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!

3/2/19 show report: March "M"adness

The calendar has flipped over to March and once again Michigan fans are looking forward to the NCAA tournament, though a regular season rematch with Michigan State and the Big Ten Tournament await.  Until then let's have a look at the cards I picked up at yesterday's show.  Yes, yesterday!

This is about as topical as it gets right now.  It's not often that I buy any basketball card, let alone one that cost $2, but it fit right in with my purchase from the awesome seller I see each month.  My third hit (all relics) of former Wolverine cager THJ is a 2013-14 Panini National Treasures NBA Rookie Materials jersey (#57/99).  It's a somewhat interesting swatch with a bit of stitching so I was glad to add another card of the two-time Knick who was swapped to the Mavs with fellow alum Trey Burke back in January.

The rest of my TMM haul wasn't large but I was still pretty excited when I pulled a few of these out the boxes I was searching.  Biakabutuka opens the group with a Gold version of his 1996 Donruss Elite appearance (I have the regular version already), a card numbered 1590/2000.  Speaking of inserts I hadn't seen one of the die-cut 2015 Panini Contenders ROY Contenders cards until I happened upon the Funchess above.  If you can't tell from the scan the cutting is around the right half of the "ticket".

Besides Touchdown Tim I came away with two other cards for player collections.  One is the so-Pacific-it's-an-ocean 1994 Prisms base of Jim Harbaugh you see above.  Sorry in advance (too late?) for any damage to your monitors and eyeballs!  Blog favorite QB Chad Henne also makes the cut with a 2010 Score Scorecard parallel (#091/499).  I doubt anyone else would be excited finding that in a quarter box but I let out a quiet but audible "wow", so you know where I stand.

Last up is about a different pair as you'll probably see today.  Recent do-everything guy Jabrill Peppers appears on a 2018 Contenders Draft Picks issue in full Michigan regalia.  Then there's NFL HOF DE Len Ford on a 1994 Topps Archives 1957 card that reprints his only Topps base issue, made in 1957.  That was his only mainstream card from his career besides his '55 Bowman RC (which I own!).  I'll have to try to find the Gold version of this card at some point.

Until next month's show, GO BLUE!

2/2/19 show report: a Feb-Blue-ary kind of show

As I described on TMV this evening, February's show resulted in less quantity than I'm used to, and this time most of it was concentrated on stuff I posted on that blog.  But I did come home with a quartet of dime and quarter inserts I was happy to pull from the mountain of boxes I sifted through:

DB Jamar Adams was one of the lesser known guys from my favorite draft class, the '08s, and his NFL career lasted all of eight games over three seasons, but don't think I wasn't excited to come up with that '08 Donruss Threads Gridiron Kings insert of the former Wolverine in his college duds!  I'll have to do some work to figure how if I'm missing any Michigan players from the set.

Card #2 calls back to the second post in my most recent Sportlots series when I showed off a bunch of RCs for my collection, including those of Michigan-to-USC transfer Justin Fargas.  To those I added a Topps Chrome Refractor from the '08 version, which went with black borders for the basic versions, a very good decision in my opinion.

The only PC guy I hit this time was current coach Jim Harbaugh on an insert I didn't recognize.  It's a set called MVPs inserted into '96 Collector's Choice, and that explains my lack of familiarity since I was way more likely to buy the baseball version at the time.  Jim was a Pro Bowler the previous year (as opposed to a pro bowler) was named the comeback player of the year to boot after posting career highs in completion percentage and YPA and leading the league in fourth quarter comebacks and game-winnings drives (3 and 4, respectively), so he appears to have earned his appearance here.

Last up is the only guy that's still active, WR Devin Funchess.  The FA pass-catcher appears today on an on-brand die-cut insert from Panini's 2015 Crown Royale.  Devin got plenty of hype going into his rookie year so he was a natural fit for the Regal Rookies insert, and in this case you're seeing the Green version.  Hopefully I can track some other variants down to show off, but more importantly, I hope Funchess lands with a team with a good QB and the sense to throw plenty of passes his way!

That's it for this show so next time we're back to Sportlots, and I'll try not to slack off so much that those posts drag into March.

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.

1/5/19 show report: what's this? What's this?!

No, I'm not going all Jack Skellington on you--I just had a bit of a surprised reaction to a card I found in a quarter box at my first show of 2019.  That's saying something since I'm pretty stoked with the stuff I've already shown off on TMV this evening.  But this pair's not bad either:

What's this?  What's this?  A Henne I don't have?  What's this?  What's this?  What can I rhyme with "have"?  Yeah, I'm just a bit geeked that I not only managed to pull a brand new Henne card for myself out of the quarter box--it also happens to be a great numbered parallel with a  Michigan uni photo!  My third entry of his from 2008 Playoff Prestige is an Xtra Points parallel (#125/300), one that forms a nice trio with his base RC and Gold Xtra Points issues.  How could you go wrong with this design plus a photo of the man starring in the 2008 Capital One Bowl victory over Florida?

