COMC Blaster - Vacation Edition

This evening kicks off a week-long break from work for me, something I haven't enjoyed for many stressful months now.  To celebrate I cobbled together one of my favorite recurring posts, a COMC blaster.  Let's see what $20 in credit on the site landed me this time around...

I typically save the best for last, but tonight I'm coming right out with my favorite card in the entire post in the lead-off spot.  Despite being from 2018, I like this one every bit as much as my vintage Aaron cards.  Well done Topps, well done.  Two bucks for this card, and no regrets.

This '59 Joe Koppe is a tough high number (#517).  In great shape like this I was more than happy to shell out $2.45 for this copy for my slow set build.  This represents my 300th card in the set as well, getting there!

I've been slowly putting together the 2009-10 Upper Deck Champ's Yellow parallel set.  This is an even rarer "Animal Icon" parallel (see the gazelles on the border), so it won't fit in with that set.  I couldn't resist grabbing it though since these are super rare, and snagging a HOFer like this for the 81 cents I paid is pretty much unheard of.

This Chris Sale from 2014 Topps Hi Tek looks more impressive than the scan would have you believe.  It's an "Ice Diffractor", numbered to /75.  Chris is wearing the wrong laundry here, but I still like the card enough that I paid $1.13 for it.

Another '59 set need, this one's a more common low number though and thus only set me back 81 cents.  I've still got a lot of stars and HOFers to track down, but I may finish this one someday yet!

This Yasiel Puig is part of a project that I anticipate will be much easier to complete, a 2014 Finest set in X-Fractor form.  Puig was just 70 cents, and represents my 36th of these X-Fractors.  64 left to go...

Let's tack on another shiny card here, with an Atomic Refractor from 2011 Topps Chrome.  I was crazy enough to start this project years back and it's been a real challenge.  I'm to the point where most of the cards I'm missing from the 220-card release just aren't even available in any online outlets.  85 cents was a real solid deal for Gio Gonzalez here.  I'd plug every remaining hole in my set at that price point if it were an option.

I have more cards of David Ortiz than probably any other baseball player, though I can't say for certain.  Because of that, I rarely seek out his cardboard while browsing around online.  I really liked these Gallery of Greats inserts from 2015 though, and the price was right in this case at 44 cents.

Here's the only card in this post that can give that Hank Aaron a run for its money.  I was obsessed with Ken Griffey Jr baseball on the Super Nintendo back in 1994.  Easily one of the top 10 favorite video games of my entire childhood.  My go-to teams were the Braves and Blue Jays.

Like many 30-somethings, I enjoy a good Griffey Jr. card.  I'm not a high-end collector of his stuff by any means, but this one seems like a really interesting odd-ball and it cost me less than $3 ($2.75).  I'd have paid twice that for the nostalgia value alone.

A really cool parallel here of arguably the best soccer player in the world over the last year or two.  He's in the running anyway.  He was actually ranked #1 on the infamous list of top 100 footballers in the world published by British paper The Guardian for 2018.  I don't have many Modric cards, so I'm happy with this one at 85 cents.

I went a little nuts over the Topps Chrome Update cards that were released in those holiday mega-boxes back in 2015.  I long ago completed the base set, and have since started grabbing some of the parallels of the Red Sox players.  This Blake Swihart rookie is my third Gold parallel (#'d /250), leaving me just a Rick Porcello shy of a complete team set.

One of my favorite obscure players to collect is the great Julio Franco.  I can't believe it took me until now to land his 1983 Topps Traded rookie card, especially since I only had to fork over $1.75 for this nice mint copy!

I like to mix in some obscure stuff while shopping on COMC, and tonight I've got a couple of cards along those lines.  From Panini Golden Age, a sweet Jimi Hendrix at just 51 cents...

...and from the 2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs 3-D insert set I've been working on, Apatosaurus.  89 cents for this giant herbivore.  A great example of how nice this set looks.

This past season, Upper Deck did an entire 25-card insert set dedicated to the great Jaromir Jagr.  Count me in!  Here's my first example.  These are available dirt cheap thanks to the e-Pack promotion between Upper Deck and COMC.  This one was the cheapest card in tonight's post at 32 cents.

Last, but certainly not least, Spaceman!  75 cents brought this one home to my Red Sox collection.  The best part about it, though?

O-Pee-Chee!

I'm at $19.76 for a running total, so we'll call it there for this evening.  Hope you saw a card or two that you found interesting.  Thanks for stopping by!