COMH (Check Out My Haul)

Recently COMC.com had a promo where you could ship your inventory for free as long as you sent at least 20 items.  It just so happened that I had 21 cards in my active inventory that had been building up for months. Fast forward a few days and they were sitting in my mailbox, man are we spoiled as collectors...

I don't think this choice needs much explanation or justification.  Great card from the 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set.  I wasn't collecting in 2004, but had I been I think I would have bought up a ton of this stuff.  As more of a vintage guy, I appreciate a good retro set, and this one is from a time before the whole concept was completely overdone.

Two straight Yankees to lead off the post, what is going on here?  This is actually my least favorite card in the lot I think, I guess I just got caught up in a Fan Favorites buying frenzy.  At least it's something a little different, and it only set me back 60 cents anyway.

I actually managed to cover the four major sports in this package, which is unusual for me.  I couldn't resist this awesome Barry Sanders Stadium Club card where he's depicted racing down the sidelines.  The photo really gives you a sense of speed, and the Member's Choice subset takes me right back to my childhood collecting days.  One of these days I will start a miscellaneous binder of random cards that don't fit my collection per se, and this one will certainly be included.

Back to the Fan Favorites well.  I really dig these cards, might have to try completing the set.  A great early-career photo of Hall-of-Famer Jim Rice on this one.

Here's an interesting insert from 2007 Upper Deck, done on the '89 Upper Deck design.  I picked up the Carlton Fisk from this insert set in a previous COMC purchase, so this one pairs nicely with it.

These All-Time Fan Favorite cards seem a bit scarce and pricey, I had to lay out $1.25 for this Ripken.  I recently picked up a really nice card of Cal that I hope to show off soon.

A 1982 Kellogg's Ozzie Smith in mint condition for just 65 cents?  Yes please!  I don't get to many card shows (maybe one every couple of years at best) so COMC is basically my way of searching through virtual discount boxes.  I know these Kellogg's cards aren't super valuable but in my mind this one might be the steal of this lot.

Here's my one complaint about the purchase.  I paid $1.25 for this Fan Favorites Willie Mays, was willing to fork over a bit more because of the fantastic photo and the fact that it's card #1 on the checklist.  The problem is there's a good size ding in the top right corner that it definitely did not have in the very detailed scan on the site.  Oh well, one problem card out of the hundreds I've bought from this site won't deter me, off to the giveaway box with this one.

This one falls into the "I can't really explain it but just had to have it" category.  I have kind of a thing for the cheesy Classic cards of the late '80s/early '90s.  The thing is, often when I find them they're pretty beat up.  I think a lower quality card stock combined with colored borders makes these very prone to damage.  Frank here is absolutely mint.

A basketball card makes a very rare appearance here at Shoebox Legends!  Well, technically this is a baseball card I guess, from the 2008 Goudey set.  As a Boston sports fan I couldn't pass on this great photo, I think this one will join Barry Sanders in the miscellaneous binder if I ever create it.

I'm really not a big relic card person, and I'm not much of a Manny Ramirez fan, but I do love Allen & Ginter and the team collector in me couldn't leave this behind for less than $2.

I've mentioned this numerous times, but if there was ever a team aside from the Red Sox that I would collect it would be the Brooklyn Dodgers.  There's just so many really great Dodger cards out there, and this Fan Favorites Don Zimmer is a perfect example.  Just awesome.

I completed the 1994-95 SP hockey set long ago, but I still chase down the die-cut parallels when I can find them on the cheap.  Besides, this is a great player, is also the first card in the set, and look at that Mighty Ducks logo!

I've been plugging away at a 1949 Bowman Red Sox team set, so this 2006 Bowman Heritage Papelbon rookie caught my eye since it borrows its design from the '49 set.  I don't hear much about John anymore now that he's in the NL, but this is a pretty cool rookie card for my Sox collection.

Have you ever been mesmerized by something shiny, and before you even realized what was happening you'd already made a purchase?  Well that happened with this lot.

A couple of times!  On a side note this 2013 Topps Chrome X-Fractor is perfectly straight and not curled at all.  Are all 2013 Topps Chrome cards like this?  This is my first of any kind so I have no idea.

Of course I had to meet my quota of at least one new Nolan Ryan card in every COMC purchase.  This die-cut hails from the 1995 SP set.  I've passed it up in dollar boxes many times, and I'm glad I did because this copy set me back only 46 cents.

Next we've got two nice cards that pay homage to the 1979 Topps design, Dennis Eckersley from the 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set (yet again!)...

...and a really cool Roy Campanella from the 2010 Topps Vintage Legends insert set.  What a great photo of Roy hauling lumber on this one.  See what I mean about the Brooklyn Dodgers?

This lot was very baseball heavy, but here's one hockey card I was really excited about.  Carl Soderberg was one of the lone Bruins who actually had a very solid playoff run, in fact you could make an argument that he was the best of any of the forwards on the team.  I picked up this Young Guns rookie all the way back in March, before the playoffs even started, for just $2.75.  Happy to have this one in the collection!

Finally, my personal favorite card out of the entire lot...

Holy crap, how did I not know this card existed until recently?  Words cannot express how great this card is, so I'll shut up and just let you soak in the scan.

This entire lot cost me well under $20, not too shabby.  Time to start building up inventory for the next free shipping promotion!