The NSCC - The Epic Conclusion

If all goes according to plan, you should be reading this while I am in the midst of a 13-hour long drive down to Wilmington, North Carolina.  You see, my wife's best friend just so happens to live there and we are throwing the bride to be a kick-ass bridal shower.  Of course, we're going and little early and staying a little later so that we can make a nice vacation out of the trip as well - spend some time on the beaches, get out on a boat, explore the boardwalks, run a 5k (cuz I'm nuts), and all that jazz.  All in all, it's going to be one heckuva time and I cannot wait to get there.

Speaking of having a good time, it's time to show off the last portion of my haul from the National - I wouldn't want to leave you all hanging until I got back!  In part one, I gave a general overview of what I discovered.  For part two, we took a looksie into my virtual mailbox at the postcards that I found, un-stamped and delivered into my collection.  Meanwhile, in part three, we focused solely on the Renata Galasso T260 tobacco card reprint sheets that I happened upon, which thankfully came from a smoke-free environment (unlike the set which they were aping).  You're mind must be racing, at this point, "what will we cover today?"

The answer is:  a little bit of everything.

You see, the rest of the treasures that I uncovered didn't really have an overarching theme, like those in the previous two postings.  However, sometimes the moment calls for a nice, big stew; a concoction made up of several distinct and tasty ingredients which all blend together to make one tasty meal.  So, grab yourself a big, ol' spoon - let's dig in.

Initially, after the shock and awe of actually being at the National wore off, I was beginning to fear that some of my concerns were being confirmed.  As a seriously low-end collector with ultra-niche tastes, I was afraid that there simply wouldn't be anything in my wheelhouse at this high-end, mega show.  After about an hour of walking with nothing yet to show for it, I settled for this beat up '58 Morrie Martin, found in the discount bin of a vintage dealer, for fifty cents, just to get a baseline going.  Morrie pitched in 3 games at the end of his career with the Cubbies and was already repped in my CATRC binder; that said, his rep was a reprint and I always prefer authentic, when available.  The above single may be showing it's age, but how often does one come across 60 year old cardboard for spare change?  It was something, anyway.

Luckily, it wasn't long before I came across the first adrenaline-pumping discovery of the day.

I've been chasing this Bowman card since last September... which, in the grand scheme of things, isn't that long; however, in Burbs years, that's eons!

Jake Buchanan was called up by the Cubs last call-up season to make a spot start and a mop-up bullpen appearance, in order to keep the key arms rested for their deep playoff run - he'd been signed as a minor league free agent that April.  In his lone start, he earned the W against the Reds, pitching 5 shutout innings.  This was the extent of his Cubs career.  Of course, no matter how brief a tenure, a Cubs is a Cub and a binder card was required of the former Astros farmhand.

Jake during his only Cubs start, at the Great American Ballpark 9/30/16

The problem here was that Jake's only mainstream baseball card appearance came in 2012 Bowman Chrome, a product that none of my local vendors bother with.  Not wanting to overpay for a Buchanan on the internet left my lying in a sort of purgatory, hoping a copy of this one would eventually drop into my lap.  At the National, it finally did.

While digging through a dollar box in the middle aisles of the convention hall, I found a box dedicated solely to the Astros.  Just in case, I decided to flip through, on the off-chance that this insignificant pre-rookie might be nestled amongst the Correas, Bregmans, and Kuechels.  Imagine my surprise when it actually turned up, as a beautifully shiny Chrome refractor, on top of it all.  I couldn't hand my green Washington fast enough.

All in all, that might not be an exciting find to anyone but me - but, it's my blog, sooooooo....

Speaking of things that might appeal especially to certain bloggers...

Nick, from Dime Boxes, posted last night about digging through a 10-cent box stuffed with all sorts of reprints.  I'm pretty certain that I too spent time sifting through those gems, a few days prior.  As you can see in his wrap-up, I made sure to leave plenty of good stuff behind for him.  Although, there was no way I was leaving this Dick Culler oddity behind.  While it looks like a Play Ball reprint on the surface, it's truly a "fantasy" card printed up by TCMA in 1983, a set conceptualized to fill in the gaps left behind in the 1944 original.

