Enjoying A Card Show By Proxy

I'm guessing I haven't been to a card show in about 30 years.

It was probably 1992. I was starting my senior year in high school, and as often happens around that time in a young person's life, more important things take the place of beloved hobbies. That was around the time I stopped actively collecting baseball cards, a passion that stayed dormant until late 2015/early 2016, when I rediscovered these beautiful pieces of cardboard once again.

In this "second age" of collecting, I don't have nearly as much disposable income as I did in my youth (stupid rent/groceries/bills/adulting...). Plus I now currently live in an area that is pretty devoid of the hobby. There's apparently a hobby shop over the mountain that I've never visited, and the nearest card shows seem to all be in northern Virginia, which is a detriment in itself because I loathe driving to northern Virginia, due to roughly a dozen lanes of traffic filled with aggressive drivers. It's just not worth the 2 1/2-3 hour drive to dig through boxes of cheap cards. So, it's been awhile since I've enjoyed a good old fashioned card show.

Kevin (The Diamond King) recently announced that he was going to attend an upcoming card show, and threw out a little contest where the winner would get to use Kevin as their own little personal dime box buyer. As luck would have it, I won! So while I didn't get to peruse the boxes personally, I did get to ultimately feel that rush of discovering previously unknown cards now in my hands.

Part of Kevin's contest required listing what he should be on the hunt for. I'm a man easy to please, and could of just listed Red Sox cards, but I saw an opportunity to have some fun and be a little more selective. Although I did say any Red Sox cards would do, I picked out Pedro Martinez as a player of particular interest. Pedro played during that time when I wasn't collecting, so chances are high that any cards I got from the show would be ones I didn't have. I also picked three niche sets that I'm not actively trying to complete, but enjoy enough that I'll pick up cards here or there when I can.

I got my cards from Kevin last week, and as far as I'm concerned, he knocked it out of the park! Let's start with the Pedro cards he found:

 

Those are some sweet Pedros there, Kevin! I have the Topps base of the Divisional Highlight card, and  I'm glad to have the Chrome version too. (Pedro with his arm raised in victory is such a great shot!) The rest are welcome additions as well. Since I said any Red Sox cards really would be of interest, I also got a healthy dose of other players too.

 

Lots and lots of shiny cards, including a quartet of superstar Rafael Devers. The Martinez, Eovaldi, and Bradley are all serial numbered. That blue refractor from the 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary set is probably my favorite of the bunch.

 

Finally the niche cards. Kevin was able to find a trio of cards from one of the brands I was looking for, Fleer Laughlin World Series cards. 

 

 

I've always loved these cards, and was happy to see theses in the envelope. Even though I already had the two Red Sox cards, they are upgrades from what I have, so still a big win. I really do need to pick up a few more of these (in particular the 1971 set - I'm only 24 cards short of finishing that one!)

Thank you so much Kevin for allowing me to share in the fruits of your card show efforts!