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.

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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.