Three Shows In A Month - Part 2: Chantilly, VA

Two weeks after the Ephrata show, I attended the first of three yearly exhibits at the Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia.  This is the biggest show in my local-ish area.  It's about an hour's drive, and almost always worth it.

After dropping off my second submission to the guys at the COMC table (which was mostly from that storage hoard that I showed earlier), I dove in to shopping.

Here's the overall look at all my stacks - sorted by sport, sets, PCs, etc.  The two stacks on the left end will appear in other more famous blogs than mine.  

The first thing I attacked was my 2023 Stadium Club set.  Brought it down to one card, mostly from my favorite modern dealer.  Just couldn't get that last guy.  Just need the Ripken Triumvirates to complete the first trifecta of those as well.

This is the dude I'm missing if you have one to spare.

Scored some parallels and other player collection goodies from the past year as well.  Bo has the distinction of having all the Chrome parallels in SClub, while my other guys only have the non-shiny colors. 

Narrowed my 2023 Ginter short prints down to two (#373 Brett and another #384 Bo) with these five.  Amazing how tough it is to pull Ohtani from a pack.

Cut my needs of these Only In... minis in half with these.  Down to five (BAL, DET, ANA, SF & StL.)

Struck down a couple others from the '23 and '22 sets as well.  The mini inserts are always the most clever (and toughest to complete) of all the inserts - in Ginter and flagship.

Always adding to my Washington collection of course.  Some collectors concentrate on just one team and that's enough for them to look for.  For me, it's just one facet out of about six or eight that I chase all the time.  I'm out of control...

The never ending avalanche of shiny parallels.  I should have arranged these in a more horizontal array.  

Here's a closer look at a couple.  Blue Reactive Mosaic and Prestige Hyper flavors.

One vintage Washington insert that most people probably get for the Gale Sayers.  

Found a bunch of Addisons this time.  Believe it or not, I think the blue Select is the base, and the silver is a parallel.  At least I know there is a blue retail version.  Who knows what the hobby base flavor looks like without an image on the Database.

Some of these I got at the very last table that I bought from.  It was right by the front door and right next to YouTuber Chris Sewall, who I turned to and briefly discussed his latest video on grading data that blew my mind with the mention of two players whose Gem 10 slabs have dropped to about $10 in value (about 7 minutes in the linked video).  I never imagined a graded card would go below the cost of grading.  There may be hope for me to actually intentionally buy a slab in the future!

Here's what you really want to see, though.  Vintage!  One more off my 1950 Bowman set quest.  Though I'll probably be years waiting for Jackie Robinson et al to drop to a reasonable level.

I also started a micro player collection with these two.  As a player on the 1933 Goudey, and an umpire on the 1955 Bowman, Charlie Berry is a rather unique story.  Saw it on a YouTube video and always wanted a reason to get a '33 Goudey.

Finally knocked off two of the variation checklists from 1962 Topps...

The left one is the "no comma" version that lists #192 as Check List 3 (even though there's a dirt speck where the comma was on the other version).

The 6th series card variation is the general size and arrangement of the type.  The way you can distinguish them is the alignment of the E in Checklist.  In this one, it is lined up with the T in Topps.  On the other one, it is rather centered between the T and O.

Also coming down to the end of my 1957 Topps set quest.  The Senators and Kubek rookie are new, but the Fox is what I hope to be an upgrade.  His cards are expensive and hard to find in good shape.

Mauch, the reknowned manager later in his career, is a rookie as well.  Wilson, I don't know.

One of the two major finds was this Gene Baker error variation.  It was a lot scarcer (and expensive) than I thought.  But the guy that runs Uncle Dick's now gave me a great deal on it.

The "R" in BAKER is obscured on the back.  

The other big catch was this one from a dealer I know well and is from my area.  

It's not the greatest specimen, but the price was right.

So unless I mess it up, this will be my 750th total post on the blog.  Not all of them have been about cards, but I'd have to recalculate what that number is.  Thanks to the 50+ followers and many blog traders for your readership and support.  Resistance, after all, is futile anyway....

Next time, a quick trip for some more shiny....