COMC Blaster - Touching the Five Major Sports

Time for the next installment of my "COMC Blaster" series.  Let's see how I spent the $20 I would have used on a retail blaster in COMC store credit instead...

2014 Topps Finest X-Fractor Mike Trout - $7.75

Starting off with a pretty big card here!  I grabbed this one a year or two back during a sale, because I knew it'd be one of the biggest challenges I'd have in completing the 2014 Finest set in X-Fractor form.  I'm glad I grabbed it when I did, as there are no copies available any longer on COMC, and only one un-graded copy on eBay at the time I'm writing this post, for $29.99.

Best of all, this one puts me at the halfway point in my quest to complete this X-Fractor set!  50 of these shiny beauties down, 50 still to go...

2014 Topps Finest Green Refractor Dustin Pedroia (#'d /199) - $.92

Since I'm on a 2014 Finest kick with that Trout, here's one more with a Dustin Pedroia Green Refractor.  I think 2014 is possibly my favorite Topps Finest release ever, certainly since the early days of the set in the '90s anyway.  I was happy to pay a little under a dollar for this one because...

...I can pair it with David Ortiz...

...and this Xander Bogaerts RC to complete my 2014 Topps Finest Red Sox team set in Green Refractor format!  Only a three-card team set, granted, but feels good nonetheless.

2018 Donruss Optic Holo Christian Pulisic - $.60

Every once in a while I peruse the soccer cards for sale on the site and look for any big name additions to my collection for cheap coin.  From the 2018 Donruss release, I couldn't resist Holo parallels of Chrisitan Pulisic (now playing for Chelsea in the Premier League)...

2018 Donruss Optic Holo Luka Modric - $.60

...and the great Luka Modric.  These were easy pick-ups at just 60 cents each.  While I'm not a hardcore soccer collector these are cool little additions to that collection without breaking the bank whatsoever.

1959 Topps Jim Lemon - $.63

Next up, I'm continuing to make slow progress on my 1959 Topps set build.  In today's "blaster" we have three commons that I grabbed for just 63 cents each.  Outfielder Jim Lemon of the Senators...

1959 Topps Jim Pendleton - $.63

...jack-of-all-trades bench player Jim Pendleton of the Bucs...

1959 Topps Dick Gray - $.63

...and Dick Gray of the (now LA) Dodgers.  This one's got a little light scuffing or fading in the photograph as you can see, but all three are in acceptable shape for my project, especially for the price.  I actually grabbed these some while back but am just getting to featuring them now, and there aren't a whole lot of remaining cards that I'm missing now available this cheaply.  With these three in hand, I've got 345 cards in the binder for this set...getting there!

2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Bubbles Refractors Teddy Stankiewicz (#'d /99) - $1.30

I purchased this card for two reasons; it was a Red Sox card I didn't have, and I absolutely love the (one and done?) Bubbles Refractors from 2014 Bowman Chrome.  I don't care that Teddy Stankiewicz didn't amount to much in pro ball, that's a fantastic looking card by any measure.

2017 Bowman Purple Xander Bogaerts (#'d /250) - $.75

Xander Bogaerts remains my favorite player, and this numbered purple parallel was a result of just searching his cards and sorting by lowest price.  It's hard for me to turn down a new serial-numbered Bogaerts for less than a dollar.

1967-68 Topps Jean Ratelle - $1.50

We've hit baseball and soccer in the post already, let's get hockey covered with an awesome vintage HOFer!  If you're wondering how on earth I secured this for $1.50, it's got some paper loss on the back.  '60s hockey cards are relatively rare and expensive, so I don't mind picking up poor-quality examples for now, especially when they present as well as this one and are had at rock-bottom prices.

2015 Topps Buyback 1981 Steve Grogan - $.85

I promised five major sports in the title of this post, and here's the contribution on the football side.  If you've stopped by this blog before you know that I'm mildly obsessed with buyback cards.  Typically I stick to baseball, and even some hockey, but I won't turn away a football buyback if the price is right either.  85 cents was too tempting to pass up for this unique card featuring New England's longtime quarterback.

1970 Topps Rick Roberson - $.75

Basketball cards fall in the same category as football cards for me; I don't consider myself an active collector of the sport but I have opened up recently to picking up some cool singles on the cheap.  Since I love "tallboy" cards, this 1970 Topps single was an easy pick-up.  I'd happily spend three quarters on any card from this release.  Besides, I picked up the Wilt Chamberlain from this set last year, and it may be the greatest basketball card in my very small collection of the sport, so Rick Roberson will pair nicely with it.

Here's a look at the back.  This would be a fun set to build if I didn't already have too many hobby priorities.

1996-97 Donruss Press Proof Geoff Sanderson - $.59

It's getting more and more challenging to add new Hartford Whalers cards to my collection, so I jumped when I stumbled on this Geoff Sanderson.  While not serial-numbered strictly speaking, the idea is that the first 2,000 of each card off the printing line were labeled as "Press Proof" parallels.  A perfectly '90s gimmick right there!

