February 16th Midlothian Card Show: Holliday Weekend

    This past Presidents Day weekend was the nearly bi-monthly card show at the Midlothian Four Points Hotel.  The last show here was way back before Christmas.  If I recall, I think I remember spending less than 10 dollars.  It seemed like there just wasn't much to look through with most of the sellers having mostly graded cards or Pokemon.  I get it, if being a card vendor is your livelihood, you need to sell stuff that people will buy.  None of the sellers are getting rich off of dime and quarter boxes, or from my meager, penny pinching purchases. I remember feeling a little disappointed that there weren't any recent releases to thumb through but all in all the show was fun because I got to hang out with my nephew Blayke and my friend Blake.

    With this show being my "home" show, I always have high hopes for it.  Knowing the history of the fun I've had at this show and that the Three Point show from a few weekends was so awesome, I didn't know what to expect this time around.  It ended up being the most disappointing show that I can remember.

    I had planned on going a little later because I spent some time with my wife in kids going out to brunch.  I got a text message from a fellow baseball collector,John, who lives in my neighborhood that he was actually leaving the show empty handed.  He said it was about 90% Pokemon cards.  Still undeterred, after finishing up brunch I made my way to the hotel.  As I walked in, I noticed that there were tables extending all the way into the lobby. I walked in through the lobby, down the hallway, and into the main conference room, it was nothing but Pokemon seller after Pokemon seller.  I took one quick lap around the main room and realized that if I hadn't come with a Plan B, I would have just left and gone home.

    I found Blake's table as he was set up in his usual spot.  He had Tom, another friend of his, helping out.  Tom and I have a "I give you cards of your team, you give me cards of my team, value be damned" agreement going on.  I gave him a few Cubs cards I picked up last show and he handed me three O's cards:

I don't have an official PC of Jackson Holliday, so this Black Gold will go into my insert set build for now.

    A Topps Holiday Holliday with candy cane bat.  The SPs from this set can be hard to notice sometimes. I don't actively seek out the Holiday set but I will gladly take them in trade.

    The last card Tom gave me was Cedric Mullins relic card.  It will be interesting to see who Mullins does this season since he is eligible for free agency next winter.  Some guys crumble under the pressure and some have career years.  We'll see.

    I brought a stack of Cal Ripken inserts that I didn't need from my No Brainer binder purchase to see if it was something Blake could use for his Whatnot streams.  He allowed me to pick through his earlier in the day purchases and we worked out a trade.  I picked out these four cards of Orioles phenoms.  The two cards in the left column are refractors that my scanner didn't pick up. The top left Gunnar is a Prism refractor parallel and the bottom right Holliday is a mojo refractor.

    The final card of the deal was this 2021 Topps Brooklyn Collection of Cal.  I'm keeping my streak alive of coming home from card shows with a Ripken card I didn't have before.  It has been my experience that when online sets are released by Topps, you can find them for a few months and then they just disappear.  I'm happy to have this one into my collection and having a friend that is a bloodhound for awesome cardboard.  

    My one purchase for the day was from a seller set up catty-corner to Blake.  I've seen several of these non-serial numbered team logo borders cards over the past year but had never seen an Orioles one in person. What this scan and the pictures I've seen don't show is that it has some refractor-y details.  2024 Topps has hidden details anyways, but the Team name, the piping around the picture and the team logo have that signature refractor-like shine.  For five dollars, I'm over the moon to have this one of Corbin Burnes!  I wish him well in Arizona and will miss seeing a true ace pitch for my favorite team.

    Plan A of digging through boxes and boxes of cards didn't work out this time.  Sometimes that's just the way it goes.  I'm glad I came prepared with a Plan B since that really saved the day.

November 9th Regency Mall card show: From the Penthouse, to the Dump and Back

I went to the local card show last weekend at Regency Mall.  The mall itself actually used to be named Regency Square back when I was a kid and I remember going back to school shopping quite a few times there.  When I was a kid, we were probably about an hour and a half away and going to Richmond was a big deal.  Regency Square was awesome back then like most were back in the late 80s and early 90's.  

The Penthouse if you will.

It's no secret that shopping malls have slowly declined in the last 15 or so years and Regency has not been an exception.  Regency actually started to decline in the mid 90's with new malls springing up in the area and the changing consumer tastes. Not that Regency became a Dump by any means but it definitely went into a steep decline until it was redeveloped a few years ago.  It has been turned into somewhat of a mixed use development but it still is around.  Not quite the Penthouse it once was but at least its not totally gone.

