Card show report

Doesn't Phil look happy to be home? After spending all that time cooped up in a 2 1/2-by-3 1/2-inch kennel, making moony eyes at every collector who leafed through mr. dealer's 1971 Topps binder, someone finally bought his card.

You're safe here, Phil. No one's going to sell you now. Rest easy in the left-center pocket of sheet two of your new home. Get to know your neighbor to the right of you, Oscar Gamble, and the guy below you, Cito Gaston. The space above you is still vacant. But I'll give Skip Pitlock a home soon, too.

Roof is one the '71 cards that I bought at the card show Sunday. There was a lot to absorb at this show. Things were different. And in an attempt to condense a post that's going to be lengthy as it is, I'll break it down into quick segments and then get to the cards. I didn't bring my camera, so you'll have to rely on my words. I'm a lousy photographer anyway.

The show itself: The show was moved to another building at the fairgrounds. I'm not sure why. It may have had something to do with it being a two-day show, rather than one day. But I was pretty confused once I stepped into the hall. I had grown familiar with the old layout and knew exactly where my favorite dealers were. But Sunday I had to spend the first 5 or 10 minutes scanning the hall in a panic before finally seeing a familiar face. What a relief that was.

I counted about 50 or 60 dealer tables. There seemed to be a lot more toy dealers than usual. The dealers in general seemed to be in a much more upbeat mood than usual. One was saying that it is his most profitable show all year. One dealer said that he sold an entire display case -- you know those "under glass" things that feature '56 Mantles and '53 Bowman Campanellas -- to one guy.

One thing that I am terrible at is figuring out what everyone has at the show. There is just too much for me to go through. And I am a lousy window shopper. This happens whether I'm buying cards or anything else. I am there to spend my money, not look. And once my money is gone, I have no desire to look anymore. So, therefore, I didn't get a very good idea of the lay of the land. But I'm sure you would find what you were looking for at this show.

However, as I suspected, I didn't find much of anything that wasn't vintage, modern, high end or boxed. 1980s wax may be in more plentiful supply than anything else, but not at this card show. Probably because dealers can't make any money off it. I didn't find any 1983s. No 1982s. Also, no 2006 Updates and Highlights. But I could've missed them because I didn't scour the place.

The celebrities: The first guy I saw was former Bills kicker Scott Norwood. He was dressed up in a suit and tie. He looked very serious. Probably preparing to drop the first person who said "wide right" to him. Then, toward the back of the building, I saw "The Count," ex-pitcher John Montefusco. The only reason I knew him was by seeing his name on a sheet attached to the table in front of him. He looked like any old guy with short hair and a ballcap. That's what was great about the '70s. The hair might have been freaky, but at least you stood out. Montefusco wasn't signing at the time, just talking to some other guy, who could've been Montefusco, too, for all I knew.

At the table next to him was former A's and Yankee player from the '50s and '60s, Hector Lopez. He was signing a little. Across from those two guys sat the three actors from "Three's Company," Joyce DeWitt (Janet), Priscilla Barnes (Terri) and Richard Kline (Larry). Joyce did most of the talking, posing and signing. Richard just kind of sat back and took a nap. And let's just say Priscilla likes to show what she's got. I contemplated getting something signed, but I'm not much of a celebrity hound. And then I saw they were charging, too. So it was back to the cards.

The cards: I bought 40 cards, which is almost half of what I usually buy at this show. One of the reasons was I had less money. The second is that I decided to go for some of the pricier cards in two of the sets I'm collecting -- 1971 and 1976 Topps. That's a disadvantage of collecting sets. You eventually have to pony up for the expensive cards. That doesn't mean I was buying the '71 Clemente or Munson. I'm not ready for that yet.

More than 75 percent of the cards were vintage. The rest were modern Dodgers. And you're sick of me talking. So here is some of what I brought home:

I'll start with the current cards first. I finished off the 2009 Heritage Dodgers set by getting Kemp and the short-print Dodgers coaches card. As far as I'm concerned, I don't have to think about Heritage again until the high numbers come out.

