[CharleyBrown]

Just got back from the show. I went with my wife, 5-year old, and 18-month old daughter (my wife doesn't collect, but she likes going to the shows to support my interests).

I wasn't shopping for me today, as I'm tapped out for a while due to a nice purchase a week and a half ago. My son really wanted to go, so I figured it'd be a great time to teach money management. It was the first time I kind of just let him do the shopping and pick what he wanted.

He had his $50, and started with packs of Super Hero Squad and Marvel cards. He then bought his sister a pack of Minnie-n-Me cards. From there, he bought two shiny Ichiro cards for 25 cents each. He wanted some David Ortiz cards, but we couldn't find any unfortunately. He saw some other shiny cards that he liked, but he didn't really know the players, so he decided to pass on them and save his money.

With the money he had left, he started to look for other cards he wanted. He saw a Whitey Ford card he liked (Whitey was friends with his great-grandfather), but it didn't have a price, so he opted to move on. He stumbled upon a table with some raw post-war cards that were in his price range, and he got pretty excited when he recognized some names he knew that were within his budget.

He said... "Daddy, I see Willie Mays, I want that one!" At $30, he had enough so I had him ask the dealer for the card (1967 Mays/McCovey Fence Busters) and pay for it. With $11.50 left, he brought me to another table to see what else he could find.

He really wanted a Clemente or Whitey Ford card, but he didn't see any in his budget, and he knew he couldn't exceed it. He stumbled upon a 1961 Willie Mays that was listed for $12 and said, "Daddy look another Willie Mays!.. but it's $12 I don't have enough." So I said, "well, why don't you ask the man if he will sell it to you for $10?" So he took his $10 out, and offered it to the seller in exchange for the Mays card. The seller was happy to sell it to him, and my son walked away with the card he wanted, plus an extra $1.50 to save for another day.

He didn't get the Whitey Ford or Clemente card he wanted, but he was more than happy with the 2 Mays cards. I was more than ecstatic to see him opt on his own for 2 Willie Mays cards instead of all of the shiny offerings of today.

As for the show, I didn't get a chance to really look around, but in my brief glances here and there, I saw some new dealers for a change, and more graded Ruths, Cobbs, etc. than usual. That was a welcome sight. As mentioned, the prices were a bit high, but no worse than usual. I thought the crowd was pretty good, though I was only there for 1 1/2 hours or less.