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.

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?

10/7/17 card show report: wide world of Wolverines

If you read my TMV post (which is likely how you got here), you know the show I went to a couple weeks ago and the subsequent report post were pretty much paint-by-numbers, but I can't complain since the cards were new to me and fun to dig out as usual.

Here's the Wolverines content:

Let's start with the football base stuff.  Last year's Donruss offerings of Funchess and David Harris bookend a nice 2009 Upper Deck Leon Hall, and I also added Harris' Donruss base from this year's design, which I also like.

One of the biggest surprises of the day was card #5, a 1988 Swell Greats issue of Bill Hewitt, a player I believe is totally new to this here blog.  A native of the state (Bay City), he attended Michigan in the late 20s/early 30s as an "end" (I believe a pre-forward pass TE) and FB, then went on to an NFL Hall of Fame career with the Bears, Eagles, and the amazingly named Phil-Pitt Steagles, the combined team that was formed due to a player shortage resulting from WWII.  He doesn't appear to have appeared on much cardboard, so this was one of those really fun dime box finds!

I also wasn't expecting to turn up a numbered first-year for my Rookie Blue collection, but suddenly I saw a 2003 Absolute Memorabilia RC (#0616/1100) of former TE Bennie Joppru.  It's my 20th of his surprising total of 32 rookies, and one of the nicest ones at that.

Finally, I grabbed another one of those crazy and fun Pacific offerings of the 90s, a 1996 Crown Royale base of coach Jim Harbaugh.  When Pacific wasn't trying to melt your eyeballs with shininess they tried to grab your attention in other ways, like this all-die-cut set, and I salute them for it!

I also came up with a surprising number of Michigan Football inserts, though if it took me this long to find them I can't imagine the dealer would feel like putting in the effort to dig them up and price them at a small premium.

The top row is all Refractors all the time:  Biakabutuka's hails from 1999 Finest, Breaston's is a parallel of his 2007 Finest RC, and I also found what seems to be a rarity:  a Braylon of that parallel that I hadn't tracked down yet (2006 Bowman Chrome).

The next three are all numbered, with a couple $0.50 cards from the same set bookending one numbered way higher than both combined.  QBs Elvis Grbac and Brian Griese are both representing with identical numbering (#221/299) from Pacific's 2001 Vanguard Blue parallel, plus I turned up a Silver parallel of Griese's 1998 Topps Stars RC (#2430/3999).

The bottom includes parallels of a couple positions that face each other on every play, a CB and WR.  While I already had Leon Hall's 2007 Topps Chrome Refractor parallel of his RC, until this show I hadn't tracked down his XFractor.  Done and done!  Jumping back more than a decade I then grabbed Amani Toomer's super shiny Ground Zero parallel from 1996 Summit.

That wasn't all, though, since I made it an even ten with these two horizontal offerings.  The first is a 2001 Team Nucleus insert that plays on its product's name:  Pacific Prism Atomic.  All three players on that card ended up having at least solid careers, though HOF RB Davis's career would be over the year after this insert came out.

Speaking of 2001 Atomic, I also came up with this awesome die-cut/numbered insert of WR Tai Streets, a Gold parallel numbered 005/116.  The color really goes well with the 49ers uniforms.  Remember when they didn't suck because they weren't owned by a know-nothing spoiled brat?

Lastly, I turned up two very cool hockey parallels.  The first is one of my favorite hockey alumni in Morrison on one of my favorite parallels and products:  1999-00 Paramount Holo-Gold (#050/199).  I surprised myself when it came up in a big pile of numbered hockey cards I was grabbing for someone else (who could that possibly be?  I'm going insane trying to remember.).  The other is one of the better goalies the school produced, Steve Shields, on one of the greatest of all parallels, an Artist's Proof, which happens to be of his 1997-98 Pinnacle RC, so big bonus there!

That's it for this month's show, but I've still got waaaaaaay too much to scan and post to show off for you, so stay tuned for whenever I get around to that.

2017 trade package #4: the (Pedestrian) Collector

I recently received my second trade package courtesy of Chris who runs the (Pedestrian) Collector, and this time I was happy to find some Wolverines to go with the rest of the contents.  If you read my TMV post from this evening you saw that I showed off a pair of cards relevant to that blog, but those make up a tiny fraction of the contents.  In fact, I like to think Chris was doing his best impression of Doug with this package based on the attention to detail he put into finding some Michigan stuff for me (and that's high praise!).

Here's a look at what Chris sent:

The five-card football portion starts with a QB club of three cards.  First is a '98 Topps Chrome of Elvis Grbac, a former Niner/Chief/Raven who had a nice Michigan career from '89-'92.  Next is a nice pair of cards featuring current Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh.  These hail from '95 Playoff Contenders and '97 Finest.  Shiny and higher-end seems to be the theme of the day!

