COMC order #9 - Another variety pack [FIN]

To stretch things out, one final post for the COMC cards I had gotten in-hand last December - where I've conscripted odds and ends to my collections.

2025 Topps Finest Drake Baldwin RC #21 - my interest in keeping up with aspects of Major League Baseball has probably waned through the past decade, where I might plead ignorance as far as knowing the top prospects coming up.

Entering the 2025 season, maybe Baldwin was a bit of an unknown commodity anyway - I wasn't paying any particular attention as he played well enough to displace Sean Murphy as the Atlanta Braves' starting catcher and won the 2025 National League Rookie of the Year.

As it goes, I probably needed any Baldwin card to fill a spot in my award winners collection - which ends up kind of being in mothballs, where the only time I might worry about the project is when I can add more cards of the year-to-year award winners [MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year].

2002 Donruss Originals On the Record /800 Jimmie Foxx #OR-2 - I thought up a random insert set to search for back in 2023 and this one came up in my memory banks, where it's something that came out 25 years ago and counting.

The card is jazzed up with a serial number on the back and looks almost inspired of a USA Today newspaper like design - Babe Ruth makes a cameo, so it ends up being a star on star card.

1975 NST Mr. Baseball Stamps Shigeo Nagashima #204 and 2001 BBM Shigeo Nagashima #530 - to broaden my collecting interests, I might have been looking to build up a micro-mini collection of his cards a couple of years ago.

It might not actually be a traditional card, but I like the candid street clothes moment captured - where Nagashima is signing autographs for a couple of boys.

2022 BBM Fusion Roki Sasaki #16 - maybe I wished I would have grabbed some Japanese era Sasaki cards while in Japan last November, but was worried I was overpaying for single cards that were not rookies anyway.

2022 BBM Roki Sasaki Perfect Game Roki Sasaki #11 - I think I made up for a little bit of regret, picking out a couple of Sasaki cards, where they at least showed some unique, cutesy images, even if they were no better than the other Japanese era Sasaki cards.

2022 Bowman NPB Nippon Professional Baseball Yoshinobu Yamamoto #9 - maybe I wanted to squirrel away a Japan era card of the Japanese import after his rookie year back in 2024, even if the card I ended up with here was a pretty basic card.

2023 Topps Now Off-Season Yoshinobu Yamamoto #/34,496 #OS-25 - this wasn't worth much at all, but maybe his earliest MLB era card, even if it's a oddball Topps Now thing as opposed to a card that would be inserted in packs.

1974-75 Calbee Bobby Marcano #836 - to fill out my purchase before having things shipped, I grabbed this old-school Japanese card of a Gaijin player who was from Venezuela and flourished in Japan as a second baseman.

Looking for some PWE cheap thrills

I have not been at an in-person card show in two months but that doesn't mean there has been a stoppage in fiending out on picking up cardboard - it's gotten to a point where everything just sits once I get it in-hand and maybe there has not been the ability to make sense of it all, much less blog about any hauls from social media commerce.

The cards I picked up [for $3 shipped] might just be the least important out of things I've bought lately - but gives me seemingly an easy task to talk about or to show off as proof of life goes.

I thought this was a real 2001 Bowman Heritage Miguel Cabrera peeking out from a seller's sale picture - I figured it wasn't a rookie card, but maybe early career prospect cards of eventual big league greats have some novelty where it's a cool find.

Go figure, the seller asked me if I was still OK claiming the card since it was actually a reprint - it might have been $0.50 or a dollar, so I just went with it since I didn't want to seem like I just had no idea what I was looking at.

A shiny foil card of Shohei Ohtani is never a bad thing to make a keeper out of - the Panini issue from a couple of years ago might be unlicensed by MLB, but he might be changing teams in the off-season, where that 'Los Angeles' on the card could mean the Angels or the Dodgers.

I like Vladimir Guerrero [Sr.] as much as the other guy and he actually played for my home team, so it's more natural for me to gravitate towards any of his cards with lingering nostalgia - this shiny card is from his Montreal Expos days is a loud one and and before he played for the Angels, I used to follow him a little bit because he was a fun player to watch.

