Saturday Night Five: Card Show Purchases

[sanjosefuji]

Last night's card show was a lot better than I anticipated in terms of dealer and customer turnout. There was a good mixture of vintage and newer card dealers, as well as people selling memorabilia and unopened boxes.

I even met a guy who was holding onto a pair of awesome autographed balls:

On the left is a signed ball from one of the greatest hitters of all-time... Mr. Tyrus Raymond Cobb. And next to it was a triple signed ball featuring the Apollo 12crew: Charles Conrad, Richard Gordon, and Alan Bean.

The gentleman was looking to sell both of these, however neither fit into my card show budget. Thankfully I was able to find some items around the show that did fall into my price range.

Tonight I'll share my five favorite purchases:

#1: Hisashi Iwakuma Autograph$5



2013 Topps Supreme #SSHIW (#'d 13/20)

I was really excited to finally add an Iwakumasignature to my Japanese PC... especially for this price. I've been targeting a few since the end of last season and I've never seen one sell for under $10.

#2: 2013 Topps Allen and Ginter Insert Lot$10

One of the vendors had busted a ton of 2013 Ginter and was clearing out his inventory, so I grabbed all of his cheap inserts. After sorting through his stuff, I discovered there was one complete set of Civilizations of Ages Past and four partial sets (left photo). If anyone has any extra2013 Ginter laying around, maybe we can work out a trade (the photo on the right are my extras). Here's what I'm looking for:

#3: Memorabilia Cards$100

I've mentioned it before on this blog. I'll buy memorabilia cards if the price is right. And one of my friends had hundreds of autographs and memorabilia cards for $2 each. However if you bought fifty, you'd get twenty-five more for free. Bottom line... I got 75 cards for $100.


I was hoping to use the money to buy a nice 1956 Toppsbaseball hall of famer for my collection, but when I didn't find one I liked... I decided to buy a bunch of memorabilia cards for my PC.


After digging through his boxes for more than an hour, I found cards for my Oakland A's, San Diego Padres, Montreal Expos, Seattle Seahawks, Frank Thomas, Greg Maddux, and Japanesebaseball playerPC's.

I also found a ton of memorabilia cards featuring hall of famers...

as well as some members of the Hall of Very Good:

Are these actual swatches from game worn jerseys? Maybe... maybe not. But for $1.33 per card, I'm willing to risk it.

#4: Steve Bartkowski Prime Jersey$3


2011 Leaf Certified Fabric of the Game #59 (01/50)

This was the 2nd most expensive card I purchased last night. And when I saw it, I knew I had to have it for the following two reasons:

#1 - Bartkowski was a Bay Areaguy who graduated from UC Berkeley
#2 - It's serial numbered01/50

Why do I care about the serial numbering? Well... I've slowly been putting together a collection of cards that were the first card printed in the run. Right now I'm sitting at four different cards, but I hope to have ten by the end of the year.

#5: Ben Sheets Autographed Rookie25¢



2000 SPx #145 (#'d 0368/1500)

Sadly... I didn't find any dime boxes at last night's show. However, I was able to find a quarter bin and this happened to be sitting in it.

Sheets might not have had a HOF career, but he was a 4x MLB all-star and won a gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. I'd say he's worth the quarter I paid for his rookie autograph.

Well that's it for now. I'm a little disappointed I didn't buy any vintage cards or cheap wax boxes, but overall I was pretty happy with my purchases.

I hope you're all having a good weekend. Happy Saturday, stay safe and sayonara!

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