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.

Card show finds - Miscellaneous dollar box pulls

For card shows I have to pay some type of entrance fee / premium for upfront, before even spending money at actual seller tables - is it a failure to dig around for smaller types of purchases?

I get self-conscious about having to think a little more 'big time' in order to justify a card show day - maybe it's just a case where I still have do my thing, even if I might not have clearly defined goals other than being loosey-goosey wandering and rummaging around.

The following were a results of a rummage in mostly a dollar box except for one card - in a case where I have to pay to gain admittance to a card show, maybe a game I want to play is staying away from sellers I know I've bought from before and end up seeing at the more typical 'free' card shows I go to.

As it goes however, that idea only lasts so long when I end up looking for that first accessible table where I start digging around bins - I ended up being charged $20 for about $26 worth of cards off a seller who puts out bins of $1, $2, $5 cards among other things he might tease at his table [maybe other odds and ends, a higher end showcase].

I've bought from this seller multiple times over the past two or three years at different places - though at the same card show event the year before, I was trying to be smart about staying away from someone relatively local.

1999 Topps Finest Split Screen Refractor Right Alex Rodriguez / Ken Griffey Jr. #SS2 [$2] - I'll pick up the occasional A-Rod card where there might be lingering nostaglia over the player, regardless of his mistakes in his professional baseball career and regardless of the things he is up to now to try and stay relevant, like working in the media and trying to own a professional sports team, etc.

I am not familiar with these Topps Finest inserts, though looking them up - there might be versions where the Griffey Jr. side is a refractor or a version where both sides are refractors.

I'm the peculiar collector who spends an hour rummaging through value box cards at one table where I have my game face on - I might not be digging through high brow stuff, I might be flagging odds and ends, but it's a thing to kind of keep going card-by-card, stack-by-stack and row-by-row.

While the seller has probably combed over his value boxes, I like the idea where I find all sorts of stuff - oddballs, shiny, old-school player card (s) and even newer retro cards of Hall of Fame legends.

Some of the odder stuff for me includes - a 1993 Upper Deck World Cup 94 Preview English / Spanish From The Sidelines Tony Meola #149, where he is signing for Reggie Jackson, 1992 Sports Illustrated for Kids Series 2 Dawn Staley #67 and a 2005-06 Topps Chrome Christie Brinkley #216.

I really have no lingering sentiment for the player, but I grabbed a 1999 Fleer Mystique Pat Burrell RC #134 - Serial #’d 2486/2999 - since it might have been his 'hot' mainstream rookie when he may have gotten hobby hype 25 years ago.

Making the odd Angels cards keepers is still fun, where I need that one MLB team to bang the drum for - idly digging where I was ready to check out, the 1964 Topps Angel Backstops Buck Rodgers (Bob Rodgers) / Ed Sadowski #61 might have been a last minute find.

I fished out these cards out of a vintage set-filler portion of mostly commons - 1970 Topps Jim Kaat #75, 1970 Topps Juan Marichal #210 and 1970 Topps Tony Oliva #510.

Besides baseball, the seller really has all sort of odds and ends where it's not jumbled up like a tub or bucket - but you never know what you might find.

I want to be narrow minded where I'm picking up baseball cards I'm familiar with for the most part - but to add some more wrinkles to my stack, I made a 1995 Panini Smash Hits Album Stickers Steven Tyler #3, a 1995 Panini Smash Hits Album Stickers Bono #137 and a 1995 Panini Smash Hits Album Stickers Madonna #79 keepers.

Card show finds - Miscellaneous vintage #2

I'm not so well versed in vintage cards, where it is sort of a 'no-context' collecting theme for me - but to follow in other collector's footsteps, I want to dabble in picking up random cards, so it's not always the new stuff I end up with in card show hauls.

Even if I'm never getting close to possessing particularly valuable and/or the coveted vintage that are slabbed up and rest in serious collectors' hands - I want to able to say that I can tease some old school / vintage baseball cards that adds some character to my collections.

Doing some blind digs in a vintage bin at a card show booth - it is hard to figure out what I am looking for, but maybe I try to see if there are cards that catch my eye or really players and/or specific cards other collectors have talked about.

I decided to splurge on a 1954 Bowman Larry Doby card #84 - I liked how he is posed on the dugout steps on a bright, sunny day with the stadium behind him.

The only thing was I did not bother to pay closer attention to the back of the card - I did not realize there were some writing that may have had me putting card back.

1954 Topps Ed O'Brien & Johnny O'Brien #139 - a unique twin brother duo who played on the same Pittsburgh Pirates teams in the big leagues.

