The COMC Summer Sale is Coming July 31st – August 4th!

Posted on July 29, 2019 by ssCOMC

Beat the Heat and Join Us July 31st – August 4th for the COMC Summer Sale!

Can’t make it to the The National Sports Collector’s Convention in Chicago this year? We’re bringing the deals online with the COMC Summer Sale!

Starting on July 31st, you’ll find incredible deals all across the COMC Marketplace on your favorite teams, players, and sets.

Buy Now & Ship Later!

One of the biggest advantages of having a COMC account and shopping with COMC Credit is that you can instantly purchase items when you find them and ship everything all together at any time in the future!

When you buy items with COMC credit with your COMC account, they stay safe and secure in our warehouses until you’re ready to request shipment for them. You can buy items throughout our Summer Sale and request shipment for your items next week, next month, or even next year! You pay shipping just once, regardless of how many items you buy.

Don’t Ship it – Flip it!

Perhaps you found an amazing deal on a sale item, but don’t collect that particular player. You know the card is worth way more, so why not buy it now and flip it later?

With a COMC account, you can purchase an item on sale and instantly give it a new price. When the item sells, you receive COMC credit, without ever having to take possession of the card!

Thousands of cards are being flipped daily on the COMC Marketplace, but this benefit is exclusive only to COMC Members! If you’re not already a member, register your free account today!

“It Sold for WHAT?!?” – Six Christian Yelich Trading Cards That Sold for Far Too Little!

Posted on July 24, 2019 by ssCOMC

Over the course of our 12 plus year existence, we’ve seen A LOT of cards. In many cases, we first saw a superstar’s cards long before they became a household name. As a result, this lends itself to some pretty hilarious completed sales in our historical sales history. Whether these buyers are cardboard Nostradamus’s, or simply happened to pick up a card before it’s value skyrocketed into oblivion, one thing is for sure: they got a crazy good deal!

In our previous installments we’ve shown you Mike Trout Trading Cards that now the grace the nose-bleed section of the high-end of our hobby, and Giannis Antetokounmpo rookie cards that sold for just a fraction of their present day value. We’ve scoured our sales data and are ready to unleash our next wave of cards that make for some pretty good laughs.

The Miami Marlins have two World Series Championships in their brief but memorable franchise history. While the current state of the Marlins may leave plenty to be desired, there is no doubting that the organization has a proven track record for manufacturing homegrown talent. Unfortunately, some of those players full potential never comes to fruition in a Marlins uniform. Such is the case with Christian Yelich, who’s star grew brighter following a trade to the Milwaukee Brewers.

The 2018 National League MVP winner and Silver Slugger posted career highs in home runs, RBI’s, stolen bases, batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS last year, leading the Brew Crew to a playoff run. He picked up right where he left off to start the 2019 campaign, and appears to be on pace to shatter most of those career highs once again. The 27 year old outfielder quickly became one of the faces of the MLB once he arrived in Milwaukee, and his trading cards have never been more sought after. Christian Yelich rookie autographs and rookie trading cards continue to see new top sale prices on a monthly basis.

Without further ado, the six Christian Yelich Trading Cards you can no longer find at these prices:

2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects – Chrome Draft Picks – Gold Refractor #BDPP78 – Christian Yelich /50

The buyer of this card managed to sneak in their purchase on August 28th, 2018, just before the Christian Yelich trading card market really started to skyrocket. This card has since sold for $300+. Not a bad return on investment.

2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects – Chrome Prospects Autographs #BDPP78 – Christian Yelich [BGS 9.5 GEM MINT]

Whenever pricing data is this skewed, you have to assume that a player’s career trajectory took a massive turn upward. In this case, we saw a BGS 9.5 Christian Yelich 1st Bowman Chrome auto sell for $52.69 in March 2015. Raw copies of this card routinely sell for a price tag of several times that.

2012 Bowman Platinum – Prospects – Red Refractor #BPP49 – Christian Yelich /25 [BGS 9.5 GEM MINT]

The 2012 Bowman Platinum set and it’s parallels are truly beautiful cards in person with their orange-peel like textured backgrounds. This BGS 9.5 Christian Yelich red refractor sold for just $18 back in July 2013.

Flash forward almost six years later and this exact same card (which is a pop-2) sold elsewhere for over 4-times the original purchase price:

2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects – [Base] – Purple Ice #40 – Christian Yelich /10

It goes without saying that Bowman purists have a wide arrange of opinions on non-original color parallels (Ref, X-Fractor, Blue, Gold, Orange, Red, Superfractor) and also about the ice parallel. Regardless, you would be hard-pressed to find any collector who wouldn’t want to add this /10 Purple Ice Christian Yelich card to their collection for about $40. Recently completed sales put this card in the $275-300 range now.

