2017 COMC purchases: Rookie Blue beats Purdue

Sticking with the 2017 script, Michigan found itself in a dogfight at the half, then took over in the final two quarters to win by a decent margin last Saturday.  Let's celebrate with the first of a few COMC pickup posts, this one covering some more additions to my football RC collection, a.k.a. Rookie Blue:

What does Alan Branch do, kids?

ALAN BRANCH KILLS QBs!  The fearsome DL makes another impactful appearance here with this solid first-year from 2007 Donruss Classics (#1225/1499), giving me 20 of his 26.

One of the 2008 draftees I'm not as interested in due to his short career (all of six games in 2010), here's LB Shawn Crable on rookie #18/19 from 2008 Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity (#228/999), a base set that shouldn't be confused with the Longevity parallel from the regular Rookies and Stars product.  (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Old Braylon is our first of four Michigan uni cards, and this one hails from 2005 Upper Deck Rookie Debut.  It's my 15th of his 23 rookies from that year and just the third in which he's sporting the maize and blue.

Another college card in the pile was this 1998 Playoff Prestige Hobby base of '97 National Champ RB Chris Floyd.  This shiny rookie is my sixth out of nine of the third leading rusher of that squad.

Funch is #2 on this year's Panthers in targets, receptions, and yards, but remains scoreless on a team that's caught just two TDs in three games.  In a relatively rare occurrence, I like the Panini card (Rookies and Stars) less than the Topps offering (Heritage) in a pair that gives me 18 of his 24 RCs from 2015.

Defense, the key to Michigan's 2017 success to-date, gets another shout out thanks to LB Ian Gold on this shiny 2000 Leaf Certified rookie (#1896/2000) that certainly befits his name.  Make it six of nine of the former Bronco who shares a rookie year with Tom Brady's super expensive offerings.

It's a shiny numbered rookie party, and QB-turned-3B-turned-QB Drew Henson came in his Sunday best on this 2004 Leaf Certified Materials RC (#0109/1000).  Certified had a tendency to offer some fun designs like the one on this, my 15th of 37 (jeez, 37?!) Henson first-years.

We'll take a quick break from numbered cards, and as it happens, those that are vertically-oriented, with this 2004 Upper Deck offering of stud RB Chris Perry that shows you exactly how cell phone videos should be filmed.  The Rookie Premiere-themed card is my 19th of Perry's 30 from his rookie year.

The fact that Denard is out of the league at the moment makes even a rarer RC like this one from 2013 Topps Supreme (#130/170), the lowest numbered one I own so far, reasonably cheap.  I do have a Spectra version (/99) still to chase of our second of three QBs in today's post, of whom I now own 23/27 rookies.

And here's our final QB:  Iowa castoff-turned Michigan QB-turned Lions draftee Jake Rudock from the excellent 2016 Donruss Optic product, which combines the pleasing Donruss design with a Chrome look.  It's #3 in my chase of his eight RCs.

I don't know that I'd call myself a fan of every Score football design, but I do like this one as it combines a nice design (even if it's green!) with a college photo.  Former Niners/Lions WR Tai Streets has nine 1999 rookies, and this Score example gives me eight.

Anthony Thomas is the beneficiary of our final college uni card of the post, the retail version of 2001 Pacific Invincible; his hobby version includes a jersey swatch and is therefore exempt from this project.  The very Pacific shiny base card with a translucent inset cel is my 19th of Thomas's crazy 50 rookies.

The oldest card you'll see in today's post, from 21 years ago(!) is this 1996 SP offering of Super Bowl-winning Giants WR Amani Toomer.  The card features one of my favorite SP designs, and it leaves me just one shy of his 22 RC run.

College and pro defensive star LaMarr Woodley was the biggest winner this time as the only player for whom I landed three cards (all numbered!), all from 2007:  Donruss Threads Retail Rookies (#605/999), Leaf Rookies and Stars (#850/999), and Topps TX Exclusive (#0849/1049).  Nothing here appeals to me as much as anything from any of the other players today, but knocking off three numbered RCs and giving me 16 of Woodley's 26 was a nice little accomplishment.

That's it for football RCs but I have a few more football-related posts, plus a hockey one for some variety.

Rookie Blue-out part 2: 2008 was great

Over the last couple months of 2015 I made a big push to acquire lots of cards for my Michigan Football RC PC, and between Sportlots and COMC I made a ton of progress.  Now I'm slowly but surely showing them off in various bunches.  Hit the link above to see the album or have a look at my checklist here.  (You can also use the links in the "Rookie Blue: Michigan Football rookies collection" section on the right sidebar)  Click here for all posts in the series.

Anything formatted in this style indicates what I consider to be a Michigan uniform photo, regardless of airbrushing, etc.

Today's bunch of rookies is bigger than the last post's as it covers what everyone should know by now is my favorite Michigan draft class, 2008.  Here's seven players and 52 cards.  Enjoy!

