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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Golden Cub

Like a lot of collector's, I have quite a few saved searches on eBay, some going back over ten years, while others date back to just a couple of weeks ago. Many saved searches have been deleted over the years, either because I eventually got whatever it was, or I just lost interest in the item, and of course, new searches are always being added -- I think there's a limit to how many you can have, but I've yet to reach it (probably because of all the deleting).

And I don't know how it is for everyone else, but is seems like more often than not, that when I get the daily emails for items that match my searches... they rarely seem to match? Often times it's just stuff that shares a word or two with my search, and that's it! If this ever happens to you, than you know how frustrating it can be, especially if it's on a search that doesn't yield results very often (if ever), you get all excited, and are immediately let down once you crack open that email -- this too is something that happens to me on a fairly regular basis!

So imagine my surprise, when a couple of weeks ago I received a result amongst my daily emails for an item that hadn't popped up on the site in literally years, and wonder of all wonders, the emailed listing actually matched my search!?!?

You are looking at one of the most, possibly even THE most, hard to find autographs from the 2014 Golden Age set. This card was a short-printed redemption, which obviously is already going to be rare, but than when you take into account the fact that this set came out in July of 2014, and Mr. Banks passed away in January of 2015, well, that doesn't leave an awful lot of time for these cards to be signed. From what I've read - and I don't know how accurate the message board posts on the subject are - it sounds like they're might be less than 50 of these floating around, which would explain (if true) why this is the first one to come up in over two years.

I knew that if one ever did show up again, that it wouldn't be cheap, and I was right! It was listed for $89.99 (+ $3 for shipping), which is an awful lot for me right now, thankfully though, the seller was also open to best offers. Since I was seeing this listing just a couple of hours after it went live, I knew I'd have to act quick (I honestly don't know how it was even still there?), so I put in an offer, which was countered within mere minutes -- and even though it was a good counter, I still pressed my luck by submitting a counter to the counter, which was accepted after a very long two-hour wait.

Those couple of hours felt like an eternity, but it was worth it, because in the end I got my much desired card for $67 (plus that pesky $3 for shipping), which was still a lot, but it was a little more doable than $89.99.

Technically speaking, I didn't have, and wasn't going to have the money for this, but that's why god invented credit cards. I did have a plan though, which was to list a bunch of stuff for sale real quick, and hopefully have the money by the time the credit card bill was due. For the record, this is a terrible way to do things, so if any kids are reading this, don't do like me, go be financially successful so you'll have money on hand to pay for such things! That being said, the plan did work, as I did sell five things (including one that I didn't really want to) over the next two weeks, so when the bill comes, I will be good for it. I am glad though that I didn't have my heart set on going to a card show this month, because this purchase would've negated such a want.

As great as it was to have such a long standing search like this yield a positive result, I'd be completely okay if no more of my expensive much wanted items showed up on eBay for the next couple of months, that way I'd have a chance to build up a bit more of a reserve.


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COMC Shuffle #4

After a few unplanned days away from the blog (still been reading all of yours though, and commenting where I can), I'm back just in time for another COMC post. The ten cards in today's post don't seem to be quite as diverse as past weeks (IMO), but that's gonna happen from time to time, the shuffle button isn't perfect after all. But don't get me wrong, the cards that were selected are still good though, so don't go anywhere!


1961 Topps #16

I believe that I've spoken before about my semi-recent love for this Billy Muffett card, if I'm wrong, and I haven't, well, sometime last year I developed a minor obsession with this card. The "why" is still a mystery to me, but whatever the reason, it's still very much a thing, case in point...

... !!!!!!! It's a good thing that I'm counting duplicate purchases as one, otherwise dear reader's you'd be seeing these in separate posts, and I'm pretty sure that nobody but me, and maybe Mr. Muffett's relatives would want to see that.

