2023 eBay purchases: rockin' around the Christmas Tariks

With 2023 blogger trades all wrapped up I'm moving on to my eBay purchases from the last four months of the year.

We'll start back in early September when I happily spent a bit more than $12.50 delivered for my second plate of Denard Robinson. This particular Shoelace 1/1 is his magenta plate used to make his 2013 Absolute RC, specifically the "base" version and not the variation where he's carrying the ball in his other hand. You all know I love me some Denard, and I hope he's one of the holdovers on new Michigan coach Sherrone Moore's staff.

A bit less than two weeks later I was quite happy to win this Trey Burke plate for a little under $10 shipped. The 2016-17 Contenders Draft magenta plate you see above is my third 1/1 of the former college star, but it's my first of him pictured as a Wolverine instead of with the Jazz so it's my new favorite. This one puts Burke one away from joining the double-digit hit club in basketball as the fifth member, though a couple others are also getting close.

At the end of the month I was thinking about how well Tigers P Tarik Skubal had pitched after returning for the season's second half. He started off a bit slowly but ripped off four straight wins in the final month to end the year at 7-3 with a solid 2.80 ERA. I decided I wanted a nice card of his and landed on this 2021 Absolute Rookie Leather Signatures Tan auto for about $13. Maybe I'll get something with actual team logos on it in the future, but I'm a sucker for fun gimmicks like this and was more interested in jumping on something before he possibly develops into a higher-end starter. And even if he doesn't, I've got a pretty cool card of one of the team's solid core of starters.

Next, early in October I found a bunch of stuff for myself and others all from one seller and took advantage of low auction prices and combined shipping. The three cards you see above are the ones I grabbed for myself. First up is a Pudge jersey that I thought was worth a flier at $1.50. He'd joined the Yankees in '08 so UD listed him with them, but he's pictured as a Tiger and I'm betting the swatch is from a Detroit jersey, not that it matters too much to me since I collect his non-Tigers cards too. That appears to be relic #10 and hit #11 of the HOF catcher.

To that I added a pair of Leaf-branded cards of former UM WR Tarik Black, our second Tarik of the evening! Black was a top-200, 4* recruit coming in to Ann Arbor in 2017 but he'd compile just 50 catches for two scores in 18 games over three seasons before transferring to Texas, where he put up similar numbers in the shortened 2020 COVID season. I was very happy to add a couple Wolverines uniform autographs of him to my collection (as subject #240) even though they're from the wish.com iteration of Leaf, which is part of the "way too many parallels with ridiculous names" problem. That said, I have enjoyed the State Pride design over the years.

I included the backs to show that the top card is numbered just 4/4 while the other is #19/20. As best as I could tell, these are from 2021 Leaf Metal Draft Flashback Base Autographs Mojo (even though the provided checklist SNs don't match) and 2021 Leaf Metal Draft Flashback State Pride Autographs Wave Blue. For just $4 and $3, respectively, I was satisfied with what I got.

The next time I spent money on eBay on something for myself it was the first day of December and I was able to score this 2012 Bowman yellow plate of Michigan WR Steve Breaston for a cool $8 even. That year's design has always been an outlier when it comes to Bowman but not in a bad way in my opinion. Then again, it's fairly familiar to me as I already had purchased the magenta plate of the same card! Breaston is therefore one of a number of PCs for which I have multiple 1/1s.

That distinction is true of former Reds prospect Ryan LaMarre as well. The 16th hit in his collection is also the 5th 1/1, which is quite a ratio if you ask me. And this design is also well known to me because the black plate you see above from 2010 Bowman Draft is the third one I now claim ownership of from the set! I've checked off the black, magenta, and yellow versions and just need the cyan, making this one of five plate sets where I have three of the four (others are Chad Henne 2014 Prestige; Clayton Richard 2011 Topps; J.J. Putz 2012 Topps Mini; and Rich Hill 2006 Topps). That was worth a bit under $12.50 shipped as far as I was concerned!

Finally, with Christmas just five days away and having barely crossed the $1800 mark in spending for the year, I decided to treat myself to an upgrade. My copy of Kirk Gibson's 2001 Topps Archives rookie reprint auto was one of my favorite cards in my entire collection, but it was somewhat faded when I bought it, and leaving it and some others out where too much sunlight got to them didn't do it any favors:

That's a recent pic I took of what's essentially an auto-less Gibby and a very faded 1999 SP Signature auto of Griffey (that I pulled myself and regret ruining this much all the time!). So I was very much on the hunt for a much better copy despite the cost of Kirk's signature going up quite a bit.