I'm not sure I like how Fleer / Skybox mirrored Guerrero's image on the front with a reversed image on the back of the card - but maybe that just adds some fun to a card that is nearly 25 years old.

Showing off a $5 card show duo

I pulled these and added them to a separate pile from my last post - I do not know much about either card, but the Barry Bonds insert was too loud to put back and the vintage minor league card pictures a Veterans Committee Hall of Famer.

Showing off my $2 card show hauls

These cards were my pick ups from a table with $2 bins off a show I go to once a month - from a father and college age son seller duo, who wouldn't have a reason to recognize me, but I've seen them set up around over the past couple of years.

From what I may have overheard and assumed, with the son going to school, the pair ends up spacing out in their card show selling appearances - until the son has the free time to help out.

I've looked forward to seeing what they might tease in their value boxes when they've shown up - maybe due to rising costs all around, maybe their cheap stuff was mostly $2 boxes and up, where it was mainly dollar bin set ups through the past two years.

Because I was trying to rummage for keepers out of the $2 boxes in a limited amount of time, I didn't even realize they did have a dollar box - which seemed otherwise hidden or out of view.

Oddball action - the Wally Joyner card caught my eye, picturing him in college.

The card may not be a true pre-rookie issue, but likely from a smaller set - producted during his rookie season in 1986 to capitalize on his Wally World fame.

I grabbed the magazine insert card of Kirk Gibson because it's a little different than his mainstream junk wax era issues - even though it could be easily a card probably weeded out at the final stage of my rummage, I'll give myself a high five for making it a keeper.

Old-school and vintage mix - I found a copy of the infamous 1972 Topps Billy Martin finger card a couple of years ago and it made sense to pair it with the In Action subset, where he's in his element as a manager.

1975 SSPC Superstars and 1976 SSPC mix - I didn't realize these cards came from different sets until I started looking them up.

These basic cards are unlicensed, but are relatively nice looking - where singles of notable players might be keepers as a complement to same-year or same-era Topps cards.

Other sport / non sport - collecting anything other than baseball cards has never been my thing, but I had to grab the card of Ke Huy Quan [Short Round] since he won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Centerfield contemporaries - 1990s edition - Ken Griffey Jr. was an all-time great, but Bernie Williams was a great part of the New York Yankees dynasty from the late-1990s through the early 2000s.

Showing off some card show stuff #2

To bide my time, I was rummaging through this couple’s table where the I'd overheard the husband say at previous shows he's looking get rid of his cards- the table might have some interesting loose singles to dig for and the person usually offers a discount if at least a couple of cards are purchased.

I might have finally bit on a $5 [off-grade, off-centered vintage card of an all-time fan favorite] but was just kind of idle and looking closer - realized the card has a crease down the middle where the eye appeal wasn't there.

I had second thoughts where I really wanted the card - but had to pivot towards finding others.

2005 Upper Deck Justin Verlander RC #430 [$5] - it depends on what I may actually find, but I maybe on the hunt for loose, low end rookies of star players with significant playing careers.

2003 Fleer E-X X-Tra Innings Ichiro 1 of 10XI [$5] - this might be a type of insert I might have pulled back in the day and say, ‘meh’ where it’s not really a hit in my book, especially out a $6 pack, but the die-cut design and the use of black color scheme makes this card stand out.

I was going to get those two [for $8], but just make it an even $10 - the seller had me grab a 2019 Topps Chrome 1984 Ichiro 84TC-14, which was fine by me.

Showing off some card show stuff #1

These were there results of pick ups from a couple of trips to a table with dollar boxes - last year, I picked up $20 worth of cards from the same table [different location at the show], but the last few times I was at this show towards the end of October, I didn't see the seller setup.

The lure was finding the occasional loose old-school [early 1980s and before] and vintage [1973 and before] cards - where the boxes ended up being sort of a treasure hunt for notable names on cards at least 40 years old.

