2014 COMC purchases: Wild Card Wolverines

I'm writing this last post showing off my Black Friday/Cyber Monday COMC haul while watching Leon Hall's Bengals team take on the Colts, with Larry Foote's Cardinals having already bowed out to the Panthers yesterday (and seriously, could Logan Thomas be THAT bad that their only option was Lindley?).  On a Wild Card NFL Sunday, here's the last of my football pickups this time:

Leon Hall 2007 SAGE HIT Autographs Gold auto (#34/250)

Here's this post's first Bengals card, even if it's of Hall in his college uni (which I obviously prefer!).  Hall's actually done pretty well to return from some injury issues, so I'm happy to see him playing today.  For a pretty reasonable price I was able to grab this Gold version of a SAGE HIT Silver auto I already had.  Leon's now good for 37 hits in my football PC, which is pretty cool.

David Harris 2011 Score Signatures auto

The cards in today's post slightly skew towards defense, including tackling machine LB David Harris of the Jets.  I'm curious how many times I've referred to Harris as a "tackling machine" but not enough to actually do the work to figure it out.  Anyway, I was surprised to find I didn't have this autograph from 2011 Score so I picked it up on the cheap.  Maybe with a new coach and GM the Jets won't be so embarrassing and I won't have to root for Harris to join a new team!  This is my 24th hit of Harris, by the way.

Mike Hart 2008 Bowman Chrome Rookie Autographs auto

Here's Colt #1 and it's definitely my favorite Indy player of all time, Mike Hart.  For some reason it's hard to track down his signatures on COMC for less than $4 or $5, and the few that are there I already have.  Thankfully I found a nice deal on this '08 Bowman Chrome auto, which takes a design I like and adds a great signature to it.  Did I mention I like to collect Hart?  This is my 55th hit of his, putting him one card behind Braylon Edwards for third place.

Marlin Jackson 2005 Bowman's Best Red auto (#171/199)

Today's other Michigan Colt is former CB Marlin Jackson.  I've slowly been putting together his 2005 Bowman's Best auto rainbow, and depending on how that goes I may look to add the base and its parallels as well.  I now have four versions including the "base," Green, and Bronze.  It's a good looking set and Marlin's a player I like so that makes it even more fun tracking these down.  This one's one of 18 Jackson hits I now own.

Chris Perry 2004 Leaf Rookies & Stars Masks dual mask (#074/325)

Now it's time for another RB, and Chris Perry says he wants to even the score for the Bengals.  He does so with my second facemask relic.  My other one, of WR Marquise Walker, also came from a Leaf R&S set, and I'm glad they thought outside of the box and came up with a very unique relic idea.  You really don't see helmet relics that often, and facemasks even less so since there's not nearly as much to work with, so if you see one of a player you like I suggest you grab it!  Perry, by the way, hits a small milestone by reaching 40 hits with this card, and he's just the eighth player to get there for me so far.

Anthony Thomas 2001 SPx Blue Foil jersey auto RC (#019/550)

You can take the A-Train to today's last RB card, which happens to be a really nice one.  SPx often puts out a nice RC design that combines a jersey and autograph, and I like what UD did here a lot, especially with the signature window area, which does a great job of highlighting one of football's all-time best 'graphs.  Oh yeah, and just as importantly, this evens up Thomas with David Terrell at 37 cards, putting those two in a three-way tie with Leon Hall for ninth; the next player up?  Previously-shown David Harris and his 24 hits, which is a pretty big gap.

Donovan Warren 2010 Press Pass Autographs Gold auto (#24/99)

Donovan Warren 2010 SAGE HIT Autographs Gold auto (#172/250)

Donovan Warren is the last player up today, and he can't break the Bengals/Colts tie since he never appeared with either team (or in an NFL game for that matter), but it doesn't really matter since the Colts appear to have the game in the bag anyway.  As for Warren, the Press Pass signature was my first of him from that set, and since he doesn't appear on that many cards I may try to track the others down eventually.  The SAGE card, though, is more exciting for me since it gives me the trifecta of base, Silver, and this Gold version.  I'm sure I'll feature it as a completed project/rainbow sometime soon when I don't have anything else to write about.  These two are included as part of Donovan's new total of six hits.

