My how the landscape has changed

I admit it, when it comes to cards, I am spoiled.  I grew up in a very large city, and the shows that I attended when I was younger were pretty damn good.  Mind you, when I was attending shows regularly, it was during the boom period between 1989-1993, when everybody and their brother was trying to make a buck selling cards. 

It was fun attending shows on a weekly basis, getting out and meeting people.  Looking for the latest and greatest cards amongst a group of 30-40 regular dealers. 

My how the landscape has changed.  I hit a mall show down in Pittsburgh yesterday, and if there were a total of 10 tables set up, I'd be surprised.  Even the mall show that was closer to my hometown here usually had about 20 tables up and running. 

Hopefully this is just an indicator of the time of year that we are in; summertime usually means more people outside, and card geeks like me having a harder time finding good card shows. 

I didn't fare too badly at the show however, I managed to pick up a few cards that were interesting.  First off, I always get a kick out of seeing a pitcher featured on a bat card, and this card here is no exception.

195 career hits..0 career HRs

It is a 2010 Topps Tribute card, #33/50 of Don Sutton.  The bat portion is kind of cool, it is so rough that you would think that you could get a splinter if you rubbed your finger the wrong way on the card!

I also snagged an auto of a 70's Dodger pitcher that is sure to make a Dodgers blogger happy.  (At least I hope it does, cause he's been waiting a while for my end of our trade)

My quest for the elusive 'dime box' came up empty again (do these things actually exist in the world?), the closest I could find was a 3/$1 box.  I was able to find a handful of vintage cards in there that were in decent shape, so in the pile they went...

The Dalton Jones card is actually in excellent shape, one of the best vintage cards I've ever got my grubby hands on.  The '64 Dick Williams is kind of rough, but still it's one more to check off the list. 

For those of you that follow hockey at all, one of the big themes of the weekend seemed to be the movement of brothers around the league.  Luke Schenn being reunited with brother Brayden in Philly, and Jordan Staal moving from Pittsburgh to Carolina to be with his brother Eric to name two. One of the best stories of the weekend was the brother of Montreal defenseman PK Subban, Malcolm, being drafted by the Bruins.  It was very cool the joy that PK expressed when his brothers' name was called; the rivalry that should develop between those two should be fun to watch for years to come.  I managed to snag a jersey card of big brother PK at the show...

Black Diamond has always been one of my favorite UD 'brands'

Maybe the lack of shows is another sign that I should be saving my money for the National at the beginning of August.  After all, 5 weeks isn't that long to wait, right??  Let's see if I can get there without the budget being dented too badly.

Thanks for reading, Robert