Well, It's the Big Show, Part 1

It took a while to sort through all the carnage, but I'm quite pleased with my pickups from the Robert Morris show.  I'm going to split my finds up into a few parts, since there are some big additions to showcase.

The show was even more vintage heavy than usual, and it is typically a very strong show for vintage to begin with.  It was a bit frustrating when I saw very little of anything modern on my first sweep of the show floor, and the dealers I did see were many of the same guys that are on the mall circuit.  But I decided to just go with the flow - if the show gives you vintage, make...vintage aid:?

I'm glad I did.  The main vintage guys are pretty much the same every year - big time dealers who travel the country hitting all the major shows.  Since I'm usually digging through the discount boxes, my finds are usually at the whim of how much higher end product they are carrying, to which the trickle down effect is how much excess goes to the discount boxes.

And this year those discounts were glorious.

I doubled the number of vintage Clementes in my collection this year, and did so at jaw dropping prices.  The card to the right set me back a full $1.  And no, there aren't any numbers after that 1.  Obviously it's far from flawless.  There is a nice crease running right down the middle of the card, and it looks like somebody took a bite out of the top corner.  But the photos of both Pirates, most importantly Clemente, are flawless.  For the time being I'll call it a placeholder.  But in all honesty, I would be perfectly pleased if this is the only copy of this card I ever own.

There are really only two classes of Pirates vintage: HoF'ers and everyone else.  With the exception of short prints, I have found or am pretty confident I will find every Pirate vintage card in a discount bin at some point.  But the big 3 - Stargell, Clemente and Maz - rarely make their way in there, and for good reason.  I have knocked out a decent number of low grade Stargells, but Maz and Clemente make up quite a few of my holes after the early 50's.  Another dollar box yielded a much appreciated Maz.

But the majority of my digging focused on even cheaper vintage.  The majority of my finds were in the $.50 range, and came in very nice condition for that price.

Like I said - the big 3 and everybody else.  Not that I'm complaining.

One of the other perks to a large show is the occasional oddball card.  I found a bagged pack of these cards for $2 at one table.  I hadn't the slightest idea what they were, but I knew I didn't have any of them, and that was good enough for me. A little digging unearthed that they were a stadium giveaway set in '85, and apparently came in packs.  I have about half the set, so I wish I would have grabbed a second pack at hopes of completing the set.  Still, nice cards for a pretty terrible team.  The Hendrick card is a major upgrade on his only major company Pirates issue, and the coaches card is a nice touch for the period that Topps abolished the team/coach cards.

Of course I never totally strike out on the modern stuff either.  I was able to come away with a nice little stack of numbered cards out of a quarter box, including a few much needed Topps Golds.

But that's just a taste of what's to come.  Friday is largely my reconnaissance day, scouting the floor for the best tables and jumping on any good boxes that I know will be quickly picked over on Saturday.  I'll hopefully have part two up later this weekend, though there's still some scanning to be done.