Card show prep work

I have a rare card show coming up this weekend. The week has been pretty wild on the homefront, so if my shot at attending this show gets scrapped, I won't be surprised at all.

But like a third-string quarterback working out for a game he'll never play, I'm preparing as if I'm going. I've dug up a print version of my abbreviated want list and will be adding some updates to it on Friday. I've got my card show flyer ready. I'm on it.

A recent addition to my card show prep work is clearing out some incoming trade packages so I can further update want lists and get a better idea of what to look for when I'm out on the floor. I tend to wander around in a giddy haze at card shows and this helps me sharpen my focus somewhat. But I never expect the haze to disappear completely.

So this is what I don't need to pursue, come this weekend. If I go:

Cards from: Robert at $30 A Week Habit

You know that saying, "always go with your first instinct"?

My first instinct was that I already had the Adrian Gonzalez '09 OPC card and that I needed just three cards to complete the set. Then I saw a blank spot in my binder at #110 and realized, to my horror, that the Gonzalez card was missing. I updated the want list with #110.

Robert pulled #110. I said I needed #110. Robert sent me #110, and I was eternally grateful. A couple days later I was going through my big box of dupes, and what did I find? Yup. Gonzy.

Never trust those former Padres.

But always trust your first instincts, kids.

How these cards will help at the card show: Gonzy won't help much because I have never seen '09 OPC at this card show, so I won't even look. The Hank Aaron '75 Lineage mini is much appreciated as I do expect to see some Lineage minis at the card show, that is until a party-pooper goes to the one table that features sets from the past year and BUYS THE WHOLE FRICKIN' BINDER. Thanks a lot, money bags. Go collect foreign automobiles or something more your speed. Leave us riff-raff alone. The Frank Howard won't help because I seldom search for '61 Topps (it's a snooze-fest). However, I'm hugely grateful to Robert for the card because this was the card that was offered me for the Reggie Jackson diamond diecut a few weeks back, and it pained me to decline the trade. Now I have the Howard and the Jackson diamond diecut (which is still available, by the way).

Cards from: ... Joe at The Sandlot

The late '90s is starting to become "long ago and far away" to me. That's scary.

When other bloggers talk about 1997 like it was a wonderful time to be a kid and collect, I usually laugh and say "The '90s? That was last week!" But it's not last week anymore. I'll always remember the late '90s for becoming a father, buying my first house, making a job choice that I'm still paying for, and some horribly awful World Series matchups.

But other than that, I couldn't tell you what I was doing.

How these cards will help at the card show: Well, any '90s card helps because I don't think I've ever seen a '90s card at a card show, unless it was some super-sick, low-numbered parallel mojo-rific, check it OUT card. And I don't go to those tables. The Kaz Ishii Gallery card helps because I'm programmed to think that any Ishii card from 2002 is a short-print -- even if it isn't -- and this will help me not get robbed blind when I try to give the dealer a $50 for a card of a has-been. The Russell Martin card helps because I am in no mood to purchase Russell Martin cards ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never AGAIN.

Cards from: Kevin at The Diamond King

Once upon a time, I thought I had something special in a Tony Gywnn sample card.

The card arrived in the mail at work, as companies sometimes send newspapers "free samples" in hopes the paper will give them some free publicity (this happens less often these days because everyone likes to think that newspapers don't exist anymore).

I thought it was so special that I wrote a post about it.

But I've since come to realize that sample cards, while still cool, weren't special at all. Since they are of the '90s, they were everywhere. I've got more than a few in my collection now.

Still, I can't get my brain to stop thinking that I have something exclusive when I see "sample" across the front.

How these cards will help at the card show: I do plan on scouting out any quarter/dollar box I can find, and I do come across sample cards in those boxes. A Piazza sample card would be an instant keeper, so these are two fewer cards that I'd buy. The '76 Dodgers checklist is in fine, fine shape. I have no need to look through any '76 binders at the card show, but I'll see if this card can be an upgrade.

Card from: Darren at You Name It (I rather like "you name it" as a blog title, even if it won't be the title for very long).

These two orange refractors are the only 2011 Dodger orange refractors I own at the moment ... although I have a couple others on the way.

In a quirk of the baseball card gods -- who are zany kooks by the way -- the only two base chrome Dodgers I need are Ethier and Billingsley. Isn't that a hoot? No? Don't care about my collecting haves and have-nots? Well, then, take off, hoser.

By the way, for those of you left, don't send me the base Billingsley. It's already in a transaction.

How these cards will help at the card show: I plan to look for 2011 Bowman inserts and the Withrow will be one less I have to find. Meanwhile, parallels are odd at the card show. They're often lumped in with hits, and I don't consider them hits.

I hate looking at tables that are just hits. They're all spread out, sometimes with some parallels mixed in, and I feel like the people on the other side of the table are watching every single move I make. One time, I picked up a Jeff Francoeur auto because it was for a blogger who won something. The guy got all excited that he had found a Francoeur sucker ... er, collector ... and started pointing out his other Frenchy cards. I had to let him down easy. I actually don't give a crap about Frenchy, dude.

So, the less I have to look for parallels mixed in with hits, the better.

OK, that doesn't take care of all the card packages that I've received recently, nor does it take care of my card show preparation completely.

Still have a lot to do.

Or I could end up not going and spend my weekend raking leaves between crying jags.

But I won't blog about that.