What Are Your Earliest Card Show Memories?

[nickedson]

A month after graduating from high school in 1972, I set up at the Midwest Sports Collectors Convention in Troy run by Lloyd and Carol Toerpe. What an experience! I talked to a ton of hobby "big names" that I had read about in The Sports Hobbyist like Frank Nagy, Don Steinbach and many others. We all carried our checklist books around since we were all collectors. We sold our doubles and cards we didn't want anymore in order to complete our sets. I had just started working on a 1952 Bowman set and Don Steinbach offered me 125 different in EX-MT condition for $75. I bought them... and them he came back with the '52 Bowman Mantle and Mays cards for $15 each. I thought about a half hour about it, then went back and bought them. On Saturday, Ernie Harwell made a visit and we put our covers on our tables while Ernie talked and then we did a Q&A. It was one of the greatest weekends of my life and helped launch a lifelong journey that goes on to this day!