What Are Your Earliest Card Show Memories?

[Tabe]

I didn't attend many card shows as a kid. My earliest one was when I was around 12 or 13. It was a big show, held in the convention room at a local Holiday Inn in West Bloomfield, MI and Ernie Banks was the autograph guest. I didn't really understand how autograph guests worked at shows (I thought I could just walk up to the table, didn't understand about tickets) but did eventually get an autograph from Ernie (on an SSPC Hall of Fame card).

My main memory from the show is that my grandmother took me to the show. My brother & I were staying with her for the week. My grandmother took me to the show and sat outside on a bench waiting for me to be done. She told me "take as long as you want, I'll just wait out here and read" - and she meant it. She wanted me to have a good time and was more than happy to wait for me. I ended up being there for...3 hours? 4? And she was completely fine with it. But she was awesome like that.

My first "card show" was in the early 1980's. It was at the old Midway Drive-In in Kent, Washington. I remember it was crowded and everyone smelled like BO. I picked up a few football cards (less than a couple bucks worth), and a new appreciation for deodorant.

[obcbobd]

Around 1973, I'm 12. I subscribed to the Sport Hobbyist and they were always talking about shows in Detroit. Living just outside Boston, I was so jealous. Finally, there is a show in Springfield Mass. It's about a 2.5 hours ride. My Dad is off that Saturday, which is unusual as he worked shifts including a lot of weekends. I'm super physc'd, I've saved up all my money from snow shoveling and other misc. jobs. Visions of Goudeys (I had none at the time) and T206s (I had two) are dancing in my head. We get in the car and after about 20 minutes I realized today was August 19th, but the show was September 20th. I was so afraid to tell my Dad, thought he would kill me; but when I did he didn't yell at me, we stopped and had a bite to eat. When September rolled around, I was too embarrassed/afraid to bring it up.

Sometime in the early 80's I finally went to a show, didn't like it much, a lot of rude people and greed. Wasn't till the Shriner's shows in the early 90's that I got back into collecting and enjoyed a show.

[curch]

I remember my dad taking me to shows in the mid 80s at the local holiday inn. I remember a dealer always set up at these shows that had some sort of dice game. For a certain amount of money you can win cards by throwing the dice. My dad was always excited to see all the old Yankee players cards and would tell me the story about how they flipped cards against a wall and put them in the spokes on their bikes. He also would always tell me that when he went into the navy his mom threw all the cards away. How many times have we all heard that story

[Jeff1970Red]

My first show was at a hotel near LAX in my early teens. I hopped a ride in the bed of my friends Toyota pick-up. The drive was 30 miles. The show itself was overwhelming, what I remember most was a dealer selling fake Rose rookies for $50. On the way home I dropped a couple hard plastic sliders with Ripken rookies, they slid out the back of the bed of the truck and onto the freeway. I think I cried.

[62corvette]

My first "show" was in 1973. Around our enlarged dining room table in small town central Wisconsin, Dick Miller, George Husby, Jack Urban, Ron Greenwood and I shared stories, and traded many cards.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Local Boston area shows starting in the early 90s when I got back into collecting. Mostly guys with new wax going on about how it was drying up fast and I really needed to buy it and the first waves of shiny stuff; a few vintage guys here and there such as my good friend Pete Lalos.

[VoodooChild]

1987 show at the Expo Center in Monroeville, PA. I was 12. For some reason, the two things I remember most are a complete 1938 Goudey Heads-Up set and an unopened 1980 Topps basketball pack with the Bird/Magic rookie showing through the back. I left with a '61 Clemente which I still own.

[brianp-beme]

Like Jeff1970Red and Midmo my first show was also at a hotel near LAX. Later I wondered if I had attended the first National, but the year I went was 1981, not 1980, so I guess it was just a local card show (evidently a popular one).

Anyhow, after seeing an ad in the newspaper, and my folks needing to go down that way from the San Fernando Valley, my vintage fate struck. I think I brought all of perhaps $12 to $15 (on a 50 cent per week allowance, a dollar if I had mowed the yard that week, so practically a fortune) to the show. The first dealer inside the door on the right, the first card show table I had ever seen, had a few vintage cards for sale, and I couldn't pass them up. I instantly spent most of my wad ($11.00, an amount I will never forget) for the following cards:

T206 Christy Mathewson black cap
T206 Walter Johnson pitching
E98 Cy Young
T205 Roger Bresnahan mouth closed
T205 Zach Wheat - Broadleaf

They were all in Fair to F-G condition, and you could say they eventually and inevitably made me a Net54 member. They have definitely helped foster a love of Pre-War cards, and a fondness for lower condition cards. It was still way too early for people to pay any attention to a rare back llike the one on the Wheat. Still have them too. If I were ever to sell all my cards I would still keep the Matty...that card fired up my collecting imagination, and still does. No scans, maybe some day.

