Shoebox Legends' Top 20 of 2020!

As I've done each of the previous few years here on the blog, I'd like to use my final post of this particularly horrid year to highlight the top cards to debut on this blog over the past twelve months.  The rules for this countdown are just that simple, the card has to have debuted here on Shoebox Legends between January 1, 2020, and today.

Each card caption in the post is actually a hyper-link to the original post where that card debuted on the blog, in case you missed it the first time around and are incredibly bored or looking for some extra card-related reading material.

With that out of the way, here is my Top 20 of 2020 countdown...

#20 - 1971 Topps Roberto Clemente

You know it's the sign of a good year for my collection when the last-place card in the countdown is a playing-era Clemente!

One of my big trends this past year was selling off cards and downsizing my collection, and using the proceeds to pick up fewer, more significant cards instead.  This Roberto is the first of many examples of the fruit of all of that labor in today's countdown.  I picked up half a dozen graded HOFers from this iconic set with some sales funds, but Roberto here was the best of the bunch by far, and thus just squeaks onto this list.

#19 - 1995-96 Select Gold Team Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky seems to have at least one card in the countdown at the end of each year, and 2020 was no exception.  This year he gets the #19 slot, with this obnoxiously shiny '90s insert.  I pretty much went out and picked this up as soon as I heard about these golden beauties.  I may have added some older Gretzky cards, and some more valuable Gretzky cards, to my collection this year, but this shiny gem is my favorite of the bunch.

#18 - 1964 Philadelphia Johnny Unitas

Using my Cardboard Keepers project as an excuse to pick-up some all-time greats outside my normal collecting wheelhouse has been quite successful so far.  Case in point, this really great Johnny Unitas, which just so happens to be the very first football card to make one of these year-end countdowns.  I'm hoping to (very selectively) continue to pick-up some NFL greats in the coming year, so maybe this will be the beginning of football having a place here on the countdown in future years.

This one's also great in that I picked it up at an antiques store just down the street from me that has plenty more great vintage to be picked through.  I've been avoiding going back due to COVID, but will hopefully peruse again someday soon when conditions are better...

#17 - 2016-17 Fleer Showcase '92-93 Ultra Buyback Auto Ray Bourque (#'d /25)

I have seriously cooled off on collecting autographs over the years, and have been trending more in the vintage and shiny card directions of late.  Nonetheless, there was no way I could leave this amazing on-card autograph of one of the NHL's all-time best defensemen off this list.  I'd love to pick up a few more of these Ultra buyback autos, but at just 25 copies each they are tough little buggers to track down in the wild.

#16 - 2011 Topps Chrome Atomic Refractor Freddie Freeman RC

This gorgeous Freddie Freeman rookie card kicks off a streak of shiny cardboard here on the countdown.  This was a satisfying pick-up because I'd been after an affordable copy for oh so long, yet finally hauled one in just months before Freeman won the NL MVP, decreasing the odds of finding a cheap copy even more.  I'm determined to complete the 2011 Topps Chrome set in Atomic Refractor format someday, and this card was a huge win on that particular front.

#15 - 2014-15 O-Pee-Chee Platinum Traxx David Pastrnak RC

Feels like it's been forever since we saw any NHL hockey, doesn't it?  Well, things are going to start back up in a couple of weeks here, and one of the players that I'll be most excited to watch is David Pastrnak, who shared the Rocket Richard Trophy for most goals in last year's abbreviated season with the great Alex Ovechkin.  Still just 24 years old, David has already established himself as one of the elite scorers in the league.  I flat out stole this card at under $40 last winter.

#14 - 2018 Panini Prizm World Cup Mosaic Lionel Messi

Arguably the world's greatest soccer player over the last 15-20 years, in the top 2-3 players by anyone's account.  This is also one of my favorite soccer sets ever, and just a gloriously shiny, retail-exclusive parallel.  These Mosiacs are really tough to find, much more so than many of the other great colored parallels from this release.  I stumbled upon it as a Buy-It-Now just minutes after it was listed, and I'm glad I did because at the bargain price that it was listed at, it would not have lasted very long.