1955 Topps Harry Agganis #152 - I was scrolling on Instagram two or three years ago when I learned about this card and the player, a two-sport athlete who ended up passing away prematurely.

1963 Fleer Albie Pearson #19 and 1962 Topps Baseball Bob Rodgers #431 - it may depend on what I find, but I might be apt to make keepers out of vintage cards of one-time Angels players, either to fill out my Angels Opening Day Starters collection or my all-time Angels register project.

Dollar vintage - the 1961 Topps Zorro 'Zoilo' Versalles RC #21 goes into my award winners collection, while the 1967 Topps Jose Cardenal #193 and 1967 Topps George Brunet #122 probably end up in my Angels Opening Day Starters collection or my all-time Angels register project.

Featured autograph - Michael Stefanic

I picked up this pack pulled autograph card to add to my all-time Angels collection - it ends being a pretty looking parallel that pops.

Stefanic has played in parts of two seasons with the Angels and while he might be a fringe big leaguer at 28 - he can handle the bat with a .326 lifetime average in the minors along with an on-base average of .412.

Thank you Shohei Ohtani and good luck

I did not want to get caught up in the news cycle of Shohei Ohtani signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers on social media - because in my own little way, I tend to want to share my two cents, interjecting my thoughts, where it ends up like trying to cope after he's left my home team.

It was a business decision on his end and strangely, I'm kind of glad he is still in So. Cal, where I wonder if the fandom for Ohtani supersedes the idea he is a Dodger - ideally, maybe it was better to see him in some far away place like Toronto, where he maybe he gets to be out of sight, out of mind.

I could understand where it was just about inevitable and logical - where it was always going to be the Dodgers or bust.

I’m probably not collecting his old team cards for one year where they are now dated, while my existing PC ends up being off cards from his old team - I can see where my interest in collecting Ohtani ends up being muted, until things settle down where softly remains one of those universally popular, easy guys to collect.

I abruptly cut the cord on the company that broadcasted Angel games late in 2022, where just before one of Ohtani's pitching starts, I found out there was no Angel channel to watch games anymore - the current streaming TV package that replaced the old cable TV one has the company that broadcasted Dodgers games locally, even though I barely ever tuned in through 2023.

Going forward, I’ll probably be glued into more Dodgers games due to Ohtani alone - even though the Angels are my team.

1.) Maybe said I would cease to be an Angels fan if and when Ohtani leaves - that probably won’t be the case, but losing this larger than life megastar it’s a whole new deal to process.

The Angels have been a bad organization for the past decade where as a fan, I can be a free agent too - but maybe I need to chill with my one lousy team and hope Ohtani defecting to the Dodgers ends up forcing the Angels to be more creative, where they need to do something radical.

2.) $700 million for a DH in the foreseesable season is ridiculous, but while I've always believed in the talent to come back - it softens the blow where Ohtani is only going to be doing one thing [and not two things at once].

3.) There is no reason to think that Ohtani will not have at least multiple seasons where he is pitching and hitting to his full capabilities - but maybe there is a part of me that wants to believe his first MLB team got his best three seasons ever.

Feeling down and out with Ohtani and the Angels

I got these cards from a purchase a day after news broke Shohei Ohtani’s UCL crapped out - I'll probably continue picking up random cards that catch my eyes, but there might be less FOMO over Ohtani's real high end cards or at least some of the nicer ones that might have been a little easier to get when he got hurt the first go-around.

Ohtani's future on the mound seems murky at best and it's buyer beware for the impending free agent - where the Angels probably got his best years as a two-way player.

I guess it's just how the passage of time all goes, where maybe it's not our reality to be a pro athlete of the highest magnitude - but it’s fleeting to be this larger than life figure, only to be broken [again] and perhaps the great times don't last.

Unless Ohtani just won’t be allowed to, I still see him DH’ing and finishing possibly his last season as an Angel - but it’s likely that Ohtani is going to have his arm rebuilt, where there will be uncertainty whether he makes it back to the mound in 2024 or even through 2025.

Unless proven otherwise, I'm just as convinced that the Angels franchise is nothing but hexed or cursed - it's laughable and depressing where the Angels end up being this big league franchise that can’t get anything right, where everyone hates the owner now and every misstep is magnified.

Mike Trout is back on the injured list and it is probably realistic that he might as well be out for the season - where whatever is lingering with him drags on and the only real solution is putting him on the shelf for rest.

