Before last month... I couldn't tell you the last time I walked around a card show. According to the blog, it was back in September of 2022. I might have attended one earlier in the year... but if I did... it obviously wasn't memorable.
However after finding out about Mike... I wanted to hang out with some mutual friends who were setting up at the monthly show located about twenty minutes from my place.
The show itself is pretty small, but I ended up spending a few hours there. Part of the time was sitting around and exchanging stories about our friend. The rest of the time was exploring the show and catching up with the hobby since I hadn't been spending a lot of time with cards the last six months or so.
I was surprised at the amount of stuff I came home with. Here's a breakdown of my purchases...
Card Show Purchase #1: Fleer Stickers $20
One vendor had a bunch of 80's Fleer Stickers sitting in his quarter bins. He had a little over 200, so I offered him $20 and he accepted.
Seeing these took me back to my childhood when I'd casually toss these aside while opening packs of Fleer. These days... I pay much closer attention to them. Stay tuned for a Fleer Sticker post in the near future.
Card Show Purchase #2: Dollar Bin (Japanese Cards) $5
There were plenty of dealers with slabbed rookie cards, unopened blasters, and colorful Pokemon cards. That was expected. What I didn't expect was a dealer who specializes in cards from Japan.
I spent almost an hour hanging out, listening to his story, and checking out what he brought. I started with his dollar bin (shoebox at the left of the above photo)...
2017 Calbee #035
2018 Calbee #167
2019 Calbee #095
2019 Calbee Star Card #S-08
He had hundreds of stars like Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui, and Daisuke Matsuzaka sitting in his dollar bin. I was tempted to start pulling them out, but ultimately... I ended up buying four Masataka Yoshida cards from his days with the Orix Buffaloes.
I also grabbed these two Godzilla cards:
Japanese Godzilla Card #35
Japanese Godzilla Card #43
The vendor didn't have any information on either of these cards, but thought they might be from the 80's.
After the dollar bin, I started digging through his $5 bin which contained a ton of 90's and early 2000's Ichiro cards...
Card Show Purchase #3: Japanese Ichiro Suzuki Cards $65
I'll just shut up and let the cards speak for themselves...
1997 Calbee #013
1997 Calbee #165
1998 Calbee #022
1998 Calbee #097
1998 Calbee West Special #W-13
1999 Calbee #198
2000 Calbee #015
2000 Calbee Star Cards #04
2000 Upper Deck Victory Japan #11
2000 Upper Deck Victory Japan Hardball Heroes #H1
2001 BBM Best 9 #B33
If the math doesn't add up... that's because I grabbed duplicates of the Upper Deck Victory cards. Plus there was a single I grabbed for SumoMenkoMan.
After his boxes, I started looking through his display cases. Check out this insane rookie patch card of Ohtani:
I obviously can't afford to drop $7,000 on a card, but I did buy a vintage card of the Home Run King...
Card Show Purchase #4: Vintage Sadaharu Oh $10
1975-76 Calbee #1235
The gentleman had a stack of vintage Oh's... but this is the one that caught my eye. I love how it captures his iconic flamingo stance.
No idea what it says on the back, but I figured some of you might want to see it:
The other card I grabbed from his display cases was the Calbee rookie card of a guy who may or may not ever cross the Pacific to play in the MLB...
Card Show Purchase #5: Roki Sasaki Calbee RC $20
2020 Calbee #094
This was an impulse buy... and the credit goes to the dealer for talking Sasaki up. Based on completed eBay listings... I totally overpaid.
Anyways... if you're not familiar with him, he's the guy who pitched the first NPB perfect game since 1994 back in 2022. A week later, he nearly pitched another perfect game. There's a lot of hype surrounding him, but he won't even be eligible to play in the MLB for at least a few more years.
In hindsight, I probably should have just grabbed four more Ichiro cards. 🤣
The final purchase from this dealer was a very cool set...
The cover of the box instantly caught my eye... so much that I carefully cut it out and slipped it into a 6" x 9" top loader:
The back of the cover features his career statistics:
In hindsight... this purchase helps me cope with the buyer's remorse for the Sasaki card.
2009 BBM King of the World Box Cover
Maybe one of these days, I'll write up a set spotlight post on this set. Until then, here's one 9-pocket page featuring Oh's time lapsed swing:
Finally there was an insert card featuring a facsimile signature of the legend:
2009 BBM King of the World Printed Autograph #PA7
I'm going back to the card show again this Saturday. Crossing my fingers that this guy is there to take more of my hard earned money.
As I walked back to my friends, I saw a guy with three small boxes labeled ten for a dollar, so I stopped and quickly flipped through them. Here's what I bought...
Card Show Purchase #7: Dime Box $1
2023 Topps #17
There were three cards that I really wanted. The Ohtani was one of them.
The Nootbaar (my first rookie card of him) and Brady (no way I'll pass up his cards for a dime) were the other two. The rest rounded out the buck.
