Sportlots purchase - cards from 2002-2006

This post is continuing a selection of cards from my recent Sportlots order. This one will show cards that I purchased from 2002-2006 sets.

The 2002 season brought hope to Browns fans. In their fourth season back in the NFL, they made the playoffs, and were winning their Wild Card game 24-7 early in the third quarter, in Pittsburgh, against the Steelers. They lost 36-33, allowing a last-minute touchdown to lose the game. It ended horribly, but gave a sense of optimism for the future. Little did anyone realize that they wouldn't make the playoffs again until the 2020 season.

Running back William Green was the Browns first round pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, out of Boston College.

The top left card is a base card from the Bowman Chrome set; the top right card is a base card from the Leaf Rookies & Stars set; the bottom card is a base card from the Topps Pristine set.

When cheering for our teams, there are often players with the same last name on the team. In the nameplate, they will generally add the first intial to differentiate them. The Browns did their best to confuse the fans in the 2002 NFL Draft.

In the 2nd round, they drafted wide receiver André Davis from Virginia Tech. Then, in the 5th round, they drafted linebacker Andra Davis from Florida.

It continues to confuse me. I meant to put the two André cards together for the scan, and then just botched it. Oops.

The top card is a base card from the Fleer Throwbacks set, while the bottom left card is a base card from the collegiate SAGE HIT set. 

As you might recognize from the earlier William Green card, the bottom right card is a base card from the Leaf Rookies & Stars set.

I'll transition the cards from 2002 into 2003 with cards from the two players that I own the most cards of, Kevin Johnson and Tim Couch.

The top left card is a base card from 2002 Bowman, and the top right card is a base card from 2002 Topps Gallery.

The bottom left card is a dark scan of a 2003 Leaf Limited base card, numbered out of 999. The bottom right card is a base card from the 2003 Topps Pristine set.

In the 2003 NFL Draft, the Browns drafted running back Lee Suggs from Virginia Tech in the 4th round.

The top right card is a base card, numbered out of 1500, from the Fleer Platinum set, while the bottom card is a base card, numbered out of 750, from the Leaf Rookies & Stars set.

The top left card is a base card from the Fleer Authentix set, numbered out of 1250. The middle part of the card is a tab that can be pulled out so that the card could be "upgraded" to one of three different levels: Lower Level, Upper Level and Luxury Box. You can see part of the tab sticking out from the right side of the card. I didn't really pull on it, that is how it was sent to me.

Here are some of his cards in his Virginia Tech uniform.

The card on the left is a base card from the SAGE set; the top right card is a base card from the Topps All-American set, borrowing its design from 1955; the bottom right card is a base card, numbered out of 1800, from the Upper Deck Pros & Prospects set, shared with Virginia Tech alum Michael Vick.

Let's move on to some 2004 cards.

The top left card is a 1st Edition parallel from the Bowman set; the top right card is a General Admission Green parallel, numbered out of 100, from the Fleer Authentix set.

The bottom card is a SAGE HIT card of their second round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, safety Sean Jones.

The top two cards are base cards from the Playoff Prestige set.

The bottom left card is a Ruby parallel, numbered out of 250, from the Leaf Rookies & Stars Longevity set. The Longevity set is pretty much a parallel set to the regular Rookies & Stars set of that year. I wasn't collecting at the time. I would assume that the regular set might have been like a Retail set, while Longevity might have been a Hobby set, but I'm not sure.

The bottom right card brings a smile to my face that always appears when I add a new Topps Total parallel to my collection. It is a Silver parallel, and only the second that I own out of the 15 Browns cards in the set.

The 2005 cards will start with a couple of the Browns draft picks from the 2005 NFL Draft.

Braylon Edwards was the 3rd overall pick, out of Michigan, while Charlie Frye is a third round pick out of Akron.

The card on the left is a 1st Edition parallel from the Bowman set, while the card on the right is a base card from the Topps Turkey Red set.

The Browns second round pick in the 2005 NFL Draft was safety Brodney Pool out of Oklahoma.

The top left card is a base card from the SAGE set, while the top right card is a base card from the SAGE HIT set. 

The bottom card is a Reflect Blue card from the SAGE HIT set. The number on the card is the same as the base set, but it is a different photo, so it isn't really a parallel set.

The top left card is a Bronze parallel from the Bowman set, while the top right card is a Museum Collection parallel from the Donruss Zenith set.

