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.
