Saturday, April 4, 2009

Card Show bounty...

I went to the show last night, hoping to get to the good stuff early, before the rush today. (the autograph "guests" are at the show today. Doug Gilmour and Lanny McDonald. Only $25 per sig. Um. no thanks.)
I was wrong about the show. It wasn't 99% hockey. It was 99.75% hockey. *sigh* There were 3 wax boxes of baseball there. Period. A box of '08 A&G for $110. And two unmarked boxes of '09 Heritage. I held them up to get the attention of the dealer. "How much?" I asked. Looking over, he says "$160".
"You're selling them as a pair?" I asked. He gives me a strange look. "you mean, $80 each, $160 for the pair..."
"No." he says. "$160 each... they're new, and highly sought after... really rare right now."

I'll leave that rant for another post...

So with no baseball or football wax to buy, I changed tactics and went for some vintage singles. Out of over 75 tables, only three had any baseball. Fine. I grabbed what I could, along with two boxes of hockey, which I'll share later, and got out.

The singles I ended up with? This is the first. I found it in the bottom of a monster box filled with late '80s Topps singles. No namers mostly.
"How much for this?" I ask. "Oh, that's a special card there. It's from the 1963 set... that's before you were born"
Should I bother correcting him? 1963? Really? Let's try another tactic first.
"If it's a special card, why was it tossed in the bottom of this commons box?" Put him on the defensive.
"well, uh... I must have misplaced it." He knows defeat.
"it's got four dented corners... I'll give you a loonie for it" (that's a canadian dollar)
"uh, okay... you're getting a really good deal there. It's unmarked. That's rare from the '63's"

I turn it over. "Nope", I say, "it's been marked with a dull pencil, and someone has erased the marks."

Leaving him with his mouth hanging open, I leave with my new 1959 Braves check list.

The rest of my loot to come.

6 comments:

night owl said...

"You're getting a really good deal there."

What? It's a car not a vehicle.

Anonymous said...

I find baseball tricky to shop for in Canada. Not a lot gets shipped up here to start with, so dealers are paying a higher price. And with the CDN$ being weaker this year it makes for some sticker shock.

It shouldn't be quite that much sticker shock, though.

And, as a Leafs fan - thou shalt not speak ill of Killer.

MarieBay said...

You should have jumped on those boxes for $160, you'll never see a deal like that again. No, really you won't. What a bunch of clowns trying to pull a fast one.

stusigpi said...

tough sleddin up north for a baseball/football guy eh? Sounds like I need to head to one of the shows to see if I can get some vintage hockey from those hosers.

Can't a dealer just drive to the states, load up a couple cases and smuggle them across the boarder?

night owl said...

Whoops, should have been "It's a CARD not a vehicle."

Why can't I type?

Anonymous said...

Its not quite as easy as loading up and crossing the border. The price goes up about 20% as soon as they cross the border and switch to Canadian currency.