2018 COMC purchases: PC potpourri

It's almost time for me to say goodbye to 2018 and the purchases I made last year on this fine evening in...MAY?!  Yeah, it's taken me far too long to post these, but what else is new?  Ignore my procrastination and enjoy some very cool cardboard starring some of my football PC guys:

Touchdown Tim is the first of eight different players today, and I was quite happy with this little haul:  three numbered inserts and a hit.  '96 Leaf's Grass Roots has a grassy felt feel to it, '99 Score Showcase was celebrating 10 years of the football product, and 2000 Topps Gallery's Player's Private Issue parallel (#d /250) is a nice example of how Topps could get it so right before they firmly planted their heads up their collective ass towards the end of the 2000s.  Meanwhile, a Panthers blue 2001 Pacific Invincible jersey is hit #10 of the Wolverines RB legend.

I didn't have many cards of this duo so I thought it made sense to pair up 2007 Cardinals draft picks Alan Br--

dude that kills QBs dead, and speedy WR Steve Breaston when showing off this 2007 trio.  Branch appears on a Donruss Gridiron Gear Gold Holofoil X's (#010/100) parallel as well as his Upper Deck Trilogy RC (#111/399), a card from a product that looks great with its acetate-ness, but can be annoying to track down (and scan!).  Breaston joins in the rookie fun with his Select first-year (#203/599).  I now need just three of Branch's RCs and five of Breaston's.  Progress!

We're closing in on two months since I started this latest series with Jason Avant's haul--10 cards--and now I'm showing off nine more of his former position- and team-mate, Braylon Edwards.  The first two are parallels from 2006 Score (Gold) and 2010 Contenders (Playoff Ticket) and are numbered to 600 and 99, respectively.

The next seven are all relics I grabbed at low, low prices, a.k.a. my COMC wheelhouse.  A few of these are even dubbed "Prime" by Panini meaning their swatches are above average.  2007, '08, '09, and 2011 are all represented here and there's a mix of numbering between 50 and 299, not to mention designs and swatches.

This hit parade launches Bray-Bray into third place in my football collection with 81 hits, ahead of Jake Long and behind only Chad Henne and Mario Manningham.  His new PC total of 285 also equals Henne's, though that tie will be broken in this run's final post.

Here's a quartet I wasn't expecting to score when I was buying up cards on COMC last year:  a RC and three great parallels of tackling machine David Harris!  His beautiful Michigan uniformed first-year from '07 Elite leaves me just one shy of Harris' RC run, plus it just flat-out looks nice.  The other three are numbered parallels from 2016 Donruss.  In order:  Press Proofs Silver (#032/100), Press Proofs Silver Die Cut (#27/75), and Stat Line Season (#088/108).  The die-cut card scanned the best and really does look terrific, but the Stat Line insert remains a favorite of mine.  David did indeed compile 108 tackles in 2015, the sixth and final time he crossed the century mark in that category over his 11 NFL campaigns.

I don't really have anything that goes with this Marlin Jackson auto RC from 2005 SP Authentic (#746/850) so it gets the spotlight to itself for a minute.  This is a fairly textbook SPA look (if not one of its best) and comes with a cool camp action photo, plus Jackson's interesting signature (a.k.a. hit #22 in his collection).

The final three cards today represent a pair of Giants notables.  Amani Toomer appears on an insert you've seen before this series:  2000 Fleer Focus's Draft Position parallel.  His card's numbered /204 because he was the fourth selection in the second round of the '96 draft (a round after Carolina took Biakabutuka).

RB (running beast) Tyrone Wheatley stars on the other two inserts:  '95 Sportflix's Rolling Thunder and a '96 Leaf Press Proof.  The former is another example of my love for 90s inserts while the latter is a fun die-cut version of one of the decade's hotter parallel types.

After I put these away I'll have just one post left before I can get back to 2019 fodder.  Stay tuned!

2018 Sportlots purchases: it's so cold in the D

In what has to be a first in my combined time at the University as a student and then staff member, the school closed up shop for two days (today and tomorrow) due to the ridiculous wind chill courtesy of the globally climate-changed polar vortex.  That's almost as rare as the number of honest bones in Urban Meyer's body!