That's it for this COMC run, but as I've mentioned a few times, I spent the rest of my December budget--what I didn't use on the Tom Brady auto--during the Boxing Day sales, so once those ship you'll get to see those.  For now the collection stands at 969 cards (which, again, would have been 970 if I hadn't picked up a hit I didn't realize I already had).  Stay tuned for more soon!

2014 COMC purchases: how long til Spring Training?

Today's post includes the last of my baseball PC stuff from the Black Friday/Cyber Monday COMC package:

First up is a seven spot of a player collected by many bloggers, Jim Abbott:

Jim Abbott 1990 Topps Debut '89

Jim indeed made his debut on 4/8/89, though it wasn't exactly a sign of what was to come as he went just 4.2 innings and allowed six runs (three earned) in a loss to future Angel Mark Langston and the Mariners.  Former Tiger Dan Petry mopped up for Abbott, who would go 12-11 the rest of the way and place fifth in ROY voting.

Jim Abbott 1993 Flair

After I won a $20 Cyber Monday shopping spree I decided to go nuts with the house money and spend it on my PC guys.  This is another Abbott I picked up late because the price was right and I liked the design.  It's fun collecting cards with different shots of Jim's pitching motion, especially one that so clearly shows him holding his glove to his right side.

Jim Abbott 2005 Topps Retired Signature Gold (#144/500)

This one set me back a bit more than a dollar, and that's probably because the product isn't extremely common on the secondary market.  I'm sure that has to do with the high cost, though it's easy to argue that much of what you get makes it worth it.  As I often do, I really like the Gold parallel design here where the color does a good job of making it stand apart from the base card.

Jim Abbott 2012 Topps Archives SP

I'm not one to collect short-printed portions of base sets, especially when most of the players aren't guys I collect, so a good alternative is picking those up as singles occasionally, like this Abbott from '12 Archives.  It's a nice callback to the design from the '92 set some 20 years prior, and it goes well with the autographed version I own.

Jim Abbott 2013 Elite Extra Edition Historic Picks

I just grabbed this EEE insert because he was of course drafted out of Michigan, though the card doesn't mention that.  It's also funny pairing it up with the Topps Debut card above since this one messes up his debut date, which should be 4/8, not 8/8.

Jim Abbott 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen Framed Blue (#086/499)

I think UD Masterpieces did this design first--and possibly better--but Jim's 2013 GQ card is certainly very frame-able, no?  Oddly enough I haven't bothered to pick up his base version from the set yet, but I will at some point.

Jim Abbott 2013 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions auto

Last up is this low-end autograph from 2013 Goodwin Champions.  The lack of a logo is less of a drawback for me than the overall boring design of the rest of the card, but it was still a very cheap Abbott autograph and that's all I really cared about.  This is my seventh hit of Jim and so far every one of those features an autograph.

Speaking of numbers, Jim gets to be the subject of the first of today's milestones as he moves past the century mark to 103 cards!

Chris Getz 2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Blue Refractor (#26/99)

This Getz has me feeling blue, but in a good way as it's another step towards his ten-card 2008 Bowman Draft/Chrome rainbow.  That and it's my favorite Refractor color, of course, though as usual I prefer dark blue.  Just two cards stand between me and another finished project:  Refractors in Gold (/50) and Red (the always rare /5).  I'm just about at 70% of his run with 74/106 as of today.

Rich Hill 2008 Upper Deck Premier Swatches Silver triple patch (#06/10)

Aw yeah, time for more patchtastic fun with Rich Hill!  My 111th hit of the lefty hurler is this gorgeous triple patch which adds to my collection of Hill's '08 UD Premier bunch.  He's represented on 22 cards in the product including six Premier Swatches cards, all of which I can now claim to own.  Feel free to check out the group in his album or just enjoy looking at this red, white, and blue beauty if that's your preference.  Meanwhile I'll keep counting with 230/347 (almost two-thirds!) and 242 overall, currently one ahead of Barry Larkin for the PC lead.

Mike Matheny 2005 Topps Gold (#705) (#0633/2005)

Matheny has a nice number of cards in 2005 Topps products because he appears in flagship, Chrome, and Update/Chrome.  Here's the Gold parallel of his second flagship base card honoring his 2004 Gold Glove.  Maybe sometime I'll grab his First Edition and Black parallel cards to complete the bunch.  The above card is my 51st of St. Louis' manager.

