3/2023 and 5/2023 card show reports: talking about four shows on the weekend like it's TGIF

Why yes, I am an 80s/90s kid, why do you ask?

So one of the consequences of my slacking on posting more than usual this year is that I've fallen behind on covering the shows I've made it out to since March. That's why I'm taking a quick break this evening from trade packages to do a brief roundup of the four I attended in March and May (so far).

First up is the usual monthly show in Taylor for March. I made it over there on Saturday, the 4th, and I didn't come back with a whole lot, but did track down some stuff that made it into trade packages, a bit of random trade bait, and some items for myself. All of that set me back just $45. Here's the goods:

The trade bait that hasn't found a home yet, even after getting posted on TCDb a while ago: an Alge Crumpler jersey (not numbered), a jumbo swatch of Ardarius Stewart (two colors with stitching, #d /25), and a dual autograph of RBs Kenny Irons and Chris Henry (#d 50).

Please feel free to make an offer for anything mentioned as trade bait tonight here in the comments or over on TCDb, by the way.

I ended up with a lucky seven grouping of cards for myself. Juniors Griffey and Ripken appear on Triple Play's fold-out/scratch-off (unscratched) game cards and Kenny gets a second addition thanks to Stadium Club's 1999 Never Compromise insert. Maddux indeed took the Road to Cooperstown and that Fleer/SI insert looks great. Speaking of amazing inserts (the 90s ones especially rule!) how about an Orange Epix of Pudge? A Michigan uni RC of Josh Uche from '20 Prestige is one of two football additions with the other being an above average-sized jersey swatch of Denard Robinson from 2013 Rookies & Stars. It's numbered /299 and represents hit #55 of Shoelace, who's happily with the program assisting with the team's recruiting efforts (which are going quite well if you hadn't noticed!).

Next, I drove about 75 minutes on a cold, windy, rainy day up to Lansing--willingly! Why the hell would I do that? Well they have a pretty nice sized show at the mall up there, but I had no reason to make the trek until I found out that Jeff and his cousin Sluggo would be making the even longer drive up from Indiana to spread the good word of Sluggo's Sports Cards to Michiganders like myself.

Despite the shitty weather I'm very happy I made the trip because it was great to meet Sluggo, plus he and Jeff had a very impressively organized setup of fairly priced cards to look through. It also didn't hurt that Jeff gave me a very friendly discount, but I would have happily paid full sticker price for what I picked out of their $1/$3 boxes. Jeff and and I also got to swap cards in-person again, which was fun.

Again, this is long enough ago that a decent amount of what I bought went out in trade packages, but once again I have some loot to offer up to the masses plus a trio of cards for myself for an even $50:

The word of the day was "manurelics" and boy did I pick a bunch of them out of the $1 and $3 boxes! These five are all up for grabs. Arrieta's is one of those heavy MLB Debut medallions from 2016; Kemp's is a much lighter Players Weekend "patch" (plastic piece) from 2018; Kepler is a very chunky commemorative coin/medallion out of the 2020 product; Sano's is a plastic-y Jackie Robinson "patch" from 2017; and the Big Hurt's 2021 offering is also a plastic piece masquerading as a "patch," one that I guess Jeff didn't need since he's the first person I would have offered it to!

I didn't keep much for myself but that's totally fine. As you can see I ended up with Topps 70th manurelics of Gwynn and Scherzer from the same set as the Thomas above, and those join Kaline and Verlander in my collection. I'm no longer treating manufactured relics as "hits" but do still like to pick them up occasionally, and I've created an album for any I've kept in all sports.

The one non-manurelic card that went into my collection was a Barry Larkin that was new to me. The "90s inserts rule" tag is once again welcome this evening thanks to his 1995 SP Special FX insert you see there on the left. This is a tough-to-scan foil card that has a sky blue with clouds background (which didn't really come across in the image) plus an inset hologram, the latter of which was synonymous with UD over their first decade in the hobby. What a great looking card, even if you can't tell from the scan.

