The card show that almost wasn't

There was a card show last Saturday. I really didn't want to go. The universe didn't seem to want me to go. I went anyway.

Cards haven't been doing much for me as of late, nor has anything else, which is probably why I've only managed to eke out five (now six) posts during the month of February.

Depression has been kicking my butt for most of the year so far, and there has been some more money woes - both of these things are not good for one's want to collect.

Last weekend's show was one of those twice a year 180+ table super mega affairs, which I always feel some obligation to try and go to. Also, I have owed five different people a return package for a couple of months now, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to find some cards for them. Spoiler alert: I was only able to find stuff for 1 1/2 of said five people, meaning that the other 3 1/2 can continue to think that I'm an ungrateful bum.

On Friday, the day before the card show, I noticed that the front tire on the passenger side of my car (it's an SUV, but you know what I mean) was looking a little droopy, and it wasn't the low on air kind of droopy, so much as it was there's a slow leak kind of droopy. I hadn't had to go anywhere for the previous two days, so this was news to me.

I didn't notice the wonked up tire until right before dark, which is conveniently when it just started to rain again (more on that in a second) too. I've mentioned it before, but I kind of live in the middle of nowhere, and when it gets dark here, it gets really dark (almost no light pollution). Because of nightfall's rapid approach, and the now steady rainfall, my want to change the tire was non-existent, so I took the lazy way out and asked my mom if I could borrow her truck. My request was successful, not that I thought it wouldn't be.

With this newly acquired bit of stress, the anxiety I was already having (it walks hand-in-hand with the depression) had increased to even more uncomfortable level, which I knew was going to make for very little sleep that night, and I was right. I finally fell asleep sometime around 11pm and woke up just after 2am. With the alarm set for 3, I knew that I wasn't going to fall back asleep, so I just laid there listening to the torrential downpour that was occurring outside, wondering if I should just skip the show and try to go back to sleep, I didn't.

Even though I got up on time, I still ended up leaving half an hour later than I had planned. Thanks to the rain, I was having a devil of a time trying to get everything loaded into the truck, so I was late. This probably a good time to mention that it had raining almost nonstop for six of the previous seven days, the east coast and the Midwest have been getting hammered with snow, we got rain, lots of rain. From what I've heard, middle Tennessee, my not so humble adopted home, has received more rain this past month than any other February on record.

With all of this rain comes the inevitable flooding, which I've seen a lot of so far, as the creek that runs by the house has been claiming part of the front, and back yard, as it's own, for about half of the month now. Part of the driveway has been underwater at various points as well, which can make trying to go out a little more interesting. It's a gravel driveway, so slipping off of it is a possibility, especially when it's dark. If one were to slide off on in the flooded area, one would officially be f*cked. On the right is a small pond that has formed from all of the runoff coming down the hill, and on the left (and down) is the front yard, and while that area wasn't underwater, it is like a bog, if you go down there even 4-wheel drive ain't gonna do you any good.

As mentioned, I left late, so I didn't get out of here until 5am. Made it through the driveway just fine, and spent an hour of the hour and forty five minute drive in white out conditions. I don't mind driving in such conditions, it's what I learned to drive in afterall, but I do sometimes worry about being out there with all the other people who tend to drive like they've never seen rain before. Thankfully it was just me, and the usual steady stream of semi's, truckers drive in the rain all the time so one doesn't need to worry about their driving abilities, or lack thereof.

I arrived at about 6:40, still raining. I knew I was going to have to park far away, so for the first time in my life, I actually took an umbrella with me - my backpack isn't waterproof, and I didn't want the boxes inside to get all wet. The son of the guy who runs these shows was walking out of the smaller gym (the big shows are in two gym's) just as I was walking in, and apparently he just couldn't resist the temptation to say something pithy my carrying an umbrella. Nice. Normally I probably would've directed a few choice four, and twelve, lettered words in his direction, but... depression, so I just kept walking. I won't forget the slight though.

