Somebody had to give this card a good home

One of my goals while at the National was to finally reach the 80% plateau for the 1964 Topps set that I've been building.  On top of that, I wanted to pick up one of the two big pieces that I had in mind. 

On Saturday, I found a table that had quite a few '64 cards, and he actually had 2 Clemente's in one of the display cases.  I asked to see them, and right away the price tags jumped at me.

$125 and $150.   Well beyond what I wanted to pay.  I was honest and I immediately told him that.  I asked if he had something a little more off grade. 

I saw this one, and as you can see, it's beat up a bit.   It still had a price tag of $50 on it!!  I was beginning to think that the Clemente cards have some kind of rare metal in their make up.

I got the card down to $40, and now it's part of my set.  A character card to say the least. 

I bought 17 '64 cards yesterday, at a total of $91.   It gave me a quick reminder that I'm at the point in the set where the $$ amount is going to go up, because I still have a few star cards to buy and there are also a bunch of high numbers that I still have to obtain. 

Now that I've hit the 80% mark (another Jan. 1st goal finished!!), I'm going to try and get the set down below 100 cards needed.  I need 114 right now.

I may have to find more cards like the Clemente that need a good home...if you know what I'm saying.

thanks for reading, Robert

How's the Plan going you ask?

Well, after getting my ass out of bed just before 9AM on Friday, I wound up arriving in Cleveland at about 1115, and got inside at 1130.   I kind of felt like I was late arriving for a final exam, but in this case I can still achieve a passing grade, because I'm grading on the curve and I'm the only one in the class!!

As far as the five step plan went, he's a quick summary...

1.  1964 Topps

The only Roberto Clemente card I spotted today was graded EX-MT 8, and priced at $135.  Pass on that one.

I'm beginning to think that the Phil Niekro RC really doesn't exist.  I'm going to have to start asking around when I'm on the floor on Saturday.

0 cards purchased, but it's on the radar...

2.  2014 Series 2

The plan was to pick up a series 2 box on the cheap to finish the set off.  Every table that had Series 2 had them priced at $65.

I have just two words to describe this part of the plan.....F%$^ that

3.   SNI

"I am just 1 card away from finishing off two more teams (Angels, Mets).  I'd also like to try and find a few Rockies and Orioles cards for this set as well.  I'm 42 cards away from 1200 for the set; that would be a nice number to hit, but it's not a necessity."

68(!) cards picked up today was way better than I thought I would do.  Not only did I finish off the Angels and Mets, there are 2 other teams now at 49 (Jays and A's), the Rangers are at 48, and the Rays and Nationals are at 47.

I guess you could sum up how I felt about the rush of serial numbered cards by this Tim Wakefield 2010 National Chicle card I bought today.

4.  Other people's want lists

I did manage to hit a couple of people's lists today, but I also picked up a few cards for some other people at ridiculously low prices.   I'll be sending a few cards around to a few of you in the next week or so...

5.  Vintage

I did fine with this portion of the plan.  I found a 12/$5 table of '60s vintage, so I scooped up $20 worth to start.  The plan is to pick up more of that tomorrow. 

Off to bed now...7AM comes early....

thanks for reading, Robert

The Plan

Tomorrow is the big day.  Off to Cleveland to get into trouble buy some cards.  When I went to the show in May at Robert Morris college in the Pittsburgh suburbs, I stuck to the plan that I made before hand, and wound up spending a lot less than I budgeted.

The plan this time is pretty simple as well.   Five things I'd like to concentrate on during the first day, so I can use the 2nd day to wander the halls...

1.  1964 Topps 

Remember these?  It's been a couple of months since I posted a card from this set on the blog.  I only need 13 cards to pass the 80% goal that I set for myself at the beginning of the year.

The bigger goal here is to try and pick up either the Clemente, the Niekro RC, or both if I can find decent copies on the cheap. 

2.  2014 Series 2

If I can find a box of this on the cheap, I'll grab it.  Time to put this years set to bed.

3.   SNI

I am just 1 card away from finishing off two more teams (Angels, Mets).  I'd also like to try and find a few Rockies and Orioles cards for this set as well.  I'm 42 cards away from 1200 for the set; that would be a nice number to hit, but it's not a necessity.

4.  Other people's want lists

There are a few people out there that I owe, so I've built some mini want lists for those people.  Hopefully I can find some other cards on the cheap to sprinkle around the blogosphere. 

5.  Vintage 

I had some good luck at the Baltimore National finding some good vintage for cheap, and I'm hoping to do the same here.  I'll probably pick up a few more cards from some of the sets that are remaining in the tournament. 

