COMC Shuffle #7

Another week, another ten randomly selected cards from last year's COMC hoard.


1971 Milk Duds -whole box-

Over the course of about a month last year I purchased 9 whole Milk Duds boxes from the same seller. This was kind of a big deal for me because I had just learned of the Milk Duds cards, and quickly became quite enamored with them (even did a post that I don't feel like going and finding the link for).

This was one of those stretches where the Challenges had been open quite a bit, so not only was I racking up the store credit, but it also meant that I could afford to get all of these boxes each time they went on sale (at prices that were much lower than eBay), if I hadn't been earning so much credit at the time, I would've probably been able to only get a couple of the lower tiered one's -- like Mr. Perry above.

When I finally got my yearly shipment after the Black Friday sale, other than the Goudey's and my first couple of T206's, I was most excited to see these, especially since I had never seen a whole box before... unfortunately that excitement didn't last too long:

The first box that I took out was the doozy, aka the biggest purchase (or use of my credit rather) of the year, Pete Rose. I knew that something was askew almost instantly, and upon turning the box over, I saw exactly what that was -- Pete's box is the first one in the above photo. All 9 boxes were near mint when I bought them, but four of them ended up arriving damaged, and not from something happening to them during shipping, no, this was sheer human error, as whoever put them into toploaders after I bought them, hooked four of the flaps on the toploaders while they were being loaded -- with Pete getting it the worst.

Obviously it didn't take me long to send COMC a wtf email. After a brief back and forth, I was given the option to send them back for a refund, which I promptly did. Getting the credit back was good and all, but multiple things about this still kind of bug me - a) I never get an apology, all I got was a "We're sorry that your unhappy with your cards", which came across like it was my fault, or that I was just being difficult. b) The employee who did this had to have known that they did do it, you would've felt the resistance as the boxes were getting hooked on the edges, and yet they didn't say a word, I mean did they really think that whoever purchased them wasn't going to notice that their once near mint boxes were no longer so. c) The Pete Rose box truly was near mint, and I bought it for less than half of what they sell for on eBay. I have never gotten anything graded before, but I was seriously thinking about doing so with this particular box, obviously that was no longer an option after it was received. d) This was supposed to be the start of a new collection, a collection that was going to be highlighted by Pete Rose, that collection idea is now a thing of the past, because after having to return almost half of this new collection, I've basically lost complete interest in all things Milk Duds (I realize that this mindset might not make sense to some, but that's just how I'm wired). It's been like five months now, and the five that weren't damaged are still sitting in the exact same place that I put them after all of this went down, I haven't looked at them once, if I ever do, it'll probably be just to scan 'em and list 'em on eBay, because I will not be collecting any more of these.

This disappointment has also caused me to spend far less time on COMC through the first couple of months this year. Normally I would have done a couple hundred dollars worth of Challenges by now, but so far, I've only been able to bring myself to do about ten bucks worth, and I don't know if that'll be changing anytime soon. I still have lots of though, as I still haven't even used all of what was put back from these damaged boxes.

Sorry for starting this week's post off on a downer (the shuffler just had to land on one of these first), but if anyone's still here, I do have nine more cards here today with a lot less backstory :)


1995-96 Topps Power Boosters #280

I don't remember what the odds were on these back in the day, but they seemed like difficult pull at the time. I was fortunate enough to get one in a pack, the only bad part was that it was Sherman Douglas, who, no offense to him, was probably the least interesting player to be included in the checklist. This is one set that I kind of wish that I had the MJ's from, as it would be a fun one to complete, but I'm not gonna pay for what those Jordan's are fetching these days.

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red, White, and Blue Mosaics #248

Is that Ted Kaczynski in the background?


2016 Panini Certified Mirror Gold #98

I found the orange bordered version of this card at a show last year, I liked it so much that I half-assedly decided to try and complete the rainbow. I'm under no illusion that I'll ever be able to get the black 1/1, and probably not the to /5 green either, but I've been able to find everything else so far, including this gold, which is numbered to /25.


1971 Milk Duds -whole box-

It took seven weeks for the shuffle button to land on a Milk Duds box, and now goes ahead selects two in one week.

1999-00 Skybox E-X E-Xceptional #15XC

I absolutely love the E-Xceptional's! I already had Lamar, but when I see them cheap (especially on the basketball side) copies, no matter who they are, I just can't not get them.

1975-76 Topps #236

If there was a Mt. Rushmore for fro's, Mike would most certainly be included!

2013 Panini Father's Day Progressions - Cyan #38

I have completed two Progressions rainbows so far, Chris Kreider here was the first, the second will be shown in a future post.


2013 Panini Cooperstown Collection Red Crystal Shard #72

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I've sort of temporarily (I hope) lost interest in the Cooperstown parallels, it's convenient that my loss of interest waited until I was only one away from completing the green's, and around 20-25 away from completing the gold's, and the red's, as well.

2013-14 Panini Prizm Light Blue Prizms Die-Cut #228

The light blue, and the purple die-cuts, are by far my least favorite of the 2013 Prizm parallels, that being said, I still wasn't able to pass up this Sam Perkins when I saw it for just 46 cents (there numbered to /199 btw). I have multiple copies of this card in green, but unless I find any more for less than 50 cents, this'll probably be the only light blue Perkins that I ever get.

It seems like the selection this week was a bit basketball heavy, hopefully that didn't put too many people off, because with all of the Prizm parallels that are still sitting in the folder, this is bound to happen again... and probably more than once!


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