There's an old saying that I've quoted before, "There's no such thing as a bad day when you're fishing." The same holds true for card shows. I woke up this morning so stiff and achy after spending most of yesterday on my feet at the Chantilly card show, but it was worth it. I got to the show about 10AM, and left as they closed at 5. Here's what I brought home.
Started with a few more for the '65 set build. This will be a recurring theme.
Usually I'll start at the far end of the show floor and work my way back, but since I had to get autograph tickets from the section of the building in the other direction, I jumped in at that end. Dave Rosen & family at All Star Sports Cards out of Levittown, PA always has a big selection of insert and parallels from the current releases. It's a great resource for me to find player collection stuff without having to open boxes.
Got the Stadium Club Chrome, Red Foil, Pink Foil, and Sepia Bo's....
Picked up the Prizm, Chrome SC, Refractor, and Pink Younts for my friend Eric.
The biggest rainbow was Palmer, with the base, Chrome, Refractor, Red, & Pink.
He had a couple nice bonus items too. Torre is one of the rare Cycle Succession A&G inserts out of the three I need. And this 2024 Impeccable auto of Luis Tiant commemorating his debut. Numbered out of 25, he must have signed this one shortly before his passing.
Next dealer had these '65s in a book. Only the Agee rookie was more that $2-3. A couple of these are upgrades. I'm hoping that Agee isn't a duplicate, since I was working from my website and a printed list at the same time and that card was only on one. Haven't found another one yet.
Then I heard my favorite local dealer Steve say hello over into the next aisle, so I stepped up to his table. He had several of the Steve Carlton rookies that was the last of the big money cards I needed for my set. I picked one out that was in the middle of the range of prices, and said I needed a Uecker too. He gave me a good discount on them and then we worked a deal for the extra '64 Uecker and the two '57 mid series duplicates that I had from previous shows. That almost cut my cost in half. I was very happy.
At this point, I heard the announcement for my autograph signing and headed over to the lines.
Since he's from my hometown, went to the schools I work for, and knows my coworker, I started collecting Jordan Addison's cards. I have them all in top loaders and didn't really have a favorite, but figured I'd be putting a binder together at some point, so I made the image below and printed it out for him to sign. It will go on the binder cover.
He went to Tuscarora High School, so that was the inscription that I had him add.
Resumed my shopping after the ink dried....Came by Stan's table, who I've bought from several times before.
Andy Pafko's '50 Bowman has some staining, but would have probably been twice as much otherwise. And Vern Stephens is #2 in the set - the lower numbers carry the premium, but this one was spot on my target price at $12.
For this show, I began a set build of 1962 Post cereal cards. I've been picking up a few of the biggest names here and there just as a novelty over the last year or so. So the day before the show, I went through and listed the ones I had - about a dozen - including Mantle, Clemente, Aaron, Mays, etc. Since I was that far, why not go for it? I wrote out the remaining HOF'ers still missing, and snagged some of them here. I just like the look of these, and they're a cheap way to owning megastars. I'll flip the script on the normal set build and start with the big ones and find a common starter lot later.
Found another pair at the next dealer, who I've seen at the National a couple times. (Not sure what his name is.) Also filled out more of my '65s. After all was said and done, I'm down to 17 cards for the set, and the biggest names lacking are Aparicio and Lolich.
Killebrew is shown twice, but I only got one. Knocked out one of the remaining Hostess player collection needs with the '78 Ferguson. Most of the Hostess I can't find are from the '79 set. Not sure why they're so elusive. Also finally found a '58 Ollie Matson that I liked to bring that set one closer to the finish. But that end is years away, since that guy named Brown is still on my list. I started the 1961 Golden Press's with a database trade months ago, and they've been fun to find since. For a moment, I thought this dealer had a couple hundred of them, but they were BEHIND the divider, not in front of it, so there were only a handful, which was still plenty.
Made it down to Barry's, who generally has tons of recent inserts and bulk base. He had lots of Heritage High Number in the '75 design, but I'm probably just going to buy a short set rather than boxes, so I didn't need singles. Hope to get a line on the SP's too. Found these A&G parallels for Eric & I, as well as the Palmer 206 for this year and a surprise Dynamic Duals with Bo Jackson. I have two of the Dusty Baker / Lou Piniella one, but didn't know about this one.
It was a lighter haul than usual, but had some bonus oversize items too. The Prizm card shows the scale. Went blind on the Jordan, which of course I already had, so he's available. The Torre is a postcard, and I'm happy I didn't have the Fisk Heritage topper. He goes with the Gene Tenace that I did own.
Late in the day, I was getting tired and could feel my heart rate rising from being on my feet most of the day. Brother Mike was based at the farther end of the floor, and had a vacant table next to his, so it allowed me a nice break to sit in a chair and dig through one of his 8/$1 boxes. I came up with seven, plus the Jeets mini and a couple dollar finds. Total of $3.
The announcements for the closing of the show had begun, so I quickly moved through the last couple rows of sale tables. One dealer had sectioned plastic boxes labeled with certain sets or themes. There were a couple with Chrome Anniversary parallels. Found these two PC guys.
Sutter is the Rose Gold Mini Diamonds flavor numbered out of 75. Got a dollar off the total, so it's reasonable, I guess. There are so many parallels of these, you gotta get 'em when you find 'em.
So that was my show. I'm finally feeling alive again around dinner time the next day, but that's what I get for sitting around too much otherwise. Like I said, is there any such thing as a bad day at a card show?
