The big card show was in Nashville this weekend and Friday was my off day at work, so I decided to check it out. I arrived just a few minutes after 10AM and paid the $30 for VIP early access (prior to the normal opening time of 12PM).
The card show took up two rooms this time compared to the one last Spring that was only in the one building. Since it was Friday and I got in early the crowds hadn't started building yet which was nice. When I went to the Spring show it was packed and very difficult to maneuver in the aisles.
My goals for this show including picking up at least one Mickey Mantle card, probably a '66 or '67. There were plenty of '66-'67 Mantles at the show, but I ran into time limits... more on that in a bit. I also wanted to pick up an Ozzie Smith RC and/or a Rickey Henderson RC. Again, there were lots of those at the show to choose from but finding an Ozzie Smith RC that is decently centered is very difficult. My other wants included hits to my 1965 Topps set which only has 17 left on the want list. I was hoping to pick up 2-3 hits of players like Yastrzemski, Koufax, Drysdale, Clemente, Mathews, Banks, Rose, Perez. Finally, I wanted to pick up at least a couple of T206s since I have so far acquired 19 cards for my set this year. My 2022 goal was to try to average 2 cards/months, or 24 cards for the year, as I continue my journey to complete the T206 set. I may try to bump that to 3 cards/month or 36 for the year in 2023, but I am not sure... getting 24 seems to be challenging enough for me right now.
Overall the show was very good. There were a bunch of tables selling ultra modern, refractors, autos, relics, etc. I passed by most of those unless they had an odd vintage card or two in their display cases too. There were also a bunch of tables with extensive selections of 1950s-1980s cards. This ended up being where I spent most of time. Honestly though it took me about 3 hours to just walk through the show once. There were also a handful (maybe 8?) tables that had enough pre-war vintage to warrant a stop and look. I had hoped to find more ungraded T206s, but I did find some so I wasn't totally out of luck. A few dealers had graded T206s in the PSA 3-4 range, mostly with common backs, which I just find are too expensive for what they. I prefer ungraded and non-Piedmont/non-Sweet Caporal backs.
First up post-war vintage... I love looking through the vintage value bins. You never know what you will find in there and being that I got in pretty early, I figured they were worth spending some time on. At the very first table I stopped at I probably spent 30 mins or so in the value bin. I found a few keepers including: 1962 Topps Orlando Cepeda All Star card for $3, a 1960 Topps Elston Howard in fantastic condition for $1.80, a 1955 Bowman Richie Asburn for $12 (it shows some where, but I am an Ashburn fan so I usually end up bringing one of his cards home with me when I go to a card show), a 1955 Topps Camilo Pascual for $4.50 to replace the one from my '55 set that I traded away because I thought I had a dupe when I arranged a trade, a 1958 Topps Jim Bunning second year card for $12, and a 1961 Topps NL HR Leaders card with Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Ken Boyer for $7.50. That same dealer had a sweet nice centered 1959 Topps Duke Snider that I got for $40 too.
The very next dealer I went to had some graded (PSA 2-4) T206s with all common backs, but the prices for graded T206s are just stupid in my opinion. So instead a went through his value box and found a really nice 1955 Topps Camilo Pascual rookie card. I know I had just bought one for $4.50 at the table before, but this one was so much nice and only cost $7 so I decided to get it for my set (it will be nicer than almost all the other cards in that set) and keep the lower condition one as a dupe for trades.
After some hunting for 1965 Topps hits I finally settled on a Carl Yastrzemski that was marked as $95, but the dealer accepted $85 for it. It turns out that was the only hit to my 1965 set that I was able to get at the show so I was pretty disappointed in that.
