Hung out with two of my buddies at the GT Sports Marketing Show on Saturday and it ended up being a pretty interesting experience. I've mentioned both of these guys in past blog posts. One of them is Mike who I worked with at a card shop back in the 90's... and the other guy is Ben who has sold me tons of cards over the years.
Mike signed up to sell... and told me I could use one of his display cases... so I packed up a shoebox with the remnants of my card show inventory (mostly extra graded singles and sticker autographs). A few minutes after arriving, Ben walked up and we started chatting about cards.
Within thirty minutes... we worked out a deal for my entire inventory with the exception of a few items that I'll share at the end of the post. There were some pretty nice cards in the sale including a PSA 10 Kobe Bryant Bowman's Best rookie card. I gave him a good deal with plenty of room for him to make money off this purchase... and he saved me the time of trying to sell stuff over the course of who knows how long. It was pretty much a win/win situation.
Now that I had nothing but free time and money burning a hole in my pocket... I was free to explore the show. However before I get into what I picked up, I wanted to show off a card that Ben let me have:
1978 Topps #707
He had brought some cards of his own to sell or trade at the show and this was part of a stack of vintage he had. Within the stack he had three copies of this card. I asked how much he'd want for one and he told me to take it.
I'd classify this card as "naked eye mint", because when this card was in a top loader and penny sleeve, it looked really clean with the exception of being off-centered and having the smudged ink at the bottom of the card.
However scanning the card reveals it's miscut and has border issues as well. Oh well... it's still an attractive hall of fame rookie card for my collection. Thanks Ben! I appreciate you purchasing my card show inventory... and hooking me up with this rookie card.
Okay... let's get into what I bought at the card show over the course of nine hours...
Purchase #1: Cheap Buster Posey Insert $1
2008 Playoff Contenders Round Numbers Gold #1 (#'d 225/250)
I'm a Buster Posey fan. Found this card sitting in a dollar box, so I grabbed it. Hard to pass up a pre-rookie insert of a possible future hall of famer that's #'d to 250 for a buck.
Purchase #2: Asian Actor Autograph $10
I didn't actually buy this from a vendor. A customer was interested in trading for one of Ben's cards. I noticed this card sitting in the guy's box and asked him if he'd be willing to sell it. After not being able to work out a deal with my buddy, he offered it to me for $10.
2022 Topps Star Wars Signature Series #A-PL
There aren't a lot of Asians in the Star Wars universe... so I wanted to add this to my collection since the price was reasonable.
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee plays Captain Carson Teva in The Mandalorian. He doesn't have a huge role... but he's been in two episodes plus another one in Book of Boba Fett.. I've also remember him from Kim's Convenience which is a television show I watched on Netflix.
Purchase #3: Memorabilia Cards $5
One of the dealers had a box of $2 autographs and memorabilia cards. I ended up finding three cards and asked if he'd take five bucks. One of the cards is for someone else, so I didn't bother scanning it.
The main card I wanted was this Jackie Robinson:
2012 Topps Retired Number Patch #RN-JR
It actually has some edge issues and the fabric is coming off of the card... but it's for the personal collection... so I didn't mind.
The third and final card I found was this Jared Goff for my UC Berkeley PC:
2016 Panini Black Gold Shadow Box Swatches #10 (#'d 183/199)
The bad news is I already have this card in the collection. The good news is my nephew is currently at Berkeley, so I'll just give it to him. Card collecting never really stuck with him, but maybe this cool looking shadow box will catch his eye and finally lure him to the club.
Purchase #4: Cheap Rookies and a Promo $1
There weren't a lot of dealers at this particular show... but there were literally hundreds of people waiting around to get things signed by GTSM's autograph guests. While these people waited... they'd browse the vendor's boxes.
I walked passed this guy's table a few times, but there were always people standing in front of it. Towards the late afternoon, I walked around the show one more time and got a chance to flip through his 3 for $1 box. Didn't find anything crazy, but it was cool to find a pair of rookie cards from my childhood:
1979 Topps #719
I loved guys who hit for average... and Pedro fit the description. This is another one of those "naked eye mint" cards. When I first saw this card, it looked like it had just been pulled from a pack. Couldn't pass it up for 33¢. The card isn't as clean as I thought, but it's still nice.
1983 Donruss #190
When I was a kid... I had a copy of this card and treasured it. That one is long gone, but I do have one sitting in my 1983 Donruss set. Now I have one in my 80's binder as well.
The last card was sort of a freebie, since singles were 50¢ each or three for a dollar. I ended up grabbing this promo for the Ichiro collection:
2016 Topps Now Holiday Promo
It's some holiday Topps Now card with Kris Bryant and Gary Sanchez on the front... and Ichiro Suzuki and David Ortiz on the back:
Right after I made this purchase... I ran into a guy who bought from me at the previous card show. He was telling me about this dealer's crazy dollar box. I had looked at it before and wasn't too impressed, but decided to go back and look a little closer...
Purchase #5: Some Dollar Cards $10
If you're a prospector... this dollar box was for you. I stood there for about twenty minutes sifting through every penny-sleeved card and picked out twelve. Here's nine of them:
I haven't had access to recent rookie crops, so I snagged some familiar names. I normally don't pay a buck for any new Topps inserts (unless they're rare or contain a signature), but I don't have a lot of Mike Trout cards in my collection. As for the Miguel Cabrera... I know some people aren't fans of the negative refractors... but I like them.
The other three cards are for other people... so I didn't bother scanning them.
Purchase #6: End of the Day Sets $10
The vendor who was set up next to us was packing up with no plan to return on Sunday. He had a bunch of sets. The 1989 Topps MLB Debut (which is actually a 1990 set) caught my eye, because I want the Griffey. Unfortunately... the set had been cherry picked. He had a complete 1995 Topps set that was sealed and I need it for my complete run of Topps sets. He told me I could have that set and the two other sets in the picture for $10.
As for the 1988 Topps UK Minis... the set was missing the Bonds which was kind of a bummer. On the flip side... I ended up breaking up the set and filling a lot of spots in my hall of fame and superstar binders.
At the end of the day... I walked out with a small stack of cards, a few sets, and extra spending cash. Overall... I'd call it a successful day at the show.
I'll wrap things up with some cards that I didn't sell to Ben and brought home...
Keeper #1: 2013 Topps UFC Knockout Auto Relic #KAR-AS
This guy is one of the all-time greats... and even though this is a sticker-graph, I doubt I'll actually dish out the dough for an on-card autograph.
Keeper #2: 2010 TriStar Obak Autographs Brown #A70
Another sticker-graph... that I ended up holding onto. I'm not a big comic book guy, but I remember the splash he made when Spawn was released back in the 90's. He also made news within the hobby when he bought McGwire's 70th, Sosa's 66th, and Bonds' 73rd home run balls.
Keeper #3: 1981 Granny Goose Team Set
The last item I kept was this food issue set I've written about before. Rickey Henderson was signing at the show, so I brought it with the idea of having him sign his card:
Unfortunately... all of the autograph spots were sold out. This was one of those items which meant more to me than it would to Ben, so I held onto it.
Well that wraps up another card show adventure. The three day weekend allowed me to write a few extra posts, so I'll actually have three (possibly four posts) this week. Thanks for taking the time to check out the blog.
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
