Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Ten years, The Fourth


I have a rare weekend off in a couple weeks, and I was planning on spending one of those days at a local card show.

I haven't been to a card-related event (shows, LCS, flea markets, etc.) since the summer so I'm obviously chomping at the bit. But with everything going on, my conscience won out over my emotions and I've decided to cancel those plans. Just don't think being in a poorly-ventilated room with hundreds of people who may or not be masked is the best decision right now. Fingers crossed things get better soon, and fingers crossed I can get another weekend off at some point. Plus, It's not like I don't still have hundreds of cards waiting to be filed away, because I do.

And if nothing else, I hope these Ten Year giveaways will give y'all some extra cards to put away, because along with the encased Angel Berroa jersey/auto above (if anyone wants it), here's another batch of pages for your picking pleasure!



Page 1


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 2


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9)



Page 3


(Entire page has been claimed!)



Page 4


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8)



Page 5


(Claimed: #s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 6


(Claimed: #s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 7


(Entire page has been claimed!)



Page 8


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9)



Page 9


(Entire page has been claimed!)



Page 10


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

You know what to do!

Monday, December 27, 2021

Christmas gifts to myself (from COMC)


For better or worse, I am someone who needs to constantly justify spending money on myself, if for no other reason than to quiet the guilty voices in my head.

I've bought a fair amount of cards over the past couple months, which is fair considering I haven't been to a card show since The National & actually have a few extra bucks in my wallet these days. Still, I've felt the need to classify these purchases with some kind of label, rather than willy-nilly spending - hence, said purchases became "Christmas gifts to myself." By that logic, I've bought myself about 32 different presents this year. 

Perhaps the most exciting of those self-gifts was a big box I received from COMC recently, packed with a brick of cards I've bought from them in the month or two since my last order - and hey, since COMC has finally caught up on their backlog, these only took about two weeks to show up on my doorstep!




A good amount of the cards I purchased came via COMC's Black Friday sale, which admittedly triggered the heartless consumer inside me with the amount of price-slashing and darn good deals I found.

Like any good order, I stocked up on some top-tier player collections with cards I'd probably never see in the wild.




Had a few mini-collections tag along for the ride as well here.

(Add Advil to the list of brands I never knew made baseball cards.)




Whether consciously or not, it seems like most of what I use COMC for these days is finding online-only Topps stuff for loose change.

I'm not spending $10 on a Topps Now card or a Throwback Thursday set, but I'll certainly take them for 80-90 cents a pop.




I don't know how much it costs for a Topps Montgomery Club membership (probably way more than anything I could afford), and I don't particularly care if I can scoop cheap ones up on COMC.




Always a sucker for cheap photo variations (especially the Banks).




Unlike Sportlots, I don't usually target specific sellers on COMC, but I did find one guy offering heavy discounts on a bunch of his minor league stuff.

I always have a special place in my heart for Kane County Cougars cards since I went to a bunch of their games as a kid (and probably saw Adrian Gonzalez there at some point).




Random shiny stuff, including a zero-year Gleyber Torres and a cheap eTopps card, which is cool since I never did get on that bandwagon during my younger collecting days.




I love online exclusives, photo variations, and other modern bells and whistles, but oddballs are what keep me coming back to COMC time after time.




Horizontal greats, including a rare Duke Snider Met sighting!




Apropos of nothing, I decided to go digging for Mario Mendoza cards one night, and the spoils didn't disappoint.




Oddballs come in many shapes and sizes, but all four of these rise to just about equal levels of greatness.




Fan favorites and big-name oddballs here, and you'll have to take my word that the raggedy Simmons is an OPC.

(Somehow Kent Tekulve looks even weirder as a lanky minor leaguer, pre-sideburns & shades.)




Another seller had a big blowout on his '78 SSPC stock, which you don't have to tell me twice.

For whatever reason, I never put much effort into grabbing '78 SSPCs until recently, which means I spent many lost years not knowing I had more Bernie Carbo(!) and Dock Ellis(!!!) oddballs to chase.




'60s Post aren't the flashiest oddballs out there, but they're usually affordable, and that's good enough for me.




Didn't find as much cheap vintage this time around, but I didn't get completely shut out there - that beautiful Bertell has me wondering if I should reconsider my mostly negative opinions on '61 Topps.




Kellogg's star power!




COMC is great for finding cards I need, but it's even better for finding cards I didn't know I needed in the first place.

See: random Japanese guy doing a backflip, and a minor league mascot band!




I made a concerted effort to track down some Japanese imports with this COMC order, from Big Name Stars like Hideki Matsui to Busts I Still Collect For Some Reason like Tsuyoshi Shinjo.




But in the end, this was the ultimate Christmas Gift to Myself from this order: a new BBM Ichiro!

At a shade under $8, it was far and away the most expensive card of the lot - but still way cheaper than most Japanese Ichiros I've ever seen (it's only the second one I own). Still, it seemed like a way bigger purchase since pretty much every other card I bought here was about a dollar. I hemmed and hawed over it - do I *really* wanna spend eight whole dollars? - but after a while I remember throwing my hands up and basically just thinking: eh, it'll just be a Christmas gift to myself.

Whatever works to calm the voices in my head, I guess.

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Ten years, The Third


And so the ten-year "Dime Boxes" giveaway plows along into another week.

I have to say, I've had a lot of fun going through all the boxes of spares and/or doubles that've been piling up in my closet for years, picking out castaways I think would fare a lot better in new homes. Once again, everything in today's post - including the above manupatch Mathewson thing - is up for grabs to my loyal readers at absolutely no cost to you, and please refer back to the original post if you missed the claim process for these cards. 

I also again ask anyone who claims/claimed cards to please email their mailing address to me at nickpecucci AT gmail DOT com if you haven't already - and now let's take a gander at this week's giveaway pile.



Page 1


(Claimed: #s 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 2


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 4, 5)



Page 3


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9)



Page 4


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9)



Page 5


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)



Page 6


(Claimed: #s 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 7


(Note: The Eck rookie has a couple small creases at the bottom, but it's the real deal.)

(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9)



Page 8


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9)



Page 9


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 10


(Claimed: #s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Get claiming, all!

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Ten years, Part 2


I'm very happy to report that we gave away a whole lot of cards last week in celebration of this blog's tenth(!) anniversary (and there's still a few left for the taking!).

As I mentioned in the last post, I'm planning on making this an ongoing thing for the near future, in honor of all the great cards/posts/support I've received from all of you over the years. I can't promise it'll be weekly, but I'm at least shooting for semi-weekly giveaways here.

One thing I forgot to mention last week, however, is that I'm asking anyone who claimed/claims cards in this and/or last week's giveaway to please email their mailing address to me at nickpecucci AT gmail DOT com. Even after ten years, I'm still awful at maintaining record of people's addresses, and I figure it's time I started a separate email folder for that.

Anywho, I've got a bunch more cards up for grabs this week (including the above Brett manu patch-coin-relic-thingy if anyone wants it!) - once again, it's first come, first serve, and claim as many as your conscience allows!



Page 1


(Note: '62 Skowron has a big glob of paper stuck to the back.)

(Entire page has been claimed!)



Page 2


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9)



Page 3


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 4


(Note: '64 Chance also has a big glob of paper on the back.)

(Claimed: #s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 5


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 6


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 7


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)



Page 8


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)



Page 9


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9)



Page 10


(Claimed: #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9)

Claim away, my friends!