A Sunday Blaster, Brought to You By COMC

It's been a while since I did one of my "COMC Blaster" posts, but I had some time to pull and scan this morning so let's get down to it!  The basic idea here is to see how far the $20 I could have spent on a blaster from my local Target goes on my favorite hobby site on the internet, COMC.  Here we go...

1959 Topps #48 - Orioles Team Checklist - $1.15

Here's one towards my 1959 Topps set build.  As I've said countless times, I miss these team photo checklists in the modern day flagship set.  I try to keep my pickups towards this set to under a dollar each outside of stars, but I didn't mind going slightly over that here since this one's in really good, "will never need to upgrade" condition.

2013 Panini Golden Age Tip Top Bread #7 - Pete Rose - $2.50

Believe it or not, this is the most costly card in today's post.  It's a rare case where I actually overpaid (there's one available for $1.50 now) just because I was really trying to finish up this 10-card insert set.

2013 Panini Golden Age Tip Top Bread #5 - Buck Weaver - $.84

Here's another one, featuring Buck Weaver.  He's probably most remembered for being banned from the game due to his involvement with the 1919 Black Sox team.  Weaver, an excellent fielder, didn't commit a single error during that World Series, and racked up 11 hits as well.  Some feel his claims that he wasn't involved in the scandal could be entirely true in light of these stats.  Either way, interesting to see two cards in a row here of guys who aren't exactly in good favor with the game.

2013 Panini Golden Age Tip Top Bread #10 - Mel Ott - $.74

Let's wash that taste from our mouths with a nice card of HOFer Mel Ott.  This brings me up to 7 out of 10 of these now.  I'm pretty sure I have the remaining ones kicking around here somewhere.

1983-84 O-Pee-Chee #22 - Oilers Leaders (Gretzky) - $1.23

Next up, the Great One!  Honestly, I'm interested in any O-Pee-Chee Gretzky card from the '80s that I don't already own at this price point.  71 goals and 125 assists, not a bad season all in all!

1981 Fleer #574 - Rickey Henderson - $.38

Picked this one up just because I don't really have much '81 Fleer in my collection, and it seemed like a steal for a mint second-year Henderson.

2014 Topps Chrome Blue Refractor (#'d /199) #47 - Will Middlebrooks - $.80

This one I grabbed a long while back now, when Will Middlebrooks was going to be a star (haha).  While I wouldn't exactly seek this one out today, I could do worse than 80 cents for a Topps Chrome Refractor numbered to 199 I guess.

2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs 3-D #12 - Iguanodon - $.99

I posted one of these lenticular 3-D dinosaur inserts previously, and here's my second.  Upper Deck did a fantastic job with these, they look much better in person than in the scan.  One of my favorite non-sport sets from the past few years.  Of course they kind of ruined it by short-printing the last few cards on the 42-card checklist, but oh well.

1959 Topps #98 - Arnie Portocarrero - $.50

The lead-off card wasn't the only damage I did to my '59 Topps set in this post, as I also picked up hurler Arnie Portocarrero...

1959 Topps #504 - Ossie Alvarez - $.60

...and a smiling Ossie Alvarez for what amounted to just a little over a buck for the pair.  This is a slow set build for me for sure, and I don't know if I'll ever get there quite honestly.  Can't go wrong picking up missing singles at two-for-a-dollar prices though!

2016 Topps Star Wars Tek Blue Rainbow (#'d /99) #SW-76 - First Order Stormtrooper - $1.25

Here's another Blue Rainbow parallel from last year's Star Wars Tek set.  Much like with the Upper Deck Dinosaurs 3-D cards, I don't have any intention of trying to complete a set of these, but just can't help myself when I can reel them in for cheap coin.  I think this is my fourth, so I'm almost halfway to a complete binder page of these anyway, which will look pretty cool.

2013 Topps Heritage Wal-Mart Blue #434 - Dustin Pedroia - $.43

My rationale behind this one?  Well, it was dirt cheap and it's the only Red Sox card to get the blue-bordered Wal-Mart treatment in 2013 Heritage.  So, for 43 cents I knocked off a Red Sox team set of sorts...

2012-13 Upper Deck SP Authentic #175 - Evgeni Malkin - $.89

No explanation needed for this one!  I mean I grabbed it for my small collection of players featured with the greatest trophy in all of sports, but with a photo like this I would've been intrigued regardless.  Just another example of why the Authentic Moments subset cards in the SP Authentic hockey releases are so great.

2015 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-04 - Wally the Green Monster - $.85

I tend to pick up Wally the Green Monster's mascot insert each year when Opening Day comes out, and this continued that trend for 2015.  It's not every day that you find a card with a Green Monster in both the foreground and background.

1971-72 Topps #16 - Bryan Hextall - $.54

I'm slowly plodding away at the '71-72 Topps hockey set as well.  While I'm not pursuing it with great vigor, this release and the '72-73 set from the year following are sort of next in the logical progression as I work my way backwards with Topps' hockey sets.  Also, quite amazingly, this is the first of three Hextalls to be featured in today's post!

1971-72 Topps #46 - Carol Vadnais - $.59

Another '71-72, and I like this one even better given that it features the California Golden Seals.  If I didn't have fifty other ongoing hobby projects I'd love to just complete a master Golden Seals team set across every release that they're featured in.

1971-72 Topps #128 - Dennis Hextall - $.59

Here's the last of the trio of '71-72s I pulled this morning, featuring Bryan's brother Dennis!  Their father, Bryan Sr., also played in the NHL, so they had good hockey genes for sure.

2016-17 O-Pee-Chee Platinum Rainbow Color Wheel #122 - David Pastrnak - $.55

I had somehow completely missed out on these "Rainbow Color Wheel" parallels from last year's O-Pee-Chee Platinum release.  If you like shiny and colorful cards like I do, then these are pretty much gorgeous.  They're surprisingly cheap too, I'm guessing because they're somehow tied in with the Upper Deck e-pack stuff.  I don't get involved in any of that, but I'll gladly add this new Pastrnak (who inked a new contract with the B's this off-season) to my hockey collection.

2015 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor #21 - Matt Barnes - $.69

We're basically going with refractors from here on out.  From the 2015 Topps Chrome set here's a pink one featuring reliever Matt Barnes.  This is another that I'm not sure I'd spend the funds on today (especially since I could pick up a '59 Topps set need for the same price), but I got wrapped up in some of the parallels from this set not long after it was released.

1995-96 Topps Finest Refractor #86 - Ron Hextall - $1.92

Here's the third Hextall I referenced, Bryan's son Ron!  Being born in the early '80s, and becoming a hockey fan later in the decade, Ron is the name that comes to my mind when I hear the name Hextall.  Very pleased to have landed his Finest Refractor for less than $2, especially since it's getting harder and harder for me to find these on the cheap.  Ron here is my 18th one from the '95-96 revision of Finest.

1995 Topps Finest Refractor #190 - Jim Abbott - $2.25

Last but certainly not least, another '95 Finest Refractor, but from the baseball set.  Like many fans, I consider Jim Abbott a personal hero given what he overcame to make it to the Major Leagues (and succeed there no less!).  I picked this one up during a sale back in February of 2016, and I'm glad I did as I doubt whether I'll ever see one available for this price again.

Well, that brings our total to $20.28 for today, so I'll stop there.  21 cards for 20 bucks, and I'm pretty pleased with just about all of them.  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Sunday!