COMC Challenge Cards Part 42 - Pick 6!

Another 6 cards pulled out in the order they were in the box.

This continues a theme that took place frequently with the challenges. See a card with a great photo, then add it to my watch list, and then add it to my inventory at the first opportunity. It is a little hard to pass on a perfect play at the plate shot from an angle you don't see enough of on cards.

I'm not sure what Frank Thomas is holding here. But it does make for an interesting mini.

I'm not sure which blog first showed one of these Wave of the Future cards, but it reached the status of must have immediately after seeing them. I didn't really have a close attachment to any of the players in the set, so I just grabbed the cheapest of the bunch.

New 2/14 binder card! I guess I didn't catch all of them when I made my first go through of the box looking for 2/14 guys. It is my 17th Saito card, moving him into a tie with Derek Norris for 2nd overall.

And to wrap it up, a pair of Charlie Hough. The first an always-coveted (for me, at least) Diamond King, and then a card with a great view of the knuckleball grip. I'm of the belief that every baseball card that features a knuckleball thrower should feature that grip on the card. Every one. No exceptions. Even base cards in high end, hit-oriented products.

6 more down. Assuming typical mail quality in terms of shipping time, I might actually finish the cards in this box before the next orders arrive.

COMC Challenge Cards Part 41 - Pick 6!

My COMC box has a bunch of cards still in it that I really can't group together in a logical manner. So, until my next package arrives, I'll just grab the first 6 cards in the box and blog about them.

I'll lead off with a card that really came from busting those packs of 1989 Fleer that were in repacks. I didn't find this one or any other of the variations thereof. But, it got me thinking that since I did collect in that time period (albeit not busting this at the time) that I really should have one of the two more iconic cards from that year. It was either this one, or the 89 UD Griffey. This one was cheaper, and it did appeal to my inner Beavis a little more.

I don't know if this counts as a white whale capturing, but it does feel like I've added a famous piece of cardboard.

This was the only card left in the box that wasn't a baseball card. I grabbed it because I liked the photo choice, and how the opponent is highlighted along with Bigelow. Proving that I might have watched way too much WWF TV in the 90s, I immediately recognized the other guy as a rather pasty jobber named Brian Walsh. He was actually a pretty good bumper for the time, and he's taking a really nice high bump off the hip toss. Heck, if you go to the 1:31 mark of this video, you can see the exact moment where the flash goes off to take the picture.

Although I would have greatly preferred to add a Devon White auto with him pictured on the Blue Jays, but, failing that, I'll take one of him with California. I'm somewhat surprised he hasn't shown up in Archives as a Fan Favourite auto. He was with Toronto in America's Pastime last year, so I can still find one out there as a Blue Jay. But, this was $2. And available at COMC. Which made it by default a better choice than the Pastime version.

I forgot which blog I saw this one on, but I immediately purchased this one after seeing it. It is all about the cheesy cap that looks like you'd get it for free in a case of beer. I guess the tri-colour caps were not an exclusive domain of the Expos.

I really should look for the ugliest shirt that was ever featured on a the draft pick cards of the early 90s. This one might not even make the top 10. Which says a lot about fashion in the early 90s. But, I still have to say this: I hope he's wearing waterproof pants, since that shirt is a pisser.

And in a complete piece of card synchronicity, an autograph parallel where the guy is signing an autograph.

So, 6 down from the box, and still it barely seems like the pile has been dented. I'm sure I'll be still posting COMC challenge cards come the fall.

The 2/14 Binder an a Return to Sportlots

With all the credit I'd put on my COMC account through the challenges, there wasn't much need to pick up some cards through other sources. But, sometimes cards are available at one and not the other, or are significantly cheaper at the other location. So, with this trip to sportlots, 3 new faces split over 5 new cards moved into the 2/14 folder.

With all respect to Wes @ Jaybarkerfan's Junk, I've done a pretty good job of hunting down of Alabama alum in my collection. Despite not realizing I had an on-card auto of an alum until today.  But, since I'll be able turn the card into a Mike Bossy relic instead of just including it in my original trade package, I guess my incompetence worked out for me.

Still, you're not getting this one! It's from some 500+ card set of Alabama Crimson Tide players released in 1989. Ralph Jones' only card appears in this set. It doesn't include his birthday, but the usual sources have his birthday listed as 2.14. He spent a couple years in the league during the mid-to-late 40s. The photo is dated on the back as coming from 1944, making it among the oldest photos in my collection, behind a Conlon card with a 1927 photo of Earl Smith.

The only other 2/14 guy that seems to overlap with Alabama alumni is ex-NBAer Reggie King.

I had more of a choice with George Hegamin. I could get this card, or a card from a 1996 WLAF set that has cards so scarce only a couple even show up on ebay. So, I went for the more available of the two. Am I alone thinking that some Beavis and Butthead wannabe decided that this was the photo that should grace his card, which ended up as his only NFL level card?

