More COMC randomness

I've been having a lot of fun rounding up cards on Comc lately. I tended to stay away from it because I don't like spending .50cts for common or base cards (and I know it's because of fees, but still), but it's great for late 70s beat up cards and for 90's inserts. But since I don't use Ebay anymore because of growing basic fees from Comc for their mailbox service, it leaves me some budget to spend on cards I like (this just may be ironic).

Anyway, I received the order I passed in January, and as usual, there's a little bit of everything, depending on my current obsessions.

I tend to forget things (I'm getting old), but I'm pretty sure those are from NO's Top 100 70's cards. That Fisk card is a beauty indeed.

I love those Deckle cards. And more cheap Aparicio cards for the PC. I still need 57 through 59 and 63 through 65, and I won't find those for cheap on COMC.

The Ty Cobb is an insert from the Ted Williams card company. I liked those cards, I remember buying a couple of packs at the time. The 90's Dominators is, for some reason, one of my favorite inserts design of all time. Go figure...I have no idea why I collect Frank Thomas cards. He was a major force at the time, of course, but not that spectacular. Maybe it's his calm demeanor, or the fact he played a few months for the Blue Jays, or just that he was omnipresent in baseball card guides when I was collecting heavily.

Of course, there had to be Blue Jays cards in the mix. I went for 93 and 94 inserts I was missing. It doesn't get much uglier than those pro vision cards, but they're impossible not to love (I really need the Ozzie Smith from that set)

Those Gold Leaf stars were very popular, and it's a beautiful Molitor card numbered to...10 000. And inserted at a rate of 1:90, it gives an idea of (over) production figures.

I've said it before : I know I'll never be able to get as many Griffey cards as I'd like, so I'll focus on his base cards of major brands. It's weird that I didn't have that Fleer RC, and that Ultra and that Skybox or really sharp.

 I grabbed a few early 90s affordable inserts, including that Diamond Kings. As cheezy as they are (c'mon, DK cards ARE cheezy), you gotta love them. So much color on that 94 edition !

What were Fleer thinking on that last card ?

  Ultra ! Thanks to that shipment, I'm now only missing about a dozen base cards of flagship products. One baby step at a time...

 
Big Hurt, Griffey, Bo...I'm such a collector's cliché. But still, reading about his heroics in French magazines (well, magazine singular, really, there were 3 magazines covering basketball but only one writing about the other american sports) made me buy his (very poorly written) biography, and now here I am, collecting his cards...I like adding football cards to my collection because I know close to nothing about them, which means I'm always discovering new designs.

Finally, here are older Knicks cards. A couple fan favorites in Monroe and Frazier, my first 80-81 card (I have no idea who Larry Demic is, but he was with Kareem so I picked this one up. Always cheaper than the Magic/Bird RC combo). Those are also my first 86-87 famous Fleer issue. Simple design made iconic because of all those (Jordan anyone ?) RCs and XRCs inserted.

Yay, 90's basketball ! those all look great. I especially like that Team MVP UD that I was never able to secure 25 years ago.

Matt, Brian and Kevin walk in a Gallery

Brian had a box of 2017 Topps Gallery just waiting to be opened for one of our breaks, which explains why it follows Matt's break so closely (I suppose it's my turn now !). This time, I didn't get all the hits, but there was an auto in there for me. My hot streak continues !

Some nice inserts and the usual (insanely boring) parallels. That Trout is a very nice card, and I had to look up who Arroyo is...

Hooray for Blue Jays ! The Alomar is a very nice insert. I like the overall design and card stock, but there's still a little something missing (more action ?) to make that a memorable set.

thanks for the break, Brian !

And as always, some bonus cards for my collection !

I used to think those were the ugliest cards ever, but now I absolutely love them. A great couple of vintage tv set cards for my NY Giants collection.

The Guerrero Jr is a parallel, and something tells me I'll have a hard time finding his cards..I'll stick to base cards for the moment ! The Devon Travis was the only one missing to complete the 2015 Heritage team set, so thanks for spotting that SP ! And finally, a very cool on card Stroman auto. Arbitration was tough, apparently, but it looks like he'll be on track for this season.