The fourth card represents two of my football collections:  rookies and vintage.  It's an '81 Topps first-year of 17-year Atlanta Falcon T Mike Kenn, one of the school's most successful NFL products.  This one doesn't fit in with the shiny theme but is high quality for sure!

The fifth and final card gets us back on track with the others, and it's also from about the same time period:  a 2001 Topps Chrome base of Tai Streets, a WR who played for the '97 national champs and went on to a brief NFL career with San Fran and Detroit.

Now that's some good football content!  On to hockey:

It's a Mike Comrie hot page!  The first five cards represent the former Michigan C who's pictured with his original team, Edmonton, for whom he skated from 2001-2003.  The former Mr. Hilary Duff appears on cards from

• 2002-03 Pacific Heads Up
• 2002-03 Private Stock Titanium
• 2003-04 Upper Deck High Gloss Parallel (#24/25)
• 2001-02 and 2002-03 Atomic

This is a really nice bunch, especially thanks to the pair of die-cut atomic cards, not to mention the low-numbered UD parallel, which may be my best Comrie that isn't a hit to-date!

Two other players came long for the ride, and one is this '94-'95 Electric Ice parallel of LW (and Kitchener, Ontario native) Cam Stewart's Upper Deck second-year card.  It goes to show that Upper Deck's penchant for quality design goes way back.

Finally, Chris included a pair of cards of blog favorite goalie Marty Turco, both showing him with the Stars, the team that originally drafted him.  These come from 2002-03 Private Stock Titanium and 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee (which was being handled by Upper Deck at the time).  They give me a nice pair of action shots with Turco in both away and home unis.

Once again, thanks a lot for a great package of Wolverines, Chris!  I'll work on sending you a nice response as soon as I can acquire stuff I know you'll like.

Rookie Blue-out part 3: 1997-98 champs!

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.

I managed to come up with another fun theme for today's post:  all 10 of today's players were part of the 1997-98 team that won Michigan's last NCAA title.  Wikipedia says that a crazy 31 guys on that team went on to at least some playing time in the NFL, and naturally many of those guys appear on at least one rookie card.  Speaking of that, three guys I already covered in the first post in this series were also '97 champs:   James Hall, Tommy Hendricks, and Andre Weathers.

As a matter of fact, of the 23 of those guys with NFL RCs, I have rookies of 13 of them (and am currently chasing cards of Jeff Backus, Jay Feely, Chris Howard, Jon Jansen, Dhani Jones, William Peterson, Josh Williams, and Maurice Williams).

And now, on to today's players:

Mark Campbell (1999):  Score Supplemental

Campbell, who hails from Clawson (about an hour northeast of Ann Arbor), was a FB/TE for the Wolverines in the mid-to-late 90s.  He appeared in 46 games for Michigan, though he didn't earn a ton of playing time, but did manage one TD catch during the title-winning campaign.  Mark signed with Cleveland as a UDFA and also appeared with Buffalo and New Orleans over his eight-year career, during which he compiled 146 receptions and 12 TDs--not bad for a guy that went undrafted!

Campbell is one of two players in this post who appeared in the 1999 Score Supplemental set, which was purple for some reason but looks great otherwise.  I still need to track down his two other RCs from Fleer Focus and Leaf Rookies & Stars.

Chris Floyd (1998):  Absolute Hobby, Absolute Retail, Collector's Edge First Place, Playoff Prestige Retail

FB Chris Floyd has been mentioned here a couple times before as I have a couple of his autographs by way of the fantastic TK Legacy product (see this post for more on him).  Because he was drafted in 1998 he appears in a few of the same products as other guys in this post such as Brian Griese and Charles Woodson, including each set shown here.  I'm glad that I'm able to show off both the hobby and retail versions of '98 Absolute since it's crazy how different they are when you consider exclusive versions don't vary quite so much these days.  I'll go with the Prestige card as my favorite here--big surprise, I'm sure!  These four comprise my entire Floyd RC collection, so I'm five short of his run for now.

Brian Griese (1998):  Absolute Retail, Aurora, Black Diamond Rookies, Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Collector's Edge Masters (#4120/5000), Collector's Edge Odyssey, Crown Royale, E-X2001, Pacific, Pacific Omega, Skybox Premium, Topps Chrome, Topps Gold Label Class 1, Topps Season Opener, Topps Stars (#7097/8799). UD3, Ultra

Like Floyd, Griese went in 1998's third round (one pick before the Steelers selected Hines Ward, as it turns out), but since he was the QB of the team that won it all the previous year he appeared on a few more RCs--39 by my count.  Not bad for a former walk-on and third-round pick!  Here's a crazy 18(!) of those, giving me a new count of 28 for the quality journeyman NFL signal-caller.  There's a ton to like here, from the lone Michigan uni card (Omega) to some really nice looking stuff, especially Gold Label and Ultra.  Thanks to the multitude of manufacturers from that era there's simply a ton of variety to enjoy!