2013 Topps Chrome – Rookie Autographs – Red Refractor #CY – Christian Yelich /25

Alright, now we start to get into the comical historical sales data. This Christian Yelich Red Refractor true rookie autograph numbered to just 25 copies sold for just $87 on April 3rd of last year, just months before he was traded to the Brewers and his rise to greatness began. Could this buyer predict the future? Was it just a case of right place at the right time? Are they a Marlins fan who was crushed when he was traded?

We’ll never know, but we’d like to believe that they weren’t at all upset just a year later when a gold /50 version of this card sold for $1250. It’s hard to imagine what the even more elusive red refractor autograph may fetch….

2013 Topps Update Series – [Base] – Black #US290 – Christian Yelich /62

Which brings us to this LOL-worthy historical sales data. Were you one of the 11 lucky individuals who managed to scoop up this card from COMC for $25 or less? Probably not. Numbered to just 62 copies, COMC has seen 1/6th of the entire print run of these now coveted Christian Yelich black parallels of his True RC out of 2013 Topps Update. Recent sales have seen this card fetch $695 via Buy it Now.

Now we want to hear from you! What Christian Yelich trading cards slipped through your hands over the years? Do you still have a coveted Yelich card that you won’t sell for all the money in the world? Share your best investment and #collectfail stories with us!

Rich Reminisces: Willie Mays

Posted on July 17, 2019 by ssCOMC

Willie Mays was the definition of a five-tool baseball player. Whatever he did on a baseball diamond he did well, and he did well until he was 40 years old. He outlasted all his contemporaries and made what might be the most famous catch in all baseball history. While those won’t be one of the cards we discuss today, that catch was honored on this 1959 Topps baseball card:

We’ll begin with his 1951 Bowman card. Just as with Mickey Mantle, who also was a 1951 rookie player and rookie card, this card is in the last and more difficult Bowman series. What most people do not realize in today’s world was when Dr. James Beckett published his first price guide book in 1979 there was only a $5 difference between the Mays and the Mantle card.

Yes, you would have done terrific with either card if you had put them away in 1979 and not have them seen the light of day for the following 40 years, but in those days Mantle was considered just a hair better than Mays in terms of pricing.

The next year we had his first Topps basball card. His first Topps card is in the second toughest series of the legendary 1952 Topps set and has never been an easy card for collectors to find. While not as difficult as the renowned last series, these are all pretty tough cards and the Mays is never readily available at shows or through the big auction houses

As you can see this also happens to be a very attractive card design and the attractiveness of the card works well with the expensive price tag. Another of my favorite Mays cards from his playing day is this 1962 Topps Superstars card with Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays.If you look carefully you will see Hank Aaron and Ernie Banks with their back to the camera. Pretty impressive with either group of players I would say. And if you had those two players on your team during the 1954-1965 time period you probably would have been able to, well in the words of famed sportswriter Red Smith, “serving strawberries in the wintertime just about every season.” You would not have needed a lot more help to make a great team.

If you were collecting cards in the 1960’s, you learned Topps used certain numbers to honor the superstars. Usually if a player had a card number ending with 00 or 50 they were not only beloved, but also considered the key cards in the set. That tradition continued for a long time, even famously in the 1985 Topps set when Oddibe McDowell was set up to be card #400, when Topps featured the 1984 Olympic gold-medal team and then Mark McGwire was #401. More than three decades later you wonder if Topps would like that numbering sequence back.

Another one they would like back came in 1969 Topps when Mays was shockingly given card #190 after a long streak of being a key number. There were a lot of things going on with Topps in 1969 in terms of their relationship with the MLB Players Union, and I wonder if they even thought they would be able to get all seven series they released out the door. The first two series were heavily front-loaded with stars and superstars, and we can look at that with modern conjecture. If you are really interested I would recommend reading Mark Armour‘s work on that card era, for he has done a yeoman job on the research and appreciates the time from both the kid he was at the time and the excellent researcher he is today.

But without further adieu here is card #190 in 1969:

Finally we end our tour with the last regular season card issued of Mays. Willie returned to New York during the 1972 season when the Giants were looking for a soft landing for his career’s end, and his presence helped the New York Mets get to the World Series the following year. Now he was pretty much through as a player in 1973, but in 1972 he still had one last dramatic flair to his career.

