Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Local Card Show - A Cure for What Ails Ya, Part 2

Time to show off my cards from what I refer to as the other half of my card show haul from last weekend.  You see, I spent a good hour doing my best impersonation of a pinball as I bounced from dealer to dealer, then I set anchor at one table for another hour.

What would cause one to suddenly become so sedentary at a card show?  Dime Boxes of course!  1 card for $0.10 or 15 for $1.00.  By a quick scan I figured there was just under 10,000 cards in the boxes, which included baseball, football, basketball, hockey, racing, and wrestling.  Yikes.

I used to dabble in football and basketball, but I'm a baseball only guy anymore.  From what I could tell it seemed as though this vendor would buy a blaster, rip it, take what he thought he could sell, and then dump the remaining in the monster boxes.  There were little pockets of like cards throughout, but otherwise no rhyme or reason to the order.  Overall, it wasn't too difficult to avoid the other sports.

When it was all said and done I threw a fiver on the table and walked away happy with 75 cards and little bit of a crick in my neck.

Much of what I found will wind up in trade packages.  I've found it much more fiscally responsible to acquire the Cubs I want through trade rather than paying the mark-ups at local shows.  I already have a trading partner in mind for most of what's below, but if you see something you gotta have just give me a holler.

Let's delay no further!

A 1956 Topps Chuck Diering was easily the oldest card in the box.  Mine for less than a dime.  Nice.

I was happy to find local boys in the monster boxes.  Jim Thome graduated from Limestone High School 1988, Ben Zobrist from Eureka High School in 1999 (I think), and Zac McAllister graduated from Illinois Valley Central High School in 2006.  Sparkly, shiny, and shiny.  Right up my alley.

 I picked up fourteen of these Action packed cards from 1993.  Pictured below are Willy Stargell, Lou Brock, Billy Williams, Warren Spahn, Yogi Berra, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, and Willie Mays.

I love the storied players of the past.  How about some more?  These are from the 2009 Goodwin's Champions set: Bo Jackson, Nolan Ryan, Mike Schmidt, and Johnny Bench.  My favorite is the Bo Jackson card by far, but the others may be the best pitcher, third baseman, and catcher of all-time.

I have a small stack of some 2013 Panini Cooperstown, including a few parallels, but I've only pictured the Jackie Robinson card.  This is my first card of him in a Kansas City Monarchs uniform.

 Jackie is joined by a Donruss puzzle of Stan the Man, a 2013 Panini USA Baseball card of Jim Abbott, and a 2012 Topps Mickey Mantle.

Here's a few more cards from the USA Baseball set: Bubba Starling and Gerritt Cole.  Also a couple of nice prospects in Gary Sanchez and Miguel Sano from last year's Bowman's Best set.

 These are trade bait for sure:  Nelson Cruz, Carlos Gonzalez, Dave Kingman, and Tim Salmon.

And some for my collection: Xander, The Kid, Cingrani, and a Cespedes gold rookie.  Nice.

More trade bait!  A ton of 2013 Panini Prizm and some 2013 Topps Finest.  Cards don't get much shinier than this!

Okay, enough shiny.  A 1980 Mike Schmidt in "okay" condition?  Less than a dime?  Thank you.

 Here's a card of a kid that I've never heard of before, but he shares my last name.  So, what the heck?  For the record, I think he's still in school.  Oh well, the price was right!

I found a couple of Cubs minor leaguers and pounced.  How about a really sweet Andre Dawson?

 I have a feeling the Dawson card won't stay in my collection for long... it all depends on how long it takes my sister to read this post.

I've saved the best for last.
The Giancarlo Stanton was a nice get from 2013 Chrome, as was the green parallel of Prince, and the "Crush" Davis from 2012 Chrome.

I'm hoping the top right card will help pay for my entire day at the card show, including what I bought during the first half of the show.  I'm not sure what this pink parallel of Jose Fernandez was doing in the dime box, but the vendor didn't say anything about it when I settled up and paid.  It's numbered 17 out of 50 and is in great condition.  Hopefully, Mr. Fernandez will beat out Puig and win the National League Rookie of the Year award, and if he does then I'll strike while the iron is hot and place this pink parallel up on eBay. 

Overall, that's the best of the 75 cards I found within the thousands that I searched.  I don't see anything wrong with paying five bucks for that haul.  Do you?

6 comments:

  1. Amazing find on the Jofer pink for 10 cents. That's probably a 20-30 dollar card!

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  2. You're right, wouldn't mind if The Hawk flew over this way.

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  3. I'm not usually that impressed by this kind of stuff but for five bucks that's a crazy good haul. Any Sano or Gerrit Cole card for less than a dime? Wow.

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  4. Holy crap, that's a seller that doesn't know what he has, or doesn't know who's who. Either way, congrats on the big steals.
    --Jon

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  5. I can't say I've seen many better dime box finds than that Jose Fernandez pink parallel. Or the '56 Topps Diering, for that matter. Awesome haul!

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  6. That Lou Brock sliding card is something to stare at.

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