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 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!

7/7/18 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!

2017 trade package #13: I Feel Like a Collector Again

As my favorite college football team gets ready for its bowl game on Monday I'm happy to have a new football card to show off thanks to someone who definitely embodied the generosity of the season (which I've found is typical of the folks in the blogging community).

Kin of I Feel Like a Collector Again hit up my mailbox with a surprise PWE a couple weeks ago, and it included this note:

I had to look up GoGTSLive and it looks like a cool place for people that can't get enough of the hobby, so it's definitely something I'll check out.

In any case, I love that Kin thought of me here after winning a free card he couldn't use.  If "I know you'll give it a great home" isn't the motto of every trade package I send and receive, I don't know what is.

Ok, on to the card:

Well there's something I didn't see coming!  Thanks to Kin I now have my first hit of former Michigan WR Jehu Chesson:  a 2017 Playoff Rookie Signatures Hail Mary autograph.  This is yet another nice design out of Panini's Playoff product with a color scheme that highlights KC's red unis.

I'm excited that I now have signatures of both Chesson and his former position-mate Amara Darboh since I tend to associate them with each other as two of last year's top three receivers (TE Jake Butt was second in most stats) before getting picked in Michigan's stacked 2017 draft class.  Darboh led the Wolverines in catches (57), yards (862), and receiving TDs (7) while Chesson was third with 35 catches for 500 yards and added a rushing TD on 12 attempts.

It's going to be fun seeing if they can parlay pretty good college careers into long pro tenures as the next generation of Michigan WRs in the pros.

Kin, thanks again for thinking of me this Christmas and sending me a card that most definitely now has a good home!

Turning the NFL draft up to 11

11 #NFLDraft picks. #ThisIsMichigan#GoBlue #ProBlue pic.twitter.com/OcunrF48tz

— Michigan Football (@UMichFootball) April 30, 2017

If you weren't paying attention this past weekend, Michigan enjoyed a historically excellent draft, seeing a program record 11 Wolverines get selected (including two first-rounders), most of any school in 2017.  That total equals Michigan's production from 2013-16 and is the highest since back-to-back drafts with seven Wolverines selected in 2007 and '08.  In addition, out of the eight players that went undrafted, seven signed with NFL teams as free agents, meaning a crazy number of 18 new alumni could appear on pro rosters this year.  What a difference a few years make!

In celebration I thought I'd take a quick look at where and by whom each player was drafted and where they can be found on early cardboard in terms of rookie cards and autographs.  NOTE:  I own none of the cards pictured below, though hopefully I'll be able to add a few of them eventually!

Jabrill Peppers (Everything)

Cleveland, Round 1, pick 25 (#25 overall)
RCs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Score
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Metal Draft;  Leaf Ultimate Draft;  Panini Contenders;  Score

Taco Charlton (DL)

Dallas, Round 1, pick 28 (#28)

RCs:  Score
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Draft;  Leaf Metal Draft;  Leaf Ultimate Draft;  Panini Contenders;  Score

Chris Wormley (DL)

Baltimore, Round 3, pick 10 (#74)

RCs:  Score
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Draft;  Panini Contenders;  SAGE HIT Premier Draft;  Score

Jourdan Lewis (CB)

Dallas, Round 3, pick 28 (#92)

RCs:  Elite Draft Picks
Autographs:  None

Delano Hill (S)

Seattle, Round 3, pick 31 (#95)

RCs:  None
Autographs:  None

Amara Darboh, (WR)

Seattle, Round 3, pick 42 (#106)

RCs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Score
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Draft;  Leaf Metal Draft;  Leaf Ultimate Draft;  Panini Contenders;  SAGE HIT Premier Draft;  Score

Ben Gedeon (LB)

Minnesota, Round 4, pick 14 (#120)

RCs:  None
Autographs:  Leaf Draft

Ryan Glasgow (DL)

Cincinnati, Round 4, pick 32 (#138)

RCs:  None
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Draft;  Panini Contenders

Jehu Chesson (WR)

Kansas City, Round 4, pick 33 (#139)

RCs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Score
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Draft;  Leaf Metal Draft;  Leaf Ultimate Draft;  Panini Contenders;  Score

Jake Butt (TE)

Denver, Round 5, pick 1 (#145)

RCs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Score
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Draft;  Leaf Metal Draft;  Leaf Ultimate Draft;  Panini Contenders;  Score

Jeremy Clark (S)

Credit:  maizenbrew.com

New York Jets, Round 6, pick 13 (#197)

RCs:  None
Autographs:  None

Undrafted free agents:

Kenny Allen (K)

Credit:  maizenbrew.com

Baltimore

RCs:  None
Autographs:  None

Matt Godin (DL)

Credit:  maizenbrew.com

Houston

RCs:  None
Autographs:  None

Kyle Kalis (OL)

Credit:  touchthebanner.com

Washington

RCs:  None
Autographs:  None

Erik Magnuson (OL)

Credit:  mgoblog.com

San Francisco

RCs:  None
Autographs:  None

De'Veon Smith (RB)

Miami

RCs:  Score
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Draft;  Leaf Metal Draft;  Leaf Ultimate Draft;  Panini Contenders

Channing Stribling (CB)

Cleveland

RCs:  None
Autographs:  Elite Draft Picks;  Leaf Draft;  Panini Contenders

Dymonte Thomas (S)

Denver

RCs:  None
Autographs:  None

2017 Leaf Draft football: the Wolverines

As I said in today's TMV posted in which I showed of a two-blaster break of 2017 Leaf Draft football, I thought at least a few of you might want to see the Wolverines from the product in a bit more depth.

First, all five base cards in numerical order (front and back):

WR Amara Darboh

RB De'Veon Smith

TE Jake Butt

WR Jehu Chesson

DE Taco Charlton

Next up is the lone Wolverine I pulled out of the Gold Parallel set, Jehu Chesson:

I didn't bother with the back since it looks exactly the same.

Finally, both of Jake Butt's entries from the All-American insert, including the Gold parallel of that:

You'll notice the text on the back is the same as that of his base card, along with the photo being identical (with a different background).

Though I didn't manage to pull any of them, nine(!) Wolverines appear in the autographs checklist:

• Amara Darboh (SSP)
• Ben Gedeon
• Channing Stribling
• Chris Wormley
• De'Veon Smith (SSP)
• Jake Butt (SSP)
• Jehu Chesson (SSP)
• Ryan Glasgow
• Taco Charlton (SSP)

While this is a great draft class, I don't forsee every one of those guys making it onto NFL cardboard, to say nothing of autographs, so as always I appreciate products like this for including the lesser known guys.  And I hope to have some to show off here eventually!

Along with those, I'm looking forward to adding even more nice college uni signatures from products like Panini Elite (along with some true RCs of guys like Jabrill Peppers!) and Leaf Metal Draft.  This looks like another great year to be a college collector!