This clip of Mays’ first homer as a Met came against the Giants no less and turned out to be the game-winning hit.

That was on Mother’s day in 1972, and it seemed like Mother’s day was big in New York for baseball highlights. We had this one five years earlier; In fact, it was five years earlier to the day

But we digress, and here is Mays 1973 Topps card as a Met.

Now, I always wished Topps did more career retrospective cards but we were lucky in 1974 to have this “accidental” Mays card as part of the 1973 World Series highlights:

What do you want us to write about in future columns on the COMC Blog? We want to hear from members of the COM Nation! We want this to be as much YOUR column as it is mine.

COMC @ The National Sports Collectors Convention July 31st – August 4th

Posted on July 12, 2019 by ssCOMC

Get Ready, Chicago!

COMC is Coming to Town!
July 31st – August 4th

We are excited to announce we’re returning to Chicago for the 40th Annual National Sports Collector’s Convention and looking forward to being back in the Windy City!

Here are a few things that you can look forward to at our booth:

Premium Processing Special
Spin-to-Win Prize Wheel
Limited Edition COMC T-Shirt Giveaway
Consignment Drop-off Center
COMC @ Instagram Trade Night

The 2019 National Sports Collector’s Convention will be hosted at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.

COMC’s booth will be in the heart of the showroom floor within the Corporate Pavilion at booth #624

Premium 1-Week Service:|
$1.00 per card

We heard your feedback, and our goal is to get your items up for sale as quick as possible.

Save on the cost of shipping and catch this processing discount by dropping off your submissions directly at the COMC Booth!

Restrictions: Standard add-on fees apply. Applicable only to consignment submissions received in-person at the 2019 National Convention.

Limited Edition T-Shirt Giveaway Bonus!

Do you like COMC-branded swag? COMC members now have a chance to score one of three exclusive COMC T-shirts!

Here’s how you can nab yourself a piece of our
Gem Mint Apparel:

Drop off a Premium submission of at least 100 items.
Drop off a Select or Current-Year Select Submission of at least 200 items.
Land on specially marked prize slots on our Spin to Win Wheel!

Restrictions: While supplies last. One T-Shirt per account may be earned.

Stop by our booth once a day and spin the COMC prize wheel for a chance to win instant prizes or be entered into drawings for your chance to take home up to $500 COMC Credit, high-end trading cards featuring Chicago sports legends, and much more!

In order to spin, you must be a COMC Member! If you’re not already a member, registration takes just a minute and is 100% free.

Spin to Win These Great Prizes:

Instant Winner: Receive $5, $10 or $25 COMC Credit instantly to your COMC account!
Instant Winner: Score one of three Limited Edition COMC-Branded T-Shirts.
Store Credit Drawing Entry: Receive entry into a drawing to win $100, $250, or $500 COMC Credit to your COMC Account.
Chicago Style: Receive entry into a drawing to win one of three high-end trading cards featuring Chicago sports stars and legends!
Free Shipping: Win free shipping on your next COMC order!

Drop-Off Submission Information:

Our booth is your drop-off destination for consignment submissions all throughout The National. Save on the cost of shipping by handing your next submission directly to us!

To speed up the process, please pack your items securely for shipment and print your submission paperwork in advance. We will have computer stations with printers set up for consignors to use at the show, but keep in mind that these stations may be in use during peak show hours by others.

Important Change Regarding Basic Submissions:

This year we will be introducing a 1,000-card limit per person for drop-off submissions consigned through our Basic-level (2-month) service. This cap only applies to our Basic service and only for submissions at The National. There are no card limits for submitting your items through our Current-Year Basic, Select, Current-Year Select, or Premium services.

Submission Due Dates Throughout The National:

With so many members of our team traveling with us to represent COMC at The National, our teams back home are a bit short-staffed. For that reason, all Select, Current-Year Select and Premium due dates that normally would have fallen between July 31st and August 4th will receive an August 5th due date.

COMC Founder and CEO Tim Getsch looks forward to the National every year so he can meet with our customers and members of the trading card community and hear their feedback, ideas, and the experiences they’ve had with our services.

If you’d like to take some time to sit down with Tim for 30 minutes at the show, email us at timewithtim@comc.com and we’ll get you scheduled. In your email, include your dates and times of availability as well as any topics you wish to discuss. Please send your meeting request no later than Thursday, July 24th.

COMC is proud to announce that we are an official sponsor of Instagram Trade Night hosted by CardCollector2! If you weren’t aware, instagram is home to one of the fastest growing communities in the trading card hobby, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it!