With respect to the T206s, I was able to pick up two hits to my set wantlist. The first is a Bill Shipke with a Sovereign 350 back. It's around Very Good condition and cost me $90. This same dealer had a couple of other off backs that I was interested in, but he wanted $175 for one of them and $125 for the other, so I passed on those. The next one I found was a Dick Hoblitzell with an Old Mill back. I got it for $50 (after a fair bit of discussion because the dealer didn't know how to price T206s or so he said so I made an offer and he agreed), but it's only in fair condition. The dealer had a George Davis and Iron Man McGinnity with Piedmont backs and uninteresting stamps (one a light circle and the other with GWT on it I think). Again after much hand-wringing I asked if he would take $120 for the Hoblitzell plus one of the HOFers. He wanted at least $100 for each of those though, so I passed since I am really trying to get the HOF'ers with non-Piedmont/non-SweetCap backs. If the back stamps were more interesting I would have paid the $100 or more, but they weren't so I moved on. So I netted 2 more T206 commons for my set bringing my 2022 adds to 21 and my set to 129 cards total. I have 2 more months in 2022 and will try to find 3 more on Net54 or somewhere to get me to 24 for the year.
I looked at probably a dozen 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson RCs and found a couple that I would probably have bought. There was also a PSA 7 one that was marked for $110 that caught my eye... I probably should have snagged that when I saw it. If I looked at a dozen Rickey's, then I looked at 2-3 dozen 1979 Ozzie Smith RC's. Almost all were horribly O/C, but many were nice otherwise. Prices ranged from $40-50 up to $375. I found a couple in the $80-110 range that would have been nice to have and now regret I didn't pull the trigger when I saw them. I also looked at probably 10-20 1966 and 1967 Mickey Mantles. Prices for ones I liked were around $265-350.
After I had made my first pass through the show, I started coming back to check out a few tables for a second time. That is when my wife called saying we needed to leave soon to make it back to pick up the kids from school. I was about to go back and get one of the '66 Mantles and decided I had better go so we wouldn't be late. So I left the big Nashville show missing my Ozzie RC, Henderson RC, and '66/'67 Mantle that were my big 3 targets of the day. The next time I am going to go and make sure I have the entire day to spend! I also may try finding my top 2-3 cards first thing before I spend time in the value bins or looking at second tier wants.
All-in-all though I had fun at the show. I think the next big Nashville show is in Feb or March 2023 and I plan to attend after I save up some money to get the big cards that I want.
The card show took up two rooms this time compared to the one last Spring that was only in the one building. Since it was Friday and I got in early the crowds hadn't started building yet which was nice. When I went to the Spring show it was packed and very difficult to maneuver in the aisles.
My goals for this show including picking up at least one Mickey Mantle card, probably a '66 or '67. There were plenty of '66-'67 Mantles at the show, but I ran into time limits... more on that in a bit. I also wanted to pick up an Ozzie Smith RC and/or a Rickey Henderson RC. Again, there were lots of those at the show to choose from but finding an Ozzie Smith RC that is decently centered is very difficult. My other wants included hits to my 1965 Topps set which only has 17 left on the want list. I was hoping to pick up 2-3 hits of players like Yastrzemski, Koufax, Drysdale, Clemente, Mathews, Banks, Rose, Perez. Finally, I wanted to pick up at least a couple of T206s since I have so far acquired 19 cards for my set this year. My 2022 goal was to try to average 2 cards/months, or 24 cards for the year, as I continue my journey to complete the T206 set. I may try to bump that to 3 cards/month or 36 for the year in 2023, but I am not sure... getting 24 seems to be challenging enough for me right now.
Overall the show was very good. There were a bunch of tables selling ultra modern, refractors, autos, relics, etc. I passed by most of those unless they had an odd vintage card or two in their display cases too. There were also a bunch of tables with extensive selections of 1950s-1980s cards. This ended up being where I spent most of time. Honestly though it took me about 3 hours to just walk through the show once. There were also a handful (maybe 8?) tables that had enough pre-war vintage to warrant a stop and look. I had hoped to find more ungraded T206s, but I did find some so I wasn't totally out of luck. A few dealers had graded T206s in the PSA 3-4 range, mostly with common backs, which I just find are too expensive for what they. I prefer ungraded and non-Piedmont/non-Sweet Caporal backs.
