COMC order #5 - Ichiro

I passively end up making keepers out base cards / inserts and parallels of prominent players to reflect the fabric of a decade / era - this may not mean I actively collect everyone as if they were all my personal favorites, where being obligated to mindlessly hoard 'numbers' seems overwhelming.

On the other hand, besides my regional favorites, I've settled on a short list of 5-10 guys from a decade / era I've chosen to really focus on - from the 2000s through 2010s, Ichiro was an all-around national star to gravitate to, where there is lingering sentiment to this day.

Admittedly, Ichiro had gluts of MLB cards issued where I am content to leave most alone unless they fall into my lap - however, it becomes a mission to look for cards that end up a little different, notably his 1990s pre-MLB issues from Japan.

In my COMC order, I tried to build up a micro-mini run of random ones that caught my eye a couple of years ago - maybe there was a little bit of FOMO, where the cards would have been listed at higher prices once he got elected to the Hall of Fame and any one card would be harder to consider as impulse pick ups.

I tried to pick out some unique ones, even if they more basic cards - where it wasn't the just the usual hitting, fielding or standing around during a baseball game images.

COMC order #4 - Al Schacht

I had picked up a vintage card of Al Schacht in 2022, which I thought was a real neat, quaint odd card for a someone mostly trying to catch up with the here and now - maybe in 2023, I saw another different vintage card of Schacht during a card show rummage, but it didn't register as something I had to pick up and probably pair up with the other already in-hand.

Maybe I regretted not making a keeper out of the second Schacht card, so on a random search on COMC - I had the card in my memory banks and see if I could seek out a copy to add to my account / port.

COMC order #3 - Michael Jordan

1992-93 Topps Archives Michael Jordan #52 - I picked a copy of this card up after regretting skipping past one during a card show rummage three years ago.

While the card sat in COMC account - I got another copy from a card show rummage, which was added to my first all-time Top 100 keepers collection.

Maybe it would have been nicer if Topps had tried to mimic an original back for the Topps Archives cards - where the front matches the back as far as mimicking the 1984 Topps [baseball] set design.

1994 Classic Minor League All Star Edition - Michael Jordan #1 - I have had at least three or four Jordan baseball cards in my collections, but may have seen this posted on another card blog [Dime Boxes?] one time, so I was inspired to hunt for a copy to make a keeper.

Jordan's dalliance in pro baseball in 1994 was peculiar where he hit .202, which was right at the Mendoza line. - but it's kind of an impressive feat to have the season he did, for a guy who never played baseball past high school and had to learn some basic things about being a pro ball player.

COMC order #2 - Todd Helton

I passively end up making keepers out base cards / inserts and parallels of prominent players to reflect the fabric of a decade / era - this may not mean I actively collect everyone as if they were all my personal favorites, where being obligated to mindlessly hoard 'numbers' seems overwhelming.

On the other hand, besides my regional favorites, I've settled on a short list of 5-10 guys from a decade / era I've chosen to really focus on - Helton is one of those former players who ends up a non-geographical guy for me whose cards I can look for, where it becomes a mission to claim or rummage for his cards I assume I don't have.

Go figure in my COMC order, I only ended up with a couple of Heltons - it could have been a trio of them, but the card that was missing in my order was actually a Helton card.

1998 Leaf Fractal Foundation Gold Leaf Rookie /3999 Todd Helton #184

Helton has his share of rookie era issues, but it's not as big of priority to chase and pay a premium for any one particular card - when his true rookie card [1993 Topps Traded #19T; Team USA] ends up pre-dating his professional career.

2001 Donruss Class Of 2001 Scrapbook /525 Todd Helton #SB-7

Maybe unique design jersey / relic cards might be fun to track down on the cheap - even when it's a type of card that other collectors don't value at all, they fill out my player collections.

COMC order #1 - Angels material

I had about 40 cards in my account and in November decided to finally have them delivered - the shipping charges of around $15 hit me like a brick, where I was hoping for a flat rate of $6 perhaps.

I knew there were grumbling about how COMC jacked up shipping over the past year and I didn't quite know what to make of it - in my case, I just factored the extra costs [$5.99 for the first item and $0.25 per additional item] into what I paid for each card, where what any single card actually cost was OK to a certain pont.

The bulk of my cards have been in my account for past two or three years, where I could have acted on getting my cards shipped then rather than now - I was probably content to let my cards sit in my account, but in case something unexpected happens, I didn't want to let another year go by without having them in hand.

Even with the shipping fee increased, I wasn't expecting a quick ship time - maybe the original ship date was early December, but checking back on updates changed the date into a January ship date.

I actually got notification where my order was shipping out days before Christmas, so that was better than expected - where I didn't have to wait much longer to thumb through the cards that were in someone else's possession for all this time

The only problem with my shipment was getting an email letting me know a card couldn't be added due to a warehouse error - my account was eventually credited for the cost [$2.85] of the card, but maybe I don't get that clean break from the grasp of COMC just yet, where I found a different card to add.

I am going to see if I can get on a run of showing my COMC cards - where it'll have some content to post through the new year.

