Short on memory, long on trade packages

Sorry about the relative lack of posting this week--I've been busy, unmotivated to post anything, and there's a dearth of interesting stuff to collect right now thanks to the Topps monotonopoly in baseball (which is sorta changing soon, yay!).  Add to that the fact that I can't find good deals on PC stuff like I used to on Blowout and you get a lack of content, though I admittedly should be trying harder to find stuff to blog about anyway.  Howeva, a couple fellow traders bailed me out today thanks to stuff they sent my way.


Trade with Ryan L.:


This one started after Ryan saw my 2010 Topps Update jumbo break and plea for wantlist help.  Things got a little sidetracked after Tenets of Wilson said NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND and filled my set again.


Fortunately, he still had some stuff he wanted and that allowed me to spin off some of my dupes for some Tigers goodness:

This is just a small handful of what he sent, but it's the stuff I liked the best.  The Porcello was the biggest get for me here, and I'm excited to have a nice numbered RC of him, especially if he grows into his potential.  A couple cards of V-Mart were a nice addition, especially the numbered Icons version, even if these, as well as the Peralta, are of him in a Cleveland uni.  Both guys have been key contributors to the Tigers' success this season so these are great.  Finally we have a couple minis, one of the most consistently inconsistent starter in the A.L. and one of Will "Busta" Rhymes.


All in all I think I got a pretty good return for a bunch of 2010 Topps Update doubles I didn't need.  A big thanks to Ryan, and I hope more of you get to trade with him soon!


Players to be named later from Jeff:


A few weeks ago Jeff of My Sports Obsession headed out this way with his family for the Michigan Fan Day/stand in the heat and get nothing event.  He and I did a bit of in-person trading, and I think I surprised him a bit with how much stuff I brought.  He was more than up to the task of evening things out, as the following evidence will prove:

Maurice Taylor 2005 SP Game-Used Edition Authentic Fabrics jersey:  Wait, a basketball card?  On MY blog?  Yeah, it happens.  This allows my Michigan basketball PC to explode to three cards, the other two of which are of Wolverine pariah Chris Webber.  Oddly enough, Taylor caused some Webber-like damage himself after he came to the Wolverines out of Detroit--he was part of a booster scandal (sorry Michigan, only the SEC is allowed to pay its players) and Michigan had to forfeit a ton of wins.  Taylor got rewarded by being picked #14 overall by the Clippers, lasting in the NBA until 2007.  He now plays in Italy, which is even better, but the joke's on him--basketball is still a stupid sport and I'm glad the status of this season is shaky.  Anyway, this is still a cool addition to the trade package and not a bad looking card either.

Alan Branch 2007 Bowman Sterling auto RC:  Moving onto sports that don't suck, here's a sweet auto/RC of Alan Branch.  Because this post involves Alan Branch, I get to post this again:

That's as much as I need to say about Branch.  This is a sweet autograph and it's my eighth of the QB-killer, keeping my streak of only autographs alive!

Anthony Thomas 2001 Bowman's Best jersey RC:  Michigan's ground game could use a beast like A-Train right about now, but we'll see how the RBs continue to develop.  I tend to really like Bowman's Best stuff (really, Topps, would it kill you to bring that back instead of 2011 Topps Old Timey-Style Photos Of Two Baseball Players and 80 "Celebrities" Plus Two Scrub Relics?) so this one works for me.  My only dig is the crappy non-stamped serial numbering on the back (720/999 if you were wondering).  This is an excellent jersey RC of one of my favorite recent Michigan backs and is #12 in my PC.

Braylon Edwards 2005 Donruss Threads Rookie Throwback Materials jersey RC:  What would a Michigan PC post be without at least one Bray-Bray?  I don't even want to think about it!  I actually kind of love how Edwards is phoning in the pose here, and the look on his face seals the deal.  Not a bad brown Browns swatch from a Rookie Premiere event that took place right around my birthday that year.  I was fairly surprised this wasn't numbered considering Panini's affinity for doing so, but that doesn't really take away from a cool, if goofy, Edwards card.  This puts him at 30 in my PC, by the way, tying him with his former QB, Chad Henne.

Chris Perry 2004 Leaf Certified Materials Freshman Fabrics jersey:  Here we have a nice shiny jersey of another back Michigan fans would love to see back in a winged helmet.  Did I mention it was shiny?  Because it's shiny, as only Leaf Certified can make it.  This is one of those cards where Panini puts on the back a picture of the jersey from which the swatch was cut (which I suppose makes it funnier for patch fakers when they ply their trade).  The back also includes the serial number, 0842/1250.  Very nice.

Chris Perry 2004 Upper Deck Rookie Foundations jersey RC:  Jeff included a nice variety of players here, and Perry is one of only two for whom he included multiple cards.  Here we have another serial-numbered rookie jersey of the star RB (the numbering here being barely visible around his left shoulder area).  #d 1156/1299, this combines with the above gem to put me at a solid 15 Chris Perrys.

Gabe Watson 2006 Absolute Memorabilia Spectrum auto RC:  I'm not sure anybody involved with Michigan football has ever referred to this guy as anything but "Big Gabe Watson."  This is a very nice autographed RC that I'm proud to have, and it's numbered 031/100.  I now have as many BGWs as I do Michigan basketball hits, and all three in this case are Panini-branded autographs.

Jake Long 2008 Bowman Sterling jersey RC:  Put this one in the "Wait, I didn't already have that?" pile.  I'm always nervous about picking up Jake Longs because I have so many of him that I figure everything's a double.  That and I confused it with the one I DO have, this autographed version.  I like what Topps did here, shooting him in a fairly typical OL-type pose.  I also, of course, like that this one's numbered, 167/569.

Jake Long 2009 Upper Deck Game Day Gear jersey: We'll close things out with another "Seriously, I could have SWORN I had that!"  Fortunately, I didn't, so now I do.  Long is starting to pull away from my PC pack as I now have 33 of him, three more than runners-up Braylon Edwards and Chad Henne.

More importantly, in one fell swoop Jeff propelled me to my next big PC milestone:  350 hits!  That's right, I almost have enough to look at a different card every day of the year, which is just crazy.  This is a group that includes 54 different players/coaches and 231 autographs.  I'm very proud to have reached this number after starting with a handful just last year.  Thanks again to everyone who's been involved in bolstering my PC, and a big thanks again to Jeff for a great trade that allowed me to hit this magic number!  I hope to do more trading with the obsessed White Sox but hopefully-no-longer-Colts fan soon.