Brian

[Rookiemonster]

I don't remember if it was95 or 96 but my first show was in Garfield NJ . It was held ( and still is ) at the boys and girls club . There was so much going on and I was a newbie . I would go and buy boxes and packs . I never wanted singles I felt that I wanted no needed to pull the cards myself . At the very least trade for my cards .

Like most I still have a crap load of cards from then . The good the bad and the ugly ! But would not change it for the world .

The show always had some of the best dealers . But of course I ran in to scammers . I once pulled a Dan Marino donruss elite numbered . At the time this was a big deal . I traded it for a bunch of really cool looking cards . They were not in the Beckett . So I then went around trying to sell or trade those cards . A dealer stopped me and said that they were only dollar cards . So I went back to the guy and said hey you ripped me off ! And that I wanted my card back . He gave me some line like a trade is a trade . I said that he told me that they were worth more . So he pretended to look for the card and then acted like it was gone . I'll never forget that and I still see the guy . I wonder if he remembers ripping me of .

[Runscott]

My first show was 1988 or 1989 in the Dallas area. Unfortunately I did not yet collect cards, so was just hanging out with a friend and missed a great opportunity. I almost bought a Ted Williams card, but ended up passing.

[TheNightmanCometh]

So, I've never been to a card show, but I'm considering going to the Long Beach Expo in June. What are the prices like at these shows? Are the dealers willing to haggle on pricing? Should I just consider going on Sunday and look to make the best deals at the end of the day?

[tjenkins]

I remember my first card show experience very well, and it wasn't the greatest experience. It was just after I graduated college in the late 80's. I was walking from table to table when I came upon one table that had a lot of modern basketball. Michael Jordan in particular. A young man came up with a pile of vintage baseball, the good stuff, 50s and 60s Mantle, Mays, Aaron and the like. The boy in my best guess was probably 10 years old. He plopped the cards up on the table and told the dealer, "I would like to trade these for some basketball, especially Michael Jordan." I understood the value of the cards, even back then and I don't think the young man did! The dealer proceeded to tell the boy that that stuff was pretty old and he would have tough time moving them so he picked out the good ones and told him he would trade about ten star basketball for them, worth a couple of hundred bucks. I said, "Whoa, this is not right, his cards are worth thousands." I asked the young man if his Dad was around. The dealer proceeded to tell me, "Move on or I will call security!" I very quickly snapped back and said. "Go for it, we will see where this ends up! This is wrong!" I told the boy that he needs to find his Dad and he pointed him out to me. I promptly got the Dad and made him aware of the situation and told him he should be with his son when trading those cards and that they were worth thousands of dollars. The Dad told me the cards were given to the boy by his grandfather to trade for what he wanted. The father was very appreciative and the boy by the end of the day had some really cool stuff, but the event kind of left a bitter taste in my mouth. All's well that ends well, thank God!!

[SAllen2556]

About 1978 in Dearborn, Mi. Jim Hawkins, Free Press sports writer and avid collector, used to hold huge card shows a few times a year, at least half the size of the National if you can believe it.

Bugged my Dad to take me because I wanted a Mickey Mantle card. Spend a whole $5 on 1969 Topps. Met the legendary Al Rosen, who was actually very friendly to me - of course I was only 12. I didn't realize what a hotbed Detroit was for card shows in the 70's. Alas, they have all but disappeared around here.

[bcbgcbrcb]

Set up at the first National held in NJ, Parsippany in 1984 with my dad as I was only 15 and not of legal age to enter into a dealer contract. Had lots of funning dealing with the Boggs, Mattingly, Strawberry, etc. rookie cards that were being hoarded by the smart collectors.........

[53Browns]

My Dad took me to a show in 1981 at a local hotel banquet room. I was studying the latest cardboard of Rickey Henderson, George Brett, etc, when my Dad, says to me, "Those arent baseball cards. These are baseball cards..." As he pointed to a sheet of beautiful 1953 Topps cards. I've been hooked on vintage ever since. And yes, crocodlile dundee stole the line from my Dad! "That's not a knife....

[Howe’s Hunter]

Was living in Lincoln at the time, and there were shows at a small mall two or three times a year. I had just been bitten by the vintage bug and there was never any vintage there. Was excited to hear there was to be a fairly large show at the Civic Auditorium in Omaha, so put our newborn in the car seat and went to check it out.

Two dealers. Total. Apparently some sort of management snafu, something. Was told by the two guys there (were I did buy two cards) that everyone else had snatched up space at the mall in Lincoln, so with son still in the carrier, headed back home to a mall that was completely full of vendors.

Alan Hager was the only name I recognized at the time. He had several EpdG cards, a couple of Hindu backs, and tons of commons. All out of my price range. Looking back, wish I had paid more attention to the names of vendors to see who was there, and where they are now.

So guess this counts as my first, and second, card show experience.

[packs]

A long time ago in the early 90s when I was about 10 or 11 I passed on a crispy mint 1966 Topps Mantle at a card show in my hometown's mall. Instead I bought a lesser condition one because I figured I could buy two cards instead of just one.

Wish I had that Mantle.