And you know what? For the nice, bold blue signature you see above on my new copy, I didn't think twice about plunking down $53. It's great having such a nice version of that piece in his collection and I'd do it again if I had to. But I probably won't because I'm not letting that sucker get any regular sunlight!

And those nine cards are how I finished up 2023 when it comes to personal eBay pickups. I still have lots more to show off from the end of last year but I'm at least making some headway, and I'll be back soon with more!

2020 COMC purchases: look at these 'graphs (and more!)

Time to finish up a look at my late-year purchases from COMC so I can close the book on cards I bought in 2020, a year that often felt as bad as a Nickelback song.

I decided to throw all of the football content in one post and just try not to get too verbose about it. That way I can get this stuff put away and move on to other incoming items and stuff I want to post about. I'm showing off 35 cards tonight and the vast majority include signatures, hence today's title and the meme above. Let's get down to business:

The other 34 cards fit nicely into two scans each of nine (vertical cards) and eight (horizontal), so I'll give the only non-hit its own spot here to start. Old Ty joins Amani Toomer (back-to-back in the set, in fact) in my collection of the amazing 2000 Bowman's Best Acetate parallel, which is so cool I scanned both sides for this post!

Ok, on to the (mostly) 'graphs! Many of the cards you'll see were excellent deals that fortified some of my better football PCs. Avant's from the era of shiny stickergraphs and is numbered /125. Breaston did play a couple seasons for the Chiefs, who could repeat as champs tomorrow evening. J-Booty's auto comes on an Optic card, making it shiny in a different way than Avant's. Taco (Michigan uni!) was drafted by Dallas but is now potentially in line for a ring as a bit player for the Chiefs. I continued to bolster Darboh's collection with the three autos you see here (and more in a bit), and Jeff and I have lots of those in common which I noticed while adding them on TCDB. Braylon's huge Browns swatch (/150) was a nice value. And I scored another, uh, signature? of Gary, who had a solid sophomore campaign with the Pack.

Now this is a top three I can get down with: a trio of college uni cards! Gentry's tiny John Hancock graces a Prizm card, Big Mo is one of those acetate cards from Leaf Trinity's Clear line, and I tracked down auto number two of former lineman Trezelle Jenkins. Then it's on to just four out of an absolute bounty of Jake Longs, including a quad jersey/auto, autograph, and not one but two plates (2008 Topps Mayo and 2010 Topps), the first I've acquired of the former #1 overall pick. It's been a while since I've posted a new pickup of former college star DL Mike Martin so why not celebrate his return with a beautiful UD Black signature (/199)? And I enjoy seeing former stars like Toomer get recognized after their careers in Panini's various products, like this Certified jersey (/49) of Amani "It's Not A" Toomer.

Not everything was autographed in this bunch but most was. One of the exceptions was a cool rookie year Avant jersey (/499) where the shininess of the card is better than the swatch. Leaf's cards are fantastic values for college collectors like this sick giant patch/auto of WR Jehu Chesson that cost me less than $3. The three other Darboh cards I found were jersey/autos, two of which came with nice pieces of what's becoming a familiar Seahawks jersey for me as a collector of his cards. Braylon's Topps "patch" isn't terribly impressive but was a cool find for under a buck, and the large jersey number relic card (/25) is even better. Panini's Contenders/Draft products are also outstanding for those pursuing cards of their favorite schools, and here I was glad to find my third signature of former DB David Long.

And the last grouping allows me to end the post with a bang. I was very pleased with my Long haul (pun intended), nine cards for about $33 that also included four jersey/autos and an auto/manupatch. The Gridiron Gear card is one of those where the signed swatch can be pulled out, similar to the Denard that follows the group, though I think in Shoelace's case the signed piece isn't from a jersey. I was thrilled to add another of A-Train's beautiful signatures to my collection. And we'll end on a non-auto, a dual relic of WR Marquise Walker, representing Tom Brady's Bucs in this post.

Once again I had a great time landing some amazing pieces for my collection at pretty nice prices, even if my trade bait purchasing was less than ideal this time around. Just a few quick collection notes: Long zoomed past Braylon thanks to his big day, with the OT hitting 97 to the WR's 93 (Manningham's in between at 95), and threatening to become the second member of my 100-hit club (Henne). Despite his cards being relatively recent, Darboh's already over the 40-mark to 41. And Avant gets to 65 hits, good for sixth overall. Michigan's former WRs feature heavily at the top of my collection with #s 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 16, and 17.

With these finally able to be put away in their boxes I'm not sure where I'll go next: possibly my first Baseballcardstore.ca order, or perhaps an interesting purchase from a new vendor, not to mention an incoming trade envelope. If I manage to get myself to put up a Super Bowl-related post tomorrow I know which one it'll be, and I'm curious to see reactions to it.

