Hey, Santa!

I'm posting this from my mom's house in Scottsdale and don't have access to a scanner so I'm going to use my Blackberry's camera.

Like many other bloggers, I joined the Secret Santa group that Matt organized. On Tuesday, just before I left for the airport, I checked my mailbox and saw a nice bubble wrap envelope sitting there for me. I threw it in my carry-on bag to open at the airport. As it turned out, I had plenty of time to look at the cards as my flight was delayed just over two and a half hours.

Opening the envelope I discovered that my Secret Santa was AJ at The Lost Collector blog. I had enjoyed reading his blog but hadn't had any dealings with him in the past so it was a nice way to be introduced to someone new.

He sent me a six-pack of Browns cards. Santa must have known that this is just what I wanted!

Aren't these beautiful?

Top left, we have a 1950 Bowman card of former Browns Guard, Alex Agase.

As with many of the early Browns, he was a veteran of World War II. The final line on the back of his card, which I would copy if I were on a computer instead of my tablet, reads: "Led Marine extreme right flank, Okinawa."

Bottom left is a 1950 Bowman card of Halfback, Dub Jones. The back of his card summarizes his war service with: "Served 3 years aboard a submarine."

Do you think these guys would have chuckled at all of the color analyst's comments of football being a battle and all the other war comparisons?

To the right is a 1953 Bowman card of Tom Catlin. He is a one-card wonder and I'm happy to add his only card to my collection. (A funny thing is that when I first looked at my wantlist I didn't even see this card listed so I thought that AJ really found one that I had no idea I needed. As it turned out it was there and I was just blind.)

Here are the modern cards that he sent.

On the left is a 2011 Finest Autographed Jumbo Relic of Greg Little, numbered out of 599.

Top right is a 2004 Leaf Rookies & Stars Materials Gold card of former Running Back, William Green, numbered out of 75.

And the bottom right card is a 2016 Panini The National hat relic card of first-round pick, Corey Coleman.

Thanks, AJ!

And thanks to Matt for organizing this.

Now to hope for a Christmas miracle of the Browns winning tomorrow and avoid the winless season because I really don't see them beating the Steelers next week.

Falling behind on posting so let's catch up on eBay purchases

Yesterday finished a very busy period between work and my choir's Christmas concert schedule. Our final concert went well but due to weather we didn't quite get the crowd that we wanted. I had quite a few friends that didn't make it out. Too bad, they missed a good show.

However, while I was preparing to sing yesterday, a friend that I share my PO Box with was driving home from Ogdensburg where he picked up my mail. I had three card packages - two eBay wins, and my COMC Black Friday shipment (which included other cards purchased throughout the year).

The COMC shipment will be providing me with many days of posts, and I have a few other days of posts to create from a trade post and a Sportlots purchase, but I'll post now about the two eBay purchases that my friend delivered to me.

The first package is an exciting one. While searching for Cleveland Browns Starting Lineup on eBay, I found an auction for 24 Cleveland Browns Starting Lineup cards, and even better, it had a picture of all of the cards. Looking at the photo, it had all of the Browns cards that I was missing that were issued with figures. (There is still a 1989 Earnest Byner Starting Lineup card out there that didn't come with a figure. I stupidly didn't bid enough on it the only time I saw one pop up on eBay.)

These are the 1988 Browns cards that I was missing. I have really been working on my Starting Lineup collection over the last few months. I've been meaning to post about them for a while, but I'm down to needing only one sealed Browns figure out of the twenty one that were issued. And that missing figure is the Brian Brennan. It is nice to at least have his card right now.

As stated above, these almost finish the 1989 set, I just need the Earnest Byner card that wasn't released with a figure. It could be hard to find.

The 1990 set had two cards for each figure - a regular card, and a yellow "rookie year" card. Even though there were two different versions of the Bernie Kosar figure (brown and white jerseys), they shared the same cards so there were only four players to find. I already owned both of the Eric Metcalf cards, so that left these:

I knew that I needed the eleven cards shown above, but I scanned the following three cards not knowing if I had them or not because there isn't a checklist on the Trading Card Database for 1990 Starting Lineup cards yet. (Maybe I should look into posting one.)