We will be meeting with our Instagram followers, accepting your drop-off consignments, offering demonstrations of our service, doing giveaways, and much more at our table at Instagram Trade Night.

Because this event is exclusive to members of the Instagram community, we can’t publish details on where the event will be held, but you should be able to get in on the action by following either CheckoutMyCards or CardCollector2 on Instagram! We’ll see you there!

‘Living 200’: Ranking Our Favorite Baseball Cards from Topps Living Set #101-200

Posted on July 5, 2019 by ssCOMC

Shop Topps Living Set Trading Cards on COMC

Last year Topps surprised the trading card industry with a unique one-of-a-kind set like no other produced before. The baseball card set was called ‘The Living Set‘, and each week three new trading cards would be released and sold only online for a seven day span. Once that window was over, the cards would never again be printed. Players could only be featured in the set one time per team they’ve played for, and the set would feature rookies, veterans, and legends. Produced entirely using the artwork of legendary sports card artist Mayumi Seto, the set is stylized after the iconic 1953 Topps baseball design.

The set started off extremely strong with Aaron Judge (Print Run 13,256) earning the coveted first card in the set. The set was overall met with optimism and speculation, as many of the key rookie cards in the set produced huge print runs, such as Ronald Acuna Jr. (PR: 46,809) and Gleyber Torres (PR: 28,550). While superstars, rookies, and hall of fame players still generate large numbers (such as #200 Mike Trout with a print run of 22,017), the set has come back to earth in weeks, with most print runs hovering in the 3000 range.

COMC Communications Manager James Good and Senior Business Analyst Grant Wescott each own a copy of the full set from #1 to #200 and counting. Some 30 plus weeks ago, we asked them to talk about the set and give their 10 favorite cards from the first 100 in the set. You can read that blog here. With the set now surpassing 200 cards, we’ve asked them to chime in with their 10 favorite cards from #101 – 200.

Grant Wescott (In no particular order)

Topps Living Set Card #200 – Mike Trout – Print Run: 22017

Topps has historically saved round numbers on many of their checklists for the very best in the game. Remember Babe Ruth at #100? I don’t think there was much doubt leading into the card #200 release day who would be featured on it.

Topps Living Set Card #193 – Ken Griffey Jr. – Print Run: 8369

Beautiful card of my all-time favorite player. That swing never gets old.

Topps Living Set Card #180 – Nelson Cruz – Print Run: 3581

The Nellie you see on this card is the Nellie you see in every game he plays, defying multiple laws of nature while wearing a grin.

Topps Living Set Card #173 – Fernando Tatis Jr – Print Run: 10099

One milestone for any young professional baseball player is when they get to see their first Topps card. There has to be a little extra appreciation from this 20 year old star when that card happens to be such an amazing hand-drawn portrait.

Topps Living Set Card #154 – Stan Musial – Print Run: 4575

One of baseball’s good guys, Stan the Man was famous for making people happy both on and off the field.

Topps Living Set Card #132 – Daniel Mengden – Print Run: 3250

Topps Living Set has seen a few errors along the way, but none so blatant as the Rollie Fingers wrong name error (I kid).

Topps Living Set Card #127 – Kris Bryant – Print Run: 5361

A striking image of Kris Bryant, who appears is now back to his 2016 MVP form.

Topps Living Set Card #192 – Wade Davis – Print Run: 2605

Nick Markakis famously held the long-standing record for low print run since week 2 of TLS with 2,678 copies. That is, until Howie Kendrick came along at card #183 with 2,633 copies. That is, until just a few weeks later when Wade Davis set the new low with this card. As someone who plans to buy the set forever, it’s kind of fun to watch my complete set become even rarer.

Topps Living Set Card #109 – Nolan Arenado – Print Run: 4065

Artist Mayumi Seto captured some big emotion on this one. Arenado is one of the elite players in the game today, yet for some reason still a bit overlooked in the hobby. I love this card.

Checklist Card 1-100 & 101-200 – Print Run: 4393

I’m going a little off script here because 1) these are two cards, not one, and 2) they aren’t technically part of the set. Doesn’t matter. I was more excited than I had reason to be when these were released. I’ve never checked a single box on a checklist. I’m not about to start now. Why does this make me happy?

James Good (Ranked in order of favorites)

Topps Living Set Card #193 – Ken Griffey Jr. – Print Run: 8369

There was no other pick for me. Griffey was an unexpected surprise at #193, and tops my list as my favorite TLS card in the entire set, surpassing Babe Ruth (#100) and Mitch Haniger (#54) in my top 3. That iconic Jr. smile is infectious.