And that wraps up my card show purchases, but I did come home with one more card...
Card Show Freebie: Jake Cronenworth Autograph
2021 Topps Chrome Black Auto #CBA-JCR
Found this card looking through my friend's display cases. It was a little out of place, since he has mostly high dollar 90's inserts and modern graded rookie cards. But as a Padres fan, I have hope this guy will bounce back in 2024, so I asked how much he wanted for this autograph. He told me to take it and buy him lunch the next time we hang out.
Thanks Ben! I'm going back to the show this weekend and lunch is on me.
Well that wraps up my 2nd post in three days and here are three quick observations:
#1: I really miss blogging about cards.
#2: My writing, editing, and formatting skills are rusty.
#3: I need to learn to keep things simple and straight to the point.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my blog. Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
19 comments:
Awesome! Love the Ichiro and Oh stuff most.
Great stuff. I NEVER see any Japanese cards in the wild up here. I probably would have bought that Oh set too. And those Godzilla cards are awesome.
Very nice!
The first Sadaharu Oh wins it.
So many cool Japanese cards here, especially the vintage oh. You might have overpaid for Roki now, but once he gets to MLB I bet some collectors will wish they'd scooped up his cards.
A fantastic table. You've got decent odds for being very happy about that Sasaki card in a few years.
Man, Fuji. You did so well. Sometimes I try to pick my favorite card of the bunch, but I don't think I can do that this time. There's just too much eye candy. Nice work!
That card at the top is fantastic. I opened it up to view it big, and enjoyed looking at all the fans in the stands. I noticed the three guys in white helmets. Stadium security?
Those were some great purchases! Giving the wave of talent coming over from Japan, I have a feeling that Sasaki card won't seem like much of an overpay when MLB teams start bidding on him!
I said "Oh, sweet!" at the Fleer stickers, and then the "Sweet" got louder with each thing you shared. I've never seen a dealer selling Japanese cards outside of The National, I'd go nuts at a table like that.
Much like Crocodile, I never see Japanese cards at shows near me--a product of living on the east coast, I guess. I'd be all over those $1 star cards. I really want a Japanese card of Edgardo Alfonzo to go with my American and Venezuelan cards of him, but I've never seen one at a show, and I think only once or twice online (for much more than a dollar).
Oh dang, now that is my kind of card show table! Nice haul!
This was a post that kept getting better and better as I was reading. I was thinking that Fleer stickers was a really strong start, but all those Ichiros were even better, and then finishing with a Jake Cronenworth. I know few share my high opinion of Jake. Just all-around great post with excellent cards and content.
Wow, every time I scrolled I figured "there's the highlight of the pickups", but nope those great cards kept on coming
Those Godzilla cards are mid-1970s mini-cards made by Yamakatsu. So cool!
I will have to research those Godzilla cards. My 9 year old would absolutely love them!
Great cards. Ohtani Japanese cards are really cool but the Godzilla cards are probably my favorite.
I would've bought the two Godzilla's for myself, and bought all of the Ichiro's to distribute amongst blogging friends.
the diamond king - me too. i was really stoked to add that vintage oh to my collection.
crocodile - honestly... i rarely see japanese cards in the wild here either.
johnnys trading spot - thanks
elliptical man - totally agree. favorite card purchase of the day
chris - only time will tell on the roki. talked to the guy again last weekend and he's really high on him
nick vossbrink - sure hope so :D. then again... if he is successful, it reduces the chances of me adding his cards to my collection
gregory - thanks. outside of the roki... i was pretty stoked about all of my purchases.
bo - it could be. i feel like i've seen police or security wearing helmets like that in godzilla or beastie boys videos before
matt - i sure hope so. we'll find out. worst case scenario i'm out $20.
shlabotnik report - i've never been to the national, but i figured there must be at least a couple of vendors with japanese cards there. this guy did pretty well that day and has now decided to come back on a monthly basis. he's suppose to bring me some non-sports stuff in january, so i'm pretty stoked
brett alan - i looked last weekend and didn't see an alfonzo card. someone bought a bunch of the dollar cards. i wanted to buy some nomos and they were all gone.
sumomenkoman - yeah... i'm sure you and him would hit it off well. i told him about your sumo card collection and interested in japanese sports cards
the snorting bull - i'm hoping jake bounces back next season. the padres will need him to since they traded away soto.
derek - lol. i'll take that as a compliment :D
sumomenkoman - i picked up a bunch of those godzilla cards for you
uncle charlie's shoebox - yeah... they were pretty cool. a lot of the cards feature blurry pictures of godzilla and some of them don't even feature him. but it is indeed a cool set.
bulldog - wow... had no idea the godzilla cards were gonna be this popular
jon - he still had a bunch of $5 ichiros, but i ended up buying up all the godzilla cards for sumomenkoman.
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