Speed Dating at the Card Show

With a baby at home, my free time during the day is limited.  Fortunately, I was allowed to attend the biannual card show that happens right in my back yard.  Unfortunately, I was given a hard deadline of two hours.

That might seem like a lot of time but with this show there are quite a number of tables.  To maximize my time, I had to treat the show like it was a round of speed dating. 

Don't spend too much time at one table and make superficial judgments about what's for sale.  Looks like mainly sports memorabilia? Don't even bother.  Heavy vintage? Sorry, not into the older stuff.  Cards in glass cases?  Too rich for my blood.  Boxes of wax? Forget about it!  Unorganized boxes of cards? Actually, that's probably what I'm looking for.

First purchase was these game-used jerseys and autograph.  2 for $5 which I guess is a decent deal but still not a screaming deal.  Still, I was happy with getting some game-used material from two of my favorite players.  Marcus Moore goes into my WSU collection, thus it was a necessary pick up.

My next purchase came from a dealer who is an older guy, loves to talk, and is friendly as all can be.  I initially wanted to purchase the two 2008 Topps uncirculated cards when he then handed me a stack of cards that were to go into his 50% off box.  I plucked out the Tulo autograph and he offered me $5 for the lot.

He asked me if I thought that was fair and I said that was more than fair.  I looked on COMC and the Tulo autograph goes for $8.  I'd say I got a good deal.

The next dealer is a guy I've bought from before so I knew he would have some decent cards. On the top row we have some shiny chrome cards.  On the bottom row is a nice selection of serial numbered cards.  Ever since I pulled an autographed relic of Kluber I've taken a bit of shine towards him.  

1992 Topps is one of my favorite designs so I'm trying to complete the portion of 2017 Topps Archives that uses the 1992 design.  

I'm also always on the lookout for 2008 Topps cards I need.  I rarely see 08-09 basketball chrome cards and at a quarter a piece, these were a no brainer.

To close out the day I was torn between a completed set of 1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes and this box of 2018 Score.  As you can see, I ended up with the Score.  I don't like to buy retail boxes but this one has exclusive green parallels.  I noted in my last post that I'm going for the Luke Falk Score rainbow and green is a parallel I have never seen for sale.  I'm hoping I can pull one from this box.  Plus, I still need plenty of cards to complete the base set.

I bought the Score box was from the older, friendly dealer I mentioned above.  He owed me $1 as change from the Score box and instead said I could grab 2 or 3 nice cards from his baseball box that he had just restocked.  I figured for $1 I could find a couple good cards.  I'm pleased with my trio of all-stars. 

In two hours I was able to find a nice selection of cards.  It was a speed dating success!

Showing Signs of Life at the Card Show

You may or may not have noticed my absence from blogging over the past few weeks.  It has all been for a very good reason.  On October 10, my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Theodore.  Since then my life has been occupied with 3AM feedings, daytime naps, poopy diapers, and the occasional videogame to de-stress (Super Mario Odyssey is awesome btw).  I haven't even had time to keep up with reading blogs.

Newborn Theo

Newborns are supposed to feed at least every 3 hours so I figured I would have time in between those feedings to do card related stuff.  Nope. In between taking care of myself, my recovering wife, and making sure household chores don't pile up, time goes by quickly.

Now at the almost 1 month mark, things are normalizing somewhat.  My wife was even gracious enough to let me attend my local bi-annual card show.

The largest purchase of the day (literally) was a complete set of 2008 Upper Deck First Edition.  The big draw here was the price: $5.  The design is decent enough but the real kicker was the inclusion of a relic card.

It's not a card show without picking up a few additions for my Felix Hernandez collection.  I love picking up Topps Museum cards on the cheap ($1) considering these are from a high-end set. 

The playing window on Felix is closing soon.  He deserves the respect of being an opening day starter but next year he might be pushed back to #2.  That will be a sad day.