Topps Living Set Card #179 – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – Print Run: 27749

This was clearly a landmark card for Topps and Seto, so I’m guessing that she had plenty of time to work on this portrait. It clearly shows in the photo-realism of Vladdy Jr.’s first true Topps RC. The level of detail of this card, especially when it’s in-hand, is unreal. The hat logo, the hair, the Nike swoosh logo. I’ll take this card all day long over his first flagship Topps RC in series 2.

Topps Living Set Card #200 – Mike Trout – Print Run: 22017

We all knew that Mike Trout was going to be #200, and the card delivered exactly what we wanted, and what the set needed. The huge print run was a shot in the arm to TLS at the right time.

Topps Living Set Card #127 – Kris Bryant – Print Run: 5361

I love the sideways glance of Bryant in this card. The Cubbies deep blue jersey is among my favorite jerseys of all-time, so I might be a bit partial here.

Topps Living Set Card #156 – Ryon Healy – Print Run: 2765

Healy has a lot of critics here in Seattle, but I’ve been a big support since the day we traded for him. This card that broke a 102 card drought for the Mariners in Topps Living Set and also captured Healy’s positive personality and his professed enjoyment for the game the baseball so very well. It’s a shame he’s dealing with spinal stenosis, the same ailment that shortened the career of fellow 3B David Wright.

Topps Living Set Card #136 – Mariano Rivera – Print Run: 8945

The timing of this card was impeccable – right after Mariano became the first player to unanimously be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the first year eligible.

Topps Living Set Card #118 – Nolan Ryan – Print Run: 6745

Ryan’s career spanned the course of 4 different decades. Ask 10 different fans about Ryan, and you might get 10 different memories. My earliest memories as a fan of the game were of ‘The Ryan Express’ as a non-nonsense 40-something fireballin’ Texan. This card brings me back to all those early 90’s junk wax cards of him that helped kick start my passion for the hobby.

Topps Living Set Card #178 – Xander Bogaerts – Print Run: 3776

I’m not much of a Red Sox fan. Correction, I slightly despise most Boston-area teams (Ya’ll aren’t the underdogs, ever, just stop). But I love this card of Bogaerts. Again, the artwork on this card when it’s in-hand truly makes me appreciate the card so much more.

Topps Living Set Card #106 – Cal Ripken Jr. – Print Run: 6423

Similar to my memories of Nolan Ryan, I best remember Cal Ripken Jr. during his iron man stretch, with the gray hairs on the sides of his head becoming more prominent each year. That said, I love the throwback artwork on this card, and the white Orioles cap really seals the deal.

Topps Living Set Card #121 – Buster Posey – Print Run: 3990

Catchers get the short end of the baseball bat when it comes to trading cards, often depicted wearing their full gear. This card steps away from that, giving us an excellent portrait of Buster that shows a side of him that few cards have. Now let me get on my soapbox…

Buster Posey is one of the most underappreciated players of this era. Even Giants fans will credit the team’s three World Series in six years to their stellar pitching, pointing to Madison Bumgarner, and I don’t disagree. But who do you think called all those games behind the plate? Three Rings, Four Silver Sluggers, 2010 ROY, a Gold Glove, and a Batting Title later, I can’t wait until Cooperstown calls for Buster Posey.

We’re 200+ cards into the set, and yet there are so many players who haven’t earned a spot into the coveted Living Set yet. Who do you want to see in the next 100 cards? Let us know in the comments below!

Happy Independence Day! – Reduced Customer Service Support on July 4th.

Posted on July 3, 2019 by ssCOMC

In observance of Independence Day, our Customer Service Team will be working a reduced schedule on Thursday, July 4th.

Phone support will be unavailable throughout Independence Day. Phone support will return to our normal 9am-5pm PST schedule on Friday, July 5th.

If you need to contact us over the holiday, please email us at staff@comc.com or leave a voicemail message at 1-800-517-3540.

6,000+ Fresh New Graded Trading Cards Coming to the COMC Marketplace on July 3rd!

Posted on July 2, 2019 by ssCOMC

Kick off your Independence Day Weekend with a bang!

We’re getting the fireworks started early this year courtesy of COMC seller HawkDynasty! Over 6,000 fresh new graded trading cards are coming to the COMC Marketplace and will all be going live for sale on July 3rd at 7:00 PM PST.

We’ve had a chance to preview this massive collection of graded cards that Hawkdynasty recently consigned and can assure there is something for every collector to be found here! Here are some of the highlights from this massive drop of graded trading cards: