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!

2 Weeks Worth

Hey all, Jeff here. I realize you all probably forgot about me as I've been quiet over here but I'm going to try to post every so often. I do get Michigan players occasionally and I actually stopped posting them on my other blog with the intent of posting them here and never got around to it. I'm going to save up the cards and post ever week or 2 depending on how many cards I got for this blog. I went back 2 weeks for this post so let's see what I got. I guess I'll go alphabetical this week.

I'll start off with this Red, White and Blue version of Prizm. This is the 2nd Burke I've picked up this year which is good considering I only got 1 of his all of last year. This came to me for $.15/shipped and is my 12th card of Trey.

Now this card shouldn't be to surprising since I have a bunch of different versions of it from various Panini. I only paid $2/shipped for my 14th different Darboh. This one is actually serial numbered to /99 which I don't remember all the others being numbered.

Who knew Caris LeVert would be such a good NBA player? Not myself. Luckily his cards are still fairly cheap. I got this jersey/ball swatch that is also numbered to /149 and it came to me for $2.99/shipped. It is my 10th different card of LeVert but only my 1st this year.

This is only my 7th card of Robinson and only the 2nd one in the last 3 years that I've picked up so I was really surprised to win it. I picked up this relic card for only $1.77/shipped.

One of my newest player collections even though it's up to 5 different cards now. This is the 2nd relic of his and the first auto. It's also numbered to /99 and I picked it up for $3/shipped. I couldn't win his cards at all when they first got released but I've been picking them up recently.

This card is the start of my newest player collection. This is the first of his and while it's not a very flashy card, it is only the 1st of hopefully many. I picked it up for $.24/shipped.

Last but not least, I picked up another of Wormley. It's my 1st this year but I did manage to grab 4 others last year along with a couple of dupes to make it 6 last year and 7 total. I picked this one up for $2.25/shipped.

Like I said, I'll try to be back on a regular basis but I'm not going to guarantee anything, I know myself too well. As I'm typing this, Devin Bush and Rashan Gary have been drafted, so hopefully we'll start seeing their cards here soon. Until next time.

2019 trade package #2: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Recent birthday boy and buddy of the blog Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store had let me know recently that I had a few more cards heading my way since he last sent me a trade package...last month.  He's nothing if not Canadianly generous!

This time I was surprised to get two snap cases stuffed with a total of four cards, pretty much all of the high-end variety.  Seriously, I was floored.  Check 'em out:

Well damn, that's a nice way to start off a trade post!  These 2011-12 Exquisite Collection Dimensions cards are something else:  super, super thick and layered with a hologram-like bottom image, a signed piece of something like plastic, and one more image up top.  Oh yeah, and they're college-themed, so here we get to see program legend Cazzie Russell as a Wolverine.  These are completely badass and I love that I can pair Cazzie with another Michigan great, Anthony Carter:

Russell remains the most represented player in my basketball collection at 14 hits, and none are nicer than this one!

You know a basketball card must be good when I get excited about it, but this football piece had me smiling too.  I can probably count the number of booklets I own on one hand but this is at least the second Doug's sent me, and a fantastic one at that!  From Panini's 2017 National Treasures here's WR Amara Darboh on such a card that pairs up a signature and enormous jersey swatch, one that must have come from the shoulder area of the type of Seahawks jersey pictured.  It's great to see such an interesting relic swatch, especially on a card that's actually numbered to 99.  I'd say I have a new favorite Darboh in my football collection, too!  One more hit and he'll be in double-digits, by the way, and I might just have a couple in-hand from COMC....

Last up today in the place of honor in this post is the most Canadian of sports: hockey.  I'm not sure if Doug realizes it but he sent me cards of 2/3 of Michigan's 2015-16 "CCM" line:  J.T. Compher and Tyler Motte, who were joined by Kyle Connor during his year in Ann Arbor.  The trio combined for 83 goals that season before heading to the NHL en masse.  Connor is still lighting it up for the Jets while Compher, originally drafted by Buffalo, was flipped to Colorado.  The Hawks's Motte has since been traded to Columbus and then Vancouver.

