When I left off I had just descended the stairs and gotten to the floor with all the dealers. the set up was a ring of dealers by the wall and 5 rows (or 4, I forget) of tables in the middle of the floor. Like I said before, I went to a card show in this very building in the '80s and the whole thing seemed massive to me. Today, it looked a lot smaller. I think I was just in a foul mood to start off with. Work has been grinding on me, I haven't been getting enough sleep and I was generally cranky right at the moment. When I hit the floor I was really not into the whole thing at all and I was wondering if I had wasted the entrance fee.
I sucked it up and chose to circle the outer ring clockwise. This was either a dumb move or a lucky break. The first table I hit had a lot of high priced memorabilia on it. Pins, jerseys, programs, lots of stuff in cases. The high prices got me in a more sour moodand I looked but didn't touch. There was a table full of shoeboxes (card storage, not loafer storage) filled with top loaders, but I didn't see any price clearly marked on any of them and I didn't feel like tracking down the dealer. I looked though a box briefly, found a lot of mid '90s stars and moved on.
The next guy had more high end stuff, but over on the side there was some cheapo stuff. The boxes of $10 auto balls (with no Bobby, *sob*) a couple of baskets fulled with weird oddball magazines and pins and tchotchkies for 5 and 10 each and some just plain random stuff. There was some interesting things there like an old magazine on Hank Aaron, but nothing striking enough to get me to buy right away. About halfway through I recognized a dealer from last year's Braves Fan Fest from his box of Braves autographs ranging from $2-$8 each. That's the guy I got my Terry Pendleton auto from. I was still not in a buying in a mood though and didn't really go through the box that much.
The entire outer ring seemed to be filled with really high roller stuff. Signed everything - jerseys, shoes, hats, prints, etc. 0ne guy had a wall of autographed balls built about 8 or 10 high with seemingly nothing backing them up to keep them from toppling. These were all in the $40 and up range so I briefly looked before getting scared off by the ricketyness of the structure. One bump and the whole shebang go boom! This same guy had books and books of autographed vintage cards, all with no prices to be seen anywhere. That was a killer for me at this show and at shows in general. I don't like dealing with sales people. Card dealers are ALL sales people. Even though we share a common interest it doesn't make a high pressure sale any more appealing to me. If I have to pester one of these guys for a proce, I just don't bother. I figure it's too expensive and walk on. Keep that in mind, future card dealers of America...
About this time I was sick of seeing really expensive crap with no prices and decided to treat the experience like a museum trip. Get a good eyeball full of the cool stuff and find some discards to bottom feed off of. There was a
ton of cool stuf there, I'll admit. I lingered for a while over an original Turkey Red Cabinet card. I stared longingly at a 1969 Braves-Mets NL Championship Program with a $50 pricet tag. I checked out some prints and jerseys. As I rounded third, or first actually since I went clockwise around the room, There were a ton of bats ans I got sick of the museum experience and wanted some damn cards. Then I hit the jackpot.
Some guy named Uncle... somebody had about 6 or 7 tables piled with vintage stuff. A few cases for high end, a big pile of binders for commons and a row of shoeboxes filled with bargain cards. Dang I wish I could remember the guy's name now. Uncle Phil? Uncle Pete? Was it even Uncle somebody? I don't know but the guy had a crapload of vintage stuff and he's the guy I gave the most money to that day. I scrounged the bargain bins mostly, although I looked through his '53 Topps binder very carefully. I think I could have spent a grand there easy if I had a grand. This is why I said going around to the left was lucky, if i had gone there first I might not have gone anywhere else. While I'll go over by '53 cards soon enough, I also got some oddball stuff from him.
One of my goals, if you remember was to find Something Weird. Weird has a very loose definition. Basically something you wouldn't normally expect to find in a baseball card blog. You guys know what I like though and I found three things I Really Like from Uncle Whozit (someone who went to the show tell me the guy's name, it's starting to bug me), I'll start with the oddest thing first:
1933 Indian Gum No. 133 Flying In A Circle
Indian Chewing Gum... Hmmm... Does that sound familiar to any of you out there? Does the card look familiar at all? Here, let me give you some help:
Look more familiar now? Check out the copyright at the bottom. Goudey Gum Co. Boston. That's right, this is the same Goudey that produced baseball cards in the '30 which Upper Deck ripped off in the '00s! If you look on the back of a Goudey baseball card it says "By the Originators of Indian Gum". This is
that Indian Gum! I've always wanted one of these to stick in my Goudey collection (he
is a Brave you know) but I never pulled the trigger on an eBay sale. This card at $2.50 cost me about what shipping would cost on eBay and I didn't have to deal with Paypal. I'm very happy with my cruel, desperate Sioux Brave and he'll probably be a subject of a future Card of the Week (which is getting postponed today so I can catch up with stuff). That's not the only non-sport card I got, but it's the only one in this particular post. Can you guess what others I got?
1955 Topps All American#72 Endicott Peabody
If you've tuned in on Saturdays at all in the past few months you'll know that '55 Topps is my favorite vintage football set so I had to get at least one. This one was not only the cheapest in the box, but the guy's name is Chub. He looks like he's trying to take flight in the picture there. A big chubby red bird. Sqwawk! The best part about the card is that he plays for Harvard. Now I have an excuse to link to Tom Lehrer's
Fight Fiercely Harvard! Fight! Fight! Fight!
20 Different Basketball Cards for $4.00
I like grab bags. they're like packs, except without any chance at something good. Well, good is in the eye of the beholder I guess and as far as I'm concerned old Topps basketball is great. I was torn between this pack and a pack of 12 '74-75 Topps hockey cards for $6. I picked the hoops for three reasons: 1) two bucks cheaper (what can I say, I'm a scrounge) 2) '74-75 is my favorite hockey set but I already have a ton and I didn't want to pay for doubles. 3) Dr. J. This is getting ripped on A Pack A Day later this week so look out for it if you like old basketball cards.
Those are the three oddballs I got from Uncle ??? (big green sign right on the right when you came down the stairs, help me out people) and they're not really that oddbally. I did get something neat and strange from that first table I passed when I came in because I was grouchy, the one with the seemingly unmarked boxes. I found this in one of those boxes:
1980 R. G. Laughlin Famous Feats Complete Set
R.G. Laughlin was an artist who worked closely with Fleer in producing cartoony cards to sell along with their stickers (
FleerFan can tell you all about him). He did a few one off sets too and this was one of them. It's a 40 card set and I had to hand collate it out of the piles of cards in those boxes. It was worth it though, as I got a cool oddball set for $4. I chose Casey to represent the set because he's a favorite of mine and I love the nonchalant look on his face as he says "Yeah, I got 5 championship rings... and I'm gonna get some more." This is another set that will get it's own writeup after I'm done going over the show.
That's all for tonight folks, up next is the not-so bargain cards, then the vintage Bravos. Vote in the comments on what order to do the last three posts:
Awful Autos
'53 Topps
El cheapo cards
