The monthly card show this month featured an autograph guest for the first time. It was former Buffalo Sabres forward Ric Seiling, who was a starter during the late 1970s and 1980s.
I didn't follow hockey as a kid so I didn't recognize the name (my wife, who did follow hockey back then, knew it). No matter, I was late to arriving to the show and they always set up autograph guests early in the program. He was getting ready to leave as I was walking in the door.
Because of the commotion of the first autograph guest and a bunch of jocularity going on, no one saw me come in and nobody was there to take my money -- the second time this has happened at this show.
There are signs that the organizers are still figure things out. Even though they've expanded to a larger room and there are more dealers and they are now offering shows at other cities, there is still a haphazard feeling to the proceedings. To be expected, sure, I mean this town hasn't had a regular card show before this one in decades, but it could be improved.
For example, I think they've outgrown their room again. There were too many tables for the space. There were around six aisles to walk through but the width of them was too narrow. ... OK, they were about regular width for two normal-sized people, but these are card collectors. Seventy-five percent of everyone I saw needs to learn about portion control.
It was impossible to go down some aisles, I had to wait for people to clear out. Also for whatever reason, there were a lot more kids than at past shows. Loads of little boys running around with their hands all over everything (I was looking through a row of $2 cards and a kid just randomly plopped his hand on the row of cards. I picked up his hand and put it off to the side so I could look through the others).
I know this sounds like that I wish I could go to a card show with only me as a customer and ... you would be right.
But really, once the aisle cleared out everything went OK.
I didn't have any "big card" goals this time, like last month when I picked up the Reggie Jackson rookie. I was hoping to do damage on my 1979 Topps football pursuit and maybe get some low-priced vintage.
I stopped first at a small table that I've been to many times. The guy always has discount cards. This time there were bins that read "$6/1.00", "$1" and $2". Then he marks the prices down more because "I always stop at his table."
Cheap Dodgers from the past year. The Holiday Yamamoto is my first base card from the 2024 set. The Will Smith is a "black crackle foil" and, yes, it took me 10 minutes to figure out what it was.
Cheap Heritage inserts. The card at the top left features Jackie Robinson, so now that's a Dodger card that I didn't know existed before I saw it.
Other cheapies that don't really fit in my collection but when they're 16 cents per, I'm not thinking about stuff like that. The Corey Seager is a black parallel from this year's Archives, my first Archives card. My goal is to buy no packs of that stuff.
Cheap Ohtanis! These came out of the $2 bin that the kid had his grubby hands in. Fortunately the cards were in toploaders and team bags. Each card -- even the SP of Ohtani wearing a Santa hat over his helmet -- cost me a buck each.
As I was navigating the aisles, trying to figure out how to get down one, I heard someone call me name. It was the guy from my work who is now a dealer. He tried to help me find some Dodgers. I usually don't need help with that, but he did find one key one.
The Clayton Kershaw is the "city variation" of his card from the 2023 Chrome Platinum Anniversary set. My friend opens a lot of product and he bought two cases of this set, he said the city cards are one per case. And now I have the Kershaw! I picked out the other two cards myself.
But that was enough modern cards for me. I set out to find the guy who sold me the Reggie, he always has vintage. There's actually three guys with their tables always next to each other and most of the cards are older. But the center guy has cards mostly my style -- he always has some discounted vintage sorted by decade, along with separate binds.
I started picking out whatever '60s vintage card sparked my interest (and a couple '50s ones, too).
My plan was to stockpile some vintage cards that I could use for Diamond Jesters' Time Travel trades, but as often is the case, I immediately get attached to the cards I buy, so I expect most of these to stay with me. Who knows.
The best part of finding discounted vintage at a show in these Graded Days is you can get it for super cheap and there's almost nothing wrong with the cards. That '68 Jim Lonborg in particular is just off-center, everything else is sharp. It probably came straight out of the pack like that. It's perfectly fine!
While looking through the low-rent vintage I found some set needs, which I didn't expect. Three for the '67 insanity quest (The McGraw has a great big crease, which I didn't see at the time, a common hazard at shows when you're looking at discounted cards and people are bumping you). I'm very happy about the '69 Norm Cash, I've upgraded that card like three times and now I'm done with that!
And, finally, yes I did knock off a couple key cards from the '79 football want list. Perhaps I could have found a little more from that set, but I got these two cards (Lofton's rookie and Dorsett's second-year) for a combined 5 bucks. Sure Dorsett has some small flaws (the flecks are dust, tho) but I was fully prepared to spend $15 on that card!
That finished things off for me. I usually don't like staying at that show very long -- too cramped and there is lots of hobby stuff I don't like -- but somehow I was there for an hour plus.
Obviously since I keep going most of the months, it's actually a pretty good show. It just needs some walking around room.
Comments