Dealers were still setting up in the small gym, which was fine, because I never start there anyway, all the good stuff is an the bigger gym. Just as I walked in, I heard something that almost made me turn right around and start heading home. I heard guy off to my right ask "So much for both of the Smothers Brothers and the Max Baer Jr.?". Being mildly obsessed with Golden Age, I knew exactly what he had to be asking about, that being autographs from the 2013 set. The reply to his question is what made me want to leave before I even started looking. "How about $2 each?" was what I heard from the dealer... $2 f*cking dollars each! Are f*ucking kidding me! Christ, each one of the Smothers Brothers usually sells for $15-20 range, and Max can go anywhere from $10-20. I'm fairly familiar with this dealer, and he has never had anything like this before, so the odds of me actually looking through his autograph's box would've been low even if I had gotten there earlier, but still, did I have to hear that right as I walked by? It annoys me because I still need all three of those autos, and that was like one of those deals of century kind of situations. Most of me already didn't want to be there, but after having to hear that exchange, I knew that I was going to be having an even less enjoyable time than I had expected, and I was right!

I'm sure that some of you are starting to wonder if I'm ever gonna shut up and get to some cards, and my answer to that would be, yes... here's some cards:

This card was actually my last purchase of the day. I got it from the husband/wife duo who just come for the big shows, with their 5 or 6 table spread of nothing but vintage. I heard the guy mention that they just bought a huge collection, which isn't unusual for them, but what was unusual was that they brought a lot of that stuff here first, before they set up at The National whenever that is, usually it's the other way around - so I guess you could say that the folks attending The National are going to be getting some of Nashville's leavin's :)

I always just look through their "scratch and dent" tote, because everything else is a little too high for me, although this time they had multiple totes of bargain stuff. I spent way too much time looking through these totes to only end up buying one card, most of the prices were condusive to what I wanted to spend. I already had one copy of this card, and I still need a couple more, for $2 I was able to cross one more off of the list. Pretty good team that '57 Braves, loaded with familiar names - Aaron, Ball boy Blossfield, Conley, Mathews, Spahn, and Thomson.

The next two cards came from the guy that I got the '52 Bowman Casey Stengel for a dollar from awhile back. I didn't see that he was there again until late, he had his cards laid out on the table this time, most were still just $1 each, lots of empty spots where cards had been, so I probably missed some more deals, which is what happens when you're only one person, and there are this many tables.

I don't know if I've already mentioned it on here or not, but I recently started a Johnny Podres collection, which I had planned on adding this card to, "had" being the keyword there. I didn't notice it until a few days later, but the card has an indent/wrinkle thing going on, which is something that wouldn't bother me if I had seen it and still went ahead and bought it, but finding it after the fact is really bugging the sh*t out of me - burned by bad lighting again! Now I have to find another one for me, and figure out who to send this one to.

This was a much better dollar spent than the Podres. I already had this card, but mine was in much worse shape, so I opted for an upgrade. My other copy will be another one that'll eventually be sent out to some (un)lucky blogger.

It's been awhile since I've added anything to my 1972-73 set build, this Wilt all-star was a big (get it, cause he's tall) addition, and I was just starting to wonder if I even wanted to bother finishing the set. This one certainly isn't mint, but collector's always want Wilt cards, so this one has jumped up in price over the last couple of years, and nicer examples are no longer affordable... at least not for me.

Side note: I bought this card from the kid (I say kid, but he's probably around my age) that comes from Memphis to set up at these big shows, he also runs a show in Memphis, which is supposedly starting to grow, so collector's in that are who haven't already done so, might want to check out his shows.

Look at that, a hockey card! I had seen cards from this set many times over the last couple of years while doing the challenges on COMC, but I never knew anything about them - so when I came across this Lemieux in one of Jim's 6/$1 boxes, I felt compelled to grab it. For anyone who might not know, this comes from the 1988-89 ESSO NHL All-Star Collection set, but that's all I know, and it's all I need to know.

Side note #2: I dropped my cell phone on the laundry room floor a couple of weeks ago, it's a tile floor so you can probably imagine how well that turned out. The screen looks like a spider web now, but the camera still works, and I'm still using it for the stuff that the scanner can't handle (vintage). Having the screen all cracked has made trying to center photos much more difficult, so if you've noticed any of the oddly tilted pictures yet, that's why.

