Check Out My Casas!

That's what COMC stands for, right? Because it's time for another COMC mailday. This one was very baseball heavy. Well, OK, it was almost entirely Triston Casas. See, it occurred to me that the Red Sox rising star wears number 36. How did I not have a massive collection of his cards? So, I decided it would be fun to collect the rainbow of his Topps rookie card. Or, maybe it's not a rainbow since I'm involving several brands. Basically, anything that looks like his base Topps RC. You'll understand when you see them.

Wanna see? I'm only going to show the Red Sox cards. There are other baseball, football, and basketball cards in the shipment. If you want to see everything, Check Out My YouTube video!

But, enough chatting, let's get to the cards!

We'll start it off with this Pedro 2008 Topps Moments and Milestones. I don't know if I really want to dedicate myself to these cards. But, always glad to add a Pedro...especially one with a big "36" on the front. 

Speaking of 36, let's roll with the Casas cards! Thankfully COMC adds a slip of paper saying what each card is. Otherwise, not sure I'd know this is his 2023 Topps Chrome refractor.

And here is his Topps Chrome pink refractor!

Switching to his regular Topps, but the Gold Star Parallel version.

And his Meijer Purple parallel.

Another set...his 1st edition. I don't even know what that is.

Followed by his Topps Holiday. Always love this set.

This is apparently his Topps Collector's Box Silver Pattern Foil. If you say so.

And this would be his slightly less interesting base rainbow foil.

Back to Topps Chrome for his Sepia refractor.

Best guess? That's his Topps gold foil.

This one might be his Topps Chrome Prism refractor.

While this one sure looks like his Topps Chrome Logofractor.

Which leaves this one as his Topps Chrome x-fractor!

And there you have it. Thirteen new Casas RCs to add to the rainbow. Wonder how many I can eventually end up with. I'm starting to just need the big boys at this point.

That may have to wait for the next shipment.

Which one is your favorite?

Check Out My GOATS!

I mentioned last time, that my most recent COMC shipment had cards that hit a few of my different collection areas. This is another one that really came about almost entirely because of COMC and the ease in picking up odd singles from across sports.

You may remember not long ago I picked up a Serena Williams card. It had occurred to me that stars in some other sports can be had fairly cheaply. I already had the cheapest Tom Brady RC...the Football GOAT. I have a Bill Belichick RC...so the football coaching GOAT. I had a Tiger Woods rookie...the men's golf GOAT. Then the Serena...the women's tennis GOAT? Could I put together a GOAT rookie card collection? It started to sound like fun. So I started to see who else I could add relatively cheaply. Honestly, the tricky part with some of these was deciding on what sort of card was their "rookie", especially since I want to avoid the SI for Kids cards if possible. Sometimes I had to decide on my GOAT based on which cards were actually available. In the end, I came up with these... 

Do you agree with my choices? Let's have a look, shall we?

Annika Sorenstam. The women's golf GOAT. In general, I used other sources to try and determine GOAT status. Many sites listed her. Would you agree?

It didn't take much research to decide Simone Biles is the women's gymnastics GOAT. The only trouble was deciding what her rookie card was.

Yup. The rookie card of David Bryant. The lawn bowling GOAT. I told you there would be some variety in this collection.

Roger Federer. The not exactly undisputed men's tennis GOAT. 

Marta, on the other hand, seems like a pretty unanimous decision as the women's soccer GOAT. 

Another choice that's not so clear, but Diana Taurasi got my nod as the women's basketball GOAT.

For basketball...I had some trouble. I'm obviously not going to be able to afford a Michael Jordan rookie. But...maybe his "baseball rookie"? Maybe a baseball rookie where's he's pictured taking a basketball shot? I think that may be just the ticket.

As an alternative, I also grabbed this one, even though it would be tough to even call this a "baseball rookie". It's a much better card, though.

And, just in case none of those qualify, I did grab this back-up GOAT card of LeBron. If nothing else, it has the Carmelo RC as well, so would likely fit in the Hall of Fame RC collection at some point if nothing else. 

And, if you're going to have a GOAT collection...you really should have an actual goat. Right? Sure, I could have gone with a recent Allen and Ginter one. But, this Disney card from the 30s was just too perfect to pass up.

And, there they are. The newest GOATs. Would you have selected different players for each slot? 

