Who Would Have Thought?

With the creation of the other site I've been staying away from posting these type of finds here. The gap between posts has been just over 2 months, and it was a great day so why not do it here.

For the first time in what I believe has been ten years minimum, we headed to Portland for the Palmer Antique Show. When I got custody of the daughter doing shows like this was a casualty of her living here. Not doing these shows is something that honestly didn't bother us as we did what most parents do. Moved on to doing other exciting things with the kid, or kids for some. Now though she has hit that magical age of 18, and so we can do these shows whenever we want once again. Odds are it won't happen very often. Honestly I enjoyed doing the water-slide parks, and other things we would go do while she was younger.

Originally the wife was on the fence about hitting this show, but in the end she went along. With a vacation that will include tons of walking coming up she felt this would be a good preparation for that trip. I believe she was glad she did as her big find was a Disneyland book from the early 60's which are something she loves to just look through. On my end I've started to very slowly, and I mean slowly, collect a few of my favorite Hot Wheels from when I was a kid. Going in I felt that if I could walk home with two cars this would be a successful trip.

As you can see it was a mission accomplished! Like every kid that was growing up around the same years as myself, I loved Dukes of Hazzard. While it wasn't Hot Wheels who had the rights to making these cars, I just had to add it. The car itself is a little rough, but in this collection it is just character that shows it was loved like the one I had. Not a bad find for the first thing that was bought by us at the show. The stagecoach looking car was another I liked to play with, and was out final purchase.

Down the same row as the General Lee was what had to be the surprise of the show. To say I never expected to find these would be an understatement.

When I initially saw the box these were in I took a swift look.That look got much deeper when the guy said a dollar each. How could I not look inside, and see what treasures would be found inside. If there had been a full set of these I would have brought them home. Sadly this was the only six so this is what I have.

Couldn't pass up the chance to add some other schedules from the USFL. Going into the day I not only didn't have any USFL schedules, but had a couple in the past, and have traded them away. Now I have the decent makings to a growing collection.

Out of all the stuff found in the box this is by far my favorite. As a collector of schedules of all but one Denver team these are pure gold. Not only getting a schedule, but a sticker was awesome if you ask me. I'm still trying to decide if it should go in a page with the schedule, or stuck someplace. Odds are it will end up in the page.

Closing things out are these three finds. The Mariners was a shot in the dark as to whether I needed it or not. it wasn't on the wantlist, but I just felt it wasn't a sponsor that I had.

A dual Dolphins/Hurricanes schedule was a must for the Hurricanes collection. I still to this day wonder why I keep adding to these by not only writing the school, but buying them when I see one I don't have. At this point I'm going to quit asking myself this question, and accept it.

 Last is that sweet looking old school Broncos logo sticker. As a kid I was a member of the Broncos kids club for atleast 4 years. I'd be willing to bet that I had a few of these end up in my hands during that time frame. If I did I can't remember, and what was done with them is more of a mystery.

After going through the three boxes of schedules I originally pulled 28, and whittled the final count to 22. Something in me just wasn't willing to plop down 28, or add two more for an even 30 dollars for these. At 22 the dealer was willing to take an even 20 which was a great deal. Good thing I had the self-control working as I could have easily spent 50 on this little venture. There were bumper stickers galore from the various USFL teams. I would have picked up one more batch of small stickers that would have ended up being stuck someplace, but it was a batch of 5-10 sheets that were all stuck together. Tried prying them apart, but it didn't work out.

Experiencing Some Goodwill

Although I hit atleast one Goodwill a week. The hobby room has gotten quite filled so finding treasures has become something that happens less often than they did say one year ago. I've even hit the point where a couple months ago some of the bobbleheads from the non Mariners collection made an exit back to Goodwill. It wouldn't be a surprise if it begins to happen more in the future. Things are at the point of if one comes in one has to leave.

I mention this as even the Mariners collection has gotten very tough to add to. While they are still giving out four or more a year it seems. Finding them at the Goodwill has gotten to be much harder than it used to be. All this leads me to finding not only a bobblehead I didn't have, but didn't even know existed.

