2018 COMC purchases: PC potpourri

It's almost time for me to say goodbye to 2018 and the purchases I made last year on this fine evening in...MAY?!  Yeah, it's taken me far too long to post these, but what else is new?  Ignore my procrastination and enjoy some very cool cardboard starring some of my football PC guys:

Touchdown Tim is the first of eight different players today, and I was quite happy with this little haul:  three numbered inserts and a hit.  '96 Leaf's Grass Roots has a grassy felt feel to it, '99 Score Showcase was celebrating 10 years of the football product, and 2000 Topps Gallery's Player's Private Issue parallel (#d /250) is a nice example of how Topps could get it so right before they firmly planted their heads up their collective ass towards the end of the 2000s.  Meanwhile, a Panthers blue 2001 Pacific Invincible jersey is hit #10 of the Wolverines RB legend.

I didn't have many cards of this duo so I thought it made sense to pair up 2007 Cardinals draft picks Alan Br--

dude that kills QBs dead, and speedy WR Steve Breaston when showing off this 2007 trio.  Branch appears on a Donruss Gridiron Gear Gold Holofoil X's (#010/100) parallel as well as his Upper Deck Trilogy RC (#111/399), a card from a product that looks great with its acetate-ness, but can be annoying to track down (and scan!).  Breaston joins in the rookie fun with his Select first-year (#203/599).  I now need just three of Branch's RCs and five of Breaston's.  Progress!

We're closing in on two months since I started this latest series with Jason Avant's haul--10 cards--and now I'm showing off nine more of his former position- and team-mate, Braylon Edwards.  The first two are parallels from 2006 Score (Gold) and 2010 Contenders (Playoff Ticket) and are numbered to 600 and 99, respectively.

The next seven are all relics I grabbed at low, low prices, a.k.a. my COMC wheelhouse.  A few of these are even dubbed "Prime" by Panini meaning their swatches are above average.  2007, '08, '09, and 2011 are all represented here and there's a mix of numbering between 50 and 299, not to mention designs and swatches.

This hit parade launches Bray-Bray into third place in my football collection with 81 hits, ahead of Jake Long and behind only Chad Henne and Mario Manningham.  His new PC total of 285 also equals Henne's, though that tie will be broken in this run's final post.

Here's a quartet I wasn't expecting to score when I was buying up cards on COMC last year:  a RC and three great parallels of tackling machine David Harris!  His beautiful Michigan uniformed first-year from '07 Elite leaves me just one shy of Harris' RC run, plus it just flat-out looks nice.  The other three are numbered parallels from 2016 Donruss.  In order:  Press Proofs Silver (#032/100), Press Proofs Silver Die Cut (#27/75), and Stat Line Season (#088/108).  The die-cut card scanned the best and really does look terrific, but the Stat Line insert remains a favorite of mine.  David did indeed compile 108 tackles in 2015, the sixth and final time he crossed the century mark in that category over his 11 NFL campaigns.

I don't really have anything that goes with this Marlin Jackson auto RC from 2005 SP Authentic (#746/850) so it gets the spotlight to itself for a minute.  This is a fairly textbook SPA look (if not one of its best) and comes with a cool camp action photo, plus Jackson's interesting signature (a.k.a. hit #22 in his collection).

The final three cards today represent a pair of Giants notables.  Amani Toomer appears on an insert you've seen before this series:  2000 Fleer Focus's Draft Position parallel.  His card's numbered /204 because he was the fourth selection in the second round of the '96 draft (a round after Carolina took Biakabutuka).

RB (running beast) Tyrone Wheatley stars on the other two inserts:  '95 Sportflix's Rolling Thunder and a '96 Leaf Press Proof.  The former is another example of my love for 90s inserts while the latter is a fun die-cut version of one of the decade's hotter parallel types.

After I put these away I'll have just one post left before I can get back to 2019 fodder.  Stay tuned!

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 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!

