Getting There Is Half The Battle - And Less Now

Attended the National Battlefield Card Classic in Gettysburg over Memorial Day weekend.  Held at the All-Star Sports Complex near the Eisenhower hotel, it is now only 15 minutes from my house, making it the most convenient show venue.  

Unfortunately, it was steadily showering when I got there, and I had to walk close to a quarter mile from where I parked to the entrance.  So standing in line was a little damp.  The show was pretty much 50/50 sports vs. Pokémon/MagicTG, but that's par for the course these days.  Those gaming cards sure are colorful, but they all look the same to me.

The other "as usual" was that the majority of my days' haul was the same things I usually find at shows now - namely player collection singles from the most current sets, and base, parallels and hits from my two modern football PC guys: Jayden Daniels and Jordan Addison.  An addition that I can make to that list now is Angela's guys: Brett Favre, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning & John Riggins.  

Here's what I got, but not in the order I got it: 

Some parallel '25 Ginter action with both the silver and Chrome Bo, silver Torre, X black Fisk, and mini Sutter.  This kind of stuff is hard to track, even when I try to make lists.  I don't put it on their web page, because it would make the listings way too long, but only having odd lists of certain years and certain sets isn't much help either.

Found a couple of the Manning boys, including a really fancy Topps Chrome Fortune 15 Peyton.  These were all in a quarter box, I believe.

As were most of these Brett Favres.  The first two are numbered, so they may have been a buck a shot.

The Modern Artist (blue) is /99 on the back.

The Resurgence is /275 on the top left corner of the front.

And finally, the first purchase I made was this Jordan Addison Flawless Collegiate Gold patch auto /10 for $40.  It was marked something like $175 on the sticker underneath.  The dealer said he was surprised it had not sold in four shows up until then.  I'm glad I got the markdown.  It still showed the three digit price on COMC, which is what I gauge prices with.

The Phoenix Rookie Rising Jayden Daniels is a regular mainstream insert....

The middle card is something else.  I asked the dealer what it actually was and he wasn't sure.  (It was the dealer's young son and he said Dad handled all the buying.)  They were priced at $25 and $15 or so, but I asked the Dad if he'd take $30 for the pair and he did.  I managed to find out later what the middle one is.

It's a custom from a WhatNot user (who's a Giants fan...??) and sells them for exactly what I got mine for.  I think it was worth it for a nice looking and unique addition to my collection, whether it's official or not.

That's really all I came up with.  There were only a few vintage dealers at the show, and they seemed rather overpriced, so I didn't look for my '61 set build at all.  I'll wait for the bigger shows in the fall.  Thanks for stopping by!

Ephrata Is Not Fancy

Made it up to the Ephrata show again this year.  Since the Dulles Expo Center has been sold, the 3-per-year Chantilly show isn't happening until the fall when their new mall building renovation is complete.  So this may be the biggest show I get to for a while.  Ephrata is halfway between Lancaster and Reading and is still an hour and a half from the new Hivemind HQ, even though I'm farther north.

The show is largely vintage cards, which is more of a rarity these days.  I concentrated on my two 60's set builds, but still got a few other player collection things and some stuff for Angela too.

They always have one signer - this year was Penn State star Lavar Arrington.  I might have had him autograph something Redskins, but passed.  I still haven't really seen where they do the signing in the building.  It's not near the show floor.

On to the loot.  Found a couple more Jordan Addisons for my PC.  The Vikings picked up his fifth year option. 

Mahomes was one of the last two inserts I need for 2019 Score completion.  (The other is the Josh Allen Signal Callers.)  Brady is a promo for the 2005 Throwback set.  Been looking for that for a while.  Figured I better grab it even though it was five bucks.  His stuff will probably only get worse that way. 

Some interesting additions to my baseball PCs.  The Sutter was the first parallel for his 2021 Chrome Platinum Anniversaries.  The other three were the only things I got from my usual insert guy, who lives near the show but I've seen him just about everywhere else but there.  He only had the current year Heritage, flagship, and Bowman.

Was hoping to find a few obscure Phillies issues of Puddin' Head Jones, but only found this playing card.  Bake is from the 1978 SSPC set, which I still need a lot of my other PC guys from.

The fancy parallel Brett Favre from the top is here with the rest of his that I got for quarters or dollars for Angela.  We just got a 230 count trade of all Bretts this past week, (thanks Jake Gepner from TCDB) so his numbers are soaring.  Had to put him in his own 3" binder already.

The Manning brothers made a brief appearance in those same boxes.  I'm still educating Angela on the distinctions between refractors and x-fractors etc.  She does like shiny.

On to my vintage builds.  Struck three of the checklist variations for 1961 Topps.  The first two have differences on the back, and the third is Aparicio's name as highlighted in red.

I had just traded for a 4th series checklist as well, but unfortunately, neither one of them will likely be the final resident of my set.  

