Card Show Pet Peeves

I love attending card shows.  If it were up to me, there would be a local card show in my area every weekend like back in the early 90's.  It's not just about spending money and adding cards to my collection... it's the camaraderie among collectors and the discussions we have about our hobby.

With that being said... nothing in life is perfect.  There are always going to be things that potentially annoy me whenever I attend a show.  Today, I'm going to share a few of these things with you.

However before I do... let's preface things by stating that I fully understand that we as collectors have the right to our own opinion... and what I'm about to write is my opinion... not God's written rule.  Since we live in a democracy... I encourage you to leave your opinions down in the comment section below.

So without further ado... let's get to my card show bickering...


Card Show Pet Peeve #1:  Unrealistic Prices

Yes, I understand that dealers have the right to price cards as high or low as they want.  They are in fact... their cards.  But I have the right to feel annoyed.

Purchase #5:  1983 Topps Billy Martin $40

One of my friends has recently entered the highend cardboard market and had a very impressive display case with things like Hank Aaron and Sandy Koufax autographs.  Due to a tight budget, I wasn't really interested in any of those.  But I was interested in this:

Unfortunately... my buddy's asking price was $200, which is completely and utterly ridiculous.  I offered him $40 which made him laugh.  I explained that I had picked up my other Billy Martin autograph, which is PSA/DNA slabbed for under $40 off of eBay and that he wouldn't have to pay any PayPal or eBay fees like the other guy.  He dropped it down to $100 and I told him I'd come back in a little while.

Fast forward four or five hours and four or five trips to his table... and he finally accepted my fair and reasonable offer.  I realize that the average person probably wouldn't pay $40 for this card... but growing up in the Bay Area, the Billy Ball Era was a major piece of my childhood.


Card Show Pet Peeve #2:  Unpriced Cards

One of my biggest pet peeves are dealers who don't label their cards or boxes with prices.  Sometimes I walk away.  Other times I'll find a card and immediately ask them, "how much?" to gauge whether or not it's worth my time to dig through their box.

Purchase #6:  Unpriced Cards $8

While glancing over this guy's table, I noticed this 2002 UD Vintage Aces Ferguson Jenkins sitting at the front of a shoebox.  I'm a huge fan of the 1971 Topps design and relic cards of old school players, so I asked him how much he was asking.  He responded "that's my dollar box"... which made it worth my while.  I'm guessing he'd get more customers to stop and look through his boxes if he just labeled the box "Dollar Box".

Anyways... I'm glad I stopped to ask, because I found a really cool card for my Japanese PC.  The card in the bottom right corner is a Goodwin Champions jersey card of hockey phenom Aito Iguchi, who just might be the next Wayne Gretzky.  Realistically... we'll probably never hear about this kid again... but it's still a cheap cool card for my collection.


Card Show Pet Peeve #4:  Intrusive Collectors

I know I mentioned camaraderie at the beginning of this post, but if I had to pick between standing next to an annoying collector who lacks common sense and fails to respect personal space or be alone... I'll choose the latter.

Purchase #7:  Josh Gibson Seat Relic $5

The guy with the unlabeled dollar bin also had an unlabeled $5 bin as well.  That's where I found this 2005 Bowman Heritage Pieces of Greatness seat relic of Josh Gibson.  I was pretty excited when I found it in the box, because Gibson is one of those legendary Negro League players who passed away decades before I was born.

The guy standing next to me got excited too.  When I set the card down off to the side and picked up the next stack of cards, he immediately asked if I was going to buy the card.  I said "yes" and continued to flip through the cards.

What came next made me feel like I was being set up by Ashton Kutcher and his Punk'd crew, because it seemed way too surreal.

The guy took out his phone, looked up the card on eBay, and showed me and the vendor a completed listing that went for over $25 last month.  Who the heck does that?  This might be the single most annoying moment on my personal card show timeline.  Thankfully the vendor responded "looks like you found yourself a deal" instead of upping his price... otherwise I might have had a few choice words for the guy standing next to me.


