2018 COMC purchases: 10 years later...

At long last I'm finishing up my 2018 COMC pickups with my favorites--my PC guys from the 2008 draft class!  It's this here blog's answer to GCRL:  Henne, Hart, Manningham, Long:

Record-setting RB Mike Hart is up first with a fun little trifecta.  His Stadium Club RC (#1799/1799!) leaves me just his '08 Upper Deck base short of his first-year run.  Next is a Rainbow parallel of his 2008 UD Icons auto, which looks to be my 64th card featuring his signature.  That product has a design I don't terribly care for but I love adding any new autograph of Hart.  And finally, I came up with a first for his collection:  a printing plate!  It happens to be a Michigan uni card, too, since it's from 2008 Press Pass Legends.  That's 1/1 #119 in my collection!

Now let's look at the Chad Henne pyramid of greatness--look out, Ron Swanson!  While I'd recommend more daily servings of autographs there's plenty here for a healthy collection.  Up top is another great example of Contenders' Playoff Ticket insert I enjoy so much.  A couple solo jersey relics from 2008 Leaf Certified Materials (#d /100) and 2009 Prestige bookend two more that include Chad's fellow '08 Wolverine draftee with the Dolphins, who's coming up next.  Those are #d /250 and /500, respectively.  Henne continues to rule the football collection with 124 hits and is getting close to joining 300-card PC guy Charles Woodson with a new total of 290.

Former #1 overall pick OT Jake Long gets a double-dip with his own group of cards in addition to the pair he shares with Henne above.  He joins Hart in the RC club with his 2008 Topps Letterman base (#104/419), and I appear to be four cards short of Jake's first-years.  I also added a new signature of his (Michigan uni!) thanks to 2008 SAGE Squared, a card he shares with fellow first-rounder Ryan Clady, who went 12th overall to Denver after a good career at Boise State, then enjoyed a solid NFL run cut short by injuries (sounds kind of familiar!).  To those I added a pair of SPx triple jersey relics, giving me nine of his cards from that product featuring many such variations.

This haul moved Long back ahead of Braylon Edwards with 82 hits as the fourth player to hit 80+, leaving him three shy of the next guy you'll see.

You may have heard of him.  Michigan star WR?  Super Bowl hero?  Namesake of this here blog?  Back in January I posted some Sportlots pickups that had me celebrating 200 Many Manninghams, and now I have a few more to add to that pile.  First is a pair of pretty Panini parallels (say that three times fast!):  2011 Gridiron Gear Gold X's (#068/100) and Prestige Xtra Points Red (#046/100).  I love any new Manninghams but I'm extra happy to add some numbered inserts.

Along with those is a new pair of Giants jersey relics.  The first is the Jumbo Swatch version of his 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear relic, a piece that looks great and is numbered 16/50.  From the same year's Leaf Limited I found a Rookie Jumbo Jerseys Team Logo swatch (#18/50) cut in the shape of New York's logo.  Well, a rough outline, anyway!

Manningham's 85 hits are good for second place, though he's a crazy 29 behind top guy Chad Henne, meaning I can't say I have too many!

Now that I'm finally done with these, some show pickups and trade packages should come next.

2018 COMC purchases: Michigan miscellany

Let's get this 2018 stuff done!  Up today I'm featuring 10 cards that won't be going into any of my football player collections but were still fun adds:

Where my numbered insert fans at?!  Funch stars on the always great Playoff Ticket parallel from Panini's Contenders--the 2016 version in this case.  It's hard to see but it's numbered 136/249 up front.  You'd have to go back 16 years with Conan and Andy Richter--in the year 2000--to find Grbac's Fleer Focus Draft Position parallel that's allegedly numbered to his, uh, draft position:  823 (my copy is #324).  These are done in kind of a goofy way as Elvis actually went #219 overall in '93, but because he was an 8th round selection, and the 23rd player chosen in that round, you get 823.  Whatever, it's a fun parallel!