Compher's not making his debut here today--thanks to Doug he joined my collection last September--but this beautiful 2017-18 UD Black Lustrous Rookies Autographs card is hit #1 for him.  Black has been one of UD's nicer looking high-end brands for a while now, and a thick piece with a great design and beautiful signature is a great way to start things.

As for Motte I'm already up to five hits thanks to a very nice two-color jersey relic from 2016-17 UD Premier.  It looks as if the swatch may have come from one of the stripes near the jersey's elbows--our second case of relic forensics today!  If you're counting at home, Doug is responsible for four of those five cards, by the way.

For the 56th time on this here blog alone, thanks for a fun, super high quality trade package, Doug!  Happy birthday, and enjoy the small envelope I sent your way if it ever gets out of the US and over the border.

2018 Sportlots purchases: Happy Rookie Blue Year!

Next up on the 2018 Sportlots train is a fresh new crop of football RCs!  As I believe I explained before, I added a number of guys who transferred--in general away from Michigan--as long as I felt like their short careers in Ann Arbor justified it.  My only rule was that I wouldn't include any cards with photos of them with their non-Michigan school.

They were my main target this time but I did manage to track down a few cards of other guys as well.  Check 'em out:

I didn't feel like sorting these chronologically this time so we're going straight alphabetical, starting with a couple 2017 Donruss cards starring DL Taco Charlton and WR Amara Darboh.  I'm not sure why Darboh got a Rated Rookie appearance and not Charlton, but that's not all bad since I get to see two different designs.

The other player in this scan is RB Justin Fargas.  The son of Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas (Starsky and Hutch), Justin came to Ann Arbor in 1998 with the Wolverines coming off their national title, and he was a prized recruit for sure, but unfortunately broke his leg late in his freshman season, forcing him into an injury redshirt the following year.  His choice to flip to defense didn't help him regain much playing time so he headed to USC and had a pretty nice 2002 season with them, then got drafted by the Raiders in the third round in '03.  He lasted seven seasons--his entire career--in Oakland, which is pretty good given the meat grinder nature of the position.

I came up with 22 of his rookies on my checklist and you can see the first six of those above:  Bowman, Topps, Topps Pristine, Topps Total, Upper Deck MVP, and Fleer Tradition (another of their cool three-player cards).

Next we return to a more familiar face:  Devin Funchess, on his 2015 Topps Field Access RC.  I don't know why that one was such a thorn in my side, but after passing on lots of people selling it for a buck or more I finally got a nice deal, leaving me four short of his rookie run.

The second of five transfer players today is TE Damon Jones.  He's not a guy I remember but then again he played in 12 games in 1993 and that was it for his Division I career.  Apparently multiple arrests led to him transferring to Southern Illinois.  The Jags took him in the fifth round in 1997, and he carved out a five year career in Jacksonville.  You can see a pair of his three rookies above:  Collector's Choice and Skybox Premium issues from the year he was drafted.

Bennie Joppru is a tight end that's much more familiar here, I think.  In picking up his 2003 Gridiron Kings rookie I got within nine cards of landing his 32 first-years, thanks to a fantastic looking card.

He's joined by another guy on that side of the ball, WR Marcus Knight.  At times it feels like every one of his 15 rookies I'm chasing is serial-numbered, and that's because nine of them are, including these two from 2000:  Leaf Limited (#1474/1500) and UD Ionix (#1399/2000).  Bonus points to the latter for its Michigan uni, though I've always hated that crappy digital numbering that a number of manufacturers used.  Four of Knights cards remain and, yes, all of them are numbered!

Here's the rest of the guys who left, an all-transfer scan.  Ryan Mallett's 2011 Score is the second of his rookies I've acquired but that's because I've long owned Topps' set from the same year.  Many around here remember his cannon arm and ten cent brain, though his transfer to Arkansas--apparently suggested by retiring coach Lloyd Carr--worked out pretty well for him in the end.  Luckily for me he appears on just 10 rookies that meet my criteria, plus he's long since lost any hype he had out of the draft.

