COMC Christmas: Olympics

I have been wanting to increase my Olympic collection, and with the money my brother gave me to spend on COMC at Christmas, I did!
First I hit the relics...

 Max Aaron is alphabetically the first person in my collection.

Covered all three Topps Olympic sets there. Unfortunately none of them say what kind of relic they are. The Kim Rhode is my first relic from the 2012 set, Topps' first modern foray.

Then I tried for autographs, but only added one:

It's a good one though, as Rugby was my "find" of the 2016 Olympics. I really enjoyed it, and I had never seen any before. Carlin Isles was one of only two Rugby players to be included in the 74 card set. The autographs tend to run a little high priced for the Olympic sets, but I got lucky with this one.

Then I went for promos:

The 1984 M&Ms set and 1992 Snickers set were new to my collection. I've completed the 1991 Hall of Fame set, but didn't have any of the prototypes before.

I also picked up this gold hologram, which is an insert from the 1992 Impel set. I don't have a whole lot of that set so I may buy a box at some point...at which time I'm sure I'll end up with another of these. I generally only buy cards I know I won't get elsewhere, but a cheap hologram, I couldn't resist!

The 1992 Olympics are the first I have any memory of, but 1996 is when I really became an Olympic super-fan. I've completed 4 Olympic sets, and I have another I bought as a complete set but am parceling out and pulling cards out of during the Olympics. This will be the second Olympics I do that for. I am quite sure I will complete the 2018 set as well, eventually. It's so small, it's easy to do- even a retail box yields almost two full sets. I constantly bemoan the poor quality of the Olympic sets, and especially the fact that only the USA is covered- but I am glad we have even them. There were no sets issued for any Olympics between 1996 and 2012, and pre-1992 was spotty at best, with most years having no cards whatsoever. One of the biggest shames of sports cards is that there are no cards whatsoever that actually document the Olympics- there should be a set that gives a card to each medalist in each sport. It's NEVER happened in the modern Olympic history, most sets are even released before the Olympic teams are even chosen. I know why it's done that way...but it doesn't mean I have to like it. It also doesn't mean I won't collect what we do get. And it doesn't mean I'm not going to complain every two years. But I still love my Olympic collection.