#13 - 2015 Topps Buybacks 1968 Topps Manager's Dream Oliva/Cardenas/Clemente

Roberto Clemente makes his second and final appearance in today's countdown.  2020 was another steady year for my long-running Buyback Franken-set project, and the best buyback that was added to the set by a country mile over these past twelve months was this 1968 Manager's Dream card.  '50s and '60s combo cards are just amazing, and to get one with Clemente into my project was more than I could have hoped for when I started it.  There's no way that this card ever gets bumped from the franken-set binder as far as I'm concerned.

#12 - 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Emerald Auto Carl Yastrzemski (#'d /99)

I know I said that I've cooled off quite a bit on autograph pick-ups, and I truly have, but it's more that I seek out quality over quantity I guess.  My first ever Yastrzemski autograph certainly fits the definition of quality!  What a bold, amazing signature it is, too!  Pretty amazing that it took me this many years of collecting to finally add Yaz's name to my autograph collection, but I'm happy that when it finally came it was from one of my favorite baseball autograph sets ever.

#11 - 1968 Topps Mickey Mantle

The first nine cards were great, but I have to say that the top eleven cards this year really took my collection to a whole new level.  I used a lot of my downtime during the pandemic to sell unwanted or under-appreciated cards from my collection on eBay, using the proceeds to land some big fish instead.  It worked out amazingly, as this card and basically everything that come after it could have easily fit into the top three in any of the previous years' countdowns.

One of my biggest long-term collecting objectives is to complete a run of Mantle's playing era Bowman and Topps cards.  While I cannot afford the 1951 or 1952 Bowman cards, or the insanely expensive 1952 Topps release, I'd like to get all of his other flagship Bowman and Topps cards from '53 through '69.  This is a lifelong project to be sure, but I'm pleased to say I came one card closer in 2020 with this nicely centered '68.

This was the first of five cards that I acquired in my greatest card flip ever, funded by a $5 soccer pick-up, if you can believe that!

#10 - 1985-86 O-Pee-Chee Mario Lemieux RC

It just so happens that the next two cards came in the same flip as the Mantle.  In retrospect I should have ranked this particular card higher, as Lemieux is a top-10 hockey player all-time in my opinion, and his rookie is also one of the most iconic hockey cards of the 1980s.  When I acquired this, I commented that I thought Super Mario's rookies were criminally under-priced.  I guess I was correct, as they've skyrocketed in the months since, as have many sports cards to be fair.  A definite case of "I'm sure glad that I picked this up when I did".

#9 - 1956 Topps Willie Mays

Yet another card that came in the epic $5 soccer card flip.  I'd love to complete both the 1955 and 1956 Topps sets someday, but I've been pursuing '55 with more vigor to date.  The price was right on this '56 though when I had the flip funds to spend, and I knew I wanted to add a significant Willie Mays card to my collection, so here we are.  I still get a smile on my face that's similar to the one Willie is flashing here whenever I look at this card.

#8 - 1971-72 Topps NHL Goalies Win Leaders Auto Esposito/Johnston/Cheevers/Giacomin

This year's highest-ranking autograph card is easily one of the most unique autographs in my entire collection.  I just think it's beyond cool that somebody put in the effort to have this one signed by all four subjects, and it helps that it's from one of the most iconic hockey sets ever produced and features multiple HOFers.  I may not be as into autographed cards as I used to be, but I'll always appreciate a unique collectible like this one!

#7 - 1955 Topps Hank Aaron

The sports card market was an insane place, full of ups and downs this past year.  Sure, there were negative aspects to this, like the fact that I didn't see any retail packs available even once after early March.  On a positive note though, there were ways to capitalize on the insanity.

Case in point, I sold a 1993 Finest Michael Jordan when his cards went bananas.  Not the refractor or anything, just a plain ol' base card.  Got enough money for it that it funded this second year Hammerin' Hank, one-for-one.  Yep, that's just plain crazy.  Since even a relatively beat Aaron RC is a four figure card now, this is likely the oldest Aaron I'll ever own, and I effectively traded a '90s basketball base single for it.  2020 was a crazy year, indeed.

#6 - 1955 Topps Ted Williams

This was the fourth of five cards acquired from my epic $5 soccer flip, and to date is my oldest card of The Splendid Splinter.  I probably should have had this ranked behind the Hank Aaron that we just looked at a moment ago, but I guess my Red Sox bias bumped this one up a spot.  As with the Hank Aaron, once I had this card in hand I felt like my 1955 Topps set pursuit was truly starting to get serious.