The other two guys, though, weren't known to me that I could remember.  The first is DL Trevor Pryce, a guy who looks to have been at Michigan at some point in the mid-90s and then transferred to Clemson.  He was good enough to get picked by Denver #28 overall in '97 and therefore was part of title-winning teams his first two seasons.  Pryce had a great 14-year career that included 91.0 sacks and four Pro Bowl nods in addition to those two rings.  Above you can see his '97 Collector's Choice and Upper Deck RCs, leaving me short just his SP Authentic.

Last up today is another RB-type who transferred out west and then was drafted by the Raiders.  Jon Ritchie was a Wolverine for the '93 and '94 seasons before sitting out a year to spend his final two years at Stanford.  Oakland grabbed him in the third round in '98 and he lasted five seasons with them, plus another two in Philly, listed as a FB/RB/TE.  I came up with 12 of his rookies to chase and here you can see the first four I found:  Bowman, Collector's Edge First Place, UD Choice, and Upper Deck Encore.

That should do it for rookies this time but I'll have a few more for you when it's time to get to my COMC loot.  Next up you'll get to see either another position group or a single player.

10-7-18 show report: a winning Wolverine weekend

As I said in my TMV show post today I couldn't make my usual trip to the monthly show in Taylor last Saturday.  I wouldn't have gone anyway--it was a college football Saturday--but I especially didn't because Jeff and I were taking in the whupping Michigan put on Maryland in the Big House.

So instead I finally went to see my favorite dealer at the show he runs down in Toledo.  It's not a long drive for me at all (roughly 45 minutes), and other than dealing with the possibility of Ohio's asshole cops and speed limits for babies, it's a nice little trip.

I mentioned on TMV that I dropped $4 on 40 dime box singles, $18 on dollar cards, and added three others that bumped the total up to a fair $30 even.  Here you'll get to see those latter three cards along with a pair of dollar deals.  On a Sunday where Ann Arbor is celebrating a dominant win over Wisconsin in prime time, here's an all hit edition of some Wolverine winners!

Going alphabetically I'm starting out with the biggest card on the day, and the second Amara Darboh hit I added last weekend, with the first coming from Jeff.  From Panini's 2017 Phoenix, it's an Orange parallel of the Rookie Jersey Autographs set, numbered 037/150.  Already my eighth hit of the WR, it's also my third that pairs an autograph and relic, and I actually have a ball/auto card from the same product to go with it.  I suppose I have less competition for Michigan stuff in Ohio--even Toledo, which is more like Michigan, really--so that worked out for me.

The card above was joined by this pair to round out the group that increased my total from $22 to $30, and I'd pay $8 for this trio in a heartbeat.  I mean, I did, but I'd do it again!  I was thrilled to find this pair of Michigan uni autographs of former Wolverine FB and touchdown vulture Khalid Hill, a.k.a. "the Hammering Panda".  I was looking forward to collecting his cards even before he became a very entertaining Twitter follow.  He was a huge part of Michigan's success in 2016, one of the most automatic short-yardage runners for first downs and TDs I can remember in Ann Arbor, plus a punishing blocker to boot!

The pair hails from Panini's always excellent (at least for college collectors like myself) Contenders Draft Picks product, one that's 100% focused on my favorite type of first-year card.  The one on the left is the base version and therefore also a RC while to its right you can see the Red Foil parallel, with the foil being the only difference (e.g. no serial numbering).  I'm proud to make the Hammering Panda the 215th member of my football collection!

Next up I have two player collection guys, one of which hits an "almost milestone" with the other does reach a new mark.  First is the guy whose name you see on this here blog, Mario Manningham.  My 199th overall card of the amazing WR is also hit #83, meaning I'm almost to his #86 jersey!  He continues to be #2 in the hits collection behind Chad Henne and now has a six-card lead over #3 guy Jake Long.

I had zero issue with dropping a buck on this very nice Giants blue swatch from '08 Rookies and Stars' Studio Rookies Materials set (#025/250).  I mean, numbered cards and cheap relics are right up my alley.  Now I just wonder what card #200 will be?

