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!