Detroit Card Show Part 2 and a Visit to a Windsor Card Store

Continuing on from the last post, I have some more Browns cards for my collection from the Detroit card show.

I'm not going to complain about finding a modern Jim Brown insert from the 2017 Score set.

Also from the 2017 Score set are two insert cards of David Njoku, the third first round pick the Browns had in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Here are a couple of Baker Mayfield cards that I added to my collection.

To the left is a 2019 Panini Chronicles card. I don't remember seeing any of these cards before, and managed to pick up a couple of Raiders from the set for a friend at the same time. I like the card, perhaps because it seems different, and is easily identifiable.

To the right is a 2020 Panini Phoenix base card. I laugh at the Browns handwarmer that he is wearing around his waist. I actually bought one a few years ago, and have never used/worn it.

The Myles Garrett card below is from the 2021 Panini XR set.

The cards of Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr., and Nick Chubb are red parallels from the 2021 Panini Absolute set.

I can be a bit hypocritical in regards to parallel sets. I complain that there are too many of them, and hate how I can't identify what they are most of the time. Yet, I love getting them for my team, especially when they are easily identifiable like these ones.

Here are a few 2022 Donruss cards. The top one is an Action All-Pros insert card of Nick Chubb, while the bottom two cards are regular base cards.

Here are a couple of insert cards from the 2023 Score set.

Nick Chubb was the heart of the offense going into the 2023 season, and I understand how he fit in The Franchise insert set. Sadly, he was hurt by a really bad hit to the knee against the Steelers in Week 2, that tore his ACL, MCL, meniscus and medial capsule that caused him to miss over a year of play.

No surprise to see Myles Garrett in a Sack Attack insert set.

I like the Panini Illusions cards with the photo featured in the forefront of the card, with it also repeated with a ghostly image in the background.

This Dorian Thompson-Robinson card is an Emerald Trophy Collection parallel from the 2023 Panini Illusions set.

I think back to going to a card show in Syracuse, with Night Owl, at the start of the 2023 season. Thompson-Robinson had shown some nice flashes during training camp, and I was looking forward to finding a card or two of him. I saw a dealer with a couple of nice autographed cards of him, but he was looking for over $100 on each. I wasn't prepared to pay that for a late round pick that probably wouldn't develop into a star quarterback.

The Browns traded Thompson-Robinson to the Eagles for Kenny Pickett last off-season. I believe that he was waived by the Eagles at the end of training camp.

David Bell was drafted by the Browns in the third round, out of Purdue, in the 2022 NFL Draft. I thought that he had potential before an injury at the start of the 2024 season. He announced his retirement from football due to injury earlier this season.

I found this 2021 Pro Set Power - Power Prospects Autographs card for a couple of bucks, which I had no problem with.

For my collection, I will buy college or prospect cards of players that wind up being drafted by the Browns, so this card fits.

I'm not sure how I got the following Austin Hooper card for $3.00. I know it is a Browns card, but it is an autographed card numbered out of 10. I'm not complaining though.

It is from the 2020 Panini Illusions - Superlatives Red insert set.

As well as the loose cards above, I bought myself a box of the 2025 Score-a-Treat Hallowe'en set at the card show. I had already bought some of the cards from the set but pulled three Browns that I needed from my box.

I was really happy to get the Quinshon Judkins card. He's having a good rookie season so far, and seems to have a lot of potential.

The cards in these two posts were not all my purchases from the card show. I bought small stacks of Raiders and Packers cards for some friends here in Ottawa. Mostly from the dimeboxes but a few cheap hits as well.

The day after the card show, after spending time with my sister and some cousins, I managed to get to a card store in Windsor about an hour before it closed.

I went to F & C House of Cards and really enjoyed the store.

One thing that really makes me happy when I go to a store, or a table at a card show, is when I see monster boxes sorted by teams. It helps save me time when I can focus on small sections of cards. I was very happy with some of the cards that I found in their box.

I was very happy to see some early 2000s cards in the box. There are plenty that I still need, especially rookies and parallels. (Unfortunately, my memory wasn't as good as I thought it might be, and I did also buy a few cards that I already owned.)

