To be honest, I wouldn’t have gone to this show today unless I had needed to pick up an order from Beckett Grading for Jason and I. I’d bought five Wally Moon cards off eBay that I was going to have signed, but Mr. Moon wasn’t able to make it because of the weather and flooding we’ve had in this area. That, combined with college football, would have kept me away if not for the grading order.
I made the trek and didn’t plan to spend too much time there. I was there probably 45 minutes or so, but it was one of the better experiences I’ve had. At last month’s show, there was a new seller that had mostly vintage cards and he was back this month. Matt and I were chatting as I was looking and all of a sudden, I saw one of the top vintage football cards in existence, the 1952 Bowman Large Jim Lansford. On the list of Top 100 vintage football cards in the book “Collecting Vintage Football Cards,” the card is #3.
As we talked about it, I mentioned that I knew it was desirable, etc. and come to find out, he is also on the net54baseball.com boards. I had actually commented on an awesome thread of his showcasing a lot of his Longhorns collection. I dislike UT for many reasons, but I always have an appreciation for any vintage card collection or any that centers around a school (as opposed to an NFL team).
On to my pickups for the day. I only bought two items and they were both off the same seller. Since I moved to Texas, I’ve probably picked up more from this seller than anyone else. I noticed he had a couple of racing autographs, which seemed a little out of the norm for him. My suspicion (which was correct) is that he’d acquired a collection that has some racing in it, so I just asked if he had an A.J. Foyt autograph. If you read my Mario Andretti Mailday piece, you know that this is something I’ve been wanting to acquire. He didn’t have any cards (which is really what I was looking for), but did have a stack of maybe 15 of autographed 8x10s, so I bought one.
The only card I bought, I’m not even 100% sure why I did. I don’t know if I was thinking that I’d heard something about the card, if it was just hearing his name, or what. I did know that for the asking price, the card was well worth it, so I picked it up. Once I got home and opened up my Beckett Vintage Almanac, I realized what I was probably thinking. The card was number 150, the last one in the set. While not in great shape, I got it for 10% of book. I’m not going to complain at all.
A quick eBay search shows two raw copies selling recently, one for $12.50 and the most recent one for $5.02. Perhaps I am abnormal, but I prefer my vintage pickups in person. It was quite the successful morning at the card show, if I do say so myself.
I also picked up one card from Beckett that was being graded, but I will post separately about that one!
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