While 2 of these cards were available at COMC, I really didn't want to shell out $2.75 each for the ones on the left and right. I didn't know for sure if the other one was the same Barry Jones that I was hunting for, but I elected to take a shot at it sight unseen. It was a slight risk (18 cents worth to be precise), since there was a second Barry Jones playing at the time. That one was mostly in the majors at the time, but still had a minor league card or two in the 90s.

And since I could order 4 cards from that supplier before shipping went skyward, I threw in one of the cards I needed for my 1988 Leaf set.

Buy only supplies at the LCS? That ain't happening.

I could have been a mature collector and only picked up a couple of 800 count boxes at the LCS, but I'm not that mature. Instead, I did grab a box, and a couple of football packs to go with it. I went for a pack of the newly released 2014 Elite, and a pack of 2013 Archives.

Here's the Elite. Not really the most impressive pack, but I do like how they scan nicely without being too gaudy. But, when the most interesting card is a rookie of a 7th rounder, it isn't the best pack.

But, Archives was much better. It started off pretty orange, but when one of them is a creamsicle throwback, that makes up for the loudness of the Thomas. And to wrap up the first part of the pack, there's an on-card auto. It fits nicely into the theme of Archives autos from baseball, with it being of a player you'd remember, but not a superstar. Rodney Hampton certainly fits in that category. As best as I can tell, this card is his only hit out there. My one complaint:

The backs look like something from the 80s with the cardboard design. It is strange, since the base SP of this card looks like you'd expect a card from 2013 to look like.

Getting back to the base, it was nice to get a couple of Jaguars cards in the pack, since one of my favourite things about retro cards is the "what if?" factor seeing how cards for teams that didn't exist at the time would have looked in the particular set.

2 packs. 1 hit. And it was from the pack I would have rather seen a hit from.

COMC Challenge Cards Part 40: Meet the Mets

Time to make a big dent in the COMC Challenge box with this group of cards. Even though I still have about 50 cards still in there, with over 100 more still on the way. Progress!

One of my goals was to get at least one Mets card from the Topps set for every year of their existence. I'd actually knocked it down to the point where I only needed 3 different years for the completion of this project. Up first, the oldest card. The condition might be well-loved, but when you have to pick a Mets card from that year, you really can't go wrong grabbing one featuring Casey Stengel. Gene Woodling also only had cards with him as a Met in the 1963 sets. So, a twofer.

The rest of the way, I just selected among the cheapest Mets cards from the calendar year. I don't think this one was the cheapest, but it was only a few cents more, and I love the picture with the stadium looming behind Dan.

But this 1967 with the scoreboard and the Mets logo almost perfectly centered behind Larry Elliot might be even more spectacular. The horrible miscut adds to the charm of this vintage card even more.

Now with some more recent stuff, and something I'd been looking for a bit. The logo says that this is a Mets card, but the picture and swatch is pure Marlins. Now, I've got at least one swatch for Delgado from all 3 of his teams.

And one Delgado deserves another. Saluting a walk-off home run? Yup. This one is a keeper.

Another card that has been just on the verge of my top 10 list. Just a nice casual photo. Jeromy doesn't seem to be that impressed by what he's seeing. In short, it is a perfect Mets photo.

Woo! Refractor-y. This one was the cheapest Mets card at the time. It sure is a shiny card, and Muno might even sniff the big leagues this year after the roster expansion.

I've definitely been reading This Way To The Clubhouse too much with this decision to add this autograph of Butch Huskey to my collection. But, since this was only a dollar, and the Butch portion of his auto is pretty nice, I felt little guilt about it. Now someone just has to release a product with a certified auto of Butch Rolle and my collection will be perfect when it comes to guys named Butch.

Wrapping up another post with an alternate cap card, as Bartolome Fortunato walks off the mound sporting a heroes cap from the Port Authority PD. I've got NYPD cap cards with a Leiter and a Piazza. I've got an Armando Benitez with the FDNY on it. But this is my first Port Authority cap.  I don't think I've seen another card where someone was sporting this cap until I saw this one. A unique wrap up to a plethora of Mets cards from the COMC Challenges.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 42: Football!

I've posted cards from repacks for the other three major sports this week. Let's complete it with a football repack.

Here were the visible cards. I was all over this one for the visible card of Fred Jackson, but that Jason Witten is a pretty spectacular photo, complete with his helmet in the hands of the Eagles defender. I'm at the point where I want to look for a cheap box of 08 Upper Deck just for the photo choices. This is the second repack I bought with a photo choice from 08 UD as a factor, grabbing one previously for this TO card.

And the only other Bills card in the repack. At least neither this nor the Jackson was a dupe. 2 Bills seem to be above the usual for me from a repack.

I had no idea that Pro Set was still a thing in 1994. Or Pro Set power. Or whatever this card is from. All I know is I couldn't believe what this was going for at COMC.

I guess that Gary Brown was the closest thing to an oddball, but this one is kinda an oddball too, coming from a Super Bowl set. And I can do the MST3K "Packers! WOOO! Packers won the Superbowl!"

A 1995 Fleer card that isn't hideous.

