That turned out better than I thought it would, part 2

I'm afraid the second part of this card show won't be as interesting as the first. But I'll do my best to keep you entertained.

The second table that I go to regularly is basically the "what can I get cheap" table -- although lately all tables have been like that for me. But usually, I blow a lot of cash on the first table and then try to pick up a bunch of modern card needs at table two for low, low prices.

Table two has whatever sets are the latest and greatest at the time. So for this show, there were binders of Topps Update, 2012 Bowman, Heritage/Heritage Minors, Archives, as well as binders from some sets one and two years old -- Bowman, Heritage, etc.

Every October I try to clean out my Update Dodger needs at this table. This time I picked up only two. The Kershaw All-Star item up top, and the Kemp All-Star card.

The rest of the Dodger Updates are either on their way to me or I have them already. Funny how Kershaw and Kemp I had to get for myself. Hmmmmm.

Also, I nabbed the two gold sparkly Dodgers that I saw at the table.

Still looking for that gold sparkly Kemp in the Series 1 set.

I then moved on to the Archives binder. My sole interest in Archives is getting the two Dodger short-prints from the set (at least I think there's only two Dodger short-prints. I moved on from Archives pretty quick).

I didn't expect to find either of them. So I happily scooped up Brett:

Only Sandy to go.

I also couldn't resist this card. It's McBride and it's the '75 Topps design. That's a combination that will win me over every time.

I don't even mind that the back is a replication of the 1975 McBride card back ...

... meaning that the card back refers to him as a Cardinal, but on the card front, McBride is all about the Phillies.

Collectors of the future are going to be so confused.

As I was finishing up the Archives binder, a "talker" had cornered the dealer at the table. He was asking your basic, basic "outsider" collecting questions. "Do kids collect anymore?" "What cards are valuable?," etc. At first I thought he was a reporter. But he wasn't writing anything down or had any kind of recording device. Plus the questions were SO rudimentary that I couldn't imagine anyone asking something so clueless.

But the dealer ate it up. He was answering all his questions and got very involved. I started thinking the questioner was just a decoy and someone else was stealing cards. I started looking around for anyone who looked suspicious (at a card show, that's a pretty daunting task -- about 80 percent of the crowd looks suspicious).

It was at this point -- half distracted -- that I decided to pick up the 2011 Bowman folder.

I'm an idiot.

Even on my most lucid days, looking through a binder of Bowman is like being asked by a ninth grader to solve a math word problem (not that I'm speaking from experience). All kinds of pain, helplessness and confusion. And now I was trying to determine which Bowman Dodgers I needed while on the hunt for card thieves.

I pulled out several 2011 Bowman Dodgers I THOUGHT I needed.

Here is what I actually needed:

Whoopie. Two whole cards. Bowman wastes more money of mine than anything else on earth.

Oh, and I grabbed this card:

I already have the card, but I needed it for the back.

That's right. I wanted it so I could have a card of a player who is no longer in the Dodger organization.

I hate these types of double-sided cards.

And I hate you, Bowman.

From there, I moved on to happier times and the quarter box.

Yes, you heard right. The quarter box.

There was no quarter box at this table at the last show in April. But in my April report I mentioned a dealer lamenting that another dealer on the other side of the building had a bunch of quarter boxes. This was the dealer to which I was referring. And he apparently decided to join the trend and set up quarter bins of his own.

It's a good thing, because the other guy wasn't there this time. And best I could determine, these were the only quarter bins out of the 170-something tables.

And, I've still never seen a dime box.

These quarter bins weren't as fascinating as the ones the last time. Most of what was in these ones were modern cards.

I nabbed a Chrome Andre Ethier:

I just noticed that this card has the same photo as the Topps base card, except it's cropped closer.

Not sure why these things happen.

There was a healthy stack of this year's Allen & Ginter in the quarter box, which got my hopes up as I needed just nine cards to finish the set.

Sure, most of those are high-numbers and I didn't expect to see them in the quarter box, but there were still some base cards I needed.

Unfortunately, Soria is the only card I found that I needed. The other two base card needs are people named Darvish and Posey, and apparently collectors are hanging on to those cards for reasons that baffle me.

Fortunately, I also found THIS:

MINNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

A&G minis for a quarter! Excellent.

There were several others besides these, I should've picked all of them up. But I tried to go for only ones that would make my franken-mini binder.

Turns out all of them except the Pedro Martinez fills a spot. (I already had the Pedro).

One more trip back to a binder and I was done.

This is a binder that features post-career cards of Hall of Famers. I've picked through this one a bunch of times and nabbed a bunch of Jackies and Dukes and Roys. This time I found only two that I needed:

These are from some sort of Renata Galasso set. I don't know the year and I don't have time to do the research. I'm sure it's in my great big book of everything cards. I'll look it up eventually.

I handed over these cards and a few others that I picked up for someone else, he gave me a very fair price as he always does, and I was on my way.

When I was finished, it occurred to me.

I had spent about 80 dollars at the show -- which is fairly average at each of these shows. Actually on the low side.

This means that with all of the great cards that I found that fit exactly into my collection, I had spent less than it costs for a box of this:

I even could have bought an autograph at the show and still come under the $100 that this thing costs.

I don't care what's in that damn box. I've never been so right.