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: "Booty and the Shoelace" is my new morning radio show

I'll start showing off my Sportlots stuff over here next time but first I wanted to make sure I posted a couple eBay cards I scored from a seller who had a pair of cards I sent in my latest trade package for Doug.  After all, combined shipping rules!

Enjoy this cool pair of football hits:

First up is my third autograph (and fourth hit overall) of star TE Jake Butt, one I scored for about $3.  This one comes from last year's Panini Contenders product and is his base auto RC version, not to be confused his other base auto, #253, or Contenders Draft Picks, for that matter.  As usual it's got a nice design going for it including the usual ticket motif.  Since card backs don't usually get much love I like that some of his key info is right up front, such as his hometown of Pickerington, Ohio, a place that produced his teammate Taco Charlton among other former Wolverines.

Here's hoping for a healthy year for J-Booty after a 2017 lost to injury.

As for co-host #2 on a radio show that totally needs to happen, that would be Denard Robinson.  The former spark plug QB recently joined former teammate Devin Gardner in the CFL and I hope he gets to show off his many talents there.  Going back to his former NFL dreams here he is on an autographed version of Panini's Rookies and Stars Slideshow (#41/91) from his rookie year of 2013.  Of course I love adding an autograph of one of my favorites but even without the ink I'd be a fan of this one having enjoyed the origin of the Slideshow name way back in the 90s with Leaf.  It's a great way to make a card stand out with so many autographs out there, and I'd say it's a pretty nice compromise between on-card and sticker autographs.

A bit more than $4 was enough to let me add this, card #85 and hit #39, to Shoelace's collection, with a few more on the way from Sportlots.

And speaking of that site, watch for lots of posts covering those pickups soon!

2018 COMC purchases: plates in batches

Just this post stands between you and my big finish to this latest COMC series, in which you'll see all the great stuff I found for my various football PCs.  That'll take me a while to put together because of the sheer volume of cards, but I think you'll enjoy today's stuff in the meantime.  Let's have a look at some football hits!:

Houston's Amobi Okoye was the higher selection of these two early 2007 draftees (#10 overall vs. #33) but I think he wouldn't mind changing careers with the other guy whose NFL tenure has lasted longer

I AM BECOME BRANCH, KILLER OF QBs

Both guys experienced some success in the league, though, so this 2007 Bowman Sterling Dual Autograph Gold Refractor dual auto (#347/400) is a nice addition to my Branch collection, now 17 cards strong.

Swiggity swooty, I got that J-Booty!  Butt is no stranger to my hits collection as I previously found him on a plate (shared with fellow 2017 draftee Taco Charlton) plus an autograph, and I hope he continues to be a more familiar face in these posts.  Here I found him on an signature card from Panini's perennially awesome Prestige product, one that features an excellent full-bleed design with great college action.  If you'd like you can misconstrue his John Hancock to look like "A Butt" if you have the same sense of humor I do.

And now it's time for:  na na na na na na na na PLATE RUN!

Plate #1 stars former Michigan RB Thomas Rawls, making his hits collection debut as player #213 thanks to this 2017 Elite Cyan Plate that was inserted into the same year's Plates & Patches product.  Rawls is one of those guys who transferred away from Michigan but still finds a place in my collection because I tend to stay flexible about things like that.  After three years in Ann Arbor he moved on to Central Michigan, had a very nice 2014 season there, then was picked up by Seattle.  Some Michigan fans were surprised by his success with the Chips and the 'Hawks and that's generally been attributed to misuse and poor coaching by the previous staff.  Hopefully he's now over some injuries and can again excite fans from two Michigan schools in the pros.

Our next player is a two-fer who's not making his hits debut since I was able to track down a signature of his.  Recent RB De'Veon Smith put up some good numbers--more than 2000 yards and 22 TDs--while in Ann Arbor, then was picked up by the Dolphins after last year's draft.  His NFL odds are long--he was let go after limited game action last year--but he made some big plays for the Maize and Blue and his cards are plenty cheap--I believe these two set me back under $6 apiece.  Smith joins Rawls with a plate from 2017 Elite (Yellow) and adds one from 2017 Unparalleled (Cyan) as well.  Once again these were inserted into 2017 Plates & Patches.

The 11th card in my LaMarr Woodley collection of hits is one of the best yet, a 2009 Topps Yellow plate.  What better color to find for a guy who enjoyed lots and lots of success with the Steelers?  I absolutely love the shot of him heading for one of his 11.5 sacks in 2008, a number he'd top during a Pro Bowl campaign the following year.

These new additions up my total to 109 1/1s!

Last up today is Ravens DE Chris Wormley on his 2017 Panini Contenders rookie auto.  Contenders is another design I can almost always get behind thanks to its ticket motif.  I'm fortunate to add this as my second Wormley auto since Jeff previously sent me an even better one back in February from Contenders' Draft Picks version, one that stars a great college photo.  Hopefully he'll see more game action this fall.

That's it for this post but as I mentioned, stay tuned for a big finish soonish!

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 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.

4/7/18 card show report: hold on to your Butts!

Welcome to a recap of the most recent show I attended, a couple weeks ago in Taylor (a.k.a. the usual spot).  As I did on TMV this evening I want to highlight my largely updated Player Collections Page as I did lots of work to make it (hopefully) easier to look at, plus I added a bunch of new collections:

Baseball:  Brett Adcock, a Michigan alum in the Astros organization.  I don't have anything of him yet though I hope to rectify that soon.

Football:  Jason Avant, Steve Breaston, Brian Griese, Leon Hall, Chris Perry, David Terrell, Anthony Thomas, Amani Toomer.  All of these guys are near the top of my football hits collection plus I already had a bunch of inserts and RCs of each.  After adding in loose base cards and what I had in complete sets each guy is in the range of ~80-100 cards which made them prime candidates for their own albums.  Plus I scored new cards of a few of them at this past show!