I have just one RC to show off today, but you might see a couple more in the last two posts of this series.  Today's Rookie Blue addition is a guy whose drafting team wore Honolulu blue, though he's since moved on to Miami:  Jake Rudock.  According to my checklist this is the sixth of his eight rookies I need to track down:  a very thick 2016 Panini Spectra card #d 03/99.  I'll go ahead and tease that I have something new of his coming in my Spring Cleaning COMC package, but until I can show that off I'll continue to chase his 2016 Absolute and Panini Prizm RCs.

The rest of this post is a hit parade fit for Motown.  That starts with this long Butt, the second of Jake's pair of autos from 2017 Contenders (in this case, the one that's not considered his RC).  I usually like Contenders and who could hate a signature that says "J Butt"?  That's my fifth hit of the oft-injured but hopefully healthy for 2019 TE.

Plate alert!  In what's only my second hit (the other's an auto) of the Liberian WR--who still appears to be with KC but has all of three catches to his name--I'm proud to show off this Magenta Plate of Jehu Chesson from 2017 Prizm that was inserted into Panini's Plates & Patches product.  It looks to be my 118th 1/1 and is a nice addition to what's apparently a neglected player in my football collection!

Chesson's collection stands in stark contrast to his former teammate in the WR room, Amara Darboh.  Darboh's home country of Sierra Leone sits next to Liberia along the northwest coast of Africa, but that's where their similarities end as far as their cards go in my PC.  That's because of days like today when I get to show off a crazy four new hits, all with signatures.

Up top is a pair featuring "just" autographs:  2017 Elite's Pen Pals plus a Panini Contenders Optic RC auto.  The former is a bit plain but was fine for the price, and the latter proves that Panini can occasionally use Topps' Chrome look to its advantage.

Then on the bottom we go landscape-style for a couple auto/jersey pairings.  #1 is a jersey/auto/RC (with a very interesting, if tiny, swatch!) from Certified Cuts that's #d 047/299.  I realize the idea of a cut signature is kind of silly for a player that hasn't passed away or become unable to sign, but I think it's still a fun design once in a while.  And switching gears is the somewhat Pacific-like Phoenix brand and its Rookie Jersey Autographs insert.  Here we get a sticker auto along with a larger swatch, though the print run is still the same (#117/299).

That's 13 hits of the receiver who's back for another shot with Seattle in 2019.

And last but not least is this 2002 Pacific Exclusive Game Worn Jerseys relic of former Michigan/Buffalo TE Jay Riemersma.  A Bill with 23 NFL TDs to his name, Riemersma doesn't pop up in my posts too often, but this is my third hit of him (two autographs), which puts him ahead of a bunch of Michigan alumni in my collection.  And I really like the bold blue swatch from his jersey here.

With these done I have two more posts planned featuring lots more like what you just saw, so stay tuned!

2018 eBay purchases: is there Henne chance I can finish this in five minutes?

Yep, I'm doing the five minute post thing over here too because, why not?  I'm betting if I allow myself to be ok with shorter posts I'll write more often.

And anyway this is a good time for it since I have a single card to show off, my only eBay purchase so far this month, which I won for a bit under $12 shipped:

This here is a 2014 Prestige Cyan Plate of my favorite football PC guy, Chad Henne.  I'd had my eye on it for quite a while before giving myself the green light as the seller also had a card I was chasing for a trade package.  I didn't win that one and its free combined shipping bonus, but I was still very happy to add another Henne 1/1 to my collection.  That's #7 (hey, his jersey number!) and leads my football collection by a lot since he's the only guy for whom I've nabbed more than two.  It also represents hit #120 (also a huge lead) and my 113th total plate/one-of-one.  I also noticed as I was updating my PC page that Henne continues to creep closer to Charles Woodson for the #1 spot in terms of my football player collections.  I mean, he may as well top all the lists, right?

Showing a Henne card is particularly relevant this week as Michigan prepares for the annual battle with Michigan State.  Chad was partly responsible for the insane triple-OT comeback win against the Spartans during his true freshman season of 2004.  He also tossed three TDs in another overtime victory in '05, three more in a three-score blowout in '06.  Henne finished his Michigan career against MSU with a game-winning pass to Mario Manningham in the 2007 matchup in East Lansing, one four he tossed in the four-point victory.  Yep, he never lost to the couch-burners!

