Ever since the local monthly show (and many other shows throughout the country) has become overrun with TCG cards I've debated skipping or at least not automatically attending every month. It's become less and less productive over the past 9 months to a year.
But like they say in the majors, "that's why you play the game." I was pretty surprised when I walked into the usual hall Saturday.
First, it was packed. I normally attend closer to 1 p.m. when typically the crowd has thinned out. But I could tell driving into the parking lot that there were still many people there. Second, the show was overwhelmingly sports cards. Any Pokemon, Magic, etc. seemed limited to a handful of tables. I don't know what caused the sudden shift back to sports cards but I was glad I got up off my recliner.
The change affected my mood more than my shopping. The tables were still overrun with graded football and basketball and I'm sure I heard "PSA" uttered 25-50 times.
But my one vintage dealer was still there. Honestly, it's getting so I've picked through almost all of his discounted vintage. If he doesn't replenish I could have everything I want by the next show.
Two of the three vintage sets I gravitate toward most when going through those bins -- 1957 and 1961 -- had hardly anything I hadn't picked up prior. This is what I added this time.
I have it pretty lucky in this obsessive gem-mint collector world. Nobody wants these perfectly adequate specimens just because of some dings or scuffing -- although there was one guy dominating all the vintage rows when I first showed up. I kind of had to pretend to browse the glass display table with pricey stuff like I was interested until he left.
The other vintage set I gravitate toward during this current era of not chasing any vintage sets right now. Yet, somehow I've accumulated over 20 percent of the 1965 Topps set. Geez, maybe I should actually consider the Ernie Banks and Harmon Killebrew the dealer has on display.
Am also finding 1976 Topps football irresistible even though I am NOT COLLECTING IT. Jack Ham is featuring a rip on the left end, as every card of an Al-Pro linebacker should, and Lynn Swann has a couple of corner dents but do I want his card for $2 or $3 or encased in plastic for 50 bucks?
That took care of all the vintage that interested me. I looked quickly through the bins with discounted modern cards as I learned to do the previous show.
Grabbed a nice diecut Roki.
Now, one of the most disheartening aspects of the local show recently is how all of the tables with loose discounted cards had vanished. I mean there wasn't a single one.
But this time I found one. The guy had a few dollar boxes set up.
This is what I grabbed for me. Super-pleased about the Gagne and Piazza as they are from sets that I rarely see (or think to chase). I also added the Carlos Delgado card from this table that I showed on yesterday's post.
But I added more cards for other traders that I hope will be interesting. The dealer seemed a little bit familiar to me, like I might have come across his table once before, so hopefully he keeps showing up and isn't scared away by the fantasy world collectors.
I also came across the former co-worker who had a table several shows ago. He's a pleasant guy and he remembered immediately that I had completed the 1975 Topps mini set. I still haven't bought anything from his table (I have most of it, except early 1950s Bowman if I ever want to chase that). He asked me when I was going to start selling cards there. That still sounds too daunting to me.
So, that finished it off for me. I wanted to do a little more table investigating but I was getting a little woozy from all the plastic.
So that's what this show taught me: no matter how discouraged I get about what's for sale, I'll never know what's there if I don't go. I've got to play the show game.
And that leads me to the contest I'm running. This is where I give away the cards, the extras from The Diamond King.
There were 39 people who entered the contest. That seems like a lot, but during the blog heyday (and probably with less interesting cards), I'd get 70 or 80 comments.
To determine the winner I ran the randomizer three times per standard. Here are the results:
One time
Two times.
Three times.
Congratulations to dayf! He is the winner of the goodies. I think the Cardboard Junkie will even enjoy some of the super-loved ones.
Thank you for participating and thanks again to The Diamond King for making all of these available as well as the ones that I kept for my collection.
Comments