2022 COMC purchases: check out who's back!

It's 2023 but I still have some 2022 content to cover before getting to some great adds already this year.

Tonight you'll get to see the entirety of my first COMC order since late 2020. A number of factors, some pandemic-related, made the site a lot less attractive for a while as their processing speed for adding and shipping cards dipped below acceptable standards. After seeing that things were closer to normal late last year, I once again dove in during their big Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.

About $160 later, I had a nice stack of cards for myself and some Christmas card packages to boot (some of which still need to go out once my oft-mentioned Sportlots box ships!). Here are the items I scored for my own collections:

Baseball part 1. God do I love me some 90s inserts, and few could compare to Upper Deck's Amazing Greats in 1997 and '98. Both versions look stunning, and the Maddux you see above is from the former. Its wood grain design and clear inset player image look great, plus I love the punny name of the insert. From the same year you also get a look at another GOAT insert technology: Pinnacle's Dufex. I nabbed PC guy Dean Palmer's Museum Collection parallel for under a buck, and boy does it look nice in its own right.

To those I added a five-pack of ex-UM pitcher autos, all of which I believe were less than $2.50. Bourque's is a Refractor of the only other hit I owned of him, and that's numbered /499. New Rockie Jeff Criswell gets a nice trio added to his total out of Bowman Chrome, Elite, and Topps Pro Debut, and of course the middle card is my favorite since it features a college uniform photo. He now has four such cards to his name in my collection. And I ended up with a single card, but a spiffy one, of Criswell's potential Colorado teammate, Karl Kauffmann, also from Elite. It's a Status die-cut parallel numbered /99 and gives him four autos also out of six total hits.

The other two baseball items deserved their own scans. I thought the 2013 Panini America's Pastime booklet of former Tigers (and Yankees) A-Jax and Granderson was just too cool to pass up, especially for just $6.45. I don't have many booklet cards in my collection and getting one with large relic swatches from two of my favorite Tigers OF was a coup in my book. The one you see above is the Gold version numbered /49. The Granderson pinstripe is a nice bonus!

Card number two here was I believe the most expensive one I landed for myself, but well within my price range for a card of its type. My purchase history says I dropped $8.34 for Clayton Richard's 2018 Topps Cyan plate, one of five 1/1s I bought this time (but the only one for myself). That gives the former QB/P 13 total 1/1s to his name, 10 of which are plates.

Switching over to football, it was easy to split these into vertical and horizontal scans. A couple players got the most love this time but I also added a pair of new names and lots of college action cards so I spent my money well.

My first autograph of stud WR Nico Collins was one of my biggest steals at just $3, and I couldn't complete the purchase of it fast enough at that price given they usually go for more (plus the whole Michigan uni thing). Darboh got four new additions to his count (two more below) including a sweet triple jersey/auto and a green parallel of his 2017 Prestige autograph (/150) seen here. I love the latter's use of an action shot from a home game in the Big House.

Chris Evans made his debut in my hits collection thanks to the crazy cool 1/1 Matt sent me, and now I have a college uni autograph to go with that, also courtesy of Prestige. Talented DB Lavert Hill is making his first appearance with a 2020 Prizm autograph, and so is the guy on the last card of this scan, outstanding C (and current New Orleans Saint) Cesar Ruiz out of the same year's Playbook product. I'm making a more concerted effort to add hits of players missing in my collection and that work paid off here with some great looking cards of two recent Wolverines, both in their alma mater's duds.

And who could forget the namesake of my former other blog, Mario Manningham? I scored three verticals and one horizontal card (in the next scan) of the Super Bowl hero. One's from '08 Absolute and it comes with a football chunk plus jersey swatches in the shape of his number. The second is one of his two appearances in 2008 SP Rookie Edition and is done in the style of SP's '93 product. And the last one seen here is 2010 Prestige auto limited to a somewhat strange 113 copies.

Over on the X-axis we start with the other two Darboh cards. The current iteration of Leaf is pretty sketchy but you still get some extremely cool cards from them sometimes, like Amara's inscription-laden Trinity auto seen above. The jersey/auto/RC next to it from Panini's Illusions was also pretty cheap and further enhances one of my quieter quality collections, which now stands at 47 cards!

