COMC winter haul (and contest news)

I've been writing a lot of long posts with lots of words lately, so here's one with a lot of pictures.

My latest COMC order arrived last Friday. This contained every post-Black Friday purchase I made, primarily with my Christmas bonus. It's a perfect time to receive these, since I won't be able to spend actual dollars* on cards for the foreseeable future.

*I'm still accumulating COMC challenge credit.

There were 81 cards in this shipment, though a few were sent to Gregory as compensation for the custom cards he made for me. I also bought a couple more of his stickers. Here are the 75 or so that I'm keeping:

If you read Gregory's blog, this one might look familiar to you. Here's Rocky Colavito, #91 on our countdown of 100 Greatest Non-Hall of Famers. I've been drawn to 1964 Topps Giants for years and picked up seven high-grade Hall of Famers pre-pandemic. Those prices have tripled since, so if I want to add to my collection ungraded non-HOFers are the way to go. This one cost $2.28.

Here's another great slugger I spotlighted recently. Topps Pristine was always one of my favorite brands (especially in 2002 and 2004) and I was thrilled when it returned for 2022. This encased Duke Snider blue refractor is #d to 75. I missed out on the fun of opening a pack within a pack within a pack, but hand-picking this beauty for $7.50 saved me a huge chunk of cash from the pack price.

Vintage players on vintage cards. The cards on the left were over $5 each; I paid a premium for cleaner copies. On the right we have the "bargains" - all under $4 each. My 1956 Topps set build now sits at over 62% completion. The next milestone is 15 cards away - when I'll cross the 2/3 mark. That probably won't be until next year at the earliest.

Some more modern set fillers here. I had to get the 'factory set' Bryce Harper RC, since the pack-pulled version is 2x more expensive. I still need some SPs to complete the 2017 Heritage master set as my Machado, Mookie Betts, and Francisco Lindor cards are action image variations.

This group of 2022 Topps singles, along with the two RCs I received from Johnny's Trading Spot, should complete my set. I'll have to double-check once my pending TCDB trades arrive. Thank you, John!

Some assorted baseball here. The low numbah Jawhn Lestah relic cost $4.50. The '72 World Series Highlights inserts weren't cheap; about $3 for the pair, but I didn't mind. They're so sharp and colorful.

I mentioned the Miller in a prior post; it cost about as much as the Harper RC. COMC did not include any condition notes and the front looks good for a 90 year-old card...

But there are a couple small creases visible on the back. :/

Here's a card I've had my eye on for years. This Deron Johnson 1971 Topps single fascinates me due to the foreboding wall of steel behind him. 1970 was the Phillies' final year at Connie Mack Stadium.

There's one more baseball card in this order but I'll save it for the end. For now, let's head to the gridiron:

I included these as a teaser in a previous post. The Steve Atwater was a card I came across in COMC challenges (actually I saw a different player, but Atwater was the only one under $1.) It's die cut and embossed, with the statistics listed across the stitches on the back.

This Panini Elements Saquon Barkley was an impulse buy at a price I couldn't pass up. I'd be willing to trade it if anyone is interested. It's serial numbered to 199 and has the weight and texture of the Topps Steel cards from back in the day. Tyrod looks sharp in black refractor form. When I picked this up I didn't realize I already had his base Topps RC. 

Here's a couple upgrades for my 1986 Topps set. Finally found an Al Toon RC that isn't off-center. Now all I need is a near-mint Richard Dent upgrade and I'll be completely satisfied with this set.

Blowout Cards doesn't seem interested in lowering the prices of their 2015 Prizm packs so I'll have to complete this set piecemeal. Here are six more singles I needed including soon-to-be Jets QB Aaron Rodgers, who appears to be hell-bent on following the Brett Favre playbook to the letter. I sure hope the inevitable trade of a franchise icon works out as well for Green Bay as the Russell Wilson deal did for Seattle.

The football haul concludes with yet another 2015 Panini Immaculate relic. Curtis Martin (#d/28) is my 15th in the 100-card set - which is impossible to complete since there's only two Matt Ryan cards, one Cam Newton, and one Warren Moon. Even the most abundant player in the set, J.J. Watt (#d/99) would cost 3x more than this Martin, which I picked up for a very reasonable $10.25.

I'll update my Immaculate Collection and Set Building Wantlist tabs soon. Does anyone actually read those?

