The National: fin.

Due to work responsibilities we had to leave around noon on Sunday, which is about the time that most of the vendors are packing up as is anyway. So, we made our way to the show floor early for once, and most all of the breakers had vacated. We met up with Eric, Ivan, and Mel and said our last goodbyes. We shopped around for the best price we could find on a box of 2015 Diamond Kings, and let Mel choose which one as they always seem to have ALL THE LUCK. Seriously, let them choose your box. Usually each box yields two auto, relic, or auto relic cards per box, one or two serial numbered cards, as well as two of each insert, and two short printed image variations from the rookies subset 151-200. We all gathered around the Topps booth for their luxurious floor mat, and I busted at an empty table. The highlights below:

A few packs in this Jameson Tallion #27/99 relic card popped up. Meh. Usually when there’s a relic card such as this, it’s not the best hit of the box. Don’t let your hopes fall down.

Then this mini Bobby Thompson #13/99 showed up. Usually these are an extra hit, and we had at least half the box left when we pulled it. Always nice pulling a long retired hitter’s jersey plus, “THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!, THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!” is an excellent home run call. But a few packs later, our third hit of the box blew everyone away.

Miguel Cabrera. Dual jersey. Autograph. 4/15! The DK streak continues.

Rounding out the rest of the day, we hit up the booth that had vintage and picked up the few we returned Friday. Some odds and ends Fleer issued pennants, game pieces for Mincher, Perry, Kaat, and Tony-O, and Eddie Yost’s tab-less Red Man. With the exception of the DK box, no new stuff on Sunday. Gimmicks and parallels-less fun day.

Before leaving we ran into Robert again, and chatted with him for a good bit about his Hall of Fame bat, cats, and the internets. We also slabbed Ivan’s mouth on the Mike Berkus main stage with blue painter’s tape. Best use of it all week.

The show’s end really sets home when you close your car door and the slow drive away from all the friends you’ve met up with, and all the sads(to borrow a phrase from Eric) start to kick in. We picked up our fair share though, enjoyed the honeymoon through the east coast, Cooperstown, and Atlantic City, and had another successful National Sports Collector’s Convention. With another year in the books, we look forward to 2017 in Chicago!

#2015-diamond-kings, #dalsubfan, #don-mincher, #eddie-yost, #fleer, #jim-kaat, #jim-perry, #melrises, #miguel-cabrera, #the-national, #thosebackpages, #tony-oliva, #watchthebreaks

June 12th card show.

I barely got everything put away Saturday night before having to crash to make Sunday’s early morning entrance. Which would’ve worked had we not slept in. Oops. Lol. An hour drive up to Plano later, and our friends from Arkansas were back with the big Kirby Puckett/Twins collection, and a few new relics. I eluded to them having a few nice Kirby Puckett cards at this show in the last post, so let’s start with those…

2002 Topps Gallery relic:

2005 Donruss Greats relic:

Lastly, a card from a set that I’ve always wanted, Tools of the Game relic. Years ago I just missed out on a jersey, bat, glove, shoe quad-relic. Finally pulled the trigger on this one:

Back:

Beautiful cards especially considering when for those and a Stadium Club 1st Day issue Kirby Puckett they only wanted 20$. Pfft. Yeah. Okay.

After that, I wandered over to Rich‘s booth who had two newer boxes that were mostly unsorted. I love seeing these from vendors – unsearched and ripe for the picking.

The early 1990s introduced mass produced minor league sets, which gave cards to players who would’ve never had cards. Such as the hand signed below J.T. “Beaver” Bruett cards below:

But in addition to those, his ripe new boxes had these miscuts, with apologies to Matt for sniping them from underneath their trade pile.

This poor 1966 Topps Jim Kaat didn’t know what to do with itself, both slanted, and miscut top to bottom:

Next up was a 1975 Topps Bert Blyleven that may be hard to see, but there’s a slight tab of white along the right border. I’ve always liked this card, showing the “down time” during a game:

My final pickup of the weekend, this 1970 Topps Stan Williams which suffers from left to right printing errors as you can see on the back:

Whether through malice, lazy quality control, or “backdoor” quality these cards made it out of the Topps facility, and found their way to a Twins fan ultimate show-off binder. Looking forward to the next show, and possibly one in Minneapolis?!? Till next time folks…

#j-t-bruett, #jim-kaat, #kirby-puckett, #stan-williams