Culler would eventually go on to spend a year on Chicago's Northside, a fitting 48 games in 1948, near the end of the infielder's career.  I was when I uncovered this single in the handful of TCMA's stashed in the box.  I think the vendor was actually a little confused over how I could be so excited over a ten cent "reprint."

In order to get back in his good graces, I made sure to flesh out my dime box dig with a few more cards so as to get up to a full buck.  There were no more CATRC needs hidden within; but, there were plenty of these PPG Indy Car World Series singles from 1991.  As a massive Indy 500 fan, I was content to take these home with me.  In fact, Gordon Johncock, Johnny Rutherford, and Duane "Pancho" Carter also competed in the NASCAR ranks, making these cards perfect additions to my corresponding binder.  Meanwhile, the Bettenhausens, one of racing's most famous families, are local legends in these parts, putting nearby Tinley Park, IL on the motorsport map.  For a dime, these racers were definitely going to be mine.

Okay, so far, I've been showcasing the "niche-iest" of my finds; I promise that we're getting to the good stuff now.  Most people loves vintage, right?  Everybody gets a kick out of oddball vintage, yes?  Good thing I ran across a dude with a small box full of discounted Mother's Cookies singles...and we're not talking about the stadium giveaways from the 80's either...

Most of us are familiar with their 80's endeavor; but did you know that the confectioners dipped their toes in the baseball waters thirty years previous?  In fact, they produced two brightly-colored, under-sized sets, in 1953 and 54, based around the old Pacific Coast League.

Thanks to their recognizable name, attractive look and inclusion of several future/former MLB'ers, these old cookie cards are kind of tough to find and expensive when they do show up.  I've seen a few of these Richards go in the range of $20-50, before shipping, based on condition - too much for one card to this cheapskate.  I almost peed myself when I negotiated the seller down to five bucks for Red Lynn up there.  That's cheaper than a pack of 2017 Stadium Club, for cryin' out loud.

Red also some brief action with the NY Giants, image courtesy of Getty

Before suiting up with the Hollywood Stars, Red tossed some war-time innings for the Cubbies in 1944.  Despite those 22 games (5-4, 4.06) being the end of his MLB career, as the cookies attest, Red hung around the pro ranks for quite a while.  In fact, he hung on until the age of 42 in 1956.  Despite his lengthy stay in our nation's pastime, the lavender beauty you see above is one of only two Lynn baseball cards to ever hit the market, making it even more of a steal for a Lincoln flash card!

The only thing that could have made the purchase even better was if it actually came with some cookies.

Had that been the end of my shopping spree, I would ended the day with an ear-to-ear grin.  But, this was the National - as long as I kept looking, I was going to keep finding.  Before I left the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, I decided to circle through the first couple of aisles, which had previously produced almost nothing for me (as previously noted), just in case.  It's a darn good thing I did too, because it allowed me to end the afternoon of baseball card hunting with an exclamation point.

It may be taped up, but this 1949 Bowman Ralph Hamner high-number set was also negotiated down to a scant five bucks.  Ummmm... yes please!

Good thing I turned out to be adept at haggling because that last five bucks completely exhausted my budget; that said, I couldn't have be happier to turn that bill over.  Ralphie here spent the '47-'49 seasons at Wrigley Field and I've been targeting this classic from 1949 for my CATRC binder for many moons; I've never seen it with a price less than 10 bucks, in any condition.  Without it, I would have never learned that Hamner's MLB career almost closed before it began, as he suffered a broken back while diving for a ball in the minors.  Ouchy!

Thankfully, I didn't break my budget on this bad boy.

With that, we've finally reached the end of my massively productive haul from the 2017 National. In the end, I was able to track down an eye-popping thirteen new additions to my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection binder.  For frame of reference, I consider any card show where I'm fortunate enough to uncover one new name to be a success - these are uncharted waters!  That's not even accounting for the auxiliary awesomeness that appeared alongside the roster additions.  I truly felt like a little kid after a spree through the local candy shop.  And no sugar crash afterwards!

