A Couple of Card Show Pickups

A few weeks ago I was thumbing through a Beckett and decided to see if there were any card shows in the area besides the big CSA one that comes around a couple times of year. I needed a couple of storage boxes that I don't want to pay shipping on to buy online and thought a card show would be a good place to start.

Determined not to buy much of anything except for supplies until I finished reorganizing, I took $40 in cash and left the rest of my wallet in the car. I have no idea how much boxes and sleeves and toploaders run these days so I wanted to be safe.

The show turned out to be about 20-30 tables and after my first loop, discovered no one selling boxes. Well now what am I supposed to do a little cash in my pocket and a banquet hall in the local Best Western full of cards? Well, if you read the title of this post, you know I picked up a few things!

Everything below came from the same dealer who had a $0.50-$1 insert box and a $3 or 4 for $10 relics/autograph box. With all of the cards sorted by team, my money was spent within minutes. I pulled out a bunch of Cubs and casually sorted through some other teams looking for some trade bait. Knowing I was quite a bit off, I handed the guy my stack and said, "How close am I to getting these for $20?"

He flipped through them and said I was at about $50, which if I did the math in my head right, was around his "sticker" price. Hmmm, getting the feeling he's not going to be fun to negotiate with. I put a few things back, reshuffled the deck, handed it back and offered $30, which to my surprise, he accepted. He even gave me a 400 ct box and a couple of unused team bags because I had been asking for supplies.

I don't think I got the steal of the century, but I picked up a few cards I needed/wanted at a decent price. And it was probably still cheaper than eBay when you factor in the shipping I would have had to pay from multiple sellers to get the same stuff.

Let's start with the Cubs autographs...





2011 Tier One Tyler Colvin Autograph 336/999



Tyler Colvin isn't with the Cubs anymore but this is my first and only Tier One anything. Solid looking autograph too. Bold blue, almost every letter. Can't go wrong. 



2011 Topps Chrome Darwin Barney Autograph


I still haven't figured out how to scan Chrome cards but I promise that is what it is. This card looked so familiar to me that I couldn't decide whether I had it or it has just been sitting in one of my saved eBay searches. Remember, I was just going for supplies so I didn't bring anything resembling a list. 


2012 Bowman Prospect Mike Olt Autograph

So technically this is not a Cubs card but I couldn't pass on it. Funny how his 7-letter autograph looks longer than guys with 12+ letters. And that it looks like Matt and not Mike.

And now a bunch of Cubs inserts. I have frugally avoided 2013 cards thus far as a punishment for being unorganized/incentive to get organized but with them right in front of me I couldn't pass them up. Below you'll see a couple of Archives inserts with a Ryne Sandberg All-Star and an Anthony Rizzo tallboy? Is that what they're calling these? I don't even know the lingo, I feel like a fraud! Below those are a couple of the Home Town Heroes from this year's Bowman. I guess I should figure out which ones I still need now.

I also picked up a couple of older inserts too.

This Presidential Pastime Ronald Reagan card from 2004 Topps is now my second Cubs affiliated Reagan card to go along with my 2011 Opening Day Presidential First Pitch card.

 


2012 Topps Black Border Jairo Asencio /61

 

I picked up a couple of these black bordered cards last year so I figured I might as well keep trying to passively complete the team set.

These Welington Castillo rookie parallels were in my stack because the dealer also had one of the printing plates for this card. I thought it would be nice to pick up an instant starter rainbow but the plate was one of the ones I put back. Still good additions, and ones I needed/wanted more than the printing plate.

I also picked up this 2012 Bowman Jedd Gyorko autograph for Marcus over at all the way to the backstop, but the day after the show, he posted that he picked one up himself. Any other Padres/Gyorko fans out there want this?