It's definitely been more than five minutes, but once again at least that got me to post!  I'll leave you with a scan of the base version of this card as well as the Yellow Plate which I also own.  Half the plates are mine!

2018 ebay Purchases: A-B-C-D E-Bay, jeez!

And now it's about time for some eBay pickups!  Everything you see today was purchased back in January and February, but of course I'm only posting it now because I had lots of other stuff to get to first.

The wait is over so here's the cards:

Manu-letter patch autos?  Check.  2008 draft class?  Check.  Player collection guy?  Check again.  Two more pieces towards another nameplate?  Double check!  I scored these two Arringtons plus the final card in this post for a combined $16.50, a steal of a deal.  I don't think I'll ever see a design for this type of card I like more than '08 SP Threads with its patches looking like they came right off real jerseys with the appropriate team colors.

Here's a quick look at my progress on double-A's nameplate:

That leaves me short just a "G", "O", and one more "N" for what would be my longest nameplate so far.  I'll keep an eye out for those and I hope some of you will too!  For now AA's collection moves on up to 78/370 cards with 53 hits.

...though I should definitely point out that that total also includes this, my first 1/1 of the former WR.  A 2008 Topps Mayo Mini Printing Plates Black Back, this one's a bit of an oddball in that, as its name implies, it was used to make the card's flip side (with front versions still available as well).  Though I love a good photo I like how this card encapsulates Arrington's collegiate stats while in Ann Arbor.  Definitely a cool way to nab my first of hopefully many 1/1s!  Not bad for a bit under $7.

And 1/1 #2 is a two-for-one deal that I for one think is too cool!  I was a bit surprised not to have to fend off more competition for this Jake Butt/Taco Charlton dual plate, a magenta version of the one used to make their 2017 Elite College Ties insert.  As the top of the back indicates this one was found in Panini's 2017 Plates and Patches product instead of being inserted into Elite, which is a bit confusing but ultimately makes sense as 1/1 fodder for P&P while "regular" plates can still be pulled in the rest of their products.

This excellent Michigan-themed rarity set me back around $9 around mid-February and is my first 1/1 of Butt (out of two hits) and second such card of Charlton, also out of two.  That's right--my only hits of Charlton so far are both plates!  Collecting is weird and awesome.

By the way, for those of you interested in such things I now own 104 different 1/1s.

Last up is a fun hit with a bit of a strange design that features a weird combination of colors, something that shouldn't be too surprising coming from one of Panini's more out-there brands, 2017 Phoenix.  This Hot Rookie Materials Signatures Football says "Hot Rookie" on it, contains a material (football), and includes a signature.  Don't say Panini doesn't deliver!  Numbered 042/299 it's already my third hit of the Seahawks WR and second that pairs up an autograph and relic.

That's all of the bigger stuff from the first four months of 2018 but I do have one more eBay pickup to show off that's large enough in quantity to merit its own post.  Stay tuned for that after I get my baseball pickups (all UM Baseball-related!) posted on TMV in the next couple days.

2017 eBay purchases: coal in my stocking, and more!

While my purchasing has definitely gone down this year, at least in terms of money spent, I've still managed to turn up a few gems on eBay, and today we'll look at what I bought from sellers there in the final third of 2017:

Now that's a big Shoelace!  This 2015 Topps 5x7 Red (#13/25, almost a Christmas card!) of Denard came as a freebie from my favorite eBay seller after I snagged the two Rich Hill oversized issues you can see over on TMV today.  It was a fun throw-in to get and to add to my grown collection of the out-of-the-league RB.

Moving on and up, I added one new signature to my football hits collection, Devin Funchess 2015 Leaf Trinity Pure Autographs Charcoal auto.  Yep, there's the coal I mentioned despite the fact that I was so good this year!  Well, at least I got a break on the price (under $4.50 delivered back in mid-October).  You can find some very cool looking cards in Leaf's Trinity product, including ones with great jersey swatches and patches and some with fun autograph inscriptions.  Then there's these Pure Autographs, which totally merit a front/back scan for maximum effect.  Of course I love the college uniform aspect as well, making this an excellent card overall, and my second autograph (seventh hit) of the supremely talented WR.

