Tuckahoe Card Show Pickups: I am a Trash Collecting Hypocrite

    Happy New Year everyone.  Christmas hoopla is in the rearview mirror and 2023 is done and dusted.  I was able to finish out 2023 by goint to a midsize card show that is held at an indoor baseball training facility at one of the Little Leagues in town.  I like this show because the floor is made out of field turf so its easier on the knees and legs to stand and look through cards than the concrete and berber carpet of the other local show at a hotel.  I don't usually end up standing that much because I'm a bit of a trash panda at shows and vendors usually end up offering me a chair while I search their dime and quarter boxes.

    Each card featured in this post I either paid only a single dime or a quarter. I had my nephew with me and he's a football collector.  He came in real handy while dumpster dime box diving.  He picked out Orioles cards for me and I searched for Bears and Justin Fields cards for him.  He's even pickier than I am when digging through 5000 count boxes.  I've taught the kid well.

 I'm pretty happy about this find.  I've been collecting Diamond Kings and Pro-Visions cards for the last year or so.  Most come from junk wax sets. Pro-Visions for example, 

'91: one every couple of packs or a full set in the factory set

'92: it was a subset of the base set and not hard to obtain, 

'94 and '95: pretty affordable inserts that can be had for less that a buck

1993 is a whole different story.  These babies are pretty frickin' rare and to find one in a quarter box, It mind as well been Christmas miracle. Its cartoon Cecil Freaking Fielder holding a katana with a geisha looking on in front of the Miami(!?!) beachfront. I love the early 90's.

I'm not a fan of the gimmicky stuff Topps puts out like the Holiday mega boxes, the horribly conceived 2023 Big League debacle, or the 2022 Topps Chrome Platinum abominations.  But I love old Diamond Kings and Fleer Pro-Visions.  I'm such a hypocrite!

I hit nearly every player collection I have going at the moment.  Speaking of the 2022 Topps Chrome Anniversary I grabbed a near Orioles team set of them and these particular Moose and Eddie will reside in their own albums.  I kept the streak alive of finding at least one Ripken I need at each show I go to. The Hays is a refractor and would look great with his scribble on it. Especially with the yellow background.

Speaking of gimmicks and hypocrisy, I fell in love with the All Aces set from this year's Topps flagship.  I'm working on the entire series 1, 2, and Update sets.  The look like playing cards and are gimmicky as hell but I love 'em.  Don't ask me to even spit in the direction of baseball playing cards or the Showdown game from the early 2000s.  Such a hypocrite.  Gypsy Queen Tarot cards. Gimmick, but still collecting 'em.  This year's Bowman Platinum New Money inserts: Gimmick, love it.  Check my set wantlist to help me out. It's a bit of a blood bath on that list right now but I'm trying to collect one of every single insert card ever made (kidding! maybe..)

I didn't hit my actually set wantlists that hard.  I only got this one from 1998 UD3.  I remember busting blaster boxes with my childhood buddy in the car.  Good Times!  I don't think I whipped out my phone to look at my lists at all during the show. This show really allows the vendors to spread out their wares and bring a bunch of product to set out so there were plenty of dime and quarter boxes to sort through. Its a refreshing change from the Chantilly show that has showcase after showcase of slabbed cards I could give a crap about.

I'm in the official "I Despise Every Panini Product except Stars and Stripes cuz 'merica, because they are a Waste of Paper" club.  Sometimes I have to put my membership card in my back pocket when I need a guy that pitched 6 games for your favorite team and I need his card for my "One Card of Every Oriole" binder.  Topps doesn't think this guy actually exists but I have proof he does.  Anybody have a card of Louis Head they are willing to trade me?

These vintage card were in a quarter box.  No way I could leave them behind.  The image I always associate Jack McKeon with is his 1990 Topps card.  This poorly scanned 1973 card proves he is not actually Groucho Marx.

Both of these cards are quite random additions to my various stacks of cheap finds.  The Hershiser is from back when refractors were more or less box hits and the Bay Chrome rookie is a gold refractor.  Refractors are quite watered down these days and barely worth a quarter but I still can't resist their shiny charm.  

So this card of Zach Neto was just chillin in a pile of regular old Bowman Platinum from this year... for a quarter.... Notice in the top right corner under the logo there is foil stamping that says 9/10.  It almost seemed to be too good to be true when I found it.  I'm not a 100% sure what I'm going to do with it yet.  The last time I held onto some truly valuable cardboard to appreciate in value, that particular player decided he liked "childish" things and is currently waiting arraignment in a foreign country....

I've never showed this on the blog because I pulled it right as Bowman came out in Spring of '22. For all the good feelings I had when pulling this card from a pack, I feel like a damn fool for not selling it now. Feast/Avert your eyes: 

The pain is real

So, the Tuckahoe card show was really awesome this time.  I got to spend some time looking through cards with my nephew, I found a lot of interesting cards to add to my collection and I didn't even spend half of my budget what I had self-imposed.