Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Cards from the 2010 National Sports Collectors Convention

Made it to the 2010 National in Baltimore for 1 day this year! Hopped a plane from Boston at 6:30am, a friend picked me up at 8, and we breakfasted before the hoi polloi entry time of 10am. (Dealers and VIPs got in at 8:30 and 9:30, respectively.)

My normal behavior at the National:

  • Say hi to my "regular" dealers (mostly personable guys who stock lower grades)
  • Find other members of OBC (oldbaseball.com)
  • Do a loose circuit of each "row" (about 25 long by 7 wide this year), looking for vintage cards

The whole thing can rush by, especially with only 1 day on the floor. Oh, I forgot one.
  • Spend $3 on a 20oz Diet Pepsi

That's just the tip of the iceberg in gouging you for food. Fortunately, they don't aggressively block outside stuff, so the rest of my nutrients came from backpack snacks.

My want list is almost all pre-1950s stuff, but I found some good hits to it without breaking the bank. Here's a 9-spot of examples, complete with 2 new #5s for the type collection.


From the top, going left to right.

  • 1909-1911 E-90-1, Butler (Dodger) $10
  • 1953 Bowman Color, #123 Lipon $2 (an upgrade for my set, believe it or not)
  • 1972 Venezuelan League Stickers #5, Lopez $2
  • 1977 Hostess Twinkee #5, Munson $13
  • 1952 Bowman #5, Minoso $10 (have 2 now, just love the card)
  • 1934 Diamond Stars #34 Simmons $12 (from the dealer's own childhood collection)
  • 1952 Topps #29 Kluszewski $18 (an upgrade for my set)
  • 1948 R346 #20 Spahn $20
  • 1938 Goudey #254 Mungo (Dodger) $20 (a tough set and I found 5 hits!)

Also scanned the Munson back for an upcoming set profile. Hostess created 2 versions of each year's set of cards. There's a single-card panel for Twinkees, like the Munson, and a multi-card panel for their "boxed" snack cakes.



The Twinkee versions stand out in two ways. First, they picked up yellow stains from the sponge cake, as visible in my scan. Second, the top and bottom edges both feature black bars. Trimming to the dotted line (on the front) leaves some of the black behind, so you know it's a Twinkee just by flipping it over.

A convention wouldn't be anything without talking to new folks. I met bloggers Marie and Suzy from A Cardboard Problem and Chris from BaseballCardPedia.com. They were fun to hang out with and it's always nice to put faces to names.

Marie tossed in a 6-card promo set from their show gig, FreedomCardboard.com. Pitcher Dirk Hayhurst appears on one card as "Baseball Player and Writer," a job we can all endorse. Check out his book, The Bullpen Gospels, at DirkHayhurst.com.

Did you go to the show? If so, what did you find?

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