A card show????

Well, I got to a card show finally!!  First, my observations.  

I got there very early (2 hours before the show was scheduled to start).  Since it was at a mall, I was able to walk right in.  When I got there, only one guy was set up, so that's where I started. There were three other customers there ahead of me.  This guy is one I have always frequented.  He had some dime boxes and 50 cent boxes in addition to the big money cards that I usually ignore.  I have always bought a lot from him, but this time, it seemed that the boom in hobby prices had really affected his inventory.  Not the amount of stuff, he had a lot, but the quality for the price.  The dime box stuff was pretty bland.  I only found a few cards there.  And the 50 cent box stuff seemed like it would have been in dime boxes pre-pandemic.  I didn't find a lot there either.

Soon more dealers started showing up though, so I moved on to Bill, my old standby for cheap stuff.  I had a lot more luck there.  Bill has a similar inventory to the first guy, dime and 20 cent boxes, dollar boxes and then the money cards.  I grabbed about 100 cards from the dime and 20 cent boxes, and a few from the dollar boxes.

Then I wandered the show looking to see how things had changed.  And the biggest changes I saw were:

1. Way more tables than before.  I would say almost double the total number of dealers as was usual for this show.

2. A corresponding increase in the number of customers.  I guess this seems kind of obvious, but it was crowded.

3. The money that was being thrown around.  The heavy majority of the dealers and customers were focused on expensive, graded cards.  Dealers without them were not receiving the amount of attention that the graded card dealers were.  And I saw quite a few $1000+ purchases.  Shocking to my tiny little dime box brain!

Anyway, that's what I saw, now for what I grabbed!

Topps variations.  I found these in the 20 cent boxes, labeled as variations.  I am not familiar enough to have known they are variations if they had not been labeled, but I scooped them all up.  Not big dollar cards, but hopefully someone will want them in trades.  The only one I am keeping is the Molina, I like me some Molina.

I am not a big hockey guy, but this Mike Modano RC in a dime box caught my eye.  Now I have 5 hockey cards.  This Modano, a 2nd year Gretzky, 2 more Gretzkys and a Jaromir Jagr RC.

Dime box time!!  Bills dime boxes are very eclectic.  Sometimes I will look through most of a box without finding anything, other times its gold.  This time was in the middle, but I did find a lot of hot-ish young prospects that I couldn't pass up for dimes.  Some of these could end up being decent cards someday!

I think most of the cards in this scan were dime box, but some may have been 20 centers.  I know the KeBryan Hayes Bo Chrome and Chrome Jack Flaherty RC were dimes. 

The cards in this next scan were from all over the show, quite the hodgepodge.

The 63 Topps leaders cards were part of a trade I made for a basketball RC I lucked into.  The AWESOME Max Patkin was a dime.  I think I paid $3 for the Rose and $1 for the Canseco O-Pee-Chee.  I grabbed the Boggs because I didn't remember seeing it before, which is super strange for a 1988 card.  The top row is a lot of fun, but I don't remember what I paid.

Some more...

Mauer refractors will always have a place with me.  The Ohtani and Bellinger were part of the trade I mentioned earlier.  My first copy of those Unleashed inserts!  Not one of my favorite players, but I definitely like the card.  And that Jeter was one of my finds in the dollar box.  I think it was a good deal.

Next up:

Yeah, yeah.  2 Shawn Kemp RCs.  Yawn.  But these 2 are not separated. Uncut sheet, kind of!  The dealer I got this from had quite a few 8 card uncut sheets from 90 Hoops.  Pippen, Gary Payton, some Blazers team sets.  Strange.  But since I collect all Kemp RCs, I grabbed this to add to the collection.  Paid more than I should have, but I don't really see uncut Kemp RCs around.

Last but not least, I grabbed this Bill Bruton.  I was introduced to Bruton reading The last hero: a life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant.  It was a good read, and part of it really delved into Henry's struggles with race.  Early in his career, Bruton was a big part of helping Henry get through the changes and challenges that were part of that.  He was just a journeyman player, but I think when I see his cards, I will be picking them up.

Thanks for reading!!