My new job... sports card appraiser?

Sadly, no, but I was recently asked to evaluate a small collection of cards for an upcoming sale.

As a few of you know, I have three different blogs; one of which is a non-card blog. And as I've probably mentioned on there a few times now, my mom volunteers at multiple places that are somewhat of the retail-ish variety. The above shoebox full of cards was recently donated for a rummage sale (it's not really a rummage sale, but I can't think of a better way to describe it at the moment). Seeing as how no one there knew anything about sports cards, my mom, the volunteer (though she's risen to more than that at this particular place), volunteered my services, as a longtime collector, in trying to help them come up with a reasonable price for the entire box... which they gladly accepted.

There was one small catch though, the box was donated one day before the sale that it needed to be in was happening, which meant that I only had a couple of hours the night before to go through it and try to come up with some figures that they could look at, and then choose a price that they'd be happy with. Now, this probably wouldn't have been much of an issue had it been one of those disappointing boxes full of nothing but late 80's/early 90's beaters that you often hear about other collectors and shop owners being expected to appraise, but it wasn't. Its contents were a little bit better than that, though still not one of those boxes of untouched tobacco cards that pop up from time to time. That sort of box will have to wait for another day (fingers, and toes, crossed).

I started by sorting everything by sport, and year. And as you can see, pretty much everything was of the early to mid 70's variety. As mentioned, this was kind of thrust upon me at the very last moment, so I wasn't able to get very many pictures before the sun went down (the lighting in my house isn't conducive to photos). Had I had more time, I would've at least moved the best card from each pile to the top to make this one photo a little more impressive.

We're a few weeks removed from this sale, so I can't remember all of the numbers at this point, but I believe that there ended up be around 425-475 cards in the box. About half of them were in P-G condition, and the other half was EX- to EX+. It was kind of odd how that worked. Trying to come up with a price was a bit tricky, as I didn't want to price too low and have some asshole flipper come along and profit from them (as opposed to the cause which the sale was for), but also didn't want to price it too high and scare away any and all interested parties. There were a couple of notable cards, which are usually what are gonna move a lot like this, so I based the price mostly on what someone would've had to pay at a show or online to get them; then tacked on an additional lower sum for the remaining cards. And despite the lack of time, I wrote out a page that could be taped to the box which contained a breakdown of the card totals by year (and sport, of course), and also highlighted the notable cards (and their condition) that were in the box.

This is the first time that I've ever been asked to do something like this, and even though it would've been nice to have a bit more time, it was a fun experience; one that I wouldn't mind doing again. And I heard after the fact that the folks who run the sale were very pleased with my efforts (the spreadsheet went over especially well), and I've since been asked if I wanted to assess another lot of items. And thankfully, this time I'll have a couple of months to work on it. I, of course, said yes. This lot isn't sports or trading card related, so when I eventually get around to blogging about it, it'll be over on the non-card blog (sorry for the tease, but I'd like to generate more traffic towards that blog too).

But wait... there's more! Just doing this thing for these people would've been rewarding unto itself, but from the outset, it was made clear that I could pull out, and buy, any singles that I might want. I can imagine that some (or a lot of) current collectors would take advantage of such an offer by plucking out all of the key cards (which would all be conveniently priced lower than they should've been as well), thus rendering the lot as a whole considerably less desirable. That ain't my way though. I already had at least one copy of each of the better cards in there, and while I wouldn't have minded getting more of each of them, I would want them for cheaper than I priced them at. Heck, I would've bought the whole box if it had been one of those ones you hear about people finding at a garage sale for $5-10, but again, I was trying to make sure that these people got what they were worth, so it was a bit more than $5-10. All that being said, I did end up buying five cards, only one of which might've been considered a key card.

I haven't put much effort into doing so in recent years, but I'd still like to acquire all of the '71 action cards at some point. This got me one card closer.

