Old cards from an old card show

Now that I'm caught up with all of the packages that I've recently received from fellow bloggers [note: I started to write this before getting a PWE from Fuji the other day], I thought it might be a good idea to catch up on/recap the acquisitions from the card show that I attended at the end of July.

After the show at the end of June, I didn't think that I would be going to another one until the big one in September, so this was kind of an impromptu show attendance for me, as I had only decided the day before that I wanted to go. As a quick aside, to anybody who's within a couple of hours drive to Nashville -- who are wondering if the big 200 table show on September 29th is worth driving to? -- Let me just say, Yes! It'll be worth the trip. There will probably be sellers from at least a dozen states set up, and attendees from even more, by all accounts, it's the closest thing to going to The National... without actually having to go to The National.

So anyway, even though the trip was hastily planned, thanks to some eBay sales, I at least had some money to spend, and for once... I actually didn't spend it all!

It should be no surprise that this first post will be nothing but vintage, especially since I always start out the series of card show recaps with the oldies.

The 59's that you're going to see were actually my last purchase from the day, all coming from a guy named Tom, who has quickly become my second favorite seller at these shows. He had five stacks of 59's (probably around 300 cards in total), after over a month now I can't remember how they were priced, but it was basically a "the more you buy, the more you save" kind of deal.

I really like the 1959 Topps set, and might try to build it someday, but for now I just picked up cards that will be going into some recently started mini-collections -- except the Sauer, he was free since he had a hole in the middle of his card.

The Warren Giles isn't going to be part of any collection, I've just really wanted that card for a long time now.

Even if I never get around to (or get the money to) working on the set, I'd at least like to get all of the "rising sun" cards. It was nice to be able to add a few more to that collection, especially when a few of those featured the likes of Larry Doby, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Ted Williams.

I already had these two, but mine were of a much lower grade.

I'd also like to complete The Sporting News subset... I think it's safe to say that I made some pretty good progress on that front.

I'll have to get another Johnny Callison at some point, because this one (as well as the Tony Taylor in the first picture) went into my Telstar collection.

Like I said, I don't remember exactly how much all of the 59's were, but I think they ended up averaging out to around 60-65 cents a card, which seemed like a pretty solid deal to me.

Don't worry baseball fans, there's more for you at the end of the post, but for now...

... take a look...

... at all...

... of these...

... 1980-81 Topps!

There's so many here that I couldn't even...

... stretch that sentence to cover them all.

These were my second to last purchase of the day, and they were also my favorite purchase of the day.

They came from an older dealer who I've bought from many a times in the past. He's had some really good dime boxes in the past, but this particular show's boxes might have been the best so far... yeah, these all came from a dime box!

I couldn't believe that they were still sitting in this box over three hours after the show had started, sometimes I really don't understand other collector's. Internally, I did happy dance when I came across this stack, as I just don't see cards from this set very often, and when I do, there usually priced at a lot more than a dime apiece.

Initially I just checked one or two for condition, upon seeing how nice they were, I just grabbed the whole stack. I went through them after I got home, obviously I was hoping for one of Bird/Magic RC combinations to be in there -- not surprisingly there wasn't, but there was still some decent names in there, guys that should be more of a household name than they are.

I found quite a few other things in those dime boxes, some of which will be seen in upcoming posts. This '72 Sawx team card was the only other thing of a vintage that I came across in there though.

Another Sawx team card, this time from 1961. I can't remember which seller this came from, or how much it was, but it's still a neat card... which technically speaking, could be considered a Ted Williams card.

The last couple of cards in this post were the biggies (money wise), and all came from my, and everybody else's, favorite dealer, Jim.

Usually Jim is set up right when the show opens, so by the time I get there (about an hour after the doors open), his stuff has already been picked over, not that that has stopped me from getting plenty of great cards from him over the last couple of years.

This time was a little different though, as he had gotten hung up in traffic, and didn't get to the show until about twenty minutes after I did. Probably annoying for him, but good for me, because I was actually gonna get to see his wares as they were being put out -- the first, and last time, that this will probably happen.

It was really interesting to see him arrive, and then see the throng of collectors surround him as he walked to his tables, it was kind of like a card show version of The Beatles entering the room. Most of those guys were practically frothing at the mouth in anticipation for him to put out his high end autograph/relic boxes, which were worked for me, as I was just hoping that he would have a few of his legendary dime boxes, as well as some vintage to look through.

By the time I walked over, he was just starting put stacks of vintage out, and nobody else seemed to care... at least for a minute or two.

There is another dealer at the show who buys a lot of Jim's vintage stuff, takes it back to his tables, and marks it up to absurd (at least in my mind) prices. I'm not particularly fond of this guy (he tried to collection shame me at one of the first shows I attended after moving here), but I'm going to try and not say anything to negative about him. As expected, it didn't take him long to show up, but by then I already had a stack, as I had zoomed through 200-300 cards in about 2 1/2 minutes.

My initial stack was made up of the above '71 Ryan and '68 Maris, as well as a 1969 Reggie Jackson rookie, a '54 Topps Warren Spahn, a '72 Mazeroski, a 1955 Topps All-American (I can't remember who), and some other card that I can't remember. Now I didn't think that I was actually going to be able to afford all of these, but I figured that wouldn't hurt to see what the price would be.

As expected, the price was up there, mostly because of the Reggie, which was probably in gradable condition. So after hearing the price, I started whittling down the stack, asking how much the total would be after each card had been removed.

The stack got down to three cards, and I found out that I could either get the 1972 Mazeroski (high number), or for just $5 more, I could get the Nolan Ryan and Roger Maris... this ended up not being a very difficult decision. The Ryan a fairly iconic card, and I've wanted Roger's sunset card for quite a while now, Maz just couldn't compete.

Also, am I wrong, or is '68 Topps the first year that you started seeing guy's wearing a batting glove? Roger Maris, Jimmie Hall, and Johnny Callison are all shown sporting a glove. There might be more, but I can't think of any off the top of my head. And I don't remember seeing anybody wearing one in a set prior to 1968.

I was interested in this card as well, because I bought the other two cards, this one was tossed in for free. It's creased up a bit, but it's my first Uecker, and it was free, so it's kind of hard to complain about the condition too much.

This was two shows in a row that I've been able to find some really neat vintage cards, for some really neat prices, fingers crossed for the show at the end of this month. And for anyone interested, I have three more posts coming up that'll be covering all of the non-vintage baseball, basketball, and football cards that were gotten at this show.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.