Sunday, November 10, 2013

11/10 card show report: at least I know how to math

As I mentioned over on TMV this evening, I hit up the monthly card show in Taylor, MI, and it was even more disappointing than usual--I only spent $25!  $5 of that went towards the cards you saw in that post, and the other $20 did land me some reasonably nice Michigan stuff from another dealer:
Inserts part 1:  Tom Brady-style.  The Scorecard parallel from 2006 is numbered to 750.  The Gridiron Kings probably isn't an insert but it still looks great.  And I think I might have one or more copies of the Brady/Braylon, but it's still a great card, so whatever.
Inserts part 2:  The Braylons are from 2006 Finest and include a Refractor #d /199 (left) and XFractor #d /150 (right).  Keeping up the Refractor trend is a Mike Hart parallel of his 2008 Bowman Chrome RC.  Next I grabbed a pair of Hennes--the left is a Refractor from '08, and I promise you it's black, not a weird purple/brown like the scan makes it out to be; the right is a 2009 Contenders Playoff Ticket parallel #d /99.  Finally, I scored a sweet Gabe Watson RC parallel #d /99.

Total cost for all those cards:  $5, as they were in a $0.50/each or 12 for $5 box.  With those in hand, I checked out the rest of the guy's stuff, which is usually overpriced, but sometimes I dig up some gems.  This time I grabbed:

Braylon Edwards 2005 Upper Deck Foundations auto RC (#155/175)
I'm not sure exactly how long I've seen this card among this seller's wares, but it's been YEARS.  He listed a random "$40 BV" price on it and was asking $8.  I'll get into the pricing more in a minute.  Anyway, this is my 10th auto of any type of Bray-Bray, which is really cool, and 51st hit overall.  A question for those of you reading:  with that jersey resting on Edwards' shoulder, does that make it event-worn?
Mario Manningham 2008 Select Hot Rookies Autographs Gold Zone auto (#13/40)
This one had a $7 sticker on it, but since I had a bit of money to play with, in addition to the fact it looks so great, I had to snag it.  Make it an almost-milestone 39 hits of the 49ers WR who just returned to game action for 2013 this evening.  This blog's namesake is sure to be excited to try to make a difference for the 2012 Super Bowl runners-up!
Terrance Taylor 2009 Upper Deck Draft Edition Autographs Silver auto
Terrance Taylor's back for more love on the blog!  This is just my third hit (all autos) of the former defensive standout, and I had to have it since it's from the excellent '09 UD Draft Edition that featured 100% college unis.

Ok, onto what was a more difficult negotiation than it should have been.  When I went to pay up, I had in my hands:
  • 12 cards from the 12/$5 box ($5)
  • Edwards auto ($8)
  • Manningham auto ($7)
  • Taylor auto ($3)
That's a total of $23, right?  I asked the guy if he would do those for $20, and he complained that since I wasn't buying upwards of $100, he didn't really wanna give me a deal.  Instead, he'd knock a buck off.  "Fine," I said, and put the Edwards back, ready to pay $15 for what I had left.  "That'll be $20," he said.  "Um, what?"  "You put back a $3 card."  "Uh, no, it was $8, so I owe you $15."  He thinks about it a bit more, finally comes to the same conclusion, and THEN changes his mind and lets me get everything including the Edwards for my original $20 offer.

So there you have it kids--math is not a requirement if you want to be a sports card dealer.  However, if that's your life's dream, get yourself a head start right now:  stop showering, gain 100 pounds, and start chain-smoking!  In fact, thanks to this post I have a tag in place for future exchanges like this:  "Chain-smoking fatass dealers can't math."

Anyway, the day thankfully wasn't a complete bust due to the pair of purchases I made, and I achieved my goal of picking up lots of top-loaders from my favorite supplies guy, who's generally cheaper than anything online when I factor in shipping, and who definitely has earned my business over the years.  But I can say with certainty that'll be my last visit to that show for quite a while.

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