12/4/2021 card show report: "Sweet" Christmas!

To say that Saturday, December 4 was an exciting day for me earlier this month would be an understatement. A week prior Michigan overcame years of futility to punch Ohio State in the mouth and beat them handily, earning them their first trip to the conference title game. The Wolverines ended my Saturday on a high note by demolishing Iowa 42-3 in a game filled with highlight reel plays and left the fans delirious with joy over their upcoming playoff appearance. Yep, it was a pretty good day.

And the start of it was just as awesome for me too. I headed east to Taylor as I do monthly for my usual card show, though I went that day instead of my usual Friday excursion for a special reason. The show had hosted the occasional interesting autograph guest in the past, but nobody in my experience elicited as much excitement as that day's signer: Lou Whitaker.

I couldn't tell you the last time he signed around here, and I'm not even sure the last time I paid for an in-person autograph--maybe Red Berenson at the old Gibraltar Trade Center years ago? So this was a Big Deal, and for once I had no problem ponying up $50 for the experience, which ended up being very positive!

For as many people as there were in front of me the line never felt interminable, and after maybe 30-45 minutes I was in front of Sweet Lou himself with a large framed poster I'd grabbed probably more than 20 years ago at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. I'd always planned on having him sign it someday if I could get to a signing so that's exactly what I brought with me. He asked me where I'd like him to sign and I told him it was up to him. He ended up placing a huge, super legible signature right around his butt, and I'm very happy with the result:

Here it is hanging in my office/card room on a wall along with another Tigers signature (albeit one I bought second-hand), that of Bill Freehan.

Long story short, getting to meet Whitaker and get his signature was a big moment for me and one that I'll remember forever, so it was easily worth the $50 and my time. It'll be even more enjoyable once the committee voters get their heads out of their asses and elect him to the Hall.

So while I was there I paid my usual visit to my favorite seller, though a somewhat shorter one thanks to standing in line for the autograph. He actually noted that I was one of the very few people he noticed that came for the signing and stuck around to look at cards as well, which is kind of sad since I want to see this show continue for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I made pretty good use of my time by snagging 15 quarter cards that were 5/$1, 15 dollar cards, 18 that were $2 each, and even six that were $5 apiece. He called the total $80 and then I was heading home with lots of stuff that ended up in Christmas Card packages (some of which remain to be seen!) and a few things for myself too:

The available trade bait portion is just two cards because I was able to target almost everything to the packages I was going to send out. The pair includes an '08 Sweet Spot auto /150 of former Rangers P Scott Feldman plus an "S" letter manupatch/auto of Oklahoma WR Jalen Saunders out of '14 Upper Deck. (By the way, I'm rooting heavily against the Sooners in favor of Kerry's Ducks tonight, so go Oregon!) These are the kinds of cards I like to grab from the $2 boxes from time to time to beef up my FS/FT stuff on TCDB, but as always they're available here as well, so please shout if you're interested in either.

And the "for me" pile is relatively small too but still really, really good. First, I doubled my collection of former UM SS/Rockies draftee (2020 5th round) Jack Blomgren in scoring an autograph of his out of 2020 Elite Extra Edition for just $2. He's the 30th different player in my Michigan Baseball PC and I'd love to see him replicate some of the success that another sort-of recent Michigan guy, Jake Cronenworth, has had in the game.

Next I added to my collection of former blog namesake Curtis Granderson's hits with a 2016 A&G jersey. He may be shown there with the Mets but will forever be a Tigers favorite in my book. I now count 14 hits of him: nine relics, a manurelic, two autos, and auto/relic, and a plate. You can never have too many, I say!

Getting back to the Michigan stuff the most expensive card I picked up for myself was in the $5 box: a 2020 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor auto (# /150) of another Rockies draftee (2019, #77 overall), pitcher Karl Kauffmann. It's only my fifth card of his so I knew it would be a need and didn't mind ponying up $5 instead of waiting to find it slightly cheaper elsewhere. The color kind of sold me on it too. I actually have more hits (three autos and a plate) than base cards (one) of the potential future Rockie.

