May Card Show - Bargain Bin Blowout

Yesterday, I may have caught your eye with my 50 cent vintage pickups.  Well if you thought that was awesome, you are in for a treat today.  At the time, I thought the following pickups were so spectacular that I stopped shopping after I bought them, even though I still had half of my budget left.  I think you'll agree that what I was able to buy at the price I got is almost too good to be true...

At the same Bargain Bin as I discussed yesterday, I was able to land one of the newest Hall of Famers for $1. 

 

On top of that 1965 beauty, I found this gem for $2...

Two really nice cards of Hall of Famers from an iconic set for a whopping $3.  But wait!  I've just scratched the surface.  Now it's about to get really interesting...

For $3, that's right, I said THREE DOLLARS, I brought home this piece of awesome!

 

A 1961 Ernie Banks for less than the price of a pack of Heritage or Allen & Ginter.  I nearly died when I saw this in the bargain bin.

BUT WAIT!  There is still more.  How about these two scrubs for $3.50 a pop.  A POP.

Two iconic HOF third basemen for $7?  I think I just felt some palpitations.   BUT WAIT, THERE IS STILL MORE!  For the sickeningly low price of $4 each.  I SAID FOUR DOLLARS EACH came these two cards...

My chest is starting to hurt.  Unreal vintage at unreal prices.  BUT WAIT!  There is one more card to show.  

A second year Gibson for $5.  That's it, the heart attack is official.  I cannot wait for my next card show in June.  I will make a straight line from the front door to the Bargain Bin on the first day of the show.  Who knows what I'll find next!

May Card Show - 50 Cent Vintage

Back in March, I took my son to a card show.  He had a blast taking pictures of the show, and I managed to pick up some cool vintage in the 30 minutes or so I had before he lost his patience.  Unlike the last show, this time I flew solo, save for a surprise appearance by my friend, Brerskwerl, who has the Nationals in the 2013 MLB Tournament.

This show was just like the others, started on Friday and ran through Sunday.  However, I was limited to Friday, as Saturday was booked and Sunday was Mother's Day, and there was no way in Hades I was going to prioritize cards over my wife.  If I had, I would have come home to no cards in the house...

So, I had Friday to peruse the show.  With a dentist appointment earlier in the day, I had a free pass from 2 pm to 7 pm.  I ended up arriving around 2:30 and left somewhere around 5 pm.  I could/should of stayed those extra hours, as I had half of my budgeted money left, but what I'd already bought felt just too good to be true, so I left.

Just like the last show, I did my ritual.  I walked up and down each aisle, cataloging every vendor and getting a "feel" for how much they were charging for vintage.  Some of the sellers did not like this at all.  Too bad, it's my money.

Eventually, I settled on a couple of tables.  One was the Old as Dirt Guy from the last show, and the others, well, they really didn't matter.  I ended up buying every card from the Old as Dirt Guy, save for one vintage and a special Blue Jay for Buckstorecards.

I did, however, save one dealer a lot of heartache.  I was leafing through a stack of $1 cards, when I noticed this in the pile.  

I said, "Is this supposed to be in here?"  He replied, "Yeah, it's a reprint."  To which I said, "No, it's not."  Needless to say, that card was out of the pile in a heartbeat.  Perhaps my act of kindness pleased the Cardboard Gods because what happened next is something I will never forget...

Once a spot opened up at the Old as Dirt Guy's table, I bellied up to the "Bargain Bin."  Every card is 50 cents a pop unless otherwise marked.  The Bargain Bin is several neatly sorted boxes with cards dating from 1948 to 1970.  Cards are mostly VG to EX, with a few Goods and a rare Poor.  Boo-yah.  My kind of bin.

If you remember, I've recently refocused my collecting on Hall of Famers and players who were in the Superstar Baseball board game.  With that checklist in hand, I found the following cards for 50 cents a pop.

Six HOFers and 12 superstars for $9?  Yeah, I'd say that was a pretty sweet deal.  But if you thought the 50 cent vintage was awesome, just you wait...

Card Show: Vintage for Less than a Blaster

I had a difficult time deciding what to name this post.  I waffled on several variations of the chosen title, but one from left field that did not make the cut, but was awful close was, "Card Show: Night Owl is Going to Freak Out."  Odd post title, but you'll see...