1999-00 Ultimate Victory Ultimate Collection #17

Shawn Bradley used to be the butt of many a joke. Player's, as well as the folks who were calling the games, always made a big deal about him getting dunked on. I never understood that! He blocked a lot of shots during his career (even led the league one season). Sometimes when you attempt to block a shot, said attempt isn't successful, and you get dunked on, so what? At least he tried to block the shot! Would all of these people liked it more if he had saw someone coming down the lane, and just ducked out of the way, thereby conceiting the basket? Personally, I prefer the guy that goes for the block. Ducking out of the way is a really bad look.


1998-99 Topps Stadium Club Triumvirate - Luminescent #T16b

Not much to say about this one, other than it was cheap, and I didn't have it.


1933 Goudey #170

There doesn't seem to be a lot of info out there about Mr. McCurdy, his Wikipedia page is almost non-existent, and the SABR people seem to be dragging their heels (again), so that doesn't leave us with too many other options. I did notice that he passed away on my brother's birthday (different year though), which is mildly interesting, at least on a personal level.

Obligatory scan of the back.


2014 Panini Prizm Red, White, and Blue Prizms #105 (x2)

This my second favorite image (right behind Frank Gifford) from the 2014 Prizm set.


2014-15 Panini Prizm Blue and Green Mosaics #238 (x2)

I didn't realize until just a couple of months ago, how many people still collect Shawn Kemp, because of this, his cards carry a bit of a premium.


2018 Panini Classics Timeless Tributes Gold #134

I very much hope that Warren Moon doesn't ever stop getting new cards.


2012 Panini Black Friday Progressions - Magenta #4

Eli's coming! Or has he already came? I don't know where I'm going with this, but I swear that it wasn't supposed to sound so dirty, Three Dog Night gets me into more trouble...


2014 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures #TDW

Wally freakin' Cleaver!!!!!!!!! This is why the Golden Age autos were, and still are, so great!


2015-16 Panini Prizm Ruby Wave Prizm #179

Look at all of that red! Is it just me, or does Dame look a lot like Russell Westbrook in this photo? That's not a compliment by the way.

That's ten cards, well, technically it was twenty one cards, but you know what I mean. These posts go by so fast. If I didn't need them for later-in-the-year card content so bad, I'd increase the number of randomized cards per post, but then July or August would roll around and I'd probably have no new cards to talk about -- so I guess I better keep it at ten per post :)


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How I spent my eBay bucks

I was the recipient of some very generous packages during December, most of which still haven't been shown here on the blog, before I start getting to those though, I thought it might be a good idea to catch up on something from October, namely how I spent my eBay bucks certificate.

I'm not one to keep track of how much eBay bucks that I've accrued over any particular period, so it's always a surprise to see how much, or how little, I've earned during one of the three-month stretches that you get to stockpile as much as you can. This past October I was very surprised to see how much I had earned, especially since it was by far the most I had ever earned.

I guess before I get too far along here, I should point that lest anyone think that I'm bragging here, I'm not, as this large sum of bucks wasn't earned from copious amounts of buying, no, they were gotten thanks to copious amounts of selling -- which is something that's been necessary for me to do since March in order to supplement my monthly hobby budget.

In the three months leading up to October, it seemed like eBay was offering up incentives to sell on an almost weekly basis, most of which were of the "Get 10% back in eBay bucks if your item sells in the next 10-14 days" variety. Because of their frequency, I didn't end up listing a single item during that three-month stretch that didn't qualify for one of those offers, including the most expensive card that I owned, so thanks this to strategy, I earned quite a few bucks.

As many of you know though, there is one downside to acquiring so much eBay bucks, and that is that you only have a month to use them. For me this has always been difficult, even when I only have like a $1 to spend, primarily because of everybody else spending their respective bucks like a drunken sailor. I know I should be treating it as found money, but I can't, I spend it just like I would if it was coming out of my pocket, so because of that mindset, I am unable to overpay for anything just so I can use it... which seems to be much against the norm.