The bottom left card is a base card from the Score set. Whenever I looked at my wantlists, I was always surprised to find that I needed this card. I wouldn't be surprised if I had left it in boxes before at some point assuming that I already had it. I'm glad to finally own it.

The bottom right card is a base card from the Upper Deck set. One of the many that get missed when players aren't yet in their new Browns uniform.

Since the 2006 cards are starting with Charlie Frye, who played for the Akron Zips, I'm going to tell a story about my roommate.

On a trip to a game in Cleveland, my roommate bought a Zips baseball cap. It is a rare sight to see in Ottawa, Canada. He did once have someone ask him if he went to school in Akron. I don't know who was more surprised, the guy, seeing someone wearing a Zips baseball cap, or my roommate, having someone actually recognize the Zips cap. The truth is, he bought it because he thought it was a cool looking cap.

The top left card is a Blue parallel, numbered out of 500, from the Bowman set, while the top right card is a White parallel, numbered out of 125, from the same set.

The bottom card is a base card, numbered out of 1199, from the Topps Triple Threads set.

The next cards was the only memorabilia card that I bought in the purchase. It is of the Browns 3rd round pick from the 2006 NFL Draft. He was a wide receiver that played four games for the Browns, with two receptions in his career, both for first downs.

There is a simple white swatch on this Player Timeline Jerseys card, numbered out of 250, from the Donruss Gridiron Gear set. It shows Wilson as both an Oklahoma Sooner, and as a Cleveland Brown.

I own 75 different Travis Wilson cards.

Here are a couple of new Braylon Edwards cards to my collection. The card on the left is a Membership Bronze insert card, numbered out of 1000, from the Donruss Classics set. I actually bought two of these cards, figuring to send the second one to Michigan.

The card on the right is a Retail version of the Playoff Absolute Memorabilia set.

I'll finish this post with some more Topps Total parallels, and another smile. 

The top two cards are Red parallels, while the bottom card is a Blue parallel from the Topps Total set. This brings me up to seven of the Red parallels, and 13 of the Blue parallels, out of 19 Browns cards in the set.

Sportlots purchase - cards from 1999-2001

Continuing with my Sportlots order, I'm going to post a selection of the cards that I bought for my collection, mostly from older to newer cards.

This order didn't have many cards from the 1999 expansion year. Here are four of them.

I only have one player with more than 500 cards in my collection, and that is Tim Couch. As the first overall pick, and a quarterback, he had so many cards and inserts. I'm sure I'll be adding more for the rest of my collecting days.

Top left is a Gold Ingot parallel from the Collector's Edge Fury set; top right is a Protential insert card, numbered out of 1999, from the Fleer Mystique set; bottom left is a 20th Century Superstars insert card from the Upper Deck Legends set.

The bottom right card is the base Upper Deck Black Diamond card of wide receiver Leslie Shepherd. It is the last base card that I needed for the team set. I previously had owned the die-cut parallel of this card. I'm happy to finally have the base card.

Moving on to some cards from 2000, here are four different players' cards from my purchase.

The top left card is a Bowman base card of Damon Dunn. It shows him in his Berlin Thunder uniform, and notes on the back that he was allocated to NFL Europe by the Browns. This is only my second card of Dunn, joining a Pacific card in my collection. 

The top right card is a Rookie Masters insert card of Dennis Northcutt, numbered out of 2000, from the Collector's Edge Masters set. It is one of four Browns cards in a thirty card insert set. I now have three of the four, still needing JaJuan Dawson's card.

The bottom left card is a Finest base card of Travis Prentice. It is numbered out of 2400.

The bottom right card is base card of Darrin Chiaverini from the Fleer Traditions Glossy set. There are separate sets of regular and glossy cards, and I picked up four needed glossy cards with this order. By scan, you can't really see the difference, but they are very noticeable in hand.

The following cards are more Travis Prentice rookie cards.

The top right card is a Scorecard parallel, numbered out of 2000, from the Score set.

The other two cards are from the Playoff Prestige set. The top left card is his base card, numbered out of 2500, while the bottom card is a Draft Picks insert card.

I can't say that I've ever really been a fan of numbering the base card rookies in sets. It seemed, back then, that numbered meant that I would probably never see those cards.

In the 2000 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns made Courtney Brown of Penn State the first selection overall. Here are some new cards from his rookie year to joing my collection.

