What would a COMC purchase be without some PC help?

Probably 1/2 of what it normally is.  

I bought 20 cards to add to various player collections from this order, and there's something for 5 different players in this post.

Still haven't ventured into the higher priced parallels for either Felix Potvin or Mats Sundin yet, so these cards are still in the 50 cent to $1 range.  It'll probably be a long time before I start to chase the higher dollar cards for these guys, so adding cards here and there will still be very inexpensive.

My favorite of the bunch is the red bordered Beehive card in the top right.  I never did collect Beehive when it came out in the mid 2000's, but each card that I've seen so far has looked really good and makes me wonder if chasing the set down someday might be worth it.

Much like the Topps Chrome cards from 2010, the Keith Tkachuk platinum players club card from 95-96 Collectors Choice has succumbed to warping.  Not quite as bad as some other cards I've seen, but it's very noticeable.   The Joe Sakic in the upper right I accidentally bought twice, so I'll probably use the extra one as trade bait on TCDB. 

The Larry Fitzgerald collection is still growing rapidly, and picking up serial numbered cards featuring him is still very inexpensive.  My favorite card of this scan is the Donruss card in the lower left, love the concentration in his eyes as he's watching the ball into his hands. 

I was also curious about the Leaf Certified card in the middle of the scan, as it shows James Harrison of the Steelers trying to tackle him, and wondered if the photo was from their meeting in Super Bowl XLIII, but that was 7 years before the card was released so I figured there was at least one meeting between the teams after the Super Bowl.  I checked out Football Reference.com and sure enough the Steelers hosted the Cardinals in the 2015 season, with the Steelers winning the game 25-13.

COMC put a nice touch on my order, sending the Panini Black card in a top loader.  I never request them in any of my orders, but COMC went the extra mile and kept it well protected.   The Black card looks great, if I were to change one thing though, I would have made the Cardinal logo in the top right corner red.   That would have really popped and made the card that much better (for me anyhow).   7 of the 11 cards of Fitzgerald that I showed here are serial #'d. 

Now that I've shown off the majority of the COMC order, it'll be back to the trade front as I've received a few trades in the mail since I started posting these in the past week. 

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Serial Saturday #22: 6 more out of 99

Well, I decided to only show 6 of the 13 cards I have that are serial #'d out of 99 because I decided to add them all to the Trading Card Database, which means scanning each one front and back.   Too lazy to do all 13 today with so many other items to clean up in my card area, so I stopped at 6.

At least they're all well known names.   Let's start with the football portion.

2018 Panini Origins Blue parallel of Andy Dalton.  One thing for sure from these purchases, I'm learning a lot about football and baseball products from Panini than I ever expected.  I brought this card home for just 70 cents.

Yes, I was so desperate to add at least one player from each of the 4 major sports that I hunted through basketball cards.   At least I've heard of John Wall, most of the players that I could have purchased I had never heard of.   That's how far out of touch I am with modern basketball.  This 2018 Panini Contenders Draft Ticket version cost me 85 cents.

I knew I would have an easier time finding players that I knew in the baseball and hockey portions of COMC, and I wasn't disappointed.  2018 Panini Chronicles Holo Gold Jose Abreu cost me all of 65 cents.  

Panini Prestige Gold version of Trea Turner was just 82 cents.   It's almost like shooting fish in a barrel finding these cards! 

I really love the Royal Blue Cube parallels from 17-18 OPC Platinum.  I love how they scan, and they look great in hand.  Many of you who follow hockey will know Devan Dubnyk of the Wild, all 6'6" of him came here for just $1.05.  

In my opinion, this card of Nikita Kucherov was the steal of all the /99's that I bought.  This guy is going to be the NHL Scoring champ this year, and likely the MVP as well.   Looking through the 18-19 Artifacts Emerald parallels, there were quite a few running 8-9 bucks, and didn't have the star power that this guy does.   I bought this card for right at the top of my budget for this PC, $2.50.  Stolen!