More Blue Jays cards I needed ! First time I've seen those Holiday cards. Not sure what Topps is trying to do, there...Can't wait for 2020 and the end of their monopoly. Let's hope the league allows new blood in the mix. I thought the system in the 90s (well, early 90s...) was good, with each brand allowed what, 5 products ? I understand the market isn't what it used to be, with far less people buying, but a little competition won't hurt. That Pat Hentgen is from a box set from 97 Stadium Club I had no idea existed. It's not even in the tcdb. Well done !

Thanks to Brian, I now own 9 different Kiermaier cards. My collection is impressive !

And finally, more PC? including a couple of Knicks cards (and that Ewing that I did not have. And I have a LOT of 90s Ewing cards...)

Thanks again Brian, can't wait for the next break !

I'll be Judge and jury for that transatlantic triple break

It was Matt's turn to chose a box for our box break, and after much debate with himself, he picked a box of Panini Chronicles. The card Gods were with me this time especially, as I ended up with the box's 4 guaranteed hits. I actually felt kinda bad about it, I prefer when our boxes are more balanced, but ah well, still nice to be lucky and I know my friends don't mind the least !

I'm pretty sure I already ot a David Dahl auto in one of our previous breaks. I have no idea who Andrew Toles is, but it's a very low numbered auto of a major franchise, so that always makes good trade bait !

I wasn't impressed with the base cards (and even less with their gold parallels), but as I looked at them closer, they grew on me. Why not, after all, at least some thought went into those cards.

 Here's the third hit of the box : a (ok, boring, but still) swatch of Mister Tony Gwynn. Always a cool addition.

And finally, the kind of pull we always hope for in a box break but hardly ever happens. Matt jokingly wrote in the email presenting the box he picked that he hoped there would be 4 Aaron Judge autos. There was one. We'll take it ! It's a sticker auto on a Panini product, so it won't reach amazing heights in terms of value, but you can hardly dream of a better pull, and it's all mine, MINE ! Well, if they do send the card to me one day, but I don't think that will be a problem.

The package Matt sent me was also loaded with a few more blasts that he always so carefully choses, thanks to his great knowledge of sports and of everybody's collecting needs :

 Sometimes, I think Matt can perfectly read my mind. Alomar was at the very top of my list of desired autos, and eventhough there are quite a few available now (maybe he needs the money...), I never actually pulled the trigger because they were all out of my price range, or I'd always lose the betting on ebay. It's a gorgeous card with an amazing on card auto. I love it !

More from Immaculate, this time with a very nice Encarnacion swatch.

And finally, I never ever thought I'd receive a Carmelo auto in a trade with my baseball budies one day, and yet there it is ! I wasn't exactly sad to see him leave New York for OKC, but he's still a major NY player from the past (ugly) years and a major addition to my collection.

I'm once more baffled

thanks a lot Matt for the break (wooohoooo, Judge auto !!!) and for the incredible extras !

Julie takes me to her LCS

Fresh out of (too) early retirement, Julie sent me one of those packages only she knows how to put together. A small box with something like 300 (!) cards, 2/3 of which I needed for my collection. And that's not easy to achieve ! I can't show everything here, but all the cards I scanned are new to me and were really fun to sort and look at.

Yay, Knicks cards ! They have been abysmal for the last few years (decade), but when you're a fan...I'll never collect current basketball cards, though, as Panini isn't exactly doing a stellar job...

 Always excited to get new Griffeys !

Julie is my official supplier of goofy cards (that Vicejoy is a refractor !) and anything French related.
The 'love locks' phenomenon is actually a problem, as they make grids very fragile (parts already fell in the water), because they aren't built to support 50 tons of locks. People and their clichés...

A bunch of PC ! Some old, some new...the joys of collecting a variety of players

I'm really glad I'm not an Ichiro supercolletor. There must be an insane amount of his cards out there.

Some Mets cards (I really like Topps Archives, especially the early sets) and a newly inducted HOFer !

Now, some Blue Jays cards. There were something like 160 blue jays cards I needed for my collection. That's a lot. Really. Many are from 2017, which is easier to find since I only have a handful (58 according to my spreadsheet). I haven't been really active on the trade front !

