Every Card Shown Was 50 Cents Each!: Card Show Recap #8

After not going to the card show for almost 2 months and not buying new cards for at least a few weeks (probably a new record for me), I am pleased to say that I attended the Shriners card show today and satisfied my need for new baseball cards.

The Shriners show only happens a couple times a year. It's a 3-day show that has tons of vendors, though there weren't all that many today as opposed to when I last went a couple years ago. The show also has autograph guests, the most notable of whom (Bill Russel and Oscar Robertson) were there on either Friday or Saturday.

Since this is only my second time at this show, I decided to wander around for quite a while before buying any cards. After walking around for about 15 minutes, I stumbled upon a vendor from the card show I usually attend. We said hi to one another before my eyes shifted his 2 for $1 bins which I would later decide were some of the best bins I've looked through in a very long time.

One of the first cards I saw was the Ken Griffey Jr. Foot Locker card. I know, I can't believe how obscure the card is either. Due to him not wearing a hat and having no logos visible on the jersey, I'm guessing Foot Locker didn't have the MLB license. But considering I'd even buy a Foot Locker baseball card in the first place, I don't think it really matters all that much to me. 

At least, in my opinion, it's hard to get super excited about 1978 Topps. The design is too simple and some of the images aren't too great. With that being said, the selection of 1978 Topps cards available in the 2 for $1 bin was exceptional and even included my first original card of Dennis Eckersley on the Indians, though you'll see in tomorrow's post that it won't be my last. I also don't have that many original Pete Rose cards, prompting me to pick up this nice card of Charlie Hustle for 2 quarters.

I also discovered a couple of highlight cards from 1978 Topps in the bin. The Lou Brock commemorates his breaking of the stolen base record while the Reggie Jackson card highlights his Yankees winning the 1977 World Series against the Dodgers. 

I continued my finding of 70's cards when I picked up a 1975 Topps Rod Carew and a Bob Gibson from '73 Topps, both cards still just 50 cents each. The Gibson isn't in the best condition since it has a couple of creases on the bottom, but the Carew is still in very good shape and I believe it is a need for me to complete the 1975 Topps set.

It was pretty ironic that I found some 2001 Topps Archives cards at the show today considering that I was just talking about the set pretty extensively in yesterday's post. The dealer had a couple of them, some of which I knew I already had. Others, like this Stan Musial from 1958 Topps, were cards I knew I could use for my player collections.

The Ernie Banks card from '01 Archives is supposed to emulate his 1954 Topps rookie card, and it does a very good job at that just as it does for the rest of the cards in the set. I didn't think I had it already, so I added it to the stack and when I got home and found it wasn't in my Ernie Banks collection, I felt proud that my memory served me well.

If we're talking the best uniforms out of all the cards I bought, then these 2 1975 SSPC cards take the prize without a doubt. The card on the left is a rare card of Frank Robinson on the Indians which suddenly makes me want to own every Frank Robinson card ever made that shows him in that red jersey. The Reggie Jackson card shows him in the eye-catching gold A's jersey with a little bit of green on it. Definitely 2 of the best cards I bought today, especially for the price of 50 cents apiece.

The 2001 Topps Combos insert set delivered one of my favorite cards ever made, but I had never seen this Mike Piazza and Josh Gibson combo card before until today. Despite only owning it for a couple hours, I've already grown to love this card and appreciate Topps for including Gibson on the card in the first place.

There were additional 2001 Topps Combos cards in the bin such as this Shortstop Supremacy card of Banks and A-Rod. Granted, neither played shortstop for their whole career, but the idea behind the card is very cool and it was executed very well.

Xander Bogaerts came back from his injury on Friday, so I thought I'd celebrate by purchasing a couple Xander cards at the show today. The one on the left is his rookie card from 2014 Bowman while the one on the right is from just a year earlier, but shows X-Man as a prospect.

I later turned my attention to a couple of 2017 Topps Gallery inserts that I was unable to pull in packs last year. The Ken Griffey Jr. is from Hall of Fame Gallery while the Correa is a Masterpiece insert that I noted before strongly resembles the Donruss Diamond Kings cards from the 80's.

I was even able to pick up this New Age Performer card of Joe Votto to my collection. Unfortunately, I later discovered I already had this insert, so I suppose it'll go to the Joey Votto collection unless anybody needs this insert for their Reds or 2018 Heritage collection.

As I began to accumulate a very large stack of cards, I decided to do a quick count and found myself 50 cents under $30 bucks, meaning I had 1 card left to get in order to reach a fair total for the first and biggest purchase of the show. I looked for a couple of minutes before finding this Derek Jeter card which is numbered 24/25 on the back. I believe it's from the 2005 Leafsportcasters set, a set that can get very complicated. Especially when it comes to the different colors on top and the different positions in the little square in the top right of the card.