Among the large cities in Upstate New York, Syracuse is the one that I drive through the most. But it's not a destination city like Buffalo or Albany. It's a place where I brave the traffic on the way to somewhere else.
The only two exceptions are to watch minor league baseball or go to a card show. It's the closest large city to me so it does have its perks. But I don't know it very well. So when I realized there was a show coming up and that it was corresponding with a major highway renovation project in central Syracuse, I was concerned.
The normal route to the show at the fairgrounds would take me directly into detours, one-lane traffic and potential gridlock and confusion. I had to find an alternate route, in a city I don't know. Through years of self-navigation, in cities much larger than this, I've never relied on GPS. I thought this might be the time I'd need it. I activated it but never turned it on. In fact, I think I might have found a new and more pleasant trip to that show. I was enormously pleased even before setting foot inside.
My excitement continued shortly after walking in. I could tell almost immediately that this show was mostly sports cards or the usual nonsports stuff -- traditional collecting if you will. After my experience with my monthly show -- and something similar the last time I went to a Syracuse show -- I thought I might be dodging Pokémon again. But I the show operators have done something smart by splitting the two kinds of collecting into separate monthly shows. The Magic/Pokémon/Whatever show is next month.
My first stop was the same as usual. This dealer has all the latest baseball in binders. I went straight for the 2025 Heritage binder, saw that he had a bunch of short-prints and started pulling.
Sadly, I was not able to access the Heritage want list on my blog because I forgot to link to 2025 needs in the drop-down menu on my main page. Trading Card Collector Fail! I would have to go by memory! (Someday I have to figure out what my TCDB password is). So I ended up with three dupes -- and I can see the guys I could have picked instead in my head!
Anyway, I've got half of the SPs from Heritage now ... only 50 to go! 😩
From there I went looking for Gary and all his vintage binders. I made it there but I also detected the distinctive scent of prices going up. This wasn't just his table, I saw it at several other tables. I took a look at the vintage stars he had under the glass cases, noting some mid-1960s stars, Mantle and Rose, etc. I am not super-up on those prices but they seemed particularly HIGH this time.
I saw one 1969 Topps Mickey Mantle. But it was graded at $200. OK, going to have to find his discounted stuff.
Speaking of STUFF. This is how you get me to open your binder, dealers. Call it "STUFF". I didn't care about the cards on top, I started turning pages. Then I got excited because I came across a bunch of 1976 Hostess. I have already completed that set, but this could be a bonanza! Is there '75 Hostess in here? 1978? 1979?
Sadly, it was just 1976.
I did find this in the binder though. It's a 1962 Bell Brand card. We sure do love our Bell Brands on the blogs. This was the most expensive card I bought during my visit. I mean it is in fairly great shape for a potato chip card, but probably not worth the sticker price (Gary always discounts at final sale so not a big deal).
That was it for the Stuff Binder. So on to the dollar box!
This box contained mostly cards from the '50s and '60s along with, oddly, some late '80s NBA stars. I gobbled up some 1957 Topps. I'm liking this set more and more. No, I'm not trying to complete it. But look at what you can get for a buck per. These cards look great!
I added this wildly off-centered card, too. Doesn't seem like my thing unless you know that this is my favorite NBA card design of all-time and Unseld was my favorite NBA player when I was a kid (not that I ever watched his games).
There were other interesting cards floating around the discount table and I found three different spots that had the 1970 and 1971 Fleer Laughlin World Series cards. I look through each for the 10 cards I still need from the '71 set. There were none to be found.
So, moving on. One of the glass cases of vintage cards was open so you could look through the cards. Probably most of it was off-condition or cards from the '70s. I spotted some 1967 Topps in the front left corner and realized the cards were high numbers or semi-highs.
That's what I added. Quite cheaply, too. The Bill Bryan is suitably scuffed but that's one of the highest numbers in the set!
I paid up and then started wandering around in an effort to spot some kind of deal. But I couldn't find anything. It stuns me that not every table has a discount boxes, that just seems like a no-brainer to me.
But the other guy with a bunch of vintage binders was there, too, so let's see what he has!
There was a binder of 1961 Nu Scoops, which was a great coincidence because I just updated my Dodgers want list for this set! I found everything I needed except for one card -- which I just happened to save in an online cart last week!
These don't attract the attention they should but that's fine, I can afford them!
Wooooooo! A binder of Kellogg's, way off to the right side of this dealer's five or six tables. I've mentioned before that this site does not have the greatest lighting, which is not good for evaluating lenticular cards from the '70s. I was doing all kinds of things to try to get the cards to catch the light, practically walking away from the table with the card out of its sleeve -- hope the dealer didn't mind!
The Frank Robinson has slight cracking and the Lyle turned out to be an upgrade, but overall not too bad!
I also added two 1973 Kellogg's needs. It was a relief grabbing these. They were cheaper and you don't have to monitor cracking.
Cash was getting low at this point. I had just enough to visit the old, friendly dealer up front. He was very busy when I first walked in. But everyone had left when I came back. "What is happening to our Dodgers?" he exclaimed (I was wearing the Orel Hershiser jersey I was gifted).
I didn't find much -- all his boxes were pretty much in shambles by this point.
A couple of Heritage inserts from last year and a couple of 2020 Dodgers -- I got lucky and needed both of them.
I also grabbed a few modern cards for fellow collectors at this table.
That was pretty much everything. I probably could have stuck around and found a couple other tables, but I was tired from the night before (that wild Dodgers game and then we had an obnoxious neighbor with too-loud trucks acting up at 1 in the morning).
Also I was eager to travel my new route back home. It's weird how excited I get about stuff like that, I now understand why my dad loved traveling off the beaten path.
The whole afternoon was actually kind of delightful and a pleasant surprise in a lot of ways. Add the Dodgers ending their losing skid later that day and then the epic, unexpected Bills comeback late at night and it's the rare day where everything landed right.
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