Card Show Report: My 5 Favorite Things

So I went to the card show in Raleigh this past weekend and was able to pick up a lot of great cards that fit the needs of my collection.  I picked up a bunch of vintage Orioles cards to fill out my team sets, a bunch of Chrome cards from the last 2 years to fill the sets I'm working on, and I was able to visit with one of my fellow Orioles bloggers, William from foul bunt.  I'm just going to post 5 of my favorite things from the show.

I was able to purchase this fine looking Brooks card for 20 bucks.  The centering is pretty good, there are no creases or really beat up corners so I think I really got a great deal on this vintage beauty!

This card I actually purchased from William.  Its an Oriole, its an autograph, and it's on card.  In my collection, that's a win on all 3 fronts!  Doyne didn't really work out in Baltimore but I like the card nonetheless!

Here's one of the other vintage cards that I picked up to finish my 1960 Topps Orioles team set.  This is Steve's rookie card and I'm very glad to have it.  He stuck with the birds for about 6 or 7 years and had his greatest success there.  He was a local product hailing from Takoma Park Maryland.  I think he is probably one of the most underrated Orioles players in their history since he won over 100 games for them.

This card actually came to me in trade.  I brought about 20 cards with me and had them set out on William's table to see if I could sell or trade them.  I got this Matty Ice card for the Brett Lawrie Blue Refractor and the redemption card for the team USA set that I had pulled recently.  In my opinion I got a great deal but objectively it was probably a pretty even trade.

And that brings me to my favorite thing of the whole show.  It's not something I bought, traded, or bargained for.  William was nice enough to bring his batting gloves for me to see.  These aren't just any batting gloves though.  These are Nolan Reimold's batting gloves from the last game of the season.  These batting gloves had a major role in crushing the Red Sox playoff hopes and sending them home for the winter.  You can read he whole story about how William came into possession of the gloves right here.  You can see in the picture that both of the gloves are autographed on the thumbs so these are true collectables and I'm glad I actually had a chance to put them on.  I mean look at me, I'm grinning like a little kid!

I really had a blast at the show picking up some new cards for my collection and most of all just hanging out talking with William and his son.  So I guess that really wraps up the show.  Thanks for reading!

Trade with Sean of Condition:Poor

Between the 2 natural disasters (earthquake, hurricane) in my area and untimely passing of Orioles great Mike Flanagan, I was able to complete a trade with Sean of the Condition:Poor blog.  Sean is a Mets fan so I sent him some extras I had sitting around.  He sent me some great cards to add to my collection.  Take a look:

Sean seems to center his collection around vintage cards and specifically Mets vintage.  I'm very glad that he had this prospects card of Ed Barnowski and Eddie Watt.  A lot of people really like the dual/triple/quad prospect and rookie cards.  I don't really care for them.  I like my rookie cards to be of just 1 player.

Here is a new Cal Card for my collection. This one is from 2007 Upper Deck, AKA the year UD went nuts with Cal themed inserts.  I really like the Ultra Iron Man set they did for "Fleer Ultra" because the pictures are all different.  From the few of these featuring the Iron Man and Iron Horse that I have, they all have the same pictures.  Maybe it's just a coincidence

I've recently taken a liking to on card Orioles Autographs.  Its just something about the cards actually being touched by the player that make them much cooler than the band-aid silver foil autograph stickers.  This is a first time autograph for me.  I don't know much about Eddie Watt but I like his signature because it's legible!  Most players these days don't take pride in penmanship.

Thanks Sean for the great cards you sent my way.  I hope you like your part of the trade!

Trade with William of Foul Bunt

I went to a card show in Raleigh, North Carolina this past weekend. I was able to meet up with William from Foul Bunt who had a few tables of cards for sale there. After a few emails earlier in the week, we both agreed that we would bring our Orioles trade boxes and hammer out a deal in person. So, with the crowd thinning out later in the day, I was finally able to get a chance to sit down and get some trading done with him. Here's the new additions to my collection:

These two pitching prospects never really turned out for the O's but these are really nice cards and I'm happy to have them in my condition. Both are on-card and I'm really starting to lean towards them and away from the dreaded silver band-aid stickers.

I've been after this card for a while now. It actually was on my top 10 list on my sidebar for a couple of months. I guess the reason I wanted it so bad is because it put the final touches on my 1999 Topps team set. I really liked 1999 Topps because of the design but most people don't care for it. It was plain and simple. I think the only thing it should have had was a Team Logo instead of the script.

Here is a card that William and I had a nice little conversation about. We both raved about how much promise Larry had as an Orioles farmhand and how he really got mixed up in some bad things (steroids) when he was trying to establish himself in the Big Leagues. I was really disappointed to see his name on the infamous Mitchell Report because he was the first real prospect that I followed from the time he was drafted.

Here's a trio of Topps Gold Orioles who sparkled from some time as Orioles and them flamed out pretty quickly. I'm getting pretty close on some of these Gold team sets so if you have any I need, I'd really like to trade for them.There were some pretty obscure Orioles in William's box of traders. Regardless Mark Eichhorn, Mark Lewis, and Andy van Slyke were all needed to fill spots in my binders. Not Pictured: Matt Nokes!

I rounded out the trade with a nice looking A&G Tejada relic card. This card will go nicely with the Brian Roberts relic that I have of the same year. I wonder if Topps has figured out how to get these relics to stop moving around inside the frame. It seems they figured it out and did a good job with Gypsy Queen so we'll see in a few weeks if Ginter will follow suit.
Thanks to William for taking time at the show to work on this trade with me. It was nice to sit down and talk some baseball with a fellow blogger in person.