2015 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor Koji Uehara (#'d /150) - $1.35

I love a good colored refractor, and I really like the retro uniform that Uehara is sporting on his 2015 Bowman Chrome card.  With that being said, at $1.35 this is probably the purchase I regret most from today's post.  I bought this one years ago (it's been sitting in my card chest waiting to be scanned and posted since), and wouldn't even think of spending over a dollar in store credit for it today.  Oh well, cool card nonetheless.

1994 Topps Stadium Club Finest Jeff Bagwell - $.45

Just a cool, cheap Bagwell here.  Always loved how the color scheme on this card matches up so well with the Astros uniform that Jeff is sporting.  I think I picked this one up with a "Stat Kings" post on the 1994 baseball season in mind, so you'll probably see it featured on the blog again someday.

1990 Classic Update Nolan Knows Bo - $.55

Closing it out with a man who's gotten a lot of blog love so far in 2020, the great Nolan Ryan!  This card was such a big deal in 1990 that I couldn't resist shelling out 55 cents to add one to my modern day Nolan Ryan collection based on nostalgia alone.  Brings back memories for sure!

We're at $19.85 as far as the running total goes, so we'll call it quits here for this installment.  Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed my very random selection of pick-ups from my favorite hobby site on the internet.  Until next time!

Super Bowl Football Cards!

This past season I dabbled just a bit in football cards, picking up one new card for each of the Patriots' 16 regular season games.  I still wouldn't say I collect the sport; hell, even after that experiment I still had less than 50 football cards in my cataloged collection on The Trading Card Database.

I would say that I'm slightly more open to adding very selectively to my football card collection going forward.  In fact, I've come upon a few more keepers in the time since the NFL season wound down.  Today seemed like the most obvious day to show them off, so here we go...

I've always had a soft spot for the 1990 Pro Set hockey release, so it makes sense I guess that I'd enjoy the very similar football set from that year as well.  When putting together my latest flat-rate Priority Mail box of cards to send to Billy of Cardboard History I came across this Joe Montana passing leader card.  Had to hang onto this one, as it's now the only Joe Montana card in my entire collection.  He's a big enough name that he absolutely merits at least one card in my collection, that's for sure.

Since I'm adding a card of one NFL legend to my collection, might as well get his legendary teammate in as well.  This is also my first Jerry Rice card, if you can believe that.  These two actually survived from my childhood collection.  Though my brothers and I weren't football fans by any means, every once in a while we'd end up with a stray pack or some singles.

Now, let's take a look at a few that came my way only recently.  These are courtesy of my longtime hobby friend Douglas of Sportscards from the Dollar Store...

Knowing that I'm a Patriots fan, Douglas included these in the most recent trade package he sent a couple of months back now.  This Certified Cuts Julian Edelman is a good fit for sure.  In fact, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the final home game for the Pats this year, and at that game won a signed/authenticated Edelman photo in a raffle that took place in our box.

Here it is hanging on my office wall at work (pardon the glare!)...

Also received a single of the man who was truly missed this season on the offensive side of the ball.

This one is really cool!  It's actually a sticker.  I just love the retro look that Panini achieved here.  Makes me wish they were allowed to make hockey cards still.  Maybe someday...

Rounding out the cards of the team's past and present stars here's a nice, shiny Danny Amendola.  I bet a binder page full of these would be blinding!

Rounding out the football portion of Douglas' package was a selection from 2019 Score.  Got a couple of cards of Patriots draft picks in Damien Harris...

...and N'Keal Harry.  Harry actually saw quite a bit of action at wideout for New England this past year.  He showed signs of promise at times, in fact had some very nice catches, though was understandably inconsistent as a rookie trying to get on the same page as his veteran quarterback.

I also got a trio of cards from the standard portion of the set, starting with the team's primary back, in first and second down situations anyway, Sony Michel.  I have to say, I love the retro look of this set.  A big pat on the back to Panini for a job well done with this release.

So, this experiment didn't turn out so well.  Moving on...

That wraps it up for the football cards from Douglas, though I still have more cards from that package overall to get to in the coming days.

Before we part, let's take a peek at some cool Super Bowl-related cards also produced by Pro Set.  These survived from my childhood collection as well, and I recall these fondly.  The set contained one card for each Super Bowl that had taken place at the time.

Interesting that out of the five I happened to stumble across when purging lately, two of them feature Super Bowls that were held in Miami, the site of this evening's event.

This one's cool, I love the hood ornament theme as a nod to Detroit.

Well, that's a wrap for this Sunday morning.  Thanks for the cards Douglas, and enjoy the game tonight everyone!  I don't really have a dog in the fight, though I think I'd like to see the 49ers win as it would be cool to see former Patriot Jimmy Garoppolo capture a championship.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll be back this week with more great cardboard.  Until then...

