30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Narrowing Things Down

When it comes to blogging and collecting in general... one of my least favorite things to do is scan cards.  That's why I admire and respect guys like Night Owl and Dime Box Nick.  Both of these guys aren't strangers to twenty scan posts.  Me?  My readers are lucky if I have one twenty scan post per year.  And today isn't going to be it.

Sadly... I have more than enough material from my latest COMC shipment to accomplish this feat... but I'm back in the classroom, so time is a factor, and to be brutally honest... I'm way too lazy.  That's why I'm narrowing my 133 card order down and showing off only a handful to save both of us a lot of time.

So let's the scanning begin...

The Biggest Card:  1999 Crown Royale Cramer's Choice Award #9


This card is a box topper and the latest oversized card for my Gwynn collection.  Back in the 90's, I always wanted one of these for my collection.  These days they're a lot more affordable and easy to find.  I ended up paying $3.60 for this card.


The Most Expensive Card:  2016 Topps Strata Signatures #SS-RCL


I'm surprised you can find on-card autographs of one of the greatest pitchers of the modern era for only $38.95.  However... that's what happens when less and less people are collecting cards and Topps continues to flood the market with autographs.


The Cheapest Card:  2002 Fleer Box Score Debuts #11BSD


I have never had any luck finding dime or quarter cards on COMC, so it didn't surprise me to see only five cards with a price tag of 50¢ or less in my shipment.  This card was the cheapest at 38¢, but it's well worth the money, because it contains an actual newspaper clipping from Javon Walker's debut game.


The Quintessential Village Idiot:  2014 Topps Tek Auto #HT-JC


It's really hard for me to watch a person embarrass themselves.  Seriously... it makes me feel uncomfortable and I have to turn away.  That's how I would describe a bunch of Canseco's life choices.  But when it comes to collecting, I tend to make an exception for him, because I loved watching him during his time with the A's... when he brought a lot of excitement to the East Bay.


A Top 10 Card:  1996 Leaf Signatures Bronze #TRHO


I'm building the autographed team set and ever since I started this project... Hoffman's silver parallel has been holding his place.  I paid more than I would have liked ($15.50), but it feels good to cross this card off of my list.


The Oldest Card:  1990 Fleer Update #U97


Sorry no vintage this time around.  I picked this card up back in July for $7.50, because it was cheap and Butler was one of my favorite Green Bay Packers back in the day.  Side note... this card was the only graded card in the shipment.


The Thickest Card:  1997 Excalibur Game Helmets #12


How thick is this card?  Well... take a look:


That's a side by side comparison with a stack of 15 regular base cards out of 2016 Topps Update baseball.  The TD is so thick that I couldn't find a top loader to fit it.  I have it sitting in a 25ct. slider box.


The Bargain Bin Card1999 Topps Autographs #A15


$1.83 may not sounds like a bargain to you, but I remember this card back in the day.  Topps inserted autographs into their 2nd Series packs at a rate 1:501 hobby packs.  That's a lot of packs!  Plus Chavez isn't exactly a scrub.  I know he wasn't a perennial all-star, but he was an Oakland Athletic fan favorite and the winner of 6 consecutive Gold Glove Awards $1.83?  Yeah, that's a bargain in my book.

Well... there you have it... my 133 COMC card shipment in a nutshell.  There are a few other cards that I might share in individual posts, but the rest were either shipped out in holiday care packages before Christmas or just weren't worthy of being scanned.  I told you... I'm not a fan of scanning cards. 


Believe it or not, I haven't added any new cards since that Black Friday weekend.  That's over a month, which I think is a personal record.  However, I was lucky enough to win $50 in store credit from one of their scratchers.  Plus I won some shipping credit on another scratcher.  Maybe this upcoming weekend, I'll look for a card or two for my collection.


Did anyone else win any store credit from their COMC scratchers?

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

17 comments:

gcrl said...

i got 3 scratchers with my shipment of 61 cards, and won $5 which i quickly redeemed.

i have one of those excalibur helmet/auto cards (brunell), and i think it is the thickest card in my collection.

The Lost Collector said...

I won $3 off shipping.

I love those Cramer's Choice cards.

SumoMenkoMan said...

I don't shop on COMC....what are scratchers?

Nice pick ups by the way. You have an eye for quality for sure. I'd love to scan more and even thought about investing in a high-speed scanner, but always conclude that my money would be better put into cards and not accessories. The trading card database looks pretty interesting to contribute to for scanning.

Jon said...

I got 20 scratch-offs, three were for free shipping (you can only use one) and on was $5 in credit.

I despise scanning! That's why I tend to go with the quicker but less attractive method... cell phone pictures.

Man said...

I think scratchers I think lotto-baseball card lotto

arpsmith said...

Forty something scratchers, none with credit, I think 7 with shipping. Congrats, you should splurge on one $50 awesome card with the credit!

Anonymous said...

Scanning cards is a beast of a task...I try to do my scanning once or twice a week then post, but man it's time consuming!

I think I may have won $5 once from COMC. Can't say I have good luck with those things. Congrats on the $50 though.

Matt said...

I love that TD. Great pickups overall. I didn't get to go shopping COMC. Actually, I never have

Anonymous said...

Eight scratchers, two shipping discounts, six "Sorry, try agains".

for me, those Leaf Signatures sets have been such a source of cheap signatures that the Trevor Hoffman looks a bit odd (in a good way) to me. Sort of "Oh, they had good signatures as well? Cool!"

Fuji said...

gcrl - those excalibur cards were way, way, way ahead of their time.

tlc - i was stoked to get $3 off shipping. means $3 more towards an autograph i want.

sumomenkoman - when i received my black friday shipment from comc, they included these scratch cards (kinda like a lottery scratcher). you could win discounted shipping and store credit. i'm still not sure how some people ended up getting tons of extra scratchers, while I only got a handful... but i'm happy with the results.

jon - lol. glad i'm not alone.

brady - that's pretty much what it was. glad they were free, because busting packs is already gambling. that's where i draw the line.

arpsmith - gcrl with 61 scratchers & you got 40-something? i guess i'm hanging out with the wrong crowd. ;)

cardboard hogs - thanks. i don't usually have this kind of luck, but i'll take it.

sport card collectors - i like comc. although i don't find nearly as many deals as i did a few years ago.

shlabotnikreport -yeah 99% of those leaf autographs are benchwarmers. but that's one of its strengths. it's the only autograph for a huge percentage of the players who played back in the day.

GCA said...

I lump Clemens in with Palmeiro, Sosa, McGwire, Canseco, etc. So I'm not surprised that demand for his cards has gone down. And the prices as well...?

The Snorting Bull said...

Love the Cramer's Choice Gwynn, those are great looking cards. I also like that Hoffman autograph. I don't think he has a lot of autographs?

Fuji said...

gca - palmeiro and canseco autos are very cheap. however sosa's stuff is in that $50 range... and mcgwire is even higher than him. clemens seems to have fallen somewhere between canseco and sosa. but you're right... it could have ped implications.

snorting bull - i don't think he does either. i own a total of three autographs and two of them are the 96 leafs.

Comatoad said...

I got free shipping on my next purchase from my scratch card.

Comatoad said...

I got free shipping on my next purchase from my scratch card.

Daniel Wilson said...

Great looking cards! Would love to see the rest of your purchase, but I understand the time constraint when it comes to scanning and posting. I only got one COMC scratcher card and didn't win anything. Congrats on the $50 credit!

Fuji said...

comatoad - free shipping is a nice pull. i was happy to pull one of those myself.

daniel wilson - lol... it took me over a week to respond to your comment. it'll take me a lot longer than that to scan the rest of my purchase ;)