Check out the Rest (Jan-2022)

I am ridiculously far behind on posting stuff, but I refuse to let this little thing I do die, so here is the rest of the COMC package I received like 2 weeks ago. One of my top 5 pick-ups of 2021, Sandy Alomar, Jr. has been in a ton of these Topps Archives Buyback releases, but I finally spotted one that featured one of his few Rockies cards. I paid $20 for this serial number 3/4 and was very happy to do so.

Comc Order: The Rest

 

Most of the rest of the COMC order, I managed to squeeze one more upcoming post out of the this, starting with the last two standard Redskins cards I needed of Brad Edwards, just a McDonalds Gameday, Police issue and a couple parallels from 1997 Pacific with the Falcons. These two were not the hardest to find, just happened to be the last two to find there way here.

My Top 10 Pickups of 2020

No, this isn't a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff from 6 months ago. As a Canadian collector, almost all of my big purchases go through the COMC mailbox service, or are bought from the site directly, so here we are, a year end show off thread in June. Starting with #10, a short printed Art Monk from 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game, a card I have always wanted but never really tried hard for until this year, finally managing to pick one up for a reasonable price.

Sportlots: 9 from 3

The post-season review of my One of Rockies spreadsheet showed that I have been ignoring the project a little bit, the remedy was a visit to sportlots. I was a little surprised, but very happy to see some of the on-line only Topps products listed, including these two from 2019 Total with catcher Drew Butera who has surprisingly spent parts of 3 season with the Rockies despite hitting .167 and Tim Melville who was a pretty good story going from Independent leagues to a short term cult hero.

Check out my Everything Else (2020)

That's right, not enough Rockies cards for their own post, so they get lumped in with the randoms. Going for quality over quantity, I will file this under quality 1997 Pinnacle Museum Collection Artist's Proof absolute beauty of a dufex.

BaseballCardStore - Baseball Pick-ups

The last of the baseballcardstore.ca order, the baseball cards, starting with a couple of the better photo selection for the Rockies from the last couple years.

Something I Vowed Not Do (Ghost of Zistle forgive me)

(alternate post title "I Sold My Soul For Baseball Cards)

It has been a long time, 3 years or so, since the Beckett takeover and death knell of Zistle, (for some reason the lights are still on over there and some brave souls are still adding content, although nothing newer than 2017). I wrote a long post about that, so I won't go over it again other than Zistle was awesome, it was killed for no good reason (the reason being a larger company killing a smaller competing company instead of trying to improve themselves), and nothing that exists now is even close to as clean, elegant and user friendly. So began my boycott of Beckett. It wasn't really hard, their website is garbage and there are enough checklist sites that info is pretty easy to find without them. But one thing brought me back, 2011 Gypsy Queen mini photo variations. They were bought through the marketplace, so I imagine Beckett gets a taste, but I couldn't help myself. The above 3 put me at 30/100 of my favorite set I will never finish.

RLC Custom Card Project: Robbie Beckett

The Player: Not a household name by any means, but older collectors might remember the Padres first round pick in 1991 from 1991 Score or from a couple Bowman Cards. He would make his MLB debut in 1996 for the Rockies, pitching in five games, then would pitch in two more in 1997 making up his entire Majoe League career. 7 career games, 7 career innings and an ERA of 11.57.

The Card: Probably my favorite parallel, from probably my favorite modern set. I already had a 2011 Gypsy Queen template, so this one was pretty easy. I am trying to to repeat design to much in this project, but I really liked how this turned out so here it is.

The Project: Rockies Legacy Collection custom project to make digital cards of Rockies players who never had one issued.

Sportlots Box Canadian Review Part 3 (Plus the actual Cards!)

The cards are here, no extra weird customs fees so the last post on total cost still stands. I really wish I would have done a video post of the opening, but I was too eager to get into the package. It came in a regular bubble envelope, and inside was what you see below.

Nine packages from the original sellers, some in posted PWEs and some in plain PWEs with no postage, probably from a bigger order sent into Sportlots. Everything was packed well with no damage, so this seems to work, and probably allows for cheaper processing as is it now stored by card (like the COMC model), but by package. That pretty much wraps that up, on to the good stuff.

RLC Custom Card Project: Mike Ekstrom

The Player: Mike Ekstrom appeared in 15 games for the Rockies in 2012, in what would be his final season in the majors, tying his career high for games. In total he pitched in 51 MLB games, all in relief with a 0-3 record and a 5.61 ERA.

The Card: Probably my favorite modern set, and one of my all-time favorites, 2011 Gypsy Queen. This set helped really define what my collection looks like as this is far and away the product I have bought the most of over the years.

