COMC haul misc

Happy Opening Day, everybody. I recently got another shipment from COMC and I've been meaning to show off some highlights.

Some refractors that caught my eye. I sorted Juan Soto refractors cheapest-first and grabbed that Béisbol one. I wanted an All-Etch logofractor, and ended up with Austin Riley, whom I've kinda fell into PCing, I guess. The blue 2008 Adrian Gonzalez pickup was inspired by a gcrl post. I haven't logged my Brian Giles PC yet, but I probably needed at least most of this trio of Bowman refractors.

Grabbed a few parallel Gavins. (Not pictured, but I'm happy to see that Gavin Sheets secured a spot on the Padres' OD roster! The first Padre named Gavin!) Gavin Sawchuk, a gridiron Gavin, is a new name for my collection. I don't have much use for modern football cards these days, having detached myself from the NFL over the past 15 years (and never really getting into college sports), but I guess I don't mind an excuse to sample some of the new designs and parallels Fanatics uses for football products, but I won't go trying to "rainbow" any of his cards or go nuts with building a PC (The previous notable Gavin football player, Gavin Escobar, I collected a lot, but he had the added connection of being a fellow SDSU alum). Sawchuk is still a running back for the Oklahoma Sooners-- oh yeah, Bowman U is for college kids; kind of a weird thing to get used to-- so we'll see if he eventually goes pro.

I'm not feeling too optimistic about my Padres this season, but hoping Jackson Merrill continues developing into a star.

Dick Allen PC got kicked up with this four. The Kmart card is a blank-front, so it's an oddity that doesn't count in my quest to hit 100 cards in the TCDb-leading PC.

Unrelated to my latest COMC haul, but here's a photo from the other day when I rounded up all my Dick Allen cards that featured the 1972 Topps design.. including Topps, OPC, customs, and a couple Topps Vault pieces. Dick's card seems to have usually been the last one packaged into the '82 Kmart box set, touching the gum, so it's very common to find with a gum stain on the back. If the stain is raunchy enough, I consider it somewhat of an unofficial variation and add it to the keepers.

Also grabbed some additions for my glowing card collection.

The Harry Potter one and all the Upper Deck Space Patches were new sets to me, and I've since updated my Glow-In-The-Dark Cards page to include them.

Found a couple cheap Project 2020 cards for the Big Hurt PC. This is where COMC's flat shipping comes in handy, since those bulky plastic cases otherwise ratchet up postage. Flippers went nuts back then, so now some of those cards with high print runs can be snagged on COMC for less than they'd cost to ship alone. The artists are Naturel (left) and Matt Taylor (right). Matt Taylor's version of the Rickey rookie is the only Project 2020 card I actually bought "live". I also ended up with his Gwynn thanks to Rod a couple years later. So it seems I've got myself a little Matt Taylor art collection going. But as far as 1990 Topps Frank Thomas, I think I prefer Naturel's colorful rendition here.

I'm embarrassed to admit but when I first saw 1992 Leaf black gold cards come out of the package, I was like, "WTF, I thought I already completed this set last year!?" But duh, I momentarily forgot I'm now trying to complement that set with the tougher "of 33" preview cards. This lot helps get me to 21 of 33.

1964 and 1972 needs, including some notable names and a pair of '72 Cubs variations (green under the "C" and "S" instead of yellow).

And I've now completed 1980 Kellogg's thanks to Garv and Yaz here. Probably. I still need to sort through my set to confirm, but it's tricky because I sort my Kellogg's cards by curvaceousness, not card number. lol

Thanks for reading and best of luck to your favorite team this MLB season.

My latest customs

The new printer has been working out pretty well other than sometimes having trouble getting on the Wi-Fi without turning it off-and-then-on-again. I owed return card packages to blogging buds Johnny and Bob, and I don't have much in the way of real cards available that they'd want, so my first priority with the new printer was to finish some customs to send their way (again).

Back in 2022, I made a 9-card custom set called Bubble Gum Baseball featuring bubble-blowing photos of ballplayers. I had whipped up a "2nd series" with a new design in the middle of 2024, but my home printer at the time wouldn't cooperate, so here in 2025 I got to do the thing like real card manufacturers and not actually put out a product until the next year, kinda like how Topps (Fanatics) typically puts out those Chrome Anniversary sets a year late.

But yeah, here's a second page of bubble customs:

I retained the Bubble Gum Baseball logo and '73 Topps position silhouette from the 1st series for continuity. However, I decided to go all-horizontal and full-bleed this time. I admit the gumball design is not my best work, but it's fine. When it comes time to make a 3rd group of these, I'll most likely go back to a vertical design with borders.

 

The backs each feature a write-up paragraph, typically with added context for the front photograph (e.g. that was Joey Votto's final game in Cincinnati). Tiny text, but zoom in if you like.

 

 

 
The print run on this set is currently just 3: Bob, John, and one for me. But I could print more if anybody wants to make a trade offer involving any.