I occasionally chase cards of some of the guys that transferred out such as QB Ryan Mallett and found a good price on the slightly flawed (bit of a crease between his first and last names) auto/jersey from 2011 Timeless Treasures. That kind of thing doesn't pop up much in the other places I tend to look, so why not drop $2 for a solid hit?

The final Manningham card--though four is NOT "too many"--is from the hit-laded 2008 SPx product, and this one's a dual jersey with the swatch windows also in the shape of his jersey number. Mario's just one hit away from joining the 100-club in this collection, which currently includes Chad Henne and nobody else! (Jake Long remains at 97 and Braylon Edwards is chilling nearby with 93.)

One of my most interesting pieces I scored this time is the Denard Robinson 2013 Panini Black Rookie Shadowbox auto you see above. I thought the card enclosed a small mini jersey but it turns out it's just a flat image in a shadowbox-type design. That's still extremely cool, plus it's a new autograph of Shoelace for my collection, and it was just $2.25, so I'm very happy with it. That appears to be hit #54 of the dual-threat QB.

And this evening's final addition is my fifth hit and third autograph of DT Chris Wormley, a Ravens draftee who now suits up for the Steelers. He's the final recipient of a college uni auto for his collection, in this case out of 2017 Elite Draft, a product that was made for collectors like me. He's got a very good signature, especially with how low standards have gotten, and this one wasn't even $2, so it happily found a home in my football collection.

I was glad to be able to take another ride on the COMC train in 2022 and score some nice cards at great prices, plus they even arrived in time for me to send some out before Christmas! I hope those of you who follow the folks I sent them to (and will be doing so soon) enjoy seeing even more spoils on other blogs and social media.

As for me, while I wait for Sportlots to send me my now-ready-to-ship box cards, I get to show off some fun early 2023 items thanks to two fantastic trade partners plus some spoils from last weekend's show. It was a great start to the year in collecting and I'm looking forward to another enjoyable one with all of you. Happy new year!

2022 trade package #10: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Today is (or was, depending on when you're reading this) my birthday, and I'm mentioning that mostly because, one, I turned a year old in the weeks between posts, and two, this evening's cards come from a guy who loves collecting people born on his own birthday, February 14. That would be Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store.

I don't collect anyone specifically because they were born on my birthday (though I think that's an awesome sub-collection), but if I did, some of the top choices would include:

• Baseball: Bartolo Colon, Martin Dihigo, Brad Penny
• Basketball: Joe Dumars, Tracy McGrady
• Football: Nelson Agholor, Pete Metzelaars
• Hockey: Kris Draper, Pat Verbeek
• Other/non-sport: Tommy Chong, Bob Dylan, Patti LaBelle, Alfred Molina, John C. Reilly, Kristin Scott Thomas

Anyway, once again Doug hit my mailbox with a beefy envelope, one this time that was probably 75% toploaders by weight! There was also a ton of fun cardboard goodness and that's exactly what you'll get to see this evening:

Baseball 1 of 3: current and former Tigers. Most of these aside from Avila are from pretty recent products that I wouldn't have opened myself, such as this year's Heritage (which you'll see more of in a minute). Remember when Baddoo was a rookie instead of a guy in a sophomore slump? There's some nice designs here to look at, though!

Baseball 2 of 3: starts with more Heritage Tigers, though Niko's long gone. It's nice to add to my minuscule Haase collection, though. And hey, there's a brand new Rich Hill for one of my favorite PCs! They even got him back with his current team, Boston. Also, how about that trio of slick Mize cards? (There's a few more in the next scan too!) The Chrome card is a 2019 National Convention Orange Refractor numbered to just 25, so I'd have to call that one the best in his growing collection. The Chronicles Clear Vision and Clearly Donruss (both acetate but somewhat difficult to tell from the scan) look amazing for "base" cards too.

Baseball 3 of 3: includes the rest of the Mize, including two more Chronicles versions, showing off that product's versatility. Two many Verlanders proves to be just right for base/inserts of the ageless wonder.

And then there's some top-notch hits! Demeritte bounced back to Atlanta after flunking out with the Tigers but his 2020 Select auto (#d /199) looks great. There was no way that would overshadow a  colorful Michigan uni signature of Jesse Franklin, numbered to just 50, though--that's a beaut! And one last hit sees a pairing of the previously mentioned Chronicles and Verlander in jersey form. Noice!

