The Second Card Show

A month ago I talked to the wife, and mentioned an interest in going to the monthly card show again. Still excited about some of what I discovered last show. This time I was planning on actually taking a printed wantlist so any cards I came across that were needed for sets wouldn't be missed this time. Nothing drove me crazier than knowing not only did I most the cards I bought for sets were doubles. I had probably missed lots of cards that were needed for those same sets. With that in mind I wasn't going to let it happen again.

Sadly this adventure almost didn't happen as the wife kept trying to persuade me to skip the show, and do a list of other ideas she was interested in. One of those was a trip to the coast which normally would have sucked me in without a second thought. The reason I wasn't biting though, is the upcoming vacation just over a month away. Deciding to make the best of the entire situation the wife came up with the idea of taking the daughter shopping for clothes, and shoes for vacation.

The night before I printed up the wantlist, and got a couple 100 count plastic boxes ready for me to grab in the morning. Waking up early as it's an hour and a half to two hour drive up to where the show is. I took my time so it was two hours as two stops sucked me in. The first stop was at a Chevron with a quick market, or whatever you want to call it. As I roamed the store the desire to have some chewing gum started, but their price was higher than my liking. That is when it hit me to stop at a certain discount retail store, and buy gum and some baseball cards.

Entering the store I headed straight for the baseball cards hoping to buy multiple packs of 2013 Opening Day. Disappointment hit as the only Opening Day were jumbo packs. Buying just the one I went to checkout, and get my pack of gum. As I exited the store hoping the pack would have cards for my set. The busting began with a group of cards full of useful cards.

Excited about what I believed was a great pack for the set, and hopefully signaled a great card day. Later this proved to be true as only the Verlander ended up being a double. This is when I began to realize that this short stop was longer than planned, and had me running later than I had hoped to be. Still excited about the pack I started making great time before arriving at the mall at nine o'clock. Arriving at the time planned I headed for the doors ready to start the day buying cards. That is when it hit me the usual signage for the show wasn't out to direct everyone in. Looking at the door for the mall entrance I was bummed to see that the mall didn't open until ten.

 Killing time for 45 minutes the sight of people wandering in drew me in as well. The first thing I noticed were half the amount of tables that were at the February show. Not only were there less tables, but some of the tables were still empty as well. As I began to wander the show the lack of tables didn't matter anyway as I spent most of the show at one dealers area. The purchasing began almost instantly as I found this card for fifty cents.

From there I hit another table with some dime card gold. These cards will all be featured later in the ever continuing 'It Hurts To Watch' series of posts, so until then they will stay a mystery. Then the table where ninety percent of my card show time was spent drew me in. Starting off the treasure hunt I went through his boxes of three for a dollar baseball.

From there it was time for the nickel boxes. Going through box after box, there was so much at times skimming was the only way to go. Despite this I was able to land 85 cards with twelve being for sets I walked in hoping to work on. Another batch was for sets that drew me in as something to create a wantlist for in the future. Then the final cards were for the player collections, possible player collections, future blog posts, and possible traders.

Overall I was pleased with the results from this card show. There is one thing that will change next time I decide to go. They have another monthly show in the area, but farther away. This will be the next show I'd like to hit. See what it has to offer in the way of needs.