Anyways, another point of this post is to expound upon the merits of vintage.  My card show experience on Saturday was so profound, I dare say it might have made a seismic shift in my collecting goals.  For years, nay, decades, vintage prices have been somewhere between where satellites orbit the Earth and that other satellite that orbits the Earth, the Moon.  But not anymore, or I just had an awesome/lucky day...

Unfortunately, I was on a tight and strict budget of $20.  There was also a time constraint, as my wife and daughter were circling the flea market outside the show, and I had my five year old son with me.  Although my son loves baseball and cards, he's still five, which means impatience and the attention span of a border collie that just saw a squirrel.  To combat this, I had my son document the card show via pictures, and he did a fine job as the last post proved.

Knowing time was short and money tight, I did my new tactic upon entering the doors: go to the back corner and briskly walk up and down each aisle to assess the show.  Too many times I've blitzed the first table, blew all my cash and then found The Deal of the Century at another table.  Not anymore.

After making the rounds, I settled on three vendors: The Dime Box Man; The First Timer; and The Old as Dirt Guy.  With about a 30 minute window, I was giving myself a little less than 10 minutes a vendor...

The Dime Box Man had about twelve 3,000 count supershoes stuffed to the gills.  I could have spent all day going through those boxes and would have mopped up with HOFers and castaway vintage.  But, I had less than 10 minutes, so I went straight for the brown-topped cards.  You know the ones, the cards that are actually cardboard.  Not poster board, or whatever crap they use nowadays.

Most of the real cardboard was vintage football.  Like 1950s and 60s vintage football for a dime a pop.  A DIME!  But, I was there for vintage baseball, and managed to find 10 cards in my brief amount of time.  Here's what the dime boxes gave up from youngest to oldest...

 

 

 

That's some good vintage mojo for a buck.  Two classic Hall of Fame pitchers, a couple of high numbered cards, and a '69 Leaders card.  I could have spent months trying to land that Carlton on the Topps Diamond Giveaway, and it would have cost me at least 53 cents to redeem it.  10 cents here and no hassling with idiots...

From there, I went on to The First Timer's table.  He was middle aged and had a modest display of vintage.  He had HOFers laid out on a couple of tables, and had some binders of early 50s Topps and Bowman, as well as a '41 Play Ball binder, but some guy was Bogarting it.  Anyways, I made just two purchases here, but there were epic...

 

 

Landed these two beauties for $7 total.  I just couldn't pass it up!  And when I got home and promptly traded the Marichal for some '86 Donruss.  I think I made someone's day...

On to the final table, The Old as Dirt Guy.  If I had come armed with a bigger budget, I would have had a field day at this table.  I spent a whopping $7 at this table for four cards.  So, I've blown my budget at three tables.  $15 on cards $5 just to get in the door.  But check out what I got at this table...

 

You may be asking yourself, wait, that's only three cards, and really not something to brag about.  And what about that card that Night Owl would freak over?  Oh yeah, that's right!  Tucked in a box was a stack of '56s, and low and behold, what did I find but this... 

Did I mention it was $5?  I think I just heard Night Owl fall over.  In addition to this awesome Hodges card, he had a Wilhelm for $5 and a Kell for $3, but I was tapped out!!!

Oh well, the next card show is in May, and I will be heading directly to The Old as Dirt Guy's table.  None of this surveying the show. I think I blow my budget solely at his table.

Finally, the moral of the story kids is that you could own tried and true vintage cards of Hall of Famers and should be Hall of Famers for less than the price of a Blaster.

Card Show: Through My Son's Eyes

Today, my five year old son and I went to the baseball card show.  He doesn't know any baseball players by name.  He doesn't know any team names either.  But there are two things that he definitely loves in this world: baseball and baseball cards.

If you've been following this blog for some time, you'll remember that I've posted about my son before.  He's a very special boy and is the absolute apple of one of my eyes.  His sister owns the rights to the other eye.

Since my son is five, I had to give him a job today to keep him relatively occupied.  His job was to take pictures of the baseball card show, so you are all in for a treat...

"BASEBALL CARD SHOW!"

"Daddy's arm"

"Dime Box"

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