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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MVP! MVP!

One day after publishing my statistical comparison post about right fielders ..Mookie Betts was named American League MVP.

source

Mookie did it all for the Red Sox in 2018, leading the league in WAR, batting average, slugging, runs scored, and runs created. After a down year in '17, Betts' bounce-back season was so superb, one ESPN writer wondered aloud if he has passed Mike Trout as the best player in baseball.

I am freaking the f*ck out that Betts will want a bigger contract than whatever Bryce Harper gets this off-season. He is absolutely worth 10 years and $350+ million, and while it is convenient to say "it's not my money" the fact is that if Betts doubles (or triples) his salary it will be very difficult for Boston to keep Chris Sale, Xander Bogaerts, and J.D. Martinez.

When Mookie made his way up the ladder in the Sox' minor-league system - as a second baseman - I remember thinking he had potential, but wondered where's he gonna play? Dustin Pedroia was blocking him at second, and it seemed inevitable that Boston would trade Betts for pitching help. There was one comment in particular that I'll never forget:

 Mookie Betts for Matt Harvey. Who says no?

Fortunately the Sox moved Betts to a different position rather than a different team.


I've been spoiled as a sports fan this year. Mookie is the second player from my favorite team to be named MVP of his sport. 

Devils winger Taylor Hall won the Hart Trophy this summer, a week after my favorite hockey player, Alex Ovechkin, finally won his first Stanley Cup. Which makes it hard for me to complain about the sub-par season the Green Bay Packers are having.

I feel bad for Aaron Rodgers though. The front office needs to get their act together and surround him with a team that can contend for a championship. I'd much rather see him win another one of these..

..than one of these:

I've got a big football card post cued up, so that I can focus on preparing for Black Friday. 


Hope you all have a great weekend!


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Hall Yeah!!

I'm just about done with my Edmonton post, but I wanted to take a minute and acknowledge a former Oiler...

Over 500 NHL games..nearly 500 NHL points over 8 seasons with the Oilers and Devils.

Finally, Taylor Hall is headed to the playoffs. The Devils' 2-1 win over Toronto punched Jersey's ticket. Hall is having an MVP-caliber season, and the Devils are red-hot at the right time. There's still a chance they could earn home ice advantage for the first round.

I've got at least four more posts queued up but I'll definitely discuss the postseason match-ups once they're set. This should be fun. Let's Go Devils!


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Set Completed: 2010-11 Upper Deck Hockey

Last summer I made a major card-collecting decision.

I had been collecting the entire run of Upper Deck hockey cards and had every base card in a flagship set from 1990-2016, including the short prints in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. From 2007-08 to 2015-16 I had completed nearly all of the Young Guns; I was missing only four cards. Then I decided to sell off some sets. After Sidney Crosby won his third Stanley Cup I sold the 2005-06 YGs for about $900. I was never going to finish 2007-08 (needed Kane, Toews, and Price) so rather than spend $300+ on those three cards I broke up that set.

2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12, 2012-13, and 2013-14. All complete. All sold. I held on to 2014-15 and 2015-16 so they can appreciate in value (I should have kept 2013-14) but one set that I'm definitely not selling is 2010-11. I needed one card to complete it, and it arrived today:

Remember when I said I wasn't going to spend any money on cards this year? Yeah... that lasted about a month. I passed up a BGS 10 Taylor Hall, which sold for under $100 - but I bought this one on eBay for half that price.

Hall is the best player in the NHL.. who has yet to appear in the postseason (hat tip to Sal at Puck Junk.) I was thrilled when the Devils traded for him, but it must have been tough for him to watch the Oilers make a deep playoff run without him. This year, the Devils are in playoff position but losing their grip on a top-3 seed. As one fan commented on a Devils blog "We have got to get this guy to the playoffs or he'll never re-sign with us."

Speaking of Devils.. there are ten of them in the Young Guns subset. That could be a record for one team in one UD set (perhaps I'll research that one day.) Unfortunately, none of them are significant names and, not coincidentally, none of them are still with the Devils - though Josefson stuck around until last season.

However, there are three current Devils with rookie cards in the set - Hall, Kyle Palmieri, and Marcus Johansson. Both "Palms" and "MoJo" have been plagued by injuries this season.

I'm not a Twitter user at all, but I enjoy reading the musings of "General" Marcus Johansson. The games and events are described as though they were actual battles in war, and are often addressed "Dearest Abigail". Great stuff.

Kevin Shattenkirk could have signed with the Devils in the off-season, but he chose to play for his hometown team, the New York Rangers. How's that working out for ya, Shatty? I shouldn't say anything - the Rangers might be ready to sell but they're only three points behind the Devils in the Metropolitan division.

When building the Young Guns subsets I preferred to get the top two or three cards in BGS Gem Mint grade. This Tyler Seguin RC is the most valuable card in the set - partially based on the shorter print run of Series 2 YGs.

I really wanted to get a BGS-graded P.K. Subban RC, but there's always a premium on Original Six stars. That's why I still haven't finished the 2007-08 Black Diamond set (only need the Carey Price RC) and that's why I never bothered to build the 2016-17 Upper Deck set (too many Maple Leafs YGs.)

Two of my three favorite players - Hall and Subban. Nazem Kadri tried to take out Alex Ovechkin's knees in last year's playoffs, so f*ck him.

Sergei Bobrovsky has two Vezina trophies and was a Hart trophy finalist last season. If he keeps rolling like this for a few more seasons, he might end up in the Hall of Fame. I bet the Flyers wish they still had Bob between their pipes.

Like Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle was once seen as a core member of the Oilers' rebuild. And, like Hall, Eberle was traded to a team in the tri-state area. The Islanders are chasing Jersey in a very tight Metro race. I wouldn't hate it if the Isles were a wild card team (unless they beat the Devils, of course.)

Jeff Skinner might be the second best NHL player who has never seen playoff action (not including younger players like Jack Eichel.) As an old Whalers fan, I've got no love for those toilet bowls from tobacco road. If Skinner does make it to the playoffs, I hope it's with another team.

Nick Bonino had two Young Guns for some reason. But he's from Connecticut so it's all good. Bonino won back-to-back Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh, then signed with the team they beat last June, the Nashville Predators. If you can beat 'em..join 'em.

2010-11 was the last year of Atlanta Thrashers Young Guns. In '11-12, UD1 base cards had players pictured in Atlanta uniforms but listed as Winnipeg Jets; all of the YGs were pictured with Winnipeg. I'm probably the only hockey fan outside of Atlanta that misses the Thrashers.(Don't get me started on why Gary Bettman didn't fight for them the way he fought for the Coyotes and Canes to stay put - Atlanta outdrew both those sorry franchises.)

As for those Coyotes, they do have some interesting players; Oliver Ekman-Larsson is right at the top of the list. Despite my previous comment, I am pulling for them to succeed. (Anyone who has lost their hometown team should never, ever root for another team to fail Winnipeg). But until they get an arena in downtown Phoenix, an owner who can spend up to the cap (on real players, not Chris Pronger), and a top-two pick they so desperately need, OEL's best years will be wasted. 



Now that I've completed this set, the only Young Guns I need are Nico Hischier and Charlie McAvoy. And Will Butcher. And Jesper Bratt. And maybe some Golden Knights. And that's it.

For this year, anyway...



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