Card Show Pet Peeve #4:  Signed Mini-Helmets of NFL Hall of Famers for $20

Yeah right.  Who doesn't like JSA and Tristar certified autographed helmets for the price of the helmet itself?

Purchase #8:  Jackie Slater Helmet $20

Jackie Slater's twenty season career mostly took place during my childhood, which was a time in my life where I mostly cared about quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and the occasional linebacker or hard hitting safety.  Offensive linemen were barely on my radar along with punters and kickers.  But Slater wasn't just your average linemen, he was one of the greatest in his era and his signature is well worth the twenty dollars I dropped on this helmet.

Okay... that enough ranting and raving.

Do you have any card show pet peeves?  Any Ashon Kutcher Punk'd moments?

Feel free to entertain us down below in the comment section.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

You Can't Teach A Dog New Tricks

The past month or so... work and personal life has sort of trumped hobby and blogger life.  With birthday dinners and back to school stuff out of the way, I should be able to start writing and reading blog posts in the near future.

With that being said... I have been picking up a few nice items for my PC that I'll share in the near future.  A while back, I made the decision to focus on quality over quantity... and pick up a few nice things that I'll cherish rather than a bunch of lower end items that end up taking up space which I'm slowly running out of.

On Saturday, I brought that strategy with me to the Serramonte Mall Sports Card, Toys, & Collectibles Show in hopes of tracking down a 1979 Topps baseball set or maybe a 1956 Topps Willie Mays.

The last thing I wanted to do was add a bunch of low end stuff that would require me to sort, scan, and utilize the limited free time I currently have.  Unfortunately I have way too much bargain blood in me to pass up some of the deals I found.

Overall... I dropped $198 at the show, but since I'm not trying to write a novel today... I'll share half of my purchases today and show off the rest on Thursday.


Purchase #1:  25 Relics and Autos $40

I kicked off the card show with a nice haul of relic cards... that ended up costing me a $1.60 per card.

A few of them were solid hidden treasures like the 2007 Tristar Elegance jersey card of Clayton Kershaw (top row... 4th card from the left).  Another solid find was the 2007 Ultimate Collection patch card of Pudge in the bottom right corner.  The Jonathan Franklin and the Cleveland Indians Winning Trios cards were additions to my Prime #'s PC... which is slowly starting to take off.  But my favorite card of the lot was the 2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection card of Hank Bauer (bottom left corner).  I think this might be my first Kansas City Athletics relic card.  I think.


Purchase #2:  6 Cards $20

I normally don't bother flipping through $4 relics, but the 2001 Donruss Classic Combos card of Brooks Robinson caught my eye.  The only bulk discount the vendor offered was a 6 for $20 deal.

I found these three baseball cards for me.  The other three were basketball cards that will eventually be headed over to Mr. Kingsley who won my Pay It Forward Contest.


Purchase #3:  Nickel Box $40

Ninety minutes.  Eight hundred cards.  And one really sore back.

I'm not complaining though.  This was one helluva nickel box haul.  Hundreds of colored refractors.  A few almost complete Diamond King insert sets.  And tons of other inserts and parallels for my binders.

Sadly... there weren't any NASCAR for Billy... and the basketball was pretty much picked through by the guy standing next to me.  I did manage to find a few singles that I'll throw into his prize package though.


Purchase #4:  Ted Simmons Signed Baseball $15

Technically this purchase is part of the nickel box deal.  While going through the guy's boxes, I noticed the ball in one of the boxes and asked him what he wanted for it.

He started at thirty... but we ended up settling for $20 with $5 worth of nickel cards for free.  Since I wouldn't really pay $20 for this ball... I choose to think that I paid $15 for the ball and I paid $5 for 100 more cards in my stack.


Purchase #5:  Basketball Card Lot $10

I'll refrain from sharing this purchase, because it's the other half of Billy's prize package.  However it includes a few shiny cards and a couple of "hits".  Don't worry Billy... I'll dig into my PC and see if I have some NASCAR for you too.

Well that's it for today.  On Thursday I'll share my remaining four purchases... which include a huge addition to my Oakland Athletics PC and a Negro League relic card.