I was able to use it at all, of course, about half of it ended up being spent on birthday/Christmas presents, but I did manage to find a few things for myself too:

Full disclosure -- and you might want to sit down for this -- I have never been a fan of Gilligan's Island! Shocking, I know, but the show just never appealed to me, and this even after me trying to get into it multiple times across multiple decades. Dawn Wells is of course best known for her portrayal as Mary Ann on the show, although personally, when ever I hear her name, I always think of The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

But no matter what you associate her name with, she is a name, a very recognizable name, therefor her autograph tends to sell for a bit. I have bid on, and made offers on, multiple copies of this card over the last couple of years, always coming up short... until now! I made somewhat of a low offer on this one, the seller countered, I countered back, and the seller accepted. After trying, and failing, so many times to get this card, I can't tell you how much of a relief it was to finally be able to cross it off the checklist.

I would like to think that I was fairly familiar with Mr. Barney's football career prior to getting this card, or at least as familiar as one can be with an athlete's career that ended before you were born, that being said, I was completely unaware of his second career in music -- which apparently has been successful enough, that among other things, he (and former teammate Mel Farr) provided the backup vocals for Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On".

No offense to Mr. Yeager, or to any of my readers who happen to be Dodgers fans, but for me this not one of the more exciting autographs from the Golden Age sets. He played during what is probably my least favorite era of baseball (not counting the current era) and I'm not a Dodgers fan (not a hater either), but I needed it for my set, and it was cheap, so...

I will say though that I do like the image that was used for this card, it really emphasizes the added pharaoh's beard, a safety feature that Mr. Yeager himself was responsible for.

Even though I've lost a lot of interest in set collecting over the last couple of months, I still wanted to try and complete the 1999-00 HoloGrFX AuSOME parallel set, and not just the base parallel set, but the insert version too. It has been one of my favorite parallel sets since it came out, but even with that being said, I've recently started to question whether or not I even want to bother to complete it. I guess even if I do give up on it, I'll still have a few really cool cards from the set, including this Tim Duncan parallel from the 24/7 insert set.

I haven't really ever discussed it here, but Shawn Kemp's 1990-91 Fleer rookie, has been my favorite card for just about as long as I can remember. If anyone's curious as to why it is, well, it's a very uninteresting story, so I'm not going to bore anyone with it (at least not today). For the longest time I was content to just own a couple of copies, now I want 'em all! Since deciding this, I've acquired two such lots, which has gotten me to nearly 100 copies owned, it sounds like an impressive amount, except when you take into account the fact that there were probably over a million copies, literally, of this card produced... if only I had started hoarding them back in the 90's.

As mentioned at the top of the post, I've got a bunch of a packages to catch up on, as well as a piece about some cards that I've been quietly collecting since last March. I also have a new COMC series that I'm hoping to get up and running in the next two weeks, and there's still all the stuff to get to that I got at the card show in November. I don't know if any of these upcoming things sound interesting or not, but I thought it would be good to let everyone know what to expect over the next month or two -- sounds like a lot of card stuff though, so I'll have find a way to work in some non-card items, otherwise I'm going to end up getting burned out awfully quick!

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Bru comes through

Some of you may recall the buyback mother lode that I struck at the card show back in June. Some of you might also recall that I ended up giving away the majority of said buybacks, mostly via Twitter.

Well, Marc, from Remember The Astrodome, was one of the people that inquired about the availability of a few of them (Astros) -- there ended up being a few for him, so I was more than happy to send them along without any strings attached.

Now a number of people asked if they could something in return, to those folks I simply said "I appreciate the offer, but it's really not necessary", and that seemed to be a satisfactory reply to most -- but not Marc -- he was much more adamant about sending something in return (which I completely understand btw), and since I didn't want to come off as being difficult, I acquiesced to his generosity... although he did end up sending more than I sent him (that's going to need to be balanced out sometime soon).

