Going Back to the Show

This weekend marked my 2nd annual trip to the Washington State Sports Collectors Association summer card show.  I am only mere minutes away from the show so I'd be foolish not to attend. Plus, I overheard someone questioning whether this show would be at the same location next year since the president (I'm assuming) of the club had retired.  I hope that's not the case.

I didn't have much time for the show this year as I was busy working on some home projects.  I don't mind the time crunch as that keeps the expense down.  Overall, I spent about $30 on cards; even accounting for the couple cards that are typically beyond my show budget.

I'll start with an item I didn't buy.  Every entrant received a scratch card that could potentially contain prizes.  At the show back in the winter I won a $25 credit.  This year I won a signed 8x10 photo of Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon.  Not a bad way to start!

I'll start with the most expensive cards of the day at $5 a piece.  I initially thought the Russell Wilson card might be overpriced so I did a quick check on eBay.  I saw one listing at $3 and figured that was close enough.  However, I later looked on COMC and this card is going for less than a $1 😑 Oh well lesson learned, always check COMC.

The basketball card is a dual, game-worn jersey of Grant Hill and Gary Payton.  It also has a recreated ticket from when the two teams played.  I liked the design and that it contained two great players.  I felt okay with the price of this one.

Finally, my last big expense was a 2008 Topps parallel of Josh Beckett.  With such a low numbered parallel from one of my favorite sets, I couldn't resist.  These are hard to come by, as well.

Card shows are an excellent way to pick up Bowman cards.  Outside of the Edwin Diaz Chrome, which is his first Bowman card, the rest are all parallels.  Dylan Cease is numbered out of 250.  He was voted the Cubs' minor league pitcher of the month for April.  I picked this one out randomly so it looks like I made a good choice.

The Taylor Motter card is from Topps Heritage.  Motter is one the Mariners' young stars so I felt compelled to pick up one of his rookie cards.

A very cool looking green parallel of Franklin Gutierrez from 2013 Topps along with some framed parallels from one of my favorite sets last year, 2016 Panini Diamond Kings.

Oooh shiny! The 2011 Topps design is rather bland but these Diamond Anniversary parallels are a neat addition to my Felix Hernandez PC.  Kyle Seager is a refractor parallel from 2014 Topps Chrome that I picked up as it was pretty much a free card.

A couple James Paxton rookies.  If Paxton ever stays healthy for a full season he would be capable of putting together a Cy Young worthy season. This year he is 4-0 with a 1.26, which is great.  However, he's already spent some time on the disabled list.  He's back now but for who knows how long.

I always like picking up Museum Collection base cards on the cheap because I know they come from a higher end set.  They are on a thicker stock too, which adds to the premium feel.

Lastly, it wouldn't be a card show if I didn't buy a Griffey card.  I only bought one this time around as I was trying to spend more time looking for other cards.

Here are some set needs from 2017 Bowman and 2008 Topps Chrome.  I wasn't intended to try to complete this year's Bowman set yet after buying a blaster and a few hanger packs, I'm over 50% complete before these additions.  A complete set is therefore realistically possible.

With my newfound Padres fandom I was hoping to find more Padres players than just one.  I didn't have enough time to really dig through the dime and quarter boxes so I had to settle for this Yasmani Grandal rookie card.

Finally we have this 1988 oddball Smoky the Bear football set.  Washington State has a lot of US Forest Service land so it makes sense that there would be a Smokey the Bear set released here.

This was another great card show and I look forward to it returning next year!