30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

My Cardboard Road Trip: The Show



My buddy inherited a card collection located in San Diego, so I packed my bags and tagged along.  Whoever said that it never rains in Southern California was wrong, because it started pouring as soon as we reached the Grapevine.


We stopped off at the Frank and Son Collectible Show located in City of Industry.  It was nice to get off of the highway and stretch our legs at the show.  Unfortunately, there were only eight to ten dealers who carried sports cards.  The rest of the dealers carried everything from toys to CCG's like YuGiOh!, Pokemon, and Magic: The Gathering.

I picked up a wax box of 1982 Topps baseball for $48:


The dealer was an older gentleman, who told me this box had been sitting in his collection since the 80's.  He seemed trustworthy and the packs looked okay, although the price seemed a little too good to be true.  One of these days, I'll bust it and find out.  

I also picked up some 5" x 7" sleeves, a super shoe box,  and some cheap singles that include this nice addition to my Montreal Expos PC:


After the show, we headed down to San Diego and checked out my buddy's inheritance.  There were over one hundred shoeboxes, 3200ct. boxes, and 5000ct. boxes stored in this guy's garage.  We loaded up about a third of it and took it back to the hotel.  That's where we spent the next six hours sifting through the boxes, taking out all of the hockey cards, while trying to see what kind of treasures were waiting to be found.


Since space was limited in his van, we dropped off all of the hockey cards at Goodwill the next morning.  After several trips, we ended up donating over 25 boxes of hockey cards... rookies, stars, and inserts included.

To be continued...


19 comments:

Josh D. said...

WHAT!!!!?? This sounds like an incredible story. I hope you took a LOT of pictures of everything that was going on.

That many cards at once, though? I don't know if that is a dream-come-true or a nightmare. :-)

You would have to be very strict with what you keep -- you were wise to get rid of the hockey first. ha ha!

Unknown said...

If/when you decide to bust the 82 Topps box and get an extra Ripken, let me know! Have fun going through the rest of the cards!

night owl said...

That's craziness.

Love the '82 Topps purchase. I'll finish that set off someday.

Brad's Blog said...

holy cow thats a lot of cards

Doc said...

82 wax? Drool!

Chuck's Used Cards said...

Hockey losing the love already. I guess you can't blame the fans ...

Zayden said...

Man, looks like a heavenly place to me!!

Spiegel83 said...

Awesome story! That has to be a fun adventure to dig through all those cards. Glad you got to check out Franks. I usually go there about once a month to get some cheap hits and supplies.

Nick said...

Digging through that many boxes is like a dream for me.

Looking forward to seeing what future posts have in store!

Carl Crawford Cards said...

Man, that '82 box is a major score!

Anonymous said...

Man ripping through a box of '82 Topps sounds like fun.

jamicfin said...

That is two-sided blessing, lol. My wife would kill me for bringing even half of that home!
Congrats on the '82 Topps! Looking forward to the pictures from that!
#jealous

Fuji said...

Yeah... the collection is insane. It's actually my buddy's... which is good or bad depending on your point of view. I definitely don't want to sort that many boxes or have it take up space at my place. But he's already found a bunch of Tom Brady rookie cards and some Kobe Bryant rookies too.

He also has a buyer for all of his baseball, football, and basketball commons... so he should do fairly well on this deal.

Fuji said...

I'll definitely bust it... it's only a matter of time.

Fuji said...

Now that there's a season... the guy who buys his commons would be willing to take his hockey too. A few weeks too late ;-)

Fuji said...

If you're ever in Southern California... it's worth it to check out Frank & Son. Although, now that I've gone... I probably won't go back there for several years.

Fuji said...

Yeah... I was actually disappointed that there weren't more card dealers. When I went years ago, there were tons of card dealers... but I guess it's a sign of the times.

Fuji said...

Actually... they belong to my buddy. But he's found some pretty cool stuff in it already.

Fuji said...

Thanks guys... I'm pretty stoked about the 82 Topps box. As soon as things clear up, I'll bust it and share the results. Hopefully it hasn't been searched.