First up post-war vintage... I love looking through the vintage value bins. You never know what you will find in there and being that I got in pretty early, I figured they were worth spending some time on. At the very first table I stopped at I probably spent 30 mins or so in the value bin. I found a few keepers including: 1962 Topps Orlando Cepeda All Star card for $3, a 1960 Topps Elston Howard in fantastic condition for $1.80, a 1955 Bowman Richie Asburn for $12 (it shows some where, but I am an Ashburn fan so I usually end up bringing one of his cards home with me when I go to a card show), a 1955 Topps Camilo Pascual for $4.50 to replace the one from my '55 set that I traded away because I thought I had a dupe when I arranged a trade, a 1958 Topps Jim Bunning second year card for $12, and a 1961 Topps NL HR Leaders card with Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Ken Boyer for $7.50. That same dealer had a sweet nice centered 1959 Topps Duke Snider that I got for $40 too.
The very next dealer I went to had some graded (PSA 2-4) T206s with all common backs, but the prices for graded T206s are just stupid in my opinion. So instead a went through his value box and found a really nice 1955 Topps Camilo Pascual rookie card. I know I had just bought one for $4.50 at the table before, but this one was so much nice and only cost $7 so I decided to get it for my set (it will be nicer than almost all the other cards in that set) and keep the lower condition one as a dupe for trades.
After some hunting for 1965 Topps hits I finally settled on a Carl Yastrzemski that was marked as $95, but the dealer accepted $85 for it. It turns out that was the only hit to my 1965 set that I was able to get at the show so I was pretty disappointed in that.
With respect to the T206s, I was able to pick up two hits to my set wantlist. The first is a Bill Shipke with a Sovereign 350 back. It's around Very Good condition and cost me $90. This same dealer had a couple of other off backs that I was interested in, but he wanted $175 for one of them and $125 for the other, so I passed on those. The next one I found was a Dick Hoblitzell with an Old Mill back. I got it for $50 (after a fair bit of discussion because the dealer didn't know how to price T206s or so he said so I made an offer and he agreed), but it's only in fair condition. The dealer had a George Davis and Iron Man McGinnity with Piedmont backs and uninteresting stamps (one a light circle and the other with GWT on it I think). Again after much hand-wringing I asked if he would take $120 for the Hoblitzell plus one of the HOFers. He wanted at least $100 for each of those though, so I passed since I am really trying to get the HOF'ers with non-Piedmont/non-SweetCap backs. If the back stamps were more interesting I would have paid the $100 or more, but they weren't so I moved on. So I netted 2 more T206 commons for my set bringing my 2022 adds to 21 and my set to 129 cards total. I have 2 more months in 2022 and will try to find 3 more on Net54 or somewhere to get me to 24 for the year.
I looked at probably a dozen 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson RCs and found a couple that I would probably have bought. There was also a PSA 7 one that was marked for $110 that caught my eye... I probably should have snagged that when I saw it. If I looked at a dozen Rickey's, then I looked at 2-3 dozen 1979 Ozzie Smith RC's. Almost all were horribly O/C, but many were nice otherwise. Prices ranged from $40-50 up to $375. I found a couple in the $80-110 range that would have been nice to have and now regret I didn't pull the trigger when I saw them. I also looked at probably 10-20 1966 and 1967 Mickey Mantles. Prices for ones I liked were around $265-350.
After I had made my first pass through the show, I started coming back to check out a few tables for a second time. That is when my wife called saying we needed to leave soon to make it back to pick up the kids from school. I was about to go back and get one of the '66 Mantles and decided I had better go so we wouldn't be late. So I left the big Nashville show missing my Ozzie RC, Henderson RC, and '66/'67 Mantle that were my big 3 targets of the day. The next time I am going to go and make sure I have the entire day to spend! I also may try finding my top 2-3 cards first thing before I spend time in the value bins or looking at second tier wants.
All-in-all though I had fun at the show. I think the next big Nashville show is in Feb or March 2023 and I plan to attend after I save up some money to get the big cards that I want.