Card Show Pickups

This is going to be a short post as I really don't have much to say in terms of review one way or another.  The boys and I decided to break the boredom of a Saturday morning and head over to the Highland, IN Lincoln Center for their quad-annual community garage sale (and card show).  The amount of junk in this show each and every time astounds me.  I can't believe there are people out there that accumulate this much crap to be able to turn around and actually make a buck or two selling it.  It's simply amazing.

But I digress...there is a card show attached to this garage sale each time they open the doors.  The show has anywhere from 20-40 people selling their cardboard wares amidst the seemingly endless supplies of glassware, VHS tapes, and Elvis paintings.  I know I've talked about this show before here, here, and probably a bunch of other places.  So I won't bore anyone with the details.

While I was prepped and ready for a warm up to next week's Chicago Sun-Times Show in Rosemont, I wasn't expecting much and that's exactly what I got.  Believe it or not, the card dealers seemed to have been toned down a bit and most of them were replaced by guys with coins and toys.  I did find a few tables with stuff browse worthy but I didn't really find anything to bite on except at two tables.

The first guy had a table full of autos and GU cards of various sports, including about 1/3 of the table occupied by hockey.  I pickup up this little guy for a couple bucks...

 I'm sure this one will be added to my Penguin Auto Project collection soon.

The only other table I found was not a card table but a "junk" table.  I mean, it had some interesting items on it, but it wasn't organized at all and had giant piles of stuff in various parts of the table.  But like the cardboard sniffing bloodhound that I am, I found a shoebox full of cards.  The front was originally marked "1/2 off price marked".  That was crossed out and replaced with "All Cards $1".  That too was crossed out and replaced with "Single cards $.50 or 3 for $1".  I like the sound of that better.  Here are my three cards for $1.

The first one I found was an Alfonso Soriano card that my son didn't have.  He collects Soriano, although I still can't figure out why.  I didn't scan that one because after taking possession of it, I don't know where he put it or what he did with it.  For $.333 I don't really care either.

The card I was after was this one...

It appeared to be an on-card auto of former Pirate great Omar Moreno.  I didn't have a Moreno autograph and for thirty three cents I couldn't pass it up.  But the real question was, is it a legit auto?  I checked the interwebs when I returned home to find that it, indeed, looks like his auto...however, it only looks like his first name.  Most of the other autos of his show a distinction between first and last name.  I don't see that here.  But, that's not to say I don't believe it's still real.  It's on-card, meaning it was either a TTM or an in person signing.  If it was in person, I'm sure Omar was in a hurry.  It could have been done quickly, bunching itself together, and making it look like it was only his first name.  It could.

I wasted 33 cents didn't I?  Oh well.

I needed a third card and couldn't find one to round out the 3 for $.50.  In the whole box, I couldn't find a single one.  So I settled on this one because it made me smile, bringing back memories.  It also sparked an interest in one of my sons as to how a person was able to play MLB and NFL at the same time.  Yes, folks.  I give you a wood border nightmare, otherwise known as...

So overall, this show was a bust.  It it wouldn't have been for the lady with the $.50 action figure box, we would have all probably walked out dejected.  Instead, it was only me.  I just hope next weeks slightly larger show at the Convention Center will be much more fruitful.

PC Pickups From The Local Show

A week or so ago was the latest installment of the community garage sale at one of the nearby town's Community Center.  The unique thing about this show is that about 3/4 of the floor is made up of all the sellers of everything from antique toys, to records and tapes (even 8-tracks), to sheets, towels, and other strange oddities.  The other 1/4 of the floor is comprised of non other than sports cards and memorabilia. 

The show is put on by a local card show promoter out of the Chicagoland area and it comes through here about 4-5 times a year.  The fun part about the show is the interesting mix of dealer tables.  For anyone that has been to a show ever in their lives, you have essentially 5 "stereotypical" cardboard pushers at every show including:

• The "overproduction era" guy has his table full of 88 Topps and 91 Score cards with price tags from a 1994 Tuff Stuff magazine.  $2.00 for the "Bo Breakers" card?  Really?

• The "NASCAR" guy with everything from cards, hats, and event-worn jackets to the hood from Dale Jr.'s car.  You know the guy...most of his table is taken up by die-cast cars, secured snugly in their packages and there is usually a blue and white Igloo swivel-top cooler filled with Busch Light and Mountain Dew behind the tables.  The weekend before he was here.

• The "hit" guys where there is nothing but jersey/auto cards, super sick "MOJO" hits, and short prints galore, all of which have higher than Beckett HI price tags.  They also have "the case" where you find the greatest anomaly in all of sports cards...the "HOT PACKS".  They had one of these too.  Not this exact one but their's was numbered 4 or 5, I forget.

• The "common" box guy who usually has a nice mix of 1960s-1980s 3500 ct boxes jammed to the gills.  Good luck getting to his table to take a gander.  You might get a lucky break if you can throw a Twinkie down the aisle.  One of the on lookers is bound to take the bait, freeing up a spot.  What a sight that would be.

