You complete me, May 2014 edition: Part 3

It's been a couple weeks since my last You Complete Me post, so instead of splitting up this last group in two (since they came over the course of two separate days), I thought I'd just finish the series up today because, hey, things come in threes, right?

As usual, the last day is the payoff day; although I showed off five packages in those first two posts, I hadn't completed any of the sets I was chasing.  Fortunately, that's not the case today!  Here's the final four packages, with three originating from Sportlots and the last one arriving as part of a recent COMC order:
Envelope #1 (Sportlots):

With four packages today I decided to scan just one page worth of each.  This one had 21 cards so I tried to pick a few highlights.  17 of the cards hailed from the 2008 Score set, from which I still needed a ton, especially the rookies.  The group just happens to have three Wolverines:  Brady, Manningham, and Hart, and I managed to find another star QB and a couple significant rookies to feature as well.

The other four cards were from 2012 Upper Deck (just the Star Rookies part of the set since I went with retail), and all three players represent excellent college teams.  The fourth was a Michigan State player, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna show one off on MY blog if I don't wanna!  As usual, I love the photography, design, and college unis here.

# of cards:  21     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (Sportlots): 

This was by far the biggest package from the haul.  One seller on Sportlots happened to have an absolute ton of 2008 Scores I needed, and at that rate it made sense to pile them into one shipment instead of spreading them out over others.  I believe 78 of the 79 cards were from that set, including the stars and rookies you see above.  Again, I managed to land a couple Wolverines in Super Bowl-winner Toomer and Saints rookie Arrington.

Ware's base card is the only representative from the '08 UD First Edition set here, but again, it made sense to include it (along with some baseball PC guys you'll eventually see on the other blog).  The former Cowboy (which is really strange to consider) looks as menacing as ever here.

# of cards:  79     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #3 (Sportlots): 

From the largest package we move onto one of the smallest, which included just these needs (plus a baseball PC pickup), but that doesn't make them any less valuable.  First up is another pair of rookies from '08 First Edition, putting me that much closer to the set.  Woodson was a pretty good QB for Kentucky before flaming out in the pros while Stewart, at star at Oregon, had a few good years for Carolina before declining line the prototypical RB.

The Broyles was even more useful, if that's actually possible for a card of a guy who plays (when he's not hurt, which is always) for the Lions--it completes the first set of the day, 2012 UD.  He looks as determined as I was to finish off some sets last month!

# of cards:  3     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  1

Envelope #4 (COMC):

Despite eight Sportlots packages, it still took another visit to COMC to mop things up.  That purchase included 19 cards that went towards a couple sets, 2008 Score and UD First Edition, split roughly evenly.  In a few cases COMC was cheaper than Sportlots, and in some others it had cards available that the latter didn't.

Matt Ryan was the heavy hitter in both sets, though I don't feel like I had to overpay for both of his RCs.  Better yet, I scored a trio of rookies of some of my favorite Wolverines in Henne, Long, and Hart.  And best of all, these cards close the books on those two sets!

# of cards:  19     # of sets added to:  2     # of sets completed:  2

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  4
• Total cards:  122
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  3

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  9
• Total cards:  158
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  3

After nine packages, 150+ cards, and three completed sets, it's time to drop the curtain on another edition of You Complete Me.  Once again it was extremely productive; if you don't think completing just three sets is impressive, consider that one was the huge and tricky 2008 Score, and that my football set wantlist now looks like this, with all of two sets remaining!

I'm not sure if I'll go right back at it this month or focus my efforts and dollars elsewhere for a bit, but you can write in stone that I'll have those last sets completed pretty soon!

You complete me, May 2014 edition: Part 2

Yesterday I showed off my first pair of YCM packages from this month, and today I have three more:

Envelope #1 (SportLots):

This is my second envelope that included just one card from 2008 UD First Edition, but that's mainly because I tracked most of those down on COMC instead, since some of the prices were better there.  Thanks to Tashard here, I'm now down to 16 needed from that set.  Speaking of Choice, the Cowboys fourth-rounder out of Georgia Tech (after transferring from Oklahoma) had pretty nice junior and senior seasons but doesn't have much to show for his pro career.
# of cards:  1     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

This package is the debut of 2008 Score football in this series.  I began piecing the set together mostly from discounted rack packs, but that quickly dried up as a reasonable source for completion when my extras piled up like crazy.  The biggest issue is that the rookies, all 110 of them, are a bit short-printed.  Fortunately I was able to find the majority of them (and most of the other base) I needed at or around the Sportlots minimum of $0.18.  I haven't received the package that contains my largest purchase of them, but this one, at 15 cards, goes a long way towards the set anyway.  Better yet, it includes a rookie of former Michigan star and 2008 #1 overall pick Jake Long.  Some of the other guys are also very notable, especially Stewart, DRC, and Charles.  Look for a bunch more of these soon.
# of cards:  15     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #3 (SportLots):

