A Friday "COMC Blaster"

A recent set of posts by Douglas at Sports Cards from the Dollar Store reminded me that it's been some time since I did one of these "COMC Blasters" here on the blog.  The simple idea being to take the $20 one would spend on a retail blaster of modern product and spend it on COMC instead.

Let's get rolling...

Today's "blaster" starts with a pair of cards featuring my beloved Hartford Whalers.  Each one represents one of my favorite hockey parallels of the '90s.  First, this fantastic Pinnacle Rink Collection parallel of scrappy scorer Pat Verbeek.  These are really high on the list in terms of Whalers team sets I'd like to complete.  I need to get a bit more organized to even know what I'm missing, but for 74 cents I've now got at least one more in hand.

Perhaps even shinier than the Rink Collection card is this '94-95 Topps Finest Refractor.  I've shown a few of these off on the blog here over time, and they just never get old for me.  I've for the most part exhausted the supply of really cheap ones ($2 or less) on the site, but scored this Geoff Sanderson for $1.38 about a year ago now.  Yes, it really does take me that long to scan and inventory a card sometimes, as COMC purchases often end up stashed in my card chest for many months before I get around to them.

Sometimes I'll just search for "Red Sox autos" and see what low-hanging fruit is available to be plucked.  This Alex Wilson was the result of one such venture, and cost me $1.57.  It's unlicensed but at least it's bright, and it represents my only autograph of Wilson from his tenure with Boston.  I believe I got a second copy of this in a trade package sometime back, if I can confirm that and get my hands on both of them I'll send off my extra copy to one of my other Red Sox collecting buddies.

I'm always enticed by interesting minor league releases, and hadn't seen this 1998 Multi-Ad Sports New Britain Rock Cats set before.  The Rock Cats were affiliated with the Twins for a long stretch there.  I chose A.J. Pierzynski to add to my collection since he has had quite a long MLB career, and also since the seller accepted my best offer of just 44 cents.

I've talked on here a few times about my love for acetate cards, and I ended up with a couple from each of my two favorite sports in this virtual blaster.  From 2015-16 Upper Deck Ice I grabbed my favorite current Bruin David Krejci...

...and this fantastic black and white Terry Sawchuk card.  $1.04 for the pair.  A few weeks after I picked up these two there was a big stack of cards from this set, including both of these, on the counter at my LCS.  Could have saved a few dimes I'm sure but them's the breaks.

On the baseball side for acetate, a pair of Topps Hi Tek cards.  Love this release, though I'm unwilling to pay the money for a hobby box.  I'll gladly snipe cheap singles though, like this Juan Gonzalez from the 2015 set for 35 cents...

...or this 2014 Hank Aaron for 53 cents.

You can bundle this one in with the Alex Wilson above under the heading of cheap Red Sox autos.  Even though Allen Webster's brief career with Boston was forgettable to say the least, $1.45 was enough of a bargain to get me to pull the trigger on this hard-signed Gypsy Queen card.

As someone who was collecting as a kid in the early '90s, these '92-93 Ultra inserts from 2012-13 Fleer Retro really hit home.  Upper Deck did a great job sticking to the theme of the original set with these.  48 cents for Tyler Seguin here.

Not that it's a super valuable card or anything like that, but I was surprised to land this '83 Topps Traded Tom Seaver for under 60 cents.  No real impetus behind this purchase other than the fact that I just plain like the card and don't have a whole lot of '83 Traded cards in my collection to date.

1st Day Issue Stadium Club parallels were so awesome back in the day.  These one-per-box cards seemed like cardboard gold to my pre-teen self back then, but as with most cards from this era haven't really retained much value.  John Valentin's '94 release here cost me 95 cents earlier this year.

One of the things I loved most about the 2011-12 Parkhurst Champions set were these "wire photo" cards that came immediately after the 100 card short set on the checklist.  For $1.48 this is a great photograph of a significant moment for two of the best players in the history of the sport.

I'm fascinated by athletes who seem to last forever in their sport.  Perhaps the most famous "advanced age" baseball player is pitcher Jamie Moyer.  I was beyond happy to agree on a price of $2.25 for this Bowman Chrome Orange Refractor from 2012, Jamie's final year pitching.  It's serial-numbered to /25, and thus is the nicest (and rarest) of the small group of Moyer cards I own.

That brings the running total to $13.25. Instead of a bunch of cheaper cards I've got one significant one to round out today's "blaster"...

This is the image variation of Mookie Betts' 2015 Topps flagship card.  Admittedly I'm a fan of these gimmicks, though I can certainly understand why they aggravate some collectors.  I haggled the seller down to $7 even, which is a fair price.  It's nothing flashy, but it's one of my favorite cards of the young Red Sox star and 2016 AL MVP hopeful.

Well, that brings us to $20.25 and thus concludes today's "COMC Blaster".  I feel like I've said this every single time, but that was much more enjoyable than what I likely would have gotten had I forked the money over to Target!