Who says COMC can't ship quickly?

 I had placed for my COMC order to be shipped back on November 20th of last year. I got a shipping date of the beginning of March, and I was happy with waiting until then, figuring that stuff was going to be delayed becuase of COVID and there wasn't much I could do about it. No big deal. I would just forget about the order, and sometime in March have a ton of cards at my mailbox. Maybe a week and a half ago, I got an e-mail saying that my order was shipping. I didn't let my hopes get high, and still expected to have to wait a while even if it was shipped. Then, I checked 2 days ago, and it had left Washington state. Yesterday, when I checked, it said it arrived in DeLand and was expected to be delivered on the 7th (today). I was super happy to get the news, and didn't even check the tracking number again. Around 6:30pm yesterday, I went out to check the mail, and my COMC package was in my mailbox. You can say what you want to about the shipping at COMC, but they came through for me (or perhaps they hired a bunch of staff recently and my order benefited from it). 

It was what you would figure would come in an order that I placed, with your standard Rays guys, Tigers guys, guys I collect, with versions of autographs, memorabilia cards, and shiny cards thrown in each group. My Rays guys helped me finish my Rays Topps run. The '00 Traded Rocco Baldelli was a hot card back in the first years of the '00's. That '01 Topps Josh Hamilton has been eluding me for a while. The 2002 Topps Gold Label Toby Hall bat card (aparently) was used in a game on September 25, 2001. I didn't know that until I read the card last night. I pulled up the '01 Rays schedule, and the game came in the first week of games played after the September 11 attacks. Kind of cool to think that the bat on the card could've been used during the first games back. Other cool cards in the group are a 2011 Bowman Platinum autograph of Brandon Guyer, a 2011 Leaf Valiant  auto of Hak-Ju Lee, and a 2012 Bowman Platinum autograph of Mikie Mahtook. 

I tried to get some jersey cards from big names on the 2020 Rays team, and the order came through on that with jersey cards of Willie Adames, Tyler Glasnow (shown later), Charlie Morton, Austin Meadows, and Blake Snell. I want to be sore at snell, but it wasn't his choice to be traded. I'll still keep any cards I get of him, but won't actively search for them. Unfortunately for me, many of those 2020 Topps cards ended up being doubles for me as I pulled a bunch of them from hanging boxes in the weeks after my order. I guess I'll put them in my dupes box, try to trade them, or see if some can fit in other parts of my collection. The first part of the Tigers start, and it starts off with a bang, with a 1969 Topps Mayo Smith, the manager of the 1968 World Championship Tigers team. 

The final Tigers page has some autographs of guys I've rooted for (Tony Clark, Chris Gomez, Tony Giarratano), relics of guys I rooted for (Encarnacion, Higginson), Maybin, Bonderman, Granderson), and with some stuff from more current guys, Joe Jimenez, Dawel Lugo, Matthew Boyd, and Jake Rogers. I hope these guys can show up good for the Tigers in 2020. Mike Alstott and Billy Ashley start my favorite player part of the order. 

The Trevor Bauer gives me a jersey card of him, and the Sidney DeJong cards only leave me short a Black, Gold, and Blue version of completing the rainbow of that card. I picked up an autograph of fellow Lakleand High School alumni Carson Fulmer, and also got a jersey of him and Tyler Glasnow. I added an autograph and 2 new cards of Stetson U. alum Logan Gilbert. I was surprised the other day on MLB network when I heard Scott Servias throw his name out. I figured he was still a few years away from the show, but apparently not from what I heard. The '96 Stadium Club John Hudek card mentions on the back that Hudek had surgery on his rib where part of it was removed, and got the rib made into a necklace which is shown on the front of the card. I picked up some Casey Mize cards, including my first jersey card of him. The Tony Saunders card only leaves me a 1998 Topps Chrome Refractor, and a 1998 Topps Inaugural Diamondbacks card from finishing Saunders' run of the 1998 Topps design. The Kohl Stewart patch is really sweet in hand, and the Chuck Tiffany is a Green card. 

A Pat Venditte autograph and Ryan Yarbrough rookie Refractor finish off the Favorite Player part of the order. 

This part may start a new section of my collection. As you might know, I collect most guys  on the Netherlands team (guys from the WBC and the National team). A good number of the guys have cards and have played in the Majors. A few only have cards from WBC sets. Since they don't have many cards, I'm not sure if it would be beneficial to even list that I collect them, and I may just make the end of my Favorite Player binder a part dedicated to Team Netherlands. That would give a nice place to put the 3rd card on the page, which also becomes the oldest card I have, a 1928 Players Flags of the League of Nations Tobacco Netherlands card. The final card is for my son. When we were opening some 1994 Stadium Club cards a few months ago, he pulled a Ken Griffey, Jr. card, and I told him all about Griff and how great he was. Now any time he opens packs or packs of the 2020 Topps Sticker set, he asks if each guy is Ken Griffey, Jr. I figured I would get him a sticker of Griffey to have fun with. If you have any dupes/extras of Ken Griffey, Jr. that you don't want, I would be thrilled if you throw them in a trade so I can add them to Kyler's binder. 

I also finished the 1994 Topps/Topps Traded missing player customs, and will shortly get started on the 1998 Topps (Traded) set. I am working on a project which I will probably finish in a day or 2, and then  I'm going to do  the Rays from the '98 Topps Traded set in order to get them printed out and thrown in my Rays binder. 

I hope everyone's 2021 has started off well and if you've ordered any cards that they come quickly. For the record, I'm still waiting on some cards from eBay that I would've figured have come by now. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post.

-Jeremy