COMC Christmas: X finally marks a spot! (Multi-Sport & Indycar)

One of the things I decided to do was expand my multi-sport collection, but I didn't really hit it too much in this buying wave. I spent most of my money on non-sports this time, but I did get some multi-sport, including some Pre-War..but I think the card I might be most happy to have is this one, a mini from 2017 Goodwin Champions:

Xue Chen is from China, and if you know about Chinese culture...they put their last name first. Miss Xue is the 12,565th different person in my collection....but the very first with a last name that starts with X! I found her card kind of by accident, actually. I did a search for the next card's subject, and decided to look at the rest of the set. I then saw the card above, did a little research to make sure she hadn't Americanized her name convention, or that UD hadn't, and as soon as I found out she didn't, I couldn't click "Buy Now" fast enough. I know for a fact that not a single player with their last name starting with X has ever played in an NBA game, or raced in NASCAR. I don't know about hockey but couldn't find any. The Olympics sets generally only care about the USA, but Upper Deck put a few international athletes in this year's Goodwin Champions, which is how the above card came to exist. Note that when I say last name I really mean surname of family name.

Now, the card I actually went looking for:

Although a tennis player, Genie Bouchard actually has a Nets connection. A year or so ago, a fan asked her out on a date on Twitter...and she accepted! As it turns out, she is a Nets fan and chose a Nets game for the date. It made news in the NBA circles- she and her date were interviewed on the Nets broadcast, which I watched. I thought that was pretty cool, and when she came up on another blog recently, (Can't Have Too Many Cards) I commented that I needed to get a card of her into my collection, so off to COMC I went, and I chose this one. Although she's not dating that guy anymore, she apparently actually is friends with him now. (They still give updates on Nets broadcasts). All I can say is...I wish it had been me!

1939 Churchman's Kings of Speed is a set all about...well...speed. Be it auto racing or otherwise. I had to choose an auto racing card. Ab Jenkins is actually a pretty important person in the world of auto racing, but is mostly forgotten now, unfortunately. He lived from 1883-1956, and 15 of his land speed records still stand today (!) He is pretty much solely responsible for the importance of the Bonneville Salt Flats, and his active racing career spanned from 1925-1956. He also was mayor of Salt Lake City from 1940-44! He's one of the few racers who rose to major importance without ever attempting one of the major races- Indy 500, Daytona 500- the latter of which began three years after his death- and he has very few cards. The Trading Card Database shows only three cards of him, with this being the earliest. It is the first in my collection. It is also the first of this set to appear in my collection. Completing it seems unlikely, as it has the second card of Jesse Owens, but I might be able to get the other 49 some day. 48 to go, hah! The 1930s were the golden age of land speed record setting, and this set actually covers them better than any other.

There are some sets that are legendary in the hobby...1933 Goudy Sport Kings is one of them. I've had my eye on a few cards from this set, but...even in lousy shape they are expensive. This set, for multi-sport, is on the same level as Horrors of War for Non-Sports or T206 for baseball, It's that important. It's also the first set to ever have professional basketball cards in it, naturally the cards I was looking at. Since I've decided to expand my collection a little bit, I opened up more than just the basketball cards in the set as potentially part of my collection, and it led me to this one. I don't really know a whole lot about bicycle racing, and based on Wikipedia I don't even think they do the kind he did anymore- but he was apparently pretty good at it. I can't say as I had ever heard of him before, to be honest, but when it comes to bicycle racing, I can name basically two riders- Lance Armstrong and Chris Froome. And I don't think I could put a face to the name for either. What I did find out is that he was born in 1878 and died in 1949, and was considered by the French to be the best American bicyclist to race in Europe. It does not appear that he competed in the Tour de France. According to Wikipedia he did both track racing (on board tracks, no less, known as a death trap even to avid racing fans) and open course racing. Even in this poor condition this card cost me more than $5- a rarity for me to spend, but it was the only one that was still intact and in my price range. This is a part of history that I've never gotten to explore before, and writing up this post has opened my eyes to a form of a sport I would watch if I had the opportunity, that I never knew existed! That's not something that happens too often. Most of the time I get the cards because I'm a fan of the sport. Sometimes I become a fan of the sport because I got the cards. But to have never even heard of the sport until it shows up in my collection? I don't know if that's ever happened before!

Although NASCAR is my favorite form of motorsports, and the vast majority of my racing cards are NASCAR, I AM a fan of other forms of racing. (In fact, my favorite race of each year is actually the 24 Hours of Daytona, which is not considered a NASCAR race, although technically it is). I started watching the Indy 500 regularly a few years ago. I think the first I saw from flag-to-flag was when Dan Wheldon won in 2011, but I know I saw portions of it live at least as far back as 1995, and maybe earlier that I don't remember. I have not missed it since 2011 and I try to watch every Indy race that doesn't conflict with NASCAR. Lately I've enjoyed them more but I have too much mentally invested in NASCAR to skip them for anything. Anyway, of course I collect Indy cards. They don't have a very good representation on cards, and have not gotten any in years now. Unfortunate. I'd collect them if they did. Indy did get card sets starting in 1983, and had them pretty regularly up to the late 1990s. The first company that started doing yearly sets was called A&S Racing, which produced sets from 1983-1987, and then came back in 1991 and 1992 branded as All-World, but it was the same company. I've completed the 1991 and 1992 sets, but I didn't have any of the 1980s cards, and I've been wanting to change that for a while, but I never think of it when I get money in COMC. This time I did, but they aren't always easy cards to locate. I was only able to get three of the 5 sets represented into my collection, and at that only one card from each set.

 Doug Heveron comes from the 1983 set, the first one produced. I chose him because he is a local guy- Brewerton, NY is less than an hour away from me. He also raced in NASCAR, which didn't hurt, but I chose him specifically because he was local. 

 The 1985 set. With this set they began using the same design for every year, with just minor differences. This was a popular trend in the 1980s for some reason. For the Indy set the difference was the color of the text on the back, which was blue on this card. Rick Mears is a legend with multiple Indy 500 wins. If you are a race fan you know who he is already. Note Roger Penske palming a Coca Cola can. Coca Cola sponsored the Penske team at various times through his long history.

The 1987 set used the exact same design as the 1985 set, but the writing on the back is all in green ink. The 1986 set, which is available now but was not when I was buying, uses the same design but with red backs. Josele Garza was the only card available, as was the Rick Mears. The 1984 set seems to be the hardest to find. COMC has only had seven of them ever, all sold out, and the ones I can find on ebay are autographed. Hopefully someday I will be able to find some for my collection, and hopefully the 1986 set will still be available next time I get some money to spend on COMC. All three sets, and presumably 1984 and 1986 as well- are on very thin, flimsy cardboard, that are actually see through if you hold them up in front a light source, like the computer screen.

Thanks for reading this multi-part series, and thanks to my brother for this excellent Christmas present. I was able to hit every single topic I collect, get some cards/sets I always wanted, and get some cards and sets I would have wanted if I knew that they existed! And I got to make 5 posts out of it!