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!

3/18/18 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.

3/3/18 card show report: Winter Wolverines part 2

If you headed over here from TMV then you know I spent just $16 at the first of the two March shows I attended, but I definitely feel like I got more than my money's worth.  That fun continued when it came to the Michigan stuff I picked up, representing both football and hockey.

Check it out:

The story of this show was "inserts" and "Michigan uniforms" as you'll see over this scan and the next one.  My Derrick Alexander collection got a nice little boost with a '94 Fleer Prospects card that was apparently designed by Michael Bay.  Then I tracked down a trio of Timmys--Biakabutuka, that is:  1996 Press Pass Paydirt Red (a set you'll see a couple more times), and Skybox Impact More Attitude (so 90s!), and a very cool translucent numbered card from 1999 Collector's Edge Masters called Majestic (#1083/3000).  Yep, those last two got flipped out of order during scanning.  A Brian Griese trio closes out the vets of the group with a '98 Bowman Interstate parallel (football's answer to International), 2000 Bowman Chrome Shattering Performers, and a base card from Pacific's 2000 Revolution product.

Happily for one of my projects I also scored a pair of rookies:  a new face and a familiar one.  The new guy is QB Matt Gutierrez, a highly touted kid out of California who got hurt warming up for 2004's first game against Miami of Ohio, causing him to get Wally Pipped by a kid named Chad Henne, who never gave up the job thereafter.  Gutierrez transferred to Idaho State, went undrafted, was picked up by New England, and of enough interest to appear on five 2007 RCs that fit my project criteria (which are loose enough that I included him despite his transfer).  The first in my collection is from SP Authentic and is numbered 1304/1399.

The other is the fourth rookie I've picked up of 2016 transfer and starting QB Jake Rudock.  This one hails from that year's Playoff product and leaves me just four short of the young Lions backup's first-year run.

And it's all inserts the rest of the way, and a college-heavy group to boot.  This scan features two more 1996 Press Pass Paydirt Red parallels--starring OL Jon Runyan and WR Amani Toomer--as bookends.  They surround the always-paired David Terrell and Anthony Thomas.  Each can be seen on a 2001 Pacific Dynagon insert called Top of the Class, relevant for the two at that point.  A-Train gets a second look thanks to a 2002 Topps Debut Red parallel (#196/199).  Numbered insert?  Yes, please!

Appropriately enough I scored some hockey stuff in advance of Michigan's excellent Frozen Four run in the form of these five cards that feature three NCAA champs.  Langfeld was responsible for the game-winner for the Wolverines' most recent title in 1998.  Morrison was a major force for multiple seasons and won with the '96 squad.  And Muckalt (on a great Black Diamond numbered parallel!) was the offensive leader on the '98 team while also contributing lots of offense in '96, one of 12 Wolverines to appear for both teams.  Shields never won a title but was excellent in his own right before a solid journeyman NHL career that's given way to a solid college position as a goalies coach.  This is definitely a group of greats!

Stay tuned for a couple more show posts soon.

2017 COMC purchases: Rookie Blue beats Purdue

Sticking with the 2017 script, Michigan found itself in a dogfight at the half, then took over in the final two quarters to win by a decent margin last Saturday.  Let's celebrate with the first of a few COMC pickup posts, this one covering some more additions to my football RC collection, a.k.a. Rookie Blue:

What does Alan Branch do, kids?

ALAN BRANCH KILLS QBs!  The fearsome DL makes another impactful appearance here with this solid first-year from 2007 Donruss Classics (#1225/1499), giving me 20 of his 26.

One of the 2008 draftees I'm not as interested in due to his short career (all of six games in 2010), here's LB Shawn Crable on rookie #18/19 from 2008 Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity (#228/999), a base set that shouldn't be confused with the Longevity parallel from the regular Rookies and Stars product.  (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Old Braylon is our first of four Michigan uni cards, and this one hails from 2005 Upper Deck Rookie Debut.  It's my 15th of his 23 rookies from that year and just the third in which he's sporting the maize and blue.

Another college card in the pile was this 1998 Playoff Prestige Hobby base of '97 National Champ RB Chris Floyd.  This shiny rookie is my sixth out of nine of the third leading rusher of that squad.

Funch is #2 on this year's Panthers in targets, receptions, and yards, but remains scoreless on a team that's caught just two TDs in three games.  In a relatively rare occurrence, I like the Panini card (Rookies and Stars) less than the Topps offering (Heritage) in a pair that gives me 18 of his 24 RCs from 2015.

