Card Show Recap Part 1

A few weeks ago, I mentioned going to a small card show in hopes of finding some new boxes for organizing my collection. No luck on the boxes but I did pick up some cards.

Fast forward to this past weekend and I hit up a fairly large card show that comes around a couple times a year. Unfortunately, a few unexpected, non-hobby related expenses cut into my card budget at the wrong time of year. While there was a whole bunch of vintage that I wouldn't have minded bringing home if I had the funds, I'm still pleased with what I was able to pick up.

I didn't take pictures of the supplies but my mission was partially accomplished. After measuring my shelves, I knew I wanted 3200 count boxes but could only find one for sale. I think I missed the boat by only going Sunday of a three day show. Plenty of other sizes though. And I also picked up a couple of pouches of penny sleeves and team bags.

After making my first, eyes only loop around the show, I knew where I wanted to start. One table had dime boxes filled with not-quite-oddballs. Inserts or other cards that were pretty far from flagship, but still made by major (at the time) brands. And the great thing about dime boxes is that usually if you get an odd number, the dealer rounds down so these work out to be less than that.

I bought a lot of 1990 Fleer back in the day but I have no idea where the League Standouts cards came from. I bought a lot of wax packs so maybe the came in cello or rack packs?  I haven't renamed and tagged any of these photos yet so I haven't into too many of these cards. The Alfonso Soriano is one example of one I know nothing about. But it was shiny and celebratory so it went into my stack.

Chrome is a very underrepresented set in my collection, both Topps and Bowman. They don't scan well (look at that dust!) and used to be real curvy, so even though they're a little better now, I don't go out of my way for it. Steve Smyth had a very limited Cubs career so this may double my Smyth collection, assuming I have the non-Chrome version.

This Ryne Sandberg card looked really familiar but I couldn't say for sure whether I had it or not so I picked it up. The price was right. Still haven't even looked to see. Good thing the weekend is coming up so I can file the new stuff in.

The Kerry Wood card is kind of 3D. The brick and ivy wall is a layer on top of the see through sky background. Definitely new to me. Topps Stars must have been a short lived brand during one of my hiatuses. The Soriano above and this Ben Christensen card did not look familiar at all. In fact, I thought it was a Kerry Wood card until I looked closer. The SP Prospects card of Sean Gallagher was a little confusing. The card itself has a foil Cubs logo, but Gallagher himself is wearing logo-less gear.

Never a bad thing to find a Hall of Famer in a dime box, especially a new one to the collection. This Past Time Pennants card from Upper Deck has an interesting back. Instead of a year by year breakdown, they only include his "Five Best Years & Career Totals". That's one way to do it, I guess.

And speaking of Hall of Famers, Upper Deck and Billy Williams, I found these in the same dime box. They reused the same photo for Billy Williams, but I believe this is a complete Upper Deck Classics Cubs team set for less than $0.40. Not too shabby.

I'm still not sure what to think about the Theo regime yet so I picked up this Red Sox card from a few years back. We'll see, but time is running short...

Dennis Eckersley was still active (with the A's) when this card came out so it's kind of weird that he's featured as a Cub. I think their might be rules against this now with the MLBPA unless its a Then & Now type card. Eck pitched through 1997 so it's also a little weird to have a career highlights (says it in the illegible foil on the front) card when he wasn't retiring any time soon.

This is one of my favorite new pickups despite its blandness. The A and diamond shapes look black but they're actually foil, just scanned dark. This wasn't even a real full deck of cards as the others I saw in the box were all the ace of diamonds. Which makes sense given the set name. Since his head/hat is sticking out of the top, I probably would have had his glove stick out too. Just saying.

And I couldn't pass up a perfectly centered Jamie Moyer rookie card. I knew I had it already but also knew it would be an upgrade to whatever I already had.

Aside from the other teams that I also picked up and will hopefully start showing up on other blogs within the next week or two, and a few other chrome-like shiny cards that didn't scan well, that's it for the dime box.

Tomorrow, I'll wrap it up will some hits (relics and autographs).