Joining Chad is a huge relic of a guy who's apparently not long for the Panthers, which could be a boon to his career (accurate QB throwing to him, plz).  It's WR Devin Funchess on a shiny 2015 Panini Spectra Gigantic Jerseys jersey (#160/199), a set that's certainly as-advertised.  This gives me eight hits of the TE-turned-wideout and was definitely a good value for the $1 it set me back.

Hopefully I'll be back soon with pickups from another show this weekend, but other than that you can expect to see some COMC and Sportlots loot when I get around to scanning and posting it!

2018 trade package #15: the Collector

I got a very nice surprise in my mailbox last week when I went through my mail and came up with an unexpected PWE from Chris, a.k.a. "The Collector" (though I'll probably always associate him with his original name, "The Pedestrian Collector").  I've swapped cards with him a number of times and always enjoy doing so, plus it doesn't hurt that I love that something I sent his way made it into his blog banner! (that Mo Vaughn Starting Lineup up front.)

Chris even bucked tradition by sending me an all-Michigan trade package for the first time.  I previously received a nice group of Wolverines football and hockey stuff from him as part of a larger bunch of cards way back in February of 2017, but this time it's 100% alma mater matters, baby!

Here's what he sent along this time:

1988 Big Ten Player of the Year Gary Grant kicks things off with a '93-'94 Topps Gold parallel.  His four years in Ann Arbor led to a nice 13-year pro career.

Next up is a great pair from the basketball version of probably my favorite Fleer product, the '97-'98 flagship set.  Fab-Fiver Juwan Howard is surely well known by anyone reading this, and Terry "Sugar" Mills was a fun guy to watch during his six seasons with the Pistons (way back when I paid attention to basketball).

Last up is Howard's old teammate Jalen Rose on a college photo card from Classic's 1994 Four Sport product.  His Michigan uniform presages good things ahead.

Namely the five such cards in this football bunch, meaning 6/11 cards in this envelope fell into that category.  Extra credit to Chris!

Up top we have a trio of football alumni from last year's typically solid Score product, including RCs of draftees DL Taco Charlton and WR Jehu Chesson, plus a base of WR Devin Funchess, who I bet would be fun to watch if he had a consistently good QB throwing to him.

Joining those is a trio of cards from college-focused sets.  Chris sent over the base and Gold parallels of DL Mo Hurst from this year's Leaf Draft, and that's fantastic since Hurst is the only Wolverine in the product and I didn't feel like chasing the set this year.  They look great alongside a '95 Classic Five Sport of all-time great CB Ty Law.  These look so good to a college collector like me that I chased a number of similar products in my latest Sportlots haul.

Closing things out today is one more recent guy in PC guy Denard Robinson.  Card #91 in his collection is an interesting insert from 2013 Prestige called NFL Passport.  I'm actually familiar with the set because I have the autographed version of this card, though oddly enough that one is oriented in vertical fashion:

Thanks again for the surprise PWE, Chris!  I'm happy to be able to send something back your way soon, possibly in time for Christmas.  For now I suppose you can continue to bask in the glow of yet another World Series victory!

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!

7/28/18 show report: maize & blue part 2

The timing's totally right for another show report, though the one I went to most recently was actually a couple weekends ago as to avoid conflicting with the National.  That's right, July was a two-fer!

While I don't have nearly the quantity to show off here compared to what you saw on TMV, here's a few new Wolverines for my fellow enthusiasts:

Of the 12 cards I chose that were a buck apiece this is the only one I got for myself, a "warm-up" relic of Jamal Crawford, a basketball alum who's played a crazy 18 seasons in the NBA.  My sixth hit (all relics) of the PG/SG comes from the 2004-05 Upper Deck Hardcourt Materials set and is the "Combo" version as opposed to the one I already owned which looks like this:

Not terribly exciting but not bad for a buck either.

Football saw the best representation with this sextet.  Leading off the group is a new entry for my Tom Brady PC, a very nice Michigan uni-fied base from this year's Elite Draft Picks product, one I'll get back to in just a second.  Cards with college photos make up less than 5% of his collection so I grab stuff like this whenever I can.

Sticking with the offensive side of the ball (and maybe an offensive design!) is a Devin Funchess 2016 Panini Prizm Prizms Red White and Blue parallel.  The patriotic theme is cool though the sequins(?) in the background are a bit strange.  Whatever--if it's a Michigan card I don't have I'm probably gonna pick it up anyway!