Hockey, and a graded card all in the same post, what the heck is going on here! I blame Chris for this purchase. I also blame him for the slight interest in graded cards that I seem to have developed. Bloggers are such terrible influences - mother's, don't let your children grow up to be bloggers!

Remember the guy with the stupidly low priced Golden Age autos that I missed out on, yeah well, he had a bunch of graded cards as well, which is another thing that he doesn't usually have. Most of them were like newer A&G, and Gypsy Queen, which I don't understand why anyone would get graded, but whatever, it's not my money being flushed down the toilet. Anyway, amongst all of that newer stuff were a PSA 7 1971 Willie McCovey and the Cubs team card above. I was interested in both, and was given a price of $15 for the pair, which seemed a little high to me, so I walked away.

After a couple of minutes I decided to see what they sell for on eBay, just so I could get a sense of what a good price would be. Turns out that the McCovey goes for more than $15 by itself. I walked back with the intention of trying to offer him $12 for the pair, he was on the phone when I got back over there, so I had to wait a minute. While I was waiting, I decided to take the cards out of the team bags that they were in. I'm glad I did, because the McCovey case had a bunch of scuffs and scratches, including a fairly deep scratch across the white section of the placard (I don't know if that's what the top part is actually called or not). I found it odd that those things couldn't be seen through a clear team bag, maybe because of the glare? Either way, I couldn't look past those scratches, so McCovey got put back. The Cubs case was scratch free, and at the newly quoted $5 sale price, I took it! Who would've ever thought that my most expensive purchase of the day would've been on a graded card, certainly not I.

Another graded card, seriously??????? I can't blame Chris for this purchase, at $1, I would've bought this one no matter what. I walked by table that had a shoebox of graded cards that said "$1 each". Like 95% of the box was nothing but cards from those not-so-legit grading companies, GMA, ACA, BBC, ABBA, CBGB - you know, those sort of places. Not only was Elvin here the only vintage card of the bunch, but he was also the only PSA card as well. I already have this card in my set, but for a dollar I would've bought another copy even if it hadn't been graded.

This is the rest of what I bought, mostly from Jim's 6/$1 boxes (lot's of 90's basketball inserts). It doesn't look like a lot now that they've been un-toploadered, but there's well over a hundred cards there. I will get to them sometime in the coming weeks (or months), since I don't plan on going to another show until at least May or June, there's really no rush to get everything shown here on the blog, plus I really don't feel like doing any scanning right now.

I ended up spending $39 on cards, and I bought a few much needed supplies, skipped a lot more tables than I normally would have though, if there were too many people (the weather didn't seem to stop anyone from coming) at a particular table, I just kept walking. Overall it wasn't a very fun show, and I know I probably sound like a dick for saying that, especially to those of you who don't live anywhere near a show, but that's how it was -- the best part of the day was getting to come home.

Epilogue: It never did stop raining on Saturday, but we did finally get a break on Sunday, hell, we actually ended up getting a couple of days of sun and blue sky. The water has receded, which was nice, more rain is coming though, which is to be followed by a couple of days of "butt cold" temperatures... yay!

As for the leaky tire, it had a screw in the side, which means it couldn't be plugged and had to be replaced...


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Are you ready for some more football?

Like it or not, I've got another post here of more football cards from November's card show, on the plus side though, there's a lot more variety today than my previous Prizm only post.

The guy that I got all of the Prizm in the previous post from, had two 3200 ct football dime boxes, and while they weren't the best dime boxes that I've ever gone through, I was still able to find some gems (at least to me) amongst all of the early 90's base cards that made up the bulk of these boxes.

Ten cent refractors are always fun, doubly so when they're of player's that I'm actually familiar with. And the Witten is an Xfractor, so I guess I should say that ten cent Xfractors are always fun as well.

Between these two guys, there's almost too much handsome for one post! Even though I wasn't familiar with this set beforehand (2013 Topps '59 design minis), I couldn't pass up the opportunity at getting my first Tom Brady card.

The scan for 1000-Yard Club Dickerson does not do it justice at all. It is such a cool card in hand, I don't know how to describe it, but it's got a refractor-like quality, but the background, which moves, feels like there depth to it - kind of like a hologram, but not a hologram, if that makes any sense.