Jamar Adams:  2008 Absolute Memorabilia (#269/799), Donruss Gridiron Gear (#410/999), Leaf Limited (#593/999), Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity (#706/999), Topps Chrome

I don't show Adams as much love as the other guys since he went undrafted and didn't really play much in the NFL, but he still counts towards this group.  His five cards today are a good indicator of much of what you'll see from the other players--lots of numbered cards!  My checklist indicates that I have six of his nine RCs, and two of those that are missing are retail versions of the first two cards above.  I'd call the Absolute Memorabilia card my favorite of this bunch.

Adrian Arrington:  Donruss Classics (#444/999), Donruss Gridiron Gear (#726/999), Finest (#450/699), Playoff Prestige, Select (#495/999), Upper Deck

For a guy who barely got any run in the pros, Arrington appeared on a solid number of rookie cards:  19.  Again, lots are numbered, and this is a good looking bunch, with the Gridiron Gear design the weakest in my opinion.  The Prestige and its college photo get the obvious win, but there's plenty to like with the rest, including a Refractor-y Finest and the shiny Select, a higher-end version of the solid base Score set.  I'm also almost 2/3 of the way done with Arrington at 12/19.

Shawn Crable:  Absolute Memorabilia (#635/799), Absolute Memorabilia Retail (#294/799), Bowman Sterling, Donruss Gridiron Gear (#362/999), Donruss Gridiron Gear Retail (#694/999), Leaf Certified Materials (#0325/1500), Leaf Limited (#432/999), Leaf Rookies and Stars (#448/999), Topps Chrome, Ultimate Collection (#035/275), Upper Deck, Upper Deck Draft Edition

Crable was easily the big winner of this post as I scored a crazy 12 of his first-years to give me an almost-complete total of 17/19.  Eight of these are numbered, but since Crable was never a big star and has been out of the league for a while, they didn't come close to breaking the bank.  The high-end Ultimate card looks pretty nice, but without a doubt I award first place to the Upper Deck version that pairs a college photo with my favorite design of the group;  while I love the Draft Edition set, the design pales in comparison to the flagship set.

Mike Hart:  Bowman Chrome, Finest (#010/699), Leaf Certified Materials (#0986/1500), Playoff Prestige, Topps Chrome, Topps Kickoff, Ultimate Collection (#236/275)

Hart actually outpaces all 2008 comers with 25 RCs, which is surprising since he was a later-round pick and Jake Long went #1 overall.  Not that I'm complaining as I love collecting his cards!  This bunch of seven includes a bunch of sets we've already seen in this post, including Finest, Ultimate Collection, and my favorite, Prestige, but it throws in Topps' football version of Opening Day:  Kickoff.  That'll quickly become familiar as the last three guys from this post also appeared in that product.  Today's seven give me a total of 19 of Mike's 25 rookies.

Chad Henne:  Bowman Chrome, Donruss Classics (#462/999), Finest (#206/699), Topps Chrome, Topps Kickoff, Topps Letterman (#269/419), Upper Deck Draft Edition

And here's another seven cards, of a guy who wore #7 in college.  Once again, a few numbered cards, and again mostly the usual suspects from today.  The outlier is the Topps Letterman card, which has the kind of design you don't see too often.  You'll see that brand one more time in this post.  I've always loved the photo used on the various versions of the UD Draft card because of the funny way Henne is holding the football.  By my count he has 22 RCs and I'm now just two short--UD Masterpieces (an SP) and Icons, which is expensive enough that I need that product's card for just about everyone in this class.

Jake Long:  Bowman Chrome, Select (#708/999), Topps Chrome, Topps Kickoff, Topps Mayo, Upper Deck Draft Edition

The former #1 overall pick, Long gets six new cards today, including five from sets we've already seen.  Naturally, I love the UD Draft card, and I've already said I like the Select product as well.  Topps' Mayo set is the new member here, and the somewhat interesting design goes with a great image of Long and a tattoo of his (though you'd think Topps could've zoomed out a bit to show more of it).  Like his Wolverines/Dolphins teammate Henne, Long had 22 RCs in 2008, and I can now lay claim to 14 of them, so I'm getting there!

Mario Manningham:  Bowman Chrome, Finest (#435/699), Playoff Prestige, Select (#880/999), Stadium Club (#0546/1799), Topps Kickoff, Topps Letterman (#402/419), Topps Mayo, Topps Rookie Progression

Last up is everyone's favorite blog namesake, "Super" Mario Manningham.  The former Giants Super Bowl hero has the second-most cards on the day with a full page of nine, including the excellent Finest, Prestige, and Select brands we've already seen.  To those we add Stadium Club, which thankfully was back in 2008, and another fun Topps product (did I just say that?), Topps Rookie Progression.  The latter eschews backgrounds of images for colors, but the college unis really pop nicely on the cards, such as Mario's home uniform here.  Mario has 23 first-years for me to chase and I now own 20 of them while lacking Donruss Classics, Ultimate Collection, and--sigh--Icons.

Well that was a nice chunk of cards to show off, and hopefully I'll be back with more soon, though I'll also try to mix things up with other pickups.