Saturday at the Show With My Son

Card Collecting: A Family Affair

This weekend, the Local Card Shop held its semi-annual card show.  I didn't attend the last two, so it has been about a year and a half since I've been there.  This year, I called up a buddy and we decided to split a table to do a little selling at the show.  I try to sell at one of the two shows each year, but I usually only barely break even on the cost of the table.  So, to counteract that, I recruited a partner to share the cost.  Of course, the cost was really only one reason I wanted to share the table with somebody.  I also wanted to have ample opportunity to browse the other vendors' tables. 

I was excited for this show all week because, well, it's a card show.  But even better for me, my 8 year-old son wanted to come with me and sit at the table.  Yes, it would appear that I am in the process of creating a monster.  I loved the idea of my boy's first card show.

So, aside from the joy of having my son choose to join me, what did I find?

Mostly, a treasure trove of early 2000s products that were missing from my collection.  I had never even seen these brands until last week, and I was glad to add to my All-Decade Team collection here.

Let's not forget the late-90s, either.  Most of these products already had place in my collection, but these particular cards were new to me.

Moving backward in time, we see some great defenders of the 90s.  I really want to know why Kevin Greene is wearing only his boxers on this card.  Or why one would want workout shorts that so closely resemble boxers in the first place?

Being a card show just ten minutes away from BYU's Lavell Edwards Stadium, it had its fair share of people seeking and selling BYU players.  I had more people come to my table asking for Steve Young than any other request.  Unfortunately for them, I'm a collector, not a dealer, so I wasn't selling my own BYU collection.  But it can be tough to build a collection around guys with a hometown mark-up, and the LCS marks up the local guys in a big way.  For example, a base card of an Austin Collie non-rookie card is priced at $1.25, and good luck talking it down.  I expected to see the same thing from the various sellers at the show, but I found one seller who was pretty reasonable with his prices.  So I picked up a few cool Cougs.

First up, some great BYU QBs.  This Bret Engeman is my first of his card, and I have to admit, I was surprised to see it.  I had completely forgotten that he had latched on to any NFL team and was unaware that any cards were produced.  I think this is largely because Engeman was a pretty forgettable quarterback for some pretty lean years for Cougar fans.  He manned the QB spot for the teams following Lavell Edwards' retirement, and the team was struggling to find its way for the first time in about three decades.

Those two Ty Detmers are just purty, though.  I really like the Fleer Goudey sets.

Speaking of great quarterbacks, I picked up Steve Young at every level: in college, in the USFL, and in the NFL.  This is my first card featuring Young with the LA Express, and I knew I had to have it.  But I am curious about something on one of these cards . . .

Just who is on the back of this ProLine card?  I looked up Cardinal uniform numbers on Pro-Football Reference, and found nobody of note who ever wore #14.  Whoever this is only played in a handful of games in their career.  So why is this photo even in the mix of photos to be used on these cards?  How could it possibly have ended up on this card of Steve Young?  And, who is it?

Two of these guys now have Super Bowl rings.  One narrowly missed out when his team lost to the Patriots.  All played college football in Provo.

This is the first card I've seen of 2017 Draft Prospect and BYU all-time leading rusher Jamaal Williams.  I got this one from a kid who came to my table wanting to make a trade.  The card is a little more beat up than is visible in this photo, but I was quite willing to make a deal.  He wanted Steelers, and is often the case when I sell at card shows, I definitely let him get the long end of the stick.  I definitely don't want to be that guy who cheats kids out of cards, and I know of some out there.  Sometimes I made a deal just to help the kid out.  One kid came to my table wanting to trade for a Steph Curry.  I just happened to have several copies of the card, so I didn't have anything to lose.  I took a couple of his semi-stars, gave him the Curry, and put the two cards I got from him in my dime box when he left.  This was by far the most trading I've ever done at a card show.

The guy who had the table next to mine was also a Packers collector, so we ended up swapping a bunch of extras.  There was a lot more early 2000s goodness involved here.

These are the first cards I have of either of these players.  Super Bowl Hero Max McGee and Javon Walker.  Both came in the aforementioned trade.

I added a little to my Jordy Nelson PC.  The last two cards (Chrome Rookie and 60th Anniversary Red Parallel) came from the same vendor.  He was selling mainly high end stuff and wanted full book value for it all.  I picked out these 2 cards and talked him down to $7 for the pair.  I immediately wondered if I had just overpaid, but I have since learned that I can't get the Red Parallel (numbered to 60) anywhere online, and the cards of lesser players are on COMC for $3-$6 apiece, so I'm quite happy with the purchase.

I especially love the Anthony Munoz rookie here.  This was another part of the trade with the other Packer collector/vendor.  I traded a Brett Favre Refractor in the wrong uniform for this beauty.  We were both happy about it.

One thing my local card show sorely lacks is a dime box (or even a quarter box, at most tables).  I am the only one who ever sells cards from a dime box.  This show tends to revolve around high-priced high-end merchandise.  The cards shown here, with the exception of the Jose Abreu, are some of the only affordable baseball cards I found.  This seller was two tables down from me, and totally obnoxious all day long and a prime example of Guys I Don't Like Trying to Rip People Off at Card Shows.  I heard his incessant braggadocio all day long, informing anybody who would listen about all the money he had to invest in these cards.  When I selected the four 2017 cards shown above and offered him $2, his face looked like I had offered to slice certain sensitive parts of his body instead.  He agreed, but not before he had shown me another Carlos Correa. He offered me the 2016 Donruss Career Stat Line (shown above as Jose Abreu), numbered to 500.  He told me it was going on ebay for $36, but he would let me have it for $23.  I politely declined, but inside I was wondering if I owed somebody some money.  See, I had just barely paid some guy $1 for the Abreu shown above.  I was worried that he had taken too low of a price.  So I checked on ebay.  The Carlos Correa in question was listed for as low as $3.50 plus shipping, and didn't go above $8.  I couldn't believe the dishonesty in this guy.  I talked to him again about another item, and found a similar story.  He told me it was going for $70 on ebay, but I could have it for $30, when in fact, I could have ordered it right then for about $10.  Unbelievable.

In spite of this guy's getting my blood boiling, it was a pretty successful card show.  My son had a blast handing out my unopened junk wax packs to kids as they wandered by.  He cracked his first box (Panini Triple Play) and begged me for a George Hill card he found at a table.  I don't even care who it is, I was just delighted to have him ask for a player by name because he knew who it was.  And he already wants to know when the next one will be.  I'll take it.