Anyway, I should have looked at my previous blog posts because I've shown the Newsome before. I needed both Couch cards though.

When I looked at the original auction post, it was starting at $19.99, and I thought that I had needed fourteen of them. Shipping was a reasonable $2.99, so I had to ask myself, how high did I want to go to pretty much complete the Starting Lineup cards that I needed?  I put in a decent bid with 5 days to go in the auction and then waited, always wanting to boost my max bid since if I tried to buy them individually they would be a lot more than I was bidding.

I waited for the days to pass, and then actually sat at my computer as the auction was winding down. As it turned out someone tried a token snipe bid with about 10 seconds left, but they only bid $21.50 which pushed my bid to $22.00. That is where the auction ended. I think it was a real steal.

Well, that wasn't all from the same seller and the first package.

As with most auctions I bid on, I will look to see if the seller has any more Browns auctions (or Buy It Now) on the go. This seller did. It looks as though he was selling his Browns collection - and good for him at collecting all of these Starting Lineup cards! (Other than the Byner, all he was missing was the 1994 and 1995 Eric Metcalf and Michael Dean Perry cards which I already owned.)

As it turned out, the seller had another lot that interested me. He was selling was a lot of Browns cards from the 1965 Philadelphia set. The lot didn't contain the Paul Warfield rookie card, but it did have the last two Browns players cards that I needed from that set. (Silly me will still try to get the checklist where they list the team.)

I won this auction for the starting bid of $19.99.

The picture in the auction didn't show the creases in the upper left of the Jim Brown card, but I could see the rounded corners. No matter, it isn't as though you find many cheap vintage Jim Brown cards, and really I haven't seen this one available for less than twenty dollars, even in worse shape than this one.

The Jim Houston card is his rookie card that I just hadn't been able to find before, but to be honest, I really didn't remember to look for it very often.

Pretty nice pick-ups, but when I went to finalize my purchase I found out that the dealer didn't combine shipping. Oh, well, the auctions were still worth it.

Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, the seller did ship them in the same envelope, but I'm sure that it was more than the $3.99 that one auction alone would have been so I'm not worried about it.

The funny thing with these two auctions is that I'm not sure which one is my favorite. I love getting a vintage Jim Brown, but I love oddballs and getting all those missing Starting Lineup cards in one shot at such a great price...  I guess I should just enjoy both of them!

There was also a second eBay package. Although it isn't as interesting as the one above, it was also a lot cheaper!

I won an auction for 44 Browns cards, mostly from this year for one whole dollar, with $3.50 shipping added to it.

Again, the auction picture showed the cards included, and I knew that I had most of them, but I did need the following, and they were easily worth more than I paid.

The Barnidge was the last veteran base card that I needed from this year's Panini Absolute Memorabilia set.

That is actually the 2016 Donruss - Press Proof Blue parallel for Ozzie Newsome even though it kind of looks purple. When I move it around, it needs the right light to look blue to me.

A couple more veteran base cards, this time from this year's Panini Prestige set. As much as I like Dansby, and was upset that the Browns let him go before the season, I think that he was replaced as a starter by Christian Kirksey who I consider to be one of the better players on the Browns this year.

Some of this year's Panini Prizm parallels. The top ones are Red, White and Blue Disco parallels. Ummm, okay. The bottom ones are just plain old Green parallels.

With just these cards, I would have felt the auction was worth it, but there was still one more card that I saw in the photo that added to my bidding on it.

A relic insert card of this year's rookie quarterback? As part of an auction added to the other needed cards above for less than $5.00 including shipping. Okay, I'll take it!

I would say that I don't know why someone else wouldn't have jumped at this at all, but then I remember that it is the Browns, and I know how hurt I feel with how the season is going, and I figure that other fans might just be finished caring for the season. I can't blame them if they are.

Favorite 2016 card

P-town Tom at the newly re-named Eamus Catuli! blog started a contest to ask what is the favorite 2016 card that you've added to your collection.


