To the card show I go!

There was a massive card show about 45 minutes away from me this past weekend. They were estimating 600-650 tables of vendors. I kicked around going and not going on Friday. My wife and my oldest son were going to be out of town that day visiting her college roommate and her daughter who is right around my son's age, so I was going to be left at home to work...alone. Well, I decided to let my boss know that I'd be taking a half day to go do something "nerdy". She laughed and said, "Have a blast, you earned it!" So, that morning I dropped my youngest off at daycare and threw on my audiobook and drove. My buddy Nick who I have known for about 25 years said that he would meet me there and also, he knew a guy setting up inside that said we could come earlier than the opening time of 12pm, so I made sure to get there by 10am. 

When I got there, I waited out front for a few mins before I met Nick and we went inside. Surprisingly, a lot of vendors were already set up and ready to rock and roll. This is what it looked like inside (I took this photo at around 12:30PM). 

When we were first inside, we found Nick's friend and I bought a nice bunch of cards from him and also the vendor that was right in front of him. Below are the goodies I grabbed:

The Cossa and Zadina were from Nick. I had told him I would buy that Cossa from him and he said he had a Filip Zadina Future Watch Autograph that he didn't want, and I told him I'd give him $5 jokingly, but it turned out we just did the deal. I gave him $13 for the 2. The Dubois, Turco and Drury were from Nick's friend and the last 2 OPC Platinum's were from the vendor in front of Nick's friend. 

We then walked around a bit and found this guy from Cleveland who was set up and he had a few boxes of 25 cent cards. I dug out a few treasures there and also some from another guy from the Cleveland area a little way away from that vendor and found more 25 cent treasures. I had grabbed 7 from each, but they refused $1.75 and insisted I pay $1. Works for me! Nothing too outlandish in the bunch below.

After walking around for a bit, it got hot...and smelly, but we pushed on. I found another guy who had a huge box of refractors, and he also had a smaller box of rookies. Each was .25. I dug into 3 rows and pulled out some decent ones. Was shocked to find 2 of the Silver Nunn's and a Pink Nunn in that box (not pictured). Also, a Kwame Brown Refractor Rookie? Really? Only 25 cents...crazy. A buddy of mine bought a Silver Nunn and also the Pink almost immediately after I got home, so they were already packed and shipped out before I even got to this post. I do still have the 1 Silver Nunn though. Is that card a short print or something? I saw some insane prices for it on eBay. Anyways, here are some more 25 cent Silvers, Refractors and a Donruss Rated Rookie.

Eventually we went back to Nick's friends table because he had a fan, and it felt good when it blew on you. My goodness the heat. I also spent more money there and at the table across from him. Found the Olave and Brown while digging at the place diagonal from Nick's friend along with the Jordan and Harry Auto. The Benson was at the table right across from Nick's friend (I'd name the guy, but I never asked his permission to use his name on the blog). The McMann in the 2nd picture was $1 from that same vendor and the rest were either 50 cents or $1 from Nick's friend. 

Then we decided to take a stroll to the far end of the show. This mall is pretty big, so it took us a while to get there. We made it to this one vendor's table who had a lot of hockey binders and some newer hockey cards. We stopped to look a little bit, but the prices were pretty astronomical. I really wanted a Sebastian Cossa Future Watch Autograph he had, but he quoted me $140 for it. That's when I knew it wasn't a place I wanted to spend my money. Although that might have been a fair price by eBay standards, it wasn't for me. We kept moving along. Nick was ahead of me about 10 feet because I stopped to look through a Rubbermaid bin of 1988 Topps Grocery Packs another vendor was selling for $3 a piece. It took me about 30 seconds to find the one I wanted. It had the Hawk, Ron Darling and a Tom Glavine Rookie on the front. SCORE! I'll pay $3 for this thing all day long.

After this purchase, we found someone else selling a bunch of cheap hockey cards. 50 cents each! We both dug into the stacks of cards. I found some nice 1997/98 Pacific Revolution Ice Blue parallels and a In The Game Expired Draft Redemption card (Marek Zidlicky) and a cool acetate insert of Zach Bolduc and what should have cost me $2.50, only cost me $2. The guy didn't want to deal with coins, so I guess one of the cards below was free. The Leetch Rookie Card came from Nick's friend who sold it to me for 50 cents. So, this picture is my 50 centers. 

