With Christmas just around the corner, I managed to receive yet another great package from COMC, just in time for Christmas. Since it was part of their "Black Friday" sales frenzy, I was also able to get free shipping, to boot!
Besides my usual array of San Diego Padres goodies, I was also able to include a few selections for my annual Christmas gifts, which I pass along to a few of my blogging brethren. Of course, I'm not going to display those cards here. I'll let them be surprise when they show up in mailboxes across the country, with their fellow Christmas greetings.
Let's begin with a pair of Randy Jones autographs, including a 2016 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autographs (#FFARJ) and 2016 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Blue Autographs (#FFARJ) (S/N 100/199), 2012 Panini Cooperstown Famous Moments Signatures Nate Colbert (#9), 2014 Panini Black Friday Rookie Manufactured Patch Autographs Tommy Medica (#TM), 2016 Bowman Inception Prospect Autographs Manuel Margot (#PAMM), 2016 Topps Chrome Rookie Autographs Refractors (#RATJ) (S/N 281/499), 2015 Donruss Signature Series R.J. Alvarez (#10), and a 2016 Stadium Club Autographs Colin Rea (#SCACRA).
Randy Jones was one of my favorite Padres, especially as I was able to watch him pitch at Jack Murphy Stadium, back when we lived in San Diego. I've always been on the lookout for a Colbert autograph, as the St. Louis native was one of the Padres' first studs, despite being an 18th round pick from Houston in San Diego's initial expansion draft. He was the first Padre to bat in an All-Star game (July 25th, 1972) and a week later (Aug. 1), he hit five homers, drove in 13 runs against the Braves in Atlanta.
An Austin Allen 2015 Bowman Chrome Draft Sky Blue Refractors (#123) and a 2015 Bowman Chrome Draft Black Asia Refractors (#123), 2013 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Black Refractors Dane Phillips (#BCP18) (S/N 67/99), 2015 Topps Pro Debut Promo Night Uniforms Cody Decker (#PNCD), 2016 Topps Heritage Derek Norris (#122), 2015 Topps Update Brandon Morrow (#US328), 2016 Bowman Prospects Purple Ruddy Giron (#BP20) (S/N 115/250), and a 2014 Topps Toys R Us Purple Border Robbie Erlin RC (#281).
In my continuing pursuit of obtaining a card of every player who's worn a San Diego Padres uniform, I found this 1978 Wiffle Ball Discs Dave Kingman (34), 1970 Topps Pat Dobson (#421), 1971 Topps Ron Slocum (#274), 2010 Topps Update Jerry Hairston, Jr. (#US207), 2016 Topps Heritage Christian Bethancourt (#221), and a 1991 Bowman Wes Gardner (#653).
In case you didn't know it, I've been a long-time Green Bay Packers fan, as well as a Packers shareholder. So, I decided to add an old-time Green Bay player, as well as a plethora of autographs. The old? How about a 1959 Topps Bill Forester (#39). By the way, that's not an "X" in the upper left hand corner of the card - it's line art of a quarterback ready to throw a football.
The autograph collection includes a 2011 Topps Inception Autograph Alex Green (#124) (S/N 38/900), 2005 Topps Pristine Personal Endorsements Autographs Terrence Murphy (#TM) (S/N 1466/1500), 2011 Playoff Contenders Autograph RC Ryan Taylor (#174), 2007 SP Authentic DeShawn Wynn Autograph RC (#214), and a 2015 Panini Contenders Autograph RC Alonzo Harris (#263).
Of course, being the hockey geek that I am, I also had to pick up a few cards from my favorite winter sport. They incude a 1996-97 Zenith Champion Salute Promo Mike Richter (#14), 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Update Signatures Matt Fraser (#USMF), and a trio of 2015-16 Upper Deck rookie cards, one of Malcolm Suppan (#211), one of Garret Sparks (#480) and one of Gustav Olofsson (#486).
We're season ticket holders for the Iowa Wild hockey team and have enjoyed watching the 22-year old Swede mature as a defenseman. He's received two call-ups to Minnesota - two games in 2015-16 and once this season, and only has a +1 to show for his efforts. He currently has three goals, nine assists and 12 penalty minutes in 23 games at Iowa.
I am in no way a basketball fan, but I am helping a friend work complete a rookie project he's working on, which included the 2015 Topps Valor Melvin Gordon RC (#4), 2015 Topps Heritage Melvin Gordon RC (#86), 2015 Topps Todd Gurley RC (#422A), 2015 Topps Amari Cooper RC (#451A), 2016 Topps Chrome Dae-Ho Lee RC (#179), and a 2015-16 Hoops Frank Kaminsky RC (#281).
Gordon and Kaminsky both played for the University of Wisconsin, and Gordon is currently out with a hip injury. Just don't get me started about the Chargers' threatening to move to Los Angeles since they didn't get the vote to build a new stadium in San Diego. The NFL is not a fan-friendly league, in my book, and I'm getting rather tired of NFL teams moving out their teams away just because their "fans" aren't willing to be taxed for those fancy new stadiums they want. At least we don't have to worry about that with the Packers.
But enough with rants. I'll conclude with two more Tony Gwynn cards which found their way into my Gwynn collection, namely a 2007 Topps Triple Threads (#55) (S/N 668/1350) and 2016 Topps Hallowed Highlights (#HH12).
I have now amassed 602,530 points (good for more than $600 in free sports cards) with Check Out My Cards. I'll continue to help with their inventory challenges as long as they continue to post them and I have the free time to complete them. As far as I'm concerned, it's definitely a win-win situation.