Steve Hutchinson (2001):  Upper Deck Vintage (with Ken Lucas and Orlando Huff)

Future HOF OG Steve Hutchinson probably got about as much hobby love as an O-lineman could, all of it more than deserved.  I actually hadn't realized that Seattle chose him with a first-round pick sent to them along with solid QB Matt Hasselbeck by Green Bay that year; sure seems like that deal worked out for the Seahawks!

Hutch actually appears on five RCs--again, not bad for an OL.  Here he shares a first-year card with fellow 2001 draftees Ken Lucas (2nd round) and Orlando Huff (4th), but despite the third billing he easily had the best career of the trio.  Fortunately he gets to fly solo on his other cards.

Marcus Knight (2000):  Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Metal, Pacific, Skybox Dominion, Ultimate Victory (#0895/2000)

Knight's RCs hail from 2000, the same year as Tom Brady's, but the latter isn't in today's posts because his cards mostly cost more than boxes of Topps' latest execrable "high-end" products.  The undrafted WR (whom I didn't realize was coaching up at Northern Michigan) appears on 15 first-years, and I've got six to show off here.  The Michigan uni cards aren't the 100% versions I love, with the Pacific card having just his winged helmet (those still count!) and the Dominion card enjoying some airbrushing, but they're still great.  Meanwhile the Bowman cards feature a great photo, and the Ultimate Victory card makes me sad because I'll have to sell my first-born for enough money to buy Brady's rookie from the set!

Aaron Shea (2000):  Bowman, Bowman Chrome, Finest (#1712/2400), Upper Deck Encore

Yes, Mr. Substitute Teacher, A-A-Ron is present!  Like Knight and Brady, Shea's RCs came out in the year 2000 (two youtube clips in two sentences?!), so there's a small overlap between Shea's cards and Knight's today in the form of the Bowman/Chrome duo.  The Finest card and its crazy background is my favorite, and the numbering portends the explosion of that trend in the years to come.  Shea has a healthy 15 rookies to pick up, and for now, these four are it as far as my collection goes, with lots of numbered stuff remaining.

Tai Streets (1999):  Collector's Edge Advantage, Pacific, Paramount, Playoff Prestige SSD

Streets was one of the stars of the '98 Rose Bowl thanks to his 127 receiving yards and pair of TDs, then he went off in 1998 with 11 more scores, good enough to get drafted by the 49ers.  He only got nine RCs, though, which was possibly a function of being a 6th-rounder.  This bunch represents four of my five Streets RCs, and to my great satisfaction all are Michigan uni cards with zero airbrushing, and each looks great, especially the Paramount card, a set that features a design I've always admired.

Anthony Thomas (2001):  Bowman, E-X (#0871/1250), Fleer Tradition Glossy (#0550/2001), Leaf Rookies and Stars, Pacific, Quantum Leaf

And now we hop aboard the A-Train.  Despite being a freshman RB, Thomas was a key contributor in 1997 before putting up double-digit scores his final three seasons.  Thanks to his eye-popping numbers and second-round pedigree he appeared on 50 (yes 50!) RCs in 2001, second only to his forever linked counterpart David Terrell as the only two Wolverines to garner that many to-date.  Adding this sextet to what I already had puts me at a paltry nine, so I have lots to go, but at least three of today's cards feature Michigan unis, with the Fleer card looking great minus the airbrushed helmet.  Quantum Leaf gets the "Super Shiny" award while Rookies & Stars wins best photo for the "multi-sport athlete" theme.

Jerame Tuman (1999):  Fleer Focus (#2288/3850), Fleer Tradition, Leaf Rookies and Stars, Score Supplemental, Ultra

Tuman was a pretty good TE for the Wolverines that contributed to the NCAA champs during his junior year, then got drafted by the Steelers in '99; he'd return to the area for Super Bowl XL in 2006 to win a Super Bowl ring to go with the one he earned in college.  These five cards give me six of his manageable eight, and two of those feature excellent college shots, with Ultra the clear winner (as it often is when college photos are involved).  Pacific Revolution and Skybox Dominion cards loom before I can cross another player off the list.

Charles Woodson (1998):  Absolute Hobby, Absolute Retail, Collector's Edge Advantage, Collector's Edge First Place, Crown Royale, E-X2001, Fleer Brilliants, Playoff Momentum Hobby

Woodson is pretty much the reason we're here today--last year I began to make a conscious effort to collect all of his rookies, and that eventually led me to being the project to do so for all Michigan players.  That probably explains why, despite the fact he has 43 RCs to chase, some of them fairly rare and/or pricey, I'm now up to a very respectable 36.  I don't think any of the eight I'm showing off today set me back more than $2 or $3 at the most, and a few were even closer to a buck.  Chuck's another example of the '98 Absolute Hobby/Retail disparity, and he gives us a look at a few other brands as well.  Hopefully I'll have the remaining seven to show off before long!

That's it for today's bunch, so stay tuned for whatever theme I do or don't come up with for next time.