#5 - 1950 Bowman Yogi Berra

Here's the final card from my $5 soccer card flip, and honestly the one that I was most excited about out of that grouping.  I've adored this card since I was a kid, as I just love the image of the game's greatest catcher.  I'm a total sucker for 1950 Bowman as well, since the set provided the first truly vintage card I ever owned as a kid (a Maurice McDermott, given to me by my dad).  This card would have placed #1 in either of the last two years of these countdowns, but in 2020 it only ranked #5.  Yep, some truly special cards are coming up here.

Completing a '50 Bowman set feels like a pipe dream still, especially given what guys like Jackie Robinson go for, but even if I never get there I'll always treasure this beauty.  Speaking of Jackie Robinson...

#4 - 1955 Topps Jackie Robinson

The top four cards in this year's countdown are a cut above the rest in my mind.  Each of them is very special to me for a particular reason, and in this case it's because this is my first playing-era Jackie Robinson card!  A vintage Robinson is a great cornerstone to any baseball card collection, and I was pumped to clear out some cards I no longer appreciated to make space, and to finally acquire my first one with the resulting funds.  My 1955 Topps set is in hyper-drive mode after landing Ted Williams, Hank Aaron and Jackie here all in the past year!

#3 - 1968 Topps Jerry Koosman/Nolan Ryan RC

2020 saw me pick up another card that I've coveted since childhood, the Nolan Ryan rookie.  This purchase is special to me for a few reasons, not the least of which is that it was funded by gift cards provided by my parents and my mother-in-law, which I'll always remember.  I'm 100% certain that I will keep, and treasure, this card for the rest of my life.

When I posted it all the way back in January, I predicted that it might finish in the top spot on this here countdown, and it certainly would have been a fitting choice.  Amazingly though, I ended up with two others before the year was out that I'd put above even this wonderful RC!

#2 - 1940 Play Ball Joe DiMaggio

The first of those would be this 1940 Play Ball Joe DiMaggio.  I never in my life thought I'd own a playing-era card of Joltin' Joe.  Once again though, the craziness that was the sports card world in 2020 allowed it to actually happen.  I sold a soccer card that I pulled myself from a pack in 2018, that had no patch or autograph on it, and wasn't even serial-numbered, and made enough off of it to buy this Joe D straight-up.  I really question whether we'll ever see some of the insanity in sports cards that we saw this past year ever again.

What on earth could top an authentic vintage card of The Yankee Clipper?

#1 - 1986-87 Fleer Michael Jordan RC

Arguably the most iconic basketball card ever produced, that's what.  This was the pinnacle of my mantra of selling quantity to fund quality this past year, as I spent many hours over many weeks, and many trips to the post office listing, selling and shipping over three dozen separate graded singles to fund the purchase of this one card!  My timing was perfect too, as I picked this up just weeks before Jordan cards went bat-shit crazy as far as prices on the market.  The greatest basketball card I have ever owned, or will ever own, and a very fitting choice for the top spot in this year's countdown.

So, that's a wrap for the Top 20 of 2020.  Looking back at the past twelve months like this makes it pretty clear that this was the single best year for my collection to date.  2020 was a trying year in both my professional and personal life, but it sure was a good one for sports cards.

As nice as all these acquisitions are, what I appreciate more is the great camaraderie that exists between collectors, and in our sports card blogging community in particular.  In addition, I'm more grateful that ever to have my family happy and generally healthy, even if I don't get to see them much of late.  Let's hope 2021 is a brighter year ahead on many counts.

Thanks as always for stopping by, and I hope you'll join me for yet another great upcoming year here on Shoebox Legends!

Rainy Monday Miscellany

It's a short three-day work week for me with the Thanksgiving holiday, and it's pouring rain and thundering outside on this Monday.  Since I'm having trouble getting the juices flowing on anything too productive or creative, let's take a look at a random smattering of cardboard that's been kicking around my "To Be Posted" folder for way too long...

The blacked out cap on this '68 Joe Morgan All-Star card kind of drives me nuts.  But, given that I found it in really great shape and for less than a dollar at a local antiques store, I decided to scoop it up regardless.