I ended up spending $21 on the cards pictured above and while it's not high brow material - I can make believe my finds are better than picking up a $20 blaster or comparable to the results, of one of those specialty, collector repacks I've seen online.

I'd moved on in my day, but still trying to see if I can rummage around cards at various tables when I was ready to leave - I ended up back at the dollar boxes, wondering if I can fish out at least 4-5 other cards I might have overlooked.

I grabbed the Russell Martin pack pulled autograph because I remember him being among a core of rising stars for the Los Angeles Dodgers through the late 2000s - at some point, while still trying to get autographs in-person, I felt he had gotten stingier about signing, so this random card ends up being a winning find in my book after Martin's career was over and done with.

I don't ever need a Troy Glaus memorabilia card again but 20 years ago, he was the Angels' young superstar slugger - where for at least a couple of years, the sky was the limit.

I'm not sure if I've ever had a 1987 Fleer Bo Jackson RC, which may have actually been his most popular rookie issue at his peak - to the naked eye, maybe it's a little off-center, but clean enough for me to overlook anything else.

Maybe I wasn't finding anymore 'cool' old-school and vintage cards, but grabbed this Topps insert game card of Orlando Cepeda - thought it has creases running along the card, where I wasn't paying much attention.

Finally I grabbed a really shiny Topps Finest parallel of Trevor Hoffman from the late 1990s - he was a notable relief star through the time he played, but maybe only years after the fact he's gets into the Hall of Fame, might I consider the occasional card I find as a keeper.

Mostly a 1986 Topps Traded repack brick

The highlights of this may have been the XRCs of fan favorites like Wally Joyner, Andres Galarraga, Bobby Bonilla John Kruk and Bip Roberts - I'd prefer a repack with a lot more variety as far as brands and years go, but there is a good mix here and I'm just glad the 'bulk' wasn't mostly junk wax era flagship Topps.

1986 Topps Traded

#51T Wally Joyner XRC

2020 Topps Finest James Paxton #96

1986 Topps Phil Niekro #790

#126T Bobby Witt

#6T Don Baylor

#68T Mickey Mahler

#67T Steve Lyons

#125T Mitch Williams

#37T Terry Forster

#34T Mark Eichhorn

#54T Bob Kipper

#25T Mark Clear

#17T Tom Candiotti

#5T Scott Bailes

#62T Rudy Law

#4T Paul Assenmacher

#55T Wayne Krenchicki

#124T Dick Williams

#128T George Wright

#41T Ken Griffey

#116T Alex Trevino

#52T Charlie Kerfeld

#45T Billy Hatcher

#102T Ted Simmons

#109T Tim Teufel

#61T Dave LaPoint

#57T Mike LaCoss

#111T Andres Thomas

#108T Danny Tartabull

#87T Dan Plesac

#15T Steve Boros

#16T Rick Burleson

#92T Bille Jo Robidoux

#120T Bob Walk

#97T Joe Sambito

#72T Andy McGaffigan

#103T Sammy Stewart

#98T Billy Sample

#76T Jerry Mumphrey

#129T Ricky Wright

#17T Bill Cambpell

#119T Ozzie Virgil

#131T Paul Zuvella

#36T Scott Fletcher

#77T Phil Niekro

#63T Rick Leach

#73T John Cerutti

#99T Dave Schmidt

#21T Carmen Castillo

#9T Juan Berenguer

#33T Mike Easler

#78T Randy Niemann

#39T Jim Fregosi

#101T Tom Seaver

#44T Moose Haas

#88T Darrell Porter

2007 Topps Felix Hernandez #435

2007 Topps Mike Mussina #452

2007 Topps Craig Biggio #517

2007 Topps Jim Thome #481

2007 Topps Tom Glavine #410

2007 Topps Gary Sheffield #470 

1981 Fleer Rod Carew #168

1992 Topps Stadium Club Eddie Murray #795

2007 Topps Carlos Beltran #200

2007 Topps Andy Pettitte #32

2007 Topps Gary Sheffield #133 - I realize it just happens, but why are there two Sheffield base cards in the 2007 Topps set? 