What does the history of the mall have to do with baseball cards? Not too much but it does somewhat tell the story of my experience on Saturday. I apologize for the weird mix of phone pics and scans.  I'm lazy today.

I arrived around 11ish since I had a few errands to do beforehand (blowing leaves, free document shredding.. to name a few).  The first table I came to had an assortment of  dime, quarter and dollar boxes. My kind of table.  I started off with these from the dime box:

We don't leave rookies of star players to rot in the dime boxes.  The Big Unit insert is the blue bordered parallel that definitely wasn't going to be left for other vultures. Most any of these cards pictured can be had in trade if you'd like to strike up something.  

I also picked up these 3 cards of Japanese players.  I recently started a binder of only MLB Japanese players and these will fit nicely into it.  For a dime a piece I'm happy.

I moved through the show being a bit choosy with my smaller budget.  I picked up the trio of cards for 3 bucks at another table.  It seemed the seller was just more of a football and basketball guy and really just wanted rid of the baseball stuff.  I'll take a rookie card of Mike Cuellar and two numbered Orioles HOFers for 3 Washingtons anyday.

The next table I came to was a guy who I'd never seen before at local shows.  He says he only sets up to get rid of his excess cards and that Regency has the most affordable table cost.  We talked for a bit and I found out that he was also an Orioles fan.  He is a big Jackson Holliday fan, whereas I've taken a liking to Jordan Westburg.  He was very reasonable on prices on his other Orioles cards.  I picked up the following for 10 bucks:

I think the Hobby Rip Night Gunnar is somewhat rare. The Hobby Rip night cards are only issued at special events at official Topps Hobby Shops as far as I know and haven't seen many in the wild.  Maybe its because there has been no official Topps Hobby Shops in Richmond for quite some time, but I believe that is going to change with Graybo's opening recently. The other cards in the scan are the red parallel Gunnar SC rookie, Chrome Cosmic Adley, Rainbow Foil Grayson, and a black parallel '88 of Moose.  Cannot complain for 10 dollars.

The next batch of cards is a culmination of pickups during the day.  The All-Aces insert from 2023 Topps flagship products caught my eye and decided to collect the entire run much like Chris of Nachos Grande.  The guy running his table wanted $5 a piece but I talked him into 6 dollars for the trio and another 2 for the Harper Black Gold from 2023 Topps Update.  The 2024 Topps Update Black Gold set is pretty much hot off the presses and I found the 7 you see here for a buck a piece.  What luck knocking some of the biggest names off the WANTLIST in one fell swoop. With Judge, Ohtani, Soto, Jackie, Mantle, etc off the list early I might finish 2024 before either of the past 3 years of sets!

I also found this beauty in the same row as the all of the Black Gold inserts.  I had been seeing Yamamoto rookies all day and I knew this one was different.  SSP different.  We don't leave cards like this behind!  

The show had begun to wind down for me at least and I wandered back over to my bathrobe Blakes table and hung out and helped him run his table for the rest of the afternoon.  Blake's good buddy Tom who also helps him out was also there and we talked sports and random stuff between the spurts of business coming by the table.  Tom had cracked a box of 2024 Stadium Club baseball and a box of 2024 Donruss football. and was kind enough to give me the stack of base cards he didn't want.  He also gave me the Chrome Orange parallel of Felix Bautista that he pulled. I'll hand the Donruss Football cards off to my nephew.  I can safely say Tom is now my friend too!  I'll keep on the lookout for good Cubs stuff for him .  

One of Blakes customers brought a stack of cards for sale and I cherry picked the following two cards for my last 5 bucks in my pocket.  

The show wound down and as I was helping break down the table, I noticed a table near the mall entrance had a small sign that said FREE.  Right in my price range.  I tried to not be greedy but once again, I could't resist some of them.  I've removed them from the top loaders so you can see them.

These toploaders are literal toast (worse than a Crackhead Gary toploader) but will be fine for me shipping out Sportlots Orders. Check out my store HERE.

Also at the same FREE table, I there was a showcase that had a small hole in the bottom wood that was up for grabs.  Once again, as a bottom feeder, I grabbed it and carried it to my car for my nephew.  He's setting up at card shows in his local mall (in Roanoke, VA.) selling his excess cards to fuel his cardboard card addiction.