Hal Morris 1995 Donruss Diamond King

I've been trying to get Morris past the 100-card mark and I will soon enough, but nothing of his on COMC has been calling my name lately.  Well, nothing besides this cool '95 Diamond Kings card, his second and final appearance in the insert set after being part of '92's as well.  I'm betting he was included in '95 after a 1994 season that saw him hit .335.  Make it 95 cards of William Harold Morris.

George Sisler 1960 Fleer

Well well well, we have a Hall-of-Famer in our midst today.  Sisler wants to know how long this picture-takin' bullshit is gonna take so he can go out and hit, see?  This '60 Fleer issue is my oldest card of Gorgeous George by a year--I also have his Fleer card from '61.  Adding something from closer to his playing days is likely out of my budget so it's cool to be add at least something of his that falls under the vintage category.  Also, like Abbott he's celebrating a milestone today as he reaches the 50-card mark--even if he doesn't look excited enough to celebrate anything.

Well, that's it for baseball PC stuff this time, and I didn't pick up anything for these guys during the Boxing Day sale, but I do have a few things from the show I hit up yesterday to show off soon, after I get to posting the rest of my football haul (which will likely be tomorrow).

2014 COMC purchases: the WRest of the WRs

After yesterday's post I don't think today's needs too much of an introduction other than "Here's the rest of the WR hits I teased in that post":

Jason Avant 2006 SAGE HIT jersey

When I first saw this card it took me a minute to figure out why I thought it looked kind of strange, and then I realized it's the fact that jersey swatches aren't often shaped in a thin rectangle like that.  Besides that, it just looks really different compared to most SAGE cards.  No complaints, though, and I love the Michigan uni relic and photo.

Jason Avant 2006 Topps Draft Senior Standouts jersey

"Michigan uniform" is a bit of a stretch here, but at the time of the photo he was still in college (for the Senior Bowl) and wearing his winged helmet, so count it!  Avant was joined by DL Gabe Watson that year for the North team, and his appearance there is commemorated by this nice jersey swatch.

Jason Avant 2006 Upper Deck Rookie Futures jersey auto (#007/100)

Avant's last card for the day is this UD-branded jersey/auto, though the jersey swatch is barely the size of a postage stamp.  I'm pretty happy with anything new of the hands-y WR, though, as evidenced by now owning a total of 41 of his hits, good for seventh in my collection and the 7th to reach the 40-card mark.

Steve Breaston 2007 Bowman Sterling Refractor auto (#113/199)

Breaston is WR #2 today, and this is the only card of his bunch that includes his full signature.  Including this one I count five in my collection with that feature, and I believe all of them were from earlier releases--one from Topps Draft and three SAGE products.  Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

Steve Breaston 2007 Donruss Classics auto RC (#041/499)

This is the only signed RC of his I found this time, and of course it looks a bit goofy with the sticker smack on the middle of the card for some reason, but you always flip a coin with Panini when it comes to design.  Plus it was cheap!

Steve Breaston 2007 Donruss Rookie Threads auto (#133/200)

This one makes a bit more sense, though with all that space taken up by the product's logo Panini surely could have set aside some room for a dedicated autograph area.  Besides, that, it's shiny, so it's got that going for it.

Steve Breaston 2007 Finest Rookie Autographs auto

I was trying to figure out how I made it this long collecting Breaston without acquiring this card, and I blame that on two factors:  I'm sure most of the time I thought I already had it, and when I did think to try to pick it up the price never made sense.  For closer to $1 than $2 this was a no-brainer for me.

Steve Breaston 2011 Topps Triple Threads Autographed Unity Relics Emerald jersey auto (#TTUAR-1) (#47/50) and Autographed Unity Relics Sepia jersey auto (#TTUAR-2) (#45/75)

This pair is fun not just because I like auto/jersey cards, but also because I have a third from the set as well.  What's even crazier is that I have one of each number of his Unity cards, but they're all different versions--Emerald, Sepia, and base respectively.

Steve Breaston 2011 Topps Precision auto

My last Breaston of the post is this signature that also hails from a 2011 Topps product and features him once again with his final team, the Chiefs, though here he's wearing his #15 he wore in college and at Arizona.  I'm not sure at what point he switched from his #19 back to 15 with KC, but anyway I like when college players keep their numbers in the pros.  Speaking of numbers, today's seven cards give Steve-o a shiny new count of 22 hits.

