COMC Black Friday: 2003 - 2005 Browns; and Christmas packs 30 - 32

Continuing on with my COMC order, we're getting into the time period where they should be getting competitive after rejoining the league in 1999. The Browns made the playoffs in 2002, and hopes were high that they would continue to improve.

Top (l-r): 2003 Bowman Chrome - Refractors #47 (#/500); 2003 Playoff Prestige - Reunion #15 (#/2002)

Bottom: 2003 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects - The Power & the Potential #PP29 (#/1700)

Cards of young returning players for the 2003 team. Still lots of hope.

L-R: 2003 Fleer Authentix - Balcony #126 (#/250); Playoff Hogg Heaven #152 (#/1000); 2003 Ultra #168

The 2003 NFL Draft added Lee Suggs from Virginia Tech in the fourth round. He played three seasons with the Browns, and my memories of him are that he looked good when he played but couldn't stay healthy.

L-R: 2003 Bowman Chrome - Refractors #165 (#/500); 2003 SP Signature #103 (#/750)

Chaun Thompson was the Browns second round pick in the 2003 NFL Draft out of West Texas A&M. He ended up playing five years, and was a starter for most of his second and third years with the team, but I believe that he made more of an impact on special teams during his stint with the Browns. I think most people hoped for more from a second round pick.

Nate Hybl was signed as an undrafted free agent from Oklahoma but didn't play in the regular season for the Browns. In a previous post where I showed one of his cards, Tony at Off-Hiatus Baseball Cards left a comment saying that Nate Hybl had opened a restaurant in Atlanta.

Off of their playoff season of 2002, the Browns slipped to 5-11 and have not been to the playoffs since.

L-R: 2004 Fleer Sweet Sigs #98 (#/999); 2004 Topps Pristine #103 (#/999); 2004 Topps Pristine #104 (#/499)

The 2004 season brought with it excitement around the sixth pick of the NFL Draft, Kellen Winslow Jr.

The season started strong with a season opening win at home against the Ravens, but then Kellen Winslow broke his leg in their second game in Dallas. After six weeks the Browns were at 3-3 before losing the next nine games. They won their final game of the year to finish at 4-12.

Oh, and that opening day win? It remains the only opening day win since the Browns returned to the league in 1999.

Top (l-r): 2004 Playoff Absolute #32 (#/1150); #33 (#/1150); #34 (#/1150)

Bottom (l-r): 2004 Playoff Absolute #36 (#/1150); #37 (#/1150)

I had a bunch of the Retail versions of these cards but only owned one of the regular hobby version before this COMC order. I really liked the color refraction that the scanner gave these cards.

L-R: 2004 Leaf Rookies & Stars Longevity - Ruby #23 (#/250); 2004 SPx #154 (#/1650)

The scanner added more colors to the Garcia ruby parallel. This one doesn't quite look as good with the scan.

Joe Echema was the simplified name of Nigerian born Adimchinobe Echemandu. Of the ten different cards I own of him, this is the second that has the Echema name on it. He was a seventh round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. He played one year with the Browns, carried the ball 8 times for 25 yards, and had 3 receptions for 25 yards.

Top (l-r): 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads - Rookie Hoggs #RH-3 (#/750); 2005 Upper Deck Reflections #134 (#/899)

Bottom (l-r): 2005 Playoff Contenders - Playoff Ticket #23 (#/199); 2005 Playoff Honors - X's #23 (#/299)

The top two cards show the Browns first two draft picks from the 2005 NFL Draft. Both played with the Browns into the 2009 season, and both were with the Jets for the 2010 season. In my collection, however, there is a big difference. I currently own 275 different Braylon Edwards cards, third in my collection behind Tim Couch and Kevin Johnson, and I expect him to pass Johnson sometime soon. As for Brodney Pool, I have 9 different cards, and the Trading Card Database only lists 81 cards made of him.

I really liked Pool as a Safety, and was disappointed when the Browns didn't re-sign him after the 2009 season.

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The Christmas baseball packs here are similar to last post's packs - same set, different series. We have three packs to show of 1992 Stadium Club Series 3.

Pack 1:

Okay, these cards aren't what I think of when I think of Stadium Club cards. All but the Dewey photos appear to be posed.

I'm happy to see two Mets cards, but unfortunately McKnight died young a few years ago from leukemia.

More posed photos, except for Sid Fernandez. Nice to see another Met in here.

Nice to see photos that aren't posed. Sad to see another person that passed too early with Darryl Kile. The Keith Miller card was damaged - the dent you see on the left of the card is almost a cut all the way through it.

Bob Walk? I think I've heard of him, but I don't know if I recognize him in the photo on the card. I thought he was supposed to have some sort of mustache.

Pack 2:

This pack stuck together more than the other Stadium Club cards that I opened. And some of the cards are misprinted - Joyner's name is down at the edge of the card, and the foil Stadium Card printing is covering Turner Ward and Randy Myers' first names.

Interesting that I got Joyner in both Series 1 and Series 3.

As I've been doing these Christmas packs, I've been scanning them as I open the packs, and have been doing each of them by types. I originally opened all five Stadium Club packs together but then realized that I didn't want to post all of them together. Unfortunately, I mixed up the second batch of cards from the second pack from Series One and Three and posted these cards yesterday. I have corrected yesterday's post with the proper cards, and moved my comments for the cards above from my last post to this post, that being: Not a great selection of photos on these cards.

Nothing really jumps out at me among these five cards.

Pack 3:

I find it weird to see Gregg Jefferies in a Royals uniform.

Four doubles in these five cards.

At first I thought I the Chuck Knoblauch card might be some sort of parallel with the Member's Choice on the bottom, but then I found that it was just a subset in the base set. Silly me, I forgot that this might be a little early for the parallel age.

It was nice to open the Stadium Club cards but I forgot about how much some of the cards from then stick together now. I know that I had that problem with so many of the football cards I had packed away.