Lets Play 2: January 2013

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Gibraltar Trade Center Card Show - Part 2

I did buy one fun thing that was not related to my Cubs collection. One of the vendors had an unopened box of 1992 Conlon Collection available for $10.00. He was probably very happy for someone to take these cards off of his hands and I was equally excited to get a box of cards that had never been touched by human hands. There were several sets of these cards available between 1991 and 1994. The complete 300 card 1992 set lists for about $15.00. My purchase contained 36 cello packs of 15 cards each. So I got 540 cards for my $10.00. The box promised that 20,000 cards autographed by living greats and that one of my packs might contain an autographed card. I opened all 36 packs and there was not an autograph in the bunch.

There was one card of interest. My last name (High) is not as common as Smith or Jones. Now there have been roads that carried my name (Highway) and even many schools (High School). But one card from this box featured a MLB player with my last name. Card number 648 (shown above) in the 1992 Conlon set features Andrew Aird “Handy Andy” High. He played several years for the Dodgers, Braves and Cardinals. His best year was 1928 with the Cardinals when he played in 146 games and batted .295. He also led all NL 3rd basemen in fielding percentage. My brother is the genealogy “expert” in the family, so I will leave it to him to discover if we have a distant relative who played MLB.

This card show was so much fun that I may take the time to go the the show at the Redford VFW this Sunday. The Redford show is not as big as the Gibraltar Trade Center show, but there are several quality dealers that regularly attend this show. Gates Brown is going to be there to sign autographs.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

A Day At The Card Show - Southeast Michigan Style

Yesterday was a “free” Saturday. My wife was in Saginaw presenting talks at a conference. The grandchildren that had been a big part of most Saturdays for many years, have recently moved to Texas. So, most of the day was not committed to anything or anyone. My choice of what to do was to go check out the card show at the Gibraltar Trade Center. Here in Southeast Michigan, we are very fortunate to have several, regular card show featuring a large number of high quality dealers. There are two Gibraltar Trade Centers. One is located on the north side of the Detroit area in Mount Clemens and the other is located on the south side in Taylor. There is generally a high quality card show at each location, every month.

I spent several hours looking at vintage cards from many different dealers. I generally find that the selection at these card shows is much larger (both in quality and variety) than on Ebay. You have the opportunity to examine the cards in person. I have often been disappointed in purchases from Ebay, when the quality is not nearly as good as the pictures show.

The big buzz around yesterday’s show was a 1952 #311 Mickey Mantle card that was being offered to the highest bidder. It was not in great condition. The upper left corner was in particular was very worn. But it was the 1952 Mantle card. I was hoping to pick up a few vintage cards for my Cubs collection. My long term goal is to build a collection of graded Cubs cards from 1948 (the year of my birth) through 1970. I like to pick up ungraded Cubs cards in excellent to NM condition at these shows and from Ebay. From time to time, I will send the cards to PSA for grading.

After looking at all of the dealer’s tables, I that I would focus on 1955 Bowman cards. There were 4 or 5 dealers that had a substantial supply of 1955 Bowman cards at this show. All together, I bought eleven, 1955 Bowman Cubs. Six were low quality and will merely serve a placeholders until a better card comes along. I was able to find five 1955 Bowman Cubs that may end up going to PSA for grading. These five included #7 Gene Baker (showing a large bandage over his right eye. Cost $4.00.