But wait, there's more!

I also made some All-Time Braves customs for Johnny in the style of cards put out by TCMA in 1986. I tried to think of notable Braves who don't have (m)any Braves cards out there. I love stuff like "short term stops" and other familiar person in unfamiliar uniform pictures.

I remember as a new collector getting a card or two in this design from a Sears catalog "collector kit" repack, circa Christmas 1990, so I've got a soft spot for it. Chances are I do more of these, and for more teams, because they're fun for me to whip up.

The backs mimic the real TCMA cards and similar to the bubble customs feature a write-up with more context.

 

 

I made a couple extras of each of the above All Time customs for trade bait and trade package thrown-ins, so if you'd like any, just let me know. Shameless link to my wantlist.

 

 

And one last new custom to show off today, but this one is really just for me. Two of my "under the radar" PC guys happen to be in camp with the Padres this spring as non-roster invitees fighting for a bench spot. I've got my fingers crossed that at least one of them makes the club.. hopefully both! But regardless how it shakes out, I at least wanted to get the moment documented in my card collection.

 

Trenton Brooks is a guy who went to the same high school as me, and Gavin Sheets shares my first name. I've been following/collecting both dudes for years, so it's cool to have them suiting up for my favorite team this spring. For the custom, I modified a 1986 Fleer rookie prospects template I had from years back. I plan to print out a copy for each PC.

 

 

Trenton would be just the third Guy From Granite to play for his hometown Padres, with the Giles brothers being the other two. And Mr. Sheets would be the first guy named Gavin to play for San Diego. Good luck, fellas!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post.

Vintage pickups

I won another card from Greg Morris auctions the other day, and then set bids for a bunch more ending shortly and wound up winning a few to join in on the flat-rate shipping. Might as well get a post out of 'em, right?

A couple big boys from 1975 Topps to kick things off.

Nice pair of dueling All-Stars.

I ended up winning a couple Jim Rice rookies that ended around the same time, but I'd stop short of saying it was an accident; the cheaper creased card on the right can get thrown in the player collection.

Then I got Yaz from another eBay seller, and Vida Blue is also on the way, making the Reds team card with Sparky Anderson all that stands in my way of a complete 1975 Topps set. I'll have to grab one soon to wrap that up.

Back to the Greg Morris stuff, here's a pair of HOF Giants. I'm hoping to finally finish off 1964 Topps in the next year or two.

I'm not too picky with condition if it's a good deal, though I shy away from "Poor/Good" beaters when I can.

A couple more notable names and Bennie Daniels, notable for being the set's final card. Around this same time, I also knocked off more needs in my forthcoming COMC order that should push me over 80% complete when that shows up.

This Willie Montanez rocking the glorious ASR trophy was the initial win that prompted this round of pickups. Funny enough, I ended up losing all the proceeding 1972 Topps needs I bid on, but oh well, I got this one at least, and the few '75s and '64s to go with it. My '72 set currently sits at 95%, so I should be able to wrap up that one this year if I keep at it.

Planning on hitting a local card shop later this week for the first time in years with a blogger meetup scheduled for the local cardsphere crew and a visiting guest of honor from San Jose, so maybe I can score some needs then. Regardless, it'll be great to hang in person with some blogging buddies, assuming the inclement weather in the forecast doesn't spoil our plans.

more cards from Rod (and a couple PWEs from John)

Some highlights from the third box of cards Rod hooked me up with recently.

Lots of additions to my PCs of current Padres. Notables here include a bunch of sweet Jackson Merrill rookies, a Dylan Cease Topps Now x4, and a Tatis logofractor.

Bobby Witt, Jr. and Julio Rodriguez are a couple young stars of the game that hadn't been all that well represented in my collection yet.

Something for my Chris Jones supercollection.. a near-complete 1986 Phoenix Firebirds team set (that screwed up his name), just missing the trainer card.

I ripped the pair of hockey packs and even scored 2 or 3 guys I've heard of, so that's pretty cool.

And the glow-in-the-dark playing cards were a nice surprise.

Snapped a pic with the light-out to give you an idea how they look in action. I'm not sure how feasible it'd be to really play games with them in the dark and/or underwater, but it's a neat concept and another interesting thing to add to the "Glow-in-the-dark museum" that doubles as my basement bathroom.

A bit of vintage slipped into the box.

1952 Bowman Television and Radio Stars of the NBC #20 Joel McCrea

1958 Topps TV Westerns #57 Tales of Wells Fargo - Dale Robertson (as Jim Hardie)

1952 Topps Look 'n See #64 Winston Churchill

Some modern cards of HOFers I collect. I appreciate keeping those PCs fresh with a sampling of the new stuff that Fanatics cranks out these days.

And again, that's just a small percentage of the cards he dropped on me. Muchas gracias, Rod! I can't thank you enough for all the great cards and stuff you've given me over the years.