This card is an Extra parallel for the 2000 Fleer Gamers set. I still need the regular version.

Here are two rookie cards of Sean Jones that I needed. I wasn't a big fan of the rookies always seeming to be numbered or short printed.

The card on the left is from the 2004 Playoff Prestige set, and is listed on the Trading Card Database as being a short print. 

The card on the right is from the 2004 Upper Deck Foundations set, and is numbered out of 350.

The following two cards are also from 2004 Upper Deck Foundations.

The Joe Echemandu card on the left is numbered out of 350.

Echemandu only had football cards in 2004. The Trading Card Database has 78 listed. However, those cards have three different names on them, broken down by the sets they're in as follows:

Adimchinobe Echemandu: Bowman, Bowman's Best, Donruss Classics, Donruss Elite, Leaf Certified Materials, Leaf Rookies & Stars, Playoff Absolute Memorabilia, Playoff Contenders, Playoff Hogg Heaven, Playoff Honors, Playoff Prime Signatures, SkyBox LE, SP Authentic, Topps Chrome, Topps Total

Joe Echema: SPx, Upper Deck Legends, Upper Deck Ultimate Collection

Joe Echemandu: Upper Deck Foundations

Pro Football Reference has him in their database as Adimchinobe Echemandu. He was born in Nigeria, and played his college football at California. He was drafted by the Browns in the 7th round of the 2004 NFL Draft.

He played four games with the Browns in 2004, and then another 15 games with the Vikings, Raiders and Texans between 2005 and 2007.

The Luke McCown card to the right is a Rookie Foundations Patches insert card, numbered out of 25. When I bought it, I didn't notice the two dinged corners on the left side, but they don't bother me for the price that was paid for the card.

There were a couple of cards of 2005 rookie quarterback Charlie Frye, from the Upper Deck set.

The card on top is a regular base card, while the card on the bottom is a Rookie Futures Jerseys insert card.

The top card below is a Rookie Futures Dual insert card from the 2006 Upper Deck set. If you can't read the names from my photo, the two players are Derek Hagan of the Dolphins, and Travis Wilson of the Browns.

The bottom card of Carlton Mitchell is from the 2010 Topps Unrivaled set. It is the Silver parallel, numbered out of 299. I don't own the regular base card, but I do own an autographed version of it.

Mitchell played two seasons with the Browns. In his football travels after that, he played for my hometown Ottawa REDBLACKS in 2014. (And yes, their official team name is in all caps.)

I needed this Astral parallel from the 2018 Panini Unparalleled set.

For the picture below, the Baker Mayfield card is an Honor Roll insert card from the 2019 Panini Prestige set.

The Jarvis Landry card is a Season Stat Line insert card, numbered out of 500, from the 2019 Donruss set.

The next card was definitely my favorite card that I bought in the card store. I was always an Eric Metcalf fan, so when I saw this Mirror Signatures autographed card, numbered out of 65, from the 2019 Panini Certified set for CDN $5.00, I couldn't put it in my pile of cards to buy fast enough.

These two Odell Beckham Jr. cards are from the 2020 Donruss set. The card to the left is a Press Proof Blue parallel, while the card to the right is a Retro 1990 insert card.

Two more Anthony Schwartz cards added to my collection. The card on the left is a Gridiron King Bronze parallel from the 2021 Panini Chronicles set, while the card to the right is a Round Numbers Blue parallel from the Panini Contenders Optic set.

As can be extrapolated from the Optic card, he was drafted in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft, out of Auburn.

Here are a couple more insert cards from 2021 sets. The Nick Chubb card is a Montage insert card from the 2021 Panini Mosaic set.

The Baker Mayfield card is a Standing Ovation insert card from the 2021 Panini Rookies & Stars set.

I was happy to find this base card of Jamari Thrash from the 2024 Panini Prestige set because I had received the other Browns cards from the base set from Dennis in my visit to Detroit.

I was happy with my hour-long trip to F & C House of Cards, and will definitely try to go back there if/when I visit my cousins in Windsor again.

Visting a Detroit Card Show and Meeting a Fellow Blogger

So, it has been a couple of years...