Who else should I chase?

Check Out My Pedros!

I mentioned last time, that my most recent COMC shipment had cards that hit a few of my different collection areas. Whenever I get a shipment from COMC, I like to try and add some Pedros to the collection. In this case, I found three that I was pretty sure I didn't already have.

This gaudy Topps 205 card here is quite a sight. Not sure the design goal here. Let's take a tiny Pedro. jersey, and surround it with such a hideous yellow border nobody will even notice. Doesn't scream "great plan" to me. Of course, I also voluntarily acquired it. 

This one I like MUCH better. Sure, the jersey peice is still tiny. Maybe even smaller than the other one. But, it's fit into the design a thousand times better. Almost like a gallery. 

Now, this might be the coolest card I've seen in a while. The picture makes it look like it's die cut, but it's not. There's a triangle on the bottom that's hard to see. No matter, though. It doesn't detract from a card combining Pedro and Tom Brady! The card name "Keys to the City" certainly applies. I also love that this card came out in 2002-3. Pedro was, of course, well on his way to legend status. But he had not won his championship yet. Brady, on the other had, had just won the first of his seven super bowls. He could have ended up being anything. Who could have guessed they'd both be some of the greatest players ever in their sport?

And, there they are. Three more Pedros to add to the collection. 

Do you have a favorite?

Let's COM See Some Cards!

It's apparently been quite a while, so I decided it was finally time to request another shipment from COMC. Usually I buy cards, list them for resale at a way to high price and then when the stack is big enough I request shipment. The pile had finally reached the point where I wanted them in my hands. So, I requested shipment. Sort of an odd assortment this time. But randomness can be fun, right?

Let's have a look, shall we?

Right off the bat, I bet you didn't expect this one. It occurred to me recently that stars in some other sports can be had quite cheaply. I wondered for a moment, how would a GOAT collection look? I already had the cheapest (?) Tom Brady RC. If you called him the Football GOAT....I have a Bill Belichick RC...so the coaching GOAT? Now this Serena...the Tennis GOAT? It started to sound like fun. So I made a lowball offer on this, and it was accepted. I wonder who else I can add relatively cheaply. Any suggestions? Tony Hawk? 

Two reason for this one. First, it's one of those cards I always wanted, but never got around to picking up. Second, I wondered how hard it would be to put together a collection of the RC of players who appeared in/at the 1999 All-Star game in Fenway. With two decent reasons to buy this card, I decided it was worth a shot. I actually bought a few of these as ones I bought and then listed before shipping kept selling. So, with the flipping profits, this one was basically free. No idea why it works like that sometimes.

Same reason on this card. One of those I always wanted, and a 1999 ASG representative.

This one just called to me...and I'm really not sure why.

Another one from the theme. Yet another 1999 ASG player that I never thought I could afford. I actually had a graded one I was going to ship, but it sold right before I was ready. So, this ungraded copy was especially cheap.

How could I not own this card? Yaz? 1967? What was I waiting for. I felt I just needed to increase the vintage Yaz corner of my collection.

Bought this one a while ago. Finally decided that rather than lose money trying to dump it, I should just keep it.

Seemed like a card I should have. Another one that I funded partially by flipping lower value cards of his. Weird stuff.

I don't even want to know how many of these I had at one time. But, he started the 1999 ASG.

See Larkin,Barry.

I had been looking around at vintage league leaders as a way to add other stars cheaply, and still focusing on the Red Sox collection. So, this card further increases my vintage Yaz corner, but suddenly starts the vintage Killebrew and Robinson corners.

Like Dalbec, I was sitting on this long enough I decided it should just join my collection.

Like the Yaz-Killebrew-Robinson, I was able to add some non Sox stars by accident. While not a rookie, this early Murphy gets to sneak into the collection.

And, I mean, who doesn't love this card? A RC of a Sox Hall of Famer is hard to pass up.

And, there they are. I don't think I've ever been this scattered with a shipment. But, that's part of the fun.

Which is what collecting is supposed to be!

Check out My (Pedro) Cards!

Not long ago I mentioned that I decided it was finally time to request another shipment from COMC. I previously showed off the baseball cards from the shipment...except for the Pedro cards! Whenever I have a shipment pulling together, I always try to add a few Pedro cards for the PC. With so many Pedro cards out there, it's easy to find plenty I on't have. This seems like a good way to add to the collection. What's I get this time?