Red Wings 1 of 2: guys like Lidstrom and Yzerman will always be the top draw for me when it comes to Detroit hockey cards in trade packages, but the numbered Mantha and Rasmussen items are great as well.

Red Wings 2 of 2: it's a Turgeon two-fer! Turegon was a 2014 third-rounder that appeared in just nine games over two seasons with the Wings, and since then he's signed with the Wild. You couldn't ask for better with these two relic cards that feature bold red jersey swatches, though!

Basketball 1 of 1: That Hoops parallel of Caris LeVert (Teal Explosion) is something to look at! Rice and Rose are Michigan royalty at this point. And another Michigan uni auto is more than welcome to join in the fun! This time it's new basketball PC member Mike Smith out of last year's Panini Chronicles Draft. Smith was a grad transfer who started at Columbia before playing the 2020-21 season in Ann Arbor, one that saw Michigan get to the Elite 8. He's the 31st different subject in my basketball collection and this was a great card to start his PC.

Football 1 of 1: base cards of two football royalty as well are certainly welcome, but I'm sure your eyes went right for the big guns like mine did! He may only use about 40% of the sticker but Rashan Gary's still a draw for me, especially when it's a new autograph of his, and a college uni card to boot! That's auto #5 to go with a plate in his collection. And speaking of plates, the next card was probably the biggest surprise of the package for me. That's former Michigan DL Chris Wormley with the team that drafted him, the Ravens, on a 2017 Panini Unparalleled Black Plate that would have been inserted in that year's Plates & Patches product. Would you believe it's already my second 1/1 out of just four hits of the current Steeler? That's crazy but certainly worthy of its surprise appearance here!

Michigan Hockey 1/3: and as always we end with the sport of honor, hockey. Doug treated me to a good number (if not all) of the Wolverines from 21-22 OPC which looks nice as always. Connor had an excellent season and Copp chipped in a goal and two helpers in the Rangers' win this evening as I was writing this post. I'm mainly pulling for them to win it all this year since two other UMers--Tyler Motte and Jacob Trouba--also play for New York. Colorado with Andrew Cogliano and Jack Johnson (both seen here) would be #2 but they're still Colorado and what self-respecting Wings fan wants to root for them? Speaking of Wings and Wolverines, Dylan Larkin is another of the players Doug included from OPC.

Michigan Hockey 2/3: hey, there's Tyler Motte, whom I just mentioned! There's some other familiar players here as well but it's very clear that Josh Norris is the highlight. A rising star for Doug's beloved Sens, he was a 2017 first-rounder for San Jose but traded to Ottawa the following year. After two solid seasons in Ann Arbor he got a cup of coffee in the NHL in 2019-20, jumped to a 17/18/35 line the following season, and this past year he doubled his goal total to 35! Those are some great looking cards Doug sent me, especially the coveted Young Guns, which I'm sure was a double because nobody just throws those around.

Michigan Hockey 2/3: Werenski is the last of our non-hits here, including that MVP card that LOOKS like an auto but is just the latest version of UD's "Script" parallel that used to look more obviously like something else, e.g. foil. Still a fun card, though.

And then we have some fun hits for the icers as well. Like I said, Connor had a hell of a season, tying for fifth in the league in goals with 47. I'm sure he was much happier about that than he looked on his 2018-19 UD Rookie Photoshoot Flashback Materials jersey card, just my second hit of his.

Wolverwing Dylan Larkin almost equaled his career high in goals and points with 31 and 69, respectively, despite playing on a bad Wings team I hope improves at some point. The hockey stick theme is a fun design on his 2020-21 UD Game Jersey, already hit #9 for me. 

And lastly, Motte isn't listed among the playoff leaders in scoring this season but he's no stranger to the playoffs after a run with the 2019-20 Canucks, so who knows if he might be a hero if the Rangers make it all the way to the finals? His signature looks especially sharp on a 2016-17 Ultimate Collection autograph done in the style of 2006-07 Ultimate Collection's auto RCs. Numbered of 199 it shows him pictured with the Blackhawks, the team that drafted him and his first of four franchises to-date. It's my third auto and seventh hit of a guy who put up huge numbers in his junior season at Michigan.