Returning to 2018 Elite Draft is a pair of base cards of underdrafted 2018 DL Mo Hurst, giving me a couple more college uni issues to enjoy.  For some reason neither the "regular" card on the left or the variation on the right is listed as a rookie card on Beckett's OPG (for Hurst or any other player for that matter), but that wasn't going to stop me from picking them up!

Last up from the gridiron is a pair of Panini-branded inserts of Michigan/Central Michigan RB Thomas Rawls.  The first is from 2016 Playoff and is called Boss Hoggs, a callback to some of the Playoff brands of the early-to-mid aughts.  That's joined by another themed insert that's even cooler:  2017 Absolute's Hurdles.  That's a move that while dangerous can result in highlight reel plays like the one pictured of Rawls flying over a Panthers defender.

Last up is a lone hockey addition of young Blue Jackets star Zach Werenski from 2016-17 Upper Deck National Hockey Card Day USA.  The 16-card set includes fellow Wolverines Tyler Motte and Dylan Larkin plus current and retired stars like Jack Eichel and Mike Modano.  I'm pretty sure this set me back just a dime and I'd pay that price for any up-and-coming Michigan Hockey alum.

With these out of the way it's looking like I'll be getting back to my Sportlots haul (or starting it, in the case of this blog) so stay tuned for lots more football and hockey pickups.

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.

2018 trade package #2: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Death, taxes, and trade packages from Doug at Sports Cards From the Dollar Store--you can set your watch by all of these things, just like Johnny Unitas' haircut:

As Doug nears a remarkable milestone of 50 trade packages posted on this here blog, I'm happy to show one he sent me in January, making it three straight months with cards from my Canadian friend buddy pal guy.  What it lacked in quantity (and, to Doug's chagrin, surprise), it made up for in quality by a long shot.  I'm talking Ohio State fans acting like human beings long shot.  It's some good stuff.  Check it out:

Basketball begins and ends quickly with the (relatively) old and the new:  a 2004-05 Topps Total base of Fab Fiver Jalen Rose alongside a crazy shiny 2017-18 Totally Certified of D.J. Wilson, a three-year Wolverine who went to Milwaukee in the first round last year.  Believe me, the scan does not do the latter justice.

Football is represented by this trio of Blue parallels from Doug's 2015 Topps Field Access case.  GOAT QB and Super Bowl LII runner-up Tom Brady is joined by that year's pair of Devins, Funchess and Gardner.  I really need to track down their base RCs from this set but can't seem to find them for a reasonable price.

And our last sport, hockey, begins with this appetizer of base cards of Andrew Copp of the Jets and former NHLer David Moss (who I might have mentioned is from my hometown of Livonia, a fairly good producer of icer talent).

Now we'll look at the hits from worst to first, with "worst" being very much a relative term here, like how Batman Begins is the worst of the Nolan trilogy because something has to come in last, but that doesn't mean it can't be awesome.  Case in point:  this 2013-14 Panini Prime quad jersey featuring another young Jets star, Jacob Trouba (joined by former Winnipeg teammate Anthony Peluso who's now with Washington).  I of course like how the swatch windows spell out "J-E-T-S" because it's nice to see a professional team with that nickname not be a dumpster fire.  Anyway, this enjoyable relic #d /200 is my 8th of Trouba, and it's a nice start.

...because how the hell can it compete with THIS?  WolverWings in the house, baby!

When Doug pulled and posted this Dylan Larkin autograph from his 2015-16 Champ's case break my jaw dropped, especially after he explained that it was 1:639 pull, good enough to be a case hit.  Yes, please!  If you wanna know why I keep up the high end dealing with Doug, his decision to send this to me instead of recouping the price of his case is a prime reason.  It's just my second signature of the future Red Wings captain and a beauty at that.

Huh, there's still one more card, how could you possibly top that last one?

Oh cool, a Marty Turco autograph I didn't have, pairing him up with Jack Campbell, a one-time top prospect who I believe almost played for Michigan.  I've heard that Turco was also a bit of an idol of Campbell's, so that's cool.  This one comes from the same 2013-14 Panini Rookie Anthology product as the Trouba above, which you might call a a favourite of Doug's (and mine) and--

Is that--

I think it's--

No way!

That's totally a 1/1 (#95 overall)!  Ok, so I knew this was coming, but that doesn't make me any less excited for my first 1/1 of my favorite all-time Michigan goalie and top hockey PC guy.  I don't care who you are, that's a potential card of the year right there!

Doug, thanks for the two enormous hockey additions and another exciting monthly package (though don't worry if you can't keep up that pace, I know I can't!).  Fortunately I have the start of a return for you that I'll make sure to fill out so it's worth of this greatness.  You're my buddy, guy!