So you may be thinking I got ripped off so far for $30. But keep in mind there are several more other team autographs I'm not showing off (I'll let those bloggers show off the goodies when they get them). And as usual, I saved the best (I think) for last. I've avoided a lot of Darwin Barney stuff on eBay so as to not get in to a bidding war with Paul from Wrigley Wax on something. But I didn't see him at this small card show hundreds of miles away from where he lives so I didn't feel so bad about picking this one up:

The dealer wanted $20 for this one outright because it is from the mini set, a more "in demand" set. But I successfully downplayed the horrible Cubs, Darwin Barney and the fact that he may have missed the boat on getting a high price so far away from the product release date. So either I overpaid for this and got the rest of the cards for $10 (I'm ok with that) or I talked him down on this and everything above (plus a few not shown) averages out to less than $2 per card (great for some, meh for others).

And I still had $10 in my pocket when I walked out the door...

Tony Campana 2012 Minis

I picked these up during my mini hiatus from the blog in September/October. I recently came across them in my pile of cards to scan so here they are. These were only available online through the Topps store...and then eventually ebay and other various online marketplaces. I'm sure you've heard enough about Tony Campana cards on this blog that you may just skip this post so I'll just keep the descriptions brief and show a lot of photos. Check out the rest of my Tony Campana collection here.

2012 Topps Mini Base

Unlike the flagship product, these gold bordered parallels are numbered to 61 instead of 2012. In the flagship, the black bordered cards are numbered to 61.

2012 Topps Mini Gold Border #27/61

2012 Topps Mini Gold Border Back #27/61

This card is a silver bordered parallel, numbered to 5. To me though, they look like the platinum parallels in the flagship. Maybe I need to see them side by side to tell the difference.

2012 Topps Mini Silver Border #3/5

2012 Topps Mini Silver Border Back #3/5

This has got to be one of the worst condition printing plates I've seen, let alone paid for. Luckily, that meant a pretty decent deal because not too many others seemed to want it. If I remember correctly, it ran less than half of what I paid for previous Tony Campana printing plates. Part of me wants to see if I can clean it up a little bit, but I don't want to ruin it either. I'll probably leave it as is.

Can anybody explain why the photo in the printing plate isn't reversed? Are these manufactured for the purpose of being 1/1's? Does Topps even need to use printing plates anymore in their process? Seems outdated to me, but I have no idea how that works.

2012 Topps Mini Cyan Printing Plate 1/1

Speaking of manufactured 1/1's, here is the Topps Vault 1/1 blank back version of the 2012 Mini base card. Not sure why I picked it up other than I saw it and made a snap decision that I had the other so i might as well. These blank backs have previously come in hard cases but they stepped it up a notch and partnered up with Beckett Grading Services on this set. Not sure how I'll end up displaying this.

2012 Topps Mini Blank Back from Topps Vault 1/1

As far as the minis go, I only need the Platinum 1/1 and 3 other printing plates which are also 1/1's. Glad I picked up the silver when I saw it because I haven't seen the other 4 pop up anywhere.

Without looking, I think these bring my Tony Campana collection up to six 1/1's, which includes three printing plates, two blank backs and a platinum. 

More Tony Campanas?!?!

Yes! More Tony Campanas. Ok, so most of you aren't as excited by this guy as I am. But hopefully, you guys can relate on the same level of adding more cards to a player collection.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was not able to end up going to the National that was bascially right around the corner from my house this year. But what to do with the money I had been saving for just that purpose? Most of it is being tucked away for either a Cubs Caravan trip or a Spring Training trip. But I did allow myself some instant gratification too that I'll show off as things arrive in the mail.

First up is an oranged bordered parallel from the 2012 Topps factory sets. These are limited to 190 of each card and mine is number 016. This is my 8th version of this card to go along with the base, red, blue, black, gold sparkle, black printing plate and blank back. (Spoiler Alert: Minis on the way!)

2012 Topps Orange Factory Set Parallel (016/190)

This next group came in one lot along with a few other Campana cards that I already had. I have no doubt that I tremendously overpaid for the lot but I didn't want to lose out. In my defense, I did talk the buyer down to 25% of his original asking price.

