Recent purchases from Burbank Sportscards and Teamsets4u.com

I was looking for a Mets card for my Opening Day project, and strangely found myself looking through the Burbank Sportscards inventory for Browns cards. I found some nice cards to add to my collection.

L-R: 1963 Topps #24 and #16

I still need a number of cards for the 1963 Topps team set, including the Jim Brown.

I like the clear photo on the team card, and don't mind that it is off-center. The Browns in this set are all short prints, so I'm not going to worry too much about trying to find really good condition cards. I want to fill the holes in my collection.

1991 Wild Card - 20 Stripe #132

Clay Matthews is one of my all-time favorite Browns. I really think that he will eventually make the Hall of Fame via the Senior Selection Committee.

I'm always happy to find missing Wild Card stripe cards that I need.

L-R: 1993 Stadium Club - Members Only #4 and #546

These two cards bring me down to needing one final card for the Members Only parallel - Kevin Mack.

Seeing these cards remind me how much I liked the old Browns uniform design as opposed to the current ones. They may be more old-fashioned, or it may be because the only real success that I've seen for the Browns came in these uniforms.

The order didn't stop with the Members Only parallels.

1993 Stadium Club - 1st Day Production #167 and #372

Michael Dean Perry gave the Browns some really good seasons, making the Pro Bowl five times in his seven seasons with Cleveland, being named to four All-Pro teams, and being named the 1989 AFC Defensive Player of the Year. Of course, he is probably still better known as being the younger brother of William "The Refrigerator" Perry.

These two cards doubled the amount of 1st Day parallels that I own. Fifteen more to go!

L-R: 1993 Pro Set - All-Rookies #8; 1993 Pacific Prisms #15

The Steve Everitt All-Rookie card was the last card I needed from 1993 Pro-Set. It is always nice to take a set right off of the wantlist.

As for the Michael Jackson card, it was on my wantlist, but when I went to add it to my collection on the Trading Card Database, it looked like I already owned it. I haven't looked in my 1993 binder yet, but I'll check it to make sure, and then compare the conditions of both cards.

L-R: 1994 Topps - Special Effects #418 and #628

A couple more parallels for my collection. Isn't it so nice to see cards of kickers and tackles?

There were 24 Browns cards in 1994 Topps. These two Special Effects cards bring my collection up to 23. I'm missing Don Griffin. The "special effect" of the parallel shows better in person

The next parallel is interesting.

1994 Score - Gold Zone #308

No, it isn't interesting because of all the fingerprints that seem to have appeared on the card. It is interesting in that only one side of the card shows the gold parallel, and the team checklist cards are shared with a second team on the other side. From those that I've seen, it appears that it was always the AFC team that shows the Gold Zone parallel.

Here is the other side of the card:

The picture is a little clearer without the gold parallel, isn't it? It was the last Gold Zone parallel that I needed for the team set.

Finally, this next purchase is from a set that I had heard about for years, but had never seen. They are from the 1994 Pro Tags set.

Top (l-r): 1994 Pro Tags #31 and #32

Bottom (l-r): 1994 Pro Tags #33 and #34

I was very happy to find these in Burbank's inventory. I still have a Testaverde and Vardell to find.

I think it has been a while since I've found an Eric Metcalf to add to my collection. Here is the back of his tag to show what they look like.

A couple of friends of mine that are Raider fans were never pleased with Eric Metcalf. They think he always seemed to find a way to beat them.

It was really nice to pick up all these cards from the old Browns team before the move.

Around the same time as my Burbank purchase, I received an email with a sale code from Teamsets4u.com. I took a look through their Browns team sets and found two to purchase.

Top (l-r): 2001 Topps - Collection #37, #63, and #121

Bottom (l-r): 2001 Topps - Collection #149 and #152

I'm kind of hit and miss on the Topps Collection parallels. I had found the Collection cards I needed from the 2000 and 2002 sets, and own one card from the 1999 set, but didn't own any from 2001 or 2003 and 2004.

Seeing the 2001 team set available, it was a no-brainer to pick it up.

Getting it showed me a base card that I now need to pick up. The David Patten card is listed as a Patriot and I didn't realize that it showed him in his Browns uniform. I was happy that it was included here, and now I know that I have to find the base card.

Top (l-r): 2001 Topps - Collection #168, #206, and #235

Bottom (l-r): 2001 Topps - Collection #254 and #304

Ah, Spergon Wynn. One of the quarterbacks drafted ahead of Tom Brady. Too bad that Wynn was thrown into a game in his rookie season when he wasn't really ready. I didn't know that would be a common occurrence for rookie quarterbacks afterwards. (I did end up seeing Spergon Wynn play in the CFL.)

Top (l-r): 2001 Topps - Collection #305, #309, and #315

Bottom (l-r): 2001 Topps - Collection #333 and #359

Am I the only team collector that still gets a happy feeling when they get new cards of former high draft picks that everyone considers to be busts? I always seem to remember the optimism that I felt when the Browns draft the players. I'm looking forward to seeing what new players they draft in a couple of weeks.

Another team set that I found was for 2011 Score. Okay, I had all the base cards for 2011 Score, but this was advertised as being from the factory set, and I knew that there were factory set update cards for five Browns rookies.

Top (l-r): 2011 Score - Factory Set Updates #337, #341, and #349

Bottom (l-r): 2011 Score - Factory Set Updates #370 and #372

The team set was very reasonably priced and well worth getting to find five new cards.

Nothing major in these purchases but some nice holes were filled in my collection.