COMC Blaster - Thanksgiving Week Edition

It's a three-day work week for me this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States.  Let's celebrate by kicking the week off with one of my patented "COMC Blasters", where I see what kind of great cardboard I can land with $19.99 in store credit on the site...

The Jagr Years insert set from last year's flagship Upper Deck hockey release is a great way to land some cheap cards of Jaromir.  You can pick up virtually any one of them nowadays for 30 cents or less thanks to the e-Pack promotion between Upper Deck and COMC.

This pair wasn't quite as cheap back when I grabbed them.  I did pay just 30 cents for this one, but the first one above set me back 44 cents in store credit.  A cheap enough way to pick up two Jagr Penguins cards nonetheless!

One of two cards I still needed to finish the 2013-14 Score hockey set.  Well, at least the standard portion.  Still have a few tough stragglers from the Rookie Anthology Update set.  Getting very close though.  75 cents for Alex Galchenyuk here.

This one was had for 75 cents as well.  Though I don't know the first thing about Son Heungmin, I really enjoyed the 2018 Panini Prizm World Cup soccer set.  The parallels in this release in particular are just very well done.  Someday I'd like to binder up a franken-set featuring a complete set 1-300, but in all different parallel formats.  This was low-hanging fruit towards that long-term goal.

At $1.65, this card is probably my favorite pick-up in this entire post.  I love vintage Red Sox cards, I love manager cards, and I'm working on the '55 Topps set of late.  Pretty much a perfect fit for my collection here.  This one's also notable in that it represents the 50th 1955 Topps card in my collection.  Not too shabby!  Closing in on 25% complete with just 206 cards on the checklist.

You show a '55, you show the back.  Blog rules.

Here's a cool one.  While I can't honestly say that I add to it all that often, I do have a small collection of Julio Franco cards just because I love that he lasted so long in Major League Baseball.  This '84 Topps Tiffany card at 60 cents was just too great a deal to leave behind for someone else.

The most random card in today's post has to be this Ford Runabout from the Topps World on Wheels set.  While I've primarily been focusing on 1950s baseball of late, I won't pass on a good deal on a non-sports card from the decade either.  This is my second card from this visually appealing, oversized set.  That soft lower right corner let me take this one home for the criminally low price of 63 cents!

The backs of these are every bit as awesome as the fronts.  Real strong 1953 Topps baseball vibe here with the cardboard and ink colors.  Guess that's not surprising given that these were printed up right around the same time as that iconic baseball release.

Speaking of '50s baseball cards, here's a solid addition to my slow accumulation 1956 Topps set.  This is the most expensive card in today's post, setting me back $1.92 in store credit.  I thought that was more than reasonable given the great overall condition and visual appeal of the card

Same rule as with the '55s, gotta show the back.

A quest that should theoretically be easier than completing a '50s Topps baseball set is my journey to a 2014 Topps Finest set in X-Fractor format.  Just 100 of these on the checklist, and Paul Goldschmidt here represents my 47th one now.  For 75 cents I'm one step closer to hitting the 50% mark for this shiny release.

Speaking of shiny...

I refuse to give up on my 2011 Topps Chrome Atomic Refractor set.  This one's proving to be quite a challenge, as there are numerous remaining needs that I barely ever see pop up for sale anywhere.  Amazingly, at this late stage of the project I have three of these to share today.  Andrew Cashner was had for $1.45...

...while Brian Wilson (remember that guy?) was slightly more expensive at $1.63...

...and Domonic Brown's RC also was priced at $1.45. 

I now stand at 195 cards out of 220 in the set as far as this project goes.  88% sounds great, but I've got a couple of really tough cards left among the final two dozen or so I still lack.  Man, it will feel good if I ever knock this one off.

Why did I buy this card?  Although it's not exactly my favorite vintage Bowman release, the '55 set is barely represented in my collection.  This card was at least a small improvement on that front, for just 67 cents.

I love, love, love the first couple years of Topps Finest baseball refractors.  While the '93s carry a huge premium and are still some of the most sought-after cards of the '90s, the '94s aren't too shabby either.  When I stumbled upon this Greg Blosser for an even dollar I could not click purchase fast enough.  These are the satisfying type of pick-ups that make browsing around on COMC so rewarding.  Love it.

