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The waiting game …

Posted in CardPurge2020 with tags , , , , on February 4, 2020 by Cardboard Icons

When you send a high-dollar card off after a sale, there is always a short period of uncertainty where the card is no longer in your possession and has not arrived at its destination.

You’ve essentially trusted complete strangers to be your go-between in moving this asset from your collection to someone else’s.

Those days of transit are often uncomfortable. While it’s been a few months since my last big single card sale, I have sent several packages to COMC in recent months.

One recently had a stack of Zion Williamson cards, some of which I’ve already sold since I asked for premium service. And most recently I sent more than 1,200 cards, the vast majority of which are autos and relics I once held in high regard.

For three days I waited, and last night I received a series of emails from COMC confirming their arrival. I can now breathe.

The items are now in separate batches in my queue, and now looking at my COMC dashboard I feel very accomplished. There are more than 2,000 cards at COMC awaiting formal processing. These are cards I haven’t enjoyed for years, and most hadn’t really seen the light of day in just as long.

I realize the processing fees will eventually start to be deducted and there will inevitably be a moment of question whether or not I’ve made the right decision. But I know I’ve done the right thing, especially since I have more than enough funds already on the COMC site to cover these costs. It may not truly be “free money” since these are cards I once purchased, but the feeling is similar to some extent.

The cool thing is I still have in my possession all of the items I have attachment to. The HOF rookies and tobacco dating back to t206 era, the legend autographs and relics, the graded cards I enjoy showing my son and others.

Less is actually more sometimes.

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Time to reload my COMC inventory

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , , on September 5, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

As I sit here and write this, I am in the midst of preparing my first shipment of cards to send to COMC, the consignment site I’ve been using for almost a decade now. I had been a frequently submitter of cards in the early years and as fees have increased, I had decreased the number of times I sent cards to the Washington company.

Part of my reasoning was the market was flooded so it had become harder to move inventory. Also, it hurt me to pay money to the company up front to sell cards I already owned.

But, in recently weeks I’ve been shifting my thinking. I had been selling some lower end items on eBay in the last two months, which is cool when the listings are free — eBay usually offers 100 free postings per month and frequently surprises seller with the option to list an addition 200 or 300 as well. But once you break that 100 free posting mark, you’re looking at a charge of at least $0.35 per listing …. so it’s pretty much on par with COMC prices. And if the cards are with COMC I don’t have to worry about the post office trips.

And so I am now preparing several hundred cards for submission of varying price levels, and the idea of moving the cards out of my house is exciting me.

If you’re so inclined you can book mark my port. I do have some items still posted for sale there, but others will show up at some point. When those items pop at COMC, I’ll post again here.

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COMC Mailday: Kershaws and Clemens galore

Posted in Collcting Clemens, Collecting Kershaw, Mail Day with tags , , , , , , , on May 9, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

I love being a player collector on COMC. Every day I’ll check the site and pick off cards I want and leave them in my account until I reach 100. At that point I’ll request shipment because when you ask for 100 cards to be delivered, COMC gives you a $5 bonus on the first day of the next month.

So the bonus effectively give me free shipping. And if you’ve ever dealt with COMC as a buyer, you know how Top-notch their packaging and fulfillment is.

Anyway, as usual, I filled by account with mostly Roger Clemens and Clayton Kershaw cards. And while most of it is ho-hum stuff I needed for my player collections, there are some neat pieces that I’ll show off here.

We’ll start with some Clemens stuff, move into some Kershaws, and then round out the post with some non-PC items.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written this somewhere, but when I was a kid I used to love my single 1985 Topps Roger Clemens Rookie Card so much that I actually put it into a Card Saver I and TAPED the holder to the inside pocket of my school binder. That way I could look at it at will, and I always knew where it was at. Fast forward some 30 years and I still fawn over the Clemens Topps Rookie And usually buy them when I find them cheap. This month I grabbed two from COMC when I found them near $2 each. Several others have since popped up but I’ve not bought another. Worth noting that when I place these two on top of each other, it’s clear that one of them was trimmed by some asshat who was hoping to turn it into a monster.

It sucks to see this, but I’m not upset… just part of this cards history, a reminder that people once cared enough about a Clemens to do such a thing.

Hey, Remember when Upper Deck produces upper tier baseball cards? Here are three reminders: A 1998 Amazing Greats DIE-CUT (/250), a 1997 SP SPX Force quad player hologram (/500), and a 2007 Exquisite Rookie Signature’s. Gorgeous stuff.

Here’s a few serial numbered cards, including a 2018 Topps Triple Threads parallel 21/99. Jersey number serial numbers are awesome.

I love the image on the 1991 Topps Roger Clemens Card; I really wish they turned that into a poster or even one of those folders. Anyway? Here are two Gypsy Queen minis from a few years ago, serial numbered /50 and /199. I showed these to my son the other day and he smiled and said he knew where else this picture was used. That made ME smile.

I still buy relic cards if they’re cheap enough or make me feel a certain way. All three of these checked one or both of those boxes.

And I’ll round out the Clemens highlights — like I said I have others that I won’t show here for the sake of tome — with a 1995 Collector’s Choice Gold Signature parallel and a 2004 Topps Chrome Refractor. I don’t have enough Clemens refractors.

***

We’ll kick off the Kershaw portion with a BGS 9 Mint 2006 Bowman Heritage Prospects Card. I love BGS and grabbed this for almost as much as it costs to slab a single card these days. That’s a win.

