Waiting For COMC / Pedro pickups

I finally pulled the trigger on a COMC order I'd been building for over a year. I was hoping to wait until they got their long shipping delays under control, but no such luck. At this point, I figured I should at least get in the queue before the Black Friday sales add to the bottleneck.

The shipment includes 189 cards. (Apparently they don't do the $5 credit for every 100 cards anymore, but I had originally planned to go to 200.) My estimated ship date is 2/18/2021. Now we wait!

I believe this is my 30th order from COMC. That's the above 20 plus 10 more "Other Shopping Cart Purchases" between 3/19/13 and 1/9/15 that are counted differently for some reason.

Ah, remember the good old days of $3 flat shipping and it just took about a couple weeks to show up to your door? Now it's $4.99 and 3+ months. I think I'm gonna try giving the Sportlots "box" thing a try and use COMC less until they get their shit together.

Here are a couple recent Sportlots pickups. These were both 1-card purchases, and even with the separate shipping, they ran me about a buck each and took about a week to show up. Best price on COMC right now is $7.25 for the '09 Update and $19.99 for the Heritage. Don't forget about that $4.99 shipping and a 3+ month wait. Ok, I'm done bitching about COMC now; sorry for the negativity.

But back to the cards, I've got a decent Pedro PC with 100+ different cards, but it bugged me I didn't have any cards from his 2009 sunset stint with the Phillies. I remember I was pretty excited when he came back mid-season. He was solid for Philadelphia and I had hoped he'd make a similar return in 2010, but nope.

Another Pedro Martinez card I scored recently was this one for my 2004 Topps Chrome black refractor set. Love these rainbow in the dark beauties! It's the 250th card I've added out of 487 on my checklist, good for 51.3% complete. 2004 was a good year for Pedro, adding a World Series ring to go along with his 3 Cy Young awards.

Thanks for swinging by.

p.s. While we're at it, here's a couple bonus 2004 black refractors for the birthday boys today.

Doug and GCA trade packages

In the past few days I've gotten quality trade packages from Doug in Canada and GCA.

First up are the Sportscards From The Dollar Store:

Some great additions to my Tatis Jr PC! He sure did give Padres fans something to be excited about this year, though he had a hard time staying on the field. Hopefully his injury issues this season were just a fluke and he comes back strong in 2020.

A few more interesting Pads from Panini. I believe the Urias is #/50.

Some more young Padres. Chris Paddack had an impressive rookie year for San Diego.

We close out this package from the great white north with a selection of 2019 Heritage High Number Padres and a Kevin Kouzmanoff auto.

Thanks, Doug! Great stuff. I'm putting together a nice return for you.

 -   - - - -o

Now here's some stuff from GCA.

A couple numbered Andre Dawson cards, plus Pops and Bird.. very nice.

Big-name needs for my 1974 setbuild! Chugging along there.

But the bulk of Greg's package was a big lot of Pedro Martinez.

So many Pedros!! I think this gets him up into the Hundred Card Club and off my main wantlist.

Thanks a lot, GCA! I always seem to be trying to catch up returning the favor for all the great cards you send my way, but I hope to balance the scales soon!

Popping cards into the old computer

No card show for me this weekend (and sadly I may be missing the next few monthly shows), but at the last show I went to, I picked up a few of those Upper Deck "Powerdeck" CD-Rom "cards" with playable content on them. I'm honestly not super into these things, but hey, at less than a quarter per, I happily threw them onto my stack.

These days, less and less modern devices can actually play these odd-shaped discs, but luckily I've still got a nearly-obsolete old laptop I hoard keep around. So I popped them in and grabbed the contents (a highlight video of each player a bit under a minute long) and am sharing them here for ya'll.


Frank Thomas

Sammy Sosa

Mike Piazza

Pedro Martinez

Greg Maddux

Chipper Jones

Alex Rodriguez (1)

Alex Rodriguez (2 [1998])

There you have it. Gotta love the generic late-90s music. I think there are 3 or 4 songs between these 8 cards. I'm not a big fan of the "dance music" tunes, but that faux Pearl Jam-sounding rocker is kinda cool, I guess.

The lo-fi video highlight packages are ho-hum in these days of YouTube and places like ESPN and FoxSports attacking you with auto-play videos with every link on their site, but back in the late 90s, it was probably kinda cool for collectors to pop these in and watch their favorite players in action whenever they wanted.

Would be a lot cooler if they had something like a short exclusive interview or something. Maybe ask the player about his favorite Upper Deck card or about his childhood card-collecting habits. Yeah, that would have been better than clips of a few diamond gems and home runs.

