My Side Hobby

A few weeks ago, I went to a card show held at a local mall.  Like most card shows I read about on blogs, there were mostly dealers specializing in Pokemon cards and or modern graded sports cards.  Out of the 100 or so tables advertised, I only found one dealer with dime boxes and his table was swarmed with customers.

Normally I would have circled around the show and come back when the crowd thinned out, but I had purchased some cards at the flea market earlier in the morning.  I stopped off at my buddy's table instead, chatted with him for a few minutes, then headed home without making a single show purchase.

It kind of makes me wonder if card shows are still something I enjoy attending.  I have already cut out local shows that charge admission or parking.  Now the lone free show near my house is filled with dealers selling stuff I don't have a lot of interest in and the crowds are getting a little too large for my liking.

Maybe I need a change.

Last week, The Shlabotnik Report featured a post summarizing his trip to a postcard show.  Now I've shown off a few postcards on this blog, but there have plenty of others that I've kept to myself since there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest among my readers.

In spite of that, I figured I'd show a few that I have picked up in the last year.  Let's start off with a pair featuring Milwaukee Downer College:

After going to the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the early 50's, my mom transferred to Milwaukee Downer to get her degree in occupational therapy.  Less than a year after moving to Wisconsin, she met my father at a Hawaii club dance and the rest is history.

Another interest of mine is the Kintaikyo Bridge in Iwakuni City.  On my father's side of the family, I have relatives who were caretakers of this bridge.

My dad's uncle and cousin's husband helped with the reconstruction of the bridge during the Showa Period in 1953.

His cousin's son was the master carpenter for the Heisei reconstruction in 2005.  When my parents visited Japan in the mid 2000's, they met him for the first time and walked across the newly constructed bridge.

All three of these postcards have very similar backs.

The only difference I spotted was the small text printed on the lefthand side of each postcard.

I have one more postcard related item I'd like to share.  While searching for cards related to the Golden Gate Bridge, I came across the 1993 Skyline San Francisco set:

I purchased it on eBay back in October, but when I received it... I thought it might be a set of postcards based on the back of the packaging:

Actually... like the cover of the set states, there were actually trading cards inside:

Since this is more of a postcard related post, I won't spend too much time going over this set.  However here's a quick look at it:

Here's the card that inspired this purchase:

1993 Skyline San Francisco Scenes #1

Does anyone else think the borderless design resembles 1992 Stadium Club?

The back of the card features a write up on the famous bridge, which is a symbol of San Francisco.

Well that's it for today.  I know postcards aren't exactly trading cards.  But they're still photos printed on cardstock that people enjoy collecting.  And as luck would have it... I've discovered there's an event held three times a year at Golden Gate Park called the Vintage Paper Fair.  All of the 2025 dates have passed, but the promoter says he's planning on three more dates next year.  I'm hoping to attend at least one.  I bet I don't see a single Pokemon or graded sports card there.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!