Now this wasn't asking me what is the favorite card that I've added to my collection in 2016, because that would be easy, getting a Jim Brown rookie card. No, this question wanted a new 2016 card.


After looking through all the 2016 Browns cards in my collection I became a little depressed. It really hasn't been a good year for cards, and a lot of that comes from the 0-13 record that the Browns own this year.


Giving it some thought, I found my winner.




2016 Panini Certified - Mirror Green #80

Why this card? Well, first things first, it is a card that I picked up at the card show in Syracuse where I had a great time, and met Night Owl.


Second, it was the day before the season started. I knew it would be a rough year, but I still had optimism, and looked forward to watching the season pass. Now, of course, I just want it to end! (With at least one win in the final three games, please.)


Third, I got a good deal, on a low-numbered card.

I wasn't expecting to find a card numbered out of five at a show. And was more than happy to pick it up.


Sadly, the season has worn me down. I still watch the Browns games, but after their game is over I just want to get away from watching football. I haven't been watching too many Sunday or Monday night games recently, usually just catching parts, or the end of the game. I can't remember the last time that I felt this way about football. Oh, wait, yes, I can. When the Browns moved to Baltimore. Ah, well.


Anyway, I would probably have other choices based on the photos or designs in other years, and may even feel differently about my 2016 cards if you asked me again next year, but at this moment of time, this card is my winner.




I know the contest mentions "one card", and that is it above, but I felt that I should have more than one card in this post so I've added the following two cards.


Honorable Mentions:

Ozzie has always been a favorite player, and I like seeing him still included in current sets. Other pluses to this card are the fact that he's wearing the old traditional uniform, as opposed to the current uniforms, and the fact that the color scheme on the cards matches the Browns colors at the time. (The other Browns cards in the set have a brighter orange that matches the orange on the current Browns uniforms.)

2016 Panini Certified - Certified Potential Mirrored Signatures #CPS-CK

I don't think that anyone would have expected Cody Kessler to be starting for the Browns in Week 3 this season. I have been encouraged by his play as a rookie, but there is still a lot of room for him to develop. (Don't hold on to the ball for so long!)


I like having a signed rookie card in his Browns jersey and helmet, but I have to wonder, where are his legs!!!


Thanks, P-town Tom, for giving me a look through my collection.

Hitting a local card show

Yesterday was the monthly local show near my house and I picked up more things for others than for myself (an minor aftershock to #BombBob may occur), but I do have a couple of things for myself to show. There just isn't enough football at these shows for me, but a few dealers have said that they will look around to see if they have any Browns stuff back home.

L: 1999 Pacific Crown Royale - Gold Crown Die-Cuts #1 (#/976)
R: 2003 Bowman Chrome #205

I had never seen these oversized Gold Crown Die-Cuts so I was surprised when a dealer pulled it out for me with the oversized card in the picture below.


He also had a couple of other Browns cards that I picked up, including a Terrance West autograph, but as it turned out I already had all the regular size cards that I bought from him.

L: 2000 Pacific Crown Royale - Cramer's Choice Awards #1
R: 2015 Bowman - Rookies Rainbow Blue #32 (#/499)

I had seen photos of the Cramer's Choice Awards but had never seen one in person until the dealer showed it to me. I think the two cards are nice additions to my collection.


The Hybl and Johnson cards came from another dealer that had seen me walking around the hall in my Browns jersey and jacket. He also had a couple of other cards that it turned out I already had.


There was one final item that I picked up from a dealer that usually has a lot of hockey and baseball oddballs. He was eager to point this item out to me, and I added it to the other items that I ended up buying from him.

This becomes the first matchbook cover in my Browns collection. The dealer didn't know what year the matchbook was from but he said that I could probably figure it out from the schedule inside.

 When I got home I did a quick Google search using the Cowboys/Browns game as a search tool. I  quickly found out that the Browns lost to the Cowboys 6-2 on December 12, 1970. (46 years ago today!)