Hockey:  Dylan Larkin and Brendan Morrison.  I don't have many of the former but what I do have is worth showing off, plus his album might serve as a good reminder that I collect him and lead to him showing up a bit more in trade packages!  As for Morrison I've been meaning to do an album for him and finally got around to it, likely motivating me to fill it in more as I'm trying to do with fellow hockey guy Marty Turco.

Ok, now on to the new cards:

This scan begins and ends with a pair of rookies of 2017 DTs--Taco Charlton of the Cowboys and Chris Wormley from the Ravens.  Charlton's Donruss Optic is my fourth of his while I now have a pair of Wormleys.

Law's college-themed 1995 Classic Five Sport is the lone base card here.  The set focuses on the four major sports plus auto racing(?) and includes fellow Wolverines Jimmy King, Derrick Alexander, Todd Collins, and Tyrone Wheatley.

There were a few nice inserts in the bunch including parallels of Thomas Rawls on a 2016 Panini Phoenix Adrenaline Rush Orange (#237/299) and retired great LaMarr Woodley on rookie-year 2007 Playoff Prestige Draft Picks Light Blue (#163/999) and Topps Draft Picks and Prospects Chrome Bronze.  College uni cards rule!

The other three guys are all PCs:  Anthony Thomas 2001 Vanguard Prime Prospects Bronze, Amani Toomer 1999 Collector's Edge Masters HoloSilver (#2050/3500), and Charles Woodson 2003 Ultra Gold Medallion.

New PC guy Brian Griese kicks off this group of horizontal inserts with a subtle-for-the-brand 2000 UD Ionix Sunday Best issue.  Thomas and Toomer then make repeat appearances on 2002 Pacific Exclusive Advantage and 2005 Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade Red (#072/250) inserts.  Tools of the Trade is one of those sports cards names I've always associated with good things be it an insert like Toomer's or the relic and autographed versions.

The dollar box ended up being kind to my football hits collection with this pair of 2012 Leaf Army All-American Bowl autos, adding two new names to that group.  On the left is LB Royce Jenkins-Stone (one of many recent Wolverine hyphenates!) who had a solid career after arriving as a four-star recruit.  Magnuson, meanwhile, was a slightly higher rated OT who had a pretty good four years in Ann Arbor before being signed as an UDFA with the 49ers; he appeared in a few games last year so we'll see what the future holds for him.  Their additions (plus the next one) give me 212 total members of the football collection.

And here's my other big hit when I flipped through the seller's higher-end box.  Like the Verlander, I thought I'd have to pay a bit of a local premium for this sweet autograph (2017 Panini Unparalleled Rookie Autographs Yellow auto (#063/149)) of recent Wolverine's star Butt, but again I got a very nice bulk price.  So I was stoked to make this colorful signature my first hit of the talented Broncos TE, who's hopefully healthy and ready to contribute this year.

Before I end today's post there's one more card to get to as I'm ending, as is often the case, with hockey.  A quarter certainly wasn't too much to ask for this 2000-01 Topps Premier Plus RC of PC guy Marty Turco.  It features a great photo of the two-time NCAA champ and is somehow just the second rookie of his I've tracked down.

Now that I'm finally caught up on my show pickups it's on to a trade post before a couple focusing on new eBay stuff!

3/18/18 card show report: working hard for Wolverines

As I explained on TMV this evening the second show I hit up last month was a bit different--different location, different sellers.  While that ultimately meant that what I took home was less than usual, I still found a few Wolverines to add to the ol' collection.  This time it was a 100% football affair.  Check it out:

First up is a pair of 2017 RCs:  Denver TE Jake Butt from Donruss and Cleveland...I dunno, LB/DB?...Jabrill Peppers out of Prizm.  That's my third of Butt (that's right, I've almost got a Dr. Mephisto special!) and second of Peppers, and I have to say I was surprised to find the latter in a box of relatively cheap stuff!

It also came as a bit of a shock to me to find this insert of a guy who's both a Michigan alum and current Detroit Lion.  Evoking images of '94 Finest baseball Here's backup QB Jake Rudock on a 2016 Donruss Optic Red and Yellow parallel, which probably also could have been called "Primary Colors".  I hope the Lions let him go and he gets a chance to start somewhere since the franchise continues to think highly of Matthew Stafford.

My other insert pickup was this Charles Woodson 2005 Playoff Honors Class Reunion that pairs the school's upcoming commencement speaker (I might have to try to make it to that!) with 2018 HOFer Randy Moss.  Both were drafted in 1998's first round with Woodson, who'll join Moss soon, going fourth overall, and the enigmatic but talented Marshall WR lasting until the 21st pick.  Moss is the first from that draft to be enshrined but won't be the last with Woodson and Peyton Manning sure to follow.

Just as I did on the baseball side of things I added a solid hit to tie things up nicely.  In this case it was a 2006 Donruss Elite Passing the Torch Autographs auto (#22/99) of PC guy Braylon Edwards, my 72nd hit of the outspoken WR.  This is the solo version of Braylon's signature but of course the famed Passing the Torch set features dual cards as well, and Edwards was paired up with another former first-round WR for Cleveland, Paul Warfield, which kind of sucks since he played at Ohio State!  Then again, Warfield had twice as much success as Edwards in terms of years played and TD receptions, so there's that.  Anyway, it's a fun new autograph on one of my favorite designs, so I was happy to end my day by adding it to my purchase.

And now stay tuned for one more show recap covering the one from earlier this month, one that was a bit kinder in quantity.