Back To Back Show Weekends - Part 1: Ephrata, PA

The weekends on either end of this week (Mar 27-31, 2023) are both big show dates.  Last Saturday was the annual event at the Rec Center in Ephrata, PA.  It's a gym-sized show with an auction and one signer.  This year's guest was Eagles linebacker Jeremiah "Axe Man" Trotter.  I don't usually go for the autograph or the auction, though they send me a flyer with all the items beforehand.

There are several dealers that only do this show, and most of them sell vintage cards.  That is points in this show's favor to me.  A lot of them are Philly-centric, since that city is about an hour due east.

I've gotten to know some of the guys behind the tables there, if even just by what they have.  I'll try to group my loot by who I got it from....not necessarily in chronological order by my stops during the day.

Let's start with the hockey, which has a decent showing there.

There is a guy who is usually on the end of the second row from the back who has a lot of older O-Pee-Chee hockey.  I've filled out a few of my Capitals teams sets (and the occasional set build) from him a couple times.  This trip, I only found one.

This one did kill the team set for 1983-84 OPC.  Interestingly, there was not Topps set that year, or the year before ('82-'83).  

The other hockey guy is on the end of the very front row.  All his vintage hockey is marked 50% off the sticker price. 

Fuhr was in the quarter section.  Roy was only 50¢, and the others weren't a whole lot more than a buck or two.  Mario was like $10, I think.  Sakic was a few, but still not bad for his rookie.

He also had a little odd box of a couple handfuls of the three years of Topps Fan Favorites.  I picked out these 2004's that filled holes in my set.  We both like these for the different photos that they feature instead of the same old shots.  

Almost forgot these two Holtby's from Capitals' season's past.  I should do a team set of the red parallels.  Unfortunately, Braden no longer "Rocks the Red" for us.  These two depict him doing his focus exercise with his water bottle.  He'd squirt a little in the air and follow a droplet to regroup his concentration.

Keeping with the Washington theme, these are part of a quarter box haul that I gathered alongside an older gentleman wearing a jacket with a map of Vietnam on the back.  Two more veterans came up to him while we were digging and they found out that they were in the same area at the same time.  This man's unit took care of the other guy's platoon or whatever it was.  Big props to all those guys for their service. 

I think the box was marked ".25¢ each", which I like to remind people means four for a penny.  $.25 or 25¢ is four for a buck.  Remember that if you set up at shows.  I didn't challenge them on it.

I got a bunch more 2019 Score football rookies from the same batch for my set build, but didn't scan them.

I want to say I got these Oriole stars and inserts either from the dime box or the next vendor I'll cover - the guy I call Brother Mike.  He's the one that has all kinds of odd stuff from vintage to modern inserts, GU & autos, non-sports, and almost anything else.  He puts out an email to let you know where he'll be at all the shows around the MD/PA area.  He'll be at Chantilly this weekend too.

Got these PC guys there too.  A parallel Donruss from '21, a Fleer Hardball disc, and a sparkly parallel of that 1952 Anniversary set from last year.  You've seen others of my PCs from that set in recent posts. 

Three more of the also sparkly legends parallels in 2011 Topps.  This is a very casual collection, and I've made the mistake of getting a plain version once or twice.  I'll take the brown cognac versions, but am trying to keep it all sparkles.  I've got a long way to go and don't even necessarily want every HOF'er that was made like these.

Jeets is just a base card, but I've got a whole list of his base cards to fill out sets on my wants.  So much so, that I put "of course" after his name most of the time.  Mariano is another one who shows up rather often.  Both of them can sometimes be found together in dealer boxes.  I think these were from Mike, but I could be wrong.

Speaking of PC guys, I already have a few Fisk relics, but I've just started this Classics set, so I thought it was a nice accessory, even though I won't be putting it with the set.  Brother Mike has a lot of this kind of gamer from a few sports.

A couple more Washington guys in the jersey variety.  Portis is numbered out of 25, but was less than $10.  The Urlacher is one more off the set of jerseys in the '09 Philadelphia set.  

More Washington football, in this case rookies.  Contrasted by the Namath insert from 2004.

Lastly, from Mike, I picked up this sepia parallel of the Stadium Club Jackie, since I found I had the 5x7 color version the other day.  Might try for the rainbow.  Just a great shot.

The last two stops I made were for some great vintage.  Got these two from Phil, who sets up in the second row from the front.  He's really friendly and easy to talk to.  We converse about certain cards and why we like them or where we started certains sets.  These were two of the more expensive buys but still within my noted prices that I had looked up before.  That's Roy Sievers  and Alvin Dark.

Interjecting just for a moment, I got these six '50 Bowmans from a gentleman that was in the row behind Phil and was starting to clean up his table.  He had a book of these that he told me he had just brought from home.  He actually had a Jackie Robinson in there, which he was more concerned about someone stealing than actually buying.  I pulled out these six from the last series that don't have the copyright line on the back.  The Beckett comes out when he prices his stuff, which usually turns me off, but these were only six bucks each.  He said he felt it was time to bring them all to sell and that he had pulled them from the shoebox at home ~ the original shoebox he kept them in when he collected them as a kid!  He is 80 years old now... I was kind of honored to take over their care and keeping.

And finally, from Phil's table, I picked up these two rather crooked but still nicely appealing Post cereal cards.  Not sure why, but Brooks just had to come home with me.  There were other stars on nicer cards, but I just had to take this one.  And the Mick was a no-brainer.  I can say I got a 1962 Mickey Mantle for $30!  Ok, there's a catch, but still.... One of these days I'll find a starter set of these and build 'em all.  Now I just get the big stars when I can find them.

Stay tuned for next weekend's haul, and a stop I made right after this one....