David Terrell 2002 Upper Deck Ovation Bound for Glory jersey

I often like to post Terrell's cards along with former college and Bears teammate Anthony Thomas, and I do have an A-Train to show off, but I wanted to stick with the WR theme, so for now please enjoy this hopeful but in hindsight overly optimistic Terrell jersey from 2002.  For now the pair will be out of sync, but rest assured that both will share David's 36 hit total very soon.

Once again it was a very good day for my football PC as I move up to 961 hits--anyone see where this is going?  Stay tuned for a final baseball PCs post, then the last of my football pickups from Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  After that you can look forward to a card show report and even MORE December COMC cards, not necessarily in that order.

2014 COMC purchases: third year fun, or, you can't spell "New Years" without "WRs"

Happy new year, everyone!  It's been three years since I created this blog to focus on Michigan-specific stuff so TMV could remain more interesting to its originally intended audience.  Almost 500 posts later (what?  I'm lazy) I'd say I've done just that, with the help of occasional TMM co-author Jeff.  Thanks again to everyone who follows my second blog, reads, comments, and trades with me!

As the title suggests, I'm celebrating today with a bunch of WR hits from COMC, and I had so many that I'm going to have to split them into two posts, which is a fun problem to have!  Michigan's turned out quite a few receivers over the years, and today you'll get to see 10 cards representing three of those guys:

Mario Manningham 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear Rookie Gridiron Gems Trios Materials Signatures Prime patch-ball-patch auto (#15/50)

Well this is definitely one of my nicer Manninghams!  My other current version of this card has just a jersey and ball swatch, but this one ups the ante with a pair of patches and a signature.  And as the name of this here blog can attest, there's no such thing as Too Many Manninghams.

Mario Manningham 2008 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs auto

With this card Super Mario joins former teammates Jake Long and Mike Hart in the list of Wolverines autos I own from '08 Topps Chrome.  That just puts me a Henne away from the quartet.

Mario Manningham 2008 UD Masterpieces Captured on Canvas jersey

First, I'll say as always that I love the Masterpieces set, including its relics like this one--even if the jersey swatch is simple, the rest of the design makes it great.  Second, I just noticed for the first time today that the font used on the top and bottom looks like it came straight out of the Lord of the Rings movies!  On an unrelated note I now own 47 hits of Manningham.

Amani Toomer 2012 Certified Fabric of the Game jersey (#054/199)

Amani "It's Not a" Toomer was a Giant for all 13 of his NFL seasons and won a ring with the Super Bowl XLII team.  While he didn't record a TD, he did lead all Giants receivers with six catches and 84 yards, which is especially impressive since Eli Manning was his QB.  This beautiful Giants blue jersey swatch comes from a set released a few years after he retired, and it's my 12th hit of his.

Marquise Walker 2002 Bowman's Best Red patch jersey (#130/199)

Walker is today's third and final QB.  First up for him is this patch/jersey card from 2002 Bowman's Best to go along with the "base" and Blue jersey relics I already had for him.  I don't know that I'd agree with Topps calling the black swatch a "patch," but this is a pretty cool card regardless.

Marquise Walker 2002 Leaf Certified jersey RC (#182/800) and Mirror Red Materials ball (#086/250)

Next I found a pair of similar Walker relics from 2002 Certified for around the same price, and what's cool is that one is a jersey and the other is a football, with the latter being a shiny Mirror Red version.  Each card has a nice relic swatch and is really thick!

Marquise Walker 2002 Playoff Contenders auto RC (#019/330)

My only Walker signature of the day is this Rookie Ticket auto from Contenders--yep, they've been running that set for that long!  Marquise has a pretty cool John Hancock, and I now have five cards including his signatures by which to judge that.

Marquise Walker 2002 SP Legendary Cuts Rookie Recruits jersey

Marquise Walker 2002 Sweet Spot Gallery jersey

To finish up this post I have a couple relatively nondescript UD relics from 2002, though at least both feature nice red Tampa jersey swatches.  Combined with everything else they give Walker a new PC count of 17 hits.