The Sayers did not scan well at all, and the Shuler is supposed to have a greenish tint to it... at least the Boz turned out alright though.

A couple of miscellaneous inserts and serial numbered cards here, my favorite being the Red Grange, which I initially thought (because of the shine and depth) was a Prizm insert of some sort, turns out it wasn't, it's from the 2016 Panini Rookies & Stars Great American Heroes insert set.

I was kind of surprised to find a pair of semi-vintage hall of famers, and an autographed semi-vintage hall of very gooder in these boxes. I am fond of autographs, so the Morton was pretty cool, but I really dig the '74 Larry Little - it's just a nice looking card.

It's not every day that you find such clean and sharp cornered 61's in a dime box, I'm not working on the set anymore, but I'll take them just the same. Not only are these in really great shape, but none of these guys were slouches either, both Mutschellar and Patton earned rings with their respective teams, and all three were selected to Pro Bowls.

This would be it as far as my dime box purchases went, but this guy did have a $1 box as well. Not a great box, but I did find the Carter and Tarkenton purple prizms from the previous post in there, as well as this beauty:

Other than being slightly crooked, this photo turned out really well, which is a good thing, because I really wanted everyone to see how neat this Frank Gore gold refractor was. One of my favorite cards from the day for sure, and in case anyone cares, it's also #'d to 50.

Between these, the Prizms, and some of the baseball from the first post, I did pretty well with this new seller, hopefully I'll see him there again some time.

Now, if that wasn't enough football for you, I also got a few things from Jim's 6/$1 boxes:

You can never go wrong with lenticular, unless you're scanning it, then apparently you can wrong with the Collector's Edge Quantum Motion cards.

People seem to either love or hate Colin Kaepernick, me, I'm indifferent towards him (as I am with most athletes), I do however love acetate inserts, so Colin wasn't about to be left behind. And it's hard to tell, but the Dez is a mini sepia refractor, who knew that there even was such things?

Some cool miscellaneous 90's (and 2000) inserts/parallels, please forgive the wonky scan.

Here's something that was new to me, 1993 Pro Set Power Combos Prizms. I will fight anyone that says that these aren't the coolest thing you've seen all day!

As interesting as these are, they're also a bit confusing. The backs are being shown with both cards being right side up, but you can tell that the Chargers isn't oriented properly, also the numbering is different. At first I thought it was an error of some sort, turns out it isn't, as they're from two different insert sets - Power Combos Prizms, and Power Combos Prizms PC. From the front, they look the same to me, so other than the numbering, I have no idea what the difference is.

How about a 1970 Kellogg's for just 15 cents? I don't ever see any Kellogg's at shows, so to find this one, which is in absolutely mint condition, was a real treat. This is actually my first ever card from that set as well, now if I could just find a few more at this price...

I did pick up a few basketball cards at this show as well (not nearly as many as usual though), and had intended to show them in the next post, but after looking at the scan again - which didn't turn out too well - I think I'll just wait and dump them in an odds and ends post somewhere down the road, I don't have much to say about them either, so they'll be better suited for that kind of setting.

If all goes well, I'll be attending one of the twice a year mega shows this weekend, so I just might have another series of card show posts in three months time :)


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These colors don't run

Today's post is going to be a perfect example of three things when it comes to me and my collecting habits: a) I'll apparently buy just about anything at a card show if the price is right, even though I'd be much better off just saving my money. b) My recent interest in collecting duplicates of things has really taken hold. c) Try as I might, I just can't do "best of" posts, especially when it comes to card show spoils.

As far as the "best of" posts go, I tried to do a few for the last couple of card show recaps, but I'm just not feelin' those, so it's back to anything and everything for me (unless it doesn't photograph or scan well, then it's out), my apologies to everyone who told me, because I asked, that they prefer the "best of" approach when it comes to show recaps.

If you saw my last post, you might recall that I mentioned that because I arrived so early to the show back in November, there weren't too many dealers set up yet, so I didn't have a lot of options right off the bat. Thankfully there was a guy who I hadn't seen before, who just so happened to have a pretty impressive spread, most of which was of the football variety - in fact, he had so much, that you'll see spread across two posts.