Have a great week... happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Life Isn't Fair

I've been racking my brains trying to write this post for the past hour or so... while thinking about Jose Fernandez and his family ever since my friend told me the tragic news earlier this morning.

People die every day... but I don't really take the time to think about it too much unless it hits close to home or in the case of Jose Fernandez it makes local or national news.

Today... I couldn't stop thinking that when I was twenty-four... I was entering my final semester at San Jose State University and preparing to make the transition into the next stage of my life.

Recently Jose Fernandez was starting to prepare with his girlfriend to enter the next stage of their life with the announcement of their first child.

The thought of this is totally heartbreaking.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, teammates, and fans.

Rest in peace Mr. Fernandez.

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on my Monday afternoon contest post.  Twenty-nine of you entered... and only one of you came out on top of the list randomizer.

So without further adieu...

Congratulations Mr. Kingsley!  I haven't shopped for basketball or NASCAR cards in awhile... so this should be fun.  I'll try to get the most out of the twenty dollars I've set aside for you.  However... if I find one or two cards that are really cool in that price range, I might go with quality over quantity.

By the way... I checked my address book and didn't see your address, so shoot me an email with your mailing address so I can ship out your prize package next week.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

It Pays to Comment

If you're a blogger and you're like me, then you love it when someone leaves a comment on a post.  It's like being in 5th grade all over again and finding a note from the girl you like in your Pee Chee folder.  Okay... maybe I'm getting a little carried away... but all joking aside... it's nice to see that someone has taken the time to read your post and reply.

Johnny over at Johnny's Trading Spot must feel the same way.  Earlier in the year he held a contest and apparently I was one of the winners, because I took the time to leave a comment on one of his posts.

That's not really a chore, because I really enjoy his Shadow Shots series and of course reading all of the posts involving the Big Deal he acquired back in May.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and head over there.  I have never seen so many cool oddball issues before.  He's been slowly sifting through his epic haul and he's taking his readers along for the ride.

Here's a quick snapshot at the goodies he has so generously shared with me:

He sent me a medium sized flat rate box filled to the brim with stuff.  There were hundreds of Oakland Athletics cards in these newspaper wrapped packs.  

Here are a few of the ones that made it into the binders:

There was even one of those Topps Oakland A's Surf Detergent books from the 80's:

If you're not familiar with these books, they're really cool.  It includes a photo of every regular issue Athletics card produced by Topps from 1952 to 1987.  But one of my favorite things about this book is the list of every single player who ever wore an Athletics jersey.  I never realized that guys like Jay Johnstone, Lenn Sakata, and Johnnie LeMaster donned the green and gold.

Johnny also added some cool oddballs for my Japanese PC:

Here are two 1993 Takara team sets.  These were part of a baseball game, which according to Cardboard Connection is similar to Strat-O-Matic.

Another cool item he included was this Yomiuri Giants postcard set.  I think it's from the 90's based on some of the other stuff that Johnny sent, but I could be wrong.

He also included some unopened packs of 1995 Godzilla trading cards that seem to be from Japan:

Maybe one of these days, I'll finally get around to posting something over on A Pack to Be Named Later. When I do... I'll probably choose one of these packs, because I'm dying to see what the cards look like.

Rounding out the contest winnings are these three Zatch Bell spell books:

I have no idea what these are, but I'll probably open one and check out the special card that's included inside... then hand the other two out to my students as prizes.

Thank you Johnny for this generous prize package.  I had a lot of fun looking through everything two weekends ago.

Okay... time for me to pay it forward.  Next weekend, I'll be going to a card show at the Serramonte Mall.  It's actually more of a collectibles show with ten to twenty card dealers.  Anyways anyone who leaves a comment down below will be entered into this Pay It Forward/It Pays to Comment Contest.

What do you win?  Well... I'll spend at least $20 on stuff for your PC, so do me a favor and include a list of teams (or players) you collect in the comment section.

When does the contest end?  Let's wrap things up by Friday at 9am PST.   I'll reveal the winner in my Friday (or Saturday morning) post.

That's it.  Happy Monday and sayonara!