I placed what likely will be my final comc order Saturday. I'll write about why I'm feeling that way when the order arrives but I think everyone reading this who has dealt with that site recently knows that it's not what it once was.
I'm going to have to widen my horizons yet again when it comes to purchasing cards. It seems like the reliable old ways -- comc, card shows, retail shelves -- aren't as fool-proof as they once were, and I'm going to need to look for more alternatives.
Fortunately I'm well-connected and my love for the hobby is well-known. Cards can come from any direction as this post will show.
These cards arrived from Alan through the BlueSky giveaway thread. They are TCMA reprints of the 1936 Goudey set (R322). My excitement in getting these -- other than that I love everything TCMA -- is that they're from 1972, which is the first year TCMA began issuing sets. These are the oldest TCMA cards that I own! Heck, they might as well be Goudey originals.
The players featured are Wally Berger, Chuck Klein, Kiki Cuyler, Rolly Hemsley and Slick Castleman.
This came from my wife. I am exploring all the card outlet avenues.
Even more surprisingly, perhaps, is that it was an anniversary present. Who needs golden baubles???? She had witnessed me sitting on the floor of the local flea market staring at this Shawn Green Starting Lineup package months ago. I didn't buy it. I'm mostly interested in the card and at $20, it wasn't worth it.
But now I have it, and -- I'm sure this will upset someone -- the card and figure are both out of the package.
My primary mission here was getting this card into a binder with all of its Dodgers buddies. Starting Lineup cards can be a little elusive (my recent comc order included several) and this is a stealth Dodger card ("Traded to Los Angeles Dodgers"), which means it probably never would have hit my radar had I not spotted it in the flea market.
There's the back of the package in case anyone is interested. I've kept the packaging. Who knows where I'm going to store it, but it feels important.
The last card source I'm going to show is from a reader. Thank goodness readers have been sending cards since the very beginning of the blog and they haven't let up yet. They're the true heroes.
This Yamamoto Heritage duo came from reader Casey. He's the one who claimed my first downsizing card package. That in itself was appreciated. He didn't need to send me anything, but I sure am happy about it.
A couple of 2025 Topps parallels that I needed, basic foil on the left and diamante foil on the right. Foil, foil, foil. The obsession continues. Casey also sent the Gavin Stone yellow parallel at the top of the post.
My favorite card that Casey sent. This is the final 1992 gold I needed for the Dodgers team set. This was a long-time need and sat on My Nebulous Nine for a good while. Now I can erase it and celebrate another team set finished!!
I am in the process of gathering together another selection of cards for downsizing. Once again, I hope someone will take them off my hands. I still need to clear out room -- though with fewer ways of obtaining cards, maybe it's not as urgent as I thought.
Comments
On the Goudey reprints, as we get older, the reprints almost become vintage. The famous Mickey Mantle reprint cards will be '30 years" old next year.
Never warmed up to baseball figurines. In my day it was the Hartland statues. No thanks. It was always about the cards.
Will be curious when COMC feels the effect of people leaving. I suspect a lot of us had a last hurrah of sorts so it might not be until next year sometime when they realize that numbers are down.
Your wife bought you an SLU figure?!? Thats so awesome! I know you mainly were concerned with the card, but those figures will always hold a special place in my collection.
RE: COMC one good analogy I have read is a famous Yogi-ism: “Nobody goes there any more, it’s too crowded.” Best in reference to simultaneously being distraught at once again quite long shipping times but claiming they are losing too many customers.
I figure it’s all just a long-time standard of the baseball card biz: 99% of cards are technically worthless, so nobody wants to pay what it actually takes to retrieve and ship 99% of cards, one at a time. A few years ago now I discovered that it would be cheaper to just buy a Complete Set of 91 Topps than it was to buy the 2 dozen commons I still needed to complete one. The financial math is inescapable.
As for someone being upset about keeping a figure and card in the box, how amusing. Seriously, it was made to be opened and enjoyed. Keeping the packaging on the other hand is important as any collector worth their salt knows :-p