Another Card Show? In this Economy?

I had planned on shopping at a baseball card shop while I was in Connecticut, but it just so happened there was a card show in town as well. This one was in an American Legion building, and it exceeded my modest expectations. I brought home lots of goodies I'll share over the next few weeks. 

For now, here's a look at some singles I picked up. The first table I stopped at had four boxes labeled 25 cards for $20. Basically a dollar box with 5 freebies thrown in. I ended up with 61 cards, the seller asked for $40, and then said I could take five more. But I'd already spent a half hour at his table so I passed.

Lots of shiny refractors and singles from high-end products. Yu Chang is numbered /149.

A few basketball prizms. I couldn't resist the color matches, especially UConn alums Stewie and Ray-Ray.

Like the last show I attended in NJ, there were tons and tons of football cards for sale. The Jaheim Bell is serial numbered to 75. I didn't know if he was still in the league or not, but apparently he's in Steelers camp this summer. 

Colorful legends. The non-Prizm Bo is serial numbered to 299. 

I'm actually stunned at how much football stuff I've seen at shows, particularly in the off-season. It's nearly equal to baseball in total volume. 

My Packers collection is at capacity but I always manage to make room. 

A Sonny Jurgensen relic for a buck? Sure, why not? I'll even take Tyreek at that price.
 

This show even had some hockey! The Brendan Othman RPA did not come from the dollar box, but the Bobby Holik auto did. I wanted to pick up at least one soccer card to commemorate this year's World Cup, and a lot of sellers had a lot of soccer cards (probably the third-most plentiful sport at the show.) I probably wouldn't have picked this particular Haaland card but I didn't want to use up any more time/money searching for a better soccer single.
 

The Warren Moon RC was in the dollar box, I'm lucky I got to it when I did because there was a guy searching through the other end of the box (mainly looking for baseball) and when I added the Moon to my stack he said "You found that in here? Nice one!" The vintage-ish hockey cards were not from the dollar box. These and other vintage cards came from a seller at the other end of the room. He noticed my Whalers hat and mentioned that he was an assistant to GM Paul Holmgren for a while. His job was to work on arbitration cases for the team; he said the last case he worked on was (against) Manny Legace. 

The odd thing is, Legace never made it to Hartford. He was drafted by the Whalers but didn't debut in the NHL until after they'd moved (and he was shipped to the L.A. Kings by then.) 🤷

On my way out there was a doorway with tables on all sides belonging to one dealer. To the left there were higher-end ($5-50) cards in top loaders and snap-cases. One row was filled with hockey relics from the same early 2000s SP Game Used set. Some were gold versions but they were all the same. Behind me was a dollar box that didn't seem nearly as good as the one I'd hit earlier. 

In front of me was a table with sealed wax packs, rack packs, and boxes from yesteryear. 1993 Leaf and 1994 Topps wax boxes for $40 caught my eye. And then I saw the 1980s packs. Stuff I haven't seen since my earliest days as a collector. I had to bring some of those home for the anniversary break. I just.. I'm not sure I can open them. Maybe next week.

For now, here's a box I'm happy to open: more Topps Chrome Platinum. 

 

I've got more sealed packs in my house than I've ever had at one time, so I might start posting these breaks weekly. Can't wait to ship out the care packages!



Thanks for reading!



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