(This is somewhat of a follow-up to a post a couple years ago when I similarly showed the videos for a Ripken and Clemens.)

The Sosa and Chipper discs are available for trade, if anyone's interested. The other dudes are guys I collect.


Ok, I don't own this last one, but while researching these a bit, I stumbled upon a graded Powerdeck "card" on COMC that I thought was funny:

Grading a CD just seems hilarious to me. Does the grader pop it in to make sure there are no skips or glitches in playback? Also, I would argue the plastic sleeve (with copyright info, etc.) is "part" of the card. So this graded disc missing the sleeve is incomplete to me. (Seller is asking $49? Ha!)

Thanks for stopping by.

Pairs of serial numbered cards

Time for more of my haul from the card show. To refresh your memory, I picked up 120 cards for a quarter each. After such a big haul, I often grapple with how I should work the cards into a blog post.. trying to find a theme, or separating the cards into groups or whatnot.

This post features a few guys I collect, each represented by a pair of serial numbered cards. Um, perhaps we could make this more interesting by trying to declare a winner between each match up. Yeah, let's give that a shot. 

Ernie Banks 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game 292/500 vs. 2002 Donruss Classics 521/1500. Gotta go with the left here. The powder blue border is nice, plus it's 3 times as rare as the other card.

Eddie Murray 2011 Topps Marquee 109/199 vs 2011 Tier One 597/799. Hmm.. both cool cards. Guess I'll have to give the win to the Marquee thanks to the scarcity.

Al Kaline 2013 Triple Threads 321/650 vs 2011 Gypsy Queen 188/999. GQ has the cool gold border, and nice to see the stadium background, but ultimately it's a boring, awkward pose. The TT card has got the action. Hate to seem like I'm awarding the win to the lowest numbered card every time, but yeah, Triple Threads wins this one.

Johnny Bench 2011 Tier One 390/799 vs 2011 Triple Threads 1196/1500. Here we go with an underdog win. The red border of the Triple Threads card beautifully frames the photo.

Jake Peavy 2005 SP Collection 228/299 vs 2010 National Chicle 293/499. We're taking a break from the HOFers for a former Padre standout I kinda still collect even though I should probably call the PC good at this point. Gotta go with the Chicle here. That set is hit-or-miss with the artistic renderings looking either kinda cool or pretty dumb, but this is a good one. Nice refractor shine to it.

Adrian Gonzalez 2011 Tier One 784/799 vs 2013 Triple Threads 209/650. Like Peavy, a dude I collect thanks to his days in San Diego though I'm trying to stop, but hey, a cheap, numbered card is hard to pass up. I think I'd give a slight edge to the Tier One card here.

Randy Johnson 2005 Donruss Classics 189/800 vs 2014 Triple Threads 274/325. Let's give this one to the TT.

2002 Gold Label 210/500 vs 2014 Museum Collection 18/199. The Museum Collection card looks good, but it's hard to go against Gold Label.. always a great looking set.

Lou Brock 2005 Playoff Absolute 12/150 vs 2010 Triple Threads 387/525. Our final bout, this one is not even close. The Playoff card has the lower number, but it's obviously a naked card designed for an auto or at least a relic. TKO for the TT card here.

So there you go, a pair of numbered cards for a bunch of Hall of Fame guys plus a couple former Padres crashing the party.

Thanks for reading!

. . .

Oh, now that April is over, let's check out the handwritten post contest entries. There were a dozen people who made such a post and commented on the entry post with the URL to it.

Tony Burbs

Tony L.

Robert

Mike Matson

Sport Card Collectors

Angus

Billy Kingsley

The Chop Keeper

JediJeff

John Miller

The Junior Junkie

Matt Stupienski

I know there were a few others who did handwritten posts but didn't officially get in on the contest due to not posting the link in the comments. But rules is rules. I did kinda bend the rules a little for JediJeff and his punch card post, but it was in the spirit of the contest, so I let it count.

Did you guys see a spike in hits on your handwritten posts? The one I did is easily my most popular post of 2016 so far, with nearly 900 views! I hope bloggers had fun with the concept and maybe even do another handwritten post once in a while for the heck of it, even without the incentive of a contest.

Ok, so let's assign numbers (not pick a winner) to the entrants..

Let's say the winning number is the total number of runs scored in this afternoon's Padres vs. Dodgers game (5/1/16). Anything over 12 loops around (so, 13 = Tony L). The game has already started as I type this (no score in the 1st inning), so I'd better get this post live ASAP. Good luck to all participants!

UPDATE: Kershaw pitched a shutout and drove in the game's only run to beat San Diego 1-0. So Tony L. stands as the winner. Congrats, Tony!