From the same seller in that same store came this 1993-94 Donruss Mario Lemieux Ice Kings insert.  While very short-lived, and not as well-known or appreciated as their Diamond Kings counterparts in the world of baseball, I nonetheless think this is an interesting insert set.  I had four of the ten cards previously, and happily scooped up Mario Lemieux here for just 50 cents, getting me to the halfway point with this small insert set.

Best part is, the store also had two other cards from the set, which just so happened to feature two of my absolute favorite players from my youth, for just 25 cents each.  Pavel Bure's long, flowing locks...

...and Eric Lindros' semi-mullet bring me to 70% complete!  Really happy that I was able to grab three needs from this set for just a dollar.  Whenever COMC gets around to actually shipping within a decent time frame again (hah!), I'll have to see if I can hunt down the final three for cheap coin and put this one to bed.

Back when I first got into soccer cards years ago, I picked up a complete set of these 1939 Wills Footballers cards.  They were surprisingly cheap, and I thought it was awesome to have an entire set of pre-war soccer cards.  I chose this example at random to show, even though I'm not familiar with Peter Doherty, just because I know Manchester City is a team that people with only a vague familiarity with professional soccer are likely to have heard of at least.

Here's a look at the back, pretty standard fare for these tobacco-sized minis of the time.  Cool set, and did not break the bank for it at all.  Too lazy to look it up to confirm, but I want to say I paid less than $30 for the 50-card release.

Here's one that I picked up years back, finally scanned and added to my collection proper on TCDB.com only today.  When I grabbed this Vladimir Tarasenko Young Guns rookie, he was one of the hottest scorers in the NHL, a pure sniper.  I've always enjoyed Russian hockey players, I think because I came of age during the Stastny/Fedorov/Bure era when those guys first burst onto the NHL scene.

When healthy, he's a lock to net between 30 and 40 goals a year, and to produce that same number of assists.  Tarasenko missed the majority of this past season due to injury, though.

Depending on how the 28-year-old rebounds from injury, he could still become a borderline HOFer with another good stretch of six years or so, like the one he enjoyed to start his career.  Time will tell, but I'm happy to have this rookie card in my collection while we see how things turn out for Vlad...

I picked up two packs of the Topps 206 set that was distributed via online-only release earlier this year.  I actually showed the first pack off here, which was banged up pretty badly when I received it.  Thankfully the cards were in fine shape, although as time wore on I found I was not all that impressed with them.

Turns out I like my T206 cards to be 100+ years old, with obscure players on them that I get to go research.  I'm not even going to post my second pack, and have already sent most of the cards from it away to other collectors.  I did keep this Xander Bogaerts that I was lucky enough to pull for my player PC of him...

...and it's a Piedmont back parallel.  I think these are the most common back parallel, but I don't care to go confirm that at the moment.  Either way, I will never turn down a new Xander card.

If you stop by the blog with any frequency, you've seen me show off some 2017 Donruss Optic parallels recently.  Well, here are a few others for a shiny binder project I'm working on.  I picked up three of Jackie Bradley Jr's Holo parallel...

...and three of his Pink parallel as well.  I plan to have an entire page dedicated to this card, three copies each of three different shiny Jackies, in the binder.  These came courtesy of Sportlots, and I believe they were 25 cents each if memory serves.

Also grabbed five, yes FIVE, copies of Xander Bogaerts' Holo parallel in the same order.  For a site-minimum 18 cents each, I figured I might even end up doing an entire page of just this card.

A while back, I became somewhat obsessed with the 2013 Topps Archives Gallery of Heroes stained glass baseball inserts.  I need to get back on that train here on the blog, as I do have a few others to show off, but in the meantime I stumbled across this fantastic Peyton Manning from 2000 Topps Gallery football and could not resist.

Just as with the baseball inserts, these are acetate, and look exactly like a stained glass window when backlit.  Truly awesome cards, and they can be had for pretty cheap coin, too.  I paid $2.99 with free shipping to grab this one off of eBay back in June.  While I'm not a football collector, I could see myself leisurely pursuing this 10-card set.  I wish Topps would give us an insert this innovative in a 2021 baseball release.

