2018 Sportlots purchases: running it back

We're now less than three days from kickoff for Michigan's season-opener, and I have two posts left to cover, so hopefully I'll get the last one up on Friday.

Today we'll be looking at two of the greatest running backs in the program's history.  Teammates in 2000, their names fill the pages of Michigan's record books while their cards fill up a couple of my player collection albums.

First up alphabetically but second chronologically (2000-2003) is Heisman finalist Chris Perry.  Perry is in the program's top 10 for career rushing yards and running TDs plus single-season rushing scores, and #5 in terms of yards gained in a season.

This first scan begins with a nice bunch of Michigan uni cards from 2004 Press Pass and Press Pass SE.  Those include a base card from each product plus one or two parallels.  Then the rest of the group is 100% Topps brands from 2005:  Bowman Chrome, Heritage, Total, and Turkey Red.  I like the throwback flavor of the Heritage best out of that group.

From this point everything else is from his four-year tenure with the Bengals.  A 2005 Ultra base and Gold Medallion from the same brand's '06 version bookend four other 2006 cards:  Select, Topps Draft, and Heritage and Turkey Red once again, with Heritage getting another nice look.  '07 is represented by Topps and its green-for-some-reason Total product.  I busted a box of '07 flagship way back when I started TMV (TMG at the time!) but never ended up with enough to complete the set and decided to break them up while being short a few Wolverines.  A shiny Leaf Limited from '08 is the last of this bunch.

This last group is all '08 items produced during Perry's final NFL campaign.  The top is a Leaf Rookies and Stars/Longevity pair, and that's followed up by a nice Playoff Contenders design and interesting throwback look from Topps Mayo.

That's 22 new cards of Perry, pushing his collection over the century mark to 109.

The second and final player today is the A-Train, Anthony Thomas (1997-2000), a national champ who left Ann Arbor tops in career rushing yards (since eclipsed by Mike Hart and Denard Robinson).  He still owns the second best single-season rushing yardage and career running scores at the school along with a top 10 total of rush TDs in a season.

Thomas' haul also starts out with some college photo cards courtesy of Press Pass and SE: one base and parallel each from 2001.  I didn't track down any new RCs of his but did scare up a Topps Collection factory set card from the same year.  Then there's a very nice start to 2002 with Absolute Memorabilia, Bowman Chrome, Finest, and Flair.

And we're not nearly done with '02 yet!  This whole scan spans some of that year's offerings, starting with another Fleer pair, Genuine and Premium.  Check out A-Train making a big cut!  Following the only example of Pacific in this post are three fun pairs.  From the Playoff name come Contenders and Prestige; Topps offers more outstanding designs from Stadium Club and Gallery; and Upper Deck brings the hits from its flagship and XL sets.  You won't hear me say this about baseball stuff nowadays, but for 2002 football give me those Topps sets all day!

And now we move on to 2003 and some repeat offenders:  Absolute Memorabilia, Bowman Chrome, Prestige, and Upper Deck.  But joining those are a nice mix of other brands:  Donruss Classics, Gridiron Kings, Fleer Showcase, Leaf Certified Materials, and Topps Draft.  As always I love the canvas look of Gridiron Kings, and the '03 and '04 Topps Draft designs are my favorites of that product.

Diving into '04 are five brands we've already seen plus a new one.  Bowman Chrome, Classics, LCM, Topps Draft, and UD make triumphant returns but are joined by Ultra.  I'm hard pressed to choose between the '03 and '04 Topps Draft designs, but fortunately I don't have to!

This scan combines the last of the verticals and a pair of landscape cards I found.  The former are all what Doug would call "Bills!  Bills!  Bills!", cards produced in 2007 during his second year in Buffalo that would be his NFL swan song.  Leaf Certified Materials, Topps Total (gold parallel) and UD are joined by a very color coordinated SPx base.  Then we take it all the way back to 2002 for Topps Heritage and '03 for Topps' All American.  Both are great callbacks, especially the latter which reminds me of some of my favorite vintage cards like this one:

Bring back those crazy logos!

The A-Train's trip to Sportlots station added 40 new cards to his collection, a productive stop that puts him at a new total of 140.

Just one post left to go now, one that'll feature four different players!