Last up today is a guy who has to share his card with a couple other former RBs.  I finally nabbed my milestone-making 50th hit of Anthony Thomas thanks to today's other $1 card, a 2001 Fleer Legacy Triple Threads triple jersey.  A-Train had the best pedigree as a second-rounder that year with Jackson and Barlow both being selected in the third, though Barlow had the most statistical success of the trio.  Still, Thomas is the main attraction here, and I'm glad to have hit the half century mark finally.  Now I just need to get seven more hits of former teammate David Terrell to even them up!

Until the next show, GO BLUE!

2018 trade package #13: My Sports Obsession

Not only did Jeff (My Sports Obsession) treat me to my first in-person Michigan Football game in six years this past Saturday--an emphatic win over Maryland--he also brought a new addition to my football collection:

Darboh no you di'n't!  Football hit #1311 is this jersey relic of the former Michigan WR from 2017 Panini Prizm's Prizm Premier Jerseys.  The Refractor-like Prizm design is readily apparent in this scan as is the nice blue Seahawks swatch.  Speaking of that team, Amara is current on IR with Seattle due to a knee injury, though the Patriots briefly held his rights before he failed a physical.  I'm hoping he can return to health and find some playing time in 2019 after a year lost to injury.

Anyway, I was excited to add what's now the seventh Darboh hit to my collection, plus I'll have another one to show off soon.

Once again, many thanks to Jeff for a great card and a hell of a time at a great game during a classic Ann Arbor Saturday.  Go Blue!

2018 Sportlots purchases: Rookie Blue for day 2

Today's post covers the new football RCs I nabbed for my ongoing Rookie Blue collection.  A quick note:  since buying these I've added a few more players to that checklist, with all of them having transferred away from Michigan at some point.  I made the judgment call to include them, though I'm not counting anything that depicts them with any other college, because then they're not Michigan rookies, are they? 

With some of my attention now being held by the idea of filling out the eight new football PCs I recently added I'll likely do another Sportlots run chasing those guys as well as some of the new rookies as well.  Is there such a thing as productive distraction?

Anyway, on to the first-years:

The cards in this post span 2000-2017, and naturally we'll start at the beginning of that run with a pair starring TE Aaron Shea:  Absolute (#1177/3000) and Metal.  Just these two alone illustrate the mountain of variety we enjoyed back then!  I now need five of Shea's 15 rookies.

With a move to 2002 we get a very airbrushed shot of WR Marquise Walker From Fleer's short-lived Maximum brand (#2246/3500).  As usual you'll see a good amount of numbered cards today, such as my 30th of Walker's 50(!) rookies.

A numbered card that includes a non-airbrushed Michigan helmet in a shot from the Senior Bowl is QB John Navarre's 2004 Donruss Classics RC (#0004/1850).  Executed with a typically strong design this marks my 11th rookie of his I've tracked down out of 25.

Former college ballhawk DB Marlin Jackson makes an appearance on a card I never landed on COMC--his 2005 Topps Heritage RC--because for the longest time the only copy belonged to one of the site's worst offenders.  Yeah, you all know which one: that guy and his shit show.  Anyway, I picked it up for super cheap on Sportlots and now just need six more of Jackson's 30 first-years.

Let's finish off this scan with a pair of Rookies and Stars RCs numbered to 999:  Big Gabe Watson from 2006 (#340) and transfer QB Matt Gutierrez (#895) from the '07 version.  You may recall the latter as the guy who got Wally Pipped by a true freshman Chad Henne before heading to Idaho State.  I'm at 20/22 for Watson's checklist and also need just two more to sew up Gutierrez's five.

With a lot of the '08 portion of the checklist already done and not much quantity in between we'll move all the way up to 2015 and a solid design on WR Devin Funchess' Donruss flagship RC (my 19th of his 24).  May he make that kind of leap forward himself this year!

The rest of the group hails from the amazing 2017 draft class.  Big DL Taco Charlton was my lone example from Crown Royale this time while WR Jehu Chesson repeats the feat from Elite Draft Picks.  Chesson is joined by fellow WR Amara Darboh and RB De'Veon Smith from Score's excellent annual effort, and I believe I'm now done with that product.

