February 1st Regency Mall Card Show: No Brainer

The most recent card show I went to was the one that was held at Regency Mall in Richmond.  I mentioned a few posts back that when I was growing up, a lot of my back to school shopping was done there.  The mall declined and has been redeveloped as a multi-use town center and has made come back.  Even so, the quarterly card shows, put on by Three Point RVA, that have been held there the last few years has packed the mall with the most people it's probably seen in 25 or 30 years.  Going to this show is a no brainer if you're involved in the hobby in the Richmond metro area.  This particular show nearly filled the entire 2nd level of the mall, so there was plenty of cards to peruse.

Cal Ripken was always known for being a heady ball player.  His his baseball knowledge lead to him being a leader on the field from the shortstop position and made his team better just by being on the field.  Of course, he accomplished plenty through his athletic ability also but he was the total package ballplayer because of his baseball IQ.  I was able to pick up this image variation SP from 2020 Topps of him doing a press conference probably thinking about a situation on the field.

One of the first tables I came to was a father and son seller that I've become acquainted with over the last few years.  They mostly deal in mid to higher end cards.  This particular show they had their value boxes and of course I was in hog heaven.  Searching through the boxes, I did have to check the back of both of these Vlad Daddy cards to see if they were reprints or not.

These two cards are not reprints and as you can see, there were the price tags on the cards.  It goes without saying, I did not leave these behind!

Another card that came out of their boxes with this Mark Reynolds rookie autograph from 2007 SPx.  Since he was a UVA guy and an Oriole legend (!), this was an incredibly easy two bucks to spend!

I was able to pick up this Green Cracked Ice parallel of Yennier Cano.  A steady force in the O's bullpen the last 2 years, I have confidence he can keep up up this year.

I finished up with that particular seller pretty happy with how good of a start the show was off to. I could have left and been satisfied with my purchases but it was only about 10am.

For the next few hours, I was working on stretching my money as far as it would go.  I didn't have a huge budget for this particular show and spending a good portion of it at the first table, left me searching the cheap-o boxes for cards that fit into my collection.  I can't complain with finding a Rainbow Foil parallel of Felix Bautista.  He missed last season with Tommy John surgery, but I believe he will be gradually worked back into the closer role this year.

I picked up a few parallels of so Japanese players for my album on the cheap. Kenta and Kodai, welcome to your permanent home.

Skipping ahead toward the end of my purchases, I was able to dig through Dollar Dave's boxes and find some Orioles autographs from the dark ages.  Tripper Johnson never made the majors but at least he had a nice and legible signature.  Dave Crouthers never made the majors either but went on to be inducted into his alma mater's (SIUE) Hall of Fame in 2018.  Travis Driskill had a long career in the minors until the O's gave him a shot at the majors where he was knocked around to the tune of a 5.23 career ERA.  Better than I did!  Steve Bechler, if you remember, collapsed during a work out in spring training 2003 and died.  The death investigation led to the chemical Ephedra being banned by the FDA. I'm glad to add all 4 of these cards to my collection.

Backing up, I made one more huge pick up.  It came from a seller I passed a few times because he had a crowd around his table.  He had about ten or so boxes of fifty cent cards.  I couldn't resist.  It was hodgepodge of cards from the 80's through the present.  I was able to pull a few of the 2023 Topps Chrome Titans I need for my set.  I love the panoramic view of the stadiums on most of the cards and the larger than life Titans just looks cool I think.

Also in the boxes I pulled a few more of the 2022 Topps Chrome Heart of the City cards I need. Again, the skylines of the cities they represent is not something that gets put on cards that often.  I'm inching toward completing the entire set.

Another bunch of insert sets I'm working on is ALL Black Golds.  The ones from the'93 and '94 are a little more common, yet I haven't completed them after thirty or so years. ( I only started truly collecting them the last couple years).  The newer Black Gold inserts from '21, '22, '23, and '24 Topps Update is what spurred me onto complete the old sets.  The newer ones are tougher to find at a decent price but .50 apiece is what I was able to get these for.  The 2022 design is probably the weakest out of all the the Black Gold sets but I will still complete it eventually.

A couple of nice insert cards of guys I grew up watching Kenny Lofton in criminally underrated and deserves to be in Cooperstown some day. The Big Hurt is already enshrined there.  I have a couple pages of each of those guys (along with quite a few other great players) in my PC.  Its always fun picking up cards for these PCs, because they end up being cards that have great photo or eye appeal and not because they are just fillers from any list.  Both of the albums are just fun to look through.  Maybe I'll get around to posting a random page from these binders one day.

Speaking of binders:

The last big purchase of the day was an entire binder of cards! It was very much a no-brainer purchase, especially for me. The opportunity was too good to pass up and had me running to the ATM to withdraw more cash.  I don't want to spoil what is contained inside, because it actually deserves its own break down post. I'm still wading through and processing what's inside and I hope to share very soon...  I'd love to hear if anybody has any good guesses on what lies beyond the front cover.