It's Show Time!

Card shows can be hit or miss.  I attended one back at the end of 2021 where I walked around and left within an hour without making a single purchase.  Then the very next show... I spent hours digging through boxes until my legs and back were shot.

A few weeks ago there was a card show right down the street from my work... and it ended up being one of those hobby experiences that I'll be reminiscing about for years to come.

The day started off with me driving down to San Jose International Airport to pick up my buddy Ryan who flew in for the day to hang out and attend the show.  Most of you know him better as SumoMenkoMan and the author of Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko.  We had some time to kill before the show opened, so we grabbed breakfast at IHOP and started talking cards.

With our bellies filled, we headed over to the show being held at Eastridge Mall.  It was being advertised as having over 250 tables.  Not sure if that was accurate or not, but it was definitely a solid show that didn't disappoint.  Tables were spread out throughout the mall, held on multiple levels, and helped me eclipse 12,000 steps.

We started out walking around together.  He was there for my first purchase of the day...

Purchase #1:  Dollar Bin  $5

There was a guy with several dollar boxes.  The highlight was this mascot card of Harry Elephante:

1991 560 KSFO

I have never seen this card before.  Not even sure it's considered a trading card, but it's cool.  It was actually crammed into a top loader with two other copies... so I got three for the price of one.

He also had an assortment of 70's baseball sprinkled into the boxes:

1978 Topps #703

1978 Topps #704

1979 Topps #413

I was pretty stoked to find the Maris and Aaron card, because it looked so clean.  But after I got home... I realized the card was either miscut or trimmed.

1996 Finest Refractor #224

2005 Ultimate Signature Edition #23 (#'d 681/825)

He had a bunch of 90's refractors.  Most of them were commons, but I did see this Raines... so I grabbed it.  As for the Doby... I will happily add any numbered card of his to my collection for a buck any chance I can get.

I actually pulled out twelve to fifteen cards, but narrowed it down to these six (technically eight).  I asked if he'd take $5 and he accepted.

Purchase #2:  The Heavy Hitters  $20

A few minutes later, we came across this guy with several boxes of $10 cards.  I ended up spending twenty to thirty minutes digging through this vendor's stuff... while Ryan moved along.

2016 Bowman Autograph #CPA-JMU

2019 Topps Chrome Auto #RA-TW

2019 Topps Chrome Update #54

The Musgrove is the card that caught my eye and motivated me to dig through this guy's boxes.  Ultimately... I only found two other cards that really interested me (for the price).  I knew the guy offered discounts for bulk purchases, but was pleasantly surprised when he told me I could have all three cards for $20.

Purchase #3:  Quarter Bin  $2

One of the vendors was a guy I've purchased from before at the flea market.  He was one of the few guys who didn't have a bunch of graded cards sitting in cases.  In fact most of his stuff was from the 90's and earlier.

He had two 5,000ct. boxes filled with quarter cards.  I dug these twelve cards out:

It's hard to pass up cards from Ichiro's first year in the MLB.  I was also excited to see the Tim Hardaway First Day Issue parallel... and the Terrell Davis die-cut rookie.

1986 Donruss #28

2001 Fleer Platinum Winning Combinations #33 (#'d 677/1000)

1992 Lime Rock Griffey Baseball Promo (Blank Back)

Although labeled "quarter" cards... he gave people a discount if they purchased five or more cards.

Purchase #4:  A Bunch of Memorabilia Cards $30

In hindsight... if there was a purchase I regret... this would be it.  The vendor is a football card collector who was cleaning out his excess inventory.  He had ten to fifteen super monster boxes filled with memorabilia cards and a few autographs sprinkled in.

I picked up a stack of top loaders to see what kind of quality was in these boxes, since $2 per card seemed like a fair asking price.  Most of the stuff were commons, but I did see a few names I recognized.  The vendor came over and asked me if there were any specific teams I collected.  He then began pulling out all of his Seahawks and Packers.

2001 Bowman Jersey #BJ-SH

2001 Bowman Chrome Jersey #BCR-SH

2004 Bazooka All-Stars Jersey #BAS-WJ

1996 Pro Line Autographs #NNO

2003 Elite Masks of Steel #MS-10 (#'d 044/400)

I won't bore you with a bunch of football memorabilia cards, but I did manage to pick out twenty-five cards.  Only five of them were for me.  Most were for my two nieces.  One of them loves cows, so she's a Dallas Cowboys fan.  The other loves purple, so she's a Minnesota Vikings fan.