Meanwhile jack-of-all-trades Jabrill Peppers gives us today's first look at Donruss' Optic and the only example of Playoff (on a less interesting design than usual).  DE Chris Wormley finishes out this group by joining Peppers in Optic.  This nice little bunch gives me varying degrees of success with that class, from my first of Smith up to six each of Charlton and Peppers; I still lack cards of Delano Hill and Ryan Glasgow but will definitely track those down before much longer.

As I said before I still have lots left to show off and no idea what I'll post next so stay tuned and prepare to be as surprised as I am!

7/7/18 show report: well the hits start coming and they don't stop coming

In addition to what you saw over on TMV this evening I have a nice little assortment of football quarter cards (5/$1!) and a few $2 hits to join them:

We'll start with a 2017 Panini RC of Chiefs WR Jehu Chesson that I surprisingly hadn't already grabbed between shows, Sportlots, and other sources.  It's my third of his 12 first-years that I've charted, and I have another couple coming from Sportlots soon.

Then I turned up a quartet of 2007 Playoff NFL Playoffs parallels that must have eluded me last time because last time I came home with five that I showed off in June.  Alan Branch, St--

yep, he kills QBs!  Anyway, Branch, Steve Breaston, and David Harris can all be seen on their Red Holofoil parallels, and in a fun twist all three are #077/125!  I'm not sure how that happened but it's worth noting.  Speaking of Harris I also tracked down his Gold Metalized (#063/149) card.

Then the other two go towards my Denard Robinson PC.  First is his 2013 Rookies and Stars Longevity base card--again, not the Longevity parallel insert, but the base set called "Longevity", whose cards aren't considered rookies for whatever reason.  That's joined by a somewhat easier-to-recognize 2013 Topps Platinum Orange Refractor on a design that looks like it would be much more appropriate for a Dolphins team set.

Here's the hits I scared up for $2 apiece.  #1 is another Breaston, a Sepia version of one of his 2011 Triple Threads Unity jersey/autos (#54/75).  That gives me six different variations from this set (including three of card #3) and 101 total Breastons, a fun little milestone (#1 of 2 today).

Next is a cool pair of large jersey relics of WR Amara Darboh.  The one on top is a Pink parallel (just some of the foil, I guess) of his 2017 Crown Royale Jumbo Rookie Silhouette Jerseys card (#118/250) and the other is a shinier 2017 Panini Illusions First Impressions Memorabilia jersey.  These give me a pretty reasonable total of six Darboh hits.

And finally I was a bit surprised to find De'Veon Smith's 2017 Panini Contenders Draft Picks auto RC since the seller surely could have marked it up given the fan base in the area.  As usual I love the ticket theme and various college goings-on, just like I did when Jeff sent me Chris Wormley's card earlier this year.  It's my first hit of Smith in a full, un-airbrushed Michigan uni and it looks great as card number four in his collection.

Speaking of hits and milestones you might recall from my 2000th hit post (e.g. the last one I wrote) that I was closing in on a new football mark.  Well I'm happy to report that I reached and exceeded it here by getting to a new total of 1302 football hits.  That might have been a fun thing to boast about this Friday but I figured I should get to posting while I felt like it.  Onward to 1400 and beyond!

With these posted stay tuned as I work on the huge influx of Sportlots cards I'll need to show off soon, including one package I'm still waiting on!

A Few Cheap Autographs

I got a few cards that I haven't seen Dennis post yet so here you go. I've been picking up a ton of relic and auto's of former Wolverines lately. I actually changed the way I search for player collections instead of searching for only up to a quarter, I search up to three bucks to include autos and relics and it's definitely made a difference on those former Wolverines whose cards are in their pro jerseys.

I'll start with the 2 non-relic/auto cards.

I know we've seen this photo here because Topps used it on a ton of his cards. I think I have 4 or 5 with this photo but somehow didn't have just the plain old Bowman Chrome. I picked this up for $.25/shipped. This is my 16th card of Taylor Lewan.

