The Wait is Over

The wait is finally over.  I'm not talking about the 2020 MLB season starting in a few weeks.  Sure that's exciting news... but it's still over three weeks away.

No... I'm referring to my COMC order finally arriving.  I had originally requested my inventory to be shipped back on March 27 and was given an estimated shipping date of May 25th.  Due to the pandemic, this wasn't a surprise and not a problem.

The problem arose when May 25th came and went without hearing any sort of update from the company.  I emailed them without receiving any sort of response.  A few days later, I read a Blowout Forum thread about others having the same issue which didn't make me feel any better.

Then out of the blue, I receive a shipping confirmation from them last week... and voila... a package arrived in my mailbox.  There were forty-seven items shipped to me.  I'll be writing individual posts for a few of these singles.

Today's post will highlight the rest of my COMC haul which I've broken down into six parts...


Part 1:  2001 UD Decade 1970's Game Used Bats

Although I haven't officially announced this set build, I've been slowly acquiring singles from this set whenever I can find them for $2 or less.  With the addition of these five, I now have twenty-two of the forty-eight cards in the set.


Part 2:  New Generation of Oakland Athletics

2019 Topps Five Star Autographs #FSA-MCH

2019 Topps Five Star Autographs #FSA-MO

2019 Topps Five Star Autographs #FSA-RL

The days of trying to own an autograph of every A's top prospect is in the past.  I'd rather be patient and wait to see which players will stick around longer than a cup of coffee.  Matt Chapman and Matt Olson have proven to be valuable commodities to the Athletics and Ramon Laureano is well on his way to becoming one too.  I picked up this trio of autographs for under the price of a blaster, which is a number I can live with.

2019 Topps Chrome Refractor Autograph #RA-RL

2019 Topps Gold Label Framed Autograph #GLA-RL

I also grabbed these two autographed rookie cards of Laureano for $24.  This brings me to six of his signatures, which is plenty.  From this point moving forward, I'll only pick up on-card autographs if I find them for $5 or less.


Part 3:  2019 Topps Holiday Relic Set Needs

These two cards were purchased in early January... when I decided to try and build this sixty-four card relic set.  They're also the final two cards to reach my hands and complete the project.

Set completed.

Part 4:  The 2019 Topps Oakland Coliseum Project

2019 Topps Gold #126

2019 Topps 582 Montgomery #126

I get it.  The Oakland Coliseum is a joke to 99% of baseball fans who are reading this.  But to me, it represents my childhood and has been the home of my favorite team for as long as I've been a fan.

That's why I fell in love with the 2019 Topps Oakland A's team card the first time I saw it.  I immediately started working on a 9 pocket page filled with the base card, which I completed a while back thanks to Sportlots and a few bloggers.  Now I'm trying to acquire as many different parallels of the card.

Right now I have these two, plus the Rainbow Foil and 150th Anniversary parallels waiting for me over at COMC.  There are also a few others on the site, but I refuse to pay more than $2 for any of them.  I guess you can say I'm in it for the long haul.


Part 5:  The Steve Caballero Collection

Steve Caballero is a local legend and I've been a fan of his since the mid 80's.  I was pretty stoked to discover that Upper Deck included him in their 2019 Goodwin Champions product and immediately picked up all of these singles for $18.62.

These cards pair up well with the signed deck I purchased last year.  I actually still have my Caballero board from the late 90's.  Unfortunately, I sold, gave away, or dumped the one I rode as a kid.


Part 6:  Miscellaneous Stuff

2019 Allen and Ginter Framed Autographs #MA-OA  $14.25

I'm pretty sure this was a blog inspired purchase... but I can't remember where I originally saw this card.  Anyways... I missed the boat on an affordable Ronald Acuña autograph.  Wasn't going to make the same mistake with Albies.

1966 Topps Batman Black Bat #28  $1.75

Another blog inspired purchase?  This is the fourth card I've picked up from this set.  If you are a Batman fan, you can see the other three here.

2017 Allen and Ginter Black Framed Autographs #MA-KG (#'d 18/25)  $12

Just like the Oakland Coliseum, Krazy George is a part of my childhood.  This is the third Ginter autograph of him that I've purchased.  Now I just need to track down the red ink (#'d to 10) to complete the collection.

1992 Pro Line Autographs #NNO  $15

The Walrus is another Bay Area legend.  Well at least to me.  He taught and coached at my high school (about a decade before I arrived), then went on to coach both of my favorite football teams.  I was excited to cross this card off of my list. 

1999-00 ITG BAP Memorabilia All-Star Jersey #J-09  $5.65

The last card of the day is one of those silly buyback one of one cards.  Normally I don't have an issue with buyback cards, especially when they're stamped.  But this is one of those situations where I would have much rather own a this card without the Vault stamp.