Here's the back, where you can obviously tell this is an acetate card.  Interesting that the football release added a die-cut element, as the upper right corner (or upper left back here) is cut away.

Well, I think I've rambled on enough for one day, and the To Be Posted folder is looking much tidier as well, so we'll call it here for today.  Thanks as always for stopping by, and I'll be back with a more structured post soon!

Cardboard Keepers - First Football Card!

Time for the next installment of Cardboard Keepers, a thought experiment in which I theoretically whittle my entire collection down to just 2,000 cards; 1,000 baseball keepers, and 1,000 "other" keepers.

Today's entry into this project is not only the first football card to be selected, but it's also brand spankin' new to me, as I just picked it up a couple of days ago...

Always wanted a Johnny Unitas card, and always loved the simplistic design of the 1964 Philadelphia football set.  This one is made even cooler by the fact that the Golden Arm was named NFL MVP in '64, his second of three career MVP awards.

I scored this copy at a small antiques store in my neck of the woods for the very reasonable price of $15.  It's in remarkably good shape, and I'm thrilled to have this be my lone representation of Unitas in my collection to date.

Here's a look at the back, nice and clean as well.  Pretty rough cartoon if you're a Steelers fan!

 

That's really all for today, just seemed like NFL football Sunday was the perfect day to unveil this beauty.  I may not have many football cards, but I sure am glad to have this one, and it's certainly a worthy card to be the first football representation in this project!

The non-baseball Cardboard Keepers collection is up to 28 cards in size now, and can be viewed here.  I've still got a long way to go, with 972 cards remaining to be selected.  I'll be back soon with the next card or group of cards for the project, but until then thanks as always for stopping by!

Trading Card Challenge - My Favorite Football Card

Time for post number three in response to Cardpocalypse's 7 Day Trading Card Challenge.  For this post we were asked to select our favorite football card from our collections.  As with the second post, this one is going to be a challenge for me, as I just plain don't own many football cards.

A couple of years ago in fact I would have passed on this completely with an "I don't collect the sport" excuse.  These days I'm more in the camp of "I don't seek out football cards often, but I have a small handful that I really do enjoy".

Of the 30,000+ cards in my organized and inventoried collection on The Trading Card Database, I have just 57 total football cards as of the time of this post.  Ironically, my best football card by a long shot is tied up in a time capsule for the next few years, so let's see some of the others that are eligible for the challenge instead...

For a long while I probably would've gone with this Rob Gronkowski RC in response to this question.  I plucked this off of COMC back in 2014 for just 55 cents if you can believe that.  These days it's probably around a $10 card.  It sure was fun watching Gronk mow down defenders for many years, and I'll always treasure this card because of that.  It's not the card I'm going with for the challenge, but is probably a close second place.

Aside from that Gronk, until the past year or so the other highlights in my small football collection were pick-ups that occurred simply because I like shiny cards, like this Bowman Chrome Bubbles Refractor...

...or this absolutely stunning Atomic Refractor of Randy Moss.  Is there a more attractive shiny card out there than the early 2010s Topps Atomic Refractors?  I really don't think so.  I really regret not buying a Tom Brady from this set before the well dried up.

This one is also kind of cool, since it features a signed ticket stub from one of the Patriots Super Bowl championships.  This was an impulse grab out of a $5 bin at a card show many, many years ago.

Those were pretty much the highlights of my football card collection until this past season, but none of them fit the bill.

This past year I decided to experiment with picking up a few more football cards, and challenged myself to purchase and post about one card for each of the Patriots' 16 regular-season games.  I ended up with some really great vintage football cards as a result, like this 1951 Bowman Eddie Saenz. 

This one is particularly cool in that it will always remind me of the trip we took last fall to see the Patriots play the Redskins on the road in Maryland.  A great road trip, with good food and friends, and a Patriots victory.  Followed that up with a week in DC seeing the sights and eating the foods, and it was an amazing ten-day stretch for sure.  Like the Gronk RC, this one was pretty high up there when I was whittling this list down just because of the connection to those memories.

I've come to appreciate football cards enough that, while I'll never collect them anywhere near the level that I do baseball, hockey, or even soccer, I do occasionally check COMC for unique and cheap pick-ups.  That's how I stumbled across this awesome "Biggie" Munn for just $1.50 last year.  A cool card, but not my favorite.