I've still been collecting, reading blogs, and even leaving the odd comment or two. I have stacks of cards to send out to fellow collectors/bloggers, and plan to risk Canada Post and possible extra postal charges to send to the US.

However, over the Hallowe'en weekend, I had a family wedding to attend in Windsor, and reached out to Dennis at the Too Many Verlanders blog to see if he wanted to meet in order to save myself from having to mail a package.

Dennis informed me that there was a three day card show going on at the Taylor Town Center, and wondered if we could meet there. I had to try and convince some family that I didn't need to be with them the whole day after the wedding, and after they agreed, I knew I could meet Dennis for a few hours at a card show.

Before going in to the show, Dennis gave me a nice box of about 100 Browns cards, and I gave him a box of stuff.

Dennis informed me that I wouldn't be able to bring my backpack into the show, so we went back to my sister's car to put my stuff in it...

Or at least I thought it was my sisters car. I don't know who was more surprised, me, or the lady sitting in the passenger seat of the similar colored vehicle sitting right next to where I parked. Ooops.

Upon entering the show, Dennis wanted to take me over to a dealer from Ohio, where he had a few cards that he wanted to buy me if I needed them.

It was nice to add these three 1975 Fleer Immortal Roll cards to my collection.

Dennis also spotted this 1965 Stancraft playing card of Otto Graham that I needed for my collection.

These cards come with red and green backs. This is the red back.

There are also Jim Brown, Lou Groza and Dante Lavelli cards to be found in the deck.

On the way to the Ohio dealer's table, I saw a couple of bins of sets of cards that were marked at $1.00 each, or 6 for $5.00. I spotted one set that I knew that I wanted, so I knew I was going to dig through the bin for more interesting things.

The first thing that I had spotted was the 1989 Pro Set Football Update set. I know I bought one years ago that I broke up to give cards to some friends (there are no Browns in this update set), but I couldn't remember if I had ever bought a second one. Some day I may work on completing the 1989 set, and will definitely want this.

With it, I also found a set of all 30 Announcer insert cards for the same 1989 set. I probably had about half the set, but picking up the full set for a buck was a no-brainer.

Here are some baseball items that I picked up for a buck each.

I'm not sure if I have a complete set of 1990 Donruss or not, and am not really going to go looking through my boxes to find out, but I couldn't resist adding the set of 12 Grand Slammers. I may have had one or two before.

And I figured that I could find someone that would want the 11 1981 Boston Red Sox Coke cards. Sadly, it doesn't have the cover card for the set.

Finally, a Kmart box set for a buck. The gum inside has kind of warped the back of the box a bit, and left a gum stain on the back of the Rich Allen card.

I wasn't fully sure what the stamps were that were wrapped up together with Fernando Valenzuela on top. I found out that they were 1982 Fleer Stamps. I assume it is the whole set, but I didn't feel like opening it up to check. With Valenzuela on top, I offered the set to Night Owl, and will just give it to him sealed like I got it.

Looking at the rest of the dealer's table, I found two more items at $5.00 each.

The 1990 Pro Set Update set is probably a double. I'm pretty sure that I bought one that got opened and shared (there is a Browns coach in this one), and then bought a second for a set, but I don't remember. I didn't really think too much about this one. (Woo hoo! Cover price!)

The 1986 Fleer Star Stickers set was something I had seen on other blogs, but never really owned. I figured why not? I mean, 1986 was a good year for a Mets fan. It also came with 22 stickers, to give me all the different sticker backs. I'll probably look to pick up missing sticker front/back combinations but they won't be a priority.

Wandering around the show, I spent a bunch of time in a dime box, grabbing Browns for myself, and Packers and Raiders for friends at home. And I bought other cards from various dollar, or 3 for $5.00 boxes. I'm going to show those purchases in another post, along with some cards that I bought in Windsor.

Now, I'm going to show most of the cards that I got from Dennis.

