An Unexpectedly Good Card Show Part 1

Neither the dealers, nor those who there just to buy, expected the show on New Year's Eve day to be as crowded as it was.

As I walked around that day, it seemed like all I kept hearing, was bits of conversation regarding the large turnout. Normally I try to get to the shows at around 7am, but since I too wasn't expecting much, I allowed myself a an extra half-hour of sleep and ended up arriving at about 8am... to a very full parking lot. The show ended up being a sellout, dealer wise, and had probably the most people that I've seen yet at one of regular end of the month shows. Even when I left around my usual time of 11am, there was still a packed house and even more still arriving, which is highly unusual. The only possible explanation that I could think of, was that maybe people just had to get out and do something by themselves after all the recent holiday/family stuff.

Whatever the reason for all the people being there was, I just know that where was a few too many there for my liking, which thanks to my social anxiety, caused me to feel a tad claustrophobic on a few separate occasions. One other mild complaint that I had was the at least four different guys that smelled of pee that just had to come stand next to me at some point or another during my time there. I don't know how someone can go around smelling like pee and not know it, so I'm assuming that either they peed on themselves and didn't change their clothes, which is gross -- or even worse, that somebody else peed on them, and they didn't change their clothes. I am in no way claiming to be the best smelling person out there, but when I know I'm going to be in close quarters with others, I at least make an effort not to stink, and I don't think it's too much to ask for others to do the same.

Alright I'm done talking about pee, as I'm assuming no one came here to read about that, and if you are the sort that came here for that kind of content, I'm pretty sure that you're looking at the wrong blog:)

Due to the recent arrival of my COMC stockpile, I was in need of supplies, so I primarily went for this:

And while there, I found a "few" things that really wanted to come home with me:

The two large stacks and about half of the smaller one are dime box stuff, so it looks like a much more expensive outing than it actually was. In fact I didn't buy anything more expensive than $2, and even then, those "pricier" items were primarily gotten for other people. Speaking of other people, I am very happy to say that one of the larger stacks and about half of the smaller stack is comprised of things for other bloggers, which is by far the most I have been able to find for others at a single show (hence the title of this post).

Before starting in on some the stuff, I should probably give everyone fair warning that some of these images are far less than ideal. The week following the show, I wasn't in any mood to be scanning large quantities of cards (well actually, I never am), and because of rain and then some snow, sunlight was at a premium -- so some of these pictures (and angles) are really bad.

I hit a bit of a 2001 Fleer Greats mother lode, finding around 35 or so that I needed. Below are a few of my favorites:

I've said it before about other sets, but I'm kind of glad that I was taking a break from collecting when this set came out, because I would have spent an absurd amount of money buying packs and/or boxes. At this point I can just slowly build the set through the ten cent boxes.

I also was able to get around twenty needed cards from the 2002 Fleer Greats set as well:

It's been a little while since I had a post with any football content:

The 1976 Wonder Bread All-Stars set is by no means a rare set, in fact it seems to be a fairly common one, but this was the first time I have come across any in the dime boxes. I wasn't looking build a set, but after finding 18 of the 24 card set and already having Franco Harris, I might as well try and get the final 5 cards to complete it. Also, if anyone needs Jerry Sherk, I have an extra one.

I just saw these Dover reprints for the first time on Nick's blog not too long ago. I'm not usually a big fan of reprints, but I might as well have one just so I can say that I have one.

Hey look, more football!

My first couple of cards from the 2001 Archives Reserve set. These photos are pretty bad, but at least you can sort of see their refractory-ness. If anyone wants Fred Biletnikoff, there is an extra one of those as well.

In the original draft I had considerably more 90's basketball inserts to show, but due to so many bad photos that I didn't want to redo, I trimmed it down to just a couple:

I always enjoy finding inserts that I haven't seen before, and these 1999-00 Flair Elevators fit into that category. These look absolutely amazing in person.

And I don't usually go for too many post-2000 inserts, but I really enjoy these 2002-03 Topps Coast to Coast cards:

Back to baseball:

Look at these beauties! I didn't even know there were parallels to the Chasing History inserts. Now I do, Gold Holofoil be thy name, and the are very pretty.

As shiny as these 2001 Topps What Could Have Been inserts are I knew the scanner wasn't going to be able to handle them. This is yet another set that is new to me. Topps really should have made an actual set of these instead of just a ten card insert set. Below are two Before There Was Topps cards that were in the same box as the above three:

This card came from the 2003 MLB Showdown Trading Deadline set, which is something I know absolutely nothing about. From what I've seen, not all of the cards have the colored foily part in the background, so I don't if that means anything or not. I'm not really interested in this card, I just grabbed it because I thought it might be a parallel of some sort. Seeing that it sells for a bit on COMC, I will probably include it in with my first batch of cards that I will be sending in to them in the next couple of weeks.

My first Xplosion parallel on the baseball side.

This was the first time I had seen one of these 2016 Topps Negative parallels in person, and I have to admit that I'm now quite infatuated with not only this particular card, but also with the entire concept. It just looks cool! I will definitely be on the lookout for more, although I suspect that I won't be finding too many more for only ten cents.

I guess this will be the stopping point in this one. I think this was the first time I have ever done a post that was comprised of nothing but dime box stuff. Part two will feature a few more dime box items, plus a few of the "pricier pickups".


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