Good thing I ordered when I did

 

You've probably heard that Buffalo got hit with an unfathomable amount of snow.

Well, "unfathomable" to people who don't live where you get snow, but still it was a lot, even for us "three-feet-is-nothing" types. Totals are at 6-plus feet in some spots (my brother who lives there just got a little under three feet).

I live 3.5 hours from that wonderful city but Buffalo and Watertown are on the same path when it comes to lake-effect snow. We don't get it a lot -- it usually travels to the south of us, that's why no one lives in those spots -- but when the wind is right and Buffalo gets it, we get it, too.

We sure got it.

We're up to nearly five feet of snow where I'm sitting. I think it's done, but after the last three days I'm a little snow-shy and will believe it when I wake up in the morning and look out my window. I defend where I live to warm-weather types quite a bit, but I admit this weekend I was genuinely wondering why I live here.

We didn't get any mail Saturday, everything was at an impasse. My mail carrier just got to my home in time on Friday before the snow struck. I think we'll get mail tomorrow, but who knows, almost everything for Monday is already closed. It's just a good thing my COMC order arrived early last week. I can't be worrying about that on top of whether my roof is going to collapse.

So let's take a look at the goodies I get to enjoy in relative warmth.

This was a very Dodger-centric shipment. So I'll show all the non-Dodgers first to let those who don't care about them leave early. (Although you'll miss some fancy blue cards!).

First up are some random OPC cards from my favorite era. Low-hanging fruit here, but I tried to pick cards that showcased two teams on one card very clearly. 

Vintage Wacky Packs! A couple of these were favorites when I was a kid. I gravitate toward the original Wacky's fourth, fifth and sixth series, which cover 1973 and 1974 and were the stickers I saw for sale and on my friends' notebooks and folders.

Really the only true vintage in the shipment. I'm starting to gather 1970 Topps almost one-at-a-time because that's about the only affordable way as far I am into the pursuit. Earl Weaver was one of the few needs below card No. 300. The other two are higher on the scale.

 

OK, you got your warning. We're onto the Dodgers now! These are a couple of cards from the 1978 SSPC set. I'd like to have gotten more but they go for more than I want to spend for flimsy-ish cards. I mean look at the Johnny Oates and Don Sutton cards, they're not even the same height!

These three cards completed three team sets for me. The Matt Kemp 2006 Fleer card had been on my "Nebulous 9" list for a looong time. The Valenzuela card finishes up the set that I grabbed in Cooperstown last month. The Joe Black card finishes up the 1993 Action Packed Series II set. I could've sworn I had already completed that.

All right, there's another non-Dodger card here, but I couldn't resist another two-team OPC card, even if Ron Cey never played for those teams. The Upper Deck Vintage relic card is one I've seen for a long time but never pulled the trigger. It's one of the few Cey relics I didn't own.

Most of the rest of the cards are Dodgers stars of today, I went on quite a run of those for some reason. I've long given up on trying to keep track of what's being released, especially all the inserts and parallels. Topps has gotten to the point where it's now issuing a stand-alone set that looks just like the parallels for another set and then it takes that stand-alone set and issues variations of the base cards (yes, I'm talking to you Stadium Club Chrome). Anyone who still pays attention to Topps' shenanigans is a sucker.

So this is what I got of current Dodgers and I'm not going to bother mentioning what they are, unless I want to.

Clayton Kershaw

 

 

Walker Buehler

 

 

 Mookie Betts

Julio Urias

 

You might be able to tell that I gravitated toward colorful/shiny cards, that's about how I decide whether I want a card or not if it's not a base card. The Urias cards were the most colorful of the bunch.

 

 

Max Muncy

 

 

Assorted other Dodgers.

 

Notice, nowhere in what I gathered is a Cody Bellinger card.

 

That's because Cody Bellinger cards still go for unnecessary prices, even after two sub-par seasons. Maybe now that the Dodgers have made him a free agent, his prices will become more reasonable.

 

Most of my order was a mish-mash of various interests. I do that a lot. I can never focus. But I did concentrate on one particular area.

 

Those are all the Topps Archives Snapshots cards I grabbed from 2017-21.

After the initial Archives Snapshots set of 2016 I slacked off on finding them. The set isn't issued anywhere except online -- I think -- so I never remember to get them. But I do like them. ... well, I like most of the earlier ones anyway.

That's because the earlier ones included past players like Garvey and Cey and Wally Moon. But Topps has moved away from that, for the most part, to make sure they plug in rookies, because we must have rookies in every damn set. The 2020 Snapshots set is the biggest offender. 

 

I still don't have all the Dodgers from those sets, I think one or two are still left, but it feels good to get most of them out of the way, especially to finally get that Wally Moon card.

 

OK, that's it for the latest COMC order. I hear the next-door-neighbor snowblowing again. That makes me feel like I should get out there.