I went to my local monthly card show this morning before suffering through watching the Browns game on tv this afternoon. The Browns just didn't seem to match the intensity of the Steelers in Pittsburgh today, and have now lost 23 straight regular season games in Pittsburgh.
I found some new cards to add to my collection, all from the last handful of years.
The Nick Chubb card is acetate, and the white you see in the scan is actually clear for the card. It is a Momentum insert card from the 2022 Panini Chronicles set.
The Martin Emerson card is a Stars insert card from the 2022 Donruss Optic set.
From the 2023 Panini Prizm set, here is a Green parallel of Kareem Hunt.
I'm always happy to add a new Clay Matthews card to my collection. This card is an All-Time Gridiron Kings insert from the 2024 Donruss set. The foil on the card seems to be bronze, and looks a lot nicer in hand than in a scan.
The Nick Chubb card is also nicer in hand, with some foil patterns that don't really scan. This is a Draft Diamonds insert card from the 2024 Panini Absolute set.
Dillon Gabriel was just activated from the injured list last week, and added to the Browns roster. This is a Stars insert card (you can see them best on the bottom of the scan, but they do run around most of the border of the card) from the 2025 Donruss Optic set.
Last year's two rookie running backs are shown above.
The Quinshon Judkins card is a Fireworks insert card from the 2025 Panini Prizm set.
The Dylan Sampson card is a Selct Future insert card from the 2025 Panini Select set.
The above cards are both Red, White and Blue insert cards from the 2025 Panini Prizm set. I like getting multiple parallels from the same set at the same time. It makes me feel like I am actually making progress on a team parallel set.
One dealer had the following Browns cards from the new 2026 Topps Heritage set put aside for me. All of them are regular base cards from the set, but I appreciate getting a bunch of them together so quickly because it may relieve me of the urge of buying a blaster for the set if I see one.
The cards pay tribute to the 1976 Topps football set.
A nice card of Mason Graham, but when I saw it I hoped that there wouldn't be too many Browns cards in this set with the white helmet. As it turned out, this was the only one in the cards that I bought. (I haven't looked through the rest of the team set to see if there are others.)
Since this is my first look at a new set, I'll show the backs for these two cards.
He had this one comic left. There were multiple variant covers, and although there was one that I may have preferred before this one, I really like this one too. Considering he only had the one book, I really didn't have a choice in the matter.
The backs are dark, and a little tough to read, but I like them, and the card has that cardboard feel to it, so I'm happy with that. Nice to see trivia questions on the back of the card.
Now, for comparison, I'm going to pull up a couple of scans from The Trading Card Database to compare.
In a quick glance, I'm happy with the comparison of the front.
The back of this 1976 scan is definitely not as dark, and is much easier to read. My 1976 cards are upstairs so I'm not going to compare one in hand right now.
There is still the orange section on the back with the write up, and stats, but the trim of the card is blue here compared to brown with the new set. The orange helmets in the top left of the card fit nicely with the Browns, and both have them, but the card numbers were bigger in 1976, and the text also appears to be. It definitely is for the name and position.
I think I prefer the individual trivia questions on the back, as opposed to the Who Am I? which has 12 cards dedicated to one player answer.
It is nice to get the Browns first round pick this year with the Spencer Fano card, along with last year's Defensive Rookie of the Year in Carson Schwesinger.
The Browns had a league leader card in 1976, and it had the same look with the rounded top right corner for the player. The text on the 1976 league leader cards only had the team name on them, not the city. And, of course, there was no Sack Leaders cards in 1976.
The set up on the back appears to be the same as the 1976 league leader cards but again the 1976 card back seems brighter, has larger print, and seems easier to read. I think the NFL shield, and the Topps and NFLPA logos are the reason for the smaller print.
I'll probably be pairing these two rookie receivers together in many scans.
I was very surprised to see the Joe Royer card. He was a fifth round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, but didn't report to training camp for personal reasons, and was placed on the Reserve Non-football illness list, designated for return. I'm not sure what his future with the team will be.
With the Browns having a winning record, I don't think that Jerry Jeudy will be traded before the trade deadline. I would hope that they keep him as he is a solid veteran to have behind the two rookie receivers. But I don't make the team decisions, and I know the front office values draft picks.
Finally, I had one non-card related purchase.
Our monthly card show is actually a cards and comics show. I used to collect comics for a long time, and still know some of the dealers.
After hearing that there was a Muppets crossover comic book with the Marvel universe, I really wanted to get a copy of it. However it came out in September, and I didn't hear about it until just before our October card show. I checked two local comic book stores, and didn't see a copy for sale, so I asked one of the dealers at the card show if he had an extra copy of it. He was pretty sure that he did, and said that he would bring it to the November show.
I read the comic this afternoon, and quite enjoyed the stories inside. But, I'm a huge Muppets fan, so I'm probably a very easy audience for this book. Your mileage may vary.
I'm hoping to post again before next month's card show. I've got some posts that I've wanted to write, but I've just been too busy and tired with everything going on right now in life to do so.