This decal/window cling from 2005 Bazooka might be my favorite of the bunch:

A William Green card that was needed from 2002 Upper Deck, along with a James Jackson card from the 2004 Topps 1st Edition set:

A pair of cards from 2014. The first being a Prizm Fuchsia parallel numbered out of 199 from the Panini Select set, and the other being a Retail parallel from the 2014 Topps Valor set. (Two things. I never would have known how to spell fuchsia without seeing it spelled out on the TCDB checklist; and I would have bet money that I already owned the Isaiah Crowell Topps Valor Retail card. I probably would have left it behind in a dime box.)

I was very happy ot see the Championship Ticket parallel (numbered out of 99) of Travis Benjamin from the 2015 Panini Contenders set. (Sorry about the pictures, the cards don't look as nice in my pictures taken in poor light compared to in hand.)

The Carlos Hyde card is a base card from the 2018 Panini Prizm set.

Here are some Odell Beckham Jr. cards from 2019:

And Ozzie Newsome and Myles Garrett from 2019:

Generally, I like the veteran cards being added to Panini football sets. I'm not going to complain about a new Ozzie Newsome card.

Here are a few 2020 cards:

I'm very happy to see the success that Baker Mayfield is having in Tampa Bay. I really don't think he got a fair chance at the end of his stint in Cleveland. 

Some nice parallels from 2021:

Again, the light in the room was on the right. The two cards to the right are the same Xtra Points Astral parallel. (Who names these things?)

From 2022, here are a couple of Myles Garrett cards that I needed:

Along with three other cards I needed from 2022:

With Peoples-Jones being a Michigan alum, I know that I'll only get doubles from Dennis. But, hey, he's only going to get any doubles I have too.

The 2023 cards bring me a Browns card of Joe Flacco. I was very happy to add it to my collection. I really appreciated his first stint with the Browns, taking them to the playoffs.

Here are some needed Amari Cooper cards from 2023:

That is the red parallel of Myles Garrett for the 2023 Panini Contenders set.

I was glad the Browns didn't trade David Njoku at the trade deadline. He seems to like playing in Cleveland. 

There were a lot of 2024 cards that I needed among the cards. I really didn't buy much new and haven't seen many base cards locally.

The first seven cards here are all Nick Chubb cards. The thing that I find funny with them is that they are all showing him in the alternate white uniform with the white helmet. They wore the white helmets for three games in 2023. I wonder if all the photos are from the same game, or whether they came from different games. The Optic and Certified cards seem to have the same stain on the inside of the left knee of his pants.

Eight more Amari Cooper cards for the collection:

Although Jeff Garcia didn't have the greatest run with the Browns, I remember his CFL days very well before he went to San Francisco. It is nice to add a new Browns card of him.

Nine new Myles Garrett cards, in various combinations of the uniform:

Myles Garrett gets to celebrate a number of sacks, and is being paid very well, but I feel sorry that his play seems to be wasted year after year.

Jerry Jeudy had a very good first season with the Browns.

Two more veterans cards from Browns teams before they moved.

Pepper Johnson played for Bill Belichick with the Giants before the coach came to Cleveland. He brought a few Giants with him.

And, of course, Bill Belichick cut Bernie Kosar. To me, I still don't understand why, if he wanted to cut him, he did it while Vinnie Testaverde was hurt. Things worked out fine for Bernie, as it got him his Super Bowl ring with Dallas.

I said earlier in this post that I mostly liked seeingold veterans included in the new sets. I just wonder why Johnny Manziel is still included in so many of them.

I kept waiting for Elijah Moore to break out with the Browns.

I'm never going to complain about adding another Joe Thomas card to the collection. This is the red parallel of the Score set.

I'll finish what I'm showing from Dennis with these David Njoku cards from 2024:

There were a few more cards from Dennis that I didn't show. They were of an injured Browns quarterback that I don't want to play another down for the team. I'll put his cards in my collections, as they are Browns cards, but I don't need to show them.

Finally, I said that I was in Windsor to attend a wedding. It was black tie preferred. I decided not to rent a tux.

For your amusement:

After seeing it on a mannequin, I decided to try the black on black look for the shirt. I thought it looked sharp. It really fit in with the formality of the wedding reception. That is the Black Watch tartan for the kilt.

It won't be two years for my next post. I've still got cards to show from the show and a store in Windsor.