Let's have a look, shall we?

A couple fancy card with the Finest and the Gold Label. I like the look of the Gold Label that year. It's very elegant without going over the top, which is a flaw I think the Finest has.

Of course the problem with so many Pedro cards out there is that with all the sets and insert sets, I have a hard time keeping track of what's what. These seem pretty straight forward, though. The Gallery one I can go back and forth on. I guess it's a pretty elegant shot for a "gallery". But it still seems a bit out of place for the theme. Safe to say Leaf got it right adding him to a "stars" set.

A bunch of fairly non-descript cars here. The Topps 205 is probably the best of the bunch.

And more! For some reason the feel of this Gallery card makes more sense to me, even if the actual picture is much worse. Am I the only one who thinks that? Another Bowman's Best, but with a diamond instead of a circle. See? Variety!

And another Topps Gold Label! The border on the bottom detracts from the design for me. But, of the three fancy cards in this pic, it's still my favorite.

OK. What the heck is this mess? Topps Moments and Milestones? Does anyone collect these things? So, they picked a milestone. Is this case, it was Pedro's 313 strikeouts in 1999. They then made 313 cards of Pedro in the set, one for each strikeout. But, the only difference is the number. So, is the plan for me to actually complete the 313 card set? How boring would that binder be? Oh, and each card is serial numbered to 150. So, only 150 people can complete the Pedro set. Well, 150 minus 1 since they can't have these.

Or, these.

Or these. OK. So I may have gone overboard with these. Although, I'm now 3% of the way towards completing the Pedro set! Maybe I should try to complete the whole set numbered #36/150?

So, there you have it. The latest additions to my Pedro collection.

Do you have a favorite?

Check Out My Mailday!

About a month ago, I decided it was finally time to request another shipment from COMC. The shipping times had started to be reasonable again, and my pile of cards I wanted was growing into a handful. So, I pulled the trigger on a small stack. The baseball ones can be seen below. Let's have a look, shall we?

1989 Donruss Ken Griffey Jr. Here's a card I had back in the day. Heck, I'm guessing I had two or three at one point. All made their way out of my collection. I started to think that I really should have one. If only for the memories. It's also the sort of card a good collection should have. It's not the '89 Upper Deck, but it's a recognizable RC of an all-time great. This card ended up being in worse condition than I imagined it would be. But, that's OK. It's probably not much worse than the ones I used to have.

1985 Topps Roger Clemens. I never had one of these cards before, but always wished I did. Figured I should fix that issue now. I also have that side project I'm working on collecting paying days cards of every member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame, which Roger is in. (Of course, I'll never complete the project on my budget.) Obviously, I have plenty of other cards from his playing days. But, the rookie seems like the best to include.

1967 Topps Dick Williams. Another addition to the HOF collection. This, obviously, isn't his rookie card. But, if I had to pick a year to represent, 1967 seems like the natural choice.

1959 Topps Pete Runnels. Another addition to the Hall of Fame Collection. And, another good example of the reason behind the project. It's my first 1959 Topps. So, I'm able to have a purpose for picking one up as opposed to a random common. 

1955 Bowman Frank Sullivan. You guessed it. Pretty sure this is my first 1955 Bowman card. Love adding the variety.

1964 Topps Dick Radatz. Pretty sure I already have a 1964 Topps. But, a Radatz rookie is a 1962 high number. Way more than I'm going to pay for the Monster. So, I liked the look of the 1964.

 

1964 Topps Tony Conigliaro. Now I defintiely already have a 1964 Topps. But how could I pass on a Tony C rookie?

1964 Fleer Ted Williams w/ Tom Yawkey. Now, the tricky part of the project. Executives like Tom Yawkey don't have a lot of cards. Especially while they were active in the roles that earned them the nod. So, I jumped at the chance when I realized Yawkey was on this card. Once again, this is a set I always wanted a card from. But, the "good" cards tend to be expensive, and the others are nothing to get excited about. This project gave me a good reason to give the set a try. I'm glad I did.

So, there we go. That's my latest shipment from COMC. The baseball ones, at least. It's been a great way to work on this project and add some fun cards to my collection.

Can't wait for the next shipment.

Which card is your favorite?