A Slice of COMC Goodness

Back in June, yes June, COMC had a special week of free shipping.  I have been accumulating cards on the site since their last free shipping date on Boxing Day (December 26th).  You only needed to ship 30 cards, and I had about 15, so I spent the week working toward the rest.  Thanks to their COMC challenges, I made enough dough where I didn't have to pay anything.  So in essence these were free cards, but my stinginess still prevented me from getting too many high priced cards (plus I tried to reach the 30 card plateau so I had to be thrifty).  I finally got the cards I wanted and had them shipped out, and it took a while to get, but I've been sitting on these since the first week of July ready to show.  Here is the mostly non-baseball portion of the cards I got.

Let's get the John Randle out of the way first.  It was one of the Monsters of the Gridiron cards cheap enough for me to get as I get ever closer to finishing the set.  I think I'm almost 2/3rd of the way through now but its been put on the backburner for a bit.  At least until I see what else I need and find the cheap enough.  I don't find many on Listia these days.

The rest of this scan is former Missouri Tigers.  This will be my first cards of Bruce Van Dyke and John Matuszak.  If John looks familiar, then you may remember his as Sloth from the movie The Goonies.  The makeup department did an amazing job for him in that movie.  I hope to get more of his cards, and need to find at least one for my friend.  I also will seek one out for my non-established collection of athletes who went into acting (I'll think of a better name later).  I have a few but one day will work on it more.

I have a Tony Galbreath card or two, but not this one, so when I saw it cheap enough, I snagged it.  The Maclin card is one of the glittery parallels from that 2009 set.  I only have one other like it (I think a Michael Crabtree) but when I saw this cheap I knew I wanted it.  I need to make a checklist to see what all I have of Jeremy because I'm starting to amass quite a few of his cards.

Lastly is the newly retired Justin Smith.  I fell in love with this card the first time I saw it because while he is representing the Bengals, all I see is a nice Tiger in the background, which represents Mizzou to me.  From what I hear, he has moved back to Jefferson City (his hometown) and wants to work with the Mizzou program.  I am not mad about either of those, and it might give me more of a chance to meet him and get his autograph.  Once I get into my Mizzou collection a little more, I will need to add more of his cards.  Especially his rookie and Bengals years.

Once I bought that box of Goodwin Champions a while back, I looked at TCDB and browsed the cards I didn't get.  These two former Cardinals were two I really liked, and it just so happened they were cheap and on sale the week I was in the mood to buy, so into the cart they went.  I have a pretty healthy collection of Wizard cards, but Musial I am somewhat lacking on.  These both made fine additions.

DeMarre Carroll is a player also from Mizzou.  I've been a fan since and hated to see him bounce around from team to team, but this past year he finally made a splash and found a home in Atlanta.  This card looks so much better in hand.  Shortly after I bought it, he signed a massive contract with the Toronto Raptors, so I guess I'll have to look for a Raptors card of him soon.  I hope he does well and continues to make a name for himself.

Next is a card I've been spying for a while.  Actually I think I bought it back in March and have been waiting for a free shipping period to get it.  I'll always be a fan of Shawn Johnson for a bit of a weird reason.  In 2008 when she was representing the USA in the Olympics, I visited her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa (well, technically she's from West Des Moines, but still).  I went to the Iowa State Fair which ran during the same time as the Olympics.  The Iowa State Fair is one of the best state fairs you could ever attend (and yes I will admit its a lot better than the Missouri State Fair), and they have so much variety that its tough to do it all in one day.  One of the main attractions is their butter figures.  Each year they make a variety of things made just from butter (aside from preservatives that prevent it from melting).  This year seems to be a bit lacking as they will make a giant butter sculpture of the Monopoly board game celebrating the 80th anniversary of the game (with sculptures of the pieces too).  The year I went, they just happened to have a life sized version of Shawn Johnson, complete with a balance beam next to her.  They had other butter sculptures too including the annual butter cow, which is also awesome to see.  If Shawn Johnson didn't do so well at the games, I might not be as big of a fan, but it was fun to see her succeed and get all the press in her hometown paper while I just happened to be there.  If you are ever near Des Moines during fair time, it is well worth the trip to make it there and look at the sculptures and everything else at the fair (including all the free music which I missed out on).  I might have to make another trip in a year or two.

Here is a shot (not a picture I took, but I did take a few) of Shawn Johnson, the balance beam, and the butter cow all looking ahead.

A picture can only show so much, it really is a sight you have to see for yourselves.

Okay, back to cards.

I said MOSTLY non-baseball.  While representing the Kansas City Royals, Zimmer or Bonifacio are not on the main roster yet.  With Zimmer you can expect that to change in September if rumors are true.  He was rumored to be part of the Cuerto deal, but I'm glad he wasn't.  Jorge is the younger brother of Emilio Bonifacio, and I was hoping they would be playing together for the Royals one day.  I guess it could still happen, but I wish Emilio was still with the Royals, but hope he does well with whatever team it is he plays for now (he seems to be on the move a lot).

I bought two of the Zack Abron cards.  Not because I am trying to hoard them, but because my friend didn't have any of his cards (which there aren't many, possibly less than 5), and it was cheaper for me to pick it up for him.  Its a nice card and one I had forgotten about, but glad I found it and happy to add it to my collection.

Finally is a card that I only got because I would like one card of every sports team to play in Missouri, and I didn't have any of the Kansas City Scouts because well, they didn't play here long.  Its not in perfect shape, but I am fine with that.  When picking cards like these (a Missouri team) I usually go for the cheapest one or might spend a few cents more for an interesting one.  I liked this one because while not an action shot (which would be nice to find a live action card depicting Kemper Arena), it displays the team logo quite nicely on the jersey.  The other reason I picked this one was because look at him!  Does he not have some sort or resemblance to Mr. Bean?  I'm not a fan of Mr. Bean, but when I noticed this, I knew this had to be the card I picked.

With that, I'll stop for today and show the rest next time.  The rest are I think all baseball, so thats why I split it up this way.  I'm happy I'm clearing up folders and getting caught up, I'm not too far behind now.  Thanks for reading and have a great night.