2019 trade package #30: Card Boarded

Once again I'm celebrating a Michigan Football win on a lovely (if chilly) Saturday, even if the team didn't play as well as expected.  And I'm doing so with another package from Paul who lives in Sterling Heights, Michigan.  

But wait!  It's not buddy of the blog Paul who runs Scribbled Ink, but instead Paul who runs Card Boarded!  This Paul contacted me letting me know he had some Michigan Hockey dupes to send my way, and I said sign me right up, because I love trading with new folks, especially fellow Michiganders, and especially especially anyone that has Michigan stuff I can use.

So on a day dominated by football but also marked by Michigan's second contest of the season on the ice, here's a look at all the great hockey stuff Paul sent my way:

It was a very Hockey Mikes kind of package, and I would have used that tag if it would have fit, but Paul sent me a nice variety of players so there wasn't room.  Cammalleri (1 new card, 71 total) and Comrie (14, 41) are two such players, and the latter definitely got a nice boost.  You'll see more of him in a minute, but this first bunch of five gives you a good idea of the range of years and sets spread throughout the mailer, especially Pacific and Upper Deck MVP.  Cogliano isn't a "Mike" but did get three new additions to his collection (46).

I mentioned Paul added 14 cards to my Comrie collection, and here's most of the rest.  Pacific makes a couple more quality appearances with designs I like--no surprise at this point in its run.  This scan includes the first of a number of Victory cameos you'll see in the next few, plus a shiny (a.k.a. difficult to scan but good looking) Parkhurst.  Jack Johnson (52) gets a newbie from UD, a brand also included in Comrie's count.

Here's our other Hockey Mike:  former Wolverwing Knuble (2, 24), pictured with his fourth (and sixth) team, the Flyers.  As you can see, 2007-08 MVP's base cards came with the silver signatures instead of making them an insert, which seemed pretty cool to me.  Then we get into another nice run for a single player:  John Madden (10, 29).  The three-time Cup winner (two with the pictured Devils, once with the Hawks) got a nice boost with this selection, including more Pacific goodness, Victory and MVP, and one of a couple appearances of a very cool UD Victory design, right down the middle.

After a couple more Maddens, from previously seen Victory and Ultra sets, we move on to a singular Al Montoya (17), the goalie for the first team I watched with student season tickets.  Then we go to one of my biggest hockey PCs in Brendan Morrison (11, 94), big enough that he has his own Google album in my collection.  Ranked #2 after a guy you'll see in a couple scans, he was also the beneficiary of many of the same sets we've seen already, which is a great thing since I like how they look.  2001-02 Topps makes its third and final appearance, plus there's the beautiful 2000-01 UD Vintage, once again, to its left.

Four more Morrisons lead to a singular cameo for Max Pacioretty (51) on a 2013-14 Score Gold parallel I'm surprised I didn't have (though I do have the base version).  It reminds me of the look Topps used to use on its own Gold inserts until recently.  Then it's back to the crease for yet another big player run:  Steve Shields (14, 31).  These were a huge boon to one of my smaller collections that I'm happy to be growing, and, as is often the case with goalies, there's some terrific shots.

Nothing against the rest of the cards you're seeing today, but this scan and the next are my two favorites, and I think you'll see why as you look them over.  The 2000-01 Pacific base that ends the last scan includes an outstanding photo, but that same year's Stadium Club design, leading off this one, can't be beat.  Then we're back for the Vintage design I keep mooning over, and the shiny Parkhurst look from 2003-04.

We'll get back to Shields in a minute, but first we have a couple other players to cover here.  The first is top PC guy Marty Turco (7, 126), who also gets some good crease shots.  He stars on one of the coolest cards in the whole envelope, a solid (acetate?) base card from a 2005-06 Upper Deck Trilogy subset numbered 092/599.  I don't think I'd see these before, but the Frozen in Time cards are quite thick, and the see-through aspect is always a plus.

Zach Werenski (9) then pops up on the newest card in his small collection.  We'll see if the Columbus D can score 11+ goals for the fourth straight season.

This penultimate scan is my other favorite because it includes some excellent looking stuff, plus everything's horizontal.  Comrie, Madden, and Morrison all return for their final appearances before we come to the conclusion of the Steve Shields show.  And what a show it is with some cool designs, including a sweet 2001-02 Atomic Premiere Date parallel of the already die-cut base set (#03/90) and my first Shields relic in nine hits:  a 2000-01 Black Diamond Game Gear goalie pad.  That's much cooler than the traditional jersey swatch and I think it's awesome.

Last up today is the remainder of the Turcos, and why shouldn't the #1 PC guy get to send us home?  His three horizontals are from 2002-03 MVP, 2003-04 Pacific's In the Crease, and the same year's SPx.  The Pacific insert somewhat reminds me of other inserts the brand did on the baseball end while the SPx design brings to memory the product's earlier emphasis on holograms.  Those are joined by a mini from 2001-02 Private Stock's PS-2002 insert.

Paul, thanks for reaching out and sending me some great looking, useful stuff for a bunch of my hockey collections!  I'll try to start piling up more Wings/Preds/goalies/etc. so we can do this again soon.