The Project: Rockies Legacy Collection custom project to make digital cards of Rockies players who never had one issued.

Cards from Burbank

I sure most of you have seen Burbank Sportscards around the trading card marketplace. They recently listed some stuff I was interested in so I placed an order. It came fast, was well packed and shipping to Canada was very reasonable which gets very high marks from me. On to the cards.

Three more 2011 Gypsy Queen mini photo variations, these bring me up to 24 out of 100.

1st COMC of 2018: Baseball

No "saving the best for last here", we are going to lead off with my favorite baseball card of the package, a Cooperstown "Dufex" card of Dale Murphy. The good old Foilly Dufex from 90's Pinnacle, this is a pretty sweet card now, I bet it was a big deal back in 1993. As far as the Cooperstown part, I feel Murphy is HoF worthy, more so than a lot of recent guys that have got in.

Sportlots Set Help

Continuing the impossible task of the 2011 Gypsy Queen Mini Photo Variations. The shipping was high on these, but the actual price was reasonable when spread out over a few cards. I had never even seen the Gibson before so that really sold me on making the order. These bring me up to 17 out of 100.

Check out my Cards from COMC

COMC package day is always one of favorite days, I usually only make an order every 4 months or so, and not only do I get the COMC cards I picked up, I also get my "Shipping to Canada is Crazy" Mailbox cards, including, yes, another 2013 Ramon Hernandez, the last non-printing plate needed, the mini black numbered to #5.

3 Card Sportlots Mailday

A small Sportlots mailday featuring probably the only non-Rockies minis that I collect, 2011 Gypsy Queen Mini Photo Variations. Jose Reyes is another addition to the "Set collecting makes you do funny things" category, I never liked Reyes as a player, and I like him even less as someone who throws his wife around. I kind of feel bad lumping in Mr. Padre Tony Gywnn in between these two as Mr. Chapman had his own issue this off-season.

Gyspy Queen Pick-ups with Some 1/1 Action

I'm getting really bad at not scanning and posting thing, so I am making a point of getting back to it, starting with a compilation of recent Gypsy Queen additions. I am pretty excited about the above card, a Charlie Blackmon 1/1 Framed Black from this years GQ. I got this for $11 plus shipping probably due to the auction being listed with an un-descriptive title. I think this is only my second "true" 1/1 as I don't really count printing plates.

More Recent Pickups

Another show-off/empty the scan folder post. Starting things off is a part of a project that I have been working on for quite a while, getting a bat relic of the top home run hitting catchers. Lance Parrish sits 6th on that list with 299 homers as a catcher (324 overall) and this is his only bat relic I know of, so it nice to cross this one off the list.

My Top Acquisitions of 2014

With the end of a year, there are always two things, a chance to look back at the year that was, and lists. Here is a combination of these two things with my top acquisitions of 2014. These are in a sort of order ending with my most favorite, but I decided not to number them as my order would change if I tried to to this again.

2013 Topps Museum Collection Framed Museum Collection Autographs Gold Wilin Rosario - My feels toward Rosario as a baseball player have soured, and he will most likely not be with Colorado when 2015 opens, but there Topps does that is as nice as the Museum Collection metal framed autographs. Scans in now way do these cards justice, they are just amazing.

COMGQSP

Another COMC order arrived, meaning chipping away at my Gypsy Queen sets, starting off with 2011, a set I already finished but found the Rockies short prints for cheap so I added them for the team PC, I don't remember buying the Hanson, but I only paid 45 cents, pretty cheap for a short print.

Mission Accomplished: 2011 Gypsy Queen

Set collecting makes you do funny things. Completing a set is pretty much the only reason you will see Dodgers or Giants cards on my want list. Set collecting is the reason a guy I know nothing about, other than he has a weird name, was at the top of my wants and left me scouring websites looking for a copy of his card. One finally showed up on the bay and through the COMC mailbox system it finally arrived to fill the last empty pocket in my 2011 Gypsy Queen binder. It's kind of bitter sweet in way, it's nice to complete one of my favorite modern era sets, but a little sad now that the chase is over.

Kila Ka'aihu, as you can probably guess by the name, was born in Hawaii and seems to have been a power hgitting prospect at one point, in 2008 he hit 37 home runs between AAA and AA, then making his MLB debut and hit his first big league dinger that September. He never last in the major though, playing in parts of the 2010 and 2011 seasons with the Royals, then going to Oakland in 2012. He has spent the last two seasons in Japan with the Hiroshima Carp.