We happen to be alternating between hit types and teams though not by design--as usual I'm going alphabetically. Ian Kinsler closes out the baseball group with a 2010 UD Game Jersey. I know these are among the lowest end of hits these days but I think I only paid $1 and as I always say when I mention him, I enjoyed his time in Detroit, not the least because he produced well and was part of the deal to get rid of Prince Fielder's dead weight. This is my third relic of his and all show him with his original team, the Rangers, but maybe I'll land a Tigers card at some point.

And then for the 2021 Big Ten Champion Wolverines we begin appropriately with a Michigan uni card, a 2021 SAGE Premier Draft of WR Nico Collins, a guy who had the shitty luck of being drafted by the Texans. At least he finally caught his first NFL TD the other day in a rare win against the Chargers. Speaking of California teams, transfer RB Justin Fargas played his entire career for Oakland, and I was glad to find a 2008 Select Young Stars insert (# /999) of his in the quarter box. And our final player today, like Collins, is active in the league, though out for the year with an Achilles tear. Brandon Graham has recorded 59.0 sacks and 19 forced fumbles over parts of 12 seasons with the Eagles and I'm always happy to show this defensive standout some hobby love when I can, like his 2021 Donruss Red Press Proof parallel above.

So to recap, that day I

• Met Lou Whitaker and got his autograph
• Picked up some great cards while at the show
• Enjoyed Michigan trouncing Iowa and winning the Big Ten conference title game

I think Luke Cage would have to agree that was a great Saturday a few weeks before a sweet Christmas!

With this stuff covered I believe my next few posts will be recapping trades but you never know. Either way they're going to drag into 2022 but I'd rather take my time instead of stressing myself writing up posts. I'm always glad to give people who send me stuff the effort they deserve as thanks, so I promise I'll start getting to those soon!

3/7/20 show report: pre-corona bonanza

I'm gonna try to keep cranking out posts to catch up on the piles of cards sitting on my desk.  But first, today I'm giving a shout out to Jay who blogs over at Card Hemorrhage.  Jay's back in the hobby and PCing some Giants of the San Fran variety, and since he was nice enough to contact me (among others, I'm sure!) and mention that he's following, I thought giving him some free pub would be fair.  Welcome, Card Hemorrhage!

And for today's content we'll go way back to earlier this month when things were much, much different.  I headed east to Taylor on the first Saturday of March looking forward to another afternoon of poring over boxes, and that's exactly what I got.  My usual guy got $50 of my money, broken down into $40 of dimes, quarters, $0.50, $1, and $2 cards, plus one "bigger" card.  I also returned to the vintage guy whose tables are behind that one and took advantage of his $1 and 8/$20 deals to the tune of $25.  As usual I was happy with the results:

I believe I found the Kinsler Triple Threads base in a dime box and I was happy to add it to a collection I still enjoy even though Ian has since left the team and retired.  Griffey makes just one appearance today in 90s insert format.  Meanwhile Mr. Padre gets three, including the multi-product 2K insert offering, a Plum Border Diamond Kings card, and yet another Topps reprint.  Two new Larkins made it into my box, one being a Museum Collection base that's growing on me a bit in the face of the all-over-the-place Inception.  And the one vintage item I kept for myself is a new Willie Horton base from '66 Topps.  I've come to appreciate Horton more as I've gotten older so I'm unofficially working on tracking down at least all of his playing days cards, such like this subset issue that notes he was second in the AL in RBI in '65; He held the same position in HR as well that year.

I had another good day of digging out some Maddux cards, that's for sure!  The first is a '93 Stadium Club Master Photo Winner redemption card, which is a cool piece to have even before considering I previously picked up an actual Master Photo to go with it.  '96 Topps Chrome's Masters of the Game insert takes me back to that brand's debut and a nice insert design.  Speaking of that quality, recent Gallery and Museum (again) looks, plus a Panini Leather & Lumber insert, also look great.  Cal tags along as the second '95 Ultra All-Star, plus I added a relatively plain Optic insert.

JV gets his own scan with four Topps branded products.  2010's National Chicle is a solid art set compared to some recent efforts, plus it's always nice to add stuff of his from earlier in his career.  Museum Collection--one more time--and last year's Archives are also eye-pleasing, while Bowman Platinum has the shiny part down but doesn't do much for me otherwise.  Still, I wasn't gonna turn it down for a dime!

