COMC Blaster - Put Your Sunglasses On

It's Friday night, I'm through a long week of work that had me traveling all over the northern half of the east coast, and it's time to relax.  Seems as good a time as any for another "COMC Blaster" post.  I always enjoy doing these, let's see how far I can stretch $20 on the site this time around...

This first one is an absolute winner, and one I simply can't believe I went so long before acquiring.  I've been slowly plodding away at a 1959 Topps set for a good while now, and aside from that this Dave Sisler is just a fantastic card for my Red Sox collection.  Those glasses are great, as is the overall condition of the card.  I wish all my '59s looked like this.

I actually plucked three '59s from my card chest for tonight's post, and the second is one of the more entertaining names in the set.  In a set dominated by head shots, this is certainly a unique image.  It's also a "zero year" card (trademark Dime Box Nick), as Douglas never pitched for Cincinnati.

The third card in the trio is the least interesting of the three, but it still kills two birds with one stone as a set need and a new Red Sox card.  This trio brings me up to 282 cards from this set, painfully close to the 50% mark.  Best of all, despite being in great condition I paid just 88 cents each, from the same seller in one fell swoop.

Three cards in, and we've got a running total of $2.64.

Sticking with the theme of threes, I've got a trio of X-Fractors from 2014 Topps Finest up next.  2014 Finest may very well be the most obnoxiously colorful set to be released in the time since I returned to collecting in 2007.  I'm under the delusion that I may complete the entire set in X-Fractor form someday.  So, I couldn't resist Carlos Santana here for a mere 40 cents.

Same with Madison Bumgarner, one of the most dominant post-season pitchers of his generation, one of the best ever actually.  Was happy to bring this one home for just 49 cents.

Lastly, Will Myers from his days with Tampa Bay.  I can't tell if that's a bat flip, or just a standard dropping of the bat while taking off for first.  I'm thinking the latter.  Scored this one for a lean 38 cents.  I will buy any X-Fractor I don't have from this set that's available for 50 cents or less, but I've picked a lot of that low-hanging fruit at this point and will have to raise my threshold soon if I'm serious about completing the set.

We'll keep going with more shiny here; there's a reason this post is subtitled "Put Your Sunglasses On".  I seem to be unable to resist Topps Chrome Red Sox parallels, especially serial-numbered ones.  The sepia refractors in 2014 Topps Chrome are serial-numbered to /75.  I was able to secure this Jon Lester, complete with Green Monster backdrop, for 95 cents.

Speaking of my favorite parallels, the Pinnacle dufex parallels ('Museum Collection' for baseball, 'Rink Collection' for hockey) are some of my absolute favorites from the '90s.  The '94s are the best looking ones if you ask me.  I couldn't leave this Brad McCrimmon behind at 97 cents.  I now have the 7th largest Whalers collection on The Trading Card Database, and I still have many more to inventory to help me climb the ranks further.

This Matsuzaka is actually an insert, I think from Upper Deck's flagship set, that was like a preview for what the O-Pee-Chee release was going to look like.  I enjoyed Daisuke's time with Boston, and was more than happy to use up 55 cents in credit for this one.  Let's get back to the shiny...

How about a couple of really loud inserts from Panini's revival of the Donruss brand?  This Dominator Mookie Betts is serial-numbered to /999.  I paid 75 cents for it.  Unlicensed or not, that seems like a steal for one of the best players in the game.

This Elite Series Bogaerts is from the 2017 set, just like the Betts.  It's also numbered to /999, just like the Betts.  This one wasn't quite as cheap, as it set me back $1.25, but given that Xander has been my favorite player since he debuted in 2013 I didn't mind.

If you read my blog with any sort of frequency odds are you've seen me show one of these Bubbles Refractors from 2014 Bowman Chrome before.  This is the 20th one to enter into my collection, which isn't bad given that there are just 99 copies of each floating out there.  I shelled out $1.75 for this card.  It's a bit depressing that Jose Fernandez and Brad McCrimmon appeared in the same post.

Running total at this point is $10.13, so we're just a shade over the halfway point.  Onwards!

Wow, we even get a soccer card this evening!  Coutinho was one of the most dynamic and exciting Premier League mid-fielders to watch during his tenure with my favorite team, Liverpool.  I search COMC for his cards from time to time and have a very small collection.  I overpaid for this one for sure at $1.90.  It was a case where I stumbled upon it very recently after the set was released, and had I waited I could've picked up the card for less coin down the line (there's a copy up tonight for 55 cents).

Another set that I'm crazy enough to think I may finish one day is the 2011 Topps Chrome Atomic Refractors.  I've got two for you tonight, Brett Wallace who cost me an even dollar...

...and Ian Desmond who came in at 90 cents.  These cards are just plain beautiful.  Topps did a lot of things right in 2011 if you ask me, and these Atomic Refractors are certainly on that list.  There are 220 of these on the checklist, and I am much closer to completion with this set with 181 now in hand counting this pair.  Well over 80% done now!  Someday...

I was a young teenager in the mid-'90s when the AA Norwich Navigators farm team was established.  They played their home games less than half an hour from my house, and being a rabid baseball fan at the time, I was hooked.  The team didn't last long, but I have many great memories of spending nice summer evenings at their brand new stadium with family and friends.  There aren't a ton of them out there, but I am always on the lookout for a new Navigators card and this one fit the bill at just 53 cents.

Running total is now up to $14.46...

Yup, another Bogaerts card.  I'm not a huge relic fan, which is why you don't see many game-used cards posted on this blog, but I'll make an exception for Xander.  Besides, it cost me just $1.75.  Now at 107 cards and counting, I've currently got the largest Bogaerts collection on The Trading Card Database by a good margin.

Getting towards the end here, as the back half of the post is heavy on more expensive cards (though there's not a single card in this post that I paid even $2 for).  This 1967-68 Gilles Villemure is really beat, and has some bad paper loss on the back.  With that being said, I am not leaving any card from this set behind at $1.50 for someone else to scoop up.  Those glorious brown pads are worth a buck fifty alone.

Here's one more Bubbles Refractor from Bowman Chrome, featuring under-rated starter Jose Quintana.  I paid $1.23 for this one.  I'm not sure I'd make that same purchase today, but it gives me 21 of these now anyway.  That's the last shiny card for this evening, as the final card is of the vintage variety.  The non-sport vintage variety, that is...

I adore the 1966 Topps Batman cards.  This one's completely beat up, and seems to maybe even have suffered some light water damage at some point in its lifetime, but at 63 cents it's certainly an acceptable placeholder in my budding set.  I try to keep this blog PG, but when I first looked at this one my first reaction was that it looks like Batman and Robin are watching some Cat Woman porn.  What can I say, sometimes I have the mind of a 16-year-old.

Well, that brings tonight's running total up to $19.57.  I'm sure I could dig around for a card I shelled out 40 cents for, but since we're close enough I'll call it there.  Another fun installment of what has become one of my favorite recurring features on the blog.  Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for stopping by!