Going to shoot for next Saturday to show off the other 7 cards.  Have some names to show that you'll recognize from years past in the NFL...

Thanks for reading!!

Robert

A Mish Mash

Mish Mash is exactly what you could call the scattering of cards in this post.  70's, 80's and 2010's are all represented in this post.   Commons, semistars, stars, they're all here as well.  This is all the hockey I had originally planned to show last night, along with a quartet of cards I won off of ebay that arrived today.

All alone from the 2013-14 OPC set was this Vladimir Tarasenko RC, which I figured I better grab now before the price starts to climb.  Vlad reached the 30 goal plateau again this season, and picking this up for just under $3 was an easy decision.  Still 40 more cards to finish this set, the majority of them SPs.

This page of cards from the 2012-13 OPC set weren't as expensive as the Tarasenko above, largely because there's not as much star power here.  OK, maybe Mario is a star, but it's not his RC I have here (someday I'll have it though).   This set is a bit closer to completion, just 21 cards away.  All but one of those is a SP.

Forget the checklist, the other 5 cards from the 83-84 OPC set weren't your pennies on the dollar purchases.   I still did pretty well though, the Messier/Gretzky card was just $7, and the others were in the $1.50-$4 range.  3 cards left to finish this set, Tony O, Francis, and another Gretzky card are all that's left to finish this beauty. 

How about some mid to late 70's cards?   3 more off of the 76-77 OPC set on the top row, leaving me with just 9 cards to go.   Love the Bill McKenzie card, not sure how the proof readers missed the spelling of his name on the front. 

Bottom row is the start of a couple of sets;  the Denis Potvin and Atlanta Flames team card are from the 77-78 OPC set and both cost me right around 50 cents.  Someday I'll find a nice starter lot on the cheap to get me going with that set.   I'm also looking forward to building one of the more unique sets from the 70's, the blue bordered 79-80 set.   Gretzky's RC is in that one, so maybe one day when my house is paid off I'll use a mortgage payment to buy one of those.

Yep, we're all over the map here, as these 3 2018-19 OPC retro cards found their way here.  I love that OPC included the team checklist/logo cards as I've always been a big fan of those. 

I love the 71-72 OPC set even more each time new copies come home.  These were all within the $1 to $1.50 range, which I've come to realize is pretty reasonable.  I'm still not venturing into the star range as far as this set goes, but I did get a nice group of 4 cards from this set off ebay this week;

Using the "PERFECT3" code that ebay offered this week, this lot of 4 cards cost me just over $7 shipped.   The Henri Richard card alone is worth that and more, so this lot was a steal as far as I'm concerned.   Still a long way from completion, although the 1/3 mark is not too far off now as I'm at 79/264 in hand.   Can't wait to have this set in a binder!!

Hope you enjoyed the Mish Mash.  It's kind of what I do.

Thanks for reading!!

Robert

It's Opening Day, so let's show off some baseball!!

Continuing on with the COMC posts, I decided to get some baseball on the blog today, even though I had the hockey already queued up and ready to scan and show.  We'll save the hockey for the next post.

This post has a lot of set help, along with a few more serial #'d cards to add to a couple of PC's.  After all, it sort of  wouldn't be a blog post here without something with numbers on it, right?

I probably should have added the rest of the SPs I needed from the '18 A&G set to this order, but for some reason I only purchased these 2.  This want list is down to 14 cards, 5 of them SPs.  This set will be completed in April, along with the 83-84 OPC hockey set and the '84 Topps set.  That'll leave me the rest of 2019 to finish at least 2 more sets to get to my goal.

A long neglected set build had one card knocked off it.   1959 Topps has taken a back seat as I approach the point where the cards that remain are $$$.  My patience paid off here, as I only paid 78 cents for the Don Hoak you see above.  I don't think I'll find that kind of deal for any of the 101 cards that remain on the '59 want list. 

