This is my entire stash of goodies that I bought last week at the NSCC in Rosemont Illinois. Some of the stuff I will go into more details on so prepare for a long read. As most of you been reading how my friend Greg wasn't able to attend & I was going to my 1st ever National without friends or family to share in the excitement I took off on July 30th at 4am EST arriving in Chicago at 1pm. I first want to say thank you to you my readers still in waiting patiently as I came back home after spending 2½ days to see what all the goodies I came home with. As you can see in the picture above I have many splendid things. In my last post I talked about how I upset Bill Cartwright now we come to what I bought on the 31st & 1st Including a couple of things I thought I never would own let alone an item where I once had 3 of them now I just have 2 of them & if I locate the 3rd one Ill be happier.
What I have that I had 3 of them is the 1982 Topps Traded Cal Ripken Jr. 1st solo card I first acquired in 2002 after making the 1982 Topps Traded Set I bought the traded set minus 3 cards Reggie Jackson's first Angels card,Ozzie Smith's first Cardinals card & of course Cal Ripken Jr. well that set cost me to build & some savy moves on my part to get the set for under $20 that included the 3 I was missing I got the 1st 129 cards for $3 on eBay then I found the Reggie for $2 then I found the Ozzie for $1 that meant I had the dubious task to get Cal well I mistyped his name as Cal Ripkin like the 1990 Fleer Error card lo & behold there it was with a couple Yellow print marks the seller claimed it was a 2001 Topps Traded Reprint minus the UV Coating & stamping well it was selling for $3 I grabbed it by placing a bid no higher than $20 then did the waiting game dance. After the time was up I got a notice saying I won the bid at $5 mailed off the payment cause I didn't & still don't have a PayPal account. Then waited soon I get a small package from Washington State not remembering where I sent the payment wondering whom did I trade with that's from there it wasn't until I opened it up saw Cal Staring at me I checked the card through out using my counterfeiting investigation tools that led me to see it was a legit 1982 Topps Traded card #98T I was excited to complete my regular set as well the traded set under $20.
Not a bad pick up the first official day eh!!!!
The set was sleeved & placed in a binder only to perhaps lose it in a tote that my late older brother David had in his moving POD I am hoping that its in a tote still in my parents house under some steps that I am not unable to get through at the moment to check to see if it is if it is I will be excited that I own 3 of them. The other 2 came within a year of each other I bought the Traded set last summer while visiting my friend Greg cause I already bought the regular set for $35 earlier that year at an antique store that had some cards but great prices. Now the 3rd one I got was at the NSCC this last week from long time dealer from Carbondale,Illinois Mr. B.A. Murry who was set up for his 45th National Sports Card Convention, he hasn't missed a single National since they started & by no means is slowing down so if your near the Carbondale area & see Mr. Murry don't hesitate to talk to him he has some great things he sold me the latest one cause I wanted to have just this card some how in my PC Box(Stay Tuned I might do a story about what's in my PC Box alone if theres anyone interested in reading what cards do I have in it so let me know in the comments below if your interested in reading it).
I then picked up some 1961 Fleer Singles that I needed for my 1961 set as well some of my 1964 Topps Giants including 2 SPs of Wayne Causey & Galen Cisco leaving me left to get in the SPs area Bob Friend,Willie Mays & Bill 'Moose' Skowron which aren't to hard to find leaving me along with 8 other players Aaron,Clemente,& Mantle are included in that 8 to finish that set up. I am not in a huge rush to finish the 1964 Giants like the 1961 Fleer's I am taking them when I can afford to get them.
I then picked up a bunch of singles from all 4 of my sports lists from the quarter boxes a delightful hodgepodge of things making some of those lists smaller if I located something from them since well....not many people have been able to locate 25 or more from my lists & I was lucky to find at least that many in 2 days including a Tom Seaver card that I thought I never own.......No it wasn't the 1967 Topps card #581 I wish though so I could just be down to 1 for the set more on the 1967 Topps later.
Got ya thinking I came within 1 card of finishing my 1967 Topps set but got this card instead lol.
Not bad finishing off this promo set within 3 months of starting it.
No I found the 1993 Action-Packed Tom Seaver Promo set I started it 3 months ago when I stumbled on it by accident at my local shop for $.50 I thought I had all 5 cards from the set instead it was missing card #TS1 well....in the quarter box I found it I thought I wouldn't find it right away due that like the 1967 would be on my lists for year & years to come unless someone got it for me from COMC or Sportslots or eBay none of the less I am glad to complete that set.
I also picked up from a dealer from California 5 Odd-Ball Team sets I sorta have a binder filled with team sets like this (Yes Mr. Night Owl your former set that you got of the Keebler Arizona DiamondBacks is included in this binder that you mailed out to me) 4 of the 5 sets were of the Toronto Blue Jays sorry folks 3 out of the 4 were claimed by fellow blogger Mike Matson cause he asked me to try to find himself some nice Blue Jays or Expos Odd-Ball stuff if I came across it I told him one of the sets is for me he was content on having me get at least one. The other Odd-Ball Team set was a 1986 Kansas City Royals National Photo set to honor the 1985 World Champion Royals only reason I picked this up was cause I didn't have anything other than the 1981 Topps Coca~Cola Royals that I have in my 1981 Topps Binder along with the other 11 Teams (Yes I counted the Yankees set even though they had only 3 Test cards made for I count them as well).