2018 COMC purchases: Certainly Awesome Inserts

I'm sending out the Matt Signal for my collecting buddy at Sport Card Collectors as he's sure to love this post that's chock full of 90s and 2000s football inserts!  There's a lot to see today so let's get down to it:

This group of Touchdown Tims starts with a fun pair of '96s:  Donruss's Elite (#07384/10000) and Pinnacle Summit's Inspirations (#4526/8000).  I love me some numbered Donruss/Leaf/Panini/Pinnacle/Playoff/Score cards!  Elite is especially a favorite for me.  For those of you who are curious, don't be too surprised that he named Emmitt Smith his inspiration.

Moving up a few years I grabbed two more numbered cards.  First is a '99 Bowman's Best Refractor (#028/400) back when the brand and design were still relevant to me.  And last up is a 2000 Quantum Leaf Double Team insert (#1038/1500), the first of a few you'll see in today's post (with one more you'll get to catch in this series' finale).  This one pairs up the talented RB with former Panthers QB Steve Beuerlein:

Of the four cards I grabbed from this insert, Biakabutuka is the only Wolverine that appears on the front part of the card, but that's fine since I usually scan both sides of such multiplayer issues.

Hey, it's Ala--

ALAN BRANCH KILLS QBs

Alan Branch.  Yep, that Alan Branch!  I found five new inserts of the slayer of signal-callers, all numbered parallels from his draft/rookie year of 2007.  The first four are all Donruss-related brands:  Threads Bronze Holofoil (#115/250), Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Red (#082/100), Playoff NFL Playoffs Gold Metalized (#021/149), and Playoff Prestige Draft Picks Light Blue (#342/999).  I love the look of that year's Prestige set as usual, and the foil parallels just knock it out of the park!

The last Branch today is the first of three 2007 Topps Chrome White Refractors you'll see in this series.  The base version looks good as usual, and of course I'm partial to the Blue offerings, but the white cards have a cool style of their own.  This one is #691/869.  Why 869?  I dunno.

One QB that Branch didn't get to kill was Elvis Grbac, who was long out of the league by the time Branch debuted.  Still, Grbac had a pretty nice career for being chosen near the end of the eighth and final round in the '93 draft--better than that of #2 overall pick Rick Mirer, at least!

The first two of a quartet of his cards I found are Refractors from 1999 Topps Chrome and 2000 Bowman Chrome.  Once again these were made during an era where I appreciated Topps' yearly efforts.  That's a great photo on the Bowman Chrome card!

Next is another 2000 Quantum Leaf Double Team card:

Front an center is Elvis' teammate Donnell Bennett, a RB who'd just had a career season in '99, though he too would be out of the league after the 2001 season.

And before Elvis leaves the building I turned up one more insert of his, a 2001 Playoff Honors parallel called X's and O's (#182/219).  These are very similar to Donruss' Stat Line insert that debuted in the baseball product that year as the cards are numbered to an interesting career stat for each player (making some of them super rare).  It took me a bit of searching to deduce that the "219" refers to Grbac's overall draft position in 1993!

The guy with the most new cards this time is Jim Harbaugh as I turned up seven interesting new inserts of the current coach, all from 1996-2000.

The 1996 contingent is led by Refractors from Bowman's Best and Finest (his Bronze version).  Again, great examples of design from that era of Topps.  Those are joined by another appearance from Summit's Inspirations insert (#6780/8000).  Harbaugh names his dad as a major inspiration which is no surprise given their positive relationship over the years.  But interestingly he mentions that "My hero growing up was Bobby Orr.  That's why I wear no. 4."  You learn something new every day!

Another fun Refractor design from 1999 Bowman Chrome joins the fray, then we get today's final 2000 Quantum Leaf Double team pairing:

Natrone Means' second stint in San Diego wasn't quite as successful as his first in terms of the numbers he put up, but he was still the biggest name on the Chargers for this insert that highlighted each team's backfield.

Last up is a very interesting pair that I wasn't aware of until this latest COMC sale.  Those two die-cut full-motion hologram cards are from 1997 Pinnacle inserts called V2 from Zenith and Inscriptions (meaning I scanned them backwards).  The Zenith card appears to show Jim celebrating running in a score himself while the Inscriptions card depicts him throwing a pass.  These cards are extremely cool but relatively small in size and mostly limited to QBs and a few RBs.  They sure don't make 'em like they used to!