Speaking of set fillers...

1992-93 Upper Deck All-Division is done. I only need eight more cards for the 1988-89 Fleer set (lol, "only" includes both Jordans and three HOFer RCs) and the 1989-90 Fleer set is complete with only a few off-center singles left to upgrade after Manning and Jackson arrived. Might as well try to finish the 1990-91 Fleer basketball set now.

I'm nine cards away from completing the 1999-00 Hoops Decade set (not counting a couple upgrades). Put a pin in that Kittles refractor, I'm planning a post spotlighting 1999-00 Finest sets. The Mosaic Lillard is a reactive blue prizm parallel and it's my 30th different Dame. I'm not sure if Sara Winter is a model, tennis player, or golfer. Regardless, I couldn't resist adding her to my women on cards binder for just 50 cents (She's up to a dollar now).

It's not a COMC shipment without cheap ePack singles, from multi-sport sets to hockey:

Got the Game-Dated Ovechkin for $3 and the Clear-Cut Devils duo for $4.75 (they're $15 now!?)

The Canadiens were obviously not 30 cents or less. Both are Topps singles. I passed on a PSA 8 copy of Cournoyer for $20 (which sold soon after) and paid $2.61 for the HOFer free-range. Mahovlich is not a HOFer and I paid $2.75 for one of JoelShitShow's 20+ copies. Should have waited to get this one for about half the price from a different seller.

My 1970s Canadiens collection is almost complete; I just need a Guy Lafleur. But that won't stop me from picking up high-quality Canadiens at a good price:

The two highest-priced cards in this order were these high-grade Hall of Famers. One other slabbed single joined them.

I already completed the 2018 Topps Chrome baseball set, adding a PSA 9 Shohei Ohtani, Rafael Devers, and Ronald Acuna Jr RCs in recent months. Didn't need a Gleyber Torres, but...

This Gem Mint 10 was a bargain, especially compared to a 2019 Topps Chrome PSA 9 single on the site:

I paid $13.60 for the PSA 10 RC -- and you can get one even cheaper than that if you're interested.

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So here's my plan for the next few months of this blog: I'm going to take a break for a couple weeks, to pound the pavement and find a frickin' job. Once the baseball season starts I'll reboot my All-Time Teams series with more scans and less words. That will get me to about 595 posts. Add that 1999-00 Finest post I mentioned to some Starting Lineup Showcase posts... and I should hit 600 by late spring.

I'm approaching 580 completed trades on TCDB, and it's getting expensive to ship out cards. That gave me an idea..

600 posts. 600 trades. 600-card giveaway. Details to follow.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!



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Set Building Progress Report - Football

I've hinted at it before but I am fully preparing to wrap up my sports card collection as much as possible. It will be hard to know exactly when my collection will be "done" but the most obvious way to see the finish line would be to complete sets. As a result I've become more of a set builder than ever.

This is the first in a short series (probably five parts) focusing on my set building progress. I'd planned to start with basketball, until Greg of The Collective Mind contacted me about some 2015 Panini Prizm football cards he had for trade. I sent him a PWE full of cards for his set building projects and received these:

 Eddie Lacy was the only Packer of the bunch. He was not the only running back.

 

Not by a longhsot, lol. For some reason I always assumed Bishop Sankey was a tight end.

Mostly wide receivers here, headlined by HOFer Cris Carter.

2015 Prizm is a 300-card set, and the last 100 cards are rookies. Hunter is the best of the bunch here.

 

 

 

Moar rookeiz. I've got to clean my scanner before the next post. There's no gunk on the Carden card. I'm just too lazy to re-scan it right now. 

Greg, thanks for the nice boost to my set build!

 

 

My latest COMC order arrived yesterday. I'd planned to visit my mom in Connecticut but my daughter got sick on Thursday and still isnt feeling 100%. So I guess it was a good thing I was home to bring in the box. These six rookies were included in the 61-card shipment. Gordon was the most expensive at 70 cents while Peters was 65 cents. The rest cost 33-40 cents each.

 

 

 

The rest of my new football purchases. Nothing over a dollar here - Higgins was 85 cents, while the Za'Darius parallel was 75 cents and the Chargers sticker cost 52 cents. Mosaic parallels are pretty cheap on the site, and I was happy to snag a color-matching HOFer for 41 cents. Steve Smith doesn't color match but I'm not complaining about adding a blue parallel to my cart for 40 cents. The Rice base was 49 cents.