2012 Topps Chris Sale #149

2018 Topps Chrome Stephen Strasburg #185

2014 Topps Opening Day Stephen Strasburg #21

2014 Topps Opening Day Chris Archer #153

2014 Topps Opening Day Chris Sale #151

2014 Topps Opening Day Patrick Corbin #68

2014 Topps Opening Day Hyun-Jin Ryu #213

2014 Topps Opening Day Yu Darvish #148

2014 Topps Opening Day Josh Donaldson #11

2016 Topps Opening Day Gerrit Cole #OD-163

2016 Topps Opening Day Stephen Strasburg #OD-194

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Mini Gary Sheffield #138

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Alex Rodriguez #64

1996 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Mo Vaughn #480

#100T Ken Schrom

#69T Candy Maldonado

#117T Manny Trillo

#91T Bip Roberts XRC

#12T Bobby Bonilla XRC

#130T Steve Yeager

#66T Jim Leyland XRC

#40T Andres Galarraga XRC

#19T John Cangelosi XRC

#31T Rob Deer

#2T Neil Allen

#7T Steve Bedrosian

#13T Juan Bonilla

#123T Bill Wegman XRC

#107T Chuck Tanner

#59T Mike Laga

#81T Bobby Ojeda

#113T Robby Thompson XRC

#56T John Kruk XRC

#115T Wayne Tolleson

One more 1981 Topps repack brick

#260 Ron Cey

#228 Tom Paciorek

#230 George Hendrick

#231 Joe Beckwith

#232 Mickey Klutts

#233 Skip Lockwood

#235 Scott Sanderson

#236 Mike Ivie

#237 Charlie Moore

#238 Willie Hernandez

#239 Rick Miller DP

#241 Checklist 122-242 DP

#242 Chet Lemon

#243 Sal Butera RC

#244 Tito Landrum / Al Olmsted / Andy Rincon RC

#245 Ed Figueroa

#246 Ed Ott DP

#247 Glenn Hubbard DP

#248 Joey McLaughlin

#249 Larry Cox

#251 Tom Brookens

#252 Victor Cruz

#253 Dave Bergman

#255 Mark Littell

#256 Bombo Rivera

#257 Rennie Stennett

#258 Joe Price RC

#262 Sammy Stewart

#263 Brian Downing

#264 Jim Norris

#265 John Candelaria

#266 Tom Herr

#267 Stan Bahnsen

#268 Jerry Royster

#269 Ken Forsch

#270 Greg Luzinski

#271 Bill Castro

#273 Stan Papi

#274 Craig Chamberlain

#276 Dan Spillner

#277 Alfredo Griffin

#278 Rick Sofield

#279 Bob Knepper

#280 Ken Griffey, Sr.

#281 Fred Stanley

#282 Rick Anderson / Greg Biercevicz / Rodney Craig RC

#283 Billy Sample

#284 Brian Kingman

#285 Jerry Turner

#286 Dave Frost

#287 Lenn Sakata

#288 Bob Clark

#289 Mickey Hatcher

#290 Bob Boone DP

#291 Aurelio Lopez

#292 Mike Squires

#293 Charlie Lea RC

#294 Mike Tyson DP

#295 Hal McRae

#296 Bill Nahorodny DP

#297 Bob Bailor

#298 Buddy Solomon

#299 Elliott Maddox

#301 Matt Keough

#303 Johnny Oates

#304 John Castino

#305 Ken Clay

#306 Juan Beniquez DP

#307 Gene Garber

#308 Rick Manning

#309 Luis Salazar RC

#310 Vida Blue DP

#311 Freddie Patek

#312 Rick Rhoden

#313 Luis Pujols

#314 Rich Dauer

#316 Craig Minetto

#317 Lonnie Smith

#318 Steve Yeager

#319 Rowland Office

#320 Tom Burgmeier

#322 Neil Allen

#323 Jim Morrison DP

#324 Mike Willis

#326 Biff Pocoroba

#327 Moose Haas

#328 Dave Engle / Greg Johnston / Gary Ward RC

#329 Joaquin Andujar

#330 Frank White

#331 Dennis Lamp

#332 Lee Lacy DP

#333 Sid Monge

#334 Dane Iorg

#336 Eddie Whitson

#337 Lynn Jones

#338 Checklist 243-363

#340 Bruce Kison

#341 Dwayne Murphy

#342 Eric Rasmussen DP

#344 Byron McLaughlin

1981 Topps repack brick results

At the card show I went to, I was doing work digging through a seller's cheapo boxes - after tallying things up, it looks like I grabbed 108 cards that were 6 for $1, another 5-10 cards that were 3 for $1 and/or $0.50 each.

