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

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

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

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

Hey!  It's Ala--

#alanbranchkillsQBs

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

This five-spot bumps Branch up to 60 cards.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

2017 COMC purchases: hitsville UM-S-A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6/3/2017 card show report: a few that were Blue (and Maize)

Besides the baseball stuff I posted from last month's show over on TMV this evening, I scored some pigskin pickups as well, some of which include some Michigan uniform action.  Let's get down to it:

Former QB Todd Collins was interesting enough to make the cut for Upper Deck's (for-the-time) high-end, one-card-per-pack debut of SPx in 1996.  Just like the baseball version, these were die-cut cards featuring holograms, and were definitely super premium in their heyday.  RB Tyrone Wheatley also represents the Wolverines in the 50-card set.

Bray-Bray here represents the first of three straight inserts.  This Finest Moments card came out of 2008 Finest, and that set came with something like seven different Refractor parallels, plus autographed versions, Superfractors, and Plates!  The 50-card set includes 2008 draftees Mike Hart, Chad Henne, Jake Long, and Mario Manningham, plus GOAT QB Tom Brady.  This "base" version of Edwards notes his eight catch/146 yards/2 TD performance as Cleveland beat the Bengals 51-45 10 years ago.  He'd finish the 2007 season with a career-high 16 TDs, then never approach double digits again.

Now there's a Michigan uni card!  Panini has often done well with their college-themed sets, and I love the variety of recent and old-school players that can be found in the often-used School Colors insert.  Funch wore those colors proudly, including the away jersey seen here.

No, Brian Griese didn't live up to the mantle of legendary QB John Elway's heir apparent, but even when this Donruss Elite Back to the Future insert (#729/800) was released in 2002, his future included six more NFL seasons, followed by a steady gig broadcasting college games for ESPN.  Back to the Future is another one of those long-lived insert names that gives me happy memories of collecting in the 90s and 2000s.

And now we hit our second of three college uni cards, and it happens to be the first of two PC guys as well.  Like many of my favorite draftees from that year, Mike Hart made a couple appearances in Upper Deck's 2008 Draft Edition base set.  That's where this one belongs even if the design, especially the foil, makes it look more like an insert.  McFadden was obviously the more successful of the pair, but I'm glad that Hart appears to have transitioned well to coaching.

Defensive guys don't appear on nearly enough cardboard so you have to grab them when you can.  Case in point:  a pair of 2009 base cards of Super Bowl XLIII (which was played the previous year) champion LaMarr Woodley.  In case you don't recognize them, these come from the Bowman Chrome and Topps Platinum products released that year.

Michigan uni card #3?  Check.  PC player card #2?  Check.  Uniform #2?  Check--hey, that's Charles Woodson!  Ol' Chuck has made a nice number of base set appearances the last few years, especially thanks to Panini, who's included him in products such as Contenders and this one:  2016 Prizm Draft Picks.  They combine older college photos with newer designs (and sometimes parallels and inserts!) and that's just fine by me since I can't ever get enough of a player like Woodson.

With this show stuff out of the way, will I finally get around to writing up some trade package posts?  Stay tuned!

2016 COMC purchases: serial-numbered WINserts

Michigan's win over Penn State this past Saturday was such a thumping I wish I had an Alan Branch card to show off so I'd have an excuse to post my favorite image.  Aw, hell, who needs a card to justify it?  BOOM

Let's celebrate by posting some more of my COMC pickups; just two posts left after this one!

Today I'm featuring eight serial-numbered football inserts:

Jamar Adams 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear Gold Holofoil X's (#033/100)

Here's a numbered parallel of former DB Jamar Adams' '08 Gridiron Gear RC.  As with a Henne I recently posted, this set has both an "X" and "O" version, both numbered to 100.

Elvis Grbac 1998 Black Diamond Rookies Triple (#0143/1500)

Ah yes, one of my favorite late 90s sets for parallels--I really liked how UD split these up into different colors and numbering:  Doubles were red and numbered to 3000 while Quadruples were green and limited to 150.  Grbac is pictured here in his first of four seasons with the Chiefs, and in '97 he had gone 8-2 with a loss in the playoffs.

Brian Griese 2001 Donruss Elite Primary Colors (#305/975)

One good 90s Michigan QB deserves another!  Griese's color commentary skills may leave a bit to be desired, but he was a very good college starter that enjoyed a solid pro career.  Here he is on a nice shiny insert from 2001 Donruss.  The Primary Colors insert included Blue and Yellow versions as well as a die-cut parallel of those three variations.

Mike Hart 2008 Stadium Club Premiere Edition (#19/50)

Hey hey, a new card for my Mike Hart PC!  Card #105 is this 2008 Stadium Club parallel that's a nice throwback to the product's stamped inserts from the 90s.  Better yet, these are actually numbered, with these Premiere Edition cards limited to just 50.  Ah, it really takes me back to the days when Topps meant fun designs instead of repetitive crap and ignored redemptions.

Taylor Lewan 2014 Topps Valor Valor (#59/99)

Count me among the folks that don't get Topps' Valor product.  I snagged this card because it was a cheap numbered insert of one of my guys, but the theme is just kinda confusing.  Speaking of Lewan-related things that make no sense to me, while I get former Buckeye and not-awful TV guy Kirk Herbstreit criticizing the Titans OT for a costly penalty, posting "You're an absolute fraud bro!!" on Twitter lowers my opinion of him to that of people who post comments on Youtube, which is currently the following:

David Terrell 2001 Quantum Leaf Rookie Revolution (#3189/4000)

Anthony Thomas 2001 Quantum Leaf Rookie Revolution (#1575/4000)

I always enjoy posting cards of these guys together, as is tradition.  

It's a great day for Michigan, and therefore the world!  Quantum Leaf was an interesting Donruss product that was produced only in 2000 and 2001, and these inserts actually aren't representative of the set as they look more like some of Donruss' other insert offerings, with the bonus of college uniforms.

LaMarr Woodley 2007 Leaf Rookies and Stars Longevity Ruby (#021/199)

Nope, no Alan Branch today, but I do have a fun card of another beastly defensive star in Woodley.  This here is a Ruby parallel out of 2007's Rookies and Stars Longevity product, which itself is kind of a parallel to the base Rookies and Stars set.  I don't get it either.  Anyway, the combination that results from the parallel color and the Steelers' black and yellow unis is pretty cool in my opinion.  Plus this is our fourth parallel of a RC today, so we got that going for us too.

Just two COMC posts left, one football and one baseball, plus I still have a couple cool eBay pickups I'm pretty excited about!