The well-traveled Dhani Jones is today's final solo subject before I get to the one-offs.  I don't usually have much luck finding new stuff of him so this numbered parallel trio was pretty cool to find.  A 2008 Score Scorecard is first, numbered 117/649.  Then we have a pair of 2011s:  Certified Platinum Blue (#070/100) and Panini Gridiron Gear Silver X's (#209/250).  Go on, take a wild guess which is my favorite, I'm sure you'll get it on the first try!

And the rest.  QB Todd Collins heads up this group with a 1997 Collector's Edge Extreme Forerunners (#1262/1500) acetate-style card.  That highlights a 95-yard TD pass Collins tossed to Bills WR Quinn Early on December 1, 1996.

The next three are Refractors.  CB Marlin Jackson's name doesn't appear on the front of that 2007 Topps Chrome White Refractor (#193/869) but he's the clear star of this one which celebrates his interception of a Tom Brady pass late in the 2006 AFC Championship, preserving the lead for the eventual champs.  More than a decade later Brady would be victimized by another former Michigan star, Brandon Graham, to lose out on a comeback attempt in this year's Super Bowl.

The other two Refractors WR Tai Streets from 2001 Topps Chrome (#915/999) and RB Tyrone Wheatley from the previously-seen 2000 Bowman Chrome.  And to close out this post we have one more ridiculously cool die-cut card, a 2015 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Helmet Die Cuts of WR Devin Funchess.  Why shouldn't the best helmet in all of college football get a starring role on an insert in a college-themed set?

With these posted and put away look forward to two more posts in this series, one covering some cool hits, then the big finish featuring new stuff for my PCs.

2016 COMC purchases: the quest for 15

We're halfway through the regular season and Michigan has roared out to a 6-0 record thanks to a historically dominant defense and pretty good offense--just ask Rutgers!  Things are starting to shake out like a repeat of 2006, when a team full of future NFL draft picks went 11-0 leading up to a huge #1 vs. #2 matchup with an undefeated Ohio State squad.  If that's the case this year, hopefully things go better for the Wolverines, who lost a close one to those Buckeyes, then a not-so-close-one in their bowl game.

With all that in mind, the goal this year is 15 wins:  12 in the regular season, one for the Big Ten Championship, and two in the playoff.  To that end, here's 15 Michigan Football hits--the last of my COMC pickups that need to be posted, which will get me all caught up (temporarily!)--which will hopefully give the team some good juju in the second half of 2016:

Jason Avant 2006 Playoff NFL Playoffs Signature Proofs Silver auto (#015/150)

Jason Avant 2006 Topps Triple Threads triple jersey auto RC (#67/99)

Avant has generally been a top 10 player in my collection--these give me 47 to tie him for seventh with Adrian Arrington--thanks to a nice number of hits to track down, like these two.  The Playoff card features one of my favorite types of stickers for that type of autograph, even if the signature got a bit cut off.  And the Triple Threads is my second from that set, with this being his "true RC" from the product and the other being a Red version with a "#81" relic pattern.

Anthony Carter 2013 Ultimate Collection Ultimate Jerseys dual jersey (#05/50)

AC joins the ranks of players with double-digit hits in my collection with this very cool double jersey out of Ultimate Collection, one of UD's nicer products.  Because Carter was considered such a big college star, many of his hits fall in collegiate-focused products, and that explains why nine of my ten hits of his are in a Michigan uniform.

Braylon Edwards 2005 Topps Rookie Throwback Jerseys jersey

Braylon Edwards 2006 Ultimate Collection Jerseys Silver jersey (#62/75)

Braylon Edwards 2008 Upper Deck Heroes Jerseys Blue jersey (#12) (#007/125)

Braylon Edwards 2010 Limited Monikers Autographs Gold auto (#08/25)

I can't say I was focused on him this time but just happened to find some nice prices on four new cards of Bray-Bray.  I liked the design of the Topps Rookie Throwback relic and its card-within-a-card.  Ultimate Collection makes another appearance today in the form of a tiny, numbered relic from 2006.  Upper Deck Heroes is one of my favorite products and I managed to score a numbered relic parallel of one of Braylon's issues from 2008.  And finally, I was happy to add another autograph of Edwards, and a low-numbered one at that, from 2010 Limited.  Edwards sits in third place in my collection with 68 hits.