There's also the long overdue completion of the '73T set as well, but finding a reasonably priced Schmidt rookie is pretty tough to do...

Looking forward to tomorrow is probably an understatement. 

thanks for reading, Robert

The last of the National additions

I figured instead of going into a lengthy post detailing the remainder of my purchases, I'd just give out some of the highlights of what's left over.

A couple of hockey HOFers from early 1970s Topps sets are always a good pickup...the Ullman is the first Leaf card from the 71-72 sets that I own.  50 cents was well worth it.

I figured I'd throw together a scan of some of the other cards I also purchased from the same table for 50 cents apiece.  The Aaron is very well loved, but at 50 cents I just couldn't say no.  I grabbed quite a few 71's, 73's and a few 75's from this table, the only "oddball" was the '72 Killebrew IA card you see below. 

Yes...all were 50 cents apiece

A '69 Steve Carlton in damn good condition....and no, it wasn't 50 cents...

At $12, this was the priciest card for me at the show...well worth it

Some more '64 cards that feature McCovey and Yaz...as I mentioned the other day, I was able to snag a few of the league leader cards from the '64 set at good prices, I believe that these 3 cards cost me a total of $12.

Another nice find for me...this Piniella RC set me back $8.

You can't tell me that it doesn't look like Sweet Lou spent too much time in a tanning booth

All totaled, I spent a little over 6 weeks of my budget at the National, but the cards that I added to my collection included a lot of great finds at some pretty sweet deals, so I really can't complain. 

Besides, what else was I going to do with my bonus check from work anyhow??

Thanks for reading, Robert

National Saturday: Flat rate cards

It took a little time for me to decide how to split up the Saturday purchases that I made at the National.  Again, at least in my opinion I got some more great deals on my 2nd day at the show.  After a little bit of thought, I figured I would split the first post among two tables where the cards I purchased were an easy flat rate.

The first table was actually the Dave & Adam's booth.  I'm sure you're familiar with the Western New York multi store/internet retailer.  Well, as usual they had their mega sized booth with some pretty good deals on wax. 

I am proud to say I resisted the temptation to purchase any wax at the show!!  But...tucked in the back corner of their booth, I found several boxes of jersey cards at a flat rate of $4 per card.  A digging I went...

The A.J. Burnett card I displayed last Sunday on my post was one of the 7 cards I picked up.  The 2nd card is one that I failed to scan before I sent it off to Brian at Play at the Plate.  I'm sure once Brian receives it, he'll show it off for you.  The next three were all Maple Leafs jerseys, a particular weakness of mine as well.

Sittler jersey card for $4!  You bet it is coming home with me.

I also found another pitching star among the boxes, a longtime Blue Jays star that I couldn't leave at the show.

Calling Dr. Halladay

After what seemed an eternity digging through these boxes, I finally found a jersey card of the newest PC that I've started....Jim Thome

The first...

While I spent roughly 30 minutes looking through the myriad of jersey cards at that booth, the next purchase is quite the opposite.

On my out of the show, I hit a table that had a few people milling around.  One of the display cases had a starburst sign on it that caught my eye.

"All cards in this case, $5"

OK...let's take a look then!  Needless to say within 5 minutes, I was 4 cards closer to my '64 Topps set.  I was able to snag 4 League Leaders cards that he had...

Ford, Bouton, Pascaul, Koufax, Drysdale...all on 2 cards for $10!!  You betcha!

The Killer and Hank Aaron....2 cards for $10...how can I say no??  I couldn't...

The 2nd day of the National gave me the opportunity to do something that I wanted to do, which was to start finding some of the "medium" priced cards for this set.  Yes, there still is the matter of cards like Mantle, Rose, Clemente and others that are going to be tough to find for less than triple digits, but those are later on down the line.

1 more post of National treasures to show off....and yes, it is more vintage ranging from 64-75...

Thanks for reading, Robert

How often do you find cards priced at 15/$1?

OK, let me rephrase that post title.  How often do you find 1975 Topps cards priced at 15/$1?  One of the tables at the very back of the National had cards listed at 15/$1, and I dove right in.

How could I not?

I was absolutely shocked when I came across a stack of 1975 Topps cards in there, and the digging began in earnest.

 

I just couldn't pass them up, you know what I'm saying?  My original plan was to put a dent into my '77 Topps set, but for some reason every table that I came across that had '77s had them at ridiculous prices (at least in my opinion), so I wound up picking up more '75s than I had originally bargained for.  

