293! or, Hooray for an excuse to post something

Welcome back to another edition of "I post stuff I bought on Blowout and get a bunch of hits because that's what the page count stats tell me people like!"

As usual I was scanning the FS/FT threads looking for stuff I wanted and a Chad Henne caught my eye.  I checked the dude's PhotoBucket and found a few more things I liked, haggled with him and arrived at a price we both liked.  Bada-bing, bada-boom, I had four Michigan hits coming my way.

Or so I thought....

A day or two later he let me know that he couldn't find one of the hits, a Henne jersey (which I didn't like all that much, I just threw it in to kind of justify the price).  He felt bad and wanted to know if I saw anything else I liked, and I did--a Calvin Johnson Rookie Premiere Materials triple relic, which was kind of too much to ask at that point.  I told him I collected Michigan players and asked him to do his best.  He appreciated that I didn't freak out because of the delay and I was cool with how he was handling things.

Flash forward to Thursday when I checked my mail and found a package from him.  It contained three of the four hits I'd previously picked, a Henne jersey he didn't previously list (putting me back even, essentially) AND a Calvin Johnson jersey.  Classy!

So here you Blowout-lovers go, my latest haul:

This is the CJ jersey I mentioned, which I thought was pretty cool as a throw-in.  It hails from 2010 Elite and is #056/299.  It's my first Lions relic I can think of, and definitely my best card of Megatron, but I'll probably put it up for trade because I really don't collect non-Wolverine Lions (wait, does that make sense?) and I'm betting there's someone who'll appreciate this more than me.

Next up was the replacement Henne jersey, which I actually like better than the original one I'd picked.  This guy is from 2008 Topps, his rookie year set, and was worn at the Rookie Premiere.  Unlike a couple of his classmates (Long and Manningham) I don't have his autograph from the set, but I really like the design of this relic, probably mostly because I'm partial to the 2008 design.  I do think it's kind of goofy that the relic took a huge bite out of his torso, but whatever--it's still pretty cool.

This 2010 Finest Refractor dual jersey/auto is what initially caught my eye.  I've been trying to get one to pair with my non-Refractor version, and his asking price for this one alone was something like $12, a good start.  I don't know why, I just like the look of this set, maybe because it's so colorful, and the Refractorocity is icing on the cake.  In fact, I'm fairly happy with how well it comes out in the scan since that's not an easy thing to do.

That pair of Hennes vaulted Chad above Jake Long and David Terrell into the #1 spot in my Michigan collection with 26 hits (almost 10%!) including 12 autographs.  That 2008 draft class has become more of a primary focus for me and I think Henne's my favorite to pursue, so that makes some sense.

Speaking of 2008 Refractors, here's another gem I found in his Bucket, a Bowman Sterling auto RC of Super Mario Manningham.  I've displayed the various incarnations of Adrian Arrington's cards from this set in previous posts, but this is my first MM.  I really like the Gold Refractorness, which makes up for the scribbled sig.  I also want to note that this guy is serial numbered on the back, #032/250.

The last new member of my PC is this 2007 Topps Co-Signers auto of Steve Hutchinson and Walter Jones.  While I tend to shy away from multiplayer cards that include non-Wolverines, I made an exception here because Hutch, as an O-Lineman, really doesn't get much love, despite being one of the best ever.  That's probably why this is my first auto of him, and only my second hit after my Bowman Sterling jersey I picked up a while back.  If you somehow read my blog enough, you might remember that I have one other Michigan '07 Co-Signers autograph, this one featuring LaMarr Woodley and David Harris, which is an absolute beast of a combination.

Those four hits bring me up to 293 unique Michigan football hits, and I'm now tantalizingly close to another milestone.  One way or another I'll make it happen soon, I can promise you that.

I try to be somewhat open here about what I spend, so I don't mind saying that I got these five cards (originally four) for $30 shipped.  A lot of my card dollars have gone to BlowoutCards forum sellers and so far I haven't regretted that since I've negotiated some nice deals, found some excellent additions for my PC and haven't had to deal with the bullshit of eBay.  It's been a great complement to my two other favorite means of acquiring cards through the internet:  trading with bloggers and readers and CheckOutMyCards.  Thanks primarily to those three activities, I've practically stopped wasting money on lame boxes and really filled out my PC nicely.

That's it from Blowout for now, but you know I'm always looking.  Stay tuned in the next week or two for an upcoming trade post featuring Beardy, one that's bringing a new big hit to my collection which I'm very excited about!