End of the Week COMC Blaster

It's Friday night, and what better way to celebrate the end of the work week than with one of my patented "COMC Blaster"s.  Let's see what $20 in credit netted this time around on the most addicting website in our hobby...

In the lead-off spot tonight is a beautiful over-sized team card of the Phillies from 1956 Topps.  Like many collectors I really enjoy '56 Topps, but I have too many other projects to make collecting this set a priority.  I do grab singles on the cheap when I run into them here and there, but this is my first team card from the release.  While the front is nice enough, this is one of those cases...

...where I feel the back of the card is the star of the show.  I love that Topps provides a list of franchise records, and I especially like the diagram that gives the dimensions of their home ballpark.  Despite a few surface wrinkles on the front, I feel I got a fair deal on this card at $1.47.

I've written a few times about how I have fond memories of attending AA Norwich Navigators games as a kid back in the mid-'90s.  Every so often I peruse COMC for Navigators cardboard for my small collection of that team, and this Nick Johnson was picked up for 40 cents as a result of one of those searches.

A Star Wars card makes it into today's post, with the Purple Starfield parallel of the first card on the checklist for the 2015 Topps "Journey to the Force Awakens" release.  I paid 54 cents for this one a couple of years back just to have at least one of these parallels in my collection.  I'm not sure I'd bother with it nowadays and would probably use the credit on something else, but at least it was cheap.

My quest to complete the 2014 Finest set in X-Fractor form continues.  Rafael Montero's RC was available for just 46 cents, so I snatched it up.  Rafael didn't pitch at all last year after a stinker of a 2017 season, but he was signed by the Rangers last month so maybe he'll see a Major League mound again someday.

The other X-Fractor that I have tonight is one of the bigger names on the checklist, the free agent that everyone has been abuzz about for months now (will you just sign already, Bryce?).  I ponied up a full $4 for this one, just because Harper's cards seem to demand decent prices and I felt I probably wouldn't find one for much cheaper than this at any point.  The best thing about it though is that it's my 33rd X-Fractor from this set, putting me at 1/3 complete as far as this project goes!

Yep, more 3-D dinosaurs from the 2015 Upper Deck release.  Dilophosaurus was made famous as the "spitter" dinosaur that killed Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park.  $1.60 for this one...

Also grabbed the Troodon, which I confess I have never heard of before.  Apparently this was one of the first dinosaurs discovered in North America and, being relatively small, was actually thought to be a lizard for the first couple of decades after its discovery.  $1.25 for this card, and we're just about at the halfway point with a current running total of $9.72.

Here's the first of two soccer cards in tonight's post, a Blue & Red Wave parallel of Liverpool and English national team striker Daniel Sturridge.  Huge game coming up this weekend for the Reds against a scorching hot Manchester United team.  I haven't been this excited for a soccer match since last summer's World Cup.  I'll certainly be tuned into all 90 minutes plus, watching with baited breath.  75 cents for this card.

For 63 cents I'm one card closer in my quest to complete a '59 Topps set.  I detest cap-less ballplayers on my baseball cards generally speaking, but the price was right.  Besides, that fantastic Mr. Redlegs logo more than offsets the lack of a hat on this one.  294 cards and counting in the '59 Topps binder now.  Someday...

Every couple of months or so I seem to search COMC for any cheap needs from the early run of Bowman releases from 1948-1955.  I think the set I've had the most good fortune with so far would have to be '54 Bowman.  I love these simple, over-sized works of art, and it's amazing the cheap prices you can find them at on occasion if you're patient enough.  Case in point, this Sal Yvars only set me back 82 cents!  Can anyone name the ballpark that Sal is depicted in here?

Here's the other soccer card in tonight's post, featuring the man who was voted the top footballer in the world in The Guardian's 2018 list of Top 100 Footballers.  That's right, for the first time in years the top player was not Messi or Ronaldo, it was Luka Modric.  Luka has been a rising star for years but had his best year so far in 2018, highlighted by Croatia's unlikely run to the World Cup Final.  Even though Croatia was topped by France in the title game, Modric deservedly received the Golden Ball award for top overall player in the tournament.

Soccer doesn't get the love that the "big four" sports do with collectors here in the States, but I still think I stole this Artist's Proof parallel from Panini Aficionado for just a dollar.

A new card for my ever-growing Nolan Ryan collection here.  This one may not have the same weight as the '71 Topps that I showed a few days back, but it's wonderfully colorful.  The Astros "tequila sunrise" uniforms and Topps Fire seem like a match made in heaven to me.  I didn't think twice about paying 72 cents for this one.

I'm always looking for opportunities to plug holes in my '70s hockey card collection.  1972-73 Topps/O-Pee-Chee is one of my favorite sets of the decade.  I enjoy the trophy cards near the end of the Topps checklist in particular, and grabbed this Art Ross Trophy in fantastic condition for 73 cents.  For those who don't follow the NHL, this is awarded annually to the player who leads the league in points.  If you're curious, Phil Esposito was the winner in '72-73.  He actually won the award five times in a six year span around this time period, which is insane.

We'll close it out tonight with a couple more shiny cards, one baseball one hockey.  On the baseball side, a 2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects "Silver Ice" parallel of my favorite active player, Xander Bogaerts.  This is the fourth version of this "pre-rookie" card that I've acquired to date (Bogaerts didn't debut with Boston until late in the 2013 season).  $1.61 for this one...

On the hockey side, another of my favorite parallels ever, the Blue Cubes cards from 2014-15 O-Pee-Chee Platinum.  I've shown a few of these over time, in fact Vladimir Tarasenko here is my 13th to date.  They're not always easy to come by at just 65 copies each but they look stunning in hand.  Obviously, a shiny blue parallel like this looks great for a St. Louis Blues player also.

Tarasenko has been a very consistent scorer since joining the league, and can be one of the more dynamic forwards in the NHL when he's hot.  That's certainly been the case recently as he led the charge during the team's franchise-best 11-game winning streak that has them right back in playoff contention.  I used $4 in store credit for this card, more than I'd typically shell out for a modern single, but I don't regret it one bit.

Well, that takes our running tally to $19.98 for tonight, so we'll stop there.  Pretty amazing actually that I got within one cent of the cost of a retail blaster.  I hope you saw a card or two that you liked or that interested you, and if not thanks anyway for stopping by anyway!