Check Out My (Final ?) COMC Order

Dude, Where's My Cards?

Still waiting for an update on the shipment I requested on 12/2/2019. I emailed on 12/23, they replied the same day and said they'd look into it and get back to me. 

No response/update for over a week, so I sent a follow up on Jan 3rd. No Reply.

I emailed again on January 8th - no reply.

Hmm, maybe they aren't getting my emails? I started a new email thread on January 22nd - no reply.

I emailed again this Monday, after hearing nothing for another week, with no communication from COMC since that first response way back on December 23rd.

So, I have pulled all of my cards from sale on the website. I tried to have them shipped back to me, but they wanted to charge me $81 to ship my own cards back to me. Fine, you can keep them, I marked everything I sent to them as "For Charity."

I still had a sizeable number of cards that I already paid for, on the site, ready to ship. I had been using a strategy of placing a shipment order at the beginning of each month (after the $5 bonus), then adding store credit a week or two later and starting the process again. I would eat up all the store credit, save $4 of the bonus $5 to cover shipping, then repeat.

My first shipment request from COMC was way back on 9/17/2014. I had been ordering one shipment a month, EVERY MONTH, since March of 2015. This was before I even had a COMC account.

After not seeing my shipment change over to "packaging" status for 6 weeks, I decided to divest in the website altogether. I didn't have enough "store credit" to cover shipping, so I added $10 in store credit (the minimum allowed), and added my last cards to my last shipment to bring the amount left to $0.01

While I will really miss the site for its ease of navigation and all the great inventory, I decided that I didn't want to reward this poor customer service any longer. It's one thing if they lost the cards, or damaged them, or sent them to the wrong address... Any reason would have been better than not replying at all after 2 months. These were the last cards I ordered from COMC, they still owe me 61 cards from the December shipment that never materialized, and probably an apology too.

This is the only time I've had an issue in over 5 years using the site, but it's ridiculous to be ghosted on a simple shipping inquiry. What do you think, am I overreacting?

Willians Astudillo - Road to the Show

Willians Astudillo was signed by the Phillies as a amateur free agent in 2008. He debuted for the Phillies in the Venezuelan summer league at the tender age of 17 in 2009, and would play for the VSL Phillies for the first 3 seasons of his minor league career. He played for the short season rookie level Gulf Coast League Phillies in 2012.

The Bowman scouting report back in 2013 had all the hints of what was to come -- "Aggressive swinger who rarely whiffs" "Owns strong arm and quick release behind the plate." Astudillo would unfortunately be sidelined for the 2013 season with an injury.

In 2014, Astudillo would get his first taste in a full season league, playing for the Single A Lakewood Blue Claws in the South Atlantic League. He was an All-Star at Catcher, hitting .333 with 30 doubles and just 20 strikeouts.

Promoted again for 2015, Astudillo made strides in High A Clearwater. He hit .314 with just 10 strikeouts in 418 plate appearances, winning the Florida State League batting title. He drove in 49 runs for the Threshers, and would be moving up again in 2016.

Now in the Braves organization, the 24 year old Astudillo has moved up to AA Mississippi. Once again, Willians was an All-Star thanks to his skills behind the plate and his high rate of contact.

Despite hitting below .300 for the first time in his minor league career since his age 17 season, Astudillo still brought great defense (leading the league in caught stealing pct.) and struck out just 11 times on the season in 89 games.

The Braves foolishly let Willians test the market, and he went West to Arizona and the AAA Reno Aces for 2017. The Pacific Coast League was the right environment for Willians to bounce back, and he hit .342 for the Aces, striking out 5 times in his 128 plate appearances. The Aces also gave Astudillo his first pitching appearance, earning the win in a scoreless 2 inning stint.

The Twins finally got their man in 2018, adding Astudillo to the AAA Rochester Red Wings roster. He wasted no time making another All-Star squad, and was poised to make his MLB debut for the Twins in the fall of 2018. For the Red Wings, Willians found his power stroke and hit a career high 12 homers.

The road to the big leagues was 10 years and 638 games long. Astudillo is making it hard for manager Rocco Baldelli to keep him out of the lineup on the big league club now - he's taken all the contact skills and defensive flexibility learned over his minor league (and Venezuelan Winter League) career and put them to use.

Hammering Out A COMC Order

Dave Parker is the coolest guy. COMC had their Spring Cleaning sale, and I decided to hop on over to the site and look for some hidden gems.

I had some Action Packed Football cards when I was a kid, but I was totally unaware at the time that there were baseball cards out there too. Clemente is in his Santurce Cangrejeros (Crabs) uniform. He played for the Crabs in 1954, sharing the outfield with Willie Mays for the Puerto Rican Winter League team and Caribbean Series Champions. Joe Morgan and Hank Greenberg fill in the bat rack mini collection contingent.

Like Joe Morgan and/or minor league cards? The card above is from a Durham Bulls Hall of Fame set. Sophie Kurys was the Rickey Henderson of the AAGPBL. Can't have a card of Buck without his best friend Satch.

See what I mean - 1,114 career stolen bases? 201 steals in 113 games?!?!?! Only 98 of her hits that year were singles. That's some serious speed! 

Sometimes I just go for aesthetics - no real rhyme or reason to add these.

Church's Chicken had to compete with Denny's somehow - they decided on Gold Parallels to combat those highfalutin' holograms. Jersey swatches are probably cheaper than they've ever been, even with a low serial number, Joe Mauer's card was super cheap in the sale.

             
Can't resist vintage for pennies on the dollar!

The big prize? Baby Bart! I noticed that Colon hasn't signed many cards in his career, so I jumped at this one, even though I'm generally not much of an autograph hound.

This autograph is older than Washington Nationals phenom Juan Soto!

Look out, it's the Lookouts!

Tuesday I drove across Tennessee (the Long Way) to see the Chattanooga Lookouts.

As this handy chart indicates, Chattanooga is now the Twins' AA Affiliate.

 That's quite the formidable lineup for a Double-A Squad.

The Lookouts play at AT&T Field in Chattanooga. They have what might be the most exclusive Hall of Fame ever:

Cal Ermer, the  Lookouts' first manager (coincidentally also a manager and scout for the MN Twins);
...  and Tommy LaSorda, who apparently attended several games according to his plaque (probably starting around the time Chattanooga became the Dodgers AA Affiliate?). Both inducted in 2010.

Louie, the Lookouts' mascot.

The view from my seat - $9 for this ticket...

Lookouts' Catcher Stuart Turner sending a baseball into orbit

The game actually started with "Boog Powell" trying to bunt for a base hit:

Super Prospect Byron Buxton hit a Grand Slam, singled and stole a base.
Here he is coming home to greet his teammates after the grand salami:

Sano didn't have much going on offensively, but he made several impressive defensive plays at third (none of which I captured on film). The Lookouts cruised to a 10 - 3 victory.

It was a gorgeous evening and a great game!