That "big" card I mentioned earlier is this 2015 Leaf cut auto of one of my favorites to don the block "M" and olde English "D", Charlie Gehringer.  I know people's opinions of the brand and this kind of autograph aren't generally high, and in some respects I agree with them.  But maybe their thoughts will change a bit when they find out I was able to tack this on to my purchase for a measly $10.  I'll take a HOF cut sig for that price any day, and that's exactly what I did, making this Mechanical Man auto #9 for me!

Naturally I worked on taking home a bit of football content as well.  Former #1 recruit Rashan Gary gets another RC added to his collection in the form of his 2019 Panini Illusions card, one I think looks pretty good--at least as much as one can when it doesn't offer a college photo!  The next four are recent inserts I was glad to see.  Two of those star stud Eagles DE Brandon Graham, and they're the Jumbo versions of the Artist's Proof and Gold Zone parallels, set apart by their numbering.  RB Karan Higdon's card is a Mirror Silver parallel of his 2019 Certified RC, based on the numbering /299, 100 copies rarer than the first-year version.  And sticking with RC parallels, CB David Long's 2019 Panini Phoenix card you see above is a Purple version /149.  To that I added a signature from Panini Unparalleled's Rookie Autographs Cosmos set for my second such card of the former Wolverine.

Although shows appear to be out of the question for quite some time now, I'm glad this post allowed me to enjoy the one I attended earlier this month.  And looking on the bright side, I can use the money I would have spent in the next few months on future shows or other sources!

But first there's still plenty to catch up on, and I'll do my best to be diligent about posting so I can keep getting stuff put away.  Thanks for reading and please keep social distancing!

Blowout Blowout, Jr.: May Edition

Edit:  you're not experiencing deja vu, I was fixing the tags on this post, re-published it, and now it exists in the future, or now, or whatever.  So enjoy it again or spend your time laughing at my Blogger failure, either way, everyone wins!

In lieu of a card show I'm not going to this weekend (and because my money's probably better spent this way anyway), I went on another small but productive BlowoutCards forum spree this past week.  Staying true to my general (and accidental) purchase ratio, I nabbed 11 PC cards and 13 for trade bait.  First up, the PC stuff:

Brandon Graham 2010 Donruss Classics Significant Signatures auto RC:  Brandon could become a great player if he can get healthy, stay healthy and get big enough to last in the pros.  All big ifs, but doable for a guy who WAS the defense at Michigan.  Also, dude--you've got a ton more sticker available to sign, no need to scrunch it in there.  Purchased along with the forthcoming Breaston for $8 dlvd.

Braylon Edwards 2007 Leaf Certified Mirror Red Materials jersey

Braylon Edwards 2008 Bowman Sterling jersey

Braylon Edwards 2008 SP Rooke Threads Flashback Fabrics dual jersey

Braylon Edwards 2009 Prestige Prestigious Pros jersey

That's four numbered Braylon Browns jerseys from the biggest lot of the three that I purchased.  A nice mix of swatches and designs.  Incidentally, these four tie Braylon with Chad Henne at 23 hits for #2 in my collection, despite the following card. 

Chad Henne 2008 Absolute Memorabilia RPM jersey-ball-jersey RC:  I picked this one up along with a forthcoming trade bait card for $6 dlvd.  I already have the autographed version that spells out "NFL", but that's a great looking football piece and I really, really like this set, so woo for more RPMs.

David Harris 2007 Leaf Limited auto RC

David Harris 2007 Topps Performance auto RC

David Harris 2007 Topps Performance Breakout auto

Three Harris autos was a nice get for me.  All came from the large lot of 20 for $50, which was stuffed with Jets because that's mostly what the guy had (and made for easy trade bait with BA Benny).  The two Performance autos put me up to four from that set, including the two I already had:  his Bronze auto RC and jersey/auto RC.  For those keeping track for some reason, I now have 10 Harris hits and all are autographed, one including a jersey and one co-featuring LaMarr Woodley.  I'm very happy with this collection so far.

