I've been doing these COMC "virtual blaster" posts for years now, and they're still some of my favorite posts to put together. I really enjoy reading them on other blogs as well, it's just amazing to see how far $20 stretches on the most enjoyable hobby site on the internet.
Today's COMC blaster may be the most varied one I've done yet! Let's dig in...
1959 Topps #532 - Mark Freeman - $.59
Mark Freeman's MLB career lasted just two seasons. Not exactly the most prolific card towards my 1959 Topps set build. Those of you with a keen eye may have noticed that it's a difficult high-number card however. Any card from that final series that's not absolutely destroyed condition-wise is pretty much a steal for under a buck. Happy to add another card to the binder for what amounts to pocket change!
2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs #3D-13 - Leptoceratops - $.89
Yes, I'm still collecting the lenticular 3-D inserts from the 2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs set. I've got a pair in today's post that set me back 89 cents each. First up is Leptoceratops. These guys roamed what is modern-day Alberta, Canada and Wyoming, United States. They grew to over 6' long, and weighed between 150 and 400 pounds I guess.
2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs #3D-14 - Minmi - $.89
The other one I plucked for today's post is the Minmi, a (relatively) small herbivore that roamed what's now modern-day Australia according to the fossil record. One of my favorite non-sport insert sets from recent years, I'm now at 9/42 with this pair in hand. There are some short-printed cards at the end of the checklist, but it's still a doable set that I hope to complete one day.
2016 Panini Diamond Kings Artist's Proof Parallel (#'d /99) #44 - Roger Bresnahan - $1.60
I love the job that Panini did with the retired greats in the 2016 Diamond Kings release. I think the lack of logos is just less noticeable on the old-timers. In any event, this shot of Roger Bresnahan donning the tools of ignorance is just fantastic, and when you combine that with my love of serial-numbered cards I was helpless here at a buck sixty.
Here's the back, the serial-number is just above the nameplate, a bit difficult to make out. It's not very often that you get the opportunity to pick up a Roger Bresnahan card, props to Panini for this one.
2011 Topps #US258B - Monte Irvin (Legends Variation) - $1.93
Speaking of retired greats, here's one of those fantastic Legends variations that Topps included in their flagship release for a few seasons there. I've picked up a ton of these (and their Platinum Diamond and Cognac parallels) over the years, and while I usually try to stick to examples that can be had for a dollar or less the photo on this Monte Irvin was just too enticing.
2013 Topps 75th Anniversary Foil #91 - Batman - $.43
I was enamored with Tim Burton's Batman film as a kid, we had a recorded VHS copy that I easily watched a dozen times or more. These days I'm more partial to the Christopher Nolan trilogy from a few years back, but I'll still give this one a watch every few years. Heath Ledger was great as the Joker in the second Nolan film, but Jack Nicholson was no slouch either. This card was a great random addition to my collection for less than fifty cents.
2014 Topps Mini Gold (#'d /63) #136 - Will Middlebrooks - $1.31
A few years back I kind of went overboard with picking up Will Middlebrooks cards on COMC. Once he fizzled his cards became dirt cheap and I just couldn't help myself. $1.31 seemed like a fair price at the time for a card limited to just 63 copies. If I had to pick one card in today's post to give away this would be it, but I suppose I could have done worse.
2014 Topps Finest X-Fractor #57 - Felix Hernandez - $.62
The 2014 Topps Finest set was a thing of beauty for those of us who love shiny, colorful cardboard. If I wasn't working on a hundred other things collecting-wise I'd love to try getting the entire set in X-Fractor format (you'd have to wear sunglasses while flipping through the binder!), but for now one of the best pitchers in the set for 62 cents is good enough.