Thank you for reading through my bragging, I just had to sing the praises of my time at the National and the blogosphere seemed like the perfect audience.  I hope you enjoyed the read half as much as I enjoyed the ride!  If you ever get the chance to go,no matter what kind of collector you are, I highly recommend that you take that opportunity.

Simply put - it's baseball card nirvana.

The NSCC - Holy Sheet!

Here we are, day three of my humble bragging about what I was lucky enough to come across at the. National Sports Collectors Conference.  So far, in part one, I gave you the general overview of what I uncovered while wandering, mouth agape, about the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in nearby Rosemont, IL; plus, you got to check out the hottest rookie card to hit the market (forget Judge and Bellinger).   Then, in part two, I went completely "postal," in that I spent our time together showing off the postcards of long-forgotten Cubs players of yore which just so happened to fill some gaps in my CATRC binder that I wasn't sure would ever be filled.  For once, "mailing it in" wasn't a bad way to approach a blog post!

With that, I know you must be on the edge of your seat, desperate to find out what we'll be gazing at with awe today.  So, let's get right down to business.

As I've mentioned countless times throughout this blog's history, at this point in my CATRC, most of the players I'm chasing hail from the 1940s and earlier and, thus, lack the cardboard footprint of more modern ball players.  This means that, oftentimes, my selections are limited to super vintage and ultra rare curiosities - not friendly to this penny-pinching collector.  When I come across them, I'm content to let reprints hold down the fort until I win the lottery enough times to buy the stacks of strip and tobacco cards I'll need to complete my task.  That's why, when I saw this stash of oddballs at one vendors table, all I could think was "holy sheet - these are going to fill in a bunch of gaps:"

Entire, un-separated sheets of Renata Galasso T206 reprints!  Now we're cooking with gas.

There are upwards of a dozen subjects in what might be the most famous baseball card issue of all-time who have thus far eluded my grasp.  If I were to sit around and wait until I scrounged up enough funds to purchase all of those singles, I might be paying for them with my first retirement check.  Thanks to the revered Renata Galasso, the queen of oddball baseball cards, and her reprints of the early 1980's, I can now cross some of these names off of my "need" list without taking food out of my own mouth.

You know what that means, I definitely perforated these bad boys - sorry, not sorry.

At this particular table, the seller had four different, full sheets available for purchase. However, sadly, my limited, cash only budget only had enough wiggle room for me to land two of them.  Moral of the story - always make sure you have your debit card BEFORE you peel out from an ATM.  Oh well, I think Meatloaf would still agree that two out of four ain't bad - heck, you're batting .500!

Renata released this set of T206 reprints in both perforated sheets and as a boxed set, circa 1983.  As I am writing this, I see no confirmation that her re-do's contain all of the original cards from "the Monster" (as the large set is affectionately known); however, that is certainly doubtful.
A lot of the big names of the era are included on the sheets that I did end up pulling the trigger on - Mordecai Brown and his three fingers, Joe Tinker (sans his poetic teammates), plus some non-Cubs notables like that Cy Young fellow and Tris Speaker.  Of course, being the roster obsessed collector I am, the only names that concerned me were the obscure ones.

I'm talking about guys like Johnny Bates and Jake Weimer, Deadball Era players whose fame did not translate through the decades.  The former, Bates, was a regular in the outfield for the Boston (as pictured), Philly, and Cincy clubs from 1906-13, before being released mid-season in '14.  Nearing the end of his rope, Johnny inked a deal with the Cubbies, with whom he finished out the year with nine more games with one hit in eight at-bats.  After one more year with the rebel Federal League in Baltimore, Bates racked his Major League bat for the last time.

