Sparkle, Sparkle!

As I mentioned in the beginning of the previous post, this past Saturday was a card show day, and not just any old card show day, no, this was one of the twice a year card show on steroids days... featuring 180 tables of pure cardboard nirvana. Oh, and the Beckett grading people were there, as well as the JSA folks, and for the third time in the last year and a half, Denny McClain was there to sign stuff.

Having not been to a show since the last big one in September, I had been looking forward to this day for quite a while now, and thankfully the show didn't disappoint (not that I thought it would).

As far as getting there goes, it was pretty uneventful, got up at 3am so that I could hit the road by 5am in order to get there at/or before 7am. Although I did see two bunnies and a deer practically right after I got out of the driveway, so that was nice, and it must've been a good omen as the rest of the drive there ended up being quite pleasant.

I was surprised to see how many people were already there when I arrived shortly before seven, as the main crowds don't usually arrive until an hour or two later. It seemed to be rather crowded the entire time I was there, thankfully though, I left a little earlier than normal (ran out of money) so my anxiety didn't get as bad as it usually does by the time I leave. And as always, I enjoyed seeing where everyone was coming from via the license plates in the parking lot. I lost count, but I think this show beat the old record of 12 different states being represented, including an Arizona and a New York (he was a dealer, his accent gave him away) this time. Maybe it's just because I hate long drives, but I couldn't imagine driving to Nashville all the way from Arizona... that's just crazy!

As I mentioned in the last post too, since everything I bought pretty much fits into six different categories, I'm going to make these recaps a little easier by separating them into six different posts. Since the vintage stuff seems to always be the most popular, I had fully intended to start with that, but apparently the lighting wasn't good enough when I did pictures, so all the whites look yellowish... and just won't do, so instead I'll be starting with all of the glittery/sparkly stuff, aka the polar opposite of vintage.

I hit a bit of 2011 Topps Platinum Diamond Anniversary mother lode while going through my favorite seller's (Jim) quarter boxes, and I guess before I get too far along, I should probably mention that everything in this post came from two different sellers, and nothing was more than 25 cents.

If anyone's interested, the J.J. Hardy and Joel Pineiro were duplicates.

In terms of star power, the MadBum was by far the best of these Platinum Diamond's. 26 of these cards were new to me, and they almost doubled the amount of cards that I now have from this set.

Also from the 2011 Topps set, I found a couple of the Cognac's. The Banks and Sandberg are variations, of the legends variety, so it was pretty cool to find those for a quarter as they usually go for a couple of bucks apiece. The Ernie Banks is also my favorite card in this post.

Even though the scans don't show it, these cards (in my opinion) are more sparkly than shiny, which I feel need to mention because the next post is reserved for shiny cards, and I spent a couple of minutes trying to figure which cards should go in which posts.

Ooh, more Platinum Diamond's, this time from the 2011 Topps Lineage.

I love this set so much, but like everything else, I didn't know of it until a couple of years after it came out.

Of all the Topps parallels, I think the 2012 Golden Moments is the set that I have the most of. I really like the active AL batting average leaders, the base card's cool too, but it's just so much better in glimmering gold. This is another set that, in person, seems more sparkly than shiny.

I bought this Piazza mainly because of it's sparkly nature, and also because I couldn't recall ever seeing a card from this set before. I have since found out that it's a Nth Degree parallel from the 1995 Score Summit set. I don't know if I'll end up keeping it or not, but for the moment I sure do enjoy looking at it.

And finally, another card from a set that I don't recall ever having seen before. From checking COMC, I have been able to ascertain that the 1993 Collector's Edge had a five-card John Elway insert set, which came in three different versions. This one that I found is of Taraus Technologies Prisms variety, and under the right conditions, could seriously mess up your eyes. I was torn on which post this one should go in, I guess if anybody reading this has one, you can tell me which category you would've put it in. This is also another one that I don't if I'll be keeping or not, but either way, it sure is cool looking.

If you still haven't gotten your fill of gaudy cards, you'll want to come back for the next post, as it too will be full of brightly coated pieces of cardboard.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.