The top left card is his base card from the Playoff Absolute set, numbered out of 3000; the top right card is a Big Numbers insert card from the collegiate Press Pass set; the bottom left card is his base card from the Upper Deck Gold Reserve set, numbered out of 2500; the bottom right card is his base card from the Upper Deck Legends set, numbered out of 2000.

While looking through the available cards in Sportlots and comparing them to my collection, I was rather surprised that I needed the Big Numbers insert card. I probably would have passed it up if I had seen it in a box at a card show. As it turned out, it was familiar because I already owned the die-cut version of the card.

TIm Couch wasn't ignored among my 2000 season purchases.

The top left card is a PS2000 insert card from the Pacific Private Stock set; the top right card is an Extreme Team insert card (with the X in foil that blends into the scan) from the Playoff Absolute set; the bottom left card is a base Upper Deck Encore card; the bottom right card is a Center Stage Act 1 insert card from the Upper Deck Ovation set.

After Tim Couch in my collection, the player with the second most cards is his fellow rookie expansion team member, wide receiver Kevin Johnson. I have 350 cards of Johnson. Here are some of the new ones to bring me to that number.

Not that you can really tell from the scan, but the top left card is a Gold parallel, numbered out of 199, for the Pacific set. It is the first of the sixteen Browns cards from the set that I've managed to find a Gold parallel for, so I was pretty happy to find it listed for sale.

The top right card is a base Pacific Vanguard card. I also picked up a Tim Couch from the set at the same time.

The bottom left card is a base Playoff Contenders card, while the bottom right card is an Extra parallel card from the SkyBox Dominion set.

I've always seem to like a lot of the secondary receivers on a team. Maybe it is part of cheering for an underdog, or maybe it is to say that everybody knows the number one receiver on a team, but how many know the twos, threes and fours?

For that reason, I liked getting the Darrin Chiaverini card earlier in the post, and I was really happy to find a number of JaJuan Dawson cards when I made my purchases of 2001 cards.

The top left card is the 2001 Fleer Tradition Glossy base card. Unlike the previous year's Glossy set, they actually add the word to the logo on the front of the card. This is one of four cards from the team set that I bought in this purchase.

The top right card is from the NFL Showdown 1st & Goal set. I believe this set was an expansion to the regular NFL Showdown set for the year.

The bottom left card is a Retail LTD parallel card, numbered out of 299 from the Pacific set. I think it is a great action shot that will look nice sitting beside the base card in my 2001 binder.

The bottom right card is an Infinity Green parallel card, numbered out of 100, from the Quantum Leaf set. The base card from the set has a blue background.

The following scan shows two different versions of the same card, both based on the regular Score set.

The card on the left is from the Score Select set. The difference between it and the regular Score card is the Select below the logo.

The card on the right is a Trump parallel of the Score set. It appears to be a trump card for a pack war game on the back of the card (upper right of the card) that you can play with football cards. Regular base cards from the Score set have EE, TT, PP or BB in that area. I know nothing about it, but TCDB shows a card that has an explanation for the game. The Score Select back shows the Score Select logo in that spot of the card.

Here are two more of the Fleer Tradition Glossy cards that I bought, both of rookies for 2001.

James Jackson was a third round pick from Miami, while Gerard Warren was the third overall pick of the draft from Florida.

Both cards are numbered out of 2001.

Here are some more cards that I picked up of 2001 Browns rookies.

Here are some more James Jackson cards that I needed from collegiate sets.

Top left is a Torquers parallel from the Press Pass set; top right is a Gold parallel from the Press Pass SE set; the bottom card is a SAGE HIT base card.

For these Gerard Warren cards, the top left is a Gold parallel from the Press Pass SE set; top right is the base card from the SAGE HIT set; bottom card is not a collegiate card, but the base card from the Upper Deck Top Tier set, numbered out of 1500.

Quincy Morgan was a second round pick for the Browns out of Kansas State.

The top two cards are the base card, and a Gold parallel from the Press Pass set.

The bottom left card is the base card from the Press Pass SE set, while the bottom right is a Rarefied parallel, numbered out of 2001, from the SAGE HIT set.

And here are more from 2001, starting with cards from Pacific Private Stock.

The top two cards are Retail parallels from the main set, while the bottom three cards are all PS-2001 inserts in the Pacific Private Stock set.

The top left card is a base card of Tim Couch from Topps Gallery; the top right card of Kevin Johnson is a base card from the Topps Reserve set; the bottom left card is a base card of Dennis Northcutt from the Upper Deck Rookie F/X set; the bottom left card of Courtney Brown is also a base card from the Upper Deck Rookie F/X set. The Upper Deck Rookie R/X set mixed various Upper Deck designs throughout the set.

The top two cards show Rickey Dudley, a free agent signed by the Browns from the Raiders. They are base cards from the Playoff Contenders and Upper Deck MVP sets.

The bottom left card of Courtney Brown is a Gold parallel from the Upper Deck Victory set.

The bottom right card is a base card of Curtis Enis in the Upper Deck MVP set. Enis was a free agent from the Bears. He didn't end up playing any regular season games for the Browns.

This post is long enough, so we'll end it here and pick up with 2002 cards in the next one.

New Sportlots shipment - pre-expansion cards

I recently received a nice Sportlots shipment of some orders that had been stored for box shipment.

The next couple of posts will cover some of the cards that I bought. This first post is covering cards from before the 1999 expansion Browns teams.

This a card from the 1987 Hygrade Football's All-Time Greats set. It is a 10 card set, with Jim Brown being the only Browns card. There are also five reprint cards, three of which are Jim Brown inserts. I own two of the imprints, with a reprint of the 1962 Kahn's card missing from my collection.

Every now and then I come across a card that I need from some of the various early 1990s Collegiate Collections sets. This one comes from the 1991 Okalahoma State Cowboys multi-sport set.

Jerry Sherk was a defensive lineman that the Browns drafted in the second round of the 1970 NFL Draft. He had a twelve year career, all with the Browns. He started 131 of the 147 games that he played, and had 3 interceptions, 12 fumble recoveries and 70.5 sacks in his career. He played in four Pro Bowls, and was a first team All-Pro once in his career.

 

This 1992 Topps Gold card of James Brooks completes my set of Topps Gold cards from that set. It shows him in his old Bengals uniform which might be why I had never seen him in any Browns cards lots that I had bought over the years. It took a long time to find this.

Of course, now I can start working on the different letter and asterisk variations of this card if I want to.

This Dan Footman card is a Gold parallel from the 1993 Classic Four Sport Draft Pick Collection set. This is my first Gold parallel of the four Browns draft picks in the set.

Footman was a second round draft pick of the Browns, out of Florida State, in the 1993 NFL Draft. He spent six years in the NFL, three with the Browns, one with the Ravens following the move to Baltimore, and then two with the Colts.

Eric Zeier was a third round pick of the Browns, out of Georgia, in the 1995 NFL Draft. He wound up starting four games for the Browns in the 1995 season before their move to Baltimore.

The card on the left is from the 1995 Classic Five Sport Multi-Sport set, while the one on the right is from the 1995 Signature Rookies Fame and Fortune Multi-Sport set. The card is dark, but it has gold print in different areas that don't really appear in the scan.

A couple of months ago, there was a Blog Bat-Around going on where people showed players they liked on teams they didn't like. I started a blog post on it, but didn't finish it. I have a big cheat. Many cards from 1996 show players I like still in their Browns uniforms, but on cards with the Baltimore Ravens team designation.

These three cards show Michael Jackson, Antonio Langham, and Rob Burnett, and finish off the cards I've been looking for from 1996 Topps.

I'll finish this post here, and get started with expansion Browns cards with the next post.

In person trade with TCDB member sandyrusty

 A month ago, I heard from TCDB member sandyrusty that he was going to be in Ottawa and had some Browns cards that I wanted.

After a bit of back and forth, I had a bunch of football cards coming my way, and found a bunch of baseball cards to give him.

First up was a nice 2011 Upper Deck World of Sports card of Eric Metcalf. It may be celebrating his Texas Longhorns career, but that led to him becoming the Browns first round pick in 1989. I collect college cards of Browns draft picks, especially when they become one of my favorite players for the Browns team that they were on.

Next there were a couple of cards from the 2018 Score set.

Denzel Ward was the 4th overall draft pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, out of Ohio State. It was a good pick, and he is the star of the Browns secondary. He's made five Pro Bowls in his eight seasons.

Former Notre Dame QB DeShone Kizer was a second round pick of the Browns in the 2017 NFL Draft. He wound up starting 15 games for the Browns that season before being traded to the Green Bay Packers.

There was also this Nick Chubb Blitz insert card from the 2020 Panini Playbook set.

Chubb has the third most career rushing yards for the Browns franchise, behind Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly. His yards per game average of 80.5 only follows Jim Brown and his 104.3 average.

Also from the 2020 Panini Playbook set were these two Harrison Bryant cards, his regular card and its Orange parallel.

After four seasons with the Browns, Bryant signed as a free agent with the Raiders. He played one season with the Raiders before moving on to the Texans for one year. He signed with the Seahawks in April of this year.

You may be surprised to see two 1990 Pro Set cards in the trade. They are corrected versions of these two Chargers. In the error cards, Bernstine is listed as TE on the back, and O'Neal is listed as a LB and DE on the front.

For 1990 Pro Set, I still need a number of error or corrected cards. For the complete set, I need the Pro Bowl Eric Dickerson card that was removed from the set early due to a contractual dispute.

I also received a couple of small stacks of 1989 Pro Set cards and 1991 Fleer Stars 'n' Stripes cards that he had. I know I have other cards from both sets in boxes somewhere so I picked them up for future set builds.

Thank you, Bruno, for the trade, and it was great meeting you in person! I look forward to the next time.

Some Recent Card Show Purchases

I attended a local Ottawa card show last Sunday, and am going to share a selection of my purchases from the show.

I would say the highlight of my purchases was this autographed Bernie Kosar card.

This is my fourth Kosar autographed card, and the first one on a sticker.

Topps kind of mailed it in on the back.

Another interesting "hit" that I bought at the show was this card:

 

One of the local dealers found this card in Toronto, and bought it, correctly guessing that I would want it.

He wondered what sort of material from the rookie premiere day was in this card. He thought it might be part of a glove. I looked at it, and guessed part of a shoe.

Looking for the card on the Trading Card Database, with the serial number it has, it was part of a 2012 Panini Limited Blue Chip Shoes insert set.

Woo hoo! I was right!

Nearly a couple of weeks ago, I commented on a fairly new football card blog, Cardboard Canon, that I enjoyed the Panini Illusion cards that showed modern and older players on the same card. I found one at the show.

It matched up O.J. Howard with a fellow Alabama Tight End, Browns Hall of Fame player, Ozzie Newsome.

Coincidentally, Cardboard Canon is a Buccaneers supporter, so this card would probably fit in his collection too.

I also bought other new cards of two different Browns players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

As well as a couple of other favored veterans.

Personally, I believe that Clay Matthews should be in the Hall of Fame. This Panini Phoenix parallel is numbered out of 35.

This Panini Prizm parallel of Earnest Byner is numbered out of 49.

And I bought a bunch of cards from last year's rookies.

I'm hoping that the Browns newly rebuilt offensive line will help Judkins and Sampson have good rushing seasons.

And I'm hoping that better quarterback play will help Fannin develop better.

Mason Graham had a good rookie season even though he played the final part of the season with a broken rib.

It will also be interesting to see how his play is affected by missing this guy on the line with him:

I'll miss Myles Garrett as a Browns player. However I understand the various reasons given for his trade. It's too bad he won't spend his whole career with the Browns.

Finally, a non-sport card dealer that I buy a lot of stuff from had something interesting in one of his bins. 

Okay, a lot of you will recognize this as being a photo slide.

There were sheets with over a hundred slides in them. When I looked at the side and saw the writing, I realized all of them were from New England Patriots games. Of all of them, this was the only Browns slide.

A lot of the slides were very similar shots to each other. The photographer must have clicked in sequence for consecutive shots, waiting to see which shot turned out the best.

I don't know if the photographer was trying to capture photos for cards, but it was something neat to grab.

Being the only Browns slide, the dealer gave it to me for free. He did say that when he bought them, that he thought there were plenty more that the seller had. He said he'll look to see if they are all Patriots if he gets to see them again.

Now, the lighting for my scanner didn't get to show the action on the slide, so I decided to hold the slide up near my kitchen window and take a photo.

Okay, I really like this action shot!

I'm pretty sure the shadows on the bottom of the field are actually the bottom of the window sill that I was looking out.

Such a neat item to get. I will definitely be adding this into my 1999 Browns binder.

Being a unique item in my collection, I think that I was happier to get this than the Kosar autographed card at the beginning of the post.

What do you think of the slide?