TTM autographs received: Zach Neto

When Neto got called up to the big leagues, there was a little FOMO, because I hadn't really paid much attention to him other than the obvious, where he was the Angels first round pick in 2022 - I didn't have any of his cards except for the ones I picked up and sent to him at the tail end of the past off-season.

I wasn't sure if I was going to get back what I'd sent anytime soon after seeing he was already playing in spring training games with the big league club - I was pleasantly surprised to randomly get an in-season response, where his autograph becomes a current player add to my all-time Angels autograph collection.

Angels Opening Day starters - 2023 edition

I finally put together my cards for the 2023 season, which started three weeks ago - originally I was going to use non-Angels cards of Brandon Drury [first base] and Hunter Renfroe [right field] to fill out the lineup for now.

However, I bought a 2023 Topps Big League Angels team set on eBay for basically another copy of the Logan O'Hoppe Uncommon rookie card - but also with Drury and Renfroe's first Angels [Photoshopped] cards.

The only non-Angel card straggler for now ends up being shortstop Gio Urshela - I'm not going to worry about finding an Angels card for him until I can pull it or find it at some point within the year.

Card show pickups - Angels material

Off a seller, these are [dollar] Angel cards are ones I ended up making keepers - maybe I'm content to squirrel a few Angels here and there into my card show pile depending on the player and type of card, but even if I don't have them, I get picky just adding random Angels cards left and right.

I don't think I've ever had a Erstad 1996 Upper Deck SP RC #4 [which may have been special for a little bit when he was a top prospect] - Erstad's big league totals ended up being rather modest for a No. 1 overall pick, but he fit the mold of a 100 percent player / zero percent BS type fans ate up.

Maybe my favorite non-RC Mike Trout ends up being his 2016 Topps #1 and the version I picked up looks to be a Rainbow Foil parallel - I'm not focused enough to seek out a rainbow for a specific player or from a specific year, I might be on the look out for as many versions of the Trout when available.

I ended up picking up a 1969 Topps Hoyt Wilhelm for my 'all-time team register' collection last year but the no-team airbrushed cap doesn't make the card the most attractive - this 1969 Topps Decals Wilhelm actually has the Angels logo plastered on the cap, so it ends up popping a little more [even though it's not really a traditional trading card].

Featured autograph - Matt Moore

I picked this up because he was just signed by the Angels and figure a cheap certified autograph would be an easy add to my all-time autograph collection - I don’t remember whether I got him in-person during his young hotshot years as a starting pitcher Tampa Bay Rays.

Maybe it's better to have a random certified autograph to file away than to dig for an autograph I might not have at all - I looked up my memory banks and in 2012, it looks like I was able to get him in-person on an 8x10 print after being denied the previous day because he was tagging along with Evan Longoria.

TTM autograph received: Ted Bowsfield

I found this vintage Topps card off a card show rummage and checked if the one-time expansion Los Angeles Angel was still able to sign TTM - I sent it off and got a response in a couple of weeks.

Angels all-time team register collection

Team collecting like I've seen others do it [trying to collect card-by-card, set by set, year by year] is not quite a thing for me where I only care so much to really want to track everything and anything - but that doesn't mean I have local team interests where I'd like to play up cards featuring my home team Angels.

These non-Angel cards do not quite fit within the team related umbrella - but will likely be added into my all-time team register collection as guys who end up having these obscure stints with the team as bit players before moving on.

My team register collection is basically one more way for me to do something with loose cards that come my way and see how many different subjects I can add up - maybe completion isn't a realistic goal, but it might be good enough where I can add assorted cards of different players and see where I have 200-300 different subjects.

Maybe I'm spreading my interests too thin where this overlaps with my Angels all-time autograph collection - but maybe my all-time register is more of a side project.

Matt Duffy [2022] seems to have devolved from upstart big leaguer at the beginning of his career into basically being a replacement player - it probably will be the case where if I end up with an Angels Duffy card [he does have at least one in 2022 Topps Update], the non-Angels card gets bumped off somewhere else.

Austin Romine [2022] has bounced around in the big leagues, but like Duffy, ends up being a veteran who will still have cards made as long as they are in the big leagues and part of the MLBPA - however I don't think his three game stint with the Angels this past year will be immortalized on cardboard.

Elliot Soto [2020] ends up being the most obscure of the three, where he is more of a longtime infielder in the minors - who was basically rewarded with a big league call up during the 2020 pandemic season.

While Soto has some draft pick cards with the Chicago [Cubs] from 2011 - it was like a reward to do a random search off a seller's ebay store and find a team set card of his I made a keeper for a dollar.