2019 trade package #33: Sports Cards From the Dollar Store

Michigan may have laid another egg against Ohio State this afternoon, but fortunately, as usual, I have some cards to cheer me up.  These came from buddy of the blog and all-around good dude Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store, this time in the form of a large, flat, rigid mailer.  I believe most if not all the items found inside came from the most recent Expo, a show I really should try to get to at some point.  What did I find among the protection of decoys and yards of tape?  Read on to find out!

The baseball portion surprisingly outnumbered the hockey stuff today, if you can believe it.  My Miggy collection got a step closer to 300 cards (295) with a premium looking 2019 Triple Threads base.  I wonder how well one of the facts on the back will age: "Tweets in English and Spanish to more than one million followers."  Light hitting SS Chris Gomez is seen turning two on his '95 Collector's Choice SE base.  I needed to look up that shiny Christin Stewart since I don't know Panini baseball brands too well, and it turns out it's from 2019 Chronicles, specifically the Obsidian set.  I'm betting he'll get a long leash next year as the team continues to rebuild.  Last up is an '89 Fleer base of PC guy Chris Sabo and still-getting-paid guy Bobby Bonilla.

Here's where the baseball group got even more fun:  2019 Topps Heritage Minors cards of some of Detroit's top prospects.  Baseball America's Top 10 list isn't up yet so we'll go by MLB.com's.  Mize and Manning, a couple starters, are the class of the farm system at 1 and 2.  OF Daz Cameron (son of Mike!) is #8 while P Alex Faedo is right behind him at 9.  Another P, Beau Burrows, is 14th (after opening the year higher), perhaps going through some development issues after being picked out of high school in 2015.  And you can leave a guy with a name like "Brock Deatherage", the Blast Hardcheese of the minors, out of a set at your own peril.

Next, what the gridiron content lacked in quantity, it made up in quality, in spades.  I was shocked to see what becomes my first plate of PC guy Steve Breaston, the magenta version from 2012 Bowman.  That design is still jarring to see as it was what I consider a huge departure from their norm--in a good way.  Magenta is an appropriate color for Stevie as he was appearing on his second franchise that featured red in its team colors.  I love getting new 1/1s and this is even better since it's a PC guy I enjoy collecting.  It's also my 128th such card!

Joining Breaston is fellow WR Devin Funchess on a card that was unfamiliar to me, but one that I instantly loved.  Panini's 2015 National Treasures Collegiate multi-sport product included similarly designed die-cut signatures from each, and naturally this one takes on a football shape.  The autograph and numbering (#96/99) are certainly a plus, but y'all know my favorite feature here is the college uni.  Great pickups on both of these, Doug!

Hockey's last up as usual and once again there's plenty to like.  That starts with base cards of J.T. Compher and Zach Hyman from this year's UD Series I, where Upper Deck proves that nobody does the sport better.  I was very excited to see my first card of wunderkind Quinn Hughes (2019-20 OPC), a super talented D-man I got to see in his couple years in Ann Arbor (2017-19) where he'd absolute fly up the ice.  And lastly, there's Max Pacioretty, who seems like he's been around forever, from 2019-20 Artifacts.  He's close to hitting double-digit goals for the 10th straight year in his second season in Vegas.

That wasn't quite everything, though, as the toploadered cards, decoys, and tape protected something else valuable within:

A signed 8x10 of former Wolverine C Andrew Cogliano!  Doug's sent me all kinds of stuff over the years but I think this is just the second time this kind of autographed memorabilia has come my way and I love it.  It joins that relatively small collection as just the third hockey piece, and I might just have to see about framing it and putting it up somewhere.

Doug, thanks again for some fun surprises and some really nice additions to my collections!  Hopefully I'll be putting the finishing touches on your Christmas cards package (and many others) in the next week or two between COMC, eBay, and the last show of the year.

Box recap: TK Legacy Michigan VI

This won't be a more formal review partly because it's a set that's not widely available, plus I didn't get images of the box before I ripped it.  Therefore, here's a quick recap.

After yesterday's Desmond Howard/Anthony Carter signing, Dustin and I wandered around the (very few) tables at the show.  I found myself drawn to the one table with unopened boxes and recognized the guy as a seller I'd seen many, many times at the Gibraltar Trade Center shows I sometimes go to.  For $70 I picked up a $25 box of 2010 Topps Update hobby baseball and this $45 box of TK Legacy Michigan VI.  This is a series of boxes I'd often seen at the various shows I'd attended but never seriously considered for whatever reason (probably price).  However, $45 for 10 packs, each including a Michigan player auto, seemed like it would be fun.  And so it was, even more so than I thought.

