Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Check Out My COMC Cards #2 -- Carlos Zambrano

More cards from my first COMC shipment:

I have a modest collection of the key players of what I like to call the Piniella Era Cubs, Derek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Carolos Zambrano etc. I ended up with a bunch of them in my COMC basket. I think the Piniella era is coming to a close and at this point my plan is to only continue to purposefully add to my collections of two players whether or not they stay with the Cubs.

That being said here's Carlos:


2006 Topps Turkey Red (red) #345
paid $.09

2007 Topps Co-Signers #65
piad $.10

2008 Topps Co-Signers #82
paid $.10

2004 SPx #51
paid $.10

2006 SP Authentic #21
paid $.10

2007 SP Authentic #10
paid $.10

Carlos has been a disappointment for the past two years but Friday's tirade against his teammates has dropped his stock even further. Glad I only paid $.59 for these. With them my Zambrano collection stands at 46 cards.

COMC Clarification

A testament to my bad writing? One reader of mine was led to believe that COMC took six months to ship my cards. Just to clarify--I've been making purchases for six months. COMC will hold your cards and you can choose to have them all sent together at any point. I waited to request shipment until now. The cards came within a few days of my request. I was very pleased both with the cards and with COMC's service.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Check Out My COMC Cards #1

I just received my first batch of cards from Check Out My Cards. I don't know if this is a record or not but I made my first buy back in December of last year. Has anyone else waited that long to have their cards shipped? Well, since this is my first experience with COMC I thought I'd do a series of posts sharing the results.

Just because he's having such a crummy summer I'm going to start with this card:

2007 Allen & Ginter's #213
Paid $.25

I feel bad for Lou. He went into this season with high hopes. He got rid of his clubhouse cancer, Milton Bradley, and had what looked like a pretty good team. Unfortunately the club started out with major middle relief problems and slumps for it's two best hitters. The relief has improved but the hitting has not. Recently, Steve Stone got on his case about not playing Tyler Colvin enough and now he's had a relapse of the clubhouse cancer in the name of Carlos Zambrano. Just not a good year for Sweet Lou. I'm still predicting he doesn't make it to the end of the season with bench coach Alan Trammel taking the reigns for the rest of the year.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Cubs Fanpack

A while back I requested a fan pack on the Chicago Cubs official website and had just about given up when a small padded envelope arrived this week.

Here's what the Cubs sent me:

1. A thank you note which was inside a white envelope with a Cubs logo (not scanned).


2. A Cubs sticker


3. Two different schedules.


4. A photo of pitcher, Randy Wells.



Not bad especially considering the request was online and didn't cost me a cent. Double not bad that they didn't send a picture of Milton Bradley.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Would You Buy Cable Service From This Man?

This came in the mail the other day. Ryne Sandberg is trying to get me to switch cable companies. Sorry Ryno, you may be the next Cubs manager but I'm satisfied with my current cable company.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Peek-a-Boo


William Peek-a-Boo Veach was born on this date in 1862. Why don't we have great nicknames like this anymore? The closest the Cubs have is "The Riot", Ryan Theriot.

Here's Peek-a-Boo's obit from the Sporting News:


Monday, June 14, 2010

Blow Out the Candles June 14

Blow out the candles for:

Boys of Summer pitcher Don Newcombe turns 84 today.

2005 UD Signature Decades

August 22, 1955



Tennis great Steffi Graf celebrates number 41 today.



Classical pianist, Lang Lang is 28.



The Donald will no doubt celebrate his 64th birthday in style.



The iconic Boy George is 49 today.


Barry Melton of the 1960's band, Country Joe and the Fish is turning 63 today.



The late Burl Ives was born on this date in 1909.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

1930 Speed


Back in April I posted this card of Lindbergh's "The Spirit of St. Louis" from a 1930 set from W.D. & H.O Wills called "SPEED". Here are another handful from the "air" portion:











Friday, June 11, 2010

2010 National Chicle

By design I haven't purchased many 2010 cards. I was intrigued enough to by one blaster of National Chicle. Like most of the painted sets this one is uneven but I did get a pretty nice assortment of cards that I did like and even one minor hit. Here's some of my favorites with a few comments.

#17

Number 4 all time on the home run list (for me). Will he enter the Hall in a Mariner's uniform?

#255

I can't get too much Babe Ruth. I like the simplicity of this one.

#93

Is he underrated? Maybe under the radar playing in Houston. His record is a terrific 141-78 with a 3.23 ERA. I like the purple background on this one and the determined look.

#297

#253

These 2 are of the Hall of Fame 2nd baseman of the Chicago Cubs. I like them for that reason. Is there a story behind the choice of 2 of him as a Phillie? I get that he started his career there but he only had 6 at-bats before being traded. Is this just a "what might have been"? I doubt Phillies fans feel too bad about it, ala the Cubs trading Lou Brock. Am I wrong?

#230


#95

I'm not a Brewers fan but I am a fan of "The Hebrew Hammer".

#323

This one has a sort of primitive "folk art" look to it. I just like it.

#233

Yeah, I like the legends.


Here's the hit, a #12/25 Topps back. I've seen a few of these on Ebay in the $10 range, but so far no actual sales.


Align Center

Thursday, June 10, 2010

The Name Game -- Battery Mates

Can you think of any interesting name pairings for battery mates? They can either be guys that actually played together (Cone to Cerone) or just be real players of any era. Here's a couple of examples:

Hands and Foot

Lamp to Lampkin