Saturday Night Five: Card Show Purchases

Last night's card show was a lot better than I anticipated in terms of dealer and customer turnout.  There was a good mixture of vintage and newer card dealers, as well as people selling memorabilia and unopened boxes.

I even met a guy who was holding onto a pair of awesome autographed balls:

On the left is a signed ball from one of the greatest hitters of all-time... Mr. Tyrus Raymond Cobb.  And next to it was a triple signed ball featuring the Apollo 12 crew:  Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean.

The gentleman was looking to sell both of these, however neither fit into my card show budget.  Thankfully I was able to find some items around the show that did fall into my price range.

Tonight I'll share my five favorite purchases:

#1: Hisashi Iwakuma Autograph $5

2013 Topps Supreme #SSHIW (#'d 13/20)

I was really excited to finally add an Iwakuma signature to my Japanese PC... especially for this price.  I've been targeting a few since the end of last season and I've never seen one sell for under $10.

#2: 2013 Topps Allen and Ginter Insert Lot $10

One of the vendors had busted a ton of 2013 Ginter and was clearing out his inventory, so I grabbed all of his cheap inserts.  After sorting through his stuff, I discovered there was one complete set of Civilizations of Ages Past and four partial sets (left photo).  If anyone has any extra 2013 Ginter laying around, maybe we can work out a trade (the photo on the right are my extras).  Here's what I'm looking for:

#3: Memorabilia Cards  $100

I've mentioned it before on this blog.  I'll buy memorabilia cards if the price is right.  And one of my friends had hundreds of autographs and memorabilia cards for $2 each.  However if you bought fifty, you'd get twenty-five more for free.  Bottom line... I got 75 cards for $100.

I was hoping to use the money to buy a nice 1956 Topps baseball hall of famer for my collection, but when I didn't find one I liked... I decided to buy a bunch of memorabilia cards for my PC.

After digging through his boxes for more than an hour, I found cards for my Oakland A's, San Diego Padres, Montreal Expos, Seattle Seahawks, Frank Thomas, Greg Maddux, and Japanese baseball player PC's.

I also found a ton of memorabilia cards featuring hall of famers...

as well as some members of the Hall of Very Good:

Are these actual swatches from game worn jerseys?  Maybe... maybe not.  But for $1.33 per card, I'm willing to risk it.

#4: Steve Bartkowski Prime Jersey $3

2011 Leaf Certified Fabric of the Game #59 (01/50)

This was the 2nd most expensive card I purchased last night.  And when I saw it, I knew I had to have it for the following two reasons:

#1 - Bartkowski was a Bay Area guy who graduated from UC Berkeley
#2 - It's serial numbered 01/50

Why do I care about the serial numbering?  Well... I've slowly been putting together a collection of cards that were the first card printed in the run.  Right now I'm sitting at four different cards, but I hope to have ten by the end of the year.

#5: Ben Sheets Autographed Rookie 25¢

2000 SPx #145 (#'d 0368/1500)

Sadly... I didn't find any dime boxes at last night's show.  However, I was able to find a quarter bin and this happened to be sitting in it.

Sheets might not have had a HOF career, but he was a 4x MLB all-star and won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.  I'd say he's worth the quarter I paid for his rookie autograph.

Well that's it for now.  I'm a little disappointed I didn't buy any vintage cards or cheap wax boxes, but overall I was pretty happy with my purchases.

I hope you're all having a good weekend.  Happy Saturday, stay safe and sayonara!