2022 Topps Gold Brandon Marsh pick up

I picked this 2022 Topps Gold parallel up for about $10 after paying $40 another copy of the card [bundled with a couple of base cards] earlier in the year - maybe with the last purchase, I thought I was buying low where I thought Marsh had some upside for the Angels.

Go figure he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies and my pair of rookie-year centerpiece cards for Marsh probably gets lost in the shuffle within my regional collections - along with scattered cards of players who never quite delivered on their promise as one-time Angels prospects.

Entering 2022, I was wondering if Marsh's potential was more of 'good every day' player rather than an all-star type, since he's 24 already with the elite prospects breaking into the big leagues at 20, 21 or 22 years old - while Marsh's bat has cratered, maybe he could be a Jim Edmonds type where he taps into his ability to hit for average and power, though probably not to the extent where Edmonds evolved into a 25-30 home run slugger.

Marsh seemed was a pretty good defender in the outfield, always paying attention, hustling and seemingly making all the right plays where teammate Jo Adell can be a disaster on a game-by-game basis - there are Angels fans who would have preferred to give up on Adell, but in sort of a surprise, Marsh was the player sent off.

Mike Trout - is this the beginning to the end?

Maybe it was Albert Pujols 15-20 years ago where you had this big leaguer who stood above the rest and applauded for his metronomic excellence - Mike Trout has been that guy for the past 10-11 years where in my life, I wish I had just a bit of the confidence and type of energy he brings to a game.

But apparently diagnosed with a rare back condition, things are a bit uncertain at the moment - there maybe just cause to worry about his durability game by game, through a course of a 162 game season and longevity as far as considering how much longer can he be able to play.

Before he got hurt, there were batting slumps in the 2022 season where I wondered whether Trout could either see the ball or where his bat speed slowed considerably - when he was 'right,' I thought Trout had the perfect batting approach where you don’t really see him selling out at the plate.

Maybe he was as dynamic of a player, where he was basically a slugger, but also maintained the ability to hit line drives - it was a thing of beauty, where he seemed like you couldn’t effectively pitch to him to get him out. 

Now that idea is basically out the window, where Trout's plate discipline has deteriorated and he’s become an all-or-nothing hitter - despite having very good numbers if he was any other big league player, maybe he is finally turning mortal as a ballplayer.

Maybe for such a great player, that aw shucks stuff has worn thin - a bad stretch or a bad rest of the season doesn’t diminish his stature, but when push comes to shove, has he ever gotten demonstratively mad or simply voiced his displeasure to change things up for the better?

He is always going to be a GOAT for my team, even if that tenure has been made to feel dubious and suspect at times because the Angels haven't been good - I do wonder if the random cards I do have won’t be those solid gold, collection foundations anymore.

Through Trout’s prime years, I think I’ve been priced out of his better cards where I said I was content to keep what I had [2011 Topps Update rookie, a quartet of 2011 Topps Finest rookies I might have picked up for $0.50 each] or the more common inserts I may run into since he has been the prominent guy - maybe I was waiting or hoping something might trigger a ‘come down,’ despite knowing Trout has always been a rock solid player and there is no sentiment, where I was really wishing no one would care about him or particularly his cards ‘no more.

Angels Opening Day starters - better late than never

I put together my cards for the 2022 season, which started three weeks ago - it may not mean much in the grand scheme of things, but a loose card project I can complete for at least the current year gives me something to dwell on for a moment, especially with a home team focus.

I think I was actually missing a Mike Trout [center field] and a Matt Duffy [second base] so I didn't fill out my page until recently - it's not like I'm short on Trout cards, though I might have done a 'sweep' to put some loose ones away and then found one squirreled away randomly from a card show pick up last summer.

Since he already has an Angels card, I was hoping Tyler Wade would have been the Opening Day starter at second base - I had to figure out where my stash of Duffy cards was and found them in a baggie that was for some loose Chicago Cubs cards in 2021.

Due to necessity, there are the 'rare' instances where I've used a non-Angels card to fill out a page for a particular year - in this case, it's dupe of a 2016 Donruss San Francisco [Giants] card of Duffy.

Presumably for the more recent, active players, I'll be able to find an Angels card made at some point - where I'll 'upgrade' with the Angels card.

Something I had a little fun with was setting aside a couple of cards for Shohei Ohtani - where he was the Opening Day starter for the Angels as well as the designated hitter.

COMC mail #2 - Angels material

The 30-35 cards I picked up through 2021 came in one bubble mailer where they were sleeved and packed into a team bag, sandwiched between two cards in top loaders - then packed into a larger, team set bag.

I usually do not worry about their packaging regardless of service - they do a pretty good job packing things up.