Devin Gardner 2015 Panini Father's Day Rookie Class Jerseys Cracked Ice jersey

Here's a card I believe I acquired from Tim of GSNHoF fame in one of our many COMC deals.  From one of Panini's many Father's Day issues comes this very cool jersey swatch, even if it's from an "event-worn" jersey.  Most of these that I've seen elsewhere have pretty interesting swatches like this one, which includes a good chunk of the New Era logo.  The scan doesn't quite show it well, but this is the more limited Cracked Ice version, where the background has a shiny, fractured red look in the background.  It's a fun addition as my sixth Gardner.

Brian Griese 2003 Playoff Prestige Game Day Jerseys jersey

This Brian Griese--my 15th--is a nice example of a jersey relic that could practically be called a patch.  It's got all three colors from the jersey, with a nice big chunk of blue and an orange stripe, plus a bit of stitching on the white section.  As nice as it looks it's no wonder why I was willing to pay a bit more than $2.50 for it, which is higher than I usually go for relic-type cards.  It's definitely one of my better looking relics of the journeyman QB.

Marlin Jackson 2005 Bowman's Best Blue auto (#046/299)

Here's another case where I threw down a bit more money than usual for a card:  $2.75 for this Marlin Jackson parallel autograph.  If I was a bit antsy to get it, that's because I'm working on the autographed and non-autographed rainbow of Jackson from this set, and I now need just the two Silver versions #d /25 to complete the project.  For whatever reason this was the best price I'd seen for the Blue auto, so I just decided to go ahead and make it my 21st card of the former DB.

Mario Manningham 2008 SPx Winning Materials NFL Dual 50 dual jersey (#20/50)

Mario Manningham 2013 Totally Certified Red Materials jersey (#240/299)

It may not be many, but here's two Manninghams, one for each of the teams for whom he played over his six NFL seasons.  The SPx card is my sixth of him from that product, five of which are from the Winning Materials and Rookie Materials groups.  Meanwhile, I'm not sure how many folks remember Super Mario playing his final two seasons, 2012-13, with the Niners, and scoring a single TD in 2012 over 18 games before being derailed by injuries.  Mario continues to be a huge part of my collection as the fifth player to reach the 60-hit mark!

Denard Robinson 2013 Prestige NFL Passport Autographs auto

Denard Robinson 2015 Donruss Threads jersey

I don't know what Denard's NFL future is considering he's barely seen the field this year, but that won't stop me from collecting him; I don't base those decisions on NFL performance anyway.  So I'll keep adding everything I can of one of the most electric players I've ever witnessed in Ann Arbor, like these two Panini-branded hits.  The Prestige card is nice as it's my 16th of #16 that features an autograph, plus it notes Shoelace's school front and center.  Meanwhile, the jersey relic is a nice, simple attempt out of last year's Donruss product, which is generally one of my favorites.  Robinson is closing in on 30 hits in my collection as this pair gives him 28.

David Terrell 2001 Topps Reserve Autographs auto

Finally, I have a very nice David Terrell (but not Anthony Thomas!) autograph to show off from 15 years ago, which is crazy to me as that's the year I graduated high school and headed to UM for college.  I remember the former #1 putting up some huge numbers in 2000, so this card brings back some nice memories for me, and it doesn't hurt that it's a good looker too.  Reserve was only around in 2001 and '02, but it resulted in some solid designs like this on-card autograph of Terrell, representing my 43rd hit (three behind A-Train, if you're curious) of the star receiver.

With this post I'm finally caught up on all my COMC pickups from this year, plus everything else I had in-hand in terms of purchases, actually.  That won't last too long, however, as I have some baseball PC additions via eBay that should be arriving this week, so watch for those this week as Michigan prepares for its homecoming game against Illinois.