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 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

11/10 card show report: wait, that's it?!

I made the trip down to Taylor, MI, once again this afternoon for a card show, and if I expected it to be even more disappointing than usual, I wasn't disappointed!  The lack of quantity and quality is just apparent from the moment you walk in.

Still, it wasn't entirely fruitless.  I made two purchases for a ridiculously low total of just $25 (plus a bit more for some top-loaders, which are supplies and don't count towards my card spending).  The second haul can be seen over on TMM this evening; here's what I got for $5 from another dealer:

They're the six 2013 Score rookies I still needed, leaving me just 39 base cards short of the set (not taking into account the contents of a trade package yet to be posted!).  The guy basically quoted me $1 per card I needed, and since he had all six, I snagged them for his $5 price.  On a related note, I tried to package in a 2013 Topps Denard Robinson variation auto, hoping to bundle everything up for $15 or $20.  This guy's older, more clueless partner explained that "It books at $40, so I'm asking $24."  I don't know on what planet that card goes for $40, or even $24, but it sure ain't this one.  I think the highest eBay price I found was $10 or $12, and that was in the minority.  Congratulations, clueless card show seller, you're an idiot.  Anyway, it's great to have that rookie subset completed.

Since I spent so little at the show and had to stop at Meijer, where cards at 20% off this week (as well as around Black Friday again, fellow midwesterners!), I decided I'd finally get back into the retail pack game:

These three 2012 UD Football racks set me back just $9.58 on sale, which I thought was decent considering the number of cards I was getting.  Your highlights:

Up top you have Wolverine David Molk (I think I already have one or two of those) as well as young standout QBs Case Keenum and Russell Wilson.  Next you see four of my guaranteed six (two were dupes) inserts of Tim "Megabusting for Jesus" Tebow.  Finally, I landed a pair of SPs, both '93-style:  one of Arkansas WR Joe Adams and the other of former Oklahoma QB and Heisman-winner Jason White.  SP featured some cool designs back in the day so those are a nice touch.  And of course I love the college unis, which is why I skipped over everything else in the card aisle today.  I may put together the Star Rookie set, you never know!  The inserts and SPs are all available, though, as are any doubles I pulled if you have a wantlist handy.

As I mentioned, please check out TMM for the bulk of today's card show haul.