Card Show Haul

A few weeks ago there was a card show at our local convention center so the boys and I decided we should go. They had never been to one and I hadn't been to one in probably 15 years or so. It was a pretty big show with a lot of former & current Cowboys scheduled to appear. I was a little hesitant since they were charging $10 just to get in, but kids under 12 were free, so I thought okay, I'll pay for Goose and myself, let's just do it. Well,things started off poorly when we got to the parking lot and saw it was another $5 just to park! I really didn't want to pay to park, that just drives me nuts, but I wasn't sure what to do until Goose suggested we just park at the Ballpark and walk a few blocks. Great idea!

So we get to the convention center and go in to buy our two tickets and they say we all have to pay for a total of $30! Good grief, what if we don't find anything, 30 bucks just to look around! Why do they have to charge so much for some of these things anyway? They don't charge admission to go in and shop in any other stores. I could have sworn kids under 12 were free I said, to which they said they had no such knowledge. Bummer. I just couldn't pay $30 just to get in, so the boys and I went outside to discuss our options. We stood around for about 10 minutes trying to decide what to do, we discussed me going in alone and picking stuff for all of us, but of course, they didn't want to have to wait outside. Man what a disaster, a fun day planned going down the tubes. Well the kids must have looked very pathetic, cause after a few more minutes, the ticket taker came out and said we could come in and the kids would be free. In fact, he said we're going to make all kids under 12 free. I thanked them for the gesture, but insisted that wasn't our intentions. They insisted though, so in we went for only $10. Goose is actually 13, but they let him in without asking his age. Shh, don't tell! Finally, we were in!

Once inside there were quite a few vendors with all types of memorabilia. We went around the hall looking for the cheapest cards possible to start, and found a guy with a bunch of 10 cent boxes. I picked up a ton of Elway cards. Elway is my 1B favorite player to 1A Walter Payton. Elway cards are much easier to come by though since he played the majority of his career as the card industry was booming. I picked up probably 25 or so, this is just a small sample.

Next up we've got a Kurt! If you've read my previous posts then you know that Kurt is my newest favorite player to collect and this is the first one I found for myself. The first three in my collection were acquired in a trade with my pal Brian. This one took some work sorting through the thousands of 10 cent cards, but I finally found a shiny gem!

Tony Gwynn is another of my favorite and one of the few retired players my wife actually recognizes. She always loved his voice and can still name him without looking just by hearing him talk. I had no idea Tony had such leaping skills! Look at the big boy get up! Although, if he stretched his legs down, I guess he'd only be a few inches off the ground. Oh well, at least he makes it look good for this shot! He even appears to be saying, "Watch this! I can catch with my eyes covered!"

"Man, check this out!" I said, when pulling this bad boy from the dime boxes. Goose said, "What's so great about that?" I just kinda blinked at him dumbfounded and said, "It's a Jim Palmer 3D Kelloggs card! See the pretty blue clouds?" "Uh, okay. Whatever," was all the response I got. I tell ya, kids these days, what do they know?

I couldn't not pick up this card of the Wizard, he looks so happy on it! A lot of times painted cards are hit and miss for me, but I really like this one and the raised border/frame adds a nice touch.

Two cards of TD, one as a Cowboy, they way we all remember him, and one as a Bronco. These have always been my two favorite teams, so I didn't mind so much when Tony left since he went to the Broncos, if only for a short time.

All of the previous cards came from the dime boxes, so then I moved over to the dollar boxes from the same vendor and found 3 Sweetness cards. My all-time favorite NFLer. I miss watching him run and it's a shame he was taken from us so early. No one can dive over a pile like Walter could and few even try it anymore. I'm still mad at Ditka for letting the Fridge score a touchdown in the Super Bowl instead of giving the call to Payton.

Here we have an Ichiro 2008 Upper Deck X - Nobie had traded this card away to a friend of his without my permission. I don't know what he got in return, but at least I was able to replace it for only 10 cents. We've got quite a few Ichiros now, but I never get tired of finding new cards of him that we don't have. What I really want to find is a card or two of his playing days in Japan.

These 2 2009 Legendary Cuts of Kinsler & Hamilton came from the 25 cent box. Now all we need is the Michael Young and we'll have all the Rangers from this set.

I got these 2 Sweet Spot jersey cards of two of my favorite old school players for $3 each. I wish the Padres would go back to their look with the yellow and brown. Much more distinctive, now they are just another navy & white/gray team. Blah. A 1970 Lou Brock was the first single card I ever bought with my own money. We went to St. Louis for the weekend to catch a Cards/Cubs game and found a little card shop there. That exact card is the one I used in the header at the top of my blog.

So, that about wraps up my purchases. I actually got quite a few more cards, but these were some of my favorites and this post has gone on long enough. I'm just glad that the boys and I got to experience the show together and look forward to more in the future. Hopefully, we can find one not so expensive next time, I doubt we'll be able to get the same admission deal twice. That would probably be pushing our luck. Oh, by the way, when I got home I double checked the promoter's website, just to prove I wasn't making it up that I thought kids were free. Turns out I was wrong. I had their show confused with one coming up in October. Whoops! Later.