Then, we walked around basically making sure we hit every table. We stopped by one more time to chat with Nick's buddy because he sold him a bunch of stuff and then we decided to leave. While moving toward the door a card caught my eye. I jerked my head back and made my way back to it. The vendor instantly knew what I was looking at. He said, "The Brett, eh?" "Oh YEAH!" I said back. He had a BEAUTIFUL George Brett rookie. It was priced at $95. He told me he priced it to move. I checked my cash, and I only had $51 left. I told him this and he mentioned the ATM around the corner. At this point, I text my wife and said, "Is it cool if I take out $50 more for a George Brett Rookie?" My wife realizing how much I love George Brett said, "Of course! Buy that thing!" So, I told the vendor I was going to grab some more cash. I went back 5 minutes later, and he says, "Instead of $95, let's make it $85." His wife who was sitting down next to him was all smiles. I had told them how I sold my Brett Rookie when my wife and I were building the house we were in. It was one of the cards I was meaning to buy again, but if I did, I wanted one in better condition. Well, mission accomplished! This thing is a beauty!

So, I guess the show was decent. The Brett certainly made up for a bit of a bust (for me personally). It was so dang hot, there were a ton of Pokémon cards, a lot of people smelled bad, but I went. Cards haven't really been the main focus of my attention lately and maybe I was trying to find a spark to keep my interest going, but it's been a struggle lately. So, I decided to take up skateboarding. You heard that correctly. I have been riding for a little bit this past week. I'm going to try to blog about it as much as I can (until winter comes). At first, I was going to make a blog about the old History Channel Show Down East Dickering, but I scratched that for this idea. If you want to check that out, it's located right... HERE. 

As usual......Thanks for reading!

A tub full of Ghostbusters and my 50th Sportlots order

Work, work, and more work. Lately, my wife and I have had differing schedules. I work usually from 8am-4pm and my wife will work sporadically throughout the day and most nights until 8pm. It's the life of a therapist, I guess. So, it's my duty to be with the kids when she can't be. Some nights we have a blast, but others, well, it's a struggle. My youngest son is usually the one to make things difficult. He hates to get in the bathtub. This duty falls on me because I'm the only parent around every night. I have been using my old Ghostbusters toys minus my broken Winston - he was my favorite as a kid, his arms and legs are ready to fall off, so I don't let him take him in the bath. So, with the toys in there with him, he's ok with getting a bath. Usually after I'm done washing him, he wants to play with the toys in the water, and I let him do his thing while I get trapped in thought because I can't shut my mind off - ever.

Peter, Egon and Ray getting soaked.

During a bath last week, I was wondering how many Sportlots orders I have actually had over the years. When I checked on my phone while my son was splashing around, I saw that I was at 49. So, I decided that night to change things. While my wife was typing up her notes from her sessions with clients, I was on my laptop looking at all the shiny things that were flying into my Sportlots cart. Now, sometimes I have had some decent luck with Sportlots, but other instances, like my 50th, I had some issues. Don't get me wrong, I love a good Sportlots order, but as most of you know, there are times where things don't go slightly as planned. After about 6 days, a few envelopes came my way. One in particular was supposed to contain 4 Billy Beane 1986 Donruss Rookies. When I opened the package, only 1 card was in the envelope. I looked at the packing slip to make sure I didn't make a mistake, but no, there were definitely 4 cards ordered. So, I had to click the old wrench icon and submit an issue. After a week or so, the seller finally responded and said he was on vacation, and he'd make it right. Yesterday, I received the 3 missing Billy Beane cards. WHEW. 

(4) 1986 Donruss Billy Beane RC's

I always end up grabbing so many parallels and refractors when I'm on Sportlots. Order #50 was no different. I paid no more than $.27 for any of the following parallels and refractors below. Insanity!

Refractors...

Refractors...

More Refractors...