Meanwhile, Jake Weimer broke in immediately as regular in the Cubs' starting rotation in 1903, posting a 20-8 record and never winning less than 18 contests in his three total seasons in the Windy City.  With a strong starting staff and an opening at third base, Chicago decided to swap Weimer to the Reds for Jimmy Sebring and the answer to everyone's favorite trivia question, Harry Steinfeldt.  Of course, that trivia question is, "who played third base during the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance era?"

Just a couple o' Bills here.

Bill Bradley was a longtime Cleveland Blue/Nap/Indian; but, he broke into the Bigs with the Chicago National League franchise, before the turn of the century, in 1899.  After playing a year and a half as the starting third baseman for the then-Orphans, Bradley "jumped" on over to Cleveland in pursuit of a more lucrative offer to play in the newly-formed American League.

Billy Maloney did some jumping himself, from team-to-team, throughout the first decade of the twentieth century.  During his sole season with the Second City, Maloney managed to lead the NL in stolen bases, with 59 swipes.  Of course, he also lead the league in strikeouts, with all of 59 - 'twas simply a different time.  Also, gotta love the old-timey field (that almost looks more like a carnival than a ballpark) in the background of Billy' lithograph.

Finally, here's the card I was most happy to see included on these Galasso sheets:  John Ganzel.

Ganzel was a teammate of Billy Maloney's at Rochester when this set was originally released in cigarette packages.  By then, he was nine-years removed from his one year stint with the Chicago club.  Of course, playing as a first baseman there was a fool's assignment, seeing as HOF'er Frank "The Peerless Leader" was firmly entrenched and not going anywhere.  As such, Ganzel was traded away after just 78 contests in 1900.  Not to be deterred, John stuck around in the pro ranks all the way through the 1918 season.

That said, none of that has anything to do with the fact that THIS seemingly innocent trading card was my favorite find of the bunch.  In fact, the reason truly has nothing to do with the card or John himself at all - this is the reason why:

That's right - Ebay notifications are the true reason... they've been driving me bonkers.  Granted, that is a rather short drive.

I, like many a collector, have a ton of saved searches on my Ebay account, lest a card that I desire show up and run right under my nose.  Additionally, I have notifications turned on for that very same reason - simply put, like Aerosmith, I just don't want to miss a thing.  For whatever reason, I'd been getting pop up notes for "new items" in relation to Mr. Ganzel, at the rate of at least once a day, for several weeks.  A rational person might have just turned off notifications or deleted that search; but, I just knew that if I did that, someone would list an off-condition, Ganzel T206 for a bargain basement price and I would miss it.

Like I said, short drive.  Regardless, my long, national nightmare is now over - I have a Ganzel and I can stop following that search, with it's kooky, rogue pop ups.

Btdubs, that photograph on my lock screen comes from a charity promotion put on by the local commuter railroad earlier this summer.  They brought in the "Joliet Rocket" (NKP 765) to roll down our line, pulling a special excursion train.  Seeing as another one of my longstanding passions is railroading and it's history, watching this galloping 2-8-4 steam locomotive roar through town made my hair stand on end.  It's incredible to think that when guys like Ganzel, Maloney, Bradley, Weimer and Bates were entertaining fans on the diamond, this was simply a normal, everyday scene.

Anyway, all told, courtesy of the Renata Galasso discovery, I was able to add five new names to my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection binder that otherwise might have taken me years to track down elsewhere.  Thank you for your oddballs and reprints, Mrs. Galasso - this collection would look drastically different without your efforts!

This concludes part three of the series about my finds at the National.  Stay tuned, for tomorrow we will wrap everything up, with a tidy bow on top, with a potpourri.  Oddballs?  Check ✅.  Ultra vintage? Check ✅.  Refractors?  Check ✅.  We're going to go out with a grand finale-like bang.

All you'll be able to say is, "holy sheet!"

The NSCC - Post Haste

Alright - I know a pretty big trade went down last night, affecting the Cubs' roster in a major way. However, I'm still buzzing from the weekend and I want to keep showing off my haul from this past weekend's National Sports Collectors Conference, otherwise known colloquially as "The National," for short.  It was an amazing and overwhelming (in a good way) experience, despite my apparent concerns leading up to the Chicago-hosted event. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoys our nation's pastime or any of our major sports to circle this event on their calendar in the future.  It's simply amazing.