It would appear that multiple series exist for each team that was represented, and each series includes a diverse set of players from various eras.  Even more interesting is the fact that a "limited" number of boxes are made (I believe my label indicated 680).  Each four-card pack included base cards, checklists and a couple different inserts, such as program covers and notable games.  As for autographs, there are base versions, plus different insert variations.  That being said, here's a look at what I pulled:

Base:

Hooray for players/coaches I know!  Most of them, anyway--I didn't really know Lilja, Zurbrugg or Kattus, but everyone else played (or coached, in Moeller's case) during my lifetime.  It was interesting getting a pair of kickers since Michigan's suffered a dearth of quality at the position the last few years.

MOAR KICKERS!  As I said, there's a big range of years represented here, though I don't know if there was any rhyme or reason to how they broke these series up.

The Rivas was my only base double, so I decided to show the back to represent one of those.  Not a bad design, if not exactly top-notch (at least it's not Classic or one of those really low-quality unlicensed cards!).

Inserts:

Yeah, I called the checklists inserts.  I decided to show the front and back of Checklist 1 since I pulled two of those.  I caved and decided to show the Troy Smith game "The Rivalry" insert because I could balance it out with a Michigan win (from 1943, though).  I didn't pull any actual sketch cards, but the ones showing off what you could potentially pull were decent.  The Program Cover was my favorite insert and I wish I'd pulled more.

Autographs:

Sweet, another Breaston!  Looking over the checklist he was about the best I could have pulled (though there weren't many to choose from).  Considering his autograph is usually just "SB", getting his jersey number was pretty cool.

One of several players for whom I had no hits (because they never would have had one otherwise), "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout" Willis was a safety from 2003-2005.  As you can continue to see, most of these players signed their jersey numbers as an additional inscription.

Actually my second Knight, Marcus donned the Maize and Blue from '96-'99, which means he was on the '97 National Championship team.  If "Marcus Knight" isn't a college football player name, I don't know what is.

Rockin' some serious sideburns is one of our recent kickers, Hayden Epstein.  I can definitely say I didn't have any of his previous hits, but now I have two!  (see below)  Epstein was Michigan's kicker from 1998-2001.

I have to admit I knew nothing about Kattus, a TE from '82-'85 (which means he started before I was born), so I found out through Wikipedia that he was a senior captain, drafted by the Bengals and also played for the Jets briefly.  With Brady Hoke back we may see Michigan tight ends in the NFL once more.

I remember hearing Oluigbo's name a bit during his stint at Michigan, but since he was a FB from 2004-2006 he wasn't exactly high profile around here.  Still, another first, which is cool.

My first Ecker, and instead of remembering him for NOT PITCHING THE DAMN BALL TO BREASTON in the clusterf#$k that was the 2005 Alamo Bowl, I like to remember his big play in the 4th quarter of Michigan's win against OSU in 2003, a 30 yard pass (I believe) along the sideline during which my reaction was "Go go GOGOGOYEAH!  Wait, who was that?"

Vanalstyne was a DE from 2003-2006, so there's not much more to say about him other than--yep--this is another first for me.

This here is an insert set hand-numbered to 100 (mine's #83) and I thought it was cool to get a QB I knew like Dreisbach, of whom I had nothing.  Dreisbach was here from '95-'98, though of course he didn't pilot the '97 champions--he played Drew Bledsoe to Brian Griese's Tom Brady, then the following year, with Griese graduated, backed up--guess who?--Tom Brady.  He did end up in the NFL, if only briefly.

#'d 73/100, Here's Epstein #2, part of an autographed insert set that celebrates various Michigan achievements.  This FG would have been in the 2001 MSU game, AKA the Clock Game, in which MSU (at home) inexplicably got an extra second on the clock from their own timekeeper, then won on the last play of the game.  What's funny is that that event can't be what's pictured on the card, which includes Tom Brady as the holder on what appears to be a botched hold.  Interesting choice, to say the least.

All that for $45 was a steal as far as I was concerned, and I foresee a few more boxes of this stuff in my future if I can continue to find them at decent prices.

Stay tuned for a look at my 2010 Topps Update baseball hobby box pretty soon, plus a ton of stuff I know I have coming in the mail this week.  Also, please make sure to head over to the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame as he's drumming up interest for a hit-filled trade bait draft #2, to which I may be contributing some stuff in an effort to increase the number of potential participants.  I was part of the first one and I can guarantee you won't wanna miss this one!

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!