I picked up 69 cards for this set at this table, and found a couple of '73s to bring the total amount of cards to $5!

I even found one of the worst airbrush jobs on a card imaginable in this box.  If I were a Cardinals fan, I'd be disappointed to say the least.

Was the attempt really even worth it?

The dealer at that table even threw in a couple of '60s cards I found in her "bargain bin" as well...

I spent a total of $5 at that table, and probably had the most fun there over all the other tables that I visited over the 2 days. 

Like I mentioned earlier in this post, one of the main objectives was to put a dent into my '77 set.  If I could call anything at the National a disappointment, it would be the fact that I only managed to score these 8 cards.

Some names I remember in here

This post rounds out my Friday experience at the National.  I spent $88 on the first day, and this sums up what kind of damage I did:

• 8 cards towards the '77 set
• 69 cards towards the '75 set
• 40 cards for the insanity set
• 4 jersey/relic cards (including 2 Jays)
• 5 '62s
• 39 cards towards the '64 set
• 8 cards towards the'73 set
• Also picked up vintage cards from '63/'65/'66/'68 sets

Saturday's fun is still to come....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Now I know where all the serial #'d cards went

As promised, more to show you from my first day at the National.  Tonight's post will feature more modern stuff, purchased on the cheap (did you expect anything else?)

I found a table that was offering up relics/autos for 60-70% off.  I could have sat there and loaded up on a bunch of stuff, but I didn't really want to blow a good portion of my budget on these types of cards.  I wound up purchasing 4 cards for $15, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

This first one is headed to a certain Texas Rangers fan....

Brian, I have 2 cards coming at ya!

The next 2 are welcome, and cheap additions to my Blue Jays auto/relic collection.  I'm hoping that both of these guys turn it around soon, or the wild card in 2012 will become just another memory...

The Lind is a pretty nice looking auto if I do say so...

This next card is another sad obsession that is plaguing me.  The letter manupatches are becoming a quirky little side bar in my collecting habit.  This one not only has the first letter of my last name, but the team colors are the same as my high school colors....green, white and gold.

 

Danny Putnam.   You remember him, don't you?  Come on....think!!!

OK, I'll end your misery.  Danny spent a grand total of 17 days in the majors during the 2007 season.  Come on, you don't remember his HR off Neal Musser of the Royals?  The A's were ahead 12-3 at the time....

LOL...OK, enough, I get it.  The card actually looks better than what it scans....and like I said, the letters are a bit of a weakness.

Now, as the title of the post leads you to believe, a little bit of insanity took place at the show.   I printed out the entire want list, all 900+ numbers needed, and wandered the floor.  Sure enough, I came upon a table that had boxes of nothing but serial numbered cards for 50 cents apiece.

Not just little two row shoe boxes.  Monster boxes.  2 full 3000 count boxes of nothing but serial numbered baseball cards.

Now only if they had a chair I could have used, I would have spent more money at their booth.  But, the lack of seating caused me to stick to my predetermined limit of $20 per table (I am a cheap son of a gun...).

$20 is worth 40 cards....sure enough I found 40 numbers that I needed that were of Topps/Bowman products, and went on my merry way.

See if you can spot the error in the first scan...

There should have been one more lefty hitter in this scan

Here's some more serial #'d goodness for you:

I even did reasonably well in picking out teams where I needed cards, such as the Rockies, Royals and Brewers. 

I still haven't gone through my entire Friday at the show, but suffice it to say that these 2 purchases were the only modern cards I picked up on day 1.  Not what I had expected to do, but hey you never know what's going to fall in your lap until you get there, right??

Thanks for reading, Robert

Time to start showing off some of what I picked up at the National

Believe it or not, I did get to the National with a bit of a plan in mind.  I had printed out my want lists for everything but this year's cards (they're all over the place, so no sense rushing into the 2012 set finishing just yet) and made my way into the show on Friday. 

My standard M.O. when walking into a large card show is always the same.   Walk the floor for the first 30-60 minutes and get the "lay of the land".  I've been to big shows before (250+ tables) and this method of attacking the show has always worked for me. 

I had seen layouts online of the floor plan for the Baltimore Convention Center, and thought nothing of it.  Boy, what a mistake that was.  I had vastly underestimated the size of the hall, and by the end of the first 45 minutes I had probably walked 2/3 of the hall...and was tired.

I truly learned then what I had read many times before, that you cannot hope to see everything at the National in 1 day. I also wound up collecting a lot more vintage than I expected, largely because after hunting around, the deals on cards from the '64 and '75 Topps sets were just too good to pass up.