Seeing Johnson and Johnson on the top row of the scan was a happy accident.  4 nice copies of '68s on the very cheap, as I paid 44, 44, 46 and 47 cents for these 4 cards.  I'm now just over 40% done with this set, still a long way to go but there's no rush yet.

I've said many times, '76 Topps was a set that I never thought I'd finish relatively quickly, but I found these on the cheap as well so they were added to my cart.   Just over $2 total brought all 4 home.  101 cards remain on the '76 want list, but there is a lot of star power to pick up, including a couple of Hank Aaron cards, 2nd year of Brett/Yount, a few all time great cards, and other big names like Nolan Ryan will slow this completion down a little.  

Maybe after I finish my other 3 sets in April I'll try and focus on finishing this one off.   We'll see...

A little bit of hindsight tells me that picking up cards here and there from late 70's and early 80's Topps sets on COMC might not be the most prudent method of putting sets together; I'm sure that I'll do much better at knocking down these want lists via trades or Sportlots.   Lesson learned.

What I do like doing though is added serial #'d cards of my player collections on the cheap.  Bowman gold #'d out of 50 for $1.25.  The 2 Donruss parallels cost $1.08 combined.  I won't complain about 3 nice additions to the McCutchen PC for under $2.50.

Speaking of under $2.50, here's a couple of more additions to that little project.

2018 Donruss Optic Red parallel of Charlie Blackmon.  

Serial #'d 56/99.   95 cents.   I'm sure that I'll be able to add a lot of no name players to this list over time, but my goal is to add players with some star power.   Guys that everyone knows. 

Here's another one for you:

Robinson Cano 2018 Topps Finest Green Refractor.

Serial #'d 98/99.  85 cents.  How can I leave them there at that price? 

I'll add these 2 scans to the TCDB later tonight.  I actually went a little crazy with these on this COMC order, as I  have a bakers dozen to show off on Saturday's post, including the first basketball card I've bought in several years. 

Speaking of Opening Day, I saw the the Jays had only 2 hits today, with the first finally coming after the first 20 batters were retired by Jordan Zimmermann.  

This could be a long hot summer down here in the south.  Even longer if this is going to be the norm for Jays baseball....

Thanks for reading!!

Robert

Tunnell Vision

OK, let's get the COMC haul started with the '84 Topps cards I bought.  There's 10 in all, and some fairly big names...

5 Hall of Famers adorn this group of 9 cards, and another player who I thought might have been in the HOF (Guidry).  Can you name the three players on the page that were Blue Jays at one point in their career?   Answer later...

I love the team leaders cards in this set.  This one is a good one.  Although the logo looks a little rough, the players on the card certainly aren't.   I, like a lot of people, believe that Lou Whitaker should be in the Hall, alongside his long time SS partner Alan Trammell.  Not only did Jack Morris lead the Tigers in ERA, but he led the league in innings pitched (293.2) and strikeouts (232).  Jack finished 3rd in Cy Young voting in '83, behind winner Lamarr Hoyt and Dan Quisenberry. 

Now that I have these 10 cards in hand, along with the Alan Knicely card from the other day's post, I'm down to just one.   Lee Tunnell, card # 384 is the only one standing between me and a complete set.

I would have bought it on Sportlots with the 100 count lot, but the seller didn't have one.
I refuse to pay 75 cents on COMC for this card.  It's a matter of principle for me.

Image borrowed from COMC.com (as you can see)

I'll find one somewhere that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for.  Maybe I'll find one for trade.  I guess you could say I have a case of Tunnell vision with regards to completing the '84 set.

The 3 players in the first scan that were members of the Jays?  Ken Schrom pitched for parts of 2 seasons in the early 80's for the Jays.   Chris Chambliss was a member of the Jays, only on paper, for 34 days during the '79 off season.   Chris was moved on to the Braves where he played the last 7 full seasons of his 18 year career.  Everyone knows that Winfield finally won his World Series ring with the Blue Jays in '92 at the age of 40. 

That's twice in a week I've used a player's name in the title of a blog post.  Don't get too used to such wit...