This evening's post's title refers both to an infamously bad song that can be viewed on YouTube (NSFW language warning) plus the side of the ball on which has been the traditional strength at Michigan.

Let's have a look at six of the team's defensive greats in the form of Sportlots pickups!

Hey!  It's Ala--

#alanbranchkillsQBs

-n Branch!  I was able to target and score a nice number of Michigan uni cards throughout this purchase and was extremely successful when it came to the monster DT--a 100% hit rate!  Everything you see is from 2007 with the first four made by Press Pass and the last by SAGE.  They're all quite nice to look at, if you ask me, but the numbered Reflector parallel and base SAGE are my favorites.  In fact that's likely my favorite design in the latter's run, though I should try comparing them all side-by-side at some point.

This five-spot bumps Branch up to 60 cards.

Player #2 is CB Leon Hall.  It doesn't look like there's much to celebrate with just this pair but they ended up being significant as the put him at exactly the century mark, the 15th of my football PCs to reach 100.  On the left is SAGE's Aspire base from '07, and while I don't love the design as much as anything above I still appreciate the use of a nice home action photo.  The other is a 2011 Score Glossy parallel, which is not the most exciting of inserts, but is new to his collection and therefore useful.

Four of today's players came to the NFL in the ridiculously talented 2007 draft class that really should have won more but didn't for a variety of reasons.  The third of that quartet is tackling machine David Harris, a guy who enjoyed 11 productive seasons in the league (as much as anyone can "enjoy" spending most of their career with the Jets).  New to his collection today are Score Glossy parallels from 2008 and 2011 and base cards from 2008 Select and 2012 Prestige.  Again, nothing too exciting--and no college cards--but I'm always glad to add to his PC, which now stands at 75.  I have a few interesting additions from COMC that will follow soon!

Former DB Marlin Jackson (who's always fun to search for--"NO I didn't want Marlins players named Jackson!") breaks up the '07 party as a 2005 draftee.  I was glad to find a college-themed set offering of his, the '05 SAGE HIT you see first.  Then I dug up a couple second-year base cards:  2006 Select and Topps Heritage.  The scan makes it obvious that I need to try to clean up the Select card a bit if I can!  As usual Heritage looks quite nice.

Thanks to this trio Jackson one-upped Branch by reaching a new count of 61 items.

Break's over, we're back to 2007!  I split my finds of Steelers star DE/LB LaMarr Woodley between that year--his rookie season--and 2009.  To rep the former he brings back SAGE HIT once more with that fantastic base design plus a Blue parallel of the Playmakers insert.  A Bowman Draft Orange insert (yeah, it doesn't look "orange" in-person either) leads the cards made two years later, and then we get a throwback pair with UD's Philadelphia and Topps Mayo.  The group of five you see here bumps one of my smaller football PCs up to 55, and I'll keep adding to it as I can find new stuff.

And here we have every Michigan fan's dream:  11 Charles Woodsons!  The GOAT DB is the old man of this group but he continues to outpace everyone else in my football PCs because he's a rare defender that got lots of cardboard.

This first scan starts with his second year in the pros, 1999, in the form of one of his two Playoff Prestige EXP base issues plus the loud and proud Revolution by Pacific.  That brand's Omega kicks off a 2000 quintet that includes another Prestige base plus Topps Collection, and UD's Encore.

This scan opens with a familiar photo but this time it's from UD's Gold Reserve.  Then we jump ahead to 2002 and that manufacturer's Piece of History insert called National Honors, a card that notes Woodson's surprise '97 Heisman win.  Suck it, Peyton!  The last three are a bit of a grab bag:  '05 Prestige, 2010 Finest, and another 2011 Score Glossy appearance.

The guy with the biggest bunch of additions to the biggest of my football PCs also gets to celebrate the biggest milestone today, crossing the 300 mark to 307!

I have something like five posts left in this series, so keep an eye out for those, plus hopefully some card show pickups from this coming weekend.

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!