I love the 1960s/early 1970s "tallboy" releases from Topps, and that includes football.  Someday I'd love to own a copy of the iconic Joe Namath card from this set, but spending four figures on a football card is way down my priority list and may never happen.  I'd grab a '53 Mays or Mantle before the Namath with that kind of money to spend.  I've got three commons from the tallboy football set though, and they're pretty great.  Not great enough to be my favorite football card.

That honor goes to a card I pulled in the only football repack I've ever purchased, strangely enough...

Yes, this Barry Sanders' Topps rookie card is my favorite football card!  I pulled this back in 2011, and even though it's worth just a few bucks it's my favorite football card so far.  Being a child of the late '80s/early '90s I recall what a force Sanders was, even though I wasn't even a big football fan at the time.  Still one of the great backs of all-time, and certainly one of the most fun backs to watch of all-time!

So there you have it, a little out of my wheelhouse for sure, but that's what accounts for the challenge portion of the 7 Day Trading Card Challenge I suppose.  The next post in this series will have a similar vibe, as I actually have less basketball cards than I do football even!

Until then, thanks as always for stopping by...

COMC Blaster - Touching the Five Major Sports

Today's "COMC Blaster" post will touch on all five major North American sports; baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and even soccer.  Let's dive right in and see what $20 of store credit netted me this time around...

We'll start off with what might be the star of the show today, aesthetically speaking.  I rag on Topps every so often for their generally uninspired inserts over the last number of years, so I have to give credit where credit is due with respect to this Turkey Red insert from about a decade ago.

This Yogi Berra is so visually stunning that I knew I wanted a copy the moment I saw it, even though it's not a strict fit for my collection generally speaking.  Between this card and the fantastic vintage Berra that I recently scored, my small collection of Yogi is looking pretty good these days.  Maybe the smartest 75 cents spent in today's post!

Moving on, here's a Young Guns hockey rookie card of a player that casual fans of the game may not be familiar with, Noel Acciari.  This one cost me just 40 cents, since modern day Upper Deck cards are so prevalent on COMC.  Aside from being a Bruins rookie I didn't have, what was my interest in this card?  Well, we'll have to flip it over to see...

To the right of the Bruins logo we see that Noel Acciari was born in Johnston, RI, which just so happens to be the town where I live and have owned a home for about 12 years now!  Noel grew up right here in Johnston, and as the back of the card indicates played his college hockey in my small state as well.

Primarily a fourth line scrapper with Boston, Noel did show flashes of goal-scoring capability.  He signed with the Florida Panthers for the 2019-20 season and really blossomed.  In fact, he had reached the 20-goal plateau for Florida before the damn coronavirus shut the NHL season down.

A nice personal connection to this card made it a no-brainer for 40 cents...

Surprise, surprise, 1954 Bowman.  I feel like I've been featuring this set a ton on my blog lately.  Two more nice singles bite the dust here, with Sid Gordon setting me back $1.15...

...and Al Robertson and his glorious catcher's mitt just 92 cents.  How on earth does a card this old and beautiful cost less than a dollar?  I'd also like to note what fantastic penmanship both of these '54 Bowman subjects had.

Let's transition to basketball briefly, with the "I'm not collecting them, yet they somehow keep appearing" 1970-71 Topps tallboy set.  I don't know the first thing about center Darrall Imhoff, but I know these cards just fascinate me.  While this card won't be sent off to PSA for grading any time soon, it's in pretty good condition given that it set me back just 59 cents!

I always show the backs of these too.  Did Imhoff really head the 76ers' season ticket staff?

We covered baseball, basketball and hockey so far, let's finish things off with the two versions of football.  First, the global "football" with this Donruss Optic Holo Antoine Griezmann.  Antoine is one of the top few dozen football players in the world, and was a big part of France's 2018 World Cup-winning national team.  A cool, obscure single for my steadily growing soccer collection for a mere 60 cents.

Then we have a card from the North American football front, a buyback of Patriots wideout Stanley Morgan!  I don't have more than a few of these Topps football buybacks, they're not as much a collecting interest for me and also seem far less prevalent than the baseball ones.  For $1.39 I've now acquired my fourth one.