The one I got at the show turned out to have creases on the top corners.... 

And the one I traded for had been marked and erased.  The previous owner had alerted me to this ahead of time.  If anyone wants one for their collection, let me know.

Moving to 1963, these are all high number short prints.  Felt good to find most of these for half or less of the typical $15 price tag without being in lousy condition.

The rookies are the variations with either '62 or '63 up top.  I have the other flavors already.  Maris looks so sad, I'm not sure why.  Herzog and McDaniel were a couple of the low series I hadn't found good copies of until now.

And finally, I got a bargain on Roberto, and the only catch is the small crease through the top of his hat, and a pencil mark in the upper part of the inset circle that rubbed off pretty decently.  I'll take it for two digits instead of three. 

And that wraps up my show haul.  Not sure when the next show will be, but it will probably be one of those where half the tables have Pokémon, which is fine.  See you then!

Stealth Michigan Trip Loot

As you may have read here, I surprised SR75 with a weekend visit right after Christmas.  I worked it out with his girlfriend (as well as my vintage supplier Marv) to see them in Michigan.  She kept it a secret from him until we showed up at a card shop in Brighton.  I found a few more Jayden Daniels cards, as well as a few other singles at that shop.  I didn't scan those, but I will show you what I found at the mall show the next day.

First items were these two Topps Super 70's autographs.  Both are PC guys.  Everything I got from this show was in these big thick magnetic holders.

Continuing the baseball PC theme, I found this Panini Three and Two bat relic numbered 9/20 from another dealer who priced it according to comps of similar ones /75.  Was a fair price.  I usually don't go for non-logo stuff like this, but this one looks pretty good despite that.

Just like most shows I go to these days, Jayden Daniels is who I found next.  I have a printout of what I have of his, but I think I'm going to have to put it on a page on this blog, since I didn't have my printed lists with me on this trip at all.   I hope $20 isn't overpaying for this one.

And finally, this dealer said to make offers and he would make end-of-show deals on everything in his case.  I've seen the red & green Optic before, and it was priced about the same.  I came in at $25, and he said yes and that he had this really cool Inception too that he'd throw in for $5 more.  Sold!

That's it for today.  Stay tuned for some customs from Gavin at BBC Breakdown, and my haul from Marv, including killing most of my 1963 Topps set build, and starting another year. 

Speaking Of Assimilations....

Not sure if five weeks is the longest I've gone without posting, but it's probably close.  I feel like half the time I'm apologizing for my absence on here.  Well, I am sorry I haven't been around, but I'm not sorry about why.  Without going into too much detail, it's basically been a whirlwind romance.  It started late last year, took a while to get going, and then took off about April or so.  We've been dating steadily since May, and it just keeps getting better.  We match so well on so many levels, that it's been relatively easy.  It's amazing to both of us how it's gotten to this point.

But anyway, enough of the mushy stuff, you guys want to see cards!

I did manage to make the July Chantilly show on what used to be Sneak Preview Day (Friday) but is now basically a whole third (first) day.  The show now runs 1PM to 8PM, instead of starting at 5.  I got through the bulk of it all, but really just hit most of my favorite dealers.

This is an amalgamation of several purchases, all of which are for player collections.  The first things I found were the Safelon discs from '76.  I have a big list of '76 and '77 discs for my PC guys, but this flavor wasn't even on it.  Got all but three or so of the guys I seek.  

The Sutter is a '79 Hostess, which are somehow the most elusive year.  I still need about a half dozen of my guys.  Have just about all the rest except for a few SPs.   Bo Jackson was from yet another new unknown football set that just came out.  The Dusty & son is from the current Archives issue, and of course, I will snag anything Jordan Addison.

Knocked out the better part of my '62 Post HOF'ers with this batch from my man Steve B.  Still looking for a good starter lot of commons, but most of the big names are found.  I continued to strike some other vintage-ish wants with him too...

Almost finished the '69 Fleer World Series from the starter I got from the set hoard.  If I'd have started them with Steve, they might be even better.  These were nicer than any I have already.  

These aren't the ones with the team logo stickers, they're the blue backs.

Stepped over to my regular current insert guy and massacred my list of silver parallels to '24 A&G.  There were still two full snap boxes that I didn't go through, but my list was so huge, I was afraid of too many duplicates.  Still ended up with a half dozen of these that I actually didn't need.  Also got some '23 Heritage short prints and a few other misc. items.

Moved on to Stan's and filled out these '61 Golden Press'ers.  Down to Ott, Ruth, Foxx and  and Wagner.

Also got three of the four '65s from him.  The last purchase of the day was the "C. Canizzaro" flavor of the 1st Checklist from Uncle Dicks.  This completes my '65 Topps set!

Thanks for stopping by!  Can't guarantee any better frequency of posting, but I can say that I'm jumping right into the 1963 Topps set.  Stay tuned for that!

Spring Chantilly Show - Youth And Old Age

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?