These cards are from this year's Topps flagship set.  Gimmicky as they are, I enjoy seeing players in their holiday/special event jerseys.  When I get several more cards of these alternate jerseys I'll have to branch them out into their own PC.

 

With the birth of my son, I've added a few players to my collection roster.  I'm collecting players who share a birthday with my son.  I plan to expand upon this idea in a separate post to come later.  Andrew McCutchen is a great player and I'm excited to start collecting him.  I don't know if this 2005 Topps Update card counts as his first rookie card but either way, it's a nice looking card.

The card on the right is from Panini's 2016 Father's Day promo set.  It is the thick stock parallel numbered to 50.  For only $1 it was an easy pick up.

Troy Tulowitzki is another player who shares a birthday with my son.  Tulowitzki had a down year last year with the Blue Jays, which hopefully will help soften the price on some of his cards.  

Typically I stay away from collecting Griffey in a Reds uniform.  I'm not upset or anything that he left Seattle, it's just that with so many Griffey cards I need some focus.  I made an exception for these cards since they feature the 2001 All-Star Game logo when it was held in Seattle.  As a bonus, this is a two-card oddball set from Ritz/Oreo.

The 2016 Panini Diamond Kings Rookie Signatures Silver is the only relic (and auto) set I plan to complete.  I have over half the set and was surprised to see a set need show up at the show.  

Retail relics from 2008 Topps. I love 2008 Topps. 

At the last card show I found a WSU Cougars Smokey set.  As luck would have it, I found another set at this show.  Since the cards are unnumbered I wasn't sure if I found the complete set or not.  Unfortunately, after checking the Trading Card Database, I discovered I am one card short: Drew Bledsoe.

It will be difficult to find that card available as a single so I might have to purchase a complete set.  Bummer.

That wraps up my card show for this year.  It was a nice feeling to get back into cards! Thanks for reading!

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!

Catching Up After a Busy Weekend

In between working overtime on Saturday and participating in a live, Legend of Zelda escape the room game, I manage to fit in a card show.

This show advertised 45 tables booked, which would make for a big show.  Unfortunately after working overtime, I didn't make it to the show until the afternoon so I couldn't spend as much time there as I would have liked.  Probably for the best as my budget was only $12.

A low budget meant I spent all time browsing the dime and quarter boxes.  The first table I looked at didn't have that much that interested me but I saw cards for sets I needed.  Nothing too fancy.

I need most of 2015 Topps Series 2 so I picked up about 10 cards.

I also needed 1 more card to give me an even dollar amount so I found this Crown Royal die-cut of Raul Mondesi.

People typically like Bowman for the prospects and rookies but I like the design of 2016 Bowman that even the regular old pros are good enough for me.  I hadn't actively been looking for base of Bowman but after seeing a fair number of Bowman, I decided to pick these up and add the set to my collection radar.  

1992-93 Topps is a set that I'm always looking out for when I head to card shows.  I've now realized I only have about 22% of the set so it might take me a finish up this set.

A couple random Upper Deck cards to round out this table.

After leaving this table part of me felt glad to knock down some set needs.  A bigger part of me felt disappointed because my selections were so boring! Most of the cards above I could have just as easily purchased online.  I feel like when I go to a card show I should grab something special. Something I wouldn't normally see.

Well the next table scratched that itch.

Ahh here we go! The next dealer had quarter boxes full of Griffey cards.  Most of the cards I bought were base but I have such a lack of Griffey cards that I will pick up Griffey cards for a quarter all👏day👏long👏

This will bump Griffey up to being #1 in my collection.

Several more Mariners pick ups including a couple base cards from high end sets like Tribute and Museum Collection.  I also snagged a 2009 WBC card of Dae Ho Lee who played for the Mariners last year after coming over from Korea.  I think this card marks his first card appearance.  

Lastly, and somewhat randomly, there is a 2013 Topps Chrome refractor.  I picked up this card only for the fact that this set looks metallic.  