Now it's time to get into the plates I mentioned on TMV.  Up first is one I didn't really expect to win:  a Yellow version of DL Taco Charlton from Panini's XR product this year.  The Dallas first-rounder was very productive at Michigan and has done some good things as a rookie for the Cowboys, so while I bid for fun, I was surprised to nab it for a bit over $10 shipped.  It's certainly a fun first hit of @TheSupremeTaco to add to my collection.

Sticking with 2017 Panini football products, this one was also a surprise, not because of the price--under $6 delivered--but because I didn't realize Ty Law was going to be appearing in any recent products.  When I saw this pop up in the results of my usual 1/1 search I did a double-take before confirming that it featured the former Michigan and Patriots star DB.  I'm still lacking an autograph of the future HOFer but it's nice to have a plate handy for a potential trifecta (or better)!

The plate fun spilled over into my hockey collection as well.  This Andrew Cogliano Cyan version from 2007-08 The Cup set me back a reasonable $7 on the first day of October, and it's another example of the "framed" style I like that UD has done in the past.  Cogliano is shown here with his original team, Edmonton, but has been with the Ducks for the past six-plus seasons.  I now count 11 hits of him in my collection with this being my first 1/1.

If Michigan Hockey alum Chris Brown's hometown of Flower Mound, Texas, seems strange for a hockey player, Jon Merrill's birthplace of Oklahoma City is up there as well.  A solid defenseman formerly with the Devils (don't tell Herm Edwards), he was selected by and plays for the upstart Vegas Golden Knights, the expansion team that's shocked the league by being the opposite of terrible this year.  He's shown here with the team that drafted him on a 2013-14 Dominion Cyan plate, a 1/1 I nabbed in mid-November for under $4.50 shipped.  As with everyone else here it's the first plate in his collection, plus it puts me at six hits of Merrill overall.

In general I'd say I had a productive last four months of the year on eBay.  Even though I didn't add a large quantity of cards the quality was very nice if I do say so myself.  And between both of today's posts I added five new 1/1s to my collection for a grand total of 94.  I now have surpassing the century mark in my sights in 2018!

That's it for eBay, but thanks to my laziness I still have plenty of 2017 purchases left to show off into next year.

Too Many Plates! Part 4: hockey

Previously:  baseball, basketball, football

Between May and June I won eBay auctions for a total of 17 different printing plates at a cost of a bit more than $100 (not bad!).  14 of those came from one awesome seller (markaguirre22), whom I can't recommend highly enough due to his great prices, excellent communication, and super fast free shipping.  A fellow Michigan collector, he was unloading some of his better stuff, and I was able to take advantage of quite a few great deals.  Better yet, over the course of my purchases he threw in three extra plates for free, giving me a nice round 20 to show off.  Several separate purchases rounded out the run on rarity.

All of the players are Michigan alumni that I collect, and today's post is the final one in this series, with hockey being the only sport we haven't covered yet.  In honor of Stanley Cup champion Carl Hagelin (not featured today) and the 2016-17 NHL season, here's some icers to cool down this beautiful June day:

Jack Johnson 2012-13 Certified Fabric of the Game Printing Plates Cyan (1/1)

Of today's eight plates, I purchased seven from the seller I mentioned above, plus he threw in one more freebie (the third and final) you'll see shortly.  And like a number of them, I believe this one, representing a card from one year, may have been inserted into a higher-end product the following year to beef up the number of hits.

If this was a plate of a base card I'd have to dig through my Michigan box to see if I had a regular copy, but it's actually of a jersey relic I don't currently own, though I'd like to at some point.  Somewhere between $5 and $6 was a reasonable price for my first plate/1-of-1 (and 12th total hit) of Jack "MF" Johnson.

Al Montoya 2011-12 Pinnacle Printing Plates Black (1/1)

Alvaro!  Montoya (hit #6), the best goalie I got to see while owning season tickets, is the first of two players in today's post for whom I already owned a 1-of-1 but not a plate.  The photo used here is so cool I went to see if I had the base card handy, but I don't, so I need to track that down.  Also, kudos to Panini for bringing back the excellent Pinnacle name.  How many of you wouldn't throw down a minuscule $3 for this?

