St. Louis Card Show Recap

The weather on Saturday was perfect for a day away.  It rained almost all day long, which was needed.  It made my decision very easy to make the 2.5 hour drive to a card show in St. Louis.  My wife tagged along with my son and me but opted to go shopping while we spent close to 2 hours at the show.  

We arrived about 30 minutes after the doors opened, and the show floor was pretty packed.  We walked the entire floor to get an idea of what was there before making any purchases.  I saw very few value boxes.  Most were $1 and up, which is still a good deal, but I favor the dime or quarter boxes.  Plenty of the cases full of graded cards and a very good selection of ungraded vintage.  We spent $80 with 3 different dealers.  I will spare you the trade bait I bought and just show the keepers.

Our first purchase of $5 was a mix of quarter box cards and some top loaded cards that were 50% off.  

I am not a huge fan of buybacks, but I will still buy them for the right price.  

The 2012 Gold and 2021 T206 Altuve cards were $1 each, while the Heritage insert was a quarter.  

Our second purchase came from a vintage dealer.  He had 3 showcases full of ungraded vintage along with a great shoebox of Cardinals vintage sorted by year.  My type of dealer.  We spent $40 with him.

Some colorful 1960 Topps

1961 Topps

My scanner cut off the top of these 2 1965 Topps cards.  Both are in great shape.

These 2 1969 Topps Gibson cards were in the showcase.  Both have some soft corners but are crease free.  I believe they were $20 combined.  With only 2 cards left, this should be my first 1960s team set completed.  

This 1972 Topps Carlton is in great shape besides a soft upper right corner.  I was thrilled to find it for $6.  4 more high numbered cards left to complete this set.  

My third purchase was also with a vintage dealer.  He had boxes sorted by number from various 1950s and 1960s sets, but told me there were few Cardinals in there.  I pulled some nice 1962 Topps for another trader and 1 Cardinal I needed for a total of $30.

My 1964 Topps team set is also getting close to completion with only 6 left.  Most are high numbers or Hall of Famers like Gibson.  This Flood that is almost mint condition cost $5.  Note how he spelled out his name on the back fingers of his glove.  

Overall it was a fun show and continued my trend of buying vintage more than modern at shows.  I am at the point in my collection where I would rather spend $4-5 on a nice vintage common instead of a modern refractor.  It has also given me an opportunity to educate my son about past Cardinals players who are not Hall of Famers.  He spent part of our drive home researching Flood and discovering his impact on free agency.