• The "look-up" guy who has nothing priced, nothing labeled, and doesn't really want to talk to you other than to tell you that everything on the table is a "real nice card".  Try your best to buy something and you may have to wait 15 minutes while he looks each item up in the price guide only to then spend 12 more minutes trying to calculate his profit/loss ratio after he reluctantly lets you have the card for 2X HI book value.

Our show here didn't disappoint either.  Considering I generally move past all of the above dealers, I was able to find a few tables with some stuff I could use.  Since I don't want to single anyone out in particular for being either a bad seller or a good seller, I'll just cut to the chase and show you what I picked up for my PC.

The first group all came from the same seller.  It was an older couple with some monster boxes filled with older baseball, some older football, and quite a bit of older hockey.  I didn't bite on any of the hockey stuff because most was very banged up despite having a bunch of stars.  What I did find came from......wait for it......A FIFTY CENT BOX!!!

1972 Topps Pirates Team Card #1

The Wold Champions...at least I can say this happened in my lifetime...of course not in the year here but the late 70s.  I can all but guarantee it won't happen again while I am still alive and possibly the lives of both my children.  Maybe grandkids?

I also found a plethora of Pops...

  A 1976 and 1967 Topps

  A 1968 and 1972 Topps

 1972 and 1974 3-D Super Stars cards

 And finally, a 1979 Topps.  I already have a couple of these but for $.50, what's one more?

And a few from Dave Parker...

Total cost...$6.00.  I know, it adds up to only $5.50 at $.50 a piece but I hate change so I told her to keep it.  She told me to consider it a down payment for next time.  Fair enough. 


The next guy was an older gentleman from a nearby town that had a hodgepodge of miscellaneous stuff.  There was really no rhyme or reason to his set up at all.  Most product was mixed together and other than the few better singles carefully laid out on the table, he had a bunch of 800 count boxes randomly placed with $.10 each penciled on the lids.  For $.10, I took a look and found a few for the Pirate PC.

 

And a couple more for my Topps Baseball set.  He had a ton of inserts from this years' Topps but out of all of them, I only needed these.

And I can't forget the one hockey card I found in there.  It was this 1994-95 Leaf Limited Gold Pavel Bure.  I actually didn't really know these existed because this was from a 10 card insert set that fell about 1 every 48 packs.  Keep in mind that was in 1994 so it was fairly hard to pull (fairly, considering it was in the heat of the overproduction era).  I never bought any of this back then because I had no money of my own in 1994 and wasn't really collecting then.  Most of what I have from this set are all the base cards and I have only picked those up after the fact.  They are serial numbered out of /2500.

Finally, I picked up three beasts for my PC from my favorite couple from the western Chicago suburbs.  This husband and wife team deals in about 80% hockey and they usually have some really nice stuff.  Plus, they are fun to talk to and are more than reasonable on their pricing.  Most stuff is under case but they are always more than happy to open them up, let you touch, and work out deals.

I've bought some neat stuff from them before and showed them on here, although I couldn't find the posts to link.  This time around, here's what I was able to walk away with...

 It's a little blurry on the scan because it is imprisoned in a screw down case.  But, this is a 2005/06 SPx Winning Combos Mario Lemieux/Jaromir Jagr Memorabilia card numbered out of #/99.  The only thing better would have been Jags on the Pens.  But either way, I'll take it.

Double your pleasure on this one...I picked up two Marc-Andre Fleury Rookie cards.  The scan dust really ticks me off because these are beautiful cards in person.  They are from the 2003-04 Pacific Invincible set.  The one on the left is the Red Parallel version numbered out of #/850.  The one on the right is the base rookie.  These were short printed in the main collation of the product and usually only fell about 1-2 per box.  The base rookies are supposedly serial numbered out of #/799 but mine isn't marked.  Since I have no others from this set to compare it to, I'm going to presume this may be the retail version which might not be numbered.  Either way, both are huge adds to my Penguin PC.

That Card Show...

That Sports Spectacular Show that was held a couple weekends ago at the D.E.S. Convention Center in Rosemont was not definitely not what it was cracked up to be.  Not by a long shot.  But, nonetheless, I still was able to find some cool things to add to the old collection.

A few observations (some of which have already been made by other bloggers):

1.  They didn't have the show in the normal spot.  It was downstairs in one of the back halls.  The room was large enough to fill with all the dealers and still have plenty of room for the endless list of Tri-Star sponsored signing guests.  But, many of those tables were either empty, taken up by memorabilia and "art" dealers, or in such disarray that it was pointless to even bother looking.  Plus my three favorite dealers were also there...the guy with the plastic over his tables so no one can touch anything and a sign that reads "DON'T PUT HANDS UNDER THE PLASTIC"; the guy with the laptop and no pricing on anything and when you ask him, everything is Beckett Hi Value or HIGHER; and the guys with the two boxes full of National Treasures, The Cup, and UD Black autos that you can't afford and three glass cases full of "Hot Packs".

