An Impromptu Card Show

The weekend before last I made my way up to the Nutter Center for the monthly card show. It was an impromptu trip as the family and I had planned on visiting my aunt in Akron and my uncle and I had planned on going to a show up there. However, the kids were sick and as consolation for us not going to Akron, my wife suggested I go to the Nutter Center for the show there.

It was a terribly windy, gloomy, and overcast day but the 45 minute drive up wasn't bad thanks to the new car we purchased in September. When I got there, I found that the show wasn't being held in its usual environs, the gym, but instead in a conference room in the back of the arena. I made my way down the hall, past trophies and pictures of Wright State University teams past and finally to the conference room. It was a little cramped inside, not the best set up, but still, there were a few deals to be had.

I'll start with this 1955 Bowman Preacher Roe that set me back a whole $2. I like the card but every time I look at it, I can't help but think something is off. Maybe the top got trimmed a little? I'm not sure. But regardless, it hits a couple boxes on the collecting checklist for me as it's both a vintage card and a zero year card since Preach never pitched a single game for Baltimore.

Here's one of two relic cards I picked up. The guy I got this from had random scattered cards in top loaders on his table. I didn't see much I was interested in but there was this Dale Murphy card. It's not every day you see a card with a blue patch. We settled on five dollars for it.

I'm not building the 1971 set, too expensive for me, but when I come across singles at a good price I definitely grab them up. Such as these for about 50 cents each.

And also, I got this Al Kaline card from the same vendor for the paltry sum of $3. So, adding some quality 1971s to my collection? I'd call that a fair deal.

One guy had loose 2018 Stadium Club singles for a dime each. I managed to find 10 I liked from the stack but it had been pretty well picked through already. Look close, the Dansby Swanson is a black parallel.

Next came my favorite part, bargain bin digging. There were a ton of bargain boxes of all types ... dollar boxes, quarter boxes, and of course who doesn't love a good dime box. I'm going to hit most of these rapid fire style as there's a lot to cover.

First up, two food issue oddballs. I remember having the Jose Canseco card as a kid in my childhood collection so it's nice to have it again. I never knew Cap'n Crunch had cards but apparently they did. Obviously, they're unlicensed otherwise why would the Braves logo been airbrushed off the hat.

Early 80s randomness including Rusty Staub and "King Kong" Kingman? Sure. Why not.

I couldn't help but grab the Carlos Beltran cards, especially considering they're early cards of him with the Royals. My favorite here has to be the Angels/Senators card talking about the MLB expansion.

I didn't grab as many Reds cards as I though I did. It turns out these were the only three I managed to gather the whole day. The Griffey Jr. Impact card is one of the first cards I remember being issued of him as a Red.

All the Jim Thome cards above came from the same dime box. I just couldn't resist, especially since they mostly cover the gamut of teams he played for such as the Twins, Phillies (who I forgot he was with), and White Sox.

More dime card Indians and hey, look at that! It's a 2001 Upper Deck Vintage C.C. Sabathia in the wild. That will eventually go towards my set build for that.

Another old school style set I like is the Upper Deck Decades set with the funky colors and cool design. It just screams the 70s and I always try to find cards from that set. These came from the same box at the Thome cards above.

Hall of Famers on mid-90s Upper Deck? Sure! As many times I've seen cards from 1992 Upper Deck, that's the first time I've ever seen the Dave Winfield card from that set.

Lots of complete randomness here, including cards from 1994 Topps, one of my favorite sets as kid.

How about some horizontals? And yes, that's a Topps Total Robinson Cano rookie card found in a dime box. That Frank Robinson card though is just a beauty.

When I say these were the dime boxes that kept on giving, I mean it. These came from the very first dime box I came across. Honestly, how anyone could pass this batch up at a dime a piece amazes me.

When I see 1987 Donruss cards, especially the star cards from the set, I just have to nab those.

Now I'm getting into some of my favorite types of cards, unfamiliar teams and short-term stops. Here we have Larry Walker with the Cardinals, Randy Myers with the Orioles, Randy Johnson in a Expos uniform, and then Pedro at a member of the Mets.

This quartet features Andre Dawson with the Marlins, the well-traveled Reggie Sanders as part of the Royals, Omar Vizquel in a White Sox uniform from what looks like a spring training game, and Rickey with the Angels. Rickey may love Rickey but Rickey don't love that Angels uniform.

I'm a sucker for these Topps Flashbacks cards and while they didn't come out of a dime box (it was a quarter box instead), they're still super cool, especially the Batman card.

Ok, so that was the baseball portion. But wait ... there's more!

Hockey card were scarce, as a matter of fact there was only one guy with a halfway decent selection. Anything that was marked at five dollars or below in the hockey box was a dollar so I nabbed these plus another card that was probably my favorite find of the day. You'll see it shortly. Of these though, it's tough to pick a favorite.

Two sports I don't really collect, that being golf and basketball. As a matter of fact, the Jack Nicklaus card is my only golf card I now hard. These came from the same quarter box as the Topps Flashback cards I showed earlier.

I couldn't help but grab a few football cards while I was there too. I'm a big fan of the Panini Classics line I felt these would be great additions to my football binder.

Speaking of great additions, an Ickey Woods Starting Lineup rookie card for a mere two bucks? Yes please!

There was one guy that had a small two-row Bengals dime box that I couldn't help but dig through. Between these and the haul from his baseball dime box, I spent a mere $4 at his table for 45 cards.

A couple cool UFC cards for my UFC and WWE binder, aka my "combat sports" binder. I've mentioned this before but Jessamyn Duke is my fourth cousin. She also made her WWE TV debut last night as part of the NXT Women's Title match at the Evolution pay-per-view.

But here, here's the best find of the show. A card that was my most expensive purchase at $10 and features three really good players in Aaron Ekblad, Jaromir Jagr, and Roberto Luongo, who I'm pretty sure has been playing in the NHL since it was founded. I figured the guy would've wanted a pretty penny for it but I was wrong. To be honest, I'm a little stingy when it comes to paying for cards like this so if he would've said anything north of ten bucks for this card alone, I would've put it back. Along with the other hockey cards I showed earlier, that total was twelve dollars and I was happy to pay that.

So that's my card show run a couple weekends ago. I've got another card show run planned for Thanksgiving weekend down in Cincinnati and hopefully nothing crazy happens and I'm able to make it down there.