More Shopping with a Purpose: SPs

I trust everyone had an enjoyable weekend; I sure did.  Yesterday afternoon, my dad and I took in the Mets/Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia.  In between the rain drops, we watched Matt Harvey dominate the Phillies lineup, while the New York bats pounded out a season-high nine extra-base hits, including four by David Wright.  An 8-0 final score made the ride home a pleasant one, heavy I-95 volume and all.

Anyhow, my previous post detailed a bit of the laundry-list kind of mindset I brought to Friday's card show at my local shopping mall.  But, while lists are fine and dandy, you can't always predict what you'll find at a show and how it will shuffle things onto or off your premeditated task list.

For instance, I had no idea I'd come across any 2011 Heritage short prints, but come across them I did.  I found not one, but two copies of the above Mauer SP in a box at my favorite vendor's table (the lady I described in the prior post).  The best part?  Only a nickel per card!  The Mauers were innocently mixed in with the rest of regular '11 Heritage commons.  And so was this one:

And these three:

So for the grand sum of 30 cents, I snagged six short prints!  It's a good thing I still need cards from the 425-card base checklist, otherwise I probably wouldn't have spent the time flipping through the entire row of Heritage commons.  And speaking of the regular checklist, I found eight cards I needed, thus leaving me five cards shy of base-set completion.  To say the least, a very productive stop!

By the way, while the extra Mauer is already earmarked for somebody, the Keppinger (#456) is a double.  So if anyone is trying to knock out the SP list from 2011, give me a shout and I'd be happy to PWE-it your way.

The five-cent Heritage '11 SPs were among my first purchases at the show, and sent me forth with a pretty sunny disposition for the remainder of the show.  In other words, if I didn't find any further super bargains it would be O.K. -- no need to get greedy, after all.

But, then I came across the table of another seller whom I had done business with before.  His table was much more sparse than usual, but what he did bring with him included various plastic snap-tight cases stocked with SPs and parallels from this year's Heritage, Archives and flagship sets.  The sticker on the top of the case containing Heritage SPs read "$1 each".  Bingo!

Most of the really big names were absent, but when you're talking about short prints and the high price tag that most sellers normally attach to them, every name on the checklist is important.  The cheapest I had seen for any 2013 Heritage SPs at any show I'd been to this year was three bucks.  Thus, I was feeling pretty darn good about a buck-a-pop for any short print.  So I went through the stack and yanked the cards my collection lacked, which included the goofy Wade Miley as well as these six:

Seven SPs for seven bucks; I can live with that.  The Chen especially was a nice bargain, since his cards' price tags are normally socked up since this is quasi-Orioles country.

At the same table, another little plastic case that contained 2013 Archives SPs.  The top card showing was Gregg Jefferies:

A lethal combo for me: a player I collect, who happens to be a Met, on a base design that I really dig ('90 Topps).  Sold!  I had been eyeballing this card for the past couple of weeks on eBay but hadn't found a price that I deemed reasonable.  This one -- and all the Archives SPs -- were marked at $2 apiece.  So, I gave in and grabbed this Jefferies as well as another SP from the set that was in the "gotta have it" category:

My heart be still!  The sexiest Topps design ever [Ed. Note: That's just my warped opinion, calm down.] featuring one of my baseball heroes from boyhood.  Freakin' great photo, too!

While the two-dollar-per-card price tag may not have been the best, I felt good about getting these two cards. After all, I rationalized, I made out like a bandit with the Heritage SPs.  Why not pass the savings along, right? Plus, they're kick-ass cards!

Oh, and for any football card collectors out there, the same seller had the Football Archives short prints for a buck-per.  I found the two Buffalo Bills representatives from the stack and took 'em home, as well.

Even if you're not a football collector, I'm sure you can no doubt appreciate the designs on these two.  They are, after all, the same at the baseball releases from the respective years ('92 and '93).

All told, this was another great Concord Mall show.  It's been the most consistently satisfying of all the area shows I've attended since moving to Delaware.  I suppose any time you can knock out some list shopping while finding a nice array of surprises, you've got yourself a good show experience.

Here's hoping all of my fellow collectors and bloggers find the same fortunes in your neck of the woods!

MK