A Day At The Card Show!

It's been almost a year, but I was able to make it to another card show in my little part of the world! Nothing Earth-shattering, but I enjoyed taking my time and checking out all the glorious cardboard. There were probably close to 100 tables, yet only 5 were worthy of my money:

 

Purchase #1

 

I'm the kind of guy that will just walk up and down each isle and figure out where the deals are. The first table to catch my attention had a bunch of cards separated by player at a cost of 5/$1. That's an excellent price to add some Pedros to my collection, rounded out with a few Nomars and Boggs to boot! 

 

Favorite Card: 2001 Fleer Genuine - Pennant Aggression #3 PA Nomar Garciaparra 

 

Purchase #2 

 

This next table I was really exited for, as it had a ton of great cards, with one set of boxes dedicated to serial numbered cards, short-prints, relics, and autographs. More boxes were for other assorted parallels and oddballs. One of my goals for this day was to find some team specific "thank you's" I could send to a few of you out there. I was fortunate enough to find cards for about 3/4 of my list, which have already been mailed out and received. (The hunt as always continues for the others I feel deserve one.)

 

As for myself, I found a Red Sox short-print need:

 

I both love and hate this card. I love whimsical additions to cards. (Part of the reason the Holiday sets can be a lot of fun). At the same time, Rudy Giuliani is not a Red Sox fan and has little connection to the team. This card almost seems like a troll by a Yankee fan. Still, it's a short print I needed, and found within my price range.

 

I also found some other miscellaneous cards, including some vintage Hall of Famers, a fun Coca Cola oddball, and even a card I needed for the 1990 Glossy All-Star set!

 

Favorite card: 1969 Topps #425 Carl Yastrzemski (AS)

 

Purchase #3

 

This was the table I spent the most time on. More dime boxes, but not particularly organized.  They were mostly cards from the past few base and update sets. I took this opportunity to leaf through and find as many missing Red Sox cards as I could. Thanks to my efforts, I have now completed the 2023 and 2025 Topps Update Red Sox team sets, and have just one more card to go for the 2026 base set. 

 

 

The dealer also had some Bowman and Heritage in a quarter box, I picked up a few of those too.

 

I also took a gamble on some small team packs her had for sale. I knew most of them would be cards I already had (and probably just bought too!) but I knew I needed this Anthony insert so I figured why not?

 

 

For two bucks I got 5 cards I needed plus a bunch of extra Sox. Not a bad trade off.

 

 

Favorite card: 2026 Topps #15 Payton Tolle (Even though I already have this card, he's become a favorite and I found myself grabbing an extra copy of his rookie card.) 

 

Purchase #4

 

As my time was winding down, I stopped at one other table with some cards divided by team.  I only picked up these two cards, but they are very eye-catching!

 

Favorite card: 2026 Bowman Chrome - It Came to the League #IT-1 Franklin Arias (A fitting monster card for October!) 

 

Purchase #5

 

 

As I was leaving I decided to take a chance on an over-glorified repack box of Red Sox cards. Sure, it's going to be mostly cards I already have, but it'll be a fun box to open when I'm bored and itching to see some cards. Perhaps I'll do a blog post on it.

 

All in all, not a bad day. Most tables were for the high rollers, and that's OK with me. They also kept the Pokemon/gaming table in their own section, so I didn't have to wiggle my way through them amongst the sports stuff. The only negative I have is that one table was selling custom cards. Now I don't have a problem with custom cards, especially if their made by creative people who have some degree of artistic talent, like a few well known bloggers. No, these were completely AI generated slop, and guy thought they were worth $10-$15 apiece. Sorry, just because you prompted your computer to generate a cartoonish card of Paul Skeenes... Anyway, other than what I fear will be a growing trend in the hobby, it was a great day!