I started this set from fat packs I purchased on Blowout Cards for the pre-pandemic price of ... $5 each? Really?!? (This is why I note the price I paid for things in each blog post. Sometimes I don't believe it myself!)

They're now $39.95. Which is a shame because these fat packs came with a pack of exclusive Red White & Blue parallels. Plucking singles off COMC is better for my budget, but it's less fun. 

 

Also I have no idea why Blowout is charging $40 for these particular packs. Most Prizm sets have a 'hot rookie' to chase, and I get that. It's crazy what those newer boxes sell for but at least the ceiling of possible pulls are higher. This set's best rookie card is... Stefon Diggs? Jameis Winston? Amari Cooper? Probably Diggs - though I may be biased because I actually have that one. I also have the Tom Brady base card - which is the most expensive 2015 Prizm single on COMC.

2015 Panini Prizm

205/300 cards (68.3% complete)

key cards (needs in red)

#12 Tom Brady
#34 Walter Payton
#201 Amari Cooper RC
#218 Danielle Hunter RC
#221 Darren Waller RC
#228 DeVante Parker RC
#244 Jameis Winston RC
#264 Marcus Mariota RC
#285 Stefon Diggs RC
#288 Taylor Heinicke RC
#298 Tyler Lockett RC

This is the only football card set I'm currently building. I don't have every needed card number listed on my blog just yet - because I still need 96 singles - but you can check them out on my TCDB wantlist.

I have been working on upgrading some singles from 1986 and 1987 Topps. '86 in particular is a very condition-sensitive set. Some of my '87s are off-center, gum stained, and have black ink lines dripping on the white border. '86s have major centering issues, and a number of mine have fuzzy corners.

 Future Projects

If I decided to pursue another football set build it would probably be either 1990 Pro Set or 1985 Topps. I could be temped to buy back my childhood with a couple cheap boxes of Pro Set. '85 Topps is growing on me slightly, and it was the first football card set I ever saw. (I was five.) But that would be another very condition-sensitive set and I'm not sure my OCD could handle that, lol.



Are you working on any football card sets? What was your favorite football card set as a kid? Or now?

Thanks for reading!

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Looking Ahead

I thought this day would never come, but it is finally here. Tomorrow will be my first day at the new job. I've been wondering what the work will be like, what my co-workers will be like, and other incidental things such as dress code, mask policy.. and how I'm going to pass time on my lunch hour. I haven't had a designated lunch break in 12 years!

My work day will end at 5:30 p.m. which means I won't get home until about 6 p.m. That will be an adjustment.

 

During my day off yesterday I published my 50th (and probably final) post at The 1993. I'll have less free time to blog starting tomorrow, and there are some other topics I want to explore here. I won't rule out returning to the 1993 as I just added a new follower - Cardboard Jones. Steven reached out and offered to send me three cards I need for the 1993 Donruss Diamond Kings insert set. Wally Joyner here isn't one of them; this arrived in a small PWE trade from TCDB user MattnMiller.

Today is the 5 year anniversary of my 5-box break of 2017 Topps Heritage, one of the most exciting days I've had as an adult card collector. I celebrated the anniversary by selling the Aaron Judge photo variation RC I'd pulled that day.

I've become much more of a set builder and less of a high-end card collector. If I'm ever going to finish the 1956 Topps set I have to scrounge up the cash somehow. And while I will be making more money in my new job it's not 'spend hundreds of bucks on vintage baseball cards' money. A decision regarding this undertaking will be discussed here in the coming months. 

My set building wantlist is now updated, as of yesterday. Also I bought two more 1956 Topps cards (not listed on my set building tab) with a $50 bill I received as a late Christmas present because I had Covid and couldn't see the in-laws. 

I'm also going to try and complete my base card checklists for the Hartford Whalers project. The spreadsheet is complete through 1990-91 and I hope to have the full run (up to 1997-98) done by the end of the NHL season. This project will be far less costly - though Gordie Howe's sunset card isn't cheap (especially the O-Pee-Chee version).

Hopefully the MLB lockout will be settled soon and we'll have a full baseball season, or close to it. Once that kicks off I'm planning to relaunch my All-Time Teams series. The redux will focus on which cards I have chosen for each player, and which players might be added/dropped from their franchise's All-Time roster in the near future. (And again, I might need to commission a custom card or two so that the frankenset can be completed.)

