First Card Show of 2016 Recap pt. 1

Yesterday I was fortunate to be able to spend a few hours hunting around my first card show of the year. I missed the actual first show of the year in my area, so I was very happy to have the chance to browse around a bit. Overall, it was a good show for me and I'll be breaking down my haul into a few posts over the next few days. Tonight, I start with the vintage portion of the haul. It comprised the smallest percent of the whole(only three total cards), but it ended up being the most satisfying. The first of the three that I'll talk about represented the most expensive purchase if the day.

This 1951 Topps red back of Phil Rizzuto was one of the first cards I considered purchasing when I ark paved to the show. It had an asking price of $9.00 which I thought was reasonable but ultimately, I decided to scope the place out before dropping that much if my budget on one of he first cards I saw. All told, I made the rounds and at the end of my browsing, I decided to go back and see if the vendor would go any lower. When I asked, he balked a bit, pulling the old 'it books $60 and I'm already giving it away because of the condition' schtick. I considered walking away without it, but it ended up searching a $2 box he had and eventually made a bundled offer of $10 for the 'Scooter', one single from the $2 box(which I'll share in another recap post), and one of the next two cards I'm going to share. With the pricing of the bundled deal in effect, it essentially dropped the cost of the Rizzuto down to $7. I was thrilled! Not only because I was walking away with another 1951 Topps Yankee, but because the significance of the final card I was able to add to the deal.

Early in the show, I happened to find the Ron Santo for a buck. That dropped my set completion magic number down to one. It left me with only Frank Howard to go for a complete set. As I was contemplating the Rizzuto purchase, I came upon one of several vintage 'oddball' filled binders on this guy's multiple tables. When I flipped to the page that had this pretty clean copy of Frank, my gears started turning. I had already pulled and returned the one card I ended up with from his $2 box and asked about a lower price on the Rizzuto. In the end, when he told me the Howard would only be $1, I pulled a single from my wallet. He turned on the salesmanship, asking if I was sure I only wanted the Howard. That was my chance, so I took a shot. I told him I had only found one card from the $2 box and would give him $10 for that, the Howard, and the Rizzuto. He thought about it for a moment and eventually agreed. I don't usually have much luck negotiating like that, but I sure was proud of myself after I was done. Honestly, I would have been thrilled if these were the only three cards I walked away with. Here it is only mid-February and I can already check off one of my goals for the year. There's plenty more to write about from this show, additions to my collection and a bunch if cards to send to my multiple trading partners, Super Traders or otherwise. That's all stuff for another post though. Thanks for reading!