Speaking of early cards, here are two inexpensive early editions I didn’t already own: 2006 Just and 2008 Tri-Star Projections.

Remember what I saw about Clemens relics above? The same applies for Kershaw. I added 7 new relics to my collection, including these three Panini “National” Silver (I think) Pack patch cards, which I scored collectively for about the price of a blaster. I now own 3 of the 15 produced.

The other relics included a Topps Tribute jumbo size relic, a full size Ginter relic and another 2018 Topps Heritage relic. Also, a 2016 Panini National Treasures dual jumbo relic booklet featuring two plain game-worn swatches. It’s almost blasphemous these large swatches are so bland in a product so expensive, but hey …. I’ll take a booklet of MY guy /15 for under $15.

From real used relics to manufactured relics. Here is a Topps MVP medallion Card, which is a type of card that usually doesn’t move the needle for me because it’s big (as in thick) and relatively unimpressive, except this one was cheap and it bears Kershaw’s serial number on the back.

Lets go from big to little … as in minis. The Diamond Kings is /25, and of course that red border Ginter is /40. Love this stuff even if they are a pain to store sometimes.

Speaking of parallels. Sometimes it’s a pain to chase these things for your player collections. But when they’re all together they sure are cool to look at. Here are a few various parallels.

And serial numbered parallels are also fun. I knocked out a few /10, /25, /50, /100 and so on …

Also picked up a pair of photo variations from recent years. Here are 2013 Topps and 2019 Topps.

And let’s round out this Kershaw section with a pair of high-end Topps cards, 2010 Topps Sterling /250 and 2012 Topps Museum Collection /199.

***

And lastly here are six cards that either I needed for a set, were so cheap I couldn’t pass or otherwise spoke to me.

That 2018 Topps On Demand Mike Trout reminded me of a dream I have which is to take a photo that winds up on a real baseball card; and that Todd Helton Playoff Absolute has a laundry tag in it. Couldn’t pass for under $10. The Arrieta Topps Update Rookie BGS 9.5 was a steal for under $2. That’s not a typo.

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Ooh, a new feature on COMC? Check.

Posted in Misc. with tags , , , on March 8, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

Today I was digging through the virtual card bin that is COMC and saw something I don’t recall seeing before … a check mark along the left side of the page noting which cards I already have in my inventory.

That’s a really neat feature that actually was immediately immediately helpful while looking at 2018 Stadium Club Clayton Kershaw cards.

Update: Turns out COMC has been using this for months. I’m just late to the game. Nonetheless, it’s a great feature to help avoid buying dupes while the cards sit in the consignment site’s warehouse.

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Tom Brady: A constant reminder I quit football cards too early

Posted in Misc. with tags , , , , , , , on January 21, 2019 by Cardboard Icons

Tom Brady is headed back to the Super Bowl, and sadly I’ve still got nothing to show for it.

No rookie cards. No autographs. No relics.

Just some basic Brady cards that managed to find their way into my collection.

You see, I made a decision around 2002 to stop regularly buying football cards. Like many, there was a time I collected cards of the four major sports. But by the time I was nearing the legal drinking age I was in college and tried to focus on my passion of baseball cards and tinker less with football.  In my mind I had already reached the peak of that segment of the hobby with a very successful 1998 – I managed to pull both Randy Moss and Fred Taylor from the same box of SP Authentic, and then hit both Dan Marino and Joe Montana autographs from the same box of SPX Finite that year. That success then caused me to have feelings of doubling down in 1999 with that massive quarterback class, most of whom washed out of the league within a few seasons.  And by year 2000 I decided Peter Warrick was the second coming of Randy Moss and Jerry Rice, and Chad Pennington was definitely the new Joe Namath. I think you see I failed miserably.

Opening the 2001 season, Tom Brady was still just a backup to Drew Bledsoe. His rookie cards were mere commons. Hell, I owned one – 2000 Upper Deck Black Diamond – and I let it sit in a penny sleeve among a bunch of defensive player rookie cards.

Well, by 2001 I had become so jaded by miserable purchases of 1999 and 2000 that I pretty much decided I was done with the football segment of the hobby.  I purchased less football in 2001, and even less by 2002. And in 2003 I sold it all – save for the Brady Black Diamond rookie because I had already unloaded it for like $15 the moment its status as non-common changed. (side note, the Brady is like a $300-$600 Card now, the one shown about is a PSA 9 on COMC.) You see, while I was the only person in my college Sports Psychology class at San Jose State University to actually pick the Patriots over the Rams during that year’s Super Bowl, I still didn’t quite buy the notion of Bledsoe permanently being unseated as the Patriots signal caller.

Well, I was wrong.

Bledsoe was done in New England and Brady was just getting started, ushering in a whole new generation of Patriots fans, and creating new standards by which we measured quarterbacks.

Because of the way I collected cards, I know that if I had stayed with football cards, I likely would have obtained multiple Tom Brady rookies at some point. Maybe not the Holy Grail Rookie Contenders autograph, but I still would have had many, especially that 2000 Bowman Chrome card, which to me seems like a must-own for hobbyists.

Alas, here I am some 15-plus years later reminiscing about what could have been — the prices of his standard rookie cards are insane — and the only thing I have to show for it is a blog post about a card I used to own.

 

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