Defense, the key to Michigan's 2017 success to-date, gets another shout out thanks to LB Ian Gold on this shiny 2000 Leaf Certified rookie (#1896/2000) that certainly befits his name.  Make it six of nine of the former Bronco who shares a rookie year with Tom Brady's super expensive offerings.

It's a shiny numbered rookie party, and QB-turned-3B-turned-QB Drew Henson came in his Sunday best on this 2004 Leaf Certified Materials RC (#0109/1000).  Certified had a tendency to offer some fun designs like the one on this, my 15th of 37 (jeez, 37?!) Henson first-years.

We'll take a quick break from numbered cards, and as it happens, those that are vertically-oriented, with this 2004 Upper Deck offering of stud RB Chris Perry that shows you exactly how cell phone videos should be filmed.  The Rookie Premiere-themed card is my 19th of Perry's 30 from his rookie year.

The fact that Denard is out of the league at the moment makes even a rarer RC like this one from 2013 Topps Supreme (#130/170), the lowest numbered one I own so far, reasonably cheap.  I do have a Spectra version (/99) still to chase of our second of three QBs in today's post, of whom I now own 23/27 rookies.

And here's our final QB:  Iowa castoff-turned Michigan QB-turned Lions draftee Jake Rudock from the excellent 2016 Donruss Optic product, which combines the pleasing Donruss design with a Chrome look.  It's #3 in my chase of his eight RCs.

I don't know that I'd call myself a fan of every Score football design, but I do like this one as it combines a nice design (even if it's green!) with a college photo.  Former Niners/Lions WR Tai Streets has nine 1999 rookies, and this Score example gives me eight.

Anthony Thomas is the beneficiary of our final college uni card of the post, the retail version of 2001 Pacific Invincible; his hobby version includes a jersey swatch and is therefore exempt from this project.  The very Pacific shiny base card with a translucent inset cel is my 19th of Thomas's crazy 50 rookies.

The oldest card you'll see in today's post, from 21 years ago(!) is this 1996 SP offering of Super Bowl-winning Giants WR Amani Toomer.  The card features one of my favorite SP designs, and it leaves me just one shy of his 22 RC run.

College and pro defensive star LaMarr Woodley was the biggest winner this time as the only player for whom I landed three cards (all numbered!), all from 2007:  Donruss Threads Retail Rookies (#605/999), Leaf Rookies and Stars (#850/999), and Topps TX Exclusive (#0849/1049).  Nothing here appeals to me as much as anything from any of the other players today, but knocking off three numbered RCs and giving me 16 of Woodley's 26 was a nice little accomplishment.

That's it for football RCs but I have a few more football-related posts, plus a hockey one for some variety.

3-31-17 card show report: sideline to sideline and stretching the field

As I said over on TMV this evening, I had an enjoyable card show experience last Friday after a terrible one earlier last month.  That quarter box success extended to my Wolverines collections as well as you'll see from my haul here:

Let's start with five great 90s/early 2000s base cards of coach Jim Harbaugh!  These cards give me an excuse to post this tweet from Monday:

Who do you think can shout louder? Me or @MrPeanut? #ad pic.twitter.com/EEuu3x9P3I

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) April 3, 2017

I love our coach.

And now for some horizontal inserts:

Arrington's card is a 2008 Playoff Prestige Prestigious Picks Red insert (#364/750).  Beer/nachos/football lover Gerry Ford is represented on a 2004 Topps Presidential Pastime card from a baseball product, but he played football here, so in my football collection he shall go.  WR Devin Funchess is Chromed out on a 60th Anniversary Rookies insert from 2015.  Mike Hart (109 cards) appears on a beautifully colorful draft-related insert from 2008 Playoff Prestige, making its second appearance here.  The third is Super Mario Manningham's (136 cards) Black version of the previously-seen Prestigious Picks insert (#275/500) for our third taste of Maize and Blue goodness.

For the rest of the bunch we go deep and go vertical:

Retired WR Jason Avant appears on a second-year Chrome Silver insert (#198/299) from 2007 Topps Draft.  I found a pair of cards of fellow WR Braylon Edwards:  a 2008 Topps Chrome Refractor (already had it, oops), and 2008 Triple Threads base card (#523/779).  Leon Hall is my lone defensive player today with one of his several appearances in the SAGE HIT Big-10 insert.  I then made a bit of progress towards my Michigan Football RC collection with my second rookie of former transfer QB Jake Rudock, this one hailing from 2016 Panini.  And finally, I found one last Michigan uni (heavily airbrushed though it may be) card, a 2001 Ultra College Greats Preview of Michigan WR great Amani Toomer.