I didn't realize it until I had it in my hand but the black border card is #41/60. During the 2011 season, Campana wore #41 so this is one of those eBay 1/1's. Nice!

2011 Topps Update Black Border (41/61)

I could have sworn I already had one of these gold bordered cards but for the life of me, I can't find it. So luckily one was included in the lot.

2011 Topps Update Gold Border (1322/2011)

And this card was the reason I went against all better judgment and paid what I did. The Platinum 1/1. A nice addition to any player collection if I do say so myself. This is my 4th Tony Campana 1/1 to go along with 2 printing plates and a blank back.

2011 Topps Update Platinum Border (1/1) 

These 3 cards are parallels # 7, 8 & 9 of this card. Only need the remaining 3 printing plates.

Mailday Monday - New Tony Campana

Its been a couple weeks since I posted one of these. I took down my Trade List post as I try to get more organized, which put a damper on potential trades, which in turn directly affects the mail I get. I did have an eBay purchase come in though.

Every couple of days, I run a "Tony Campana" search because I'm looking for the rest of the printing plates. But there's been nothing since I picked up the black one a few weeks ago right after Series 2 was released. However, I did come across a 1/1 Blank Back being offered by the Topps Vault. I've purchased these before and kind of have mixed feelings about them.

On one hand, they are limited edition 1/1s. On the other, they are manufactured for the sheer purpose of making money. They aren't part of the process of making a card like a proof or printing plate. I'm always happy to win an auction but when I got it, there was a twinge of buyer's remorse.

They come in a very sturdy lucite case, sealed with a Topps sticker at the top. The back is indeed blank, with a holographic sticker with a serial number on it. Also included in the package was a Certificate of Authenticity. Nothing fancy, standard form with the number from the sticker on the card handwritten on the certificate.

Sandberg Sunday - Another Canary

Don't forget to sign up for the Topps Series 2 Box Break!

Last year's Topps saw a 1/1 variation called Canary that was a yellow version of their Diamond Anniversary. I posted about the Ryne Sandberg edition in my first ever edition of Sandberg Sunday.

Well, right after Lineage came out last year, I picked up the Lineage Canary Ryne Sandberg as well. This one was less expensive than the original but still not what I would call cheap. The front has the same picture as the original Topps card although with a slightly different crop. The back has a write-up as opposed the career stats. The 1/1 designation is also on the back of this card as opposed the front of the other.

2012 Topps Archives Case Break Box 10 - Printing Plate

High Numbered Short Prints (1:4 packs):

Bill Buckner (Cubs), Bill Madlock (Pirates), Jim Abbott (Angels)

Lance Parrish (Tigers), Jose Oquendo (Cardinals), Von Hayes (Phillies)

Deckled Edge (1:12 packs)

Gold Parallel (1:12 packs)

Joe Mauer (Twins), Mike Napoli (Rangers)

Daniel Hudson (D-Backs), Chris Young (D-Backs)

1977 Topps Cloth (1:6 packs)

Johnny Bench (Reds), Giancarlo Stanton (Marlins)

Starlin Castro (Cubs), Willie Stargell (Pirates)

1968 Topps 3D (1:8 packs)

1967 Topps Stickers (1:8 packs)

Al Kaline (Tigers), Mickey Mantle (Yankees), Chase Utley (Phillies)

Mariano Rivera (Yankees), Mark Teixeira (Yankees), Ryan Braun (Brewers)

Reprints (1:4 packs)

Ralph Kiner (Pirates), Willie Mays (Giants), Gary Carter (Expos)

Ferguson Jenkins (Cubs), Joe Morgan (Astros), Jim Hunter (A's)

Autographs (2 per box)

Carney Lansford (A's), Ed Kranepool (Mets)

Now this may be anticlimactic for some of you but let me tell you. After opening 200+ packs, this made the whole thing worth it for me. Finally....the pièce de résistance...after the jump...