Happy surprise part two

Most of the cards in the lot that I talked about in my last post were from between 2000-2009. Among the cards that I needed in the lot, there were a lot of Fleer and Collector's Edge products. As with any card I need, I was happy to get them. I'll show you a sampling of what I needed.

Here are some insert cards that I needed:



The top players, by numbers, in my collection are Tim Couch (325) and Kevin Johnson (203). I added a number of cards of each of them. I was happy getting both of their 2000 Upper Deck New Guard inserts.

I like the scan of the 2000 Collector's Edge Supreme Kevin Johnson Monday Knights insert, but I think it looks better in person.

The reflective background on the 2000 Collector's Edge T3 Tim Couch Overture insert, and the 2007 Press Pass Brady Quinn Primetime Players insert really pop when you scan them.

Seeing Brady Quinn in his Notre Dame uniform, there were a bunch of Browns I needed in their college uniforms. Here are some of them:

Top (l-r): Charlie Frye - Akron Zips; D'Qwell Jackson - Maryland Terrapins; Jerome Harrison - Washington State Cougars
Bottom (l-r): Joe Thomas - Wisconsin Badgers; Brian Robiskie - Ohio State Buckeyes; James Davis - Florida Gators

Top: Courtney Brown - Penn State Nittany Lions
Bottom: Alex Mack - California Golden Bears



It is fun seeing college uniforms scattered through my collection, even though I think the companies go too far in having all the rookies at the expense of league veterans.

Seeing the Charlie Frye card brings up a little story. I drove down to Cleveland with friends for a game against the Raiders during the 2014 season. While down there we did a little shopping. One of my friends was looking at baseball caps and bought one that he really liked, an Akron Zips cap. I can't see there being too many Zips hats here in Ottawa. (Although for the last half of the past CFL season, the Ottawa team had an Akron Zips alum playing for it - Shawn Lemon.)

Here are some numbered cards that I needed:



The Upper Deck Vintage card is interesting because I assumed it was from the 2001 set, but it turned out to be from the 2000 Upper Deck Vintage Previews set.

The 2002 Fleer Andre Davis Rookie Sensations card is #/1250 on the back.

Seeing Spergon Wynn in the number 13, and David Veikune in the number 57 (all I think of is Clay Matthews) really makes me think that I should do a series of posts on each uniform number in Cleveland Browns history. It could be interesting.



A frustrating part of team collecting is parallel cards. I absolutely hate having to figure out if I have the regular or the glossy Score card from various ears of collecting, and even now as I'm going through my collection again to verify what I have, I am finding that I had identified some of them wrong. Fleer, with their 2001 Fleer Tradition sets, however, made this easier.

Look at the two Kevin Johnson cards. Isn't it nice that they add the word Glossy underneath the Fleer Tradition logo to differentiate the two? Oh, how I wish that other companies would always have some distinct way of marking parallel cards.

As much as I like team cards, or team leader cards that act as checklists, I find this one a little creepy. And it seems odd that you would have one player in his helmet while the others are not wearing one, but then again, you can see the headshot of Kevin Johnson is cropped from the base card.

What would a post with a large grouping of Browns cards be without more quarterbacks?



Okay, Tim Couch was already represented above, as were Brady Quinn, Charlie Frye and Spergon Wynn, but why not add Jeff Garcia (with the Lions) and Nate Hybl to this post?

I like the 1999 Playoff Absolute SSD cards, with the base cards being blue, and with Green, Orange, Purple and Red parallels. This is my first Red card.

I'll finish this post with a group of players that I just like seeing cards of. That is one of the great things about this hobby, it allows you to remember players that you watched play in the past.