I love Atomic Refractors, which is basically what these 2019 Topps Chrome Sapphire cards are.  Long-term I'd love to complete a Red Sox team set, but for now I'm content just plucking low hanging fruit from time to time.  Can't go wrong for 48 cents.

While we're on the shiny card theme, how about a few more of these 2014 Finest X-Fractors?  In this latest blaster we have Ryan Braun at 75 cents...

...and Braves star Freddie Freeman at a whopping $2.27.  I have to say, Freeman certainly has some dedicated collectors and fans out there, as his cards seem to demand a premium on the rare occasion when I need to acquire one for a project like this.  As much as I was hoping I could score this card for less than a dollar some day, it just wasn't happening, so I pulled the trigger at $2 and change.

One more X-Fractor, again 75 cents.  This trio has me at 60 out of 100 of these in hand (or, in binder).  When shipping from COMC becomes a thing again I've really got to try to put this project to bed once and for all.

The best bargain of today's post is this card, by a long shot.  I picked up this blue holofoil parallel of Xander Bogaerts' 2014 Topps Opening Day RC back in 2015, for just $2.38.  Nowadays this is more like a $20 card when you stumble across it.  The crazy thing is that I had one on my eBay watch list and had nearly pulled the trigger before pulling this from my COMC backlog for today's post.  Forgot that I'd already purchased it, that was a close one!

Here's the back, though it's difficult to make out this is serial-numbered to /2014 in the upper right there.  Awesome to land yet another variation of Xander's Topps rookie card!

I've been a fan of Rick Wise's since learning of his two-home-run no-hit performance in the early '70s.  Doesn't hurt that he was the winning pitcher for the Red Sox in what some consider the greatest World Series game ever played, either.  Somehow I'd yet to acquire his 1970 Topps card, a beauty at that, until now.  For 67 cents that wrong has been righted!

Hey now!  Here's something you don't see too often in these COMC posts.  My decision to sell my graded 1953 Topps commons last year really liberated me in a sense, and I've been having a blast collecting the set in much cheaper, raw format.  I'm not looking to pay a premium for mint cards, as long as they look visually appealing and don't suffer any major damage like holes, missing pieces, etc.

Joe Rossi was a single I needed, available for the very reasonable price (in this condition) of $2.45.

One of the greatest card back designs of all-time.  This card is significant as it now puts me over the 25% complete mark as far as my second run at this set goes!

Just so happened to pluck a trio of Red Sox cards from my "to be posted" stash next, starting off with this Black Refractor (#'d /100) of Clay Buchholz.  Any numbered Topps Chrome Refractor of a Red Sox player from the 2010-2015 sets that can be had for less than a dollar is probably going into my inventory.  Clay was 85 cents, and is just my second Black Refractor from the 2012 set.

I actually paid 90 cents for this Bryce Brentz Sepia Refractor from 2015 Topps Chrome.  Between this card and the Rusney Castillo that was in my last COMC blaster, I'm getting really close to a complete team set of these.  I believe I have just two more to track down, one being Dustin Pedroia.

Closing out today's proceedings is yet another '53 Topps card!  This one does double duty towards my set build and my Red Sox team collection.  This was purchased from the same seller as the Joe Rossi above, and for the same price ($2.45).  Just awesome.

This is actually also a significant card in my '53 set build, as it's the 70th card to enter my second iteration of the set!  While I don't consider myself a set builder at all when it comes to modern products, it's an awful lot of fun to pick an older set to go for casually, without being too worried about condition.  The pair of '53s in today's post has really motivated me to keep going in this quest.

That brings our running total to $19.75, so we'll call it there for today.  Certainly a random mix of cardboard in today's blaster, hopefully you saw at least a card or two that you found interesting.

Sheltering in place has resulted in more free time for me, which has benefited me in many ways.  One of those ways is increased posting here on the blog.  This is the 12th consecutive day that I've posted now, which I think is the longest streak for me in well over a year.  I've got plenty of other great cards to get to and hope to keep extending this streak.  Upcoming posts include my first purchase direct from Topps in years, another amazing eBay flip of a soccer card for a playing-era HOFer, and much more.

I hope you'll continue to check in and read along, and thanks as always for stopping by!