A little slice of the National?

Two weeks ago, the show in Nashville had it's biggest outing yet. Made up of 120 tables form 65 sellers, who amazingly enough, were representing ten different states. Even after a couple of weeks, I'm still an awe of that last bit, the fact that people from 1/5 of our United States were in attendance just seems a bit mind boggling to me.

As a kid I worked at my Uncle's comic book shows, which were much larger than this, but it was by far the largest card show I had ever been to. They also had Beckett there doing their grading thing and the JSA people, but since that stuff doesn't do anything for me, it didn't really add to my overall experience. Denny McClain was supposed to be there as well, but cancelled at the last minute, he is now rescheduled for February when it looks like they will be trying to duplicate the size of this particular show.

As per usual, much was gotten, but I have tried to provide decent sampling here to give an overall sense of what was to be had.

1953 Topps took a long time to grow on me, and now that it has, it's like a fungus that can't be gotten rid of (too graphic?). It's really only been in the last year or so that I have started buying single that I find on the cheap.

As an aside, the last line on the back of Fred Hatfield's card mentions that he was a paratrooper during the war -- which to me is very interesting. Unfortunately google wasn't able to provide any additional information. Thanks for nothing, internet!

The above statement about '53 Topps applies to the 1954 set as well.

I already had the '58 Topps Cleveland team card, but this one was in so much better condition and the price was right, so I opted for the upgrade. For those that don't know, a fellow in the midst of his rookie campaign by the name of Roger Maris, is among the pictured members of the Tribe.

The above six cards came to a total of $15, and were my only vintage baseball purchases of the day.

It has been about seven or eight months since I had found any sizable quantity of 90's refractors in a dime box, and while the 25 or so that I found at this show probably doesn't qualify as a sizable quantity, it still wasn't a bad haul either. These two featuring David Justice were my favorites.

Although not from the 90's, this 2000 Stadium Club Chrome refractor of Shannon Stewart trying to make a catch while playing through a rainbow, that just happened to touch down in left field at the exact moment this photo was taken, is pretty cool as well.

I don't know when Bowman switched from atomic refractors to X-Fractors, but in my mind, this 2001 Bowman Chrome Shawn Green X-Fractor is still an atomic refractor and it is AWESOME! Whether I want to or not, I'm pretty sure that I will now be working on a set of these, albeit very slowly.

Somehow these 1992 7-11 Superstar Action Coins had flown under my radar. I guess that's what happens when you don't like Slurpee's, you miss out on little discs of lenticular goodness.

A different angle to show the action side of the coins.

While there's nothing particular special about this 1995 Studio Gold, by that I mean it's probably normal 10 cent box fodder, I had completely forgotten about of it's existence. What a fun concept this, and it's platinum counterpart, were.

What can I say about 1998 UD3 Die-Cuts, other than they might be my second favorite baseball parallel set (just behind 1998's Pinnacle Zenith Z Gold) from the 90's. I just can't tell you how much I love these. Unfortunately for me though, I almost never find them at shows and they seem to be overpriced online, which means I don't have nearly as many as I would like. But even finding one for a quarter is still certainly better than finding none.

2008 Topps Chrome Trading Card History Ichiro Refractor #'d 18/400

Another new site for me in the form of a 2007 Turkey Red William Harrison Presidents insert. For a dime, I couldn't not get it.

This marks the start of the basketball portion of the post. To any potential 'baseball or bust' readers, don't worry, I won't be offended if you stop here:

My lone vintage basketball set need of day features the Bucks celebrating their one and only championship. Down to 26 needed on the 1971-72 Topps.

Pretty much all this year, my main interest basketball wise, has been 90's inserts and parallels (with some Prizm tossed in for good measure). So I was pretty darn happy to find a 1997-98 Z-Force Rave parallel for the paltry sum of $3. This was actually the first one of these I have ever found in the wild, and is now the fifth card I have from the set.

The back for anyone that cares. Below are a couple more parallels that are not often found at shows by me.

1999-00 Hoops Decade Hoopla Plus Steve Nash

1999-00 Topps Gallery Player's Private Issue Jason Kidd #'d 173/250

And just a few inserts:

1996-97 Topps Hobby Masters Hakeem Olajuwon #HM29

This 1998-99 Topps Finest Producers Allen Iverson refractor looks so much better in person. And at $3, it was a really good buy.

My favorite card purchased at the show, was this 1997-98 Topps Stadium Club Triumvirate Illuminator Scottie Pippen. At $5, it was also my most expensive purchase of the day. And like the A.I. refractor, this card looks even cooler in person.

2000-01 Upper Deck Slam Air Supremacy Vince Carter  #S2

At ten cents, this 1998-99 Skybox Premium Allen Iverson Soul of the Game was a nice find as well.

A trio of 1999-00 Upper Deck NBA Legends Players of the Century

These too were dime box gets. I am moving pretty quickly towards completing all the 2015-16 Donruss "Kings" sets.

It wouldn't be a post as of late, if it have some Prizm in it. This green Magic was the only one I found from the 2013-14 set.

I was able to find about 25 more of the yellow and red's from the 2014 edition. These two were my favorite of the group.

While it isn't all that surprising to find a 1999-00 Skybox Autographics of Jumaine Jones for a $1, it was a bit of a surprise to find one of the hand numbered examples for that price.

Ironically the last card here is the first card I bought at the show. Honestly, I didn't really know what it was when I picked it up, but I was guessing it was some kind of proof. Turns out I was right, in that it's a 2013 Panini Black Friday Proof of Lebron James (obviously!), and according to The Cardboard Connection, the proofs are limited to 5 copies of each color. I'm fairly certain the seller didn't know what it was either, which is kind of funny, since I found out later that he owns a card shop. I'm guessing if he did know, it would have been priced at more than $2. Originally, I bought it for potential resell, but now that I know what it is, and of it's scarcity, I think I will be hanging on to it.

All in all, I have to say that it was a pretty good show.


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