To most the question might be how did you not know this existed being you collect Mariners bobbleheads?  My answer is I don't keep a running list of those missing from the collection. Maybe this should be something that gets done one day, but right now with the schedule collecting, business cards, and baseball cards. Another wantlist to research, and maintain doesn't feel like something fun. Collecting is supposed to be fun, and so I'll wait on doing a bobblehead list.

Due to all the fuss about the eclipse happening tomorrow, and living in the "Totality Zone". I had plans to be one of those that enjoyed all the chaos from my living room. We are planning to head out to the park in town, and watching at the event they have going on. Things have been way less insane than expected so I gave it a go at getting the dogs wet food, and hitting the Goodwill.

I'm glad my attitude changed as this had to be one of my more successful trips in a long time. Starting off the treasure discovery was a pair of bags filled with card sheets. How many were in each bag I haven't counted yet, but will get around to at some point. Most important is these aren't the usual 9 pocket pages. One bag was filled with 4 pocket, and the other 2 pocket. These will be used for the schedules as more, and more colleges are leaving their basketball, and football unfolded. I could fold them, but they are cooler in the 4 pocket pages. The 2 pocket are great for some schedule magnets, and some other odd sized schedules.

The real find though was this goody right here.

I can't tell how old it is, but for $3.99 it looks cool enough that I'll have a place for it in the hobby room. It even had the old owners name, and part of their phone number that  I can't make out.

The plan is one day to find an old crate or something, and toss it into this with some bats, balls, and maybe another glove or two. Currently I have two bats for the box, and sadly passed on buying a box that might have been perfect a couple months ago. Eventually another will come my direction, and the whole idea will start to build itself. Until then I'll stay on the lookout for new additions.

A Card Show End The Streak- part 2

Want to first thank the couple of you who left replies on the first edition of this post. They made me realize how much I've missed posting around here, and that I need to post something every month at the worst. There have been some finds, but I just never got to showing them off. Need to drop in, and do this more often. Second is yes, Matthew the schedules came, and thank you so much. I'm trying to work on gathering some Pirates to send your direction.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With the back still feeling the pain of spending the time at Bill's massive collection of boxes.  I did the grazing thing which meant not stopping for long at any table. The longest stop was at the table loaded with the mascot cards. After the few minutes spent there the back started to revert back to the pain that forced me away from Bill's. As I began to leave only one table stood between me, and heading homeward. Thinking that it wouldn't put out much of a resistance I scanned, and was close to walking away. The curious person on me though couldn't help to look into a box full of these.

Ironically this was the first one I picked up out of the box. As I looked at the top card this was peeking at me.

Not long before the last post around here I bought some of these at a card show, and it got me reminiscing about building these as a kid. While I only bought these cards for a couple years around 1982 the idea popped into the old brain to build the entire run. This led to a huge wantlist that has been very slow running. Like a bunch of the sets or subsets in baseball I seem to be drawn too, these aren't something the masses collected.

I couldn't help, but ask what  he wanted for each card. It took a couple minutes as he was deep in conversation, and took some time to even notice I was standing there. Which at 6'4" and 280lbs. I'm usually tough to miss. Honestly he's always at the shows I've gone to, and someone I pass by because of this. My problem was I couldn't leave this time without learning what he wanted for these cards.

Thinking the answer would be around a dollar or so each I was preparing to pick through the box, and get 5 or so at the most. Imagine when to my surprise the answer came "You can have the entire thing for 4 bucks?" To say reaching into the wallet for the cash was the fastest I'd moved all day would be an understatement.

As I write this all I know is the amount of cards in the box which will wait until the end of this post. For now how about we learn together what the grand total of each years cards?

Starting of the fun is 1979, and a a grand total of 23 cards. Included were only two doubles which isn't bad when you think this is a set that only takes 69 cards to complete. Not a bad way to kick things off when you think about the fact this is just short of 1/3 of a set.

Another of the larger batches of these cards the 1981 set got a 21 card hit that puts it at just under 1/4 of the 88 cards for a completed set.

 With only the one card the 1978 comes in with what I think might be the ugliest of all the sets. While these aren't the prettiest of cards the yellow outline didn't help make them any prettier.

The two cards below come from the 1982 set, and was the first set of these I ever built. The original set has come, and gone with most the cards taking a beating before ending up who knows where.