The obligatory Wolverines alumni card that I set aside for TMM.

It was a three-way tie for the oldest cards in the repack with this grouping of 1987 cards. It is different to proclaim 1987 cards as the oldest when the baseball ones usually bring up some 70s cards.

Here was the Hall of Famer content. Even though he is way before my time, my easy favourite is the Arnie Herber, who doesn't seem to have too many cards outside of some HOF themed sets from the junk wax era.

And to wrap this up, here are my other 2 favourite photos in the repack. Who needs both feet on the ground to make a spectacular photo?

Fun with card backs

Part of my next care package from COMC Challenge will include a lot of cards that feature players from home countries you really don't see a lot of on various cards. I'm assuming that some of them are due to them coming from military families. Due to this hunt for those type of cards, I've found myself looking a little more carefully at the card backs. paying attention to birthplaces.

Keeping with the that, here's a card for both those themes. An obvious military birth, and a hometown I don't see much of on cards.

This was another one of those cards from that 10 HOFers repack I busted earlier this week.

2/14 binder perfection

In this case, 2/14 baby Jeff Dellenbach snapping the ball to fellow 2/14 baby Drew Bledsoe. I like this one almost as much as I like my dual relic of Hejduk and Gaborik. All for only 54 Listia credits. I've finally burned through all of them, and still have a pair of on-card autos to show for it, and that I'll show off over the next week or so.

This is my 4th card of Dellenbach. Despite being the all-time leader for 2/14 guys in games played, this puts me only a 1990 Fleer away from completing his cardboard run.

The Great Collation Scandal of 1984

Remember it?

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 41.2: It was new to me!

Time to dig into the highlights from the rest of the repack.

I did mention that I did hit the one in four repack hit, so here you see it. It wasn't a memorabilia card but an auto, and nicely enough, an auto of someone who is still active. Jason does appear to have a couple autos out there, but this looks to be the only one with him on the Rockies. If that seems like I'm trying to make this card more interesting than it actually is, you're right. Still, a hit is a hit.

How'd I do when it came to cards for my teams? Well, here are the Mets.

Some Expos.

And some Blue Jays. The minor league card still counts. It says Toronto on the card back, that's close enough. But, when you count the Tony Fernandez I posted this morning, they're the winners for this in terms of team contents.

But there was also this future Blue Jay among the cards. And while I usually claim that this card isn't really as miscut as the scan makes it appear, but in this case it really was.

From the category of interesting repack collation, there were three straight Texas Rangers cards from the same set. Bob Brower also appears to be about 15 years old.

Not as interesting, but still interesting was that I pulled cards of the Pujols cousins. These two weren't together in the pack. They weren't even in the same side of the repack.

It doesn't matter if the pack advertises that there will be vintage content or not, there always seem to be a couple 70s cards in there.

And to wrap things up, a trio of singles. Here's photo documentation of a sad moment during a Red Sox trip to Milwaukee, where Mo Vaughn had to suffer with a tragic allergy to sleeves.

I wonder if I'll react the same in a few years when I pull the 2010 A&G Revolving Door card from a repack. In the sense that I'll think it an awesome card.

And to modern card designers, take a note that Pacific was able to use three different photos on this card, and that's not counting a fourth photo on the back. If a company that put out some of the louder cards of the 90s can use 4 different photos, there's no need to use the same one multiple times on the same card.

So, that wraps this repack up. I guess, as a whole, not too different from the others. Still, 100 cards of fun.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 41.1: It was new to me!

I didn't just pick up that hockey repack yesterday that resulted in the Tavares YG card - I also grabbed one of the 100 card baseball hanger packs. They had the "contains 5 rookies" one, as well as this:

I hadn't seen one of those before, so I opted for it. After all, a new type of repack should always be explored by someone like me. I didn't do half badly. I didn't get just 10 HOFer cards, I ended up with 19. Plus, I did hit the 1 in 4 memorabilia card (which was actually a stickergraph). So, I'll lead with the HOF content, then hit the rest next time.

The first group in the first half pretty much had what I expected. Junk wax era HOF cards.There were dupes of the '88 Eddie Murray, meaning I'd already pulled 10. Roberto Alomar looks about 70 years old on that DK card, but that poor DK is made up for with that really nice Dawson. My favourite though is the Bert Blyleven, namely because I really don't have too many of his cards where he's sporting only a moustache.

I expected more of the same on the second time, but I was pleasantly surprised. We start with an oddball, and then a traded card. Then, a card from a set I'd never heard of before, but COMC tells me it is from the "Rookie of the Week Card Shop Promotion" set. From there, a nice Greats of the Game card, and some players making repeat appearances. Lots of Eddie Murray, Rickey Henderson and Andre Dawson in this repack. I do like the outfield shot behind Dawson. And to wrap it up, one of the lost, missing, honoured #7 cards for Mickey Mantle. And with a great photo choice for a retired player.

And even a pair of Canadian Baseball HOFers. Tony Fernandez and the pride of Kapuskasing.

And now, I've got 80 more cards to sort through and get the highlights from.