Back in my arms again

 

My vacation began in the only proper way yesterday -- with a card show.

It was the monthly show and my third straight month attending. It's become such a regular occurrence that I almost didn't make it.

I was also preparing dinner yesterday and I needed to go to the store to pick up an ingredient (shallots) that I couldn't find at the closer store a few days earlier. I don't like grocery shopping on Saturdays because all the "it's-my-day-off" people are there and they are really belligerent with their carts. But I had no choice and I told myself the store was close to the card show so it'll be fine. It's fine.

I had gotten off to a later start already but I drove to the store and started my search for shallots. But that store didn't have them either. Crap, I'm going to have to hit Price-Chopper. That meant back-tracking and also going to a store I rarely go to (it's more expensive) where I don't know where anything is. I got there and after getting lost in the store, I found shallots and hurried back to my car in a mild panic. When does this show close?

Things seemed cool when I got to the show building but once inside, I saw a dealer wheeling his stuff out to the parking lot. Not a good sign. I got closer to the entrance and I saw another dealer exiting. There was still 2 hours of show left!

I walked in and -- yep -- there were empty tables where wares used to be. Not good, not good.

I started my tour through the aisles, fully expecting to find nothing but determined to find something. I shouldn't have worried because not even 10 minutes in, I had this card:

Let me tell you what this card means.

Sure it's a key card for my 1969 Topps set chase, but it's more than that. Long-time readers may remember a tale about how I traded this card and the 1969 Topps Pete Rose card for the 1951 Topps Duke Snider red-back when I was in high school.

I still remember making the trade in the hallway before class. I've never regreted the trade (you also may remember the story about how my Snider was purposely creased by a classmate shortly after I acquired it), but I've since grown the appreciate the '69 set after many years of shrugging my shoulders at it.

Since I started building the '69 set, that trade has loomed larger in my head. In the following years, I had acquired a '51 Snider in better shape but still didn't have the Rose or Clemente. Now I have the Clemente! Welcome home "Bob"! It's nice to have you back in my arms again!

 

So that was a great way to start the show especially after preparing myself to get squat.

 

I then toured through the usual Magic cards, basketball slabs and boxes of product that looked like an overstocked Target and happened upon a table with some usual stuff but there were also some random vintage Steelers cards fanned out close to the edge of the table. One was a 1979 Topps Franco Harris. I was pretty sure I needed it and after checking my want lists, I asked how much it was (there were no prices, the cards weren't even in penny sleeves!)

 

The guy gave me a bizarre response: "I don't know, how much is it going for?" But before I could run away, he said, "2 dollars?"

 

Another of the many Steelers wants from that set in my possession. Yeah, it's a bit worn and definitely about 2 bucks. Lucky guess by that dealer.

After that I kind of wandered around aimlessly, pawing through cards that I didn't care about much. I returned to the dealer who had sold me the Earl Campbell rookie card at the last show. I had looked at his stuff earlier and it seemed like mostly the same stuff as the last show (a common drawback of monthly shows, I'm discovering). 

 

But I found this Will Smith Cosmic Chrome card from last year and I could tell it wasn't the regular card, it was some sort of parallel (it turns out it's something called a "Nucleus Refractor"). I didn't want to buy just this card, especially with the off-condition vintage at the table.

So I picked up the modest column of '70s stars even though I have almost everything from the '70s. It was a good thing I did.

These guys fell out. Of course, oddballs! I STILL NEED '70s ODDBALLS! I grabbed both without even double-checking whether I needed them (Update: I needed them!)

I threw in these two cards, too. I'm not chasing the '68 Topps set at all but those All-Star cards in the set are some of the best ever. And you can never have enough of the '75 Dock Ellis card.

I handed over my cash and that was it for me at the show this month.

That went pretty well -- but I think if I go to next month's show I'm going to have to get there earlier and eliminate some of the pressure on myself.

However, dinner was excellent and I'm giving full credit to the shallots. Also, there are leftovers!