500th and Final... For Now

This is going to be a long post in which I recap the remaining cards from my COMC order, squeeze in a set build, and look back at the previous 499 posts here at The Collector. On the plus side you won't have to read anything else from me for quite a while. (Notice I didn't say Never. I'll get to that...)

I discovered COMC in November 2013, while searching for some rare Peter Worrell parallels (that also led me to start shopping at Sportlots) Aside from the two Worrell cards I picked up hockey set fillers and some Bowman prospects. However I soon discovered that COMC had tons of great looking vintage singles available. Almost every order I placed after 2013 contained at least one card released prior to 1970.

This 1950 Bowman Sheldon Jones card was in my last order. I was very excited to see it in person. Even though COMC scans both sides it's still a bit of a risk buying ungraded vintage online. You never know what hidden flaw you may have missed on screen. However this card looks fantastic. Here's the back:

Not bad for $4.65 I'd say. This was the third-most expensive card in my April order. Coming in at number two is this Jonathan Toews 2015-16 Black Diamond Exquisite single, numbered to 149:

This 30-card set was assembled almost entirely on COMC, with two or three exceptions purchased on eBay. Every team has one base card numbered to 149. I've spent about $100 on the cards (JT here cost $5.54) and another $20 or so on the extra thick top loaders, but it's been a fun project - and it's almost complete:

The only one I'm missing is #29 Alex Ovechkin. COMC has two copies available, but I won't be placing an order with them just for that one card (unless I can't find it anywhere else.)

My box of thick cards and relics is stuffed, but I made room for one more Immaculate Numbers acetate single. Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks is the latest addition to my collection, at a reasonable price of $12:

I now have 13 of the 100 jersey/patch cards from the 2015 set. Some of them were purchased on eBay (including Jonathan Stewart and Andy Dalton) As with the Exquisite hockey singles, this was out of necessity. COMC's prices are more reasonable, but eBay won't make you wait four months to get your cards!

That wraps up my COMC order, but before I sign off I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some highlights from the five years I've posted at The Collector. You probably missed my first entry here in August of 2016 so here it is:

Under 100 words, ha! Who was I kidding?

Less than a month later I published Buying Back My Childhood: Starting Lineup This was my fifth post ever on this blog, and it remains my most viewed ever by far. On average I'd say my posts get 80-100 views, with 200+ being the high end. This one has 1,358 views!

I'm so grateful to everyone who comments on my blog, especially those who comment on nearly every post. On average, each of my regular-length posts receive 6 to 10 comments, with 15 to 20 being the high end. Four of my posts have received 30-plus comments, though that includes my replies to each. The top two of those posts were giveaways, including my most commented post ever. In third place: a post about collecting players who share your birthday.

Fourth on the list, with 30 comments (including mine) is the Celebrity Crush Championship. Since I probably won't write another post here in 2021 I'll name this year's winner now: Elizabeth Olsen.


I'm planning to publish a box break on The 1993 tomorrow, but then I'm going to take some time away from the blogs. My kids are growing up much too fast so I want to spend more time with them, as well as call my mom more often. I definitely want to get outside and exercise some more while the weather is still warm. There's also a pile of books on my shelf that are waiting to be read, and I really should continue looking for a better (paying) job. One without you-know-who.

I did say I was "retiring" from the hobby, and I will try to stick to that. It's going to take some time for me to move out my duplicates and fill my unfinished sets so I'll be active on TCDB from now until New Year's. If you haven't added me to your friends list I'm hockeydude.

However it occurred to me that I never showed off my (nearly) completed All-Time Teams collection. I might do that in 2022 -- and/or a weekly Sports Card Tour update since you all enjoyed that series. So don't unfollow The Collector just yet!


I'll pop in and comment on your blogs from time to time. Until then, thank you all for reading and following me here at The Collector and The 1993. I appreciate all of the discussions, comments, and trades. You've made my hobbies - card collecting and writing - a lot more enjoyable. Thank you!

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COMC Black Friday weekend in review

Did you do any Black Friday shopping on COMC this past weekend? This is likely the first time I did not have anything shipped to me during their annual sale. Their "specials" continue to be less and less special every year, and setting a minimum purchase of $99 just to earn free shipping (by Dec.23?!?) was such an insult that I refused to qualify (but I nearly did anyhow...) 

Since the cards I purchased won't be in-hand for quite a while I might as well share my thoughts on them now.

I had $17 in challenge credit before the sale, and I will give credit to the COMC gatekeepers for keeping those challenges open the whole week leading up to the sale. There were four cards I immediately wanted to jump on, but only two of them were discounted - both by the same seller:

This Orlando Cepeda second-year card was $8 before the sale. I grabbed it for $5.29 on sale, which allowed me to add this to my cart:

Solly Hemus sounded only vaguely familiar to me but it's a 1952 Bowman rookie card in good shape (I hope), and it was only $2.69. That's good enough for me. 


I had $65 remaining from eBay sales and put $60 in my COMC account. It was all I'd planned to spend during the weekend. With my total up to $69, I made an offer on another vintage card and it was accepted:

Really thought I had a 1956 Topps Richie Ashburn already, but I guess I added it to my eBay watch list and never picked it up. This was an auto-accept at $36.20; the seller had another '56 HOFer I needed, but I could only afford one and chose the cheaper card so that I could pick up some Packers.