Aside from the pair of '56 singles (Eddie Yost and Bobby Avilia) I've got an order from COMC and six TCDB trades set to arrive in the next couple of weeks. One small trade arrived today, along with the Roy Campanella card I mentioned in a previous post.

2010 Topps is not on my list of set building projects. I simply grabbed a handful of semi-stars and scenery from user Zughiaq in exchange for some Red Sox dupes and a couple of 1993 Upper Deck extras. (Not pictured: Alex Gordon).

 

These 2014 Topps singles arrived in two different trades. I'm just 15 cards away from completing the set, but it looks like I'll have to buy the rest on Sportlots or COMC. Three consecutive trade offers I made on TCDB were rejected - for personal preference reasons, not because I was trying to "win" a trade. Thankfully Matt from Diamond Jesters broke my career-worst slump and agreed to a Time Travel Trade. It won't bring in any set fillers but it gets me closer to 400 completed transactions.

This 9-pocket page of 2015 Panini Prizm football cards arrived courtesy of TCDB user Talanhugh. It's been tough to trade for these singles and Blowout Cards still hasn't lowered the price of fat packs.

I'm excited and nervous about starting a new chapter in my professional life, but I am so ready to leave the old drama behind for good. I'll be sure to keep you all updated even if I can't be around the blogs as often as I'd like. Last spring was special. What will this spring bring?

Thanks for reading!



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Boog, Moon, Strong, and Associates

 

It's been a while since I've done a mailday post. TCDB trades have come in regularly but I haven't been scanning the cards before sorting them into my collection. I made sure to do so this time.. for the most part.

Michigan man and Justin Verlander fan Dennis is one of my most frequent trade partners here on the blogs - and possibly the most generous. He sent me a small flat rate mailer last week that briefly had me worried as it felt very full. Not to worry as Dennis didn't send me 200+ base cards.

Nothing but the hits, including these Red Sox relics and a Brandon Moss auto numbered to 199.

Even the Dustin Pedroia Stadium Club is a holofoil parallel. This worked out perfectly because my Red Sox binders are stuffed - and my bookshelf is stuffed full of binders!

The box was packed with supplies including top loaders, some penny sleeves, and a handful of uncirculated Topps Pristine cards. I've mentioned my affinity for these beauties a couple times on this blog:

*These didn't come from Dennis.

I'm always on the lookout for 2002 baseball and football singles and 2003-04 hockey RCs. Dennis handles the rest for me. He plucked these out of a 50 cent box at a card show and sent 'em my way:

These were all encased by Topps but the dealers scratched the heck out of them so I busted 'em out.

That Josh Howard refractor looked familiar to me... turns out I already had one!

How many of these are circulating in the Ann Arbor area?

 

Dennis, thanks so much for the Pristine singles, supplies, and the Sawx! Next time I'm at a card show (or shop..?) I'll be looking for something to send your way.

As for that Boog Powell card at the top of this post, it arrived in a Beckett Marketplace purchase from Birmingham Sportscards. It was one of three cards I selected to upgrade my All-Time Teams binder. Unfortunately the seller was "way behind" on filling orders and by the time he filled mine.. the other two were sold out. Hmm. :/

Everything else in the order was a football card, including this Ken Strong Classic Singles insert:

2008 Donruss Classics cards account for over 25% of all Ken Strong cards ever produced. I now have four different Strong singles.. but the photo is the same.

The rest of the cards were set fillers including these two rated Rookies from 2016 Donruss:

I'm one big ass ham away from finishing this 400-card set.

Rounding out the order we have a dozen singles from 2015 Panini Prizm:

The eleven base cards bring my total to 138 of 300. I added the Warren Moon blue prizm for my Oilers mini-collection. 

Here's a closer look at the blue Moon. I still love the look of color-matching refractors and prizms, even if they're no longer a focus of my collection. Which reminds me.. I've updated my wantlists. The first three tabs are at the top of the blog (I'll probably add hockey later.)


I'm planning a celebration of basketball around the start of the NBA Finals and I'll be hosting a PWE swap so prepare those unwanted hoops cards! This time I might go "rack pack" style and let participants pick their own return PWE based on the front-facing cards :D

Thanks for reading!



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