I really enjoy the late 90's and early 2000's memorabilia cards produced by In The Game, because they were tough to pull and well designed.  I was drawn to this card, because the swatch of jersey came from the 1997 NHL All-Star Game that took place at the San Jose Arena.

That was the game where Owen Nolan called his shot against The Dominator to earn the hat trick in front of the hometown crowd.  Bourque and this swatch of jersey was on the ice for the first of Nolan's three goals, but not sure about the one in the video.

Well that wraps up today's post.  I'm currently sitting on seventeen more cards at COMC that I haven't requested shipment on.  Although if I did make the request, it looks like I wouldn't receive my cards until at least October.

What about you?

Anyone else recently receive their COMC shipments?  Waiting on COMC shipments?  Or waiting to request COMC shipments?

I look forward to reading and replying to your responses.  Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

What's in the other box?

Card shows have started popping up again... which is a good sign as long as people are respectful of each other's space and taking precautions like wearing masks and using hand sanitizer.

The next card show in my area won't take place until October... and if we're in the heart of the second or third wave of this Covid thing, I'll probably take a raincheck and wait things out.  But who knows... maybe there's a vaccine and the world has been complete restored to normalcy by then.

Either way... I've got plenty of things to keep me entertained until then.  Last week, my COMC order arrived.

Let me repeat that.  Last week, my COMC order arrived.  Stay tuned for the highlights which I'll show off tomorrow.

I was also hit with several care packages... two of which I'll share in today's post.

The first package was a large flat rate box from my buddy Woody over at Sports Card Forum and Card Collector's World.

As you can see, this box was loaded.

Within the seven flat rate boxes and two padded envelopes, he managed to fit six sets and some cards for my PC's.

Here's a closer look at the sets he gave me:

1993 Upper Deck Baseball

This is one of my favorite sets from the 90's.  As you can see from my examples, the photography really makes this set stand out.  There's also a Derek Jeter rookie card, which is a very nice bonus.

1997 Stadium Club Baseball

Next up is this Stadium Club starter set.  Like the 1993 Upper Deck set, this set is known for the outstanding photography.  There are thirteen cards I need to complete this set, but it's nothing that a quick Sportlots order can't handle.

2003 Topps Opening Day Baseball Set

Back in 2003, I was out of the hobby... so I never opened up any of this product.  It was fun to flip through this set.  Woody actually sent me two of these.  The second set is short one card (#147 Jorge Posada).  Once again it's not a problem that Sportlots can't solve.

2003 Topps Opening Day Stickers Set

This is such a cool set.  It's a miniaturized version of the base set which features some sort of scratch and win game card on the back.  Hadn't seen these before... but very excited to add to my collection.

1990-91 Pro Set Hockey Set

The last set is the inaugural Pro Set hockey set.  I absolutely love this set.  It might be one of the most overproduced hockey card sets in the history of the hobby, but it features deep rosters, an above average rookie card lineup, and fantastic subsets.  Maybe one day, I'll review it for my readers.

If these sets weren't enough... Woody also hooked me up with some fantastic cards for me and my future students.  Here's a sampling of what he sent:

Woody is one of those collectors that I'll forever be indebted to.  If you ever wonder why I don't have any Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, or Celtics cards... it's because they're reserved for him.

Thank you Woody for this very generous care package!

The other care package I wanted to show off today came from Shane over at Shoebox Legends.  If you aren't subscribed to him, take a break from reading this post, click on the link, and add him to your blog roll/reading this right now.  You won't regret it.  He writes about some very cool vintage and is the King of the Sports Card Flip.

Anyways... last week he emailed me to say "thanks" for reading and commenting on his blog posts.  He also requested my mailing address, because he wanted to send me a few "just because" cards.

A few days later, a heavy padded envelope arrived and inside were three awesome autographs:

2016 Topps Archives All-Star Signature Edition Buybacks

The first two are some buyback autographs of Kent Tekulve.  Teke was a fan favorite during the 70's and 80's.  When I was a kid, I'd imitate him and his submarine delivery in my front yard with my Mama Fuji behind the plate.  Good times.

2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Autograph #FFA-DL

Don Larsen is famous for being the only pitcher in MLB history to throw a no-hitter or perfect game in the World Series.  Sadly he passed away back on January 1st at the age of 90.

Thank you Shane for this very generous "just because" care package!

Well that wraps up today's post.  Tomorrow I'll be recapping my COMC haul... and on Thursday I'll be showing off an "adult" robot card for your viewing pleasure.

Until then... I need some help.  I'm thinking about putting together a collection of signatures consisting of athletes who are the only people ever to accomplish a feat in their sport.  Don Larsen is the perfect example.

What are some of your favorite examples of athletes who would fit in this collection?

They can be "good" or "bad" accomplishments.  I look forward to reading your suggestions.  Thanks in advance.

Happy Monday and sayonara!