wallet card powers, activate! and form of a blogger card show meet-up!

saturday was card show day in the twin cities, and i set out this morning with a budget and a small bag of twins and other cards for brian from highly subjective, completely arbitrary. our card show meet-ups now number in the "several" range, but it is always nice to see a fellow blogger.  i asked if we could take a photo of our wallet cards to mark the occasion, and brian obliged:

as brian noted, my 1974 topps steve garvey card has been "trimmed" by wallet usage over the years. 

a quick story about wallet cards - i was at a gas station mini-mart not too long ago, and the person in line in front of me removed a credit card from his wallet to reveal a wallet card! of course, it was a pokemon card, but still! i first put that garvey card in my wallet after mickey mantle passed away and i read that bob costas had kept a mantle card in his wallet. after about 10 years, i switched wallets and wallet card went on hiatus until gavin sounded the call for wallet cards to return. i wish i had thought to take photos of wallet cards at all of my blogger meet-ups...

back to the show, brian, who had recently sent me a fantastic return package (more on that in a future post), handed over some more cards.

yes, that is a 1950 bowman jim russell card. what a treat. plus two team bags with a tatooine david wright card and a foil gary sheffield insert showing.  brian does a great job remembering about my mini-collections!

he also had a non-card item for me in the form of a 1974 dodger program:

it's got joe ferguson sitting in with davey lopes, ron cey, and bill russell, but steve garvey makes an appearance on the cover, too, as does willie crawford. i told brian that i have been going through my records trying to document games that i have attended in person. i saved some programs from my youth (1978, 1979, 1980), but my ticket stub collection really only goes back to 1988. i've found photos from some games back in the 70s and 80s, plus my dad kept trip diaries for all of our cars. a few years ago, i was looking through them trying to figure out the first game that i attended. there was an entry for a trip to dodger stadium in 1974, and when i looked up the game on that date, i saw that it was against the braves. of course, i don't remember the date, but i did tell brian that i believe the first game i attended was at dodger stadium in 1974 against the braves, but there was no scorecard kept.  i got home and opened up the scorecard brian gave me, and sure enough, it was from a series against atlanta.  here's the braves' roster:

hammerin' hank and johnnie b. baker! the photo doesn't show the rest of the text, but the maury wills baseball camp was to be held at the "new" pepperdine campus which has always been in malibu as far as i was concerned.  

there is so much goodness in this scorecard, it could be a post unto itself.  here's an ad:

madison avenue was still using babe ruth and lou gehrig to sell stuff as late as 1974.

i am thinking that this scorecard is most likely from the braves' trip to dodger stadium in may, as the latest information in it is from april:

no paternity leave back in 1974!  thanks very much, brian! now let's get back to the card show.

i had just finished my first transaction of the day when brian arrived. the dealer who organizes this particular show (this is not the monthly card show, but a different one that occurs a couple of times a year) is one of the guys who has a vintage bargain bin. it was not very robust today, but i was able to find a few cards to purchase:

these were all fifty cents apiece. i have a hard time passing up 1970 and 1971 fleer laughlin cards, but i did leave quite a few behind.  i also picked up three cards for my 1965 topps set build, four 2019 topps heritage short prints (actually five, but i put one in the package i gave to brian as it featured justin upton at the bat rack), plus a 1985 milwaukee brewers police team card.  i noticed that the brewers card featured the 1984 team, and sure enough, don sutton is present in the photo. a nice add to my sutton post-dodger collection!

after talking to brian for a bit, we made our way over to another dealer who sells vintage at all the local shows. i was hoping to complete my 1972 topps set, but i left still 10 cards short. i did knock a few off of my list, however, along with a few more for my 1965 set and a couple for my 1957 topps set build:

another willie crawford sighting! brooks was my big single card buy of the day, and i'll live with a slight tear in a 1957 topps moose skowron card for a buck.  i also have a hard time passing on star card miscuts, a la that 1969 topps al kaline.  miscuts are often undervalued, and i may try to flip that card.  

speaking of flipping, i have a bad habit when digging through dime or quarter boxes of pulling cards that i think i can flip. i actually have one flipping project underway, and now there is another one in the queue.  i bought 126 cards from a 3/$1 box (i saved $2 as the guy accepted $40):

28 cards were for my dodger collection, with another four going for my mini-collections, and four other cards heading for my vladimir guerrero collection.  i also added a couple of cards to my stack for a trade package i am building.  a couple of highlights from this pile were a 1997 pinnacle hideo nomo passport to the majors, a 2019 panini donruss caleb ferguson 42 parallel numbered to 42, and two ken griffey jr. cards: a 2006 upper deck featuring a lurking willie mccovey, and a 2010 bowman card featuring junior in dodger stadium:

i made one more stop on my way out the door. this was another dealer who attends the regular shows, and usually has a decent modern bargain box. not a dime box, however, but rather a 5/$1 box. i pulled 20 2019 topps cards from this box:

mostly parallels, including a manny machado dodger parallel numbered /299 and some on demand cards of kershaw, bellinger, and mike trout. plus another card for my vladdy collection. i kind of regret not building the 150 greatest players/moments/season set, and i found a lot of them today. i am still not going to build it, largely because it is spread across releases, and to do it right i would need to pick up some autographs as i think the don sutton entry in this set is only in the topps clearly release.

so that was the show. i wound up making a trade, spending my entire budget, but not completing my 1972 set. maybe next month.