The '64 set is my weakness, and this show helped me get some cards that were in pretty decent shape.  The first table I hit had commons/semistars for 50% off that were in great condition, mostly in EX-MT.  Even the checklist that I found at that table was unmarked and in beautiful shape.

That same table also had some '62s as well, but they weren't in as good condition as the '64s, so I only picked up a handful.

Easily the highlight of day 1 for me at the show was the final table that I hit, where I hunkered down in front of a 2 row "shoebox" that had vintage for 3/$1.

Hot damn.  In hindsight, I probably should have bought more from him, but the hour was getting late, and I was getting a little tired after a few hours of walking and digging, so I only bought $10 worth of cards from him. 

Here's a handful of '65s that I picked up from that table.  The '65 set is something that I've never considered collecting, but it is growing on me....

Here's a sampling of some of the '64 cards that I picked up, the scan is actually a mixed bag of the two different tables that I picked the cards up from:

It's tough to see, but the Grover Powell card in the center is in really good shape, indicative of the first table that I hit.  Most of the others were from the 3/$1 table, but still were in OK enough shape to be worth purchasing. 

For now, this post is just the start of day 1....still quite a few good cards to show you...

Thanks for reading, Robert

I'm sure that the Jays could use this guy right about now

A.J. Burnett spent three years in Toronto, the latter of which was 2008, the year he set his career high in wins with 18.

Well, the way the guy is pitching right now, 18 looks like it's going to be equaled sometime during the month of August.

A.J.'s last two starts have been incredible.  A no-hit bid in Chicago broken up with 2 outs in the 8th inning, and today a 3 hit masterpiece in which he retired 18 straight until walking 2 batters after 2 outs in the 9th.

Currently, he's 14-3 with a 3.19 ERA.  Yes, that's a 3.19 ERA which includes the May 2nd start in which he gave up 12 earned runs in 2.2 innings.  Forget that start, and his ERA is 2.42.

I was fortunate enough to find this card at the National...$4.  2007 SPx Winning Materials.  I found this among many boxes of relics/autos at the Dave & Adam's booth.  They had everything marked down in those boxes to $4, and I was fortunate enough to find 7 cards that fit my collection(s) quite well.

This is one that I jumped at, one because it features A.J. as a Blue Jay, and 2nd because he has really helped change the culture in the Pirates clubhouse.  The interview he did with the local TV crew after the Chicago start really made me a believer.  The first question to him was "what did you think of your performance tonight?"  The answer started with "We won the ballgame".  Professional.  A.J. gets it, and I think that attitude is rubbing off on the entire clubhouse, which is why the Pirates are sitting in the thick of the wild card race right now.

There's still 8 weeks left in the season, and if Clint Hurdle can keep pushing the right buttons the way he has for the Pirates over the first 107 games, the Pirates may be playing something they haven't played in 20 years.

A meaningful game in October...

I'm sure A.J. would be happy with that...

thanks for reading, Robert

My thoughts on the National

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to peruse the Baltimore Convention Center for two days, and experience the sensory overload (at least for me) that is the National.  Before I get into all of that, I must say two things about the people of the state of Maryland.

1. They probably are the friendliest group of people I've encountered in any state that I've visited so far.
2. They do not know how to drive on Interstates.  (come on people...5 MPH below the speed limit in the left hand lane....)

Aside from all the great fun I had wandering from table to table and looking at some great memorabilia, I had plenty of great conversations with both dealers and collectors alike about the show, how well organized and laid out the convention center was, and the amount of money that was changing hands.

It's also sad when you see one transaction that involved more money than I spent in the two days there.  Yep, the last table I visited today I watched a gentleman purchase two cards for $350.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that the amount of money that was exchanged was a lot, it's just sad that I wasn't part of it (lol).

Of course, there were some things that were a little tough to swallow as well.  Two days admission and parking had me in for $80 combined before I even looked at a single card.  Not much I can do about either of those factors though.

I could go on and on, but I'm sure that would bore most of you to tears, since you've probably read many other posts on other blogs about their experiences.  I will say that I picked up quite a few cards at some really great prices, and dug through a lot of boxes during my time there (a couple that were even priced better than a dime box).

I saw quite a few cards that reminded me of other bloggers as well, especially this one:

Come on, for 33 cents you didn't expect me to leave it there....did you??

I have lots more to show you over the next few days...hopefully you don't fall asleep.

Thanks for reading, Robert