2018 COMC purchases: too many Grandersons and a Verlander too!

Before I get to the COMC stuff I have a quick (not!) Sportlots note that may interest some of you.  Just like Condition Sensitive did I'm giving Sportlots' box shipping a try with my latest huge purchase from the site.  First, here's my quick explanation of what it is:

When you go to get your cards shipped you'll see a new option called "Box", which is often cheaper than the "Budget" option.  That's because sellers can then send a bunch of shipments to Sportlots HQ, consolidating their postage costs instead of having to send out multiple packages.  The Sportlots folks will open those packages, and sort them by buyer so that once all of your individual packages are in, they can send them to you in just one package, again saving on shipping.  This is especially exciting for two types of buyers:  those out of the country and those who buy from many different sellers.

And how here's my breakdown from my latest purchase: 

• From 10 total sellers I grabbed 947 cards
• I qualified for free premium shipping from one due to the quantity I bought (300+ cards)
• I used direct budget shipping from two others whose box rate was the same and therefore not worth it
• I used box shipping for the seven other sellers--about 474 cards

(I'll leave the directly-shipped cards out of this since they don't really apply, meaning we'll see what I saved with the seven other sellers)

Seller	Cards	Budget	Premium	Box
barriere	25	$3.50	$12.00	$1.75
bkcardsx	148	N/A	$7.50	$0.00
cogrinch	61	$3.50	$3.50	$1.05
cttcdork	47	$5.00	$5.00	$3.00
davbondx	39	$3.79	$4.35	$2.84
DelBacon	49	$3.75	$3.75	$1.25
kommking	105	$4.00	$7.20	$1.30
Total		$31.04		$11.19

So as you can see here, picking the best/cheapest shipping option for those seven I'm paying $20 less by using Sportlots Box.  A very important caveat is that I still have to pay to get the cards shipped from them.  Fortunately that's simply based on weight (they even give you a simple calculator for an estimate when you check out), so I'm likely looking at a Box shipping cost under $10.

A $10-$15 shipping savings might not seem that significant when you take into account that you're waiting a bit longer to get everything thanks to the presence of a middleman, but keep in mind that your mileage may vary, especially when dealing with sellers outside of your country.  I'm not saying that I'd use Box every single time, but so far I'm intrigued by the potential advantages.  So I'm curious to see how it works for others.  If you try it please let me know!

One last Sportlots note:  there may be more than a few cards in this package for some of you, so stay tuned!

Ok, with that out of the way let's look at some brand new cards!  I posted some fun Michigan Hockey-related stuff on TMM earlier this afternoon and then was in the mood to scan and post again, so what better way to start than with cards of this here blog's former and current namesakes?

Curtis Granderson has long since left Detroit but I've come around on collecting stuff of him with other teams, like the Yankees and Mets here.  I was able to track down a bunch of Refractors (and two other parallels) at ridiculously low prices during Spring Cleaning--like under $0.50 cheap including the $0.25 shipping cost per card.

The eight Refractors above hail from Bowman Chrome (2010 and 2012, #s 1 and 4 above) and Topps Chrome (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, and 2014, #s 2, 3, 5, 6, and 9).  The others are a 2014 Bowman Blue (#207/500) and 2014 Topps Gold (#1380/2014).  If I had to pick a favorite photo I'd go with the 2016 card and its grab at the wall shot.

As it was on TMM earlier it's milestone time over here as I've finally hit the century mark in Grandy's collection with a new count of 108!

Just one Justin Verlander this time, another example from his run in the 2007 Topps Generation Now set that notes each of his 17 wins from his 2006 AL Rookie of the Year campaign.  JV earned win #16 on September 7 of that year in a 7-2 triumph over the Twins.  The offense accounted for four HR, including one by Granderson, giving Verlander plenty of run support for his excellent performance.  That included 7 IP, 5 strikeouts, and just 1 ER, a solo HR by Michael Cuddyer.  The Tigers went 9-12 the rest of the way, the first in a series of Jim Leyland's signature second half collapses, but of course they recovered to ride the wild card all the way to a World Series berth.

If you like this set you'll want to stay tuned for my eventual Sportlots posts!

I haven't decided what I'll show off next from my COMC haul but I'll try to figure it out soon, so look forward to more loot!