Looking at the Browns results for the 1970 season, I did find that it matched this schedule. So this matchbook cover is from my birth year. Pretty sweet!


I find it really interesting that the Cardinals and Chargers played one of the their pre-season games in Cleveland as part of a doubleheader on September 5. I wonder why they decided to do that. I can understand playing games in neutral markets where they don't have a team but this seems odd.


For those interested, the Browns finished the 1970 season with a 7-7 record. It was only the second non-winning season since the Browns franchise started in 1946. To contrast that, the current Browns have only had two winning seasons since returning in 1999. Sigh.

Box break - 2016 Panini Football, Part 2

Continuing from yesterday, and it looks like my one guaranteed hit should be in this half-box, and there are still plenty of Browns to look for. Let's get to it!

Pack 13:

74     Vic Beasley Jr. - Falcons
68     Joe Haden - Browns
63     Cecil Shorts III - Texans
116   Dre Kirkpatrick - Bengals
106   Tyler Eifert - Bengals
196   Von Miller - Broncos
Decorated 15     Emmitt Smith - Cowboys
Shining Armor parallel 293   Darron Lee - Jets
217   Emmanuel Ogbah - Browns
207   Sheldon Rankins - Saints

Well, two Browns in the first pack makes it a good start.

Pack 14:

59     Kamar Aiken - Ravens
34     Matt Ryan - Falcons
187   Tavon Austin - Rams
179   Torrey Smith - 49ers
172   Jordan Matthews - Eagles
Knights of the Round Die-Cuts 12     Marshall Faulk - Rams
Royal Family 4     Sterling & Shannon Sharpe - Packers / Broncos
Sacrifice Die-Cut 52     Jason Witten - Cowboys (#/199)
297   Kamalei Correa - Ravens
288   Pharoh Cooper - Rams

Okay, this pack just threw the six base veteran cards out the window, but I don't think I should complain too much about getting an extra insert, and one that I hadn't seen yet.

Pack 15:

26     Jeremy Langford - Bears
17     Ted Ginn Jr. - Panthers
7       Kelvin Benjamin - Panthers
166   Paul Posluszny - Jaguars
145   Randall Cobb - Packers
139   Jordan Reed - Redskins
Accolades 14     Aaron Rodgers - Packers
Knight's Templar parallel 267   Kevin Dodd - Titans
280   Christian Hackenberg - Jets
273   Malcolm Mitchell - Patriots

After the back-to-back Panthers was another blue bordered card for the Jaguars. At first I thought that I might have pulled three consecutive cards on one team.

Pack 16:

58     Duke Johnson - Browns
56     Martellus Bennett - Patriots
19     Kenny Britt - Rams
181   Heath Miller - Steelers
174   Allen Hurns - Jaguars
168   Carson Palmer - Cardinals
Combine Champions 14     Braxton Miller - Texans
Shining Armor parallel 131   Richard Sherman - Seahawks
227   DeAndre Washington - Raiders
218   Jared Goff - Rams

I just had to show the Steelers uniform here. It bumps out the number one draft pick from the scan.

Pack 17:

9       Chris Long - Patriots
99     Kirk Cousins - Redskins
90     Danny Woodhead - Chargers
163   Mike Wallace - Ravens
159   Carlos Hyde - 49ers
134   Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie - Giants
Decorated 14     Terrell Davis - Broncos
Knight's Templar parallel 173   Anthony Barr - Vikings
208   Su'a Cravens - Redskins
298   Demarcus Robinson - Chiefs

I do like the Chargers powder blue uniforms.

Pack 18:

82     Darren McFadden - Cowboys
75     Golden Tate - Lions
69     Justin Forsett - Ravens
126   Sammy Watkins - Bills
117   Amari Cooper - Raiders
107   LeGarrette Blount - Patriots
Accolades 13     DeAngelo Hall - Redskins
Chainmail Armor parallel 141   Bobby Wagner - Seahawks
289   Dak Prescott - Cowboys
281   Nelson Spruce - Rams

I'm sure that Sammy Watkins is more frustrated than any Bills fan at his foot. With his talent, I hope that he gets and stays healthy.

I'm happy for Dak Prescott and the start to his career that he is having. He's lucky he didn't wind up behind the Browns O-Line.

Pack 19:

64     Mohamed Sanu - Falcons
60     Melvin Gordon - Chargers
57     Tom Brady - Patriots
197   Aaron Donald - Rams
188   David Johnson - Cardinals
180   Andrew Luck - Colts
Legends of the Shield 14     Marcus Allen - Raiders
Sacrifice Die-Cut 134   Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie - Giants (#/199)
274   Connor Cook - Raiders
268   Leonte Carroo - Dolphins

I'm really surprised at the Cardinals offense this year. Johnson seems to be holding up his end.

One of my friends will be happy, I seem to pulling a lot of Raiders.

Pack 20:

27     Josh Norman - Redskins
18     Emmanuel Sanders - Broncos
8       DeMarcus Ware - Broncos
173   Anthony Barr - Vikings
167   Malcolm Smith - Raiders
162   Reshad Jones - Dolphins
Combine Champions 15   Justin Simmons - Broncos
Blue Knight 42     Tony Romo - Cowboys (#/99)
263   Laquon Treadwell - Vikings
259   Kevin Hogan - Chiefs   

Many people were surprised when the Panthers let Josh Norman go. He seems to be playing well in Washington.

Although Kevin Hogan is now a Brown, this card doesn't fit my Browns collection.

Pack 21:

98     Jameis Winston - Buccaneers
89     Buck Allen - Ravens
81     Marshawn Lynch - Seahawks
140   Justin Houston - Chiefs
133   Teddy Bridgewater - Vikings
125   Eddie Lacy - Packers
Knight School 13     Ezekiel Elliott - Cowboys
Knight's Templar parallel 167   Malcolm Smith - Raiders
234   Jordan Howard - Bears
226   Vonn Bell - Saints

I figured that I had to include Marshawn Lynch in here, a true character in the game. I understood what he was trying to do with his press availabilities but thought he was a bit ridiculous with some of his antics.

Pack 22:

97     Danny Amendola - Patriots
88     Josh McCown - Browns
80     Malcom Floyd - Chargers
132   Lamar Miller - Texans
124   Victor Cruz - Giants
115   Aaron Rodgers - Packers
Legends of the Shield 15   Eric Dickerson - Colts
Knight's Templar parallel 162   Reshad Jones - Dolphins
267   Kevin Dodd - Titans
262   Maliek Collins - Cowboys

The McCown card was the last of the veteran Browns needed for the base set. Still need a few rookies though.

It's funny, I rarely think of Dickerson as a Colt. I remember him with the Rams and Raiders. When I saw this card I went, "Oh, yeah."

Pack 23:

73     Jadeveon Clowney - Texans
67     Julian Edelman - Patriots
62     Dez Bryant - Cowboys
105   Ezekial Ansah - Lions
195   Jonathan Stewart - Panthers
186   Demaryius Thomas - Broncos
Rookie Calligraphy RC-YN   Yannick Ngakoue - Jaguars
Sacrifice Die-Cut 216   Jalen Ramsey - Jaguars (#/199)
240   Jacoby Brissett - Patriots
233   Chris Jones - Chiefs

My hit was found! And I much prefer an autograph over a relic. I'm not a Jaguars fan, but at least I pulled a rookie that is having a very good season. He has 6 sacks, 3 forced fumbles and 1 interception twelve games into his rookie season.

I can honestly say that I didn't remember my hit when I started scanning this box break. I remembered it wasn't from one of the favorite teams. It was summer, and to tell the truth I didn't know who this player was. It is nice when a forgotten hit turns out to be pretty nice.