There was more '73 Topps in this lot than anything else. It's also where the bulk of the best cards were hiding. Despite being Willie Mays, I don't think anyone could argue that this particular copy would be overly desirable to the casual collector. And aside form a few weirdo's, it most certainly wouldn't be of much interest to the seasoned collector (or those suffering from gradeitis). It wasn't until my brief foray into the Twitter a few years back that I came to develop a small appreciation for miscut cards. Slightly miscut still doesn't do anything for me, but cards of this nature, are, to some degree. I still won't go out of my way to find them, but this one felt like a must have. I found an uncut sheet online, which was able satisfy my curiosity as to whose partially shown underneath. It's Billy Parker. This particular card has been a longtime want, and while I'd still like to get a decent looking copy at some point, this one is pretty nifty in the meantime.

I can't remember how old I was, maybe 7 or 8, but somewhere around there my grandpa gave me a stack of cards (bound by a couple of rubber bands no less) that was made up of '73 Topps baseball and football cards. They were the first vintage cards that I can recall seeing, and were most definitely the first that I ever owned. Because of this early exposure, I have an affinity for both designs, but the football one has held a bit more sway. I've thought about trying to build the set a few times over the years, even more so recently as I've been jonesing to work on one of the 70's football sets, but after looking through the small stack that was in this lot, I realized that while I love the design, many of the photos don't do a lot for me. 

Joe Namath's card was another longtime want, if only because of his silly Joe cap. Of the five cards I took out, it's the only one that I considered a key card in the lot. That being said, it does have a few minor indents on the back, and a scratch on the front that doesn't show in the scan. I won't feel any need to ever upgrade it though. And I was surprised that I didn't already have the Alzado in my small collection of his. Prior to checking, I would've put money down on my already having at least one copy. I guess it was good thing then that there was no one around to bet with.

Bo sent me a copy of this card a few years back, but I couldn't resist adding another one to the collection. One can never have too many Rick Hunter's.

As mentioned, I did pay the going rate for all of these, and perhaps even a little more for the Mays, as I really wanted that one.

I didn't go to the actual sale. I used to really enjoy such events, but with such a large percentage of people engaged in the #FlipLife these days, I find myself rarely wanting to be amonsgt their ilk (at some point in the near future I'm going to be doing a hatepiece on their sort). I did, however, get one item from it...

This thing really pops when photographed on a red cooler.

My mom found this in a box of free stuff, and even though it was most likely made for Poker players, she still thought it would be appropriate for me, and my activities, as well. And she was right, of course. I believe that it was meant to be stuck on one's vehicle, but I'm not of the put's crap on the back of the car sort, so I'll have to find somewhere else to display it. It's pretty neat though, especially for a freebie.

Bo: Then and Now

It's a trivial thing, I know, but still, I kind of envy other bloggers who've kept track of how many mailing they've received from other people. I suppose I might've done so had I A). Thought I'd ever be blogging for so long, and B). Thought anyone would ever actually send me anything. But I didn't, so I haven't.

Again though, it's hardly even worth mentioning, but it would be nice to have a list with some numbers that I could quote when posting about a mailing from someone; especially today's someone.

I may not have a list to tell me how many envelopes I've received over the years from, Bo, from Baseball Cards Come to Life!, but if I did, he'd probably be at, or very near, the top of said list. Heck, I've even sent enough in return that his address is one of a few that I actually have memorized. As a quick aside, it's funny to think that when I was a kid, I could, and did, remember dozens of telephone numbers, as well as numerous physical addresses -- and today, I can't remember any phone numbers (or at least any that are more than three numbers), and have maybe four addresses in my mental rolodex; ironically all belonging to folks that I've never even met, or spoken to on the telephone. Odd times for sure. Anyway, back to Bo...

He was kind enough to send an envelope earlier this year, which I still hadn't covered on here, and now just a few weeks ago another one arrived --which I guess was all the incentive I needed to finally give some public thanks. 

Most of the cards from the oldest envelope were claimed from Bo's trade bait posts, including the Vida Blue/Gene Tenace rookie up top. And while I've never been, and never will be, "rookie card guy", I still appreciate being able to add that one to the Gene Tenace pages. I don't know if I'll ever be willing to splurge for the OPC version.

One of the few exceptions to the above 'claims' statement, was these two. I really can't remember why Dick and Wes were in here, which I suppose is why I shouldn't be waiting so long to do these kind of posts. As the young radicals might say, I need to "do better". I do collect Dick Groat though, and rarely ever add any cards to that collection, so... any Dick is good Dick 🙈🙉🙊.