...as soon as right now, actually.  As with the Choice card above, this one wasn't the sole card in the envelope as it also included some baseball PC guys from the same seller.  My 16th Score card of the day is this RC of former two-time Lions RB Kevin Smith, a speed-burner of a third-rounder for Detroit out of UCF in 2008.  He showed a ton of promise during his rookie season, scoring 8 TDs and rattling off almost 1000 rushing yards, but fell off from there, and he's now up north in the CFL.

I still need a buttload of cards from the set, but at least I was able to make some headway today, with all 16 cards being the tougher-to-get rookies.
# of cards:  1     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

That's it for today, but I still have a few more Sportlots envelopes on the way, and hopefully those will be followed by my second COMC delivery of the month soon!
Stats for the day:

• Packages:  3
• Total cards:  17
• Sets added to:  2
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  5
• Total cards:  36
• Sets added to:  3
• Sets completed:  0

You complete me, May 2014 edition: Part 1

It's that time again--another massive order from Sportlots means I get to celebrate with another edition of You Complete Me!  Once again I threw some effort (and money) into completing some sets while also scoring some cards for my baseball PCs.

This time it was all about football, which makes sense since I previously eliminated all of my baseball wants and currently am working on just one baseball insert set.  My football wantlist is in great shape too, and thanks to these posts will look even better shortly.  I combined some seller's loot and a round of package-optimizing to minimize shipping, and now I have 13 packages headed my way.

Four of those arrived today, and two of them included set wants:
Envelope #1 (SportLots):

You first saw the 2008 Upper Deck First Edition football set on this blog way back in August of 2011, when I chose a box of the product as my freebie from D&A's while ordering my case of 2011 Topps Football.  I wasn't very kind in my review considering I managed to avoid pulling a complete set (I was missing 21 cards) despite a staggering 120 extras, plus the inserts were whack.  All this time later I still needed 18 cards, and because I like the rookie class from that year (have I mentioned that?), I decided I'd go for it.  This Star Rookie of Erik Ainge, the erstwhile Tennessee QB, is the first step towards completion, but I'll give you a heads-up right now that Sportlots wasn't enough by itself to sew things up....

# of cards:  1     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

Envelope #2 (SportLots):

NOW we're getting somewhere.  I began collecting this set with a couple retail value packs closer to when it came out, and just a few weeks ago I found a very nice deal on a few more of those, landing me just 23 cards shy of the 100 Star Rookies.  It seemed like an opportune time to chase the set Sportlots-style, and fortunately I was able to find one seller who had a scanner-friendly 18 of those.  As usual I love the Upper Deck design and photography, and I'm happy to say that I even know who a lot of these guys are, including QBs like 40-year-old Browns laugh draft pick Brandon Weeden, Northwestern's Dan Persa, and LSU's Jarrett Lee, plus Alabama RB (and also Cleveland bust) Trent Richardson.  Oh yeah, and then there's the guy in the maize and blue helmet, Mike Martin--I hear he's pretty good too.

Stay tuned for the rest of the set pretty soon.
# of cards:  18     # of sets added to:  1     # of sets completed:  0

I'll have more for you as the other packages from this purchase arrive!

Stats for the day:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  19
• Sets added to:  2
• Sets completed:  0

Total You Complete Me stats:

• Packages:  2
• Total cards:  19
• Sets added to:  2
• Sets completed:  0

Case break is Friday night; 2008 UD First Edition football review

Case is here:  This is the case.  I will be opening it starting around 8 pm EST Friday evening on Livestream (I'll provide a link/embedded player here).  I've lined up a few contests/giveaways, and how many I do will depend on how many of you bloggers/readers show up.  I'll likely also share a link to the break on the Blowout forum, but they'll be excluded from the giveaways since they're not awesome like you guys.  If you want to be a part of those please make sure to show up reasonably early as some will depend on guessing something before I get crackin'.  Also, please make sure you can identify yourself somehow so I can distinguish you from the ineligible Blowouters.  I'll probably try to get some kind of roll call going before I break the boxes so I can figure out who's around, and I figure that's a good thing anyway--you can advertise your blogs to the other viewers and maybe even to the Blowout folk who might not know about them.  Good?  Good.  See you all tomorrow night.

And now, a box review!