There was a 'display' of repackaged cards [$3 each of 2 for $5] that were apparently put together by the seller's son [might have been 11 or 12 years old] - actually grabbed three [one had a 1981 Topps Bobby Grich, I'm sure the other had a 1981 Topps Ron Cey on top and the other had a 1986 Topps Traded Wally Joyner XRC.

I tried to ask what was in them to, even though that feels kind of dumb question because it's going to be mostly someone else's discards - maybe I was just hoping not to be skunked where it's junk, junk [cards from the junk wax era, all dupes, no variety in years at all] as opposed to cards [miscellaneous brands, maybe some base stars / inserts, maybe oddballs or a good mix of years] that maybe interesting to go through, even if there was no value at all.

#182 Bob Grich

#171 Gene Richards

#10 Mike Flanagan

#19 Jim Clancy

#36 Ed Farmer

#37 Gary Roenicke

#94 Harry Spilman DP

#120 Larry Bowa

#121 Larry Harlow

#122 John Denny

#123 Al Cowens

#124 Jerry Garvin

#126 Charlie Leibrandt

#127 Rudy Law

#128 Gary Allanson

#129 Art Howe

#130 Larry Gura

#131 Keith Moreland

#132 Tommy Boggs

#133 Jeff Cox

#134 Steve Mura

#135 Gorman Thomas

#136 Doug Capilla

#137 Hosken Powell

#138 Rich Dotson

#139 Oscar Gamble

#140 Bob Forsch

#141 Miguel Dilone

#142 Jackson Todd

#143 Dan Meyer

#144 Allen Ripley

#145 Mickey Rivers

#146 Bobby Castillo

#147 Dale Berra

#148 Randy Niemann

#149 Joe Nolan RC

#151 Claudell Washington

#152 John Urrea

#153 Tom Poquette

#154 Rick Langford

#155 Chris Chambliss

#156 Bob McClure

#157 John Wathan

#159 Brian Doyle

#160 Garry Maddox

#161 Dan Graham

#162 Doug Corbett

#163 Billy Almon

#164 Lamarr Hoyt

#165 Tony Scott

#166 Floyd Bannister

#167 Terry Whitfield

#168 Don Robinson

#169 John Mayberry

#170 Ross Grimsley

#172 Gary Woods

#173 Bump Wills

#174 Doug Rau

#175 Dave Collins

#176 Mike Krukow

#177 Rick Peters

#178 Jim Essian

#181 Elias Sosa

#183 Dick Davis

#184 Jim Dwyer

#185 Dennis Leonard

#186 Wayne Nordhagen

#187 Mike Parrott

#188 Doug Decinces

#189 Craig Swan

#190 Cesar Cedeno

#191 Rick Sutcliffe

#192 Braves Future Stars feat. Terry Harper / Ed Miller / Rafael Ramirez 

#193 Pete Vuckovich

#194 Rob Scurry

#195 Rich Murray

#196 Duffy Dyer

#197 Jim Kern

#198 Jerry Dybzinski

#199 Chuck Rainey

#200 George Foster

#203 Bill Gullickson

#204 Record Breaker feat. Ron LeFlore / Rodney Scott

#208 Record Breaker feat. Willie Wilson

#209 Dickie Thon

#211 Derrel Thomas

#212 Steve Nicosia

#213 Al Holland

#215 Larry Hisle

#216 John Henry Johnson

#217 Rich Hebner

#218 Paul Splittorff

#219 Ken Landreaux

#221 Bob Davis

#222 Jorge Orta

#223 Roy Lee Jackson

#224 Pat Zachry

#225 Rupert Jones

#226 Manny Sanguillen

#227 Fred Martinez

My experiences with some junk boxes of doom - box 4.2

I think these are complete L.A.P.D. / DARE Los Angeles Dodgers sets from 1995 and 1996 - maybe at least a couple of cards from the perforated sheets have been damaged due to the natural conditions, but most cards are fairly clean and if I wanted to separate them, I don't need scissors to do so.