Brendan Morrison 2002-03 Pacific Heads Up Printing Plates Cyan (1/1)

The first card in my first post from this series (baseball) was a freebie of my favorite baseball PC guy, Rich Hill; bonus card #3 represents another favorite (quite a feat by this seller), Brendan Morrison, a guy I wish I could have seen play live.  He's the other player for whom I had a 1/1 card that wasn't a plate, and I believe both of those came from Doug.  Diversifying my Morrison portfolio, this is another one of those plates that I doubt was inserted into packs, plus it lacks an identifying sticker or stamp.  Still, I can clearly determine the product, and if that's any color it's cyan.  While I do own a couple Pacific-branded cards of the former Hobey-winner, I don't have this one, but what I do have is 26 of his hits, still second to Marty Turco's 33.

Max Pacioretty 2013-14 Crown Royale Printing Plates Magenta (1/1)

I guess I really had to "P" in early May when I nabbed this plate, the next one up, and the one of J.J. Putz you saw in my baseball post.  Patch was the best of the bunch so it made sense to me that he would cost the most--still a very reasonable $5.  For that little, think I should get out the tin snips and make this a die-cut like the regular version I own?  Maybe I'll wait for another one as I still have just four hits of the talented sniper.

Aaron Palushaj 2011-12 Score Printing Plates Cyan (1/1)

You done messed up if you don't remember A-A-ron here.  He may not have played in the NHL for a few years, but this is now my 10th hit of the winger from my hometown of Livonia, Michigan, so you've seen a good amount of him here.  I don't think "Hot Rookie" was an apt description of his game--he totaled three goals and 11 assists in 68 games with Montreal, Colorado, and Carolina before heading to the KHL--but at least his card looks cool, and was just $3 too.

Greg Pateryn 2013-14 Select Printing Plates Black (1/1)

It's a run on Canadien Wolverines!  Would the Montreal Wolverines' fight song be "Hail to the Victours"?  Pateryn made his debut here with a cool Prizm autograph from (surprise) Doug two and a half years ago, and now I've doubled his hit count...with a plate.  Not a bad start to a collection, even if it's been this slow to build.  The d-man has a couple goals to his name, though he last suited up for Dallas after a February trade.  This was yet another $3 plate and it came along with the Montoya above.

Kevin Quick 2009-10 The Cup Printing Plates O-Pee-Chee Magenta (1/1)

These last two cards from Upper Deck's very high-end "The Cup" brand were just my second and third purchases in this whole plate run, back in mid-April.  Quick is the first of the pair, and he's a totally new guy to my collection.  I don't remember too much of him as he was with Michigan briefly about 10 years ago before being kicked off the team for credit card theft.  You might say his Michigan career was over "Quick", but then I'd correct you and say that it should be "quickLY", and then you'd roll your eyes and change the subject.  

Anyway, his NHL career amounted to six games with Tampa and that's it.  But he appeared in some products like this one, and I've often thought that the framed plate design was a cool one.  Plus here you can make out the "Marquee Rookie" logo that signifies that this one came from the O-Pee-Chee design, which it also helpfully tells you on the back.  For me it was easily worth just $5, and he becomes my 49th hockey PC player.

Danny Richmond 2005-06 The Cup Printing Plates Black Diamond Black (1/1)

Richmond's another guy whose hit count I doubled with a plate (for a bit more than $4), and a framed one at that.  Again, I love how clearly it tells you the exact set on the back.  Danny is another guy I remember a bit as his one college season coincided with my first year of season tickets, 2002-03, and he's pictured here as a member of the Hawks after being drafted by and briefly playing for Carolina.  As with most of these guys he didn't enjoy much NHL success or even longevity, but at least he made it onto some cardboard--or metal in this case!

And with that, this project is over.  20 new plates, giving me a new count of 87 1/1s(!).  Now I can get back to trade packages, show pickups, and my latest, greatest COMC haul.