COMC Shuffle #27

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


1995 Collector's Edge - EdgeTech Quantum #1

I don't think that I'll ever fully grasp all of the different Collector's Edge inserts/parallels, but since I only buy the cheap stuff, I don't think I really need to know all of the in's and out's, as a lot of it will forever be out of my price range anyway. Also, is it just me, or does Dan not bear a striking resemblance (in the face) to John Madden on this card? I only just now noticed it, and it's kind of weirdin' me out.


2013-14 Panini Prizm Red, White, & Blue Mosaic Prizms #186

I've heard/read plenty of Blazers fans say that the team is better off without LaMarcus, I'm sorry, but those fans don't know what they're talking about. Perfect example: last season's playoffs, they would've been a lot different (i.e. successful) if L.A. had still been around.

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red, White, & Blue Mosaic Prizms #102

Poor T-Rob, finally found a home in Portland, became a fan favorite, then was traded (along with Will Barton) for a guy (Aaron Afflalo) who spent 25 games doing diddly squat... and it's been all downhill for Thomas ever since!

1971 Milk Duds

If one were to look at Jim Hickman's career as a whole, his inclusion into the Milk Duds set might have seemed like an odd one, but if you look at his numbers from the previous season, it's not hard to see why he would've been added to the checklist. Jim had a career year in 1970, .315 BA, 162 hits, 115 RBIs, 32 HRs, all done in 514 at-bats. He also made his only All-Star appearance that year, also finished 8th in MVP voting. Nowadays if somebody had such an anomalous season like that, some sort of monkey business would be suspected, but I don't think people care enough about the past to go around lobbing accusations at a guy who had one really good season almost fifty years ago.

1996-97 Topps Stadium Club Matrix #18

This may look like a run of the mill Matrix, but it's actually one of the uber-rare Dome'z (yes, with a z) parallels. What, you've never heard of Dome'z before? You need to go look 'em up then, because they were totally a real thing, and most weren't just made up three seconds ago by me :)

1933 Goudey #75

One of the best third basemen of his era (THE best according to Chief Bender), Willie Kamm accomplished much during his thirteen year career, certainly more than I could do justice -- I also happen to be putting this post together at the very last moment, so I'll just take lazy way out, and refer you to his SABR page. On the plus side though, I think that his bio on there, written by a fellow called Joseph Wancho, might be one of the better one's that I've seen. As a quick aside, being from Oregon, I'm always interested in learning about any athletes/celebrities who have ties to the state. So I thought it was kind of neat to see that in 1918, a then 18 year-old Willie, briefly worked at, and played for a shipyard league in St. Helens, Oregon. When I have some more time, I'll have to go back and try and find some more info about this brief time in his life.

2015 Panini National Convention VIP Cracked Ice #10

I kind of liked this set back when I got the card, but that like has since worn off, so if anyone's genuinely interested in a #'d to /25 Trey Burke, don't be shy about saying so.

1998-99 Upper Deck Ionix Reciprocal #R17

I just recently opened my ever pack of Ionix (future blog post), and even though I didn't pull any SICCCCCCCCK HITZ, it sure was fun to finally open one after all of these years. If I had some lottery money, I might actually consider buying a box -- but until then, I'm quite content with just picking up the occasional cheap Reciprocal every now and then.

2013-14 Panini Prizm Red, White, & Blue Mosaic Prizms #224

It's really great that DJ has made it into some modern sets, and while I certainly don't mind him being shown as a Celtic, I'd be lying if I said that part of me didn't want to see him as a Sonic. So, what about it, Panini? Next year's Prizm, DJ in his old Sonics gear?

2012 Topps Black #174

I've already professed my love for Nick Barnett's 2012 Topps card in the past, knowing that nobody else feels the same way, I won't go into it again -- but I will say that this black bordered (#'d to /57)version is boss, and I got it for practically nothing, so, yay me!

Oh, and one more thing that I wanted to mention real quick, looks like yesterday was this blog's anniversary -- apparently I've been doing this for four years now! As per usual, thank you to everyone who's ever taken time out of their day to stop by, and a special thanks to everyone who's ever been motivated to leave a comment, without those, I wouldn't be doing this. I'm not gonna make any promises about me doing this for another four years, but I can say that I've got at least another year in me, so...


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COMC Shuffle #22

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

1933 Goudey #62

I couldn't find it for this post, but I'm pretty sure that I read a book about the '31 World Series when I was young, although it doesn't appear that ever was such a book, so maybe it was an article in Reader's Digest or something, and I'm just completely misremembering it? Oh well, the point is though that because of his heroics in that particular series, Pepper Martin was featured quite prominently in whatever it is that I was reading. Because of this past association with his name, it kind of felt like a big deal being able to get this card. Also, full disclosure, I was under the false impression that he was a HOFer, I was wrong -- he did win a pair of championships, was a multiple time All-Star, and led the N.L. in steals a couple of times... but he's not in the HOF!