Vintage 1965 Clemente! (trade roundup)

I'm back after a few days off stressing about finishing my taxes and some changes at work. Let's round up the recent trades that've come in.

Recently a guy emailed me saying he found my blog while looking for pictures from the Simpsons softball team episode. He mentioned he noticed I had 1965 Topps Roberto (Bob) Clemente atop my current wantlist, and that he happened to have one and was willing to sell it. I'm sure I don't have to tell you fellow bloggers out there that card solicitation emails from strangers are generally bad news and it's usually best to ignore or politely decline and point them to eBay for their card-selling needs. But John seemed like a good guy and I definitely wanted that card, so I asked if he'd be interested in trading instead, and offered up one of my Simpsons custom sets in exchange. He happily agreed and a few days later this baby arrived:

Very happy to land this card! Not only is Clemente among my all-time favorite guys to collect, but 1965 Topps is also a favorite and a set I'm building. So this is definitely a card I needed.

Love it! Thanks again, John. Your cards are on the way.

-   -  -  -- - ------o

Next up is a nice surprise envelope Mark Hoyle. I still had been meaning to mail him out some cards to thank him for the previous PWE he sent my way, but dang it, he lapped me! But don't worry, I just put an envelope in the mail, with another one hopefully on its heels in the next day or two.

These are great! Looks like Mark acquired a White Sox deck and was kind enough to shoot me these three. Hoyt Wilhelm, Dick Allen, and Minnie Minoso, three of my favorite old-timers to collect. I don't know much about these playing cards, though I've seen them mentioned on the blogs before and if I weren't so lazy, I'd look up them up.

Many guys I collect among this lot of 2016 Heritage Then & Now inserts.
Big thanks, Mark!

Mr. Hoyle still doesn't have a blog, but he has started showing off some of his collection on Twitter, so that's a start!

-   -  -  -- - ------o

From not enough blog, to too much blog.. Next up is a fat envelope from Tony Burbs at Wrigley Roster Jenga. I love his blog, but my browser does not. When I visit it, my computer slows down, the page takes a while to load, and has even crashed my browser on rare occasions. Speaking of an overload of awesome (that's a good segue, right?), he sent me a nice bunch of cards...

I just showed off my Pedro PC a couple weeks ago, and that post is already paying dividends in the form of these three needs. That crazy thing in the middle can barely be called a card, as it's thin and clear, reminding me of my school days with teachers using overhead projectors.

Here it is on top of real cardboard:

So yeah, it's weird but a cool addition to the collection.

Some legends. I got many of those 100 Years of Wrigley inserts thanks to having the Cubs in a Series 1 group break, but since this Stan Musial is actually a Cardinals card, it didn't get funneled into my haul. So it's nice to get it in trade.
Hoyt makes his second appearance of the post.. I've seen that photo on other cards before, but the teal border really makes this one pop.
And Teddy Ballgame is always a welcome sight.

And we close with a great lot of active guys (plus Marcus Giles, represented by a cool minor league card). I think that Trout's an SP, isn't it? Very cool. Happy to get the Sale and Mookies as well.

Big thanks, Tony! I'll get some Cubs sent out your way soon. Please let me know of anything in particular you'd like that I could send you.


Thanks again to John, Mark, and Tony for the wonderful cards. Hey, did you notice there were zero Padres cards in this trade roundup? That's a rarity, for sure. And with how the team has been playing this season, I'm totally fine with this.

See ya'll next time!

Pedro Martinez auto

Scoring a Pedro Martinez auto is something I've wanted to do for a long time and was happy to check it off the list, with this badboy arriving today.

Numbered 1012 out of whatever, it's from 1997 Donruss Signature Series. He sure was a fun guy to watch, quite the character and dominant on the mound.

Pedro was in the news the other day thanks to throwing out the first pitch of an exhibition game between the Red Sox and Blue Jays in Montreal.

Pedro marches to the beat of his own drum, and signed on the picture rather than the designated signature area at the bottom, but I'm ok with it. I think the card looks great.

While I'm at it, here's the rest of my Pedro PC.

Dodgers cards. Not pictured is his 1991 Upper Deck Final Edition RC that I've got paged with the set. I should break up that set into my assorted PCs one of these days.

Only 4 other Expos cards in my collection?

First half of my Sox cards.

And here are the rest of his Boston cards in my PC. Sorry for the blurry photo.

And finally, some Mets cards highlighted by a jersey relic. I don't have any Phillies cards of him, unfortunately.

If you've got any available Pedro Martinez cards not pictured here, I'd be down for them. Looks like I'm about a third of the way to my goal of 100 different cards. But at least I've got the auto out of the way now, so that's nice.

Thanks for stoping by!