Needless to say, this show excursion made both my wallet and my Michigan Football inserts collection very happy!

2016 trade package #16: Canadian Thanksgiving Wolverines from SCFtDS

In this case, the Thanksgiving actually refers to the act of giving thanks to a Canadian, Doug from Sports Cards From the Dollar Store.  We here south of America's Hat may have celebrated turkey and football day a couple weeks ago, but our Canuckian neighbors enjoyed--what, poutine and hockey?  That can't be right, unless every day is Thanksgiving in Canada--back in October.

Anyway, I'm always thankful for the effort folks like Doug put into their trade packages.  This one was completely lacking in turkeys, but if it helps, I do feel like taking a nap after scanning and posting everything.  And there's football.

And now, here's the goods:

Cazzie Russell 2013-14 Totally Certified Materials Blue jersey (#23/25)

Well hey there, brand new Cazzie hit!  This low-numbered jersey swatch hails from his days as a Laker, which would have been 1974-77, the latter being his penultimate NBA season.  It's actually my first relic of the legendary Wolverine cager (to go with an autograph, plate, and eight-card manu-letter auto nameplate), plus it gives Russell sole possession of first place in my basketball collection, breaking a tie with Darius Morris.

Here's the football content, which goes heavy on the QBs (five cards if you count Denard, which I do) and 2016 Donruss, which I think is a fantastic looking set.  Brady, who's about to overtake Peyton Manning in career wins, is represented twice, including that Donruss set.  Criminally-ignored (by Cam Newton) WR Devin Funchess is another example from that product.  We go back a few years--1998--for a thick Elvis Grbac insert from Collector's Edge.  Tackling machine David Harris joins the 2016 Donruss club.  And then the last three cards are Michigan Football rookies:  new PC album guy and blog namesake Manningham from 2008 UD Masterpieces, Denard from 2013 Topps Prime, and a totally brand new guy:  "Jim Harbaugh: QB whisperer" product Jake Rudock, who went from being stuck in Iowa--Iowa--to an NFL draft pick.  That's my first of his seven current RCs for that collection.

And now, let's honor our Canadian friends, as is tradition

It's a great day for the NHL, and therefore the world

with hockey content:

Pretty standard fare here with hockey Mikes Cammalleri and Knuble to go with stalwarts Andrew Cogliano and Jack Johnson.  But do you see that trio card at the bottom?  Hurricane Phil Di Giuseppe (hey, a paisan'!) is my focus here.  The three-year Wolverine was a solid forward in Ann Arbor and managed to pot seven goals last year for Carolina (though he's yet to score in 14 games this season).  Another good catch by Doug.

These guys are fairly familiar as well:  former Devil John Madden, who won't try to sell you Tinactin or anything from Ace Hardware;  goalie Alvarooooooo Montoya;  older-school D-man Myles O'Connor ("O'Connor RULES!"); Max "Patch" Pacioretty out of the shiny funtime of OPC Platinum, and Jacob Trooooooouba, who we'll see again in just a moment.  This is a standard excellent assortment of icers from Mr. Corti.

And now, some hits:

Andrew Ebbett 2009-10 Artifacts Autofacts auto

Matt Hunwick 2010-11 Zenith Yours Truly Autographs auto

Aaron Palushaj 2011-12 Crown Royale Heirs To The Throne Materials jersey

Jacob Trouba 2013-14 Select Prizms jersey auto (#99/99)

Ebbett's autograph--my sixth hit of the center currently playing in a Swiss league--hails from an Upper Deck product from a few years ago, and I think UD did a nice job of making it not so obvious that the signature's on a sticker.  Maple Leaf Hunwick--Matt this time, not Shawn--appears on a Zenith issue that brings to mind a letter or greeting card for his second hit and first autograph.  AHLer (and fellow Livonia, Michigan native) A-A-Ron Palushaj (you didn't mess up, Doug!) gets in the game with a very cool die-cut Crown Royale jersey relic (my first, and ninth hit overall) from his first NHL squad.  And then there's probably my favorite card in the whole package, a gorgeous Prizm (call it a Refractor if you want, doesn't matter to me) version of a jersey/auto of young star D-man Jacob Trouba--I'm sorry, Trooooooouba!  That's my sixth hit of a guy who's probably hoping it's not true that when you're a Jet, you're a Jet for life.

This is another outstanding bunch of Wolverines to add to my PCs, so once again I offer thanks to one of my top trade partners in Doug.  Rest assured I'll be stuffing an envelope full of stuff I know he'll gobble right up.