2012 Topps Update Series Golden Moments #US272

I will never get used to seeing Ichiro with anybody other than Seattle.

1933 Goudey #115

Normally I try to avoid paper loss, but in this instance it didn't obscure too much of the back, so it didn't prevent me from picking it up, well that, and it was under $5!?!?

It's kind of amazing how many guys in this set had played their last game in '32, but were still included when it was released the following year. There isn't a lot of interesting information out there about Cliff, but this little factoid from Wikipedia seemed worth mentioning:

"On May 30, 1922, the Cardinals were playing a Memorial Day doubleheader at Cubs Park. Between games, Heathcote was traded for Max Flack. Both men appeared in both games that day".

He also passed away fairly young, age 40... pulmonary embolism :(

1997 Score Board NFL Experience World Champions #WC3

This card is much shinier in person. These were new to me, kind of an interesting concept, off of the top of my head I can't recall another insert set quite like this.

1972-73 Topps #243

"McGinnis blocks Johnny Baum's jumper".

1964 Topps #95

One for the "Telstar four" collection.


2013 Panini Black Friday Panini Collection Progressions - yellow #12

The yellow Progressions tend to be a little difficult to see when viewing online, so I've "borrowed" an image of the base card from COMC to help give some context.

1974 Topps #130

I mentioned a few months ago that I bought a small port last year (for those that don't know, a port iseither part or all of, a sellers inventory) I kept a handful of cards for myself, O.J. being one of those, and sold the rest (which is the point of buying a port). I ended up making a small profit, and getting a couple of neat cards out of it, so I guess I can say that I was successful in my endeavor -- but don't be expecting to hear about any more future port purchases from me, as it was a little too much work for my liking.


2014-15 Panini Prizm Blue and Green Mosaic Prizms #157

For someone who has ten rings (second most for a player), you sure don't ever hear much about Sam Jones. Often overshadowed by Bill Russell's greatness, Sam was an integral part of the Celtics dynasty, even leading the team in scoring during three of their championship seasons.

2015-16 Panini Prizm Ruby Wave Prizm #274

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I had the light blue version of this card in a Shuffle post. In that post I said that this card looks good in all colors, but the light blue and red versions are the two most attractive of the bunch (IMO). I'm starting to lean towards red being the better of the two, but I'd be curious to know what everyone else thinks:

After looking at the blue again, I'm sort of leaning back that way, but I don't know... what say you?


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

COMC Shuffle #20

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

2012 Panini Black Friday Panini Collection Progressions - Yellow #BM

When it comes to the Progressions, yellow is usually my least favorite of the colors, however, in Biz' case, it's my favorite. To me, it just pops.

2013 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures #SMC

This is kind of a crossover card for me, as not only was it a needed Golden Age auto, but it also features Sam McDowell, who went 8-0 (with a 1.18 ERA) during his nine-game stint with the Portland Beavers back in 1964.

2015-16 Panini Prizm Red, White, & Blue Prizm #41

I'm not overly fond of this card, but it was a cheap LA that I didn't have, so I got it. This will be one of the few Prizm parallels that I'm collecting THAT I won't need multiples of... unless of course I happen upon a few more in a dime box!

1962 Topps Mars Attacks! #23

Even though it's fairly contemporary, I can't see this card and not think of this:

2018 Panini Classics Timeless Tributes Gold #138

Right after this set came out, a blue optichrome (#'d to /5) Marcus Allen hit eBay, I tried to bid on it, but ended up losing in spectacular fashion... that sure was a pretty card :(

1997-98 Bowman's Best Atomic Refractor #120

I've been trying to cut down on random purchases, but '97-98 atomic refractors are so darn hard to pass up when priced at less than a buck.

1998-99 Upper Deck Ionix Reciprocal #R24

John Starks in a Warriors uni still doesn't look right.

2013 Panini Father's Day Museum Collection Progressions - Magenta #MC-4

I love me some Progressions, but I'm not too keen on this one. Don't ask me why, because I don't really know, I'm just not feeling it. I got a little carried away with the Progressions, and this is one that I probably should've left behind. If I ever get around to trading via the TCDB, this'll be one of the first cards that I make available.

1933 Goudey #171

Charlie Jamieson was a new name for me, as are about half of the Goudey's I get. His last game played was in '32, so it was kind of nice of the Goudey folks to include him in this set. After 18 seasons, Charlie finished with a .303 average and 1990 hits, which wasn't too shabby for someone who started out as a pitcher (went 2-1 in the bigs). Other notable accomplishments include winning a World Series with Cleveland in 1920, and in 1923 his 222 hits were tops in the American League.

