Tristar Show at the Cow Palace

[itjclarke]

I stopped by today to drop off some PSA subs (first ever). I'd originally intended to just pop in and out, but that became an impossibility once I started browsing. Regardless of what anyone considers a good, or bad show, it's always a beautiful thing to see tables of cards... '50's, '60's, pre-war, many low-mid grade, modern stuff, whatever. There may not have been loads of high end, "knock your socks off" stuff, but seeing lots of cards out and on display takes me back to shows and shops as a kid, where just seeing, maybe scoring a few nice (but not perfect) cards meant the most. Also no way I wasn't gonna check out Mark's table, get my fill of PCL and card I history. 3 hrs later, I had idea how I even thought I would just get in and out. May need to swing by Saturday too.

Separately, while standing in line at PSA, I started talking to a slightly older collector who had much of his collection loose, literally LOOSE (no sleeves) in a shoebox. He had a solid NM '56 Jackie Robinson, a super strong EX/EXMT '53 Mantle, and VG+ Mays and Mantle rookies. It was so cool seeing them in a box, moving around like that. Even the lower/mid grades looked really cool. I feel like cards, once encased and static in a plastic frame, are sort of under a microscope forever, making "flaws" like centering, surface blemishes, etc, really stand out to the eye... but when raw, these flaws all look much more acceptable to me.