2018 COMC purchases: 10 years later...

At long last I'm finishing up my 2018 COMC pickups with my favorites--my PC guys from the 2008 draft class!  It's this here blog's answer to GCRL:  Henne, Hart, Manningham, Long:

Record-setting RB Mike Hart is up first with a fun little trifecta.  His Stadium Club RC (#1799/1799!) leaves me just his '08 Upper Deck base short of his first-year run.  Next is a Rainbow parallel of his 2008 UD Icons auto, which looks to be my 64th card featuring his signature.  That product has a design I don't terribly care for but I love adding any new autograph of Hart.  And finally, I came up with a first for his collection:  a printing plate!  It happens to be a Michigan uni card, too, since it's from 2008 Press Pass Legends.  That's 1/1 #119 in my collection!

Now let's look at the Chad Henne pyramid of greatness--look out, Ron Swanson!  While I'd recommend more daily servings of autographs there's plenty here for a healthy collection.  Up top is another great example of Contenders' Playoff Ticket insert I enjoy so much.  A couple solo jersey relics from 2008 Leaf Certified Materials (#d /100) and 2009 Prestige bookend two more that include Chad's fellow '08 Wolverine draftee with the Dolphins, who's coming up next.  Those are #d /250 and /500, respectively.  Henne continues to rule the football collection with 124 hits and is getting close to joining 300-card PC guy Charles Woodson with a new total of 290.

Former #1 overall pick OT Jake Long gets a double-dip with his own group of cards in addition to the pair he shares with Henne above.  He joins Hart in the RC club with his 2008 Topps Letterman base (#104/419), and I appear to be four cards short of Jake's first-years.  I also added a new signature of his (Michigan uni!) thanks to 2008 SAGE Squared, a card he shares with fellow first-rounder Ryan Clady, who went 12th overall to Denver after a good career at Boise State, then enjoyed a solid NFL run cut short by injuries (sounds kind of familiar!).  To those I added a pair of SPx triple jersey relics, giving me nine of his cards from that product featuring many such variations.

This haul moved Long back ahead of Braylon Edwards with 82 hits as the fourth player to hit 80+, leaving him three shy of the next guy you'll see.

You may have heard of him.  Michigan star WR?  Super Bowl hero?  Namesake of this here blog?  Back in January I posted some Sportlots pickups that had me celebrating 200 Many Manninghams, and now I have a few more to add to that pile.  First is a pair of pretty Panini parallels (say that three times fast!):  2011 Gridiron Gear Gold X's (#068/100) and Prestige Xtra Points Red (#046/100).  I love any new Manninghams but I'm extra happy to add some numbered inserts.

Along with those is a new pair of Giants jersey relics.  The first is the Jumbo Swatch version of his 2008 Donruss Gridiron Gear relic, a piece that looks great and is numbered 16/50.  From the same year's Leaf Limited I found a Rookie Jumbo Jerseys Team Logo swatch (#18/50) cut in the shape of New York's logo.  Well, a rough outline, anyway!

Manningham's 85 hits are good for second place, though he's a crazy 29 behind top guy Chad Henne, meaning I can't say I have too many!

Now that I'm finally done with these, some show pickups and trade packages should come next.

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!

10-7-18 show report: a winning Wolverine weekend

As I said in my TMV show post today I couldn't make my usual trip to the monthly show in Taylor last Saturday.  I wouldn't have gone anyway--it was a college football Saturday--but I especially didn't because Jeff and I were taking in the whupping Michigan put on Maryland in the Big House.

So instead I finally went to see my favorite dealer at the show he runs down in Toledo.  It's not a long drive for me at all (roughly 45 minutes), and other than dealing with the possibility of Ohio's asshole cops and speed limits for babies, it's a nice little trip.

I mentioned on TMV that I dropped $4 on 40 dime box singles, $18 on dollar cards, and added three others that bumped the total up to a fair $30 even.  Here you'll get to see those latter three cards along with a pair of dollar deals.  On a Sunday where Ann Arbor is celebrating a dominant win over Wisconsin in prime time, here's an all hit edition of some Wolverine winners!

Going alphabetically I'm starting out with the biggest card on the day, and the second Amara Darboh hit I added last weekend, with the first coming from Jeff.  From Panini's 2017 Phoenix, it's an Orange parallel of the Rookie Jersey Autographs set, numbered 037/150.  Already my eighth hit of the WR, it's also my third that pairs an autograph and relic, and I actually have a ball/auto card from the same product to go with it.  I suppose I have less competition for Michigan stuff in Ohio--even Toledo, which is more like Michigan, really--so that worked out for me.

The card above was joined by this pair to round out the group that increased my total from $22 to $30, and I'd pay $8 for this trio in a heartbeat.  I mean, I did, but I'd do it again!  I was thrilled to find this pair of Michigan uni autographs of former Wolverine FB and touchdown vulture Khalid Hill, a.k.a. "the Hammering Panda".  I was looking forward to collecting his cards even before he became a very entertaining Twitter follow.  He was a huge part of Michigan's success in 2016, one of the most automatic short-yardage runners for first downs and TDs I can remember in Ann Arbor, plus a punishing blocker to boot!

The pair hails from Panini's always excellent (at least for college collectors like myself) Contenders Draft Picks product, one that's 100% focused on my favorite type of first-year card.  The one on the left is the base version and therefore also a RC while to its right you can see the Red Foil parallel, with the foil being the only difference (e.g. no serial numbering).  I'm proud to make the Hammering Panda the 215th member of my football collection!

Next up I have two player collection guys, one of which hits an "almost milestone" with the other does reach a new mark.  First is the guy whose name you see on this here blog, Mario Manningham.  My 199th overall card of the amazing WR is also hit #83, meaning I'm almost to his #86 jersey!  He continues to be #2 in the hits collection behind Chad Henne and now has a six-card lead over #3 guy Jake Long.

I had zero issue with dropping a buck on this very nice Giants blue swatch from '08 Rookies and Stars' Studio Rookies Materials set (#025/250).  I mean, numbered cards and cheap relics are right up my alley.  Now I just wonder what card #200 will be?

Last up today is a guy who has to share his card with a couple other former RBs.  I finally nabbed my milestone-making 50th hit of Anthony Thomas thanks to today's other $1 card, a 2001 Fleer Legacy Triple Threads triple jersey.  A-Train had the best pedigree as a second-rounder that year with Jackson and Barlow both being selected in the third, though Barlow had the most statistical success of the trio.  Still, Thomas is the main attraction here, and I'm glad to have hit the half century mark finally.  Now I just need to get seven more hits of former teammate David Terrell to even them up!

Until the next show, GO BLUE!

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

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

Enjoy this cool pair of football hits:

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

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

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

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

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