2019 COMC purchases: non-PC football and hockey hits

A quite satisfying Michigan thumping of Rutgers (52-0) has me in the mood to post some cards from my most recent COMC shipment comprising purchases from earlier this year.  It looks like this will be a four-part series, and today's kickoff will cover hits I scored of guys who don't have their own PC albums and play(ed) football or hockey:

Two players dominate today's post, and that's cool since I often pair them up mentally the way I do with David Terrell and Anthony Thomas.  The first is WR Jehu Chesson (click his name to go to my TCDB gallery for him, plus the other players in today's post).  Considering his playing time in the NFL has been minimal it's been easy finding nice stuff of his at low prices, such as the four autographs you see above.  Jehu's got an interesting signature, with his name somewhat reasonable to make out, and he includes the "II" in his name, which is pretty cool.

In terms of what you see above, Leaf Metal Draft includes a Michigan uniform-ish picture (hey, what are you gonna do?) and Panini's Unparalleled is a super shiny design, plus it's #39/49.  The middle two are from Panini's Preferred (using the Crown Royale design) and Prizm.

Numbers-wise, Chesson's hit count nearly doubles from three to seven after these additions, and I'd surely be happy to land more when I can.

Chesson always brings to mind position pal Amara Darboh, and vice versa, so naturally I have a bunch of his cards to show off today as well.  As a matter of fact, this scan of four vertical designs is just the tip of the iceberg!

The relic in this group is a nice Mirror Orange jersey card from 2017 Certified and is numbered 122/399.  To its right is a jersey/auto/RC (#095/299) from 2017 Limited, and that interesting swatch has the slightest hint of green stitching, so it looks like it probably came from the jersey numbers on his chest.  Then there's autographs from Origins' Rookie Signatures and Playoff's Rookie Autographs (#107/199), also 2017 Panini products.  Like Chesson he has a pretty decent signature.

Yep, five more cards of the nomadic WR, all horizontal this time.  Relics from Panini Contenders Rookie Ticket Swatches, Origins Rookie Jumbo Jerseys (#026/199), and Vertex Startup Jerseys (#89/99) comprise a nice jersey trio, with the latter two being my favorites, especially the Vertex card and its enormous swatch.

Those are joined by the base (#04/99) and Orange (#15/25) versions of Amara's 2017 Panini XR Luminous Endorsements autos.  The super cool design here is kind of a thinner shadowbox idea, with the image framed by the border underneath a clear acetate cover that the player signs.  That makes it great to look at, plus it gives players a very large surface to cover with their signatures.  Too cool!

Darboh has been one of my more productive recent collections and this big haul jumps him all the way up to 29 hits (and 39 cards total), a number I'll look to increase soon.

This last football scan includes three miscellaneous players.  Funchess is well known around these parts, and here the former TE/WR stars on a 2015 Panini Contenders Rookie Ticket Swatches jersey.  As usual I find the Contenders design simple and appealing.  That's hit #11 and card #54 of the injured Colt.

Next is one of two new players debuting in the Michigan Football hits collection today.  Mike McCray was a two-year starter at LB in Ann Arbor who put up fairly similar numbers in 2016 and '17, though that's where his career ultimately ended as he retired last year.  That makes me grateful for a product like Contenders--in this case 2018 Draft Picks--that allows me to chase an autograph of a guy that wouldn't otherwise have one, even if that autograph is a bit on the "???" side.

Last up is QB Jake Rudock, the Iowa transfer that came to Ann Arbor in 2015 and led Jim Harbaugh's first team to a 10-3 record, including a thumping of Florida in the Citrus Bowl.  Harbaugh was able to elevate his play enough to get Rudock drafted by the Lions in the sixth round the following year, which I guess isn't exactly an ideal fate.  Fortunately he's escaped that vortex of suck, only to be encompassed by a worse one down in Miami!  Anyway, my first hit of his is this beautiful (if poorly scanned) 2016 Panini Black Gold Golden Prospects Signatures White Gold auto (#92/99).  Like the Darbohs above this one has a bit of a shadowbox effect, though the image of the player you see is on the top layer, and the autograph was on a sticker placed on the other acetate piece.

I'm happy to welcome McCray and Rudock as the 220th and 221st players in the football collection, and even happier that they contributed to today's big milestone:  1400 football hits and counting!  1402 to be exact, with more to be posted soon.  Right now I doubt I'll hit 1500 before the end of the year, but you never know.

With hockey season (both college and pro) starting up soon, today seemed as good of a day as any to post my lone pickup in that sport:

I love it when I can get 1/1s for cheap prices, and this plate of Steve Shields from 2017-18 Leaf Masked Men certainly qualifies:  I grabbed it for just $4.85 way back in April.  As you can see, it's the cyan plate from the goalie-centric product's Jumbo Goalie Patch insert, and I'd sure love to add one of those actual cards to my Shields collection as well!  For now this plate goes with the seven autographs I have of the former Michigan netminder, and it becomes 1/1 #122.  I don't have any more such cards from COMC to show off, but an upcoming eBay post may just blow your mind.

Here's hoping I'm in the mood for posting next weekend after another one, this time against Iowa.  In the meantime stay tuned for a few more COMC posts, plus another Sportlots run.