Anyway, I was able to add 13 new names to my Cubs All-Time Roster Convention while wandering around in awe at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center.  At an event of this magnitude, a lot of the focus was on super vintage collectibles - i.e., crazy stuff like authentic Goodwin tobacco cards,  PSA 10 Ted Williams rookies, complete sets of 1952 Topps, and the like.  A good majority of my purchases were of the super vintage variety; however, they weren't quite THAT notable.  In fact, the finds that I'm about to show off weren't even baseball cards, in the traditional sense, anyway.

They were postcards:

When you're searching for obscure baseball players from the early-to-mid-20th century, you have to take what you can get.  There were no Bowman or Brandt minor league, team-issue sets issued every year to fill in the gaps for the cuppacoffee rookies or journeymen who never sniffed significance.  In fact, there was a certain dearth of baseball cards at all, except for the notable sets.

The photographic postcard that you see above spotlights one of those rare players, a hurler by the name of Ray Harrell.  Harrell pitched for five teams in six years of Major League action during the mid 30's and early 40's, with a career ERA of 5.70 - not too notable.  However, what is notable to me is the fact that one of those five teams was the Chicago Cubs, who employed his services for all of 4 games (2 starts) in 1939.  Even those his ERA ballooned to over 8 in that tenure, he was still a Cubs and thus necessitated representation in my CATRC binder.

I am a bad Cubs fan though because I definitely had no idea who this player was when I ran across it.  Thankfully, either the printer, manufacturer or previous owner recognized that the lack of identification on the front might become an issue, so they kindly inked Ray's name on the back for wide-eyed and curious ol' me:

Unsurprisingly, Ray never had a contemporary card issued; although, he did appear on the checklist of the Conlon Collection in 1993... as a Cardinal... that'd never do.  That's why I was thrilled when I came across this vintage photo postcard, even if there was no hint of a photographer or printer and it was priced at ten bucks.  Luckily, I discovered that I am capable of haggling when I am on a strict budget (I lost my debit card earlier in the week - couldn't get more cash) and was able to talk the generous-minded vendor down to five, a much more reasonable price.

After all, while I absolutely wanted to cross Ray's name off of my want list, I didn't want to forfeit a large chunk of my budget on my first significant purchase, not at a place like that National.  It's a damn good thing I didn't too because it wasn't long before I ran into more postcards that fit into my favorite and most hallowed binder.

Just a few aisles over, I found myself flipping through a full binder of old-timey postcards, one of which turned out to be a pressing need.

James "Jimmy" Johns(t)on was a much more significant player than Ray Harrell, serving as a regular in the Brooklyn Dodgers/Robins lineup, at various positions, for a decade.  That said, before that, you guessed it, he had himself a brief cameo with the Cubbies in 1914, with a fifty game audition that resulted in a weak .228/.264/.327 slash line and a ticket back to the bushes until Brooklyn came a-calling in '16.

Unlike the previous postcard, we can clearly determine the origins of this vintage oddball.  From the front, it's apparent that we have the design of one of the earliest sets of Exhibit cards (and the gloriously awful flannel Dodger uniform tops).  From the back, we see that it's the postcard back version and that it's not an original; rather, what we have is a TCMA reprint from 1973.  Hey - TCMA is one of the biggest names in oddball trading cards and enough time has passed for this single to be considered authentic vintage in it's own right now.  As an added bonus, I didn't even have to haggle for this one, as the vendor had it marked at a reasonable three dollars - considering I almost never come across Exhibits, reprint or not, I was happy to take Jimmy home at that price.

