Card Show Foundlings

A dead indoor mall is the place to be one Saturday a month. 

I go through the motions about once a month, tempted to peruse the wares at the monthly card show but also wanting to sleep in as long as I want and generally be lazy after a long work week. Sometimes the card show wins the battle, as was the case this past weekend.

I'll start things off by showing the last cards I snagged. I was on my way out the door when I decided to look at one last table, and was about to pay for a stack of things I found in a 5-for-$1 bin when I decided to take a quick glance at a different, dollar box. Standing out from the rest of the bunch was a stash of Cardinals jersey cards -- these Cardinals jersey cards! -- and no others to speak of. I believe there was only one non-Cardinal card that got left behind. I am pretty sure I own at least one or two of these, but I decided (at the time) that these were meant for me.

Most of my pick-ups were for pocket change, though, like a pair of Allen Iverson Topps rookie cards. I don't collect him, but I couldn't pass these up. I'm not sure what I am doing with them yet, but I decided they might be useful to someone someday. Iverson always seemed like he was mad... even in his rookie year, apparently?

This is a special swirly parallel of a rookie card of a Ducks guy I collect. Bell wreaked havoc on the Blazers in the playoffs with the Warriors lineup a bit depleted, so it was kind of surprising to me that they moved on from him. I'll be seeing even more of Bell next season as he signed on with the Timberwolves, who are in the Blazers division.

Some of you may have seen me post a picture of this ridiculous card on Twitter over the weekend. Apple had already fazed out their old-school Macintosh font (Chicago!) by the time of this card's release (1999), but Fleer still believed they were living in the future here. A future of infinite J.D. Drews. This actually came along with its own screw down case, which was certainly worth more than the card itself.

I snagged a few interesting 1980-81 Topps cards in pristine shape for just a couple of dimes a piece. You might think the opportunity to get a dirt cheap card with Dr. J on it was my main incentive, but I actually wanted the card for the airbrushed ex-Trail Blazer Abdul Jeelani. You can see a portion of the Blazers team name showing on Jeelani's teammate behind him.

I actually bought quite a few newer Blazers cards, as this show started to buck the trend of me avoiding the (usually overpriced) cards of the local heroes in favor of baseball guys that are less of a local interest. I'm not really that interesting in dropping a dollar on a new Blazers base card, but inserts and parallels at five-for-a-buck? I'll take it!

I wasn't aware of this, but Fleer made an entire Albert Pujols insert set to go with their 2004 Showcase product, with each card numbered to 1000. I now own two of them. These also cost me $1, which is usually more than I prefer to pay for Pujols cards these days. The numbering didn't hurt, though. I'm sure there are thousands more Pujols cards that I don't even know about, though.

Back to basketball with another Ducks guy. Dorsey was traded to the Grizzles in the middle of last season and saw his playing time increase quite a bit.

I had to buy this card. No explanation necessary.

I'll leave you with this one from 51 years ago. I really need to spend more time acquiring older cards, as my collection has way more needs than haves in this area.