In what is the most surprising find in the case is 11 of the 1977 set. The thing most surprising to me is I somehow either missed that these existed, or didn't put them on the wants because they are a kind of pipe-dream set. Having done the list over a year ago I can't remember which was the reasoning. Now neither of these matters as the set needs to make it on the wants in the future.

Closing out the amazing find is 24 cards from the year 1980. With only a single double the 23 remaining cards is a sweet hit towards completing this set of 70.

Overall the entire case was better than expected. When I bought it my original thought was it had cards for only a couple sets. Being able to hit six different sets, and not get left with a ton of doubles is an even bigger bonus. At the same time a slight disappointment comes with that as the hope was for a near completed set inside.The potpourri of sets more than makes up for that though.

Even better is when you add everything up the case included 85 cards, and at just under a nickel per card is a big win. Now I'll be spending a portion of today organizing the binder these go in, and removing the additions from the wants. Hopefully this all leads to completing atleast one of these sets in the very near future. From there the mission of finding the nearly impossible to find stickers will become the next goal on these. 

A Card Show Ends The Streak - part 1

After being gone for what has been over a year now. A great day at the Mall 205 show that gets visited by a few of the other bloggers in these parts ends the streak. For me it has been probably a minimum six months since the last visit. While that one was fairly good this one ended up rating as the second best trip ever.

Things didn't start out well as my usual trip to Goodwill before the show yielded nothing. From there things were a simple OK as I hit Gavin's favorite stop Bill first. Bill had the dime boxes out in full force where I managed to find these treasures

Bazooka Joe fits into my general Seattle Mariners binder. Kyle Seager is one of two Mariners players I collect cards for, and thus fits in that same binder. Johnson was a card I believed was missing in the Mariners Pepsi set, and luckily I was right. What the other couple are I have no idea, but I should make a list for the set at some point.

David Dahl is one of a bunch of Rockies prospects I have been gathering cards of when found on the cheap. For some of the guys on the list a dime might still be a little much, but I really like Dahl so the dime per card  was inside the window. Story, and Arenado are two of my big three that I collect of Rockies players. The third is Blackmon who I didn't find any cards for.

These three were the biggest pick ups of my player collecting finds. The top card was picked up for Jon Gray who can list this cat as a fan for life. When I did the Mariners weekend a couple years ago I got a picture with Gray who was a very cool dude, and sold me as a fan.

Happ is one of those guys in the Cubs pipeline that honestly hits two categories. First is he played for the Cincinnati Bearcats who is one of the few colleges I collect schedules for. Second, and the most important reason is he played down in Eugene, and a player we enjoyed watching while in town. Eloy Jiminez is another of those players despite not having any cards for him right now.

From there the additions were for sets that I am ho hum building. The Skylines caught my attention, and is a subset that I'll probably take a shot at if I ever come across a couple more. The Superstar Summit cards are the same type of deal. Diamond Vision is a subset that I have officially started, and fits in my stadiums binder.

Besides all these another nine cards made it home with me. It could, and should have been more as there was 5 or so more boxes I never got to. Problem is the back started to tighten up, and forced me to move on. I decided against going back as I knew I'd get sucked in again, and not last very long.

Walking around I glanced into a few boxes, but with the back I didn't feel anything was worth stopping until arriving at one of the last two tables. Giving a fast look I almost moved on, but spotted a load of 2014 Opening Day.

Tucked in there was all the subset cards that they pulled with the packs. Having what I thought was a complete wantlist I got these 9 plus three more not in the picture. Best of all these were 5 for a buck so it was a steal of a deal for cards I never seem to find for even a higher price. Once I got home I noticed that the wants might not be correct so going through the wants might be something that needs done in the near future.

All these cards I felt would be a good fit into the stadiums binder. Yes, I know there are, and honestly were at the show more of these. These are the ones I feel best fit into the stadium binder so they got to come home with me. The Kingdome card had a twin so I picked up both cards. One goes into the stadiums binder the twin went into the Mariners binder.

Last was the find that made this the second best discovery at a card show. That will have to wait for part 2 which will hopefully be coming in a couple days, or next weekend.