Later on in the afternoon, after I had my made way through the entire convention hall and was doubling back to follow up on some potential buys that I had to mull over, I came across a table that I must have missed entirely during my initial run through.  This seller's stock was made up almost entirely of postcards from the 1900's. His table was strewn with George Brace, JD McCarthy postcards, team issued oddities, and Exhibits from the 1930's through the 1970's.  Sensing a potential lucrative source for more obscure Cubs, I instantly put my previous mission on hold and began to flip through the first stack I saw, which just so happened to be made up entirely of Northsiders.

Like with the Harrell card which led off the post, these again were real photo postcards (printed with Kodak paper) of unknown origin.  Again, my ability to identify players by nothing but sight was challenged and, again, I was thrilled that the names of the subjects were scribbled on the reverse side.

The stern head shot appears to be Joe Stepehenson, while the warm-up "in action" photograph appears to depict Lester "Les" Sweetland.  Stephenson appeared in all of four games for the Cubbies, back in 1944, batting an anemic .125 as a backup catcher.  He also saw brief snippets of action with the White Sox and the Giants in the years immediately preceding and proceeding his Cubs tenure; but, that was the extent of his Major League Baseball career.

On the other hand, Les Sweetland was considerably more notable of a player; however, his notoriety was not for any reason that a pitcher would like to be remembered.  Throughout the long and storied history of MLB, no moundsman, qualifying for the ERA title, has posted a higher ERA than Sweetland's 7.71 with the 1930 Phillies.  Egad - all told, Les had a dismal 7-15 record in 34 appearances, 25 of which came from the starting rotation.

Lester during his time in the City of Brotherly Love.  Image courtesy of Getty Images.

Nevertheless, the Cubs thought they saw something in Sweetland, purchasing his contract coming off the heels of that disastrous campaign.  The good news was that "Sugar's" ERA dipped by more than 2.5 points and he managed a decent 8-7 record for his new club.  The bad news was that, even with that his improvement, a 5.05 ERA just wasn't going to cut it and he frequently clashed with the irascible manager, Rogers Hornsby.  In the end, his 26 games with the Cubs that season were his last on the game's grandest stage.

These buzzer-beating finds made fora perfect punctuation point on an already supremely successful day; however, they were priced at three-for-five bucks and there were only two that immediately appealed to me.  Seeing as I would probably never see anything like these postcards anywhere else (esp at that price), I decided that I wasn't leaving until I uncovered a third oddity.

Enter Jake Mooty, a "War Era" pitcher for the Chicago Cubs from 1940-43, who also cameo-ed with the Reds and the Tigers.  This one slipped past me on my initial run through of the postcards because the name seemed familiar - nevertheless, something rattling around in the back of my head told me that the point of checking was not "Mooty."  Bah-dum-tiss!

After a quick run through of my records (thank goodness for smart phones), I discovered that the reason Mooty's name was familiar was because he did, in fact, already reside in my CATRC binder.... with a catch:

The 1949 Bowman PCL reprint which occupied his spot obviously does not show him in a Cubs uniform... heck, it's not even a Cubs affiliate.  Thus, with my third postcard selection from this table, it was time to "Cubgrade!"

With that, we've now covered all of the vintage postcard purchases that I made at the 2017 National Sports Collector's Convention.  In re-purposing these mailers, I was able to add four entirely new names to my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection binder, as well as one coveted "Cubgrade," as well.... and that's just from postcards.  Tomorrow, I'll cover the next major segment of my national haul - this one involves another major name from the oddball baseball card market - Renatta Galasso.

In the meantime, time to go back to monitoring the wire - it's deadline day and, despite the Cubs having already made two major deals this July, you just never know what's going to happen.  I might just go "postal" trying to keep up!

The NSCC - A National Concern

This is a weekend that has been circled on card collectors' and sports memorabilia hounds' calendars all year.  After all, it's the weekend of the annual National Sports Collectors Convention - our hobby's mecca, if you will.  While many a hobbyist and vendor is flying in from all across the United States, luckily for me, this phenomenal gathering is being held in the Chicagoland area.  Rosemont, IL and it's Donald E. Stephens Convention Center is only about 35 minutes away from my residence.  I's sure a great many of you would kill to have this event almost literally in your backyard, yet, it wasn't until Thursday night that I decided to actually attend the annual event known colloquially as "The National."

