September 7th & 8th Raleigh Card Show: Still Learning

     I was able to get away this past weekend at the request of my good friend Blake to the card show in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Sports cards are his business and livelihood. He doesn't believe in the financial burden of a physical shop but he is a very successful streamer on Whatnot (has the largest store on the platform) and sets up most weekends at  shows all over Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. We're about the same age, and our card collecting background is pretty similar.  We both appreciate the nostalgia of cards from the '90s and have large PC's of our favorite teams (he's a Twins fan and I don't hold that against him!).  This lead to a quick friendship he trusts me and my knowledge (of baseball cards at least) enough to help him keep an eye on the table and charm customers into buying cards they don't need.

    I was happy to make the trip down and help out for the weekend.  It was a busy show with lots of foot traffic.  It wasn't all work and no play however.  The perks of being a dealer at a show is getting in early "to set up" and prepare for the day.  Our set up takes 10 minutes at the most to set up so that leaves plenty of time to go shopping for ourselves.  While he was working on deals to bring in more inventory, I found some cards to bring home to the nest.  

    I've been on the look out for the Orioles from the Kellogg's sets since fall of last year.  They aren't terribly expensive and I could grab them off of COMC at any time.  Its about the chase though.  You knew that already, though.

    I grabbed a handful of insert set needs from the cheap boxes.  I'm one card closer to the Dick Perez Diamond Kings set (1982 through 1996) with the Eddie Murray.  I thought the Heart of the City cards from Topps Chrome were really cool as well as the All-Aces and Black Golds from the last few years.  I'm always on the look out for them.

    

    Some PC pickups here.  I love Raywave refractors of any kind which probably stems from my real life job. The Mancini will look nice in my PC of his cards.  Bundy is a nice pickup for less than a buck.  I think that Beam Teams are a box hit.  I had never seen the Brooks card before and at a quarter, I'll definitely take it.  The Grayson was 2 bucks and I love green cards of any kind.  Easy buys.

    Oh Austin Hays, I'm sad that he's gone from the Orioles but I know why they made the trade when they did.  Either way, both being numbered parallels, being orange, and of a favorite player make these some of the easiest buys of the weekend.

    This particular weekend I made some awesome pickups for my Cal Ripken PC.  I usually struggle to find Ripkens I don't have.  I was able to add this pretty new Ripken All-Star relic card from 2024 Topps. I love 1989 Topps and especially the All-Stars subset.

    The next Ripken I picked up was this Etch-A-Sketch insert from 1998 Topps.  I had assumed that Topps made this insert using some sort of computer program or something.  Not so.  This is an actual Etch-A-Sketch "drawing" by an actual person.  Wow, I had no idea until I read the back of the card. The guy who made the real life Sketches had some serious talent.

    My favorite Ripken pick up of the weekend was the insert from 1999 Skybox Molten Metals.  This is from the Heavy Metals Fusions insert set.  It a decently rare insert that I knew I needed when I saw it.  I used to think that Skybox and Pacific were rip off brands and didn't really pay them that much attention when they first came out.  I guess at this juncture of my collecting life I've really come to appreciate the risks that some of the "off the beaten path" issues took back then.  Case in point is this card.  The dots that you see on the right side are actually tiny pinholes which classify it as a die cut.  The scan really doesn't do justice to easily my favorite pick up of the weekend.

    I'm still learning the higher end of the card market.  I have stayed in my comfort zone of the card industry for quite some time.  It may have something to do with how I was brought up and cherishing every pack of '92 Topps I bought from the local grocery store or the '93 Donruss I bought from the drug store.  I totally understand the lower end of the market and Blake has been kind enough to show me the ropes of buying and selling higher dollar raw and graded cards and I am grateful for his tutelage.  I am just as grateful to have another card collecting buddy to call a friend.

All that being said, the weekend was quite enjoyable at the card show in Raleigh and I picked up some great additions to my collection.

August 24th and 25th, 2024: Delmarva Shorebirds @ Down East Wood Ducks

    Its been a poorly concealed secret that this year has been a tough one for me and my family.  While I have been more involved in collecting baseball cards, helping a friend set up and sell at local shows and attending baseball games in person, I have not been posting much of any of it. Frankly, I just haven't felt like it.  The experiences are what I've been focused on, not blogging them.  I'm just not the kind of blogger that will post every step of my hobby.

    My personal life dumpster fire has died down a bit recently.  Its not over by a long shot but I was able to schedule a weekend to visit my good friend William down in Winterville, NC.  He's the Down East Wood Ducks' number one fan and at his coaxing, I made the trip down to see them play the Delmarva Shorebirds (Orioles Low-A team).  The Wood Ducks are packing up and leaving Kinston, NC and moving to Spartanburg SC after the minor league season ends.

    The Orioles have usually sent the college players they had most recently drafted and signed to their Low-A affiliate to get their feet wet at the tail end of the minor league season.  The Shorebirds at this time were stacked with high round draft picks and they played like it.  Each major league team has its own philosophy on promoting, playing time, etc so sometimes you end up with a mismatch baseball game. This was the case during the 2 games we were able to watch.

 Vance Honeycutt was the Orioles first round pick in this July's draft.  He didn't set the world on fire during the season but he did have some fans in the stands because he played collegiately for UNC Chapel Hill.  He was nice enough to sweet spot a minor league baseball for me after the game Saturday night.  He only has cards through Onyx right now and it didn't arrive in time for me to bring it down with me.  There was a photographer there after the game on Sunday that may have been from Topps or maybe Panini.  He snapped some posed pictures of Vance and my next player that may end up in a future release.  I'll keep an eye out.

Griff O'Ferrall was the draft pick that the Orioles received as a reward for Gunnar Henderson winning Rookie of the Year last year.  It was a pick between the first and second round. Griff is actually from Richmond near where I live and went to UVA.  He was very nice in person, signed for me both days and carried on a short conversation too.  I'm definitely going to be followng Griff's career and I hope that the local kid makes it all the way up to Baltimore.

Ethan Anderson was the Orioles second round pick this past July.  He also went to UVA and is from Virginia Beach even though he was born in Hawaii.  He played Catcher on Saturday night and Left Field on Sunday.  He saw the difference between the 2 cards he signed and asked me what the difference was.  I was happy to give him the cliffnotes version of baseball card parallels.

Austin Overn was the Orioles third round pick this year out of University of Southern California.  He's very fast and had a great game on Saturday night.  He got the day off on Sunday after running wild on the basepaths the night before.

Ryan Stafford was another draftee from this year's class. He was the 5th rounder and played second base Saturday night and catcher on Sunday.  He's a smaller guy but he was a very scrappy hitter.  I look forward to seeing him advance up the minor league ladder.

Maikol Hernandez was not a draft pick but one of the first big signings that the Orioles got from the international pool a few years back.  He's a big kid and seems to have a lot of potential if he can stay healthy. 

Braylin Tavera also is another international signing from a few years ago.  He's having a tough season this year stats wise but he is still highly regarded as a prospect in the Orioles system.

Jake Cravey is having a tough season statswise but was very nice when he signed for me.  He actually spoke to us on his way out of the clubhouse asking us how we were doing and thanking us for coming out.  I think you only get that experience in the low minors!

Casey Cook is actually a Rangers prospect from UNC.  William was gracious enough to give me a card of him to get signed.  Cook was teammates with Vance Honeycutt and I saw them chatting several times before and after the games.

I was nice to get away to take a break for a few days and enjoy some baseball, 'graphing and great food with a good friend.  Thanks William!