Purchase #5:  Cheap Vintage $2.50

This dealer had a bunch of vintage for 50¢ each (or 3 for $1).  Unfortunately... most of the stuff was football and basketball.  The four 1980-81 Topps basketball card singles and the Franco Harris looked like they were just pulled from a pack, so I grabbed them.

Purchase #6:  Wax Boxes  $68

I ran into another vendor who used to set up at the flea market.  He had a bunch of boxes that he was trying to dump.

This is the box that drew me to his table:

2000 Fleer Adrenaline

A few years ago I was looking for a box of this stuff, because it contains a bunch of professional skaters and I was seeking a card of Danny Way.  He's the guy who jumped The Great Wall of China.  Anyways... the dealer told me I could have the box for $18.

I was content with this box, but the guy really wanted to move some of his other boxes.  The only two I was sort of interested in were these Action Packed basketball boxes:

1993 Action Packed HOF Series One

1993 Action Packed HOF Series Two

He had one of the boxes labeled at $40 and the other $35.  I offered him $50 for the pair.  He was reluctant... but I told him this was the most I was willing to go... so he accepted.  I enjoy collecting unopened wax boxes, so these joined that collection.

That wraps up the card show purchases, but those weren't the only items I added to the collection that day.

Sometime between Purchase #2 and #3... I ran into Mr. Haverkamp who handed me a team bag with six cards for my 1984 Topps baseball set build:

They carried me over the 90% mark:

Only 75 more cards to go!  Thanks Jim!  If you read this, can you write down your TCDB username in the comment section?  I'll never find any Schmidts you need... but maybe there's something else on your wantlists that I can add to your collection.

I also saw a lot of my local card collecting buddies at the show.  One of them is my close friend Mike... who has his own card show coming up in a few weeks:  Bay Area Collectors Fest.

He had recently gone down to Las Vegas and attended an Aviators game.  They were selling game-used jerseys at the team store and he hooked me up with one:

He actually called me from the game and asked me which number I wanted.  Even though I'm not familiar with the player, I picked #51 since the Vegas minor league team was previously called the 51's (for Area 51).

Thanks to Baseball Reference, I learned that Kyle Lobstein never actually pitched for the Oakland A's, but he did 37 MLB games for Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, and Pittsburgh Pirates.  Currently he's playing in Mexico.

Anyways... getting back to the jersey... I was expecting to buy it from Mike.  But he wouldn't accept my money.  Thanks Mike!  See you in a few weeks at your show.

Oh... I almost forgot.  Before we even walked into the mall... Ryan handed me two issues of Tuff Stuff Magazine from 1992:

1992 June Tuff Stuff

1992 July Tuff Stuff

I'm a huge fan of the stadium cards that were inserted into these issues:

1992 Tuff Stuff Stadium Cards #10-18

1992 Tuff Stuff Stadium Cards #19-27

There were four sheets of nine cards produced in 1992.  I now have three of the four.  The only one I still need is the first one containing cards #1-9... which was included in the May issue (which I've added to my saved eBay searches).

After we met up with Mike, we took off and hit up two of my local card shops.  The first one is Stevens Creek Sports Cards.  We hung out for a little bit.  I chatted with one of the guys who works there.  He's a student at TCU, which is the school my niece graduated from.  Neither of us ended up buying anything from the shop, so we headed off to their sister store:  South Bay Sports Cards.

I didn't buy anything, but Ryan bought two jumbo packs of 2022 Topps Series One and two boxes of 2020 Topps 206.

Our next stop was Shabuway for dinner:

I'm not sure if this was before or after dinner... but while sitting in my car... Ryan handed over a pack of the Topps and a box of Topps 206.

Here are the highlights from my pack of 2022 Topps:

The box of 2020 Topps 206 contained one pack with ten cards.  The Sean Murphy came out of Ryan's pack... which he gave me.  The other nine were from my pack:

I also pulled a Wade Boggs which I traded to Ryan for this:

2020 Topps 206 #NNO

Thanks Ryan for the cards and magazines.  More importantly thank you for flying up and hanging out.  The card show was fun, but chillin', eating food, checking out local card shops, and talking cards was what made the day extra memorable.

I'm bummed that I didn't make it down to Los Angeles this summer.  Unfortunately those plans didn't work out.  But next summer, I'm coming down for sure.

Thanks again to Mr. Haverkamp, Mike, and Ryan for making a cool card show... into a super cool experience.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!