I also picked up this Leon Hall for only $.50/shipped. I upped my minimum bid for Michigan uniformed cards. I almost won this card twice as I bid on another one after I won this. I don't put them on my lists until I receive the card so I didn't realize I had just won it. Luckily, I got outbid on it.

This is my 6th card of Caris LeVert but it is my first autograph. I've bid on a couple of his but could never get one for $3 or under. This one comes to me for exactly $3/shipped, but wait, there's more. This one is also numbered 5/10, so how I won this and didn't win "lesser" autographs is beyond me but I'm certainly not going to complain.

This one may look familiar, it did to my collection as I believe it is the same card that Dennis sent me awhile ago, only this one is bigger. I haven't looked for sure but I think he sent me the mini version of this.  This is my 37th card of Shoelace, but only my 2nd autograph. I picked this up for $3/shipped as well.

This card was a steal in my mind. A Mike Hart (personal favorite) autograph, numbered to /99 and I picked it up for only $1.49/shipped. It is my 44th card of Mike Hart for my original pc guy of a former Wolverines.

I bid on a bunch of his card before I finally landed one and again, I bid on a bunch of the plain base autograph, didn't win, then ended up winning this one which is a purple die cut #'d /99. This is my 1st card of Channing Stribling and I picked it up for $2.49/shipped.

Another guy I bid on a bunch of times but couldn't win an auto cheap enough, so I cheated. Sine it was a Jake Butt in a Michigan uniform, I went a little higher on my bid. I still only won it for $4.25/shipped. It's my 5th card of Butt but my first autograph.

Last but not least, I overpaid for this card but it was for a good cause. I found a card shop in my area, it's not your traditional shop with showcases and such but you walk in and there are just a ton of boxes all over. quarter boxes, dime boxes and just boxes of rookies, stars, hof'ers ect. Oh yeah, and the lady that owns it I've known from other card shops for years. So I picked up a bunch of quarter cards that you'll see on my blog later, and I was going to pay with my debit but she was going to charge me a couple of bucks because she has a minimum to pay with a card. I understand, small business and all, so I grabbed this card and asked for a better deal then the $15 she was asking for. She knocked it down to $10 and I took it, mainly because I've known her awhile and I was excited at the prospect of having a shop to go to. I haven't been back yet because of work and she's not open very late in the evenings but I will go back. This is my 6th card of Darboh, 4 relics, this auto and a base card.

That's all I got for now so in closing, I'll leave you with the fact that we only have 100 days until our football season opener, against a team we better stomp their asses into the ground because I have personal stakes in it as I live just outside of South Bend.

Stay true to the Maize and Blue.

2018 trade package #8: My Sports Obsession

Besides the eBay cards I showed off on TMV today I came home from my trip last week to another envelope in my mailbox:  a surprise PWE from TMM collaborator Jeff of My Sports Obsession.

As always, Jeff sets his sights on eBay steals that meet his PCs, and sometimes that means doubles and more,  Occasionally that works in my favor, just like when I end up with Wolverine dupes.  That was the case here as he came up with a couple new cards for me:

You just saw THJ in my last post, a trade package from Doug, and now he's back for more.  Here he is on a 2017-18 Prestige base, which carries over one of my favorite brands (thanks to its design) to basketball.  As I said yesterday I hope his positive momentum from this season carries over next year after his triumphant return to the Knicks.

Naturally I'm more excited about this card as a football fan, though you already saw it in Jeff's post here a couple Sundays ago.  Thanks to him winning three of this card I'm now a proud owner of Amara Darboh's 2017 Certified Cuts Future Legends Memorabilia jersey relic.  And what a swatch it is, too, taking up a large portion of its half of the card.  Oversized relics are awesome, and free ones that come in trades are even better!  It's my first such hit out of four Darbohs in my football collection and I'm happy to keep adding more of the Seahawks WR that was fun to watch in Ann Arbor.

Thanks again for this surprise pair, Jeff, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the stuff I sent your way recently.  GO BLUE!