Pack 24:

40     Philip Rivers - Chargers
33     DeAndre Hopkins - Texans
25     Chris Ivory - Jaguars
178   Larry Fitzgerald - Cardinals
171   Karlos Williams - Bills
149   Pierre Garcon - Redskins
Combine Champions 16     Derrick Henry - Titans
Sacrifice Die-Cut 109   Matt Jones - Redskins
225   Vernon Hargreaves III - Buccaneers
216   Jalen Ramsey - Jaguars

It was nice to see Larry Fitzgerald move into the #3 spot on the all-time receptions list over the weekend. He's a great player that I will be happy to say that I saw play live.

Should I be surprised that Panini doesn't use the ç in Garçon?

Some good news before I look at the numbers from this half-box - no doubles in the box.

71/200 base veteran cards - giving me 143/200
24/100 base rookie cards - giving me 48/100
4/11     base Browns cards - giving me 7/11

2/20     Accolades insert set - giving me 4/20
3/20     Combine Champions insert set - giving me 5/20
2/20     Decorated insert set - giving me 4/20
1/15     Knight School insert set - giving me 3/15
1/40     Knights of the Round Die-Cut insert set - giving me 1/40
2/20     Legends of the Shield insert set - giving me 4/20
1/30     Rookie Calligraphy insert set - giving me 1/30
1/5       Royal Family insert set - giving me 2/5

Checking out the consecutive numbers from yesterday, the trend continued here. All of the inserts where I have multiple cards gave me sequential numbers from the checklist. I guess they can be more certain of their collation that way, but I would hate to wind up getting a whole box of duplicate inserts if that were to happen by doing it this way.

4 Sacrifice Die-Cut parallels (#/199) - giving me 8
4 Knight's Templar parallels, I think - giving me 8
1 Blue Knight parallel (#/99) -giving me 2
2 Shining Armor parallels, I think - giving me 4
1 Chainmail Armor parallel - giving me 2

As with most people, I have fun opening boxes. However, I really think I bought it more because I just wanted to open something this summer, not because I really needed to. Especially since it was a retail box, not a hobby box. As with a lot of other bloggers, and since I'm not trying to complete a set, I think that I'm better off just buying the Browns cards that I want at the various online sites.

Box break - 2016 Panini Football, Part 1

I bought a retail box of 2016 Panini Football from the Panini booth at San Diego Comic-Con months ago, and have yet to post about it. Due to life being busy, I haven't been down to my PO Box in a little while, and soon enough my Black Friday COMC cards will roll in. If I want to post about it, I should do so now.

The box consisted of 24 packs of 10 cards.

It states on the box that one should "Find 1 Autograph or Memorabilia Card per box, on average!"

Let's look at the first half box and see what I find!

Pack 1:

52     Jason Witten - Cowboys
48     Gary Barnidge - Browns
43     Alfred Blue - Texans
102   Cole Beasley - Cowboys
192   DeMarco Murray - Titans
155   James Starks - Packers
Knight School 11     Paxton Lynch - Broncos
(? parallel) 125     Eddie Lacy - Packers
238   Jonathan Williams - Bills
223   Tyler Ervin - Texans

Okay, I opened this months ago, but the cards have been sitting in their packs, in the order they came since then. I still don't know how to identify the parallels that I have.

From what I gather, the Lacy is either a Knight's Templar or a Shining Armor parallel. The foil doesn't scan shiny but it is reflective. Anyone know how to identify them?

Here are a couple of the card backs.

The base cards are very similar to a lot of the other Panini sets in that give stats from last year, and career, but don't say how long the players career has been. Obviously the write-up on the back of the Beasley card mentions that the 52 receptions in 2015 was a career-high, so you know that he couldn't have had 90 in 2014, but how long has he been in the league? And, no personal information on the back at all in regards to physical statistics, date/place of birth, college or draft position. I hope for more in a card. But the cards and their backs are in a color corresponding with the player's team! I expect more.

As for the insert, it is nice to see that the card recognizes that Paxton Lynch is with the Broncos, but nothing is mentioned about where he was drafted.

Pack 2:

37     Greg Olsen - Panthers
30     Tyrann Mathieu - Cardinals
22     Frank Gore - Colts
153   Stefor Diggs - Vikings
150   Jeremy Maclin - Chiefs
146   Tyrod Taylor - Bills
Combine Champions 18     Ezekiel Elliott - Cowboys
Blue Knight 216   Jalen Ramsey - Jaguars (#/99)
231   Jerell Adams - Giants
214   Jaylon Smith - Cowboys

With the Ramsey parallel being numbered, I know which parallel it is.

Pack 3:

13     Ryan Shazier - Steelers
3       DeAngelo Williams - Steelers
93     Dorial Green-Beckham - Titans
141   Bobby Wagner - Seahawks
135   Jordy Nelson - Packers
128   Vincent Jackson - Buccaneers
Royal Family 5       Clay and Jake Matthews - Packers / Falcons
Sacrifice Die-Cut 28     C.J. Anderson - Broncos (#/199)
204   Thomas Duarte - Dolphins
294   Devontae Booker - Broncos

I do not like the stylized number 5 on the cards throughout the Panini Football set. I really don't want to have to think when I'm sorting my cards.

Pack 4:

44     Devonta Freeman - Falcons
38     Travis Benjamin - Chargers
31     Brandin Cooks - Saints
184   T.J. Yeldon - Jaguars
154   Blake Bortles - Jaguars
151   Ben Roethlisberger - Steelers
Accolades 16     Jerry Rice - 49ers
(? parallel) 262   Maliek Collins - Cowboys
295   DeForest Buckner - 49ers
286   Paxton Lynch - Broncos

I still like Travis Benjamin so it is nice to get his card, although it won't fit in my collection. And the Collins seems to be the same as the Eddie Lacy in Pack 1, but I don't know what it is.

Pack 5:

23     J.J. Watt - Texans
14     Sam Bradford - Eagles
94     Eli Manning - Giants
147   Michael Crabtree - Raiders
142   Ndamukong Suh - Dolphins
136   LeSean McCoy - Bills
MVP Predictor MVP-10     DeMaryius Thomas - Broncos
Sacrifice Die-Cut 133   Teddy Bridgewater - Vikings (#/199)
278   Carson Wentz - Eagles
271   Braxton Miller - Texans

I'm not as big a fan of the silver border for the Raiders cards. To me, it actually seems to scan better than it is in person.

I like seeing Predictor cards in the set. I've never actually won with one, and if I won with a Browns card I don't know what I would do because I would still want the predictor card itself. Oh, well, I really don't need to worry about that.

There were three different Predictor sets - MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, and Offensive Rookie of the Year. All three were 20 card sets with card number 20 being a Wild Card, which I assume means that it is the rest of the field. The Browns didn't have cards included in the first two categories, but have Corey Coleman and Cody Kessler in the third.

Here are the Predictor rules:

Pack 6:

4       DeMeco Ryans - Eagles
85     Chris Johnson - Cardinals
77     Rob Gronkowski - Patriots
129   Alfred Morris - Cowboys
121   Jimmy Graham - Seahawks
112   Ryan Tannehill - Dolphins
Legends of the Shield 17    Thurman Thomas - Bills
(? parallel) 114   Rashad Jennings - Giants
249   Jake Rudock - Lions
244   Kenyan Drake - Dolphins

The parallel is shiny with a rainbow effect here. Should I assume it is the Shining Armor? And that makes the other two Knight's Templar?

Pack 7:

16     Matt Forte - Jets
6       Jay Cutler - Bears
96     Giovani Bernard - Bengals
144   Jason Pierre-Paul - Giants
138   Austin Seferian-Jenkins - Buccaneers
131   Richard Sherman - Seahawks
Decorated 16     Jerry Rice - 49ers
(? parallel) 123   Michael Griffin - Titans
206   Sterling Shepard - Giants
296   Demarcus Ayers - Steelers

Well, the Griffin card is another shiny/rainbow parallel. Wheee! What fun this game is!

Pack 8:

79     Terrell Suggs - Ravens
87     Chandler Jones - Cardinals
72     Terrance Williams - Cowboys
123   Michael Griffin - Titans
114   Rashad Jennings - Giants
104   Odell Beckham Jr. - Giants
Knight School 12     Shaq Lawson - Bills
(? parallel) 140   Justin Houston - Chiefs
287   Myles Jack - Jaguars
279   Nate Sudfeld - Redskins

As you can see without the reflection in the scan, the Houston card appears to be the regular foil parallel, whatever that is.

And as a Canadian, I grew up with the small text saying that a player had been traded to or signed with another team so the Chandler Jones card doesn't bother me at all.

Pack 9:

66     A.J. Green - Bengals
45     Darrelle Revis - Jets
39     Joe Flacco - Ravens
194   Julius Thomas - Jaguars
185   Cam Newton - Panthers
177   Todd Gurley II - Rams
Accolades 15     Ted Hendricks - Raiders
(? parallel) 219   Darius Jackson - Cowboys
272   Cody Kessler - Browns
266   Leonard Floyd - Bears

Ummm, okay, a different type of shiny/rainbow parallel. This may help clear things up. There is a Chainmail Armor parallel, and those kind of look like links...  I may have figured this out! I wish it were of a different Cowboys rookie running back though.

Oh, and I am happy to get a second Browns card. There are 11 in the 300 card base set.

Pack 10:

32     Robert Mathis - Colts
24     Malcolm Jenkins - Eagles
15     Ryan Fitzpatrick - Jets
152   DeVante Parker - Dolphins
148   Lavonte David - Buccaneers
143   Adrian Peterson - Vikings
Legends of the Shield 16     Joe Montana - 49ers
Sacrifice Die-Cut 40     Philip Rivers - Chargers (#/199)
245   Kelvin Taylor - 49ers
239   Moritz Bohringer - Vikings

Bohringer was one of the fun stories of the draft so it was nice to get his card.

Pack 11:

5       Brandon Marshall - Jets
95     Ameer Abdullah - Lions
86     Jeremy Hill - Bengals
137   Latavius Murray - Raiders
130   Travis Kelce - Chiefs
122   Jarvis Landry - Dolphins
Combine Champions 17   Tyler Ervin - Texans
Sacrifice Die-Cut 295   DeForest Buckner - 49ers (#/199)
232   Vernon Butler - Panthers
215   Karl Joseph - Raiders

There are two players that I enjoy watching on the NFL Network - Brandon Marshall and Von Miller.

We see here that rookies have a different shape die-cut than the veterans, and still with the rookies, I really like the Karl Joseph card at a press conference. Something different, I guess.

Pack 12:

78     Donte Whitner - Browns
71     Russell Wilson - Seahawks
49     Steve Smith Sr. - Ravens
113   Antonio Andrews - Titans
103   Delanie Walker - Titans
193   Calvin Johnson - Lions
Decorated 17     John Elway - Broncos
Knight's Templar parallel? 133 Teddy Bridgewater - Vikings
224   William Jackson III - Bengals
205   Shilique Calhoun - Raiders

Started and finished the first half of the box with a Browns card. I don't mind that at all. However, as a Browns fan I do not like John Elway so that hurts the pack.

As I said, I'm going to now assume that this type of parallel is the Knight's Templar one.

And I think this is the first card I've pulled of a person with the name of Shilique.

So, after looking at these cards, you can see that the first six cards are base cards, then two inserts, and finally two rookie cards. So with twelve packs opened, I have:

72/200 base veteran cards
24/100 base rookie cards
3/11     base Browns cards

2/20     Accolades insert set
2/20     Combine Champions insert set
2/20     Decorated insert set
2/15     Knight School insert set
2/20     Legends of the Shield insert set
1/20     MVP Predictor insert set
1/5       Royal Family insert set

The interesting things with the insert sets is that for all the sets that I have two cards of, they are of consecutive numbers. I'll have to check to see if the other half-box continues that trend.

4 Sacrifice Die-Cut parallels (#/199)
4 Knight's Templar parallels, I think
1 Blue Knight parallel (#/99)
2 Shining Armor parallels, I think
1 Chainmail Armor parallel

I hope to post the rest of the box tomorrow.