after missing the last few cards shows of 2024, i made it to the monthly twin cities club show in january. i usually get there a few minutes early and am in the lobby when they open the doors. this time, i got there about five minutes after the doors opened. that made a difference.
one of the regular sellers who has some pretty good bargain boxes was there for the first time in a while, at least the first time he and i were at a show at the same time. by the time i walked to his table, there were already half a dozen guys digging through his fifty cent boxes. one of the guys had abandoned his own tables to dig, and didn't seem to mind missing out on sales while he tore through a box.
i was able to get in at a corner of the table and made sure to ask who was where in the box closest to me and i started going through. i wound up only being able to get to about half of the boxes but still came away with a lot of cards for my collection and the collections of others. the only bad thing about my approach was that once i had an unwieldy stack going, i asked the seller to stack them behind the table and told him to go ahead and start counting. this lack of forethought kept me from double checking some of the cards i had pulled, and so i wound up with a short stack of dodger cards that i really didn't need.
anyway, here's a taste of what i found from these boxes:
i was able to feed my vladimir guerrero collection with a couple of cards, including a 1999 upper deck retro and 2004 fleer ultra insert
the retro card is numbered to 1000.
i found a new double play card, too.
as you can likely infer from those scans, there were inserts, parallels, oddballs, and some base in the boxes. tons of 35th anniversary cards
and silver pack cards
and parallels for sure.
his boxes are usually good for at least one variation card, and this was no exception
that's a photo variation from 2016 topps update jameson taillon card.
i will bite every time i see an all aces insert - this one is from 2023 topps update
there were some old school inserts that i grabbed, too, like this barry bonds insert from 1996 topps chrome
a tony gwynn insert
from 1999 fleer tradition and a textured greg maddux insert
from 2000 fleer ultra
the biggest surprise i had when i was going through the cards - this was after i had purchased the stack - was this one from 2024 topps series 1
here's some of the 190 cards i took from his dime box:
that's an umbrella parallel, or maybe a rain umbrella parallel, as there were different umbrella parallels in series 2. anyway, the card is numbered to only 10
it's a lame parallel, but still.
the next stop i made was at the seller who has dime boxes under his table. this time, there was a quarter box as well as a dime box, but there were two other people trying to get at them. i was able to join in once they were clear of the quarter box, and then i made my way to the dimes. here are most of the quarter box cards i pulled:
the only dodgers i took from that box were these jackie robinson and mookie betts cards
from 2024 topps allen & ginter.
2022 topps 206 pairing of gary sheffield and gil hodges
i might have passed on these, but i just picked up a few mini ultra pro sheets so i knew these guys would have a good home in my 2022 dodger binder.
after making the 2022 cards like this a priority, i slacked off last year.
2023 topps chrome update will smith all-star game insert
2024 topps update blake treinen royal blue parallel
i will take any dodger parallel for a dime.
2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary pee wee reese
that 1995 bowman calvin "pokey" reese does look like it was signed by pokey himself, and i will help myself to a 1979 topps bump wills error card for a dime all day long thank you very much.
this is a base card, but it's one of the few i still need(ed) for the team set. not sure if and when the 2024 version of this set will be released.
here's a smattering of some other dime box cards
here's another vladdy i was able to add - 2023 topps black & white
plus a dodger stadium card from 2023 topps stadium club
this is giancarlo stanton hitting a home run in the 2022 all-star game. i get a kick out of this big moment happening while the marlins guy is looking at his phone.
two more dime box cards to show and then i will move on. this is a 2012 topps chrome orange refractor troy tulowitzki parallel
and a 2017 topps chrome dee gordon prism refractor parallel
that fit into my double play collection. bonus for ichiro running around in the background of gordon's card.
next up i stopped at a table that was packed with cards separated out by sport and many by player. i mean, when's the last time you saw raul mondesi cards tabbed out specifically? i didn't spend a lot of time but did grab four cards from this seller for a grand total of $11.50. two were keepers for me - a 2002 fleer authentix paul loduca ripped jersey insert/parallel
and a 2001 topps archives ron cey autograph
the cards were heavily discounted, so the loduca was $0.75 and the cey was five bucks. the other two cards i bought were from the same two sets just of different players/teams and i hope to hand them off to my intended recipient in person later this year.
i wasn't 100% sure whether or not i had the cey card already, but it turned out i did not. i was aware of the large number of dodger autographs that were available in this set back in 2001 when i was chasing after the base set (the box i bought included a bob feller autograph that i now have in my hall of famer collection), but i guess i didn't seek any out on ebay which was really the only source available to me back then. i may prioritize these autos now.
one of my goals for the show was to find some 2024 topps archives singles and parallels, and i did just that when i stopped at a regular seller's table. he always has newer releases broken out for set collectors and he had archives. he listed them for sale as a quarter for loose and fifty cents for sleeved cards. i found two of each and went to give him $1.50. at that point the guy said that archives hadn't been priced yet. i showed him his sign and he said that he shouldn't have put the cards out. now, i could probably find the four cards i chose on ebay/sportlots for not much more than $1.50 but he was determined to get more from me than he had listed the cards for so i told him to pound sand. this is the same guy i ran into once a few years ago at a local target where he was pack searching. i've bought singles from him before but will probably shy away from now on.
my last stop was at one of the vintage bargain box sellers, and i wound up achieving one of my other goals for the show by adding to my 1955 bowman set build. those cards will show up in later posts as i continue to show off my progress on the set.
in all, it was a decent show and i spent almost 200 bucks which might be the most i've ever spent at one of these shows. plus, i was able to talk with brian from highly subjective, completely arbitrary at a couple of the tables, and we exchanged some cards although we didn't snap a photo of our wallet cards. i will share the fantastic stuff he handed over to me in another post.
ps - i didn't pick this card up at the show, but i've had it in my scanned folder for a long while now.
that's jeff torborg's 1978 topps card, and i made the decision a few months back to go ahead and put it in my dodgers binder since he is shown as a dodger in his playing days photo. torborg passed away a couple of weeks ago, and as one of the first former dodgers i was ever aware of, i felt an impact from the news and wanted to be sure to acknowledge his passing here.
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