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.

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 baseball knowledge led him to 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,  but at this particular show they had their value boxes and of course I had to dig in.  Searching through the boxes, I did have to check the back of both of these Vlad Daddy cards to see if they were reprints of some sort.

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 I had to the the show. I could have left the mall not spending another dime 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 and spending a good portion of it at the first table, I started 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 twelve boxes of fifty cent cards.  I couldn't resist.  It was hodgepodge of cards from the 80's through the present.  There was plenty of cards that I liked but I had to restrain myself due to the constraints of my budget.  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, IMHO.

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 Black Gold inserts from all years.  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 inspired me to go back and complete the old sets.  The newer ones are tougher to find at a decent price but at fifty cents a piece, these were easy buys.  I think the 2022 design is probably the weakest out of the revival Black Gold sets but I still like 'em enought to still complete it.

A couple of nice insert cards of guys I grew up watching. Kenny Lofton in criminally underrated and deserves to be in Cooperstown already.  He'll get there eventually. 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.  I enjoy picking up cards for these PCs because I tend to gravitate toward great photos or card design and not because they are just fillers from any old list.  Both of the albums are just fun to pull off the shelf and flip through.  Posting a random page from these binders could be interesting if I ever need writing inspiration.

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.

January 4th Colonial Heights Card Show: A Return to Form

    I started off the new year heading to one of my local card shows.  Originally, I hadn't really planned on going, but at the behest of a few friends who were attending and Blake setting up shop there, I made the game time decision to go.  The last couple of Colonial Heights shows have been sparsely attended by sellers and buyers so that was why I was going to skip it and just spend a Saturday at home.  I'm glad I went because it exceeded my expectations.

    I didn't end up spending a ton of money (never really do) but I did find some quality.  I can't complain about adding a Stadium Club Chrome Cal Ripken for a buck. No, hats off to you, Cal.

    I've started paying closer hobby attention to buying cards of Japanese players and placing them in a dedicated binder.  Each player will end up having a page or two of cards, though Nomo, Ichiro, Ohtani, and Koji may end up with more than that. These two cards will look great in that album.

    I've sort of stopped buying base cards at shows unless they are in the quarter and dime boxes.  The value just isn't there and they are printed to the moon and back.  Parallels are where its at for me these days.  Red Stadium Club Heston? Check, Ginter Chrome Cowser? Check. Raywave Eflin and Mullins? Check and Check.  A buck a piece? Check.

    Raywave parallels of good young players? Check x4.  I play close attention to Andrew Abbott since he's from Virginia, and played for perennial ACC contender UVA.  Can't beat these for a dollar a piece.

    I did a bit of dime box diving and was able to find a few Orioles I liked but also these rookies from 2022 Topps Heritage High Numbers. They may seem random to you but I can explain.  Winder and Overton are from the Richmond area so you never know who you might run into around town for autograph signings.  Not that I carry these cards around all the time, lol.  Ethan Roberts has ridden the shuttle back and forth between Triple-A Iowa and Chicago the last few years.  He's a big card collector and is pretty active on Whatnot.  He often hangs out in Blake's stream as well as a few others and is an overall cool dude.  When the Cubs came to Baltimore last summer,  Ethan was nice enough to give us tickets to one of the games.  Five of us made the trip up there and we got to sit in the Cubs player's family and friends section.  It was the only place at Camden Yards where I stuck out like a sore thumb since I was wearing all of my Orioles gear.  Here's a view from our seats:

    Unfortunately, right before the game, Ethan was optioned to Triple-A, so we didn't get to see him in person but hopefully when the Cubs play the Nationals this year, we'll be able to meet up.

    Overall, the Colonial Heights show was a return to form. It was great seeing friends again after the holiday season and to look through some cards. I can't wait til the next show.

December 1st Midlothian Card Show: Expect the Unexpected

Card shows are very plentiful around Richmond, Virginia right now and the region as a whole has one nearly every weekend of the year.  The only thing holding me back from going to every single one is life in general and of course the funds to do so.  I had planned on attending this particular show more as a collector instead of vendor, and because its the closest to my home (a 20ish minute drive).  I actually expected to find Orioles cards from recently released products like Stadium Club, Allen & Ginter, and Topps Update and maybe some Topps Chrome Update in the dimeboxes and bring home all the broken dreams and salty tears to my collection.  It didn't really work out that way.  

It really was a stretch to find cards that I wanted and only spent about $7.  That includes the package deals I bought for my nephew who was visiting from out of town came with me. I like Brenton Doyle since he's a localish kid from Warrenton Virginia where I spent time with my aunt and cousins when I was a kid (probably long before he was even born!).  He's underrated because he plays for the Rockies, so I was able to buy this card for a Quarter.

In the same box I was there was a pile of the Signature Rookies and Team Best autographs.  Ainsworth actually ended up playing for the Orioles for a bit in the mid 2000s. He was traded over in the Sidney Ponson deal from the Giants.  Vaughn Eshelman was drafted by the Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft before he played in the majors for the O's.  He's pictured here on the AA Bowie Baysox. I recently learned that Vaughn passed away at the age of 49 in 2018 while I was sorting through some Orioles cards to send out TTM.  Couldn't resist picking up an auto of his for the collection knowing I'd never be able to meet him in person or write a TTM.  RIP Vaughn Eshelman.