I've been getting an awful lot of help with Cooperstown sets as of late, not that I'm complaining mind you, I'm just a bit surprised that so many people still had lying around. I love that photo of Ron Santo by the way, if anybody (Bob?) knows the origins of it, I would very much like to hear about it.

After marking off the seven 2013's that Marc sent, I am now down to needing just 11 to complete the set, although seven of those eleven are short prints, so...

The Cooperstown's were great and all, but as per usual, the Golden Age is the show stealer. With the addition of these four, I now only need 1 card (Dusty Baker) to complete the 2014 set!

Thanks for all the set help, Marc! You really didn't need to send anything in return, that being said, I'm awfully glad that you did.


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Hoarding minis

Thanks to the generosity of some of my fellow bloggers, it's been kind of like Christmas in August for the last week and a half. I received three packages last week, and two so far this week, which probably wouldn't be considered to be a lot by some folks, but it is for me!

Jason, from Hoarding Cardboard, mentioned that he might have a couple of Golden Age minis to send me, which is something that I wish I heard more often.

I was just sort of expecting a PWE with maybe two or three in it, instead, a bubble mailer showed up with...

... fourteen (all being of the 2014 variety) in it!

This is one occasion where it's socially acceptable to stare at a beautiful backside, or rather, backsides! Five of the six different backs were covered in this mailing, which made the group just that much better.

It is so rare for me to get this many Golden Age minis at one time, heck, even getting one at any given time is becoming a cause for celebration -- so, thank you again, Jason, you really went above and beyond here. I appreciate the Topps coupon (not shown) that you included as well, it actually gives me incentive to try a pack of something that I normally wouldn't... decisions, decisions!


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A short post about small cards

Before I decided to start collecting minis (A&G and Golden Age), I almost never came across them in person -- and since I made the decision to collect them, I hadn't come across a single one, at least not until this most recent show... where I ended up finding a whole dozen (crazy, I know)!

The number of minis that were bought may not be too impressive, but I thought that the subject matter of some of them was, so...

Young Jon was into all things paranormal/supernatural, he believed every non-fiction book, and never doubted any story that was featured on a television show (Sightings, Unsolved Mysteries, etc.). Old Jon is extremely cynical about such things, but he still likes these cards.

I'm guessing that the reason that I still have no idea what the whole "Ginter code" thing is all about, is because I'm so late to the A&G party, although if I'm being honest... I don't really care enough to try and go read about it.

This was the first time that I had seen on of the Seven Seas inserts, pretty nifty!

Finding out that there are cards of people like St. Germain only reaffirms my decision to start working on some of these sets.

2010 seems to have been a good year for A&G inserts.

All the cards in this post were 5/$1, except for this speckled Trout, in order to land him, I had to reach into my pocket and fish out two quarters.

I even found a needed Golden Age mini, which I believe is now officially the first one that I've ever found in the wild.

Hopefully no ones getting tired of these card show posts yet, because I still have a few more to go!


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COMC Sundays: 2014 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures

This week's edition will be another relatively short one. And unfortunately, I didn't have any interesting animal encounters this week, so I don't have anything to pad this one out like I did last week.

Even though Butch Patrick has an impressive list of credits to his name, he is -- and always will be -- best remembered for his role as Eddie Munster on The Munsters, which by the way, was one of my favorite shows as a kid. Fun fact (even though everybody probably already knows it): Butch Patrick wasn't the first choice to play Eddie. Bill Mumy (Lost in Space) was in fact originally chosen, but his parents turned it down after they saw the makeup that their son would have to wear to play the part.

Richie Hebner was a member of the 1971 Pirates championship team. Even though it wasn't always reflected in his batting average, Richie was a pretty clutch player in the postseason, his timely hitting changed the outcome of a number of games when it mattered the most.

