5/6/2022 show report: spring fling

This past Friday I was able to get back to my usual monthly show after skipping April's, and I'd go so far as to call it a triumphant return! Of the three shows I've attended this year I spent the most so far ($58 vs. $45 at the other two) and came home with some great stuff both for my collections and trade bait.

First I hit my usual seller's quarter, $2, and $5 boxes, with those being discounted at 5/$1, 3/$5, and 5/$20, respectively. I know I grabbed five of the $5 items but can't quite recall the rest of the breakdown. Either way, I was very happy with what I ended up with.

Here's a quick look at the goods for this month:

Trade bait! Kasa is #d /150 on the back. A Jake Jortles auto for under $2 seemed worthy of trade baitness. Hardesty is #10/25. And Shuler is "#28/366 AP". Feel free to claim one or more cards and we can try to work out a deal!

And my stuff, part 1: baseball and basketball. One Granderson is never too many, and this is the Metal Snowflake version of one of his Topps Holiday issues. Simmons' '73 Topps base set me back a reasonable $3 at my favorite vintage dealer, the only card I didn't buy from my usual seller. I thought the die-cut of Juwan looked cool for a quarter. Two more THJ autos give me three signatures and 10 overall hits of the former Wolverine, and one of those is numbered /149. Those were in the $5 box but set me back a bit less with the bulk discount. The LeVert jersey was in the $2 box and is just my third hit (and first relic) of another recent-ish Wolverine cager.

My stuff, part 2: football part 1: base and inserts. This almost entirely defensive scan includes Frank Clark, Rashan Gary, UM-to-Minnesota transfer Benjamin St-Juste, Josh Uche, and Chase Winovich, plus WR Nico Collins. St-Juste has just two non-auto/relic/Minnesota uni RCs I'm chasing and 2021 Rookies & Stars was one of those. Uche's Phoenix base is also a RC, and he joins Clark from that 2020 product. I believe I've corrected IDed Winovich's 2021 Mosaic parallel as Prizm Green.

And lastly, football part 2: the hits, all of which came out of the $2 box. The 2021 Rookies & Stars jersey of talented WR Nico Collins is apparently my first hit of his out of nine cards, and he represents the 230th different subject of my football hits PC. I would have thought I had the 2001 Absolute Memorabilia jersey of Griese (#d /300) but I didn't, so that's hit #26 for him. Same with the Henne UD jersey, which, granted, is a Gold parallel numbered /350, but despite his prominence in my collection (still #1 with 142 and counting!) it was new to me. And lastly I came up with one more Michigan uni card, a Blue Foil version of DB Channing Stribling's 2017 Contenders Draft auto, marking the third such card in his PC.

Besides all the fun stuff you can see that I added to my own collection here, a few trade bait cards got sent out already, and more will be going out in the mail soon for a lucky few trade partners of mine!

Besides working on those I'll be trying to get together a recap of my latest trade package, then returning to the piles of TCDB trades that are still filling up my desk. And enjoying this beautiful not-quite-summer weather!

5/4/19 show report: blogger meet-up edition

(L-R):  yours truly, John, and Paul.  Apparently I didn't get the facial hair and Tigers hat memo, GUYS

Moving on to more recent shows, today I'll be taking advantage of the holiday to cover the one I hit up a few weeks ago when the stars aligned and I got to meet up with John (John's Big League Baseball Blog) and Paul (Scribbled Ink) in Taylor.  John was able to hang out for a bit before heading a bit further east to watch the Tigers on Star Wars day (May the Fourth), and I got to do more in-person trading with Paul (trade post upcoming!).

My favorite seller had his prices back to normal after last month's dime-mania, but that didn't deter me from finding a bunch of great stuff from the usual dime/quarter/$1/$2 boxes.  Actually, most of what you'll see today came from the latter two options in the form of another hit parade!

Here's what I came home with for myself this time:

First, trade bait from the $1/$2 boxes.  Who doesn't like manu-letter autos?  Knox is from 2009 Finest and is #035/102, while Turner is from the same year's Donruss Threads (#131/300).  Ricardo Louis hails from 2016 Panini Certified, and the patch/auto is #331/499.  Claim any or all in the comments!

On the baseball PC front I didn't have as much luck as last time, but I did come up with a few gems plus, hey, fewer cards means less work!  Most of these were either from the dime or quarter boxes, starting with a pair of 90s Griffeys:  '93 Mariners Stadium Club and '98 UD Special F/X #1.  1996-98 is probably my favorite three-year run of Upper Deck, and the Special F/X version looked great as well that year.

Then I was feeling like a Gwynner when I found a dime box '89 Scoremasters and, more importantly, a '99 Revolution Foul Pole insert of Mr. Padre in the dollar box.  Pacific came up with some extremely cool inserts like these (and Fielder's Choice, to name another) while helping make the 90s the unquestionably most creative decade for cards as far as I'm concerned.

Last up from baseball is a pair of a pirate's favorite letter, "R".  Clayton Richard's 2019 Heritage base is now off of his checklist thanks to the dime boxes, and I also enjoyed a more recent return to Topps' Gallery product with a 2018 Ripken base.

For whatever reason the $1 and $2 boxes were very kind to my Michigan Football hits collection this month.  I couldn't tell you the last time I came home with twelve such cards from one show, let alone a few combined!

That started with this six pack of 2017 WR draftees Jehu Chesson and Amara Darboh.  While the 2017 Prizm Pink auto of Chesson is just my second signature (and third hit) of him, I followed up on a productive 2018 COMC purchase with another jackpot of Darboh cards.  One of those is from the same set as the Chesson while I also came away with another autograph, an oversized jersey swatch, patch, and jersey/auto, all for either $1 or $2!  As Jeff noted in the comments last time, Darboh seems like a guy with more hits than base/inserts, and I sure get that feeling too with days like this.  I've got 19 and counting!

The other six comprise an even split of vertical and horizontal cards.  I haven't added many Devin Funchess hits to my collection since I haven't come across anything that interested me, especially Michigan uni stuff, but I couldn't pass up the 2015 Crown Royale jersey you see above during my shopping spree.  

Speaking of going on a bit of a run, I dug out four new Ryan Mallett hits, following up on the lone relic I bought last time.  I'm pretty sure the three jerseys and auto were only a buck each--a far cry from what they would have cost back in 2011.

And last up is another new addition (#219) to the collection.  After three guys joined last month I added DB Channing Stribling on his 2017 Contenders Draft Picks auto/RC.  A four-year contributor, he helped solidify the position for a 2016 squad that did pretty well, leading the team in picks (4) and defended passes (12).  Since going undrafted it seems likely he doesn't have a real NFL future, but he's exactly the type of guy I love to see in these sets as a college fan.

These past two show recaps have me excited about hitting up the next one this coming Saturday.  In the meantime I'm glad to be caught up on just about everything else, so next I'll be looking to cover a bunch of trades plus a one-card eBay purchase.  Hooray for productivity!