COMC - Cards On My Couch

If you had told me when I was a kid that someday I'd be able to sit at home on my couch with an electronic device no thicker or heavier than a notepad, and use it to attend a "virtual card show", my brain probably would have exploded right there on the spot.

Fast forward 20 or 30 years, and thanks to my trusty iPad, high speed WiFi, and the wonderful collector site that is COMC, that's pretty much what I have at my disposal.  Cards from "dealers" all over the world, that can be refined or sorted based on team, set, player or even price.  Plus, you can make offers and haggle!

I know a lot of folks (myself included) wish they could go back in a time machine to the '50s and experience what it was like to put cards from the one or two sets that existed each year into bicycle spokes.  Even those people have to admit, I would think, that the modern collecting era that we're living in now is pretty damn sweet in its own right.

As a tribute to this awesome era of availability and ease, I've queued up 20 cards that I picked up in recent months off of COMC to show off here today.  Whether they are cards from decades before I was born, or are from sets that came out within the past year, all were purchased by simply tapping on a screen from the comfort of my own couch!

I can think of no better card to lead off with than this one, featuring what has to be one of the absolute best photos in the entire '94-95 Pinnacle hockey set.  I've always had a soft spot for the 1994 Stanley Cup Champion Rangers team, since I visited New York City on a trip with my Dad this same summer, just weeks after the Rangers brought home the Cup that year (also made my one and only visit to the old Yankee Stadium during this same trip).  This is a Rink Collection parallel too, which makes it even greater in my eyes.  I'd have to say this is one of my better $4-or-less hockey pick-ups of all-time.

My COMC purchases are typically all over the map, in fact one of the things I like most is the sheer variety that's offered on the site.  I still focus on Red Sox cards quite a bit though, and there was no way I was leaving this Silver Ice RC of my favorite current Red Sox player behind for less than 75 cents!

Another card in the seemingly impossible quest to complete the 100-card Yellow parallel set from 2009-10 Champ's hockey.  This one puts me at 26/100 of these one-per-hobby-box inserts, so I'm officially more than a quarter of the way there now.

The Heritage High Number cards are tricky little devils to track down, at least for me, so I gladly scooped up this one of shortstop Jose Iglesias.

Here's the oldest card of today's post, a '60 Topps Gary Geiger.  I haven't chased the '50s and '60s Topps Red Sox team sets all that vigorously, but when I stumbled across this one at 44 cents it was an easy call.

Hey NHL fans, remember this guy?  Nathan MacKinnon was the talk of the league when he was selected first overall by the Avalanche and turned in an impressive Calder Cup-winning rookie season in 2013-14.  He hasn't been able to replicate his goal, assist, or point total from that first season though in the two since, and the Avs have also missed the playoffs both of those years.  Guess that's why I got this one so cheap...

Any Red Sox parallel numbered to 250 or less that's available for under 60 cents is pretty much a guaranteed buy for me.  Yes, I am a sucker.

Here's a cool one.  Claude Giroux has sneakily (or maybe not so sneakily if you're a Flyers fan) become one of the top players in the entire league over the last 8-10 years.  This is a Red Prism parallel from last year's OPC Platinum release.  These are numbered to an odd /135.

How I miss the multi-colored retail parallels in Topps flagship!

This one was picked up for two reasons, and two reasons alone.  It was under 50 cents.  It is acetate.

A football card?!?!  What can I say, I love "wave" refractors and this was a nice reminder of the successful season that Revis spent with the Pats.  These things must not be as popular with football collectors as they are with baseball collectors, because Darrelle set me back just 50 cents.

I wasn't collecting at all from about 1997 through 2006, so I had never heard of these Stadium Club "Matrix" parallels, but they're pretty trippy.  I doubt I'll ever get around to chasing a team set, but figured Mo here was a good representative card for my Sox collection.

This one clearly takes the cake (pun intended) for most random card in this post.  From the 1916 Player's Cigarettes "Cries of London" set, we have "Buy my right Yorkshire cakes, buy my muffins"!  I'd never heard of these before, but for 82 cents this 100-year-old card of a fancy-looking baker peddling muffins and cakes was irresistible.  Undoubtedly one of the most random pieces of cardboard I've ever acquired.

You can click the back for a larger image if you care to read the write-up.  I'll just say that I'm confident this is the only card in my collection that references the muffin man.

Here's another of the Topps Legends Variations that I'm so hopelessly addicted to.  I will never, ever get tired of these, until the day I own them all.  Especially when they come my way for under a dollar, like Tris Speaker here did.

The foil makes it nearly impossible to tell, but this is Tyler Seguin.  The card is from the 2012-13 Fleer Retro release, and comes from the subset that pays homage to the '97-98 Metal Universe set.

Here's yet another new Xander Bogaerts card.  I still don't have Xander's base card from this Heritage set (it's a dreaded short print), but I now have the Purple Chrome variation since it's much easier to find than the regular old base card.  You can't beat a shiny All-Star Rookie Cup!

There aren't a lot of folks blogging about soccer cards, so I had completely missed the fact that Panini released a Select soccer set last year?!?!  If you enjoy both soccer and shiny cards this release should be a hit for you.  There are tons of different colored and serial numbered parallels, with this Camo version numbered to /249.  I'll always remember Luis Suarez from his time with Liverpool, so figured this one was a nice addition to my soccer/miscellaneous binder.

The latest card in my quest to land as many Topps Chrome Red Sox parallels as I can get my hands (or cursor, I guess) on!

Not much to say about this one, just another card crossed off of my '60s Red Sox list for less than 50 cents.

We started with a hockey card, so let's end with one too.  This '82-83 OPC Gretzky is a nice card in its own right, but for me it was extra nice landing this one as it's one of the bigger cards I had left to chase from the '82-83 OPC set.  I gladly forked over $2.50 for this mint card of the greatest scorer in hockey history.

Well, there you have it!  20 more reasons why COMC has quickly become my number one source for acquiring new cardboard.  If you've never checked out the site, I'd recommend depositing $20 and seeing how you do next time you're sitting around bored on the couch!