The first thing that caught my eye was a box of Prizm parallels, mostly from 2014, oh, and by the by, this is probably a good time to mention that all of this post is going to be Prizm football parallels, with the red, white, and blue's being the dominant color (hence the title).

Anyway, the stuff in the box wasn't priced, and when I asked about them, the guy gave me the old "just pick out what you want and we'll work on a price", which is normally a big no no for me, but again, I didn't have a lot of other options yet, so I took a chance.

There will be a few non-RWB's below, but the bulk of this shoe box was those, I started taking so many out that I had to remind myself that I was interested in working on the set, and to just try and focus on the guy's (duplicates and all) that I actually wanted.

Noticing the duplication yet?

Even though both Panini and Topps have used this Frank Gifford photo on more than enough cards, I still really like it, especially in this format.

Lance Alworth rainbow alert! I can't help but wonder if anybody else would have bought these that day if I hadn't, I sort of suspect that the answer is no, but that's okay, I don't mind buying stuff that nobody else wants... I do it all the time.

 

All of these guys were chosen because I either didn't have any cards of them, or because I only had 1 or 2 cards of them, but wanted more.

Retired star power.

Mostly still playing star power.

These were for the newly started Eric Dickerson collection.

These were my two favorite Prizm pick ups, purple prizmed Vikings just look so damn cool! It's funny too that their the same purple backgrounds, yet when scanned next to each other they came out as two different shades (the actual color is closer to Fran's background).

As mentioned, I found a few non-2014's that were of interest too, including this pair of blue 2013's. Quizz is probably my favorite Beaver of all-time, he was just so fun to watch, it's just too bad he wasn't able to do more in the NFL.

And finally, rounding out the post with a nifty 2015 blue Gronk, and a much less attractive 2016 green Steve Young. I really don't like the 2016 Prizm set, but it's hard for me to turn away a cheap Steve Young parallel.

When it came time to figure out a price for all of these, I was quoted a semi-decent, but not great, price - which was countered by me, and accepted after a few seconds of thought by the dealer. I think the only reason that he did accept it was because I was purchasing so much other stuff from his ten, and 25 cent boxes, some of which was shown in the last post, and the rest of the non-Prizm football will be seen in the next card show post.


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Backlogged baseball

I used to be so good about showing off my card show spoils in a timely manner. When I first started the blog a couple of years ago I would have everything photographed and/or scanned within a day or two, the recap post(s) would then be up within another day or two - fast forward a few years, and now I feel like I've accomplished something if I'm able to get all of that done within the following 30 days.

No sense of accomplishment this time though, as I'm just now getting around to the goodies that were gotten at the last show that I went to, which only took place at the end of this past November! Yep, only 2 1/2 months ago, that might be a new record for me?

I hadn't originally planned on going to this particular show, but I had plenty of Secret Santa shopping to do, and this was going to be my best opportunity to find some stuff for Billy and Mark, stuff that hopefully wouldn't suck.

Since it's been a couple of months now, some of the details are a little fuzzy, but I do remember that the weather was supposed to be nice that day, so I was trying to get there and back as quick as I could, I hate wasting nice days away from home. Because of this, I ended up getting there about half an hour earlier than normal. Usually things are jumping at that these shows around the crack of the dawn, not this time though, in fact, there was only about half a dozen dealers set up when I got there, but things did get going pretty quick.

Everybody's favorite seller, Jim, wasn't even there yet, so I had to bide my time by going to one of the few guys who was set up, a guy I've never seen before, who had pretty expansive spread. Much of his offerings were of the football variety, which worked for me, since that's what I've been most interested in lately, at least cardwise. After going through all of his football cards (those will be in a separate post), I noticed that he had two 3200 ct baseball dime boxes, so I went to work on those.

The first row I started in on had around 100 Griffey's grouped together, a lot of it was stuff that I already had at one time in my original Junior collection, stuff I don't really want again (early 90's base), but there were a few things of interest. The Gallery PPI up in the right hand corner is one of those auction points cards:

I remember these from the 1999-00 basketball set, but I never knew that they did them on the baseball side too. The basketball points were literally just points cards, these are actual baseball cards, which are apparently collected as such. I already showed this card to somebody via the interwebs, who didn't hesitate to make me an offer for it, supposedly a 100 points Junior is somewhat desirable, who knew? I think this is pretty nifty card, so I didn't take the offer, tempting as it was.

