It's Show Time

I've never met a teacher in my district who wasn't looking forward to Thanksgiving Break.  After two and a half months, we get a chance to set aside our laptops, put down our dry erase markers, and relax.

This year was extra special, because I had the opportunity to kick off my vacation with a card show at the Solano Town Center in Fairfield, Ca.  This isn't one of those 50 or 100 table shows.  No.  This one was advertised as having over 300 tables and after walking around it, I'd say it was a pretty fair description.

Although most of the dealers had your standard display cases stocked with graded cards.  There were also plenty of dealers who had unopened wax, complete sets, and of course the much anticipated dime boxes.  In fact, that's pretty much where I was parked 90% of the time.  But before I get to those purchases, there were a couple of other dealers I purchased cards from.

Purchase #1:  Five for a Buck  $8 

Back in November, I started seeing people post videos on YouTube opening up boxes of 2021 Topps x Mickey Mantle.  It's obviously just another money grab product by Topps that I've learned to accept as part of our hobby.  I didn't think I'd ever actually own any of these, but for 20¢ each... I decided to grab all of the ones this vendor had.

These cards will be affordable additions to my small Mantle collection and will blend in nicely with the 1996 Topps reprints I've collected over the years.

There was even a green bordered parallel sitting in the box:

2021 Topps x Mickey Mantle Green  #7 (#'d 81/99)

This dealer's quarter box (or 5/$1) contained everything from baseball to soccer cards.  Although I don't actively seek basketball cards, I did grab some Rui Hachimura cards for my Japanese athlete collection:

The one hidden treasure in this guy's box was this Ronnie Lott rookie card:

1982 Topps #486

The rest of the cards I purchased were mostly cheap baseball rookies and inserts which I'm too lazy to scan.

Purchase #2:  Pocket Schedules  $1

About five minutes and ten dealers later, I ran into a guy who had a bunch of sports books, programs, and magazines.  He started to ask me about my collecting interests, so I mentioned that I've been an A's fan for most of my life.

He proceeded to pull out the 1976 Oakland A's pocket schedule out of a box and told me any schedule was only a quarter or five for a dollar.  I don't usually go out of my way to pick up pocket schedules, but the price was right and the advertisements and designs gave off that nostalgic vibe.

Maybe one of these days I'll show off one or two of these in a little more detail.

Side Note:  By the way... back in December, I showed off a collection of leftovers I purchased from my buddy.  This was the vendor he bought the collection from.

Purchase #3:  2003 Upper Deck Opening Series Sheet $1

The pocket schedule guy also had this uncut sheet of cards produced by Upper Deck to promote the 2003 Opening Series in Japan.  The sheet is highlighted by Ichiro, but it also fits into my Oakland A's collection as well.

The back is actually the coolest part about this sheet:

Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese, so I have no idea what's written on the back.  I'm thinking it's some form of directory, because there are a bunch of telephone numbers listed.

This series was actually cancelled by MLB due to the impending war in Iraq.  The A's and Mariners ended up opening their seasons against each other in Oakland on April 1, 2003.

Okay, it's time for the dime box purchases...

Purchase #4:  The 1st Dime Box  $8

The first dime box was by far the best dime box.  That's because it was really a 7¢ box.  I've actually purchased from this dealer a few times over the years.  He's the one that sold me the Fernando Tatis Topps Chrome Negative Refractor rookie card back in 2019 for $20.  I didn't make any big purchases this time around, but I did almost fill up the 200ct. box with 120 cards from his table.

The bulk of this purchase were low-end inserts, parallels, and rookie cards.  Here are some of my favorites:

I was also able to cross five cards off of my 2020 A&G set build, including one short print:

I also found two more Digging Deep inserts for that set build.

There was even a lone relic sitting in the guy's box:

2021 Panini Select Swatches #SS-RB (#'d 086/150)

Never heard of Mr. Bolanos, but I just couldn't leave this shiny, serial numbered card behind.

Purchase #5:  The Final Two Dime Boxes  $24

Editor's Note:  This post was originally scheduled to be published back in November.  Unfortunately, the draft sat partially completed for two months and by the time I came back to wrap it up... most of the cards from the final purchase of the day had been sorted and put away.

This dealer had his boxes spread out, so I didn't realize it was the same guy until I paid the second time around.  The gentleman had ten to fifteen monster boxes filled with cards of just about every sport you can imagine.

Although I don't remember specific cards, I do remember finding a bunch of Mother's Cookies singles, a stack of SI for Kids cards, and some 2019 Topps Chrome refractors for the binder.

Mental Note:  This is exactly why I need to take photos and scan cards immediately after I purchase them.

Well that wraps up my November card show haul.  This Saturday I will be headed to the Serramonte Mall Sports Cards and Collectibles Show.  My goal is to publish a recap next week... instead of waiting around two months.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Buried Treasure of Mystery

A little over a year ago, I bought two big boxes of baseball cards from a friend of mine for $30.  Inside were 183 mystery bags containing 35 to 40 cards.

Here's a peek into each of the boxes:

I had planned on opening these up during Spring Break of 2019, but then my mother passed away and priorities shifted.  The boxes had been buried in my garage under some books until I discovered them a few weeks ago while cleaning.

This morning, I finally got around to taking a peek inside a few of the packs.  I went with the 9 packs sitting on top of the first box:

The first pack had already been opened... but the other bags were sealed with staples... which I wasn't amused with.  I stuck myself at least three times opening these bags up.

I'm not really sure what I was expecting to pull, but depending on your perspective these mystery bags could be considered garbage or a pleasant distraction from the real world.  Sadly there weren't any nuggets of treasure that'll allow me to retire early or even fetch me a Happy Meal at McDonald's.

But there were 1 to 2 inserts or parallels per bag on average.  Whoever originally built them made sure to put a recognizable name on the front and back... with a couple of stars sprinkled in between.

Personally... the joy of opening up mystery bags made it worthwhile.  As a bonus, I actually found a few cards I could use.  The rest will either be sorted into teams and passed along to fellow bloggers... or brought into my classroom for future projects.

I'm not the biggest fan of scanning, so you'll have to settle for a 9-pocket page of my favorite cards/pocket schedules from each pack:

My favorite pull was the 1981 Donruss Willie Stargell.  I remember treasuring that card when I was a kid.

Baseball Card Giveaway

Since I definitely don't need to bring all of these cards into my classroom, I figured this would be a cool opportunity to give away some PWE's filled with cards from these mystery bags.  If you're interested, just put down the team or teams you're interested in down in the comment section below.

I'm not sure how much interest this will draw, so I'll go ahead and say I'll ship out at least 10 PWE's.  If more than 10 people are interested, then I'll use random.org to help choose the recipients.  The names will be entered and randomize 5 times, then I'll take the top 10 people on the list.

As of right now, I'm not going to set a deadline on this giveaway... because I don't know how long it'll take me to open up and sort all of these bags.  But I'm thinking it'll take me at least a week.

Well that's it for today.  Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Baseball Card Giveaway

Sorry about the confusion.  I guess I didn't think everything through carefully before I published this post.  Anyways... multiple people can select the same team.  In other words if four different people want to put down the Dodgers, that should be okay.