2.  Quarter boxes are all the rage and many dealers at this show took full advantage.  These tables were everywhere and if you had the time, energy, and patience to give them a whirl, deals were to be had at every turn.  That is, if you could actually get to a table.  The popularity of these has grown to the point where every 400lb, ripped t-shirt wearing, "comic book guy" looking dude with dirty hair and extreme body odor pulled up a chair and parked themselves for hours.  Surprisingly, I did manage a few go-rounds at a couple tables and I'll post those later.

3.  As much as I love my kids, taking both of them to one of these shows is very difficult when you want to "window shop".  Patience is not one of their strong suits to say the least.  But overall, they did quite well, especially after we found the $1 Starting Line Up guy.  Who would have thought that a Steve Bedrosian SLU could give such entertainment.

4.  Trading is still, by far, my favorite part of the show.  These Chicago-land shows afford me the opportunity to trade with a few guys (some bloggers, some not) that never fail to surprise me when we sit down at a table to swap.  So far, there have pretty much been four of us that regularly frequent these shows and use this as our opportunity to unload what others want and save on postage at the same time.  I was able to land some interesting stuff this time too which I may or may not post about.

5.  I mentioned before that many dealers, especially regulars, were absent at this show.  That wasn't good if you were planning on buying wax.  Normally there are five or six dealers with a large supply of unopened boxes and cases.  This time, I only counted three with more than a handful of product.  I'm going to pin that on the fact that the National is coming up quickly and many guys are saving their wares for that show.

The autograph ticket was quite impressive, especially if you are a fan of Chicago sports.  But even while at the show, many cancellation announcements were made for guests that were scheduled to be there.  Something about that doesn't sit right with me when I pretend in my mind that I am an auto hound.  A promoter plans a show as big as this (not National size but definitely not your Sunday afternoon swap meet either) with an autograph guest list as extensive as this was, pre-sells a ton of tickets, including pre-sold autos, and we find out five minutes before line up time that the guest isn't coming?  It just seems strange that these are last minute cancellations.  I would think these things are firmed up all the way up to "game time".  But what do I know?

I'm going to stretch out the posts of what I added to my collection but I suppose I can start out with a bang.  Here are a couple oldies, but goodies for sure and my three new favorite cards that I own. (Don't get to excited because my favorite cards change at the drop of a hat.)  From the 1971-72 Topps set, I give you...

The only "action" photo in the entire 1971-72 set and the biggest card too, is now part of my collection.  The best part is the condition of this thing.  There is a nicked corner at the top and a little off centering but that is pretty much it.  An iconic card for sure.

 My oldest Bobby Orr card and my favorite.  This one isn't as nice as the Dryden but is still in pretty good shape for being over 40 years old. 

Mr. Hockey himself...if it wasn't for the bottom right corner and the surface scratch on the "ED" in Red Wings, this card is almost perfect.  To think, Howe would still play another 10 years after this card was produced.  They don't make them like that anymore.

Chicago Sun-Times Sports Collectibles Convention

Well it's that time of year again when the Sun Times plays host to the Annual Sports Collectibles Convention.  For anyone not around the Chicagoland area, each year the Chicago Sun-Times, along with various other sponsors host a huge card and collectible show at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL.  This years show is from March 19-21 and is featuring autograph guests from all over the sports world.  Anyone interested in scoring some autos of some of your favorite players would be in heaven at this show. 

I have been to the National Show twice and this one three times.  I have to say that I have actually found more things that peaked my interest at this Rosemont show in the past.  I will definitely be going on Saturday.  I have already made out my shopping lists and have some specific goals in mind.  I'm also looking for some wax to bust so that should be fun.  While not a big autograph collector, there are a few guys I have my eye on.  I will definitely be showing off some of the things I pick up on the blog over the next week or so.

If you want to find out more about the show, you can go here to check it out.  Maybe I will see some of you there.  Although I probably wouldn't know it if I did.

For all you Graph hounds out there, here are some of the guests to temp your self-control:

Lou Brock, Johnny Lattner, Bobby Hull, Ernie Banks, Luis Aparicio, Len Dawson, Dick Williams, Adam West (yes, Batman or Mayor West of Quahog depending on how old you are), Don Larson, Andre Dawson, Bill Buckner, John Riggins, Whitey Ford, Juan Marichal, Roberto Duran, Tony Rice, Michael Oher, Chuck Bednarik, Chris Johnson, Ozzie Smith, Keith Hernandez, Denis Savard, Percy Harvin, Jared Allen, Emmitt Smith, Willie McCovey, Members of the '72 Dolphins, Negro League Legends

There are a ton more.  I didn't list them all.  Check out their site for a complete list.