I'm also happy to be able to close things by announcing that I've reached exactly 950 football hits, with plenty more to come!  It should have been 951, but as I occasionally do I picked up a hit I already owned and therefore can't include it.  Worry not--it won't make a difference to the 2014 year-end count.

2014 COMC purchases: year-end Yankees

We're still smack in the middle of bowl season, one of the true highlights of what can otherwise be a rough time of the year in the northern midwest, but I still have lots of baseball stuff to post, so let's get back to those instead!  Today I have 11 cards with a theme:  every single one of them is a Yankee.  I'm no fan of that team, but plenty of Michigan baseballers have played for them, so I happily collect them anyway.

First up is former two-sport star Drew Henson, who appeared in three straight Michigan bowl victories over SEC teams during his college career:

Drew Henson 2001 Fleer Triple Crown RC (#2486/2999)

Beckett's online checklist lists "just" 12 RCs for Drew, all out of 2001 Fleer products.  I already had his Platinum RC and now I own one of his 10 numbered rookies.  I remember trying Triple Crown that year and thought it was decent, but I'm just not one for trying to pull short-printed cards out of boxes, so I'm glad to be able to add this on the cheap.

Drew Henson 2002 Topps Traded Gold (#0912/2002)

And now we get a bit rarer with the serial-numbering.  It's funny, the 2002 Gold parallels don't look extremely different compared to the base cards when it comes to color.  Still, I've always been a fan of some of the Topps designs from earlier in the decade, including 2002's.

Drew Henson 2003 Bazooka Blasts Relics bat

Bazooka brings back some bad collecting memories for me since for some reason I decided to chase the 1996 set despite the product having abysmal collation (and absolutely no redeeming value).  But for under a buck I found my 8th Henson relic and 13th hit overall.  This kind of card was just about right as a hit out of the 2003 product, one that wasn't awesome for collectors older than 10 but still much better than the '96 version!

Drew Henson 2003 Topps Chrome Refractor (with Brandon Claussen) (#191/699)

Refractor!  I really like the fact that the 2003 version of the "regular" Refractor was blue, which is obviously my favorite.  Claussen, by the way, is the player the Yanks sent to the Reds for Aaron "F%$king" Boone in 2003 before his fateful HR.

Drew Henson 2003 Topps Gallery

Not much to say here--Gallery was often a beautiful set and 2003's version combined the artistic design with some shininess.  Count me as a fan.

That gives me a new Henson count of 31--just baseball, of course!

Next up is pitcher Scott Kamieniecki, whom the Yanks drafted when Henson was just six years old:

Scott Kamieniecki 1995 Stadium Club Members Only Parallel

Just one of Kam today, but that's no surprise since I'm in the home stretch as far as his collection goes.  Today's card is his '95 Stadium Club Members Only issue, and that not only closes the door for me on that set, but also the year of 1995.  I own 85 of his 90 cards, and of the five remaining I'm really only worried about his tougher 1998 Pacific Online versions. 

And last but not least is the most recent Yankee draftee, OF Michael O'Neill:

Michael O'Neill 2013 Elite Extra Edition Signature Aspirations auto (#032/100)

I'm always aware of what I'm getting into when I collect Elite Extra Edition stuff--lots of different parallels, some of which can be pretty tough to find.  But I tend to like the designs, plus in some cases that might be the only product that carries hits of some of my guys.  Fortunately that's not the case with O'Neill, but regardless I'm having fun tracking down his EEE cards, like this die-cut auto.

Michael O'Neill 2013 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks Draft Hits and Draft Hits Prizms

Here we have a "base" insert and a Prizm parallel of that insert--it's Prizmception!  I count 15 different O'Neill cards in the product and I own six of them, so hooray for hitting 40%!

Michael O'Neill 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects and Prospects auto

I was doing pretty decently with my O'Neill collection until 2014 Bowman Chrome and its 30 (by my count, hope I'm not missing any) new cards came along.  Well, it'll probably be tough sledding, but now that I have his base card and "base" auto, I just need 14 more parallels of each!  With the above EEE auto I now have eight of Paul's nephew.

Five new cards at this point is a very helpful boost and I can now lay claim to 16 of O'Neill's 70-card run, good for about 23%.

Stay tuned for one more baseball post and two or three more covering football.  The new year may start tomorrow but I'm still not done covering 2014 pickups, and that includes a very special Boxing Day COMC haul still to come!