COMC Black Friday - A Preview!

I feel like I was just about the last collector to receive my Black Friday shipment from COMC, but at long last the goods were waiting for me on my doorstep when I got home from work last night.  The COMC Black Friday weekend sale is one of my collecting highlights of the year given that I don't go to many card shows.  I ended up shipping over 200 cards between my pick-ups from that sale, and some other inventory I'd been sitting on.

This will give me posting material for many months to come, but for now I randomly selected ten cards from the shipment to show off today.  These ten actually ended up being a decent representation of just how random my COMC purchases tend to be.  Let's dive in!

1966 Topps Batman Black Bat #6 - Chloroform Victim - $.58

While I haven't pursued the project with much vigor, I would love to someday complete the 1966 Topps Batman set in any condition.  This example, which features Robin getting the chloroform rag, is creased, dented, rounded, torn, and even has some water damage.  Overall the visual appeal is still there though, and I'll honestly take any card I don't already have from this set for mere pocket change.

The back is perfectly legible too!

1956 Topps #496 - Wayne Terwilliger - $.59

The recent large lot of cards that I received from Shane Katz for my 1959 Topps set has really motivated me to keep it rolling.  As a result, quite a few of the cards I picked out during the promotion were needs for my set (including a couple of significant cards I'll be showcasing later).  At 59 cents I was all over this relatively high-numbered Wayne Terwilliger.  One card closer to completion!

2014 Topps Finest Green Refractor #97 - Jose Fernandez (#'d /199) - $.75

In 2014, Topps treated collectors to a very colorful Finest release, and it's a set I'm particularly fond of.  In fact, I think this is my favorite Finest release since the early to mid '90s anyway.  I'll grab just about anything I don't have already from this set if the price is right, which it certainly was here.  RIP Jose.

1957 Topps #399 - Billy Consolo - $.54

Few things make me happier than acquiring a vintage Red Sox card to fill a hole in my team collection.  This one seemed like a steal for 54 cents.  The 1957 Topps set is a thing of beauty, I'd love to take a crack at it someday.

2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Platinum Traxx Parallel - #55 - Tuukka Rask - $.50

Of course my order contained some hockey cards as well.  If you're a fan of bright and shiny cardboard like I am then you can't do much better than some of the parallels included in the O-Pee-Chee Platinum sets from the past couple of years.  The Traxx parallels in particular are spectacular, and I wasn't going to leave this Rask behind for two quarters.

1956 Topps #54 - Bob Keegan - $.59

Who am I kidding, I love all the sets from the '50s.  For 59 cents I was happy to inch one card closer to a '56 set.  This is probably the set I'd like to complete most if I ever get through the '59 release.  This wasn't the only '56 White Sox player named Bob in my order though...

1956 Topps #267 - Bob Nieman - $.83

...and I snagged this Bob Nieman as well.  This one presents fairly well as long as you don't inspect the "corners" too closely, haha.  For 83 cents though how can I really complain?  I might have to get a formal want list typed up for this set after all.  Maybe something to work on in 2017...

2015 Panini Select Camo Parallel #62 - Sergio Aguero (#'d /249) - $.75

I'm definitely in the minority when it comes to collecting soccer cards.  If that means I can land serial-numbered parallels of one of the most talented offensive players on the globe for under a dollar that's fine by me!  I've actually begun to develop a nice little Aguero collection courtesy of COMC.  Strange that every card I've shown so far has been under a buck.  I did land a few more significant pieces of cardboard on Black Friday weekend, just didn't happen to pluck any of them from the box when preparing for this post...

2015 Topps Buyback #1976-170 - Rick Wise - $1.25

You had to know there would be some buybacks in my order, right?  I just can't get enough of these things, and I peruse COMC at least once or twice a week to see what low-hanging fruit might be out there to be plucked.  At a buck twenty-five I wouldn't say this was "low-hanging fruit", but it was tempting enough given that it doubles as a new Red Sox card for me as well.

Besides, I've always admired Rick Wise as the author of one of the more dominant performances in baseball history.  As most fans know, Rick threw a no-hitter in 1971 in which he clubbed two home runs of his own at the plate.  How's that for dominance?  He didn't exactly accomplish this feat against a team of slouches either, this was done against a Reds lineup featuring names like Pete Rose, Tony Perez, George Scott and Johnny Bench.  Just unreal.

As far as my buyback franken-set goes, I already had this Cookie Rojas Heritage buyback in slot 170.

I'm taking Rick Wise over Cookie any day.

Franken-set Progress:  249/792 (31%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  59

Last card for today is another random one, something you don't see here on Shoebox Legends very often...a basketball card:

1969-70 Topps #47 - Emmette Bryant - $1.13

I'm not a basketball guy whatsoever, in fact of the tens of thousands of sports cards that I own probably less than 50 of them are basketball cards.  Every so often one speaks to me though, as was the case with this '69-70 Topps Emmette Bryant.  I'm a sucker for "tall boy" cards like this, and couldn't resist one featuring my hometown Celtics.  I love the design of this set, with the four basketball action sketches framing the portrait.

This one is particularly awesome since Emmette and the Celtics won the NBA Championship in 1969, defeating the LA Lakers.  Bryant was a key contributor on that team, scoring 20 points in the deciding game 7.  At $1.13 this might be one of my favorite pick-ups from the entire weekend.  Never would have thought I'd be saying that about a basketball card!

Love the backs of these as well, with plenty of space saved for a nice, large cartoon!

So yeah, there's a taste of what's to come when I get around to showing off the rest of my COMC Black Friday goods.  These ten cards provide a nice overview of why COMC continues to be my #1 favorite hobby-related site.  Short of the yearly National, I'm not sure there's a card show I could attend that would offer the sheer variety and bargain basement prices that COMC does, especially during large annual promotions like Black Friday.

Did you participate in COMC's Black Friday promotion?  If so, what was the best bargain you landed?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments, and even better if you've posted any of your own Black Friday haul leave a link as well!