Steve Breaston 2010 SPx Super Scripts auto:  Got this one along with the Graham for $8 dlvd.  Great shot of Stevie in a Michigan uni on a nice design.  In many ways, I'm happy UD was forced to go with college photos (big shock, I know).

Tim Jamison 2009 Upper Deck Draft Edition auto RC:  Player #42 in the PC was this guy, an undrafted Michigan DE featured in Draft Edition.  He's apparently with the Texans now, but more importantly, he was born in Riverdale, which at least I find funny.  I wonder if his teammates call him Jughead, especially after Michigan's dominance over Minnesota.


And now the part you probably all skipped down to:  the trade bait!  Sorry it's almost all BA Benny-type stuff, it's just that I know we're going to trade 10 more times before Tuesday and I wanted to load up, plus the guy had mostly Jets anyway.

• Chansi Stuckey 2007 SP Authentic auto RC #0091/1199  (Pending:  GSNHOF)
• Chansi Stuckey 2007 Press Pass Authentics auto (Pending:  GSNHOF)
• Santana Moss 2003 Donruss Elite Masks of Steel facemask #365/400
• D'Brickashaw Ferguson 2006 Bowman Signs of the Future auto
• Leon Washington 2006 Absolute Memorabilia RPM jersey/ball/jersey RC #103/849
• Marcus Henry 2008 Topps Letterman "R" (no auto) #4/6
• Mark Clayton 2008 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Gold jersey or patch, black/gold, #4/25
• Maurice Jones-Drew 2007 UD Premier Premier Stitchings logo patch #74/75

• Ricky Williams 2002 Private Stock Reserve jersey
• Ray Lucas 2000 Fleer Autographics auto (Pending:  GSNHOF)
• D'Brickashaw Ferguson 2006 SAGE Hit auto
• Kellen Clemens 2006 Gridiron Gear Gridiron Gems jersey/ball/jersey RC #24/50
• DeWayne Robertson 2003 Absolute Memorabilia RPM ball/jersey #505/750

Everything else is most definitely available, though BA Benny will have some dibs because he's already acquired more stuff to send my way.  Please make some offers and I'll work with y'all on some trades.

Overall that was 24 cards for $64 dlvd:  the Graham and Breaston for $8, the Henne and Stuckey SP Authentic for $6 and the other 20 for $50.  That's about as well as I would have done at this weekend's show and I spent much less than I would have there.  Plus now I have yet more trade bait for all of you--win-win!

Yesterday's mail = today's blog fodder

Incidentally, "blog fodder" sounds like a terrible internet parody of a certain Mario Puzo series....

Monday was a very big mail day for me, but I didn't have time to blog about it until today.  You'll see that it was worth the wait, though:

More Sportlots:
You'll recall that Saturday produced my first set completer from Sportlots.  Or, if you don't believe me, click on the link.  So if you're counting at home, that's one completed set (2008 SAGE Hit football).  A bunch more envelopes put me that much closer to a few more sets (some of which were completed totally).  I want to wait for more to show up before I give you a recap, but rest assured, it'll be great.

More Blowout:


First, for $4 delivered I grabbed a Brandon Graham I'd been trying to get for a couple weeks.

Welcome to the fold, Brandon Graham #8--a 2010 SP Authentic auto/RC.  Michigan uni, RC/auto, love it.

Moving on, I saw a guy who was somewhat desperately trying to unload the remainder of a lot of baseball autos (mostly) and relics (a few), plus a couple numbered parallels.  I talked him down to $50 dlvd and got the following:

This was the keeper of the lot for me, a 2009 Bowman Sterling auto of Tigers Ryan Perry and Cale Iorg.  Perry, of course, has made it to the majors as a pretty good reliever after being drafted in the first round.  Iorg hasn't done as much to live up to his prospect status, but he at least has a cool connection to Detroit:

Yep, Cale's the son of the guy in the upper left, who shared a RC with legendary Tigers 2B Lou Whitaker.

The rest of these cards are up for grabs with the rest of my trade bait.  I'll eventually have everything scanned and labelled and stuff for easier trading, but for now here's some group scans for you guys to pick through:

Leave me comments/shoot me emails with trade interest or to ask questions about one or more cards.  Not a bad investment for $50, no?

