NSCC "The National" Prep - Who's going? Can I borrow some money?

I am hitting my first national show in about a week. My brother and I are coming getting into town Thursday evening, staying down the road and hitting the show all day Friday and Saturday, and coming home after. Is it normal to feel like I will have the least amount of spending money in my pocket? I think I am just the type of person that feels unprepared and under-gunned in this type of situation. I can dig a local card show for 3 hours and spend $5 and I have more than that at least. Are any other bloggers going?

Can I borrow some money? Lol. If anybody who isn't scraping up nickels to go to the show is taking advantage of all the panic-priced cards right now; let me know players/teams you are interested in and I can show you what I have. Paypal preferred. Also, don't give me a shopping list. Dennis is the only one I will accept that from. Trust me, if I treat this show like the others I will end up buying 90% trade bait and a handful of cards for myself.

If anyone is familiar with the Rosemont area and knows the of some cheap parking hit me up. Our hotel wants $32 a night to park. That is a lot of cards. I am thinking the bus station might be better as it is cheaper and between the show and our hotel. If anybody has a better idea PLEASE let me know.

Recent Pick Ups

Despite trying to squeeze every penny for gas, food, lodging, and entertainment for my trip to the National, I have had some decent cards show up lately.

Solak was a retail pack pull, Blue JaCoby is 01/75, B&W Stewart is 50/50 so a couple cool numered cards. 

Baker is /50.

The Flair is /100 and awesome!

Totally impressed with how fast these Stewie redemptions got to me from Topps. 

3 Bloggers -VS- A Card Show

If you didn't know; Tiger fans make the best bloggers, trade partners, and overall just the best kinds of people. Somehow the stars aligned allowing for Dennis of Too Many Verlanders fame, John from John's Big League Baseball Blog  and myself to meet at a mid-Michigan card show. It was a short, but sweet visit. As usual, these blogstars brought me each a box of cards. In first name, alphabetical order; here is what Dennis dropped on me. Most of these he brought but some he found at the show while we were there. Plus, he gave me like all his best pulls from his video pack busting last month.

Another Nolan to add to the collection and an auto at that!

Crazy the amount of love I have for this card and Dennis just stumbled upon it in a box at the show. PC forever.

Tiger legends.

A baseball legend to me.

Look at the JV heat! A bunch of RC's included!

The card on the far right is an SP, I know thanks to TCDB.

The Prince.

Yes, that is a relic Dennis pulled in his video. 

Holy Nolans!

Tiger color of all my favorites!

I think that is most of what Dennis gave me. To be honest I was drowning in cardboard after this show so I probably missed a bunch of stuff from both guys. Here is what John graciously brought me. I gave him a measly 3 cards in return, I owe him some cards. I just found a stack of Baldelli cards I had set aside for you John so you can look forward to at least those soon.

These are all full cello packs. I grew up in a Coke family so I love these!

Again, Holy Nolans!

This bum named Nolan too.

I really started collecting seriously in 1992 (serious for an 8 year old) so 1992 Topps will always make me happy.

The best part of 1992 Topps was the stadium pics. This one of Comerica sucks. It doesn't show anything unique about the park but I would love to see a new set with these backs again.

This Sportflic Nolan Ryan is awesome!

 

 Here are some of the treasures I found at the show:

Still awaiting this guy's screwball in the show. Hope he stays healthy.

Crushing it this year!

Its so funny that these were $1 and up just a summer ago. Now ten cents takes them home.

It pays to know which RC's are short prints each year!

I did not pay $8 and I have Dennis to thank for finding this gem for me.

My streak of finding good Rhys relics for low prices continues. I will be happy I did when he joins the 500 home run club and gets inducted into the HOF.

I feel bad for the Pistons but am excited for the future. Love this guy's game.

Its hard to pass a big chunk of prospect cards from the same set.

Just like the last pic, there is bound to be somebody building this set. Maybe.

Some fine additions to a set I am slowly building.

Cool card.

Here are some other pickups via trades, twitter, and ebay:

First up a twitter giveaway win from @sportcardcollec and also Parts of My Past blog.

A TCDB trade. 

TCDB trade.

Ebay pickups. The Stewart I got for 99 cents! I have been searching for JJ's I don't have now that I am suddenly 2nd on the TCDB ranking of his cards.

The only bowman I have found. Empty box at a Meijer. Seems like a lot of guys are seeing this.

I've also been striking out at Walgreens around me. I've checked 12 stores twice each and not a single pack of 2019 Topps. Two managers I talked to had no idea what I was even talking about. I did see these repack hangers that looked good but I passed.

Football Trade, TCDB Rejuvenation, The Benefit of Errors

Trade from Summer of '74

Matt over at Summer of '74 has also been taking part in some of the new business of the Iron Lion Collectibles. I was able to swing a trade with him for a sweet Kenny Golladay card! I have been trying to get my hands on a Kenny G auto for a while. I even entered in some breaks but no luck, that is until I stumbled across Matt's Iron Lion winnings post. In a perfect world Kenny G and JaCoby Jones will be the faces of Detroit sports for the next 12-15 years and both retire with and get elected into the HOF with Detroit. That is in a perfect world.

My brother is more of a football fan than I but these two cards look pretty sweet together. I may have to keep it.

Ebay Steals from Listing Errors

Lately, when I get bored at night I make my way to ebay to search for erroneous listings of decent cards that I can win for cheap. I am split between "yes, what a steal" and "don't be a douchebag, you are stealing" with some of these. I am winning auctions for 35 cents, sometimes less with free shipping. Now, a seller should never post something for less than they are willing to sell it for. They should also never start an auction at .01 with free shipping without a reserve. I don't really know how to feel about the cards I get since its costing the sellers money to give me the card. I have done that many a time as a seller myself. Sometimes I wonder who the seller is and if they know a stamp is no longer 35 cents.

My biggest cheap win. The seller mispelled Yoan Moncada terribly so I got this for next to nothing. They lost money shipping it to me. I am not a Moncada fan but I always look for flippable cards to turn into PC cards. This is available.

I recieved this in a trade recently. I think from facebook. I honestly don't remember the transaction other than I traded a card I had found in a dimebox at the last show. Not bad for a PC guy in return even if I already have the card.

.35 cents to my door.

.25 cents to my door.

PC! 45 cents!

More Beneficial Errors

When I am not putting ebay sellers in the poor house late at night, I have been searching a lot of the wax from Papa Jack's boxes while logged onto TCDB looking for errors and variations. Its been pretty fun and I have found a lot. They aren't enough to retire on but its the thrill of the hunt, isn't it?

TCDB Rejuvenation

I have had a profile on The Trading Card Database since August of last year but had only put a handful of cards into my collection on there. Billy from Cardboard History threw up a contest on his blog with part of it asking for our Trading Card Database profile names. I had to look at the site to even remember mine (pjdionne12 if anybody wants to add me). Since then I have added over 200 of my cards to my profile on there and am addicted to it. I don't know why the site wasn't so exciting to me the first time using it. I think I was a little confused by a lot of it and it seemed to navigate a bit archaic for me but now I am amazed by it and have been on the site for 3 days straight. If you aren't using the site you should really check it out!