These oddballs are not worth anything but maybe after a certain number of years [25 years] - cards like this end up starting to be old-school curiosities, where it stirs up some sort of faux collecting nostalgia for cards I've never hand in-hand before.

More junk wax era singles in semi-rigids holders - I want say these cards wouldn't look out of place in card magazines from the era, even though the players pictured on the cards never had that lasting power in the hobby.

Maybe I'll set a number of these cards aside in a collecting time capsule of sorts - where I'm reminded that many of these cards were coveted as 'here and now' material from the years I really started collecting.

Finally there are these Topps stickers from 1986 - they are odd sized, flimsy and not something I'm familiar with at all.

I'll try and sort them out just to see if there is any more star power - but this might be it with Robin Yount, half and half combo of Goose Gossage / Jack Morris, half of Pete Rose, Wade Boggs and Jim Rice.

I don't know if I'll bother looking up who's who on these random stickers - like one showing a pair of longtime, shortstops who won Rookie of the Year awards [Alfredo Griffin and Ozzie Guillen] or another picturing Dan Gladden and Dwight Evans.

My experiences with some junk boxes of doom - box 4.1

This was the last of the 4 boxes I bought for $3 each off a bargain table at a card show.

This maybe dumpster diving at its finest - not everything is going to be salvageable, but I'll see what I can rummage through for the curiosity factor.

To this day I love digging through cards and sorting them out, though with these boxes - it was more about hoping I wouldn't have to toss certain cards that are too dingy to make keepers otherwise.

In this box, the oddball panels of cards are definitely what caught my eye - I'm not really an oddball collector, though perhaps I want to see if I can pick up types of overlooked, non-mainstream issues I still don't really see as 'real cards.'

Because I don't trust my hand cutting skills and may just give up trying to separate these cards individually - I'm probably going to leave these cards 'as is.'

Just a couple of the cards are damaged [too bad one is the Wally Joyner], but rather than cut things up where the suspect cards will mostly likely end up in the circular file - I'm keeping the panels together where the cards in their entirety are still presentable.

Card show rummage - a treasure hunt of misfit toys

There are distinctions over the kinds types of cardboard I’d be inspired to pick up - even if YMMV where the different cards I find may mean nothing to other collectors.

I worry about the perpetual glut of cards and being caught dead in my bloat, but I can’t take things too seriously and as much as it leaves me out of control at times - I’m always going to look to buy loose cards with the mindset I want it all [even if that isn’t reality] and dwelling on the idea I need those fresh stashes of cards to go through, even if it isn’t the latest and greatest.

These were the results of a '2 for $1' card show dig several weeks ago - out of a few times, I've stopped this seller's table, he has plastic pages of $2 / $5 base cards for at least a couple of local guys that were easy to pass by.

A box of loose cards was staring me in the face and while I didn't think much of it at first - I was looking to make something of my idle time and started to dig around past the unlicensed ACEO stuff, various Phil Nevin and Gerrit Cole cards.

A small run of basic Bo Bichette rookies - he's not quite the probable AL MVP runner up, but has had a pretty good season to build on.

A mixed bag with a pair of old school Topps Robin Yount cards, a Mickey Mantle, a super thick Bryce Harper, a Justin Turner rookie that almost looks like a refractor, a die cut Barry Larkin, an oddball playing card of Rod Carew and another Carew insert.

A trio of 1984 Donruss, another Bichette rookie I didn't squeeze into the other picture, a Jo Adell Topps Minor League Heritage and a jersey relic card of an old Montreal Expos guy.