Go figure, Mike Trout, Tim Salmon, Vladimir Guerrero and Shohei Ohtani are on my Mt. Rushmore of Angels players I collect - I'm not really into odd sized cards like the ones modeled after tobacco cards, but I grabbed the itty-bitty Trout just to have something different in-hand.

The 1993 Donruss Dominators Salmon has been a curiosity though I must have been aware of the card only through the past 5-10 years, not when it was first issued - searching for different, random things down the COMC maze, I looked up the Salmon and figured I'd finally grab it for $5 and change.

Maybe odd sized non-card items are even less of a thing for me, but I found a seller with an oddball Vladimir Guerrero coin / medallion - it gimmicky, but the shine was undeniable where this item [picturing the elder Guerrero as an Angel] should be a no brainer pick up at less than a dollar.

With the Shohei Ohtani's, I tried to pick up some decent looking inserts / parallels regardless of value - where it's strictly $1 or $2 'fun and games' material rather than something higher brow other collectors are chasing after.

I believe in Jo Adell can still be a star for the franchise - it's a matter of when his prospect pedigree and natural talent translate into a breakout season he can build upon.

The 2020 Bowman's Best Franchise 2020 Die-Cuts Adell is too shiny, too funky to ignore - I'll take it all day for about a dollar.

I may have grabbed the 2021 Topps Stadium Club Adell RC because it is an 'awesome outfield' card - but it never hurts when it also pictures a young player for my 'home team' with star potential.

The Andres Galarraga is an on card autograph though it identifies him as a Colorado [Rockies] player - I had a few opportunities to get his autograph during his last years as a player but this packed pulled autograph gives me something I can file away in my Angels all-time autograph collection outright.

Finally I grabbed a photo variation of Anthony Rendon - besides the guys that have that modern day pro athlete personality, I can appreciate the low-key, metronomic types like Rendon, who I hope bounces back from an injury shortened 2021 season.

It wasn't surprising, but there was a sense of finality

From a guy I dreamed on posting big numbers after the signed with the Angels to this moment - I had to do double take when I saw that Angels Facebook post where all time great Albert Pujols was being designated for assignment.

Reading bits and pieces, he might still be with the team but perhaps being unhappy about his playing time sealed his fate - in what was supposed to be his last year [as a player] as part of the mega contract he inked up during the 2011 offseason.

Through games this season, there was talk about how much healthier Pujols was and how much harder he was hitting the ball according to all that exit velocity data - I told myself, guy is hitting .195 and while batting average maybe outdated, go wake me up when he's hitting .250.

At this point, my sentimentally towards Pujols is a little muted - I won't ever question his intensity, work ethic or his intentions, but he's the No. 1 example where getting old and modern day shifts really accelerate the deterioriation of a superstar player's ability to perform on a year-to-year basis past a certain point.

Scratch that Shohei Ohtani day

I grabbed this card at the beginning of the season and got it delivered in-hand about a couple of weeks ago - today was supposed to Ohtani's scheduled start against the Tampa Bay Rays' ace Tyler Glasnow, but Ohtani was scratched after getting hit by a pitch on his elbow on Sunday.

It's been refreshing to see Ohtani be in the lineup as a DH for much of the season - though I'm still concerned what he does as a batter and baserunner will lead to possible injury or fatigue, affecting his ability to pitch on a regular basis and at full strength through the rest of the year.

I guess I can flip things around to make this into a Glasnow post, who has been that stud pitching talent with a big arm peaking at the right time - several weeks ago, I put together a page with his cards as an addition to my decade / binder stars collection just to acknowledge his ascencion to stardom.

TTM autographs received: Raisel Iglesias

The Angels closer signed my cards in about 2 weeks c/o Angels ST address - though his autographs are basically his initials and his number, unlike the autograph I got when I first got his autograph years ago, he's always been a pretty good signer through the mail.

Even though I might lose a couple of cards [regardless of all the success reported over the years] due to uncertain times, I mail a request towards the end of spring training - I wanted to see if I can get some fresh ink off a current Angels player I look to watch close out ballgames throughout the 2021 season.

Featured autograph - Gordon Beckham

From a f/s listing in a Facebook group I belong to, this was 1 of 3 IP/TTM autograph cards I picked up for $2 each - while I made sure to get a certified autograph of Beckham early in his pro career, he did not seem like he was an easy player to get an autograph from IP/TTM.

Coming out of college, I thought Beckham was going to be a big league star, but despite sticking around for 12 years - he was more of an up-and-down disappointment than a player to build around.