I had not planned on staying for trade night but I was Peer Pressured into it by Tom and Blake.  The Card Show and Trade night was put on by Three Point RVA, the card shop in Regency mall. The had free pizza.  How could I resist free pizza and trading sports cards?

I helped Blake go through the pickups that he purchased to fuel his business and even did a trade myself.  I was able to trade the Yamamoto SSP for this card to a younger guy who had some killer cards in his trade box.  He went to the National this past summer and got a free pack of '24 Topps Heritage. I need to hang out with him because maybe his pack ripping luck will rub off on me.  This is the card he traded to me for the Yamamoto:

I'll take an autograph of a PC guy for a buck (my purchase price of the Yamamoto SP)!  

So, overall, a great show for me.  I spent about 40 dollars total and ended up with a bonanza of pickups.  It feels great to be in the Penthouse of card collecting and having some good people to share it with.  A big thanks to Three Point RVA for the show and trade night, Blake and Tom for putting up with me Saturday and you readers for checking out my card show haul.

Birthday Cards

Last week I celebrated a birthday. My mother-in-law has always been a good gift giver and has supported my cardboard addiction habit collecting over the years as long as I can give her a specific item I want. I usually ask for a pack of 9 pocket pages but this year since she has a Costco membership,  I decided to ask for the 2023 Topps flagship collection. These particular packages are Costco exclusive.

Here's a good shot of the front of the package after I had opened the top lid.  I do like the presentation.  It has the curb appeal.  But man, I think I may have to buy some carbon credits to make up for the amount of cardboard and plastic this package contains.

The main attraction for me is the three packs of The Flagship Collection cards.  More on those later. I was also hopefully going to find an All Aces insert out of the series 1, 2, or Update packs or a Black Gold out of Update.  I got totally shut out on any of those inserts.  I'll spare you all the gory details of the regular packs.  Nothing really earth-shattering or terribly notable except for a select few.  I don't think I could cobble together another batch of oddball Christmas songs right now so consider yourselves off the hook this time.

I did pull this pretty rare card out of one of the Update packs.  I was pretty delighted to pull this card since I really enjoyed watching Seager make Rays, Orioles, Astros, and Diamondbacks pitching look silly this past postseason. I had no I idea that there were even parallels of the much maligned Stars of MLB inserts until this past spring when I pulled this:

This card has not left my desk since I pulled it.  I had some extreeeemely good luck with Series One this year.  I joined Nachos Grande's case break and got the Home Team Advantage Adley and I only opened three hanger boxes and got pulled this gem.  Also the one lose pack a few weeks back that yielded the blue bordered Gunnar. 

Pulling a card from a pack of Cal always makes the hair on my neck stand up whether it is a card I already owned or one I had never seen before.  I might have a crazy idea for this card so we'll see what happens in the future.

So the Trout card is the oversized card and the Alonso is the "companion card".  I'm pretty happy with the Trout since he's a player I kinda collect.  Nothing really special about the Alonso other than the numbering on the back.

So onto the three packs of The Flagship Collection.  I got a couple of cheaters, a two time beater, and a bunch of Mets.  I would say these are the best out of the fifteen cards from the packs.  I was hoping for a Gunnar, Adley, or Grayson.  I'm still happy with Mountcastle though.  These cards are on thick stock.  Think Triple Threads or Tribute base card thickness. The design is decent enough.  One thing I noticed is that the Acuna, Kershaw and the beater were all about a 1/32nd of an inch shorter and slimmer than the other 12 cards.  It doesn't really affect the cards much but I though it was worth noting.

Would I buy a box of these for myself?  Probably not because by now I'd pretty much seen everything I needed to see of the flagship design this year.  (Still looking for All Aces, Black Golds and most Orioles though). Getting this product as a gift was a fun rip  but the value is not quite there for me.  Flagship is produced like crazy right now so the base cards aren't hardly worth much anymore. We're not quite at the level of 1990 Topps but there's a ton of recent years of flagship just gathering dust in the back of most peoples closets.
 

2023 Bowman Platinum Value box break

I've been doing quite a bit of retail therapy lately.  I bought this blaster box from Wal-Mart when I picked my nephew up for the Chantilly show a few weeks back.  I've always liked Bowman Platinum as an under the radar, value product.  Topps doesn't seem to make as much of it as they do flagship, Chrome or regular Bowman.  The design is a little dark this year so not my favorite of all of the run but its something different at least.

