Card Show Recap Part 2: The Hits

Yesterday, I showed off the dime box pickups from the big card show last weekend. Today, I bring you hits.

The dealer who had the one 3200 count box for sale was mostly selling supplies. But he did have a single 800 ct box of miscellaneous inserts/parallels for $2 each. Most of them were serial numbered cards and after two handfuls, I didn't see anything worth picking up. But I'm glad I went through the last stack because I found this 2012 Pro Debut Junior Lake bat card. Because of my "Where Are They Now" posts I did on the 2010 Pro Debut Cubs, I've been trying to complete the Cubs master set for the entire run, including hits. This card has been going for $5-10 on eBay so to find one for $2 without shipping, was a steal. There aren't even any currently for sale on eBay.

Also in that same last stack was this Topps Stars Game Gear Corey Patterson bat card. Not something I would have normally picked up but for $2, what can I say? Maybe I'm a sucker. I haven't gotten around to cataloging my relics and autographs yet but I do think this might be my first Patterson relic. I hope they had some kind of die cut machine for that crazy relic cutout.

One last table and I was out of money. I found a dealer who had a $4 relic/autographs box, 4 for $10 or 10 for $20. Brains work kind of funny. Relics and autographs for $2 doesn't seem like a lot. But having to spend $20 for 10 cards to get that deal doesn't sound so great. Especially when you're down to about $12. Could I even find 10 cards from a box like this?

Sure enough, I did. While I was searching the box, the dealer was wheeling and dealing with other customers saying how he didn't want to take stuff home with him. I pulled out 10 cards, hoping the dealer would be willing to cut me a break too. 

I told him I had $12 left and asked what he could do for me. He said he could the $2 per deal without having to get 10, so for the $12, I could get 6. Not too bad. I put two back right away, some minor leaguers who never made it. Then I put back another card that after closer inspection was a little dinged up. After hemming and hawing a little bit to try to get rid of one more, the guy said just take those seven. Nice!

Now before you see the cards, remember, somebody probably paid $40-50-60 for a box of this stuff and this is what they pulled. Even as a Cubs fan, I probably would have been disappointed with that ROI. Schadenfreude?

I have four cards here and three others that went into mail packages this week so you'll have to find those on other blogs. Let's start off with two more bats. 

The Starlin Castro is from 2011 Allen & Ginter. This probably would have been the one to go back in the box if the guy hadn't offered the 7th for free because I wasn't absolutely, positively sure I didn't already have it. Because of his early popularity and the crappiness of the Cubs in general, Castro was put into just about every set by every company so without looking, he probably represents the most relics cards of one player in my collection. But for $2, I didn't really want to put it back either...

On the other end of the spectrum, Eric Karros was not in my relic collection at all. This bat card is from 2003 Topps, his only season with the Cubs.

Moving on to a jersey card, we have a 2004 Topps Cracker Jack Moises Alou jersey. Despite the size of the scan, this one is a mini card. And as a bonus, it came in a real nice case which has since been transferred to a more worthy card.

And the only autograph of the group (that I kept) is Mike Fontenot from the 2008 SPx Young Star Signatures set. This is another first for the collection as I didn't have any Fontenot hits of any kind yet.

So for right around $30, I got all the supplies I need to make it through for a while (aside from an extra storage box or two), made a nice dent with some oddball dime box stuff, topped off a few giveaway packages and pick up a half dozen hits. I think the next big show like this one will be in March so I'm going to make use of the winter to start putting my pennies away and add the finishing touches on my checklist so I can go attack the vintage. There was some really nice stuff last weekend that I would love to get a second crack at.