Selling Cards, Buying Cards - More 2019 Sales

Last year, as I began seriously working to whittle down the overall size of my collection, I dabbled in eBay sales for the first time.  I featured the results of my first half dozen sales here on the blog in July, then another batch of sales was reviewed here in September.  Well, although I got busy and never made the time to post about it, I enjoyed quite a few more sales over the course of the year.

Here's most of the rest of what I parted with...

This Reggie Jackson autograph from 1995 Upper Deck, while a fantastic card for an autograph lover like myself, just doesn't fit my more streamlined collection.  I had a feeling this one would go quickly, and it did for the sum of $32.00.

Collecting an entire run of Yaz's Topps/Donruss/Fleer cards in graded format was a goal I had at one time, but long ago abandoned.  So, I combined some of the less valuable cards from the '80s into batches figuring they'd do better that way at auction.  I unloaded this group of four '81s for $30.00...

...and this group of four '82/'83s for $45.00.  I was more than happy to unload these singles at a price point that worked out to nearly $10 per card.

Many years ago I flirted with the idea of completing a graded 1954-55 Topps hockey set, since it was the first Topps hockey release and is a manageable 60 cards deep.  Not going to happen though, and after years of sitting on just three of them I parted with this pair for $32.00.  The one I kept?  My Milt Schmidt, the last card on the checklist and one I'm just not willing to part with yet.

I let my 1989 Topps Traded Griffey RC go, mainly because the old-style PSA label was driving me nuts.  $15.00 for this one, a card I could absolutely see myself picking up another copy of down the line.

I think I grabbed this 1960 Topps Yankees team card many, many years ago because it was my cheap way of in some small sense owning a vintage Mickey Mantle.  Well, now that I have a few proper vintage Topps Mantle cards I had no qualms at all about letting this one go, especially not for the $50.00 it netted me!

See previous comments about completing a run of graded Yaz cards.  Honestly, I probably would have hung onto this one a bit longer, but again that old PSA label was driving my OCD insane.  Since I was on the fence about it that made the difference in the end, and I sold it for $30.00.

I'm not the autographed card hound that I used to be in the earlier days of this blog.  Nowadays I just want fewer, more significant cards, period.  That includes autographs.  Someone got what is in my opinion one of the better steals of this post when they grabbed this lot of two Rollie Fingers autos for $14.00.  The mustache on that Brewers card is worth $14 alone, am I right?

I figured this 1970 Banks would do well, since it's a relatively high number.  In the end it resulted in an $85.00 sale.  I could see myself picking up another copy of this one someday, but in a much lower grade and at less than half that price.

I was going to throw this '74 Bob Gibson into a lot, but was surprised to find it merited listing on its own, and I got $21.00 out of it.  Typically I don't want to list anything on eBay unless it's going to result in a sale of at least $15.  Just not worth the time and effort to list and ship if it isn't going to return at least that much.

I love Nolan Ryan and all, and this is a great card as well.  The thing is, I'd like to focus on completing his run of standard Topps cards before I go focusing on subsets like this one.  For $40.00 I reluctantly let this one go.  Doesn't hold a candle to the Ryan RC I featured last weekend!

A couple of superstars on 1979 Topps cards.  No idea what I was thinking when I purchased these two long ago, but was happy to let them go for a little more than the cost of a blaster at $20.25.

The most significant sale in today's post, and the only one to net me triple figures in return, was this 1960 Topps Early Wynn at exactly $100.00.  Why so much?  It's card #1 in the 1960 set, so condition can be tough and buyers pay a premium.

Couple of Red Sox stars here, that I have in raw format and just never really felt right in my collection slabbed.  Happy to let this pair go for an even $20.00.

Many years back I flirted with the idea of trying a low-grade Mars Attacks set.  Having given up on that I accepted $12.00 for this PSA 3 single (violating my own $15 or more rule).

Another card here that I almost included in a lot, but then listed solo and ended up $20.00 richer for it.

My only other graded Mars Attacks card (yeah, I bailed on that idea pretty quickly), this one brought in $15.00.

Finally, the hit king on a mint 1980 Topps card, slabbed a PSA 9.  Accepted a $25.00 offer for this guy.  Still have the Ozzie Smith from this set in a PSA 9 listed as well, and hoping to get at least $20.00 for that one someday.

So, there are a bunch more sales from last year.  With these now featured, I'm sort of reaching the end of the low-hanging fruit that's both easy to list/ship, but also carries some value.  Some quick math reveals that the cards in today's post resulted in me pulling in over $600.  Take a little bit away for fees and I'd still say I did well here, especially since these weren't really being appreciated by me anyway.

What did I use the proceeds on?  Well, I'm outta time for today, so you'll just have to check back later to see some of the spoils from this, as well as the remaining funds from the sale of my 1953 Topps partial set.  Until then, thanks as always for stopping by!