Thanks for reading!

Robert

My LCS? It's over 2000 miles away

You ever get that feeling when you talk with someone on the blogs, or on Twitter, that they're like a kindred spirit?  Dave from the Wax Stain Rookie blog for me is one of those people.  His love of hockey and hockey cards is very reminiscent of how I've felt for decades.  You can see it in his writing as well, as his love for vintage hockey is very evident.

Dave had contacted me about 3 weeks ago, following up on a few cards that I bought from his Twitter sales.  Yep, I still wanted them was my response, and then I followed up asking about a couple of more cards that I needed.

There's only 8 cards on this post, but every one of them has a spot in my collection.

Some OPC rookies here, 3 of them much newer than the 4th, which is card that for just a few bucks is now part of my 1974-75 OPC build.  This is one of the few photos that you'll find with Lanny McDonald clean shaven, as he is famous for his walrus type mustache. 

These were just the beginning.

The Night Owl talked recently about cards having stories and how he wanted to have his cards tell his story.  Totally understandable.   But for me, this 2nd year Gilbert Perreault has a great story somewhere that I don't mind adding to my collection.   Creased, tape stain on the front below the logo, and a sheen on the back which I can't put my finger on as to what it is all adorn this card.   I love it, love it, love it.  Oh, and the Gump Worsley card is also great.  My 1971-72 OPC set is slowly picking up some steam with these 2 cards, a half dozen from COMC that I'll show sometime this week, and 4 more that I bought yesterday from Ebay using the "PERFECT3" code that had gone around the Twitterverse.

As great as these 2 are, the next 2 really exceeded my expectations.

The last key RC in my 83-84 set was Scott Stevens.  I bought this and the Gretzky base card from Dave for a very nice price, and with the cards that I received from COMC yesterday, I'm now down to 3 to finish this set!!  These 2 cards are as close to mint as I've found anywhere. 

Dave offers quite a few cards from his LCS on Twitter for sale.  I keep an eye out for them because they're hockey, and well, that's what I love.  Dave's also based in Nova Scotia, which is about as far as you can get from where I am without going west....

Yep, my LCS is now 2000 miles away, and I'm not complaining one bit.  Thank you for the cards Dave, they are great!

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Sure, I'll go 50/50 with you, but you gotta ask me Knicely

I have found a seller on Sportlots that I really like, his name is Mark and his user ID is bandit 24.  I received my 3rd envelope from him on Friday, and each one has arrived with 100 or more cards worth of want list help.

Why 100 cards?  Mark offers free shipping if you order 100 or more cards on the same order.  That certainly helps the wallet!!  Plus he has a lot of cards from the early 80's sets that I've been working on.

This order was split 50/50:

50 cards from the '83 Topps set arrived, bringing me just under the 40% complete mark.  No really expensive cards in this group, in fact the only card I paid more than 18 cents for is coming up in a minute...

I also received 50 cards from the '82 set, which is now over 40% done.   These 2 sets seem to be mirroring each other as far as progress goes, and likely I'll end up completing them both at the same time.

I pulled out a couple of cards from each group of 50, just because I wanted to.

Not enough room on this card to add a Twitter or Instagram ID.   Too many hits.  I paid a buck for this card, which I thought was reasonable.

Lots of action in this photo.  You can see the umpire on the left trying to get out of the way.  You can even see Carlton's mask in the bottom center of the photo in what looks to be mid flight.  I hope he didn't land on it....

I did a little math, these two combined stole 2.17 miles worth of basepaths during the strike shortened '81 season.   Raines stole 71 bases on his own in '81, almost double what the next player stole (Omar Moreno had 39).

Every time I see a Mike Witt card, I remember game footage of the most incredible curve ball I'll probably ever see thrown.  That 12 to 6 action was just incredible.

Now, you may be wondering where the "Knicely" part came in to this...

When I placed the order, I needed 2 cards to finish the '84 set.   This Alan Knicely card was one of them.  Unfortunately Mark didn't have the other card I need, which I'll prattle on about when my COMC order arrives.  I'll be glad to have this set done....