I actually didn't have a ton of time to dig and dig like I normally do at shows.  I got a text from my good buddy Blake on Friday asking if I'd be able to help him man his table because his other planned help couldn't make it.  I was happy to help out since I was going to be around anyways.  It all worked out since there wasn't a lot I found to be to my liking (and in my price range).  A huge advantage to setting up with Blake is getting in early "to set up shop". He's a real hustler and had everything set up by the time I got there so that left for plenty time to shop the other vendor's wares.  One guy had a box of random mid 2000s cards including a ton of Bazooka base sets and minis.  This mini of Orlando Hudson fits into the binder collection of "Orioles Cameos".  Notice Brook Fordyce sliding in to second base.  

It appears to me that this play was from the day game at Camden Yards on August 24th, 2002.  Bottom of the 3rd inning Brook Fordyce reached base on Eric Hinske's 20th error of the season.  Next batter Mike Bordick grounded to shortstop Chris Woodward where they turned a 6-4-3 double play.  It will forever be immortalized here on this card.  The Orioles ended up losing this game 4-1.  It was rescheduled from the July 23rd rainout.  They ended up losing both ends of the doubleheader (they did a lot of losing in the 2000s), as a team struggling to find an identity after the retirement of Cal Ripken.  I have no recollection of this doubleheader because I was in my first week of my college as a Freshman at Radford University.  I only lasted one semester there, but everything has worked out fine for me and the Orioles are finally good again. **Playoffs not included**

Now concludes this episode of CSI: Baseball Reference. Hope you enjoyed this episode! 

Speaking of Playoffs, this Heston Kjerstad Chrome parallel card from Stadium Club is from the warm ups before game one or two of the 2023 ALDS. You can tell by the playoffs logo on his hat (under his sunglasses).  Its a happy coincidence that the O's embarrassed themselves (well, Bryan Baker and Jacob Webb did.  I'm not bitter or hold anything against those two bums) against Jack Leiter's Rangers.  Leiter wasn't on the team yet (still a minor leaguer at that point).  Hopefully both of these guys establish themselves in the majors this coming season and make this one dollar purchase totally worth it! Its crazy how Kjerstad was the only Orioles card I purchased for myself.

You just don't leave vintage cards in the quarter box.  It should be against the law.  I'm a goody-goody and I will gladly add this '71 Topps beauty to my collection.  I don't even like the Phillies.  For a combined buck, I got the Doyle, 2 autographs, and this card for a buck.  Hooray for collecting on a budget!

A while back I pared down my Ichiro collection. Recently, I've taken more of an interest in collecting Japanese major league players and created a binder in my collection just for them.  The early Bowman Heritage is not cut weird or anything, just a terrible scan job on my part.  Looking at the Topps insert it still boggles my mind and its incredible how good Ichiro was as a player.  10 SEASONS WITH OVER 200 HITS! There's no doubt in my mind that he already cleared his schedule is planning a trip to upper state New York this coming July. 

Like I mentioned before, I was happy to help out my friend Blake run his tables at the last minute.  It was unexpected but it all worked out.  As a token of his gratitude, he gifted me with this blue refractor auto of Jordan Westburg!  Westburg has become a quick favorite player of mine with his no-nonsense play, and meek shall inherit the earth demeanor.  He reminds me a lot of JJ Hardy!  Blake didn't have to hook me up like he did but that's the kind of guy he is! He was also very kind to my nephew which also makes me feel good because of the tough situations my family has gone through this year.  My nephew has taken a liking to football cards and sets up at his monthly card show in his local mall, selling off his extra cards.

I also ran into 2 different of my co-workers from the plant.  It was quite unexpected to see them there even though they were there with their kids and grandkids.  I don't know if they were more shocked I was there or it was the other way around.  We talk about over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and how bad the company treats us, not sports or Pokemon cards!

I also ran into another person I had just met about 2 weeks ago.  Our neighborhood restaurant recently hosted a standup comedy show from the local area that my wife and I attended.  It was a great to have a good time and laugh with friends from the neighborhood and even make some new friends thanks to my wife's social butterfly tendencies.  The first comic on the evening was set up at the show selling basketball cards.  Once again, at the standup show, you don't normally talk about sports cards so I had no idea he was into it or vice versa.   Small world it really is!

My nephew being the awesome kid he is, brought his uncle a hanger box of 2024 Topps Update.  The kid really knows how to pick baseball cards.  One box and BAM, rare Jackson Holliday insert.  I believe that the Stratospheric Stars are like 1 in 330-something hanger boxes.  Hangers are bangers! Totally unexpected!

Being the lucky pack ripper he is, he had recently opened his own Super box of 2024 Topps Update.  He pulled a small stack of Orioles cards as well as these two Hollidays.  He was kind enough to give them to me (don't worry, I hooked him up with some cards that he may show on his own blog).  The little lapel pin that comes in the super boxes was the Jackson Holliday one.  Friggin' Lucky Duck!  Whenever he is around, he'll be picking the packs or blasters for me since I never seem to pull Orioles cards at all... Mostly Dodgers and Reds.

Overall it was a great ending to Thanksgiving weekend.  Many unexpected things happened to me and my collection.  Once lesson I've learned this year is that you have to roll with the punches and expect the unexpected.

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.

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.