A modern day Orioles fan dream pack.  Both of these came out of the first pack.  

These 2 came out of the last pack.  I'm not sure what the odds of pulling an autograph is because they aren't printed on the wrappers anymore and I'm not bothering to look it up on the Topps webpage.

These are the sparkly ice paralell.  I was pretty happy to get the Beavers.  I got his autograph this summer at a Flying Squirrels game.

These are two of the inserts that popped out. I think the Precious Elements cards are nice looking and I really love a gimmick insert set.  I.e.  All Aces, Dealing Aces.

Virginia Beach November 2023 Card Show

This past Saturday, I made the ~2 hour road trip to Virginia Beach to a card show.  I learned about the show during the Chantilly show a few weeks back and what peaked my interest was that 2 former Orioles were going to be signing autographs.  Mickey Tettleton has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid and I was able to learn more about Rudy May in my preparation to going. My good friend William made the trip up from NC with his Wood Ducks graphing buddy, Josh.

I have a soft spot for 1991 Topps and I remember getting packs of them after t-ball games that my dad handed out to the kids on the team.  I also have a memory of my cousins and I riding in the back of my grandfather's truck down to the corner store where he let us each pick a pack.  Our choice was '91 Topps or '91 Fleer.  Which would you pick?  I don't hate '91 Fleer like most people do.  I actually got the factory set later that year as a birthday gift (I turned 8!), that I purged from my collection a long time ago.  I've always loved this card of Tettleton and instead of getting the regular version signed, I decided on the Desert Shield copy instead.  I'm slowly working on the Orioles Team Set so even though my decision sets me back one from the goal, I decided it was worth it.  The card is just a "Baseball Card baseball card".  Mickey looks like he's sharing a light moment during a spring training game with a boyish grin on his face.  Mickey was very personable when William and I met him and we talked a few minutes about the current Orioles and their season.

I don't have the same memories of '78 Topps because I hadn't been born yet.  I do like the '78 design better than most of the '70s and early '82 offerings so my choice for this part of the signing was easy for me.  I also tend to enjoy getting cards signed that have an action photos shot rather than posed or portrait shots. As I say that, I do enjoy getting the '91 Crown Orioles cards signed (more to come on these in the future) event though most of the shots are posed headshots.  I also got one of those done (not pictured) by Rudy.  He was nice enough when he signed for me but I decided to not get a picture with him.

So, out on the show floor I was looking for deals.  Long time readers of the blog know I tend to stick to the dime and quarter boxes and rarely go showcase shopping.  I ran across a seller with a 5000 count box that was labeled "Refractors $.25".  Obviously, I did not find any red, gold, or any low numbered refractors but I was able to grab about 4 dollars worth of shiny goodness for myself, and a couple of friends.  The 4 pictured above is just a sample of what I snagged on discount.

I only grabbed one Cal Ripken this show and its one from this year's Pro Debut.  

A quarter box yielded a handful of this year's Topps Chrome Cosmic.  I think most of the stars might have been pulled out already but that's ok.  As a fan of the discontinued Fire brand, I think the Chrome Cosmic is an interesting product from a design standpoint.

Some more dimebox speculation/never too early/wishful thinking.  I've also stocked up on Corbin Burnes the last few years.  Just sayin'

My big splurge of the show was this Prism Refractor if Gunnar Henderson.  He's as good as advertised as I saw him play in Spring of '22 when he was with the AA Bowie Baysox when they came through town. This card wasn't a huge splurge in respect to some of the money I see change hands at card shows but I wanted to make a little investment in Gunnar since he's the odds on favorite for AL Rookie of the year.  I think I've accomplished that task over the last week or so.

Quick Pack Rip

Just proof it only takes one pack sometimes.  I stopped into Walmart on the way home to pick up a couple groceries and in a effort to scratch the pack ripping itch, of course went to the card aisle. Among all of the disarray were a couple of series 1 packs so I grabbed one...  I picked the right one.  Don't get too excited, this is the retail exclusive blue border even though the phone pic makes it look like a black border.  Trust me, I did a double and triple take when I flipped to it.

Here's the rest of the pack spoils.  I'd say the Harris RC will hold the title of second best card in the pack. 

This was the second impulse purchase of the trip.

If you know, you know.  If you haven't then you definitely should.  You just won't find any more at my local Wal-Mart....