It's Showtime!

Every year GT Sports Marketing sets up at the Santa Clara Convention Center and brings in a ton of autograph guests to go along with their sports card and memorabilia show.  It typically runs from Friday through Sunday and attracts tons of baseball and football fans.  The only downside is that most of these people can care less about sports cards, which is why the card show has shrunken down to less than 15 vendors.

I've actually skipped this show the last few times and came pretty close to skipping it again.  I'm glad I went.

As expected there were only a handful of vendors with baseball cards, but I ended up making purchases from four of them.

Purchase #1:  1967 Topps Whitey Ford $2

In terms of bargains, this was arguably my worst purchase.  This card is in pretty rough shape, but I figured two bucks it's a nice addition to my vintage binder.


Purchase #2:  Pair of Autographs $12

2015 Topps Five Star Autographs #AGA

2016 Topps Archives Signature Series

The same vendor who sold me the Whitey had a few shoeboxes worth of baseball autographs.  I pulled a few out, but after he walked me through his prices... I decided to only purchase these two cards.


Purchase #3:  1981 Kellogg's Factory Set $10

The #1 thing I was looking for was a 1979 Kellogg's baseball card set, but I wasn't surprised when nobody had one.  That being said... I did find this 1981 set sitting on a guy's table for $12.  I offered him $10 and he accepted.

I thought about keeping it sealed, but decided to open it up in hopes of discovering a mislabeled 1979 set.

No such luck.  The seller gave me his number though, because he thinks he has a 1979 factory set at home.  If I end up buying it off of him, you'll be the first to know.

Purchase #4:  Dime Box Singles $2

The Kellogg's guy had an 800ct. box filled with cards for 10¢ each.  I pulled out twenty for $2.

My favorite card in the stack...

1978 Topps #45

Ten cents for a 2nd year Bird card with a nice action shot is a no-brainer.

Purchase #5:  1961 Topps Stan Musial $10

This is my third purchase from the Kellogg's guy... and hands down my favorite purchase of the day.

There's a small surface imperfection on the left side of the card, but you can't really see it unless you remove it from the penny sleeve and tilt it at a certain angle.  If the seller had not pointed it out, I wouldn't have seen it.

The card had a $15 price tag, but he told me I could have it for $10, since I purchased the dime cards and the Kellogg's set.  Hopefully I'll be buying one more Kellogg's set off of him in the near future.

Purchase #6:  Dollar Bin $20

There was a guy who set up at the show with these pretty awesome dollar boxes and for every ten cards you purchased, he threw in two for free.

There were a lot of non-sports relics and in-person autographs, but these two cards are my personal favorites:

2008 Sportkings Double Memorabilia Silver #3

1989 Upper Deck #13

A memorabilia card of two of the greatest goalies in hockey history for less than a buck?  Yeah.  I'll take that.  Not exactly sure of this Sheffield, but it's embossed with a 2001 Chicago Sportsfest stamp and says it's a 1 of 1.  It's a cool conversation piece at the very least.


Purchase #7:  Another Dollar Bin $3

1998 Donruss Longball Leaders #1

1992 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle #9

1998 Skybox EX 2001 Cheap Seat Treats #15

This is one of those purchases that helps remind me to collect for entertainment purposes only, because there was a time when these three inserts commanded much more than a buck a piece.

Well that's my card show haul.  I spent a little more than I anticipated, but overall I'm pretty happy with my purchases.  Oh well... I'll just consider it a birthday present to myself.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!