To close it out, how about a run of additions to the '50s Topps set that I've made the most progress on in recent years, 1959 Topps.  My set build is really plugging along, and today we'll finish off the blaster with seven new needs for my binder!

Willie Kirkland for 79 cents...

...the great Chuck Tanner (my favorite of this grouping) for 81 cents...

...Bobby Thomson with the Cubs for 86 cents...

...a very illustrated-looking Ron Samford for 87 cents...

...a Tex Clevenger with a busy background for a bargain 63 cents...

...Cubs pitcher Marcelino Solis for $1.25...

...and his teammate Dale Long at Seals Stadium, again for the bargain price of 63 cents.  These bring the total number of cards in my set up to 333, just over 58% complete.  I've still got a long way to go with this large set, but I did pick up a really significant need recently with some of the proceeds from my '53 Topps sale to help move me along (teaser for a future post).

Well, the running total for the 21 cards featured so far is $19.83, so we'll call it here for this "COMC Blaster".  Hope you enjoyed another random smattering of my ongoing pickings from the greatest sports card site on the internet.  Thanks as always for stopping by!

A Football Card Experiment - Game 11 - The 'Boys

In an attempt to increase the size of my very small football card collection, I'm picking up and featuring one new card for each of the Patriots' 16 regular season games this year.

This week the (now) 6-5 Dallas Cowboys rolled into New England to face the (now) 10-1 Patriots.  The weather was probably the biggest factor in the game, with the cold, rainy and windy conditions less than ideal for throwing the ball.  In the end, thanks to some turnovers and one very impressive catch, the Patriots pulled off a close victory at home.

For the football card project this week I once again went with a card of New England's opponent...

One thing and one thing only drew me to this card; the uniform.  The Cowboys should totally sport these exact jerseys for a game or two if you ask me.  The simple, two-color design and those gigantic stars on the shoulder pads just works.

I can't really find much out about Tom Frankhauser in my limited searching.  Didn't know this when I picked up the card, but this made me an instant Frankhauser super-collector.  According to The Trading Card Database, this is the only sports card ever produced of the defensive back.

Here's a look at the back, though...

...this purchase was all about the photo on the front!

I'm still really enjoying this small foray into football cards during the 2019 NFL season.  The project will continue next Sunday as the Pats face the Houston Texans.  Until then, thanks for stopping by!

Buyback Franken-set: Randoms from a Mega-lot

For the next installment of the Buyback Franken-set project, I've got ten randomly pulled cards from a huge lot (hundreds) of 2017 "Rediscover Topps" buybacks that I landed a long while back but haven't really looked through yet.  Literally just opened the 600-ct box they came in again last week, and pulled ten without looking.  Let's see how we did...

1974 Topps #468 - Pepe Frias

Off to a good start, given that the majority of the buybacks from Topps' 2017 promotion were from 1980 or newer.  I always appreciate a good Montreal Expos card, too.  Pepe wasn't exactly lighting the baseball world on fire in his second season in the big leagues in '74, but it's a cool card nonetheless.  Good shot at franken-set induction, right?

Oh man, I didn't see this one coming at an obscure card number like 468, but here we have a Cy Young winner, and not just that but this is his flagship card from the year of his second (and final) Cy Young win.

No contest here, Santana in a landslide!

1987 Topps #134 - Rich Yett

Rich Yett on what amounts to a pretty boring example of 1987 Topps if I'm being brutally honest.  Even that warm-up jacket isn't enough to save this one.  No chance for the binder I'd assume...

...and I'd assume correctly.  Even though I'm not a fan of cap-less ballplayers on my cards, there's no way I'm ousting a Seattle Pilot from the binder...

...in favor of Rich Yett.

1989 Topps #787 - Dave West

A buyback of an obscure pitcher with a sub-.500 career record who I know next to nothing about given that he played the majority of his career in the NL?  Well, the thing is this one's a nice high card number at #787, high enough to be located on the final page of the binder in fact.  This is my first #787 buyback, so Dave West is in by default!

1985 Topps #41 - Mike Fischlin

I was excited to pull a few 1985 buybacks within the selection in today's post.  Without crunching the numbers, I can tell you that it's one of the least-represented Topps sets in the binder at this stage.