6/2/18 card show report: winning and Wolverines

If you've made your way here from today's TMV post then you know I had another good day at the monthly card show--and a great day overall!

Besides getting to see my Tigers win plus winning a few bucks at the casino, I scored some fun Michigan Football inserts (and one sneaky base card) from the quarter boxes at the show:

For whatever reason parallels from Playoff's 2007 NFL Playoffs product figured heavily into my buying this month.  What can I say?  That's what the boxes had to offer!  The first two cards here star former Cardinals draftees Alan Branch and Steve Breaston, with the former being a Red Metalized (#275/399) parallel and the latter simply called Gold (#185/299).  Note that each Wolverine you're seeing from this product today is on a parallel of their RCs from that set.

A couple former QBs give us a quick break from those, with an airborne Todd Collins on 1995 Summit's Rookie Summit and coach Jim Harbaugh featured on what I totally forgot was actually the "base" version of 1997 Totally Certified (#1184/4999).

Old tackling machine LB David Harris finishes off the group with three cards of his own.  Two of those are from that Playoff product--the previously seen Gold (#185/299) and Red Metalized (#275/399) parallels--and to those I was happy to add a Blue Press Proof from 2016 Donruss.  That one's not numbered but that's fine because I really like the product's design anyway.

PC guy Denard Robinson kicks off this group of the other four I came up with as he stars on a Rookie Die Cut insert from Topps' 2013 Strata.  It kind of looks like it should have a hole punched out on top so you can hang it from your Christmas tree.

Former star running back Tyrone Wheatley makes two appearances today.  The first is our second offering from 1995 Summit, and this time the insert is called "Backfield Stars".  Do you think Ty forgot that he's a back of the running variety and not a QB?  His other appearance is on the Platinum Blue parallel of 1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified (#1367/2499) which is an insert, unlike Harbaugh's card.

Last up for today is another former star defender on that 2007 Playoff product, but at least both the name and insert are different!  This is Steelers great LaMarr Woodley and a Red Holofoil insert (#071/125), the rarest of today's group.

That's it for this show but I have a bunch of great new additions arriving in the next day or so from COMC, so expect to see those as soon as I can get all ~150 total cards scanned and ready to show off on both blogs!

2017 COMC purchases: hitsville UM-S-A

The finish line is in sight--just one more post after this one and I'll be all caught up on 2017 purchases!

Today's post stars all of the football hits I picked up of players that aren't current PCs of mine.  That ended up being a nice round 10, a nice number for one post.  Let's have a look at them:

Item #1 is the biggest, literally:  a 1997 Leaf Signature 8x10 auto of WR Derrick Alexander.  Limited (but not serial numbered) to 4000 copies, this will be a great piece to display with my other larger signed Michigan stuff.  It hails from a set of 108 such oversized signatures, one that also includes Wolverines Tim Biakabutuka, Todd Collins, Elvis Grbac, and Jim Harbaugh (not to mention lots of other stars).  Maybe I need to start a project and call it the "Wall of FaMe"!  Anyway, this is my seventh hit of Alexander.

Sticking with the same position and letter of the alphabet, here's Jason Avant's 2008 Playoff Prestige Rookie Review Materials Prime jersey (#023/100).  The "review" part comes into play when you realize that it uses the 2006 design for Avant's card (that was his rookie year), though it also includes a different photo than the original.  Here's that rookie from 2006 plus the regular jersey version of this card for comparison:

As you can clearly tell the Prime version is a huge upgrade on the decent regular old jersey with three clear colors and lots of stitching.  I was glad to make it my 48th hit of the longtime Eagles receiver.

As usual everything today is presented in alphabetical order and yet I find myself in the midst of a four-receiver run!  That continues here with former Cardinal Steve Breaston way back in 2007 when he signed his whole name instead of just "SB".  This is his Bowman Sterling rookie auto from that year, one I would have thought I had except it turns out what I did own was the Refractor version.  While it's not a favorite design of mine it works fine, plus it gets me up to 27 hits of the former WR/special-teamer.