1996 Select Eddie Kennison, Alex Van Dyke and Stephen Davis Artist's Proof RC's


Also, I can't leave Sportlots without looking to see if there are any Collector's Choice Gold Signature cards or Platinum Player's Club cards. Of course, there was a seller that had 14 Platinum Player's Club cards at $.20. I did pay $.35 for the "Big Flabby" Dan Wilkinson card though, which is quite alright with me. The Gold Signatures I found were baseball and they cost me roughly $.50 each. I did get a Jeff Blauser Gold Signature, but someone bought it at my garage sale I had a few weeks back, so I never got to scan the thing. Here is the haul:

(14) 1995 UD Collector's Choice Platinum Players Club

1994 UD Collector's Choice Gold Signature Mo Vaughn & 1995 UD Collector's Choice Gold Signature Tom Glavine

I was also searching in the inventory of the guy who I bought the Mo Vaughn and Tom Glavine from for a few more cards since his $1.50 shipping price was for up to 5 cards. I decided to upgrade a few vintage cards I had since he advised his cards were in Nrmt condition. When they showed up, they weren't too shabby at all! So, here are my upgrades:

1978 Topps Tony Peters RC & 1973 Topps Rick Reuschel RC

The 5th card I added was a refractor of a former Pittsburgh Pirate. It cost me $.62 and I'm pretty happy with it:

1996 Topps Finest Refractor Bobby Bonilla

The next card I purchased was a card I had been wanting for a while now. This player is not to be confused with the player with the same name who happens to be Patrick Roy's brother. Stephane Roy was a QMJHL #1 overall selection back in 1993 by Val-d'Or Foreurs. His junior career was stellar which saw him rack up 239 points in 202 games played. He was even awarded the QMJHL Humanitarian of the Year award in 1993-94. He was selected by the St. Louis Blues in the 3rd round back in 1994 at 68th overall but would never make the NHL. I remember when I was a huge Blues fan, I wondered if I would ever see him suit up for them and it never happened. Due to trades, Roy was the Blues first pick in that draft, and I figured maybe at some point he'd make it. Since I found out he had an autograph that was numbered I had been on the lookout for one cheap. This one was the cheapest I have found at $.40. The shipping for this card ran me $.70, so all in all I'm in $1.10 on this card. Not bad.

1995 Signature Rookies Stephane Roy Auto RC 657/7750

The next 3 cards came from the same seller. If you have been reading, you noticed I bought some Billy Beane rookies from a seller. Well, I finally got around to reading the book Moneyball. My wife, kids and I went on a beach vacation this summer out to the Outer Banks. My parents have a house out there and asked if we wanted to spend a week out there with them. So, we all piled in my wife's new SUV and left at midnight on a Friday night at the end of June. When the kids and my wife fell asleep, I put on the audiobook of Moneyball. When it got to the 2002 MLB Draft, I chuckled quite a few times and basically really enjoyed the book as a whole. After I finished the book (which took me almost the whole week), I was on Sportlots looking up some of the names I had heard from the book. I ended up grabbing 3 Jason Isringhausen rookies from a seller (one came completely damaged) and also grabbed an Eric Davis Rookie Card to maximize my shipping cost of $1.40.

1985 Fleer Eric Davis RC & (2) 1994 Bowman Jason Isringhausen RC's

When I said I was looking on Sportlots for Moneyball names, I wasn't kidding. I really wanted a Jeremy Brown card, but the card that I wanted was a bit pricey. The seller wanted $20 for the card that I wanted. I have only used the Best Offer option a few times on that site, which means I don't usually buy higher priced cards on there. This particular Jeremy Brown card did have a Best Offer option, so I decided to send an offer of $9 (yeah, I'm cheap, so what). I also added in the text box that I was going to add another card he had for sale that was $2 if my offer was accepted. I waited about 7 hours and later that night I checked Sportlots to see that I had the envelope icon at the top of the screen. When I clicked, it showed that the seller had accepted my $9 offer! WOWZA! So, being a man of my word, I added the other $2 refractor that I said I would buy if my offer was accepted. After I received this Brown card, I even bought another on eBay, so now I have 2! Here is my Moneyball haul from Sportlots:

2002 Bowman Chrome John McCurdy Refractor RC /300 & 2002 Bowman Chrome Jeremy Brown Gold Refractor RC /50

I have found great deals on Sportlots, some have been ridiculous. This may fall into the ridiculous category. I was looking for a nice Simeon Rice rookie. There were a few nice ones, but there was a Bowman's Best Refractor RC that seemed too good to be true. Was this thing really only $1.25? Had to be a typo or something, right? Maybe the seller was selling just the base version and passing it off as the Refractor? I had no idea but figured I would add it to my cart along with a $.20 card and see if it really is the Refractor. Well, it showed up and it was the Refractor!

1996 Bowman's Best Refractor Simeon Rice RC

The other card that I had added from this same seller was a card that was a big deal back in 1993. I remember when I first saw one. My cousin Amy had come in town to visit with a few of her friends. She brought over some of her hockey cards, and she let me have a nice stack of them, but one she didn't let me have was a Fleer Ultra Brett Lindros card. At the time, his brother was a big deal, and most scouts figured his brother Brett would be a huge deal as well. Sadly, his career didn't really turn out the way most figured it would. After being the 9th overall selection by the New York Islanders in the 1994 NHL Draft, Lindros would have a hard time putting pucks in the net. He also dealt with concussion issues. Lindros played an enforcer role and frequently landed on the 4th line and never really showed any offensive touch. In 1996, after only playing in 51 NHL games and 2 goals to show for it, Lindros hung up his skates and retired due to post-concussion syndrome. Maybe that's why this card only cost me a mere $.20. At one point in time, I had seen this card sell for $5 at a card show back in 1993. Crazy.

1993/94 Fleer Ultra Brett Lindros RC

Staying with draft disappointments, there was a seller who had both of these cards available for sale. I paid $8.02 for both of the cards, which in my opinion is a complete steal. The 1998 Upper Deck Bronze cards still hold value. Even if the player is garbage. I have always been able to sell these, and currently I own a bunch of them and every so often I will put them up on eBay for sale. Sometimes they sell, sometimes they sit. I still think these older parallels are super cool.

1998 UD Encore Gold Ryan Leaf RC /125 & 1998 Upper Deck Bronze Curtis Enis RC /100

In my last post, I shared something personal. My mom was diagnosed with cancer. I'm proud to say that after having a double mastectomy surgery and testing out the wazoo, that my mom is currently cancer free! At first, she was having a rough time with not looking the same as she did pre-surgery, but she's taking things day by day. She was fit for prosthetics about 2 weeks ago and has been trying that route, but she is thankful that they caught her cancer early. It certainly was tough on all of us and my kids kept asking why they couldn't see grandma for weeks after her surgery (due to having tubes draining constantly from both sides of her) but she made it through. Thank you to everyone who had such nice things to say to me on my post. It really meant a lot. You guys rule! 

While I was visiting my mom one day after her surgery, we had gone through some photos of our family, and I noticed a photo of my brother and I gathering up school supplies and I noticed a green notebook and I shouted, "Mom, do you remember this?" Of course, my mom had no clue what I was talking about. I had to tell her that the green notebook is the one I used in 3rd grade, and I put a Bart Simpson sticker on it, and she flipped out on me for it. She vaguely remembered what I was talking about, so I reminded her that she bought my brother and I a few packs of Simpsons cards while we were back to school shopping since they were on clearance for like $.25 each pack and I got a sticker of Bart in Army fatigues saying, "War is hell, man." Well, I stuck that bad boy right on the front of my green notebook. This would be the notebook I would be using every day in my 3rd grade classroom. My mom eventually saw my notebook before school started and used a pen to chang the sticker to say, "War is hello man." This sticker would cause a big stink in our household that year. The last card I bought from Sportlots for my 50th order was that stupid Simpson's sticker that caused quite the commotion back in 1991. This one's for you mom!

1990 Topps The Simpsons Bart Simpson "War is hell, man" Sticker

Thanks for reading.