2024 COMC purchases: Nine from November

With the finish line now in sight I'm even more motivated to get this post done and call 2024 a wrap! Here's a look at the cards I bought for myself during COMC's Black Friday sale:

First up is hit #1 of another UM WR to wear #8 (besides another guy in this post), Ronnie Bell. The receiver/returner outplayed his practically anonymous recruiting rankings and was a key contributor as the Wolverines marched back to respectability under Jim Harbaugh. The Bowman's Best University card pictures him with the Wolverines (instead of the 49ers who'd eventually draft and then release him) and that's a great start for his hits collection! Sure, it's a sticker auto and he signed with his initials, but at least he added an inscription with his jersey number.

The day's other "first" is my second hit but first signature of LB Devin Bush II, a three-year Wolverine who did some nice work in 2017 and 2018 in Ann Arbor. The Steelers took him in the first round in 2019 and he's since bounced to Seattle and Cleveland, but was good enough to appear in an autograph insert (#d /299) in 2020 Panini Legacy.

In spot #3 is the other WR #8, the sure-handed Jason Avant, who was able to rescue the planted Michigan flag in Columbus this past season after Buckeye Jack Sawyer threw his hissy fit once his OSU team lost to Michigan again. Avant never won a Super Bowl with the Eagles but did have a solid 10-year career mostly spent with them, and I was thrilled to add another Triple Threads jersey/auto of his from his 2006 rookie year. The one you see above is the Sepia version /75 and is hit #66 of #8.

Next, RB Chris Evans appears to be out of the league at this point, but that wasn't going to stop me from picking up a third Michigan uni autograph of his. I may have passed on other brands but usually tend to like the simplicity of Score's rookie autos, so I had no problem ponying up a couple bucks for this one.

Sure, we've already had Devin, but what about second Devin? I paid less than $6.50 total for the cool pair starring former Panthers WR Funchess and I think that was a steal. The card on the left is a 2015 Panini Black Gold Sizeable Signatures Rookie Jerseys prime version, and I'm thinking you'll agree that it lives up to its "sizeable" and "prime" descriptors with ease. The other is a 2015 Panini National Convention VIP manupatch auto, which isn't the kind of thing I'd pay a premium for, but I do like seeing athletes sign things other than stickers. Funch moves up to 34 hits thanks to the pair.

I'll move down one spot horizontally to discuss the next card, a Jake Long 2008 Topps Triple Threads Sepia parallel. This one came with three really nice multi-color Dolphins swatches to go along with his signature (and numbering /75, like the Avant above). It's a great looking card to add to a collection that now stands at a very nice 98 hits, though he remains in third place behind our next two players.

Forever #1 guy Chad Henne continues to outpace the rest by a mile with his 146th hit, which happens to be one of the higher-end items in his collection. The 12th 1/1 I've landed for him, the card you see above is his 2008 Finest Yellow Plate (the non-auto version). It set me back a reasonable $14 which I don't mind paying for a top PC guy like Henne, whose hit collection isn't too far off of that from all-sports leader Rich Hill. As always, I'm a fan of when manufacturers do the border thing with their plates to make it obvious which color you have, especially in this case where the back is otherwise normal.

And last but not least is former blog namesake guy Mario Manningham. The 2008 Leaf Certified Materials auto you see above (#d /100) is everything I love about 2000s-era cards of some of my favorites, but it may be the most significant from this post for an entirely different reason: it puts Super Mario at exactly 100 hits, making him just the second player behind Henne in the football collection (and third overall including Rich Hill) to reach that mark! It actually wasn't 100% intentional as I would have been happy for Jake Long (again, 98) or Braylon Edwards (95) to make it first, but I only found one of the former I liked and none of the latter this time. So it looks like I get to celebrate Too Many Manninghams as my 2024 year of collecting comes to a close! (The football hits collection also surpassed the 1700-mark before the calendar turned, basketball went over 150, and hockey moved up to 350, with baseball very close to 450.)

Once again, thanks to everyone for making 2024 a great year of trading, blogging, reading, comments, shows, and more! I'm looking forward to treating you to recaps of the cards I've picked up since 2025 started including (at this point) seven blogger-related trade packages, two shows, and four TCDb deals. Look for a post covering the first blogger trade of January soon!

2024 trade package #18: the Lost Collector

Happy December! Tonight I'm finishing off my trade packages from August, and this one was a fun surprise envelope from A.J., the Lost Collector.

He and I don't trade a ton as this is just the fifth bunch of cards I've received from him according to my stats, but I think that's mostly because his collection is a bit more specific and I haven't always had great luck finding cards he needs, especially for his signature Tino Martinez PC. But that's totally fine as it makes it more special when we can send cards back and forth.