The subject of the first one isn't all that exciting though, as Mike Fischlin hit exactly the Mendoza Line in 69 plate appearances in '85.

On top of that, he draws an absolutely brutal match-up for the franken-set at card #41.

This one was so one-sided I almost used a new "stamp" with more aggressive language than REJECTED.  DECIMATED?  DEMOLISHED maybe?  Something I'll keep in mind for future franken-set posts.

1987 Topps #113 - Neil Allen

A smiling Neil Allen greets us next, courtesy of his 1987 Topps issue.  Neil had some decent years as both a starter and out of the bullpen, but played on some pretty awful teams.  Doesn't seem to have gotten him too down judging by this photograph!  That's a smile I could see in the franken-set, but...

...I'm sort of partial to this "so bad it's good in a weird way" 1974 Dick Drago that's already in slot 113.  It's not that this is an untouchable card or anything as far as this project goes...

...but I do prefer it to the Neil Allen.

1990 Topps #88 - Glenn Braggs

Sweet!  Always happy to pull a new 1990 buyback of any sort given my insane quest to attempt this entire set in buyback format.  I was actually hoping that I already had a decent #88 buyback in the franken-set binder so that I could shift Glenn Braggs here over to my dedicated 1990 Topps buyback binder.  As it turns out though, this is my first #88 buyback, and fills an empty slot in the franken-set.  That project takes priority over the '90 Topps buyback set right now, so into the franken-set he goes.

The best part about this one is that it also completes a new page!  I absolutely love the variety here, with the only repeated set being 1972 Topps, one of my favorites of its decade, and of all-time.

1985 Topps #326 - Kevin Bass

Here's another '85 I grabbed in this bunch.  Kevin Bass is certainly a better subject, maybe this will be the card that gets 1985 Topps some representation in the binder?

Ah man, tough break.  I guess you could argue that Bass is the better player of the two (is this the first time in history anyone's posed the question?  probably!).  I just like the '75 design so much better than '85.  The difference in crispness between the two photos is pretty evident here too, Bass looks kind of unfocused/washed out.

In the end that was the difference, and sealed Kevin Bass' fate...

1985 Topps #561 - Darryl Motley

But wait, we have one more attempt from 1985 Topps to crack the binder!  I'll be honest, I don't know the first thing about this guy, and I can understand why as he was effectively done in Major League Baseball by the time I was old enough to become a fan.  I'd say this card is a long shot at best...

Now, the existing buyback in slot 561 isn't exactly one to write home about either.  Had the '85 been a stronger candidate I'd have bumped this one, but I think 2006 Topps, and the Florida Marlins especially, each have even less representation in the franken-set than 1985 Topps does at this point.

In the interest of variety, Miguel Olivo keeps his place.

1974 Topps #294 - Steve Foucault

Today's penultimate buyback is Steve Foucault's 1974 issue.  Pretty good sign that I've pulled two '74s randomly from this lot already.  I like the classically-'70s tilted background and advertising on this card.  This one worked out great too, because in slot 294 prior to this...

...was a 1990 Topps buyback!  You know the drill, the new card goes into the franken-set...

...and this one gets bumped to my dedicated 1990 Topps buyback set.

Since this card number is part of a complete page, here's a look at the before, with 1990 Topps Craig McMurtry mid-right...

...and here's the updated scan, with the '74 having supplanted it.  No HOFers to speak of here, but some very solid players from multiple eras for sure.

1987 Topps #3 - Dwight Evans Record Breaker

Last card is a great one for this Red Sox fan, a nice Dewey Evans Record Breaker subset card from 1987 Topps.  If you've followed this series for very long though you may remember...

...that Nolan Ryan has a stranglehold on the first page of the binder, due to the 5-card Ryan run that kicked off the 1990 Topps release, the first baseball card set I ever collected as a 7-year-old kid.

No contest there, it's going to take something much more significant than Evans to bump Nolan Ryan from his place.

That was a successful run.  After striking out quite a bit lately on adding new numbers to the binder, I picked up two in this one post.  On top of that, I had a couple of combatants battle their way into the binder, and increased my 1990 Topps buyback set by a single card as well.  Not a bad day at the office.

Thanks as always for stopping by, and I'll be back soon with another batch of buybacks!

Franken-set Progress: 655/792 (82%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 121/792 (15%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 635
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,411