Many thanks to Sluggo (Kevin) and Jeff for a great experience, and I can't wait to meet up with them again the next time it's convenient for all of us.

Less than a week after seeing those guys I headed back to Taylor on Friday, March 31, for the April show, which happened to begin at the end of the previous month. I love getting there on Fridays when I can so the boxes are less picked through and the crowds are smaller since the autograph guests appear on Saturdays and Sundays.

I spent a high for the year of $75 on lots of good stuff, much of it of a higher quality than I usually get. Yep, once again some of the stuff got sent out. We'll start with available trade bait:

The Clemson sticker of Adams was a fun trade bait pickup for a buck, and it was something I don't recall seeing before. There are enough college collectors that I bet I find a taker before long. Böhringer is a jersey swatch /75; Cobbs is a Prizm auto /199; and the Smith manuhelmet auto goes for a crazy 899 copies.

Yet again, one scan covers my own pickups. I don't know what the future holds for Baddoo's spot on the team but couldn't pass up an acetate of him. Griffey was a dime or quarter and logo or no, that's a keeper as well. The Ricken Stadium Club Draft First Day parallel was possibly the most exciting pull for me that day because I'd never seen one before. That filled a hole in one of my more obscure Michigan Baseball PCs! Pudge shares a '92 Team Pinnacle insert with fellow star catcher Benito Santiago. A shiny Topps Tribute of JV was too nice looking to pass up. I found not one but a pair of Cronenworth minis from '21 Ginter.

And then there's a very nice pair of hits. I think both were priced around $10 but ended up being a bit less when bundled with other cards, plus I got my usual little discount. It feels like forever since I added a Griffey hit and then all of a sudden I have a great bat card from 2001 MVP. A piece of a HOFer's bat is always nice, and it's extra great when it's a guy with one of the sweetest swings in the game!

The other is just my second autograph of Fab Fiver Jalen Rose. Hailing from 2010-11 Panini Gold Standard, it looks to be a sticker auto (on a card with a signature window, which is interesting), and the back has a serial number /299. I obviously don't put much money into my basketball collection but I was happy to add a quality signature of the ESPN/ABC analyst and former Wolverine great for a reasonable price.

And now that catches us up to the day I'm writing this, May 6. Yesterday was my most recent show appearance and, you guessed it, it was time to head east to Taylor Town again on a Friday. My favorite seller had promised lots of discount stuff and he didn't disappoint. I spent $65 after a little discount on 50 dime cards, 50 $1 cards, and seven that were $2 apiece. I didn't even stay as long as I usually do because my patience ran out, but he'll apparently have more next month so I'm looking forward to it.

The trade bait not ticketed for future envelopes starts with a bunch of numbered football inserts out of the dime box:

Bruce and Holmes are /750; Lowery and Williams are /499; Muhammad is /600; and the four Prestige cards (three are Gold, Nash is Green) are /500.

Cartwright (/499) and Jackson (/1000) finish out the non-hits. From the baseball stuff, the Baez auto/manuball is /99 and LoCain's All-Star jersey isn't numbered. The Abdur-Rahim Game Floor card was too fun to leave for just a buck. And the football stuff includes jersey relics of Will Fuller (/25), Andre Johnson (/160), Laquon Treadwell (/199) and D'Wayne Eskridge (/249)

The pickings were slimmer when it came to my PCs this time, but I can't complain because I largely use shows to stock up on trade fodder. Miggy's a 2007 Turkey Red but is actually an SP with an ad back. Pudge is a nickname variation from '22 Donruss. Maddux is a 2006 UD insert I didn't have. And LeVert is a '19-'20 Mosaic insert. All came from the dime boxes.

It's a big relief to have all of these cataloged and posted so I can put them away and continue to chip at the piles of cards on my desk. Until June, unless I make an unexpected stop at another show, look forward to more trades of the blogger and TCDb variety!