3-13 card show report: personal collection edition

Blog design note:  
Before I get down to today's post, I just wanted to mention a couple improvements (at least I think so) that I made to the blog the last couple days.

The first is an upgrade of my "Collecting Links" section, which mainly includes my personal collection scans.  I moved my existing scans to Picasa Web Albums and got everything up-to-date there, including captions and tags.  That section now has the Michigan PC broken up by sport and also includes new groups, such as my baseball autographs and rookies.

I also added a new section a bit further down highlighting my completed trades with other bloggers.  I've seen other writers do the same and decided it was high time I did.  They go reverse-chronologically and the links take you to the posts where I discuss and scan what I received.  If I left you out please let me know, but as far as I can tell, so far I've linked to every trade with a blogger that I've posted about so far.  I hope this is a feature some of you enjoy, and even more so, I hope that leads some of you to work out deals with these great traders, all of whom I most definitely endorse.

Ok, card show report time:
As promised yesterday, here's my PC haul from Sunday's card show.  Like I mentioned, I ended up with 16 trade bait cards and another 16 for myself (totally not on purpose) for $90.  This group includes a few slightly higher-dollar cards because, obviously, they're for my collection and I wasn't going nuts throwing money at trade bait.

Baseball:
This doesn't happen terrible often, especially at card shows, but I managed to nab a couple Michigan baseball hits:

Drew Henson 2002 Fleer This Day in History auto:  Yep, another autograph of the Michigan football traitor himself, but this is actually my first baseball auto of Henson (I have two of him for football).  This design doesn't do a whole lot for me, but at this point I'm just trying to pile up as many hits of my players as I can, and this fell under the group of stuff I was getting 4 for $10, so I'm reasonably happy with it.

J.J. Putz 2005 Donruss Signature auto:  I'm slightly surprised this is my first Putz hit, but I guess when you're looking at a bullpen guy you never know.  Here's hoping he can make some noise for the DBacks this year.  I grabbed this for cheap from the last seller I visited, and as I was going through his relatively small group of baseball autographs (one row of a box, compared to several boxes of football, for example) I saw no fewer than five of these, which was great for me because I was able to pick one with a sig that I liked compared to the others.

Football:
I'm sure you'll be surprised that this'll be the majority of my pickups yesterday.  I hadn't been to this show in a while so I wasn't sure what to expect about availability and pricing (considering the Wolverines are a relatively local team there) for my guys, but I did pretty well, plus I managed not to pick up any doubles by accident.

Adrian Arrington 2008 Bowman Sterling Refractor auto RC:  Well I THOUGHT I had all the cards featuring this image, but of course I didn't take parallels into account.  A shinier, lower-numbered version of one I already had, but at a very nice price, and the card looks great anyway.  Not a bad start out of the 4 for $10 group.

Bennie Joppru 2003 Donruss Classics Significant Signatures auto RC:  If you're surprised that I added another Joppru auto/RC to my collection thanks to this show (like I was), you won't believe that I also grabbed ANOTHER Joppru, which you'll see next.  As for this guy, I think it's a great looking autographed rookie of an excellent Wolverine in his college uni.  Classics tends to have solid looking autographs, and this one fits that bill for sure.

Bennie Joppru 2003 Press Pass Authentics jersey:  Yep, Joppru #2, pretty cool.  I think I even found both of these at different sellers, but I can't remember.  A decent piece of an actual game-used (ie, not "event-used") jersey.

Brandon Graham 2010 Panini Threads auto RC:  When I saw this I assumed I had it since I already have a couple of the Panini-branded Graham auto/RCs from this year, but I took a gamble anyway and it paid off.  I guess a non-practice action shot would be too much to ask, but I like the card otherwise overall, and I'm really building up a nice Graham collection, so I hope he steps up next year (assuming there IS a next season).

Braylon Edwards 2005 Upper Deck Portraits Scrapbook Materials jersey:  I know I complain about single-color, boring jersey swatches, but I got this one for $1, and it's from his rookie year, so it's cool at least in that regard.  Of course, nowhere near as nice as

Braylon Edwards 2005 Upper Deck Reflections Rookie Exclusives Red auto:  This is a pretty sweet Braylon autograph, and a shiny one at that.  It may not be an actual RC, but it does have one thing going for it:  this is finally my first Edwards autograph.  It was a long time coming, but I'm glad to have added it to the PC.  The guy who got $50 out of me wanted $10 for this $50 card and I was happy to pay that much for it, really.

Brian Griese 2001 SP Authentic jersey:  Again, this is a fairly boring jersey, but with some of those older players, beggars can't be choosers.  At least it's serial numbered, and it goes along with my Amani Toomer from the same set.

Chad Henne 2008 Leaf Rookies & Stars Cross Training jersey:  My only Henne on the day was a solid Dolphins jersey swatch, which at least comes from his rookie year.  Plus there's all kinds of shiny, foil, serial-numberedness going on, which makes this a fun card for a couple bucks.

Derrick Alexander 1994 Superior Rookies Autographs auto:  One of my firsts from this group was this Alexander auto.  I have a couple base cards of him but didn't have any hits until I saw this one and grabbed it for cheap (it would have to be because I'm not a big fan of those lower-quality sets like Classic and Superior).  Derrick's bio reads a lot like Braylon Edwards:  Michigan WR wearing #1, 1st round pick by the Browns.  He finished his career with 40 TDs, having played for four different teams, which is a decent career in my opinion.

Jason Avant 2006 Donruss Threads Rookie Class auto patch RC:  This was my favorite of the haul and got another $10 out of me from the guy I spent $50 on.  I immediately liked it, especially because I didn't realize it existed--as with the Sweet Spot helmet autos I wasn't necessarily aware these were being done this far back, so I was thrilled to get one that's a RC for one of my favorite Michigan WRs.  The book value is up there a bit so I'm not sure I'd shoot for a name plate just yet, but it's certainly not out of the question.  Of course I just checked eBay and the only one that comes up is the exact same letter....

John Navarre 2004 Bowman Signs of the Future auto:  I think I've had one or two other transactions where I ended up with a few Navarres at once, but it's been a while so this was quite a day.  This is a sharp autograph of the former Michigan QB, and in my opinion one of SOTF's better designs.

John Navarre 2004 Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket auto RC:  This set often looks pretty good--the ticket motif is kind of a fun idea.  The overall gold look to the card is a plus as well, but as usual, the fact that it's an autographed RC I didn't have was the biggest factor.  Fortunately for me, Navarre stuff is as cheap as it gets since he's out of the league.

John Navarre 2004 Sweet Spot Rookie Signatures Tier 2 auto helmet RC:  As with the Marlin Jackson I picked up last week, I didn't realize these were being made back then, but I'm making up for lost time whenever I find them.  I know not all of you are as happy about these, but they just make much more sense to me than this year's baseball leather slabs--this is a card-sized version of an autographed mini-helmet and I think that works well.  By the way, this is Navarre #7 for me, and all of them are autographs--not bad at all.

Marcus Knight 2000 Fleer Autographics auto:  The last card (alphabetically by first name) in the bunch was another first for me:  a Marcus Knight autograph.  Knight was a WR for our '97 championship team before a brief NFL career that saw him make his way to arena football before becoming a WR coach at Valparaiso, where he's apparently still employed.  So here's another player that didn't exactly star in the NFL but is more than welcome in my collection!

So there you have it--one card show, 32 cards to show for it (stupid lack of worthwhile boxes...).  Please feel free to leave comments letting me know what you think--whether you consider me part of the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked or your new sports card overlord.  And as a reminder, please check out the available trade bait from yesterday--about half of it is still available.