Later on during the show I came across a table that had the 1993 Stadium Club Jack Murphy Set along with some of my `70/`71 Topps Hockey needs paid only for the set cause he saw that I only picked up 3 singles so he threw them in as freebies I am not complaining more from that table later. I picked up the jersey it says National on the back is the #45 to talk about the convention turning 45 even though it was the 44th due to the pandemic in 2020 causing it one year off but I didn't want to mention it to the person making National merchandise cause I look forward to wearing the latest polo or sweatshirt or Jersey be for my school pictures next fall. I later moved on to find the table where I saw they had some cheap Michael Jordans at $3 considering that we were in Chicago Bulls country $3 is cheap even though sometimes getting these Jordans are $5 or more. Then as I wandered over to another table what caught my eye was they had a box labeled TCMA singles & other late 1970s Odd-Ball sets inside & I was shocked they had some of the 1978 Jack Wallin Grand Slam Set singles(I first talked about this on my January 18th 2025 post) I found 7 out of the 8 I still need leaving me with card #193 Billy Rogell as the Card Gods do to me the last card is a former Tigers player how nice is that 🙄.
This is a picture of my day 1 stash more on another card so keep reading.
Now Day 2 I hit the quarter boxes again & picked up a couple more singles from the other side that I was working on from day 1 to see what I could find & I am glad I moved to other side cause I found a couple late `90s & early 2000s I needed in basketball as well some of my 2021 Panini Playoff Football needs.
After spending 45 mins of going through 8 2 rows boxes of stuff I moved on to what I like to call 2 different ways to please a customer at a show from 2 different dealers. The first is proper way to deal with as you can see in the picture of the 9 card cards & I know Mr. Owl will be jealous of these little precious gems leaving me with 39 left to finish on my 1975 O Pee Chee Set the dealer was outside of North Carolina making the 2nd dealer at a National that I ran into that lived no where near Canada(The first was 2 years ago running into a dealer from Iowa that had some 1975s) & have these precious jewels for me to get he got them in a collection he bought outside of Ashville, North Carolina again I am not picky on condition for my 1975 set just as long its not too bad. The Mantle/Willis card only cost me $5 oh yeah I am not going to pass on that cost anytime neither would Mr. Owl but if he should read this let me know in the comments below. Now the last 4 cards came from the dealer whom we call "Ya touch it you bought it rule" giving me not enough breathing room to inspect the cards to see the condition on the cards but then again these are 1979s they were the only ones I needed now I am just down to 1 Card #102 Dave Lemanczyk in completing that set again the Card Gods give me a Blue Jays player who was a former Tigers player the total cost for the 4 `79's were $3.
39 on 1975 & 1 1979 so closer still.
Then we come to the last 4 items I bought while at the National I happened to find a nice elderly couple booth that were discussing on how crazy the hobby has gotten with everyone that is into graded stuff with all the wheelie suitcases running up & down the Aisles when I noticed that they had a sale of all the 3 regions of the `81/`82 Topps Basketball set for sale in their showcase they had it for $75 for all 3 or $30 for individually well I said ya only live once & considering my oldest basketball set is the `88/`89 Fleer set w/Stickers & I had always wanted to make the `81/`82 set but I wanted to wait until I completed something to make room so we talked more on they way things have changed since their first National was the same year I attended mine & then that I shouldn't pass up their offer so I went for it now I just need to find the basic set the first 66 cards which I don't mind finding.
It would be harder to find complete sets of these compaired to finding the first 66 cards but we'll see.
Now we come to the point of my post that I want to thank my friend Greg for helping me pull the trigger on this card. It was about 1 hour before the first day was over & I saw a table that had some nice 1967s knowing I just needed 3 cards to complete my mom's/My set that I mentioned in the past how we made the set from cards she found in a trash can back in 1985 1 is a variation of Ed Spiezio where his name is rubbed out & 2 High Numbers that of #581 Tom Seaver RC & #600 Brooks Robinson while looking through the commons to find Ed hoping it snuck in their but without anyone noticing unfortunately I wasn't that lucky. I did see a Raw Seaver RC but I didn't have $1400 for it then I saw it #600 asking for $225 I quickly shot a message asking Greg if the dealer was willing to take payment over the phone or PayPal could he help me out & Ill send him payment when I got back to work long as I paid him back before December 31st he said he do it cause I wanted to get since it was a New Years Card Resolution I said I like to find one under $300.00 so I asked the dealer if he could take a payment via credit card over the phone he said only PayPal I quickly messaged Greg he's taking PayPal so after swapping texts back n forth from me & Greg the dealer told me where he could send the payment to & eventually the sale was complete I am now down 2 for my 1967 set to be complete so Thanks again Greg. As I type this post up on the 5th I had my mom visit me so she could pose for a picture of her placing Brooks in with the others from the 1967 set.
I finally got that Brooks so I am now down to 2 from my set.
It's only fitting I have my mom put Brooks in the binder.
Talk about a nice National haul after a long day at the show & driving back again by myself I finally took a hot shower a small snack of gummy bears slowly went to bed but had to check one more thing on the TCDB that caught my eye I happened to check to see how the dealers voted to say where the 2028 National Sports Card Convention was going to be located at so I could see if I am attending 4 years in a row to Chicago or what when I read the greatest news. For the first time since 1981 the National is going to be in *drum rolling sound*..............DETROIT, MICHIGAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My own backyard I am so excited about it so I don't need to get a hotel room nor need to travel more than just 1 hour away now if excuse me I need to start putting all the rest of my stuff away until then I am reminded what Rogers Hornsby once said about signing autographs for little kids "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist."
Glad you had fun. Looks like a solid haul. I love oddball team stuff. I wonder where that dealer from California sets up around here.
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