Doug, thanks so much for sending such a large quantity of great cards, especially the hits as usual, that'll be great additions to my collections! I promise not to wait until I age another year to recap the next package you send, but before that I hope I'll be hitting you back. And at least I have plenty of time to try to stock up on 2/14 cards before next February....

Next up should be another blogger trade package, then depending on how things go I would think I'll be getting back to TCDB trade recaps. Until then, I hope the weather continues to warm up and improve in your area and that you're getting some sun and fresh air like I am--you're never too old for that!

2020 trade package #13: My Sports Obsession

I think I've said this once or twice already, but despite my lack of spending this year--only around $250--for multiple reasons, I've had lots of great new cards come into my collection. You can chalk that up to the word that used to come before "cards" in this hobby: trading. TCDB has been a great new source for that, and I really do plan to show off more of my deals that came from the site.

But first, I always like to give top billing to my bread and butter, which is trades with other bloggers. Buddy of the blog Jeff of My Sports Obsession is one of those fine folks, and we keep a nice stream of the many collections we have in common going back and forth.

Jeff sent me a nice mailer that arrived at the end of May, and I was thrilled not just at the excellent content, but also that every single card was new to my collection--quite a feat when you'll see who was involved:

I mean, the baseball end of things involved my #1 and #3 overall PCs in Larkin and Ripken. Barry comes to us on a 2020 Donruss card whose design honors the '86 set. released a year before his RC. The back gives him credit for playing his entire career with the Reds and ranking with Pete Rose at the top in several team stats, though I think Barry deserves extra credit for not betting on baseball or being a shitbag in general. With Jeff's help his collection gets a bit closer to 800.

While I wasn't surprised that I needed a 2020 Larkin card I was shocked to find that two 1991 Donruss base offerings and a '92 Fleer issue were new to me. I'm not shocked that I didn't find it worth buying junk wax-era stuff like those but you would think I'd have had them long ago one way or another. Great job by Jeff to fill in those gaps and add another cool pair in a 2018 Donruss variation and '93 UD Then & Now hologram insert. UD's holograms always get a thumbs up from me. With five additions Cal's within spitting distance of being my first 1000-card PC!

Closing out the scan is a basketball pair--my second and third cards of one-and-done Wolverine Ignas Brazdeikis, who was a lot of fun to watch while he was here. Both are rookies, which is great by itself, but the Prizm card also features a college uniform, so it's my pick of the duo. Jeff's focused on collecting UM basketball alumni from roughly the past decade and I'm grateful that he thought of me during his search.

Now here's some maize & blue fireworks! I'm not sure the last time I could post a 100% Michigan uni scan like this in a trade recap, but regardless, this is flat-out awesome. Jeff provided my first taste of 2020 Michigan RCs out of 2020 Prizm Draft by including QB Patterson and WR DPJ. Shea's senior year ended up being disappointing for his draft stock and it wasn't a shock that he didn't get chosen, but I guess Panini included him here (and likely will in other products) figuring the fan base will be hot after his cards regardless.

Anyway, those look great, and I'm looking forward to adding first-years of whichever other draftees make the cut in subsequent sets. Meanwhile, those two are joined in the set by a pair of Tom Brady base cards, each of which sticks with the college theme, much to my approval.

Next is a pair of non-Panini 2017 cards: a Leaf Gold parallel of RB De'Veon Smith and SAGE HIT base of DE Chris Wormley. I don't think Smith lasted very long in the league after going undrafted, but Wormley got flipped from the Ravens to the Steelers a few months ago, so hopefully he'll make a difference there. Side note for anybody who's curious: I do count pre-draft all-star game photos that include UM helmets as "Michigan uniform" cards.

Finally, we've come to the big hit of the envelope, one that happens to star a big hitter. Rashan Gary may have worn #3 during his time in Ann Arbor but everyone will always remember the way he came in as the #1 overall recruit. That makes getting this college-themed Prizm Draft auto that much sweeter! As I mentioned when discussing my two other autos of the DE, I wish he put a bit more effort into his signature, or at least used more of the sticker, but it is what it is. And what it is is another Rashan Gary auto, and I'm excited!

Jeff, thanks again for sending me some great new additions to my collections, especially those of the UM variety. On that subject, I have a LOT to send back your way soon, so get ready for some work updating your collections on TCDB!