For frame of reference, despite the fact that I've been collecting baseball cards on and off since the mid-90's, I'd never been to a regular, ol' card show or swap until 2014 or 15, after I started this here blog.  I generally am not a big fan of large crowds, forced socialization, or wheeling and dealing, so these kind of events (especially on this scale) cause me great anxiety.  Furthermore, I'm a decidedly low-end collector with ultra-focused collecting interests.  Therefore, I didn't think a convention of this magnitude would appeal to my niche CATRC or my moth-balled wallet.

Boy, oh boy - was I ever wrong.

Thanks to a pep talk from my lovely wife - who, when I casually mentioned the National was being held in Chi-Town the other night, immediately assured me that it would be absurd for me to miss it - I did not let this opportunity go to waste.  Who knows when this heaven will be this close to me?  So, despite my concerns, I hopped in my Chevy Trailblazer and made my way down Route 45 early Friday morning.

I'm glad I left so early - A) there was a great deal of road construction that brought traffic to a crawl and B) I don't know what I expected, but that Stephens convention hall was absolutely massive and jam-packed with all sorts of sports goodies.  The picture above doesn't quite do it justice, but you at least get somewhat of an idea.

#NSCC17 pic.twitter.com/4k8hyAvw2U

— Legend of Wifi. (@JunkWaxTwins) July 26, 2017

I was way to overwhelmed to remember to take pics - thanks to JunkWaxTwins for picking up the slack!


Let's just say I can understand why people block off their entire weekend for this thing, rather than try to squeeze it into one day.  In an attempt to at least make my way all the way through the mass of humanity and see a tad bit of everything, I know I missed of ton of great and fascinating stuff and I barely touched any of the countless discount boxes (Dime Box Nick would be so disappointed in me); however, I was so dazzled and distracted by the items I've never dreamed of even seeing in person before.  Everywhere I turned, there were authentic Goodwins and cabinet cards, Deadball era jerseys and equipment, and all sorts of the highest grade vintage.  But, like I said, I don't have much use or room in my budget for Aaron Rodger's autograph helmet or a Ted Williams rookie card.

For a while, I was a little worried that my concerns were verified - for the first hour or so, I didn't come across much of anything that fit into either my budget or my collections.  But, I tell you what, i did not leave that joint disappointed.

Look at all of that pure, concentrated awesome!  Stuff that would never show up in my LCS or online (at least at a price I'd be willing to pay).  Turns out that while I absolutely hate doing it, I'm not a terrible haggler.

After wandering about for more than six hours, I was able to secure plenty of Wrigley Roster Jenga-worthy goodies.  So much, in fact, that I'm going to have to break up my "show-and-tell" posts over the course of a few days, with this post serving as a preview.  I originally intended to do one, over-arching National extravaganza; but, then I realized that it would just not do the material justice.  Plus, I just don't have that kind of blogging stamina, if I'm being honest.

That said, I will give you a small taste, to keep your intrigue piqued.  Look at this amazing slabbed first-year card that I walked away with from the PSA booth - forget those Judge and Bellinger guys, I hear this is the rookie card to have in 2017:

All jokes aside, this was an amazing freebie, giveaway.  I don't really do the whole graded card thing; that said, if I do, I think PSA will have my business.  Plus, they'll be getting some free advertising on my work desk, that's for certain.

That's all I've got for today - stay tuned over the course of the next three or do days to see the rest of what may very well be my best single-day haul of my entire collecting life.  All in all, I was able to add 13 new names to my CATRC binder, bumping me up almost a full percentage point (from 72.48% to 73.11%).  That's like six months worth of progress in a quarter of a day - hot damn!  Plus, there were some other cool "party favors" to be found, as well.

The moral of the story here is don't let anxiety or concerns govern your life.  Step out of your comfort zone and take a chance - you may be surprised with what you find!