Here's a look at what he sent this time:

HOF pitcher Jim Bunning is more often associated with the Phillies, and it's their cap that he wears on his plaque in Cooperstown, but he spent a very productive first nine seasons of his career with Detroit. That means I was happy to see him wearing the Olde English "D" on that 2019 Topps Archives Silver parallel, which is numbered /99 on the back. Fellow former Tiger Nick Castellanos also gets the serial treatment on a 2019 card out of that year's Bowman: a Sky Blue parallel limited to just 499 copies as stated on the front. That's a nice numbered pair!

The other cards in this package represent Michigan Football guys, who I might have mentioned beat Ohio State for the fourth year in a row yesterday (just making sure nobody forgot). These cards bring to mind the ones A.J. sent me last December (which I finally covered this past February) as those were 100% Wolverines gridiron guys.

A Score RC of WR/PR Ronnie Bell (who was recently waived by the Niners) leads off this group. Another star WR comes next in the form of Nico Collins, who's back and starring for the Texans after a few weeks off due to injury. DB Brad Hawkins follows on one of just 12 cards he has to his name, and that reminds me that I need to grab one of his signed cards from that '22 SAGE product. Injured difference-maker edge Aidan Hutchinson comes next with a cool pair from 2023 Donruss Elite and Score (Celebration insert). It would be amazing if the Lions could make an improbable run to the Super Bowl with Hutch returning from his injury to lead the team to their first ring. And lastly, we have one more WR in Donovan Peoples-Jones, who doesn't seem to have played anywhere during what would be his fifth NFL season after being cut by the Lions in the preseason. He's represented on a great looking Score Red parallel (pictured in a Wolverines uni!) from his 2020 rookie season.

A.J., thanks so much for this fun surprise PWE and the goodies therein! I appreciate it as always, and I'm happy to get to say that you'll also be getting at least a little something Christmas cards-wise from me at some point this month, likely before the big holiday.

As for the next few posts, I count five more trades I still need to cover, plus I'm aware of at least one more on the way, so I'll likely keep these recaps going before seeing how I want to tackle my remaining 2024 pickups (Facebook Marketplace, shows, eBay, TCDb deals, and COMC once they arrive). My priority remains thanking folks for their generosity that's 100% in the spirit of this holiday season!

4/5/2024 show report: Christmas in April

Tonight's post is one of two I know of that I need to finish out the month of April. This one's a quick summary of the monthly Taylor show I got to on 4/5.

I spent a yearly low there of $45 (with the exception of the second show I got to in January to buy from Sluggo's Sports Cards at the event in Kalamazoo) but still came home with some cool stuff.

First up is some trade bait:

I love me some 90s inserts! The Akili Smith is spoken for but everything else is still up for grabs. McNown's Gridiron Kings card is actually the Canvas version as it's one of the first 500 printed (#0090/5000).

As for my keepers,

As far as I can remember it was mostly a dime/quarter box kind of day. I added a trio of cards featuring a couple of Detroit's recent top prospects, double-"Js" Jackson Jobe and Jace Jung, largely thanks to a prospect-heavy Donruss product. Next is a pair of classic Tigers, Kaline and Pesky, though of course the latter is much more famous for his eight seasons (and namesake Fenway Park feature) than the three with the Tigers. A couple Ginter Ripkens bump his total up as he nears the 1300-card mark in my collection. And former UM pitcher (on a Wolverine-ish airbrushed photo card) Steve Hajjar is the source of this post's title with a 2022 Leaf Holidays-related product and its Happy Holidays autograph set. That's my third signature of the left who's in Cleveland's system.

I also found a couple scans' worth of football stuff between the dime/quarter and dollar boxes. Bell would look better in a Blue parallel, of course, but Red works for his current team, the Niners, plus at least the card has a great college action photo. Transfer RB Charbonnet is one of three guys in these two scans (K Jake Moody and TE Luke Schoonmaker are the others) to pop up thanks to the Retail versions of their Panini Absolute RCs (you can tell as they lack serial numbers on the front as opposed to the hobby cards). The two shiny Funchess parallels are numbered /70 and /75 so I didn't mind throwing down a buck each. QB Grbac features on a pretty cool early Bowman Chrome insert. I may be slowly (and unintentionally) working on Ty Law's Mosaic rainbow, we'll see. And Paye would also benefit from an upgrade of Red to Blue on a Press Proof version of his Donruss RC.

The previously-mentioned Schoonmaker gets almost an entire scan to himself thanks to a rookie-related quartet, one of which is a Prizm Draft card with a great shot of him in action for the Wolverines. And joining my non-sport/misc. Wolverines category is broadcaster Rich Eisen. The New York native is a fan of the Jets (for some reason) but has done a great job over his career of lauding the Wolverines and celebrating the school where he earned his undergrad degree while being a co-editor for the sports section of the Michigan Daily.

I'll try to be back soonish with my last April post and maybe even post a bit more frequently so I can get caught up a bit more.