-  - -o

I know I'm very fortunate to live close to Rod, facilitating card dumps like this without having to worry about postage. 

Closing the post with a couple PWEs from John Miller, another MVP of my collection these past several years. Sometimes I wish I lived near him over across the country so I could help him thin out his vast hoard of nonkeepers for my collection's benefit, but alas, we must rely on the post office as the middleman.

Heavy on Gavins here, with most new to me. Dig the shiny cards of Sheets and Cross. Gavin Sheets was let go by the White Sox in November, so I'm curious if/where he resurfaces this coming season.

Thanks a lot, John! I had just mailed an overdue package out to you the same day the PWEs arrived, so hopefully that arrived safe by now. 

That's all for this time.. take care, guys!

TV Autos Tonight

Buckle up for some nonsports autographs I've added to my collection over the past few months.

Took me a while, but I watched through all the old episodes on YouTube of Cheat Seats, a funny show that ran on ESPN Classic with the Sklar Brothers making sorta Mystery Science Theater 3000 style riffs over footage of old non-mainstream sporting events from ESPN's archives. For example, there's an episode with a ridiculous Steve Garvey Celebrity Skiing special.

Anyways, I wanted to mark the occasion by picking up their matching Ginter autos from 2016. Randy set me back $21.64, and then a few days later, Jason cost $22.05 from another seller. Factoring in for inflation, I'd call that a wash.

-  -  - -o

Sarah Langs is a good follow on social media, full of fun and interesting baseball stats and tidbits. Her life and career as a reporter have faced the unexpected challenge of dealing with ALS, or ol' Lou Gehrig's Disease as we used to call it. Her courage is inspiring and she's an amazing person, doing lots of good in her limited time. I realized she had a Ginter auto from 2023 and soon scored myself one.

- - --o

I'm still trying to add to my collection of Steven Universe autographs.

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I've been a big Amy Sedaris fan since Strangers With Candy, a hilarious show on Comedy Central back around the turn of the millenium. A while back I got myself a Star Wars autograph featuring her character who appeared in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, though I was compelled to make a custom overlay for it.

Whipped this up recently using a comely photo from a red carpet type of event and built a simple design around it.

Gotta say I'm excited to again have a home printer that does a decent job printing photos, effectively rebooting my custom card making activities that were somewhat dormant in recent years. After burning bridges with Epson (hate!), Cannon (hate!), and HP (hate so much!), I'm down to the last major printer company left: Brother. So far so good.

-  - --o

Closing out the post, here's another new custom overlay for an old purchase.

I showed the bare version of this Bob Newhart slabbed cut auto a few posts back in the wake of his passing. I'm glad I could finally spruce it up a little.

Other customs I've printed up recently are on the way to John Miller and Best Bubble Bob, and I've got other stuff in the works, so I'll likely have more customs to show off on the blog soon. Thanks for stopping by.

cool cards from Rod (and a couple from Nick)

Rod from the Padrographs blog (and fellow NE Portland resident) has been spreading more cardboard cheer lately and I was lucky enough to be a recipient of his generosity yet again. Last weekend he swung by with a pair of full 660-count boxes. Then just yesterday, before I could get a post out on them, he stopped by again with another box. Always a joy to thumb through the cards and see what jumps out. Here are a few highlights I set aside from the first 2 boxes.

Kinda neat to see the 1975 Topps design with the color drained out of it. I had just snagged a similar Spencer Strider on COMC prior to coincidentally finding his teammate among the haul from Rod. And here with a similar batting stance is a wonderfully gaudy Luis Robert, Jr. gold refractor insert numbered out of 50.

I had been wanting to check out the revamped All-Etch inserts put out in 2024-- and in another COMC coincidence had recently secured the logofractor version of that Austin Riley-- so it was nice to see them in hand a little earlier than anticipated. Sharp looking cards.

And the All-Etch Rookie Rush design, too, paired here with a logofractor Future Star. 

I get a kick out of these inserts that call to mind Lisa Frank stickers that were popular with the girls back in the day.

A couple interesting vintage cards sneaking in among the modern stuff. These are my first 1952 Topps Look 'n See cards.

A Skenes RC and snazzy Ripken insert were a couple of the other cards that warranted a happy verbal reaction when I came across them.

I feel like I've built up a solid little Elly De La Cruz PC thanks to Rod. Fun player.

 -   - -o

Thanks a ton, Rod!

I'll plan to make another post for the 3rd box since I haven't gotten around to taking any pics of those cards yet. But for an addition to this post-- ironically the only Padre cards today [Rod's 3rd box was more Friar focused]-- here's a recent PWE from Nick/n j w v that he originally attempted to send me a year ago.

Better late than never, and I'm very glad Nick hooked me up with this fun pair of customs. These are part of a brilliant series of his with the 1981 Topps design reimagined with various celebratory headwear.

Had to show the full backs, even though my photo turned out blurry. Incredible work all around! Thanks again, Nick!

Have a great week, everybody.