Player Collection additions from Just Commons

I loaded up on cards of some of my favorite PC guys in my latest Just Commons order. (A cap tip to them for getting my order 100% correct this time around.)

I mentioned the other day that I've really come around on 2002 Topps. I used to think the gold borders were blah, but I've come to appreciate the design as a worthy sequel to Topps' ribbon legacy, right there among 1974, 1980, and 1989. And Shooter here looks great on this Chrome refractor.

And a few more cards that were missing from my Rod Beck collection.

Benito Santiago is a "retired" PC for me since I already have over 100 cards from him. But dang it, most of those 100 are Padres cards from his early days, and I wanted a little more representation from the later part of his career. Here we've got 3 Giants cards, including the middle one that makes him look like a Superman villain, and a couple "short-term stops" cards with the Royals (49 games in 2004) and Pirates (6-game swan song in 2005).

And speaking of Padres fan favorites spending time in Kansas City, howbout Bip in unfamiliar Royal blue?

Here's a Reds card I didn't have and a couple from his days with the Tigers.

The rest of this post belongs to Julio Franco, with another lovely 2002 Chrome refractor leading off. Nice looking card, huh?!

Filling in some 80s holes.

White Sox representation (1994 season).

Back to the Indians for a year and a half.

He had some solid seasons with the Braves, 2001-2005.

By the time Julio was with the Mets, it was like, "Can you believe this geezer is still out there getting it done?!" Quite the career he had.

That's gonna do it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

Eric Owens O'Wednesday returns

I placed a small 11-card order on Just Commons last week. I still got over the free-shipping minimum limit (recently raised from $10 to $15), however, since all the cards I bought were in the $0.75-2 range. I probably should have picked up a few various "dimebox" cards while I was at it, but I guess I was being impatient.

I was very excited to find not 1.. not 2, but 3 different Eric Owens autos in the "$2 autos and relics" section. I had scrolled down quite a ways with nothing catching my eye till these perked me up.

Love Eric Owens. The only auto I had of him previously was a minor league card (and also a Topps contract) featured last O'Wednesday, so these are my first autos of him in a Padres uniform. I've made the comparison in the past to Bip Roberts.. a guy who might not be a big name to most baseball fans, but he endeared himself to San Diego faithful by being a sparkplug who always played hard and made things exciting even when the team was bad.

I also picked up 4 cards for my 1973 Topps setbuild, including a couple of the lowest numbers I needed, and a couple of the highest.

Thanks to picking up the Boog and Oglivie, the lowest number I'm missing now is 410 Willie McCovey (not counting the Stan Bahnsen border error variation). (I actually have a blank-back McCovey, but I'm not counting it as part of the set.) At a hair over 89% complete, this project is coming along nicely. I'll keep pecking away here and there, and should hopefully finish within a year or so.

The remaining 4 cards from my JC order will have to wait for a future post. But hey, since we're talking about vintage sets I'm working on, here are a few 1971 Topps cards I just received from my vintage trader bud Kevin G:

Lots of starpower here! In very nice shape, to boot. Gotta love that Lefty. And that's an interesting action shot on the Joe Morgan from an angle you don't see on cards very often (the elusive "no face / triple butt shot"). Thanks as always, Kevin! After these key additions, I'm now at 74.6% complete with that set.

p.s. It's Pull-Tab Awareness Week! Remember to always make pull-tabs when taping cards for shipping.

Just Commons vs. COMC

I've talked about my exercise in self-restraint of not purchasing any cards for the rest of the year. I made an exception for 2004 Topps Retired autos. And I recently caved in and bought some more cards. At least it wasn't eBay, though. The site Just Commons has apparently been around for a few years, but it seems like the blogosphere has really been buzzing about it the past few weeks. I had to get in on the action. I threw 47 cards in my cart, most for around $0.08-.0.30 a pop. I splurged on one relatively-pricey card ($6), but otherwise everything was under a buck each, and my total was under $15. Very happy to fill in a bunch of holes in my player collections on the cheap. (About half the cards were Bill Madlock.. nearly completing my Mad Dog standard base collection.)

I'm sure I'll be back for another order before long. So now my card acquiring avenues include eBay, Listia, COMC, Just Commons, and in theory, trades. (I'm hoping my new "Desperate Dozen" card-specific wantlist on the sidebar will help drum up a trade or two. And I still need to get around to posting some "trade bait" posts.)

As for pros and cons, COMC shows you what the cards look like, which is a definite edge over Just Commons, which doesn't feature card images. So if you're picky about condition/centering, COMC gets the nod. Plus, if you're a team collector, you need to be careful not to accidentally get a card of a player on a different team, like Dodger fan GCRL did when a Sheffield he bought turned out to be a Yankee card.

And COMC has a bigger inventory, generally speaking, including all sportscards, not just baseball. While Just Commons is named that for a reason, there are in fact some non-commons too. But don't expect to find many vintage cards, especially of star players. But the site is well-stocked for 80s, 90s, 00's, and today. It seems like the way the site operates is the guy (guys?) behind the site break cases of cards and buy big lots, putting the hits on eBay and the "misses" on Just Commons. Sounds like a good idea to me.

It's not uncommon for Just Commons to be out of stock on a card even though it'll be listed as available and the site will allow you to purchase it. Of the 47 cards I ordered, one ('81 Donruss Gaylord Perry) was sold out and I got my 15 cents refunded when the order shipped. It took about a week from the day I ordered to the day the cards showed up. Pretty decent.

I have to give the nod to COMC when it comes to accuracy, though. I've never gotten a "wrong card" from COMC, but there were a couple mistakes in my Just Commons order. I ordered 1985 Donruss #200 (Bill Madlock), but instead received 1984 Donruss #200 (Manny Sarmiento), and I ordered 1985 Fleer #468 (Bill Madlock) but received 1984 Fleer #468 (Nick Esasky). So looks like whoever pulled the order was off by a year in the box he or she grabbed for these 2 cards, and just looked at card number, not player name. I probably won't bother pestering them about it since these are just 15 cent cards, but yeah, it's a bit of an annoyance.

And for price, it's Just Commons by a wide margin.. cards are roughly about half the price of COMC on average. Plus US shipping is free at Just Commons for orders over $10. COMC used to have a deal similar to that, but now has a $3 flat shipping cost.

There's another site called Sportslots that many people seem to like for buying their singles. I haven't ordered from that site yet, but it seems to basically split the difference between COMC and Just Commons in most areas.

So yeah, I'm happy to have let JC into my life (wait, I'm talking about Just Commons, here, not getting religious). Many of these newly acquired cards will be featured in upcoming posts here at the Breakdown.

Here's the pricey $6 card I bought:

A Tony Gwynn 1983 Donruss rookie card. (At first I thought that Rudolph dot at the tip of his nose was a defect in this particular card, but a Google image search seems to indicate all copies have it.) His Topps rookie was one of the first "expensive" cards I bought when I was a young San Diegan. Earlier this year, I got a Fleer rookie off Listia. And I had won a Donruss rookie off Listia, too.. BUT the seller flaked out and never sent the card. Bummer. But now I've finally achieved the Gwynn Rookie Card Trifecta. It feels good.

I also picked up 3 early cards of the only man who could possibly have even a whisper of a chance at challenging Tony for the title of Mr. Padre.

Trevor was coming up just as I was leaving the hobby back around '93, and I never happened to get any of his cards back then. Since I started back up collecting a couple years ago, I've been playing catch-up building a PC for him, as any self-respecting Padres fan card collector certainly does. These few pre-San Diego rookie-ish issues here definitely help it shape up.