I didn't collect any of Allen & Ginter in 2007, so I bought these three Dodgers. That just leaves Andy LaRoche and the short-print Juan Pierre.

I also finished off another set of Dodgers from another set I didn't collect, 2007 Masterpieces, by getting the Piazza card and ...

... this great Sandy Koufax card. I don't know where everyone was hiding this card, but it is now mine. As you've no doubt been able to tell, I'm a huge Koufax fan. If he had lasted as long as Nolan Ryan did, Ryan probably wouldn't have any of the records that he has now.

And these two Dodgers finish off the 2008 Heritage High Numbers wants for me. Sweeney is a short-print. I also saw several dealers with regular '08 Heritage, but I had run out of cash by then.

On to the vintage! Here's a great 1959 Topps card of Billy Martin's drinking buddy. Fowler lasted just a year with the Dodgers.

This card is a high number from the set (as well as a black back), but I got this card ...

... and these two, all for a combined four bucks from the half-off bin. The next card show I might get all my cards from the bargain bins. It's a lot easier than bartering with dealers over prices.

I did some upgrading, mostly with the 1976 set, but I'll only feature a couple. Getting this card was one of my missions for this show. It's the last Dodger upgrade I needed from this set.

The best part is I got it after leaving the show. I had stupidly left my '76 Topps list in the car, and when I got back to the car, I realized I had bought nine 1976 cards that I already had (I've gotten so many '76 cards lately I'm forgetting what I have). So I talked my way back into the show and then found the dealer, and he was nice enough to let me pick out new cards for equal money. This was one of them.

And I got this card from the same dealer. What a pain in the ass it's been to find this card in decent shape. Every time I look for this card it's either in sub-par shape or no one has it. I probably still need to upgrade a few '75s, but I'm pretty happy with it as it is.

Now, if I ever decide to do a 1975 Topps blog (stop looking at me like that), I will feel comfortable with the cards I have to display.

The first cards I looked for were from 1976, as I'm getting closer to completion. I settled on Unser, because it's always cool to get Mets from this time period. There seemed to be more Mets fans than Yankees fans then (because the Mets were good and Yankees weren't). But Unser seems to know that the tide is about to turn.

Two Yankees. "Chicken" Stanley and another odd photo of Rudy May. Not as odd as the '75 card with the badly airbrushed N.Y., but odd enough.

I always try to pick up a traded card when I look at the '76s.

The highest-priced card I bought all day. This completes the All-Time All-Stars subset for me. Yay!

I decided to finally get this card. It is probably one of the top 10 or 20 cards from my childhood. Action cards were so rare then and Bench was so the man then. Whatever he was doing in the photo, it seemed cool. Although, now when I look at it, it looks like Bench is doing absolutely nothing.

And, yes, I finally upgraded the Seaver card. The kid-tested card will be booted out of the '76 binder. But I'll still keep it.

Finally, my white whale set, 1971 Topps. I'll start with the manager card, because I gravitate toward manager cards for some reason. I bought three of them from this set Sunday.

I always have to get a card of a player I've never heard of, so I can research his career. Haven't had time to research it though.

Leaders cards get overlooked at card shows. At least by me. I have to force myself to buy one. This one jumped out at me, so I bought it.

I love the distant action shots on '71 Topps. Don't know who the Yankee player is. Don't have time to figure it out. I'll guess and say Curt Blefary.

I believe this is Clay Dalrymple's last card. Mostly known for playing for the Phillies in the '60s.

Picked up three high-number cards. I confess I have no idea who Marv Staehle is. But I love the completely drawn-on hat. It doesn't even look like a baseball cap. It looks like he's about to deliver your milk to your door.

Here is another one. The cartoon hat looks bizarre with the rest of the photo. It's very "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"-esque.

The last high-number card is of a guy we were fascinated with as kids because his name was "Sonny." As you can see by the signature, his real name is Wilifred. I think we would have been just as fascinated with someone named "Wilifred."

Last one. Teddy Ballgame. Great card. Great player. Lousy team. '71 set now 66.2 percent complete.

That'll do it. Hope you enjoyed. The next couple of card shows on the schedule are low-key summer ones. I like those, too. They're easier on the wallet.