National Sports Collectors Convention, Day 2

We're only two days in and it's already a whirlwind of a week.  I would love to do this again next year, but I guarantee it's not happening (unless I can convince my wife to come with me to visit her cousin, who lives in Chicago, home of the 2015 show).

I spent most of the day walking the floor and doing a cursory examination of what tables to visit more in-depth, waiting in autograph lines, and then finally going to an Indians game for the first time in two years.  I also made my first purchases as well-- I found a couple tables with some autographed cards for cheap that I couldn't pass up.  The first one had for $3 each a signed 1988 Topps Jose Uribe (died in 2006) and a 1970 Topps Denny Doyle/Larry Bowa RC signed by Doyle.  I'll send to Bowa for the dual soon. The Uribe might make some good trade bait if anyone out there is trying to collect the 1988 Topps set.

The next table I checked had a "bargain box" that had a ton I would have loved if I had the money ($100 for a signed Carl Yastrzemski RC?! Excuse me while I grab my guitar and busk on a street corner!).  In the box was a signed 1990 Upper Deck Bo Jackson for only $5.  I didn't want to spend too crazily on any signed cards, and $5 is about my upper limit for a non-set card. But I couldn't pass up a nice Bo sig.

The last batch of sigs came from a table with a ton at $2 each.  I picked out 9, mostly vintage: 1968 Topps Randy Hundley; 1972 Topps Mel Stottlemyre, Roy White, Rick Monday, and Lee May; 1975 Topps Oscar Gamble; 1976 Topps Paul Blair (deceased in 2013); 1999 Topps Roy Halladay; and a 2000 Bowman Carlos Pena.

I also got the VIP ticket autograph signers on set cards: two each with a handshake from Howard Johnson, two each with a fist-bump from Andy Van Slyke, and one from Joe Delamielleure, who even at 63 looks like he could play on an offensive line. Joe added HOF 04 to his sig.

The haul of sigs from Day 2.

Some of you may know Cory Snyder is my all-time favorite baseball player. He patrolled mostly right field but also some first base, left field, third base, and shortstop over the years for the Indians, White Sox, Blue Jays, Giants, and Dodgers from 1986-1994. He was also on the 1984 US Olympic team. 33 HR in 1987, had one of the top 5 outfield arms of the 1980s, some could even argue of all-time. Chatting with a dealer at the National on Wednesday night, he told me he had a Snyder game-used bat that he was selling and would mark it down from $90 to $50 for me if I wanted it. So, this is coming home with me...

My second ever game-used piece (first was a Ryan Vandenbussche stick)

I also ventured down to The Jake for the Indians-Mariners game, hoping to score some Mariners autos. Unfortunately, Cleveland has the WORST system ever.  The center field gates open at 4:30 pm, but everything else is blocked off.  You can only sit or stand and watch batting practice.  No one can access anything near the field until 6 pm.  This rendered graphing pointless.  I was planning on doing tomorrow's Rangers-Indians game, but I'm removing it from the schedule.  I still plan to do Monday's game with the Reds, but I'll mostly be doing the players' parking lot for it. Say what you want about the Rangers and the Ballpark in Arlington (and as avid readers know, I do), but at least they don't do that crap.

The Indians lost, but I got to spend some time with friends from high school, a couple of whom I hadn't seen in a good twelve years. One even caught a foul liner from Lonnie Chisenhall-- the fourth close encounter I've had with a ball (but it's still only one that I've managed to catch).

On the docket tomorrow: get cash out and start doing some signed card buying. I found a few tables with $1-2 autos, so I plan to try to fill some set needs there if I can.  I also have to get photos signed by Sonny Siebert, Al "Bubba" Baker, Joe Charbonneau, and Tom Browning.  I'm going to try to sell off my Jim Stillwagon ticket.  I got $3 for my Rick Waits one today. I bet I can get that for Stillwagon instead of ponying up the $5 for a photo of him.