i had a comc order of just a few cards that i decided to have shipped to me. this was in march of 2020, and i was not planning to place any further orders in the foreseeable future. so, on march 14, i requested shipment. two days later, i was working from home amid the measures taken to flatten the curve of the covid-19 infection rate. the initial estimated ship date for that order was march 30, but it didn't ship until april 23.
later in the spring, i got a hankering for a few different items that were only readily available at comc. so, i deposited more funds and bought more cards. at the end of june, i was ready to bring the cards home, and i most certainly was not going to put in another order, so i requested shipment. that was june 30, and the estimated ship date for that order was listed as september 30. three months! it turned out that it took longer than that, as the cards weren't shipped until november 7!
in the meantime, of course there was a card listed for sale on the site that i decided i wanted/needed, and so i deposited more funds and pulled the trigger on just that one card. that was on october 28, and that order shipped on november 3, nine days ahead of the estimated ship date of november 12, and before my previous order.
i applaud comc for taking necessary precautions to protect their staff during the pandemic - that is my understanding for the reason behind the delays in order fulfillment. however, i also bought an item on ebay through their consignment division, and that card showed up with no delay whatsoever. i am guessing that comc likely had to make choices between their uploading of new inventory, consignment selling on ebay, and fulfillment of "regular" orders due to staff limitations, and it was the latter that suffered. what the heck - they already had my money.
still, i received my cards. here are some of them.
this 2001 topps tribute walter alston patch
was the card i purchased on october 28. some of you may recall a blog bat around that i initiated regarding
cards that got away. the primary card that i wrote about was another 2001 topps tribute alston patch that i purchased back in 2001 at a local card shop off of their "markdown wall" and immediately flipped on ebay for about 4-times what i paid for it. i bought the card with the sole intention of selling it for profit, but soon regretted it. since then, i've looked off and on for another, and when i saw this one on comc, i pounced.
the rest of the cards i'll show are from my shipment request that was made on june 30.
2008 upper deck timeline ramon troncoso (1995 sp)
troncoso was one of the last two cards from this set that i needed for my dodger team collection (
i've already completed the full set). the last card i need is the clayton kershaw card from this same subset, unfortunately.
i am still sort of a sucker for dodger buybacks, especially when they feature players from the team of my youth and dodger stadium, like this 2014 topps 75th anniversary 1975 topps manny mota buyback
2015 was my favorite year for buybacks, and this 2015 topps original 1967 topps bruce brubaker buyback
is a new one to my collection.
my favorite inserts from 2019 were the greatest moments/players/seasons cards, and i used comc to complete my dodger set of those cards. sort of.
i needed four cards of jackie robinson
two of duke snider
and one each of sandy koufax
clayton kershaw
and adrian beltre
the kershaw is from topps chrome update, and the beltre is from regular topps update. there is also a don sutton card out there that i don't have, but it is only available in autograph form and was part of the clearly authentic release. topps redeemed themselves in 2020 for leaving kirk gibson's home run out of the 'greatest moment's set by including an image from that night in their 'decades' best' insert set.
now we get in to the sort of random part of my order. some of these cards complete team sets or get me down to just one card, like these next two.
1996 topps mike piazza star power
this is the insert, not the base card that looks similar but not as glittery. insert set complete!
2011 topps platinum diamond anniversary chad billingsley
i am now down to needing the kershaw and the retired dodger sp's to complete my team set of these parallel cards.
i'm always looking for matt kemp cards that i need, so i picked up this 2013 topps chrome refractor matt kemp
i still need a few refractors from this set, but not kemp's!
i also decided i needed more brian dozier dodger cards, so i added a 2018 bowman's best atomic refractor
and a 2018 topps holiday
card of the short-time dodger and 2019 world champ. while i was waiting for these cards to show up, someone out there sent me this very card, so now i have one in my dodger stadium mini-collection, too!
here's a 2016 topps update adrian gonzalez 500 hr futures club gold card
there are three non-relic/manu-relic versions of this card. i had joc pederson's card in the base and silver versions, but didn't have any of gonzalez' cards. so i went with the gold parallel. a-gon did not get to 500 home runs, by the way - he finished with 317.
i discovered i didn't have a copy of this 2015 topps heritage sandy koufax/david price then and now card in my dodger stadium mini-collection
but now i do! you can understand how i could have been confused, as topps used the same photo of koufax on another then and now card that same year.
here's a new-to-me double play card - 1996 leaf preferred derek jeter
that i saw on the blogs while i was putting together this order.
finally, here is a 2002 topps 206 lou brock card
that i needed for my set build. around the time that this card arrived, i completed the set. i'll give that achievement its own post. similarly, many of the other cards i included in my comc order(s) will be part of more focused posts. stay tuned!
the snow is gone in favor of some seasonal foliage and a tablecloth approach.
back to snow, but with the addition of a pine garland. that gavin lux is also a metallic snowflake parallel.
a departure this year with a beaded curtain made of ornaments and snowflakes, plus some candy cane treatment of the borders
still sticking with the snowflakes. that clayton kershaw card is the metallic parallel, so the border is all treated up. the base cards just have the regular white border with the bows and garland.
more snow, but topps switched to "charlie brown christmas" snow instead of elaborately designed snowflakes.
topps finally fully embraced the christmas holiday theme, and continued to build on their flagship neon design. this is really a dramatic departure from previous years and it seems to have been embraced by a large part of the collecting community.