More Sportlots celebration to come soon, I promise!

Mail monday, post-Super Bowl Edition

I hope everyone is recovering from their post-Super Bowl hangovers from celebrating, killing the pain or just because.

In celebration of Charles Woodson and his Michigan brethren, here's some stuff I got in the mail today:

Trade with Midwest Cardboard:
Todd, a.k.a. Darkship, of Midwest Cardboard was again part of one of my group breaks, the most recent Letterman one.  We worked out two trades, one being a three-way deal that included Sam of the Daily Dimwit, but before that we agreed on one of my Aaron Crow letters for a Yonder Alonso and Justin Smoak.  While he was going to the trouble of shipping, he threw in this card that he was holding onto for me for a bit:

A 2009 Philadelphia Fabrics jersey of Braylon Edwards.  I can always use more stuff of Braylon, so this was much appreciated.  Thanks again, Todd!

A couple more Blowout purchases:
Yes, I'm still sinking a good chunk of money into the Blowout forums, but at least not as much at once.  Two purchases yielded the following three cards:

A 2010 Elite Turn of the Century RC/auto of Brandon Graham, which I caught after a guy posted a group break.  He wasn't thrilled with his results, so I was happy to help him out and take this off his hands

along with a 2010 Rookies & Stars Longevity RC/auto of Graham, which I got him to add for just a bit more.  Boy, that picture sure looks familiar, Panini....  I now have four auto RCs of Graham, along with a printing plate, which is a pretty good start to a collection for a guy who was a 2010 rookie.  

My first Jim Harbaugh hit is a very slick autograph I caught while looking through some Photobuckets on sale last week.  This will go great with my Tim Biakabatuka '99 Inscriptions card.  Hopefully this is the first of a few cards of the former Michigan QB hero, who'll hopefully find success with David Baas and the 49ers.

Non-mail thing:
I wanted to give a quick mention to BA Benny's group break, which started today.  He's posted two videos so far, one of an Opening Day blaster and another with some random packs.  Mike does a great job of showing each card and even pronounces names correctly sometimes (but cut him some slack, he's reading them upside-down) and more importantly, I'd say the video quality is excellent.  Go watch if you've got a hand in the break or to just enjoy watching someone open packs with a thick New York accent.  And stay tuned for what I'm sure will be quite a few more clips of pack breaks considering the scope of the thing.

Mini Blowout post: killer "B"s edition

As previously mentioned (see the very bottom part of this post), I made one last recent Blowout forums purchase.

As I often find myself doing, I was checking out the box/case breaks forum to vicariously enjoy some pack-busting and came across a thread where a guy busted a jumbo case of 2010 Topps football.  That's a set that interests me, so I decided to take a look.  Generally my habit is to scan through the post, glancing at the hits listed (and hopefully scans thereof) to see if there's anything that catches my interest.  I wasn't disappointed.

In case you couldn't tell, this is a cyan printing plate (1/1, natch) of former Michigan man/beast/machine Brandon Graham.  It's now in my possession and is my first plate (I snagged one other 1/1, a Justin Verlander Triple Threads White Whale, which isn't actually a plate), and I couldn't be happier.  Part of the deal (a great price, by the way) was this guy as a throw-in:

The guy had busted a case of 2009 Elite football and suggested I look through his results before we finalized a deal.  I'm happy to say that this kind of helpful seller is fairly common on Blowout's forums, and idiots are pretty rare.  A big thumbs up to seller Clayton/Nikki for an excellent transaction.

One thing I want to briefly highlight in this post (other than my being a total shill for those forums, which is no secret) is the value of viewing those threads of other people's breaks and being proactive about your interest in pulls.  Some people are just there to show off their pulls, but many are happy to get offers before they have to go to the trouble of a formal sell/trade post or eBay listing.  More importantly, you often get the inside track on a card, as I did with the Graham plate--a big BG collector noted his interest in the thread not long after I had privately messaged the poster (a more effective way of getting their attention, in my opinion), but by then it was too late--I was first.  So the next time you're looking for something from a specific set, instead of buying box after box, playing the odds hoping for it, see if someone else has pulled it for you and will give you a steal of a deal.