The backs of these Flashback Fabrics cards are weak (like most non-base cards these days) but it's an actual game used swatch, and..

It's numbered 4 of 399! This would be my first Favre card numbered #4/xx, so I gladly paid the sale price of $11.73.

Then we have this Jordy Nelson Immaculate Numbers relic. I absolutely overpaid for this. 

When I came across this last year it was priced at $20.25 ($16.25 on sale). That was too much for me, so I left it on my watch list all year. This Black Friday weekend, Nelson was on sale for.. $16.25. I got tired of waiting so I grabbed it. What could I have bought instead?

This Calvin Johnson relic is available for under $16 right now. On sale it was less than half that. Sigh.. the price of being a Packers fan..

To be honest I could have purchased both cards. I had enough room in the budget for Megatron, but instead I spent my remaining cash on a couple of Boston boys.

I added this Zdeno Chara to my Exquisite set build for just $3.75. That left me with $4.40. There was a Sterling Sharpe relic that I really wanted priced at $5.24 ($4.50 on sale.) I made an offer of $3.75, and the seller countered with the sale price of $4.50. I didn't have $4.50, I had $4.40. So I offered him that, and he declined.

Then I tried the same offer with a card priced at $5.25 (not on sale). This seller accepted:

That was it. My Black Friday shopping was complete, and I had... six cards?!? A new personal low by far. 

Then Cyber Monday came along and some of the cards on my watch list were discounted even further. I decided to clear them out, and added another $10 to my COMC account. With $2 more in challenge credit earned late Monday night I had $12 to spend... but what to spend it on?

The Calvin Johnson relic was now $6.25 and I agonized over it. I really wanted to grab a Taylor Hall auto even though I know he's not long for New Jersey and will probably be traded by the end of February. But $7 for an on-swatch auto was too good to pass up:

That left me with $5 - not enough for Calvin, but enough to add another Exquisite single:

Nathan MacKinnon cost just $2.49. I'm now down to five needs in the 30-card base set.


With my remaining $2.51 I added two more Brett Favre cards:

 

There were three copies of this Pinnacle Inscriptions Favre - one unpeeled for $2.75, one peeled (and scratched) for about $0.65, and this peeled and (hopefully) unscratched copy, which cost me $1.20. 

This Panini Illusions Favre sold at $0.75 then resurfaced for $0.68. I double-checked my TCDB have list, confirmed I don't have it, and added it to my cart.

That left me with $0.63, just enough for this odd-looking Dave Andreychuk milestones card which, if turned on its side, notes his 500th goal.

That's... better?

How did you spend your Black Friday weekend? Did you get any great deals on cards, gifts, or anything else?


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P.K.? O.K.!

I had some eBay items to ship out yesterday, but we took the kids to the 11 a.m. matinee of Toy Story 4. By the time the movie ended, all of the local post offices were closed. Also, the second round of the NHL Draft started and the Devils had the third pick. I had just missed that, too. Then I saw that the Flyers made the pick. The Flyers?!? WTH?

Seconds later I felt much better when I read the crawl at the bottom of the screen. The Devils traded the pick to Nashville - for P.K. Subban!

Nashville flipped the #34 pick to Philly.

This doesn't make the Devils Cup contenders or anything - Taylor Hall is still a free agent at the end of the year, the Devils are supermodel-thin on the wings, and after two decades of Martin Brodeur, it sounds odd to say that the Devils' biggest weakness is goaltending. But #1 overall pick Jack Hughes is expected to be a star, and even after the Subban trade the Devils have over $25 million in cap space to throw at a few free agents.

P.K. did have a down year in '18-19, and the Preds understandably wanted to shed his superstar salary after a year of pedestrian production. That's why he was available. Nearly every decent NHL player has a no-trade or no-movement clause, so unless you're Toronto or Pittsburgh it's nearly impossible to acquire a superstar player in their prime. 

Jersey now has two - and a third could be developing under their watch. (Not to mention 2017 #1 pick Nico Hischier) On a personal note, P.K. is already one of my four favorite NHL players - and now all of them except Alex Ovechkin are on the Devils!

There may have been a little foreshadowing to this, when Subban appeared on ESPN's First take to discuss the NBA Finals. Listen to P.K. compare the Raptors to a certain Stanley Cup winner at about 1:35:

I didn't see this at the time (I only watch ESPN for Around the Horn/PTI) I actually caught it on a Devils blog in which the writer stops himself from reading too much into P.K.'s comment. 

In other news...I used the $3 off eBay coupon to pick up another single for my Exquisite set build. The PWE had a hole in it and the top loader was cracked, but the card is okay:

This Claude Giroux cost me $1.75 after tax & shipping. He's been a Flyers star for over a decade, but as was mentioned during this year's NHL Draft, he'll always be remembered for this draft day blunder by Bobby Clarke:

 

I did get one trade in the mail, but I'm expecting a couple more so I'll save them for a card trade recap post. I'm headed out to the Walgreens this morning - which was a Rite Aid until recently - to grab some shipping supplies and investigate these Walgreens Yellow parallels I've heard very little about...


Thanks for reading!


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