As I mentioned when I announced the case break, I took advantage of Dave & Adam's' deal where if you spend a certain amount, you get free stuff.  I felt like my best choice for what I spent was a box of 2008 Upper Deck First Edition football.  I've made it no secret that the 2008 draft class (Wolverines Long, Henne, Hart, Manningham, Arrington, etc., plus Matt Ryan, Chris Johnson, Joe Flacco, et al) is pretty much my favorite in recent memory, plus considering how much base I'd be getting, I thought I'd be a lock for pulling a complete set.  It doesn't really have any bells and whistles, pretty much being the recent equivalent of Collector's Choice, but I was cool with that in a free box.  Read on to see how I felt about the results of a box that was, for all intents and purposes, free.

Box:  2008 Upper Deck First Edition football
Packs/cards:  36/10
Price:  Free (free gift), Dave & Adam's


Base cards:

Veteran and Star Rookie fronts

Backs

Design grade:  A-
I definitely like what UD did here.  The card stock is different--maybe more of a cheaper feel, but that doesn't bother me.  I like the fronts quite a bit, especially the full-bleed photos.  My only real ding is the semi-transparent white band on which the player's name, position and team reside, because I think they take away from the photo.  The shots of the players are often excellent, though, and I picked a fun example in T.O. above.  The Star Rookies are a nice mix of poses, like Rice above, and action shots, including players in pro and college unis.  Another plus is the ordering of the set--I often like when they're sorted by team, although in this case that's where sorting stopped because players aren't in alphabetical order (not that it really makes a difference to me).  While it's not always necessary, I like team groups for the purposes of team sets and checklisting.  Overall this is a low-end but enjoyable base set, definitely targeted toward the bottom of the market, especially kids, I'm sure.


Base set completion:   204/225 (91%)
Extras:   82 doubles (25% of base cards pulled), 38 triples (12%).  Total doubles:  120/324 (37%)
Collation grade:  E
If you think I'm being harsh, you should have seen me while I was busting these.  A little more than halfway in I hadn't seen a double and things were going swimmingly.  Then, pretty quickly, things went downhill and I started pulling the exact same packs, in some cases twice.  I wasn't too worried at first since I was going to be getting 324 base cards, which meant 99 dupes--that means I should have been seeing lots of extras.  Still, when I noticed that I was missing some players I knew were on the checklist, including one Chad Henne, I started getting mad.  All the same, I wasn't that frustrated, at least not until I actually sorted these out.  Holy gap power, that's a lot of doubles!  While I need a few from the first 200, it looks to me like 201-225 may have been short printed--I only pulled 10 from that group, and that meant lots of other rookie doubles.  I can't complain too much about having extra Joe Flaccos and Chris Johnsons, exactly, but I'm not a fan of the non-random pack-outs you see sometimes, and I got bitten hard by them here.  As a nice segue into the inserts, I didn't have the greatest luck there either, as you'll see.


Inserts (36):

StarQuest:  36 (1:pack, 36 expected):  The box clearly touts this insert and nothing else (which makes sense, since there isn't anything else).  I remember this insert from the Collector's Choice days, and as usual, the design is hit or miss.  I call this bland, shiny design a miss, but maybe others like it.  When I found out it was a 30-card set, I hoped I'd land all 30, and just six doubles, but that wasn't meant to be--instead I got 25 unique players (I didn't feel like scanning all of them) and 11 different dupes.  Since I'm so close to the set I figured I'd tack them on to my wantlist, then maybe dump the set later if I decide I don't want to keep it.


Overall insert grade:  D-
I'm not as harsh here because the box doesn't purport to include any big extras and you get exactly what you're promised.  I just wasn't wowed with the design of the one they did include, and I was annoyed at not even pulling a set of them, odds be damned.

Hits:  In this box?  For real?

Value grade:  D-
I may as well be consistent!  While I got this box for free, I want to compare the value of picking up the packs vs. buying a factory set, which is apparently an option.  I can tell you hands down that the factory set is the way to go, and not just because you get a free jersey card; there was just no way I was going to pull either set from this box.  I have a few useful dupes of the rookies, but other than that, not much to be excited about.  Hell, even as a free box this isn't doing much for me, considering the money or effort I'll have to put into completing it.
Recommendation:
Stay away, stay very far away.  Go with something else if you spend this much on D&A.  Woof.


How about some Wolverines to cheer me up?:

Braylon Edwards, Charles Woodson, Tom Brady, Mario Manningham, Adrian Arrington, Shawn Crable, Tom Brady StarQuest


Wantlists are here.  Please help if you can--I have plenty of dupes for trade, or other stuff of course.


2008 Upper Deck First Edition:  41 53 57 163 193 198 202 204 205 206 208 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 225
2008 Upper Deck First Edition StarQuest:  4 16 17 21 25