The you gotta ask me nicely reference comes from a movie that I'll watch every time I see it on TV, A Few Good Men which starred Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and a whole lot of other big names.  If you've never seen it, take a look because I've always enjoyed the film.

Here's the scene where Cruise is asking Nicholson for the transfer order of a dead Marine.   Be forewarned, Nicholson uses some objectionable language in the clip so if your kids are nearby, you may not want to play it.

 Hopefully my COMC order arrives by the time this posts, there's a whole lot of goodness in there that I can't wait to show.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

A little bit here, a little bit there

I received a couple more trades this week in the mail, 1 PWE and 1 bubble mailer.   More set needs by the wayside...

The first trade was a quick PWE trade, 4 for 3, with a new trade partner Barry (TCDB ID: CoachBarry).   As I have mentioned several times over the past few months, it has been great trading off inserts that I don't normally collect for cards towards the sets that I need.

Strike 4 more off the 2018 A&G want list.

The Sloane Stephens card on the lower right is the first non-baseball player card that I've received in quite a while.  Taking a quick look at the scan, I see a different logo on the sleeve of the Honus Wagner card that's new to me.  I imagine the "PBC" stands for Pittsburgh Baseball Club, but I don't ever remember seeing that logo anywhere else.   Artistic license maybe?  Or can anyone point me to another image/photo that features the PBC.

Now the bubble mailer kind of surprised me, as it is one of 3 mailers that I was awaiting from the Great White North.  I actually tweeted earlier this month that I was waiting for 3 Canadian mailers for probably the first time ever, and joked that I hope they arrive by April. 

Well, here's the first one...

Another new trade partner, Kari (TCDB ID:  karsal) sent quite a few goodies my way, starting with some additions to my player collections.  It's always nice filling in some of the gaps from the mid to late 90's of both Sundin and Tkachuk, and there's plenty of John Olerud cards that I need so hitting that want list shouldn't be hard for anyone...

Set fillers.   Blue Jays from Canada, you don't say?  The more cards I get from the 09-10 OPC set, the more I can't wait to complete it.  That's a long way off as these 4 bring the total to 113, well shy of the 600 total. 

What really surprised me about Kari's offer was the big batch of 2018 Panini Prestige football cards.  28 total ( I was lazy and only scanned 27 of them ) but some pretty big names in here such as Brady, Wilson, Luck and Terrell Suggs.  Kari also sent a few of the rookies as well, putting a small dent into what might be a larger task than I thought.  The last 100 of the 300 card set are all RC's, including Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Saquon Barkley.  I still need about 70 of them, but there's no hurry as I don't expect to finish the set anytime soon.

I'm up to 22 trades completed so far this year, and three more are halfway done.  Having 25 trades complete by the end of March will have me right where I need to be, 1/4 of the way to my goal of 100 trades in 2019.

Keep them coming guys (and ladies)...

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Serial Saturday #21: Josh Donaldson

Anyone who has followed this blog over the years knows my love of serial numbered cards.   If I had to guess, I probably own over 3000 of them in varying levels of "scarcity".  My latest bit of insanity is finding cards serial #'d to 99 on the cheap.

Well, I remembered buying this card at the monthly card show a while back, and decided to add it to the newest collection.

I remember paying just a couple of bucks for it, and I kind of enjoyed the bizarre looking design of the Spectra Neon Blue parallel.  So I bought it and the pink as well.

An unfortunate placement for the serial numbering if you ask me

My latest order from COMC which is due to arrive early in the week will feature several more cards that bought on the cheap (a lot of them less than $1) and serial #'d to 99. 

I honestly thought that it might be difficult finding a lot of cards that fit the bill.   I think I bought eight of them on this order, and didn't spend $10 total.  One of the names that I picked up really surprised me, and will be the subject of next Saturday's post.

I guess the scarcity theory that I was taught in high school economics wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Thanks for reading!

Robert