the biggest winner of this COMC run with 12 new cards.

Toomer was yet another player that appeared in the '97 Totally Certified Platinum Red insert, but I also found his Blue version (#1882/2499), definitely more appropriate for a Michigan guy.  A '99 Topps Stars parallel creatively named Parallel (#168/299) finishes off the late 90s group while an early iteration of Absolute's Tools of the Trade name (#0503/1000) begins the 2000s, which is when the rest of Amani's cards cards for today were produced.

For those we jump ahead a few years where Topps Chrome Refractors from 2004 and '05 sandwich an Upper Deck Foundations Exclusive Gold (#063/100) parallel, also from '04.  Then 2006 brings a nice looking Gold version of the familiar Elite Series from Donruss Elite (#0134/1000) and the penultimate Scorecard parallel (#521/750) for this post.

A 2007 Bowman Chrome XFractor (#081/250) is the sole example of that type of insert today, but for a good reason--I already own the Refractor from that year.  Then we finish up in 2008 with a Scorecard insert that's not from flagship Score, but its Select version (#049/100) instead, and a Topps Gold Border (to differentiate it from the useless Gold Foil inserts) printed during his sunset season.

As always I had a blast searching high and low (especially low!) on COMC for these new additions to my football inserts PC, finding all kinds of designs that caught my eye.  And as I mentioned I still have some others to show off in the player collections post that will be the finale of this series soon.  Until then, which ones do each of you like the best?