Showstoppers

Sometimes you go to a card show and wander around aimlessly from table to table hoping to stumble upon something halfway worthwhile.  Others, you get sucked into the timeless vortex of one or two tables and barely make it to three quarters of the show.

The latter of these two scenarios was my more recent experience, as the firehouse in my locality had its monthly show this past weekend.  I hadn't made it out to the show the past couple months, so I was overdue for some discount box rummaging.  I was at the show for a little over two hours and made it to a grand total of three tables in that time.  Needless to say the gettin' was good!

The Gary Carter card above was one of about 20 2004 Fan Favorites singles that I stumbled across for a dime apiece.  Fan Favorites is one of those sets that is on the 'automatic' list, meaning that if I ever see one in a dime box, it automatically gets pulled without a second of consideration.  Even though I'm mainly working on the 2005 set, I can't turn down these things no matter the year.

Also for a dime a pop, I was able to knock out 33 base cards from my still-active 2014 Heritage want list.  I was shocked at how many cards that I still needed.  And, never mind the short prints, that's a story for a different book.  Anyhow, that leaves me still just five cards shy of completing the 425-card base checklist.  Not too shabby!

This pesky Anthony Rendon rookie was a card still M.I.A. from my 2013 Topps Update set.  I think I'm down to maybe three or four that I still need in order to put this set to sleep.

And, winding down the set-collecting motif, I found 20 '77 commons for my ongoing pursuit of that vintage set. Most were pretty beat up, but some were actually decent.  Hey, for just a nickel each, you can't really quibble with the condition a whole lot, can you?

Okay, enough with this rigid set-collecting stuff, onto the singles and so forth.  Here are some of the dime-priced highlights from my recent card show visit.  I'll try to include as little commentary as possible.  After all, you're here to look at cards, not read my prattlings.

First, the Mets...

Hooray for oddballs!!

One of the most exciting finds.  This one is a refractor.

A Pacific mini.  I had no inkling that such things even existed.

Almost bought this d'Arnaud rookie card several times off eBay.  Glad I didn't!

Tom Terrific for a dime.  Never gets old!

Coincidentally, Harvey is slated to make his 2015 Spring debut today versus Detroit.  Many of us Mets fans will be anxiously glued to the TV or radio for this one.

Okay, and now some of my favorite dime-priced non-Mets from the recent hunt...

Was pretty surprised to find this.  Normally, some of the other annoying vendors comb through the dime boxes from this particular seller and pluck out cards like this to re-sell for ridiculous markups.  I've seen it happen and have been pretty pissed about it.  Thankfully, I got there early enough before gems like this could be snatched away.

From 2001 Topps Traded.  I totally forgot about El Duquecito, who never lived up to the expectations that he perhaps was unfairly saddled with.  The Cuban import went 0-6 in three big league seasons with New York and Milwaukee.  Right or wrong, I was almost as excited to find this as I was the Wacha.

Wow, this one blew me away.  As scary as that Donny Baseball t-shirt is, that's how amazing this photo is!

Gotta come clean, I had no idea Julio ever played for the White Sox.

Love finding minor league cards of guys I collect.

Or cards like this, featuring a player I collect in his college duds.

Not just a minor league Mike, but a red foil parallel or a minor league Mike.

Early Bernie with the aviator glasses.

Mid-90s Stadium Club inserts put to shame anything Topps trots out there as inserts nowadays.

Go back to my previous post in regards to my unhealthy liking of Canseco.

Ditto.

I still haven't scored any of the new-age Topps Tek.  But, the old stuff is probably better anyhow.

Remember these All-Star inserts from '91 Fleer?  I think they were only inserted into rack packs, right?  I could be wrong about that.  All I know is that I had awful luck pulling them back then.

Found a few great addition for my Jose Fernandez collection.

I guess I'm just a bad baseball fan, because in addition to pleading ignorance about Julio Franco's time in Chicago's South Side, I also don't recall Bobby O pitching in the Bronx.  Perhaps coincidentally, both were one-year stops and both happened during the '94 strike shortened season.

Okay, I think that will suffice.  You get the idea.  These shows are dangerous.  It's impossible to leave the place spending less than 20 bucks.  At least when the show is really good and all the best vendors are there.

It's probably a very good thing that these are but once a month!

MK