As far Wes goes, I still don't know what to do with him. I'm sure that I'll figure out something at some point though.

I believe that this was my third copy of Boog's '64, and while I hadn't planned on doing a page's worth of this particular card, it's awfully tempting for me to want to do so whenever I see a one whole row filled with any of the same card. The presentation of the League Leaders card is very interesting with Harmon looking directly into the camera, and Boog and Reggie looking in opposite directions below him. 

Catfish is another one of the early 70's A's guys that I collect for reasons that are still unknown to me. And even though I haven't put much effort into it lately, nor have I even tried to figure out how many more I need, I am still attempting to collect all of the action cards from the '71 set. 

There's a part of me that wants to collect all of the late 80's/early 90's magazine cards. There's also a part of me that wants to add Gregg Jefferies to my list of player collections. Thankfully, I've been able to resist both wants... so far!

We never ate a lot of frozen pizza's when I was growing up, and on the rare occasion that we did, it was usually Tony's. I do remember when this set came out though, but I didn't like Tombstone enough to try to get my mom to get one so that I could get any of the cards. It is nice looking design though, despite the lack of logos.

I do collect Jamie, but I don't really want every single card of his right now, and I never remember to look for any of his more interesting cards; which leaves me with not much of a collection. I'm pretty sure that this one was just a tossed in extra, and it was much appreciated!

That takes care of the old envelope.

I knew that Bo had a few cards set aside for me, but didn't think he'd mail the two that I knew about, so I was a tad curious to find out what would be padding out this newest unexpected envelope...

Bo sent me an email a few weeks ago to let me know that he had a few extra Posts available. Leo here ended up being my only need (at least in the condition that I'm striving for with my Posts). I could've swore that I already had this one, but after checking my list, and double-checking in their binder, it turned out that I didn't. I guess I had just seen it enough times online that I thought that I already gotten it. I've been focusing on my Jell-O and Post sets quite a bit lately (you'll be hearing about this in the very near future), so it was really nice to be able to mark another '62 off of the list.

I'm really surprised that there weren't more takers on Bo's recent OPC trade bait post. People are always goin' on about OPC this and OPC that, but when someone comes along and offers up a bunch of 70's OPC for trade, it's radio silence. Were I working on any of those sets, or even a team collector, I would've been all over those extras -- as it stands though, Gene was the only card suited to my interests. It probably won't happen very often, but this an instance where I was able to get the OPC version before the Topps.

1991 Upper Deck might be the best football set, photo-wise, ever. And I'm probably wrong, but it also feels like it was the last football set to have multiple shots of blood spattered/smeared jerseys. I'm guessing that this wasn't Dennis' blood, and judging by those eyes, he was looking to shed some more. 

I didn't think I needed this card, and I see that my list on TCDB says that I already have one, and was apparently wanting another? I haven't gotten into the Reggie Roby/Dennis Smith binder yet, so I either wanted an upgrade, or something went awry when I was making that list. If it turns out that I didn't need an upgrade, it won't be the end of the world, as there's certainly worse cards to have two copies of.

The next three cards were very unexpected, especially coming from Bo. He obviously took a few minutes to look at my TCDB want list too, which was nice of him to do. I had (or still have, I think I forgot to go mark these off) four cards from the Pacific Lucy set on there, including this one, which just so happens to be Aaron Spelling's only real card. 

Most of the time when I add cards like these to my want list, it's because I want them for a themed page, and often times, said cards are the only examples for certain people, in this case; Bob Jellison and Elizabeth Patterson respectively. Unfortunately for me, it's been so long since I added these two to the list that now I can't remember which pages I wanted them for. I have no doubt that it'll come back to me, I just need to take a few minutes and figure it out (probably by looking through their list of credits). I also think that the timing of this envelope was a bit curious, as I was just finishing up Lucille Ball's autobiography, Love, Lucy, when these arrived. A very enjoyable book, by the way.

I know that we're a few days past Thanksgiving, but nevertheless, I'm thankful to Bo for all of our interactions, and envelopes sent, over the years. I'm also thankful to him for being so supportive of all of my various blogging endeavours. He's one of the few people that reads, or at least scrolls through, all three of my blogs; and I always appreciate his doing so.