2019 COMC purchases: superb basketball and football

It's been a superb Sunday here in Ann Arbor weather-wise considering it's just the second day of February.  Temperatures got up in the 50s a day after we were dealing with the usual cold and snow, and I definitely took advantage.

Now I'm sitting here putting together a post while glancing at the game every now and then, between two teams I don't really care about.  But the fact that it's Super Bowl Sunday is a good reminder that I still haven't covered all of my 2019 pickups.  This COMC recap and one more should do it.

Today I'll be showing off my basketball scores and, yes, some of the football as well!  (A quick note:  I don't have all of the former cataloged in my own albums or on TCDB yet as I've had to create their checklists myself, which sometimes takes a bit.)

I believe I mentioned the crazy number of plates I purchased in the last post, and a large chunk of the ones staying with me are surprisingly from basketball, my least favorite of the four major sports.  I'm not the type to pass up a good deal when it comes to my Michigan collections, though, and four of these were under $4, with the other less than $5.

Here's the backs so you can tell who actually appears on each card.  I landed my first plates of Burke and THJ (times two!), second of Rice, and fifth(!) of Sauce Castillo himself, Nik Stauskas.  All of them are from higher-end products meaning Panini did their thing where they affixed the plates to super thick pieces of cardboard.  Those are totally fine but I really like what they've done with colorful backs on the actual metal the last couple years.  Three of these were inserted into the following year's National Treasures products so checklisting them can take a bit of work.  But who cares, because five new basketball plates!

The football section is quite good as well, though you're in for a pretty good show in the final post of this series.  WR Amara Darboh's up first with a cool pair from 2017:  a Playoff autograph and Absolute dual jersey/football auto RC (#282/299).  As long as Panini keeps producing Playoff cards with college photos like that, I'll keep buying them!  Those two bookend my first 1/1 of former QB (and one-year WR) Devin Gardner.  It's a magenta plate from his only NFL card out of 2015 Topps Field Access, a product known more for its plethora of sticker autos.  He's looking quite acrobatic there for sure.

The middle contains three new players to the collection.  First is DL Rashan Gary, a former top college recruit who went to the Packers in the first round last year.  I came up with a 2019 Panini Legacy auto of him in a Michigan uni, which is awesome, though his signature is anything but.  Hey, they can't all look like Griffey's and Rivera's!

Next is his fellow New Jersey native Ron Johnson, not to be confused with the former Michigan RB.  This one played on the D-Line and was part of that same recruiting class, but he transferred out last year.  He's one of a few future college players I can name from the autograph portion of that 2016 Upper Deck USA set.

The last of the newbies is another former QB that changed positions like Gardner, but in Zach Gentry's case, the move to TE stuck, and it worked out ok for him since he got drafted by the Steelers.  His 2019 Contenders Draft auto looks pretty cool, which doesn't surprise me a bit, and he has a somewhat interesting signature too.

Moving on we have another QB, transfer guy Ryan Mallett.  As I think I've said a few times, I occasionally collect his stuff as long as he's not shown in an Arkansas uniform.  Here you can see a 2011 Plates & Patches jersey/auto RC (#080/299) followed by a Topps Magic signature from the same year.  Both are cool in their own right but Magic is a somewhat recent Topps product I actually like, so that's notable.

Ok, we're on to the last QB of the day, I promise.  John Navarre, the gumpy signal-caller from Cudahy, Wisconsin, gets another of his very occasional appearances; this is just my 13th hit of him.  Luckily I found a cheap new addition in the form of a 2004 Bowman's Best Green auto (#189/499).  I already had the base version, which I prefer mainly because the green ink doesn't look great here--the parallel version of the card is fine otherwise--so it's nice to have them as a pair.

Last up is former Michigan DL Chris Wormley, who's often a fun follow on Twitter:

I hit the trifecta today! I got pooped on, peed on, and puked on by my lovely daughter. 👍🏽

— Chris Wormley (@Chris_Wormley43) January 29, 2020

My second auto and third hit of his is a rookie year 2017 Donruss Optic Rookie Autographs Blue auto (#23/75).  What better color of a parallel could you ask for in terms of a former Wolverine?  He's seen a decent amount of playing time with the Ravens and hopefully that increases enough for him to earn a rare non-rookie appearance in some Panini products.

That's it for today but stay tuned for another blowout post where I cover the rest of my football purchases.