2014-15 Panini Prizm Green Prizms #144

An appropriately colored parallel given Wes' new team. Love the guy, and he will forever be one of my favorite Blazers, but I sure do wish that he would've signed with just about anybody other than Milwaukee.


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What the math?

In an attempt to find some new/old blog material, I spent some time this week scraping the respective bottoms of my scan barrels, which by the way, isn't as fun as it sounds, but it did yield a few positive results, including a 2+ year old semi-forgotten eBay purchase.

Some of the details involved with this purchase have become a bit hazy after two years, but I do remember that it was a Sunday, and I was searching eBay for something (not Goudey's), which somehow or another ended up leading me to this card. The one thing that I do specifically remember about this card, was that the seller was running a one-day sale of over 50% off of all of their items, and I have seen many sales on eBay over the years, but I had never encountered one that was limited to just one day before.

The card did have one small issue, or "problem" if you will, in that some kid in year's past had a pressing bit of arithmetic, and apparently had no other paper, so they went ahead and used one of their baseball cards to find the answer.

Other than the aforementioned addition, and the slightly rounded corners, I didn't see anything else wrong with the card, certainly nothing that would warrant it's sale price of just a little over $3, so I decided to take the chance! The seller had a really good combined shipping discount, at this point I don't remember what they were, but I did find a few items for some other folks, all of which have long since been mailed out.

Once the card had arrived, I was pleased to see that it didn't have any more hidden issues, but there was still the matter of a math problem that needed solving.

I used a kneaded eraser (being a wannabe artist does occasionally have it's perks) to carefully remove the old graphite. It turned out pretty well, although if you turn the card just right you can still see some indentations, but that's okay, as I sort of already suspected that those weren't going to be removable.

As for the fellow who's card this is, Mr. Moore, or if I may be so informal, Jo-Jo, he spent his entire 12-years career with the Giants. Played in three World Series', winning one the year that this card was released. During his playing days, Moore was praised for his offensive, and defensive skills. Batted over .300 during five seasons. As a hitter, he had excellent intuition, striking out only 247 times in 5,427 at-bats. Made six All-Star appearances. Became a cattle rancher after retiring, which must of treated him well, because he lived to the ripe old age of 92.

Its not very often that I can say that I was in the right place at the right time, but this was one instance where I was surfing eBay at the right time, on the right day, and ended up getting a fairly solid bargain because of it.


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COMC Shuffle #17

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


1961-62 Fleer #27

I've noticed a lot of changes on COMC this year, most of them not being for the better. From what I've seen so far, I think that last year might've been the last year that a body could find cheap cards ($5 and under) from this set.



2018 Panini Classics Timeless Tributes Blue #158

The only way this card could have been any better is if Panini had added a green bordered parallel to the 2018 Classics set.


2012 Panini Black Friday Kings #1

I think that I've now shown the three (out of four) Progressions that I have for this card. I didn't really need them, but I also got the base card (above), and the Cracked Ice card (future post). The details that one can find on the internet about these sets are somewhat questionable (Panini didn't provide any hard numbers), but supposedly there might also be an autographed version of this card out there that is numbered to /3 or less. While owning such a card would be neat, I decided quite some time ago to pass on the whole "holding my breath" thing, as the odds of finding one (and being able to afford it) would be so slim that it just isn't worth my effort (or anguish) to try and do so.


1933 Goudey #66

Condition wise, this is probably the worst of my Goudey's from last year. Conversely, image wise, it's one of the best Goudey's that I picked up last year.

2012 Panini Black Friday Progressions - Magenta #28

I didn't see him play to much pro ball, but I did see quite a few of Brandon's college outings, and I kind of like him as a person, so why not get at least one cool card of him? I wouldn't mind trying to complete this rainbow, and seeing as how two of the other colors are currently available via COMC, it might not be too hard to do, but I haven't really put too much into it yet, so I still just have the one card here.


1962 Topps #468

I don't own very many cards of Brooks Robinson. I found this one on sale for right around $4. After looking at the current prices on the site, I think it was a pretty good purchase.


2013 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures #SST

Think fast!


1963 Topps #4

I got on a bit of a Roger Maris kick last year (it hasn't gone away), so I bought a few cards of his, this being one of them.


1996-97 Topps Stadium Club Matrix #1

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaa????????? Shawn Kemp getting dunked on?????????? Best card ever???????? Why am I using so many question marks???????????????????????????????? :)

Seriously though, I really love this card (even though the "Matrix" effect isn't visible via the scan), if only because it features two of my all-time favorite players in a highly unusual situation. Oh, and I don't know if anyone cares or not, but here's THE dunk:

1976 Hostess #95

It took awhile, but I've finally realized that I will no longer be trying to finish this set, so in retrospect, this card's purchase was not a great one -- but this isn't the first time that I've said that about a COMC purchase, and it probably won't be the last.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.