A couple of autos from players who only lasted a couple of years in the minors. But hey, it's better than I ever did !

*sigh*

Fan favorite from my collecting days. Nice variety of brands and styles

Calling Clemens a fan favorite would be the overstatement of the year. He did bring amazing numbers to Toronto, though. Never easy to collect someone with such an abrasive personality. But it could be worse, he could be Curt Shilling.

More beautiful cards from the 90s ! (and one from the 80s) Those were the days...

 I keep discovering new sets from the years 2000. So much to chose from...those SPx are really great.

There was a complete team set from 2015 mini, before they got all confusing with the 2017 release. I didn't know what those '51 topps heritage cards were, so I did a little research, and found out they're from a factory set. I always love getting cards I need from factory sets, without actually having to buy the whole set.

This is proof that Panini (!!!) actually gets things right sometimes. I'd never seen those America's pastime cards, and they look quite nice.

Parallels, chrome, high end, low end...the usual mix !

And finally, some cards from 2017 :

You'd think Panini would've bothered to change the photo for the Donaldson card...they changed the blurb at the back, after all. And you can give a chrome aspect to Donruss to make it cooler, it'll still be ugly. Nice try, though.

Great looking high end cards, and I especially like that National card from Bowman.

Thanks again Julie for a wonderful box of cards to sort through. It's like making a trip with you to the local card shop !

Summer flashback

I've had some cards waiting for me in my COMC mailbox since this summer, and I figured it'd be a nice Christmas surprise to myself (I'm very good at acting surprised) to have it shipped a few weeks ago. There wasn't much (hence the long wait) but it still feels worth the $5 S&H tag.

I'm pretty sure someone, somewhere would've sent it over in a trade, but I couldn't wait ! Beautiful card.

Yeah, I don't know what got over me. I typed 'hologram' in COMC and just picked a few cheap ones. I'm a big fan of the Flintstones. And I seem to understand from the book I read about Upper Deck that cardtoons was a bust. That Cy Young is limited to...150 000 copies. Better get yours fast !

 When it comes to my PC, I try to get as many base cards as possible, along with at least one auto. This won't happen with Bo (way too expensive), so I'll settle with some base cards. Happy to add that Leaf and Topps Future Stars ones.

Same here with a couple missing base cards (I bought a couple boxes of 92 SC and somehow managed never to get this one)

You can't tell from the scan, obviously, but this is a JUMBOOOOOO card. I love those. I need more. Great looking insert too, one of my favorites from that time.

Those two I won on Ebay. They're for my HOF project, and I'm quite happy with that Bob Feller 1956 Topps. It's a little bit creased, but besides that, it's great looking.

 Ok, so maybe, MAYBE I was a tad influenced by Night Owl's Top 100 70's cards. Maybe. Maybe I even plan on getting them all someday.

 Aparicio is probably one of the cheapest HOFers/Gold glovers to collect. Even the 62 Topps cost me $3 on Comc, and they're not exactly the cheapest when it comes to vintage cards.

Finally, more for the Gold glovers PC. A couple of 1976 Topps, including that amazing Bench card.

So there you go, a little bit of everything, as always !

My secret Santa delivered overseas

I knew Santa would probably be too busy to make the trip all over to Europe, so I told him it was ok to stop near Pittsburgh instead, that the cards would find their way to me eventually. I was way too eager to participate in Matt's awesome Secret Santa to let it pass me by this year (I missed it last year because, well, my life gets quite busy with the end of the year, because books don't sell themselves and I have to be a Santa to a lot of people so they won't all end up with 50 shades of gray in their stockings). In order for my Secret Santa not to wish he'd never entered after pulling my name, Matt agreed to hold the cards for me.

So yay, more cards !

Adam from Arpsmith's sportscard obsession  got stuck with me, and from the pics Matt sent me, he did a great job !

A nice design from a fan favorite and a brand favorite

More autos !

Another nice Blue Jays auto, and a great Griffey medallion.

Metal definitely gave us some of the strangest card designs out there. This one is almost normal !

Nothing says Merry Christmas and a big thank you to Adam like a Snoopy all dressed up for winter.