2016 Topps Star Wars TBT #SW-2 - Boba Fett/Darth Vader/Emperor Palpatine - $2.25
During the summer of 2016 I did a good job keeping up with the Topps Throwback Thursday promotion when it came to Red Sox cards. I totally missed out though on the 6-card set that featured characters from Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back on the 1980-81 Topps basketball design. I got a steal on this single at least, featuring three of the villains from the film. I'd love to grab the other five someday, but with less than 1,000 sets printed it'll be tough to find them at this price. Such a cool little set if you're a Star Wars buff like myself, I think this was a great choice by Topps.
1995-96 Topps Finest Refractor #165 - Paul Kariya - $3.41
Speaking of sets that I love, here's my latest 1995-96 Finest Refractor. At $3.41 it's the most expensive single card in today's post, but what a beauty it is! Kariya was one of the most exciting players to watch when I was a rabid hockey fan as a kid, and was recently enshrined in the Hockey HOF. I would've easily shelled out $5 or more for this one, that glorious Mighty Ducks sweater really shines when you have the card in hand. This is my 26th refractor from this release now, not too shabby at all.
2016 Topps Archives #239 - Xander Bogaerts - $.46
One of my favorite baseball cards from 2016, period. I'd already landed the red border parallel (#'d /50), but inexplicably hadn't picked up the base version until now. This one definitely makes me pine for baseball season and warm spring days, both of which are just around the corner!
2015 Panini Select Red (#'d /199) #2 - Alexis Sanchez - $.60
Here's a guy who's been in the news lately if you're a Premier League fan like I am. Sanchez transferred from Arsenal to Manchester United earlier this season. A unique and somewhat rare addition to my small soccer collection for just 60 cents.
1994 Topps Stadium Club 1st Day Issue #127 - Cliff Floyd - $1.36
Few things got me as excited as an 11-year-old collector in the summer of 1994 as the 1st Day Issue parallels in Topps' Stadium Club release that year. In my opinion this set is one of the under-rated gems of the '90s, and these one-per-box parallels were highly coveted among my small group of collecting friends at the time. Was more than happy to shell out a dollar and change for Cliff Floyd.
2011-12 Upper Deck Black Diamond #1 - Wayne Gretzky - $.52
I don't particularly care for Upper Deck's Black Diamond hockey cards, but with that being said virtually any Wayne Gretzky card that I don't already own is going into my basket at the fifty cents price point.
2007 Topps Finest Rookie Redemption #1 - Hideki Okajima - $.59
Another cool cheap one here. I was just getting back into collecting in 2007, and I certainly didn't buy any Topps Finest that year, but I guess these were mail-in redemptions featuring some of the big-name rookies at the time. I was always fond of Okajima and his crazy, jerky delivery to home plate, so this was a nice pick-up for very little money. You can never go wrong with red borders on a Red Sox card.
1967-68 Topps #26 - Camille Henry - $1.50
This might be my favorite buy of this entire post. It's not exactly mint and there's a tiny bit of glue/paper loss on the back, but I don't often encounter Topps hockey cards from the mid-'60s at this price. If nothing else, it's worth $1.50 as a placeholder, but I actually doubt I'll ever bother upgrading this one.
2008 Bowman Orange (#'d /250) #198 - Bartolo Colon - $.57
I've mentioned a few times before that Bartolo Colon is one of my favorite pitchers of the last couple decades. While I don't collect any player obsessively, I do search for cheap cards of his from time to time. A serial-numbered card from his brief stint with the Red Sox for just a bit over 50 cents was an easy call to add to that little informal player collection.
2016 Topps National Convention VIP #30 - Warren Spahn - $.61
Last card for today, and this one's kind of neat. Apparently Topps gave away a small set of five of these cards, inspired by their inaugural baseball release in 1951, to collectors at the National Convention in 2016. Unlike the originals, these are full-sized cards, but they do have the same rounded corners. A neat little bonus for collectors who attended that show, and I'm grateful to be able to pick one up on the secondary market like this.
Well, that brings our running total to $20.13, so we'll call it quits there for today. Hopefully you saw at least a couple of cards that you found interesting. Thanks as always for stopping by my little corner of the web!
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