Hey all, tonight we'll take a look at the stuff I bought on eBay for myself in the second half of 2025. Let's get to it!
This first card is actually my most recent purchase but it doesn't fit in well with the rest so we'll start with it. Back in November I showed off the 2022 Michigan Valiant box set I bought, and I mentioned that when I opened it I had dupes of QB Cade McNamara's card #69 and was missing #68. Long story short, I plunked down $3.69 a bit before Christmas to be able to cross this one off the list. It's a decent overpay for what should be a cheap card, but I haven't found singles for these to be easy to find, and since I got such a ridiculous steal of a deal on the set, spending under $4 to finish it didn't bother me.
Now we'll head back to late September when I picked up this cyan (essentially blue!) printing plate auto of former Michigan/UMass RB Michael Cox. For some reason at the time I was under the impression that I didn't already have a hit of Cox in my collection, though I did, but that's ok since this one's much nicer, and wasn't crazy expensive at about $12.50. Plates like this one from 2013 Panini Contenders are great on their own but even better when they player signs them. By the way, for those who don't know or remember him, Cox played at Michigan from 2009-11 (mostly that first year), then headed to UMass for his senior season. He was a pretty unlikely draft pick by the Giants (7th round, 2013) but managed to rush for a TD in each of 2013 and '14 in a combined 18 NFL games.
It took until November for me to strike on eBay again, but when I did early in the month I hit paydirt with another Cyan plate. This time it starred DT Maurice Hurst the younger: a 2018 Luminance plate of his RC inserted into that year's Plates & Patches product. This one appealed to me since it's a college photo, of course, and earned me the first 1/1 in his PC to go along with seven autos. After being drafted by the Raiders he moved on to the Niners, sat out a year with an injury, and then has suited up for the Browns ever since. I happy put up a bit under $11 shipped to get this one in my collection.
Speaking of productive Michigan DTs, I then scored my first hit of one of Jim Harbaugh's "gifts from the football gods" who, along with Mason Graham, anchored a fearsome DL that helped the coach go out on top. Kenneth Grant went #13 overall to the Dolphins last year, and here you see him on a black plate used to produce his 2025 Panini Absolute RC. Because of the color, the front's not much to look at, but I love the metallic colored backs of these plates. Just under $9.50 was surprisingly enough to start a hits collection for a guy that could be a future star, and who's one of 273 (and still growing!) subjects in that bunch.
Last up tonight, how about a 1/1 of a former #1 overall pick? Jake Long was one of the best players out of Michigan's outstanding 2008 draft class that's still my favorite. The four-time Pro Bowler stuck it out for nine NFL seasons with Miami (his drafting team), Atlanta, Minnesota, and also the pictured St. Louis Rams on this yellow plate from 2014 Topps. I picked it up for a little over $9 the week before Christmas to put the stud LT at 99 hits, putting him one shy of being the third football PC to hit the century mark, behind fellow '08 draftees Chad Henne and Mario Manningham. It's also my third 1/1 (all plates) of the top pick. Not bad!
For those interested, this haul puts my combined plates & 1/1s collection at a crazy 198. Whoa!
I'll try to finish up 2025 in the next post or two with my second half of the year TCDb trade haul, and then it'll be on to 2026.
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