Laffit, while riding Swale, won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes (his third straight Belmont victory) in 1984. I don't pretend to be a fan of, or know anything about, horse racing... but as I've said before, I'm still glad for variety's sake that Panini added jockey's to the list of signers. Also, why is it that the jockey's seem to have some of the nicest signatures in the set?

In 1978, while riding Alydar, Jorge Velasquez finished second to Affirmed, in all three of the Triple Crown races. In 1981, now on the back of Pleasant Colony, he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, but missed out on the Triple Crown when he finished third in the Belmont Stakes.

Looking ahead to next week: A handful of baseball cards from the 50's will be featured, as well as a discussion about some of the recent changes that I've been making to my collection (namely the vintage baseball part of my collection).


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A change of plans

I recently received a package from Matt (the seemingly tireless owner and operator of the Sport Card Collectors empire), which was a good thing. What wasn't a such a good thing, was me taking over a week to let him know that I got it :(

Matt, being the good dude that he is, didn't seem to take any offense to the slight. Still, I've got a bit of a guilty conscious (especially after reading Julie's post last night), so I'm going to bump today's originally planned card show post (I was struggling to write it anyway) and give my public thanks (I already did so on Twitter, but the blog's more important) to Matt a little sooner than later.

A couple of month's ago when I got those dud boxes of Golden Age, Matt was one of the few people to claim some of the many duplicates that were contained within those boxes, and in exchange, he ended up sending me some Golden Age that I didn't already have... including this wonderful Juan Marichal Newark Evening News.

I'm not a big fan of the Headlines set, but I've still been collecting them Nonetheless. Being able to mark two more off the wantlist is very much appreciated, as I hate the thought actually having to buy any of them.

This Buck Weaver DeLong Gum was by far, my favorite card in the package! As an aside, I recently decided I wanted to own an original DeLong card, after checking the eBay, I found out something kind of surprising (sarcasm)... they're a bit on the pricey side, especially the one's that don't look like they've been through the wringer. Maybe someday...

With the addition of Hack here, I only need three more B for E's to complete the set.

Photo wise, this might be my favorite of the 2013 Headlines set.

Some of you may have noticed a recently added "Mini's" tab at the top of the blog, Matt is partially responsible for said tab being added. I had been procrastinating on going through all my Golden Age mini's and separating them by the different backs for the longest time now, but after Matt mentioned having some available, I decided to finally break down and make the list (not fun by the way). It ended up being worth the time though, as Matt sent some really great stuff.

As you'll see more clearly in a moment, there was quite a mix of backs.

Save for the Ty Cobb back, I think I might have all of Bill Walton's 2012 mini's now.

John Dean is the owner of the Ty Cobb back, which at one per box, were the hardest (not counting 1/1's) back's to get. I really don't think that I will ever be able to complete that set, but it's still fun to get them when I can.

Please forgive the crooked 2013's.

The Nadja back belongs to Al Simmons, for anyone that cares, those were one-per-box backs in 2013.

Tommy Smothers can't believe that he's gotta face two Hitman Hearns'!

A nice mix of back's here.

There were also a couple of 2014's to be had...

... and they too contained a nice mixture of different back's.

And if all the Golden Age above wasn't enough, Matt also sent along a dozen A&G mini's as well.

All the A&G's hail from 2013-15, and all are very welcome additions to my miniscule collection of Ginter miniatures.

Thanks again, Matt! All the cards were really great, and more importantly... they were all set needs. And hopefully I won't take so long to acknowledge the receipt of any potential future packages from you (or anybody else for that matter).

I also wanted to mention that I will be spending a lot of my free time over the next two weeks trying to help my mom out with some projects around her house, so some of the longer posts that I had planned on doing (card show stuff, comic book stuff, etc.) might have to wait a couple of weeks. I've been trying to stick to a regular posting schedule, so if you happen to notice some really short posts popping up, it's just because I probably won't have a lot of energy (mentally or physically) left to work on anything more significant.


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