Today's last WR is one of the more recent ones to jump to the NFL:  Amara Darboh.  The Seattle draft pick appears here on a Panini XR Red jersey auto (#16/75) from last year.  I was happy to get both a signature and large relic swatch even before considering the low price--$2.17--of this fun bunch of shininess.  I guess others' dislike of sticker autos just works in my favor sometimes!  While I won't try to claim XR is a necessary brand I like what I ended up with here, my second hit of a guy I hope to see last in the league for a while.

In general I would say that I've preferred Leaf's Certified design to those from its Limited counterpart over the years, but that doesn't mean the latter is exactly chopped liver.  Consider the above card, a rookie auto of former star CB Leon Hall from the 2007 iteration (#60/99).  It's pretty typical for a medium-end card done by that manufacturer around 10 years ago which means it's right in my wheelhouse.  It also represents another addition to my group of Halls--38 in all after today--that continues to make him one of the more represented players in my football PC.

Three cards in today's post prove that you can find some of your favorite defensive players on cardboard--even if they're underrepresented--as long as you're willing to put in the effort.  Besides Hall's above plus the one you'll see at the very end, retired tackling machine LB David Harris--who almost went out on a high note with the Pats after suffering through the dysfunction of the Jets--makes another hit-related appearance here on this 2011 Panini Threads Gridiron Kings Materials Prime jersey (#37/99).  The canvas-like artistic design is probably a bigger highlight than the "prime" relic, which is just a bit of green and white with some stitching, but for as cheap as this card was I couldn't resist snagging it to bolster Harris' total, which now stands at a solid 27.

The third of my four rookie autos today is this one of Heisman finalist RB Chris Perry from 2004 Ultimate Collection (#152/250).  That's one of those higher-end products that I'm always glad others buy so I can scoop up the singles I want on the cheap.  Maybe whoever pulled this one at the time was excited about landing a big card of a first-rounder but they sure wouldn't be today since I got it for under $2!  I'm generally fine with the design, though it's admittedly not very exciting, and Perry's signature has never been one to write home about.  Still, it's great to pick up one of his autos from a high-end product on the cheap!  Make it 51 hits of the former Michigan great.

Now we'll move on to a much more recent back who's making his hits collection debut:  De'Veon Smith.  The four-year RB didn't come in with as much fanfare as others but put together a solid college career that culminated in leading the backfield of the 2016 that went 10-3 in attempts, yards, and TDs and receptions (tied with the "Hammering Panda", Khalid Hill, on both counts).  He's one of the few guys that didn't get drafted in 2017 but latched on with the Dolphins.

I was excited to land a college uni signature of him (he does have a few licensed ones in Panini brands) from 2017 Leaf Metal Draft (even if the airbrushing makes it look more like he's playing for Notre Dame here).  It's always tough sledding for undrafted guys to last long in the pros but maybe Smith can carve out a career.

The second oldest card in today's bunch is this 2002 UD Authentics American Authentics Level 1 auto of the A-Train, Anthony Thomas.  The design isn't terribly exciting but I'm a fan of having the cut out area for signatures sometimes, and Thomas's never fails to impress me.  Honestly, you could probably slap that on a card as ugly as a recent Topps design and I'd have a difficult time passing on it!  It's almost milestone time again here at TMM as this is my 49th hit of Anthony's.

I'm glad to be able to end on a high note (as if anything else from today would be a disappointment) with a letter manupatch/auto.  It happens to be my first of Super Bowl champ LaMarr Woodley, quite possibly the first I've seen available.  It's from 2007 SP Rookie Threads--some of the best letter cards you'll find--and is part of the nameplate that spells out his last name.  You might recall that a while ago I completed Leon Hall's from the same product:

As is the case with Hall's cards this one's #d to 250 (#037 in this case) and has rarer parallel versions.  They may not hit all the great design notes of the 2008 version but I still love the chase for another nameplate!  In a mini milestone of sorts I've finally gotten Woodley to double digits with his 10th hit.

Almost done!  Stay tuned for one last post as I really go out with a bang by showing off a buttload of football PC cards--rookies, inserts, hits, and more!--soon.