Recent COMC purchases (and Great Trader Giveaway prize reveal)

Throughout the summer I considered - but never followed through on - writing a month-end blog post recapping my best find(s) on COMC. And now that I'm actually doing it I don't have any specific September steal on par with my July or August finds. That's partially because I've done a lot less shopping on COMC this month. 

I had a lot of 50/50 trade packages come in earlier this month, which sated my need for new cards, and even when I was browsing COMC the challenges were almost always closed until this week. With very little credit to earn and burn I was limited to making just a few small purchases, none more than $2.

I didn't even think they were worthy of a blog post - especially since I don't have any of them in hand yet - but Shane (Shoebox Legends) and Billy (Cardboard History) have discussed their recent COMC purchases and I haven't posted anything in a few days so I thought I'd share mine:

Al Jefferson 2015-16 Panini Immaculate Memorabilia #d/25 ($1.67)

Basketball relics seem to be cheaper than those of other sports, at least in my observation. I can understand a low-numbered single-color swatch of an undrafted D-leaguer being this cheap - but a low-numbered patch of an established NBA veteran? I'm gonna go ahead and call this my COMC Find of the Month.

That said, here are some other singles I bought for roughly the same amount:

Calgary Flames 2008-09 UD Trilogy Three Star Spotlight ($2.00)

I'm not a Flames fan and this card isn't serial numbered, but it seemed like a good value for a toonie. All three players were part of the Flames 1989 Stanley Cup championship team.

Bobby Ryan 2011-12 Panini Certified Fabric Of The Game #d/25 ($1.85)

Another two-color patch card numbered to 25. This one isn't as nice as the Jefferson and cost a tiny bit more, but Ryan is a Jersey guy and played like a superstar in the 2017 playoffs.

John Starks 2015-16 Panini Totally Certified Fabric of the Game #d/99 ($1.23)

I've never been a Knicks fan, but I know Starks was a fan favorite and I don't have many basketball relics. I might trade or flip this card if the opportunity arises.

Steven Stamkos 2015-16 UD Ultimate Collection Honored Materials #d/99 ($1.36)

Stammer plays hockey in Florida, and gets hurt a lot doing so. Those are the only reasons I can think of as to why he is so underrated in the hobby. This card in particular should be at least $4, but thanks to ePack you can get any one of a handful of stars for less than that.

Dave Duncan 2017 Topps Heritage Buyback 1968 ($1.05)

The only baseball card in this post - though I did buy about 20 cheaper baseball cards this month. This Duncan comes from one of the box topper packs that are randomly inserted in hobby boxes of 2017 Heritage (two of my five boxes contained an original buyback pack.) I picked this up because it's in good shape and as possible trade bait for any buyback hoarders who might need it (it's #261, btw.)

Jim Calhoun 1990 Star Pics ($1.00)

I've been watching Calhoun cards for a while and when the "Medallion Edition" parallel sold out I decided to pull the trigger on this one. This will be a nice addition to my Connecticut collection, which I haven't been adding to as much as I'd hoped. 

John Gibson 2016-17 OPC Platnium Retro Orange #d/49 ($1.83)

Another ePack product, which is why I was reluctant to spend even minimal coin on this card. But even though I dislike the Ducks I couldn't resist the orange border surrounding Gibson's orange jersey, which represents Orange county's NHL team.

These nine cards cost me a total of $11.99. It's amazing what you can find on COMC for that price. And so I thought it would be fun to offer a small shopping spree as a prize in my Great Trader Giveaway. The winner (which will be announced Friday) will have a choice of one of these prizes:

• A "mystery box" of up to 200 cards from unclaimed 50/50 lots
• A $10-15 COMC shopping spree - you pick the cards and I'll purchase them*
• A sealed box of 2016 Topps Archives 65th Anniversary Edition

*please note that I will not request shipment of my COMC order until Black Friday so you will receive your cards in December.

I'll have more specifics about the Great Trader Giveaway on Friday but as I mentioned previously, the First Prize is open to anyone who completed a 50/50 trade with me, and the Second Prize is open to anyone who sent me anything over the past two months. 


Thanks again to everyone who participated. See you back here on Friday! 


~