Rapid return, pokey posting

 

I've been sitting on a COMC order for two weeks now. With the card show and the postseason and regular life stuff, just haven't been able to do my usual speedy posting.

I ordered some cards off COMC on Sept. 14 and they showed up at my house on Sept. 30. Sixteen days! Then, I realized that I still had some cash left over on the COMC, so let's finish that out. I ordered on Sept. 21 and they appeared Oct. 1. Ten days!

With that kind of return, if I had a little less self-control, I'd be ordering off there every week! Quite the turnaround from COMC's delivery habits three or four years ago. But I mentioned that in my first COMC order this year.

Unlike the first order, this one was not all Dodgers and OPC. It is a little more varied, though you'll see both of those in this one, too. Also, I'll break it up nicely into little categories, for people with no reading patience (that's like everyone).

 

RANDOM DODGERS

 

A staple of every night owl order. No explanation except these are current Dodgers cards and always wanted. The Summertime in the Park card is uncharacteristically efficient of me. It's from this year's Chrome set, I've barely even looked to see what base Dodgers I need from that set (how about almost all of them).

KERSHAWS

This is my feeble attempt to keep up with the other Kershaw collectors, which is impossible because I don't just collect one player. I'm too all-over-the-place. Highlights here are the Diamond Kings Donruss card from 2015 -- elusive for too long -- the Kershaw-Greinke card from last year that avoided me, and the 2021 Platinum Anniversary aqua card that looks flat-out green here.

The color parallels of the 1988/89 All-Star tributes are remarkably unnecessary and don't even look good, but I'm a slave to that retro design.

 

O-PEE-CHEE!!

The Jon Matlack card order is a bit unfortunate as it arrived with Angus' gift to me last week. But it'll come in handy in some trading. Both the '75 McMullen and '86 Guerrero finish off OPC team sets, though I still need several off-shoot '75 cards, like the World Series and MVP cards.

LONG-TIME WANT LIST RESIDENTS

The most satisfying cards in the order. The 1975 mini has been the last mini card needed for my Dodgers team set for decades and sitting on my blog want list probably since the day I made it.

The short-printed National Chicle Manny Ramirez hasn't been a want for nearly as long but it was my longest-running Nebulous Nine want dating back to at least 2020:

That's what the Nebulous Nine looked like in Feburary 2020 with Manny sitting right there at No. 4.

INSPIRED BY OTHER BLOGS

This happens so many times that I've written about it at least a couple of times -- you see a card on another blog and before you know it you're pressing "ship". I've known about the 2003 Jewish Major Leaguers set for some time and I also have known that they're a little pricey. But it took Dime Box Nick posting about an acquisition for me to find the cheapest Dodger and grabbing it.

These two 1995 Pinnacle cards were inspired by a post on Radicards. They're usually posting cards that are outside of my sweet spot, but the '95 Pinnacle White Hot cards looked interesting to me. They are rarer companions to the Red Hot cards.

I immediately looked up the White Hot Dodgers and Mondesi was easy enough to acquire. Piazza was out of the question, but then I saw I still needed the Red Hot Piazza so now it's here!

SERIOUS ODDBALL SET QUESTS

I likely will be working on the 1970 and 1971 Laughlin Fleer World Series sets in 2025, but I expect to be finished with it next year. One thing that keeps getting in the way is I confuse the two sets and end up buying dupes. Plus there is needed upgrading and I think it's a dupe when it's not. Then there are "which cards do I need for the Dodgers collection, too"? This is a very hazy collecting quest. 

But the key thing is I love all these!

Hell yeah, let's start gobbling up 1975 Hostess!

This is my first big plunge into '75 after finishing the 1976 and 1977 Hostess sets. I'm guessing it will be a little more challenging than the other two but not as challenging as '78 and '79 when rookie card nonsense raises its ugly head.

 

Also, staying in 1975 for a second, I grabbed the '75 Kellogg's Fergie Jenkins card you saw up top. I'm out-and-out scared of '75 Kellogg's as it seems to be the most prone to cracking, at least in my experience. But I'm willing to keep trying!

 

LONGER-RANGE SET QUESTS

There is a 1978 Hostess now. Yeah, that'll take awhile. So will 1979 Topps football and 1989 Swell. So many stars still to get with the football and that Swell set just isn't as available as the other Swell sets.

 

 

1960s VINTAGE

 

There are just two '60s sets I'm collecting and one of them should take me to the end of my days. That's 1967 Topps here. This was the first card put into the COMC cart for this order. I don't know why, probably because it was really cheap.

 

 

 This one was not. It was the priciest of all the cards I ordered. I don't need my '69s to be in this kind of shape but for some reason I went for this one. I once owned the 1969 Topps Barry Bobby (stoopid brain) Bonds and dealt it away. Bad move. But who knew I'd be collecting this set someday!

So that was a nice two COMC orders and it's great to get cards like that so quickly. Who knows, maybe someday there will be next-day service from someone online and that will eliminate the desire to go to Target or Walmart to check out the card shelf forever!