I'd say I made good use of my $12 coming away with some set needs and fun pick ups for the PC.  I think the next card show will be in June and that should be the one that's only 5 minutes away.  I can't wait!

Riding Out the Storm At a Card Show

The big rain/wind storm that was advertised for the weekend never came.  That was fine by me as it meant I never lost power.

The lack of a storm was pretty evident as I was driving down to a card show.  There were patches of blue sky and not a drop of rain.  Storm or no storm, it was a good day for a card show at a local mall.

I didn't make it down to the show until the mid-afternoon; close to when tables were starting to pack up.  Nonetheless, I managed to make quick work at the few tables I checked out

One table had a 6-for-$1 box, which had a sizeable amount of 2008 Topps Football.  Sensing I could get a deal, I held up the giant stack of cards and asked how much.  After some hemming and hawing, the dealer said $5.  I would have paid $10 for that stack so I'm glad I held my tongue.

There ended up being almost 120 cards, which means I scored quite the deal.  Furthermore, out of the 110 rookies in this set, my stack had probably 100 of them.

2008 was the first year after Favre left the Packers.  This happens to be a variation of the Favre base card and it's the only one of him in a Jets uniform.  It just looks weird.  There is also a variation of Favre riding a lawnmower.

Looking at the 2008 checklist there are not a whole lot of notable rookies.  Bennett is still going strong, now with the Patriots.  

Being a Seattle area show I knew I would find at least one table with a good selection of Mariners players.  The same table that had to 2008 Topps also had these Felix cards.  Most of these were early Felix, which is cool.  These will go in my Felix PC binder.

All 2016 Topps Chrome.  I don't have a desire to collect this year's Chrome and I traded away a lot of them earlier.  But I did want at least the Mariners.

The Zych autograph was my most expensive individual card purchase ($3) and I probably overpaid by a dollar.  However, that's to be expected for a hometown team.  Zych has the distinction of being the last player alphabetically in all of baseball, I think ever.  That in itself is worth the purchase.

A few random Mariners pickups that can fit nicely into my existing collection of these sets.

Cards for my WSU PC binder.  Unfortunately, it turns out I already have to the two SP Authentic cards but these cost me about 17 cents each so no big loss.

Vince Mayle is a former Cougar and this happens to be his rookie card.  For my WSU binder I typically only focus on players in their college uniforms.  I think I can make an exception for rookie cards, since at least the college is featured in the stats.

Chrome is not my main focus for 2008 Topps but I like the style so much that I'll pick them up if I stroll upon them.

Two inserts from two current sets I collect: Score and Panini Classics.  

What do you know, 2016 Absolute makes another appearance even though I'm not trying to collect the set.  I will collect the Seahawks, though.

I was really pleased with the amount of 2008 Topps I was able to find.  Even if I didn't get any other cards I would have considered this show a success.

My first card show

My transportation for the day

This past weekend was the annual summer card show put on by the Washington State Sports Collectors Association.  When I started getting back into collecting cards I wanted to attend a card show.  Fortunately, I found out about this show before it happened.  Even more fortunate for me was that the card show was pretty much in my backyard! After biking to 7/11 for a Slurpee (which was absolutely necessary on this 90 degree day) I headed down to the show.

Only half of the room with more to the right and behind me

This was my first card show so let me talk about it a little bit before I get to the goodies.  All the dealers were really nice and it was cool to see the hobby in action.  There were a lot of cards on display, new and old, as well as other sports memorabilia.  It wasn't that packed on Sunday but a few of the dealers I talked to said that Saturday was really busy, which was good to hear.  Still, most of the dealers still had their tables set up until closing, which must mean that they were doing good business on Sunday as well.  I'm kinda glad I went on Sunday because I think dealers were probably more willing to let cards go for a little cheaper.