I was planning to try and get caught up with the last two old envelopes from bloggers (Jeff and Fuji) before the end of the year, but another one just arrived from Tom a few weeks ago. There's at least two other posts that I really want to do as well, so I don't know, trying to squeeze in five posts during December will be quite the feat (for me). I think it'll be a Christmas miracle if I do.

COMC Shuffle #10

Another week, another ten randomly selected cards from last year's COMC hoard:


2013 Panini Father's Day Cracked Ice #38

If you read Wednesday's post, than you already know that I completed my Chris Kreider Progressions rainbow, but I also, somewhat unnecessarily, went ahead and got the base and cracked ice versions as well. Supposedly there's a sticker autograph version as well, which I have yet to see, but even if I did come across one, I don't know if I would get it or not... I really don't like sticker autographs!


1971 Topps #12

Johnny was gotten for the little Telstar project that I've got going, which is basically just a collection of the four guys (JC, George Altman, Cal Koonce, and Tony Taylor) who were shown during the live look-in of the Cubs/Phillies game at the beginning of the1962 Telstar broadcast.


1999 Upper Deck HoloGrFX AuSOME #AU45

I'm very partial to the AuSOME parallels on the basketball side, but I'm not gonna turn my nose up at a crazy cheap version from HoloGrFX's football set either. And is it just me, or does it seem like Kordell Stewart has an insane amount of cards out there?


2013-14 Panini Prizm Red,White, & Blue Mosaic Prizms #234

I love that Panini decided to include Shawn Kemp into a couple years worth of their Prizm sets, but with the exception of his 2015 card, they sure chose some boring photos of a guy who was, at least at one time, one of the most electrifying player's on the court.


1999-00 Topps Stadium Club 3x3 Luminous #3x3/4B

 Ah, Triumvirate's... how I miss you so.

1933 Goudey #143

Glenn was a member of the 1925 world champion Pittsburgh Pirates team (he was also the last surviving member of said Pittsburgh Pirates team). Considered to be one of the elite shortstops of his generation, at least until he suffered a shoulder injury in 1929, which would ultimately lead to a shortened career. He finished his 11-year career with a .294 Ba, 1219 hits, 723 RBI's, and 94 HR's.

2014-15 Panini Prizm Yellow and Red Mosaic Prizms #154

Here's a question, will anyone ever knock John Stockton out of his top spot on either the all-time assists, or all-time steals, leaderboard? No need to answer, it was rhetorical, because the answer is no, no one ever will!


2013 Panini Black Friday Score Hot Rookies Progressions - Black #4

I won't be trying to complete MCW's rainbow, but I couldn't pass up yet another /5 card for less than a buck! It's amazing how quick he ended up dropping off of the radar... yet another example of someone falling victim to too much hype.

P.S. If anyone's interested, you can read all about my minor obsession with Progressions in Wednesday's post.


2014-15 Panini Prizm Red, White, and Blue Pulsar Prizms #28

Some Blazers fans are still harboring ill-will towards LaMarcus for leaving a couple of years ago, I am not one of them. I never did begrudge for wanting to leave, he felt slighted, and wasn't happy, it's kind of hard for me to hate someone for that. Besides, he at least went to a team that he thought would have a better chance of winning, I may have been a little annoyed if he had chose money over winning and signed a big contract with someone like the Knicks, but he didn't, so I wasn't. Do I wish that he would've stayed? Certainly. Do I think that he made the wrong decision? I do (and from what I've read recently, I think he now realizes it as well). That being said, I hope he continues to have success no matter where he plays, unless it's for the Lakers, then he'd be dead to me :)


1990 Score #697

I had thought briefly about adding the Bo b/w to the list of the couple of cards that I'm trying to get as many copies of as I can, but after doing some brief looking around, I saw that there's already a couple of other people out there who are already doing so. Since I'm not looking to compete with anyone, and I'm certainly not wanting to pay a premium in order to do so, I decided to not join the ranks of the other Bo b/w super hoarder's. I'm not known for making smart decisions, but I do think that this was one of the better card decisions that I've made in recent years.

So there you go, another week of Shuffling is in the books. If you're enjoying what you're seeing, be sure to tune in next week around this same time for the next "exciting" installment of COMC Shuffle.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

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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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.


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