A week ago Saturday, I was scheduled to play in my final slow-pitch softball tournament of the year. Temps were in the 70s, which is hard to believe for the first week of November in my area. Only problem was Mother Nature decided to let it rain 2 inches over night. I was a little disappointed because this was the last chance I would see some of these guys for a few months, but also a little excited because I now had no plans for the day. A quick online search revealed a card show a little over an hour's drive away.
I attended a show at the same location back in September, but did not get to spend much time there. This time I did not foresee any time constraints. I was proved wrong. Both my wife and daughter came along with my son and me since the show was in a mall. Perfect chance for them to do some shopping. After 2 hours, they were ready to go, and we had only been to 3 of the 50 tables. I was content with our 2 hours of digging and decided getting lunch was more important.
As you can guess, most of our time was spent going through value boxes. My focus was to find some Altuves for my son's collection, some Cardinals for me, and some cheap trade bait. There are a ton of team collectors on TCDB that have cards I need, so I was hoping to find something for them. Even when adding the cost of postage for a trade, I still come out ahead in most cases because of having to pay the regional premium for Cardinals.
Our first stop was not a planned one. This dealer had quite a few boxes set up, but most were $3-5. Not a bad price, but I wanted to hit the cheaper boxes first. He was very friendly and struck up a conversation about baseball in general with my son and me. He told my son to pick out $5 of cards for free. He found 2 Altuves that were $1 each. We thanked him and planned to revisit his table, but time did not allow it. I feel a little guilty for not buying anything from him, but will remember to next time I see him.
Our first real stop was a dealer with quite a few boxes but no pricing. He owned a card shop about an hour from the show and was looking to downsize his boxes. His pricing was more than fair. Anything in a top loader was $1-3, sleeved cards 50 cents, unsleeved cards 12 for $1. We spent well over an hour at this table and spent $13 total.
These 2 cards were $5. I was surprised to see the dealer had a 400-count box of Pirates. I picked these up for Trading Bases friend Ron B. The Taillon is numbered to 75, the Wagner to 99. Hayes is an Atomic refractor.
I pulled 96 unsleeved cards to make up the last $8. There was a ton of value in these for less than a dime a card.
There were a ton of Panini parallels in the boxes, but also some nice Topps ones, like the 2 Pink Wave refractors in the 3rd scan. I pulled about every Cardinals I could find without checking my wantlist. The 8 cards in the 4th scan ended up being duplicates, but for less than $1 I will be ok.
My son added 7 new Altuve cards to his collection. He remembered to bring along his have list, so no doubles this time.
I pulled quite a few Pirates for Ron B. I really liked the Teal Wave Bell and the Topps Chrome Sapphire Reynolds in the second scan.
All of these Panini cards are trade bait.
I pulled 4 Cardinals for a little over $2. The 2 Chrome Sapphire cards were 50 cents each, the Wong relic was $1, and the Sosa was a dime.
I believe the Altuve cards were $2.50.
All the Pirates were a dime each except the Hayes, which was $1. The Waddell is a green refractor numbered to 99.
The last 4 cards are all trade bait. I was in a hurry to find a few cards to make an even $10. I know the Devers relic was $1. All in all a great show. My son and I did great only spending $23 in 2 hours. My wife and daughter went well over that. Turns out clothes shopping gets to be expensive.
Great value!! I would have spend forever in the unsleeved 12/$1 box!
ReplyDeleteIt was fun going through them. If all goes well, he should be at a show I plan to attend in December. Hoping for a restock.
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