2018 Topps Update Series SP Legend Variation Nolan Ryan #US1 - a classic posed image of the strikeout king in his prime.

Looking back to when card was printed - 2018 will ring the same way in collector's ears, the way 2011 once did, for one singular player, then maybe a couple more.

1996 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle Tim Salmon / Barry Bonds #5 - regardless of value, I feel a shiny card like this ends up a centerpiece to my Salmon collection.

Maybe the more prominent, infamous player is on the reverse - no one would ever think that Salmon or Bonds would meet in the World Series years later.

1990 Topps TV Glossy All-Star Set Chuck Finley #14 - Finley was one of the all-time pitching greats in Angels franchise history, but his cards spawned during the junk wax era.

For a guy like Finley, it ends up being fun to find an oddball card - that was a little different than the glut of mainstream cards printed.

A quartet of miscellaneous Angels cards - the Garret Anderson and Mike Trout boyhood inserts might go a perpetually work in progress Angels themed curated set, where I set aside 100-108 cards for sentimental purposes.

The first year 2024 Bowman Draft card of Christian Moore was among the few 'new' cards I was able to tack on before shipping my cards out - where I added $25 to my account, but $15 of that amount had to go into shipping my cards out.

Finally, there is a Logan O'Hoppe insert pictured, where he was a promising young player when he first came up - but has had a rougher go with things the past couple of years, where his future is a little uncertain.

Mini-collection finds - at a crossroads Pt. 2

The following pick-ups represents the other part my latest finds - where it shouldn't be all that serious and if I'm not having fun, I should just quit collecting cold turkey.

Beyond the glory - Octavio Dotel - I don't want to use a former player's untimately passing as reason to collect them now, where I didn't do so before.

However, I might give a player like Dotel [R.I.P.] a second look - where it's a more recent guy I remember playing just 10-15 years ago.

Awesome outfield action - Eric Davis - I like cards of guys trying to do something unique in the outfield.

Hats-off - Barry Bonds - my decade / binder star collections supersede any mini-collecting considerations, regardless of quality; on the other hand, I might prefer to have some star power in my mini-collections, where it doesn't matter what I do with a $0.50 card.

Inking it up - a part of me misses going to MLB games and spring training, trying to get stuff signed by players in-person, where seeing card pictures of players doing some fan service almost ends up bittersweet where my glory days are ancient history.

Pitchers hitting - it's still fun seeing the occasional, dated cards of pitchers hitting or in some cases, doing some baserunning like former big leaguer Alex Fernandez.

Players interviewed - Pedro Martinez - I don't remember claiming the Martinez from a sale online, but it looks like I did make it a keeper.

It could do double duty as a players smiling card - but a microphone is visible, where I assume he is doing an interview.

Players smiling - Dave Henderson - not even considering the ALCS home run he hit against the Angels in 1986, where it was before my time, Henderson was not a player [R.I.P.] who I'd built up a lingering sentiment for to ever collect.

On the other hand, maybe I've read or seen somewhere, where he always had a smile on his face and was part of those great late 1980s / early 1990s Oakland Athletics teams - maybe I can find the space for an occasional mini-collection card or a card for my team boxes.

Shades - Phil Nevin - I got this as a bonus card as part of an occasional '2-for-1' deal [with the Gwynn shown above] offered for sale from a seller online I claim and buy cards from.

I don't know if I can use a Nevin card in 2025 - taking a closer look at the batting image, Nevin is wearing sunglasses of some sort, so I collect those cards too where players are shown with sunglasses or shades.

Mini-collection finds - at a crossroads Pt. 1

I've probably hoarded mini-collection cards for at least the past 18 years - I'm kind of bored with having 25-30 themes I have to keep up with, where it's mostly salvaging bulk cards in a perpetual, 'in my own little world' chase.

On the other hand, maybe I'm just not done at all with my mini-collection adventures - to amuse myself, I'm still keeping an eye out for miscellaneous cards through online sales and even paying a premium for certain mini-collection cards outright, even if they are dated pieces of cardboard that no reasonable collector would want through 2025.

The following pick-ups represents my latest finds - where it shouldn't be all that serious and if I'm not having fun, I should just quit collecting cold turkey.

Fun cards - Oddities - this junk wax era card of Fred McGriff seems like a pretty basic [Studio] shot card, but giving it a second glance, the Hall of Famer is posed balancing a bat [knob] on his finger.

I don't know if this ends up for my junk wax era curated set or another card that ends up being sort of unique - where it's kind of goofy.

Awesome action - Actual on field game action - I have cards with standout fielding images by position and cards with standout throwing images, for infielders making regular throws and second baseman and shortstops in particular, making double play throws.

Game face cards - Focused and Men at Work - Kevin Brown looks like his day is done but he has his right arm wrapped up, so that is kind of a unique shot, with him still looking like he paying attention in the dugout.

Richard Hidaldgo was a decent MLB player back in his day - but here he is shown as a young pro, doing soft toss duties in some minor league outpost somewhere.

I had to have the Russ Ortiz card and ends up my pick to click here - where I assume he is running sprints through the stands inside Scottsdale Stadium, where the San Francisco Giants have their spring training games.