First Stop

Top: 2008 Topps Chrome Insert -- 2006 Topps Chrome
Middle: 2008 Upper Deck - Starquest (common) -- 2006 SP Authentic (serial numbered) -- 2008 Topps Chrome - X-Fractor
Bottom: 2008 Topps Heritage - Black Back (short print) -- 2008 Topps Updates -- 2009 Topps Updates

Heading into the show I didn't have any sense of what I was looking for so I let the cards do the talking.  The first table I stopped at had an assortment of football, baseball, and basketball. Eventually I honed in on some Ichiro cards.  The cards from this box were advertised as $1 per card or 6 for $5.  My first thought was that this was going to be a pricey purchase but it turned out to be a good deal.  

I love the 2008 Topps design so I the two cards I found with it were a must have.  In addition, the x-fractor parallel was neat looking.  I loved the green looking Starquest card.  The serial number card was worth a pickup since I knew it would cost less than the dollar.  The short print heritage was also another one worth getting because of the low overall price.  All told I purchased 7 cards for about $0.85 each.

1993-94 Ultra

1996-97 Upper Deck

1992-93 Ultra + 1 Collector's Choice and McDonald's card

This same dealer also had a 5 cent car box with an with an assortment of basketball.  He had a deal of 25 cards for a dollar and I got 27.  He had a few 1996-97 Upper Deck cards and since that is one of my favorite sets, I grabbed all I could see not worrying about duplicates of my collection since they were so cheap.  I've also decided recently that I enjoy the 1992-93 Ultra set design and I bought a few cards to get me going on my set collection. It's a shame Fleer got lazy and reused the design for the 1993-94 Ultra set but I'm not too disappointed.

Second Stop

Top Row: #B25 1996-97 Collector's Choice Insert; #220 1995-96 Collector's Choice
Bottom Row: #103 & #193 1995-96 Fleer Metal

Top Row: #179 94-95 Fleer Ultra,; #FB20 1996-97 Upper Deck Insert; #117 1996-97 Upper Deck
Bottom Row: #179 1996-97 Upper Deck; #9 2001-02 Fleer Authentix; #295 1993-94 Upper Deck

I didn't know I wanted to build up my Gary Payton but when I found a dealer who had a big box of nothing but Payton cards at 10 cents a piece, my fate was sealed.  The cards were mostly base but I did find a few inserts.  I managed to find four cards for sets I was collecting; three Upper Deck and one 96-97 Collector's Choice.  I made it an even 10 cards to break off a dollar..

Third Stop

2014 Panini National Treasures - Colossal Materials #46 (09/99)

Next stop was a dealer who had a lot of memorabilia/serial numbered cards including quite a few Seahawks and Mariners.  These cards were definitely pricier than all the previous cards I was looking at but I wanted to come away with at least once jersey card.  I ended up with a very nice Kyle Seager card.  A large teal blue patch, numbered 9/99.  This is a Panini card so no mention of Mariners (boo), only "Seattle Baseball Club." The low serial number for both the specific card (9) and the overall set (99) appealed to me because they were so low so I happily paid my $6.  This dealer also had the Will Ferrell Mariners card when he played for 10 different teams during Spring Training.  The card was $6 as well and I didn't quite want to pay that much.  I don't know the value of that card so it may have been fair but it didn't pass the gut check.

Fourth Stop

1992-93 Ultra

Next was another box of assorted basketball cards featuring well known players.  I flipped through not really looking for specific players but then I saw a 92-93 Ultra NBA Jam Session card and found another.  I liked this set so I thought I would see how many more I could find.  I ended up with 6 (including one duplicate that I had already bought that day, doh!) for the low price of 75 cents,

Final Stop

1996-97 Collector's Choice

Dealers were starting to pack up and I was getting tired so I made one last pass around some tables I hadn't looked at yet.  After looking through another basketball binder I found 3 cards from the 96-97 Collector's Choice Set I didn't have yet.  I don't have any proof but I feel like these One on One will be harder to find in the wild since they feature all-stars.  Three cards for $2. Not a bad deal.

Take away the $3 admission fee and I spent only $20 for over 50 cards. A successful day!