Of the dozen or so Griffey's that I got, this 1999 Tek is probably the coolest. Looks like these tend to sell for a bit on COMC, so that's always fun to find something like that for just a dime.

Found a run of Ichiro cards as well. I already had a copy of both the Lineage refractor, and the green Bowman, but they're both pretty, so I certainly didn't mind getting another of each. Even at a dime, the gold Bowman probably should've been left behind... it's not a very interesting card.

Here's just some random shiny.

And here we have some random... random? The Thome Clippings card is kind of neat, I don't recall ever having seen one of those before. I have quite a few Triumvirate's on the basketball side, but this was my first baseball one.

I have wanted one of Dan(ny) Ainge's baseball rookies for a long time, I say that, but I've never actually took the time to look for one, so I guess you can say that I wanted one in spirit. This one's got a punky corner, but it'll do until I can find a better one.

I had just finished getting through the first row of this dime box when Jim finally got there, so with the prospect of being able to get in on his stuff right away (that never happens for me), I quickly settled up with this guy - with every intention of coming back and seeing what else his boxes had to offer (spoiler: I didn't) - and made my way over to Jim... just as he was putting out mucho stacks of vintage!

I got there just in time to secure a spot before the feeding frenzy officially began, because of this, I was even able to go through three whole stacks before anybody else, plucking out four cards along the way. The first of said four cards was this really fantastic '62 Al Kaline, numbers two and three were...

... these guys! As far as vintage all-star subsets go, '68 is probably my least favorite, too much wasted space for my liking - that being said, it's not very often that I come across an affordable vintage Aaron or Clemente, in this kind of condition.

At $5 apiece, these last three cards were my "big ticket" items from the show, although the fourth card I had picked up, a creased '64 Mantle, would've been a little more, but Jim and I were a bit off with what we thought it was worth (I was most certainly being too cheap in my assessment of the card's value), so I didn't end up getting that one, which is fine, as there's plenty more of them out there.

While making my way through what was left of the "good" stacks (HOFer's, high numbers, etc.), I overheard someone asking about a couple of unpriced stacks, as it turns out, those were the 25 cent piles, which were made up of mostly "commons". There wasn't much left for me to look through by the time I got to them, but I did find one biggie...

... ANOTHER 1961 BILLY MUFFETT! This pretty much made up for not being able to get the Mantle (I'm only half being facetious btw).

Jim didn't have any dime boxes this time, but he did have some 6/$1 boxes, and those rarely disappoint, so after the vintage had been gone through, I hit the bargain boxes:

Jim had an awful lot of these 2018 sepia refractors, had I known that I would be owing a couple of people return packages, I would've bought more than just these three.

I've been buying any, and all, cheap copies of the 2011 legends variants (in parallel form) that I happen to come across, the Koufax Cognac for 15 cents might just be the best deal that I've found on one so far.

Tim must've just hit a homer, good for him! Normally I'm not a big rookie guy, but even so, I'm not gonna pass up a cheap Freddie Freeman. The McGwire is a sample, so that's something?

The last of my baseball purchases from Jim's bargain boxes is kind of interesting, and I have no clue as to what it is. The front is done up to look like a '58 Hires Root Beer (even though Mantle didn't have a card in that set), and the back...

... well, I don't what the back is supposed to look like, but it's certainly not a Hires back. I don't think it's a Broder, feels much different than those usually do, so I guess if anybody know what's going on here, please let me know.

By this time, it was getting kind of late, but since I hadn't found anything for one of the two people that I had to find Secret Santa gifts for, I decided to hit up one more table, and I'm glad I did, because not only did I find enough SS stuff, but I also found...

... a couple of much needed Golden Age inserts in a dime box! Unfortunately, that's all I found in these particular dime boxes, but just finding these four cards alone made the dig worth it.

I was now done for the day, there was still plenty of tables that I didn't even walk by, but I didn't care, it was time to go... so I went!

There was plenty of basketball and football cards gotten as well, especially football, so you can expect to see those coming soon to a computer (or phone) screen near you.


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